Pretty damned bad!
President Trump makes Kim Jong Un reference during tax reform speech: "These massive tax cuts will be rocket fuel — little Rocket Man — rocket fuel for the American economy. He is a sick puppy." pic.twitter.com/CpLJKcy0Re
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 29, 2017
He seriously isn't getting enough oxygen to his brain. https://t.co/QhCCD5mwWz
— Zeddy ( me [ person ] ) (@ZeddRebel) November 29, 2017
.
As they say in the news business: Three’s a trend!
There are all these insider anecdotes about the president that read like they’re from a Last Days Of Tyrant Who Lost His Mind kind of book. https://t.co/V863YKfKUV pic.twitter.com/8AE1Ij8wIY
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 29, 2017
The Washington Post:
President Trump has expressed certainty that the special-counsel probe into his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia will be finished by the end of the year, complete with an exoneration from Robert S. Mueller III, according to several friends who have spoken with him in recent days.
Trump has dismissed his historically low approval ratings as “fake” and boasted about what he calls the unprecedented achievements of his presidency, even while chatting behind the scenes, saying no president since Harry Truman has accomplished as much at this point…
In all these instances, as well as other setbacks, Trump has sought to paint the rosiest possible picture of his presidency and his character — and has tried to will others to see it his way, like the big-promises salesman he once was.
Sometimes… Trump simply rejects facts — and his own past admissions — as he spins a new narrative. His critics accuse him of creating an alternative reality, though people close to the president say he is simply a savvy marketer protecting his brand, as any businessman or politician would…
The first year of Trump’s presidency has brought tumult and chaos, including the expanding Russia probe, an absence of major legislative achievements and instances of self-sabotage by the president himself. But in recent days, Trump has been in an unusually upbeat mood, according to friends who visited with him…
EDITORIAL | Donald Trump is a madman https://t.co/E1IBo8mWj7 pic.twitter.com/ZY7eJCVl1A
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) November 29, 2017
.
The NYTimes, of course, prefers to handle the issue more… delicately:
This is quite the paragraph about the president of the United States. https://t.co/w4MN2opktz pic.twitter.com/4MyGCZEAdO
— Steven Shepard (@POLITICO_Steve) November 29, 2017
C'mon, it's not like this delusional man has the power to wipe out all human life … oh, fuck. https://t.co/dYeKBtX5yD
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) November 29, 2017
Shortly after his victory last year, Donald J. Trump began revisiting one of his deepest public humiliations: the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape of him making vulgar comments about women.
Despite his public acknowledgment of the recording’s authenticity in the final days of the presidential campaign — and his hasty videotaped apology under pressure from his advisers — Mr. Trump as president-elect began raising the prospect with allies that it may not have been him on the tape after all.
Most of Mr. Trump’s aides ignored his changing story. But in January, shortly before his inauguration, Mr. Trump told a Republican senator that he wanted to investigate the recording that had him boasting about grabbing women’s genitals…
In recent months, they say, Mr. Trump has used closed-door conversations to question the authenticity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. He has also repeatedly claimed that he lost the popular vote last year because of widespread voter fraud, according to advisers and lawmakers.
One senator who listened as the president revived his doubts about Mr. Obama’s birth certificate chuckled on Tuesday as he recalled the conversation. The president, he said, has had a hard time letting go of his claim that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States. The senator asked not to be named to discuss private conversations.
Mr. Trump’s journeys into the realm of manufactured facts have been frequent enough that his own staff has sought to nudge friendly lawmakers to ask questions of Mr. Trump in meetings that will steer him toward safer terrain…
Mr. Trump’s friends did not bother denying that the president was creating an alternative version of events. One Republican lawmaker, who asked not to be identified, said that Mr. Trump’s false statements had become familiar to people over time. The president continues to boast of winning districts that he did not in fact win, the lawmaker said, and of receiving 52 percent of the women’s vote, even though exit polls show that 42 percent of women supported him…
If Trump actually believes this, they should convene the cabinet and invoke the 25th Amendment by morning https://t.co/EIDmmYfX7s
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) November 29, 2017
Most of us are old enough to remember the increasingly desperate media excuse-making and evasions as it became increasingly obvious that “President” Ronald Reagan was not capable of remembering what he’d done last week, much less of running the country. Sorry, Repubs: You had your “mulligan” back in that more innocent age. Now even your own voters don’t believe Trump is just havin’ a larf on us, y’know, as only a powerful guy like him can do. Of course, a good chunk of those GOP voters don’t care that the Oval Office Occupant is (at best) sundowning or (at worst) totally disconnected from reality, but “Golly gosh we had NO IDEA” is not going to work as an excuse this time.
I’m sympathetic to the view and concern that Trump might be delusional. Clearly he’s in decline. But as @TimOBrien will tell you, Trump as recently as 10 years ago would lie to anyone and everyone, until one day he got put under oath. https://t.co/E1EybwbpnN
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) November 29, 2017
The people covering for Trump, do they think they can do this for three more years or is this a "one day at a time" kind of vibe?
— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 29, 2017
The President is on twitter windmill punching. Either he knows the tax bill is DOA or somebody's about to get indicted.
