The first house we bought was a crumbling old wood-frame bungalow in Tampa. The seller told us it had been recently tented for termites and provided documentation to that effect. But one day, a painting I’d hung on the wall about a year previously suddenly fell to the floor, taking a chunk of the drywall with it.
I placed my hand on the wall and lightly pushed. It was as squishy as if it were constructed of damp toilet paper. Termites were hollowing out the structure. We had to get the house re-tented and make extensive repairs. We eventually sold it and vowed to live in block structures only from then on.
I’ve relived the sick feeling I had when I pushed against what I thought was a solid wall only to find that it’s hollowed out a thousand times since 11/9. The structure this time is my country instead of my house. Trump does and says outrageous things that would have destroyed the political career of anyone else, and he gets away with it, over and over. There’s no accountability.
Trump’s horrifying comments about Puerto Rico this weekend — the attacks on the mayor, the racist insinuation that the people there want everything done for them, the implication that everything is just fine when images on our screens say otherwise — finally seemed to test his infuriating Teflon.
The pattern-seeking Beltway press is primed to see badly handled natural disasters as a turning point for presidencies, hence the fruitless eight-year search for “Obama’s Katrina.” Over the weekend, as more bad news poured in from Puerto Rico, #TrumpsKatrina was trending on Twitter.
Trump responded by lashing out, patting himself on the back and insinuating that criticism of himself was criticism of the troops and first responders. He did this on Twitter from his self-branded golf resort. It was like a clinic in “bad optics,” and even some of the more obtuse pundits seemed to realize that calling this “Trump’s Katrina” was unfair — to George W. Bush.
I wondered, could the scales be falling from the eyes of those who are so desperate to normalize the malignant clown in the White House? Because, damn it to hell, there has got to be a reckoning at some point, right? He can’t get away with this shit indefinitely, can he?
Then one of Trump’s largest donors, the NRA, played an indirect role in saving his bacon when a deranged man with an arsenal murdered nearly 60 and injured 500 in Las Vegas. I don’t doubt that Trump secretly rejoiced to see a story that would knock his incompetence off the front pages.
A short time ago, Trump touched down in Puerto Rico to tour a Potemkin village of progress prepared by his advance team. The trip would be about bolstering his self-esteem — everything he ever does is about that. Trump laid the groundwork before he got on the plane, telling reporters:
“I think it’s now acknowledged what a great job we’ve done. In Texas and in Florida, we get an ‘A+’, and I’ll tell you what, I think we’ve done just as good in Puerto Rico and it’s actually a much tougher situation.”
Trump continued to lavish himself with praise after landing in Puerto Rico, expressing pride that the death count was lower than in “a real catastrophe like Katrina” (as if that’s even knowable right now, which it’s not) and noting that Puerto Rico had thrown the budget “a little out of whack.” He snubbed the mayor who dared to call him out for his mismanagement and praised the governor for “not playing politics,” saying of Governor Rosselló, “He has said we have done an incredible job, and that’s the truth.”
Job 1 is not hurricane recovery: For Trump, the priority, as ever, is avoiding shame and seeking accolades. I’m confident Trump will see nothing during his short stay to contradict the stellar reviews he’s bestowed on himself. But the news organizations on the ground will know better, and so will the people of Puerto Rico. Will we hear their voices over the din of Trump braying about his own greatness?
I don’t know. But the structure of this edifice we live in is hollowed out, and if we want to save it, more people must join the work of doing so. We’re going to need a bigger tent.
Davebo
Puerto Rico will recover. America may not.
Amaranthine RBG
Unfortunately, instead of enlarging the tent, the current opposition strategy seems to be to cull out everyone who is not a True Believer.
Major Major Major Major
I’m willing to bet he half believes that this is relevant because Obama was president during Katrina.
SatanicPanic
@Major Major Major Major: If he doesn’t, I’d bet most of his dumbass fans do.
Betty Cracker
@Amaranthine RBG: Whose opposition strategy?
Amaranthine RBG
@Major Major Major Major:
That wouldn’t surprise me, but I also wonder if Trump saw the picture of Bush, Clinton, and Obama laughing and smiling at the golf tournament and got ticked by that on some level …
Sab
Thank you for returning our focus to Puerto Rico. Gun control may be an issue someday, but these people, these fellow citizens, need our help now!
Amaranthine RBG
@Betty Cracker:
I notice it on a number of ostensibly progressive politically oriented blogs that I frequent.
rikyrah
@Major Major Major Major:
You know, this is the first laugh I’ve had today.
Yes, this stupid muthaphucka probably DOES believe that 44 was President during Katrina.
Betty Cracker
@Amaranthine RBG: Oh, so some people on some blogs were mean to you. Got it.
NotMax
Surprised he could be heard over the din of generators providing power for his ego stroking.
rikyrah
When folks like myself say that he’s a despicable human being, AND THAT is what makes this different than Reagan, 2000 or even 2004…
HE.REALLY.IS.A.LOATHESOME.HUMAN.BEING.
James Powell
No, because they’re not blinded by scales, they are willing partners in the promotion of the Trump show because they get to be part of the show. They are, for the most part, the same kind of shallow, ego-maniac a-holes that Trump is. And they are all very happy that they don’t have to spend their days writing and talking about Hillary’s boring efforts to make life better for all those icky poor people.
No, because Republicans never face any reckoning for the evil they do.
Yes, because he has the unwavering support of 40-45% of the country, 100% of the Republican Party, and well over 50% of the press/media.
rikyrah
Thanks to Alain for the Pie Filter. It works wonders :)
catclub
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, I was going to ask for examples. Is this post an example? Who knows.
Mnemosyne
@Amaranthine RBG:
Gosh, I wonder who’s more to blame for that — the person who’s still whining that he only lost because the corrupt DNC and the corporate candidate conspired against him, or the candidate who did everything possible to soothe his butthurt with little success?
Such a mystery, that is. But I’m guessing you approved of the Sanders contingent storming out of the California Democratic Party when their candidate lost by 50 votes, because not letting the babies have their bottle was “culling everyone who’s not a True Believer.”
schrodingers_cat
Who the fuck is Mark Lilla? I just read a Tweet referencing his stupid interview about his stupid book and now I need an aspirin.
ETA: He is blathering about “identity politics” and how it is destroying Ds. While refusing to acknowledge that race played a role in T’s ascension.
Chyron HR
@Betty Cracker:
No, just on this blog.
Corner Stone
K-thug is shrill
Seems our good friend Mick “The Mick” Mulvaney put paid to decades of GOP lyin- er, “messaging” and finally just said what all rational people have known for some time. They do not give a shit about the deficit.
Major Major Major Major
@Chyron HR: given the way he posts I’m willing to bet people are mean to him on other blogs, too.
SatanicPanic
@schrodingers_cat: some idiot white professor who wants Democrats to get away from identity politics.
Chyron HR
@Major Major Major Major: ‘
There are OTHER blogs?
MattF
There’s a pretty sharp divide on the rightward side of the political spectrum between people who despise Trump and people who– I guess– grit their teeth and believe that he advances their cause. I’m not counting the Actual Trump Fans.
Corner Stone
BWAHAHAHA!
Warning, from Politico:
Ryan asked White House to reconsider ousting Price
The speaker touted his longtime friend’s experience in Congress during a phone call with chief of staff John Kelly.
Eric NNY
Well, glad to see that a post titled “We’re Going to Need a Bigger Tent” has the daggers drawn for each other again.
Nicole
I am not optimistic. When 40% of Americans get their news from FOX, I just don’t know what you do. Their news station of choice really, really filters what they get to hear and has so brainwashed them that they don’t trust any other source.
