Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

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

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

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

Let’s finish the job.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

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

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You are here: Home / Politics / El Estafador y El Pendejo

Reader Interactions

77Comments

  1. 1.

    D58826

    And a few other tidbits. SCOTUS by 4-4 tie will allow the circuit court decision on the NC voter suppression law to stand. So it looks like old McCory wasted more state money and will have to face all of the voters not just his chosen few. Another reminder of why November is so important.

    And speaking of optics. “old little hands’ is speaking with the President of Mexico. Behind the Mexican President is the flag of Mexico. Behind Trump is a blue curtain. What is the protocol in a situation like this. An American flag behind Trump?
    Whatever the protocol if that was Hillary standing there the RWNJ would be in full howl about the disrespect.

  3. 3.

    schrodinger's cat

    I think this is a stunt to get out of making the immigration speech. He is like the student who makes elaborate excuses to escape turning difficult assignments on time.

  5. 5.

    The Ancient Randonnuer

    THe NRA will not like this. Mexican President had a platform to complain about all the guns illegally coming from US kills more Mexicans than any undocumented people killing US citizens. And of course Trump is going to save the workers in Mexco from the Chinese monster. Seriously he said that.

  7. 7.

    Peale

    @D58826: I think the protocol is correct. No flag for the private citizen. Putting the flag there would imply that Trump was representing the company in some way.

  8. 8.

    JCT

    @D58826: Trump is lucky there aren’t a bunch of kids beating a Trump piñata behind him. Or that Peña isn’t wearing an “Yo con pendejo” T-shirt.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    @schrodinger’s cat: Last I heard, he’s still scheduled to give that speech tonight. Of course, he’ll be two or so hours late and his regular press corps has been cooling their heels in Phoenix all day waiting for him, so I’m sure things will go just fine.

  11. 11.

    JGabriel

    Gin & Tonic:

    Peña is less popular in Mexico than Trump is in the US.

    That would change right quick if Trump were elected President – which he won’t be.

  12. 12.

    Gin & Tonic

    @schrodinger’s cat: According to my guesstimates he can make it to Phoenix only about 60-75 minutes late. I’ll bet the farm that the TV “news” networks will spend those 60-75 minutes broadcasting video of an empty lectern and talking about his trip, rather than spend even one minute on HRC’s speech today. Score that in the W column for Il Donaldo.

  13. 13.

    gwangung

    And speaking of optics. “old little hands’ is speaking with the President of Mexico. Behind the Mexican President is the flag of Mexico. Behind Trump is a blue curtain. What is the protocol in a situation like this. An American flag behind Trump?

    No. Blue curtain only because trump is not speaking for the US officially.

  15. 15.

    scav

    Will be interesting to compare the translations and the self-reporting on the piñata’s word-spilling. He seems to be going on about a strong Mexico being good for the US and that nobody’s talking about who’s going to pay for the wall. But again, counting on the low information base to remain so is probably a safe bed.

  17. 17.

    eric

    @Gin & Tonic: I disagree. Every minute when the press is NOT talking about Hillary is a win for Hillary, given their penchant for bullshit reporting.

  21. 21.

    D58826

    @gwangung: Figured that was the protocol but it would not stop the RWNJ’s from making an issue about respect if that had been Hillary or Obama.

  22. 22.

    The Ancient Randonnuer

    “It is not uncommon of course for leading presidential candidates to make overseas trips,” Earnest told the press pool. “One of the highlights was a trip to Germany, where the president spoke in Berlin to a crowd of about 100,000 Germans who warmly received him and enthusiastically cheered his speech. We’ll see if Mr. Trump is similarly received.”

    — White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest

    WH just having a little fun.

  23. 23.

    Immanentize

    @D58826: Law Head analysis —

    In the North Carolina Voting case, N.C. v. NAACP — with Scalia still dead, it is not too remarkable in its result, perhaps, but in the order it is clear that four justices would have stayed the lower court’s mandate. You only need four votes to grant cert. but you need five to overturn a lower court opinion.

    However, there was not a fifth to join in overturning (even temporarily in a stay of the order) the lower court’s opinion’s immediate implementation. Now there may have been no vote regarding whether to grant cert. which isn’t necessary to the stay question. The odd thing about this is that if there are four votes for a grant of cert. in a case (which there might be here?), the members of the Court have said that the practice is for one of the five Justices who would not vote to grant cert. to switch their vote on the stay to allow the cert. petition to proceed. I only know of one time the Court did not follow this rule – sadly in my case in Hamilton v. Texas (A. Hamilton as next friend to James Smith). Four votes for cert.; no fifth vote for a stay – so they executed Mr. Smith. Fun times.

