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Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

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

Democrats are back in array!

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

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

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

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That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

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One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Cole, when it comes to calico cats, restraint is overrated.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Open Thread: Seriously Broken

Open Thread: Seriously Broken

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And we’re all stuck in the nightmare…

… “We have gone all out for Puerto Rico,” Trump said during the televised briefing Tuesday. “It’s not only dangerous, it’s expensive.”…

“I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you are throwing our budget out of whack,” he said. “We’ve spent a lot of money in Puerto Rico.”

(As I explain here, FEMA has yet to authorize full disaster aid for Puerto Rico).

The most uncomfortable part of Trump’s remarks came when he began to compare Puerto Rico to Hurricane Katrina based on how many people had died, implying what was happening in Puerto Rico wasn’t a “real catastrophe.”

“If you look at the — every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds of people that died and what happened here with a storm that was just totally overbearing. No one has ever seen anything like that. What is your death count?” he said.

“Sixteen,” responded Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.

“Sixteen certified,” Trump said, and then told the leaders assembled that they should all be “very proud.”

The reality is that the death count is far higher, as my colleague Eliza Barclay has noted. The situation is so bad in Puerto Rico that the government can’t even issue death certificates to count the deceased…

As always, I BLAME THE REPUBLICANS AND THEIR PARTY.

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  9. 9.

    Corner Stone

    I wish people in the crowd had started throwing the paper towels back at him and also the soup cans.

  10. 10.

    Corner Stone

    @Trentrunner: He did exactly what you’d expect. Disrespected her and then ignored her.
    I will be surprised if that R Gov of PR survives six months after this event.

  14. 14.

    Bex

    @Trentrunner: Agent Orange met with the mayor and apparently tried to pretend he’d never insulted her. MSNBC reported that JaVanka transferred some of their emails to the Trump Organization quite recently. Obstruction anyone?

  15. 15.

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

    @Corner Stone:
    Is it bad that I read that “survive” comment literally in light of how awful current conditions are in Puerto Rico?

  19. 19.

    efgoldman

    @p.a.:

    What’s left for him but to start a vanity war à la Shrub?

    First he has to be able to find the object of his affection on a map. Not a sure thing at all.

    ETA: He’s as likely as not to order the bombing of Fargo or Kalispell

  21. 21.

    Uncle Omar

    As to the Mark Caputo tweet with the GOP attachment about Rick Scott…He’ll just have to get Trump to issue an executive order barring Puerto Ricans from entering the Continental US, Hawai’i, and Alaska. Of course it would be illegal and unconstitutional, but by the time it wound its way through the courts up to the 8 Supremes and the Russian Judge, the election would be over and the seat would be saved.

  23. 23.

    Mike in NC

    “I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you are throwing our budget out of whack,” he said. “We’ve spent a lot of money in Puerto Rico.”

    Exactly what you’d expect to hear from some scumbag NYC loan shark who charges 100% interest.

  26. 26.

    waspuppet

    I’m so old I remember when Barack Obama was considered some kind of weirdo who couldn’t talk like, or relate to, common people.

    It’s funny how there’s something different in the way Trump is perceived. I can’t qwhite put my finger on it.

  27. 27.

    waspuppet

    @Uncle Omar: Nah. He just has to change FL election law so that you have to have been living in the state since two weeks before Maria hit, or something.

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    @Corner Stone

    that R Gov of PR

    One more time –

    Puerto Rico governor was a delegate to the Dem conventions – pledged for HRC in ’08, Obama in ’12, HRC again in ’16. The local party under whose banner he runs in Puerto Rico includes both Ds and Rs (albeit tilts more R than the other major local party there).

  30. 30.

    p.a.

    @waspuppet:

    It’s funny how there’s something different in the way Trump is perceived. I can’t qwhite put my finger on it.

    Something coloreding your perception?

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    @Corner Stone

    One his knee pads for succor from the source in place and tasked to provide it. I may not agree with his choice of tactics but think he’s playing Dolt 45 like a fiddle.

    YMMV.

  35. 35.

    Corner Stone

    @NotMax: My mileage does vary. After this initial phase passes and PR gets back their electricity they will see what he said and did. I am not in PR, but IMO I believe it doubtful they will be too happy about the role he played. I guess we will see. If any of them survive, that is.

