Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

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

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

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

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

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

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

The willow is too close to the house.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

You are here: Home / Il Duce and Gabbana

Il Duce and Gabbana

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That’s just fucking awesome:

Inside the West Wing, attempts to sway Trump’s thinking also continued apace. Trump’s daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka, has worked to ensure her father heard pro-Paris voices over the last several months, and has continued to press for a decision short of a full withdrawal.

Ivanka Trump and her allies, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Trump’s chief economist Gary Cohn, have pressed Trump to alter the US commitments to the Paris agreement without fully pulling out of the accord.

So he pulled out anyway, but for a brief moment the fate of mankind partially hinged on the insane ravings of a parasitic madman with brief consultation from his purse designing trust fund daughter.

We’re so fucked.

Reader Interactions

196Comments

  2. 2.

    quakerinabasement

    And he says we’ll be “negotiating to re-enter” the agreement.

    With whom? Every individual country in the entire freaking world?

  3. 3.

    dedc79

    If Ivanka cared about climate change and the health of the planet she would’ve opposed her father’s candidacy. Not only didn’t she do that – she did something far worse – she provided cover for him by creating the illusion (however obvious it was to many of us that it was just an illusion) that she’d get him to soften his positions if he was elected.

    I know you’ve written this to criticize her, but I think we all need to stop propagating what amount to self-serving leaks from Ivanka trying to protect her image while she profits from her dad’s presidency.

  5. 5.

    goblue72

    We now know when the “American Century” ended and the “Century of China” began.

  6. 6.

    Damien

    I hope every single person who voted for any Republican in 2014 or 2016 gets noncommunicative locked-in syndrome.

    Let them live out their days trapped in a body they can’t control, tossed around and treated like they would treat the least of us.

  7. 7.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    Say what you want about the tenets of Spite-ism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.

  8. 8.

    kindness

    How Ivanka gets any credit anywhere I can’t figure. Our MSM has dragged us down in some reality pig-sty of a hole (my apologies to actual pigs who are much nicer than TrumpCo) and because they get ratings they want to keep us there.

  9. 9.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Last week, I personally laid eyes on bleached coral on the Great Barrier Reef. I also saw bleaching as far north as Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea about 110 km off of northeast of the Cape York Peninsula.

    It is here and it is real.

  10. 10.

    TenguPhule

    Ivanka refused to let Donald come inside. And he had to wear a wetsuit.

    That’s what this is all about.

  13. 13.

    lumpkin

    So, we have a decision with global impact made by a certifiable dunce, advised by his vapid daughter, a few sycophants and ZERO expert input. This is how dumbfuck America wants its country run.

  14. 14.

    Chris

    Hmm, but I thought Ivanka was supposed to be a moderating influence on Trump. How could he possibly refuse her this favor?

    And Rex Tillerson only signed on for patriotic reasons, because he knew he could be a moderating influence on Trump.

  15. 15.

    dedc79

    So the only remaining question is who wrote this line, Bannon or Miller?

    Trump: "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh not Paris."— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 1, 2017

  16. 16.

    Major Major Major Major

    for a brief moment the fate of mankind partially hinged on the insane ravings of a parasitic madman with brief consultation from his purse designing trust fund daughter.

    That reminds me, did everybody see this WaPo piece the other day about how this is turning out to be not a sci-fi dystopia but King Lear?

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    @Ghost of Fitzmas past: Bullshit. She won 3 million more votes. Democrats actually made inroads in both the House and the Senate. I know you’re probably just a Russian troll but you have to do better than that bullpuckey.

  19. 19.

    Walker

    The fact that they think Trump has the clout or power to alter anything makes them more delusional than Trump.

  21. 21.

    GregB

    @lumpkin:

    Suck it libtards! Next time I have a sucking chest wound, fuck the professionals, I am going to an ice cream truck for health care.

  22. 22.

    sherparick

    BUT HER EMAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Except for the court drama staged for the benefit of the Beltway/Village press, this was, as they say, “baked” in the cake with Trump’s election last November. Just the glee of making all the liberals and hippies cry makes it worthwhile for Trump and the Fox News watching club. But again, the corporate media will say “Both Sides” and whatever. This is why the political desk of the NY Times and all the other Village Media types (Chris Cillaza, etc.) will go through all kinds of contortions to avoid talking about actual policies and actual consequences of elections and the evil results on actual human beings. It is all theater criticism and and “how it will play with Joe and Josephine common (White) person. Because Hillary’s emails and she is ambitious.

  24. 24.

    Redshift

    Another round of Ivanka PR. I’m not sure who they’re trying to fool at this point, maybe just trying to avoid being ostracized by their New York society? If your only claim to “success” is arguing that terrible things might have been even worse without your influence…

  25. 25.

    Brachiator

    We’re so fucked.

    But it’s the biggest fucking ever. Huge. Bigly fucked.

    Title should be “Il Douche”

    Very good.

    @goblue72:

    We now know when the “American Century” ended and the “Century of China” began.

    I’m less concerned about the end of the American Century than I am about the possible end of American democracy. Trump supporters and the Republican leadership are so appalled that a black man got elected president that they seem eager to rip up every check and balance that guards against tyranny. And they are aided and abetted by a bunch of thieving plutocrats willing to spend billions to keep the government in the hands of the few.

  27. 27.

