Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Books are my comfort food!

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

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

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

I really should read my own blog.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, it’s door #2)

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

The willow is too close to the house.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

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

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Chaos Muppets All the Way Down

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Chaos Muppets All the Way Down

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A little spirit-lifter for our own Betty Cracker, of course.
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Apart from embracing the chaos, what’s on the agenda for the day?

***********
When circumstances seemed too hard to bear, my Irish granny used to say Live, horse, and you’ll get grass. Even the longest winter comes to an end eventually, and the green goodness revives…

Then they can go home and face their constituents. Won’t that be a barrel of fun!
.

Alexandra Petri also made me laugh, however bitterly…

When Donald Trump said he might not accept the results of the election, we should have believed him. Now here we are, eight thousand years into his presidency, and he is still telling us about what an awful job Hillary Clinton is doing. (Do you want to break the news to him, or shall I?)

Why, Donald Trump wonders, are we wasting all this time looking into the election of Donald Trump, a man who did not even win a majority of the popular vote, when Hillary Clinton is there, amassing scandal after scandal, safe from her perch in the Oval Office?

Everything that Donald Trump does makes sense when you know that Hillary Clinton is president. He has plenty of time on his hands since he does not have to lead. He can tweet and put his head together with Sean Hannity’s head and study controversies. This is also why Donald Trump has been suggesting such strange things when it comes to policy. Who cares? What impact can it possibly have?…

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  3. 3.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Ex-Obama aide: White House leaks look like they are throwing Trump Jr. to the wolves to save Jared Kushner (link)

    Gotta love how they’re fragging each other.

  8. 8.

    Kay

    I want a special investigation into this:

    The impact of the information released by the hackers on candidates like Ms. Taddeo in Florida and others in nearly a dozen House races around the country was largely lost in the focus on the hacking attacks against the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But this untold story underscores the effect the Russian operation had on the American electoral system.

    The seats that Guccifer 2.0 targeted in the document dumps were hardly random: They were some of the most competitive House races in the country. In Ms. Taddeo’s district, the House seat is held by a Republican, even though the district leans Democratic and Mrs. Clinton won it this year by a large majority.

    They should find out if GOP campaigns or the RNC or sitting House members coordinated with this. I’d also like to know if there was anything like this in Senate races.

  9. 9.

    Tenar Arha

    Getting a temporary crown if I don’t chicken out today. Not looking forward to it.

    ETA Good morning everyone!

  10. 10.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Keith Olbermann‏ @KeithOlbermann

    You know what @realDonaldTrump did the same day Jr, Manafort, Kushner met the Russian? He sent his 1ST tweet about Hillary’s “33,000 emails”

    764 replies 12,406 retweets 21,510 likes

    What a coincidence — the very same day his senior staff meet with a russian agent..

    Check out this photo – he tweeted out at 4:40 PM (photo).

  15. 15.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay: Yep. Looks like Russians did a great job of securing seats for Republicans throughout Congress and not just in regards to the White House. I don’t expect the Senate or House committee to get to the bottom of this but hopefully this will be part of Mueller’s investigation. Our biggest fear should be that we face the exact same interference next year during the mid term election. We can’t afford a rerun of 2016.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    They should find out if GOP campaigns or the RNC or sitting House members coordinated with this. I’d also like to know if there was anything like this in Senate races.

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….. You very funny, Kay.

  20. 20.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor, explained that Veselnitskaya — whose clients include a Russian money launderer and others under sanctions — was likely under U.S. surveillance.

    “So her conversations, her travels, her later discussions about who she met with and what they said are probably knowable facts,” Ignatius said.

    Ignatius has long ties to the IC. He’s written at least 6 books on the CIA. He’s the CIA’s ventriloquist’s dummy. When he implies the IC has her “discussions” on this matter, that’s coming straight from The Company.

  21. 21.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Somebody said yesterday that Veselnitskaya is hot. I replied:

    “Exactly the opposite, because it doesn’t take a body long to cool to the ambient temperature below the second thermocline in the Moskva River…”

  25. 25.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    @Kay:

    This whole fucking thing reeks. I can’t believe a supposed major political party ever let this creep con them into nominating him and campaigning for him. But then, they carefully painted themselves into this corner, so I guess it’s no big shock that this is what it led to. I’ve said before that this was inevitable. Not this specific this, but some this like this. If it hadn’t been 2016, it would have been 2020 or 2024 or 2028. If it hadn’t been Czar Manbaby, it would have been Ted Nugent or Curt Schilling or John Rocker or some other eighth-rate “celebrity”.

