Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

T R E 4 5 O N

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

This fight is for everything.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

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

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

I was promised a recession.

Republicans in disarray!

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Open Thread: Trump’s Willing Accomplices

Open Thread: Trump’s Willing Accomplices

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NYMag‘s The Cut, December 6, 2017:

… When Chris Cuomo questioned [Kellyanne] Conway about Trump’s endorsement of Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by eight women, she defended him by saying, “The president has tremendous moral standards.”….

Every unmothered child needs a nanny, or a team of them — none more so than a 70-year-old child who refuses to mature beyond the nursery. Who better to understand this than British GQ, whose authorized Fire and Fury excerpt focuses on two of the Trump campaign’s most high-profile women — “How Donald Trump’s White House team handles his giant ego”:

… Not long after the Trump team’s arrival to the White House, the Correspondents’ Dinner became a cause for worry. On a winter afternoon in Kellyanne Conway’s upstairs West Wing office, Conway and director of strategic communications Hope Hicks engaged in a pained discussion about what to do.

The central problem was that the president was neither inclined to make fun of himself, nor particularly funny himself – at least not, in Conway’s description, “in that kind of humorous way”.

George W Bush had famously tried to resist the Correspondents’ Dinner and suffered greatly at it, but he had prepped extensively and every year he pulled out an acceptable performance. But neither woman, confiding their concerns around the table in Conway’s office to a journalist they regarded as sympathetic, thought Trump had a realistic chance of making the dinner anything like a success.

“He doesn’t appreciate cruel humour,” said Conway. “His style is more old-fashioned,” said Hicks.

Both women, clearly seeing the Correspondents’ Dinner as an intractable problem, kept characterising the event as “unfair”, which, more generally, is how they characterised the media’s view of Trump. “He’s unfairly portrayed.” “They don’t give him the benefit of the doubt.” “He’s just not treated the way other presidents have been treated.”

The burden here for Conway and Hicks was their understanding that the president did not see the media’s lack of regard for him as part of a political divide on which he stood on a particular side. Instead, he perceived it as a deep personal attack on him: for ­entirely unfair reasons, ad hominem reasons, the media just did not like him. Ridiculed him. Cruelly. Why?…

Curiously, Conway and Hicks each portrayed a side of the president’s alter ego media problem. Conway was the bitter antagonist, the mud-in-your-eye messenger who reliably sent the media into paroxysms of outrage against the president. Hicks was the confidante, ever trying to get the president a break and some good ink in the only media he really cared about – the media that most hated him. But as different as they were in their media functions and temperament, both women had achieved remarkable influence in the administration by serving as the key lieutenants responsible for addressing the president’s most pressing concern: his media reputation.

While Trump was in most ways a conventional misogynist, in the workplace he was much closer to women than to men. The former he confided in, the latter he held at arm’s length. He liked and needed his office wives and he trusted them with his most important personal issues. Women, according to Trump, were simply more loyal and trustworthy than men. Men might be more forceful and competent, but they were also more likely to have their own agendas. Women, by their nature – or Trump’s version of their nature – were more likely to focus their purpose on a man. A man like Trump.

It wasn’t happenstance or just casting balance that one of his Apprentice sidekicks was a woman, nor that his daughter Ivanka had become one of his closest confidantes. He felt women understood him. Or, the kind of women he liked – positive-outlook, can-do, loyal women, who also looked good – understood him. Everybody who successfully worked for him understood that there was always a subtext to his needs and personal tics that had to be scrupulously attended to; in this, he was not all that different from other highly successful figures, just more so. It would be hard to imagine someone who expected a greater awareness of and more catering to his peculiar whims, rhythms, prejudices and, often inchoate, desires. He needed special – extra-special – handling. Women, he explained to one friend with something like self-­awareness, ­generally got this more precisely than men. In particular, women who ­self-selected themselves as tolerant of or oblivious to or amused by or steeled against his casual misogyny and constant sexual subtext – which was somehow, incongruously and often jarringly, matched with paternal regard – got this…

“KellyannePolls” is a seasoned media professional — her twitter bio calls her “Counselor to the President”, but she hasn’t mentioned Wolff or his book all week. She has a well-to-do husband with his own power base. Somebody knows when to hold ’em, knows when to fold ’em…

Reader Interactions

257Comments

  1. 1.

    IvankaThrowUp (AKA RedDirtGirl)

    Sort of interesting to me that that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a picture of HH.

  2. 2.

    Ruckus

    Any one who works politically for drumpf needs therapy. Lots and lots of therapy. Possibly with the addition of some mind altering substances to obliterate the concept in their minds that it was in any way a positive thing to be around him.

  3. 3.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    “The magic of his personality, his mysterious genius, and the irresistible power of his personality.”

    Who said this: Goebbels or Kellyanne?

  4. 4.

    Frankensteinbeck

    While Trump was in most ways a conventional misogynist, in the workplace he was much closer to women than to men.

    This does not even slightly surprise me. As a bigot, he sees women as weaker and less threatening. A woman who looks good and is properly subservient will be more comfortable to be around than any man ever could be. It’s the flipside of how he completely loses his shit when a woman beats him at anything.

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    @IvankaThrowUp (AKA RedDirtGirl): I know we all get to pick our nyms, and that is as it should be. But I much preferred RedDirtGirl – I hate that I have to think of Ivanka every time I see a comment from you. Ugh. I hope for a world, soon, where I never have to think of her or see her name again.

