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You are here: Home / Bring back that sunny day

Bring back that sunny day

by DougJ|  January 19, 20181:27 pm| 215 Comments

This post is in: Assholes

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I’ve grown to hate all the talk about ERODING NORMS, because so far, legislation created by the wonky Paul Ryan (and voted for by the serious Lindsey Graham and Benn Sasse) has done more damage to the country than anything Trump did that another Republican president would not have done.

But…the Stormy Daniels stuff. I don’t think it would have made any difference in November 2016 because apparently no one cared about seventeen accusations of harassment and assault. It’s so strange, though, that a blowjob from an intern brought impeachment on Clinton, whereas Trump was getting spanked by a porn star while his wife was pregnant had a newborn without any repercussions.

One thing I didn’t even think of til recently was how under Clinton, we endless heard “How can Hillary stay with him”, “what about their marriage”, etc. I haven’t heard a peep out of that from the media, and it wasn’t until I saw this tweet that even remembered this might affect Trump’s marriage.

Have said it many times, but going to 're-up': There's a strong chance Donald Trump becomes the first president to get divorced while in office

— ethan epstein (@ethanepstiiiine) January 19, 2018

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Previous Post: « I’m tired as hell, I’m not the cat I used to be
Next Post: Some Pigs! (Open Thread) »

Reader Interactions

215Comments

  1. 1.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    January 19, 2018 at 1:28 pm

    Nothing matters.

  2. 2.

    Anonymous At Work

    January 19, 2018 at 1:29 pm

    No one is really buying that the Trumps have any affection for each other.

  3. 3.

    Chyron HR

    January 19, 2018 at 1:30 pm

    Doesn’t he have to start his own church before he can get divorced?

  4. 4.

    Served

    January 19, 2018 at 1:31 pm

    Trump and Schumer are alone in a room right now and this is perfect:

    https://twitter.com/lbarronlopez/status/954417845286338562

  5. 5.

    Amaranthine RBG

    January 19, 2018 at 1:32 pm

    I thought Trump met Daniels for first time 4 months after Barron was born.

    (Not that any of this makes Trump any less disgusting but, you know, it’s important to be accurate, especially when dealing with dishonest pieces of shit.)

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 1:33 pm

    People keep saying what a germophobe Trump is, but he has unprotected sex with random women. How does that figure?

  7. 7.

    mai naem mobile

    January 19, 2018 at 1:35 pm

    Well, at least Hillary was nevery considered a gold digger(just a power hungry beeyotch.) Melanoma has pretty much been considered a gold digger who knew Dolt45 was going to screw around on h8m. I’m more interested in the apparent chain migration of Melanoma’s parents being that he is so against. Also too,Dolt45 is speaking in front of the Anti abortion march. Wonder how many abortions Dolt45 has personally paid for. 10? 20? His kids? Another 20-30?

  8. 8.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 1:36 pm

    I’ve grown to hate all the talk about ERODING NORMS

    I still think norms are important. However, it is well past Capt Obvious Time that we’re going to need to firehose the WH and then pass actual legislation and laws that shore up norms into enforceable actions.

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    January 19, 2018 at 1:36 pm

    It’s the misogyny. Twitler’s a dude, so conservatives, especially evangelical types, consider it sinful but acceptable. If a female was married three times she wouldn’t be elected, and Hillary was responsible for Bill’s catting around because she failed at the one job they thought she was put on earth for.

  10. 10.

    Matt McIrvin

    January 19, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    An acrimonious divorce that was all over the tabloids was really what made Donald Trump a media star, as opposed to merely a high-profile rich guy. It’d be a nice way to close the circle.

  11. 11.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    @mai naem mobile:

    Wonder how many abortions Dolt45 has personally paid for. 10? 20? His kids? Another 20-30?

    Has to breach double digits, at least. If it was ever proven that it was +/- 30 I wouldn’t doubt it a bit.

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    January 19, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    @mai naem mobile:

    Dolt45 is speaking in front of the Anti abortion march.

    another norm blown right by…

    This is why, in response to my RWNJ dad’s “if you impeach, you’ll just get far-right Pence” nonsense, I told him, “operationally, effectively, we have a far-right president.” Trumpov’s too weak to try and oppose anything the far-right wants…they’re the only thing keeping him in power right now.

  13. 13.

    Doug!

    January 19, 2018 at 1:39 pm

    @Amaranthine RBG:

    Yeah, you’re right, I fixed it.

  14. 14.

    Yarrow

    January 19, 2018 at 1:39 pm

    No one thinks their marriage is anything other than a contractual agreement at this point. Maybe she was fond of him at one point but not now. Rumor was they had divorce papers ready to file after the election when he was expected to lose. Oops.

  15. 15.

    JMG

    January 19, 2018 at 1:41 pm

    For Melania, it boils down to whether she makes more with a divorce (I imagine a Trump pre-nup is a doozy) or waiting for the night of the fatal second scoop of ice cream and seeing what she gets in the will.

  16. 16.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    January 19, 2018 at 1:41 pm

    @mai naem mobile: Apparently Shitgibbon said it was shameful that babies are “born from their mother’s womb’s at 9 months” in his speech. It was clear that he was supposed to say “torn” instead of “born” but you know stable genius and all that.

  17. 17.

    cain

    January 19, 2018 at 1:41 pm

    Also apparently there is no articles about “tone” like they had during the Obama years. Now we have shithole plastered everywhere and yet I do not see the NYT lamenting about tone. Our press is so wired for republicans it’s shameful.

  18. 18.

    Anonymous At Work

    January 19, 2018 at 1:42 pm

    House Democrats ought to take up the possible illegal payments to porn stars from campaign finances in 2019. And demand a copy of Trump’s pre-nup to see what happens in cases of infidelity…

  19. 19.

    Kay

    January 19, 2018 at 1:43 pm

    I feel like the Wall Street Journal were smart to focus on the financial transaction. That’s the “respectable news” part of this but also the only part that can be documented, given that they all lie constantly. Good job.

  20. 20.

    patrick II

    January 19, 2018 at 1:43 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Pornstars get regular checks for STD’s as part of their work. So, Trump prefers them. Plus you are wondering why Trump isn’t consistently thoughtful about something, and doesn’t just act on whatever crosses his mind. He is never thoughtful about anything. If he had any brains he would never have run for the presidency.

  21. 21.

    B.B.A.

    January 19, 2018 at 1:43 pm

    Yeah, whiteness and maleness and Republicanness matter, but the main difference is Trump himself, who cannot be shamed into anything. This one is bad enough in the public’s eye that if, say, Marco Rubio had done this and it came out, he’d be back in Florida before you can say “President Cheney announces airstrikes on Tehran.”

  22. 22.

    Jeffro

    January 19, 2018 at 1:43 pm

    Jennifer Rubin, still going there…but this time ending with THE question…

    Russians Under Every Rock

    …So what’s going on here? “If you were running an influence operation with the goal of subverting 70 years of Republican hawkishness on Russia, infiltrating the right’s most powerful lobbying group wouldn’t be a bad way to do it,” CAP’s Max Bergmann, who heads the Moscow Project, tells me. “We already know that at least some of the people that tried to set up meetings between the Trump campaign and the Russian government did so under the guise of their ‘shared values’ on gun rights and sometimes did so through NRA channels.” But of course since Russia has no real gun rights movement, Bergmann posits that this outfit “has all the markings of a Kremlin front, created with the intention to, in the words of former CIA director John Brennan, ‘suborn individuals‘ in the United States.”

    The remarkable part about the Trump campaign is not the appearance of a single Kremlin-connected figure. It is that there are lots and lots of them — Aras and Emin Agalarov, Sergey Kislyak, Rinat Akhmetshin, Irakly Kaveladze, Sergei Gorkov — who had one or more connections with Trump or Trump family members or Trump campaign advisers.

    There are the Kremlin-connected campaign aides — Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos. On a single campaign. There are the Trump team members who repeatedly failed to “recall” Russia contacts — Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Jared Kushner. There is the money trail that ran through and around Trump properties, described in testimony before the House Intelligence Committee by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson; the trail tangles up the Bayrock Group (with which the mysterious Felix Sater was associated) and the Russian oligarchs who purchased Trump properties (pp. 36-41).

    What Simpson calls “a well-established pattern of surreptitious contacts that occurred [in 2016] that supports the broad allegation of some sort of an undisclosed political or financial relationship between The Trump Organization and people in Russia” (p. 54) is what, in part, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his top-flight team of financial-crime attorneys are investigating. Mueller is trying to determine whether these were all random, innocent and coincidental (though the only campaign in history we know to have had any) or whether they establish a cooperative relationship between the official Trump campaign and the “active measures” campaign in Russia to help elect Trump (as the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting — attended by Natalia Veselnitskaya, Kaveladze and Rinat Akhmetshin, among others — to relay “dirt” on Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton would suggest).

    The nagging question remains, however, why Trump would so vehemently deny any business dealings with Russia and why so many people would go to such lengths to disguise their assorted Russian contacts. What was it they were trying so hard to keep hidden?

  23. 23.

    wjs

    January 19, 2018 at 1:44 pm

    How much do you want to bet that Trump can’t hire a competent divorce lawyer?

