Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

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

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

This really is a full service blog.

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

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Let me file that under fuck it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / So, Trump’s fucking U.N. speech…

So, Trump’s fucking U.N. speech…

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I couldn’t bear to watch the speech live. Trump could read MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech and ruin it with his horrible snuffling and fake-tough-guy patois. Saw a couple of clips on Twitter. This one seems to be getting the most attention:

God, how embarrassing. Resorting to the transcript is just as cringe-inducing, but at least you’re spared the quivering jowls, rigid hair-helmet and bully-boy voice. Here are some morsels I found notable for one reason or another:

It is a profound honor to stand here in my home city, as a representative of the American people, to address the people of the world.

Standard boilerplate, but I will never recover from the deep sense of shame that washes over me every time I confront anew the fact that this buffoon represents my country. I’ll always feel it, even if President Gillibrand is followed by Presidents Kamala Harris, Ted Lieu, Joaquin Castro, et al, and the Republican Party atrophies like a vestigial tail, drops off and is forgotten by history. This shame is eternal.

Of course, the speech had elements of a campaign rally:

Fortunately, the United States has done very well since Election Day last November 8th. The stock market is at an all-time high — a record. Unemployment is at its lowest level in 16 years, and because of our regulatory and other reforms, we have more people working in the United States today than ever before. Companies are moving back, creating job growth the likes of which our country has not seen in a very long time. And it has just been announced that we will be spending almost $700 billion on our military and defense.

Mostly lies and distortions, except the last sentence. The crowing about the $700B in military spending stands in sharp contrast to the spectacle now playing out in Congress, where the GOP is attempting to gut healthcare for millions of people so they can funnel that money to the rich in the form of tax cuts.

There’s your healthcare and infrastructure, folks. If it’s not streaming into a fat cat’s pockets via tax cuts, it is being poured into the insatiable maw of a military machine that already consumes more than what the next eight top militarized nations spend combined. And guess who gets fat off those defense contracts?

But, moving on, Trump reminds us that America is great because it developed an indeterminate number of pillars:

It was in the same period, exactly 70 years ago, that the United States developed the Marshall Plan to help restore Europe. Those three beautiful pillars — they’re pillars of peace, sovereignty, security, and prosperity.

The White House speech team can’t count.

But enough about peace, prosperity, blah blah blah — who threatens us? “Radical Islamic terrorism,” Iran and North Korea. Not Russia! Though Trump does eventually mention the 1,600 lb. bear in the room:

I want to thank China and Russia for joining the vote to impose sanctions, along with all of the other members of the Security Council.

There was no mention of Russia’s flagrant interference in our democracy, of course. In light of that, this bit toward the end was unintentionally ironic:

The true question for the United Nations today, for people all over the world who hope for better lives for themselves and their children, is a basic one: Are we still patriots? Do we love our nations enough to protect their sovereignty and to take ownership of their futures?

Apparently not, if you’re a Republican, and you’ve grafted your husk of a party onto the weak, vain, unprincipled, incoherent and erratic clown who addressed the United Nations today. The rest of us will have to be the patriots.

Reader Interactions

343Comments

  2. 2.

    TenguPhule

    The stock market is at an all-time high — a record. Unemployment is at its lowest level in 16 years, and because of our regulatory and other reforms, we have more people working in the United States today than ever before. Companies are moving back, creating job growth the likes of which our country has not seen in a very long time. And it has just been announced that we will be spending almost $700 billion on our military and defense.

    At the UN. To other countries.

    The shame isn’t merely eternal, its all encompassing.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    I’ll always feel it, even if President Gillibrand is followed by Presidents Kamala Harris, Ted Lieu, Joaquin Castro, et al, and the Republican Party atrophies like a vestigial tail, drops off and is forgotten by history.

    I know..I know..

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    For those who may not have seen it in an previous thread, this was also shoehorned in to the Senate version of DoD budget:

    The defense authorization bill would allow graduates of military academies to skip active duty and join pro-football, baseball and hockey leagues by accepting a commission in the Selected Reserve. The McCain-backed provision faces opposition from the Trump administration and the House, which want to see military graduates carry out their at least some of their active-duty commissions first. Source

  7. 7.

    trollhattan

    Tuned in on the radio more than halfway in but did I hear him give a plug for his building in the “same neighborhood” or somesuch? He simply can’t help but use every opportunity to grift that presents himself.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    But Betty, we used to spend more on our military than the next ten militaries combined! We’re slipping!!

  9. 9.

    TenguPhule

    @NotMax:

    The defense authorization bill would allow graduates of military academies to skip active duty and join pro-football, baseball and hockey leagues by accepting a commission in the Selected Reserve.

    Draft dodging for the elite, updated for the 21st century.

  11. 11.

    Major Major Major Major

    I got to the Caltrain station today right as he was finishing. I hadn’t been listening to the speech, but I knew he was finishing because I went to get coffee from the kiosk, as I do every morning, and it was playing. They usually have The Today Show on, maybe it was showing the speech, maybe they’d changed the channel. Trump was doing the god bless us, everyone thing at the end when I walked up.

    Now, usually the woman who works there and I have a nice little chat, if it’s not too busy, as I buy my cup of coffee and bag of nuts (you are what you eat!). Today it wasn’t busy, but we did the entire transaction in angry silence, all because Little Lord Fuckface was on the teevee.

    I can barely survive contact with reality with this fucker in the white house.

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    if President Gillibrand is followed by Presidents Kamala Harris, Ted Lieu, Joaquin Castro, et al

    At two terms each, ol’ Joaquin would be pretty far along in years by the time he wrapped his two terms up…wait…no he wouldn’t, he can’t even order a beer right now. My bad.

  13. 13.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah:

    Their vessel for White Supremacy is an INTERNATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT.

    Given the rate at which radio waves travel through space, more like an Intergalactic one.

    Just think, people* are are going to receive this shit for thousands of years to come as it bounces around the cosmos.

    *Possibly not our descendents

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    This is a tough, soul-sapping news day. A number of co-workers have relatives in Mexico City. We’re not sure of the extent of damage and possible injuries. Hurricanes, Trump in the UN, another upcoming attempt to scuttle the Affordable Care Act.

    I’ll always feel it, even if President Gillibrand is followed by Presidents Kamala Harris, Ted Lieu, Joaquin Castro, et al, and the Republican Party atrophies like a vestigial tail, drops off and is forgotten by history

    I really fear that before we get here, dumbass Americans will inflict the country with even more and worse Trump-like buffoons.

  18. 18.

    Laura

    @NotMax: hmm, that kinda sounds like a real fuck you to the memory of Pat Tillman. Way to go Maverick, way to go.
    Also, our ‘president’ showed his ass to the world today. That’s going to pay off in all manner of collateral damage.

  19. 19.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Thanks, Betty! I could go on about that if Trump is going to talk about destroying North Korea and ripping up the Iran deal, North Korea is NEVER going to denuclearize. Or that strong nations and people don’t need to brag about how strong they are. But maybe later.

    Also, I’ve been dinged on this by editors who won’t print it, but so much of this is just macho by old men who are losing it. McMaster (I think – the generals tend to look all the same to me) said yesterday that there were solutions, but he wouldn’t talk about them. Honestly, North Korea knows what we’ve got, and that’s why they’re building nuclear weapons. But these guys need to strut their stuff, and they don’t have it on a personal level.