  7. 7.

    Mnemosyne

    As I’ve said, I find the British press’s role in this to be very interesting. I think Wolff is much closer to what they think a journalist should be — brash, fearless, willing to walk over anyone who stands between him and the story. I get the feeling that they’re puzzled and angered by our supine Beltway press and are relieved to see there’s someone in the US doing what they think of as real journalism, while Beltway journalists dismiss Wolff as a gossip-monger (which is something the British tabloids have never had a problem with their reporters being, to put it mildly).

  12. 12.

    JGabriel

    Washington Examiner:

    Hope Hicks’ family, friends say she’ll need therapy after she leaves Trump …

    After?

    Just think of how much could have been prevented if only they’d gotten Hope therapy before she ever met Traitor Donald.

  13. 13.

    Ruckus

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    This.
    He is afraid of men. They might be stronger or better liked than him. Bullies/narcissists usually like to hang around with only weaker people of the same sex. Noticeable weaker. Women on the other hand he sees as always being subservient to him. Never equal or betters. That HRC got more actual votes than him, that people actually like her, that is a bridge too far. About a million miles too far.

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    As a bigot, he sees women as weaker and less threatening. A woman who looks good and is properly subservient will be more comfortable to be around than any man ever could be.

    Yep. Women serving his every need is right and good. Women competing against him as an equal are unnatural and need to be put back in their place.

    Sadly, many of his voters agree with him and voted for him even while acknowledging that Hillary was more qualified because a woman should not be in a position where she can give orders to men, even if the alternative is a man who’s totally unqualified. He has a peni$, he should be in charge, QED.

  17. 17.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Trump has his first meeting of the day with Chief of Staff John Kelly at 11am. He then has “Executive Time” for an hour followed by an hour lunch in the private dining room. Then it’s another 1 hour 15 minutes of “Executive Time” followed by a 45 minute meeting with National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Then another 15 minutes of “Executive Time” before Trump takes his last meeting of the day — a 3:45pm meeting with the head of Presidential Personnel Johnny DeStefano — before ending his official day at 4:15pm.

    That is evidently representative of a typical workday, where a meeting or two are fit in around “making phone calls and watching cable news in the dining room adjoining the Oval [Office],” per the report. (link)

    Works from 11 to 4 with lunch and lots and lots of children’s recess.

    Low Energy.

  18. 18.

    Ruckus

    @B.B.A.:
    You’ve been exposed. You may not be close enough to catch the worst of it but you have been exposed. Yes you will need help. Gather together with others like yourself and work to remove this stench from our consciousness.

  19. 19.

    Roger Moore

    Hope Hicks’ family, friends say she’ll need therapy after she leaves Trump

    I guess deprogramming is a kind of therapy. The more I read about Trump, the more his whole organization reads like a cult.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Wow. 11 – 4 is 5 hours, and he has 2.5 hours of down time built-in. That means he works 2.5 hours a day. Holy fuck.

    At least we know the long hours and weight of the world on his shoulders won’t be aging him as it ages normal presidents.

  24. 24.

    Ken

    “He doesn’t appreciate cruel humour,” said Conway. “His style is more old-fashioned,” said Hicks.

    I think Conway’s wrong and Hicks is more right than she knows. Trump strikes me as the sort who’d guffaw loudly at such old-fashioned cruel entertainment as a dwarf jester, a hunchbacked idiot, or a bear-baiting.

  29. 29.

    Jager

    A few years from now…

    Met this great woman the other night at Abe and Louis.

    What’s her name?

    Hope Hicks.

    I heard she slept with Corey Lewandowski, at least that’s what her boss said.

    Shit! (deletes her number from phone)

  30. 30.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    I know that men sometimes act like we think with the small brain and that some men seemingly only have the small one but some of us actually do recognize that it really isn’t in charge.
    drumpf isn’t one of those, he has virtually no recognition of reality.

  33. 33.

    dopey-o

    @Roger Moore:

    The more I read about Trump, the more his whole organization reads like a cult

    with 63,000,000 members. and unfortunately, 150,000,000 firearms.

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    Hope Hicks’ family, friends say she’ll need therapy after she leaves Trump

    Hell, she should have her head examined for joining Team Trump in the first place.

  36. 36.

    clay

    Every time Conway or another bootlicker whines about how unfair Trump is treated, I want — just once — some journalist to say, “Oh? Does he have some loudmouth a-hole proclaiming he wasn’t born in this country, based upon nothing but his skin color?”

  37. 37.

    Sixstringfanatic

    Since this is an Open Thread…
    Has anyone been able to successfully purchase a Balloon Juice Pets Calendar for 2018? I have visited the Cafe Press site almost daily, there’s a link in the Balloon Juice Online Store for the calendar but when I click on the link, it just takes me to a big, blank square. No preview pics, no text, no links to clicky to purchase, nada. Has anyone else had this experience? Am I the only one who still buys the calendar? Any suggestions?

  38. 38.

    Ruckus

    @schrodingers_cat:
    He’s the commander in charge. They work for him. They are used to taking orders, being subservient. Rank may have it’s privileges but he out ranks them. He knows it and I’d bet he hasn’t let them forget it. They may or may not come in with their agendas but they have spent a career being subservient to the chain of command.

  41. 41.

    WaterGirl

    @Sixstringfanatic: Multiple people have commented that the link to the calendar is borked. I have seen numerous requests for someone who uses twitter to tweet to Cole that there is a problem with the calendar.

