Q: What books are you reading?
A: Look over there. There are some books. pic.twitter.com/9cItkOPMQ7— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) January 18, 2017
.
All of them, Katie!
Yeah, I think Sam Bee is right — the President-Asterisk can’t read, at least not with any fluency. And he’s too spoilt to put in the effort to overcome his deficits.
(I always suspected Dubya was an unacknowledged dyslexic / ADD sufferer, but at least his parents had taught him to fake an interest. Sometimes. “All right, you’ve covered your ass… “)
.
This is slightly different from when @michikokakutani interviewed Obama about books https://t.co/XUxRzyyixS
— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) January 18, 2017
Ridnik Chrome
Reading is for sissies.
/s
Iowa Old Lady
I can’t tell parody from reality any more. Did Trump really say that stuff about books?
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Reading books is for lieberal elites who think they are better than everyone else.
dedc79
So the area around my office in DC got closed off by the bomb squad because of a suspicious package and I decided to head home. Walked out the door and who do i see passing me in the other direction? Lou f’ing Dobbs. Of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity and told him he’s an awful human being. He said thanks and kept walking.
Trentrunner
I have Ph.D. in English, I’m the same age as Barack Obama, and he is FAR more well-read than I am.
We are so, so very, very fucked.
SiubhanDuinne
I think it’s not so much that he is illiterate as that he is painfully, gallingly incurious.
The contrast with that feature on Obama’s reading habits couldn’t be any starker. We are losing so much in slightly over 20 hours from now.
Woodrowfan
@dedc79: he probably gets that a LOT. (good for you BTW)
low-tech cyclist
Whether Trump can read or not, it’s clear that he doesn’t. If he ever did have the ability to sit down and read a book, it’s clear that he’s not done so in such a long time that he wouldn’t have the endurance for it any more.
ETA: Say what you will about Nixon, the blackhearted bastard was capable of understanding fairly complex ideas. Now we’ve got evil, dumb, and ignorant in a single package.
Weaselone
@Iowa Old Lady:
I’m fairly certain that’s real.
Corner Stone
“I like the ones with the pictures. And the pictures you can color on, on, on the books. Those are best, and very classy.”
hellslittlestangel
I hear that he’s read To Serve Man several times.
Major Major Major Major
“The CNN book.”
low-tech cyclist
Mark 13:14, NIV: “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong…”
That would be at noon tomorrow.
BGinCHI
Trump’s favorite joke:
–Knock knock
–Who’s there?
–Narcissist
–Narcissist who?
–Me
–Who?
–Me
–I don’t know you
–Everybody knows me
–I’m calling the police
–It’s me
(batters down the door, ruins the country for a generation)
Elizabelle
@low-tech cyclist: What on earth was Mark talking about?
Corner Stone
Trump doesn’t do any actual “work”. What does he fill his time with? Besides golf, I mean. Before Twitter he would have had to obsessively scan a dozen or so papers and/or magazines to see if anyone was talking about him. He infamously doesn’t use computers. Does he just sit in a room and look out the window?
Ronnie Pudding
Dubya actually had a voracious appetite for reading when is was President (at least if you believe Karl Rove, LOL).
Corner Stone
@dedc79: Did you say it straight out at him? “Lou Dobbs you are an awful human being.”
Because he probably heard, “You are awesome.”
Iowa Old Lady
@Weaselone: This reminds me of sugary cereal commercials that show a bowl of marshmallow fluffy candy chews on a table with whole wheat toast, an egg, juice, etc. And they say “a part of this nutritious breakfast,” when they mean “next to this nutritious breakfast.” Trump is next to some books.
dmsilev
@Corner Stone: I assume all of the crayons in his box are gold.
Bobby D
He can read fine (not that he does a lot of it), and despite his garbled syntax, he isn’t as deficient in raw brain power as we like to paint him (no, I am not saying he has some big plan, or is playing 8dim chess or something).
But as everyone in a position to know has said, he has no attention span, at all. Couple that with likely early stages of alzheimers, and he probably can’t get two pages into something without forgetting what was on the first page.
