Trump, who labeled Comey as 'cowardly' this AM, won't go to the UK on a state visit if there are large protests. https://t.co/aBagPlcxQL
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 11, 2017
If he's waiting until the British public welcomes his visit (as he says) it's going to be a VERY long wait.
— NovaLight (@NovaLight19) June 11, 2017
Sadiq Khan 1
Donald Trump 0 https://t.co/DI1YP7PeGR— Al Giordano (@AlGiordano) June 11, 2017
You must be soooo proud, Repubs.
Apart from [facepalm]-ing, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the weekend?
Pretty much the only countries Trump can visit comfortably are ones where they disappear protesters. https://t.co/kEmixf0Uon
— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 11, 2017
Could this be the reason? pic.twitter.com/vdk5v5DhzA
— Stacy? (@KleinfeldtStacy) June 11, 2017
zhena gogolia
I cannot deal with the fact that such a disgusting coward is “representing” my country.
zhena gogolia
I’m not a Comey fangurl, but “cowardly” is not one of the adjectives I’d use for him.
Baud
@zhena gogolia: Yep. It’s tough. We just have to represent the country ourselves and show the world how we deal with fascist cowards.
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: Would you like to be? We’ve got hats, t-shirts, jerseys, foam fingers, pom poms. Shoot me an email and we’ll send you our free catalog so you can get properly outfitted in all your ComeyFan gear. Order online or by phone or use our ComeyFan app. All lines are open. Operators are standing by!
Trentrunner
My favorite new political photo genre is the slightly photoshopped Trump family photos, specifically accentuating their inherent flaws.
An example.
One from the last few days was of the Don Jr. and Eric, which made them look particularly inbred. Can’t find it, but will post it if I do.
One example was here at this very website when a front-pager posted a photo of Trump with his hands photoshopped only slightly smaller. Made you look twice, but could have been real, so truly demeaning and insulting.
Vicious, petty victories, but I’ll take ’em.
hellslittlestangel
Will Show Your Rump To Trump feature a Donald Trump lookalike contest?
schrodingers_cat
@Trentrunner: More jowls than a British bulldog.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
Comey, Comey, Comey, Comey, Comey chameleon
You come and go, you come and go.
Trentrunner
@Trentrunner Found it!: The Douche Brothers.
Trigger warning: Exaggerated douchedom, intensified
donnah
I’ve been ashamed and embarrassed about Trump since always. I knew he would bring shame to our country, but to keep doing it every time he opens his yap…well, it’s going to be a long term. My friends in Canada and Finland are mortified that Trump is actually the president.
I still tell them he’s not my president.
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
And in the corner, there’s a little booth run by a sad little man selling ‘Cooler With Mueller’ merchandise.
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
You are hitting my weak spot — T-shirts (and bumper stickers) that advertise my political leanings.
I asked for prayers for Robert Mueller in church this morning.
JPL
What about the carriage ride? Maybe Michelle will go in his place.
Mike R
@Trentrunner: It looks like something from Monty python ‘s upper class twit sketch.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Stay patient. Trump is going to stroke out sooner or later. Not even a young, fit person could maintain Trump’s level of fury for a long time.
debbie
@hellslittlestangel:
I got your lookalike contest right here.
Bruuuuce
Given the full moons he have had to face, El Jefe clearly doesn’t want to show himself as a werewolf in London. :-(
Keith G
The PMFN (Prime Minister For Now) has said that there is no change in plans.
What has changed, I bet, is the level of noise that would greet an unchanged visit. They sense blood in the water. Things could get quite ugly in a very British way.
Show your rump to Trump
Eta…I see I inadvertently doubled Debbie. Good show, Debs.
Aleta
Aw I bet they refused his demand to ride in the golden carriage on TV. And wouldn’t keep the commoners 5 miles away. (Actually I wonder if they used the obvious out: “Sorry, security risk and hey you incite hate against race and our 2nd largest religion. And you just insulted London, so no way.”)
Adam L Silverman
@Frankensteinbeck: We have that covered too at our sister site: MuellerMania!
Keith P.