  24. 24.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 1:45 pm

    Morons. On MSNBC they’re showing three “Democrats” who voted for Trump. Jesus Christ, but they are dumb AF.

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 1:49 pm

    @JMG: Melania isn’t going to wait around to see when the “Most Excellent Healthy President Ever” keels over. She is imminently desirable for another suitor at this stage of her life, and can totally rack up. So to speak.

  26. 26.

    cain

    January 19, 2018 at 1:50 pm

    @Corner Stone:
    It’s great TV, to keep you glued there so they can throw ads at you later.

  27. 27.

    Tim C.

    January 19, 2018 at 1:50 pm

    @Corner Stone: Trump voters, natch.

  28. 28.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 1:54 pm

    @patrick II: I thought that was the mark of a germophobe. That they can’t help but think about the germs in their environment. So it would not necessarily be a thoughtful decision matrix Trump would go through but a compulsive one.
    Pr0n stars get tested when they are working in a controlled environment. They obviously live their lives outside the studio as well. Not saying they are any more promiscuous in a personal setting than anyone else, but…

  29. 29.

    Princess

    January 19, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    We don’t expect Melania to divorce Trump after he humiliates her with a porn star because we assume she’s only in it for the money anyway, and we’re probably right.

  30. 30.

    Tokyokie

    January 19, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    Melanoma would be wise to collect her pre-nup payoff before der Trumpenführer’s assets are frozen as part of a criminal proceeding.

  31. 31.

    LAO

    January 19, 2018 at 1:57 pm

    This is totally off topic but did anyone see Aly Raisman’s victim impact statement. She’s understandably enraged.

    Caveat — as a defense attorney, I’m not a fan of victim impact statements for reasons that should be obvious, but damn.

  32. 32.

    bystander

    January 19, 2018 at 1:58 pm

    I still want to know if there’s a fidelity clause in Melania’s prenup. One that works in her favor, that is. I’m sure there’s one that allows him to dump her if he finds her with the chauffeur/bodyguard/gardener/throne polisher.

  33. 33.

    joel hanes

    January 19, 2018 at 1:58 pm

    Why are we only talking about “Stormy Daniels”, and not about “Jessica Drake”, who Trump also paid off ?

  34. 34.

    Barbara

    January 19, 2018 at 1:59 pm

    Considering that Melania seems to have nearly as good of a nose for money as her husband, I am guessing no divorce but some pretty hard bargaining to renegotiate various aspects of her prenuptial agreement in exchange for not walking out the door. Which, I am sure, will cause some serious dilemmas for her husband.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    January 19, 2018 at 2:01 pm

    @patrick II:

    Pornstars get regular checks for STD’s as part of their work. So, Trump prefers them.

    I would bet they’re also careful about using some form of birth control other than condoms.

  36. 36.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    January 19, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    @patrick II: This is probably the explanation, yes. Cheating without protection is unforgivably awful no matter how you slice it, and if I were Melania I’d be drawing up divorce papers as soon as I heard about it, but if you’re going to screw random people without condoms, active porn performers are probably amongst the safest choices out there. The bigger question is why she did it. Even she didn’t seem to have an explanation.

    This story is gross in too many ways to count, but I do have to confess it’s made me worry a lot less about my abilities in bed. Guy gets to fuck a porn star and doesn’t even want to try more than one position? Fuck is wrong with him? I bet he didn’t even give her oral either.

    @Corner Stone: Well, they do have professional incentive to be more careful than the average person when it comes to casual sex and protection, though, since if they get the wrong STI, that’s it for their career.

  37. 37.

    scav

    January 19, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    @Corner Stone: Germaphobes may very well constantly think about germs in their environment, but where’s the evidence that His Orange Squeamishness is a deep thinker? The whiter they are, the cleaner and purer, no? Bleach Blond, the disinfectant is right there in the name!

  38. 38.

    oatler.

    January 19, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    I don’t have MSNBC now, but I can imagine their take on the shutdown. “Both sides are…”

  39. 39.

    gvg

    January 19, 2018 at 2:05 pm

    What’s that law that spouses cannot be made to testify against each other? If Trump wansn’t being investigated and likely to be investigated for more things as long as he is in office, I would predict he would be the one to first divorce in office. As it is, I don’t think he can afford it. I wonder if he understands? If he does, he better keep her happy enough.
    I don’t think Trump understands how much we are nosy about our Presidents. It was an anomaly that he got in before the nosiness started but every x President got researched too unless they got really really quiet which Trump doesn’t want to do. Heck they investigate JFK now, decades after he is dead.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    January 19, 2018 at 2:05 pm

    @bystander:

    I still want to know if there’s a fidelity clause in Melania’s prenup. One that works in her favor, that is.

    I’m gonna go with “hell no”. That’s not how Donald rolls.

  41. 41.

    SFAW

    January 19, 2018 at 2:06 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Morons. On MSNBC they’re showing three “Democrats” who voted for Trump. Jesus Christ, but they are dumb AF.

    I hear that all the networks are in a bidding war over the new “reality” show Mark Burnett just pitched: “Cletus Safari”

    ETA: Rumor has it that the FTFNYT is looking to buy a network, just so it can get some of that action.

  42. 42.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 2:06 pm

    @(((CassandraLeo))):

    Guy gets to fuck a porn star and doesn’t even want to try more than one position? Fuck is wrong with him?

    Probably difficult to switch to a second position if you’re done in 20 seconds. Or so I’ve been told.

  43. 43.

    Leto

    January 19, 2018 at 2:06 pm

    @Kay: Given that the $130k was paid a month before the election, the source of the money is quite relevant. Were campaign contributions used? John Edwards did that and was almost sent to jail over it. As always, follow the money.

  44. 44.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    January 19, 2018 at 2:06 pm

    @Corner Stone: touché

  45. 45.

    PJ

    January 19, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    @Barbara: It seems highly unlikely that Melania would file for divorce now if she was unwilling or unable to do it earlier. I would assume that there are aspects of Melania’s past which she would not want revealed which would come out should she file for divorce, and which might be used against her in a custody dispute over Barron. She also probably signed an NDA, though I don’t know if that would be enforceable in a divorce proceeding.

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    January 19, 2018 at 2:08 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    I’m gonna go with “hell no”. That’s not how Donald rolls.

    No shit. I don’t know why anyone would think the pre-nup was even-handed in any way, nor think anything other than Shitgibbon gets everything, Melania gets nothing, no matter how many “starlets” he fucks.

  47. 47.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 2:08 pm

    @gvg: I’d bet Melania stays as far away from Trump as possible unless required to stand there (so she probably knows/hears very little). And she’d make about the worst witness for the prosecution I can imagine. Totally unsympathetic, poor English and easily confused.

    Edited

  48. 48.

    GregB

    January 19, 2018 at 2:09 pm

    I am sure someone more industrious than I can dig up lots of old quotes from Trump apologists who, when Obama was in office, wanted to restore dignity and honor to the White House.

    –

  49. 49.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 2:10 pm

    @scav: I wonder if he makes Ivanka bathe before they do their version of the nasty?

  50. 50.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    January 19, 2018 at 2:10 pm

    @Corner Stone: more sympathetic than her husband, at any rate. Not a high bar, but do they really need to clear a higher one? (Speaking as not a lawyer, to be clear, so this question isn’t entirely rhetorical.)

  51. 51.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 2:11 pm

    @Doug!:

    I’ve grown to hate all the talk about ERODING NORMS, because so far, legislation created by the wonky Paul Ryan (and voted for by the serious Lindsey Graham and Benn Sasse) has done more damage to the country than anything Trump did that another Republican president would not have done.

    I don’t know. Trump bringing American Apartheid 2.0 is going to be harder to reverse than any legislation created by Ryan, and even here what has Ryan been responsible for other than the House version of the new tax law?

    @bystander:

    I still want to know if there’s a fidelity clause in Melania’s prenup. One that works in her favor, that is.

    And is there a sanity clause? I know, I know, there ain’t no Sanity Clause.

  52. 52.

    Betty Cracker

    January 19, 2018 at 2:11 pm

    @joel hanes: Drake needs a better porn name.

  53. 53.

    PJ

    January 19, 2018 at 2:11 pm

    @(((CassandraLeo))): why did she do it? Why did Melania, or Marla, or Ivana marry Trump? Because, as Willie Sutton put it, that’s where the money is. And $10K per night is pretty good wages.

  54. 54.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 2:13 pm

    @PJ:

    and which might be used against her in a custody dispute over Barron.

    The last thing Trump would want is custody of that brat. He might use Barron against her for money negotiations but he would lumber slowly away screaming if he was awarded custody in the end.

  55. 55.

    AnotherBruce

    January 19, 2018 at 2:13 pm

    @Corner Stone: Three Democrats? That’s what we call in the business “a small sample size”. I don’t know what those idiots are trying to prove, but don’t we get enough of our fill of moron from the White House?

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    January 19, 2018 at 2:14 pm

    @GregB:

    I am sure someone more industrious than I can dig up lots of old quotes from Trump apologists who, when Obama was in office, wanted to restore dignity and honor to the White House.

