Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

After roe, women are no longer free.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The new temporary speaker of the house is a spiteful little shit.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

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

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

A consequence of cucumbers

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Early Morning Open Thread: Well Somebody Has A Size Complex…

Early Morning Open Thread: Well Somebody Has A Size Complex…

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It was a really, very very small, inadequate, totally SAD! crowd…

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93Comments

  3. 3.

    Waldo

    Not a surprise attendance was so abysmal; a disproportionate share of his vote never travels anywhere bc they’re afraid of the world

    He is not normal. His supporters aren’t normal. That’s the new normal. Sad.

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    please FrontPage the chicanery going on with POTUS, FLOTUS and VICE of Twitter accounts:
    How those who unsubscribed seem to have found themselves signed back up to them.
    and. that you have to block them for it to be right

  5. 5.

    sigaba

    That last picture of the two of them sulking reminds me of a column Garrison Keillor wrote over the summer about Trump. The last line goes something like: “No matter what happens, Donald, you will not have what you want.”

  7. 7.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    Not a surprise attendance was so abysmal; a disproportionate share of his vote never travels anywhere bc they’re afraid of the world

    This is so true. A Republican friend is afraid to venture out of his comfort zone; I was talking about taking some pics north of Chinatown here in LA, and he said I shouldn’t go there. It’s weird.

  8. 8.

    amk

    it ain’t reality teevee any more is it, punk?

    welcome to the real reality, donnie dick.

    the morosest pair ever.

  10. 10.

    NickM

    It was a pathetic crowd. The fascists are so afraid of DC they won’t show up on a peaceful day when they’re clearly the (temporary, contingent) victors. Remember that when they say how tough they are and that they’ve got us surrounded. They’re scared – and more than that it defines them.

  12. 12.

    avid ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Hearing reports Trump’s camp is blaming the weather. Friendly reminder, in 2009 the temp was 28 degrees

    I actually attended the 2009 inauguration. It was 14 degrees.

  13. 13.

    NickM

    I saw about 30 of them riding on 66 about 10 miles out from DC a couple hours before the Inauguration. They must have wound up at a leather bar I guess.

  14. 14.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Hearing reports Trump’s camp is blaming the weather. Friendly reminder, in 2009 the temp was 28 degrees

    I actually attended the 2009 inauguration. It was 14 degrees.

  15. 15.

    opiejeanne

    @NickM: The initial estimate I heard about a week ago was 350k attending today’s inauguration; by Wednesday the prediction was 950k. I kept saying to mr opiejeanne that that number was too high, that the numbers wouldn’t grow like that, not to mention the low number of bus permits.

    I wonder what percentage of attendees today was made up of protesters.

  16. 16.

    TriassicSands

    Trump lost the election.

    Trump lost the inauguration.

    Now, Trump will lose the presidency.

    The Grand Trumpian Trifecta.

  17. 17.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    To be fair, the crowd wasn’t that big because Putin skimped on the potemkin budget.

  19. 19.

    TriassicSands

    My fellow citizens, I stand here today humbled…

    The eighth word in Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural speech was
    “humbled.” I wonder what number it was in Planet Lord Trump’s speech?

  22. 22.

    Major Major Major Major

    @rikyrah: one of the saddest things is how they don’t even have the common courtesy to keep the graft and grift to the usual behind-the-curtain stuff like Rove et al. did. Even though that’s where 97% of what they steal comes from they just can’t help themselves skimming from EVERYTHING. Fucking email sign-up form before you get to whitehouse.gov. Yes I know it’s skippable but you know that it wouldn’t be if they thought they could get away with it.

    @TriassicSands: But the 4th word was i and that’s what really matters. Why are they so obsessed with counting the number of times obama says I?

  25. 25.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Drumpf is going to hate this job.

    The oval office doesn’t have a view of Central Park or any skyline. He hates reading, so he won’t. As much as would like, he can’t hold rallies every day. His philandering and scatophilia, while not eliminated, will significantly cut down (there’s only so many Russian hooker you can sneak in).

    He’ll basically sit in the office all day watching cable news and tweeting.

    The boredom will far outweigh the trappings of the job.

  27. 27.

    TriassicSands

    Trump may say “we” a lot, but, rest assured, it’s the royal we.

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Why are they so obsessed with counting the number of times obama says I?

    It was just one more thing to obsess about and one more reason to hate Obama. Fortunately, it had nothing to do with the color of his skin. That would be racist.

