Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Please don’t feed the bears.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

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

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

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

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

T R E 4 5 O N

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

Their freedom requires your slavery.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / America in 2017

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    The media needs to do what they did in Katrina: shame the government into action by plastering images all over everyone’s screen.

    There’s a lot going on. The anti-health care bill. The NFL protest which may feel trivial but is about BLM. North Korea. It feels like we’re in a crisis where all Trump’s sins and failures are coming to a climax at once. Maybe the media doesn’t know which way to turn. God knows I don’t.

  3. 3.

    JPL

    I’m surprised that Trump didn’t put Puerto Rico on the travel ban list. Wasn’t it Anderson Cooper who used his megaphone to highlight the conditions in New Orleans? Sometimes it just takes one person, to start the conversation, and hopefully it happens soon.

  4. 4.

    Blueskies

    3.5 million Americans…does Trump even understand what a “US Territory” is? Does he understand the responsibilities and roles of the Executive in responding to the crisis? Does he even understand that it’s a crisis?

  6. 6.

    Jeffro

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    The media needs to do what they did in Katrina: shame the government into action by plastering images all over everyone’s screen.

    And they’d better hurry the hell up, too: 3 million people without electricity, drinking water, or food has the potential to turn ugly like we’ve just never seen before. They need to get going on an emergency evac of as many folks as possible, like, yesterday.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    I am most definitely not a fan of NY Gov. Cuomo, but he’s acting like a president ought to with regard to the situation in Puerto Rico.

  8. 8.

    Droppy

    President Hillary Clinton, at this moment, would be visiting Puerto Rico, along with a chunk of the US Navy, delivering both supplies and assurances. She would not have the distraction of imminent war with North Korea. The BLM and NFL protests would be ongoing, but the atmosphere would have a tinge of hopefulness as the President would have been talking with people and working to both reduce tensions and improve processes. The press would report on how tired she looks – maybe she shouldn’t have gone to Puerto Rico after her marathon work in Houston and Florida responding to those crises. But the infrastructure bill has a good chance of going through now since she was able to tie in aid to victims with the obvious need for the rest of the country to be in better shape. Thank goodness we haven’t spent the last 9 months wrangling about health care and travel bans. The Dreamers are still dreaming. The investigation into the Russian interference in the election and the ongoing cyber warfare is almost over, and sanctions are about to be put in place. BUT the investigation by the NYT into her emails is about to reach a crescendo, and impeachment is a strong possibility.

  9. 9.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Betty Cracker: Thank goodness for that. Puerto Rico needs our attention and resources right now and good on Cuomo for doing his part. Shame that our “President” couldn’t care less.

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    It might well be that Trump doesn’t realise that Puerto Rico is in America. This would be like one of our PMs not realising that Pulau Tioman* is in Malaysia. I do hope someone reminds POTUS to say something, so that people don’t think their President is ignorant, oblivious, or uncaring.

    Oh, wait …

    *Where, it has been claimed, the movie musical South Pacific was shot.

  11. 11.

    sherparick

    This is the moment the Conservative Movement has been working toward for 60 years, a completely broken, but nuclear armed Government. The Republicans have been so focused on satisfying the Koch network the last week and repealing Obama care and following their TrumpFuhrer on his rants against NFL and NBA Black Atheletes, they appear to have forgotten that Puerto Rico is United States territory. Certainly Trump has. I expect that he and Stephen Miller will be a bit shock to learn that they can’t block a mass migration of Puerto Ricans to the mainland, which appears almost inevitable now. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-agriculture-.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 and http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41377185

    CNN is running a story on it, but I saw no headlines on MSNBC about Puerto Rico this morning. I know we are all busy calling about the ACA and fighthing repeal, but try to make separate calls on his issue as well. 3 million people, our fellow Americans, will be facing life without clean water and no food right now.

  12. 12.

    John

    @Blueskies:

    does Trump even understand what a “US Territory” is?

    He sure understood the hell out of it when Kim Jung Un threatened to drop missiles in the water off Guam. That makes sense when you remember his racehorse theory that Asian people are superior to Hispanic people.

  13. 13.

    Spanky

    The fact that PR is an island and the victims are trapped there is a plus for the Trump Admin. During Katrina the Bush Admin was plagued by the ability of victims to migrate out of New Orleans and show up in places with a working press. So far Trump is home free on that matter.

  14. 14.

