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You are here: Home / Politics / Goddamned Traitors / Performance Review Scheduled

Performance Review Scheduled

by Betty Cracker|  April 2, 20189:52 am| 181 Comments

This post is in: Goddamned Traitors, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Russiagate, Trump-Russia, Assholes, General Stupidity

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According to ABC News, which got its info from a Russian readout of a recent call between Trump and Putin, Trump invited Putin to visit the White House. (The White House’s version of the call readout neglected to mention the invitation.)

President Donald Trump proposed hosting Vladimir Putin at the White House during a recent call with the Russian leader, a Kremlin aide told Russian media today.

“When our presidents we talking on the telephone, Trump proposed to hold a first meeting in Washington, in the White House,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, according to the Russian news outlet RBC.

Usually the employee visits the boss’s office for a performance review, so this is a bit irregular, but whatever.

I’ve always been struck by this photo* of Trump’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak the day after he (Trump) canned Comey:

We know he gushed about removing the Comey problem and blurted out top secret intelligence. But the body language was also strange. Trump usually wears that pursed-lipped, jaw-jut face that he imagines to be tough and statesmanlike when photographed in the Oval. But here, he looks like a supplicant — a junior executive newly admitted to the executive washroom and trying to fit it. He’ll probably invite Putin to sit behind the Resolute Desk.

Meanwhile, Twitler has been on a Twitter rant about DACA, Mexico, Democrats, NAFTA, Sinclair Broadcasting, Amazon, the US Postal Service, etc., this morning. This is going to be a weird week — I can feel it.

*I know Trump’s horrid visage is repugnant to, well, all of us, and I usually try to spare readers front-page photos of him, but it’s material to the point I am making this time.

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Previous Post: « Open Thread: Happy Monday (*Crosses Fingers*)
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Reader Interactions

181Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    April 2, 2018 at 9:55 am

    Le sigh.

    That photo does look like the Russians having a laugh at Trump’s expense. Unsaid: “Can you believe he just said that?!”

  2. 2.

    The Nameless One

    April 2, 2018 at 9:55 am

    *I know Trump’s horrid visage is repugnant to, well, all of us, and I usually try to spare readers front-page photos of him, but it’s material to the point I am making this time.

    I’ll take your word for it. I use the Make America Kittens Again extension in Chrome so all I see is a picture of a cute sleeping kitten. Lowers my blood pressure drastically.

  3. 3.

    The Moar You Know

    April 2, 2018 at 9:57 am

    Lavrov and Kislyak are laughing at him. That’s unmistakable.

    ETA: can none of these people afford a decent tailor? Jesus. I’ve seen better looking/fitting suits at Sears.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 2, 2018 at 9:57 am

    I like this picture of trump...

  5. 5.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 2, 2018 at 10:00 am

    But here, he looks like a supplicant — a junior executive newly admitted to the executive washroom and trying to fit it. He’ll probably invite Putin to sit behind the Resolute Desk.

    I don’t know what the hell that expression is. It’s definitely not one humans usually make…

    @The Nameless One: that works on this picture? Great extension but I’ve found it usually only works at big news sites.

  6. 6.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 2, 2018 at 10:00 am

    Is it me or is T looking a lot like Boris Yeltsin in that photo?

  7. 7.

    Roger Moore

    April 2, 2018 at 10:00 am

    This is going to be a weird week — I can feel it.

    I see you’re going way out on a limb. Any other extreme predictions, like the direction in which the sun will rise or the wetness of water?

  8. 8.

    MoxieM

    April 2, 2018 at 10:01 am

    Well you just know he’s gonna get a good chewing-out from the Boss, and a bad performance review for going along with that slut Teresa May, right? So he’s nervous, jumpy even.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    April 2, 2018 at 10:04 am

    If you click The Post link above to the source of the photo, you’ll see a series of pictures of that meeting. It’s not just the one still — he looks obsequious in every damn one of them, and the source is Tass because Trump wouldn’t allow US journalists to cover the meeting.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well done. I also agree with what Chait says in that article — Trump’s epic corruption must be a core pillar of the Democrats’ case against him.

  10. 10.

    yastreblyansky

    April 2, 2018 at 10:07 am

    @schrodingers_cat: That was my first thought when the photo came out last year. I even wrote it up:

    I think his especially erratic behavior over the past two weeks, starting with the Comey firing and that Lavrov-Kislyak meeting in the Oval’noy Kabinet, where he looked really very ill, puffy and vacant like a sober Boris Yeltsin, suggests he’s too tired and frightened to function at all. There’s a danger of dictatorship, as the last Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevarnadze used to say, but now as then it’s hard to say who the dictator might turn out to be. It won’t be Donald J. Trump.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    April 2, 2018 at 10:11 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

    — Animal Farm

  12. 12.

    dmsilev

    April 2, 2018 at 10:13 am

    This is going to be a weird week — I can feel it.