    What I find so hard to understand is why there aren’t any Republicans who really stood up to the guy, and still aren’t, not even now. I’d have thought that somebody like McCain would have done that by now. He’s safe until 2022, and since he’ll be 86 then, it’s unlikely he’d even run again, which makes him safer still. After all, he has his super-mavericky status to think of. What’s he waiting for?

  29. 29.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Baud: I’m kinda torn about that. I like that it’s here, but I was unimpressed by the Atlanta and Salt Lake City games. ,It’s almost as if foreign countries try harder (Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, Rio) cuz it’s their one chance to take center stage, while there is some complacency in the US because we’re always on center stage.

  36. 36.

    Another Scott

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Donnie is the embodiment of all they things they claim to think are great: 1) “he tells it like it is”, 2) he’s “rich”, 3) he’s not a “product of the establishment”, 4) he “can’t be bought”, 5) he’s a “job creator”.

    Of course they’re all exactly backwards, but he took the Luntz/Gingrich/Atwater talking points machine from them.

    JEB! tried to attack him, but it was an impossible task (especially for him) because he was attacking the post-1980s (at least) GOP machine’s foundations.

    McCain couldn’t do it against W when he had (at least some of) his faculties. He can’t do it now, either.

    Remember that Priebus wrote a report for the RNC in 2012 advocating a bunch of position changes for the party. It didn’t go anywhere. He and the party bigwigs have no control any more. All they can do is try to get in front of whatever motivates their donors and their primary voters.

    It’s not sustainable. How it ends for the GOP is anyone’s guess…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  37. 37.

    JPL

    @randy khan: When he pardons Don Jr., his base will say what dad wouldn’t want to help his son. The same doesn’t work for Kushner, since he works in the White House. That’s not to say that Ivanka is the favorite one.

  38. 38.

    satby

    Gah, I just hope they roll up the entire Drumpf crime syndicate with strong enough evidence to send several to the pokey and taint the Republicans left standing. Karma has to kick into gear on these creeps at some point

  40. 40.

    satby

    It’s Amazon prime day, and I’m trying to talk myself out of two things I want but don’t need. I have to not look at the site all day.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    I love how the chickens guard the bunnies once they break up the fight and kinda charge them again if they think they’re going to make a break for it. You can almost see the thought bubbles over their heads: “Don’t you MOVE!”

  42. 42.

    efgoldman

    @rikyrah:

    throwing Jr. Out there thinking that they can save Kushner isn’t going to work.

    They’re flailing now, looking for ways out which include putting the shiv to each other, and, eventually, Daddy Deadbeat.
    It’s only going to get worse – and more public.
    Not enough popcorn in the world!

  43. 43.

    p.a.

    @Another Scott:

    It’s not sustainable. How it ends for the GOP is anyone’s guess…

    “There once was a people who believed in Santa Claus. But Santa Claus turned out to be… The Gasman.”
    worst case…

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    I think the thing to do in 2018 is make a big fuss when this happens- if you’re a Dem campaign manager for a congressional campaign and you become aware this is happening you have to make a lot of noise, call local tv stations or newspapers- scream “look at what’s happening- who is behind this?”

    I didn’t hear anything about the manipulation of congressional campaigns in ’16- did you? Was that coordinated with certain GOP campaigns? Was anyone else taking meetings like Don Jr. did?

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Don’t worry St Louis, Gov. M.T. Suit is here to save you! ‘It’s a crime crisis,’ as state announces safety plan for St. Louis

    ST. LOUIS • The Missouri Highway Patrol began policing interstates in St. Louis on Sunday as part of a plan Gov. Eric Greitens says will help combat crime in “the most dangerous city in the United States of America.”

    The pilot program, as reported by the Post-Dispatch last month, puts troopers on patrol along Interstates 55 and 70 in an effort to free up St. Louis police resources for violent crime in the city’s neighborhoods. The Highway Patrol is contributing 20 to 30 troopers as part of the 90-day pilot program.

    During a press conference Monday at a parking lot on the city’s north side, Greitens said troopers made “dozens of arrests” during their first night on the job.