— Doctor (nay)Who (@jteeDC) November 29, 2017
Evergreen tweet pic.twitter.com/NiJbyCz3mb
— Stephen Silver (@StephenSilver) November 29, 2017
Adam L Silverman
This seems apropos:
different-church-lady
@Trentrunner: So, the alternative is Conyers and Franken resign, and then Moore takes his seat?
ETA: A little creativity from Adam renders this comment nonsensical. C’est la vie.
But her emails!!!
@Trentrunner:
If they compare actually electing an accused child molester to allowing due process to play out for a guy accused for grabbing a few butts, they were going to both-side it anyways.
Dem’s can’t actually force Conyers to resign.
Jeffro
Whenever you’re ready, GOP…
jay
“to create and sell his own version of reality”
Yeah, we used to call people like that psychopaths.
Emma
@Adam L Silverman: Thank you! I haven’t laughed so hard in a while.
kindness
Trump isn’t clever enough to pull this off as an act. If someone openly tells you they are crazy, you should believe them. Pence will be worse I hate to say. No not crazy worse. Dominionist Christian worse. Dumb as a post too but I don’t think Trump is much better on that front.
We’re screwed. I need some kitten videos.
Major Major Major Major
That’s a lot of pie!
More on topic, wow.
Adam L Silverman
In addition to the Little Rocket Man digression, he also insulted our Asian-Pacific allies in a digression over charging them more money to defend them against the DPRK. This included physically mocking them. I’m sure the Japanese and the South Koreans are just thrilled. It is very hard to check Kim’s nuclear weapons ambitions if you’re regularly insulting and denigrating your allies. Allies, it is important to note, that have far, far greater military resources available to combat the DPRK than the US does right now. There are around 30,000 American military and civilian defense and foreign service personnel all told in the Republic of Korea right now. There are 452,000 ROK Soldiers in South Korea right now. And that’s just the active duty ROK Army. When you throw in the active ROK Navy, Marines, and Air Force you’re talking 625,000 personnel under arms. The ROK reserve force is another 3.1 million personnel that can be mobilized. So the idea that the ROK needs to pay us more for their own defense is absolutely ridiculous.
SenyorDave
Just deserts if el fucking moron gets dementia and has to be put in a second rate home where he can soil himself all day long. I think it’s a 100% certainty his kids would put him away, they wouldn’t take of him. Although it would be nice to think of the arguments between Ivanka, Qusay and Uday if they did keep him at home. “Hey Ivanka, it’s your turn to clean the Donald.”
God, I hate that POS. I never thought I could hate a politician as much as I hate Trump. He’s destroying this country.
Gin & Tonic
The Senator asked. Why did the NYTimes agree? They could just as easily have said, sorry, we are discussing the mental incapacity of the President of the United States, so it’s on the record or nothing.
Adam L Silverman
@different-church-lady: You’re welcome. I actually emailed it to AL for inclusion when I saw she was working on the post, but she may not have seen the email before she hit publish.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: how did he physically mock them?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Just got a NYT notification that Jared spoke to Meuller’s investigators earlier this month about a post-election meeting with himself, Flynn and a Russian ambassador during the transition
different-church-lady
@SenyorDave: Wait ’til the kids find out they don’t inherit the presidency.
Amir Khalid
I see that Trentrunner has had a comment deleted by a frontpager. By the way, are he and Trentrunner II the same commenter? It seems a silly way to sockpuppet, if that’s what he’s doing, but …
MobiusKlein
@Gin & Tonic: FTFNYT!
I thought the same thing – how can the editors of the FNYTs wake up in the morning an look at the mirror knowing they continue to enable the charade. Quoting anonymous sources is great for clickbait, terrible for actual solid reporting.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: The whole defense/military aid section is teed up at the 30:38 mark. The physical mocking is at 31:39.
Adam L Silverman
@Amir Khalid: Wasn’t me.
geg6
@SenyorDave:
This.
@Gin & Tonic:
And this.
Princess
Trump is a lying, racist, narcissistic asshole. That’s what he’s always been; that’s what he is now. Sure, he’s aging and isn’t even as sharp as he once was. But he’s not demented or delusional or insane or out of control, beyond his eternal narcissistic fever-dream of his own importance.
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman: Oh. Odd, Mr. Runner’s comment was in the pole position, and then suddenly yours was instead.
mai naem mobile
Lots of people knew he was a crazy old demented narcissistic POS. I am talking about you Mark Burnett and his asshole kids and illegal trophy wife and they didn’t do shit about it. I hope they all burn in hell. I cannot stand this moron.
Adam L Silverman
@different-church-lady: He or she may have self deleted.
different-church-lady
@mai naem mobile:
They all knew it. It’s just that a lot of people liked it.
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman: In the biblical sense?
geg6
Wow. Rachel is taking no prisoners on Matt Lauer. Good on her.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
I’ve never pied, but I know I’m not seeing all of the comments. How is that possible?
dr. bloor
He looks to me to be well into terminal drop, although the preexisting character pathology muddies the water some. I’d guess he’ll be dead in 3 to 5 years. If we’re lucky as a planet to outlast him, the nihilistic cabal enabling this apocalyptic farce should hang.