    Last I heard, Adam said he had contacted someone to notify them about the calendar issue – maybe Cole? I can’t remember. But if you use Twitter, I suggest you tweet at Cole.

  42. 42.

    Starfish

    @clay: Not really. She looks a lot less stage-managed than Ivanka. If you do a google search for pictures of her, every hair is not always perfectly coiffed. There is some variance in her appearance that does not exist in Ivanka land.

  46. 46.

    Ruckus

    @Marcopolo:
    This is true. Which is why my prescription to B.B.A. is to do all you can to remove the stench. That alone will be a very large part of the therapy.

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    “He’s unfairly portrayed.” “They don’t give him the benefit of the doubt.” “He’s just not treated the way other presidents have been treated.”

    HE IS A SHITSTAIN. He is a terrible human being. He is a monster. He is a fucking crybaby. He is unworthy of the benefit of the doubt, because he’s demonstrated again and again that giving him the benefit of the doubt will only enable his most deplorable behaviors.

    He is shit, the people around him are shit, and they deserve NO QUARTER at all. None. Because one can tell, instinctively, that they would give none.

    In the immortal words of the great efgoldman, fuckem.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @Marcopolo:

    Hell, the entire fucking country needs therapy after the Trump experience.

    They’ll feel better after they take it out on his Democratic successor.

  50. 50.

    raven

    I wonder if he’ll take advantage of this to bail, it’s worse than bone spurs.

    Gov Deal: Non-essential state offices will remain closed tomorrow

    January 7, 2018
    Gov. Nathan Deal today announced non-essential state offices will remain closed on Monday, January 8, due to a National Weather Service Winter Weather Advisory.

    “Out of an abundance of caution, we are closing non-essential agencies to ensure our employees’ safety as well as ensure the Georgia Department of Transportation’s ability to maintain and treat our roads,” said Deal. “This closure will run from Columbus across to Augusta and northward. The Capitol will remain open, however, so that the Legislature may gavel into the 2018 session as constitutionally required.”

  54. 54.

    Sixstringfanatic

    @Ken: Conway wasn’t wrong; she was lying, as always. Trump is a thin-skinned bully who mocked a handicap reporter in the middle of one of his shit-show campaign rallies (which really should have been the end of his run). OF COURSE he likes cruel humor. I doubt he finds anything else funny.

  55. 55.

    dmsilev

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: So a five hour work day, literally half of which is “Executive Time” which I think we can parse as “watches Fox News and CNN while composing Tweets”.

    Can we dock his salary for failure to perform according to expectations?

  56. 56.

    Julia Grey

    @Ken:

    Cruel humor is his forte. The mean nicknames, the gleeful kicking when people are down, the mimicking of that disabled reporter…

  58. 58.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Julia Grey:
    But he doesn’t appreciate it directed at HIM. Plus, I’m not sure he appreciates cruel humor. He just enjoys being mean. There’s no real cleverness other than how insulting he’s being. Very old fashioned that way, like the previously mentioned laughing at a dwarf.

  62. 62.

    japa21

    @Villago Delenda Est: Actually they were right about how he has been treated differently than any other president by the media. If any other president acted anything like Trump, the media would have already hounded him out of the oval office. They have actually done Trump a favor by trying to normalize him.

  64. 64.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @raven: You remember the B&W photo you posted once, were I said you looked like a young Greg Allman – l liked that one.

  66. 66.

    Sixstringfanatic

    @WaterGirl: THANK YOU! At least now I know that a) I’m not the only one who still buys the calendar and b) I’m not the only one facing this issue.
    I will be calling Cafe Press’ customer service line tomorrow morning to see if I can at least call someone’s attention over there to the issue.

  68. 68.

    danielx

    Hope Hicks’ family, friends say she’ll need therapy after she leaves Trump: Report https://t.co/OYhlvMbys3 pic.twitter.com/QfqHvYSPpU

    — Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 5, 2018

    Kind of torn between….

    Why should she be any different? or
    I certainly hope so.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    @WaterGirl:

    Actually, I suspect it’s the other way around: the generals remind him of when he was sent to military school, which turned out to be a welcome escape from Daddy’s daily abuse.

    You don’t create a narcissistic monster like Trump without years and years of systematic psychological and emotional child abuse, with a few dollops of physical abuse peppered in. Military school was probably heaven compared to home.

  72. 72.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” is a nice film. Rockwell plays an asshole cop who redeems himself.

  73. 73.

    Another Scott

    Calling Richard-David: TheHill:

    The Trump administration is turning to regulations as their last, best hope of chipping away at ObamaCare in 2018, with congressional Republicans unlikely to pass full repeal.

    A proposed rule released Thursday targeting the health law is likely the first step in a new effort to undermine the law. And advocates for the health law worry that another forthcoming rule could cause even more damage.

    The administration on Thursday eased rules on small businesses that band together to buy health insurance, through what are known as association health plans (AHPs).

    The proposal retains ObamaCare protections for people with pre-existing conditions and prohibits lifetime limits on benefits.

    But it would allow associations to purchase cheaper health insurance that won’t cover the ten “essential health benefits,” which include mental health, substance abuse treatment, maternity care and prescription drugs.

    A second proposed rule, yet to be unveiled, could have an even greater impact, with much broader exemptions from ObamaCare.

    That rule is expected to lift the Obama administration’s restrictions on skimpy, short-term health insurance plans. The changes would allow the plans to last for 12 months and be renewed.