    Montysano

    Say what you want about the tenets of Spite-ism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.

    I plan to borrow that.

  28. 28.

    Ghost of Fitzmas past

    @Yutsano: “inroads”. That’s a nice way of saying we went 0-3 over the last three special elections. If you don’t win you LOSE. There are no points for second place

  29. 29.

    walden

    “elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh” — yeah, well they actually voted for Hillary.

  30. 30.

    The Moar You Know

    Inside the West Wing, attempts to sway Trump’s thinking also continued apace. Trump’s daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka, has worked to ensure her father heard pro-Paris voices over the last several months, and has continued to press for a decision short of a full withdrawal.

    I call total bullshit. They’re just trying to protect her brand. She was onboard like everyone else around Orange Lardalade.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dedc79:

    He said something like that a couple of times. It’s almost like he doesn’t understand why the Paris Agreement is called the “Paris Agreement.”

  32. 32.

    SatanicPanic

    @goblue72: I’m not totally sure what China has over us. Seems like their political system is even more sclerotic and rife with corruption.

  33. 33.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    I’m less concerned about the end of the American Century than I am about the possible end of American democracy. Trump supporters and the Republican leadership are so appalled that a black man got elected president that they seem eager to rip up every check and balance that guards against tyranny.

    Seem?

  34. 34.

    cain

    So I think what will happen is that those who are part of the Paris Accords will pretty much tell U.S. businesses to adhere to the Paris Accords or fuck off. We are still part of a global market and you can bet if China was smart they’ll pretty much lock out American businesses from the Chinese market unless they conform to the Paris Accords. That should get the Hair Fuehrer into a frothing mess. Worse, he will have no leverage since he withdraw. The alternative is to join again with his tail between his legs. Boy won’t that be great optics? Love to see how the right would interpret that.

    There is going to be blowback and everyone knows it. Blue states are going to step up and it will be their businesses that are going to get global contracts not assholes from say Florida.

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    Inside the West Wing, attempts to sway Trump’s thinking also continued apace. Trump’s daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka, has worked to ensure her father heard pro-Paris voices over the last several months, and has continued to press for a decision short of a full withdrawal.

    I call total bullshit. They’re just trying to protect her brand. She was onboard like everyone else around Orange Lardalade.

    Tell that truth.

  37. 37.

    sherparick

    @Ghost of Fitzmas past: Go buy some beach front property in Florida, why don’t cha! As I said, for the Breitbart/Alt Right Fox News watching crowd, it is all about making the liberals and hippies cry. For the plutocrats who actually run this Government, it is about making the last possible penny before they kick the bucket (and if there is an afterlife, I expect they are in for a big surprise), and the grandchildren or great-grandchildren can always build the new mansion a hundred feet higher up on the new beach.

  38. 38.

    TenguPhule

    @SatanicPanic:

    I’m not totally sure what China has over us.

    People and industrial production.

    The only thing that stops them from being a true threat is the lack of a real blue water navy. For now.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    Has it occurred to anyone that Ivanka and Jared may have wildly over-stated how important they are in this administration? Maybe Trump keeps them around because he has no friends and they’ll reliably report back if any of the other low quality hires are plotting behind his back.

    Everyone assumes these two are running something or other but it’s much more likely they’re beholden to daddy and he uses them where he can but keeps them away from anything important.

  43. 43.

    eric

    The citizens of Pittsburgh, soon to be the bread basket of the world with the shift in climate. fun times

  45. 45.

    japa21

    My wife, who used to be pretty much apolitical although always voting Dem, has been walking around all afternoon going “How can we get rid of this jackass.”

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Or, she’s not really a “senior adviser” at all but it’s useful to Donald Trump to tell her she is.

  48. 48.

    Hungry Joe

    In summation, the last line in “The Bridge on the River Kwai.” The camp’s doctor looks at the destruction and death all around him — and, by implication, at war itself — and cries, “Madness. Madness!”

  51. 51.

    dedc79

    @Kay:

    Has it occurred to anyone that Ivanka and Jared may have wildly over-stated how important they are in this administration?

    I’d take it a step further and ask whether it’s occurred to anyone that Ivanka and Jared aren’t as committed to certain causes (e.g. combating global warming) as they’ve represented

  52. 52.

    sherparick

    @dedc79: As someone else noted, 1) Pittsburgh voted for Hillary; 2) Pittsburgh, more than most old industrial cities transformed itself over the last 30 years, its principal industries now being education, medical services, and Medical R&D. I don’t think there is a steel mill within 50 miles anymore. And of course, Trump’s budget screws colleges, educations, and Medical R&D.

  53. 53.

    The Truffle

    @dedc79: The funny thing is that the mayor of Pittsburgh supports the Paris Agreement.

    Elon Musk apparently threatened to quit if Trump pulled out of the agreement. And several big businesses also support the agreement.

    Here is a list:

    https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/05/31/Here-are-the-oil-and-coal-companies-Fortune-500-corporations-and-Republicans-who-want-to-s/216719

    And an article on the subject.
    https://news.vice.com/story/corporate-america-is-freaking-out-trump-might-leave-paris-accord

    Whoops.

  57. 57.

