Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Republicans don’t trust women.

“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

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

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Second rate reporter says what?

We’re not going back!

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

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

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Open Thread: For Black History Month, Trump Gropes At Frederick Douglass

Open Thread: For Black History Month, Trump Gropes At Frederick Douglass

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Shut the f*ck up, Donnie, you’re out of your element!
.

These are the people claiming that Hillary Clinton’s “head trauma” made her unfit to be president. If this was your grandpa, you’d be figuring out how to hide his car keys and checkbook before something terrible happened.

Look for a spate of pieces explaining that THIS IS FINE because, meh, it’s not like Trump’s “base” knows who Frederick Douglass was, or cares whether their Dear Leader should’ve at least read the bullet points before going on camera…

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    He’s out of his element at Dover too:

    Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump made an unannounced visit Wednesday to Dover Air Force Base for the return of the remains of the US service member killed in the raid in Yemen.

    Trump went to Dover AFB on Marine One, along with his daughter, Ivanka, and Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware.
    Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, a Navy SEAL, died of wounds suffered during a raid Sunday in Yemen against al Qaeda, according to US Central Command.
    Sources in Yemen told CNN that three senior al Qaeda leaders were among those killed. That was later confirmed by a US official.
    Trump, in an unannounced visit, marked the somber occasion by partaking in the dignified transfer ceremony to honor Owens.
    Trump later described the ceremony as “very sad, very beautiful,” in remarks at a White House swearing-in of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    It’s the name Fred.

    Nothing more, nothing less.

    Today obviously the very first time he’s heard the name Douglass.

  6. 6.

    Mike J

    At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced…Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

    Freddy D.

  11. 11.

    Gin & Tonic

    I must have been living under a rock, because I just learned that Richard Spencer, the Nazi, is married to Nina Kouprianova, a Russian propagandist who has worked for Alexandr Dugin, certifiable nutcase. How did I not know this?

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    J.A. Azande ‏@ jadande 8h8 hours ago
    Total words used to praise MLK, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman & Rosa Parks: 53. Number of words used to praise Omarosa: 51.

  14. 14.

    sloan

    Amelia Earhart is doing great things. Really great, and people are starting to give her the recognition she deserves.

  15. 15.

    scottinnj

    Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas and Rosa Parks mentioned in a speech on African American History and yet he spent more time talking about Omarosa.

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NotMax: It’s the name Fred.

    Nothing more, nothing less.

    The Name of the Father… knocked him off balance and maybe made him pee a little

  19. 19.

    sloan

    Alexander Hamilton is doing some fabulous work at Treasury. Big league. Everyone in New York is talking about this guy.

  20. 20.

    Mike J

    @FlipYrWhig: Yup.

    In happier news, Dave Brat, VA-7, who complained that women were “in [his] grill” about healthcare, has decided he’s too much of a precious snowflake to handle a run for the senate.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    Repeating from early morn.

    How long before Bannon convinces Dolt 45 to fly a Confederate flag atop the White House this month “because the South’s military had blacks, too.”

  22. 22.

    chris

    @Gin & Tonic: There was an article back around election time but it was a minor detail, a molecule in the shitstorm.

    Speaking of Spencer, Reddit has banned the alt-right subreddit for violating policy. Don’t know what they did but it’s pretty hard to get banned from Reddit.

  23. 23.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @NotMax: Occasionally, I think I’ve learned not to be shocked and then Trump’s ignorance shocks me again. This is a person who had every advantage in terms of education of exposure to the world, and he doesn’t know anything.

  27. 27.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: Just about to link to that, along with
    @Mike J: the Dave Brat comments, and Murkowski and Collins coming out against DeVos…
    The protests are working. The phone calls are working. We haven’t won. We may not even be at the end of the beginning yet. But we’ve got to keep going.

  28. 28.

    SWMBO

    @Iowa Old Lady: And he doesn’t want to. Ever. He’s even more willfully pig ignorant than Dubya. What is it about rich white men that they can reach the highest office in the country and not know as much as the average high schoolers debate team? And the most talented and educated woman is beaten in favor of this? Economic anxiety my ass.

  37. 37.