  28. 28.

    dogwood

    There’s this new myth that has morphed into conventional wisdom among the media that these people who went ugly nuts at those Trump campaign rallies were the reason he got elected. He got elected because the overwhelming majority of republicans who wouldn’t be caught dead at a Trump event voted for him anyway. After November I lost some confidence in my ability to predict anything political, but I felt pretty sure that the turn out today would be low. Outside of hyper-partisans who hate, hate, hate every POTUS of the opposing party, the vast majority of Americans want to at least like the president, and start out giving the president-elect good approval ratings. There’s a reservoir of good will that every president takes to the Oval on the first day. Until now, that is. Pre-inaugural approval ratiings are based on qualities of character; they aren’t “job-approval” numbers. Nonetheless it’s those character numbers that keep presidents afloat when the job approval numbers go down as they always do. This is unchartered territory for me. I cast my first vote for George McGovern and until today I could come up with something positive to say about every president of my lifetime which includes some real stinkers. But Trump? He is completely loathsome. As a president, as a leader, as a businessman, as a husband, as a father, at every level he is disgusting.

  31. 31.

    opiejeanne

    @TriassicSands: That and he read My Pet Goat to small children.
    I am stunned but I actually felt a little nostalgia for W today, especially when I saw the photos of him wrestling with the raincoat or whatever that was. His embarrassed grin at the end of fighting with it was amusing.

  33. 33.

    opiejeanne

    @Major Major Major Major: I used to design costumes for dance studios and exotic dancers for night clubs; loud, gaudy, flashy clothing, and that red, white, and blue thing Conway was wearing was more tasteless than anything I ever designed

  35. 35.

    joel hanes

    What, pray tell, could you say about W that was positive?

    Established a huge marine refuge in the Pacific.
    Kept himself very fit.
    Left office quietly at the end.

    Other than that I got nuthin’

  37. 37.

    Joyce H

    @joel hanes:

    What, pray tell, could you say about W that was positive?

    Established a huge marine refuge in the Pacific.
    Kept himself very fit.
    Left office quietly at the end.

    Other than that I got nuthin’

    He visited a mosque six days after 9/11 to speak out against harassment of Muslims and Arabs and called Islam a ‘religion of peace’.

    He was also fond of his grumpy little dog.

    He only married one woman and she wasn’t a pricey tart.

    And he didn’t slather gold and mirrors all over every interior either.

    Don’t get me wrong – I was a Bush basher from the start and considered him (up to today) our worst president ever, but Trump makes me almost nostalgic for the little bum.

  38. 38.

    satby

    @opiejeanne:

    His embarrassed grin at the end of fighting with it was amusing.

    I saw that last picture and thought he was channeling William H Macy playing Frank Gallagher.

  40. 40.

    dogwood

    @TriassicSands:
    I think W is a good father: he and Laura raised good kids. The fact that one of his daughters is involved in the non-profit health care sector and is a supporter of Obamacare tells me that his family life and the raising of children wasn’t part of his political life. That’s a good thing. Liking and appreciating Michelle Obama is a good thing. Not turning your daughter’s wedding into political theater is a good thing. Cuz the only thing that would get Tiffinay Trump a temporary place in the Trump fold would be an engagement and wedding sometime in the next four years. Hell, he might force her into some arranged marriage so he can put on some tacky White House wedding.

  41. 41.

    Gvg

    W funded AIDS medicine to Africa which I don’t think got him any political benefit here and I have read was much appreciated there. He did it apparently just because it was a good thing to do in spite of his party’s base disliking of it. I have barely heard of it, I think I read about it here in a similar thread where W’s good qualities were brought up. I think his daughters were involved in it too.

  42. 42.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @joel hanes:

    He wasn’t a personally abrasive asshole. He was a shit president, but I always got the impression that as an individual to those around him, he is a genuinely nice guy.

    Did Trump ever have a dog? Does he have actual friends from childhood that say “God, I love that guy”?

    I get the impression he keeps acquaintances around so he can tell them how great he is. He has no warmth in his body language around most of his family. He doesn’t seem to have pets. He golfs for the status of golf. He has no designer taste, and doesn’t seem to have any sort of discerning palate.

  44. 44.

    dogwood

    @Gvg:
    PEPFAR is a great program. It was made even better by the Obama Administration because they were able to lift restrictions on condom promotion. The purpose of the program was saving lives, and coupled with the work of the Clinton Foundation and other non-profits working often in conjunction with PEPFAR inplimentors, a lot of lives have been saved.

  45. 45.

    Jeffro

    @dogwood:

    until today I could come up with something positive to say about every president of my lifetime which includes some real stinkers. But Trump? He is completely loathsome. As a president, as a leader, as a businessman, as a husband, as a father, at every level he is disgusting.

