Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

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

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

The lights are all blinking red.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

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

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Open Thread: Preparing for the SotU Stupidity

Open Thread: Preparing for the SotU Stupidity

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No matter how bad things get, the Trump Crime Cartel can always find a new low…

President Trump is seeking to parlay his first State of the Union address on Tuesday into cash for his reelection campaign by offering supporters a chance to see their name flashed on the screen during a broadcast of the speech.

In a fundraising solicitation on Monday, Trump offered those willing to pay at least $35 the opportunity to see their name displayed during a live streaming of the address on his campaign website…

The web page to which the solicitation links offers donors the opportunity to contribute as much as $2,700 — the maximum amount allowed per election…

.

I’m hoping the Guardian will do one of its excellent liveblogs tomorrow, because I don’t think my blood pressure will allow me to watch this fustercluck unfiltered…

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  2. 2.

    Groucho48

    I could see that the names thing could lead to some merriment. I wonder how many Vlads will be listed, for example?

  4. 4.

    Feebog

    Not going to watch Trumpov lying non-stop for over an hour. Now that I am somewhat mobile I’m taking the missus to a movie and dinner.

  5. 5.

    OGLiberal

    Fareed Zakaria is pulling an all nighter trying to figure out how to say “this is when he became president” without sounding repetitive. Van Jones is making the coffee. Frank Luntz is assembling a focus group of lunatic Trump voters who will, as usual, astound him in their ignorance and blind loyalty and Maggie Haberman is going to tell us how shrill Maxine Waters sounded compared to the sober tones of Trump’s “presidential” address.

  7. 7.

    jl

    I’ll read up on what happened later after the miserable shitshow is over. I can’t access the article.
    Is this a hoax? Some scammer pushing BS and skimming off some of Trump’s rightfully and hard earned emoluments?

    How does Trump force the media to broadcast these ‘flashes’? Does WH have control of the raw feed? Can’t the media block or pixel them out.
    OTOH, if the media hate Trump so much, they would broadcast them.

    It’s such a horrible and ridiculous idea, I guess it can’t be a hoax but 200 proof Trumpster. I just wonder how it will work.

  8. 8.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    Everything is a scam to this guy. If he can’t make any money doing anything, he loses all interest. I guess that’s why he doesn’t care about doing his job, there isn’t any money to be made from most of it.

    I swear, in ten years, this asshole is going to be sitting at some cut rate expo, selling his autograph to his adoring hordes of asskissers for $100 each…

  9. 9.

    Pinacacci

    What the hell alternative timeline am I living in; it’s not the sane one…this can’t be real

  13. 13.

    JGabriel

    From the WaPo article linked @ Top:

    In a separate document distributed to surrogates Monday, Trump aides said that Tuesday’s speech will be “bipartisan and forward looking” and that he will be “speaking from the heart.”

    Trump will “speak from his heart”? I guess that means his breath will smell like a maggot-infested rotting corpse. Attendees, beware of being seated in the front rows.

  14. 14.

    Major Major Major Major

    Open thread!

    Today sucked! I finally got to start my exciting new project, and was stuck in dependency hell all day, so hopefully I’ll get that worked out tomorrow. Google seems to have changed the way two of their own libraries function on their own platform in the last two months in a non-recoverable way, so I can’t build from my proof of concept.

    The beta draft of my novel is going very well though, I hope to have it out to readers in March, it’s looking pretty good!

    /me update

  18. 18.

    Steeplejack

    @jl:

    As the excerpt above says, the donors will see their names “displayed during a live streaming of the address on [Trump’s] campaign website.”

  19. 19.

    Patricia Kayden

    @JGabriel: Republicans just voted to release propaganda to defend their President and we’re supposed to believe that Trump will give a bipartisan speech? Yeah, right.

  20. 20.

    dmsilev

    @jl: It’s not for the TV broadcast, it’s for the people who are so far down the Trumpian rabbit hole that they think watching a livestream hosted by his campaign website is the best way to view the SotU. You know, morons.

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Groucho48:

    I could see that the names thing could lead to some merriment. I wonder how many Vlads will be listed, for example?

    That would indeed be amusing, and a fine troll. But I hope nobody is tempted to spend $35-$2,700 just to see a succession of Vlads, Dimitrys, Borises, and Igors go flashing by for the lulz. Anybody even contemplating this will, I hope, reconsider and send that money to a Dem candidate somewhere.

  22. 22.

    JGabriel

    @Groucho48:

    I could see that the names thing could lead to some merriment. I wonder how many Vlads will be listed, for example?

    Or how many names will be suspiciously identical to names identified by Twitter as Russian troll accounts?