Can’t wait for “Old Europe” to start showing up on the pundit fests this week.
sdhays
@debbie: Don’t be so sure. By that logic, he should have died several years ago. His mind, such as it was, is already decaying, but none of the members of the Traitorous Old Party will do anything about that until he’s already in a box.
JPL
@debbie: He needs to be impeached and then charged with high crimes. If he has to leave office due to illness, Pence would have free rein.
schrodingers_cat
@JPL: You mean Melania, right?
divF
That’s Shake Your Rump to the Funk, dammit!
quakerinabasement
Remember when conservatives were all up in arms about Obama alienating our bestest ally, Great Britain?
Those were good times.
Iowa Old Lady
Normally in American life, adult children are expected to break from their families at least enough to earn their own livings and more or less establish their own lives with friends, work, places they go, places they live, etc. We talk kind of scornfully about adult children who move back to live in their parents’ basement, though we all know economics sometimes makes that necessary, but we add “for a while.”
But with the Trumps, the adult kids’ lives seem to depend on their father’s. They live around him, organize their time around him, and I’ll bet can’t earn a living if they broke from him. Is that a product of there being a lot of money there? A family business?
You see it to a lesser degree with the Romneys, where politics as the family business drew his kids in.
I know there are cultures where a whole household lives together or close by. But it’s not normal in the American middle class anyway. It seems like it would be fraught with psychological issues.
(/practicing sociology/psychology/social psychology/anthropology, without a license)
Adam L Silverman
Hmmm
Shalimar
@hellslittlestangel: “Wait, which one is the rump and which is the asshole?”
JPL
@schrodingers_cat: Nope. Michelle is more than welcome in Britain.
burnspbesq
Will definitely be looking for that image on a t-shirt while in London in three weeks.
If anyone can suggest an appropriate resistance-themed t-shirt for 4th of July in London, that would be much appreciated.
Adam L Silverman
@Iowa Old Lady: Because no one had positive business interactions with their father, no one would hire the kids. Their last name meant that they either went to work for their father or they had to do something else like becoming practicing professionals in a variety of possible fields. You’ll notice that none of them did that.
Iowa Old Lady
@Adam L Silverman: That sounds like work.
NotMax
A fiery tweet in the dead of night
A cloud of disgust
And a hearty “Hi yo, Pilfer! Away!”
It’s the Lone Deranger
OGLiberal
@Adam L Silverman: Saw the HBO Madoff flick recently. Never dug into the details previously but learned from the flick that Madoff employed his two sons, his brother and his brother’s daughter. Guess that’s what folks like them think is the safest route if they’re planning to do something shady.
At least Madoff’s kids turned him in. Trump’s kids enable and enforce.
Adam L Silverman
@OGLiberal: I think it is also a lack of trust thing within the family. If Dad is rich and there is a family business, then the only way to ensure that you aren’t going to get short shrift of the family fortune is to be working to expand it every day. If you go off and become a surgeon or an architect or a Soldier or what have you, your siblings can have your share reduced because you’ve sort of abandoned the family.
WaterGirl
This show your rump to trump thing is almost enough to get me back on the treadmill. Almost. Ask me again next week.
Cheryl Rofer
@burnspbesq: I was in the English countryside with a group on a Fourth of July some long time ago. Our restaurant made us a celebratory cake, and everyone was happy. Good times.
WaterGirl
@JPL: I would love to see Barack and Michelle take that open carriage ride, where the cheering people really might just throw flowers as they pass by. A nice FU to the Dumpster. I tried to type “Rumpster” there, but autocorrect insisted Dumpster.
sm*t cl*de
Boris Johnson -1
Johnson’s response to Trump’s bizarre shroud-waving attacks on Mayor Khan (and by implication, on the entire London electorate) was an impressive portrait in gutlessness:
In my wildest dreams, Johnson manages to backstab Theresa May and take her job, holding it just long enough to join Trump on his ride through London in a gilded open carriage. But FSM does not love me enough for that, and all the capital’s costermongers between them could not provide enough rotten fruit.
NotMax
@burnspbesq
Suggestion?