Bobby Thomson
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: I just had an epiphany. Obama is considered a narcissist because he talks about books he’s read.
dedc79
@Corner Stone: I think I blurted out something along the lines of “Lou, you are awful! Just awful!” He was practically past me by the time I realized who it was. But he turned and looked at me and gave a sarcastic thank you.
Corner Stone
The last two Republican POTUS were completely incurious, ignorant bullies. Raised in wealth and privilege to the extent nothing ever forced them to peek outside their insular shell.
This seems significant, somehow…
Paul in KY
@dedc79: Thanks for doing that.
Corner Stone
“The Piano Guys” ?? That’s an actual entertainment thing?
john b
@Corner Stone: I don’t think that’s true of GHWB. Reagan and GWB, sure.
Hitless
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: This. We are a country that cares about getting things done, not sitting around reading f*&king books. This is why you lose elections.
Corner Stone
@hellslittlestangel:
But…that’s..that’s…A COOKBOOK!
dedc79
@Paul in KY: I’d have preferred to punch him, but even this felt pretty good.
Ian G.
Anyone have a transcript of the Obama interview referenced above?
You know, I’m an outer borough child like Trump, born in Queens, in fact, to an NYPD cop and a public school teacher, and my visceral, instinctual reaction to Trump is to consider him low-class poseur trash, even though his father made more money in a month than my parents did in a lifetime.
I’m constantly laughing to myself at how boorish his taste in everything is. I halfway want to create a Twitter account just to remind him daily, one Queens kid to another, that’s he’s low-rent trash.
Corner Stone
@john b: I misphrased that a bit. I meant to include Trump and GWB, even though Trump is not actually a POTUS or technically a last POTUS.
But I meant those two incurious, ignorant bullies. Sorry.
trollhattan
@hellslittlestangel:
In the original German.
Major Major Major Major
@john b: I was about to say the same thing.
JaneE
At the very least, Trump could have said “I only have time to read briefing papers at the moment”. Or had enough foresight to pick some simple answers to common questions ahead of time.
MisterForkbeard
@Corner Stone: The Piano Guys are actually pretty decent. We have a couple of their CDs and our toddler loves them too. I’m really sad they’re performing for Trump, honestly.
HeleninEire
Ahhhhhh… I have a job interview at Trinity College on Wed. They say it will take only 30 minutes so clearly it is a very preliminary cull. There will most likely be at least 2 more. But hey YAY, ME!
Spanky
@Trentrunner:
I LOLed. Thanks.
GregB
Remain calm. I am sure the human potato sack with a mustache, Terry Branstad, will calm down the Chinese after we start a naval blockade against them.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
I thought it was confirmed that George W Bush did have something like dyslexia and that his mother Barbara worked very hard with him when he was child to overcome it.
Elizabelle
Hamby twitter links to the new Jim Vandehei-Mike Allen clusterfuck, Axios (and don’t you think of bodywash meant for major odors, with that name?) — anyhoo:
From their article, Reality Bites: Trump’s Wake-Up Call, which does not say that much about T-guy’s reading habits, except that he prefers to do as little as possible.
His aides find time to swipe at Chris Christie.
God forbid they consider a well-qualified Democrat for a position.
Would you say that’s third grade use of vocabulary?
That last part is funny, and human, but, dog, are we in a world of trouble.
trollhattan
@Ian G.:
New Yorkers know and loathe the Trump, have for decades, and I’m still flabbergasted they weren’t able to educate the rest of the country to his loathsome ways. Ironically, I’ve heard many, many supporters wave off his boorish ways with a casual, “He’s from New York, that’s just how they are.”
Major Major Major Major
@JaneE: DeVos could have read the wikipedia article on ‘education’ first, too. These are not those kinds of people.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Ian G.:
The irony (of which there is way too much these days) is that his supporters aspire to his taste, but since they’re actually considered to be the low-rent trash by Trump, they’re the sorts of people he cheats, lies to and steals from and whom he would never let populate his lobbies and golf courses, and who voted for him for that very reason because “he says what he means’.
Elizabelle
@Ian G.:
And what is stopping you?
