Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republicans in disarray!

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    japa21

    So he admits he is a “criminal and a thug”, because if that is not inciting to violence, I don’t know what is.

  2. 2.

    MJS

    He also retweeted,and deleted, a tweet that calls either him or Joe Arapaio (sp?) a fascist. (I’m not good at the linking stuff).

  3. 3.

    Major Major Major Major

    IOKIYAR

    I had to stop thinking to myself, “Can you imagine the outrage if Obama/Hillary/[democrat] had done this?” a long time ago*.

    *measured in Trump Time, so for all I know it was a month

  4. 4.

    Big Ole Hound

    Bet he was taking a dump when he sent this tweet. His mind and asshole combine for the best efforts.

  5. 5.

    Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.

    @Major Major Major Major:
    There was a great stat on how long modern Presidents have taken to reach Trump’s current disapproval rating (IIRC ~61%): W reached it, but at about 1300-1400 days. Obama and the others never went that far south. Trumplestiltskin of course has done it in a mere 207. Encouraging!

  8. 8.

    nonynony

    @japa21: Not just inciting violence, but to post this just days after a woman was murdered by one of his supporters is a similar way (car vs. train but still)? The man is just an evil moron.

  11. 11.

    BC in Illinois

    “Nothing can stop the Trump train.”

    That’s what he tells himself, to make him feel better. We see his “train” being resisted, despised, with more and more Americans disapproving. We see thoughtful people pointing to his failures and flaws. We see comedians laughing at his nonsense. We applaud newspeople when they stand up and speak and ask and tell the truth.

    He imagines all of this as no more than a flimsy barrier on the train tracks, easy to run down and look down on the poor “fake” who tries to stand against him. He’s on his way; no one can stop him.

    The cartoon is a glimpse into his daydream world. The sad thing is that it’s our world as well. It’s our job to weaken the train, detach more and more cars, empty the fuel, and (yes) put barriers on the tracks and man the barriers. That’s my dream image.

    My FB friends and family have been sharing a quotation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer–a Lutheran pastor and theologian, who was hanged by the Nazis, by order of Adolph Hitler:

    We are not simply to bandage the wounds of victims under the wheels of injustice. We are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
    “The Church and the Jewish Question,” Grmany 1935

  12. 12.

    different-church-lady

    Cole has this retweeted on his feed:

    Tony Posnanski ?‏Verified account @tonyposnanski 14h14 hours ago

    The right is crying because their participation trophies for a war they lost are being taken down…

    AND IM THE FUCKING SNOWFLAKE?

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    Not only is the message hideously inappropriate, the account is run by a white supremacist crackpot. Trump also retweeted — and left up — a tweet from Jack Posobiec, the PizzaGate lunatic who hangs out with white supremacist crackpot Richard Spencer. Trump also confirmed by tweet the story that he’s considering a pardon for Arapio.

    There’s no way any of this shit is accidental. Trump is fuming over his handlers compelling him to march out yesterday and read denunciations of fellow white supremacists off a teleprompter. So, like a sulky child, he’s been openly flaunting his white supremacist connections ever since.

  15. 15.

    Amir Khalid

    @rikyrah:
    Trump doesn’t pivot, as such. He does two-point 360-degree turns. When he pauses halfway through the turn, it does make you think he’s executed a pivot; but then he completes the turn and winds up exactly where he was to begin with. The man just doesn’t have the discipline to stick with a change. (ETA:) Not that he feels any real need to change, no matter what his advisers tell him: he’s already perfect, damn it, why should he improve on perfection?

  16. 16.

    JPL

    The asshole in chief is not capable of acting with moral authority, and yet the business community that work with him ignore his behavior. Folks it can happen here!

  17. 17.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: Exactly. He explicitly said (not a direct quote) that he would never give up Twitter because it lets him “talk directly to (his) people without being filtered by the Media”. Twitter (and his campaign rallies) is what he really thinks and who he really is. The stuff for the cameras is just misdirection.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  18. 18.

    nonynony

    @Amir Khalid: I think saying he does a 360 is giving him two much credit.

    He makes at best a 30 degree turn before just undoing it and going back where he started from. It’s less of a pivot and more of a poorly executed head fake.

  20. 20.

    JPL

    Maybe someone told him to delete the train, because it depicts CNN trying to stop it. The train is painted the color of the Russian flag.

  22. 22.

    JPL

    @Jeffro: He’s a white male so Trump won’t mention it. The CEO of Campbell is a coward, because she probably realizes that as a female, he’ll tell his base to boycott.

  23. 23.

    Ian G.

    The title of this post makes we wish Joe Strummer we’re still around to write songs about the mess this country is in. And the UK.

  25. 25.

    randy khan

    @Betty Cracker:

    There’s no way any of this shit is accidental. Trump is fuming over his handlers compelling him to march out yesterday and read denunciations of fellow white supremacists off a teleprompter. So, like a sulky child, he’s been openly flaunting his white supremacist connections ever since.

    This seems entirely plausible, and we’ve seen the pattern before.

  26. 26.

    LAO

    One of my dog park “friends” is a NYT reporter (not one all of you hate) and she was half joking this am that she expects to be rounded up and jailed by the federal government at some point in the near future. I can’t same I blame her at this point.