  37. 37.

    germy

    Bernie Sanders is on “Finding Your Roots” with Henry Louis Gates tonight.

    And Larry David

  38. 38.

    AxelFoley

    @waspuppet:

    I’m so old I remember when Barack Obama was considered some kind of weirdo who couldn’t talk like, or relate to, common people.

    It’s funny how there’s something different in the way Trump is perceived. I can’t qwhite put my finger on it.

    I see what you did there.

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    A slap on the wrist with a very limp noodle.

    Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, senior advisers to President Donald Trump, were both fined $200 for missing deadlines to submit financial reports required by government ethics rules, according to documents and interviews.

    It’s the second time that Kushner has been fined for late filing as part of his months-long process of divesting pieces of his vast business empire to serve in the White House, a highly unusual occurrence.

    In addition, Kushner and Trump, the president’s daughter and her husband who serve as unpaid aides to him, listed vastly different values for some of their joint assets, with some discrepancies of hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
    [snip]
    Late fees are relatively rare; they were assessed on just 3.6 percent of the more than 12,000 periodic transaction reports filed by federal government employees in 2016, according to an OGE survey of all executive branch agencies. Source

  41. 41.

    TS

    @waspuppet:

    I’m so old I remember when Barack Obama was considered some kind of weirdo who couldn’t talk like, or relate to, common people.

    Probably the first US President who could talk to anybody – emphasize with anybody. It was more that those “common people” did not want to communicate with a President who was “different”.

    Outside of the US everybody wanted to talk to President Obama – I laugh at the trump G20 when no-one wanted to stand next to trump while EVERY meeting Obama went to – there was never enough space next to him.

  45. 45.

    TS

    Just saw this – the man has no human traits – NONE

    Edit
    Things change fast – he still has no human traits but apparently sanity prevailed re food stamps

  46. 46.

    amygdala

    Sanjay Gupta is in Puerto Rico, reporting on the preventable deaths occurring because the health care system is under profound duress after Maria.

    After Katrina, the US Public Health Service called up members of their Commissioned Corps (yes, there is such a thing), to go to the Gulf Coast and set up clinics for folks with chronic illnesses. This ensures people with things like diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy, etc. continue to get treated properly and that in turn keeps them out of an already stressed hospital system.

    Good grief, we know how to do this, and he’s tossing paper towels. Gah.

  50. 50.

    Hungry Joe

    From Ross Douthat’s shrieking obit of Hugh Hefner, in the NY Times: “Liberals should ask why their crusade for freedom and equality found itself with such a captain, and what his legacy says about their cause.”

    Hefner was a liberal “captain”? Sure — according to Douthat, who pulled the rank out of his tight ass. It’s clear from Douthat’s columns that sex makes him feel all icky; he’s a creep in his own right, and what was surely his sorry adolescence would have benefited from some time alone with Hefner’s magazines.

    And his throwaway line about liberals is typical: delivered from a high horse and dripping with horseshit.

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    @waspuppet:

    I’m so old I remember when Barack Obama was considered some kind of weirdo who couldn’t talk like, or relate to, common people.

    Actually, Obama was totally comfortable talking to common people and they all seemed to be at ease with him very quickly.

    The people he was uncomfortable were journalists and politicians, who all love to think of themselves as the real common people because they vacation in Martha’s Vineyard and not foreign places like Hawaii.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    @TS

    Believe that food stamps are no longer a physical book of paper stamps but an electronic scannable card, so it’s still highly problematic with the machines to scan them sitting dark.

  58. 58.

    Corner Stone

    @amygdala:

    His presence and his response were applauded by Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello.

    “I want to personally thank you, Mr. President, because over the course of the past week you have called essentially every day to make sure we have what we need, to make sure that the resources are over here,” Rossello said.

  59. 59.

    Shalimar

    My brain broke when I watched him complain about the recovery cost to help people in desparate need and then switch to bragging about how much we’re spending on the F-35. It’s just inconceivable that someone that stupid could be in charge of the wealthiest country in history.

