Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Books are my comfort food!

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

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

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

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

It’s a doggy dog world.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

This really is a full service blog.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Open Thread: Bad Parenting, Tragi(comic) Results

Open Thread: Bad Parenting, Tragi(comic) Results

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Yeah, Sheriff Thirsty is throwing stones right at his own glass jaw. Bella Abzug was my first political icon; I’m all in favor of more political women wearing Big Statement Hats.

Gail Collins read Ivana’s new book, and points out that D-Jr is another victim of the broken Rich White Narcissist subculture so sadly prominent today…

… I’m sort of presuming that you’re not going to read it, despite the fact that it includes several recipes. So let me summarize. The book is supposed to be about good parenting. But the most important thing you learn is that we can never say another mean thing about Donald Jr. again. Really, it sounds like the worst childhood ever. His story begins with Dad resisting the idea of naming the baby after him, in case his first born turned out to be “a loser.”

As a toddler, Don Jr. broke his leg due to a negligent babysitter. Then one day when Ivana was out of town, he and Eric called hysterically to report they had found their nanny unconscious in the basement. (She died.)

Wait, there’s more: During their infamous divorce, Dad sent a bodyguard from his office to get Junior, announcing: “You’re not getting him back. I’m going to bring him up myself.”

Ivana says she responded: “O.K., keep him. I have two other kids to raise.” Silence and 10 minutes later the bodyguard returned her son.

It was, Trump’s ex-wife concluded, “a tactic to upset me.” However for some reason, at around this time Don Jr. stopped speaking to his father and wound up getting shipped to boarding school…

Of course, his old man was reportedly physically abusive, as well.

Can you imagine the Wingnut Wurlitzer weasel screaming if this was Chelsea Clinton — never mind our most recent President’s daughters?

Reader Interactions

271Comments

  1. 1.

    Chet

    Just a terrible, terrible human being, and a terrible president. Not only “terrible” as in “reprehensible,” but also as in “incompetent.”

  3. 3.

    Mike in NC

    >His story begins with Dad resisting the idea of naming the baby after him, in case his first born turned out to be “a loser.”<

    And just look at how Junior turned out. Sad!

  4. 4.

    Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California)

    Interesting how all black Democratic Congresswomen are now “Maxine Watters” (sic)

  5. 5.

    Baud

    OT. Daily Beast.

    Retired four-star Gen. David Petraeus on Sunday hit back at White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders’ suggestion that it would be “highly inappropriate” to question a four-star general. “I think we’re all fair game,” Petraeus, the former CIA director, said on ABC’s This Week. “We, in uniform, protect the rights of those to criticize us, frankly … we are fiercely protective of the rights of our Americans to express themselves, even if that includes criticizing us.”

  8. 8.

    germy

    BOSTON (AP) – U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is joining the growing chorus of women talking about their experiences with sexual harassment in the wake of allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
     
    The Massachusetts Democrat shared a story from when she was a “baby law professor” during a videotaped interview session with three other female senators that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
     
    Warren says a senior faculty member had asked her to stop by his office one day. When she did, he slammed the door and “lunged” for her. He then chased her around a desk, trying to get his hands on her.
     
    She says she managed to flee and told only her best friend about it.
     
    Warren says speaking out is a way to show solidarity and say it isn’t the victim’s fault.

  9. 9.

    germy

    His story begins with Dad resisting the idea of naming the baby after him, in case his first born turned out to be “a loser.”

    I notice dolt45 wasn’t named after his dad.

  10. 10.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    There just isn’t anything redeemable about Donald Trump. Nothing. Nothing at all. I don’t know if I ever saw such an awful person in my life. Almost everybody has something you can point to and say, “Yeah, O.K., I can see that that’s kind of good.” Not this guy. He hasn’t done one thing, said one thing I ever heard of that’s even in the neighborhood of neutral. It’s all just so unrelentingly vile and foul and awful. He’s the worst person I’ve ever heard of being in American politics, even counting John C. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, Joseph McCarthy, Nixon and Dick Cheney.

  13. 13.

    Jim

    Ah, yes, Bella Abzug. She was the one who got me to really respect strong, smart women. Good memories.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @FlipYrWhig: I have to chuckle at the recent stories about Trump pledging to pay the legal bills for those who might testify against him. That’s not even tax deductible. No way that happens.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    I’m too lazy to look it up, but I think Donald’s older brother was the “junior.” You know, the one whose kid Donald tried to cut off the family health insurance when Donnie got into a money dispute with the baby’s mother, aka his brother’s widow.

  20. 20.

    sm*t cl*de

    he and Eric called hysterically to report they had found their nanny unconscious in the basement. (She died.)

    Oh noes! Nanny tripped and fell down the stairs!

  23. 23.

    sm*t cl*de

    Easier 2 take u seriously when u dont look like a stripper;)

    Subtext creeping though there. How many directories on Don Jnr’s computers & devices are dedicated to photos from that stage in his stepmother’s career when she was that way employed?

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    @germy: LOL. What’s sad, though, is that there was a Fred, Jr., older than Donald, who was not interested in the family business, but was a talented pilot. Worked for TWA for a while, I think. But ended up an alcoholic who died in his mid-40s. Believe he ended up doing maintenance work at the Trump properties toward the end. And his kids — one of whom had special needs — were cut out of Fred the Empire Builder’s Slumlord’s will.

    So: Donald is a jerk, no doubt, but he may have been thinking of his older brother. Who, I think, he did love and is haunted by.

  27. 27.

    gene108

    @germy:

    I notice dolt45 wasn’t named after his dad.

    Second born son. His older brother was Fred, Jr., who drank himself to death in the 1970’s.

  29. 29.

    sm*t cl*de

    criticizing T party?

    Dude, you’re not supposed to come out and say that the US Presidency is being run as the Trump family business.

  30. 30.

    Mike in NC

    @Baud: Makes one wonder if some tourist who went to the White House wearing a MAGA cap would get whisked to the front of the line.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    Not normally the type of thing I’d link to but seems to fit in on this particular thread. FYI.

    APA Fires ‘Stranger Things’ Star’s Agent Following Sex Abuse Allegation Source

  32. 32.

    Gin & Tonic

    From the “more proof Trump is Putin’s bitch” file, the US has apparently revoked Bill Browder’s visa.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    @ germy:

    From a somewhat sympathetic story, NY Times, January 2016, For Donald Trump, Lessons From a Brother’s Suffering.

    What Donald was possibly fearing, in naming his firstborn son after himself, although he’s rather kind in his quotes about Freddy in this article. Freddy, of course, presents no competition, being dead for over 30 years now.

    … For Mr. Trump, a presidential candidate whose appeal is predicated on an aura of toughness, personal achievement and perpetual success, [suckers! Thanks, morons.] the story of Freddy, a handsome, gregarious and self-destructive figure who died as an alcoholic in 1981 at the age of 43, is bleak and seldom told.