Dave
@SenyorDave: I’ve come to genuinely resent every moron, patsy, and bigot that decided to make dealing with this dumpster fire of human being my and everyone elses problem.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: ugh, you’re making me watch him?
@debbie: one of them was deleted.
japa21
@Adam L Silverman: Unbelievable. Well based on his history not really unbelievable. Which is the saddest part.
mike in dc
I hope he hangs in there long enough to be found competent to stand trial. He can deteriorate in the joint on his own time.
Gin & Tonic
@Major Major Major Major: No law says you have to click on that.
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
That explains it.
Mike J
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Henry Cisneros had to resign from the Clinton administration because he paid too much in child support. He had a child with his mistress and the court ordered him to pay $x/month. He was a good guy who cared about his kid, so he always paid $2x/mo. On his SF-86, when asked about how much per month he was obligated to pay, he said $x/mo. The rule for Democrats is that he should have said how much he was paying, not how much the court obligated him to pay.
Jared lied about meeting a hostile foreign power.
Corner Stone
@Princess: Of course he is demented. Every single person who has been around him for 5 minutes in real life recognizes he is mentally unfit for office.
marv
@dr. bloor: Well, if that’s not definitive, dr, you coulda fooled me
different-church-lady
@Mike J: Thus, Franken should resign.
[nods]
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
Matt Lauer now stands accused of rape.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: That’s the second time I’ve seen AL drop one of his comments, she did it last night as well. I’ve got TR pied so I didn’t see the actual comment last night, just something about pie.
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: What’s frightening is so many of them think, “He’s bugshit insane: what can I do with this?”
matt
Too bad it’s never going to be appropriate to comment on the madness of the conservative movement that elevated and enables him on a daily basis. They’ll dump him and ‘move on’ and we’ll have to tolerate endless press fawning over them just as if it had never happened.
Corner Stone
@dr. bloor:
Too quick and merciful.
Although, tbh, right now I would take any effort that cleared them all out of there.
Adam L Silverman
This was the President’s response to Theresa May’s response to his tweeting the Britain First knucklehead’s videos. Also, that’s not the Prime Minister of Britain’s twitter address. So he sent it to some other Theresa May.
Emma
@Adam L Silverman: Oh my sweet Jesus.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: “tell me I can’t ride in a big gold buggy, will ya?”
I wonder if this will finally torpedo the state visit.
and isn’t that the one he tweeted at the wrong Theresa May?
MJS
Echoing someone else from else from a couple days ago, the “Trump’s tweeting, something bad is going to break” prediction are pretty much played out. He tweets. All.The. Time. If his shit-tweets were a precursor to bad news for him, he would have been arrested or impeached by now.
raven
How much of the ROK military budget do we absorb?
Adam L Silverman
@Adam L Silverman: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is who he tweeted that at before he deleted it:
https://twitter.com/theresamay
The PM is @theresa_may
Amir Khalid
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Ah, I see. I don’t think it will be the last time either, given his persistence.
JPL
I’m still trying to figure out who Theresa Scrivener is…
https://twitter.com/RealPressSecBot/status/936033571554263040
We are in uncharted territory when everyone is googling theresa scrivener
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
He’s spinning out of control more rapidly than a quasar.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: just checked his feed, and he retweeted it at the PM, to make sure he had insulted yet another ally on this busy day
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Poor thing. Bet she’s received death threats.
Millard Filmore
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
That door locking button under his desk … doesn’t that bump up against some part of the kidnapping law when he prevents a victim from escaping?
B.B.A.
Will no one rid us of this turbulent president?
Betty Cracker
@dr. bloor: Monty Python narrator: And there will be great rejoicing!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: We had one of their TV’s.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: We don’t. We do spend about $7 billion per year total (last year I could find was for 2013) to station troops in Germany, Japan, and the ROK. We have the most military personnel of those three in Japan. That’s out of a $10 billion per year total for basing personnel overseas. So basically a rounding error.
This isn’t counting the costs for personnel forward deployed in operational capacities in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, and/or various countries in Africa. Those costs are calculated separately.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: Her account is now locked and set to private, so…
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ready! Fire! Aim!
JPL
@debbie: That is just crazy.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@different-church-lady: Still, though: His approval dropped 34 points in just over half as many days, to 22%. His actions aren’t as grave as Conyers (much less Moore’s), but he’s at best a walkibg ghost.
geg6
@Millard Filmore:
For real. NBC is in serious legal jeopardy if this is true. And we’re talking state law here. Not something Dolt 45 could possibly could pardon anyone for, even were he inclined to do so. Which he is not.
Culture of Truth
Granted much of what he does can *seem* crazy, but don’t forget the environment he comes from. And far from being sick, it’s perfectly rational to pursue long range missiles with nuclear warheads, if only for self protection.
Oh, we were talking about Trump
Major Major Major Major
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): so maybe he should retire when his term’s up then.
Redshift
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
He created a new nym this morning that was named to indicate that he did it just to evade the pie filter. I’m glad to see that’s one of the very few things that will get you banned.
hueyplong
The utter lack of self control on camera and twitter on a daily basis kind of tells me that, whatever his sexual crimes in the past, Trump can’t function in that area anymore, because he doesn’t seem to be thinking about it, which always translates into talking about it (as he did on the Access Hollywood video).