    BC in Illinois

    Puerto Rico, population 3,411,000
    Iowa, population 3,135,000

    Is there any question that there would be publicity and action — or at least tweets — if Iowa were flooded, its hospitals filled, and the whole state without electric power?

  15. 15.

    BC in Illinois

    Amount FEMA has disbursed so far in PuertoRico: $2.1 million
    Amount EACH of Trump’s visits to Mar-a-lago costs: $3 million

  16. 16.

    schrodingers_cat

    What the Rs are doing is clear to me, they are doing to the country what Bain and company have done to Toys R Us and numerous other companies. They are strip mining the economy including the assets of the Federal government so that their rich donors can get even richer and more powerful.
    T’s election was a hostile takeover possible by strategic voting and cheating.

  23. 23.

    bluefoot

    @Droppy: How do I get into the timeline you’re describing? Seriously, where the f*ck is the National Guard? The US Navy? Why isn’t this all over the news??
    Does anyone have any good suggestions for where to donate money/how to help? I still have some unused vacation time for this year, I could volunteer somewhere.

  24. 24.

    cmorenc

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

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): All I pray for is that Mueller wraps up his thing quickly. We need these shitstains out of office.

    Alas, it’s turtles (e.g. Mitch McConnell) all the way down. Get rid of Trump, President Pence. Get rid of Pence, President Ryan. Get rid of Ryan, it’s President Hatch. Get rid of Hatch, it’s President Tillerson. Get rid of Tillerson, it’s President Mnuchin.

    About the only dim upside here is that McConnell actually is not in the line of succession….

  25. 25.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    So one of the people in my circle (not for long) who support Trump said this yesterday:

    “I voted for change. I was hoping for a new way of bringing possibility and prosperity to all in America – immigrants included.”

    I let her have it with both barrels, especially about Puerto Rico. She’s a very well off white woman in deepest deep denial who spends most of her time in self-actualization groups who will never be touched by anything.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: And swing state FL comes in second to NY in highest percentage of citizens from Puerto Rico. Given the devastation in Puerto Rico, I think we can expect a lot of folks to leave the island for the mainland — citizens who are eligible to vote. That might change the political calculus for the no-good bastards who are currently ignoring the problem!

  27. 27.

    bystander

    In one day, twitler has made me like both Nixon and Andrew Cuomo.

    Winning!

    BTW MSNBC is all over the lack of help in Puerto Rico.

  29. 29.

    ruemara

    I don’t know why this has to be said, but I guess it does, even to you fine folks.

    THEY WANT BROWN PEOPLE TO DIE.

    They know, they just don’t care. While you’re calling about Trumpcare 4.0, I suggest you also tell your MOC that it doesn’t look so good anymore to commit genocide by neglect to millions of your own citizens. I said Americans didn’t understand the full nature of what they empowered under Trump.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Do you think that’s true — that she really thought that? If so, she’s a goddamned fool who shouldn’t leave home without her name and addressed pinned to her coat, let alone vote. I prefer the honesty of my Trump-voting relatives, who are just racist assholes and don’t pretend to be anything else.

  31. 31.

    Tuna

    There is no water or electricity. Thus, there is no sewage system. That means 3.5 million people are not using a toilet…and Trump is busy calling football payers SOBs.

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    How Donald Trump tries to ‘improve race relations’
    09/25/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 09/25/17 08:05 AM
    By Steve Benen

    …………………………………………

    “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired, he’s fired.’ […] Because that’s a total disrespect of our heritage, that’s a total disrespect of everything that we stand for, OK? Everything that we stand for.

    “And I know we have freedoms and we have freedom of choice and many, many different freedoms. But you know what? It’s still totally disrespectful. And, you know, when the NFL ratings are down massively, massively. Now, the number one reason happens to be that they like watching what’s happening on, you know, with yours truly.”

    And then he really got worked up. Trump complained that athletes should not be “allowed” to show “disrespect” towards the flag or the country, adding those who feel differently should be “fired.” There were a series of related missives, culminating in the president calling football games “boring” and questioning the patriotism of the league.

    The result, not surprisingly, was a sharp increase in the number of athletes protesting yesterday, and fierce criticism from players, owners, and league officials about Trump’s latest attempts to divide Americans against one another.