And we’re just really racist. I recently watched Giant, which I’d never seen, followed by “Children of Giant,” a documentary about making it. One of the people interviewed in the documentary noted that James Dean’s character is often a favorite of viewers, because he’s the poor ranch hand who (thanks to an inheritance and some luck) becomes wealthy, completely disregarding that he’s a terrible, terrible racist (not to mention a total creeper, what with his obsession with Elizabeth Taylor’s character).
I really liked Giant, by the way. That was a pretty freaking progressive film, for its time. Some of Rock Hudson’s lines don’t sound much different from things I’ve heard relatives say, 50 years later.
Major Major Major Major
@Chyron HR: well, so I’m told.
@Eric NNY: only because SOMEBODY didn’t ignore the troll… ?
schrodingers_cat
@SatanicPanic: The thing about identity politics is that these people who complain the most about it (they are usually white men) have their own little club and they don’t won’t anyone who doesn’t look like them in. In addition they don’t even want the rest of us to exist because that’s playing identity politics.
ETA: The usual suspects, Sam Harris and peeps like him are praising this Lilla to the skies.
opiejeanne
@Eric NNY: And look who drew the first one. Never mind, he’s a troll
JPL
His ego needs feeding, and we are all part of a terrifying plan to keep him happy. Venus fly traps have nothing on him.
We’re screwed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjook1I0V4
schrodingers_cat
@Chyron HR: No this is the one true blog and I have accepted Tunch as my savior. Praise the Ceiling Cat.
Calouste
The shitgibbon is like a guy who goes to a funeral and starts bragging to the widow about the new car he bought.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
eh, what do you expect for a Trump fall right now. He’s had to fire most of his staff he came into office, beyond stealing a supreme court seat Trump’s entire agenda has failed in the best possible congress he could hope for, Trump’s under investigation for treason, his political base voted against Trump in the Alabama senate primary and his own VP has made it clear he would scream to much if the GOP nominated him in 2019 instead of Trump. Sounds like Trump is just a lame duck president already.
Betty Cracker
@Eric NNY & @Major Major Major Major: My bad. Let me try to redirect by describing what a bigger tent looks like to me: Registering voters is my new hobby. I don’t enjoy standing around in the hot sun accosting strangers with a clipboard, but somebody has to do it.
I don’t give a fuck about the 2016 primary anymore, and I don’t think it’ll end up being relevant to Democratic Party unity in the long run. But even if I’m wrong, there’s nothing I can personally do about it. But the fact that millions of people sit out elections? I can address that, in a small way. And I’m encouraged by what I hear from folks who are ready to sign up.
catclub
Just spreading a little sunshine from another neighborhood on the net – Trolley dilemma edition – LGM
Redshift
Thanks for the beautiful metaphor for a horrible situation, Betty.
schrodingers_cat
@Calouste: That’s too gentlemanly for T. He goes to a funeral and grabs the widow by her you know what because she is attractive and now she is available, when they get a quiet moment.
Betty Cracker
@Nicole: I love Giant — it’s one of a handful of movies that I’ll stop and watch through if I happen to land on it while flipping through channels. It’s a reflection of its time, as are other classics like The Graduate. Talk about a stalker!
I kinda cycle though hope and despair phases. Right now, I’m choosing to see hope in how far we’ve come since those movies were made, not how much remains undone. Tomorrow, maybe not so much.
catclub
@Corner Stone: also forgotten: the time when anti-cyclical budget deficits would do LOTS of good has passed.
We should have refinanced the debt with 50 year bonds at almost 0% and gotten infrastructure built starting in 2009 – but not possible while President was black. Now we have had 7 years of positive growth, unemployment rate is 4%, and they want a tax-cut stimulus package because the president is Republican.
kindness
We don’t need a bigger tent.
We need better bug spray.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: Of course, for interesting 1950’s movies there is also Touch of Evil, also Ikiru.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
When Rupert Murdoch dies, he’d better have a 24/7 armed guard on his grave so that I won’t visit and shit on it.
Same for Trump – the dumpy fucker has put on 50 lbs since inauguration, and is rapidly headed for Baron Harkonnen territory. He won’t last a lot longer at this rate.
They’ll need to place an irrigation hose spigot next to it to clean it every morning.
NotMax
@Nicole
Two main problems with Giant:
1) It is more bloated than Jack Sprat’s wife. One presumes having been able to hygienically eat from the floor of the editing room
2) A hockey goalie mask is practically a necessity while watching to avoid injury from being repeatedly clubbed about the noggin with messaging.
Amaranthine RBG
@Eric NNY:
Yeah, sad but predictable.
Major Major Major Major
@catclub: well, which one is the Donald Trump who is currently president? Or are they somehow all the same instance?
zhena gogolia
@catclub:
That’s my favorite version of that problem by far!!!!!
Mike in NC
Not a religious person, but I can’t help but wonder if all the natural disasters this year — hurricanes and flooding and wildfires and rockslides — plus the horrific mass shooting yesterday aren’t punishment from an angry God because idiots elected Trump and his enablers who are intent on wrecking the planet.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Trump fall ties in with my prediction for 2019 Republican Primary- the true GOP base, their billionaire donors are upset on the lack value of the democracy they bought, right now these billionaires are taking it out on Congress because Trump doesn’t need their money but 2019 it will be Trump’s turn. Since I doubt if these billionaires can find a serious Republican to go against Trump openly so instead these billionaire donors cut out the middle man and go full Black Mirror by running a cartoon character voiced by a wingnut troll against Trump. I also predict the cartoon character by forthing endless conspiracy theories and racial slurs will win the nomination because he’s more authentic with GOP voters.
catclub
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Unfortunately, only his legislative agenda has failed. EPA and DOJ admins are doing maximum damage, at maximum speed. Perry at DOE is catching up.
Tillerson is ruining whatever can be ruined by apathy.
James Powell
@Nicole:
It’s not unusual that I revisit a film or tv show that I loved when I was a kid and realize – OMG that’s totally racist! It really is deeply embedded in our culture and national identity. I was a naive dumbass to think this would be ended, or even significantly reduced, in my lifetime. This will take several hundred years.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
Damn you’re good. Nailed it in 1.
Barbara
At least he didn’t use the word “miracle” in relation to Puerto Rico, as he did for Las Vegas. Apparently, first responders responding to an emergency in a relatively competent fashion counts as a miracle in Trump’s world view. And even if in context it was not meant to offend, it is offensive in my view to focus so heavily on the job being done by emergency personnel while congratulating yourself because things could have been so much worse.
catclub
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Well, I remember writing (round about May 2016) that there was no way Trump could make it through the convention and national campaign.
Too lazy and out of shape. And I wasn’t the only one either.
Hope springs infernal.
tobie
Part of what’s so terrifying about Trump is that he turns any and every situation into an us vs them and it’s usually an opposition between black (or brown) people vs. white, god-fearing, flag-humping Americans. He’s turned his clusterfuck handling of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico into a battle between hardworking troops and FEMA employees on the one hand and supposed partisans in Puerto Rico and the US on the other. The whole strategy is transparent to anyone with a brain but that’s saying a lot for his diehard supporters. I don’t know how the media is presenting this since I’m doing a news blackout today but color me surprised if they actually point out how he divides people to perpetuate the culture and race war that his outrage-addicted supporters love.
Nora
@Mike in NC: I think you’ve got it wrong. According to Pat Robertson, it’s divine punishment for us for disrespecting Trump.