The misogyny remains, but the ability to act on it in a nasty manner apparently doesn’t.
Is there general agreement on that?
I guess this is consistent with the nature of the rumored tape(s).
In any event, the upshot of all this is that Franken must resign.
SFBayAreaGal
@Adam L Silverman: One of my favorite scenes among many favorite scenes from Young Frankenstein.
jl
Trump is losing it fast. Remember that he did not remember that his wife was standing next to him at a recent event. Some think it was ambiguous, but I think it was crystal clear the guy either was unaware, or his mental process is so confused he could make a slip like that an not even notice it.
mike in dc
@matt: I am of the opinion that Obama should have pushed Holder to crack down on far right extremism a lot more. If I happen to meet the next presidential nominee at a campaign event, I will press them on this point. It’s that important.
GregB
There are too many sub plots to follow in this season closer of American Apocalypse Apprentice.
Adam L Silverman
This is going to lead to some choice tweets:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-bragged-nothing-in-the-world-like-first-rate-psy
Much more at the link.
Major Major Major Major
@Redshift: so that other nym really was him acting out because people were ignoring him? Pathetic, if so.
Ian G.
If you asked me my unscientific opinion of who was the most insane dictator the world has seen post WWII, I’d go with Francisco Macias Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. Google him.
On that note, I wonder if I will wake up to find an executive order signed that changes the motto of the US to “there is no god but Donald J. Trump”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
As a polity, we’re fucked. There will be two tiers of justice – the first, among average people, will work mostly like we’re accustomed. Divorces, average commercial disputes, most torts. This gives the veneer of fair play and a pretense of legitimacy.
For oligarchs, justice will be bought.
Think I’ll start looking at emigrating to China.
Emma
@B.B.A.: Hope not. The one thing we don’t need is St. Orange of Mar-a-Lago, martyr and saint to the Morlocks.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@dr. bloor:
Are you saying this with any actual expertise in the field? I am genuinely hoping so.
Adam L Silverman
@SFBayAreaGal: There’s not a bad scene in that movie.
mike in dc
@Adam L Silverman:
Completely unsurprising. As far as whether it has legs, it depends upon whether it triggers a new wave of stories and accusers/victims.
RedDirtGirl
@Princess: I made myself a button that says:
“How’s electing a pu$$y-grabbing narcissist working out so far?” I get a kick out of watching people read it on the subway.
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: But Trump doesn’t believe in allies. When he was handing out turkey sandwiches and chips to the Coast Guard, he noted that an ally can turn on you, just like that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SFBayAreaGal: @Adam L Silverman: Brooks and Wilder seem to have formed a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
jl
Academic economists and business leaders are worried that if passed, the GOP tax cut will be first one to be as likely to trigger a recession as boost the economy. And unlikely if it boosts the economy, will produce much boost. Some of the provisions on corporate taxation and investment expensing depreciation are nuts. There is no ‘reform’ in it at all. More like anti-reform, putting in even more gimmicks that look like cool ways to pump more quick cash out of the system, mostly for wealthy people who own a lot but don’t do much.
The business leaders who are doubtful are mostly in old fogey loser industries what actually ‘make real things’ and ‘provide valuable services’. These guys are no saints, probably mostly GOP, and love them some tax cuts, but they are sane. Kind of people Dems could work with to make an actual deal of some kind that might or might not be worth passing, but at least would not be insane. But those kinds of GOPers cannot be elected to office any more.
I’ll have to go look for the articles I read on the very worried views of respectable corporate brass on the GOP tax scam.
But, Trump thinks it will be rocket fuel.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I only hope people can keep him hung up talking about taxes and shit like that until he’s gone. I’d sure as hell rather have him stewing about taxes and not firing missiles at North Korea.
Adam L Silverman
@mike in dc: Epstein was on that flight with his girlfriend. From the article:
hueyplong
@Cheryl Rofer: He was talking about Flynn.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@MJS:
Yeah, I had the same thought. Someone had opined that something big was about to fall, hence Trump’s big Fake News! tweets on Monday. No big story has dropped though.
Instead, Moore is ahead, tax cuts look like a go, Keillor and Lauer are out (I ain’t sad about that), but Hannity and Limbaugh still remain untouched.
Another Scott
@Princess: He’s clearly brain-damaged. IMHO.
StatNews:
They’re far too kind to him in their assessment, IMO. 70 isn’t that old. There are lots of people who are really sharp into their late 80s and beyond. PsychologyToday:
And so on.
But I’m just J. Random Commenter on the Internet. ;-)
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Major Major Major Major
@jl:
Maybe not considering that describes the Koch brothers.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: (sigh). Too many links or something, I guess. FYWP put me in the dungeon. Help?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: I noted that. Makes you wonder what he meant if it was anything more than a brain fart.
jl
@mike in dc:
“Obama should have pushed Holder to crack down on far right extremism a lot more. ”
i read that the initiative to follow potentially violent right wing extremist groups much more closely was actually started by the GW Bush administration. Obama inherited most of it. At least the study that came out was initiated by GW Bush administration. It was one of the few examples that the GW Bush administration was capable of proposing and producing good policy.
Obama should have said that and told the GOP to go stuff it.