    In a telephone interview last week, Mr. Trump said he had learned by watching his brother how bad choices could drag down even those who seemed destined to rise. Seeing his brother suffering led him to avoid ever trying alcohol or cigarettes, he said.

    But the painful case of Freddy Trump, eight years his brother’s senior and once the heir apparent to their father’s real estate empire, also serves as an example of the dangers of failing to conform in a family dominated by a driven, perfectionist patriarch and an aggressive younger brother.

    In the upwardly mobile Trump family, Donald was the second and favorite son, the one who got into the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, relished the combat of New York real estate and ultimately made the Trump name an international brand. Freddy was the disappointment, who lacked the killer instinct and drifted so far from his father’s ambitions that his children were largely cut out of the patriarch’s will.

    … At the time [when Freddy was in college at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania], Donald looked up to his brother and kept a photograph of him, standing next to an airplane, in his dorm room at military school.

    But he also looked toward a future without him in the way. According to “The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire,” by Gwenda Blair, Donald told his roommate that Freddy’s decision to be a pilot rather than run the family business had cleared a path for him to succeed his father.

    ….. The years that followed were unkind. [The 1970s, Freddy] got divorced, quit flying because he knew his drinking presented a danger and failed at commercial fishing in Florida. By the late 1970s, he was living back in his parents’ house in Jamaica Estates, working on one of his father’s maintenance crews.

    By then, Donald had broken into the Manhattan real estate market and the city’s celebrity culture. A younger brother, Robert, had followed in Donald’s footsteps, joining the family company and eventually becoming a top executive there.

    Also, it was the grandchild who had special needs and got cut out of the will; Fred III’s child.

  36. 36.

    debbie

    I wish I had the cash to stake a reward for the reporter who asked Sheriff Dave to explain why his hat isn’t a whacky hat like the Congresswoman’s.

  37. 37.

    Ohio Mom

    @Jim: I got to shake Bella Abzug’s hand sometime in my early twenties. She was standing in front of the subway stairs of my station, greeting potential voters. It was cold out, she was wearing a big red hat, I was on my way to catch my train, awestruck and charmed that she’d wanted to shake my hand. A cherished memory.

    Growing up in NYC, I was aware of Trump from an early age. Nobody liked him.

  39. 39.

    Brachiator

    As a toddler, Don Jr. broke his leg due to a negligent babysitter. Then one day when Ivana was out of town, he and Eric called hysterically to report they had found their nanny unconscious in the basement. (She died.)

    This is insane. Trump’s entire life, business and personal, has been steeped in chaos. Kids in this situation would need all kinds of comfort and reassurance, but I doubt that is what happened.

    And Trump seems to have raised his sons to be snarling attack dogs.

  40. 40.

    TriassicSands

    I don’t like cowboy hats. Same goes for cowboy boots. But I don’t care what Wilson puts on her head. I care what she believes and votes for in Congress. What she wears is her business and I don’t care at all if our sartorial tastes differ. I doubt she’d be impressed with my wardrobe.

    When I see photos of Wilson, I can’t help but smile. It’s not a mean-spirited or condescending smile at all. I don’t smile when I see (or hear) Clarke.

    David Clarke calling Wilson a buffoon is priceless. From the looks of the photo, his pinhead can’t really fill his 10-ounce hat.

  41. 41.

    Ruckus

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
    I doubt it. For all his faults, I’d bet he really feels this way. Lots of military people understand what the document says. We were given better civics lessons in boot camp than I got in HS. It wasn’t swallow this bullshit at all, it was here is the document, what does it say and what does it mean to you as a person serving in the military.

  45. 45.

    Ruckus

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

    even counting John C. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, Joseph McCarthy, Nixon and Dick Cheney.

    Not sure that wouldn’t hold if you combined all of them. People have stated that GWB was worse because of the harm he’s caused. It took GWB how many years to get there, and he had the guiding hand of one of your list. But he could at least sound like he wasn’t broken. drumpf is a 200+ lb walking infectious pustule who has done nothing good. NOTHING. And he’s had 70 yrs.

  47. 47.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    We just started watching American Vandal the other night and it is SOOOOOOO good!! It is a pitch-perfect spoof of Making A Murderer/Serial/The Jinx and other examples of that sort of story-telling that is so prevalent nowadays. Check it out if you need a light-hearted laugh.

  49. 49.

    Gary K

    Easier 2 take u seriously when u dont look like you’re wearing a clear plastic raincoat and playing “Hip to be Square.”

  52. 52.

    SFAW

    @Ruckus:

    drumpf is a 200+ lb walking infectious pustule who has done nothing good. NOTHING. And he’s had 70 yrs.

    Well, he did save us from having a warmongress President.

    *sob*

  53. 53.

    Ruckus

    @schrodingers_cat:
    I wonder if drumpf brought in Kelly to create order so he wouldn’t have to deal with as much bullshit every day. It was said to be a total clown show in the WH. How can drumpf think about his golf game if he keeps constantly getting interrupted by other 4 yr olds just walking in his office? Even a kindergarten has some level of organization.
    ETA drumpf wasn’t going to do this himself, he wanted it done right.

  54. 54.

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

    @schrodingers_cat:
    She nails it:

    Kelly and Trump seem to actually have a lot in common. They both display disdain for the press and contempt for critics. Kelly rails at treatment of (“sacred”) women but enthusiastically serves a president who serially insults and abuses women. Rather than address criticism, Kelly and Trump both like to pull rank, treat critics as their lessers and react indignantly when anyone questions their motives.

    CNN’s Jake Tapper had it exactly right in his appearance Friday afternoon. “When a reporter pointed out just minutes ago that Kelly had gotten his facts wrong about this speech, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said one of the most shocking things I’ve ever heard from that podium — she suggested that journalists cannot question generals,” he said. “That’s not how we do it here in the United States.” But then, Trump has made destruction of democratic values and institutions a feature of his presidency.

    The press puts out “fake” news. The special prosecutor is on a witch hunt. The courts have no power to second-guess the president on the travel ban. It’s all part of Trump’s imperiousness and determination to delegitimize all independent sources of information and criticism. Kelly, rather than restrain these authoritarian impulses, fuels them.

    Subscribe
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    Right Turn Opinion
    Let’s not staff a White House with generals ever again
    By Jennifer Rubin
    October 22 at 12:00 PM
    Play Video 1:11
    Wilson says Kelly ‘lied’ about her 2015 comments. Now there’s video from the event.

    0:00

    Wilson says Kelly ‘lied’ about her 2015 comments. Now there’s video of the event. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)
    In defending his boss, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly gratuitously attacked Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.), derisively referred to her as being like “empty barrels,” misrepresented her conduct at a dedication of an FBI building and, even when film of the event showed his characterization to be utterly false, did not apologize. Kelly deemed it appropriate to restrict questions to reporters with a connection to a Gold Star family, as if one group of Americans (and their readers and viewers) is more worthy than another. However, when White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders warned reporters not to criticize Kelly (or his slander of Wilson), the administration took on the creepy aura of a military junta.