    “Gollee, I swear that it takes a real leader, and a REAL man, not at all UPPITY, to be able to have a porn star begging him to boink her! And he paid her because he was trying to make sure that she had enough walking-around cash. Would that Kenyan Moooslim EVER be MAN enough to do that? Hell, NO! And if he did, he’d be lying. Or something.”

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    January 19, 2018 at 2:14 pm

    Bill and Hillary’s is by far not the first marriage in politics to deal with infidelity. It’s greatly to their credit (perhaps hers more than his) that they chose to work through the crisis and managed to stay together. But the Republican party hates them just for being, never mind for being basically good if flawed people or for being Democrats.

    In contrast, they are not disappointed by Trump’s many flaws; they have never held him to any standard of honesty, ability, or basic decency, and they’re not about to start now. The base thrills to this garish clown who shares its bigoted and spiteful collective id. He is first and foremost a poke in the Democrats’ eye. And the party establishment is just going along because he’s nominally on their side. Meanwhile his presidency stumbles closer to unravelling every day.

    I doubt he will be the first POTUS to get divorced while in office, though. He will not want to suffer the extra embarrassment of a divorce. While he is stuck in the Oval Office, so is Melania stuck in the White House.

  58. 58.

    Jeffro

    January 19, 2018 at 2:15 pm

    Hey! Forget about this Trump/Russia stuff…Def Leppard’s FINALLY going to start streaming all of their music! And not just ‘Pyromania’ and ‘Hysteria’, either! No sir, ‘Mirror Ball’, ‘Songs from the Sparkle Lounge’, ALL of it! Man, is 2018 going to ROCK!

    /eyeroll

    Elliott says Def Leppard has never been one of those bands who torture ticket buyers with new material because they’re sick of playing the hits.

    “I say it every day, but if you can’t handle the responsibility of writing a hit, then don’t write one,” he explains. “Because if you write a hit, people are going to want to hear it.”

    I’m not buying it. Maybe he says that every other day, but not every day…

  59. 59.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    January 19, 2018 at 2:15 pm

    @Corner Stone: @AnotherBruce: That Dixiecrats haven’t learned anything from the last 12 months? Otherwise I got nothin’ either.

  60. 60.

    Jeffro

    January 19, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    @Corner Stone

    :I’d bet Melania stays as far away from Trump as possible unless required to stand there (so she probably knows/hears very little). And she’d make about the worst witness for the prosecution I can imagine. Totally unsympathetic, poor English and easily confused.

    Also, all of her testimony would just be old Michelle Obama quotes…that’s not very helpful to the prosecution.

  61. 61.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    People keep saying what a germophobe Trump is, but he has unprotected sex with random women. How does that figure?

    Yeah. Howard Hughes was supposedly a germaphobe, but had quite a few affairs and marriages, but no kids that anyone knows about.

  62. 62.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 2:17 pm

    @Corner Stone: They have to be prepared to work when their agent calls with a gig, so they have to maintain their schedule of testing for STD’s. When they show up on location(usually a nice home here in The Valley), they have to present proof of age and proof of their STD test. If the STD test is too old for the particular production company(most require a test be done monthly, some every 2 weeks), they wont be performing.

  63. 63.

    Roger Moore

    January 19, 2018 at 2:18 pm

    @gvg:

    What’s that law that spouses cannot be made to testify against each other?

    They can’t be forced to testify against each other, but that privilege can be waived. In most states, it’s the spouse who’s the party to the legal action who has the right to decide if it’s waived or not, but under federal law it’s the one who’s testifying. So in a Federal case, Melania could choose to burn Donald if she’s pissed enough.

  64. 64.

    Cacti

    January 19, 2018 at 2:18 pm

    @Mary G:

    It’s the misogyny. Twitler’s a dude, so conservatives, especially evangelical types, consider it sinful but acceptable. If a female was married three times she wouldn’t be elected, and Hillary was responsible for Bill’s catting around because she failed at the one job they thought she was put on earth for.

    It’s the racism too.

    Not a chance in hell Obama would have sniffed the White House if he had 5 kids by 3 different wives. It would have been evidence of his “ghetto values” or some other dog whistle.

  65. 65.

    Jeffro

    January 19, 2018 at 2:18 pm

    @SFAW: Bumper sticker thought: “porn star briber < tan suit wearer. Just sayin' "

  66. 66.

    danielx

    January 19, 2018 at 2:19 pm

    @Anonymous At Work:

    Well, at one point Melania did say she married him for his money.

    Given that she knew what she was getting into (how could she not?), I feel a certain amount of reluctant sympathy for the woman. She was already married to the biggest fool and laughingstock in the world, and now she finds out he has a thing for being spanked by porn stars…while she was pregnant with his spawn.

  67. 67.

    PJ

    January 19, 2018 at 2:19 pm

    @Corner Stone: Anything and everything would be used against Melania, as you note, to drive down whatever amount Trump might have to pay, but also out of general maliciousness, which would come into play if divorce were filed while he’s in the White House, because in his eyes, it would done just to humiliate him. Trump has no interest in spending time with Barron, but he does want to be seen as a “winner”. And if he did win, he would just ship the kid off to boarding school, so no harm done.

  68. 68.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    January 19, 2018 at 2:19 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: From my understanding, the major studios all require them to get tested at least once every two weeks, and some studios even require once every ten days. Amongst sexually active people, active porn performers may actually be one of the least likely groups of people to have STIs.

  69. 69.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 2:19 pm

    @Roger Moore: Most are on the pill, unless they want to get pregnant from their significant other(a good number, both male and female are married).

  70. 70.

    Jeffro

    January 19, 2018 at 2:20 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    most require a test be done monthly, some every 2 weeks

    Nickel bet says they write it off on their taxes as “business expenses”, too. And really…they probably should…

  71. 71.

    chopper

    January 19, 2018 at 2:21 pm

    @(((CassandraLeo))):

    Guy gets to fuck a porn star and doesn’t even want to try more than one position?

    the dude gets winded licking stamps. he was probably huffing and puffing before she even took off her shirt.

  72. 72.

    Gelfling 545

    January 19, 2018 at 2:21 pm

    @Served: Hope Chuck says “no backsies”.

  73. 73.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    @(((CassandraLeo))): Why did she do it, money. Almost all female porn stars escort(a nice word for hooking), however they will pretty much all deny that they do.

  74. 74.

    Nicole

    January 19, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    @danielx:

    Given that she knew what she was getting into (how could she not?), I feel a certain amount of reluctant sympathy for the woman. She was already married to the biggest fool and laughingstock in the world, and now she finds out he has a thing for being spanked by porn stars…while she was pregnant with his spawn.

    She went on TV spouting the same birther crap her husband was. I have no sympathy for her whatsoever. None.

  75. 75.

    Peale

    January 19, 2018 at 2:25 pm

    I wish we’d be a little clearer about what the issue is. Did Donald Trump use campaign funds or PAC funds to pay off Stormy Daniels? Just like the question was Did Bill Clinton misuse the power of his office to cover up the perfectly legal affair. Stormy Daniels didn’t happen while Trump was in office or running for office so of course that affair in itself isn’t going to lead to impeachment. Bill Clinton’s affair happened while he was in office and involved and employee so that was going to be investigated even if it wasn’t a witch hunt. Did Bill give her special favors? Did Bill give her rides on Air Force One? Let her wear the hope diamond? Pressure her to lie to investigators by offering her a promotion or demotion? That sort of thing happens in the private sector all the time. Trump paid her money while he was running for office. That’s the problem. Where did that come from? If it turns out he paid from his own pocket then there’s nothing much to see here.

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    January 19, 2018 at 2:26 pm

    @Jeffro:
    I doubt there’s any need to write off their STD tests under an euphemism, since the IRS already knows what they do and would expect to see such expenses listed.

  77. 77.

    Gelfling 545

    January 19, 2018 at 2:27 pm

    @Litlebritdifrnt: According to the pre-nup I understand that Melania was permitted one pregnancy. Presumably any other little “accidents” would have to be aborted.

  78. 78.

    trollhattan

    January 19, 2018 at 2:28 pm

    @Betty Cracker:
    My suggestion: “Stormy Moanday.”

    Tuesday’s just as bad.

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 2:29 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    I doubt he will be the first POTUS to get divorced while in office, though. He will not want to suffer the extra embarrassment of a divorce. While he is stuck in the Oval Office, so is Melania stuck in the White House.

    I think that Trump is beyond being worried about embarrassment.

    Well, maybe his ego would be hurt if Melania dumped him.

  80. 80.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 2:30 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Is it weird to consider that the adult film industry has a higher ethical standard and care for people than the WH and Republican Congress does?

    (My understanding is they enacted rigorous testing because they were about to get shut down. So it was a plan to allow everyone to keep letting the money flow. But still.) Although, I do feel a little skeptical about the testing regime. it reminds me of MLB or NFL testing. However, I defer to your innate knowledge of naughty parts making naughty noises while being recorded.

  81. 81.

