Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

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

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

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

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

We’re not going back!

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

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

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson: the bland and smiling face of evil.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Let’s finish the job.

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

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Late Night Open Thread: “He’s Very Aesthetic” — The Cosplay Cabinet

Late Night Open Thread: “He’s Very Aesthetic” — The Cosplay Cabinet

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“Cosplay” (costume play) is a Japanese popcult term for dressing up like one’s favorite fantasy character. President-Asterisk Trump is cosplaying as a celebrity president, and it seems that he wants his cabinet members to cooperate in his role-playing. Per the Washington Post:

… Given Trump’s own background as a master brander and showman who ran beauty pageants as a sideline, it was probably inevitable that he would be looking beyond their résumés for a certain aesthetic in his supporting players.

“Presentation is very important because you’re representing America not only on the national stage but also the international stage, depending on the position,” said Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller.

To lead the Pentagon, Trump chose a rugged combat general, whom he compares to a historic one. At the United Nations, his ambassador will be a poised and elegant Indian American with a compelling immigrant backstory. As secretary of state, Trump tapped a neophyte to international diplomacy, but one whose silvery hair and boardroom bearing project authority.

The parade of potential job-seekers passing a bank of media cameras to board the elevators at Trump Tower has the feel of a casting call. It is no coincidence that a disproportionate share of the names most mentioned for jobs at the upper echelon of the Trump administration are familiar faces to obsessive viewers of cable news — of whom the president-elect is one.

“He likes people who present themselves very well, and he’s very impressed when somebody has a background of being good on television because he thinks it’s a very important medium for public policy,” said Chris Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media and a longtime friend of Trump. “Don’t forget, he’s a showbiz guy. He was at the pinnacle of showbiz, and he thinks about showbiz. He sees this as a business that relates to the public.”…

“The pinnacle of showbiz.” I can remember when people made fun of Ronald Reagan as a B-level movie actor with aspirations above his station. Thanks for breaking it, GOP!

Small consolation, Trump’s jealousy over Bolton’s luxurious facial adornment at least spares the rest of us lunacy like this…

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    Trentrunner

    Well, if “presentation matters when you represent America on the world stage,” Trump himself could lose a good 40-50 pounds. And engage a Wattle Abatement Specialist while he’s at it…

  2. 2.

    Raoul

    I don’t give a fuck how we narrowly avoided Bolton (for now, publicly). Personally, I think the moustache story is a complete fabrication, part of the bread and circuses to distract us.

    There are more than enough dangerous, stupid, and venally corrupt people already named to the Rump cabinet. We need to oppose these scoundrels and America-haters constantly.

  4. 4.

    Morzer

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/12/harry-reid-says-the-dnc-has-been-worthless.html

    When assessing the Democratic Party’s condition in the states, however, Reid is appropriately scathing.

    “I believe one of the failures of Democratic Party has been the Democratic National Committee, the DNC, has been worthless,” Reid told Nevada Public Radio in an interview published Wednesday. “They do nothing to help state parties. That should be the main goal they have. I developed everything in Nevada on my own. Their help was relatively meaningless.”

    Reid continued:

    So, I would hope that they would choose a chair of the Democratic Party who is a full-time person. Not someone like we had with that congresswoman from Florida, who was a full-time congresswoman and a part time chair of the DNC.

    We need a full time DNC chair and what they should do – they can take my model if they want – it’s not rocket science. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power to figure out what needs to be done. They should take a few states every election cycle, maybe three maybe four, and help them develop the infrastructure for good state party organization.

  7. 7.

    Morzer

    http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-faith-spotted-eagle-2016-story.html

    On Monday, Spotted Eagle appears to have become the first Native American to win an electoral college vote for president, according to two presidential historians consulted by the Los Angeles Times, Vanderbilt University professor Thomas A. Schwartz and author Mark Weston. (They were uncertain whether any of America’s major presidential candidates have ever had significant Native American ancestry, and the answer seems to be no.)