Smiling Mortician
@Iowa Old Lady:
Years ago when I taught American Literature in China, I asked my students what they knew about America. They told me three things:
1. Everyone is rich.
2. You can’t see your parents ever again after you reach age 18.
3. It’s legal to kill black people.
OT, I know, but your comment reminded me.
Another Scott
@Trentrunner: [Takei] Oh my! [/Takei]
Cheers,
Scott.
Suzanne
Trump is just low-energy. He got all pooped out on his last trip. He’s looking for any excuse right now.
schrodingers_cat
@Smiling Mortician: Indians have similar misconceptions, things I have heard.
1. Parents make their children pay rent
2. Promiscuity is not a big deal
3. Respect for elders is missing.
In conclusion, Americans no has fambly values. All these opinions are usually based on TV shows and movies that they have watched.
moops
When are Republicans going to accept that their President is loathsome and that his popularity here in the US is a product of the media previously going WAY too easy on this d-bag. Even now his idiocy is rarely transcribed and reported accurately and almost always paraphrased into comprehensible thoughts. News outlets that literally report what he SAYS and DOES are widely considered hopelessly biased and partisan. wtf.
I would protest Donald Trump if he was the PM of Canada and visiting. He would be the same rotten manipulative predator man-child and doing just as terrible things no matter what country he conned his way to the leadership of. His soft brain would still be packed with right-wing propaganda that he doesn’t really understand but comforts his underlying bigoted prejudices.
scav
Thinking back, wasn’t the Trumpster’s visit to England already London-avoiding (Windsor or some other Palace heavy) in order to avoid the demonstrations inevitable in the major metroplotian centers?
Eta: Balmoral heavy
moops
To summarize: Donald Trump will be met with protests in any country that doesn’t use brutal oppression to eliminate it. This will be true for the rest of his life. I predict he will resort to medications to keep it together. I had thought he would pit GOP players against each other for his favor while the task of government floundered from neglect. Turns out was too imaginative. He’s an even simpler creature and his actions are better predicted by assuming full-blown amoral narcissistic disorder and abusive predator.
dogwood
During Queen Elizabeth’s long reign only 2 Presidents have received official State visits, W and Obama. I don’t think either President did any riding around in the horse-drawn gold carriage. Did Trump really anticipate that would happen?
Gelfling 545
@WaterGirl: As I have mentioned I have a close family member who shares the last name of the evil one currently infesting the White House. Every time I try to type her name autocorrect wants to change it to Donald so sometimes I end up with Hername Donald Trump. Very disturbing.
efgoldman
@dogwood:
Does a four year old throw a tantrum if he’s overtired and doesn’t get his way?
Gelfling 545
@Smiling Mortician: A friend of my daughter’s from China remarked that he doesn’t understand why Americans bother to have children.
moops
@WaterGirl:
I would very much hope that this very event occurs. Even if it is completely transparent that it is staged and the media report on it unabashedly as click-bait and an international press FU that moves ink and ads. Even if George Soros literally pays for truck loads of flowers to be delivered to neighborhoods and that fact is poorly concealed and widely reported on. If Obama and Michele have their paths strewn with rose petals literally everywhere they go on Earth, including the Middle East. Is possible, as they stroll through Baghdad.
….because Trump can’t make that happen, no matter how hard him and all his backers could try. It would feed the RWNJ that the *media* is attacking them, which is something that can be pushed back on over time. It would not be optimal. But Trump….That would be sooo infuriating for him, and he would not hide it well. It would also make his staff even more aware of what a failure they let take over their entire party. What competent staffer stays working for King Richard without descending into craven incompetence?
dogwood
@moops:
I wouldn’t want to see any American President in that carriage. The silly trappings of monarchy are not American.
Cheryl Rofer
@dogwood: It would be a step up from placing hands on the magical mystery globe!
dogwood
@Cheryl Rofer:
That’s true. But it’s still only a step up from the bottom of the barrel.
JMG
He doesn’t even travel in the US except to his own properties. He will never leave the country except for visits to dictatorships or summits where security keeps people far, far, away. Deep down, he’s super yellow. As that becomes more clear, he will lose a good number of the nitwit followers who think he’s a super tough guy.
