Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Everybody saw this coming.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

The willow is too close to the house.

Books are my comfort food!

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Open Thread: Quite the Challenge (Coin)

Open Thread: Quite the Challenge (Coin)

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Challenge coins are souvenirs. Humans squirrel away souvenirs; museums contain troves of antiquities whose only purpose was to proclaim WE SAW THE GREAT TEMPLE or I MADE THE PILGRIMAGE. The amazing part is that, given all his other responsibilities (getting his regular briefings from Fox News, playing golf, encouraging infighting among his minions, violating the Constitution), Lord Smallgloves still has time to cruft up something as minor as his challenge coin. From the Washington Post:

For two decades, the commander in chief has doled out distinguished-looking coins as personal mementos. Now, the presidential “challenge coin” has undergone a Trumpian transformation.

The presidential seal has been replaced by an eagle bearing President Trump’s signature. The eagle’s head faces right, not left, as on the seal. The 13 arrows representing the original states have disappeared. And the national motto, “E pluribus unum” — a Latin phrase that means “Out of many, one” — is gone.

Instead, both sides of the coin feature Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

The changes don’t stop there. In addition to his signature, Trump’s name appears three times on the coin, which is thicker than those made for past presidents. And forget the traditional subdued silver and copper: Trump’s coin, a White House aide marveled, is “very gold.”

The aide said the president, whose real estate properties are known for their gilded displays of wealth and status, was personally involved in redesigning the coin. Trump, who also had a hand in creating his famous red campaign hat, “wanted to weigh in on it,” the aide said. “It’s beautifully made.”

The White House offered conflicting accounts of which funds were used to purchase the coins, with one aide saying they were paid for by the White House and a second aide later saying that the Republican National Committee is covering the expense. An RNC spokeswoman confirmed Friday afternoon that the party is paying for the coins…


[We knew it wasn’t Trump.]

… “They’re going to be used in ways they haven’t been in the past,” said the second White House aide, adding that they may be distributed at campaign rallies and to donors. Aides were not authorized to comment on the record and spoke on the condition of anonymity…

Sold at a ridiculous markup on his “campaign website”, I’m betting… once the media attention dies down.

Reader Interactions

210Comments

  1. 1.

    Gary K

    It signifies the new top Scouting rank, replacing Eagle effective immediately. You don’t need to earn any badges at all, but you have to constantly point out how great you are, in a totally unprecedented way.

  2. 2.

    TriassicSands

    Give Trump five minutes alone with a piece of plain white cotton and he would be able to turn it into the tackiest piece of crap on the planet. Rest assured there would be lots of !GOLD!

  3. 3.

    TriassicSands

    He literally replaced “E pluribus unum” with “Make America Great Again”

    That’s better, I guess, than “Kill the Muslims” or “Nuke North Korea.”

    Everything is a campaign rally or event to Trump. He probably ends a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer with “MAGA!”

  7. 7.

    Gravenstone

    They’re going to be used in ways they haven’t been in the past

    I’d gladly use them as the bulls-eye for shooting range targets.

  15. 15.

    JGabriel

    I read about Trump’s new challenge coin the other day, but I hadn’t actually seen a picture of it until just now.

    Now that I’ve seen it, I can say with all honesty, it makes me want to vomit.

    Tack, meet -y.

  16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    As a little girl growing up in the Chicago suburbs, I used to love visiting the Museum of Science and Industry (“Museum of Science and Interesting,” as we appropriately called it).

    One of the great attractions was a machine into which one fed a dime, or quarter, and then a penny. The machine would make thoughtful and terrifying noises, then squash the penny flat as a proverbial pancake, impose the MoS&I logo on the obverse, and return the flattened coin as a souvenir. I think I still have a few of them kicking around.

    Much more appealing coin medallion than that excessively gilded piece of crap. He can’t keep his tiny vulgar hands off anything, can he?

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    For two decades, the commander in chief has doled out distinguished-looking coins as personal mementos. Now, the presidential “challenge coin” has undergone a Trumpian transformation.

    I understand that Princess Michael of Kent had to apologize for wearing the coin as a brooch while attending a Christmas party with Queen Elizabeth.