    SatanicPanic

    @TenguPhule: Their population is aging and I don’t see what the big deal about manufacturing is- eventually capital will find somewhere cheaper. Not convinced their growth is any more sustainable than Japan in the 80s was.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    My daughter lives in Pittsburgh so I’m quite familiar with the place. But let’s not let ACTUAL Pittsburgh get in the way of the NYC real estate developers beliefs about Pittsburgh :)

    The economy of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is diversified, focused on services, medicine, higher education, tourism, banking, corporate headquarters and high technology.

    Services. Services are big in Pittsburgh.

  59. 59.

    schrodingers_cat

    @SatanicPanic: I don’t think its going to be a Chinese century we are headed back to the free for all of the so called Great Powers pre WWI. Its clear that the people who support T see the Victorian era as a template.

  60. 60.

    TenguPhule

    Forgive me if this was brought up before

    NPR’s Scott Simon, a genial interviewer, asked Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), a member of the Ways and Means Committee and an influential figure on agriculture policy, about Trump’s proposal to make vast cuts to food stamps. Smith posited that the program could be cut in ways that “do not harm the most vulnerable.”

    In the United States, in 2017, a powerful member of Congress refuses to grant that Americans should be able to count on eating food.

    WASF.

  61. 61.

    TenguPhule

    @SatanicPanic:

    and I don’t see what the big deal about manufacturing is

    They have the factories to make a lot of military equipment and weapons. A lot of weapons. And in a short span of time.

  62. 62.

    bemused

    There is no way his family doesn’t know and hasn’t always known Trumpy is a mental case and would never listen to anything or anyone but his own ego and the voices in his head. Yet Ivanka and Jared made incredibly stupid decision to be by his side in the WH while Jr and Eric are hustling business. Only Melania has tried to stay away as much as she can.

    It’s just about money for all the Trumpies and even if you combined all their intelligence levels together, it doesn’t add up to one working brain.

  65. 65.

    Peale

    @quakerinabasement: To win a deal that is exclusively to the US’s advantage, nonetheless. The one where the US gets to burn all the coal and drive all the trucks but everyone else agrees to import American Cars exclusively and shut down their factories and buy only our things..

  66. 66.

    Hungry Joe

    @sherparick: This isn’t just about making liberals and hippies cry — it’s about Trump’s determination to destroy everything Barack Obama built, to obliterate all traces of Obama’s ever having been President. It’s not even business: It’s personal.

  67. 67.

    SatanicPanic

    @TenguPhule: They spend roughly a third of what we do. I am highly skeptical that I will live to see the day that any country outpaces us in military spending.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    @dedc79:

    I’d take it a step further and ask whether it’s occurred to anyone that Ivanka and Jared aren’t as committed to certain causes (e.g. combating global warming) as they’ve represented

    Right, but that assumes they have actual power and I think it’s much more likely they don’t- that Trump is paranoid and keeps people he knows and can control close to him. Jared does things like “meet with tech CEO’s to discuss how to modernize government”. He does bullshit things. I don’t think there’s any indication that they have any real role at all, other than what they say and I wouldn’t trust a Trump as far as I could throw one.

    I’ll have to see something real from one of them before I give them the power they say they have. I let my kids “make decisions” too. Except I veto at will because they’re not really making decisions :)

  69. 69.

    sherparick

    Also, although I hate to give credit to the asshole, Putin has pulled off the greatest psyops, intelligence and propaganda operation in history. Within 4 years he has basically decapitated the United States Government and put his own tool in control of it. Trump should have run with on the slogan “Make Russia Great Again.” Trump, Bannon, Miller, and the rest may think they are serving “America’ First,” but it is the Russians and the Saudis who are walking tall.

  70. 70.

    sherparick

    @Hungry Joe: And Clinton, Carter, LBJ, Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, and FDR, as well. Although particularly Obama, the Black guy.

  72. 72.

    Yutsano

    @Ghost of Fitzmas past: Hi Forest. My name is Trees. Apparently you’re not seeing all of us.

    MT was lost mostly because of early voting and not the best candidate and even then Quist only lost by 6 points AND Gianforte has to defend that seat next year. A Berner came within four points in deep red Kansas. Two state elections were just won by Democrats in New York in red districts. Osoff is fighting like mad in GA-06. The fight is getting better the more that Dolt45 is sitting in office. This fight ain’t even CLOSE to over.

  73. 73.

    JMG

    @Kay: Ivanka’s job is to get puff pieces written about her (and by extension Daddy) in established media. Jared’s job is to show up for all the things a President must do (like go to Iraq) but Trump doesn’t want to. I wonder what will happen if Dad ever figures out that his daughter and son-in-law are the ones leaking all the inside White House dirt Maggie Haberman writes for the Times and Robert Costa for the Post.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    @dedc79:

    Like this- it doesn’t matter what Ivanka and Jared think because Donald Trump didn’t put them there as advisers. He put them there as loyalists who are beholden to him and will keep an eye on all the people he hired that he doesn’t know and who aren’t beholden to him.

    He doesn’t care if they think they’re advisers. That’s even better. Then they’re invested personally.

  75. 75.

    D58826

    Listening to a climate denier conservative on MSNBC. Aside from the usual lies and misstatements he said that the environmental movement want to get totally off a carbon economy and that is a bad thing. Ah WHY? If we can transition to a non-carbon renewable economy w/o destroying jobs and the standard of living, why is that bad? When I flip the switch to turn on the lights I don’t really care if the electricity comes from a coal powered plant, a gas fired plant, a windmill or a bunch of gerbils on a spinning wheel. No one is talking about this happening tomorrow or even next week but you have to start somewhere.