    The racial element of the president’s offensive is hard to miss. Over the course of about a week, Trump has lashed out at ESPN’s Jemele Hill, who is black, football players who take a knee, many of whom are black, and the NBA’s Steph Curry, who is black. That the president apparently referred to Colin Kaepernick as a “son of a bitch” in front of a predominantly white audience in Alabama wasn’t exactly subtle.

    It also comes on the heels of Trump’s defense of right-wing white protesters in Charlottesville, some of whom, the president insisted, were “very fine people.” As recently as Aug. 15, he emphasized that they were “protesting very quietly,” “innocently,” and “legally.” Trump added that the white protesters were justified in their demonstration because Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is “very, very important” to them.

    However, when black athletes protest “very quietly,” “innocently,” and “legally” about an issue that’s “very, very important” to them, the president seems to have a very different perspective. I’ll look forward to the White House’s explanation for why this is.

  35. 35.

    Redshift

    @Droppy: Hillary called upon the administration to send in the Navy yesterday. With maybe just a bit of a tone of “let me explain to you clowns how this is done.” But that may just be my reading of it.

  37. 37.

    Shalimar

    @John: Dies Trump actually understand Guam is a U.S. territory, or did someone tell him there is an Air Force Base there and that was enough? I din’t remember if he ever specifically said it was part of the U.S..

  38. 38.

    Ian G.

    Yup, we elected the morons who call WFAN to complain about the Jets because they don’t have the mental capacity to think about anything more important. Why should we expect any different from him?

    This is the result of decades and decades of smearing anyone with intelligence and competence in their field as “elitist”.

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    THIS MUTHAPHUCKA HERE!!

    GOP lawmaker: Arizona should recall McCain over cancer
    BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE – 09/25/17 09:53 AM EDT

    Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Monday that Arizona should recall Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) while he undergoes cancer treatment, saying that McCain’s ouster would give Arizonans a senator who keeps his word.

    Gohmert’s remarks come after McCain announced his opposition to the latest GOP attempt to repeal ObamaCare, putting the bill closer to failure and enraging Republicans.

    “You know, nothing inhibits recovery from cancer like stress. I think that Arizona could help him and us. Recall him, let him, you know, fight successfully this terrible cancer. And let’s get somebody in here who will keep the word he gave last year,” Gohmert said on “Fox & Friends.”

  44. 44.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Betty Cracker: @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Your friend sounds like my Yoga teacher ex-friend. Soft racist who went hardcore in Obama’s second term, repeats the most racist BS from Brietbart, Rush and such but still wants to be patted on the back for being “independent” and not a racist. I despise the rank hypocrisy of these types. The openly racist people are at least more honest.

  45. 45.

    SFAW

    @rikyrah:

    “You know, nothing inhibits recovery from cancer like stress. I think that Arizona could help him and us. Recall him, let him, you know, fight successfully this terrible cancer. And let’s get somebody in here who will keep the word he gave last year,” Gohmert said on “Fox & Friends.”

    Ya know what, Louie? Nothing inhibits the greatness of America like morons being elected to Congress*. So how about Texas, or perhaps Republican Jesus, recall YOU, you lying, evil, stupid motherfucker?

    *I almost wrote “to Congress and the Presidency,” but realized that Lying Littledick wasn’t elected by the voters.

  46. 46.

    gvg

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Overheard a coworker talking about having voted for Trump because he says he wanted change. He told his friend he was starting to think Trump wasn’t that smart. this was about a month ago and Trump had been displaying ignorance that week but still…hard for me to believe anyone with any brains didn’t know Trump was stupid. I do realize most people aren’t that engaged with the news. I would also say he must not really care about minority rights. I am not going to question him to see if he really is fully racist because I have to work with him. He does spend a lot of time complaining about salary issues (overheard stuff again). I think he is anti tax libertarian leaning at least. I don’t know for sure about other Trump voters. Most people try to stay neutral at work. So I have to wonder what they were thinking.

    IMO at least some of the excessive stories about the economically anxious whit working class Trump voter are a sort of look at the moron like a reality show “America’s dumbest criminals.” Trainwreck watching.

  47. 47.

    The Moar You Know

    I’ve had the dubious privilege of actually spending time in a failed state. We’re not there yet. But we are a lot closer to it than I would like.

  50. 50.

    The Moar You Know

    He does spend a lot of time complaining about salary issues (overheard stuff again).

    @gvg: Your co-worker is the working poor. A lot of the working poor have been told they’re poor because minorities take all the tax money, and that if only taxes were cut, they’d be rich.