    And for Haydnseek:

  23. 23.

    HeleninEire

    Didn’t watch it. Won’t. 5 hours ahead has its advantages. But I already know that he threatened the world with nuclear destruction.

    Going back to the last thread to read about pee. I mean peas!

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    Even in a scripted speech he delivers like a word salad shooter run amok. “Harry Truman…good guy, ‘buck stops here’ hey, I’ll take that buck. Anyway, Harry Truman said some things…” Et cetera.

  30. 30.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Kelly seems as horrified as the rest of us, but he must have known what was in the speech. Trump seems to have done a pretty good job of reading it exclusive of his clunky reading and mispronounciations (See Betty’s clip above). My guess is that there were only a couple of Trumpian digressions. What is Kelly reacting to?

  31. 31.

    Gravenstone

    O/T but Mexico apparently just had a 7.1 quake, 75 miles from Mexico City. Here’s hoping for minimal loss of life.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    Never mind Trump — cuz I refuse to watch or listen to that asshat — but I’d love to see a stream of faces of those in his audience today. Their reactions.

    Bring on the best of the shocked faces, please.

  34. 34.

    Elizabelle

    @Gravenstone: And it was on the anniversary of a major 1985 quake. Some folks were out in the squares, practicing earthquake drills, when it occurred.

    Trump. Floods. Hurricanes. Two big quakes in Mexico.

    Can locusts be far behind?

  38. 38.

    Major Major Major Major

    @NotMax:

    Morbo: Morbo will now introduce the candidates – Puny Human Number One, Puny Human Number Two, and Morbo’s good friend Richard Nixon.
    Richard Nixon’s Head: How’s the family, Morbo?
    Morbo: Belligerent and numerous.

  40. 40.

    Yutsano

    @trollhattan: He doesn’t stick to scripts. That’s not how he can operate. He doesn’t read at a literacy level to keep up with a teleprompter. So he goes to his brain. That’s one of the reasons why he thinks he’s smart: he thinks he can improvise.

    @trollhattan: Chapalones! Chapalones everywhere!

    (Side note: kan I haz mah English spelling reform now plz?)

  43. 43.

    Gravenstone

    @rikyrah:

    There are some great tweets of the UN audience….the looks on their faces….

    They’re all thinking, “our intelligence services warned us he was crazy … but they underestimated just HOW crazy”.

  46. 46.

    cope

    I cannot bring myself to watch, listen to or even read extensive transcripts of what effluent issues forth from his piehole. Thanks for taking yet another one for the team.

    Rather than watch that on the TV today, I worked my way through the second episode of Ken Burn’s and Lynn Novick’s “Viet Nam” doc. So far, nothing earth-shattering I didn’t already know or suspect other than the vehemence with which Diem’s regime went after Buddhist protesters.

  49. 49.

    clay

    @Cheryl Rofer: Katy Tur’s not wrong, exactly (I’m sure Trump’s base loved the speech), but analyzing a speech through the reaction of Trump’s base is trivial and useless. These are the same people that caused her to have to fear for her safety at Trump’s campaign rallies. How ’bout a little context, Katy?

  50. 50.

    Fleeting Expletive

    @Elizabelle: He sure does, shockingly so.

    I am intrigued by the peripheral players and what they know, like that Jason Maloni, Manafort’s former (?) spokesman, who testified for more than 2 hours to one of the committees. I hope Manafort successfully implicates Roger Stone as his comeuppance would sober up a lot of the DC political class o’ folks.

  52. 52.

    Mary G

    The earthquake looks terrible. Jorge Guajado has videos of building after building collapsing on his Twitter feed.

  53. 53.

    sharl

    I haven’t yet confirmed their veracity – my inability to read Spanish certainly won’t help in this matter – but videos reported to be of today’s Mexico City earthquake are scarily impressive.

    #BREAKING: Here is the moment when the earthquake struck Mexico City. (Video by @AlertaChiapas) pic.twitter.com/DfEcxF7nob— BreakingNNow (@BreakingNNow) September 19, 2017

    Devastating images from Mexico City. pic.twitter.com/RpF7sUq31s— Jorge Guajardo (@jorge_guajardo) September 19, 2017

  54. 54.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I’m with you M4. I’ve been retreating. The assholes in the GOP and the idiots on the purity left are overwhelming me with their sheer stupidity. Rooting for an alien abduction at this point.

  57. 57.

    schrodingers_cat

    The President is a punchline of a joke. I was just watching a YouTube video of AIB (an Indian comedy group) interviewing Shahrukh Khan. His movie had not done as well as expected, so Shahrukh says I am feeling bad about myself but then I see T. Everyone started giggling.This interview was taped during the time when all travel ban related shit was going on in late Jan. Then SRK added perhaps he is never going to get a US visa again.
    Unfortunately, the joke is on us.

  58. 58.

    Aleta

    Lipscomb University: Fire the food service manager or employee who’s responsible for the blatantly racist table, because someone there made a decision that was not an accident.

    Fire the president for being unfit to do his job, for being uneducated, unprepared, and without the character to lead students. He needs to spend his last two weeks shutting down the stupidity of the alumni complaining on facebook and defending the AA students.

    Use most of his salary to hire a campus AA advocate, and a department head for diversity affairs and programming, with offices in the student union.

    Students aren’t paying to go to school to be forced to handle this bullshit.

  59. 59.

    Gravenstone

    Wait, what? Just caught a CNN banner that fucking Ivanka Trump is speaking to some group at the UN about human slavery. Ivanka? In the name of all that’s holy – WHY??!?!

  61. 61.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @clay: I think that is the whole of the analysis of Trump’s speech in one sense. It is what he wanted to do, and it was the style and vocabulary that appeals to his base. It’s totally inappropriate for the President of the United States at the United Nations. That’s useful to have in mind.

    How others reacted is the other side of the analysis. Secretary General António Guterres anticipated Trump’s speech by rebutting it in his opener. Betty has covered much of the reaction from sane Americans up top, and I’ve added a bit. We’ll have to wait a bit for reporters to get reactions from other participants. Don’t be surprised if there are more North Korean missile tests in the next week, or even a nuclear test.

  62. 62.

    Gin & Tonic

    @sharl: I posted downstairs that I’ve gotten some pictures and videos – my son has friends there, and his girlfriend has family. They are indeed impressive, not in a good way.

  63. 63.

    Another Scott

    @Cheryl Rofer: It was Mattis – Reuters:

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hinted on Monday about the existence of military options on North Korea that might spare Seoul from a brutal counterattack but declined to say what kind of options he was talking about or whether they involved the use of lethal force.

    U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday the U.N. Security Council had run out of options on containing North Korea’s nuclear program and that the United States might have to turn the matter over to the Pentagon.

    Any conflict on the Korean peninsula could easily result in a degree of bloodshed unseen since the 1950-53 Korean War, which claimed the lives of more than 50,000 Americans and millions of Koreans and ended in an armed truce, not a peace treaty.

    Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea, which beyond nuclear and conventional weapons is also believed to have a sizable chemical and biological arsenal.

    Asked whether there were any military options the United States could take with North Korea that would not put Seoul at grave risk, Mattis said: “Yes there are. But I will not go into details.”

    Pressed on whether that might include so-called “kinetic” options that use lethal force, Mattis said: “I don’t want to go into that.”