    ETA. Loved “What the fork?” on one of the Twitter comments.

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    Look on the bright side. RNC donor money is being used for stroking Trump’s ego rather than for attack ads or some field organizer.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    Sold at a ridiculous markup on his “campaign website”, I’m betting

    Executive Order 11649 (emphasis added): “The manufacture, reproduction, sale, or purchase for resale, either separately or appended to any article manufactured or sold, of the Seals of the President or Vice President, or any likeness or substantial part thereof, except as provided in this Order or as otherwise provided by law, is prohibited.”

  25. 25.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    As I said on Facebook, it looks as if he stole it from one of Hermann Goering’s uniforms.

  27. 27.

    Jager

    Mrs. J has a nice, tasteful challenge coin from one of W’s Undersecretaries of Defense. When she was flying, (she was the A flight attendant, in charge of the cabin) she moved a bunch of Army kids headed home from Iraq,up to an almost empty 1st Class section on a flight from Charlotte to San Francisco. 4 First Class passengers gave up their seats for more GIs when they realized what she was doing. She has no idea how the Defense Department found out what she did for the kids. She got a thank you letter and the coin in her mailbox in the crew room. She wined and dined them all the way across America and damn near all the passengers came forward to thank them. One of her best flights ever.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Brachiator:

    I understand that Princess Michael of Kent had to apologize for wearing the coin as a brooch while attending a Christmas party with Queen Elizabeth.

    Princess Michael of Kent is a piece of unreconstructed Nazi scum, and an embarrassment to The Queen. She is a racist in real life, and as a writer she is a lazy and cowardly plagiarist.

    By all accounts, The Queen herself can’t stand her. Princess Michael is widely known in the Royal family as “Princess Pushy.” I am not at all surprised that she hauled out the “blackamoor” brooch deliberately for her first meeting with Meghan Markle.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Childhood ritual was the placing pennies on the train tracks in order to be flattened.

    We must have done something with them after retrieval but mystified when it comes to recalling what.

  33. 33.

    JGabriel

    Allan Smith (via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    He literally replaced “E pluribus unum” with “Make America Great Again”

    It reminds me of that scene in Being John Malkovich, where Malkovich is dumped into a world of Malkovich clones, all of whom communicate only by endlessly repeating the word “Malkovich” in varying intonations:

    Malovich? Malkovich malkovich.

    Malkovich malkovich? Malkovich malkovich. Malkovich.

    Malkovich.

    Only instead of Malkovich, it’s a world full of Trump clones, all endlessly repeating “MAGA” in varying intonations:

    MAGA? MAGA MAGA.

    MAGA MAGA. MAGA MAGA. MAGA?

    MAGA MAGA.

    MAGA?

    MAGA!

    MAGA.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    The one consolation is that Princess Michael only succeeded in making herself look like a bitter old woman and was forced to publicly apologize, presumably by HRH.

    As I said when the engagement was first announced, Charles’ attitude seems to be, Boys, I fucked up my marriage to your mom in a big way, so whatever you want is fine with me.

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    I assume you, too, are familiar with “The Good Place”?

    Watched it from the very beginning. It was on my list of “the best show on television that too few are watching.”

    I’m pleased at how they have continued the show’s premise without getting stupid, boring or repetitive (so far).

  38. 38.

    geg6

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    WHAT? I haven’t heard that story. But I did know Princess Michael of Kent was a Nazi piece of garbage, so not completely surprised. But in front of the Queen? Seriously?

  42. 42.

    JGabriel

    @Joeg:

    One day dotus will show up with a WWE Championship belt around his waist.

    I’d rather see him wearing it around his neck. Tightly. Hanging from it.

  43. 43.

    raven

    @Jager: In spite of all the whiny bullshit you hear the stews (and mostly everyone else) were pretty damn good to us when we flew standby in the 60s.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yup. The William/Harry generation appears to be far more sensible than that of their parents. Societal changes help, of course.

    It heartens me no end to see (most of) the RF embrace a biracial divorced American into their midst. I was born scarcely 5-1/2 years after the Abdication Crisis, and it is astounding to witness the changes in attitude and acceptance.