    The Post reported:

    Instead of backing down, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders piled on Friday and said Kelly was justified in accusing the lawmaker of grandstanding, despite erring on the facts. “As we say in the South: all hat, no cattle,” Sanders said of Wilson, an African American who is known for wearing brightly colored cowboy hats.

    Sanders also attempted to shift the debate away from Kelly’s inaccuracies to instead focus on his personal integrity.

    “If you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine general, I think that that’s something highly inappropriate,” she said.

    No one in service of our country is beyond reproach or immune from criticism. Generals get criticized and every day must answer to politicians, who in turn are responsible to the public. (Trump, by the way, routinely demeaned generals — whom he claimed had been “reduced to rubble” — in the presidential campaign.) We don’t believe in the divine right of kings or the infallibility of military or civilian leaders. And Kelly, now in a civilian role, certainly should not be permitted to deploy his military service record, no matter how admirable that may have been, to deflect criticism and shut up the press.

    Kelly and Trump seem to actually have a lot in common. They both display disdain for the press and contempt for critics. Kelly rails at treatment of (“sacred”) women but enthusiastically serves a president who serially insults and abuses women. Rather than address criticism, Kelly and Trump both like to pull rank, treat critics as their lessers and react indignantly when anyone questions their motives.

    Opinions newsletter
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    CNN’s Jake Tapper had it exactly right in his appearance Friday afternoon. “When a reporter pointed out just minutes ago that Kelly had gotten his facts wrong about this speech, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said one of the most shocking things I’ve ever heard from that podium — she suggested that journalists cannot question generals,” he said. “That’s not how we do it here in the United States.” But then, Trump has made destruction of democratic values and institutions a feature of his presidency.

    The press puts out “fake” news. The special prosecutor is on a witch hunt. The courts have no power to second-guess the president on the travel ban. It’s all part of Trump’s imperiousness and determination to delegitimize all independent sources of information and criticism. Kelly, rather than restrain these authoritarian impulses, fuels them.

    Conventional wisdom has been telling us that Kelly has created a more disciplined and effective White House. He’s supposed to be taking his shifts for supervision of an erratic, irrational president. I don’t see it.

    Since Kelly’s arrival, Trump has ignited explosive cultural confrontations, failed again to repeal Obamacare and looked thoroughly hapless in his inability to articulate or stick to any position for more than an hour or so. Trump blusters and threatens North Korea; he alarms European allies by threatening to trash the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Trump under Kelly’s “day care” still has not filled a slew of top-level posts. Trump is not becoming more competent, more focused, more civil or more respectful of others under Kelly’s tutelage. In fact, he’s getting worse on all four counts. Kelly’s eagerness to defend the president’s unconscionable behavior and Kelly’s own lack of respect for civilian politicians simply feed Trump’s demons.

    Kelly should be replaced by someone who actually understands democratic governance and can deliver bad news and honest criticism to the president. Going forward, Congress needs to stomp out creeping military authoritarianism. Congress should start by barring generals from acting in civilian capacities in the White House.

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I think father dear did call her whacky or something like that.

    He did. But I don’t think he mentioned hats, leaving that heavy lifting to “Sheriff” Psycho Clarke (who is probably just as evil as Shitgibbon, but [in my opinion] considerably more deranged, difficult tho’ that might be). And Uday’s moronic tweet was from six years ago.

  58. 58.

    chopper

    even tho I’m cynical as hell, I was still blown away by the gall ex-sheriff clarke showed by criticizing rep. wilson’s tendency to wear wacky hats. it’s like trump attacking someone for wearing a clownishly long tie.

  59. 59.

    Matt McIrvin

    “Frederica Wilson wears a silly hat” is clearly the new “Michael Moore is fat”, a universal refutation for all statements.

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    @Ruckus:

    Who was that?

    Hell,
    I don’t know. Some
    Loser who
    Lied
    About e-mails, and was the
    Real criminal and warmonger,
    Yes indeedy

    I still can’t believe that so many morons are able to vote in this country, when people who actually pay attention are prevented from doing so.

  63. 63.

    Balconesfault

    And Hillary said childrearing was Trump’s good suit.

    Damn she had terrible political instincts.

  65. 65.

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

    @Balconesfault:
    The level of sunlight that the Presidency brings to not only the president but all those around them reveals the rot underneath for all to see. I never knew Ivanka and Don Jr were such scum based on watching The Apprentice. I do wonder if Trump would be President right now if NBC execs had never let him be the star.
    Then again he did make cameos on Fresh Prince and Home Alone, so he already had some national celebrity.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SFAW:

    Hell,
    I don’t know. Some
    Loser who
    Lied
    About e-mails, and was the
    Real criminal and warmonger,
    Yes indeedy

    Fucking poetry, that is. Very nice.

  69. 69.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin: Don’t forget about Al Gore being fat. Or Bill Clinton being a rapist. Or Michelle Obama wearing a sleeveless top. THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

  70. 70.

    Gerald Parks

    @Baud:
    It is not his money. It is the donations to his campaign from the American public. You don’t believe he’d use his money … do you?

  73. 73.

    Roger Moore

    @TriassicSands:

    I don’t like cowboy hats. Same goes for cowboy boots.

    I think they’re both fine, as long as they’re worn by actual cowboys. I don’t like all hat/no cattle idiots like David Clarke who wear cowboy hats because they like the image.

  74. 74.

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

    @SFAW:

    I still can’t believe that so many morons are able to vote in this country, when people who actually pay attention are prevented from doing so.

    That’s the idea. Look up Mexico’s Perfect Dictatorship period where the Institutional Revolutionary Party ruled Mexico for 71 years through patronage and intimidation.

  75. 75.

    woodrowfan

    she does wear stupid looking hats. But I’d take her as my rep any day over the best-dressed reactionary shitgibbon republican. At least she doesn’t wear a bunch of souvenir pins in the hopes they look like military medals like Sheriff Tom…

  76. 76.

    SFAW

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Fucking poetry, that is. Very nice.

    Yeah, I’m a regular ee cummings, or maybe Grunthos the Flatulent.

    I was considering throwing in an “On Wisconsin” for the Chem E crowd, but that one would be about three levels beyond esoteric. Well, except maybe for the Chem E crowd, that is.

  77. 77.

    Matt McIrvin

    @TriassicSands: David Clarke is a man who wears a jacket covered with pins that he arranges as if they were military decorations. He is literally cosplaying in all of his public appearances.

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @SFAW:

    Grunthos the Flatulent.

    I’m having a time seeing that. Not a hard time mind you but still……..
    And BTW LOL.

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    @Ruckus:

    I’m having a time seeing that. Not a hard time mind you but still……..