    I guess if we all just clap louder then everything will be fine.

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  64. 64.

    Miss Bianca

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    The assholes in the GOP and the idiots on the purity left are overwhelming me with their sheer stupidity. Rooting for an alien abduction at this point.

    I’m right there in the foxhole with you. Dunno about the alien abduction – but I am brewing larger amounts of alcohol lately. That’s not just a coping mechanism, it’s going to become a bartering tool when the preppers take over.

  67. 67.

    Westyny

    Beautifully written, Betty. I’m having less shame over this Guy day by day because it’s increasingly apparent that we DIDN’T elect him. This is an illegitimate administration.

  70. 70.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Another Scott: Thanks. This in particular was what I was recalling:

    Asked whether there were any military options the United States could take with North Korea that would not put Seoul at grave risk, Mattis said: “Yes there are. But I will not go into details.”

    That is just pure BS. What is scary is that he is thinking about one or more of the options everyone else is well aware of and somehow has come to believe the US can decapitate Kim Jong Un (or whatever) before North Korea fires on Seoul.

  71. 71.

    Adam L Silverman

    I just got in and was going to do my own post on this, but BettyC beat me to it. So I’ll put my thoughts here in a comment.

    This is a Stephen Miller authored speech. With the exception of the Rocket Man quip. It is Miller channeling all of his own naive, arrested development sense of entitlement, paranoia, pettiness, grievances, anger, rage, and woeful ignorance of foreign and national security policy and strategy, the global system and how it works, and any state and society other than the US. It is also Miller channeling the President’s naive sense of entitlement, paranoia, pettiness, grievances, anger, rage, and woeful ignorance of foreign and national security policy and strategy, the global system and how it works, and any state and society other than the US. The ego fluffing bits about how great things are in the US under the President are Miller making sure his boss’s ego is stroked.

    This would have been bad enough and inappropriate at a campaign rally, it is even worse at the UN General Assembly. Threatening to abrogate the P5+1 agreement with Iran is only going to make dealing with the DPRK worse. What Kim really wants is an assurance that the US will 1) not remove him and 2) will negotiate with him in good faith. The threat to abrogate the agreement with Iran makes that virtually impossible. Moreover, it makes it almost virtually impossible to negotiate anything with any other state or supranational entity as no one will now believe that the US will live up to its commitments under the current administration and president. The President’s mistaken belief that every agreement the US has entered into that he has not negotiated are bad for the US; should never have been entered into; and as a result should be abrogated; which is every single one as he and his administration haven’t negotiated any agreements since taking office in January; demonstrates how little he and Miller understand how any of this works. If I was the governors of Alaska, Louisiana, and Arkansas I would be very worried that their states are going to be handed back to Russia and France respectively. Governor Abbot should also begin learning how to ask President Nieto for things once we give Texas back to Mexico as well.

    This speech is a good example of the limits of the abilities of the adults to constrain and contain the President, his worst impulses, and the worst impulses of his advisors such as Miller. It is highly likely that the draft speech prepared and vetted through the Interagency with inputs from Secretaries Mattis and Tillerson, LTG McMaster, Ambassador Haley, and Gary Cohn was handed to Stephen Miller by the President with instructions to MAGA it up. And MAGA it up he did. Once the bad reviews filter up to the President’s attention when he’s back in the residence this evening, on his own, watching cable TV and looking at twitter, expect a complete twitter breakdown.

  75. 75.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @NotMax: During the campaign, there were a couple or articles about the difficulties interpreters had rendering Trump’s mumblings into other languages.

    For a formal UN speech like this, the interpreters are likely to have printed copies of the speeches ahead of time. That may not have helped much.

  79. 79.

    clay

    @NotMax: Funnily enough, I just watched a Daily Show episode from the summer where they interviewed people who worked as translators who had to repeat Trump’s speeches to foreign viewers.

    Most of them said they couldn’t translate Trump verbatim, “because I would seem stupid”.

  80. 80.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Major Major Major Major: I find myself in much the same situation. I exist in a general state of disbelief with the current president – I KNOW he’s President, but every time I see “President Trump” I have a mental “he’s not really representing our country – he won after a massive disinformation campaign with the russians and our horrible media” moment.

    And then I go on with my life until I see him in a speech, at which point I’m angry. How could literally anyone see him speak and think “This is a leader”?

  82. 82.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @NotMax:

    The defense authorization bill would allow graduates of military academies to skip active duty and join pro-football, baseball and hockey leagues by accepting a commission in the Selected Reserve.

    Someone really needs to ask Roger Staubach his opinion on going directly from a service academy to pro sports.

  83. 83.

    Elie

    @Brachiator:

    I agree that this is one of the worst days in a fucking year of worst days…

    I refuse to give in to despair but I just want to scream and scream and scream…

    These people seriously want to destroy all that was wonderful and truly valuable about America… they want to dispose of the America of diversity and humanistic values, so completely that it is never remembered. That is all I can think. That the drive to this White Supremacy is a ruthless state of being that cannot abide coexistence with any value around fairness, justice or equality.

    But you know what, my answer is NO! No fucking way. I know things look dark now, and we may still suffer a while, but I will work for YES to what I and many many of us believe..

  85. 85.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    If I was the governors of Alaska, Louisiana, and Arkansas I would be very worried that their states are going to be handed back to Russia and France respectively.

    Handing Louisiana back to France could only be viewed as an improvement.

  90. 90.

    JGabriel

    Bettty Cracker @ Top:

    Trump: “Those three beautiful pillars — they’re pillars of peace, sovereignty, security, and prosperity.”

    The White House speech team can’t count.

    I have absolutely no interest in defending the Trump Error. None. Less Than Zero.

    That said, I suspect the above sentence from Trump’s speech is supposed to be punctuated as follows:

    Those three beautiful pillars — they’re pillars of peace: sovereignty, security, and prosperity.

    Thereby proving once again the importance of the colon.

  91. 91.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @TenguPhule:

    I’d willingly go with them at this point. Unless they were going to come and stay to do the whole “to serve man” thing – you know, with the stupid ones.

  93. 93.

    Jeffro

    @Cheryl Rofer: I’m pretty sure the North Koreans can fire off all that Seoul-bound artillery in minutes (if not under a minute) once the order is given. They’d better knock this shit off (including Mattis).

  94. 94.

    Steve in the ATL

    Wow that was embarrassing for the USA. Good thing I’m drunk–tried a new drinking game today. I took a shot every time I saw a Subaru with a dog in it between the airport and downtown Denver. Was going to get my stomach pumped but that speech made me puke it all up.

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s Dog Whistle to White Supremacists in His UN Speech
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    September 19, 2017

    There are many things that are cause for concern in Trump’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly today. But it is important to keep in mind that it was primarily written by white nationalist Stephen Miller, who included major dog whistles to white supremacists.

    The primary vehicle Miller used to do that is through the words “sovereign” or “sovereignty,” which Trump used at least 25 times. For example:

    The success of the United Nations depends upon the independent strength of its members. To overcome the perils of the present, and to achieve the promise of the future, we must begin with the wisdom of the past. Our success depends on a coalition of strong and independent nations that embrace their sovereignty, to promote security, prosperity, and peace, for themselves and for the world. We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, traditions, or even systems of government, but we do expect all nations to uphold these two core sovereign duties, to respect the interests of their own people and the rights of every other sovereign nation.