Fuck the Fucking NY Times ran some articles on Obama’s reading habits. Could put those up, if they’re what you were searching…
JordanRules
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: This reminds me. I haven’t heard anything about Trump’s relationship with his mother. I know they have matching hair, but that’s about it.
opiejeanne
@Corner Stone: Look out the window? We’re talking about Trump. He looks at his reflection in the mirror and his portraits of himself.
XTPD
@john b: GHWB might not be incurious, but if the info in this LGM thread is true he is a dipshit.
Calouste
@HeleninEire: Congrats! Of course, Trinity College is the alma mater of Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, and Oscar Wilde, so we are going to have some expectations about the quality of your comments in the future…
Ian G.
@Elizabelle:
Mostly I don’t want to open a can of worms and have the Pepe the Frog crowd after me should Trump declare that killing me would bring the person who did it 72 virgins in heaven.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@dedc79:
Good on you! I hope he gets that a lot, that it adds stress and trims another sixty seconds off his shitty life, that it makes the two million a year (or whatever it is) feel a bit less.
Iowa Old Lady
@HeleninEire: Good going, Helen.
piratedan
@Corner Stone: well, apparently he spends his free time updating his enemies list, chasing poontang and spending time on twitter. I have to tell you, as an American, I feel so much freer now, I can’t begin to express just how free I feel because of there being words that I can use but I do not understand. Thankfully, I am freer knowing that.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ian G.:
Here’s the transcript. NYTimes, in case you have principles or something.
SiubhanDuinne
@HeleninEire:
Well done you! Nice to have some positive news to read, however preliminary it may be.
HeleninEire
@Calouste: Yeah. Good luck with that!
XTPD
@trollhattan: Hip-hop has only recent turned against Trump, but it’s long had the numbers of other NY GOPers.
Elizabelle
FTF New York Times: Transcript: President Obama on What Books Mean to Him
Michiku Kakatani: Obama’s Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books
This, and seeing the Fuck the Fucking New York Times banner headline up now, Trump Arrives in Washington on Eve of His Presidency
is going to make me cry. Emails, you fucks. Emails, emails, emails.
We could have a sea of women smiling and marching in white suits after President Hillary’s inauguration, instead of p u ssy hats.
Major Major Major Major
@HeleninEire: Woohoo!
Isn’t that where the Book of Kells is? It wasn’t on display when I went. :(
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
One of the scarier things I have realized is that Trump is not even a businessman. He’s a deal-maker. He sees everything in terms of making deals. You start to notice that he talks about everything in those terms.
Tex DrillersonRex Tillerson is really well suited to run the State Department; he’s “a great deal-maker.” Etc., etc.I think (in his business life, before the election campaign) Trump spent his time shmoozing with other deal-makers on the phone and yelling at a coterie of Smithers-type aides, enablers and minders in Trump Tower.
We’re all about to see how that genius for deal-making translates into running the country. But not until next Monday—remember, he’s taking the weekend off so as not to interfere with the inauguration festivities!
aangus
@HeleninEire:
Excallent! ;)
Cacti
@low-tech cyclist:
I’ve no doubt that Conald was given “gentleman’s Cs” throughout his educational career.
Joyce H
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think he forgets things. When the whole kerfuffle with John Lewis started, I instantly realized that at the beginning, Trump didn’t have a clue in the world who Lewis is. All he knew was he’d been dissed by a congressman and since the congressman was black, his district was obviously The Ghetto, which Everyone Knows is a dystopian hellscape. Once the blowback began, I’m sure he now realizes that Lewis is the Civil Rights Icon, but he’d never ever admit that he didn’t know that going in.
But the realization that he didn’t know Lewis from Adam really struck me (again) on the issue of the VAST amounts of things he doesn’t know! Things that you learn without seeking out the information, just living in the world. I mean, I doubt if he reads a newspaper, but he takes in an occasional television newscast, he sees headlines and hears people talking. (I’m sometimes surprised when I’m able to answer a crossword clue or trivia question about sports I don’t follow or TV shows I don’t watch – it’s info you just absorb from the culture around you.) The guy hasn’t been cloistered – he must have heard a lot of this stuff! So I think he just forgets them.