    I think I’ve forgotten what ‘normal’ is like.

  13. 13.

    RandomMonster

    April 2, 2018 at 10:13 am

    I think Putin is now just fucking with him.

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    April 2, 2018 at 10:15 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    ETA: can none of these people afford a decent tailor? Jesus. I’ve seen better looking/fitting suits at Sears.

    Trump dresses that way deliberately. I think he thinks it hides his paunch.

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 2, 2018 at 10:15 am

    @dmsilev: This is going to be a weird week — I can feel it.
    I think I’ve forgotten what ‘normal’ is like.

    One of his ranty tweets was sent out at four in the morning. Makes me wonder what news his lawyers got Friday or Saturday

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    April 2, 2018 at 10:16 am

    @Amir Khalid: Indeed. Chilling.

    And we are left to one man, Robert Mueller (and his investigative team), with enough power to bring a bad regime down. Republicans in Congress are stonewalling, and the howler monkeys of rightwing cable news are paving the way to a dictatorship.

    I want a full housecleaning after this. Including jail terms. (You know I want Mitch McConnell to swing for this. It is treason. He colluded to prevent full and free elections. And who knows what we will see on the financial end.)

  17. 17.

    MobiusKlein

    April 2, 2018 at 10:16 am

    @dmsilev: Abnormal is the new normal.

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:16 am

    Health Department removes breast cancer and Obamacare info from womens health website

    Think Progress
    Amanda Gomez
    April 2, 2018

    The Department of Health and Human Service’s (HHS) Office on Women’s Health removed a webpage dedicated to breast cancer and other helpful reproductive health information, including important insurance information for low-income people, according to a new report.

    The Sunlight Foundation’s Web Integrity Project first reported the missing webpage. The group has been documenting page or link removals from the OWH website and shared its most recent report with ThinkProgress.

    This breast cancer page did serve as a repository of links dedicated to this disease, like “Breast cancer symptoms”, “Screening and diagnosis”, “Breast cancer risk factors and prevention”, and “Government in action.” Informational pages and factsheets about the disease can’t be found elsewhere on the OWH website, according to the Sunlight Foundation’s comprehensive review.

  19. 19.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 2, 2018 at 10:17 am

    @dmsilev: It is not working.

  20. 20.

    No Drought No More

    April 2, 2018 at 10:17 am

    Putin is taunting Trump and insulting each and every American in the process. The writing is on the wall. He’s already written Trump off, and is merely playing cat to Trump’s mouse. Recall that Putin can announce the conclusions of the Mueller investigation at a Kremlin “news conference” this afternoon if he’s so inclined. And who knows, maybe he soon will one of these days. And if he does, I’ll tune to FOX for the coverage. As it is, I’m looking forward to the stupid looks on the faces of all the stupid bastards that got the country in this mess, on whatever day it is that shoe does drop, and Trump’s treason is exposed.. Lest We Ever Forget, either: congressional republicans know it already, yet continue to aid and abet the traitor.

  21. 21.

    hellslittlestangel

    April 2, 2018 at 10:18 am

    Yes, he looks very junior in that photo. It reminds me of the infamous pic of Chris Christie trying to hug Jerry Jones after a Cowboys victory.

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:19 am

    With Easter declaration, Trump’s confusion upends immigration debate
    04/02/18 08:01 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Donald Trump wished the public a “HAPPY EASTER!” yesterday, shortly before he apparently called off negotiations intended to protect the Dreamers he put at risk when he rescinded the DACA policy.

    Trump declared there would be “NO MORE DACA DEAL,” referring to an Obama-era protection of millions of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, and called for congressional Republicans to pass tougher immigration policies because the U.S. border with Mexico is “Getting more dangerous.”

    In the tweets, Trump wrote that “Mexico is doing very little” to keep migrants from crossing into that country from the south or from then crossing into America from the north. “They laugh at our dumb immigration laws,” he said.

    Given the timing and context, it appears the president was worked up about something he saw on Fox News – a familiar dynamic that explains his outbursts.

    Speaking briefly to reporters before entering a church for Easter services, Trump added, “A lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA and we are going to have to really see. They had a great chance. The Democrats blew it.”

    There are two core problems to this. The first is that the president appears to have no idea what he’s talking about. The second is that Trump, by declaring his latest position, may not have been declaring his latest position at all.

  23. 23.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 2, 2018 at 10:19 am

    @Elizabelle: Agreed. In this entire debacle, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan come out looking the worst.

    ETA: Of all the media failures, Vichy Times is the worst. They proclaimed in October that there was no link between T and the Russians.

