Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

This fight is for everything.

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

We still have time to mess this up!

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

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

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

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

Let there be snark.

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Open Thread: Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn

Open Thread: Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn

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Sure, the caption claims that’s Arthur Laffer, of the infamous Laffer curve, but look at that demented grin!


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Apart from picking out theme songs for the Apocalypse Trump’s inaugural ball, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

98Comments

  1. 1.

    BGinCHI

    Titles for Rick Perlstein’s next two books:

    Trump: Joining the Laffer Curve and the Bell Curve.

    Or, White Supremacy and Greed, with Bonus Misogyny.

  7. 7.

    Turgidson

    Laffer has the shit-eating grin of a guy who knows that his station within the Wingnut Welfare ecosystem is secure no matter how many times his shitty predictions prove to be wrong and his shitty theories fail to deliver the results he promises. And he also knows that since Wingnut Welfare World will always view him as the sainted godfather of Ronaldus Magnus’ economic triumphs – resulting in Republican politicians lining up to get his blessing for their tax cutting, safety net shredding bullshit – he will also be treated with exponentially more respect and deference than he deserves by the BothSides4Ever media.

  8. 8.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Stacy: Interesting, he’s basically arguing that Trump’s lack of any mandate with his win electoral collage but lose the popular vote and the Tea Tard’s refusal to increase spending on anything but their own programs mean a civil war in the GOP and chaos over the 2017 budget.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a picture of him before now. That is one scary-looking dude. “Demented grin” is right!

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I was just going to mention that. This Cabinet gets weirder with every day that passes.

  14. 14.

    Steve in the ATL

    I’m not big on Facebook check ins but props to whomever mentioned the “Larry Craig Memorial Restroom” at MSP. Will be doing that every time I’m back here! Which hopefully will not happen again until spring….

  15. 15.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Gin & Tonic: Howard Jarvis is still dead(buried at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills*), Arthur Laffer isn’t.

    *Information provided in case you want to water his final resting place.

  16. 16.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @PR:

    This is the most pro business pro growth administration since Harding-Coolidge.

    That worked out well.

  17. 17.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I always confused Howard Jarvis and Arthur Laffer

    I always confuse the Laffer Curve and the Overton Window. Should probably make a Venn Diagram of them.

  18. 18.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne: IIR Laffer did a commercial back in the early 90s, for Cadillac. But it’s not on youtube, which you’d think something like that would be

  20. 20.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @PR: Yeah, that commie; should have never named that dam after him. Boulder Dam, now; Boulder Dam, forever!

  29. 29.

    Lurking Canadian

    Laffer first started pedding his napkin theory forty fucking years ago. Is he immortal, or was he in high school when he met Dick Cheney?

  35. 35.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Gin & Tonic: (Hoover Dam was originally named Boulder Dam(even though it was eventually built in Black Canyon and not Boulder Canyon), the name was changed in 1947).

  39. 39.

    Gvg

    At least that article points out that he was wrong. The picture of him back then looks like he was really young when Reagan’s people jumped on his theory.

    He is clearly doing a lot of projecting onto Trump and thinks Trump is only going to do the things Laffer thinks are good and will moderate on things Laffer thinks are bad. Typical GOP voter this time. Fool again.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    Fans of Holiday need to get votin’ if they want that to be our next Weekend Movie Club offering. Right now, His Girl Friday is leading by 9 votes.

    Voting closes on Friday night, assuming I set the poll up correctly, which is frequently a sucker’s bet.

  45. 45.

    Mary G

    Has any reporter, anywhere, asked these guys how they explain Kansas and Louisiana if these theories are so great?

  46. 46.

    PsiFighter37

    I wonder how Al Gore feels about his ‘extremely interesting’ conversation with Cheddar Christ now that the guy chosen to run the EPA will gut almost anything out of the agency that he possibly can.

  47. 47.

    Shell

    Re: this posts title, isn’t there a similar line in the play “The Little Foxes”? Something along the lines of “There are men who will devour the earth, and some who stand by and watch them do it.”

  48. 48.

    Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones)

    I had the unfortunate experience to find out that my bother believes in the Laffer Curve & I had to sit on my hands to keep from emailing links about Kansas.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    “They didn’t try hard enough.”

    ETA: And if you hear that subtext as, “Their faith was weak,” you’re right.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    @PsiFighter37:

    Al Gore is a Southerner by birth. I’m pretty sure that for him, “extremely interesting” means something along the lines of, “Bless their hearts.”

  54. 54.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones): The suggestion that a small cut in tax rates, say 1%, in the right circumstances might pay for itself by causing more than 1% incremental growth in the economy is at least worth discussing.

    The notion that cutting the tax rate in half will pay for itself by causing the economy to immediately double in size is so stupid that nobody ever should have believed it.

  55. 55.

    PsiFighter37

    @Keith G: No, I’m just mocking his extremely diplomatic way of saying “Donald Trump is stupider in person than he appears on Twitter”.

    More sad than anything. The EPA won’t exist by the time team Trump decimates the country.

  56. 56.

    Brachiator

    The man behind Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts says Donald Trump’s tax policy will lead to economic ‘nirvana’ in the US

    Do we also get 72 virgins and the Baby Jesus serving us heavenly loaves and fishes?

  57. 57.

    tobie

    @PsiFighter37: I couldn’t agree more. You can’t play nice with this horrible excuse for a human being. He’ll still throw sand in your face. This is what masha gesen has been saying.