  45. 45.

    Brachiator

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    By all accounts, The Queen herself can’t stand her. Princess Michael is widely known in the Royal family as “Princess Pushy.” I am not at all surprised that she hauled out the “blackamoor” brooch deliberately for her first meeting with Meghan Markle.

    Big mistake. Big. The princes are loved by the Queen and by the people. That is an unbeatable combination.

    And it has been interesting to see how many Brits, including British people of color, have embraced Meghan Markle.

    ETA. I saw that a copy of a dress Markle wore sold out immediately. Markle can also say that she is good for the British economy. Not sure if Princess Michael is good for much of anything.

  47. 47.

    Joyce H

    And have you see the White House Christmas card? Four times bigger than its predecessors, and (it goes without saying) gaudy gaudy gaudy.

  48. 48.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JGabriel: Sessions has apparently been going around saying “Make America Safe Again” in all of his speeches. As Robin Thede pointed out, that spells MASA.

  52. 52.

    JGabriel

    @Joyce H:

    And have you see the White House Christmas card? Four times bigger than its predecessors, and (it goes without saying) gaudy gaudy gaudy.

    Trump covers everything in shit and calls it chocolate.

  55. 55.

    Jager

    @raven:

    She said they were all burned out, tired. One or two drinks and a little first class food and most of them fell asleep. A couple drank their fill. I told her that would have been me.

  57. 57.

    mai naem mobile

    I am surprised Dolt45 doesn’t wear one of those fake military uniforms thatb dictators wear with a gazillion medals and stars hanging on the chest and shoulder.

  58. 58.

    Brachiator

    @mai naem mobile:

    I am surprised Dolt45 doesn’t wear one of those fake military uniforms thatb dictators wear with a gazillion medals and stars hanging on the chest and shoulder.

    You may have just revealed Melania’s Christmas gift to Trump.

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    We dropped of a buddy at LAX for his ride to army boot camp as he had joined the NG. Standing there looking a the luggage being loaded, every duffle, gear, sea bag that came off the cart got an overhead swing and slammed down on the belt. Except one, which he damn near pulled his arm out of the socket trying to loft it over his head.
    That’s the only time I really saw any issues and I of course traveled in my uniform as flying was some ridiculously cheap deal that way. Got us out of being arrested once on I80 in NY. They had closed the road due to snow but the guy who owned the car had to get to Newport RI from Great Lakes in 24 hrs, just after a huge snow storm. He decided to run the road block and go for it. Trooper stopped us and took one look, told us to get off the interstate.

  67. 67.

    zhena gogolia

    @Mnemosyne:

    Thanks for your sympathy in the middle of last night (you and NotMax). I hope I’m not up bouncing off the walls at 3:00 AM tonight. But I’m still coughing, so not much hope.

  68. 68.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    What amazes me about this asshole is how utterly without anything redeeming at all he is. There are few people you can really say that about. You know? Hitler loved his dogs. Stalin had a great singing voice. I mean, you could choose any convicted serial killer and find something worthwhile about them, even if it was only that they could make a good old fashioned or something. But this guy? Nothing.

  70. 70.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Joyce H:

    Four times bigger than its predecessors, and (it goes without saying) gaudy gaudy gaudy.

    Sounds like Trump to a “t”.

  71. 71.

    raven

    @Ruckus: I spent 3 fucking days on a concrete floor in the Oakland Army base trying to muster out. It was Sept 69, the start of the pullout and they didn’t have their shit together at all. The finally cut me loose in the middle of the night and I took a bus that let me off on Treasury Island. I waited a bit and then hauled my shit up the ramp to try to hitch into the city. Just as a guy pulled up the cops came and made me go back down to the bus stop. In about 30 minutes the bus came and I got into the city. I was supposed to hook up with my buddy but, since he was married, I didn’t want to roust him. I got on another bus and the driver said “man, you don’t want to be wandering around like that, you’re easy pickins. He let me ride the bus until the sun came up and then I called my man. We copped 50 hits of purple mesc, went to the beach and then to Winterland to see Santana. . .memories, are so beautiful and then. . . .

  72. 72.