    There is nothing inherently nefarious about the word sovereign, but it’s use in this country has been particularly tied to white supremacy for decades.

  101. 101.

    Gin & Tonic

    @NotMax: Pedant alert. Those people are interpreters. The people who sit in their study with a Spanish novel to produce an English version are translators.

  102. 102.

    The Golux

    @Haydnseek:

    …he’s taking a huge shit in every yard in the world.

    Actually, I think it would be less of an embarrassment if he had dropped trou and squeezed out a steamer on the podium.

    And then pulled out a spoon and chowed down.

  103. 103.

    TenguPhule

    @Gin & Tonic:

    The people who sit in their study with a Spanish novel to produce an English version are translators.

    I suspect the translators had their work cut out for them to get a version of Trump’s speech that the interpreters could actually read.

  104. 104.

    japa21

    @Adam L Silverman: The bad reviews won’t filter up. The ones from the Boy Scouts speech apparently never did. I expect him to tweet out within 24 hours how several leaders told him it was the bestest speech ever given at the UN and how he got a standing ovation, but the media would show it.

    I am old enough to remember Khrushchev’s speech to the UN. About the only thing Trump left out was the shoe pounding.

    And basically, when hew said the leaders have to look out after their own country’s self interest first, he basically gave all the countries he condemned permission to do what they are doing.

  107. 107.

    SatanicPanic

    @clay: no kidding. It’s also not news. Yes, Trump’s base is full of morons. Also, I went outside and the sky was blue.

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    Why are the GOP so hellbent on passing LEGAL GENOCIDE? #NoACARepeal #ProtectOurCare NO ON #GrahamCassidy
    — bardgal (@bardgal) September 19, 2017

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    I suspect also some input from Pence’s buddy and administration appointee (thankfully forget his name at the moment) who wrote the “Only white men should be permitted to vote or hold power” manifesto during the election campaign.

  110. 110.

    ruckus

    @Elie:
    We’ve had bad presidents before. You can repeat that all you want but you know that there has never been one even close to this bad before. Chico Marx would have been dramatically better, even in character, than this asshat. And Chico passed away rather a long time ago.

  113. 113.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Trump’s speeches do not get me excited anymore. Every time he opens his mouth, horrible bullshit comes out, and it bears little or no relation to reality. You could put a Teddy Ruxpin on that podium and get just as much actual useful information out of it. And I figure by now, the international community knows it. They’re politely pretending they care what the idiot figurehead babbles, while arranging with each other how to conduct international affairs while America is paralyzed.

  114. 114.

    Steeplejack

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Ha! It’s cropped out on this page, but, if you go to that tweet and embiggen the pictures, the one on the right looks like Kelly just unexpectedly threw up in his mouth a little bit and doesn’t know quite what to do.

  116. 116.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Trump’s aides did manage to get out a tweet extending sympathy to Mexico for the earthquake. He said nothing about the quake a few weeks back, and Mexico rescinded their offer of help for our hurricane damage.

  122. 122.

    NotMax

    @Gin & Tonic

    Yes but… it’s usually referred to as simultaneous translation.

    Or was during the multiple times I’ve visited the U.N. in the past.

    Step-father worked at the U.N. in the disarmament offices for many years before moving to academia and he always called them translators. Again, from years and years ago.

  125. 125.

    TenguPhule

    And Trump is going to take another vacation this weekend after leaving this big stinking pile dumped on the world stage.

    Its not even newsworthy anymore that this lazy asshole does at most 15 hours of actual work a week in between vacations, watching tv, reading odes to himself and tweeting.

    Fuck white man privilege.

  127. 127.

    rikyrah

    @Elie:

    These people seriously want to destroy all that was wonderful and truly valuable about America… they want to dispose of the America of diversity and humanistic values, so completely that it is never remembered. That is all I can think. That the drive to this White Supremacy is a ruthless state of being that cannot abide coexistence with any value around fairness, justice or equality.

    No lie told.

    But you know what, my answer is NO! No fucking way. I know things look dark now, and we may still suffer a while, but I will work for YES to what I and many many of us believe..

    That’s right.
    PHUCK ALL OF THEM. BUT, HELL, NO.

  128. 128.

    Gin & Tonic

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m pretty sure there was a series of jokes about that fact when he bought that vehicle. But really, a Subaru-driving woman from the Amherst area? What are the odds?

  131. 131.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Gin & Tonic: We are a one car family so the Subarus have been husband kitteh’s car too. They just work better in snow and ice. I have also owned Toyotas and a Nissan.

    ETA: Its funny really, I even have had more male friends than female at many points in my life. Men are much easier to deal with than women in my opinion. I do have girl crushes though. My current one is Kangana Ranaut, I don’t want to do them but be them.

  136. 136.

    TenguPhule

    @Gravenstone:

    Speaking of, you do know those are back on the market now, right? The End Times truly are upon us.

    And here I thought the day couldn’t get any worse.

  138. 138.

    ChrisH

    Imagining Trump as the point haired boss from Dilbert thinking “why is it whenever I give a speech, the shared printer starts spitting out resumes written in Chinese?”

  141. 141.

    p.a.

    @The Golux:

    …he’s taking a huge shit in every yard in the world.

    Actually, I think it would be less of an embarrassment if he had dropped trou and squeezed out a steamer on the podium.

    And then pulled out a spoon and chowed down.

    Don’t forget the ketchup.

  142. 142.

    VOR

    To Cheryl Rofer’s point, this speech is what Trump’s base wanted to hear. Witness supposed man of God, Mike Huckabee, saying it is “refreshing” to hear our President talk about nuking another country.

  145. 145.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I know about Botox, of course I do, but honestly, is Melania even capable of any facial expression apart from that perpetual air of arrogant boredom? Just looking at those side-by-side pictures of her, she could be wearing a literal mask.

  157. 157.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Major Major Major Major: We do so have weather! We had some rain last week. And… like, 3 bolts of lightning. :)

    @VOR: I’m never surprised by how awful our supposed “Christian leaders” are. It’s obviously more of a tribe than an actual belief system at this point.

    I have some in-laws who are the same faith as Huckabee. They’re generally okay people with some really startling deviations from religious teachings, mostly to whatever the republican party wants at the moment. And they look down on us because we’re not practicing Christians, even though we live the biblical tenets better than they do.

  161. 161.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TenguPhule:

    The stock market is at an all-time high — a record. Unemployment is at its lowest level in 16 years, and because of our regulatory and other reforms, we have more people working in the United States today than ever before. Companies are moving back, creating job growth the likes of which our country has not seen in a very long time. And it has just been announced that we will be spending almost $700 billion on our military and defense.

    Wait, wait…THIS was in Trump’s speech? To the Ufuckingnited NATIONS???

    I heard the speech, but NPR picked it up in progress. This part must have been near the beginning, so I didn’t catch it. Just

    Just

    j u s t

    I am so very tired of this.

  165. 165.

    Shalimar

    @TenguPhule: It took 50 years, but McCain finally fixed the injustice of Roger Staubach not getting to play for the Dallas Cowboys directly out of the Naval Academy. Note, I have never heard Staubach himself complain about having to serve his country.

  168. 168.

    Steve in the ATL

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    is Melania even capable of any facial expression apart from that perpetual air of arrogant boredom?