    Just another effect, perhaps, of an eight person court.

  25. 25.

    Peale

    in other news today, the office RWNJ is going on about reports of UN troops authorized to patrol US soil. Its one of those days where I can’t really refute something except saying “I think I would have read about that at Balloon Juice” were it true.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    I don’t know anything about Peña except that Mexicans despise him. Now that I’ve watched him give a prestigious platform to a demagogue who has relentlessly slandered his country, I’m convinced Mexicans are right to do so.

  27. 27.

    Waldo

    Without Pena handing over a giant novelty check for $100 billion in front of the cameras, the whole thing seems kinda pointless.

  28. 28.

    eric

    @geg6: thanks, and as follow up, the thing that matters for Hillary is GOTV. Period. End of Sentence. Smithers release the hounds. all of the rest is bullshit

  29. 29.

    Mike in NC

    @D58826: Pat McCrory is down by 9 points. Hopefully when the Trumpenberg explodes Pat will go down in flames with him.

  30. 30.

    Shell

    Since Trump didn’t drool all over himself or stab Pena with a pencil, the media;s cooing on how statesmanlike he looked.

  32. 32.

    scav

    Should probably remind all the devoted followers standing around waiting for however long that their planned for event stateside was willingly ditched at the last minute for some pandering to foreigners. Dial Two to hear your candidate and stand around on hold for however many minutes.

    Would also be fun to fill up all the blank air time comparing how unpopular the two amigos are. Maybe report a few comments made there, favoring those likely to be elided or lied about to the local base.

  35. 35.

    schrodinger's cat

    I don’t know much about Messican politics. This should be political suicide for the head of any country, to receive someone who continually disses your country men in the most vile manner possible.

  36. 36.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Peale: Why do you have to refute that claim? Shouldn’t the RWNJ have to provide a citation for his claim — and not a Rightwing, Alex Jonesian website but a mainstream news source. The burden should always be on the person making the claim to prove it.

    I’ve been hearing rumors about the UN patrolling American soil for decades now. They’ve never been proven true.

  38. 38.

    Yabbado

    This was a win for Trump. Very minor, but still a win. His supporters don’t care about him not bringing up who would pay for the wall. No one will even hear what EPN said, nor care, cause cable news won’t bother to repeat it. They’ll replay the Trump clip, and his supporters and surrogates will exclaim, “See! Trump took the fight to the Mexican President! He’s not afraid to speak HARD TRUTHS!” And then they’ll say that Trump has passed the POTUS qualification test and start talking about how the Clinton Foundation is a morass of conflicts and “appearances of impropriety” — that is their Happy Place.

  41. 41.

    Cacti

    The Donald caved. Big time.

    Too scared to bring up his border wall or his promise to end NAFTA.

  43. 43.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Shell: That is why this election is so scary. The media appears to be rooting for Trump. My fear is that more people will feel that Trump is presidential simply because he’s able to read a few carefully scripted speeches without calling anyone out of their names. The expectations are set so low for Trump that any child could meet them.

    OTOH, Secretary Clinton is judged harshly and every dang thing she does is scrutinized and picked apart. Thank goodness that Trump has acted the fool so often that he’s left a bad taste in the mouths of many voters, including many of his own Party.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    The Trump when testifying under oath said he couldn’t read a contract without his reading glasses. Today he stayed on script with his head down, reading from prepared remarks. hmmm

  46. 46.

    Hal

    If this is part one of Trump softening his immigration stance with part two being his speech tonight, he’s going to get caught in a shit storm from his supporters. This is the kind of policy change you do in or before the primaries.

    If it’s not a shift and the Mexicans are rapists Trump comes out tonight, then the question of why bother is going to linger for days.

  48. 48.

    Mister Forkbeard

    @Cacti: Doesn’t matter. He met a head of state and didn’t start a war. He’ll be seen as a serious statesman by the press now.

  51. 51.

    bluefish

    @srv: Weak and stringy revenge is already being stuck with Temer as what one hopes is a placeholder. Brasil being tested again.

    I thought Pena was polite and patronizing enough in making it reasonably clear in Spanish that this was a courtesy visit by a Republican nominee for the American Presidency, which is greatly respected in Mexico blah blah blah. That Trump had been quick, very as in ridiculously, to accept the open invite to both candidates — and been tacky enough to gobble it up. Under the circumstances, Pena did okay. Tough spot — and a highly embarrassing one for him. Not a great way to forge a relationship. Good thing there ain’t going to be one between those two.