  25. 25.

    JGabriel

    jl:

    How does Trump force the media to broadcast these ‘flashes’?

    He doesn’t. The names will be added to the feed on Traitor Donnie’s website.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Steeplejack:

    And how many Trump supporters, with more money than common sense, will skip that part of the fundraising email pitch, send him All The Dollars, and then weep bitter tears of frustration tomorrow night when their names aren’t on the big TV tuned perpetually to Fox? LOL. Morans.

  29. 29.

    JGabriel

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    I swear, in ten years, this asshole is going to be sitting at some cut rate expo, selling his autograph to his adoring hordes of asskissers for $100 each …@

    I doubt it. In ten years time, I expect Traitor Donald to be either dead, in jail, or so senile demented he won’t be able to sit at an autograph table for 10 minutes without pissing or crapping his pants,

  30. 30.

    boatboy_srq

    Do the $35 spots appear on screen long enough to be captured by the naked eye? Or are they so brief one needs frame-by-frame inspection to see them?

    ETA: OOOH! This is useful! Somebody could watch the names come up and cross-reference for 0.01%er douchebaggery.

  32. 32.

    ? Martin

    So, the case I thought might happen might actually happen.

    This is an emoluments case against the President being brought by his business competitors, suing him because they can’t compete against a business that can deliver access to the President as one of its perks.

    In his questioning of Shumate, Messitte challenged the Justice Department’s argument that it was only speculation that Trump’s business had drawn clients away from others. He cited two embassy parties mentioned in a Washington Post story: Bahrain and Kuwait held expensive embassy parties at Trump’s D.C. hotel after the election.

    “You have diplomats from certain Arab countries that are declaring that they are taking their business [to Trump’s hotels] in order to curry favor with the president,” Messitte said. “Do you need a number on that” loss of business to pursue the case further?

    He also sounded skeptical of the idea that this lawsuit was merely a political argument cloaked in the form of a lawsuit.

    “What’s the political angle for suing the president for taking money from a private business?” the judge said.

    Seems like the judge isn’t letting this one go.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @boatboy_srq:

    Do the $35 spots appear on screen long enough to be captured by the naked eye? Or are they so brief one needs frame-by-frame inspection to see them?

    I expect that will be determined by the total number of donations and names they get. Or if they get fewer people responding than they hope, they may loop and repeat them as necessary.

  35. 35.

    JGabriel

    @Patricia Kayden:

    @JGabriel: Republicans just voted to release propaganda to defend their President and we’re supposed to believe that Trump will give a bipartisan speech?

    It’s going to be tri-partisan: all about he, himself, and him.

  38. 38.

    Timurid

    Trump and friends are doing all this sketchy stuff today because they know that the speech tomorrow will be a hard reset of the news cycle.

  40. 40.

    efgoldman

    @Timurid:

    Trump and friends are doing all this sketchy stuff today

    He doesn’t have any friends. He has sycophants, enablers, and hangers-on

  42. 42.

    Rabble Arouser

    @? Martin: Thanks for the link. Always encouraging to read about judges who are willing and able to do their job in this day and age.

  43. 43.

    Bonnie

    I have some new British mysteries on dvd that I plan to watch tomorrow during the sotu. I find that a more worthy expenditure of my time tomorrow. I didn’t vote for the a**hole.

  45. 45.

    efgoldman

    @Bonnie:

    I find that a more worthy expenditure of my time tomorrow.

    Vikings isn’t on, but I’m sure there’s some kind of lawnorder around.

  49. 49.

    Brachiator

    @JGabriel:

    It’s going to be tri-partisan: all about he, himself, and him.

    Ha! Great description.

    I will miss Trump’s speech. I will be practicing watching the Supermoon on January 31.

  51. 51.

    Another Scott

    Speaking of stupidity…. RawStory:

    In the aftermath of Fox News host Sean Hannity’s Twitter account being compromised, one of his copycats — the convincingly-named @SeanHannity__ — began receiving direct messages from WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange.

    As The Daily Beast reported, Assange was apparently duped by the fake account, and told Dell Gilliam, a Texas-based technical writer posing as the Fox News host, that he wanted to set up “other channels” to provide information on a Democratic senator investigating Russia’s election meddling.

    “You can send me messages on other channels,” Assange said to the person he believed to be Hannity via DM. He said he had “some news on Warner,” apparently referencing Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

    […]

    Comrade Assange continues to show his true colors…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  55. 55.

    tobie

    @Another Scott: Thanks for the warning. I need to prepare myself for all the ugliness yet to come. For the time being, though, I think I need to lose myself in a good mystery. Any recommendations for mysteries on Netflix, BJers? Preferably Scandinavian ones? I’d like to lose myself tomorrow in some Scandinavian exploration of the darkness of the human soul.