Maybe it is Alzheimers, but maybe it’s just complete indifference. If something isn’t about himself, his glorious business, his amazing family, or his unparalleled magnificence, the information just bleeds away. Man, when he was in Scotland for that ribbon cutting of the golf resort, he was going into exhaustive granular detail about the golf course refurbishment. But… books? Pffft.
Elizabelle
@HeleninEire: YAY You. Way to go. Rooting for you, and keep us posted.
Also, here’s a last link on Obama’s reading habits, from the FTF New York Times. List of authors and books he has particularly liked. He liked “Gone Girl.” Which is the lightest book mentioned, but good to hear.
JordanRules
Obama’s last call to a foreign leader, as President, was to Merkel.
I wonder how that went?
aangus
@Major Major Major Major:
There are several Trinity Colleges.
The Book of Kells is at the one in Dublin, Eire.
ETA *winks*
Miss Bianca
@BGinCHI: you are an evil person. I am so swiping this!
RSA
Pro tip: Don’t interview Donald Trump in his bedroom.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Remember Lucas Neff from “Raising Hope”? He’s en fuego in slapping the living shit out of wikileaks task force and Assange.
He’s fucking PISSED in a big way.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Corner Stone:
He makes deals, the best deals, the classiest’s deals!
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
Well, it would have been nice if the hometown newspaper had stepped up and let us all know how awful he was, but, you know, e-mails.
Calouste
@JordanRules: Handing over the baton as Leader of the Free World.
Major Major Major Major
@aangus: Which is, one presumes, the one that Helen, who lives in Dublin, would be interviewing at.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@dedc79:
I don’t know how you avoided punching his jowly face. I’m not sure I could have, which makes it good that I don’t live in a major political media market.
Quinerly
Is anyone else listening to Jon Voight’s speech? Crazy. And, yes, I know he’s a RWNJ but I’m still shocked.
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
He isn’t illiterate; he’s aliterate. He’s capable of reading, but he doesn’t want to exert himself beyond about 140 characters at a time.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Trentrunner:
A few weeks ago, Xinhua asked these questions of Xi Linping, who spoke of what sounded like a pretty thoughtful list.
Of course, if you asked me, my list would consist mainly of things slightly better than smut – but I have some other, higher brow items related more to history (and some actual smut).
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: I don’t think he’s a businessman or a dealmaker. It seems obvious to me that other people have been putting all the details together and crossing the I’s and dotting the T’s for a couple decades now. IMO he’s not only basically illiterate but functionally illiterate. IOW, he can go potty on his own still but basically everything else is handled by other people.
I think if you put him in a soundproof box for 24 hours, brought him out, kept his family away from him and asked him to describe any recent event of the last year or so he would be unable to form coherent sentences.
BGinCHI
@Miss Bianca: You’ll be hearing from my people at Cheatham, Steele, and Howe……
Elizabelle
@Roger Moore: Aliterate. Yup. And probably amoral too.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Corner Stone:
And does he actually golf for enjoyment, or just status?
He doesn’t appear to be a man who finds joy in activities or hobbies or relationships.
zhena gogolia
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
He probably cheats and enjoys that.
Major Major Major Major
@Elizabelle: ‘Probably’? He’s like the poster child for amoral narcissism.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@HeleninEire: Yay you, indeed!
Corner Stone
That fucking gibberish of an answer when Trump was asked about his heroes was terrifying.
Miss Bianca
@HeleninEire: Hey, yay you! Good luck! (or would it be tacky to say, “the luck of the Irish to you!”?)
Anne Laurie
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
No, that was Neil Bush — the runt.
The Fortunate First-Born, Mother’s little man, was not permitted to have flaws.
The whole Bush family’s fvcked up, on both sides.
HeleninEire
@Major Major Major Major: Yup. It’s one of the largest research Univ in Ireland. A sister U to Oxford. It was built by Lizzy I specifically to keep the Catholic influence out of Ireland. She failed!
Elizabelle
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: He does like to be alone either. That’s a tell. Some NYT (?) article a while back about how he’d have his son in law Jared talk to him in soothing tones, late at night.