    Hellbastard

    Perhaps he’s confusing him with Fred Dougla$$, the up-and-coming hip-hop producer and media mogul.

  38. 38.

    Renie

    what until he hears this: from CNN aka Fake News

    The first prime time address of Trump’s presidency did not measure up to President Obama’s first prime time event, however. Almost 50 million viewers — 49.4 million to be exact — tuned in when Obama held a press conference the night of February 4, 2009. Trump only got 33 million last night.

  40. 40.

    Mike in NC

    @SWMBO: Neither Trump, his staff, nor cabinet members could pass a junior high school civics exam. But being rich and white will go a long way in this country.

  43. 43.

    sloan

    I didn’t see the whole thing, but anyone know if Twitler mentioned a certain black president in his Some Of My Best Friends Are Black History Month speech?

  45. 45.

    Smiling Mortician

    @Gin & Tonic: If it makes you feel any better, I had no idea who Richard Spencer was until I watched him get cold-cocked last week. Everything else you said was news to me.

  46. 46.

    NeenerNeener

    Who the hell is writing Twitler’s speeches, anyway? They’re embarrassingly juvenile, nothing future historians will ever study as great rhetoric. Future psychology students may study them as examples of NPD and incipient dementia, but that’s not the way presidents usually want to be remembered.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    Updating Churchill.

    We are assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we see the originality of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous manœuvre. I think that no idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered and viewed with a searching, but at the same time, I hope, with a steady eye.

    We shall fight on the phone lines, we shall fight on the e-mails, we shall fight in the tweets and in the streets, we shall fight in the voting booth; we shall never surrender.

  49. 49.

    Renie

    @sloan: lol have you noticed each republican prez makes the prior look better in retrospect? reagan made nixon look good, duyba made reagan look good, and this idiot makes dubya look good…..what type of jerk could possibly make trump look good

  50. 50.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    stacy-marie ishmaelVerified account
    ‏@ s_m_i
    My husband, a Trinidadian citizen and a US permanent resident, is currently detained at FLL. CBP says he has “no right to counsel”.

    Whatever could make CBP officers think a Trinidadian citizen is covered by not-Muslim not-Ban?

  52. 52.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    “Trump receiving intelligence briefing every day” that almost sounds like snark.

    And Trump and the Mouth of Saron. I mean, don’t they have speech writer for these things?

  53. 53.

    Jerzy Russian

    @NeenerNeener: This is what gets me the most. Even putting aside ideology and his disgusting behavior, he has to be the biggest doofus who has ever run for office anywhere. That alone should be disqualifying. Even if you agree with his “positions” wouldn’t you want someone competent to carry them out?

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    @Renie:

    what type of jerk could possibly make trump look good

    Don’t know, absolutely sure I don’t want to find out. Hard to imagine though that anyone who is that big of a jerk has the slightest possibility of living past about 25. Because someone in a bar somewhere will have beaten him to actual pulp, and all the witnesses will testify that someone was 2 states away at the time the beating happened.

  55. 55.

    Peale

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t want to come to the defense of CBP, but you do realize that even before the order, they actually stop people at the border quite frequently. And yeah, they are often pricks about things. The problem is for some reason, the right wing have it in their heads that CBP under Obama just waved everybody right through.

  57. 57.

    sloan

    @Renie: Yes! And it’s horrifying. Their standards are so low now they would nominate any random nutjob off Fox News at this point.

    …and as I was writing that I realized that’s exactly what they did this time. So how do they get worse next time? Alex Jones?

  58. 58.

    Anne Laurie

    @NeenerNeener:

    Who the hell is writing Twitler’s speeches, anyway?

    Best the Trumpinologists can tell, so far, white nationalist/nihilist Steve Bannon gets professional white nationalist Steven Miller to write up a draft, and then Trump adds his own unmistakable stamp to the bullet-point version — rather like my neurotic rescue dog leaving his ‘mark’ on every new surprising object in his little world.

    Big fancy werds is fer ee-leetists, Trumpdolytes don’t want nunna that round he-yar.

  59. 59.

    01jack

    Help me out here:

    Is it true that there have been anti-Trump demonstrations in American cities every day since the inauguration?

    Seems that way. If true, unprecedented I’d think.