    Villago Delenda Est

    This is the latest in a series of impeachable actions by this vile draft dodging maggot.

  73. 73.

    Steve in the ATL

    @raven:

    We copped 50 hits of purple mesc, went to the beach and then to Winterland to see Santana. . .memories, are so beautiful and then. . . .

    And then WHAT?! You stopped right when the story got interesting!

  74. 74.

    Miss Bianca

    @zhena gogolia: OMG, now I’m having flashbacks. I had a love-hate thing going on with that movie. I was in the Chicago theater scene at the time, which had a love-hate thing going on with Chicago-area actors making it in Hollywood.

  76. 76.

    raven

    @Steve in the ATL: Well, I’d never heard of Santana so, needless to say, it knocked the shit out of me. (I saw him some 45 years later at Chastain!). I hung with my boy for a while, flew to Chicago and then went down to the U 0f I. Ten days after I came home I started college but I was way more interested in college girls, mescaline and rock and roll. There are WAY too many stories about what happened when I got to C-U to cover here.

  78. 78.

    Bruuuuce

    The coins are hotly sought by collectors. Online, the official Obama challenge coin was being sold Friday for as much as $999.

    I can hardly wait to hear El Jefe’s reaction when his tops out at $25, if that much. Oh, to be a fly on THAT wall.

  80. 80.

    Schlemazel

    I hate to rain on this parade but my Barack Obama challenge coin is gold, has his signature on it, does not contain the words “E PLURIBUS UNUM” but it does have his likeness on one side and the WH on the other.

    The boy has a couple he got from his deployments. I know he was carrying them every day, don’t know if he still is or not. Those are significant because of where they came from and who he shares them with. Mine is like the Congressional cufflinks or the flag that flew over the Capitol building, nice tokens but short on meaning

  81. 81.

    HeleninEire

    @Miss Bianca: Hi. Saw your question in the earlier thread.

    Yes. America is one of only two countries that tax their citizens regardless of where they make their money. So theoretically I would have to pay both Irish and US income tax. Practically that won’t be an issue for me because there is a $102,000 exemption. That is, the US tax requirement kicks in only for every dollar over $102K.

    So I am confident that I won’t be paying any US income taxes until I start digging into my 401k in 10-15 years. And then I’ll only pay US. Ireland won’t tax me on that.

  82. 82.

    GOVCHRIS1988

    @Schlemazel: Actually, I think you’re thinking of the Presidential Inauguration coin he had. Thats the one with his likeness.

    https://ssli.ebayimg.com/images/g/CFUAAOSw1S9Wgw~h/s-l1600.jpg

    This is his challenge coin. I don’t see E Pluribus Unum on it, but it seems like the standard fare. Trump’s is just a heavy assed signet badge, his tiny hands won’t be able to hold it during a handshake.
    https://kelloggmbastudents.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/presidentialchallengecoin.jpg

  83. 83.

    Anne Laurie

    @Joeg:

    One day dotus will show up with a WWE Championship belt around his waist.

    Unless those belts are very expandable, he’ll have to wear it around his neck-wattles instead.

  84. 84.

    Schlemazel

    @GOVCHRIS1988:
    You’re probably right, mine is in a drawer, I appreciate it but really didn’t pay much attention to it.

    In the scheme of things this is very small potatoes.

  85. 85.

    Chyron HR

    It’s hard to see the US subjected to a new level of degradation almost every single day, but the important thing is that this will inevitably lead to single payer health care, or so I am told by the progressives who voluntarily surrendered the country to this syphilitic neo-nazi sex offender.

  86. 86.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @mai naem mobile: Just like Stalin, he would design a special uniform with ten stars on each shoulder and call himself GENERALISIMO MAXIMUS.
    I wonder in the future government officials will where special badges like they do in North Korea, except it has his picture on it.

  87. 87.

    Bruuuuce

    @JPL:

    The Koch brothers will bail him out.

    Provided the judge sets any kind of bail.

    Oh, wait. You mean on the pricing.

    Never mind [/Rosannadanna]

  89. 89.

    efgoldman

    @MomSense:

    I’ve seen better looking crap come out of a gumball machine.