    Betty Cracker

    January 19, 2018 at 2:30 pm

    @Amir Khalid: I’d be very surprised if the Trumps get divorced while defiling the White House too. But man, is Melania ever in the driver’s seat with this porn scandal hanging over Trump’s bulbous orange head. The media hasn’t paid 1/100th of the attention the same story would get if Trump were a Democrat, but that would change if Melania decided to hold a press conference and announce she’s going to leave his ass over it. She probably won’t, but I hope she’s extracting concessions from him (not because I like her; she’s despicable. I just despise him more).

  82. 82.

    trollhattan

    January 19, 2018 at 2:30 pm

    @chopper:
    Trump, following his stamp-licking triggered nap: “That reminds me, I’m supposed to kill the Post Office. Miller, get your Jew ass in here!”

  83. 83.

    Spanky

    January 19, 2018 at 2:30 pm

    Now don’t go gettin’ all excited, ladies! Vlad’s taken off his shirt again:

    Shirtless Putin takes icy religious plunge, and yes, there are photos

    ETA: My favorite part of the article:
    “This post was updated to correctly describe the Julian calendar.”

  84. 84.

    JR

    January 19, 2018 at 2:30 pm

    Sly reference there, Doug.

  85. 85.

    Gelfling 545

    January 19, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    @Corner Stone: Who lnows? Rupert Murdoch may be ready to move on to a new wife.

  86. 86.

    kindness

    January 19, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    Sadly Republicans and most the MSM are hypocritical lying sacks of shit.

    We just have to share a world with them. They’ll never admit it. They’ll never bring the subject up. If we bring the subject up (the hypocrisy) they will change the subject.

    The French. Their revolution is looking better and better over time.

  87. 87.

    scav

    January 19, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    @Corner Stone: Might be exactly the root source from whence all the rumors of showers comes from.

  88. 88.

    trollhattan

    January 19, 2018 at 2:34 pm

    @Betty Cracker:
    Can we be this lucky? I know my vote but won’t jinx by sharing.

    Our French exchange student from last summer, when the topic of Melania came up, “Ooh, she hate him.” Smart girl.

  89. 89.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 2:34 pm

    @AnotherBruce: It was part of a follow up from a series Nicolle Wallace did a year ago. I don’t know how many people she interviewed, in total. These were just three they showed a segment of. WTS, I imagine a large chunk of those she talked to a year ago would probably echo similar themes these three morons stated.

  90. 90.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 2:34 pm

    @Corner Stone: Every time a performer tests positive for HIV all shooting stops. It happened a couple of years ago. That’s why they take it very seriously.

  91. 91.

    Gelfling 545

    January 19, 2018 at 2:34 pm

    @Princess: I have never understood why a husband’s sexual misdoings should humiliate the wife. Rage, heartbreak, loathing – any of those. But humiliation? She didn’t do anything wrong.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    January 19, 2018 at 2:37 pm

    @Leto:

    I don’t think we know what the 130k was for. What we have is an LLC that was set up to transfer money secretly. That transfer happened right before the election so it makes perfect sense to assume 2 things- that the hush money pay off was what it was for and that it was the only payment. But we don’t know that. Trump could have been paying this person once a month or once a year since 2006 and it only became NECESSARY to hide the payment in 2016.

    It’s an odd number, 130k. It’s too low. He’s cheap and he doesn’t like to pay people so maybe that’s why it’s low but A payment doesn’t mean THE ONLY payment and “hush money” is probably a better thing to say he’s paying for than something like “escort services”, right?

  93. 93.

    Just One More Canuck

    January 19, 2018 at 2:40 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: You seem to have a great depth of knowledge of that industry

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    January 19, 2018 at 2:41 pm

    @Corner Stone:
    The people who work in pr0n are something of an outsider community. They do something the mainstream disapproves of even while eagerly consuming their product. So they stick together.

  95. 95.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 2:41 pm

    God, three more Trump voters on MSNBC. Three white women from PA, self-described “Ever Trumpers”. Delusional morons. The black man left office and suddenly people are feeling more hopeful about the future and economy. Huh. Funny how that works.

  96. 96.

    The Moar You Know

    January 19, 2018 at 2:41 pm

    One thing I didn’t even think of til recently was how under Clinton, we endless heard “How can Hillary stay with him”, “what about their marriage”, etc.

    Not defending the complicit media or the Orange Awfulness, but everybody, even Trump’s most ardent defenders, know his “marriage” is a business arrangement at best, an utter sham. The media went after the Clintons because it hurt them both personally. Neither Trump nor Melania give a shit about each other, so they won’t bother.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 2:42 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    (My understanding is they enacted rigorous testing because they were about to get shut down. So it was a plan to allow everyone to keep letting the money flow. But still.) Although, I do feel a little skeptical about the testing regime. it reminds me of MLB or NFL testing.

    It’s a practical matter. The number of active porn performers is fairly small, and they work with each other, so an outbreak of an STD or AIDS would obviously spread like wildfire. And of course, the industry was trying to minimize the use of condoms, because this did not appeal to most viewers.

    You wouldn’t have an equivalent problem in the NFL or MLB unless athletes were sharing needles or having sex with each other.

    ETA. Obviously AIDS can be considered an STD, but most others are not as deadly these days.

  98. 98.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 19, 2018 at 2:44 pm

    @patrick II:

    Pornstars get regular checks for STD’s as part of their work. So, Trump prefers them.

    Oh my fucking God it’s just like his McDonald’s fetish.

  99. 99.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 2:46 pm

    @Just One More Canuck: I live where the industry is centered.

  100. 100.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 2:47 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Yup.

  101. 101.

    Doug!

    January 19, 2018 at 2:48 pm

    @trollhattan:

    I thought this lyric was a bit subtler

  102. 102.

    Amir Khalid

    January 19, 2018 at 2:49 pm

    @trollhattan:
    In fairness, it’s hard to miss how Donald and Melania treat their marriage like the dead body in Weekend At Bernie’s.

  103. 103.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 2:49 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    So they stick together.

    A shower in between shoots would probably go a long way to resolving that.

  104. 104.

    Betty Cracker

    January 19, 2018 at 2:50 pm

    @Corner Stone: None of the media outlets can quit those stupid fucks. Let us know if they ever tease a segment with “watch these Trump voters get pepper-sprayed in the eyes!” I’d tune in for that!

  105. 105.

    Kay

    January 19, 2018 at 2:50 pm

    @Leto:

    “Follow the money” isn’t just the obvious thing here, it’s the ONLY thing anyone can do with Trump. They all lie. Constantly. “Following” anything else is an absolute waste of time. They’re denying it right now even WITH the records. What they say is weirdly irrelevant. It literally doesn’t matter. There will either be enough records to prove they’re lying or there won’t be.

  106. 106.

    patrick II

    January 19, 2018 at 2:50 pm

    @oatler.:

    Worse than that. They are interviewing several educated women Trump supporters who love the job Trump is doing. Their IRA’s are up — end of story.

  107. 107.

    JR

    January 19, 2018 at 2:51 pm

    @kindness: “If only I could leave my balls to Robespierre…”

  108. 108.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 2:52 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    Not defending the complicit media or the Orange Awfulness, but everybody, even Trump’s most ardent defenders, know his “marriage” is a business arrangement at best, an utter sham.

    I don’t know anything about the Trump marriage, and don’t much care.

    I didn’t care that much about the Clinton marriage. Their business. But I agree that the media and Clinton enemies loved trying to poke into it or make judgments about it.

    ETA: A co-worker wanted my opinion about a supposed expose about the Clintons. I read it and actually changed his mind about his reflexive distrust of the Clintons. I noted, for example, that the book seemed to simply regurgitate every lie and rumor and factoid about the Clintons without evaluation. So, Hillary was either a cold ice maiden who was incapable of love, a lesbian, or wildly in love with Clinton even though he cheated on her. It was impossible for all these things to be true at the same time, and the point seemed to be to give every reader something they could hang onto to justify their Clinton hate.

  109. 109.

    Eural Joiner

    January 19, 2018 at 2:53 pm

    Just FYI – if you’ve got the time and the interest take a listen to Jon Ronson’s “Butterfly Effect” podcast on Amazon or Youtube. He takes one “event” and then traces it’s impact each season. This season is the creation of Pornhub and it.is.mind.blowing. (Seriously, you will learn A LOT about the current state of porn on this planet!)

  110. 110.

    Peale

    January 19, 2018 at 2:54 pm

    @Brachiator:

    You wouldn’t have an equivalent problem in the NFL or MLB unless athletes were sharing needles or having sex with each other.

    Wait, you mean “Opening Day” and “Pitchers and Catchers vol I-IV” weren’t documentaries?

  111. 111.

    Amir Khalid

    January 19, 2018 at 2:55 pm

    @Corner Stone:
    [Golf clap]

  112. 112.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    @Betty Cracker: “Coming up next. We interview a group of Trump voters, spill scalding hot coffee into their laps and see how many times it takes before they say they regret voting for Trump. Stay Tuned!”

  113. 113.

    Leto

    January 19, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    @Peale: Considering his long standing penchant of not paying for anything, the source of the money is important.

  114. 114.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 2:59 pm

    @Peale: Huh. That gives all new meaning to, “He’s lost some heat off his fastball.” And, “He’s a five tool player.”