Corner Stone
@zhena gogolia: Beyond the concept of “six Donald Trumps” I have yet to figure out what the problem is. My dad was a RR switchman for 30+ years so I’m pretty sure this is not an issue.
catclub
@Barbara:
I looked up the timeline. It took them an hour from when he started firing to when they broke down the hotel room door. seems like a long time.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker: True; things have progressed. It’s just really frustrating to be on the “back” swing of the pendulum of progress, as we are right now.
Yeah, Giant was a treat. Right up until the last scene, I had no idea how it was going to end. I think I’ll go read the novel now.
Corner Stone
@catclub: Even better – what Mulvaney said directly contradicts all the BS Mnuchin was saying on the Sunday shows about the tax cut more than paying for itself.
Krugman has to be taking rage therapy courses by this point.
catclub
Isn’t it nice they NEVER did that to the President from 2009-2016.
No Drought No More
It’s perfectly acceptable to now refer to Donald Trump as a domestic enemy, and none should hesitate. And mind you, the Mueller report has yet to be released..
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: OK. Giant is now on my holds list at the library. I thought I had seen it before, and then realized that I was thinking of East of Eden.
A Ghost To Most
@Amaranthine RBG: You’re a splitter. The Democratic Party does not need splitters in this time of national crisis. Go away, or stop being such an obnoxious fuck.
Elizabelle
@Nicole: No spoilers. Would you believe I have never yet seen Giant?
@ Betty Cracker:
Great metaphor. Termites in our midst.
Corner Stone
@catclub: Good God! [whisper voice] dontletadamhearyousaythat
Barbara
@catclub: It’s not as if there is a benchmark standard time of response to a madman firing automatic weapons out of the window of a hotel. 32 stories is a long way up and probably not easy to pinpoint when you are trying simultaneously to dodge bullets.
ETA: to your larger point, I doubt if the responders would classify their own response as miraculous. They are probably feeling a lot of emotions in the other direction — about how they could have responded more effectively, whether police or emergency medical personnel.
Leto
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I come to this blog for the wit, stay for the Dune references.
Gelfling 545
Trump would do well to heed my late father’s not infrequent observation: “Self praise stinks.”
A Ghost To Most
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: If I believed in deities, I would say that Gaia is pissed as hell.
Kay
@Calouste:
No, he goes to the funeral and moves all the other flower arrangements out of the way so his is in the front, and his is horrible and tacky and browning at the edges and he badgers everyone until they wearily concede and lie and say his is “the best”.
Nicole
@James Powell: Oh yeah. My seven-year-old is at the point where his dad has been excitedly showing him movies he loved as a kid, only to realize there are some not-so-good messages/slurs in those films (looking at you, Monster Squad). We’ve had to have some conversations about some of the things in the films afterwards. Which I guess is good for getting conversations started, but really makes me jittery about sitting down to watch old favorites we don’t first rewatch first.
And I remember as a college student, listening to my old Duran Duran tapes for the first time in seven or eight years and realizing all the songs were about sex. THAT went right past 10-year-old me.
Corner Stone
Katy Tur seems a little peeved at Trump and his PR whitewashing.
jl
@tobie: Puerto Rico disaster aid brings out the worst in Trump. The bigotry, the incompetence and the grifter. Trump is acting like the racist/bigot who has it so embedded in his way of thinking that he doesn’t even see it (compared to others who are more coldly calculating and conscious of it). More of it seeps out of him that he knows.
And I saw in the news today that he is griping BS about hole Puerto Rico disaster relief will put a BS hole in the budget. Even as the miserable Mulvaney is on TV explaining that big budget deficits are not problem, part of what will make the tax cuts work to spur growth (that is such a garbled mix of nonsense and dishonesty with a nugget of truth in it, is is hard to know where to start, but at any rate, no sense at all to what these people say, except the policy bottom line is always bad),
Anyway, what damage the bigot Trump doesn’t do to Puerto Rico disaster recovery, the swindler Trump will do.
We’ll have to rely on the military and fact that the law forced him to appoint a competent professional to head FEMA to do whatever they can with resources that are delivered to the island.
Bitter Scribe
This whole “Fake News” thing provides all the insulation he needs. Every single thing he does wrong can be explained in terms of a biased media out to get him.
stinger
@rikyrah: And since I really do love pie, it makes skimming past certain nyms quite enjoyable!
NotMax
@Elizabelle
The meteor arriving at the end and wiping everyone out was a surprise twist.
:)
Kay
@Gelfling 545:
Self-praise is exhausting. It TAKES. It doesn’t give. He went there to take something from them.
The Moar You Know
This is what I always said about Reagan, pretty much word for word. The answers ended up being “no” and “yes”.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@catclub: That matters to sane people, not Trump’s base. Even if you showed a Trump suporter how screwed up the EPA is now thanks to Trump, that supporter wouldn’t belive it. The EPA is Satan on earth to them like ACORN or Planned Parenthood.
Amaranthine RBG
@A Ghost To Most:
You’re becoming tiresome. You spent yesterday following me around insulting me and offering nothing substantive.
Try to do better today, Okay?
stinger
@Chyron HR: This.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Bitter Scribe:
Well that Vegas shoot must have sturck a nerve because Fox New is trying to blame CNN for it.
Nicole
@Elizabelle: I’ll be excited to hear what you think of it. I watched it because I’m currently in rehearsals for a revival of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, in which Giant is a major theme. One of the more pleasurable research projects I’ve had to do in my life. “Five and Dime” itself is a period piece now, but notable for having a three-dimensional transgender character, which was progressive for 1982. I’ll be interested to see how it holds up to a 2017 audience.
Corner Stone
@No Drought No More:
It took the MSM months to outright state the things Trump says are “lies”. And even now some still say “false” or “untruths”. Can’t wait to see them eventually shift into calling him an enemy of democracy.
Nicole
@NotMax: Elizabelle, don’t listen to NotMax. There is no meteor.
It’s aliens.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I know. I will go sit in the box and feel shame. ?
Elizabelle
We need to get rid of Fox News. Really. Get rid of it. It’s propaganda and lies and it’s brainwashing and it is poisoning our country. It is not a “news organization.”
Rush is awful, but Fox is a class in itself. It’s 24/7, apparently addictive, and capable of changing people’s personalities. No one is saying that about the Discovery Channel or CNN.
We would never have Trump without Fox News, and who cares if he wasn’t their fave in the primaries? They disinformed and angered and riled up the “insurgents” that are tearing our country apart now. They built this, over years and years and years. In complicity with the Republican party.
They are the termites.
Miss Bianca
@Nicole: oh wow, I haven’t thought of that play in years!
Kay
@Gelfling 545:
it’s gross and greedy. Headed to the scene of this disaster a big group of well-paid adults were all sitting around wondering “what can these people do for us?”
Trump can go now – he got the props he needed to back up his bullshit damage control tour. Take, take, take.
Gravenstone
@Eric NNY: Well, considering the tent in this metaphor relates to fumigation, yeah we’re gonna need a MUCH bigger tent to fumigate what’s left of our nation once Trump et al. are gone.
Leto
@Barbara: Also part of the way they were able to id him was via the smoke alarm going off from so many rounds being fired. I don’t want to think about how much longer it might have taken if those hadn’t gone off…
Mnemosyne
@James Powell:
Peter Pan was my favorite animated movie when I was a kid. Now I can barely watch it all the way through because of the double helping of racism and sexism in it. Sigh.
NotMax
@Nicole
Touché. LOL.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: @Nicole: Y’all are thinking of the wrong movie(s). Doesn’t the “Giant” in the title refer to a T-Rex?