    Thanks. Didn’t need to add the “BTW,” I enjoyed it. As I sometimes tell people (when they aren’t quick enough to tell me “STFU!” that is): I have a face made for radio, and when I sing, strong men cry and animals scream. My poetry is somewhere on that continuum/spectrum.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @SFAW:

    If it was irony, it violated Poe’s Law by saying the same shit I’ve seen other people say unironically.

    The knee is slowly improving. I’ve tried to stay off it all day and am now having a small bout of cabin fever.

  83. 83.

    sharl

    @sm*t cl*de: Congrats on your new PM, even if she did achieve office under weird circumstances! From a distance she looks quite promising, although I don’t know enough about the workings of NZ’s parliamentary government to ascertain how much of her own agenda she’ll be able to get enacted.

    I hope your politics doesn’t get too raucous for Peter Thiel’s beautiful mind though. Presumably he acquired NZ citizenship to avoid that sort of thing.

  84. 84.

    Lyrebird

    @TriassicSands: I like hats but have never really gotten sequins. But I am not from Miami, and… everything you said.

    Also, I refuse to read more about the personal life of the president-unwilling-his-asterisk until it’s a report on his visitation rights in prison, but goodness what a creep his son has turned out to be! “stripper”??????? WHat the Ever Loving F..?

    Nasty piece of work, he is. Fits with John’s most recent post title as well.

    And I still hope Nancy SMASH! persuades someone to give every Dem Rep a shiny sequin-y hat to wear to the next vote. Yes including Rep. Adler, on whom it will look hideous, but he has a beautiful soul fwih, unlike the creeps in the maladministration.

  85. 85.

    Mike G

    Easier 2 take u seriously when u dont look like a stripper;)

    It’s impossible to take a sheriff from Milwaukee seriously when he dresses up like Hootie.

  87. 87.

    Ruckus

    @Matt McIrvin:
    I’ve seen lots of motorcycle people who wear vests with patches and pins but I’ve never seen one arranged to look like the fake medals that high ranking officers wear. (We used to call the guys pins and patches in fact) I think I had to wear one, signifying I served during a time of war. BTW that one is fairly easy to get, I understand that we’ve been at war somewhere 232 yrs out of the 241 that the country has existed. But I look at officers medals and wonder how and more importantly why the fuck there are so many. And then I look at fake sheriff Clarke, whose only job was running the county jail, and I wonder What The Ever Loving Fuck? I mean my life has turned out exactly nothing like I envisioned it when I was 7, but really, medals? As an adult?

  88. 88.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    This country is now in an awful place with regard to the fetishization of the military. Neither Kelly nor Sanders would have said their bullshit without a ready cohort of bootlick authoritarians prepared and eager to support them.

    I uttered the truest form of criticism of Kelly on Twitter – refused to hold back. My mentions are nuts as a result (also confirms my strong opinion that twitter is a shithole).

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    @trollhattan:
    I’ll have you know it’s Clarke. Don’t dis such an outstanding douchebag.
    It took me a long time to understand why we had to stand like we had 20 lb weights clipped to our nipples. It was all the medals that officers wore, making them liable to fall forwards in even a light tail wind. Those guys have just taken it to the next level.

  94. 94.

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

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I uttered the truest form of criticism of Kelly on Twitter – refused to hold back. My mentions are nuts as a result (also confirms my strong opinion that twitter is a shithole).

    Are a bunch of right-wing flag-waving slobs attacking you?

  97. 97.

    opiejeanne

    OT: Is Indivisible a good group? I got invited to their meetings today by the guy dropping off the yard sign for our state Senate race. I thought I read that they tend to be run by the Berners but I don’t know for sure. When I asked him about the local Democratic Party meetings he had no idea about them. Seemed like a nice guy, about our age 70ish but their online articles seem to be sneering at the Democratic Party, claiming they’re getting things done that the Democrats didn’t bother to.

  99. 99.

    Patricia Kayden

    @TriassicSands: Clarke should be in jail for allowing a prisoner in his care to thirst to death for close to a week. He has no place to be calling anyone out.

    By the way, why is Rep Wilson being harassed for speaking the truth?

  101. 101.

    Another Scott

    @opiejeanne: I liked their “Indivisible Guide”. I haven’t kept up with them.

    I’m sure it depends on who is willing to show up to the particular groups. Look around in your area. Around here, there are dozens of groups within 20 miles of my zip code.

    HTH. Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  102. 102.

    Mom Says I*m Handsome

    @SFAW:

    I was considering throwing in an “On Wisconsin” for the Chem E crowd, but that one would be about three levels beyond esoteric. Well, except maybe for the Chem E crowd, that is.

    I am intrigued by your poems and wish to subscribe to your anthology.

  104. 104.

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

    @schrodingers_cat:
    Oh I’m so scared. What’s Kelly gonna do? Wag his finger and berate me for having the temerity to question his authority? He doesn’t even have the same powers as he did as DHS. He can go fuck himself.

  108. 108.

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

    @schrodingers_cat:
    What is Trump gonna do to me? I’m natural born American citizen. He may an authoritarian asshole, but the system still has some limits on him. He can’t just have people who don’t like killed.
    @schrodingers_cat:
    I really don’t understand that. Going by their ideology, shouldn’t they want her to have an abortion?

  109. 109.

    Balconesfault

    @Mnemosyne: F yourself.

    When Hillary complimented Trump on being a good father in the debates, I was screaming “why humanize that horrible person?”

    A lot of answers she could have given better than that. But she couldn’t if it wasn’t scripted. Not her strength.

  111. 111.

    No Drought No More

    “Eric called hysterically to report they had found their nanny unconscious in the basement. (She died.)”.

    I heard she was found with her bra unhooked, her panties on backwards, and bruises on her face and neck. When the dust settled, though, to quote Tom Hagen, it was indeed “as though she never existed”.

    Is Eric the one his father once punched in the mouth because he wasn’t wearing a suit and tie when pops stopped by to pick him up to go to a baseball game? If so, way to go, Mr. President. It must have felt like hitting a mirror, eh?

  112. 112.

    Kay

    The Kelly thing seemed different to me- worse than usual- like a new low. A dramatic drop rather than the slow, daily erosion. I think it was different because it was clearly a team effort- the whole administration pulling together to tell a bunch of lies and smear this woman. Usually they succeed in making it seem like it’s Trump alone.

    It’ll be like that I bet- they’ll be going along on a steady decline and then – boom- we drop a whole floor. It won’t be a steady fall. I hadn’t considered that though, that it could speed up.

  113. 113.

    ruemara

    @opiejeanne: They are, sadly, often Berner co-opted. You should still join, the main group has good organizing principles and it’s useful to help out. The thing to do is demand they act like their name and not like the Bernie worshiping splinter group some will make them into.

  116. 116.