  76. 76.

    JPL

    @Hungry Joe: Why no both? While building his golf courses in EU countries, he was furious that he was allowed to destroy what ever he wanted. While at the EU meeting, Trump was still bitching about the regulations

  78. 78.

    The Moar You Know

    Also, although I hate to give credit to the asshole, Putin has pulled off the greatest psyops, intelligence and propaganda operation in history. Within 4 years he has basically decapitated the United States Government and put his own tool in control of it.

    @sherparick: You are absolutely correct.

    By 1991 I thought we had won the Cold War. I was so wrong. They waited, and waited, and waited some more and then BOOM!…headshot. Game over. They not only won the war but conquered the US, with our own weapon, the scared Internet. Never would have thought it possible.

  80. 80.

    Yutsano

    @Kay: I can’t link to the graphic now, but he got pasted in Allegheny County. So yeah Pittsburgh had to have come from either Bannon or Miller or whatever knucklefuck wrote the speech.

    And I’m done with the troll now.

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Agreed. I think if we get Osoff and somehow we also pull off getting Mulvaney’s old seat that might be the beginning of the changing of the tide. Either way I am nowhere near ready to throw my hands up.

    @different-church-lady: Aww kan I haz just one wittle toy to play wif?

    Not to mention I’d rather he target me.

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @PPCLI:

    if only we had had the conference in Pittsburgh he would have stuck to the agreement.

    You know what, I think you’re exactly right. (Except maybe for the pesky little fact that it still would have been negotiated by the hated Obama — or perhaps he might have remembered what so many here have noted, that Pittsburgh actually voted for Hillary.)

  82. 82.

    Barbara

    @cain:

    So I think what will happen is that those who are part of the Paris Accords will pretty much tell U.S. businesses to adhere to the Paris Accords or fuck off.

    France has already said as much. It’s the perfect excuse to start imposing tariffs on U.S. goods. Trump is such an idiot.

    This is probably the Pollyanna in me speaking, but if you have the wherewithal you can make your own green investment by migrating to cleaner technologies. The rate of return for installing a solar roof, for instance, may be greater than investing in solar companies. I totally get this is not open or available to everyone, but for those who can, it’s one way of shifting momentum one person at a time and if those people aren’t willing to do it who will be?

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    @sherparick:

    Yea, Brachiator, what is the “seem” part.,

    Some are ignorant of the consequences, some don’t care, some clearly want to overthrow democracy in favor of a White Christianist theocracy. Others think that they can have a democracy exclusively for white males, the way they think the Founders intended.

  84. 84.

    Barbara

    @Kay: Did not win the city or the close in counties. Those are the places in Western Pennsylvania with Democratic House members.

  85. 85.

    mainmata

    @dedc79: And Pittsburgh, where I’m from created the “Pittsburgh Renaissance”, a decades long and ultimately successful campaign to drastically reduce air pollution, improve water quality and diversify the economy out of dependence on heavy industry. Trump is an insult to Pittsburghers.

  86. 86.

    Kay

    @JMG:

    Oh, I agree. I think it’s vitally important to Trump that they’re both young and attractive, too. I feel like the photos of Trump with their kids is all Ivanka. Trump doesn’t spend any time with his own young son- Donald Trump has a young child, right now, but there are no Obama-like pictures of bike rides and such. Trump golfs every weekend.

    Do you really think he’s a doting grandfather? Bullshit, Ivanka. He is not.

  87. 87.

    LurkerNoLonger

    @Hungry Joe: He can try, but he won’t succeed. Obama will be on our currency some day, Trump will be an unfortunate footnote.

  88. 88.

    Jeffro

    Hey with Trumpov’s full-wattle embrace of dirty coal, why not buy a “Dirty Fucker” t-shirt? Perfect for backyard BBQs or, well, anytime.

    (And catch Dave Hause on tour if & when you can – his new album “Bury Me in Philly” does have the song ‘Dirty Fucker’ on it, and you won’t be able to stop yourself from singing along!)

  89. 89.

    JPL

    Macron told President dumbass, that the accord will not be renegotiated. Germany has joined in with that statement.
    The withdrawal was not because of the voters in Pittsburgh, but to satisfy his buddy Putin. imo

  92. 92.

    Yutsano

    @Kay:

    Do you really think he’s a doting grandfather? Bullshit, Ivanka. He is not.

    He is doting only to her. Creep factor of 10,000,000 there. Hell he shows Ivanka a shit ton more affection than he does the aging trophy wife.

  94. 94.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    (CNN) Susan Sarandon, a Bernie Sanders’ surrogate, says Donald Trump would be more likely to usher in “the revolution” than Hillary Clinton.

    “I believe in a way she is more dangerous,” Susan Sarandon told The Young Turks on Thursday. “I don’t know if she is overcompensating or what her trip is. That scares me. I think we’ll be in Iran in two seconds.”

    The former “Thelma and Louise” star said voters are being “fed” a message that Mr. Trump is “so dangerous” – “I don’t know what his policy is. I do know what her policies are.”

    Well done, Alt Left

  97. 97.