    Well said.

    First hour in office:
    – horrendous ‘American carnage’ speech
    – increase mortgage rates on the middle class
    – ‘disappear’ WH info on climate change and LGBT issues
    – eliminate ACA mandate

    Hey Paul and Mitch, you’re sure you want to ride this horse into 2018? Oooookay…

  46. 46.

    Jeffro

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I get the impression he keeps acquaintances around so he can tell them how great he is. He has no warmth in his body language around most of his family. He doesn’t seem to have pets. He golfs for the status of golf. He has no designer taste, and doesn’t seem to have any sort of discerning palate.

    I think there was a quote yesterday or the day before, about the only things Trump cares about are (in order): money, sex, food, and revenge. He’s a complete asshole and it shows in every way – the lack of crowds, the lack of friends, the strain even within the family. No wonder he was such a perfect Cleek’s Law candidate: existing only to be an asshole and oppose good things comes naturally to him.

  47. 47.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Firstly,I’ve known a few gold digger women. From what I’ve seen you have to have a certain personality so,no, I have no sympathy for Melanoma. My guess is that like the rest of Lumpy’s family she’ll figure a way to grift for her sole benefit .BTW, Raw Story says the WH website is hawking Melanomas QVC jewelry. Tell me that isn’t true because,Jeezus,because I am at a loss for words.i refuse to go to the WH website because they said the privacy stuff has been taken off and I am not getting a cookie or virus on my phone from there.
    Also,i know I am not supposed to go there but I am. I didn’t watch the ceremony – just seen a few bits and pieces on Twitter and local news but Barron never shows any just regular kid expression joy. Maybe I’m used to seeing the recent nostalgia pics of Sasha and Malia but even the Bush girls and Chelsea have old pictures of them being on stage during happy occasions with big smiles. Maybe he’s painfully shy or whatever. I’m just surprised.

  50. 50.

    Kay Eye

    @Gvg: at his first inauguration, when he shook Jimmy Carter’s hand he said to Carter something like “If there is anything I can do for you just ask. ” Carter asked for AIDS money for Africa. Bush was true to his word and did so. Carter told this story at the opening of the Bush II library in Dallas.

  52. 52.

    ThresherK

    @Manyakitty: That is true; it’s the one unalloyed actually-use-govt-to-better-lives thing GWB has on his record.

    But he’s pretty much a one-hit wonder on that chart.

    ETA:
    @Kay Eye: Okay, so he had a second charting single. I did not know of that bit.

    —

    I’m just fascinated by the idea of how good (or at least benign) Trump may make GWB look.

  53. 53.

    debbie

    I’m sorry they changed the photo on his Twitter page. The one I saw was of him looking out a window in the Oval Office. The room seemed dark and gloomy, and while he might have thought he appeared thoughtful, he really looked lost and alone.

  54. 54.

    Shalimar

    @TriassicSands: George W. Bush is a generally positive, happy person. This is where the “have a beer with him” thing comes from. He’s horrible, cringe-inducing, and has no idea what he has said wrong most of the time, but he is far from the worst person in the world as long as you don’t give him power. Trump may be the worst person in the world.

  55. 55.

    kd bart

    Bush actually had friends. People who genuinely liked him as a person. Trump only has lackeys & sycophants. People who are dependent on him for their livelihood.

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    @BillinGlendaleCA: There are people we know who seem non-insane who live in NoVA who are convinced they’re taking their lives in their hands if they go into DC to the 930 Club or the Black Cat. You can be sure that the fraidy cats who live in red counties and who only listen to Rush and Hannity would be too afraid to go to DC even if Donnie were passing out gold-plated nude Melania figurines and $100 bills. It’s just like Mogadishu, you know.

    :-/

    But that’s just an excuse. Donnie had a tiny crowd because too many people hate him. Already. Leaving not enough who were willing to bother.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  57. 57.

    ET

    It is being reported that only 447 buses got permits to park at RFK for the inauguration meanwhile those nasty women got 2,066 for the women”s march.

  58. 58.