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

    @schrodingers_cat:
    Just so you know, I’m not making fun of you. I think Kelly’s contempt for the press and by extension anyone who questions someone in a uniform is incredibly disturbing and damaging, but he doesn’t have the power of life and death anymore, not like he did.

  117. 117.

    Another Scott

    @Balconesfault:

    RADDATZ: We’ve sneaked in one more question, and it comes from Karl Becker.

    QUESTION: Good evening. My question to both of you is, regardless of the current rhetoric, would either of you name one positive thing that you respect in one another?

    HRC gave a good answer.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  120. 120.

    Corner Stone

    @Another Scott: No, she did not.
    “He’s dangerously unfit to hold this office and there are no positive aspects of his history, record, or character that I could possibly praise or recommend.”

  121. 121.

    Kay

    The Trump kids found their nanny unconscious in the basement and then she died? My God, was this ever investigated? She’s just disposable? These people. It must have taken HUNDREDS of willing accomplices for them to get this far.

  123. 123.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: I don’t know what was the most disturbing
    1. Old school paternalism about women
    2. Old school racism of the white man’s burden variety (we are in Africa to teach them human rights)
    3.The lies
    4. Brietbartian racism against Rep Wilson and the Khans.
    5. The militaristic jingoism.

    ETA: I found a CSPAN video where he was rude to Kamala Harris. Dude has issues.

  126. 126.

    Corner Stone

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

    The level of sunlight that the Presidency brings to not only the president but all those around them reveals the rot underneath for all to see. I never knew Ivanka and Don Jr were such scum

    This was not a mystery. His entire family were grifters. It was obvious at the time and during the entire primary and GE season. I commented here in realtime in disbelief that she would answer that garbage time question in such a way. It was obvious.

  127. 127.

    opiejeanne

    @Another Scott: Yeah, I liked the Indivisible Guide. I didn’t like the tone of the online site, but you’re right, it will probably depend on who shows up at the local level. However, if I find out the national group is run by people sympathetic to Nomiki Konst or Susan Sarandon I will bail.

  128. 128.

    Millard Filmore

    @FlipYrWhig: I think that was back in the time that Trump took over the former Easter Airlines NY-DC shuttle. A RWNJ faces “friend” put up a picture with that story last year. Since Dolt-45 does not do charity I suspect that he allowed the DOD to charter one of his airplanes to move some soldiers.

  129. 129.

    sharl

    @Balconesfault: When Hillary complimented Trump on being a good father in the debates, I was screaming “why humanize that horrible person?”

    It’s possible that maybe – maybe – Hillary could have come up with a less bile-inducing compliment for Trump than that, but only if she and her staff had decided the anticipated question was sufficiently important to have devoted more effort to come up with something that was at least ambiguously complimentary, but preferably something sharp and double-edged.

    I was more annoyed at the typical political media bullshit that came up with this sort of nonsensical inquiry based on performative civility, but until VDE’s tumbrels arrive to deal with that media lot, we’re stuck with them. I could wish for the return of the less entertaining but far more issues-oriented League of Women Voters debate days of my youth, but I could also wish for a 24K gold-shitting unicorn; I’m not going to get either.

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:
    Well when things don’t get better for him, drumpf always seems to double down on the stupid. Why would being president make that any different? Nothing else ever has. And you do understand that he isn’t capable of making himself better. And there aren’t enough ass lickers in the world to make him better. So no, I don’t see this going in any way but down and once things start downhill with no brakes of any kind, they pick up speed. We put runaway truck ramps on our highways for just such a problem but we have no runaway drumpf ramps. OK we have a couple but they are as broken as he is. He’s going to be the bestest, worst president ever, if he doesn’t take all of us with him as he goes.

  136. 136.

    schrodingers_cat

    @sharl: I would have said, he has the knack of being the center of attention no matter the situation. But then I am not a politician but a mere cat with sharp claws.

    ETA: What Baud said earlier.

  137. 137.

    opiejeanne

    @Balconesfault: She was asked by the moderator to say something nice about him. What would you have said? I thought at that point, before we knew what we know now about the kids, that his kids were the only thing remotely decent about him.

  139. 139.

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

    @sharl:
    It’s hard to believe this is the same media where Walter Cronkite called Chicago a police state in 1968. That would never happen today.

  141. 141.

    Kay

    @Ruckus:

    I was just getting used to the slow steady decline in standards and now I have possible precipitous drops to deal with. I’ll be fine- I just hadn’t considered that.

    Well if it gets bad we’ll do something. What I don’t know but you can count me in! :)

  143. 143.

    sm*t cl*de

    @sharl:

    Congrats on your new PM, even if she did achieve office under weird circumstances! From a distance she looks quite promising

    Thanks! I take personal credit for her electoral results and successful coalition-building.
    PM’s cat has her own twittle account. https://twitter.com/FirstCatofNZ
    You get Trump; we get Paddles the polydactyl.

  144. 144.

    sharl

    @schrodingers_cat: Haha. I’m guessing that Trump would have probably found nothing disagreeable or negative about that, although his media surrogates would probably have had a very different response.

  150. 150.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I’m no Neal Gorsuch but even I know you can’t enforce a contract to cover up illegal activity. I don’t care what they sign- they’re still permitted to report criminal activity and I believe assaulting a nanny is unlawful. This NDA thing seems to be perceived as some kind of get out of jail card- to add to the deck.

  155. 155.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I already loathe him. He has the eyes of a zealot. He’s so scolding too! None of these people are allowed to lecture me, about anything.

  156. 156.

    Corner Stone

    @Frankensteinbeck: They don’t love him. They hate and fear him. Didn’t you see Ivanka waffle during the general election when it looked all but certain Trump was going to get crushed? She started protecting her brand and refused to be identified with her dad. There’s no way you can look at Donald Jr’s actions during the GE up til now and not conclude he secretly wants his dad to go to jail for a long, long time.

  157. 157.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:
    A shit show is a shit show. You can’t change the character of a shit show.
    Worse for me is that there are people who are happy with the way things are going. Think what will happen to them when they find out he not only doesn’t love them, he doesn’t give a shit if they die, as long as he looks good, which of course he never does. I just hope he never has even a good minute for the rest of his miserable life. That’s not bad is it?

  162. 162.

    barb 2

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I grew up on military bases and was an eyewitness to physical abuse of wives and children. Not ALL the military husbands but a large percentage. There are news reports of men returning and then killing their wives and harming their children — so this behavior is still happening. Again NOT all — but the military messes with the service men’s minds. Many want their wives and children continue the military obedience and discipline pattern they have to adhere to. Add to the fact that the deployments are much longer than before W Bush’s time in office. Kids change and grow up while Dad is away. Wives must learn to cope and become independent — and some men can’t accept that fact.