    SatanicPanic

    @LurkerNoLonger:

    Obama will be on our currency some day,

    It will work out nicely for everyone with Obama tattoos if it’s a high denomination.

  99. 99.

    Archon

    @sherparick: Yeah I’m trying to think of a historical precedent that even remotely analogizes what Putin was able to do. This would be like a weakened and defeated Carthage bribing or extorting some Roman aristocrat who miraculously ended up being consul and then that consul openly sabotaging Roman prestige and power on behalf of Carthaginian interests.

    I mean Roman leaders were assassinated for MUCH less then this.

  100. 100.

    different-church-lady

    @japa21:

    If she knew what Clinton’s policies were…

    Ass. Location. Both hands and a GPS. Fail. All that all that.

  101. 101.

    Barbara

    @dedc79: Okay, it took me a while to get what all the fuss was about Pittsburgh. We haven’t had smokestacks belching dirty air in Pittsburgh since at least 1975. Forty fucking years ago. There are still mills in Pittsburgh but they don’t burn much coal and they don’t pollute. He gives daily evidence of his idiocy.

  103. 103.

    MisterForkbeard

    @TenguPhule: I’m sort of willing to let itgo – the argument that maybe the government should make food into a right, is problematic if just because logically that means the government HAS to provide some baseline level to everyone. And that’s expensive, so if you care about the budget at all you’d want to be very, very careful about asserting it. There’s also a bunch of other knock-on effects, like “If food is a right, why not water?” or “If food, why not health care? Or housing?” that a congressmen on either side probably wouldn’t want to get into.

    Basically, the *idea* that food should be a right is a good and decent one. The complications that would arise from that is big enough that I don’t get offended when someone doesn’t want to to agree with that proposal.

    That said, he’s totally goddamned wrong about cutting food stamps. He’s going to affect the most vulnerable by definition, because those are the people ON THE DAMN STAMPS.

  104. 104.

    Barbara

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Susan Sarandon, vying with Ivanka Trump to see who best defines the Platonic ideal of vapidity, apparently never heard the expression about the devil you know being the better choice. I wonder how much she spends to get her hair done.

  105. 105.

    Gelfling 545

    @dedc79: so he thinks the accords are between us and Paris? And the new French President dissed him at NATO. AHA! As I said before, he has no more understanding of what’s involved than my cat. Less, probably.

  109. 109.

    Chris

    @Gelfling 545:

    As I said before, he has no more understanding of what’s involved than my cat. Less, probably.

    “Meeting is adjourned! … so sorry, sir. You say that.”
    “What?”
    “Meeting is adjourned.”
    “It is?”
    “No, you say that.”
    “What?”
    “Meeting is adjourned.”
    “It is?”
    “Here, play with this.”

  110. 110.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    I’m pretty sure they are there to look pretty and remember what happens in meetings for 45.

  112. 112.

    Peale

    @MisterForkbeard: No, the most vulnerable are not on foodstamps. You haven’t seen the postings I have seen on FB where they compare the food stamp recipient’s fridge with their own. And boy I can tell, those food stamp fridges look awfully full while those taxpayers may be lucky to have baking soda.

  114. 114.

    jl

    @Gelfling 545: It’s snappy, and will send a revenge tingle up the legs of the Trumpsters. That is all that counts. Doesn’t really mean anything, any more than Trump’s ridiculous fraudulent facade of reasonableness by saying he is willing to renegotiate the accord.

  117. 117.

    MisterForkbeard

    @different-church-lady: Yep. I always got super annoyed when I argued with a BoBer about Hillary, because they didn’t seem to have any idea that Hillary agreed with them on almost all of their issues. And when this was pointed out, they proclaimed that she didn’t actually mean it – even when she’d held those positions for decades and had voted for them repeatedly.

    Bernie supporters are fine. BoBs like Sarandon are goddamned horrible people.

  119. 119.

    trollhattan

    CalPERS has a bigass portfolio and are displeased with Dolt45.

    The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has issued the following statement from Marcie Frost, chief executive officer of CalPERS, concerning the decision today by President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Change Agreement:

    “CalPERS supports the Paris Agreement because it makes financial sense. It’s notable that the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement comes just one day after ExxonMobil shareowners passed a resolution calling on the company to disclose climate change risks. There is growing support in the business and financial community for the goals of the Paris Agreement – to limit global warming to 2 degrees or less.

    “As a global investor and as fiduciaries focused on the long-term sustainability of our investments, we will continue to support the Paris Agreement on climate change. The Paris Agreement enables us to manage material risk and build opportunity in our investment portfolio. Supporting its goals ultimately benefits our members and their long-term retirement security.”

  121. 121.

    schrodingers_cat

    With the focus on the Daily T and his friends in the Kremlin, Rs in the Congress and those who voted for them are getting a pass, without them the R takeover in the form of T would not have been possible.

  122. 122.

    bowtiejack

    @rikyrah:
    Eventually the sexuality of Ivanka’s hubby is going to come out and that may be a major game changer to this Rebecca-of-Sunnybrook-Farm bullshit. You can get ahead of the curve simply by googling “Jared Kushner gay” and checking out the 2007-2008 posts (before he married Ivanka) when NOBODY had ever heard of him except that he hung around northern New Jersey bathhouses and his father was some super-rich real estate guy.

  124. 124.