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 3:00 pm

    @Eural Joiner:

    Just FYI – if you’ve got the time and the interest take a listen to Jon Ronson’s “Butterfly Effect” podcast on Amazon or Youtube. He takes one “event” and then traces it’s impact each season. This season is the creation of Pornhub and it.is.mind.blowing.

    I recently listened to an interview with Ronson about “The Butterfly Effect” and it was very interesting. I am just added the podcast to my commute rotation.

    @Peale:

    You wouldn’t have an equivalent problem in the NFL or MLB unless athletes were sharing needles or having sex with each other.

    Wait, you mean “Opening Day” and “Pitchers and Catchers vol I-IV” weren’t documentaries?

    Ha! Excellent sports and pr0n titles.

  116. 116.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 3:03 pm

    @Brachiator: I would have thought that Adam’s “Penetration at All Levels” would have already been used as a porn title, alas it hasn’t.

  117. 117.

    trollhattan

    January 19, 2018 at 3:04 pm

    @Doug!:
    Always go with the Classics (IV).

  118. 118.

    Roger Moore

    January 19, 2018 at 3:08 pm

    @PJ:

    It seems highly unlikely that Melania would file for divorce now if she was unwilling or unable to do it earlier.

    I’m less confident. If she had filed for divorce earlier, it would look as if it were coming from her wanting to end the marriage. Now that there’s a highly publicized infidelity, she’ll have a lot more public sympathy. So if her primary reason for not doing it before was public perception, she is in a much better position now.

  119. 119.

    jl

    January 19, 2018 at 3:09 pm

    Shithole Shutdown drama is a good demonstration that Congressional GOP is just as bad as Trump, but in different ways. They vile cynicism of McConnell and Ryan is breathtaking, almost beautiful and sublime in its purity. They stonewall Dems, and the country, on DACA and CHIP for months, then play games in a transparent attempt to get a shutdown that they think they can blame on the Democrats, and put off dealing with DACA and CHIP, or use it as stick, with no carrot, again later on.

    Even without Trump blowing up the scheme, I don’t think it would work. Too easy to summarize in 30 second attack adds, which I hope are coming soon. I generally don’t like simplistic 30 second attack ads, but if that is what it takes, so be it. And this particular story is pretty simple.

  120. 120.

    burnspbesq

    January 19, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Does anything about Trump figure?

    It forces you to wonder how much of Trump’s “executive time” is spent on LiveJasmin, and which Federal agency is paying for it.

  121. 121.

    Facebones

    January 19, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    Well, I just got a notification from New York magazine that Andrew Sullivan has just posted an article all about the #MeToo movement! I’m sure gonna click on that because there’s no way that could be a misogynistic, equivocating, waste of time.

  122. 122.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 3:12 pm

    God, three more Trump voters on MSNBC. Three white women from PA, self-described “Ever Trumpers”. Delusional morons. The black man left office and suddenly people are feeling more hopeful about the future and economy. Huh. Funny how that works.

    We are in a world of hurt. No matter what Trump does to them, no matter how much he fails them, they will be loyal to him. I’ve heard Trumpers say “if only the Democrats would leave Trump alone and let him do what we elected him to do, then everything would be all right.”

    Trump cannot fail. He can only be failed.

  123. 123.

    jl

    January 19, 2018 at 3:15 pm

    And it is very mind bending to see the twists and somersaults the corporate media plays trying to keep balance.It should be public knowledge that everyone knows the 2000 mile solid border wall is BS. Trump said so himself in the call to the president of Mexico that was leaked. And Trump is clearly signalling that he isn’t going to build it. But everyone is supposed to pretend it is a real issue.

    But my opinion probably differs from most here. If I were Dem leadership, I’d compromise on wall funding, and loudly explain publicly that it is all BS, and Trump knows it is BS. Just put enough wriggle room in the language so the spending can be delayed long enough so that the money can be used for useful border security later on.

  124. 124.

    JDM

    January 19, 2018 at 3:17 pm

    @JMG: the thing is that Melania has more clout in a divorce right now than she will ever have again. If she goes in with the offer to sign an additional NDA if she gets what she wants Trump will be under a lot of pressure to give her what she wants, no matter what their pre-nup says. And her body language, facial expressions, and living arrangements (she didn’t need to stay in NYC all that time) tells us she really doesn’t want to be there with Trump. Waiting, too – either for a later divorce or his big heart attack – is dangerous, what with Mueller et al. digging into the Trump family’s history of money laundering and fraud; there may not be any money left if she waits a few years.

  125. 125.

    jl

    January 19, 2018 at 3:19 pm

    @JDM: Can Melania get the presidency in a divorce deal? If so, I’d be all in.

    Edt: from what I’ve heard of her pic spread history, maybe pair up with Michelle, if she becomes available.

  126. 126.

    Roger Moore

    January 19, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Although, I do feel a little skeptical about the testing regime. it reminds me of MLB or NFL testing.

    I think it’s better than that. Professional sports leagues test their athletes because they’re under pressure from their fans. They’re largely in charge of their own testing. That lets them run it largely as a PR exercise, where they use their ability to catch the occasional athlete who’s too stupid to cheat competently as proof that their testing works. The porn industry is under real threat of being shut down by the government, and the performers are worried about catching diseases for which there’s no cure, so they have a strong incentive to have effective testing.

  127. 127.

    Betty Cracker

    January 19, 2018 at 3:24 pm

    @Facebones: Good God, seriously?

  128. 128.

    SenyorDave

    January 19, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    Trump is a racist, he brought in hard core racists like Bannon and Miller. At this point if you support him you are a racist. If you voted for Strom Thurmond in 19478 for president you were a racist, why should support for Trump be any different?

  129. 129.

    efgoldman

    January 19, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    @Kay:

    I feel like the Wall Street Journal were smart to focus on the financial transaction.

    Well, it’s what they do. They’re not the 5th Avenue Journal.

  130. 130.

    Roger Moore

    January 19, 2018 at 3:27 pm

    @Brachiator:

    No matter what Trump does to them, no matter how much he fails them, they will be loyal to him.

    The Republican Party is a cult. They’re an unusual one in that they have a regular process for replacing the cult leader, but they are a cult.

  131. 131.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    January 19, 2018 at 3:27 pm

    Trump is the dirtiest player in the league, but he’s on the Republicans team, so, Yay, go Big Daddy!

    That’s the bottom line.

  132. 132.

    Ruckus

    January 19, 2018 at 3:30 pm

    @danielx:
    You don’t think it’s possible that he shares the stories with her, just to piss her off? IOW what makes you think she didn’t know?

  133. 133.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 19, 2018 at 3:31 pm

    @Brachiator: They’re like a quarter of the country. My two-word suggestion for how to handle them is “Fuck them.” I don’t care what they think, I don’t care what they like, let’s just outnumber them and point and laugh and let them twist in the fucking wind until they die miserable deaths.

  134. 134.

    zhena gogolia

    January 19, 2018 at 3:36 pm

    @Served:

    The Blazing Saddles gifs in that thread are hilarious but also so sad. How I wish we could have Hedley Lamarr or Lepetomane.

  135. 135.

    efgoldman

    January 19, 2018 at 3:36 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: How you know this stuff? You gonna’ try to tell us “it’s common knowledge in the Valley” or some such bull?

  136. 136.

    NorthLeft12

    January 19, 2018 at 3:39 pm

    @mai naem mobile: Really? You think Deadbeat Donald actually PAID for an abortion?

    I think he is the type of douchecanoe who would completely leave it up to the woman. Then he would go around bragging about his great genes and fantastic sperm.

    Damn, I hate that scuzzbucket.

  137. 137.

    Timurid

    January 19, 2018 at 3:40 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    At this point in American politics Trump has the support of the only two groups that matter… people who can end your career with a phone call and people who could be waiting for you in the parking garage one night with a machete. As long as he has them, nobody dares to cross him.

  138. 138.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 3:41 pm

    @Roger Moore: It’s more peer pressure, if someone tests positive the whole industry shuts down and nobody gets paid. Some studios had guaranteed contracts(Vivid Girls), most performers work on a gig basis.

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    January 19, 2018 at 3:41 pm

    @Roger Moore:
    If she’s in it only for the money, then she isn’t going anywhere unless the money stops. She already knows how much she’s getting (in whatever form she’s getting it in, cash-which I doubt would amount to much, or lifestyle. She isn’t going to be able to live that way on her own earning power so where does that leave her? Right where she is. He’s going to have to do something pretty bad for her to walk away now.

  140. 140.

    jl

    January 19, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    @Ruckus:

    ” You don’t think it’s possible that he shares the stories with her, just to piss her off? IOW what makes you think she didn’t know? ”

    If Melania wants a divorce, I think the real reason is the Trump promised her he would lose the general election. That is what I think the Wolff book indicates.

  141. 141.

    Ruckus

    January 19, 2018 at 3:46 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Trump cannot fail. He can only be failed.

    Why does this sound familiar? Where have I heard it before?
    This is the logic stream from most 5 yr olds, I didn’t get my way, I’m going to hold my breath longer. Begs the question, do all conservatives have the maturity of a 5 yr old?