    Experts expect the short-term plans to also be exempt from all of ObamaCare’s protections, meaning insurers would be able to charge higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions.

    The proposal on association plans is “aimed at putting AHPs on same footing as large employer plans. But large employer plans are still subject to various ACA requirements,” said Edward Leeds, an attorney at Ballard Spahr in Philadelphia.

    The expected rule on short-term plans “would really go beyond that,” he added.

    Together, the proposed rules have advocates for the health law worried about massive instability in the law’s insurance marketplace.

    Experts and advocates warn the rules would lead to skyrocketing premiums and a major fragmentation of the insurance markets.

    “Both of these rules would have the effect of seriously undercutting the viability of ObamaCare’s consumer protections by driving up premiums, and weakening the risk pools,” said Edwin Park, vice president for health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

    […]

    “The repeal of the mandate and expansion of association health plans and the rise of short term plans will certainly send premiums rising for middle class people with pre-existing conditions, whose only option is the ACA-regulated market,” said Larry Levitt, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

    The new regulations can’t go as far as the policies in the various repeal bills, but Park said they can still do a lot of damage to the law.

    “They’re all steps to undermine the market,” Park said.

    Levitt said the administration appears to want to use regulations to create a parallel insurance market that “largely doesn’t have to follow the rules” of ObamaCare.

    […]

    (Emphasis added.)

    They’re not going to stop in their attempts to destroy Obamacare (and all the rest).

    We have to fight them every single day.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  74. 74.

    debbie

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    “They don’t give him the benefit of the doubt.” Are they fucking kidding? Spew that much bile for eight years and then expect to waltz right in with zero repercussions? Law of the universe: You get back what you put out. “Fuckem” is too nice.

  78. 78.

    raven

    @debbie: He just announced he’s going to Marietta for the game. I wonder if he know there are 3 Iranian C-130’s on the runway that have been there since the revolution.

  79. 79.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    Jesus, they are going overboard with the woman’s thing. Second award so far where they *only* nominated women!

  80. 80.

    burnspbesq

    @raven:

    Freezing rain and sleet in the forecast for tomorrow. Be a real shame if the streets leading to the stadium became impassible.

  83. 83.

    danielx

    @WaterGirl:

    I do not believe the concept of the presidency as a full time job has ever occurred to him. More like an acquisition by the Trump Organization, which would require a few hours here and there on an irregular basis. The Presidency as reality show.

  85. 85.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    And they give another one out–to Elizabeth Moss–which was good, but excluding men altogether is just not right.

  91. 91.

    lamh36

    Hmmm…didn’t know this…I’m sorry, but I find the ENTIRE lot of them creepy AF.

    @BernsteinJacob
    Elisabeth Moss has done a very good of making the world forget she’s a Scientologist. She is actually much better for Scientologists than Tom Cruise. She’s Sally Yates to his James Comey.

    7:34 PM – Jan 7, 2018

  93. 93.

    Baud

    @burnspbesq:

    Any lawyer who can’t keep a new Federal regulation bottled up for at least two years should disbarred for incompetence.

    Or nominated by Trump to a federal judgeship.

  94. 94.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    I can’t remember, but I think she’s a second-generation Scientologist, like Giovanni Ribisi. If that’s the case, it’s not her fault that her parents raised her in a weird religion.

  97. 97.

    Jeffro

    Since I managed to kill ALL my teams’ chances this weekend (in multiple sports, too!) would you all like me to root hard for the Dawgs or the Tide? Highest bidder wins.

  98. 98.

    lamh36

    @Mnemosyne: doesn’t make it less creepy. And there have been people who’ve gotten away from cults before.

    So yes, he parent’s are to blame for her indoctrination, but doesn’t make it any less creepy

  99. 99.

    lamh36

    Sterling K Brown gave good acceptance speech once again!!! And they didn’t play him off this time…

    @TVGuide
    26s26 seconds ago
    More
    “You wrote a role that could only be played by a black man… I’m being seen for who I am and being appreciated for who I am. And it makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me… or anybody who looks like me” @SterlingKBrown to #ThisIsUs creator @Dan_Fogelman, #GoldenGlobes

  103. 103.

    B.B.A.

    @lamh36: This is one reason to be skeptical of the #MeToo claims against Paul Haggis – he’s ex-Co$ and broke very publicly from the cult, along with Leah Remini.

    On the other hand, Crash was a terrible racist movie, even as a naive unwoke white libertarian in 2006 I left thinking “damn, that was racist” (and it somehow won Best Picture?!) so as far as I’m concerned we should’ve thrown Haggis under the bus for that alone.

  105. 105.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Hicks grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her father was a PR executive who now worked for The Glover Park Group, the Democratic-leaning communications and political consulting firm; her mother was a former staffer for a Democratic congressman. An indifferent student, Hicks went to Southern Methodist University and then did some modelling before getting a PR job. She went to work for Matthew Hiltzik, who ran a small New York-based PR firm and was noted for his ability to work with high-maintenance ­individuals, ­including the movie producer Harvey Weinstein (later pilloried for years of sexual harassment and abuse – accusations that Hiltzik had long helped protect him from) and the ­television personality Katie Couric.

    Another person who is white, good looking and has no soul.

  106. 106.

    lamh36

    I’m asking because I really don’t know, but can you be OUT and gay and be a member of the Church of Scientology?