  58. 58.

    mai naem mobile

    I have no idea what these ads holes want at the end. Do none of them read history? I get that Orange Douche is a moron and doesn’t know history but the others? Concentrared wealth in a few is not good. These stories don’t end well for the rich. They end up getting rounded up and hung,guillotined, shot or stoned. Do they really think it’s going to be different for them?

  60. 60.

    Steve in the ATL

    @mai naem mobile:

    They end up getting rounded up and hung,guillotined, shot or stoned. Do they really think it’s going to be different for them?

    God I hope it’s not. Let’s burn down the Bastille again!

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Very possibly my favorite lyrics from The Musical That Must Not Be Named:

    We signed a treaty with a King whose head is now in a basket
    Would you like to take it out and ask it?
    “Should we honor our treaty, King Louis’ head?”
    “Uhh … do whatever you want, I’m super dead!”

  67. 67.

    Brachiator

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I think you’re mixin’ your religions.

    Trump is magic. He is so powerful that he will bring the Hallelujah moment of all world religions. Free Market Buddha’s Belly be praised!

  68. 68.

    debbie

    @Mary G:

    Better to ask him how many states he think will fall down the rathole along with Kansas. Ohio’s governor, Mr. Sunshine until now, is warning of a coming recession because the tax cuts he championed have cut revenues to unsustainable levels.

  70. 70.

    max

    Sure, the caption claims that’s Arthur Laffer, of the infamous Laffer curve, but look at that demented grin!

    That’s exactly what proves it’s fucking Laffer.

    max
    [‘The napkin drawing that ate fucking America.’]

  71. 71.

    Steve in the ATL

    @debbie:

    Ohio’s governor, Mr. Sunshine until now, is warning of a coming recession because the tax cuts he championed have cut revenues to unsustainable levels.

    That is offensive for two reasons: (1) it defames supply side orthodoxy, and (2) it fails to consider the material rewards that Ohio will reap from Our Lord for banning abortion.

  73. 73.

    mai naem mobile

    @BillinGlendaleCA: In my job I work with some pretty poor people. Not third world poor but no car,barely able to afford public transportatiin,,renting/sharing small apartment,no savinga,food insecure kind of poor. Anecdotally I see more homeless people in Phoenix. I just feel at some point you get somebody a little mentally unstable with no hope who’ll do something really bad. And don’t assume it will be a RWNJ.

  74. 74.

    Van Buren

    @Brachiator: I looked up the lyrics to Smells Like Teen Spirit and I don’t see anything about taxes, or even economics. What am I missing, Dr. Laffer?

  76. 76.

    SenyorDave

    Who will be playing the inauguration balls? Seems like most popular artists under 50 other than country wouldn’t be big fans of the predator-elect. Even younger country didn’t seem like they were into the orange menace. Ted Nugent as the headliner of one of the balls?

  77. 77.

    Kropadope

    @debbie:

    Better to ask him how many states he think will fall down the rathole along with Kansas.

    Once Trump takes the KS tax plan national, “all of them, Katie.”

  82. 82.

    MazeDancer

    @Mnemosyne:

    Al Gore is a Southerner by birth. I’m pretty sure that for him, “extremely interesting” means something along the lines of, “Bless their hearts.”

    Exactly. Gore knows Trump is an idiot. Who wants famous people to like him. So he gave that a shot yesterday. Pence and Bannon had other plans. Doesn’t mean Pruitt gets confirmed.

    Bannon and Pence get their EPA nom. Doesn’t mean Trump will stick with “Destroy the Planet”. Famous people can persuade Trump. If someone famous enough sacrifices to have Trump and Ivanka to holidays at their place, the planet can be saved.

    Trying to remind myself that sane, open-minded people are the majority of US. And that right now the news is all about Trump. And his – or rather Bannon/Pence/GOP – picks for cabinet positions.

    When/If the Trump administration happens, the rest of us get to rise up. Paul Ryan is going to get skewered by Trump in revenge. Medicare and Social Security will not be trashed. The three biggest questions are:

    – How will people survive the destruction of Obamacare and will someone convince Trump to save them with TrumpCare? Play to his ego, save lives.

    – How will the environment survive? Again, celebs can rescue here.

    – Women’s bodies. States are going to try shit like “Heartbeat Bills”. If filibuster allowed to continue, then it is an 8 person court as long as RBG breathes.

  84. 84.

    ingrediorum

    For the inaugural ball, “Bartholomew” (theme song for “Goliath” starring Billy Bob Thornton), or practically anything from The Silent Comedy. Hell, EVERYTHING byThe Silent Comedy for the inaugural ball, and postively nothing else.

  92. 92.

    Duke's Archives

    The Iceweasels get you at night.

    The Cheeseweasels get you in between ordering coffee and receiving coffee/pastries.

  95. 95.

    marc

    I don’t like the ad hominems of the op. That’s just ugly and that shit ain’t helping. Dr. Martin Luther The King would not be happy with you.

  96. 96.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I didn’t have time earlier to write much. I don’t know about China, but in Japan (in my limited experience) the “fat Buddha” is usually just called Hotei (or something similar) and there isn’t much association with the Buddha or Buddhism. It’s just sort of a lucky object like the “fortune cat.”

    In fact, I always thought it got the association with the Buddha from Americans seeing the statues at Japanese (and maybe Chinese) restaurants and making a false connection.

  97. 97.

    Mike G

    The Laffer curve was a big success at its real, hidden goal — a Repuke con job funneling wealth to the rich and to hell with the rest of the country.

    There is some evidence of the effect from various studies, with the peak tax revenue around 68%.

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