  142. 142.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 19, 2018 at 3:46 pm

    @Timurid: Eh, I mostly see a lot of flabby white losers. I’ll take my chances.

  143. 143.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 3:48 pm

    @efgoldman: I read some stuff and lots in common knowledge in The Valley. When I moved here, I was looking at Google Maps at the neighborhood, saw one business name and said, “bet that’s a porn company”, sure enough it’s a porn distributor.

  144. 144.

    Princess

    January 19, 2018 at 3:49 pm

    @Gelfling 545: Oh absolutely. But is has to feel humiliating to hear that your husband, however you feel about him, entirely dismissed your existence to a porn star (or anyone else).

  145. 145.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 3:49 pm

    @Ruckus:

    do all conservatives have the maturity of a 5 yr old?

    Yes.

  146. 146.

    trollhattan

    January 19, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    @NorthLeft12:
    His contribution would be having a limo drop her off at PP.

  147. 147.

    Leto

    January 19, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    I don’t know if this is a take it with a grain of salt type thing: By a 20-point margin, more Americans blame President Trump and Republicans rather than Democrats for a potential government shutdown, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Will they actually pay a price (both electorally/permanently)? Hope springs eternal…

  148. 148.

    SenyorDave

    January 19, 2018 at 3:52 pm

    @Facebones: Well, I just got a notification from New York magazine that Andrew Sullivan has just posted an article all about the #MeToo movement!

    I just skimmed the article but as one of the comments says, it basically boils down to men and women are different, just let boys be boys. And its why men are abandoning the Democratic party. Overall, pretty predictable response for Sully, question is when he does he start supporting Trump?

    Also, he says the Democrats should give Trump is wall because somehow that will lead to reasonable immigration reform.

  149. 149.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 19, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    I saw a report on Twitter that Chuck Schumer was seen leaving the WH without stopping to talk to the cameras. I find that awfully hard to believe.

  150. 150.

    Ruckus

    January 19, 2018 at 3:54 pm

    @jl:
    And if she wants a divorce winning may work better for her. First of all she doesn’t have to spend as much time with him, plus. Second, her lifestyle may have gone up, plus. Third, now that so many have actually had to see how fucked up he is, she gets a boost from the you poor thing side, plus. Fourth, she may loose whatever she was scheduled to get, including the lifestyle if he gets caught being the douchenozzle that we all know he is, minus. So that’s three against one.

  151. 151.

    efgoldman

    January 19, 2018 at 3:55 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Yes.

    The logic skills, also too

  152. 152.

    Ruckus

    January 19, 2018 at 3:56 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    It was a rhetorical, as if that wasn’t obvious.

  153. 153.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 3:56 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: He went before cameras and answered a handful of questions. Nothing substantive. Just, “We’re still working.”

  154. 154.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 4:00 pm

    @Ruckus: Hey, don’t take away my chance to be the one word answer guy.

  155. 155.

    jl

    January 19, 2018 at 4:00 pm

    @Leto: One factor may be that both DACA and CHIP have been in public awareness as major unresolved policy issues, so people have been following progress on fixes. GOP can only get away with their very cynical and manipulative blame game if public doesn’t know that they have been stonewalling on fixes for months. For example, Hatch’s statement that couldn’t renew CHIP because (paraphrase) ‘we ran out of money’ was in the news not that long ago, because it came too soon after passage of the GOP giga-rich person’s tax heist, and media news divas had a nice prepackaged ‘gotcha’.

    The GOP is desperate, or have convinced themselves that they can say any damn thing and the public will fall for it.

    @Ruckus: I try to stay away from judging politicians kin if they don’t go advocate for noxious policies. But, my reluctant sympathy factor for Melania went up when I read that she was so shocked by his win that she broke into tears on election night.

    Just as my reluctant sympathy factor for Laura Bush went up when I read that she was a private and very quiet factor in pushing for some of his very few good conservation and education initiatives.

  156. 156.

    Spanky

    January 19, 2018 at 4:01 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Don’t believe it. Here’s the headline @ WaPo:

    No deal to avert shutdown, Schumer says after meeting Trump
    ‘Some progress’ was made, Senate minority leader says

  157. 157.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 19, 2018 at 4:01 pm

    @Corner Stone: Whew, thanks. The thought that Schumer could have avoided a waiting camera made me feel like the space-time continuum was tearing.

  158. 158.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 4:03 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    They’re like a quarter of the country. My two-word suggestion for how to handle them is “Fuck them.” I don’t care what they think, I don’t care what they like, let’s just outnumber them and point and laugh and let them twist in the fucking wind until they die miserable deaths.

    Since these people are not all elderly racists, they are not all going to die any time soon. And sadly, there will be more to replace them.

    We will see what happens in the midterms. Hopefully, there will be a significant dent in their influence as reflected in the Congress.

    In the meantime, Trump will continue his ravaging of the country, and his increasingly open and blatant attempts to make racism one of the cornerstones of government policy, abetted by his most wicked supporters.

  159. 159.

    Yarrow

    January 19, 2018 at 4:03 pm

    @NorthLeft12:

    Really? You think Deadbeat Donald actually PAID for an abortion?

    Paying for an abortion is way cheaper than paying for a kid.

  160. 160.

    Lyrebird

    January 19, 2018 at 4:03 pm

    @Leto:

    Nicely put. I really dislike the invasion of privacy that goes on with running for national office these days, particularly when it messes up the littler folks (e.g. Monica). I have ZERO interest in finding out what Orangemandias likes a consenting, legal-age partner to do in bed or whatever. He shows more sea-slug than human qualities so far as I see.

    IF however they find proveable money laundering here, that’s news I could use!

    @efgoldman:

    They’re not the 5th Avenue Journal.

    You’re good! You’re good!

  161. 161.

    Spanky

    January 19, 2018 at 4:04 pm

    @Leto:

    I don’t know if this is a take it with a grain of salt type thing:

    Well I don’t think so. I think it’s important for the Dems to know that the majority of the country agrees with them. Had the numbers gone the other way it would be only too easy for the Dem Senators to go wobbly.

  162. 162.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 4:04 pm

    @Spanky: They’ve got a whole 8 hours to work this out, shouldn’t be a problem.

  163. 163.

    Shana

    January 19, 2018 at 4:05 pm

    @Corner Stone: Wasn’t there a story from Ivana recently that Trump was making big noises about wanting shared custody of the kids during the divorce so he could pay less in alimony/child support and Ivana called his buff. Said “sure, come get the kids, keep them for a week or two every month.” He folded.

  164. 164.

    jl

    January 19, 2018 at 4:06 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    ” “bet that’s a porn company”, sure enough it’s a porn distributor. ”

    When in a hole, quit digging. How did you find that out?

  165. 165.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 4:08 pm

    @Lyrebird:

    I have ZERO interest in finding out what Orangemandias likes a consenting, legal-age partner to do in bed or whatever.

    I do have an interest if he committed a crime by paying for consent.

  166. 166.

    Lyrebird

    January 19, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    @Ruckus: And if she’s his handler, who knows how many more factors might be at play. It would be foolish not to speculate…

  167. 167.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 4:10 pm

    @jl: The Internet Adult Film Database.

    (Keep digging, silly jl.)

  168. 168.

    Spanky

    January 19, 2018 at 4:10 pm

    Here’s an interesting tidbit from J-Rubs:

    Events moved in favor of Democrats today in the battle to gain leverage and cast blame for the looming shutdown, set to begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. For starters, it does not appear that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has 50, let alone the necessary 60 votes to pass the House bill. Republican Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.) say they will not vote for it; Rand Paul (Ky.) and Mike Lee (Utah), who disfavor short-term budget deals, may join them, as well.

    So yeah, let’s blame the Democrats.

  169. 169.

    MJS

    January 19, 2018 at 4:10 pm

    @Yarrow: I don’t believe Donald paid for an abortion. Now, did the Trump foundation pay for one or more abortions? You bet!

  170. 170.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 19, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Since these people are not all elderly racists, they are not all going to die any time soon. And sadly, there will be more to replace them.

    Gun fondlers, paranoaics, and Florida Man are all endlessly innovative in finding new ways to die unexpectedly soon.

  171. 171.

    jl

    January 19, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Could easily be a distributor of documentaries. I’d never think immediately that it was P rawn OH.

    BTW, I like thinking up funny spellings, I ain’t using the word even if I can now.

  172. 172.

    Monala

    January 19, 2018 at 4:13 pm

    OMG. This post reminded me of when Huma Abedin left Anthony Weiner, and the FTFNYT wrote an article asking what “shadows and concerns” it might raise for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. As if the article itself weren’t bad enough, they had the nerve to ask Donald Trump what he thought about what the Abedin/Weiner split meant for Clinton’s fitness for office, without ever once mentioning Trump’s sorry-ass, exploitative relationship history.

  173. 173.

    No Drought No More

    January 19, 2018 at 4:14 pm

    Schumer just blew a big, fat kiss to congressional republicans, claiming that Trump and Trump alone will be responsible for a shutdown.