    HOORAY!!!! The cavalry, oooopps, I mean the State Police, have arrived just in time!! Whooo, that was close. St. Louis Interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole had nothing but praise for this new program, saying that it alone will halve the city’s highest in the nation murder rate:

    St. Louis Interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole, who attended the press conference, did not know the outcome of the first night of the operation, but said he believed troopers issued more warnings than tickets and made two drunken driving arrests.

    He said city officers have not patrolled the interstates for years, only responding to accidents or other issues when needed so they can remain focused on crime in neighborhoods. “Having another presence of law enforcement will be helpful,” O’Toole said.

    So, yeah… Not so much. OK maybe Gov M.T. Suit has something more to offer the beleaguered citizens of this fair city?

    Greitens also outlined how his administration is working with other entities including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the state Departments of Corrections, Social Services and Mental Health to help address crime in the city. He offered few specifics on how the collaboration differs from what the agencies have done in the past, as most of his comments were lost among shouting from protesters who said the best way to reduce crime is to support an increase to the minimum wage — a measure Greitens opposes.

    Something more, like more money for one’s work, well we just can’t have that:

    The governor announced June 30 that he would let a bill rolling back a $10 minimum wage to $7.70 in the city become law.

    Yep, As long as Gov M.T. Suit is in office, you low wage city folks are just going to have to deal with empty pockets.

  48. 48.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: I doubt Kay believes that Republicans will investigate themselves. That’s why she mentioned “special investigation” — done by a nonpartisan, third party. In my mind, Mueller should just include all of the discrepancies we’re hearing about into his investigation.

  50. 50.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The governor announced June 30 that he would let a bill rolling back a $10 minimum wage to $7.70 in the city become law.

    Disgusting. How can someone live off $7,70 per hour anywhere in this country without working at least two or three jobs? Don’t even talk about having to raise children off that paltry salary.

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Me too, and they should start in Florida, where we know for a fact that at least one GOP campaign (Brian Mast, R-FL) used the info Russian hackers provided to guide ad buys, etc. — because a campaign operative admitted as much. Ted Yoho, another wingnut FL congressman, said just yesterday he’d have taken a meeting with Russian hackers to get “oppo research.” Republicans in Florida clearly have an ethics/treason problem. Probably best to remove them all from office just to be safe. And I’m sure the rot extends far beyond Florida.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I think it’s proper to give him the benefit of the doubt but I love how we’re all supposed to believe Don Jr. when he says Russia didn’t give them anything at the meeting.

    Because he’s so honest,right? He lied publicly 4 times in the past 2 days. He may be a bigger liar than his father.

  53. 53.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay:

    I can’t think of any other reason than to use it to pressure/blackmail Republicans.

    Ditto the pee tape. It’s a perfect way for the Russians to control Republicans. And for Russia, it’s working perfectly. How the hell else can you explain a sitting U.S. President suggesting that we work with Russia to set up a joint venture to make sure that we aren’t hacked again? Who would suggest something so preposterous when the Russian interference issue is still red hot?

  54. 54.

    efgoldman

    @JPL:

    When he pardons Don Jr., his base will say what dad wouldn’t want to help his son.

    The base lives in an alternate universe, unmoored from reality. It’s like a cargo cult. Nothing anybody does can change their knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, spittle-flecked, racist, ignorant flying monkey minds. Let their RWNJ congress critters twist in the wind.
    Pardons will cause a firestorm in the real world; this isn’t Scooter Libby and what was basically a small-time perjury rap. This is a whole crime family, and then some, colluding with (and probably laundering money for) the Russian mob.
    Also don’t forget there are parallel state investigations in New York. Nobody in the federal government, including “the president”, has the authority to issue state pardons.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    The NYTimes piece on the congressional races says media found the stolen info “irresistible” or something like that.

    Shouldn’t that have been a NEWS STORY? “Russians are interfering to assist GOP House members” seems like a news story. Instead they approached it like “oh, good-dirt on the Dem candidates!” ?

  57. 57.

    Another Scott

    @Patricia Kayden: Donnie sees every interaction as transactional – “What’s in it for me“. Having better relations with Vlad would benefit Donnie immensely – more Rubbles for his properties in the USA (and for Donnie’s minions at Texxon, 666, etc.), the opportunity to put up his Trump Monstrosity in Moscow, etc., etc., etc..

    Donnie doesn’t care about what’s in it for the USA – “What’s good for Donnie is good for America!” – Proof by Inspection.