    Pepsico dedicated a a whole quarters worth of Cracker Jack production to use these for prizes.

  90. 90.

    raven

    @Schlemazel: I had one for my unit in the Nam and it went into the Gulf of Mexico with my keys, two fobs and my dog tags when I dumped a yak I was fishing in!

    and a P-38

  91. 91.

    TriassicSands

    @NotMax: @SiubhanDuinne:

    Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

    Man, I’m sure glad I never did anything like that as a kid. You guys are criminals. You better hope AG Sessions doesn’t read this blog.

  92. 92.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Peking Man: Didn’t have to go to Bali. We have feral chimps here. People buy them illegally as exotic pets and then dump them or they get lose during hurricanes and tropical storms.

  96. 96.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: IIRC, Ted Bundy worked a suicide hotline (at the same time as Ann Rule, who wrote about it later) and was actually very good at talking people down off their metaphorical ledges…

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Schlemazel: That’s not the official challenge coin that President Obama handed out for excellent work. This is what the official challenge coin that he handed out looks like:
    https://kelloggmbastudents.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/presidentialchallengecoin.jpg

    What you’re referring to was a mass produced and available for purchase commemorative of his 2nd inauguration. Like this:
    https://www.pricefalls.com/product/president-barack-obama-commemorating-second-term-17534-challenge-coin/109180661?source=GoogleShopping&medium=cpc&term=&content=PLA&campaign=765585982&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2dfemcWh2AIVhbXACh3AWADvEAQYBiABEgKp4fD_BwE&ad=184130232167

  101. 101.

    JGabriel

    WaPo (via Anne Laurie @ Top):

    The aide said the president, whose real estate properties are known for their gilded displays of wealth and status …

    Someone should inform the writers at WaPo that gilding is not a display of wealth and status – it’s the display of a wannabe who’s too cheap or poor to spring for the solid gold, and too tasteless and/or insecure to embrace subtler design elements.

  102. 102.

    sacrablue

    I designed challenge coins for several years. I even did a couple for the unit that is responsible for “the football” at the White House during the Bush II and the Obama administrations. Trump’s monstrosity would have been rejected by everyone involved in the process. I would have turned the job down as I did on a few occasions when I refused to do jobs that I thought were crude and misogynistic. I also notice that “45thPRESIDENT OF THE UNITED…” is not positioned correctly on the coin. I bet it was designed and manufactured in China.

  104. 104.

    Mike in NC

    Challenge coins are so lame. Every one I was ever given got sold on eBay, for Christ’s sake.

  108. 108.

    Mary G

    I thought the saddest part of this story is that Sean Spicer paid for having some made for himself, with a lectern on the back.

  111. 111.

    Miss Bianca

    @Anne Laurie: Now *that* is weird. I guess I figure a sociopath would find a way to talk the person *into* committing suicide. But if part of the thrill of being a sociopath is practicing the art of persuasion, then I guess he might have taken a perverse pride in his abilities to do so. Talk people off the ledge, I mean.

    @Mike in NC: Till this day, I had no idea such a thing as a challenge coin even existed. I still don’t know if I know what they really are.

  112. 112.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I’m hoping he mints a bunch. That jagged ass protruberance will shred the trouser pocket or purse af anybody who gets one, and most won’t store them away immediately.

  113. 113.

    raven

    @Miss Bianca:

    A challenge coin is a small coin or medallion (usually military), bearing an organization’s insignia or emblem and carried by the organization’s members. Traditionally, they are given to prove membership when challenged and to enhance morale. In addition, they are also collected by service members. In practice, challenge coins are normally presented by unit commanders in recognition of special achievement by a member of the unit. They are also exchanged in recognition of visits to an organization.[1]

  116. 116.

    MoxieM

    Good news from the icy sludge of the Northeast, at least, my little corner of it: My daughter is home for a couple of weeks!! Hip, hip, hooray!! Nothing else matters, for the moment … it’s really that terrific. (Also? You know when you clean the house for your own child’s arrival, that a new phase of life has been entered.)

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TriassicSands:

    Man, I’m sure glad I never did anything like that as a kid. You guys are criminals. You better hope AG Sessions doesn’t read this blog.