Corner Stone
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Or anything, at all. He has no pets, beyond Melania I guess. He doesn’t attend the symphony or orchestra. Sponsor causes. Anything. What does he do while he is awake?
I at least comment on a top 10,000 blog and watch a lot of pr0n. Where does he get his kicks?
Roger Moore
@Ronnie Pudding:
The Pet Goat 1000 times does not make an impressive reading list.
Corner Stone
I mean, it’s obvious he doesn’t even read comic books. Otherwise he could have easily answered the question about who his heroes were.
Does he just sit there stacking and restacking folders full of blank paper?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Elizabelle:
If there is any history of these times (carved on tree trunks or scratched onto the exterior wall of a ruined WalMart with the shattered end of an empty, useless rifle), I’m hoping that someone begins untangling the Gordian knot of his multiple emotional and cognitive disorders, and comes up with a theory as to how he appealed to people who actually knew better.
Iowa Old Lady
My idea of hell is being stuck in a waiting room without a book. I can’t imagine how boring life is if you don’t read.
Elizabelle
@Amaranthine RBG: I know. LOL.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
What’s a little boy like you doing with big boy smut like this?
Spanky
@Corner Stone:
At The Ritz!
(Not Route 66)
Corner Stone
@Ronnie Pudding: You mean like Camus’ The Stranger ? As I have said here before, I don’t really give a shit if that was in his book bag or not. But they at least tried to sell that effort. They gave half a shit to put a real world, adult fucking answer out there, whether it was true or not.
Leto
This was brought up as a comment in the last thread but: Congress moves to give away national lands, discounting billions in revenue
HeleninEire
@Miss Bianca: Not tacky; been hearing that all of my life. True? Not so much.
Corner Stone
If you are Tiffany Trump…are you secretly arranging a small sale of polonium to take out that bitch Ivanka for the Daddy’s favorite slot? I use the term “slot” advisedly.
Roger Moore
@Ian G.:
So? Register the Twitter account with a throw-away email and feel comfortable that the Pepe crowd couldn’t find the real you if they tried. If you can get them to the point they’re making regular death threats, it means you’re having an effect. Good luck to them doxing an account that doesn’t connect to anything else.
ETA: I would suggest leaving a fake trail to somebody you don’t like, but that would be wrong.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Corner Stone:
I got everything I needed to know about classic literature from Classic Comics Illustrated when I was 10 or 11. Later, when I actually read the stuff, I had to laugh about how completely those guys captured the stories.
Corner Stone
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
“knew better” is doing a fuckton of work there.
Miss Bianca
@JordanRules: “uh…sorry”.
trollhattan
@JordanRules:
“Madam Chancellor….yes of course Angela….what’s that? Yes I’ll miss you too, in fact I’ll miss you a great deal and want to wish you well in the forthcoming elections. What’s that?…yes, I’m sure it will all work out and he’ll be fine. He supports Europe and especially Germany, given his father and all. And…oh yes, he’ll certainly behave but I just hope you’re ready for more neck rubs.”
With apologies to Bob Newhart
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
Vowel abuse!
Corner Stone
There’s nothing quite like a large phallic symbol dominating the background against a reflective and still receiving body of water in the foreground to make me fucking puke about our nation’s damaging patriarchic heritage.
Shell
Amazing isn t it? They won the electoral vote, are lying to themselves that they won the popular vote. Its now the eve of Trumps big triumph and they still have to whine, bitch and paint themselves as victims.
Im watching highlights from Obamas first inauguration concert. Springsteen, Pete Seeger, U2, Stevie Wonder and al… I just want to weep.
Corner Stone
GAH! The fucking asshole can’t even get his tie tied correctly for this one fucking thing! FUCK YOU!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Corner Stone:
I’m just wondering about the sets and actors on the inevitable highbrow pr0n production of “From Assprentice to First Lady”. Will there be an Ivanka and Tiffany scene?
Asking for a friend.
raven
This motherfucker is playing the Stones “Time is on my Side” at his fucking concert intro.