Someone let me know if I misremember anything.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Redshift:
Wasn’t he a relatively normal contributor here for years? What happened?
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: Do you know today’s safe word?
SFAW
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
Thus, he should resign, then Gov. Mark Dayton, in a show of good faith and bipartisanship, should let Tim Pawleny name Franken’s replacement. After that, Ruth Bader Ginsburg should retire, because Argle Bargle is SURE that the Rethugs will, in a “back-atcha” show of good faith and bipartisanship, will finally vote on Merrick Garland.
Did I forget anything?
jl
@Major Major Major Major: ” Maybe not considering that describes the Koch brothers. ”
Sure, but mostly it doesn’t. I read the Koch brothers and their GOP big funder buddies are angry that the GOP tax slash scam has been cut considerably from what they were promised. Koch’s might well be more obsessed with piling up more cash for themselves quickly than long run health of their businesses. And in some ways they are delusional.
Anyway, I didn’t say a compromise would be worth passing, I just said it wouldn’t be completely insane.
SFAW
@B.B.A.:
Careful.
ETA: Just to be clear: there’s a big difference between hoping he strokes out, and what you wrote.
hueyplong
@SFAW: A stroke requires you to believe in Hell, but I get where you’re coming from.
debbie
@JPL:
I await his apology. ?
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Let me guess… “contempt citations(?)”.
Do I win? ;-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
FYI!
More at the link!
Calouste
@jl: Well, the Kochs are 80 or so. There is no such thing as long term left for them.
chopper
@SFAW:
right, for all we know some paladin is reading this and getting the wrong idea.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: Oh god, it’s that guy.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: Get the butterfly nets!
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Yep, the Piss Boy!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: You said a bad word, the C-word(gaming establishment).
Wapiti
@jl: My uneducated guess is that giving rich people a lot of money will encourage them to invest it – they have to put it somewhere, right? Because the poors aren’t buying stuff, there’s no point in corporations actually making more stuff, so the investments just drive up the price of shares. I expect we’ll see a stock bubble and crash.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The other c-word will get your comment deleted too though, IIRC.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Green Balloons, it’s always Green Balloons.
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ah, you’re right.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@SFAW: Isn’t there a lawn you should be taking care of? “Franken is increasingly becoming a liability” and “we should unconditionally surrender to the Republicans” are two different things – I would actually argue that a Moore seating strengthens the case for Franken staying on as a lame duck, for one thing.
Adam L Silverman
He’s going to be completely manic sometime around 6 AM tomorrow!
But her emails!!!
@Wapiti:
Because we’ll be borrowing to finance the tax cuts, the only relatively assured thing is we’re going to see a greater investment in US Treasuries.How that shakes out in the other assets is going to be tough to tell.
Adam L Silverman
@Adam L Silverman: And this too!
Refers to this insanity:
Which appears to refer to this stupidity by Congressman Nunes:
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Jesus fuck.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
Casinos.
Amir Khalid
@Cheryl Rofer:
Trump believes that about America’s allies because that’s how he treats his own.
Matt McIrvin
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: How would China be an improvement over that? Sounds like more of the same.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: Yup. I should have remembered that.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“But it really shouldn’t be a FYWP word here anyway!!1”)
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Too many words. Definitely too many syllables. Or so I’m told…//
Ruckus
@Princess:
This is not just the asshole personality that he has been his entire asshole life. I’ve been saying for a while that he is in at least the early stages of dementia. I’ve seen this up close and personal with 3 relatives. This is what it looks like. Not everyone is the same or progresses at the same speed but overall………
MJS
@Adam L Silverman: I’m confused. Who is Moss, and what cases is he referring to?
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: IIRC, he mentioned the possibility of bailing on us to run to that mysterious land a year or so ago, also too. It wouldn’t be my first choice, but …
Cheers,
Scott.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Adam L Silverman: Another data point for the mental deterioration theory: can anyone imagine him using the word “cardinal” today?
M. Bouffant
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I still have one in my kitchen. TV works fine, ‘though the VCR (It was my mother’s, wouldn’t have bought a TV/VCR combo myself.) doesn’t. It’s close to 20 yrs. old.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Alexa: Order all the popcorn. And all the single malt!
debbie
So the local Fox station shows the lottery numbers every night during the 10 pm news, with some stupid instrumental music in the background. Tonight they played that song with the lyrics about I’m in love in your body and my bedsheets smell like you. I can’t imagine that wasn’t a mistake!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JGwWNGJdvx8
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott:
The papers got increasingly nutty, though…
jl
@Wapiti: Most of the recent increase in corporate valuation is due to hopes of cost-cutting and more monopoly power from mergers and acquisitions, and corporate stock buy backs. So, we’re already pretty far down that road. Some of the corporate tax provisions in the GOP bill do a lot get quick cash from lower taxes, but are so crazy and senseless that they may well reduce real productive investment.
And there is also the fact that if the mechanism of how the corporate tax rate cuts works as intended to spur economic growth, it will cause a big increase in the trade deficit, and will suck more national income out of US into foreign owners buying up US assets.
lurker dean
moss immediately filed a notice of supplemental information to submit the orange idiot’s tweet to the court.