    Faking enthusiasm was part of her previous job, but not this one

  169. 169.

    TenguPhule

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    IIRC, the Garbage Pail Kids were a direct ripoff of the equally repellent Cabbage Patch Dolls.

    Not a ripoff, straight up gross out mockery.

    Exactly the kind of thing to amuse little boys.

  170. 170.

    Archon

    Almost a year in and its still surreal to see the President of the United States laying our country low like this.

  173. 173.

    Brachiator

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This is a Stephen Miller authored speech. With the exception of the Rocket Man quip. It is Miller channeling all of his own naive, arrested development sense of entitlement, paranoia, pettiness, grievances, anger, rage, and woeful ignorance of foreign and national security policy and strategy, the global system and how it works, and any state and society other than the US.

    Interesting observation. And as you note, Miller knows Trump, what he wants, how he thinks. Even with a new chief of staff and various people ousted, Trump seems able to find and nurture people who are able to expertly understand and communicate his gnarled world view.

    This would have been bad enough and inappropriate at a campaign rally, it is even worse at the UN General Assembly. Threatening to abrogate the P5+1 agreement with Iran is only going to make dealing with the DPRK worse. What Kim really wants is an assurance that the US will 1) not remove him and 2) will negotiate with him in good faith.

    I don’t see that Kim is worried about the US removing him. Even though they ain’t the Soviet Union anymore, Russia seems to be a firm ally and China continues to be a friend. I also wonder if North Korea would threaten China if it felt any betrayal.

    On the other hand, I am really trying to understand what North Korea would gain from negotiating with the US. I don’t see them giving up their nukes or their weapon program. They seem to be firmly organized around their fear and paranoia, and cannot back down, no matter what sanctions are imposed.

    The President’s mistaken belief that every agreement the US has entered into that he has not negotiated are bad for the US; should never have been entered into; and as a result should be abrogated

    Yes! It is weird that Trump not only sees US history as a series of failed deals, but that the universe begins with him, and is waiting for him to stamp the Trump brand on reality.

    This speech is a good example of the limits of the abilities of the adults to constrain and contain the President, his worst impulses, and the worst impulses of his advisors such as Miller.

    Trump is president, not any of the few adults around him. He is not looking to be constrained, nor will he ever be for long. And Trump let Miller loose because he delivered what Trump wanted. Trump ultimately nothing but his worst impulses. There is little positive to constrain.

    It is highly likely that the draft speech prepared and vetted through the Interagency with inputs from Secretaries Mattis and Tillerson, LTG McMaster, Ambassador Haley, and Gary Cohn was handed to Stephen Miller by the President with instructions to MAGA it up. And MAGA it up he did.

    Once the bad reviews filter up to the President’s attention when he’s back in the residence this evening, on his own, watching cable TV and looking at twitter, expect a complete twitter breakdown.

    Remember, this is Trump. Right now, someone is compiling a “feel gooder” to let Trump know how wonderful his speech was, the best speech ever. And he will have the filter of Fox News and similar sources to stroke his ego.

  174. 174.

    catclub

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    And it has just been announced that we will be spending almost $700 billion on our military and defense.

    Translation: We are a nation of insecure assholes, and I am highly representative of all of us.

  177. 177.

    randy khan

    @lamh36:

    JUST IN: President Trump is using campaign & RNC funds to pay Russia probe legal bills – Reuters, citing sources

    That’s just fine with me. Use that money for anything besides campaigning for T or the Republicans. (I’m not saying it’s legal, just that I like the idea that the money might be used this way – after all, he could set up a legal defense fund that could take additional contributions instead of using this money.)

  178. 178.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    As a cat-lover myself, it pains me to say this, but there is something ever-so-slightly feline about her.

    Remember that ultra-creepy family portrait of Donald, Melania, and young Barron in the gilt penthouse? IIRC, Barron is “riding” a lion. Hmmmmm.

    Also gives an entirely new layer of Freudian “yerghch!” to the brutal and cowardly slaughter of big cats by Don Jr. “Safari” Uday and Eric “Killing Fields” Qusay.

  179. 179.

    stinger

    @Cheryl Rofer: I often wonder what FLOTUS thinks about during times like this. Her English may not be strong enough to follow what’s going on, especially as mangled by the heavy breather. Is she doing the times tables in her head? Remembering her 7th birthday party? Dreaming of her second husband?

  182. 182.

    randy khan

    @Steve in the ATL:

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    is Melania even capable of any facial expression apart from that perpetual air of arrogant boredom?

    Faking enthusiasm was part of her previous job, but not this one

    That’s actually the standard model expression, at least on runways. I’ve never quite understood it.

  183. 183.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Tangential: I watched the full clip of Melania introducing Trump where he shook her hand and then sort of pushed her off camera, and I was surprised at how thick her accent is. It’s really in the “Boris! Is crazy moose and squirrel!” zone. For some reason I thought that after living here for years her accent was lighter, but then I realized that you almost never hear her speak more than a few words at a time. The speech intro was the first exception in a long time.

  184. 184.

    TenguPhule

    Equifax suffered another breach before the one they just reported.

    I wish this was a bad joke.

    Equifax suffered another major breach before the massive data breach disclosed earlier this month, the company confirmed Monday, revealing yet again the vulnerability of the credit agency’s computer systems.

    The earlier breach, first reported by Bloomberg, was discovered by Equifax in March. But the company said that the earlier intrusion was unrelated to the breach that may have impacted as many as 143 million people, which the company discovered in July but did not disclose until six weeks later.

    “Equifax complied fully with all consumer notification requirements related to the March incident,” Equifax said in a statement. “The two events are not related.”

    Equifax did not offer any details about the information that may have been stolen, or how many people may have been affected. It’s possible the hackers behind the March attack were seeking a way into the networks of major banks, using Equifax as a point of entry, according to Bloomberg.

    AAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

  186. 186.

    Brachiator

    @lamh36:

    JUST IN: President Trump is using campaign & RNC funds to pay Russia probe legal bills – Reuters, citing sources

    Well, yeah. Trump never spends his own money if he can work a con.

  195. 195.

    randy khan

    @NotMax:

    The defense authorization bill would allow graduates of military academies to skip active duty and join pro-football, baseball and hockey leagues by accepting a commission in the Selected Reserve. The McCain-backed provision faces opposition from the Trump administration and the House, which want to see military graduates carry out their at least some of their active-duty commissions first.

    So what does Senator McCain have against basketball? I think there are more former military academy grads in the Naismith Hall of Fame than the baseball and hockey halls of fame combined. (It’s 1 to 0 if I’m right, but never mind.)

    The truth is that the number of people who would be affected is small enough that it probably doesn’t matter, but it still seems wrong.

  198. 198.

    Elizabelle

    LA Times reports that at least 44 dead in Mexico City quake.

    OT, but thinking on the aberration that is Graham-Cassidy (fuck them both, very much), and wondering how it would play out if US healthcare system provided affordable and substantial substance abuse treatment. Mexico is suffering its worst drug violence because we, Puritans making policy for us, are their neighbors to the north and a ready and willing appetite for any drug they can throw at us.

    Of course, there’s homegrown meth addiction, for those that the economy and progress have left behind.

    But the US having a more universal type healthcare system could rebound redound to Mexico’s benefit, too.