    Steve in the ATL

    @eric:

    The citizens of Pittsburgh, soon to be the bread basket of the world with the shift in climate.

    The Atlanta newspaper reported yesterday that Georgia is no longer suitable for growing peaches.

    Not sure what I’m supposed to do for meaning in my life now….

  126. 126.

    ? Martin

    @TenguPhule: I think those are overstated. The US, if faced with a direct conflict with a nation that outnumbers it 5:1, would swiftly use the nuclear arsenal to even the odds. It would be horrifying, but it would happen. And China knows it.

  128. 128.

    jl

    Joking aside, I think Trump’s rejection of climate agreement was foregone conclusion. Nothing his flunkies said, or European leaders making fun of him, national security and Secty of exxon expert-speak, nor nothing else, made a bit of difference.

    Trump needs to say he is keeping his campaign promises, and due to his incompetence, he is running up very short on pretty much everything except what he can do unilaterally.
    This is an easy promise to keep, all he has to do is open his yap and sign some papers. Just like some of his bogus do-nothing but look big executive orders.

    He needs to keep his promise of being a genius at great deals too, so some meaningless language on that too.

  129. 129.

    hovercraft

    So I’m thinking that Twitler is having his very own spite week. The Europeans and Obama ruined his first big boy trip last week, so he pulled out of the Paris Accords. The IC has been leaking shit that makes him and his campaign look bad, unfairly, so he’s going to give the Russians back their two compounds, that’ll show them! And it’s a twofer, it undoes another thing that Obama did and it’ll piss off the IC who believe that the Russians are using them to spy. So what if people don’t like it, they don’t appreciate his greatness anyway, and the people who do love him will appreciate his strength, no one tells the Shitgibbon what to do!

  132. 132.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: I used to have solar powered lights on my lawn, but my fucking asshole landlord and his minions keep breaking them. I haz a sad.

    ETA: Just trying to help, gramps.

  134. 134.

    Mike in Pasadena

    OT: Very Off Topic: Gun lobbyists oppose a bill that would allow some hearing aids to be sold over the counter. Why do they oppose it? Because Senator Warren supports the bill, I believe she is a co-sponsor of the bill put forth by two Republicans. However, because Warren supports it, the gun nuts don’t trust the assurances that the legislation does not affect the listening devices that hunters use to listen to their prey.
    That’s it. That’s their “reasoning:” because Senator Warren supports the bill, then we don’t trust that the bill won’t infringe on our use of devices to listen to prey. Define your stand on issues by the positions taken by people you don’t like. Excellent!
    https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2017/05/28/elizabeth-warren-bill-hearing-aid-draws-opposition-from-gun-rights-conservative-groups/WMAAAo9Z8zAK7AzZnrRUII/story.html

  135. 135.

    JPL

    From twitter

    NEWS: senior administration officials still won’t say if Trump believes human activity causes climate change; they called question off topic

  139. 139.

    bystander

    I loved the part where twitler said the accord was “so unfair”. He invariably sounds like a WATB.

  141. 141.

    lamh36

    @dedc79: This man is an IDIOT!!! I bet he and his stupid azz voters, really thinks the Climate Change Pact has to do with Paris cause it was signed…in Paris..smh…dumb fuq!

  142. 142.

    efgoldman

    So he pulled out anyway

    Late to the thread, so I’m sure I’m not the first to say: His father should have pulled out, But nnnooooo

  145. 145.

    Keith P.

    I have a sinking feeling we won’t get a 5pm news drop today. All the signs are there – a weekday, Trump just took over the morning/afternoon cycle. But we’ve been spoiled so far that I have to think a letdown is coming. My guess is that things quiet down until Comey testifies, and then WaPo and NYT unload everything they’ve got.

  146. 146.

    ? Martin

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Even Obama would use them in that situation. The net effect of the nuclear arsenal was to shift warfare from the WWII style of heavy industry and lots of soldiers to a model of massive widespread destruction through superior technology, relying on as few humans as possible to execute. That’s not to say that population and industry don’t matter, rather, that we have made a choice – and our choice was to put our last line of national defense against nation states in the hands of the arsenal. Ahead of that we have a range of other options, carriers, etc. but in many respects they are just there to project that arsenal outward. Just our nuclear missile subs are sufficient to both start and end pretty any conflict, if we were so inclined.

    If the US was not inclined to do that, we would have treated our heavy industry more broadly as a national security asset. We haven’t. The choice has been made.

  148. 148.

    hovercraft

    @JPL:

    senior administration officials still won’t say if Trump believes human activity causes climate change; they called question off topic

    Well to be fair, the topic should always be about how warm and magnetic and historic and accomplished, Twitler is. Next question.

  149. 149.

    MisterForkbeard

    @hovercraft: It IS off-topic. Trump doesn’t actually care about Climate Change. He cares about fulfilling a campaign promise and trying to destroy anything Obama created.

    Whether or not it’s a good idea or has any sound grounding in belief or policy is utterly beside the point.

  150. 150.

    jl

    @lamh36: It’s all a show for his rubes. Nothing more. Same with the fun and games over whether Trump believes that current climate change is result of human activity.

  151. 151.

    lamh36

    Enough of this bullshit that Ivanka Trump cares one iota about anything but her brand and her business…if she wanted to be Prez she should have run

  152. 152.