    Spotted Eagle won a single vote in the electoral college, which came as a shock to her: She wasn’t running for president. She was taking her daughter to the airport Monday when she got the news in a message from a reporter.

    “I thought it was fake news,” Spotted Eagle said, alluding to the hoaxes and conspiracy theories that dominated social media during the presidential campaign. “I told my daughter, ‘Is this real?’ She said, ‘I think it is.’”

    The man who cast the vote also didn’t see it coming. Democratic Washington state elector Robert Satiacum, 56, decided to vote for Spotted Eagle mere moments before he cast his ballot.

  8. 8.

    Morzer

    @Morzer:

    Andrew Abramson ‏@AbramsonFL Dec 19
    This will be an odd electoral map in American history. Votes for Ron Paul, John Kasich, Colin Powell, Bernie Sanders & Faith Spotted Eagle

  9. 9.

    Kropadope

    @Morzer:

    Not someone like we had with that congresswoman from Florida, who was a full-time congresswoman and a part time chair of the DNC.

    Ooh, not even a name from that former Senate leader.

  10. 10.

    Morzer

    @Kropadope:

    Jon Ralston ‏@RalstonReports 14h14 hours ago
    So @SenatorReid is brutal and consistent on chair race because Ellison would leave House. “That congresswoman from Florida” is a classic.

  11. 11.

    Morzer

    Also, just because I like the allusion:

    Jon Ralston ‏@RalstonReports Dec 16
    As Donald Trump awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous tweeter.

  12. 12.

    Morzer

    And finally, something for the media-hungry masses of Nevada:

    http://www.thenevadaindependent.com/

    ​

    The Nevada Independent is a journalism-driven nonprofit founded by veteran political journalist and columnist Jon Ralston.

    We have assembled a great team of reporters and columnists to cover politics, government, and business. We have also retained nationally recognized pollster Mark Mellman to provide quality surveys and data on the issues that matter most to you. We will provide content in English as well as in Spanish in order to serve the entire Nevada community.

    Our initial focus will be twofold: (1) the Legislature, where three of our reporters will be based full-time from January to June of 2017, and (2) important stories in both Northern and Southern Nevada. Much of our focus will be on providing data in easy to understand formats. In our mission to provide the public with as much factual information and insight as possible, we will leave no stone unturned.

    We are committed to providing the best reader experience possible. We will not sell ads or post auto-play videos. Our website will be clean, fast, and easy to read.

    We are also committed to operational transparency. We will disclose all donations and donors on our website.

    Jon Ralston is an excellent journalist, so rather than wasting money on the NYT, consider sending some bucks his way.

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne

    @Morzer:

    The Republicans have a full-timer as the head of the RNC, so it’s pretty maddening that the Democrats have been treating their equivalent as a part-time job. Not sure whose decision that was, but it was a very bad one.

    Though my all-time bad decision by the Democrats was probably when they decided not to pass a budget in 2010 just in case it hurt them in the midterms. Whoops. And that call was made by Congressional Democrats, not by the White House.

  14. 14.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:

    Though my all-time bad decision by the Democrats was probably when they decided not to pass a budget in 2010 just in case it hurt them in the midterms.

    Was that as bad as the time they let a jerk who had deliberately avoided joining the party so he could preserve his oh so important independence join just so he could run for President and trash the front-runner in the press? Cause that one seems like a really bad decision to me.

  16. 16.

    seaboogie

    @Roger Moore: Heh. I guess it’s what we have when we don’t have fear and hate as our guiding principles. We herd cats instead. Inclusiveness is a bitch.

  17. 17.

    Morzer

    @Roger Moore:

    Oh good. An invitation to another round of Democratic civil war rather than fighting against Trump. Just what we all need to make Christmas full of joy.

  18. 18.

    Mike G

    As secretary of state, Trump tapped a neophyte to international diplomacy, but one whose silvery hair and boardroom bearing project authority.