    Anyway, this bowing down to the military makes me want to vomit. Each military person is an individual human and none are perfect — because humans aren’t perfect. Some are great dads and husbands and some should be in jail for child abuse. I will always remember a classmate in my 5th-grade class — his dad returned from a 6-month deployment and beat some sense into his son. We could see beating left by the belt buckle on his face. Today that father would be more careful — but the abuse would still happen.

    War is hell — and we now have an A-hole in the white house who has the nerve to threaten yet another war(s).

    Generals and Admirals can be as bad as the worst civilians — Prime examples — Trump and his chief of staff.

  163. 163.

    Kay

    I didn’t know a thing about Ivana but she seems as awful as the rest of them based on what I’ve seen and the excerpts from this book, so that’s consistent. I hold out hope for Tiffany but you know that’ll be disappointing if she’s ever heard from.

  164. 164.

    Corner Stone

    @Kay: He has the countenance of a complete asshole. One look at his face and it is easy to see – “asshole boss”.

  165. 165.

    sharl

    @sm*t cl*de: haha, I already saw that tweet. That cat uses it’s claws!
    I like the idea of the PM herself running the account, but I am wondering if it is known over your way who is actually running it?

  166. 166.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: Amen sister. I am not a marine and he is no longer a general. Don’t tell me what to do.

    ETA: Sorry I didn’t realize you were talking about Gorsuch. He is the beneficiary of the theft of a Supreme Court seat. Low morals are low.

  172. 172.

    Corner Stone

    @Kay:

    I hold out hope for Tiffany but you know that’ll be disappointing if she’s ever heard from.

    She is just as nuts as the rest of them but with a Christo-fascist bent.

  174. 174.

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

    @Kay:
    I’d like to hear from Uncle Frank’s side of the family. I’m sure they have stories to tell.

  175. 175.

    Ruckus

    @Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
    I believe the ACLU got a stay and on appeal lost.
    They are as bad as we think they are.
    You know laws don’t apply to any non whites, non males and especially any non white, non male, non citizens. I’m almost amazed that they didn’t send her back in a box.

  177. 177.

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

    @Corner Stone:
    Wasn’t that meme she shared comparing her father to Jesus fake though (as in a fake account shared it.)?

  180. 180.

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

    @opiejeanne:
    I legit thought they were fundamentally decent people who were along for the ride and just wanted to keep their inheritance from father. (And what could they have realistically done to stop him from running anyway)

  182. 182.

    Kay

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

    I think Trump keeps people from talking because he’ll tell what he knows about them. He will, too. God knows what would come out. Just look at FOX, what was going on there. 100 million dollars! That’s just sexual assault claims.

    Have none of these people ever heard of “calling the police”?

  185. 185.

    sharl

    @Kay: Did you see eemom’s link of two or three(?) days ago,to an interview with the well connected Nina Totenberg? Apparently Gorsuch is really grating on the nerves of at least some of his colleagues – especially Elena Kagan – to the point that someone did the rare thing of leaking accounts from the normally hush-hush internal conference get-togethers the Justices usually have as part of their deliberative process. Here’s a Slate link if you just want to read about it. The podcast is here, with Totenberg’s segment taking place 23m15s – 51m; Totenberg discusses the Gorsuch leak early on. I forget if it was there or somewhere else where Gorsuch was referred to as a Fox TV Justice, full of hubris and (apparently) not all that bright, at least by USSC standards.

  187. 187.

    SFAW

    @opiejeanne:

    She was asked by the moderator to say something nice about him. What would you have said?

    Hindsight is 20-20 and all that, but the appropriate response is:

    “We’re competing to see who gets elected leader of the USA and, by extension, the Free World, and you’re asking a question like THAT? What’s next, our favorite colors? The swimsuit competition? You’ve been covering Washington for how long? And that platitudinous crap is the best you can come up with? Jesus H. Christ, Martha, will you get someone with a fucking clue out here, so I can get a question that’s not a steaming pile of Trump? Zombie Ed Murrow could do a better job than this half-wit. What, you’re STILL HERE, Karl? Take a hint.”

  188. 188.

    Kay

    @sharl:

    I did see it, thank you.

    Patrick Chovanec‏
    @prchovanec
    Follow Follow @prchovanec
    More
    Trump Admin has revoked US visa for top Putin critic and driving force behind Magnitsky Act sanctions

    Nothing going on here! Nope! FINE.

  189. 189.

    opiejeanne

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I saw the photos of the animals the older sons had “hunted”. Giraffes? That marked the boys as assholes for me, but when Hillary mentioned his kids, I thought of Baron and Tiffany and Ivanka, and I thought Hillary was hedging with her answer. SOME of his kids seemed ok at that point but it’s obvious now that Ivanka is an opportunist, and worse.

  192. 192.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Baud:

    If forced to say something positive about Trump, I would have to say he is a decent showman. He knows how to draw attention to himself pretty well.

    Deliberately smearing yourself w/ excrement may indeed draw attention to you, but I’m not sure it makes one a decent showman…

  196. 196.

    Ruckus

    @barb 2:
    The military can give the impression that it’s all obedience, all the time but in fact we got taught different in training. The problem is of course that it can be damn difficult to tell a proper order from a bad one. And you don’t get a reset, you get arrested and jailed till they decide to deal with you. So while you might be able to tell right from wrong and a good order from a bad one, acting on that can be life altering to say the least. What that does is create a climate of absolute obedience. Not all those who stay in for a career believe in that but a lot do. It becomes difficult for some to separate military life from real life. And it can cause friction, to say the least. It’s one reason that we have a civilian controlled military and that is stressed a lot because that is a very dangerous place to be, between a military and it’s citizens.

  197. 197.

    Corner Stone

    @opiejeanne: I was doing my best!

    ETA, probably one of the things I hate most about Trump. He has destroyed the ability to ride any middle ground satire/shit talking any longer. It’s now all or nothing. Bastard.

  198. 198.

    opiejeanne

    @SFAW: Ha! The first half of your answer would have worked. The rest of it would have fed the “she’s too shrill!” narrative, but would have been implied by the first half.

  199. 199.

    sharl

    @sm*t cl*de: Wow, what a charming-looking couple! It’s early of course, but were it not for the geographic distance, NZ’s new power couple could give Justin Trudeau a run for his money in gathering fans from the political left. Hell, in the age of social media the distance differential may not matter anyway.

    ETA: Mnem at 193 beat me to it.

  200. 200.

    schrodingers_cat

    Lawyers of BJ I have question: How common is it for Presidents to roll back the previous President’s executive orders like T did with DACA. What are the past precedents for this sort of thing?
    Thanks.

  204. 204.

    opiejeanne

    @Corner Stone: Yeah, I was debating your first response to Goku, thinking it was over the top. It’s hard to tell these days.

    I feel like I’m drowning in information these days, all of it bad or very bad or terrifying. I didn’t unplug at all for 18 months until November 9th, and then I spent a week in a fetal position. I still wake up some mornings hoping it was just a bad dream but it’s really a waking nightmare.