    TenguPhule

    @SatanicPanic:

    They spend roughly a third of what we do. I am highly skeptical that I will live to see the day that any country outpaces us in military spending.

    Quantity is a quality all of its own.

    They don’t have to outspend us. They just need to be able to have an effective local logistics chain with a faster turn around time then us.

    We spend a lot, but our procurement is SLOW.

  153. 153.

    lamh36

    @deray 2h2 hours ago
    More
    Trump is determined to undo every positive thing that the first black president ever did, piece by piece.

  155. 155.

    Bess

    Fuck Trump and can the whining!!!

    It’s time for an uprising. Time to take matters into our own hands.

    Get your electricity from the grid? If you have one available, switch to a green energy provider. If not, start raising holy hell with your local government and utility to get a green option.

    Cut your electricity use if you can.

    Get rid of incandescent bulbs. Burn nothing but LEDs (specialty bulbs that are seldom on can be an exception).

    Get rid of the old beer refer in the garage. If your current refer is more than ten years old consider getting rid of it and get a much more efficient model. Refers are most people’s largest electricity draw. An efficient refrigerator can pay for itself via electricity savings.

    Every kWh of electricity you don’t use is one less kWh of fossil fuels burned and that much less CO2 pumped into the atmosphere.

    Reduce your gasoline/diesel use.

    Walk, bike, carpool, use public transportation more often, plan more efficient routes.

    If you can live with a ~80 mile range EV strongly consider buying a used Nissan Leaf or other lower range EV. They can often be found for very good prices. The fuel savings will likely pay for the car over a few years. A gasmobile will never pay for itself and only adds CO2 to the atmosphere (and money to oily pockets).

    If you need a longer range EV put off buying a new car for a couple of years and start saving for one of the 200+ mile range EVs that are coming our way. There should be a lot of options from all sorts of manufacturers by 2020.

    Rag on your state government for stronger renewable energy support.

    Try to turn your state into one of the ‘screw Trump’ states that will go forward with efficiency, renewable energy, and EVs without the federal government’s help.

    If the math works for you, put solar panels on your house.

    Or in your backyard. Or buy into a community solar farm – a way to own solar even if you live in an apartment.

    Start working right now to get more people registered to vote.

    Overcome voter suppression with overwhelming numbers. Win in 2018 and, especially, win in 2020.

  158. 158.

    jl

    @lamh36: The ultimate failure of that project will eat away at Trump and his dupes, long after the current tragic farce is over.

  160. 160.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Keith P.:

    Things do seem to have gone a bit quiet lately on the leak front. Maybe we got spoiled for a while there. I hope they gone back, more damaging, embarrassing, and un-ignorable than ever.

  161. 161.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Bess: I love the idea that the liberal uprising is purely about being more responsible. “You’re trying to destroy the planet? Fuck you, I’m going to conserve so hard you won’t know what hit you.” :)

    Also, totally agree that we should all be doing this anyway.

  164. 164.

    lamh36

    FUQ Joe Manchin…and I don’t care to hear bout “oh his a solid Dem vote”…fine then I still say FUQ him…but with friends like him…who da fuq needs enemies…

    @HeidiPrzybyla
    Manchin issuing statement breaking w his party in support of Trump. Says Paris does not ‘balance between our environment and the economy.’

  165. 165.

    TenguPhule

    @? Martin:

    The US, if faced with a direct conflict with a nation that outnumbers it 5:1, would swiftly use the nuclear arsenal to even the odds.

    At the rate Trump is going, we may not have a working one left when that happens.

  166. 166.

    D58826

    Der Fuhrer seems to have a problem connecting dots. In the beginning of his speech he talked about arms deals with the Saudi’s that would create good paying jobs in the US. Which it will. He then started to comp[lain about the money the US might put in a green fund that would be spend in other countries. Well the purpose of that fund was to help third world countries develop their own green economy. And as part of that they would have to buy stuff from the US,. which also creates jobs. sigh .

  168. 168.

    TenguPhule

    @Bess:

    It’s time for an uprising. Time to take matters into our own hands.

    Get your electricity from the grid? If you have one available, switch to a green energy provider.

    And while you’re trying to bail out that ocean with a sieve, the Fascists will light their ovens with coal. Really big ovens. The biggliest.

  169. 169.

    walden

    @Barbara: “There are still mills in Pittsburgh”….Yep that’s the way we always said it: “Yinz going dahn to da still mill for work?”

  170. 170.

    Cacti

    @goblue72:

    We now know when the “American Century” ended and the “Century of China” began.

    Good thing Wilmer and Trump agreed that the evil she-beast was a corrupt tool of Goldman Sachs.

  171. 171.

    jl

    @D58826: Much of the Saudi deal money will be spent in that country to help further develop its own high tech arms industry. And countries that stay in the climate deal can buy their capital stock for renewable energy production from China, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, etc….

    We win so much with Trump, we might get tired of winning. Mr Trump spoke the truth there.

  172. 172.

    MisterForkbeard

    @TenguPhule: The ACA wasn’t guaranteed issue and didn’t actually get everyone health care, or have it baked into your taxes. Don’t get me wrong – it was a vast improvement. But it didn’t really treat health care as a “right” so much as “something the government and society has in interest in trying to help everyone with”.