Adam L Silverman
@MJS: Brad Moss. One of the partners at Mark Zaid’s law firm They specializing in fixing issues with security clearances, protecting real whistleblowers, and FOIA requests on behalf of reporters and good government watchdog groups. In fact they’re doing the FOIA stuff pro bono right now to serve as a check on the President and his appointees. They quickly filed an amendment to one of their suits over a FOIA request about an hour ago. Here are the details.
M. Bouffant
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Don’t think for a minute that China’s justice system is any better or even that much different.
Adam L Silverman
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: No, but the Archbishop of Canterbury is all over his tuchas:
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: What? You don’t take a kg of Vitamin C every morning to fight off cancer?!?!??
Cheers,
Scott.
Jack the Second
I have a hard time feeling bad for Trump, but does it seem … cruel, to take a man like Trump – aging, confused, insecure – and make him President? It’s like taking a Make-a-Wish kid and then making them actually BE a doctor or fireman or police officer, and then acting like it’s their fault when people start dying.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Matt McIrvin:
Physically safer there than here, and I’m actually feeling better about a throttled internet devoted to running a hookup site than I am about ours.
Omnes Omnibus
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Have you been to China? The culture is very different.
And fucking nut up. This is our country. Maybe we should defend it.
Quaker in a Basement
He means white women.
MJS
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks to you and lurker dean for the info. But is it really advisable to spike the football via tweet, even when your adversary is someone as odious as Trump? Maybe just a, “Thank you for your help” tweet? Or better yet, nothing, lest someone get it through Trumps thick skull that his tweets do him great harm?
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Adam L Silverman:
I don’t know, Adam… like Fox Mulder, I want to believe (that Trump will crash and burn), but some new and juicy bit comes out, Rachel and company go nuts for a couple days, and Trump continues to dismantle the country.
Any guess as to when this all stops being so much water cooler gossip and fun From Russia with Love vids and becomes SERIOUS?
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: I remember reading some of his late papers on quasicrystals–he thought that they didn’t exist, that people were being fooled by the well-known phenomenon of crystal twinning, which can produce forms that superficially seem to have the kinds of “forbidden” symmetry found in quasicrystals. It was a reasonable hypothesis early on, but he kept having to make his scheme more and more complicated to respond to objections, and after a while it seemed like sheer stubbornness.
Adam L Silverman
@Quaker in a Basement: Continuing the Mel Brooks theme:
SFAW
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
It was a fucking joke. Although it was in a reply to you, it was more aimed at TRunner, our resident “ZOMG Franken ZOMFG!” troll, and at Argle Bargle, whose nom/nym (it is my belief) is a reference to the idiotic “RBG should do the stand-up thing and resign/retire so that Obama can name a liberal to the SCOTUS, because she won’t live forever” bullshit that was the go-to argument for one of the trolls here in 2015 or early 2016 (pre-Garland). I am of the belief that Argle Bargle and that earlier troll are the same person.
My sincere apologies for not being clear about that. I guess it might be considered abstruse by people who can’t read my “mind.”
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@MJS:
If it hasn’t happened by now, it probably never will.
Adam L Silverman
@West of the Rockies (been a while): That wasn’t to celebrate a crash and burn. Just to get me through tomorrow AM’s early morning Presidential tweets.
SFAW
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I love that song, but only in the original Deutsch.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: I’ll forgive him things like that. Lots and lots of people get stubborn and end up being wrong. He was so prolific in so many areas that he deserves the chance to be wrong, too.
I heard today (for the first time) that there are people claiming that there are such things as time crystals:
I wonder what Linus would have thought of such things! :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
JWR
@Adam L Silverman:
I guess we should be happy he didn’t push up the corners of his eyes and say “ah so, ah so.”
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: It would be bad for our side, but I’d have more respect for Flynn if he went the way of Slobodan Praljak.
frosty
@Adam L Silverman: True. Young Frankenstein is full of great lines and scenes. I read that Gene Wilder insisted Brooks play it straight without breaking the fourth wall and it really made the movie. Plus, the guy who had squirrelled away the original lab props was happy to let Brooks use them.
Plus again, Terri Garr!!!
Ken
@lurker dean: I wonder what it’s like to be one of Trump’s lawyers. They must be at the “whatever, as long as the checks clear” stage.
Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
Another link (dredged from a comment in 2017/02):
Using Discourse Analysis to Assess Cognitive Decline
Includes links to Trump interviews with Letterman. (Links have apparently been updated.)
Not a medical person, but I’ve been tracking DT’s cognitive abilities since mid Jan 2017, and there has been a noticeable decline IMO. His mental style was always intuitive and … stochastic. It’s not working so well now; guessing older brain, lousy diet, no exercise, fatigue due to the “hard work”. Perhaps it’s progressive (or not), but he should probably quit for his own good, and try to heal, and I say this as somebody who loathes him, especially for pushing emotional buttons to encourage me and others loath him.
And yeah. Knew a physicist who posthumously had a paper published in his late 80s.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Gonna be hard to top that in terms of national security bad guy actions. I’m not sure anyone is going to be able to best that in the four weeks left in 2017.
Amir Khalid
@Wapiti:
Not necessarily. They won’t bother to invest if they don’t see a compelling opportunity. They don’t even need it to live on like those of lesser means, so they can just put the money in a vault instead, and go swimming in it like Scrooge McDuck.