TriassicSands
Apparently, Donnie prefers to have foreign leaders visit him instead of him going to their countries. I mean he can’t take his teddy with him (bear, not lingerie…I think) and he has to sleep in strange beds and there might be monsters in the closets. Poor baby.
Obviously, the 91-year-old Queen of England needs to get off her lazy butt and come to Donald. After all, it’s become apparent that Donald doesn’t have a lot of stamina. As gravity pulls harder and harder on his burgeoning waistline and overall flaccid body, Donald’s stamina is waning badly. It appears that all his complaints about HRC’s health and stamina were just one more case of projection.
Bill Arnold
Does anyone know the origins of this story? Is it really New York Daily News original?
The billionaire GOP patron behind Trump’s social media bot army
(Note – not script blocker friendly – had to allow a few scripts, notably a “.pro” script.)
Much of the tech stuff can/should be safely ignored or not absorbed (trust me on this one), but interesting that Mercer(s) continues to get attention that he probably does not entirely want.
Another Scott
@JMG: He had to sleep in his own bed during the campaign.
He had to grab Theresa May’s hand to walk down a gentle ramp at the White House.
Yeah, he’s a real tough guy, all right.
It’s all about projection. They are so bad about hiding it. I fear that his statement that “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any voters” is true for more than the 27%…
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Bill Arnold: I think similar stories have been out there for [6] month[s] or more. E.g. Backchannel.com [from November].
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
Re the “Those Pesky Kids” thread below, here’s a more detailed analysis of the technical (not political[1]) aspects of the Reality Winner case, not bad to my eye but I’m not a practitioner;
Real Talk on Reality
If this looks interesting, read the whole thing:
[1] politically, it might be better that she was caught. She’s f-in inspirational, frankly, and demonstrated some serious bravery in the best sense of the word.
Chet Murthy
@Bill Arnold: Oh yeah, this has been widely reported. Bannon & Conway were installed by Mercer (well, his daughter). Mercer bankrolls Breitbart. Owns Cambridge Analytica. And it goes on and on and on. Reported in many reputable mainstream outlets.
Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
Sure, but the article at least gave the impression that the reported recent increases in pro-trump-bots were associated with mercer.
Also, it is interesting that Drudge is playing this story. (Drudge link (to daily news) title is “PAPER: TWITTER BOTS NOW WEAPONIZED FOR POLITICS…”)
Anyway, happy to see that Mercer and co and their propaganda technologies are getting some attention.
TenguPhule
@JMG:
The nitwits still think Bush Jr of the soft white hands was the toughest guy ever because he bombed Iraq.
Jack the Second
@Adam L Silverman: That also underscores the values of the family: money.
If you value eg living a meaningful or even just a personally fulfilling life, you could take the launchpad of being born with a silver spoon and use it to start yourself of comfortably in whatever career you wanted. If you later got some sort of inheritance, great, but if you’re happy being a doctor or a soldier or an engineer or an artist or a lawyer or whatever, if you have a wonderful life, a family, and enough to get by, it doesn’t really matter if you get a token trust fund or a major slice or nothing at all.
But if all you value is money, fame, power–
J R in WV
Watching the Tonys tonight. Not a super big theater fan, but my parents were, and other relatives. I probably saw every outdoor theatrical production east of the Mississippi as a kid. When I helped my cousins cleaning out their father’s house, there were three four-drawer file cabinets full of playbills and programs, for one example.
They did a great In Memorium piece and I was shocked how many of the names I not only recognized but will really miss. A huge tearjerker. So many great stars have passed lately.
Jill Biden took stage to intro something, got the first (only?) standing ovation. Joe was in the crowd. Bette Midler got her first acting Tony for Hello Dolly, they started the “you’re out of time” music, she said “Shut that crap off!!” and talked until they DID shut it off.
Pretty emotional show this year, for me.
The Lodger
@Trentrunner: Upper Class Twits of the Year, 2017 Edition.
ETA : Or, what MikeJ said at #14.