  27. 27.

    Amir Khalid

    @JPL:
    The colours of the Russian flag — red, white and blue — are the same as those of the American, British, and French flags, among others.

  30. 30.

    JPL

    Seriously, someone told Trump to delete the tweet because it was offensive. I doubt that he did that on his own, because in his mind offensive is good.

  32. 32.

    Shalimar

    @nonynony: I’m not sure Trump even made the train/car connection before retweeting. The post flattered him, which is what he cares most about. The orginal tweeter, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing and wanted to be an asshole.

  33. 33.

    Felonius Monk

    @JPL:

    I doubt that he did that on his own, because in his mind offensive is good.

    Trump’s motto seems to be: “A good defense is to be as offensive as possible.”

  34. 34.

    Shalimar

    @Betty Cracker: Your theory is most likely the correct one, but there is an alternative: Trump likes flattery, and white supremacists are the only people willing to kiss his ego right now.

  37. 37.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker:

    Trump is fuming over his handlers compelling him to march out yesterday and read denunciations of fellow white supremacists off a teleprompter. So, like a sulky child, he’s been openly flaunting his white supremacist connections ever since.

    I commented on how, when he gave his tepid denunciation of “violence on all sides” over the weekend he looked like a kid whose mom made him apologize to his little brother or sister for hitting him. He did not want to be there doing that and he didn’t mean it. Yesterday was even worse. Little wonder he’s acting out behind the backs of his handlers.

  39. 39.

    trollhattan

    Will note in passing the train is classic ’50s locomotive and Trump’s been nothing if not consistent about taking us back to that decade, including a shootin’ war in Korea but not the Eisenhower marginal tax rates.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 44m44 minutes ago
    For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!

    So angry!

    I don’t feel sorry for the low quality political appointees in the Trump Administration, but I do feel sorry for career federal employees who have to work there.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    I think at this point it’s almost inevitable that there will be some violent incident where a journalist is attacked- the Trump Administration have been ginning it up for 7 months now. It’s a matter of time.

    Everyone assumes it will be some national journalist, someone from cable news or the 2 big newspapers, but that probably isn’t how it will play out – it will be some small local event where it’s 15 Trump KKK’ers and a 25 year old who works for some local news outlet and makes 30k a year.

    The people in that administration must know that they’re playing with fire here. No one wants to say it because we’re superstitious- if you invoke it you somehow bring it on- but we all know on some level that the risk for an attack goes up every time the President attacks journalists.

    How gross and venal are they that they don’t care? Not Trump, but all the people around Trump? Not ONE of them will stand up and say this is wrong? That the President is going to get people hurt?

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kay:

    Why is Richard Trumka still on the Trump Family manufacturing council? That’s embarrassing.

    Looks as though he’s reconsidering. This is from yesterday afternoon, though, so he’s taking his sweet time:

    Sam Stein @samstein
    NEW: AFL-CIO’s Trumka now “reassessing” his presence on Trump’s manufacturing council, his spox tells me
    3:40 PM · Aug 14, 2017
    500 Retweets
    1,214 Likes

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    I suspect that the CEO of the Giant Evil Corporation I work for was thanking his lucky stars on Saturday that he’d gotten out a couple of months ago. The last thing we need would be a direct connection to white supremacists when we’re busily trying to put that history behind us. ?

  48. 48.

    Jay C

    @JPL:

    @Jeffro: He’s a white male so Trump won’t mention it. The CEO of Campbell is a coward, because she probably realizes that as a female, he’ll tell his base to boycott.

    And I’m sure that boycott would have about as much effect on Campbell’s bottom line (i.e. zero) as the last one did: a few year back when Campbell started labeling some line of soups as “Halal”, and online Islamophobes went into shrieking hysteria about CREEPING SHARIAH !!11!!!! and BOYCOTT TERROR-SYMPS!!1!!!

    Now, an association with anything Donald Trump-related? Another kettle of soup….

  49. 49.

    JPL

    @Jay C: Well I did my part this morning, I walked past the Pepperidge Farm cookies this morning. I doubt I have Campbell products in my house, but if I do I’ll bring them to the food bank.

    Just checked my pantry, and I do have a jar of pace, but that’s it.

  50. 50.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay:

    The people in that administration must know that they’re playing with fire here.

    Kay, those people are being paid quite well for their ignorance.

  51. 51.

    TenguPhule

    @Amir Khalid:

    It seems true: nothing can stop the runaway train that Trump’s presidency has become.

    Blowing up the train tracks results in those trains becoming very well acquainted with the laws of thermodynamics.

  52. 52.

    Tokyokie

    Nothing can stop the Trump train? On the contrary, a train’s destination is entirely predictable because it requires tracks. And although I wouldn’t recommend the train-stopping tactics that are demonstrated in Lawrence of Arabia, at the end of The Train (which, BTW, is a terrific movie everybody should see), Burt Lancaster (Hollywood’s leading liberal he-man) stops the Nazi train merely be removing the anchoring bolts from a short section of track. But I guess abysmal presidencies inspire abysmal metaphors.

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