Amir Khalid
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
2019?
Corner Stone
@Kay:
I was busy and had it on mute, but apparently Trump had them all do the “go round the table and praise me for my greatness” routine in PR today.
Gravenstone
@catclub: Shove the sixth one onto the first track. Simple word problem.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
And he puts a stack of his business cards next to the coffin and doesn’t understand why anyone would find that tacky.
That was actually a Miss Manners letter once upon a time. ?
Kay
what is “mental health reform”? Can someone give these idiots a new word? The way they use “reform” for EVERY situation is ridiculous.
Retire this word. They ruined it.
NotMax
@Miss Bianca
(slaps forehead). Of course. T for Texas.
Tex-Rex.
Elizabelle
@Nicole: Dang!
Great point you’re all making about watching the older movies. We see what was in them, and — often — what was stringently left out.
For movie buffs: this was fun: NY Magazine’s list of 100 top screenwriters, as voted on by working screenwriters.
Spoiler: #1 is Billy Wilder. Applause, applause. Who better? However, I think Nora Ephron is ranked way too high — at #9 (OK, 3 Oscar noms, but movies were kind of light) — maybe because there seem to be max 6 to 8 women on a list of 100.
FlipYrWhig
@Calouste:
He’s like a guy who tries to console parents whose son has died by talking about how classy it was that when he tried to bang the mother she told him no. No, wait, he’s the guy who ACTUALLY DID THAT. To Kelly Preston and John Travolta.
Amir Khalid
@Amaranthine RBG:
Don’t I get any love? Sad pout.
Shana
Regarding the “reckoning at some point”: I’m sure I’ve mentioned in the past that my synagogue is studiously non-political, except for Israeli politics, largely I always assumed because we have Bill Kristol and Elliot Abrams as congregants. Our rabbi’s Yom Kippur sermon was, to say the least, surprising because it was all about resisting the Trump agenda and what it has unleashed in our country. Keep in mind this was after Charlottesville and Maria but before Las Vegas. Hubby and I were pinching each other in disbelief. I have always assumed the rabbi himself is a democrat but would have faced repercussions if he brought up politics in a sermon. That seems to have fallen by the wayside now.
I know Bill Kristol is a never-Trump guy and has been since before the elections but it was also interesting to see his wife quoted in an article in the WaPo this week saying she’s actually donated to Ralph Northam’s campaign for governor this year. Northam’s the D running against Ed Gillespie.
There are some signs out there. Not enough, but I’ll take them.
jl
Should have checked Krugman’s twitter before I commented above. Trump is going to try to use budget as excuse to skimp on Puerto Rico disaster recovery, or at least make sure there is doubt and bad faith planted in the public mind about it, While Mulvaney is saying:
John Harwood
@JohnHarwood
Trump budget director on tax plan: “We need new deficits. If deficit-neutral, you’re never going to get 3% growth.”
That was found through a Krugman retweet. Krugman adds: ‘Words fail me.”
And since open thread, the dishonest and/or buitt ignorant and stupid BS the GOP Congress is spreading about their tax plan reminds us that the country has a reactionary GOP problem that is just as bad as the Trumpster problem.
Elizabelle
@Leto: Over 3,300 rooms at Mandalay Bay. Thank Dog for the smoke detectors. And now the next mass murderer knows to look out for that trick.
I have been wondering about Mandalay Bay’s liability — ensconcing a guest who brought a military grade arsenal with him, but maybe that’s just howdy Nevada regulations. Wondering if it changes name or ownership as a result.
FlipYrWhig
@Nicole:
But some of them are just abstract word-painting. Like “Union of the Snake”!
Oh.
Kay
@Mnemosyne:
I hate when people express their individuality at ceremonies. Everyone knows how to visit the site of the tragedy. All he has to do is find a normal person and follow what they do. But, no. He’s special so he has to fuck it all up, draw attention to himself and make people uncomfortable and conflicted.
Nicole
@NotMax:@Miss Bianca: Oh my God, of course, the dinosaur symbolism! How could I have missed it?
I mean, that scene when the ranch went bankrupt because the hoards of rampaging allosauruses came through and killed all the Texas Longhorns by throwing them up in the air like so many stuffed toys… you know those tears on James Dean’s face were real, not glycerin.
Nuts. Sorry, Elizabelle.
Trollhattan
@Nicole:
Nah, everyone is wiped out by a giant metaphor.
SFAW
@Leto:
Does that explain your nym/nom? I had figured it was a different mythological character.
Shana
@Mnemosyne: I remember reading Babar, once, to my daughter when she was little. I didn’t remember much about it from my own childhood and was stunned at how racist it is. It’s all native africans need the civilizing effects of the european world to save them from their awful lives. The book was hidden away and quickly donated to a book sale.
Barbara
@Elizabelle: Although it’s been a few years now since I have been, I used to go to Las Vegas frequently enough to have stayed at six different hotels. To the extent Las Vegas hotels have security it is to ensure that only guests (and their guests) are able to visit rooms, something that has become much more convenient now that electronic keys effectively control access to elevators and floors. In other words, they try to keep prostitutes and drug dealers and thieves from getting access to hotel rooms. They do not check your luggage.
Nora
@Kay: Someone should take Paul Ryan up on that. All right, Mr. Policy Wonk, what do you propose we do to improve our mental health system? Should there be more clinics? More screenings? More coverage for mental health treatment in insurance? In Medicare? In Medicaid?
It infuriates me no end when Republicans and NRA fanatics fall back on the “mental health issues” as the cause for all these shootings. Not only is it disingenuous (someone with a mental illness and a gun is likely to do more harm than someone with a mental illness who doesn’t have a gun), but they have no desire, ever, to do anything to help people who suffer from mental illnesses.
Amir Khalid
@Corner Stone:
If only someone had said, “Did you come here to have your arse kissed, Mr. President? I’m sorry, but there’s no time for that right now. We have a natural disaster on our hands.”
catclub
@A Ghost To Most:
I have stated before that GWBush was highly unlucky (Jonah comes to mind) and Obama was luckier. IN 2001, Before 9/11 there was the submarine that surfaced and sunk a Japanese fishing boat, and a US Navy Reconnaissance plane that was semi-downed by the Chinese. …. then 9/11.
Trump being unlucky means the US is unlucky – even more.
Trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
I’ve decided Trump is a slut. Think it’s going to be a nice hat slogan.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
This is why my narcissistic sister-in-law was banned from her not-quite-ex-husband’s funeral. We didn’t want to have to deal with her extra drama. Luckily, she chose to leave town.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
The NEEDINESS. A bottomless pit. There isn’t enough acclaim in the world to fill that empty shell of a human being.
When I’m around those people I freeze up. “You will get NOTHING until you stop imposing on me”.
Corner Stone
@jl: You could have also read the comments here in this very thread.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Dalton Trumbo all the way down at #43?
Bah, humbug.
No mention of Anita Loos?
Bah, double humbug.
Gravenstone
@FlipYrWhig:
Yeah, I was like – not all of them, just lots … okay most … fuckit, all of them.
SFAW
@FlipYrWhig:
Please tell me you’re kidding.
SFAW
@Trollhattan:
Not to burst your bubble, but I think that asshole would actually be flattered.
Corner Stone
@Barbara:
Oh, they try. They try.
Amir Khalid
@FlipYrWhig:
Yes were way better than Duran Duran at abstract word-painting.
catclub
@jl:
I really really really want someone to ask him if we needed deficit spending and stimulus in 2009 or 2010 or 2011 or 2012 or 2013?