  63. 63.

    hilts

    @raven:

    Trump is out of his element every time he opens his mouth.

    @Renie:

    Trump has a level of ignorance about American history, civics, domestic and foreign policy that dwarfs any past President and very likely any future President.

    Tony Schwartz has stated he’s never read a book and I believe it.

  64. 64.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    “Frederick Douglass is one of the best linebackers the New England Patriots have ever had. Believe me!”

  66. 66.

    lamh36

    @VP
    As #BlackHistoryMonth begins, we remember when Pres. Lincoln submitted the 13th Amendment, ending slavery, to the states #NationalFreedomDay

    @HalSparks
    As #BlackHistorymonth begins we remember what a white guy did cuz we don’t know who Frederick Douglass is and he’s not answering his cell

    This is ALL Black History Month is to these mofos aint it…smh. It’s Black History month but hey…let’s remember the white guys who freed them darkies…smh…Lincoln got his own day damnit

    Also too..

    @mskristinawong
    @VP You CAN’T celebrate #BlackHistoryMonth without acknowledging that #BlackLivesMatter.

  67. 67.

    DissidentFish

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: 1) Ishmael as a last name. Sounds Middle Eastern (granted, Muslims would be named Ismail, but you’d have to a regular Fred Douglass to know that). (2) If he’s Trinidadian, he’s likely darker than a paper bag (whether east or west Indian), and if you haven’t figured out that’s the real test, you’re not paying attention.

  68. 68.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    One of my Facebook friends does a post every day in February of only Black Chicagoans to point out how much Black history is out there (plus, of course, she’s a Chicagoan and a big booster for the city).

    Today’s was the man generally acknowledged as the founder of Chicago, Jean du Sable.

  69. 69.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    “What I love about Fredrick Douglass most is the was he sings and dances. Just beautiful. I can tell ya, some of these people are really talented. It’s true. It’s true.”

  70. 70.

    Adrift

    Since this an open thread, I thought to note from the Sydney Morning Herald:
    Walgett in the north-west exceeded 36 degrees each day during January and had 12 days above 40 degrees for the first time in 47 years, Weatherzone said.

    as well as:
    Temperatures are forecast to reach 44-45 degrees each day until at least Tuesday, which would make the first seven days of this month the town’s hottest week in 139 years of records

    We have a lot on our plate, people. Trump is but one of our many problems.

    ETA: spelling corrections

  73. 73.

    Lyrebird

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Did get my big-girl clothes on and write AGAIN to Sen. Toomey, a very discouraging task, but I did re: DeVos’ utter lack of preparedness, and I will write AGAIN AGAIN re: that awful bigot Sessions. All the phones were off the hook or message bins full.

  74. 74.

    Lyrebird

    @Ruckus: You put things much better than I could, but I’ve wondered the same thing since first seeing him riding up the escalator smirking on his way to harrass a beauty pageant winner.

  76. 76.

    cmorenc

    @Renie:

    @sloan: lol have you noticed each republican prez makes the prior look better in retrospect? reagan made nixon look good, duyba made reagan look good, and this idiot makes dubya look good…..what type of jerk could possibly make trump look good

    President Steven King. President Louis Gohmert. President Paul LePage.

    Unfortunately, we aren’t even close to hitting bottom – it’s turtles all the way down.

  79. 79.

    RM

    @NeenerNeener: I suspect nobody is writing them. I’m pretty sure that Lord Dampnut has a little notecard with the things he knows he needs to talk about on it, maybe one or two good metaphors, and then he just BSes the rest as he goes along.

  80. 80.

    Couldn't Stand the Weather

    @Mike J:

    Dave Brat, VA-7, who complained that women were “in [his] grill” about healthcare, has decided he’s too much of a precious snowflake to handle a run for the senate.

    If I were a woman, I’d be in his sallow grille too, just for being such a sack of greenish, runny shit.
    Damn, I’m sleep deprived (swigs some cheap bourbon and shakes head).

  81. 81.

    someofparts

    I was laughing about the Trumpatoons not knowing that Douglass is dead and then remembered that neither does anyone else in my office … which is in Atlanta where all of the admin staff and half of mid-level management are black …

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