  59. 59.

    karen marie

    Someone on twitter suggested that this year’s SOTU drinking game should be to not watch, just drink. I’m with them.

  62. 62.

    Steeplejack

    * DVR Live Viewing Alert: SOTU Edition *

    Cable viewing alternatives to the SOTU tomorrow night. Netflix, Hulu, whatever, you’re on your own.

    ♦ FXX: Ongoing Simpsons marathon.
    ♦ ESPN and ESPN2: College basketball.
    ♦ HGTV: Fixer Upper, Restored by the Fords and House Hunters.
    ♦ Food: Chopped.
    ♦ Discovery: Moonshiners.
    ♦ Animal Planet: River Monsters.
    ♦ USA: WWE Smackdown! and Chrisley Knows Best.
    ♦ FX: Guardians of the Galaxy and Baskets.
    ♦ Syfy: The Goonies.
    ♦ Comedy Central: Drunk History.
    ♦ TNT: NBA basketball.
    ♦ AMC: Demolition Man.
    ♦ TCM: King Kong (1933) and The Producers (1968).
    ♦ NatGeo: Life Below Zero.
    ♦ Hallmark Movie Channel (for Lamh36!): Morning Show Mystery: Mortal Mishaps with Holly Robinson Peete and Rick Fox. Who says they don’t do “inclusive” programming!
    ♦ NBC Sports: NHL hockey.
    ♦ El Rey: Jet Li’s Fearless and House of Traps.
    ♦ IFC: Two and a Half Men.
    ♦ Sundance: Apollo 13.
    ♦ WeTV: Law and Order.
    ♦ BBC America: Braveheart.
    ♦ DIY: Building Off the Grid.
    ♦ MHz: Blood of the Vine. Semi-cozy mysteries in gorgeous French wine country.

    A veritable cornucopia of choices!

  63. 63.

    magurakurin

    Wilmer is dodging an interview with the Vermont alternative newspaper Seven Days. I’m guessing this is a fairly liberal weekly along the lines of what the Village Voice is, but I’m not sure. You would think such a paper would be a natural ally but Wilmer called the reporter a “gossip columnist.” Might as well have just said, “you’re fake news.” The whole Sanders thing just spins me out. I admit I really don’t see what people see in him. He is so transparently full of shit.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: I was just coming here to put that up:

  65. 65.

    magurakurin

    @Steeplejack: I’d have to go with The Producers, Vanna. Since that is really what Cadet Bone Spurs whole trip is…a fund raising scheme that was based on sure failure and then unexpectedly won.

  68. 68.

    Adam L Silverman

    @magurakurin: Yep.

    Also, Mr. Hannity can expect a visit from some nice Special Agents from the National Security Division, Counterintelligence Section. I understand they are really laid back and brilliant conversationalists.

  71. 71.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Steeplejack: They’ve been dogging him about a variety of things, like why he hasn’t granted them an interview in over three years. Since Seven Days bills itself as “Vermont’s Independent Voice”, you might think that Vermont’s Independent Senator would share a natural affinity. You would be wrong, of course.

  72. 72.

    Steeplejack

    @magurakurin:

    [. . .] a fund raising scheme that was based on sure failure and then unexpectedly won.

    So true!

    And it even included “Springtime for Hitler”!

  74. 74.

    tobie

    @Aleta: Ooh…thanks for suggestion! I love that story and have seen the version with Jeremy Brett but Basil Rathbone’s rendition will be a new experience for me.

  76. 76.

    stinger

    I’m so old I remember when the vice president making fund raising phone calls from the White House was considered a bad thing. Now the president doing fund raising DURING the SOTU raises only mockery. Must be great to be a Republican.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: It would not surprise me. I would be very surprised to find out that we’re not doing continuous collection on Assange via our British allies.

  79. 79.

    Bonnie

    @schrodingers_cat: I do think counting any cat’s whiskers would be better us of time than the sotu. Law and Order bores me. The Brits are so much better at police procedurals than the U.S. I have Vera 7 and George Gentley 8 and a few others. Tons of fun!

  83. 83.

    Steeplejack

    @Bonnie:

    I love Vera. I’m a few seasons behind—been watching it on one of the lesser PBS stations here in D.C. that is all Brit or Brit-adjacent. Inspector George Gently is good too, although I think they pound on the period details a little harder than necessary. We get it—it’s the ’60s. That’s handled a bit better in Endeavour, I think.

    Shetland and Hinterland (Wales) are both good, if you haven’t checked them out.