Miss Bianca
@HeleninEire: yeah, I was going to say, that the luck of the Irish hasn’t really been great since about, oh, say, 300-400 AD…
dr. bloor
@trollhattan: Being loathed by the coastal elites plays very well in the “Heartland,” dontcha know. The Twin Towers are OK when they’re on a t-shirt with an eagle and the American flag, but NYCers are otherwise viewed as aliens at best.
Corner Stone
@trollhattan: “I think I’ll miss you most of all, scarecrow!”
Quinerly
@raven:
At least 4 Stones songs.
gene108
@Elizabelle:
As much as we (liberals) tend to mock Trump and mocked Bush, Jr. for their inept ability to speak coherently, I really think their inability to talk coherently appeals to a lot of people.
Why? I don’t know. Maybe, big words, complete sentences scary. Small words, sentence fragments good.
But it does seem to attract people to them.
Roger Moore
@Corner Stone:
From watching Russian hookers pee on Barack Obama’s bed.
ThresherK
@Shell: Well, you won’t be missing The B Street Band, a well-regarded Springsteen cover act. They have pulled out of the Inauguration festivities at Bruce’s request.
I hear Trump is pursuing “The B Street Band-omania! Not the B Street Band, but an incredible simulation!”
(I can’t tell when I’m kidding any longer.)
danielx
Molar extractions suck.
That is all.
Anne Laurie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
“Well, at least he has a penis.”
“And he hates all the same people we hate, too!”
Roger Moore
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
By putting an (R) after his name. Once he had the nomination sewn up- against the better judgment of most of the remotely serious people in the party- they felt as if they had to stay in line or risk having the party self-destruct. I don’t think it ever occurred to them that a self-destructing party might be preferable to a self-destructing country. Also, too, his buddy Vladimir Vladimirovich may very well have had compromising information on a lot of those people that kept them cowed.
trollhattan
@ThresherK: The Herb Girls, Spice Girls cover band. Gonna have to watch out for o’l gropy backstage.
Mike in NC
Wasn’t part of the Big Lie about Dubya’s reading habits the ridiculous bit about his reading some of the classics in the original Greek and Latin?
Anne Laurie
@Corner Stone:
No, I think Tiffany is realizing just why her mother was so eager to raise her on the opposite coast from Daddy Dearest, frankly.
Villago Delenda Est
This man is a hopeless classless philistine. And his constituency is hopeless classless philistines.
All utterly unworthy of a government bestowed on them by enlightened, learned men.
Franklin was right to be skeptical of whether or not we could keep it. This is worse, far worse, than the crisis of the mid 19th Century. That was mostly sectional in scope.
And these philistines are in the process of destroying that government, validating Franklin.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: Every last one of them is an enemy of the Constitution of the United States of America.
Show them no quarter.
Roger Moore
@Corner Stone:
My impression is that Tiffany is trying- fairly successfully- to stay away from daddy. If she had some 210Po to use on a family member, he would be the more likely target.
dr. bloor
@zhena gogolia: Already noted for his liberal use of the foot wedge.
catclub
@gene108:
Also much less specific. Even better than dog whistles – since different listeners fill in the illogic differently.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Corner Stone:
I think you did mention watching porn as one of your pastimes.
Gelfling 545
@dedc79: Possibly the nicest thing anybody’s said to him in some time?
trollhattan
I smell a pardon as soon as next week, but in the meantime, good!
piratedan
@Mike in NC: I’m sure he read it out loud… understanding.. well, that’s something else entirely
BillinGlendaleCA
@Anne Laurie:
With those tiny hands, how would we know for sure?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Anne Laurie: I quoted part of your comment and am now in moderation hell, free my comment.
Chip Daniels
In Edmund Morris’ biography of Teddy Roosevelt, TR was asked once to list his favorite books.
His list was 800 titles long and in the Morris telling, he had actually read them.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Roger Moore:
If true (I’d rate it 80% likely), his passion for vengeance both public and private is a pathology unto itself.
Mai.naem.mobile
This is a really depressing thread. Or I’m in a funk and pretty much nothing seems to getting me out of it.