  206. 206.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @schrodingers_cat: NAL and I’m not sure if it’s technically an EO, but the Mexico City rule– cutting off (by Rs) and restitution (by Ds) of foreign aid to NGOs that support birth control (“abortion!”) seems to get steady partisan back-and-forth

  207. 207.

    SFAW

    @opiejeanne:

    Yeah, sometimes I go on too long. [“SOMETIMES????” you’re thinking]

    Be that as it may, I still think that when Shitgibbon was stalking her during the Nth debate, she should have told him to “back the fuck off before I make you cry, you pu$$y-grabbing pu$$y.” Maybe a tad shrill, but it might have been worth it.

  208. 208.

    Suzanne

    @Another Scott: I also think that HRC’s answer was good, considering that Chelsea is (was?) friends with Ivanka. At the time of that answer, we didn’t know how horrible they are. And Trump responded totally ungraciously….he said something like, “I don’t know if that’s a compliment”. What a douchebag.

  209. 209.

    opiejeanne

    @Ruckus: Heh.
    I have only pied one person here but it was mainly for my personal amusement. I always read what they said, after reading the pie message, but it helped me refrain from responding.

    True story, my sister’s ex worked as an extra on Pushing Daisies, eating pie in the pie shop.

  215. 215.

    Jeffro

    Jesus … The Atlanta Falcons have shown up once again without their defense … guys this is no way to win games

  216. 216.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @opiejeanne: at that point but it’s obvious now that Ivanka is an opportunist, and worse.

    a cheap grifter suffering from the same damage as her brothers. I do wonder sometimes if she picked Jared because she was smarter than the Fredos and figured out daddy’s fortune was a house of cards– and I’d bet a thousand quatloos that the Kushner Group or whatever it’s called is in some serious shit now

  218. 218.

    opiejeanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: Did someone say something about pie?

    It’s not you. I haven’t seen that person in more than a week now and they were just a very negative irritant, not trollish.

  222. 222.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Suzanne: I also think that her answer didn’t affect the election results one little bit. She gave a reasonably decent (gracious) response to a stupid question. A more strongly worded answer – e.g., HE’S A CREEP WITH NO REDEEMING QUALITIES WHATSOEVER – would not have changed the outcome.

    Stupid voters voted stupidly (plus Comey, Russia, voter suppression etc. etc.). And here we are.

  225. 225.

    Tazj

    @Ruckus: From what I saw on Maddow’s show on Friday the man who is in charge of the Refugee Resettlement Office, Scott Lloyd, is an anti-abortion activist with no experience or background in working with refugees. The court gave the government something like 10 days to find someone suitable to take this young woman to see the doctor, since of course they won’t, and time is of the essence. Here’s an article about Scott Lloyd.

  226. 226.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Baud: I’m in agreement w/ those who said they couldn’t find a single redeeming quality in Trump… yes, he knows how to draw attention to himself… but it could hardly be called GOOD attention…

  228. 228.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:
    I don’t see the Kelly thing as any change, other than confirming one specific person’s assholery. “How dare you question us, you “ has been not Only the Trump team’s go-to, but all of the GOP’s, for a long time. It’s how abusers handle getting caught.

  229. 229.

    Kay

    ‘There’s no chance of that, but thank you for asking,” says @SenSherrodBrown

    That’s okay though because now I’ve decided Al Franken is perfect v Trump. This is a good idea!

    You guys will come to see that, with time :)

  230. 230.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this morning

    Will Saletan‏Verified account @ saletan
    MTP, on Trump’s failure to implement congressional sanctions: “They have a blind spot on Russia I still can’t figure out.”

    news this evening

    Patrick Chovanec‏ @ prchovanec
    Trump Admin has revoked US visa for top Putin critic and driving force behind Magnitsky Act sanctions

  234. 234.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Matthew Yglesias‏Verified account @ mattyglesias 14h14 hours ago
    I don’t think it’s necessary for journalists to play dumb about this. Trump sought, and received, Russian assistance in 2016.

  236. 236.

    Suzanne

    @schrodingers_cat: Last year, I was in the shoe department of Nordstrom, buying black flats for work. The salesman brought me the shoes I requested, and he brought me some others that he thought I might like. (They were all totally serviceable black flats.) I grabbed one of the pairs to try the, on, then saw that they were from the Ivanka Trump line. I handed them right back without trying them on and told him that I absolutely wouldn’t be buying anything from that line. He immediately took them away without a word, and it felt like that kind of thing had happened before.

    I was actually in the same shoe department on Friday (I needed shoes for a formal event I’m attending next Saturday), and I didn’t see any Ivanka Trump stuff. Yay.

    ETA: I ended up buying some black flats by Toms that I love, and I found a pair of shoes for the charity ball at DSW that are not amazing—but they also are remarkably comfortable for that kind of shoe. So win.

  240. 240.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Gravenstone: I’m partial to evidence of using real estate, from condos to that gross metastasized Mc Mansion in FL that the Russian cement tycoon bailed him out on, to launder money for Russians, his cut being what keeps him afloat and his debts serviced (along with TV money). But IANAL and I don’t know what the laws are, how hard it would be to convict. And I can’t conceive of what it would take for Paul Ryan to approve a hearing, much less articles of impeachment.

  241. 241.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    MTP, on Trump’s failure to implement congressional sanctions: “They have a blind spot on Russia I still can’t figure out.”

    Note to self: I need to make a GIF of that moment in the MST3K version of Santa Claus where the devil slaps his forehead and the ‘bots say, “Geez, I gotta spoon-feed you little brats!”

    It will come in handy for so many situations right now.

  242. 242.

    opiejeanne

    @Mnemosyne: I’m not a fan of those but I do happen to know (slightly) a very successful writer of that genre. I read two of her books and they were well-written. I read one by McCaffrey that annoyed the shit out of me, it was so formula and so “the wife must obey her husband even though he’s a total jerk”.
    I read one by Evanovich that was so ridiculous I laughed most of the way through.

  246. 246.

    Mnemosyne

    @opiejeanne:

    If the author you know is Jayne Ann Krentz, TP will lose his shit. That’s his favorite author.

    Romance is like any other genre, as explained by sci-fi author Theodore Sturgeon — 90 percent of anything is crap.

    I liked McCaffrey’s Dragonriders books up to a point, but while she was progressive for the 1970s, a lot of it has aged badly. Never read Evanovich — I think she’s a mystery writer?

  251. 251.

    Another Scott

    @catclub: :-) Excellent.

    Trouble is, I think the question was from a “real voter” in the audience, so that might not have gone over well. As with many, many things in the 2016 campaign, she would have gotten huge pushback from someone no matter what she said.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  252. 252.

    tobie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Browder himself has confirmed this on his twitter account. The US stripped him of his visa at the same time as Russia succeeded in putting him on Interpol’s wanted list. The Kremlin is accusing him of killing his lawyer Magnitsky, who died after being brutally beaten in a Russian prison, presumably at Putin’s request. This would be laughable, were it not so frightening.