    Ha, you think that’s bad? I used to rub mercury (from broken thermometers) on dimes and make them super-shiny. Bring.It.On., Jeffbo.

  133. 133.

    Duane

    It really is a Cult of Trump. People see an opportunity for power and join. None of them can be trusted. None.

  134. 134.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Miss Bianca:

    I was in the Chicago theater scene at the time,

    You were? When was that? I was Assistant Managing Director of Court Theatre way back when, many of our creative and management folks migrated to us after St. Nicholas Theater closed, and of course Steppenwolf was in its ascendancy.

  136. 136.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax: But these “coins” (sic) don’t have the Presidential Seal. So that EO doesn’t apply.

    Of course he’ll try to sell them. He tries to sell everything.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    Tenar Arha

    The eagle being sinister rather than the like the great seal on the coin is also a little too close to Nazi symbolism for comfort. As with anything from the alt-right there’s plausible deniability that this similarity is unintentional, but there’s still enough people around him who would totally do this on purpose to give these creeps a stiffy.

  142. 142.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    Breaking News from the local NBC station, LAPD bomb squad has been sent to Bel-Air to investigate a suspicious package at Steven Mnuchin’s house*.

    *I didn’t know he had a place here, but since he flies free on the government’s dime, guess he can afford it.

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    My muster out started on a Tuesday. The ships clerk showed me a radiogram that said I had to be honorably discharged by noon that Friday. Assholes made me get a haircut so that I would be presentable to the public and discharged me on Friday at 11:59am. I walked off the ship and drove home. It lacked the drama of your muster out but that’s OK I played it low key and didn’t get stoned, I was just happy to never have to salute or say sir to asswipes who didn’t deserve it in the least or have to live in a gray steel box with a bunch of smelly, unwashed assholes. My self included.
    I lived through it, so did you, so did a lot of others. Way too many didn’t or quite possibly wished they hadn’t. Did it make me a better person? It did some I’ve known, how about you?

  146. 146.

    Ruckus

    @Jeffro:
    I’m making it the rest of my life’s work to stay alive long enough to piss on that grave.
    I can see the headline now.
    drumpf is dead. Good
    (wouldn’t of course want to say anything bad about a deceased person)

  150. 150.

    Mike J

    @Ruckus: Little noted fact: this week when Memphis removed the NB Forest statue, they made it easier to piss on his grave. He’s buried under it.

    They’re working on getting him moved to the cemetery he was originally buried in.

  152. 152.

    Steeplejack

    Just starting Episode 2 of the Cowboy Bebop mini-marathon on the Cartoon Network. Good stuff. Trump can’t fuck this up.

  154. 154.

    NotMax

    Command decision made. Soup of the day week will be onion.

    Big pot just now put on stove top to begin sweating down the sliced beauties.

    Of course, taste testing the sherry before adding toward the last is de rigueur. Can’t be too careful.     :)

  158. 158.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Mnemosyne:

    Steppenwolf started in the basement of my elementary school in Highland Park. We used to go down there after school and mess around with the props until they started locking us out.

    Very cool.

  168. 168.

    Amir Khalid

    @JGabriel:

    … gilding is not a display of wealth and status – it’s the display of a wannabe who’s too cheap or poor to spring for the solid gold, and too tasteless and/or insecure to embrace subtler design elements.

    And thus entirely apt for anything of Donald Trump’s.

  174. 174.

    Yarrow

    @Ruckus: A squirrel took all the apples from my apple tree in under 20 minutes. Took a few bites out of each one, “hid” them at the base of another nearby tree. Really annoying but also kind of funny. What’s the squirrel going to do with a bunch of apples with a few bites out of each one?

  176. 176.

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

    @Alain the site fixer:
    That’s exactly what this is: a cult. Why change something like a challenge coin so radically? I mean, replacing the presidential seal and the official motto of the US with his fucking name and campaign slogan is so…. arrogant? I don’t know the words to describe it. Most of all it deeply disturbs me, that the RNC is paying for them, thereby showing approval for this cult of personality. This is something I’d expect to see in Stalin’s Soviet Union, not the United States. There has to be a reckoning for all of the horrendous shit the Republicans are doing.