    It’s only when things blow up in his face, only then does he change his talking points. But nothing will make him change his Looking-Out-For-Number-One approach to every policy position.

    Just watch – the tax “reform” bill will have a provision to gut the AMT or Donnie is going to whine and whine about it. He hates the AMT because he can’t game it as easily as the rest of the tax code.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    I think it’s proper to give him the benefit of the doubt but I love how we’re all supposed to believe Don Jr.

    I lived with a pathological liar for 5 years. Giving them the benefit of the doubt is how you get taken. It is not until you start assuming everything they say is a lie that you begin to get your life back. And know this, even when they tell you a truth? It is in the service of a lie.

  60. 60.

    JPL

    @Another Scott: Trump’s foreign policy is built around his businesses. It’s difficult for the msm to cover everything, but the Kushner connection to Qatar is amazing. If only they would have lent Jared the money, maybe Qatar wouldn’t be so isolated.

  61. 61.

    low-tech cyclist

    Cornyn opposes scrapping August recess, as Trump called for. “I don’t think stringing it out longer than next week helps us w the product.”

    Is this the same Sen. Cornyn who just said last Friday that there wasn’t a bill yet, but said yesterday that he wants a vote on it next Tuesday?

  62. 62.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: What you just wrote is applicable to Trump and his sycophants to the t. Everything he says is a lie and when he’s caught, he just double downs on the lie and tells the media to go investigate his lie. It’s amazing to watch someone who wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him in the eye. But at the same time it’s terrifying because the Liar-in-Chief has so much power at his disposal and is surrounded by yes-men and women.

  63. 63.

    Just One More Canuck

    Rabbitnado?
    Chicken -nado?

    That video may be the greatest thing ever

  64. 64.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Another Scott: Definitely. Just like the big kid Trump is, everything in the world revolves around him. And he has an entire party behind him who only look out for the wealthy and couldn’t care less about ordinary Americans.

  66. 66.

    Currants

    @satby: Agreed–I’ve already watched it 4 times in the last 15 mins–it’s so damn funny! Those chickens … look (behave) a little like … ?

  68. 68.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @bystander:

    The bunny motto: CREAM.

    Good morning, all! I must confess, there is a hole in my awareness of all internet traditions; What does this C.R.E.A.M. stand for and, for extra measure, where does it come from?

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Oh, I don’t mean “us”. I mean media reports and the justice system. We can not give him the benefit of the doubt.

    I wouldn’t believe a Trump if they told me anything and this one is a particularly blatant liar. Kushner’s a liar too. MY ASS he “forgot” about a meeting with the bizarre Russian lawyer. The whole fucking thing is outlandish. Supposedly Don Jr. didn’t know who he was meeting with. So he told Kushner and Manafort to go? Three campaign big shots at one meeting in the middle of a Presidential campaign and it was no big deal? Bullshit. No one drops everything and goes to a meeting with an unnamed person. The whole thing is a lie.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    In June of 2012 the Obama campaign met with liberal bloggers. Axelrod was there. John Cole was invited but he didn’t want to go and I have free airline miles so I went. It was planned for weeks because Axelrod is BUSY during a Presidential campaign.

    This was important or those three would not have been there.

  72. 72.

    bystander

    @O. Felix Culpa: Some front pager routinely invokes CREAM in political fundraising posts. Cash Rules Everything Around Me. I just adapted for a bunny world with chicken police.

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: An offhand invite to Manafort and Kushner to attend a meeting with somebody you don’t know about something you aren’t sure of? Yeah, rich people do that all the time.

  76. 76.

    rikyrah

    @JPL:

    It’s difficult for the msm to cover everything, but the Kushner connection to Qatar is amazing. If only they would have lent Jared the money, maybe Qatar wouldn’t be so isolated.

    Agreed.
    This story was overlooked yesterday, but it was announced that Dolt45 will NOT be building a new FBI Headquarters. This had been years in the making.

    FYI – the story was that the contract was to be given to one of Kushner’s business partners. I can only think that someone got back to them and told them, nope, it couldn’t happen. A building that sensitive, the contractor would be chosen from a group of long trusted and proven contractors. There’s no way that anyone remotely attached to Kushner would pass that smell test.

    So, once again, out of spite, in order to ‘bring the FBI to heel’, here goes Kushner.

    Muthaphucka, they are THE F.B.I…..and, you think that they’re NOT gonna retaliate?