Bobby D
@Roger Moore: If I were her, I’d take out those two brothers first, American Pyscho and the Child of the Corn. I can’t keep em straight, one looks like Donnie’s Wife-2 was banging the gardener (that boy is way too olive/darkhair to come from Drumfp and Ivana’s loins), the other looks like a gas huffing version of Donnie, complete with the butthole mouth.
rikyrah
Team Trump touts the ‘diversity’ of his mostly white, male cabinet
01/19/17 12:58 PM
By Steve Benen
In 1992, then-Gov. Bill Clinton came up with a memorable phrase: the Democrat promised voters he’d create a cabinet that “looked like America.” The point, of course, was to assure the public that when it came to policymaking, the Clinton administration would place a high priority on diversity.
It’s a goal Donald Trump doesn’t appear to share.
The Republican president-elect finally wrapped up his cabinet selections yesterday, tapping former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) to lead the Department of Agriculture – and like most other members of the Trump cabinet, Perdue is a wealthy, older, white man. This post was Trump’s last choice to pick a Hispanic American for his team, which means the new presidential cabinet will be the first without a Hispanic member in three decades.
During the campaign, Trump was asked if his cabinet will include women, blacks, and Hispanics. “Oh absolutely,” he replied. “It’s so important.”
Evidently, however, Trump doesn’t believe it’s that important. His cabinet will have zero Hispanics, one African-American man, one white woman, and one Asian-American woman. (The number of women grows from two to four if you include Nikki Haley and Linda McMahon, who were chosen for positions that may be considered cabinet-level.)
The funny part, however, was listening to Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, defend the diversity of Trump’s team. Yahoo News reported this morning:
First, no, we’ve had a chance to look at the folks Trump has chosen, and they’re not actually the best and the brightest. Second, “the best and the brightest” is a phrase that was intended to be an ironic reference to those responsible for the war in Vietnam.
Timurid
The Trump Administration, a 10-minute summary.
Sab
My cat is still alive and sitting happily in his box in the living room. What is wrong with modern phone chargers that you can bite through one while it is plugged in and not get electrocuted? I was coining to toss him outside (in Ohio in January) but my stepson says said cat has a lawyer so probably not a good idea. How does he pay for lawyer?
zhena gogolia
@dr. bloor:
How did I ever guess.
zhena gogolia
@Bobby D:
Don Jr. is the dark one.
Corner Stone
@BillinGlendaleCA: …are…are there…any others?
SenyorDave
Rick Perry once got a D in a college course called “Meats”. The best and the brightest.
catclub
Found this at Kevin drum’s place. My bet is that Dodd-Frank gets repealed while we are waiting to see what happens with ‘repeal and replace’
on Obamacare.
ruemara
@Ian G.: Queens, represent! And Trump has always been the trashiest version of money possible. He put the bling in boor.
eclare
@SenyorDave: And he’s the one I’m probably least concerned about! Price scares me to death, which is probably an ideal end-result for him.
HeleninEire
@Major Major Major Major: LOL I used to think about you “oh my he is a bit too direct” But now after that comment I may be a little bit in love with you. Not because of the content but because of how you worded it. Beautiful.
SenyorDave
@Iowa Old Lady: My idea of hell is being stuck in a waiting room without a book. I can’t imagine how boring life is if you don’t read.
Ditto for me. I always think of the old episode of the Odd Couple where they go to a Monastery to de-stress and there is absolutely no outside reading material allowed. They are having a meal and Felix is reading the ingredients on the ketchup bottle, and Oscar tells him to hurry because he wants to read it next.
XTPD
@ruemara: Queens For Life!
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@BGinCHI: Are they the same as the old firm Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, or is that just a coincidence?
Gelfling 545
@BGinCHI: Oh, Mr Howe changed firms? I heard he was at Dewey, Fleesum and Howe. That was a long time ago.
Anne Laurie
@SenyorDave:
Meat Science. Don’t go hating on the agriculture courses, somebody has to breed, feed & butcher the steer for your burgers!
Paul in KY
@dedc79: Understand. Wish I’d been there. I Wouldn’t have punched him either (he’s not worth going to local jail for), but I’d have let him have it.
Paul in KY
@HeleninEire: Best wishes!
Paul in KY
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I loved the Classics Illustrated comics. Still have 2 or 3 locked away in my safe.