  108. 108.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    @lamh36: They view homosexuality as a sort of “sin”, so no, not really, but that doesn’t stop various members from being gay (of course). John Travolta being the number 1 that comes to mind.

    Moss was raised by Scientologists and homeschooled. She’s been brainwashed no doubt. Feel bad for her.

  109. 109.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    It’s still creepy, but it’s a different kind of creepy, IMO. It’s the difference between choosing to join a cult as an adult and choosing to stay in the cult your parents raised you in.

  111. 111.

    SenyorDave

    @Ken: I think Conway’s wrong and Hicks is more right than she knows. Trump strikes me as the sort who’d guffaw loudly at such old-fashioned cruel entertainment as a dwarf jester, a hunchbacked idiot, or a bear-baiting.

    Remember, Trump is the same piece of shit who mocked a reporter who has a movement disorder. I would never normally wish this on a person but Trump is evil enough that he should get a movement disorder and have to live with it. And anyone who works in the Trump WH is not deserving of sympathy. If Hope Hicks need therapy when she leaves the WH, TFB. She made her own bed, she can live with the consequences. And she slept with Lewandowski, shows some pretty awful taste in partners. Couldn’t she have just found some crack head, probably would have treated her better.

  113. 113.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Ken: I think they were code talking for “Trump will dish it out, but he can’t take it” kind of humor. That’s why Trump surrounds himself with women, because they hate that kind of rough housing guys do with each other that’s a requirement for male bonding. Another data point that Trump’s a girl man and his macho persona is a just a bluff. Seriously, how many guys sit on the phone talking a guys’ ear off about how mean other people are to them? That’s what women do.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    Last May, Jared Kushner accompanied President Trump on the pair’s first diplomatic trip to Israel.
    Shortly before, Kushner Companies received a roughly $30 million investment from one of Israel’s largest financial institutions.

    The level of corruption and self-dealing is just gross.

    God, that infrastructure plan. The Trump Family cronies are going to make billions. The looting is just non-stop.

    Countries collapse because of unchecked corruption. This isn’t amusing or cute or clever. They’re thieves.

  118. 118.

    jk

    @SenyorDave:

    Trump is evil enough that he should get a movement disorder and have to live with it

    I’d settle for extended alternating bouts of constipation and diarrhea.

  119. 119.

    HinTN

    @WaterGirl: Cafepress actually told me that “the owner” of the BJ content on the site had discontinued their affiliation with Cafepress. That didn’t make any sense but they said it.

  121. 121.

    trnc

    @SenyorDave:

    I would never normally wish this on a person but Trump is evil enough that he should get a movement disorder and have to live with it.

    That would complement his mental disorder(s).

  123. 123.

    Gelfling 545

    @Mnemosyne: I think it’s more that here are these generals, importsnt people who did important life or death stuff and they have to follow HIS orders now. What a rush! If I were a general, I’d resign and expatriate.

  124. 124.

    lamh36

    Sterling K Brown making history again!

    Kinda sad to still be having this first…but we celebrate when they happen the first time and hope they happen again and more often!

    @Carole_Hughes
    Follow Follow @Carole_Hughes
    More
    Magnificent! #Sterling K Brown is the first male black actor to win the award for Best Lead Actor in a TV drama! #GoldenGlobes ??

    https://twitter.com/Carole_Hughes/status/950182843723976704

  126. 126.

    HinTN

    @raven: It’s 37F here but the weather app tells me ice is coming. Given the protracted cold it may accumulate on trees, etc.

    How’s your croup?

  131. 131.

    Ruckus

    @danielx:
    I doubt that there is a time in his life when he ever thought about real work. You know 8 hrs a day 5 days a week or such. It has never occurred to him that real people like himself actually do that. Only the lower classes, the one’s that clean his toilets, the one’s he hires and then doesn’t pay………Those suckers.

  132. 132.

    mai naem mobile

    I don’t give a shit about Hope Hicks. She can go to therapy for the rest of her shItty fucking life. I bet she knows the Russian shit too. In don’t care if she spends a few years in prison either. She can sit and think about what she did.

  133. 133.

    lamh36

    Look…Tonya Harding had a fuq’ed up upbringing, allegedly, but I’m sorry, she is not some sympathethic figure…I’d Nancy Kerrigan would have a word or two to say bout that…

  134. 134.

    chris

    We were talking about Hope Hicks this morning and someone said that there were no videos or recordings of her. Interested, I went looking, and because it’s so fucking cold I spent an hour. This 18 second youtube is what I found. (Warning: Trump introduces her.)
    Near as I can tell the White House Director of Communication has said eight words on TV. What is up with that?

  135. 135.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    Yes it is.
    Is she an adult? Then she should be capable of making her own decisions. And any decision to remain in scientology is an incorrect one.

  136. 136.

    lamh36

    I swear, I read a tweet a few days ago that said there was allegedly a whisper campaign against Get Out and another film…I think it was Call Me By Your Name?

    The bit I read said something bout “we already had Moonlight” last year…as if Get Out being a “Black” film and CMBYN being a “gay” film made them collectively token equals to Moonlight…smh

    And ya know what I can totatlly believe it, I guess we’ll see when the Oscars noms come out, but already the “comedy/musical” controversy with the Globes make me willing to believe Hollywood is fool

  137. 137.

    PsiFighter37

    Glorifying Nancy Kerrigan getting her knee bashed in and wheeling the living corpse of Kirk Douglas onto the stage…and making him speak…kind of understanding why Middle America might hate the ugly stereotype of Coastal America.