M. Bouffant
@Another Scott: TIME CUBE!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This is as open as I remember them being about their plans shred the social safety net
Steeplejack
@SFAW:
It was pretty clear to me that you were joking, FWIW.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Adam L Silverman:
Sets up a brilliant “I have nothing but contempt for you, you piece of shit, Mister Nunes…”
Steve in the ATL
@MJS:
Dude, trump never learns anything; he always doubles down. This is likely a great strategy.
frosty
@Another Scott: And then again, my dad, a PhD engineer, developed Parkinson’s around 65, the year he retired, started getting cognitively impaired around 10 years later, and passed away at 80. It’s all a crap shoot.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I believe I explained that this was what was going to happen earlier today.
SFAW
@M. Bouffant:
Reading that, all I could think of was either Professor Irwin Corey (may he RIP), “Who’s on First?”, or the contract scene from “A Night at the Opera.” Or perhaps a combination of all three of them.
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
As it happens, the original Deutsch — Neunundneunzig Luftballons — doesn’t even mention the colour of the balloons.
SFAW
@Steeplejack:
Much appreciated.
Another Scott
@frosty: Indeed – none of us know what will happen and there are no guarantees. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Sherparick
@Adam L Silverman: But he Emails¡!!!!!!
We are so fucked.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’ve gone. I felt less excluded and scruTinized in rural China than I felt in Eastern Kentucky 150 miles from home (and in the same congressional district). I’m just tired of the same repeated fight.
Will likely feel the same about Vietnam next month.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Ja, dass weiss ich. Auch, in Englisch war es “rot,” nicht “grun.”
Ich machte einen kleinen Spass
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
You talk of this as if it’s a bad thing, why do you hate the Free Market* jl?
*Free Market is a registered Trademark of the Republican National Committee.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: I thought that was for colds, that’s what my nurse tells me.
Another Scott
@M. Bouffant: OMG!!
(scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, …)
“NEXT PAGE”
ROFL. :-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: I fully expect industrial strength shredders are on their way to all of drumpfs properties right now…gonna make the shredding done by Enron and Arthur Anderson look like child’s play.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus:
It seems to be the general consensus here at Balloon Juice that we should give up and leave.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@SFAW: I definitely got the joke.
FWIW, it was the “white wimminz/this is fine” comment he made in Doug’s Lauer thread that convinced me TR is now trolling and not just being overly pessimistic.
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Later on, he argued that massive doses of Vitamin C prevents cancer.
When he was asked why he himself developed cancer if what he was saying was true, he said that he didn’t take enough Vitamin C when he was younger… :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
frosty
@Another Scott: I should probably not drink to that this close to bedtime, but I believe I will.
Cheers, (to steal a phrase)
frosty
At sunset the tiercel flew above the marsh, pursuing a wisp of snipe. They drummed away down wind, like stone skidding across ice.
I watched the Japanese news network NHK today as the polite anchor attempted to convey the content of Trump’s remarks without revealing that she believed he was an insane person.
B.B.A.
@Omnes Omnibus: I was born here, and I was raised here, and dad gum it, I am gonna die here, and no sidewindin’ bushwackin’, hornswagglin’ cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: China? Vietnam? What are you, some kind of Commie?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: Ah, yes. Pauling, I think he won 2(or maybe 3) Nobel Prizes. I know he won the Peace Prize and I think Chemistry.
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
Das verstehe ich. Ich hatte kein Vorhaben, dich zu kritisieren.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@frosty:
Or, Stay Frosty(to steal a phrase).
danielx
@Princess:
I disagree, but in practical terms: if his narcissistic fever dreams produce the same effects as senile dementia (to name one distinct possibility) is there any real difference?
SFAW
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
Oh, sorry for misinterpreting. I’m either tired, or old, or my “sense of humour” is at low ebb. Or all three.
Now get offa my lawn, whippersnapper (the lawn that you told me to go take care of, of course.)
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Yeah, I know. I must be having a thin-skinned/clueless night.
Thanks, Obama!
Another Scott
@Bill Arnold: Thanks for the pointer. I wonder how far our national officials would let him decline before finally stepping in.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Raoul
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Will we ever wake up from Paul Ryan’s wet dream/national nightmare?
Really, tho, once the olds figure out that the GOP is gunning for their Medicare, can the GOP hang on? I know the cynics here (all of us, Katie!) think the Dems will get the blame, but I’m not so sure. Even old and addled folks more or less know the GOP won in 2016.
SFAW
@B.B.A.:
Now WHO can argue with that?
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: 2. He’s the only person to have won 2 undivided Nobel Prizes. He really was one of a kind, but like everyone, was fallible.
Cheers,
Scott.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gin & Tonic: All these people need to go the way of the Ceausescus.
r€nato
That last tweet, OMG yes. I am so fucking sick and tired of hearing how Trump’s latest insane rant is a “distraction from X”.
He is not capable of that kind of strategic thinking, or of ANY strategic thinking. He is as impulsive as a toddler. Stop overthinking this.
danielx
Once upon a time I watched a bad Steven Seagal movie (are there any other kind?) and there was one worthwhile scene in the whole movie. Gary Busey and Tommy Lee Jones were the villains, and at some point Busey, who was wearing a wig and looking even more deranged than usual, snarls at Jones: “do I look like I need psychological help?”. It may have been ad-libbed, since Jones looked like he was working hard at not breaking up.