    Again, fuck Graham and Cassidy. They deserve hell for the abomination the GOP is playing with right now.

  200. 200.

    Juju

    @schrodingers_cat: Katy Tur is about as bright as she is deep. If it weren’t for her old boyfriend Keith Olberman she wouldn’t be at NBC. I was under the impression that NBC put her on the Trump campaign because she had been the end of the news broadcast fluff piece person, and the powers that be never thought Trump would take off the way he did, and Katy Tur road that wave. Every now and again she manages to sound reasonably intelligent, but at other times I get the impression she’s parroting things she’s heard around the newsroom. I’ve read the excerpt from her book about how Trump mauled her, and I felt sorry for her because euww, but it was poorly written. Obviously I’ve never been that impressed by her work. I’m with you in regards to Katy Tur.

  201. 201.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Reaction from Kori Schake, who was a Defense Department official in the G. W. Bush administration.

    President Trump took the exact opposite course in his speech today. Moreover, before the entire world, he threatened the destruction of an entire country. Not only does that draw a red line that will be difficult to walk back from; it is also a much less credible and ethical threat than a pledge to more narrowly target the Kim regime. Waging war against people already enslaved by an authoritarian government punishes them unjustly—that would have been an easy point score in front of a UN audience.

  204. 204.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Elizabelle:

    Looks like the ghost of the Dark Prince Robert Novak below Melania.

    Remember him? Am sure he is in hell, this very day.

    That is seriously uncanny, the resemblance.

  206. 206.

    zhena gogolia

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    People misunderstood my comment the other day about how I was losing hope about the Mueller investigation. I fully believe that Mr. Mueller and his team are doing what they are supposed to do. But it makes no difference. With every passing day, with every passing second, this illegitimate “president” does more and more incalculable damage to our country and the world. We need a more immediate remedy than Mueller’s investigation. And I have no idea what that is.

  207. 207.

    Juju

    @schrodingers_cat: I have a Subaru and as I am a single woman past a certain age people often make that assumption. I don’t own any flannel except for some sheets. My favorite set has sock monkeys.

  208. 208.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodingers_cat: Agreed. That goes for most of the cable news establishment.

    FWIW, I heard a lot of Terry Gross’s interview with Hillary Clinton yesterday. Missed great swathes of it because — pledge week.

    Was thinking that someone who did not follow politics would find HRC’s responses to be fantastic — in the fictional sense — but, strange as they sound — they’re true. So much drama. So much peril for us, since the rightwing money boyz and girls don’t want us to have our say.

    Thought Terry kind of served up rightwing framing questions — maybe the better for HRC to dash them down, but was struck by the “oh really” subtext you would not get if an interviewer was talking with — say, Colbert or Letterman.

  209. 209.

    Elizabelle

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes. Very strange.

    Wikipedia tells me that Novak is planted in the “Gates of Heaven” cemetery, but I know he has passed through the gates of hell.

    Trump speechifying and Mexico quake aside: we have the fact of dead Novak, dead Scalia, and dead Ailes working for us. Appreciate that. Every day.

  211. 211.

    Adam L Silverman

    @randy khan: As far as I know none of the service academies have hockey teams that compete in the NCAA. West Point and the Air Force Academy may have club teams, but that’s it.

  213. 213.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TenguPhule:

    Not a ripoff, straight up gross out mockery.

    Exactly the kind of thing to amuse little boys.

    Will take your word for it. As a non-parent, and personally several decades too old to have any interest, I knew them all only by reputation. Last national craze I participated in was the Hula Hoop, and that was in the early-mid 1950s.

  216. 216.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elizabelle: Based on Graham’s press conference it is pretty clear that this is being pushed hard, including by McConnell and his leadership team, as a response to Senator Sanders aspirational bill announced last week. This now explains why McConnell shut down Senator Alexander’s committee based and regular order driven attempt to build a bipartisan bill. This is not a condemnation of the idea of single payer, but it shows the strategic communication failure of last week’s announcement. Had they been strategically savvy they would have waited till OCT 1 to do the announcement. As long as the ACA could be repealed under reconciliation rules nothing should have been done to upset the apple cart and force McConnell’s hand.

  217. 217.

    Elizabelle

    @SiubhanDuinne: re national crazes: Go go boots!

    And POW bracelets (more serious) and mood rings.

    We can all be proud we firmly resisted the national craze called “Trump.” Germany breathes a sigh of relief, that more people understand how a country can go so wrong, so fast.

  218. 218.

    The Pale Scot

    @Adam L Silverman:

    What Kim really wants is an assurance that the US will 1) not remove him

    Like I responded to Cheryl the other day. In Kim’s mind that means giving him a free hand with an array of criminal activities like arms and drug smuggling and manufacture. Counterfeiting the currencies of other countries, etc. It’s a criminal enterprise from top to bottom.

  219. 219.

    Jeffro

    On a separate but equal a depressing note the Guardian is reporting that the Koch brothers network is holding out four hundred million dollars for Republicans’ 2018 campaigns… but only if they follow through on Obamacare repeal and tax cuts for the wealthy.

    Thanks, Citizens United! Clearly this is exactly what the founding fathers envisioned

  222. 222.

    Elizabelle

    @Adam L Silverman: Wilmer is the farthest thing from a strategic thinker, on our side of the aisle, that I can think of. Aside from the usual galoots slinging insults at Nancy Smash Pelosi.

    Well done, Wilmer.

  223. 223.

    Another Scott

    @Elizabelle: I haven’t heard the interview yet. I generally really like Terry Gross.

    But she and HRC have a bit of history. There’s the rather famous 2014 interview for example.

    I think I’ll listen to that one again, too, and see if the tone has changed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  224. 224.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Elizabelle:

    Novak actually titled his autobiography Prince of Darkness.

    we have the fact of dead Novak, dead Scalia, and dead Ailes working for us. Appreciate that. Every day.

    Yeah, me too, but I can’t help thinking they might like some company. Naming no names (looking at you, Cheney).

  226. 226.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Wearing a coonskin cap over the mouse ears during Hula Hooping while using a Duncan yo-yo and chewing Bazooka bubble gum – the 50s in a kid-sized nutshell.

    :)

  232. 232.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Elizabelle:

    re national crazes: Go go boots!

    And POW bracelets (more serious) and mood rings.

    Lava lamps. Pet rocks.

    A local-ish fad I quite enjoyed was during the 1996 Olympics. Trading pins was a Thing, and a very fun one. Somewhere long long ago in a distant drawer far far away, I dumped my stash of Olympic pins — some specific to particular sports, others for national teams, still others for corporate sponsors. I must have 75-100 pins. During the Atlanta Centennial Games, I wore them on a jacket — looked like that recent photo of North Korea’s military leaders with their jackets encrusted with medals — and they reminded me of nothing so much as my sash with Girl Scout badges 40 years earlier. In return, I gave away a ton of City of Atlanta and State of Georgia pins, not to mention the ubiquitous Canada-U.S. crossed-flag pins.

  235. 235.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    Bonus points for doing all that while being surrounded by wooden Lincoln Logs, Mr. Potatohead (with real potatoes), lawn darts, Colorforms and Silly Putty eggs.