    I say: GODDAMN those idiot congressional democrats willing to concede that republicans possess even an ounce of good will, or are prepared to deal in good faith ABOUT ANYTHING UNDER THE SUN. WTF doesn’t Schumer understand about that stone cold fact? I for one have grown intolerant of such spineless behavior and rhetoric, and I’m willing to see replaced any or all democrats unwilling to acknowledge the republican party as a mortal threat to our democracy.

  174. 174.

    Lyrebird

    January 19, 2018 at 4:14 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    if he committed a crime by paying for consent.

    Good point. Count me in the “sex work should be legal” category, but hey, if the current laws help put him behind bars, excellent.

    And hey – your time lapse sunset thing was absolutely beautiful!

  175. 175.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    @Ruckus:

    Trump cannot fail. He can only be failed.

    Why does this sound familiar? Where have I heard it before?

    Also a play on the deliberately ridiculous Chuck Norris jokes from the past.

    This is the logic stream from most 5 yr olds, I didn’t get my way, I’m going to hold my breath longer. Begs the question, do all conservatives have the maturity of a 5 yr old?

    Unfortunately, even if conservatives have the maturity of 5 year olds, the actions of the GOP leadership has profoundly negative consequences for everyone.

  176. 176.

    jl

    January 19, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    @Spanky: Thanks. I didn’t realize McConnell was bluffing on that front this morning. That slimeball must be running on empty in terms of stunts. The media has been far to eager to run with BS GOP talking points in reporting the Shithole Shutdown Drama, so I hope fact that Senate GOP is underwater itself is reported.

  177. 177.

    KithKanan

    January 19, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    @jl: I don’t give a fuck what we get in exchange for it, I’m a single issue voter on wall funding – I’m still a yellow dog democrat in the general, but any Dem who votes to fund the wall loses my primary vote forever. Period.

    If the symbolism matters that much to them, it matters that much to me. Not a penny to build the wall, but if it ever does get built I’d gladly support a Trillion to leave no trace that it ever existed.

  178. 178.

    danielx

    January 19, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Years ago I was reviewing a marketing plan in which a phrase indicated that “market penetration must be hard, fast and deep.” I redlined it and sent it back to the author with a note that he might want to consider rephrasing, lest somebody at a much higher level than me take offense. Response was something like “um…oh yeah, better redo that line.” Blinding flash of the obvious….

  179. 179.

    jl

    January 19, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    @No Drought No More: I’ll wait until facts on what happened this morning become clear before I judge. You have a link?

  180. 180.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 19, 2018 at 4:18 pm

    @No Drought No More: Uh, maybe it’s because there are a handful or more of Senate Republicans who’d vote with Schumer on the issues precipitating this shutdown?

  181. 181.

    tobie

    January 19, 2018 at 4:19 pm

    @No Drought No More: Right now, Graham, Flake, and Collins are also withholding support for the CR. Maybe Schumer doesn’t want to insult them (yet) in the hope he can get them to hold firm and demand a vote on the compromise immigration reform package as a condition for the CR? I dunno, but it strikes me that it’s in his interest to sow divisions among the Republicans.

    Oops…I see FlipYrWhig made that point more succinctly one comment up.

  182. 182.

    Jeffro

    January 19, 2018 at 4:20 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I saw a report on Twitter that Chuck Schumer was seen leaving the WH without stopping to talk to the cameras. I find that awfully hard to believe.

    Yup – second only to McCain.

    Schumer probably got tired of trying to explain to president* manbaby that his party could actually, y’know, try to govern…

  183. 183.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 4:22 pm

    @No Drought No More: What is wrong with this approach given where we are now? Trump unilaterally blew up a working agreement the other day, after saying out loud he’d sign anything.

  184. 184.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 4:24 pm

    @SenyorDave:

    @Facebones:

    I just skimmed the article but as one of the comments says, it basically boils down to men and women are different, just let boys be boys. And its why men are abandoning the Democratic party. Overall, pretty predictable response for Sully, question is when he does he start supporting Trump?

    I’m reading the Sullivan piece. I must be a glutton for punishment. I could not make it past the first paragraphs. The stupid definitely burned my eyes.

    A long time ago now, I came rather abruptly face-to-face with what being a man means.

    I don’t mean the gay thing. Figuring that out in the 1970s hadn’t been easy, but I’d never questioned my sex or my gender, whatever occasional taunts came my way. I mean the fact that, in the years of being HIV-positive, my testosterone levels had sunk, and I decided, given my lassitude, depression, and lack of sexual desire, to go on hormone replacement therapy to get me back in a healthy range for a 30-something male. It was a fascinating experience to witness maleness literally being injected into me, giving me in a sudden jump what had been there all along, and what I now saw and felt more vividly. You get a real sense of what being a man is from an experience like that, as the rush of energy, strength, clarity, ambition, drive, impatience and, above all, horniness overcame me every two weeks in the wake of my shot. It was intoxicating. …

    The visceral experience opened my eyes to the sheer and immense natural difference between being a man and being a woman, and helped me understand better how nature is far more in control of us than we ever want to believe.

    Logic check. Since Sullivan was never a woman, nor ever had any drugs that made him into a woman, he has no basis of comparison from which he can make even hormone addled statements about the differences between men and women.

    The rest is based on the standard false assertion that scientists agree what chromosomes and hormones tell us about sex and gender. He’s not even doing selective reading of the research. He’s just making shit up.

  185. 185.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 19, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    @Brachiator: But he still keeps getting published by prestigious outlets. Has he weighed in on the immigration debate?

  186. 186.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 4:29 pm

    @Lyrebird: Thanks, I bought the program I used to create it(I was using an evaluation copy to see if it’d work).

    ETA: I agree that paying for sex should be legal, but it’s not currently the case*(except for theatrical performances in some jurisdictions).

    *Some counties in Nevada excepted.

  187. 187.

    different-church-lady

    January 19, 2018 at 4:30 pm

    There’s also a strong chance Trump is the first president to wander out of the White House and go missing for three weeks before he’s found naked at the edge of a freeway.

  188. 188.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 4:32 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Since these people are not all elderly racists, they are not all going to die any time soon. And sadly, there will be more to replace them.

    Gun fondlers, paranoaics, and Florida Man are all endlessly innovative in finding new ways to die unexpectedly soon.

    Too small a subset of conservative racists to be meaningful.

    Did you catch the story about conservative “thinker” appearing on Tucker Carlson and openly supporting white supremacists?Trump is stirring up the cockroaches and they are emerging from the woodwork.

  189. 189.

    Peale

    January 19, 2018 at 4:35 pm

    @danielx: As someone who measures market penetration and does market sizing for a living, I would add that we have no metrics for hard so its probably best not to include that as an attribute.

  190. 190.

    rikyrah

    January 19, 2018 at 4:37 pm

    @Kay:

    I feel like the Wall Street Journal were smart to focus on the financial transaction. That’s the “respectable news” part of this but also the only part that can be documented, given that they all lie constantly. Good job.

    The money tells the truth, Kay.

    Always does.

    Following it, gets you a good story.

  191. 191.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 19, 2018 at 4:39 pm

    Has Jethreen been asked for an official White House take on the porn star trump paid off so she wouldn’t tell people he likes to be spanked?

    I want to shower after typing that

  192. 192.

    jl

    January 19, 2018 at 4:42 pm

    I don’t see how Schumer is letting Congressional GOP off the hook if he is saying this. He sounded friendlier about Trump (though that must be a white lie)

    “They’re in charge,” Schumer said Friday as he entered his Capitol office. “They’re not talking to us. They’re totally paralyzed and inept. There’s no one to negotiate with.”

    Shutdown deadline nears; no accord in Trump-Schumer meeting
    https://apnews.com/f1bb3930b9ca4328ae5fe8bb806a426f?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP

  193. 193.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 4:43 pm

    “Making America Horny Again” *

    *Official name of Stormy Daniel’s American strip club tour.

  194. 194.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 4:44 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    But he still keeps getting published by prestigious outlets.

    Inertia. He is someone who can write quickly, and he has a number of contacts. You see a lot of this in the media. They want people they can quickly go to and get a hot take on some current issue.

    Has he weighed in on the immigration debate?

    Well, he talked about giving Trump his wall because it might make racists feel better and redirect Trump’s attention to some other issue.

    I think they’re worried that illegal immigration is out of control, that elites don’t care, and until they believe — and truly believe — that the southern border is secure, they will remain far more hostile to immigration — and to current illegal immigrants — than they really want to be. Trump’s genius was to see this as a symbol of reassurance, with massive psychological effects on the entire debate.

    More stupidity.

    elsewhere there was an essay about Ajit Pai that I found interesting. The writer really wants to take him down.

    But he also caught my attention because Ajit Pai is a Konkani Gaud Saraswat Brahmin—and I am too. In late 2016, I retired an oral history project on Konkani-speaking Brahmins because I mostly recorded versions of the same fabulous origin story, more legend than history—that we were “pure” light-skinned Brahmins of the north, who traveled to southwestern India after the Saraswati River “went underground.”