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    @amygdala

    Aside from being demeaning and insulting to da max, the whole “you’ve thrown out budget out of whack” thing is another bald-faced lie – existing funding is being tapped, some from the emergency bill passed after Harvey. Congress has not yet approved any new funding. Has Texas “thrown our budget out of whack?”

  61. 61.

    Shalimar

    @ThresherK: Douthat has a wife and at least one child. I assume he still isn’t getting laid, but that is by choice because sex is so icky.

  63. 63.

    J R in WV

    @amygdala:

    Good grief, we DO know how to do this thing, but Trump Does Not, and what’s more, he doesn’t want to learn or to know anything about helping others, ever.

    I really think he will be watching surveillance of the mountainous region of the island to see people suffering and dying. To keep an eye on how things are progressing, don’t you see. There’s a word for that, I’m not remembering it right now. Ghoul is close, but no cigar yet.

  66. 66.

    Patricia Kayden

    @JPL: And a vagina. And there was that killing of Vince Foster in Benghazi. And she had had an affair with Foster but was a Lesbian at the same time.

  67. 67.

    amygdala

    @NotMax: The cruelty takes your breath away, doesn’t it? A few fewer planes the military doesn’t even want, much less need, and spending some weekends in that big house at 1600 Pennsylvania that we all pay for could certainly cover a lot of aid to PR and the USVI.

    @Corner Stone: Read the whole thing. Not too hard to figure out why the governor is groveling. The rank and file, not so much.

  71. 71.

    mai naem mobile

    If I met asshole pigfucker Dolt45 in person I don’t think I could control myself verbally. I think I would just start ranting at him with spittle flying all over. I wouldn’t do anything physical because I not stupid but I think I would let him have a piece of my mind.

  73. 73.

    Shalimar

    @amygdala: Not counting the dead because the real number would embarrass Trump is way beyond groveling. It’s dictator-level governing. Are Puerto Ricans ever going to get a count of their lost loved ones?

  74. 74.

    amygdala

    @Corner Stone:

    “He takes two weeks to visit a disaster zone where 3.5 million American citizens live. He arrives with a smile on his face, makes fun of the situation, shows no empathy, lies and lies on camera as he does 24-7. And then throws paper towel rolls to people in need as if he was playing Go Fetch with dogs,” said Joel Isaac, 27, a New York actor who moved from Puerto Rico three years ago.

    Most of Isaac’s family is still on the island. He said he had never felt humiliated as a Puerto Rican until he watched Trump’s visit.

    “It’s the whole scene where the privileged white man comes to save the brown peasants after they’ve been begging, thirsty and hungry. It’s super disgusting to see, honestly,” he said.

  76. 76.

    Corner Stone

    @amygdala: Yes, I read that part. I apologize but I am at a loss as to figuring out why the PR Gov is prone to “groveling” in this situation. He owes his people a certain modicum of respect, truthfulness and fight. Not saying to go the full Omnes or Judith Mann Costello or anything, because that would be childish and crazy, but what is he getting for his groveling beyond a few belly skritches and a verbal pat on the head today?

  77. 77.

    amygdala

    @Shalimar: After Katrina, it wasn’t a precise count, but a range. This will be similar, I imagine, except with even bigger error bars. Gupta makes the case in that article I linked above that the deaths going forward will be mostly preventable.

  78. 78.

    amygdala

    @Corner Stone: He’s groveling because Trump is venal and petty enough to make things even worse than they already are if he doesn’t get his daily dose of adulation. If we had a functioning Congress, this wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but alas, we don’t.

  79. 79.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Hungry Joe: Look at what their Captain has done to this country. I’m talking about their Captain Trump. He’s the culmination of decades of Conservatives’ tolerance of willful ignorance and bigotry.

  82. 82.

    Corner Stone

    @Major Major Major Major: It’s not exactly clear at this point. The current intel leads us to believe she was a burlesque dancer in Dallas in the 20’s to 60’s and may have had some contact with JFK and/or the Cuban Resistance. From there it looks like she was most likely a lookout for the SLA on a series of bank robberies, and ratted out her crew in exchange for a gig working for the Canadian govt. Whereabouts currently unknown but sources and methods place her squarely in the BECAUSE FUCK YOU, THAT’S WHY contingent so all caution should be shown. She’s as likely to do something just because she thinks it will piss you off as any or no reason. Have a pack of Crayons and some type of coloring book handy to distract if encountered.