    What the fuck was that just about? Jesus f’in C.

  139. 139.

    lamh36

    @PsiFighter37: ya know I follow Hollywood as much or more than the average viewer…and I had NO IDEA about this “cult classic” film that Franco’s movie is about.

    I had no idea until the young girl from my job asked me bout it. She figured I of all people would know about it…I was like NOPE. I have no idea what that is.

    The fact that James Franco was able to even get the movie greenlighted is interesting enough, but the guy he is portraying is still around, I mean Franco blocking dude from even coming up with him…um…reeks of him being embarassed of the guy, and yet Franco is telling this guy’s story…smh.

    I didn’t like that.

  140. 140.

    cmorenc

    “He [Trump] doesn’t appreciate cruel humour,” said Conway.

    Trump sure loves do dish out cruel humor, e.g. at “small hands” Rubio. It’s that the elementary-school bully in him is too insecure to tolerate being the target of it.

  145. 145.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yes and deal with if you don’t like my attitude.

    That’s what the housewives were doing in that suck ass working class neighborhood full of self propelled meat sacks I grew up in; sit in front of the TV all day, eat constantly and call each other up and gossip about who’se fighting with who. The guys were off getting drunk in some bar and talking about cars and sports when they weren’t sleeping at their jobs on the assembly line.

  147. 147.

    PsiFighter37

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: No, but I was interested to see how much self-awareness Hollywood would have. The answer: NOT FUCKING ENOUGH. Even Alex Skasgaard, who killed his role, was creepy in his acceptance speech. And at least he didn’t fucking wear a pin and say nothing like the rest of the tools who went up.

    Also, the fact that the murder of Giovanni Versace gets announced so triumphantly is fucked up. I was a kid when that happened, and the fact it gets glorified in a movie now…what the fuck. We are in deep trouble as a society.

  148. 148.

    Suzanne

    While Trump was in most ways a conventional misogynist, in the workplace he was much closer to women than to men.

    Trump is the absolute epitome of the man who cannot exist without women propping him up. He is married to a woman who clearly hates him, but he could not bear to be single. He needs handlers all around him at work. He needs Ivanka DOWN THE HALL, for God’s sake.

    I have no idea why some women sign on for this shit, but many things are beyond my understanding.

  149. 149.

    debbie

    He doesn’t appreciate cruel humour,” said Conway. “His style is more old-fashioned,” said Hicks.

    I think my head is going to explode from that excerpt. Mocking a disabled reporter is what, kind and old-fashioned? Gah!

  150. 150.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    The movie was locally famous in LA because Tommy Wiseau put up billboards promoting himself and the film and left them up for years. I actually don’t know how well-known it ever became outside of LA.

  151. 151.

    Ruckus

    @lamh36:
    I unfortunately have a quite a bit of exposure to the cult and to be honest I have no idea how gayness stands. I’m thinking back and can not think of anyone I’ve met in the almost 50 yrs of exposure who is openly gay. And I have more time with exposure to openly gay people. My first thought is that being gay may make you smarter than the average cult member but I doubt that is true. Most of the gay people that I know mostly hang with other gay people but the cult members that I know really only associate with other cult members. It’s quite noticeable if you pay attention. It’s not that they won’t associate, I’m proof that they do, but they sure don’t have a lot of contact outside the cult. Inside they use words that most people don’t, which is sort of a signal to each other that they are on friendly turf. I’ve actually been in a conversation with two of them and had one say we don’t use that language in this situation. It’s not that the words are not english, just not words that normally are used everyday by those outside the cult and they have given those words additional meaning in the context of the cult.

  153. 153.

    cmorenc

    @lamh36:

    Look…Tonya Harding had a fuq’ed up upbringing, allegedly, but I’m sorry, she is not some sympathethic figure…I’d Nancy Kerrigan would have a word or two to say bout that…

    There’s a profound difference between understanding the reasons in a perp’s background growing up beyond their control that made them more susceptible to committing some despicable act, versus empathizing with the perp in their misbehavior instead of their victim.

  155. 155.

    PsiFighter37

    What the fuck is this Marvelous British Ms. Maisel shit? Master of None should have won.

    Even Hollywood isn’t in touch with the big cities anymore. They live in their own fucking world.

  156. 156.

    frosty

    @Ruckus: Agreed. I bet he didn’t put in any more hours as a Real Estate Mogul. Just sat in his office for awhile, made phone calls, berated his staff, went home. I don’t think he knows what Work really is.

  159. 159.

    PsiFighter37

    Aziz Ansari won, which redeems the awards a little bit. The HFPA probably loved the Italy scenes, but man, the heartbreak from the last few episodes are real AF. I’m glad he won.

  161. 161.

    catclub

    @B.B.A.:

    “damn, that was racist” (and it somehow won Best Picture?!)

    Didn’t Forrest Gump? Win 13 Oscars including best picture. What else came out that year?

  167. 167.

    eemom

    Oh, but they’re ACTIVISTS cuz they all wore black tonight.

    I never watch that shit, but my mother has it on tonight and I was a captive audience for a while. GOD, it is sickening. That whole fucking industry is sickening. It actually makes the other psycho “company town” in my neck of the woods seem marginally less vile.

  169. 169.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    A lot of them. Not all of them. Some of them are rather benign.
    scientology is not in any way benign. It is an active, malignant cancer. It is not the only one.
    To be clear I could care less about anyone’s religion or if they belong to, attend or believe in any or none as long as they keep it to themselves. When it affects my life, when it tries to inject itself into or upon other lives is when I get my dander up.