    I heard stories of how we Konkani GSBs were very good at math, and often became bankers or teachers. How I, the interviewer, must be some sort of black sheep (I nearly failed calculus). Most personal histories I recorded were deterministic, with storytellers ascribing their traits or life stories to their birth and caste. Brahmins are hardly an underprivileged minority—and neither are Indian Americans.

  195. 195.

    Corner Stone

    January 19, 2018 at 4:45 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: And if not, why is the WH Correspondent from Playboy even credentialed to be there?

  196. 196.

    Mandalay

    January 19, 2018 at 4:45 pm

    @Facebones:

    Well, I just got a notification from New York magazine that Andrew Sullivan has just posted an article all about the #MeToo movement! I’m sure gonna click on that because there’s no way that could be a misogynistic, equivocating, waste of time.

    You got one out of three right; he wasn’t equivocating…

    When I stumble across young male Trump supporters — and there are plenty of gay men among them — this is what they point to. They are defending their core being from left-feminist assault. Insofar as they are pushing back against the latest wave of feminist misandry, I’m not without some sympathy.

    Nobody could have predicted that feminists on the left are a bigger threat to gay males than the Trump Administration…except Sullivan.

  197. 197.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 19, 2018 at 4:53 pm

    @Peale:

    As someone who measures market penetration and does market sizing for a living

    Just remember to massage those numbers.

  198. 198.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 19, 2018 at 4:59 pm

    @Mandalay: Sure, “plenty” of gay antifeminist Trumpies, right. Milo Yaneverknowcouldbealotopos and at least 5 more.

  199. 199.

    trollhattan

    January 19, 2018 at 5:00 pm

    @Yarrow:
    Trump math invoked.
    Offers to pay for abortions: 100+
    Abortions paid for: <10.

  200. 200.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 5:03 pm

    @Peale:

    As someone who measures market penetration and does market sizing for a living, I would add that we have no metrics for hard so its probably best not to include that as an attribute.

    Are we talking about Trump and Stormy Daniels again?

  201. 201.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 19, 2018 at 5:16 pm

    @Brachiator: I am not a Konkani speaker or a GSB*, and unlike Pai and this woman, I was not born here. I probably identify more with their parents than the likes of Pai or Haley. I also find these debates of “model” minorities tiresome in the extreme. I am nobody’s model and if I wanted to be told what to do or how to think I would have stayed back in India. I am fluent in two Indian languages and don’t need to denigrate another group to feel good about myself. This seems to be more of second generation thing, the wanting to fit in part.
    I have made peace with the fact that I am always going to be somewhat of an outsider whether here or in India. And that’s fine with me for the most part.

    ETA: FWIW Indian Americans went for HRC bigly 82% or something like that voted for her. So fucking Pai and Haley may be prominent but are outliers.

  202. 202.

    opiejeanne

    January 19, 2018 at 5:21 pm

    @Gelfling 545: That’s monstrous.

  203. 203.

    notoriousJRT

    January 19, 2018 at 5:25 pm

    @Mary G: Bingo!

  204. 204.

    Peale

    January 19, 2018 at 5:25 pm

    @Brachiator: Hasn’t quite wrapped his head around the fact that they are assuming that all immigrants have cheated somehow, even those who are here with papers. And that family members are just able to write to uncle sam and bring in Bozo Brother In Law if they want to, and that the country grants asylum to thousands, and that everyone from a poor country is a refugee who lied about being able to support themselves, and that “diversity” lottery winners aren’t screened and just get in because they are black and don’t have to proove at all that they work in occupations that might keep them gainfully employed. And that there is this this big pool of rich refugees we could somehow tap into if we wanted to. You know, those who were driven from their homes and are living in camps but have assets with hedge funds. Those folks surely exist.

    No, its all about border security and its only Mexico that they care about.

  205. 205.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 19, 2018 at 5:30 pm

    @Peale: When the nativists find out that the countries that sent the most “skilled” immigrants to the United States last year were India, China, Mexico and the Philippines, their enthusiasm for “skilled immigration” is going to disappear too. Not the likes of Cotton and Miller who are just using skilled immigration as a bait and switch to rail against family reunification but the average clueless T voter.

  206. 206.

    FlipYrWhig

    January 19, 2018 at 5:31 pm

    @Peale: Massive numbers of people think that the increasing presence in America of people browner than the people they grew up with means that the brown people must be sneaking in. I’m not sure they even realize that there are many different kinds of browner people.

  207. 207.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    January 19, 2018 at 5:41 pm

    @
    @
    jl: Let me help you out with that reluctant sympathy: SHE WAS ALL IN WITH THE RACIST BIRTHERISM AGAINST PBO.

    FUCK HER.

  208. 208.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 5:57 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I am not a Konkani speaker or a GSB*, and unlike Pai and this woman, I was not born here. I probably identify more with their parents than the likes of Pai or Haley. I also find these debates of “model” minorities tiresome in the extreme. I am nobody’s model and if I wanted to be told what to do or how to think I would have stayed back in India. I am fluent in two Indian languages and don’t need to denigrate another group to feel good about myself. This seems to be more of second generation thing, the wanting to fit in part.

    Thanks for your input on this. In Southern California (and when I lived on the East Coast), I would sometimes see Japanese and Chinese Americans branded with this label of “model minorities” (less so Korean Americans and other East Asian groups), and I didn’t think this stuff was either historically accurate or helpful.

    I appreciate your input on this.

  209. 209.

    Brachiator

    January 19, 2018 at 6:09 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    When the nativists find out that the countries that sent the most “skilled” immigrants to the United States last year were India, China, Mexico and the Philippines, their enthusiasm for “skilled immigration” is going to disappear too.

    See my post 188 here, about the conservative commentator openly pitching white supremacist ideas on the Fox Tucker Carlson show.

    Trump and his nativist advisors are quickly trying to normalize racism. And nonwhite people are being assaulted from every angle. Trevor Noah recently made the succinct point that Trump is shifting from being opposed to “illegal” immigration to being opposed to all nonwhite immigration.

    Tucker Carlson’s guest made that explicit point that the economic contribution of nonwhite immigrants is irrelevant. These people are dangerous because they are different, and their cultural values make white people nervous.

    Note also here that this idiot discounts the feelings and opinions of all nonwhite citizens.

    And all of this has been pushed before by either Trump or his chief advisors.

  210. 210.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 19, 2018 at 6:09 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    There’s also a strong chance Trump is the first president to wander out of the White House and go missing for three weeks before he’s found naked at the edge of a freeway.

    O pleez o pleez o pleez ……

  211. 211.

    J R in WV

    January 19, 2018 at 8:55 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    he would lumber slowly away screaming if he was awarded custody [of Barron] in the end.

    No, unfortunately for Barron, he would not. He would send him to a boarding school, probably a military oriented one, which would probably destroy the boy. But that’s what he would do – how he was treated by his father, probably for being a little sociopath at home.

    Barron isn’t a sociopath, now, but he could be turned into one by Trump’s parenting. Melania is probably all too aware of all that.

  212. 212.

    J R in WV

    January 19, 2018 at 9:32 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t live there, but I imagine it’s all been in the local newspapers as it is a big industry out there.

  213. 213.

    J R in WV

    January 19, 2018 at 9:45 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    Oh, please! Please!!

  214. 214.

    J R in WV

    January 19, 2018 at 10:05 pm

    Here is my take on racism:

    It is extremely stupid, because we all come from Africa if you go back very far at all. IIRC at one point the number of reproducing humans was reduced to a few thousand, which was quite dangerous, not that anyone knew about the genetics at the time.

    But they all knew that times were very hard and that their tribe was in danger of dying out.

    So, really, we are all cousins, all of us. I for one welcome all my cousins to the family.

    ETA: Except for the racists and fascists and criminal gangsters, fuck them. Republicans of all nations, not my family!

  215. 215.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    January 19, 2018 at 10:41 pm

    @Brachiator: I’m slowpoking here a bit, since this thread is already pretty dead, but it’s not merely that condoms don’t appeal to viewers; the performers (of all genders, and with few exceptions) also don’t like them, and from my understanding, they don’t actually even work for porn shoots. The explanation I’ve heard is that condoms are designed for people to fuck continuously and then discard. While almost everyone outside of a porn studio has sex that way, that isn’t what happens in most porn shoots; it’s rare for performers to fuck continuously during them. Condoms aren’t designed to handle the start-stop nature of porn shoots, and in fact, if you use them in such a fashion, that apparently actually increases the risk of transmitting an infection, because they’ll probably break and will definitely cause friction burns. I don’t fully understand the physics behind this, but I presume switching condoms each time shooting restarts either isn’t practical (it would certainly be incredibly annoying) or doesn’t actually solve the problems with breaking/friction burns.

    At any rate, since I learned this, I feel a lot less ambivalent about performers not using them during shoots. It does kind of make me wonder why no manufacturer has researched creating a condom that works for porn. I assume the likeliest explanation is that there just isn’t enough of a market for them to offset the R&D costs, though that seems at least moderately implausible to me given how many porn shoots there are each year. Guess it depends what the R&D costs would be.

    @FlipYrWhig: Around these parts, it’s spelt “Fuckem”, FYI, courtesy of esteemed commenter efgoldman. But good attitude.

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