    :)

  236. 236.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m not sure. Miller is the speechwriter with a fancy title as Assistant to the President – Director of Policy. But that’s domestic only. He runs something called the Domestic Policy Council. Sort of a low functioning version of the National Security Council, which Miller is trying to make a real equivalent and, based on reporting I’ve seen, use it to force the National Security Council and the Interagency to get in line with the domestic policy concerns. He’s not been very successful on this so far and will ultimately fail. He just doesn’t have the experience, expertise, or frankly the heft/chops to pull it off. He is a conduit to Sessions and the white nationalist/white supremacist and alt-right base.

    And because Miller is so poorly suited for what he’s trying to do – in terms of experience, expertise, actual intelligence and maturity – he is unlikely to be really effective. So far he’s managed to get the travel ban, both versions, hosed up with court challenges. He’s tried to give cabinet officials instructions and orders – that’s actually illegal. Apparently, based on reporting, he tried to do the same thing with a bunch of county sheriffs (also illegal). It backfired so badly that Pinellas County, FL Sheriff Bob Gaultieri went on record with the national news media that he personally told Miller on the teleconference that they couldn’t and wouldn’t do what Miller wanted in terms of dealing with undocumented immigrants because it was 1) out of their jurisdiction and 2) illegal. Gaultieri is a Republican.

  237. 237.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @zhena gogolia:

    We need a more immediate remedy than Mueller’s investigation. And I have no idea what that is.

    I too would like to see a snapback to the timeline where Hillary Clinton is now, boringly, President, with a Democratic House and Republican Senate. There is a certain amount of sniping and threats to open the Benghazi investigation, with a House Committee investigating Russian interference in the election. Trump has been barricaded in his New York apartment since the inauguration, and there is concern about the bottles of urine building up.

    But here we are. And there are no simple answers.

  245. 245.

    A Ghost to Not

    @schrodingers_cat:

    They just work better in snow and ice.

    That’s not all they do well. I spend a lot of time on high mountain dirt roads, very steep and rocky, and I see subies all over those roads.

  247. 247.

    Adam L Silverman

    Oh goody…

    Because nothing says a quiet Tuesday like a major accident with serious injuries during a war game that has most of Europe on edge.

  248. 248.

    DHD

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m not sure that it is possible to buy any type of vehicle in Vermont other than a Subaru or a Ford F-150. Perhaps it is the law. Strangely, north of the border, the Subarus are suddenly replaced by Civics and Yarises, because we all have snow tires (it actually is the law) and we know how to use them. Either that, or socialized no-fault auto insurance means that we just don’t care. Not quite sure which.

  252. 252.

    Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California)

    I’ve spent all day irrationally angry at the 77,000 or so idiots in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania who were so blinded by racism, misogyny and “economic anxiety” (yeah right) that they saddled us with this creature as President.

  255. 255.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: They could say whatever they want, but they’d need to get past the 60 vote cloture threshold starting on 1 OCT when the reconciliation rule expires. Doing it with two weeks to go provided motivation to repeal ACA using the reconciliation rules as that will make single payer almost impossible.

  256. 256.

    TS

    From the downunder side of the world – we now view America in much the same light as Russia – no idea what will happen next – and all previous commitments, promises, values and treaties are but a memory. If one guy can overturn everything that has come before – the country is naught but a regime held together by a military force.

    It is difficult to be friends with a country whose internal aims involve
    – taking health care away from its citizens
    – ensuring the supramacy of the majority race
    – stealing from the poor to give 100% of the country’s wealth to the rich
    – Using the Presidency as a step towards unimagined levels of gold, myrrh and frankincense

    I have no idea whatsoever as to what tRump aims to achieve at an international level other than p!ss off every country on the planet

  262. 262.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Adam L Silverman: I don’t like Sanders, and I think his single-payer “legislation” is awful timing and a stupid bill, but Graham-Cassidy had been in the works for a while, and they were going to try repeal one last time regardless it seemed. I’ll grant you that the ferocity is a very new development, since it seemed like Paul and Hatch(?) wanted to strangle it in its crib earlier.

  263. 263.

    schrodingers_cat

    BS is sure acting like a Russian plant, targeting the Dems from the left so that Putin’s victory over one time adversary will be complete. His stupid premature push for single payer last week was going to be counter productive. I just didn’t expect the backlash to be this quick.

  265. 265.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Oh, thanks. I know how to do it, and I often do. That’s how I do all the accents and other diacritical marks. (Did you know, if you hold down the “zero” you have the option of the “degrees” mark? Use it often, astound your friends!)

    I just didn’t think to do the ¿ this time, and Yutsy did. My bad.

  270. 270.

    The Pale Scot

    @Adam L Silverman:

    none of the service academies have hockey teams that compete in the NCAA

    This is all about getting top football prospects to consider passing on the football factories to play at a service academy. Back in the day, like when an offensive lineman weighed 230lbs, they were competitive.

    I’d think being 6’8″ 330 lbs is suboptimal for a rifleman or swabbie. He’d have to go thru the freight hatch of sub.

  272. 272.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Adam L Silverman: The entire immigration policy for example is seemingly being written by him. Did you see the new rules for temporary visas? If you came in as a visitor and say got engaged or started school than you can be deported supposedly for lying on your original form if you do it within 3 months of getting the first visa.

  275. 275.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Felonius Monk: Actually I was specifically referring to SRK’s wry humor that his bad luck (somewhat disappointing box office receipts for his latest release) was nothing compared to being saddled with T as the President.
    The man is a Muslim in Modi’s India, albeit a very successful and a prominent one.

  277. 277.

    Another Scott

    @Barbara: The trouble with replacing the ACA with something like Medicare/Medicaid for All is the timeline. It’ll happen before the heat death of the universe, sure, but …

    We need to protect the gains we have, learn what needs to be tweaked, make those tweaks, and keep moving forward. Incremental progress.

    The trouble with Wilmer’s approach (really one of many troubles) is that people don’t like sudden changes. And sudden changes for 1/6th of the economy is dangerous (economically and politically).

    I see that there still isn’t a Summary of the Bill on Congress.gov yet. Conyers’ House bill from January is there, but not Wilmer’s. I wonder what is taking so long…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  278. 278.

    quantumman

    I am a lurker who has only made of a couple of comments through the years I have lurked here. I am thinking of writing a paper on “legislative violence” (I am an academic), what I think of as a variation on the concept of “corporate violence.” The current GOP attempt to pass the new healthcare bill would be an example. I would frame this as a form of stochastic homicide. What do you folks think?

  282. 282.

    Barbara

    @Another Scott: I didn’t intend for my comment to be an endorsement of Sanders’ plan or repealing the ACA, which I vehemently desire to remain in place. Just to remind, this is an area I have a lot of expertise in. I don’t make these comments lightly. There are ways of preserving the exchanges and creating a parallel “public option” that gives people the choice of paying into one or the other. This would be the preferred way to go.

  287. 287.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cheryl Rofer: Aaron David Miller worked at the State Department under every president from Carter through to Obama. Good guy. Deeply knowledgable about the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and various peace processes. Spent almost 30 years trying to make that happen.

  290. 290.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: Actually they weren’t. When McConnell’s office was asked at the beginning of last week about Graham-Cassidy they indicated there was no intention to bring it to the floor. They had other things that had to be done and a bipartisan process was being led through the appropriate committee via regular order. Between Monday and the weekend something changed. The only thing that changed in terms of healthcare legislation was the announcement of the aspirational bill.