    The conversation about the wall — please, Donald can say whatever he thinks is going to get in there — wherever there happens to be — and Pena Nieto will have nodded and probably repeated what he hear DT express without committing himself to anything. How can he and why should he? The entire visit is absurd as anything other than a bit of theater and everyone knows it.

  52. 52.

    VOR

    @Waldo: And if that happened, it would be a violation of the Logan Act. Per Wikipedia, the act states:

    “Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
    This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.”

  54. 54.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Mike in NC: I don’t drink but I may have to lift a glass of non-alcoholic bubbly to toast McCrory’s downfall. He’s such an awful person. I just hope the good people of NC vote for enough Democratic legislators to repeal that stupid bathroom bill ASAP.

  56. 56.

    Major Major Major Major

    @rikyrah: My leftier-than-thou friends tell me:
    –how it’s so CONVENIENT for the oligarchy that we just have to vote for Corrupty McKillsChildrenface to save the supreme court, makes you think
    –losing the supreme court is what we get for nominating her
    –omelette, eggs, etc. Nach Trump uns!

  57. 57.

    Patricia Kayden

    @BGinCHI: Well, he did say that Mexico sends us its drug dealers and rapists which makes you wonder how he knows this. Perhaps, he has met some Mexican drug dealers in his sleazy past.

  59. 59.

    jl

    I’ll look above to see if it’s been answered already, but which one is the fraud and which one the jerk?
    Or is this a ‘could be both for both’ thing?

  60. 60.

    jl

    @D58826: The Trumpist protocol would be a BIGGER US flag, fireworks and a brass band. No matter what. Where were they? El Trumpador has some explaining to do for allowing this disgraceful insult to the dignity of the United States.

    We will not ‘get tired of winning’ with crap like this today. Weak!

  61. 61.

    Emma

    Jesus can we stop with the wailing and chest beating? I’m starting to understand how Shomi feels. If we’re so convinced of the invincibility of the media cartel let’s just stay home on election day and cower.

  62. 62.

    Olivia

    Hmm, Peña, (hated and ridiculed by Mexicans) gets a visit from Trump (hated and ridiculed by Mexicans) who is sure that the visit will convince Mexicans to vote for him. Great plan! Excellent outreach!

  63. 63.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    Yes, yes, but will Trump have a piece of paper to wave when getting off the plane in Phoenix shouting “We will have a wall in our time!”?

  64. 64.

    Peale

    @The Ancient Randonnuer: That would actually be interesting development. Pena should agree to put up money for the wall and say that Trump agreed to close all the gun shops within 300 miles of the border to help secure his commitment.

  66. 66.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Hal: Or maybe his supporters will just shrug this off as political pandering to minority groups which Trump has to do to get elected but doesn’t reflect his actual plans. I would think Trump claiming that the election will be rigged would be more of a disincentive for his supporters to get out and vote.

  67. 67.

    Peale

    @Olivia: I don’t think he is really all that interested in the Latino vote in any way. That might mean addressing other concerns which also piss off conservatives – like offering ESL classes in school, or printing out official forms in Spanish. The hard core, “Yeah, we were a nation of immigrants, but when my grandma came, no one helped her. Why do we coddle the hispanics. English is the official language here” nationalist crowd does not want to accommodate voters that way.

  69. 69.

    FEMA Camp Counselor

    @Emma:

    Seriously. This didn’t work the way they wanted in 2008 or 2012, why do people think it would work this time?

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    @Emma: “Shomi” is Chief Deacon in the irredeemably smug and turdish Church of the Savvy…or DougJ himself perpetuating a meta-troll on us all; I haven’t decided which. But that triviality aside, I don’t see anyone here going fetal and indicating they’re ready to give up the fight. Noting the undeniable fact of media bias isn’t inappropriate, IMO.

  76. 76.

    Faux News

    @Patricia Kayden: Sadly you are right. I’m started to be worry that is 2000 all over. George W Bush was a total moron and clearly not ready for being the POTUS. But the press were cheering him on and heaping scorn on Gore, and they did NOT want to have a beer with him.

  77. 77.

    Hob

    @Emma: Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Shomi says the same thing regardless of whether people are actually doing that or not. He’s actually a long-time troll, formerly called “derf”, who used to do nothing but stalk Cole and post the same incoherent shit over and over again about how Cole is stupid and Cole worries too much, and often clearly hadn’t read the post he was responding to. He’s recently broadened his shtick to include similar complaints about other commenters and occasionally, for some reason, he even writes a coherent and on-topic comment or two.

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