    So we get a series of male bimbos who fit President-Asterisk Putinobitch’s fantasy of what they should look like if it were a movie. I guess next we’ll end up with Ted McGinley somewhere in the cabinet.

    Now Dump is demanding a magical fantasy fighter-plane to replace to F-35 —
    http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/donald-trump-now-asking-for-impossible-magic-fantasy-je-1790421607

    By the time this fustercluck is through Ronald Reagan is going to look like a cerebral genius.

  19. 19.

    Keith G

    I guess rattling on about the circuses that Team Trump seems to purposely start up is one plan.

    Another would be to talk about policy….policy….and more policy. Trump wants the circuses to be up front, but if that gets sidestepped and policy becomes the focus, he stops being an entertainment entrepreneur and starts being a conventional conservative politician with stupid ideas.

    Before lunchtime Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump said he would expand the U.S. nuclear arsenal, upending a reduction course set by presidents of both parties over the past four decades, and called for the United States to veto a pending U.N. resolution that criticized Israel’s settlements policy.

    For the love of fuck….stop calling him silly names. It did not work prior to Nov 9 and it will not work now. He must be treated as a serious political leader who is seriously wrong and seriously dangerous…..and who, if he became the least dangerous version of himself, will still be seriously inept. Even that version is terribly problematic.

    Stop wading into the side show and stop contesting the last nomination fight. Focus on President-elect Trump’s hurtful and often dangerous plans and start building counter arguments.

    After edit: @Morzer: Fucking exactly. This is one reason my clicks here have dropped off. Same old shit.

  21. 21.

    NeenerNeener

    @Mike G: You say that like it’s a bad thing! Ted McGinley has a reputation as a show-killer, so maybe he’s just what we need.

  23. 23.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Keith G: I refuse to dignify that creature with the title of President. If I want to refer to him using another name, I’ll do it. I did with Junior, I’ll do it with the shitgibbon.

  24. 24.

    Mustang Bobby

    I watched some of the interview Rachel Maddow did with Kellyanne Conway last night. It was like watching Edward R. Murrow interview Liberace, except he had a piano.

  26. 26.

    Keith G

    @BillinGlendaleCA: He is the president and he will leave a trail of policy failures like few others. But temper tantrum-like (aka juvenile behavior) shifts the focus.

    Our debate should be over the best policy formulation, not over the coolest insult name. Trump’s audience knew he was/is an asshole, so calling him one is no fucking sign of sentience.

  29. 29.

    Central Planning

    Thought I would pass this on – a friend of mine said he wants to do a stage reading of Chris Kluwe’s Fuck You, Donald Trump

    The piece consolidates many thoughts and feelings people have toward the past election and DT.

  30. 30.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Keith G: I can walk and chew gum at the same time.

    @Baud: I disagree, we should look at all the factors that caused the campaign to be unsuccessful once sufficient data is available. I agree that doing without sufficient data is pointless.

  34. 34.

    Keith G

    @BillinGlendaleCA: From what I take from the many things you have written, yes you can. Not all others are like that. In fact I have my doubts about many others.

    Do folks drink brandy any more?

  35. 35.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Baud: Thanks to certain trolls, we’ve been wallowing in such discussions for the past month.

    We should, absolutely, stop feeding the trolls.

  37. 37.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: I’m one of those people*, but I think we need to wait until more data to become available before discussing it. I’ll avoid further discussion until such time as I’ve done since the election.

    *I don’t think we can exclude what went on during the primary, though I think the attacks from the Baud!2016! campaign cost HRC the election.

  39. 39.

    raven

    (CNN)The Berlin Christmas market attack suspect Anis Amri has been killed in Milan, according to Italian state police.

    The suspect was killed in a shootout in Sesto San Giovanni — a town near Milan — just after 3am local time, say Italian police in their Twitter feed.

  42. 42.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud:

    Especially NR. It’s the same crap 50 gazillion times. At least demand fresh material.

    Bots can only do so much.