  170. 170.

    Cacti

    @catclub:

    Didn’t Forrest Gump? Win 13 Oscars including best picture. What else came out that year?

    IIRC, Forrest Gump beat out Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption for Best Picture.

    Fucking Boomer nostalgia.

  171. 171.

    frosty

    @Omnes Omnibus: I wouldn’t argue with you on that. A century or two, a couple of millennia and that uncomfortable beginning gets whitewashed. Or gold plated, thinking about some cathedrals I’ve seen.

  172. 172.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    It actually makes in the other psycho “company town” in my neck of the woods seem marginally less vile.

    C’mon, The NY Yankees aren’t that bad

  173. 173.

    jk

    @chris:

    Either Hicks has some type of social anxiety disorder or she realizes that she’s in way over her head and would make a complete fool out of herself in any tv interview.

  175. 175.

    Mnemosyne

    @PsiFighter37:

    The Golden Globes are weird because nobody is quite sure exactly who the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is, and they make some … odd choices. Sometimes they’re good choices, and sometimes not so much. They were the first ones to really recognize cable TV shows, among other things.

  178. 178.

    Mnemosyne

    I think Frances McDormand is the person who is most excited that Oprah is getting a lifetime achievement award. ?

    I have to say, Oprah is having one hell of a second career. As with everything else she’s done in her life, she worked her ass off to become a movie producer and she has succeeded at it.

  190. 190.

    JR

    @lamh36: the Room is a big LA thing. It was a huge hit with the alt-comedy crowd about ten years ago, and was internet famous from the jump. It never reached the cult stratosphere a la “Rocky Horror” but it was definitely a big (little) deal. Probably got helped along a bit when How Did This Get Made (Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, June Diane Raphael) covered it a few years back.

  191. 191.

    TS

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Last movie that I went to (other than taking my daughter to a couple of children’s movies) was the original star wars in the 1970s. I found the seat too hard, the movie too long & now the kid is grown I’ll go to a live show but never a movie. They are eventually on DVD or TV if something attracts & my arm chairs are comfy.

  192. 192.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: not watching, did she hit trump? can we expect a series of tweets about how badly Oprah wanted trump and Marla to be on his show in 1988, or whenever that was?

  193. 193.

    PsiFighter37

    Great job nominating 5 white guys for Best Director after that speech, HFPA. Natalie Portman and Ron Howard were embarrassed to be up there after that.

  197. 197.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    I would be one of them. If you study religions, and now you have to include scientology, there are many more similarities than true differences. Yes it is a cult, but then so are a lot of other religions. Is it more cult like than many others? I think yes is the proper answer but there have been other cults masquerading as religions that were even more of a cult than it. Few have gained the level of popularity especially in this length of time but I think it was the right cult at the right time for that to happen.

  200. 200.

    lamh36

    I literally want a PDF of Oprah’s speech, so I can read it when I’m feeling a need for a pick me up speech!

  204. 204.

    lamh36

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: she did not even mention his name. She spoke to a “larger” listening audience.

    Anyone who finds any partisanship to it, I’d say are LOOKING for it…and making it up as they go.

    Oprah has always had her haters tho, so I’m sure they will find something.

  207. 207.

    Chet Murthy

    @Dog Dawg Damn: It is well-documented that women “earners” in the biz take home far less than their male equals. it well-documented that women directors have greater difficulties scoring plum gigs, even when they outperform their male counterparts. It is well-documented that women as they age are basically banished from the screen (and then some small percentage are let back on as grandmas). Dustin Hoffman in _The Graduate_ was 6 years older than Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).

    You might consider all of these things, before deciding that *men* need to win, or it’s unfair.

  213. 213.

    Bill Arnold

    Going through Trump Tweets for the last 2 days (and primed by Palmer Report, sigh. Contemporary Kremlinology, Kremlin-West.)
    I’m now not sure what DT is saying with this tweet:
    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/950014185299210240

    I’ve had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!

    Looked around for any tell-all books released during his presidency but did not find any, perhaps missed something. Was there such a book?
    One alternative is that he is quite literally saying that he has Alzheimer’s or a similar progressive dementia. (The context: most of Jan 6 tweets were about how smart and stable he is.)
    Does anyone see any other plausible interpretations?

  214. 214.

    WaterGirl

    @lamh36: Glad you said that. I couldn’t figure out why SHE was the sympathetic character that we are somehow to admire. ????? The world is truly upside down. Enough apologies? Sure, destroy someone’s life, someone’s dram, and we are supposed to feel sorry for you. Screw that.

  221. 221.

    Mnemosyne

    @Patricia Kayden:

    He can be a sexist and racist jerk, especially when he tries to be funny. I don’t want to run him down too much because he’s not a horrible person, but he probably would have embarrassed himself trying to make a joke.

  223. 223.

    Fair Economist

    @Chet Murthy: The rest of your comment about sexism is spot on but

    Dustin Hoffman in _The Graduate_ was 6 years older than Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).

    is incorrect. He was 6 years *younger* – which is still far less of a gap than implied in the movie, reflecting the usual bias in Hollywood movies to pair women with older, and sometimes *much* older, men. It’s common for men to play roles much younger than they are – but not for women to do so, and that’s still true today.

  226. 226.

    clay

    @Mnemosyne: The book is one of my all-time favs, but the trailer left me cold. I’m sure it’ll be a hit, though.