  173. 173.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @D58826: My son works for a maker of war machines, some of which they sell to countries such as Greece. According to him, our govt gives (I think) the money to Greece to buy them from us.

  174. 174.

    Chris

    @TenguPhule:

    “If food, why not health care?

    No matter how much I know it’s true, it still blows my fucking mind that I live in a country where such a stupendous number of people think that things as basic as food, water, and health care shouldn’t be rights, but that guns should be.

  175. 175.

    MisterForkbeard

    @lamh36: Manchin is a huge asshole. But he probably has a bunch of mouth-breather constutuents who’d applaud this and might help him keep his seat. Given that he can’t actually affect it at all, the negative impact of this statement is probably negligible even if it is completely wrong. >_<

    @Chris: This. Our national outlook is absolutely insane.

  176. 176.

    Chris

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Our national outlook is absolutely insane.

    I really do have trouble describing contemporary America without a whole lot of references to the Soviet Union (or “smelting iron in your back yard” era China). Same basic background of ideology gone mad, and its high priests refusing to take into account even the most basic notions of common sense, where the national sport, to borrow from Sherlock Holmes, is “twisting facts to suit theories rather than theories to suit facts.”

  177. 177.

    TenguPhule

    Irony is dead. Ted Nugant is complaining about Kelly’s “threat” against a president.

  179. 179.

    Turgidson

    So he pulled out anyway

    If only his father had done the same. (I assume someone got here first, or that the entire commentariat is above such low brow nonsense)

    edit: efgoldman ftw

  181. 181.

    different-church-lady

    I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.

    Jesus… Pittsburgh is fucked…

  182. 182.

    D58826

    @Iowa Old Lady: Yep. I think the term is khaki keysianism. Gov’t spending only creates jobs if it is in the military-industriual complex.

    and on a slightly different note – the Senate GOP healthcare plan is talking about taxing employer based health care plans. That should go over big with the 177 million people covered at work. The article is in the WSJ which is paywalled but you can read the first part here
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-senators-weigh-taxing-employer-health-plans-1496350662

  183. 183.

    different-church-lady

    @Cacti: “Hey, we can’t grow food anymore and a lot of our major cities are underwater and that nuclear winter thing wasn’t so great, but at least we know nobody’s giving speeches to banksters!”

  184. 184.

    geg6

    @dedc79:

    Fucking Pittsburgh hates his guts. The Burgh went for Hilz. And it happens to be a city green enough that other cities are studying it to emulate. Fuck Il Douchebag.

  185. 185.

    different-church-lady

    Holy crap, it just hit me how brilliant the title of this post is!

  186. 186.

    ruemara

    @Archon: I kinda miss the good old days.

    @MisterForkbeard: Dude. That’s about the same as when SS passed. I couldn’t have earned a dime from it back then, but it was a great start.

  188. 188.

    MisterForkbeard

    @ruemara: Exactly. The ACA is a huge step forward, and you can already see that it’s made significant gains for the country. Both in terms of health care (and budgetary reasons) but also because even Republicans are now implicitly agreeing that the government needs to provide health care or at least make it accessible in some way or another. All of their messaging is now about how they’re ensuring everyone can still get care (even though they actually can’t).

    The shift in public perception as to what government should actually do is very positive.

  191. 191.

    Fcb

    Someone with video/audio editing skillz might make of this an allegory of the Kremlin discussing the american electorate, were they so inclined.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7LxFgjnBdU

    Me, I’m old enough to remember these commercials from my childhood, which makes me way to old to be editing anything.
    But I can’t shake the association.

  192. 192.

    Captain C

    @The Moar You Know: That only works until Russia’s economy collapses, and in a way that makes Yeltsin’s ’90s look like Stalin’s ’30s when it comes to progress and public order. A large part of Putin’s foreign adventurism is to distract from the fact that a) Russia’s economy is just as hollowed out as it was in the Soviet days (outside of Moscow and St. Pete, there’s little sign the USSR ended other than the lack of Communist slogans and commissars) and b) Putin and his embezzling crew are a large part of the reason why it won’t get better; you could probably build a medium-sized country from stone age levels to Western European levels of technology and prosperity with what Putin, the oligarchs, and the Russian mob have stolen and hidden abroad. Unless they can change their political culture faster than anyone expects, I think Russia is truly fucked, and if they’re lucky*, it won’t happen until after Trump’s Control is out of power.

    *For certain values of luck, like postponing inevitable disaster.

  193. 193.

    Captain C

    @Captain C:

    there’s little sign the USSR ended other than the lack of Communist slogans and commissars

    Superficially, it may seem better in some places, but that’s in large part because the top dogs are more inclined to be flashy with their wealth (and it’s easier to import Western luxuries than in, say, the ’70s).

  195. 195.

    SgrAstar

    @Kay: The mayor of Pittsburg took drump to the woodpile on the twitter. Among other clever putdowns he observed that Hillary won Pittsburg with 80% of the vote. “You are not the president of Pittsburg.”

  196. 196.

    J R in WV

    @SgrAstar:

    The mayor of Pittsburg took drump to the woodpile on the twitter. Among other clever putdowns he observed that Hillary won Pittsburg with 80% of the vote. “You are not the president of Pittsburg.”

    You misspelled Pittsburgh every single time. The proper spelling is Pittsburgh, so you were talking about somewhere else altogether.

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