  300. 300.

    Another Scott

    @Cheryl Rofer: Yup, as Adam usually reminds us, “Follow ze Money!”

    ;-)

    Wilmer (and Conyers) introduce their health care bills every year. It’s hard to see that Wilmer’s bill officially appearing was the reason why the Teabaggers suddenly felt that they had to try again (especially after the GOP leadership saying it was “dead”.)

    But who knows.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  301. 301.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeah, I remember that Mitch’s general impression of Graham-Cassidy seemed to be ‘LOL’. It just seems very odd that they’d suddenly decide to do this because the Democrats are getting ten seconds of attention for a bill that will never ever become law (which it couldn’t, either, since it’s not actually a bill). I know they operate almost entirely out of spite but that’s just hard for me to believe. Perhaps the bill gained steam because of hard lobbying by Graham and Cassidy, and Mitch noticed the momentum. Or, yes, they could actually be telling the truth.

  312. 312.

    Central Planning

    From up top:

    It was in the same period, exactly 70 years ago, that the United States developed the Marshall Plan to help restore Europe. Those three beautiful pillars — they’re pillars of peace, sovereignty, security, and prosperity.

    Monty Python: Our chief weapon is surprise…surprise and fear…fear and surprise…. Our two weapons are fear and surprise…and ruthless efficiency…. Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency…and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst* our weapons…. Amongst our weaponry…are such elements as fear, surprise…. I’ll come in again.

  314. 314.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Baud: That was their rhetoric, yes, but the point of it was to get Romney elected. Their rhetoric here is that it’s Sanders’s and his co-sponsors’ fault, but the point is to rob Democrats and the sick and the poor. I am suggesting that they’d be doing that anyway, for a different (and possibly equally dumb) stated reason.

  320. 320.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @schrodingers_cat:
    I don’t think it’s funny either. I can’t believe this is happening. At the risk of sounding self-important, I regard much of the right as my mortal enemies now, because with this repeal, they’re directly threatening my future career in healthcare and potentially my life if I ever end up in a bad way. I hate them.

  323. 323.

    TenguPhule

    @Barbara:

    Because if we have to start over again we won’t end up with anything like the ACA. It won’t be what Sanders proposed but it will be a lot closer.

    Wrong.

    It will be worse then what the ACA fixed,

    We do not have a majority in Congress.

  326. 326.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Hey, I’m a pedant, but S.D. releases an egg for a ¿

    She was just expressing envy, is how I read it.

    Plus: I’d be a fool to give SiubhanDuinne, Mob Enforcer, a hard time. [Well, more of a fool than I already am, that is.]

  328. 328.

    Kathleen

    @schrodingers_cat: I hesitate to disagree with you just this one time, Ms. S_C, but the anus clears toxins from the body and without that we would die. So all hail the a**hole. Trump is not good enough to be an a**hole.

  333. 333.

    prostratedragon

    @JGabriel: (I know it’s late, but can’t resist) The mere fact that any utterance whatever comes forth from Trump is proof of the importance of the colon.

  336. 336.

    Ruckus

    @Barbara:
    How do you get to single payer from where we were, which is where we will be or worse without the ACA? There just isn’t one step to there. Not with 40% of the population happy with the worst example of leadership since, well fucking ever. Democrats would have to win super majorities in both house and senate, and win the WH. The math just isn’t there.

  337. 337.

    hueyplong

    Saying that getting to single payer is easier if the GOP prevails on this newest obscenity is either stupid or dishonest.

    I’ll go with dishonest.

  338. 338.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    As far as I know none of the service academies have hockey teams that compete in the NCAA. West Point and the Air Force Academy may have club teams, but that’s it.

    The Service academies all have rifle teams, but WVU crushes them every year, most NCAA shooting championships ever !!!!

  339. 339.

    Ohio Mom

    @quantumman: I like it but I am a sucker for that sort of theorizing. The effort to repeal the ACA *does* feel like the Republicans in Congress are declaring war on the citizenry. If they succeed there will be thousands of actual casualties each year to come. Not too many laws are that pernicious (draconian drug laws do come to mind).

    Oh, and welcome! Don’t go back to lurking, please keep commenting. I recommend finding a time of day that you can stop by at least semi-regularly. For me, it is often in the evening; I know that there are a few commentators who stop by in the mornings only (thinking here particularly of Kay the former front pager).

    Looking forward to hearing more from you…

  340. 340.

    SFAW

    @hueyplong:

    I’ll go with dishonest.

    I think “naive” is a better choice.

    “Dishonest” was St Ralph the Pure claiming (post-2000) that it was good that W won, because he would make things so bad that there would be a wave of liberalism, lasting a generation, in response/backlash.

    I’m saying “naive” because I don’t perceive Barbara to be a malign asshole, the way St Ralph the Pure was and is.

  341. 341.

    Ruckus

    @SFAW:
    I’d agree with this.
    Maybe say wishful thinking.
    Just had a conversation with a friend who lost her partner in January. Her partner and I were very good friends for over 40yrs. She and my sister used to be partners. We were the kind of friends who can be honest with each other and not have it hurt the relationship at all. I miss her a lot.
    Anyway…… The conversation came around to healthcare and one of my comments was the reason we won’t have single payer or universal healthcare in my lifetime is profit. We don’t have the politics nor have we had a major disruption of “normal” healthcare to eliminate the profit segment of our system. And I don’t see that happening any time soon. There is a reason that Vermont couldn’t make it work and profit is the major sticking point. It makes healthcare very expensive here and we get massive differential outcomes because of it. You can have a profit system but you have to severally limit the profit percentage and fix costs to make it not cost an outrageous amount. And we just aren’t bent that way. Maybe there will come a time when that changes enough to make it work but I’m not holding my breath.

  342. 342.

    SFAW

    @Ruckus:

    I’d agree with this.
    Maybe say wishful thinking.

    Yeah, your wording is better.

    Sorry about the loss of your friend. Forty years of friendship is a tough thing to lose.

    Anyway: Outside of the “sheeple” suddenly waking up, and realizing that the Rethugs — IF they’re not actively trying to kill them — are NOT trying to help them, the Rethugs will continue for years. And it’s my (possibly ill-considered) belief that it will take a Depression-level calamity, or close to it, for enough people to be affected and become aware that it was the Rethugs that put them there, for that to change. [Apologies for the run-on sentences.] And, frankly, considering how the Depression affected my father — and he had things pretty good, in a relative sense — I have no desire to live through that. [Yes, I realize there are already millions living like that every day.] As painful and murderous as it would be, I don’t see ACA repeal being at that level. Yet. And, no matter how bad things get, there will always be 40 percent of the electorate who will rationalize it away, because “at least those others have it worse.”

    So, I don’t currently see how we get there.

    I really hope I am wrong.

  343. 343.

    MCA1

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yeah, it’s kind of like the super responsible, never took a day off member of the family, the one who kept everything together through all those years of turmoil, woke up one day and said “You know what, gang? I’m tired and need a break. I’ll probably be back at some point, and probably won’t check out forever, but I’m gonna go get shitfaced for a couple months. You’re on your own for awhile. See ‘ya!” The rest of the world spent the first 2 days after we left for the airport thinking “They’ll be back. It’s all just a joke” before coming to the horrifying realization that this is for real. Now they’re figuring out how to run stuff without us.

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