    Tokyokie

    @amk: Actually, he’s even worse than that. David Frum’s quotation about Trump being the worst person ever elected president, including the slaveholders, was the subject of discussion in a private chat room in which I participate, and some of the more historically inclined members were having a difficult time finding Trump worse than, say, Andrew Jackson or Richard Nixon. But it’s not merely that Trump doesn’t embody a single, positive character trait, it’s that he is the opposite of all of those. Consider the list in the Boy Scout Law: Trustworthy? He’s a lifelong grifter. Loyal? He’d sell out anybody, including his family members, if the price was right, and I’m guessing that price is shockingly low. (Remember, this is somebody who, as executor of his father’s estate, cut off the health insurance for his ailing nephew.) Helpful? That would imply consideration for others, and he has none. Friendly? He’s a mean bastard and thinks that makes him a tough guy. Kind? That’s for losers. Obedient? Laws and norms are for the little people to follow, not him. Cheerful? He’s only happy when others are adulating him, usually in response to his bullying the politically impotent. Thrifty? He poops in a gold-plated crapper. Brave? A more cowardly man is hardly imaginable, but then, all bullies are cowards. Clean? OK, maybe his personal grooming habits are acceptable. But he still dresses poorly, predictably, and has that awful combover. Reverent? Least religious president I can recall. And that doesn’t include that he’s a racist, anti-intellectual, serial adulterer and sexual abuser.

    Thanks, mainstream media. You have mainstreamed the sick and profane.

  59. 59.

    OGLiberal

    @Tokyokie: “Thanks, mainstream media. You have mainstreamed the sick and profane.”

    Like the access whores they are. Mainstream journalism is dead and ain’t coming back. You’ll suffocate holding your breath waiting for Mark Halperin or Chuck Todd to do real work. You’ll only get real news from folks who get paid shit.

  60. 60.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I don’t know how many of you get the Pantsuit Nation fb feed, but it’s been wonderfully uplifting seeing photos of marches in Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Capetown, Lilongwe, Nairobi, Rome, Milan, Berlin, Munich, London, Edinburgh, etc. etc. Thousands of people turned out in some of these cities.

    One of my favorite signs (from Berlin, obvs): “Trump ist nicht ein Berliner.“

  61. 61.

    Olivia

    It seemed like every other week during Ws administration,various news outlets would have a little survey about who was happier in general, Democrats or Republicans. When they published the results, Republicans were always much happier.
    I don’t recall seeing even one such survey in the last 8 years. Pretty sure I know what the results would have been. I wonder if they will resume the happiness surveys.

  62. 62.

    Ian G.

    Since this is the (good Christ!) George W. Bush nostalgia thread, I’m thinking of the time at the very end of his presidency when he appeared in the booth of a baseball game (might have been the 2008 World Series) and proceeded to talk intelligently and confidently about the game. I thought to myself, “who the hell is this guy and what did he do with the bumbling fool in the White House?”

    I then realized that in an alternate universe where W. doesn’t go into politics to “prove” something to his parents and instead becomes the commissioner of baseball, we avert both the 1994 baseball strike AND the Iraq War. Sigh…..

    So that’s my “say something nice about W.” contribution. He really wasn’t as dumb as he seemed, he was just flailing around in a job he didn’t want and wasn’t qualified for.

  63. 63.

    jake the antisoshul soshulist

    Actually, I have some sympathy for Melania.
    She knew what she was getting into, though may not have realized how much of a petty bully that the Donald is. But I suspect she is nearing her trade-up date and knows it.

  65. 65.

    Bostonian

    That face. It doesn’t say “happy to be with my family.” More like “I just found out that Russian prostitute had syphilis.”

  67. 67.

    Ian G.

    @jake the antisoshul soshulist:

    SOME sympathy, but not much. She could have married a normal human being like 99% of women out there, but wanted the fuckin’ gold toilets, despite the fact that it would require being intimate with a mentally disturbed 5-year-old. She gets what she deserves.

    That being said, if Cheeto Benito ever has to be (god forbid) dealt with the way the original Mussolini was, I’d prefer Ivanka get the Clara Petacci treatment, rather than Melania.

  68. 68.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
    I was at the 2009 inauguration too. Wasn’t that bad for this actual Canuck…but when the wind started blowing it was nice to get inside. I remember the number of tired kids sleeping on the floor of the Natural History Smithsonian (the one with the whale hanging from the ceiling).

  69. 69.

    Это курам на смех

    I wish you people would leave Melania out of this. Plenty of people marry the wrong person for the wrong reasons, and trophy wives aren’t the only people who do. There is more than a little misogyny in how some of you pick on this woman. Her body language shows that she doesn’t want this role and is unhappy with having been forced to play it. If not for appearances that must be kept now, this loveless marriage would be ending about now (as her trade-in date has been reached), so she must maintain the facade.

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I think Melania signed up for the gilt-edged Manhattan “ladies who lunch” lifestyle, and she hasn’t looked happy with the campaign or the First Lady gig.