  43. 43.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    Wow, it’s raining again, didn’t expect it so soon(we have another storm coming though later today).

  45. 45.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @raven: *shrug* I’m in NC. Locally, we haven’t had time to wallow.

    This is why I prefer Troll-B-Gone to the pie filter. It’s a lot harder to end up feeding the energy creature when you can’t see the replies to it.

  47. 47.

    Zinsky

    For the man with the most ridiculous and hideous hairstyle in history, Trump really shouldn’t be too concerned about “presentation”.

  49. 49.

    daveNYC

    This is Harry Reid, a pretty big cheese in the Senate, saying that the DNC sucks, and has to the point that he’s had to independently build out his infrastructure in Nevada. If he can’t get support from the DNC then what exactly does the DNC do? Send out fundraising emails, play minesweeper, and then every four years organize a convention and send out even more fundraising emails?

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @daveNYC: What does he RNC do by comparison?

    I think the one thing the RNC got right, and which we now have consensus on, is the need for a full time chair.

  51. 51.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @raven: Lovely place, especially at this season. Going to visit Biltmore?

    You should make time at some point, if not now maybe before or after a game in Knoxville, to drive I-26 through the Smokies. It’s one of the country’s most scenic interstates.

  52. 52.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: The RNC hasn’t always had a full time chair, though I think they have since 2006. Something happened in 2006, what was it?

  61. 61.

    Waldo

    @raven:

    (CNN)The Berlin Christmas market attack suspect Anis Amri has been killed in Milan, according to Italian state police.

    I wish they had taken him alive and gotten useful information from him. And then killed him 12 times.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @EBT: I prefer to ignore him. Did he admit that he voted for Trump? I thought his schtick was that of deeply concerned Democrat.

  64. 64.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @raven: The parkway is lots of fun. I-26 is newer and was, among other things, a proof of concept for trout stream reconstruction techniques pioneered in Colorado. The Park Service was skeptical until they stunned one of the streams a few years after the reconstruction and found the huge trout had indeed migrated back in.

    The TN side was an erosion control disaster. The Appalachian Trail folks showed up to a meeting with the NC engineers ready to take on The Man — until they saw the lead engineer’s ponytail. For some reason, they were willing to believe him when he said the park and trail were a priority for him.

    Same engineer was just handed a “bike trails through Nantahala” project. We’ll see how that works out.

  66. 66.

    qwerty42

    …President-Asterisk Trump is cosplaying as a celebrity president, and it seems that he wants his cabinet members to cooperate in his role-playing.
    In his mind he is in a classier version of West Wing.

  67. 67.

    debbie

    Trump isn’t an aesthete, he’s delusional. He’s said that when he looks in the mirror, he sees a 35-year-old man.

  69. 69.

    Botsplainer

    @Morzer:

    That is going to smack some of the “raise money, buy ads that distance state candidates from the national party” cohort in the face.

  70. 70.

    daveNYC

    @Baud: Considering that the Republicans have two branches of government, and will have the third by springtime, I don’t think LOL RNC is particularly useful. Especially since the Republicans have a lot of deep pockets backing youth groups, think tanks and whatnot; and that there are plenty of corporate interests willing to back Republican candidates in state and local races.

    Even if all the RNC does is send out fund raising emails and play some racist version of minesweeper, there are other organizing and fundraising forces on the Republican side that let them get away with it.

  72. 72.

    J R in WV

    @Roger Moore:

    Allowing Bernie Sanders to run as a Democratic candidate was a tragic error.

    The party should be working right now on rules to require that candidates have a steadily longer and positive history with the Democratic Party for candidacy for increasingly important offices. Not necessarily previous electoral success in running for, say, a state-wide office before running for congressional offices, necessarily.

    But in supporting Democratic candidates, voting regularly in Democratic primaries, being a member of the Democratic Party rather than being a “saved Republican” or an Independent and jumping right in as a Senatorial candidate or a Presidential . Obviously with a large loophole for someone like Senator Al Frankin, or a sitting Senator who decides to leave an increasingly crazed Republican party in a time of uproar.