And how did he vote on stimulus bills then.
Trollhattan
@catclub:
I routinely called Dubya one-term up to 9-11. He seemed so hapless after getting to destroy the economy like he wanted and privatizing social security was not happening.
Too bad for us.
SFAW
@Shana:
Let’s hope that she is right more often than he is. (I would have said “10 times as often,” but 10 times zero is still …..)
Kay
@Mnemosyne:
I have Trump supporting neighbors behind my back fence and I garden like 6 feet away from them and it’s all drama. It’s like a million phone calls and he said/she said and then they periodically make some half-ass shrieking attempt to discipline their small children in big, showy, completely ineffective ways. The children ignore them because they yell all the time, obviously, so why react at all?
It’s a fucking nightmare over there. That’s what that White House is like.
catclub
@SFAW: well documented story. Probably repeated on Howard Stern show.
Elizabelle
@NotMax:
Yes. Some very strange rankings. Some 1980s-90s types with better ratings than they deserved, probably due to familiarity.
Anita Loos! Good catch.
Elizabelle
@Barbara: Thinking there’s quite a niche for hookers of small stature.
Nicole
@Gravenstone:
…. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Corner Stone
@Nora:
He’s a policy wonk! Everyone knows that for goodness sake! He thinks deeply about policy. He cares about policy. He cares deeply about policy that he thinks deeply about. Why, I think he has thought and cared deeply about the policy of poverty since at least college!
Seriously, I do not know what you people want from him. I guess it’s hard to really get the truly wonky policy wonks. Like Speaker Ryan. Who is a policy wonk.
NotMax
@Trollhattan
Will be gleeful when we can affix SLUT* to Dolt 45’s time in office.
*(If you’ve ever seen a Swedish film, that’s what shows up onscreen in that language as The End.)
randy khan
@Barbara:
This. And, as noted on Slate, one thing to consider is that NRA pressure has essentially made it impossible for hospitals to develop best practices for mass shooting incidents in a systematic way because the CDC no longer studies such things.
Corner Stone
@Amir Khalid: That’s the beauty of it. They were all scared to death that if they said that to Trump he would make sure no money or aid *ever* got to PR. They were in a position where the BECAUSE FUCK YOU, THAT’S WHY contigent would not work to get help to people dying in need of it.
That is the evil part of it. Trump’s Cabinet and staff could quit and still have a relatively normal life. The people in PR are going to die if they piss off the King Trump and shame him.
Elie
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Not so fast. He is poisoning ACA and disrupting the ability of Americans to renew coverage. The Congress went on recess without passing CHIP renewal, leaving states like Minnesota with a real challenge in covering children on the program. He is splitting one group from the other as exemplified by the NFL issue by distorting the issue to be about the national anthem and not the behavior of police against black people. He has backed the players into becoming quiet on the issue and no one else has taken it up. His agents are destroying or attempting to destroy as much EPA regulation as possible.
I have no idea how we will stop this horrible president and liberate our country. I believe that we will, but the path will be murky. Things may have to get to a real knife edge before we can act to do something. Right now, our system of process and balance makes the opportunities for direct action very difficult. Like calling your Congressperson is fine and all that, but its pretty indirect in its immediate impact. In a parliamentary system we could call a vote of lack of confidence… In our system, we will have to wait for the next congressional election….
I just try to stay balanced and to remain positive…. Our time will come….
d58826
I was just watching the MSNBC pool feed from PR. Der Fuhrer was talking about the recovery effort while surrounded by a bunch of PR office holders. I really think we should start a gofundme campaign to by Der Fuhrer a selfie stick with a large hand on it. It would make it so much easier to pat himself on the back. His arm must get tired by the end of the day. Of course if you surround yourself with a bunch of compliant/desperate politicians they will do the job for you.
randy khan
@Elizabelle:
I’m sure the hotel is going to get sued, but in practical terms if he put the guns and ammo in suitcases or the like (and particularly if he brought them in over time, since he was in the room for several days), it’s hard to see how they could have stopped him. There are no metal detectors at hotel entrances.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I can’t watch Trump or listen to him any more. I go nuts when I do. So I read summaries and plot resistance.
Corner Stone
@catclub: Mulvaney voted No on aid to Storm Sandy because it would add to the deficit. He’s on record for ten years saying cuts have to be made to govt because deficit reasons.
It’s not surprising in the least. We all knew what these guys were.
Shana
@SFAW: My understanding is that she is as conservative as he is, but I really don’t know for sure.
HeleninEire
@James Powell: Oh holy hell. I LOVED Dr Suess as a kid. And then 30 years later my brother is reading a Suess book to my niece – sorry I have totally blanked on which one since I was so traumatized. – And there was a situation about how everyone should have known. The line that killed me dead was
“Even Jane can think of that.”
Cuz girls are dumb.
Devastated, I was.
HeleninEire
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: No. He will live forever. People who have easy lives always do.
Elie
I think we also have an opportunity to attract alienated Republicans — if the Democrats can stop attacking each other long enough, anyway (yes, I am looking at the Berniebros). We are gonna have to be way more pragmatic to pry out this cancer… aint no time to be checking purity scores….IMHO
Doug R
@Amaranthine RBG: I suspect almost all the Bernie dead ender love is paid agitation from our new Russian pals.
Eric NNY
@Betty Cracker: Thank you Betty. I’m with you.
jl
@catclub: The true story can’t quite be done in a five second soundbite. The truth takes, probably two or three relatively simple sentences, so no hope for it in today’s world.
In an economy that is not at full employment and low debt burden (which I think is the case today) any kind of deficit will increase GDP and won’t be a burden. The Reagan tax cuts work that way, any success they had worked though deficit spending: the parts of it that worked were purely Keynesian fiscal stimulus policy.There is no evidence whatever that further tax cuts from the levels we have now, or resulting deficits will increase long rung growth at all, let along make everyone a millionaire, or get everyone a nest egg of a couple of hundred thousand, as the GOP is now implicitly promising.
Only GOPer who has the guts to talk honest sense about it is Bruce Bartlett.
I helped create the GOP tax myth. Trump is wrong: Tax cuts don’t equal growth.
Bruce Bartlett
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/09/28/i-helped-create-the-gop-tax-myth-trump-is-wrong-tax-cuts-dont-equal-growth/?utm_term=.29826ced89ae
Waratah
I do not remember a POTUS complaining about the money spent on disaster recovery.
Elie
@Doug R:
Would not be surprised in the least…
The Moar You Know
@catclub: I tell you, this guy is in either serious legal or financial trouble, because he’s had his “for sale” sign up for months now and this admin treats him like he’s a poor black man. Radioactive and invisible.
Raoul
The Dubya administration was the final harbinger of the collapse to come. Obama’s 8 years now seem like a phantom (which of course is the central ‘design’ — if one can call total obstruction and oblivious dismantlement a design — of McConnell, Koch bros et al).
That this nation’s electorate voted to give Dubya 4 bonus years after his first four of disastrous ‘leadership’ was all the evidence one needed to see that Trump or his equivalent (really, folks, would Perry or Cruz been more than 5% better!?) was inevitable, as our bloated and deformed capitalist semi-democracy heads towards the cliff.
I hate being like this. I’ve always considered myself a cynical optimist. Now I’m just a depressed cynic. Well, not quite. I keep supporting progressive candidates, I haven’t actually given up. But I think I may be optimistically rearranging the deck chairs on the SS America as she takes on water and the bulkheads fail.