  83. 83.

    Matt McIrvin

    @waspuppet: Easiest way to do that would be some kind of voter ID requirement that is hard for new residents to get in time for the election.

  84. 84.

    Corner Stone

    @amygdala: He hasn’t gotten shit. Congress hasn’t even voted on an aid package for PR yet, that I am aware of. They passed the 20 week abortion ban in the House today, but I did not see anything there about PR. Unless you’re a fetus.

  87. 87.

    Corner Stone

    @schrodingers_cat: They are all scum with zero credibility. They built this machine, this monster. They may hate Trump “YAY!!” but they all still think the same on all the topics and issues that matter to a decent, functioning society. I love it that for some of them their Never Trump stance has attracted a few left leaning people and when they try shit on they get dragged.

  88. 88.

    amygdala

    @Corner Stone: That’s the point. If something had been approved, he’d have some ability to be straightforward about what’s going on. Without and aid package signed, he knows that antagonizing Trump won’t help his constituents.

  90. 90.

    patrick II

    @NotMax:
    Read “Shock Doctrine” you want to know why Trump keeps talking about the budget. Puerto Rico is already deeply in debt and the Republicans look at this tragedy as an opportunity to privatize an entire US territory. Trump is not being very subtle about this.

  92. 92.

    Corner Stone

    @Shalimar: Give me a fucking break, friend. I made one aside joking style comment. That turned into a fucking grudge match for an entire thread. One fucking comment. Find a second one anywhere that I said anything. You can’t. So fuck off with that bullshit.

  93. 93.

    Shalimar

    18 more added to the death count, after Trump made a fool of himself bragging there were only 16. If they kept the number down to protect Trump’s fragile ego, this could backfire. More have already died from depression from hearing him speak than did in the first 13 days after the storm.

  94. 94.

    Corner Stone

    @amygdala: I did not read his comments or behavior that way from the beginning but maybe that take is accurate. I’m not him and I am not there. I just think he’s probably going to pay for his reaction when this all plays out.

  100. 100.

    amygdala

    @Shalimar: I think you’re right, and if there’s something out there about a package under consideration, I’ve missed it. They’re hostage to a malignant narcissist, in part because they don’t have representation in Congress. I hope things will improve when the Comfort gets there, but if there aren’t enough aircraft and smaller vessels (and/or fuel to run them) to get the sick to the ship, it will mean even more delays.

  104. 104.

    NotMax

    @amygdala

    Puerto Rico has had representation in the House since 1901. One delegate who functions as a Congressperson other than being excluded from floor votes. Not sufficient and proportional, nonetheless there is an official presence.

  107. 107.

    Ruckus

    @Mike in NC:
    That would be the ideal thing to say. Butttttttt…………..
    And I know you understand this, as you were in the military, sometimes you have to suck it up and do the right thing, even if it makes you want slit your own throat and poke out your eyes.

  108. 108.

    Gretchen

    My brother keeps putting stuff on Facebook about how Puerto Rico is doing fine. I disagree, he puts more nonsense out. Today one of his friends said “Too bad the Teamsters in PR prefer to make a political statement rather than help PR recover”. Wha??? She believed Trump that the PR drivers are just too lazy to help, and confused it with another story that mainland Teamsters are organizing their members to go to PR and help drive supplies. So she took Trump’s misinformation one step further and turned it into “Union thugs interfering with recovery” This is the same woman who wanted Obamacare repealed because her diabetic, 24 year old son found being on his dad’s insurance preferable to Obamacare because dad’s was less expensive and covered more. She was completely unaware that the only reason the kid had any insurance at all was because of the Obamacare regs, and had no interest in learning.

  109. 109.

    Waynski

    @Shalimar:

    My brain broke when I watched him complain about the recovery cost to help people in desparate need and then switch to bragging about how much we’re spending on the F-35. It’s just inconceivable that someone that stupid could be in charge of the wealthiest country in history.

    He’s a real Murikkkan Nero. Soon he’ll be replacing Rex Tillerson with one of Ivanka’s horsies.

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