    But Bernie Sanders has a lot of blame to carry for the rest of his old, pointless life for what happens to all of us due to the election* of the Trumpeter.

  73. 73.

    Miss Bianca

    And to all the bros here hor-hor-ing over the fact that Harry Reid refers to a colleague, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, as “that woman” – and to Harry Reid himself, for that matter: Fuck. You.

    You may not like her performance, you may not like her, but don’t high-five each other for calling her names – or not calling her by name at all. Every time a man cheers another man on for denigrating and belittling a woman in power, and then wonders, “Gee, why aren’t the Democrats doing better out there?” – look in the damn mirror, first, assholes. If I want some white guy acting like a sexist boor to represent me, why the hell wouldn’t I go for a Republican? In this, as in so much else regarding matters of party discipline, they do it soooo much better.

  75. 75.

    Another Scott

    @Jilli Brown: Gawker – quoting something else:

    The funny thing is, there’s a side of Donald that not even [Marla] has seen. She has never seen him completely naked—at least almost never—because he won’t let her. Whenever they’re about to have sex, he makes her go into the bathroom while he gets undressed. As soon as he takes off his clothes, he jumps into the bed and pulls up the covers. She knows that he’s ashamed to show her what a flabby old body he has. He has no idea that just makes him seem cuter and more cuddly to her.

    :-/

    So, no, he probably doesn’t look at himself in the mirror (if you believe those stories anyway.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  76. 76.

    Another Scott

    Dead thread, but …

    @Mike G:

    Now Dump is demanding a magical fantasy fighter-plane to replace to F-35 …

    Yeah, funny that.

    I’m so old that I remember that just about every DoD program that tries to push the envelope (and just about every new aircraft program does) ends up being more complex, more expensive, and takes longer than originally planned. The C-5, B-1, F-22, C-17, C-130-H, V-22, etc., etc. It’s the nature of the beast.

    Of course, the POTUS (and especially the PEOTUS) doesn’t write the specifications and contracts for major procurements (or any procurements, actually, under the law and federal regulations), so it’s all a bunch of noise to distract the press and us while they go about their business of preparing to loot the Treasury and gutt the Constitution and the Federal Government.

    Also, some context on these numbers would help. How much does an A380 cost? Looks like it’s about $433M – list price. If one rolls in the costs for the special gates, maintenance, simulators for flight training, spares, etc., etc. (and subtracts discounts), and adds it up over the lifetime of the plane, and divides it by the total number of planes, then it’s still a boatload of money. Do we really expect a state-of-the-art fighter that will be used when (at least an argument can be made that) the country’s survival is on the line is going to be cheaper than a glorified flying bus? A fighter that is expected to last for decades? Maybe, but it’s not self-evident.

    Context is always helpful. But Donnie’s idea of context is 140 characters… :-/

    Yes, the DoD needs to be brutal on controlling costs on these programs, but that only happens by having management at the Pentagon that has the decades of experience necessary to understand and enforce the mountain of rules and regulations governing federal procurement, and expertise in the various services and agencies to know what is and isn’t possible when the contractors propose something. We need informed buyers and informed customers in-house. One doesn’t have that in times of see-saw budgets, pay-, hiring- and promotion-freezes, furloughs, and political interference in time-wasting things like listing everyone who attends conferences and writes papers on things that a new administration doesn’t like (climate change, alternative fuels, women’s outreach, etc., etc.).

    (sigh)

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  77. 77.

    tybee

    Our debate should be over the best policy formulation, not over the coolest insult name.

    we can do both.

  78. 78.

    quakerinabasement

    I can remember when people made fun of Ronald Reagan as a B-level movie actor with aspirations above his station.

    It is claimed that movie mogul Jack Warner reacted to the news that Reagan planned to run for governor by saying, “No, Jimmy Stewart for governor. Ronald Reagan as his best friend.”

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