    Anyway, you’re more Hollywood-connected than I, but don’t February releases usually get forgotten about by awards season?

  229. 229.

    Ken

    @Omnes Omnibus: Richard III or Titus Andronicus?

    (I’m trying to persuade my local community theater group to do a season of Little Shop of Horrors, Titus Andronicus, and Sweeney Todd. Dinner theater, of course. So far no traction.)

  231. 231.

    Steeplejack

    @Sixstringfanatic:

    The one time I looked at the calendar page I got an error message that said they were working on it. I don’t know whether a blank page is a step up or a step down from that.

  233. 233.

    Fair Economist

    @Ken:

    (I’m trying to persuade my local community theater group to do a season of Little Shop of Horrors, Titus Andronicus, and Sweeney Todd. Dinner theater, of course. So far no traction.)

    I assume you suggested serving meat pies for Sweeney Todd?

  235. 235.

    Chet Murthy

    @indycat32: Arrgh, sorry, I meant to say *younger*. Thanks for the correction! My point being, she was more-or-less of the same age-cohort. He was 30 when the film was made; she was 36.

  237. 237.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Bill Arnold: Maybe Don Regan’s book

    This #1 New York Times bestseller blows the roof off. Former Treasury Secretary and Chief of Staff Donald Regan sets the record straight about his controversial six years in the White House. From the astrology scandal to the Iran-Contra affair, this sensational expose combines keen insight with inside information.

    Kitty Kelly’s book was tough but it was published 4 years after he left office.

  238. 238.

    Ken

    @Mnemosyne:

    Next year is going to be Ava DuVernay’s year with A Wrinkle in Time.

    I hope so, I really do. I’m just worried it will be messed up as it passes through the system and the producers weigh in. “More CGI! More explosions! Meg should win by shooting the giant brain with a laser!”

  239. 239.

    Mnemosyne

    @clay:

    don’t February releases usually get forgotten about by awards season?

    Not anymore. The “summer movie season” is starting earlier and earlier, and with streaming and DVD, movies that make a splash don’t get forgotten nearly as quickly.

    I actually read the series backwards (I have a weird habit of doing that), so I prefer A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I am wondering what Aunt Beast will look like. ?

    ETA: I just looked it up — Get Out opened on 2/24/17.

  240. 240.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    You said you are a lefty. Did you learn to read right to left? It took me a while to understand why everyone didn’t do that when I was a kid. Then I found out that right to left, top to bottom isn’t the only way. Top to bottom, left to right works. Starting a the end of a book is fun and rather than figure out who is the bad guy, you get to figure out how they got there.

  242. 242.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ken:

    For better and for worse, the movie is being produced by Disney, so those specific things won’t happen, but that still doesn’t guarantee it will be good. Jennifer Lee is the screenwriter and was also the co-director of Frozen, so DuVernay had an insider to help protect her.

    @Ruckus:

    I have to be honest, I don’t remember not being able to read — I know I was reading by preschool, at least. I do have a bad habit of peeking at the endings of books, though.

  244. 244.

    Fair Economist

    @Ken:

    “More CGI! More explosions! Meg should win by shooting the giant brain with a laser!”

    From what I’ve read, they did a good job keeping the plot, but the trailer looks like they put in a whole lot of CGI I don’t recall the book calling for.

  245. 245.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Bill Arnold: Reagan’s own daughter, Patti, wrote a devastating book in 1992 “The Way I See It” where she states her dad cut a deal with Iran to delay the release of the hostages until after the election.

    As to Drumpf, it more likely his tweets are based on what his acquaintances are telling him. Chris Ruddy, Roger Stone, Kellyanne are probably trying to lift his mood by falsely/incorrectly telling him that this happened Reagan and it didn’t affect him.

  246. 246.

    Bill Arnold

    @Ruckus:

    You are reading too much into a lunitic’s tweets. And giving him way too much credit.

    Been watching his twitter account (content and timing) for his whole presidency (since before inauguration). It’s one of the windows into his mind, though one needs to be able to distinguish staffer-written tweets from his own tweets. (Why? Reasons.)

  247. 247.

    Ruckus

    @Bill Arnold:
    Don’t get sucked into his world. Not saying you are but really you have to take anything anyone in the executive branch right now says with total understanding that they think, first that they are far smarter than anyone else, no matter the evidence. Second that they know what the truth is and are saying it. They do not and are not. Third they are trying to hide that they think this buffoon is qualified to be the night clerk at a 7-11 because that’s as qualified as most of them are and they don’t know any better. And the reality is that he clearly is not qualified to be more than the loudmouth patient at an assisted living facility.

  248. 248.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    Re The Room and “cult classic” status, it has a 3.6 rating on IMDB. I can’t remember the last time I saw one that low.

    . . . Okay, just went on a hunt and finally found something comparable: Plan 9 from Outer Space at 4.0. So maybe The Room is in good company after all.

    ETA: I had never heard of it before the current context.

  252. 252.

    chopper

    @WaterGirl:

    just wait until the guy has to deal with an honest to god foreign or domestic crisis and he has to put in more than 4 hours a day. he’s gonna stroke out from the stress.

  253. 253.

    James E. Powell

    @PsiFighter37: s

    Thing is, I live in Los Angeles. I had nothing to do with that. The Los Angeles I live and work in has nothing to do with that. Hating on coastal people is just hating without reason. There is no justification for it, only rationalizations.

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