Captain C
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Or anything other than his own visage, putting down others, and maybe Lucrezia.
Paul in KY
@Chip Daniels: I do this too much, I guess, but to compare Teddy Roosevelt to the Cheeto Benito would be like comparing The Buddha to Alvin Karpis.
ruemara
@XTPD: lol. So far away, but it looks like everywhere else.
Seth Owen
@Chip Daniels: like Obama, TR had written a few, himself.
XTPD
@ruemara: FL resident, Queens-born.
Larkspur
@Mai.naem.mobile: Yeah, I’m there too. A little while ago I finally got around to reading last Sunday’s NY Times, and there was an article about how Supergirl, in its second season, is the most progressive show on television. Who knew. Maybe we should binge watch it.
Shana
I generally don’t like her writing but did once read a Joan Didion book where she had a piece about Reagan when he was governor of California and she went on at some length about how there were no books to be seen anywhere.
SiubhanDuinne
@XTPD:
I think you’re confusing the two Bushes. The article you cited talks about George W. Bush, not GHWB.
Steeplejack
@Larkspur:
Here’s something that will lighten the mood: all eight episodes of Posh Nosh (2003). Short episodes—eight or nine minutes each—that make fun of foodie shows and have a hilarious subtext on the main characters’ relationship. Richard E. Grant and Arabella Weir.
XTPD
@SiubhanDuinne: Nope, it’s right; while Scott’s fisking of the Rensin piece has w. as a point of focus, the part of the thread I linked to discusses HW’s intellectual shortcomings (check the Halberstam and SNL references).
SiubhanDuinne
@Joyce H:
Interesting observation, and one which never occurred to me. I guess I can’t fathom how an American more-or-less my age could possibly not know who John Lewis is. But even being as generous as possible (maybe he was too busy making deals, or running Trump University, or signing tax returns, oh wait…) — at the very least, when Lewis first said he wouldn’t be attending the inauguration, T could have taken 15 seconds to Google “John Lewis” and learn a little bit about the man and Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District, before starting a Twitter rant.
He could have, but of course he never would. WASF.
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
Yes. A much more accurate word. One of my brothers is like that. The big difference is, he’s sufficiently self-aware not to run for president (or, indeed, any other office).
dm
@Villago Delenda Est: I’ve been thinking it’s time to reread The Federalist Papers. Especially the parts on the evils of faction.
Hurling Dervish
@Ronnie Pudding: @Ronnie Pudding: yes, he read Camoo and three Shakespeares!
Mnemosyne
@Quinerly:
That may not be a great idea. Jagger is quite litigious. But he may be a RWNJ for all we know and have given his permission.
SiubhanDuinne
@XTPD:
Okay. I’m not finding it but I leapt to a conclusion with I sufficient data, and I apologise. Will dig more carefully through the links a bit later.
SiubhanDuinne
@Shana:
I will admit, when I visit people I judge them right off the bat on their books. Not even so much what the books are, or by whom, but just whether books are visible. Do they look like books that are read and loved and used, or are they strictly for display like so many accessories? Do they align with the person’s expressed interests? They don’t need to have wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves (although that would always be my preference), but if there are no books at all I start feeling itchy and weird. I expect that’s how Didion felt.
Aleta
A TV interview in the Tower living room showed a big beautiful leather-bound book (obviously one of the best) placed on a table close to his chair. On top of the book was a vase of flowers. All I could hear, instead of the interview, was the voice of my departed Mom saying get that vase off that book right now because water will ruin it. If I needed a clue as to how books are regarded…but somehow I already suspected.
Citizen Alan
@Corner Stone:
I’ve always suspected that W nanechecked Albert Camus because that was what Sacha Baron Cohen’s snooty race car driver read in Talladega Nights (the Will Farre9 comedy) and so it was the only “start person author” he’d heard of.
Lurking Canadian
@JordanRules: To you, from fading hands, we pass the torch…
leeleeFl
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: I actually heard 4 intelligent ppl speaking about Trump tonight and saying “at least he tells the truth about what’s wrong” I about bit my tongue in half to not jeopardise my job! WASF