JPL
We needed a bigger tent to cover the escalator, when the asshole first announced.
jl
@Betty Cracker: I agree too. Register more people, fight voter suppression, mobilize registered voters.
The 2016 primary feud will fade into irrelevance. We are only one year into this mess, and if we are lucky and still here at the end of next year, there will be so much on everyone’s plate that the issues of the 2016 primary fight will seem very quaint. The US will move on in a bad direction and talk will dominated by how to fix the damage.
Fed is going to raise rates, and is already convincing itself that they can ignore recent weak economic news because it is probably due to bad hurricane season. Which makes no sense. It is like the GOP arguing that deficits from tax cuts for the rich are great, but much smaller deficits due to Puerto Rico disaster recovery are bad. So, if the Fed does that, and GOP passes a tax slash that does nothing but line the pockets of the super rich, economy next year will be unsatisfactory.
And I need to check when new Fed Chair takes over. Trumpster contemplating a horrible choice, a guy who is one of them: has been wrong about everything. He’ll probably raise rates even more, and in every way simply not know what the hell he is doing. We need Yellen at the Fed, but little chance that she stays.
Corner Stone
@Raoul: Donald Trump will cause US power to collapse, says man who correctly predicted fall of USSR
“Mr Trump’s election on an anti-immigrant platform coincides with one of the final phases of the decline predicted in the social scientist’s 2009 book The Fall of the American Empire—and then What? where he forecast the rise of facism before the country’s power receded.”
NotMax
@JPL
Just image if the M slot, instead of Maria, had been assigned to the name Melania.
SFAW
@Shana:
That’s immaterial to me. What matters is that if she’s anything like her idiot husband, vis-a-vis making predictions, etc. then Northam is well and truly fucked.
Although some here might disagree, it is my deep-rooted belief that Hillary lost the moment Bloody Bill Kristol announced, during the campaign, that there was no way Shitgibbon would/could win. I heard that and initially thought that maybe, finally, Kristol got something right. Then I remembered that, after all, it’s Kristol, and the universe would end were he to get something right. And then I said “SHIT!”
Millard Filmore
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’m with you. One item on my bucket list is to get arrested pissing on Dolt-45’s grave. I MUST be arrested. I want that certificate of authenticity.
Elie
@Raoul:
I hear you loud and clear. I believe however, that the path may not be in the pure party system. We will have to shape some other hybrid? I am not trying to break up the Democrats but maybe all of us in opposition to Trump and his regime need another banner to walk under for the time being. Maybe we could harness not only the formal Democrats, but all progressives and those of any type who are interested in opposing what is in place now. We need an actionable label for what that is. I want to fix this more than fix what all the issues are for Democrats and progressives. We will die from this cancer if we don’t root that out first and I don’t want to be prissy about it. It will take all that we have and our leaders may not be who we think they are. I just know we need to find new energy and dedication to the cause of not just resistance but removal of this insurrection and recapture of our government.
Amaranthine RBG
@Doug R:
Maybe, but on which side? I don’t often see many Bernie supporters posting here trying to re-hash the primary but it seems almost every day some perhaps human Hillary fan is attacking Bernie and Bernie supporters. If the Hillarybots are, in fact, bots that would explain a lot.
SFAW
@catclub:
Christ, what an asshole
rikyrah
NRA goes dark after Vegas massacre
The gun rights group follows its familiar public relations playbook, staying quiet as Democrats blame it for another horrific mass shooting.
By JOSH MEYER 10/02/2017 10:11 PM EDT Updated 10/03/2017 01:21 AM EDT
Democrats lashed out at the National Rifle Association after the worst mass shooting in American history on Monday, but rather than fight back, the gun rights group retreated to a familiar posture: silence.
The NRA’s website, Twitter feed and Facebook page — all of which are typically updated frequently throughout the day —went dark on Monday, posting no new content, and the group did not respond to several calls and emails seeking comment.
But that doesn’t mean the powerful Washington lobbying organization isn’t extremely busy behind the scenes.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/02/las-vegas-shootings-nra-guns-243394
Doug R
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: “cartoon character”
So Roy Moore then?
rikyrah
He’s trying to straddle that he’s a ‘ reasonable Republican.’
HE HAS GOT TO GO!!!
Republicans rage at Rauner
By signing a controversial abortion bill, the embattled Illinois governor has gone to war with his own party.
By NATASHA KORECKI 10/02/2017 07:20 PM EDT
Until recently, the biggest question looming over Illinois politics has been whether Republican Bruce Rauner, the most vulnerable incumbent governor in the country, can win re-election next year.
Now the question is whether Rauner can make it through a Republican primary.
After the first-term governor signed a highly controversial bill last week expanding taxpayer-funded abortion in the state — becoming the first governor in decades to on his own authorize Medicaid payments for the procedure — Rauner’s political universe began collapsing on itself.
He found himself uninvited to GOP events, including a pro-life event that for weeks had boasted him as a headline guest. One-time GOP allies began searching for funding — and candidates — to challenge him. Chicago’s Cardinal Blasé Cupich declared that Rauner had betrayed him.
The Chicago Sun-Times summed up the reaction on the right with this screaming tabloid cover page: “Benedict Rauner.”
Amaranthine RBG
@Corner Stone:
And the guy was “nominated” for a Nobel Prize, too.
SFAW
@Millard Filmore:
Take a fucking number
NotMax
@Millard Filmore
The only worthwhile reason have ever been able to come up with to visit California is to do the same to Nixon’s.
One of these days…
Elie
@Corner Stone:
US power is already moving in that direction thanks to der Trump. So do we just throw up our hands and say “too bad”?
rikyrah
25 Photos of the Obamas on their 25th Anniversary
http://www.politico.com/gallery/2017/10/03/barack-michelle-obama-anniversary-photos-002709?slide=0
catclub
@Corner Stone: Johan Galtung?? John Galt?
ruckus
@Mike in NC:
Well…… A guy who used to work with me was at the LV concert, I’m pretty sure he voted for the shitgibbon, and the guy standing next to him got shot. So……
JPL
From Josh Marshall
Doug R
@catclub: SWAT was working their way up from the 29th floor, shooter was on the 32nd.
Elie
@Amaranthine RBG:
I assure you that I am not a bot but I know when I smell a skunk. That little innocent act you put on about the Bernie bros and their leader’s goals stinks to high heaven. However, I am willing to bury the hatchet if we can ever get the bros to actually focus on Trump and his removal instead of the Democrats. We will have to overlook at lot to work together, and I am willing if the bros are. We can settle scores after we do this very important thing — removal of Trump and his regime from office. Everything else is a distant second.
Betty Cracker
Trump went into a church in Puerto Rico where relief supplies were being distributed and started heaving rolls of paper towels into the crowd for people to catch. Most embarrassing t-shirt cannon ever!
HeleninEire
@rikyrah: Thank you for that. I was just about to say “I just can’t. Going to read Darth – not the Darth you’re looking for” on Twitter.
JPL
@rikyrah: My favorite is in the service elevator when everyone pretends to not notice the Obama’s flirting.
Villago Delenda Est
This motherfucking incompetent misidentified someone in an Air Force uniform as a Coastguardsman.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: But I am sure Amy Walter and Tamara Keith, will give him a thumbs up on next week’s Snooze Hour for being Presidential and authentic.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Paper towels?
“Here ya go! Now you can get cracking cleaning up your own mess.”
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Hmmmm. Reagan and Bush 1 & 2 were despicable in their own special ways. With Trump, his bigotry is unhinged and out in the open. He uses elephant trumpets instead of dog whistles and he craves praise in a way that is unusual for a leader. So he’s unique in the sense that he doesn’t try to hide how intolerant he is of non-White people.