  178. 178.

    guachi

    I have, like, five or six coins from my time in the Navy and Trump’s coin is totally tacky.

    The worst parts is it’s not actually a circle. All the other coins I have are similar looking (like the coins of Obama, Pence, Biden). Tasteful, circular. Not gaudy and ugly.

  179. 179.

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

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    They (meaning the Trump’s and their henchpeople) should be prepared for more of this shit. This is what happens when you destroy people’s lives with impunity. Sometimes they try to fight back.

    Not that I endorse terrorism, but what did they think was going happen? That everyone was going to bow down before them?

  186. 186.

    Jackie

    @Ruckus: Will do. I can’t even discribe how much he is so disgusted about Trump being elected president. Dad honestly thought he was going to live to see the first woman president.

  191. 191.

    Schmendrick

    @Ruckus:

    I’m making it the rest of my life’s work to stay alive long enough to piss on that grave.

    At my age I am too impatient to do anything that requires standing in a long line.

  193. 193.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Gravenstone:

    You know what was really good—that recent new season of Samurai Jack. I hadn’t seen any of the previous, but I enjoyed that. Visuals were great.

  195. 195.

    Gravenstone

    @Steeplejack (phone): The visual style was consistent with the previous episodes. But because it was Adult Swim rather then the regular Cartoon Network schedule, he could go much darker on the subject matter. Another, fairly underappreciated toon by the same director was Sym-Bionic Titan. While that one aired on regular TV, and thus had to follow the corresponding constraints, it had some interesting stories to tell. Unfortunately, it ended prematurely because the toy tie-ins didn’t sell enough (fucking capitalism).

  196. 196.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Was, many years ago. I knew him later, in Tampa. He directed me in radio productions of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Man Who Came to Dinner, and a TV production of The Mikado.

  198. 198.

    Anne Laurie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Haven’t seen one of those machines in many yonks.

    For the record, there was one at the New England Aquarium when I was there in September. IIRC, it now costs a dollar, but the machine supplies the penny!

  199. 199.

    joel hanes

    @Ruckus:

    the only time I really saw any issues

    My hitch was just after VietNam ended, peacetime Germany REMF, and the only overt hostility I ever encountered was from the home-town VFW and American Legion types in the late 70’s, who wanted me to believe that the VietNam war had been a good and honorable thing.

  200. 200.

    Ruckus

    @joel hanes:
    Fucking assholes who think that the world always rotates around where ever they are and it never changes from when they were whatever they think they were. My grandparents were all born in the late 19th century. Before he died my dad’s dad saw 2 world wars, a major depression and men on the moon, cars and air planes and crossing the country in a horse drawn wagon. Not necessarily in that order. He was a bigot for whatever reason that he wanted to be one but he experienced a lot of change in his 84 yrs and didn’t try to make his son or grand kids bigots. In my short life, we’ve gone forward a long ways, some of them progress and some not. We still haven’t figured out how to make this country what it was supposed to be when it was founded, mostly because the power class, which there wasn’t supposed to be, in theory, didn’t understand how much better off they would be. They still think they have to steal everything or there won’t be enough. Yet the main problem is that the stealing everything makes there not enough.

  203. 203.

    akryan

    @Steeplejack: glad it wasn’t just me. sad that the first thing i think of when I read about the President of the United States is how he may be making overtures to nazis.

  204. 204.

    akryan

    another thing that i just noticed. the wings on the U.S. seal are usually curled up in an arc over the eagle’s head. the wings are basically perpendicular to the ground. Trump’s coin shows the wings more outstreched and more parallel to the ground. that’s also something it shares with the ss eagle. tin foil hat?

  206. 206.

    PaulWartenberg

    Someone earlier mentioned how the “coin” now looks more like a badge, and the thought has occurred to me as well.

    With the implication that these new “badge coins” can be “used for other things,” I’ve gotten the nasty belief that trump is planning on using these things as badges for his secret police / street thug army he’s hoping to create for himself.

  209. 209.

    Jess

    @momus: After a week of grading student exams and papers, I am so delighted to see someone use not only “literally” correctly, but “sinister”! Thanks!

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