    A staggering number of people believe this. And if you point out to them that they’d get, at best, a 20% raise if all their taxes went away and therefore they’d still be poor, they refuse to accept the math. I said above that we’re not a failed state. I do believe that. But I’ll be damned if I know how you fix what we’ve turned into.

  51. 51.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    This same woman forwarded me and another friend an email a few months back asking us what we thought about it – it was a recent email – you know the kind – 24 point font in different colors so the old folks can read it – quoting an 8 year old article about Michelle and her exorbitant number of White House staffers, a lot of whom were Muslim, comparing her negatively to Laura Bush and Nancy Reagan. This was when Melania hadn’t moved to DC, and the SS estimates of her protection were $500k a day. It was so easily debunkable, it was ridiculous. I unloaded on her then too, giving links to Snopes, etc., and pointing out that the website the story came from was the Canadian version of Breitbart, but fundy Christian. I told her that if Barack had Michelle ensconced in a golden tower at taxpayer expense because the taxpayer funded mansion in DC that was fine for every other president wasn’t good enough for her, white people would have burned down the country starting with them, and the only reason to pass these easily debunked stories around is because you like what they say.

  56. 56.

    japa21

    Mentioned this on a dead thread and perhaps it has been mentioned before. I just found out it was only team members that knelt during the Anthem yesterday. In at least two cases, the people singing the anthem also knelt. One was an AA singer in Detroit. The other was a white couple singing before the Tennessee Titan game. A white couple in freaking Tennessee. Maybe there is hope for this country.

  60. 60.

    rikyrah

    3 ships?

    Navy confirms there are 3 amphibious ships responding to devastation on multiple Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico. That’s it. /1
    — Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) September 25, 2017

  65. 65.

    rikyrah

    Kushner acknowledges use of private email account in White House
    09/25/17 10:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    About a week ago, ProPublica reported that members of Donald Trump’s voting commission have been using private email accounts to conduct official business. The same piece quoted legal experts who agreed that the practice falls short of compliance with the law.

    The reporting came just a month after state officials in Indiana turned over private emails Vice President Mike Pence sent during his gubernatorial tenure. It turns out that Pence conducted quite a bit of official business through his private AOL account.

    And late yesterday, Politico reported that Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s right-hand man on practically every issue, also used a private email account in the White House – a practice his lawyer confirmed soon after.

    ………………………..

    I will gladly concede that when it comes to the Trump administration, and the staggering volume of scandals that have unfolded throughout the year, officials using private emails probably seems like weak tea – because it is. Under normal circumstances, missteps like these would barely raise an eyebrow.

    But recent circumstances are anything but normal. Much of the political world, including Republican officials and every major news organization I can think of, recently spent two years telling the American electorate that compliance with government-mandated email protocols was possibly the single most important issue facing the nation.

  71. 71.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    HuffPo had a good article with links to how to help yesterday:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/puerto-rica-hurricane-irma-maria_us_59c7f699e4b06ddf45f89c7a

    The Hispanic Federation also has some good information: http://hispanicfederation.org/media/press_releases/a_hurricane_relief_fund_for_hurricane_maria_victims_in_puerto_rico/

    FEMA, the DOT and the military are already doing somethings(from the 23 Sept FEMA press release):
    Six commercial barges already transported and delivered meals, water, generators, cots, and other commodities to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
    Three flights per day to St. Croix, each carrying approximately 33,000 meals.
    The logistics support ship SS Wright arrived carrying more than 1.1 million meals, and nearly one million liters of freshwater.
    Two shipping barges with 1.2 million liters of water, 31 generators, and more than 6,000 cots have arrived in St. Thomas.
    Two additional shipping barges loaded with food, water, and emergency relief supplies are en route to the Caribbean Sea from Florida.
    Millions of additional meals are being flown to Puerto Rico from staging areas in Kentucky and Florida.
    DLA is transporting a shipment of 124,000 gallons of diesel fuel to Puerto Rico with arrival in the coming days.
    https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2017/09/23/federal-government-moving-resources-support-puerto-rico-and-us-virgin

    Simply staging and then transporting this amount of material, especially when airports and port facilities have been damaged or destroyed is a logistical nightmare.

  73. 73.

    gratuitous

    Oh, can everyone just shut up about Puerto Rico? We’ve got something really vital to discuss here. Now about sportsball players and whether they’re following the proscribed procedure during a meaningless display of jingoism before their sportsball contests: Let’s get this issue on the table at last.