Gary Busey playing Trump in a movie can’t be far off; they even resemble each other to a degree.
SFAW
@Another Scott:
It all depends on whether he keeps signing the “Fuck the middle/lower class” bills they send him, or if he starts promulgating liberal policies.
Since neither is likely, I’m guessing the answer is “never.”
Villago Delenda Est
@SFAW: Authentic frontier gibberish.
danielx
Found it….actually it was like this:
Gary Busey: do i look like i need a psychological evaluation?
Tommy Lee Jones: not at all.
And Busey was in drag.
hueyplong
@danielx: Casting Busey as Trump is the kind of decision that would have kept Obama up at night.
Bess
@Ken:
.
I assume they’ve padded previous statements enough so that when his checks do start bouncing they will have already collected for those hours.
OTOH, they are Trump’s attorneys. Perhaps they weren’t smart enough to think about that….
SFAW
@Raoul:
I think that’s because there’s no real scream machine to shout-from-the-rooftops that the RWNJs are fucking over everyone in the 95 percent. Whereas the RWNJs have Fox. And the RWNJs have been working the refs (i.e., the MSM) for 40 years, so much so that they (with few exceptions) are scared to report things which make the Rethugs look as evil/bad as they really are.
SiubhanDuinne
@sukabi:
Maybe they could hire Fawn Hall as a temp.
Amir Khalid
@danielx:
Alas, if Gary Busey were to play a not-right-in-the-head person, he might not be acting.
Villago Delenda Est
@SFAW: In the video, the balloons were red.
Song auf Deutsch didn’t specify.
danielx
@Amir Khalid:
Then clearly he’s the perfect candidate, particularly if he were to play Trump. Broken logic, off-the-cuff instant rages…what’s not to like?
danielx
@Raoul:
True, and I’ve been reminded of it by some of my contemporaries more than once. I didn’t like hearing “get over it” – repeatedly – after Bush stole the 2000 election, and I like it even less now – a whole lot less, and no, I’m not going to get over it. I detested W and still do, but I wasn’t concerned about his mental stability to any great degree. His stupidity and maliciousness were and are a whole ‘nother set of issues, but I didn’t think he was deranged. We can survive presidents who are less than brilliant, but I’m not at all convinced Trump won’t blow the planet off its axis before 2020. Even if he doesn’t, I am beginning to doubt whether he would leave office voluntarily under any circumstances.
Steve in the ATL
@Villago Delenda Est: IIRC, in the video the balloons were a variety of colors, which was confusing to young MTV viewers who didn’t know that “red” was added simply because the song required a syllable to replace “luft” when translated from German into English.
frosty
@danielx:
Yes, Executive Decision, where he gets killed early and Kurt Russel has to take over leading the op.
sukabi
@SiubhanDuinne: pretty sure there will be more than one 1.5′ stack of papers to be shredded….also pretty sure she’s a bit old for the job…
sukabi
@frosty: that was the only good segal movie…precisely because he gets killed off early.
Honus
@Amir Khalid: and in the English version the balloons are red.
Amir Khalid
@At sunset the tiercel flew above the marsh, pursuing a wisp of snipe. They drummed away down wind, like stone skidding across ice.:
You have a lovely nym.
Felonius Monk
Don’t know if this has been mentioned yet:
nasruddin
@SenyorDave: Or maybe they would take care of him.
Villago Delenda Est
@Felonius Monk: This is very stupid. Of course Donald is going to do it.
RobNYNY
@Ian G.:
Bokassa, perhaps?
TenguPhule
@danielx: Ah, Under Siege. Which wasn’t as bad as some others he’s done.
TenguPhule
@frosty: Also the one movie Condi Rice never bothered to watch when trying to explain why nobody saw 9/11 coming.
It wasn’t fucking rocket science when a Seagal film figures it out before you do.
J R in WV
@SFAW:
And you don’t think that the olds won’t notice when their Social Security deposits stop arriving in their bank accounts? ‘Cause I think everyone on Social Security will notice right after their birth date day of the month, which is when those payments are scheduled. Most folks need to know when and how much we be deposited, to the penny!!
Maybe they will blame the Ds, that would be super Stupid! but we are talking about people who voted for The Donald.
THE fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.
How’s this?
Matt McIrvin
@Ian G.: I have to admit, having your opponents mass-executed in a sports stadium by guys dressed as Santa Claus while light pop hits play on the PA system is really going above and beyond.
artem1s
The Last King of Mar-A-Lago
The Madness of Dolt45
low-tech cyclist
I disagree. He’s getting 100% too much.
TriassicSands
NYT says Trump will fire Tillerson within “weeks” and replace him with Pompeo.
Poor Rex.
SFAW
@TenguPhule:
Actually, there was some Tom Clancy novel where a pilot — who apparently was having a bad (h)air day — flew his 747 into the Capitol. Came out before 9/11.
Greg Gabrielse
Rocket fuel, damn.
https://youtu.be/3JpwjnMFlJI