Corner Stone
@Elie: Yes. Say it with me, “too bad” “too bad” “toooo baaaaddd”.
Amaranthine RBG
@Elie:
Well, like I said, I seldom see Bernie supporters hereabouts launching broadsides against Clinton without provocation, but I do see several posts per day of people working out their psychic trauma arising from Clinton’s defeat by attacking Bernie – just bringing him up out of the blue. There are even some who are so obsessed that they call him by a different name so they can carry on their sad crusade without a response.
Maybe I just miss the former because there are a lot of posts I don’t read.
Patricia Kayden
@Villago Delenda Est: He doesn’t know and has no shame. He could have quietly asked someone around him but doesn’t care about showing his ignorance in public.
Corner Stone
I just keep waiting for Trump to do one of these “around the table” type things and then turn to J Kelly and say, “I didn’t get an Harumph! outta that guy!”
Doug R
@Gravenstone: I’m guessing you never saw the videos then.
A Ghost To Most
@NotMax: Hit up Reagan while you are there.
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est: If Trump says he’s in the Coast Guard then that piece of shit flyboy should be proud to be in the CG!
JPL
From TPM
I am beginning to think that Trump’s miracles are actually lies.
Elie
@Amaranthine RBG:
You interestingly avoid the request that I made about focusing on Trump. How about it?
NotMax
@Corner Stone
Just out of camera range stand Jared and Ivanka, flashing cards like Olympic judges, scoring each one’s level of adulation.
Gravenstone
@Doug R: Dude, I was in college during their heyday. MTV was like the official channel in the dorms. Of course I’ve seen the fucking videos. Videos do not always comport to the underlying lyrics.
JPL
@Corner Stone: You betcha that Trump took the person’s name down, when he informed him that he was the Air Force. Payback is gonna be yuge!
ruckus
@Kay:
This sounds vaguely familiar. Like I’ve experienced something similar.
Elie
@Corner Stone:
Well then how are you gonna spend your time? If indeed the US decline is just “too bad”, why are you here bitching? Go take a vacation and get a good foot massage… whatevah —
StringOnAStick
I think what really triggered me after the election was realizing how much my RW egotistical asshole of a father is like trump; it’s just a matter of degree. The way rump takes every situation as an opportunity to talk about his experience with something similar (“water damage, very tough”), knowledge of something tangentially related, knew someone who did something similar, etc.; its how people who can’t empathize with others always insert themselves to try to grab top dog/authority position or attention. Rump and my dad can’t allow any conversion they don’t control, and every topic brought up always gets turned to centering on them by this technique. I can recall being embarrassed even as a young kid when my dad would do this and I could tell all the other adults were thinking “Christ, what a bore”.
When my dad was younger he could still sometimes not do this but now that FOX has taken over where Limbaugh left off he’s become an utterly reprehensible person completely filled with hate and anger. You either agree with everything my dad parrots from FOX or else you are the enemy. That’s what the politicians in PR knew: kiss rump’s ass or risk seeing the aid being taken away because rump didn’t feel adequately praised. I recognize what they are having to do in order to survive; I’ve lived it.
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: Lol. Yeah sure he knew that. Dummy!
Shell
Trump doesnt need any help on that front.
JoeSo
@catclub: I’m so glad that after a horrible day of violence you decide to post such a stupid and crass joke. I’m also glad some people decided to join in the yucks. We’re supposed to call out deplorables, but I guess you decided to join them in the basket. I’m outta here.
ruckus
@Raoul:
I knew shrub was going to be reelected, war time presidents almost always are. I’m pretty sure that was one of the main reasons for the wars in the first place.
jl
I finally found some good news for today. Maybe the central casting generals will save Trump from starting two disastrous wars. Let’s see whether Trump is stupid and toxic enough to tell his generals to stuff on Twitter.
Edit: Important to note that Mattis was against the original agreement, now going further than Dunford in support. So Mattis has thought about it and will have credible argument for his current position, for anyone with a brain and good faith (though existence of such people is doubtful among the Trumpsters).
Idrees AliVerified account
@idreesali114
“U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says it is in national security interest to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. Goes further than Dunford did last week.”
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: I MISS THEM SO MUCH, *sob*.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Mnemosyne: Two minutes, by yourself–and then you are free!
No Drought No More
On the lighter side of life, I’ve just spent the past 10 minutes watching as 3-4 sparrows at a time bathed and bickered with each other in my small birdbath. It’s Indian Summer here in Sonoma county, too… goofy birds, never get tired of ’em, year ’round.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
Alas, Melania is no force of nature.
Corner Stone
@JoeSo:
That would be for the best, thanks.
Gravenstone
@Betty Cracker: /facepalm
I just can’t anymore.
Elie
@StringOnAStick:
It is very hard to live with a significant person in your life who has a real personality disorder or some such. It marks you and Trump is marking our country right now. My sympathy to you. If Trump was not such a danger, I would have more empathy for his missing soul and how truly insecure and filled with constant anxiety and fear he must be. Unfortunately, like a mad dog, while I might regret the rabies flying round in his brain, we cannot have him running loose biting people…
Doug R
@Elie: If the bros aren’t with us about removing trump first, then they were never really with us, were they?
NotMax
@StringOnAStick
Shorter round table:
#1: “That’s a lovely suit of clothes you have on there, Mr. Emperor.”
#2: “Positively exquisite.”
#3: “No, it’s beyond that, it’s stunning.”
(in unison): “Best suit of emperor’s clothes ever, in the entire history of emperordom.”
Amir Khalid
@Amaranthine RBG:
Tnere are none so blind as those who will not see.
SFAW
@rikyrah:
I can’t believe how much I was smiling when scrolling through those pics. And then I thought about how Shitgibbon is the polar opposite of Obama in so many ways — intellect, class (especially toward his wife), down-to-earth-ness. Well, at least I can go back to those pics once in a while.
Major Major Major Major
@Amaranthine RBG:
I sincerely doubt this.
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: I suppose that Trump doesn’t understand that his lies can be fact checked and exposed. That’s why he lies so effortlessly.
Mike in NC
@Villago Delenda Est: Trump sees a service member in uniform and hasn’t a clue about who they are, what they do, or what the colorful ribbons and shiny badges represent. To him, they’re just more servants like the caddies and chambermaids he’s dealt with all his life.
Elie
@Doug R:
Nope. And I agree that many are on Putin’s payroll. We will have to out them by directing our actions and goals towards Trump removal. Their ongoing need to kneecap Democrats when the agenda is about removing Trump will make them stand out more. We also have to figure out enough of a détente with the Republicans who are against Trump. Yes, we will all be strange bedfellows, but shit, we gotta do this thing or anything else is a waste of time.
catclub
@Patricia Kayden:
I still don’t know whether or not he KNOWS that when he says “Believe Me” he is announcing a bigger than usual lie. Does he cynically know?
Does he not know?
bemused
@Trollhattan:
Ha, ha, ha, I love that. And it’s his inner core, sluttiness.
NotMax
@Mike in NC
Same thought balloon above each uniformed head.
“Oh God, oh God, please don’t let him pick me.”
Elie
@Amir Khalid:
Notice that he did not take me up on my challenge for him to join in removing Trump first.
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
I have been saying for a while that he has not intentionally told the truth since he was inaugurated, and probably for a long time before that. As far as I can tell, I’m still batting 1.000 on that score.
germy
Our first termite president. With a carpenter ant Attorney General.
stinger
@NotMax: Naw, I’d love to meet Mnemosyne and BillinLA and all the others in person.