    I wonder: If someone told Trump the “Rico” in Puerto Rico means “rich,” if he’d give a flying fuck then?

  76. 76.

    Corner Stone

    @trollhattan: The white couple weren’t kneeling in protest *with* the players. They were kneeling before a wrathful God full of vengeance, praying He would smite the Evildoers who had the arrogance to disrespect The One True Dear Leader, anointed by God Himself to save Our Country and MAGA!!!

  77. 77.

    Citizen Alan

    @chris:

    It has to be galling to every single feminist in the country that Hillary Clinton would certainly be the president today it only her husband and her best friend’s husband could keep their pants zipped.

  78. 78.

    scav

    Remember that this Trumpian Greatness, Party of Greatness your table is ready, is simultaneously upholding the principles that religious freedom requires that people on the job be able to refuse to bake cakes, serve pizza or issue weddng licenses to gay people (FREEDUM!) but objecting to discrimation must necessarily be done on your own time.

    As an added bonus extra to the whole “Good People — both sides, both sides” “Sons of Bitches” dichotomy they do the cha-cha-cha too.

  79. 79.

    Robert Sneddon

    @rikyrah: If it’s the Wasp or America-class Marine amphibious ships they’re talking about they’re basically small aircraft carriers (small by American standards — they’re actually bigger than most other aircraft carriers operated by other navies around the world). They carry helicopters, landing ships etc. as well as a lot of supplies, fuel and the like. They’re pretty much the only kind of Naval asset that can put a lot of rescue effort into a devastated area without working roads, airports or seaport facilities.

    A lot of the US Navy is deployed around the world, especially in the Pacific. The assets that can actually get to Puerto Rico and other locations in the Caribbean at short notice is limited.

  82. 82.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost breaking news: Rand Paul reiterates he’s a no on Graham Cassidy.

    Pretty sure Collins and Murkowski are nos too, along with McCain. But keep calling.

  83. 83.

    Chris

    @Corner Stone:

    Why in the hell is Nigel Farage, the UK Brexit guy, campaigning for Roy Moore in AL Senate race?

    Because that makes him a white nationalist icon, and plenty of Alabama Republicans will lap up white nationalism and not give a shit that it’s coming from a foreigner.

    There’s always been a weird fascist brand of internationalism, placing race above country, that belied their nationalist pretensions, and it’s coming out in force this decade.

  84. 84.

    Corner Stone

    @Chris: They can’t possibly know who he is, right? And between his accent and the AL accent, it’s going to be like two different languages.

  85. 85.

    Boatboy_srq

    @The Moar You Know: US median earnings have been flat ever since Reaganomics, so the “you’re poor” evaluation isn’t precisely untrue. What IS untrue is that high taxation and federal regulation are the culprits. Most of us can sympathize with the folks who don’t feel like they’re getting ahead (or are slipping behind) because in large part it’s true: education, homes and other big-ticket benefits are increasingly out of reach for many. But simply changing the tax code – which will really only accelerate the flight of capital to the top – doesn’t address that. What DOES is more progressive taxation, regulation, and labor organization, not less – ad that’s provable.

  88. 88.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Reading the NFLs reaction to Trump calling them SOBs I will never call a black man an SOB. Damn are they pissed. I would never figure black guys for momma’s boys, but there you go; black guys do love their mothers and mess with that at your own peril.

  92. 92.

    Chris

    @Corner Stone:

    They will after a day or two’s worth of publicity on Fox and local hate radio. Once that’s done, they’ll love the guy. He’s an English guy who stuck it to faggy socialist Eurocrats in the name of English culture, and a white guy trying to defend his glorious island from the tide of Eurabian hordes threatening to engulf it. Like Churchill, really, in all those WW2 movies.

  93. 93.

    Citizen Alan

    @scuffletuffle:

    I’m a pretty snarky guy, but it is fairly indisputable that if Wiener hadn’t been such a colossal perv, the investigation into him would not have scooped up Huma Abedin’s private email account and lead to Comey’s asinine press conference 11 days before the election

  94. 94.

    TenguPhule

    @Blueskies:

    does Trump even understand what a “US Territory” is? Does he understand the responsibilities and roles of the Executive in responding to the crisis? Does he even understand that it’s a crisis?

    No, SATSQ.

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