  79. 79.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @bystander:

    CREAM in political fundraising posts. Cash Rules Everything Around Me.

    Thank you for the elucidation! The meaning of that acronym had long puzzled me, but googling it seemed too much like work. Now I see it has something to do with a Wu-Tang Clan. Nice boys, I’m sure.

    And satby, whatever you do, don’t think about AMAZON!

  82. 82.

    Anne Laurie

    @bystander: LOL. “Chickens Rule Everything Around Me!”

    Chickens, so I’m told, are very territorial. No lesser species are allowed to fight on their turf, because allowing squabbles is something an Alpha Chicken cannot permit.

    Dogs can be like that, too. When our two cats scuffle (in that mostly-friendly neutered-male cat fashion) our alpha bitch Gloria drops everything to tell them off. Since the house is elaborately gated so that the cats have ‘territory’ where the dogs can’t pester them, this mostly amounts to Gloria charging the closest gate and barking her head off, sternly. Then omega-dog Sydney usually makes the mistake of rushing up to add the canine equivalent of And so say we all!… and Gloria displaces her aggravation by putting him firmly in his place.

    Of course, if any of the three dogs start an argument, Rocket the Viking cat comes racing downstairs and takes a perch where he can watch the whole thing. You can see him rooting for injuries like the drunks at a NASCAR race!

  86. 86.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Can’t imagiine why this reminds me of Political Jokes of Leningrad (pub. 1982 or ’83, my copy currently misplaced) which opens with this gem:

    “Hey, have you heard the one about Brezhnev’s body being found face down in the Moskva River covered with stab wounds?”

    “No I haven’t , how does it go?”

    “Well, I haven’t heard the rest, but isn’t that a great beginning?!?!“

  87. 87.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Anne Laurie: Shorter CREAM: chickens rule, rabbits drool. Thanks for the video and the story about your denizens’ pecking order.

  88. 88.

    rikyrah

    The Everloving PHUCK?!?!?!

    Trump Aides Turned to Businessmen for Afghan War Advice
    Erik D. Prince, a founder of the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide, and Stephen A. Feinberg, a billionaire financier who owns the giant military contractor DynCorp International, have discussed their proposals to rely on contractors instead of American troops in Afghanistan with both Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, and Jared Kushner, his senior adviser and son-in-law, according to people briefed on the conversations.

  89. 89.

    rikyrah

    Sniff sniff…

    Wife surprises husband by revealing she’s his kidney donor match.
    Via @nowthisnewspic.twitter.com/ELUaXVb0yD
    — Greg Hogben (@MyDaughtersArmy) July 11, 2017

  90. 90.

    gene108

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    What does this C.R.E.A.M. stand for and, for extra measure, where does it come from?

    Cash Rules Everything Around Me or in this case Chickens Rule Everything Around Me.

    First I heard of it is from a Wu Tang Clan song, back in the 1990’s

  92. 92.

    Tenar Arha

    @Currants: Well I did, chicken out. But at least it’s to do a few different things. Part of the reason the dentist was recommending at least one crown (turns out I really need two soon) was because I need a mouth guard. Plus I’ve got some issues with my teeth having shifted where my bite isn’t so even anymore. And my current dental insurance only covers the basics, and that of course excludes any orthodonture & usually mouth guards, but also crowns so….

    Next open enrollment I have to buy better dental insurance that at least covers crowns. Which means I make do with drugstore mouth guards for now until next next year. In the meantime I get all the fillings I’ll need this year, plus figure out what to do about straightening out my bite, and hold off the more expensive work until after the New Year.

    So, yeah, I was also chicken, but hopefully this plan allows me time to come up with a better plan that deals with everything. Now I’m off to shed a tear because I just realized no more pistachios for me. ??

    ETA This is probably TMI. Good luck with your dental work tomorrow.

  93. 93.

    SgrAstar

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: The Salt Lake Games were awesome! The winter games are much smaller than the summer games that you listed as impressive – not really comparable in terms of scale and $. That said, the games in SLC were well organized and a lot of fun for visitors and locals alike. Also too, the 1984 games in LA were incredible. If LA can field a management team that meets the Peter Ueberroth 1984 standard, the games will be terrific. I love watching sports like track, skating, and ski racing and think it’s thrilling to see to top athletes competing…for me that outweighs the awfulness of the IOC.

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