  84. 84.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Let’s see if the new borehole hits anything interesting. And then Hunting Hitler.

    I watch a lot of History Channel shows (Vikings, Ice Road Truckers, Pickers, Pawn Stars) but have no interest in Hitler. Oak Island is mrs efg’s

  86. 86.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this the actual headline of GiGi’s latest piece, not the clumsy parody of GiGi you might think of it

    Centrist Democrats Launch Smear Campaign Against Young Transgender Woman, All to Keep an Old, Straight, White Man in Power

    (Brian Williams and Tweety are bemoaning the curve by which trump’s SOTU will surely be graded, and in the same breaths predicting that, according to that curve, he will knock it out of the park)

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: It is actually pretty good. Regardless of what you accept regarding Hitler’s demise, the stuff they’ve turned up and documented regarding the NAZI network to exfiltrate high ranking personnel is fascinating. A lot of this has been known, but what they’ve done in terms of site investigations and network mapping is really interesting.

    As for the Curse of Oak Island – it is interesting in that the same article the Laginas read as kids I read as a 3rd grader (a good decade or so after them). I have always found the legend fascinating. So watching the show is fun.

  88. 88.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Adam L Silverman:

    “I’d say it’s one-third hate mail, one-third hero worship, one-third people saying they figured it out. His followers [Hannity] are disturbingly angry,” she said.

  97. 97.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Adam L Silverman: famed sound editor Walter Murch said he found the electric synthesizer music of “In Search Of” scary and used that genre for Apocalypse Now.

  99. 99.

    MisterForkbeard

    Ugh. I’m seeing an article from NPR that Nunes and the House Intelligence Committee has voted along partisan lines to:

    1) Release The Memo

    2) Not release the Democratic rebuttal, saying it gives away too much classified information.

    Can someone just arrest Nunes and the Republicans for treason now? This is such a transparently bad action I can’t think of a way to explain it. Though the republicans in the comments are certainly trying – it’s all “Democrats can’t ever complain about security because EMAILS.” >_<

  101. 101.

    Gretchen

    Lawrence O’Donnell had a fired Carrier worker on tonight. She feels lied to and betrayed by Donald Trump, who promised to save her job, and she believed him. Lawrence said “But your Union leader told you Trump was lying?” Yes, but. She really wanted to believe that the last jobs in middle-of-nowhere Indiana weren’t going away, and wouldn’t listen to anyone who told her otherwise. But now she’s jobless in middle-of-nowhere Indiana, where there are no other jobs, and an administration that has no interest in helping her.

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Yes, the velocity of information is so different now. As a newspaper reporter who started my career in 1972, I was keenly interested in Watergate, and as the Trump (mal)administration has careened along I have thought a lot about the parallels—and where the parallels break down.

    The velocity of information is the main difference. The other big difference, I think, is that the Republican Party in the 1970s was an actual, functioning political party, whereas the current GOP has degenerated into something of a mystery cult. And, even seeing all the idiocy on a daily basis, I think we still underestimate the degree of craziness, because of the gravitational pull of the “both sides” media. Even though we fight it, it still has an invisible effect, even if only in which “issues” or “events” bubble to the top of the day’s “news coverage.”

  105. 105.

    Steeplejack

    @Gretchen:

    I wish O’Donnell had asked her a little bit about why she ignored the warning signs, or didn’t see them, ahead of time. Why she was so receptive to Trump’s message. And it would have been interesting to see what she had to say about Hillary Clinton. (I presume the usual.)

    Another thing that bugs me in general about all these interviews and panels is that they concentrate on the voters’ feelings and never really ask them about their thinking process—or to defend/​describe it, if they say something like, say, “I thought Trump was better on trade.” Why? Show your work.

    To that Carrier example, why did that woman “believe that the last jobs in middle-of-nowhere Indiana weren’t going away.” Other than just blind, ignorant hopefulness.

  107. 107.

    SFAW

    One wonders whether some enterprising souls will use the large-donor list to figure out production quantities for tumbrels.

  108. 108.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack:

    Another thing that bugs me in general about all these interviews and panels is that they concentrate on the voters’ feelings and never really ask them about their thinking proces

    Because unless they’re honest enough to say “I wanted someone who would put a stop to all those darkies gettin’ stuff what they don’t deserve,” there was NO thought involved in choosing Lying Littledick. Or, more precisely: no INTELLIGENT thought. (Which is not to say that the hypothetical quote shows intelligent thought, of course.)

  109. 109.

    PaulWartenberg

    they are using the State of the Union speech to SOLICIT FUNDS?????????????

    at some point does the Elections committee even exist to stop this sort of shit???

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