A Ghost To Most
@Trollhattan: Sluts are demanding you stop comparing them to the Great Orange Shitstain.
Swannie
Betty’s cheese done slid off her Cracker.
Trollhattan
@Waratah: I @NotMax:
Too perfect!
A French film ending is out of the question “Fine”
StringOnAStick
I had a patient yesterday who is usually a bit over the top, but he was completely apoplectic about rump, swearing with f bombs and barely shutting up long enough for me to do my job. I commiserated a bit (my talking means patients aren’t, so I can get to work), then he launched into the “Hillary should be in jail for what she did to Wilmer” and I thought “Russian bot dupe”. I didn’t ask for details. He later told me he was getting testosterone injections so that may explain the increased rage, but not the stupidity.
Major Major Major Major
@StringOnAStick: Christ. Well, as I’m sure you know, some people are just idiots.
Half, in fact.
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: Trump’s base doesn’t care, and might not know. Fox certainly doesn’t cover his lies.
Does anyone know if Fox has a reporter on the ground in Puerto Rico?
The Moar You Know
@JoeSo: 1st time poster bitching about our civility. I love it. Stick around so we can make more crass japeries about your idol, Sweet Potato Saddam.
Baud
@StringOnAStick:
In his brain, obviously.
MomSense
I thought I’d share this essay by Hanif Abdurraqib.
Tom Petty’s America Is The One We Want To Believe In
Major Major Major Major
@The Moar You Know: Yeah, it’s a little on the nose, isn’t it?
StringOnAStick
@Major Major Major Major: This guy is a classic of the genre, always talking about his health and what he’s doing about his diabetes. But every time I see him he’s gained another 20 lbs and the little comments tell me he eats candy all day, and all sorts of other things that you don’t want to be doing if you are trying to deal with type II diabetes. His goal is to so improve his status that he can quit taking his meds but his goal and his behavior are headed in opposite directions. I think I see a pattern here….
StringOnAStick
@Baud: The testosterone injections are causing his iron level to spike to “critical”. His anti-aging doctor told him to regularly give blood to counter it but it isn’t helping. Too many of these anti-aging doctors are shady as all hell but rolling in the dough from credulous patients like this guy.
Baud
@StringOnAStick:
WTF? The only anti-aging doctor is Dr. Kevorkian.
Archie's Pal
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, that’s the kind of schoolyard bullying response I remember. “Awwww, was someone mean to you? Boo hoo!” Glad to see that some things never change. And so, neither will who’s in power.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: That was a terrific essay. Thank you.
Major Major Major Major
@StringOnAStick:
I guess his insurance wouldn’t cover leeches.
JPL
I’m shocked, just shocked that a pro-life rep encouraged his girlfriend to get an abortion..
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2017/10/03/rep-tim-Murphy-pro-life-sought-abortion-affair-shannon-edwards-susan-mosychuk-pennsylvania-chief-of-staff-congress-emails-texts/stories/201710030018
eclare
@JPL: They are all so good, thank you for the link. Damn, I’m sad for what we have lost.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Leeches would have been covered under single payer.
JPL
@eclare: Not the first and probably not the last.
JPL
@eclare: Rep. Tim Murphy will be voting on a 20-week abortion ban within the hour.
eclare
@MomSense: Excellent essay, thanks.
eclare
@JPL: Oops, I was talking about the Obama photos….
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: Leeches would’ve won.
JPL
@eclare: lol
Doug has a story about the latest pro-life republican.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Love those photos. (1) Especially when they’re reading “Where the Wild Things Are” and (2) wow, did he look young 2009 and prior.
tybee
@Elie: i’m pretty sure he’s not gonna vote for the republican and i’m willing to accept that.
tybee
@JoeSo: have fun storming the castle!
Eric U.
the termite comparison is apt. I feel like at any step I might break through the floor like Cole did on his newly-acquired deck
rikyrah
@Barbara:
You telling me that the casinos don’t have sensors on their windows, so that they would know when one is broken?
rikyrah
In moderation.please help
Steeplejack
@Kay:
The Onion (on point, as usual).
Paul Ryan: “This shooting isn’t about gun control we refuse to pass, it’s about access to mental health care we’re continuing to gut.”
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
I guess it would depend on whether they had “missing” e-mails, now wouldn’t it? (I’d say something about the Leech Foundation, too, except Shitgibbon already took that name.)
Psych1
@Amaranthine RBG: Bernie supporters have been driven away by the numerous haters here
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker: Been super busy and coming very late to this thread. Just wanted to say, well said.
Steeplejack
Jesus Christ. MSNBC showing Trump tossing rolls of paper towels into a crowd. He looks like the T-shirt cannon guy at a basketball game.
“Thank you, Mr. President, for this single roll of towels. It is the first bit of aid I have gotten from the government since the hurricane. Thank you very, very much. I will go home and wipe down my house, which was destroyed. I must say, however, that wet wipes would have been better, because we have no running water in our town. But I don’t wish to appear ungrateful. You are doing a terrific job!”
debbie
There’s no tent big enough to rid us of this pestilence who can crack a joke about the budget before addressing the people who have been suffering for two weeks. This was not the occasion for a joke.
Elizabelle
Jen Rubin today. She’s noticed the termites in the GOP.
WaPost: If your political base is irrational, get a new base
Difference is, they invited those termites in, lovingly. But now: they’ve eaten the walls. Whocoodaknown?
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker, @Steeplejack:
And I’m way late again.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@tybee:
But he probably won’t vote for the Demonrat either.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Psych1: Oh boo hoo. Can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Welcome to the internet.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
And besides, I don’t think he’s genuine anyway.
ruemara
@StringOnAStick: I had a massive row with my roommie over Wilmer dumbassery. Still with the Bernie woulda won and ranting about he wouldn’t be guilted into voting and participating in a corrupt system of oligarchs. Yes, white male just white maling all over the place. I think he’s so used to people agreeing in the libprog clusterfuck of smugness, he was amazed at how angry I got with him. And then he said I wanted Hillary because I wanted to see a vagina as president. It did not go well.
StringOnAStick
@ruemara: That would have tested my ability to remain calm and not strangle him. I used to be the ultralib and as a not so smart young 20 something I might have fallen for the division sewn by the bots but any look at history says progress is made incrementally and revolutionary change is never a happy ending for the average person. If that means I get painted as a neoliberal by these short sighted and selfish jerks, fine.
smintheus
Trump gives himself an A+ and Puerto Ricans a golf trophy, though Republicans love to complain about grade inflation and participation medals.
StringOnAStick
My boss’s brother and dad both voted for rump. At first his dad was all “give him a chance” and now when questioned he now hates rump but says that “all politicians are bad”; you know, the usual cop out. His brother voted for him because he wanted to ” shake things up”; now he’s disappointed but wants “to burn it all down”. My boss and I shook our heads when he told me this story. We both agree that his brother apparently thinks “burning it all down” won’t have any impact on him or his teenage kids. White male of course.
Steeplejack
@The Moar You Know:
JoeSo has commented sporadically before.
If you want to check for new troll syndrome, do a Google search of the form
where you replace JoeSo with the name of the commenter under suspicion.
Steeplejack
@The Moar You Know:
See, in contrast, no previous hits for Archie’s Pal.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: I bet if I looked at the IP address, it would be identical to that of the “pal” he’s caping. Seen that movie before, and it’s a real snooze. Not gonna bother.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
Huh. Just reporting from the cheap seats with the simple tools available.