  72. 72.

    zhena gogolia

    @Joyce H:

    My husband says that GWB said something nice about immigrants in his inauguration speech. He wasn’t a bigot.

    And yet he caused untold disaster to our country.

  73. 73.

    zhena gogolia

    I keep thinking of a line from a David Frum tweet, something like, “So big surprise, he’s going to govern like the prick he ran as.”

  75. 75.

    brendancalling

    Honestly, I feel sorry for Melania (a little). That expression on her face says a lot, and at the risk of doing a Bill Frist “diagnosis via Internet” I would not be at all surprised if she’s a victim of domestic violence.

  77. 77.

    Tripod

    The deplorables didn’t show up, but neither did the GOPs middle class. Local electeds, activists, etc.

    This administration is getting ghosted.

  80. 80.

    sloan

    @Major Major Major Major: Oh no! I hope you didn’t have tickets, too.

    We were having such a hard time getting on the mall that day, finding an entrance. We walked in a giant circle, through the tunnel and heard from people an hour or so later that they were stuck in it.

    It was the same deal when we were leaving. We couldn’t get to an exit so we just hopped a fence.

  81. 81.

    stinger

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    He wasn’t a personally abrasive asshole. He was a shit president, but I always got the impression that as an individual to those around him, he is a genuinely nice guy.

    He made up derogatory nicknames for people and used those nicknames publicly; he wiped his hands on someone else’s clothing while they were wearing it and literally behind their back; he gave a surprise and clearly unwanted neck rub to the Chancellor of Germany, which was okay because she’s a woman.

    He’s still a nicer person than Trump.

  82. 82.

    weaselone

    As others have noted, Bush actually did some good things. PEPFAR and his support of Muslims after the WTC attacks are a couple of examples. His lack of curiosity and his crappy advisors made him a bad president, despite the fact that I believe he honestly wanted what was best for the country.

    He wasn’t the worst President. That dishonor belongs to James Buchanan and even Trump is going to have a hard time slithering under that bar.

  83. 83.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    @Tokyokie: At least Richard Nixon was intelligent. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump was functionally illiterate.

    I will continuously side eye Melania, since it is very likely she worked illegally in the US, then has the cajones to lecture other immigrants about coming to the country legally. She also has made online bullying her platform- she should start with her fucking husband.

    And finally, (sigh) as someone who wound up in Iraq twice due to Dubya’s fuckery, and have quite a few friends with PTSD due to same, Dubya at least doesn’t come off as a complete and total asshole as a person. He seems to love his family, and even loved that cranky bastard Barney.

    Trump loves no one but himself, and of that I’m not even sure. They better have him cremated when he dies because there will be a long line to shit on his grave.

  84. 84.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    @Ian G.: I LOATHE Ivanka. She’ll crash and burn with her father, just like Uday and Qusay.

  85. 85.

    SgrAstar

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Me too! It was bitterly cold…but so much fun. I had my 10 year old nephew with me- perfect strangers took turns hoisting him up so he could see the President. The atmosphere was so friendly, so warm, so unlike yesterday. Power to the people….really.

  87. 87.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: Not long ago I had jury duty in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Talking about it with people the next day you’d think I’d been drafted to go to a war zone. They were terrified to be anywhere near that town (which is full of low-income Hispanic people).

  88. 88.

    sneezy

    @TriassicSands:

    What, pray tell, could you say about W that was positive?

    He could very easily have lit a fire under John Walker Lindh. Many Americans would have cheered seeing him burned at the stake. GWB very pointedly didn’t do that, which I admired. I think he was a terrible president but I don’t doubt his basic decency.

  91. 91.

    steverinoCT

    @sneezy:

    He could very easily have lit a fire under John Walker Lindh… I think he was a terrible president but I don’t doubt his basic decency.

    Ahem:

    “He (Larry King) asked her real difficult questions, like, `What would you say to Governor Bush?'”
    “What was her answer?” I (Tucker Carlson) wonder.
    “`Please,’ Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, `don’t kill me.'”

  92. 92.

    steverinoCT

    During a protracted hospital stay during the GWB administration, I plowed through a thick book on Kennedy and Khrushchev. I was struck by how much Khrushchev cared about the Soviet Union and doing what was best for it, contrasting that favorably with GWB’s actions.

  93. 93.

    steverinoCT

    @steverinoCT:

    contrasting that favorably with GWB’s actions.

    That said, I never had the impression with Bush as I do with Trump that he could be driving a bus, punch Cruise Control, get up and stroll back to use the john. At least he knew how to govern.

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