    ETA: Browder became a British citizen and gave up his US citizenship, which is why he needs a visa to enter the US. The State Dept apparently issues visas, so the question is whether State is doing Putin’s bidding or the White House has ordered the department to do Putin’s bidding.

  253. 253.

    opiejeanne

    @Mnemosyne: Yes, Janet Evanovich wrote “One For the Money” which had both of us laughing hysterically, but the movie is an excrescence. The casting is all wrong, just so damned awful.
    Evanovich started as a Romance novelist. The Stephanie Plum books are funny, sometimes really scary, and the main character’s hamster must be the oldest living hamster on record because he’s in every book. After a while, though, the jokes get a little old and there aren’t enough new ones to bother reading past the fourth or fifth book. I think she’s on 21 now.

    The author I know writes under the names Jackie (Jacqueline) Diamond/Jade/Topaz; possibly more. I met her at my HS 20th reunion. She’s married to one of my classmates who happened to sit down at our table and the conversation was fun. I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t remember what he said he was doing then because she and I spent so much time talking. He was always quiet in school, not much had changed.

  255. 255.

    sm*t cl*de

    @tobie:

    The US stripped him of his visa at the same time as Russia succeeded in putting him on Interpol’s wanted list.

    Countries that followed Browther’s urging and adopted a fuck-you-Putin Magnitsky Law:
    1. US.
    2. UK.
    3. Estonia.
    4. Canada.
    Estonians collectively have NFLTG.

  256. 256.

    Tenar Arha

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

    What is Trump gonna do to me? I’m natural born American citizen. He may an authoritarian asshole, but the system still has some limits on him. He can’t just have people who don’t like killed.

    I get that you’re pointing out that we shouldn’t worry excessively. Here’s the thing, you might avoid being hurt by this Administration’s actions and continuing erosion of all norms of Constitutional governance, but there’s a list of groups they’re targeting and it’s not small or short.

    1. You have friends or relatives who are activists or reporters or academics?
    2. You have friends or relatives who are brown or black or first generation immigrants?
    3. You have friends or relatives who are disabled?
    4. You have friends or relatives who are in Medicaid in a nursing home?
    5. You have friends or relatives who are LGBTQ?
    6. You have friends or relatives who are Jewish?
    7. You have friends or relatives who aren’t white bread Protestant Christians?
    8. You have friends or relatives who are women?

    Anyway, this is why I don’t feel like the fiercest criticism is unfair or unfounded. Those signatures on those executive orders have resulted in deaths. The guy’s a killer with his pen.

    On top of the soldiers & sailors that have died on his watch, there are more than a few people who are dead because of this orange dotard. There are Puerto Ricans dying of leptospirosis right now, refugees dying because they were barred from entry here, organ and tissue donors whose visas were canceled, and this includes the people who committed suicide when this vile man was elected….

  258. 258.

    Gretchen

    @Brachiator: You’re right. I’ve been to the emergency room with injured kids, and the focus always includes “Did somebody do this deliberately?” To have his kid show up with a BROKEN LEG and it’s just one of those things is unconscionable.

  259. 259.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tenar Arha: Goku was right. I don’t deny that people are put at risk by this administration. So fight back. Even if you only do shit on Facebook. Do shit.

  260. 260.

    J R in WV

    @Balconesfault:

    Do you know what Cleek’s Pie Filter is? How it works? Almost certainly not. When someone is reliably stupid, and only posts comments full of crap, we here at Baloon Juice can add them to our Pie Filter.

    When someone’s nym is added to another Balloon Juice user’s pie filter, all comments by that nym or replies to that nym’s comments are somehow about Pie. Or Pi, sometimes.

    From now on, all your comments will be about Pie to me. Because that is how valuable your opinions and mistaken “fake facts” are to me. I imagine other Balloon Juicers will pie you today as well. Good bye, cruel Pie Maker!!!

  263. 263.

    Tenar Arha

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh, I’m doing stuff. But I know too much history not to have noticed that this guy as President has already caused deaths.

    ETA fixed double negative

  265. 265.

    Ruckus

    Replying to Tazj at 225.
    First the reply button goes to the link, that’s not how it’s supposed to be.
    Anyway
    Yeah I figured the person in charge would have not one fucking clue, be the wrong person for the job for all the wrong reasons and a massive fuck up. Is there anyone who drumpf has selected that doesn’t meet that criteria? No? Yeah I didn’t think so.
    drumpf is a massive fucking idiot and will continue to do massively fucking stupid things every day he holds the office. He is incapable of any better. If he had to play a game where he did one good thing and got to keep every dime he has or not do it and lose every dime, he’d go for the good thing and fuck it up, by doing the exact opposite.

  266. 266.

    J R in WV

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Will Saletan‏Verified account @ saletan
    MTP, on Trump’s failure to implement congressional sanctions:
    “They have a blind spot on Russia I still can’t figure out.”

    Oh, My, that is complicated. Let me see if I can explain it in words of one or two syllables.

    Putin and his rich comrades own Trump from his little toes to his funny hair. Trump has been trading dirty Russian money for years, they can prove it, it is illegal. He is owned by the Russian mobs. They want an end to sanctions ASAP. Can you understand this, or is it still too complicated for you?

    There went a 3 and a 4 syllable word, oops! Sorry!

    ETA: I’m speaking to Saletan and MTP, of course, Not you Jim.

  267. 267.

    J R in WV

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    NO, not at all! Someone said something with which I disagree, which I could barely understand, someone whom I have never seen here before. If they post valuable news or opinion I may remove them from my pie filter, because I am mostly just playing with it. Some folks I never untwist their pie sayings, others I usually do.

    Why do you care? If I had just done it instead of making a joke about it you would never know.

  268. 268.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @J R in WV: I don’t particularly care. But that commenter has been around for a long time. I saw the pieing as a way of simply disagreeing with someone. Which I see as intellectual cowardice.

    If I was wrong, I apologize.

  269. 269.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    @opiejeanne: I help run an Indivisible in my area. There are definitely Wilmer-ites who show up and sometimes cause irritation, but at least with our group, most of them get bored by the local approach and rule #1.) no re-litigating the Primary, and consequently disappear after a meeting or two. Otherwise the ones that stick around tend to be the ones that understand the importance of coalition building, realistic expectations of influence (or lack there of) and are the ones I can agree-to-disagree with but still work with reasonably well. I don’t think they (the whole Wilmer-ites) are a big enough presence overall for you to not check out your local Indivisible. I’m sure there’s variance depending on the group, but so far my experience (with several Indivisibles in my region) tells me you should give it a shot.

  270. 270.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    @Another Scott: THIS. Depends on the group. With 6,000+ groups there are probably several in your area. Each one will be different but you can probably find one that is a good fit for you (Opie.)

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