  24. 24.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:21 am

    Why the White House is pretending a fired cabinet secretary ‘resigned’
    04/02/18 08:40 AM—UPDATED 04/02/18 09:24 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Donald Trump last week fired his VA secretary, David Shulkin, in the latest major shake-up of the administration’s team. According to the ousted cabinet secretary, the move was part of a push within the administration to privatize veterans’ care.
    According to the White House, however, Shulkin wasn’t fired at all – because he “resigned.”

    ……………………………………………………..

    Even for Team Trump this is an odd thing to lie about. Indeed, it’s an entirely knowable thing: either Shulkin was fired or he wasn’t. Why make up a story that’s so easily discredited? Why pretend a cabinet secretary resigned when he clearly did not?

    As it happens, we know the answer. Politico reported over the weekend that the fired-vs-resigned distinction “could have far-reaching implications that could throw the Department of Veterans Affairs, the second-largest federal agency, into further disarray.”

    In announcing the removal of Shulkin as VA secretary, Trump tapped Defense Department official Robert Wilkie as the acting leader of the department, bypassing Shulkin’s deputy, who was next in line to succeed him. That decision has reignited a debate among legal experts about the president’s ability to hand-pick replacements for ousted Cabinet secretaries.

    The debate centers on vague language in the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, which gives the president broad authority to temporarily fill a vacancy at a federal agency with an acting official if the current office holder “dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office.”

    In other words, if Shulkin didn’t resign, the president’s personnel authority is far more limited. What’s more, if Shulkin was fired – and literally every piece of evidence makes clear that he was – then he should be replaced by Deputy Secretary Thomas Bowman until the Senate confirms a permanent successor.

    But the White House doesn’t like Bowman, an opponent of the far-right privatization push.

    And so we’re left with an administration that feels it has no choice but to play make-believe, while Shulkin tries to explain reality.

  25. 25.

    Thoughtful David

    April 2, 2018 at 10:23 am

    Putin has been having a grand ol’ time making the US respond “how high, sir” whenever he says “jump.” From the attack by his mercenaries on our troops in Syria, to the nerve-agent attack in London, to this announcement, Putin is enjoying showing the world that he’s in charge and the US won’t do anything about it.
    Yes, I know about the expulsion of the 60 consulate staff, who will be replaced in a couple of weeks.
    Notice also that the announcement of this meeting came from the Kremlin, not the White House. They’re showing they’re the ones in charge.

  26. 26.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:25 am

    @No Drought No More:

    As it is, I’m looking forward to the stupid looks on the faces of all the stupid bastards that got the country in this mess, on whatever day it is that shoe does drop, and Trump’s treason is exposed.. Lest We Ever Forget, either: congressional republicans know it already, yet continue to aid and abet the traitor.

    traitors all

  27. 27.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:27 am

    @Elizabelle:

    I want a full housecleaning after this. Including jail terms. (You know I want Mitch McConnell to swing for this. It is treason. He colluded to prevent full and free elections. And who knows what we will see on the financial end.)

    Orange jumpsuits for all of them.

  28. 28.

    Roger Moore

    April 2, 2018 at 10:27 am

    @dmsilev:

    Trump dresses that way deliberately. I think he thinks it hides his paunch.

    One more piece of evidence that he’s an idiot. He’d so much better with a bespoke suit; a good tailor would do a much better job hiding his paunch than that.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    April 2, 2018 at 10:27 am

    @Elizabelle:

    And we are left to one man, Robert Mueller (and his investigative team), with enough power to bring a bad regime down.

    This keeps me up nights. It shouldn’t be down to one person, but I hope for the sake of the entire planet he’s the right person. I’ve been meaning to do a post about that, but just thinking about it depresses me, so I keep putting it off.

  30. 30.

    dmsilev

    April 2, 2018 at 10:27 am

    @schrodingers_cat: Well, no. He probably thinks it’s working though.

    Let’s all just give fervent thanks that he hasn’t (yet) been inspired by the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. We’d have to resurrect H.P. Lovecraft to properly describe the sanity-destroying existential horror of _those_ images.

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:27 am

    @dmsilev:

    I think I’ve forgotten what ‘normal’ is like.

    I haven’t. And, that fuels my rage.

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:29 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Trump’s epic corruption must be a core pillar of the Democrats’ case against him.

    Kay has been saying this from the beginning. Get them on the corruption, and not just him, but, from top to bottom.

  33. 33.

    pat

    April 2, 2018 at 10:29 am

    @Elizabelle:

    My thought exactly.

  34. 34.

    dmsilev

    April 2, 2018 at 10:30 am

    @schrodingers_cat:

    ETA: Of all the media failures, Vichy Times is the worst. They proclaimed in October that there was no link between T and the Russians.

    Via anonymous sources, of course. Did they ever burn those sources, like reporters always piously insist they will if a source gives false information?

    Rhetorical question.

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:30 am

    New report helps explain Trump World’s many vetting failures
    04/02/18 10:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    There are 652 key positions in the executive branch that require Senate confirmation, and as of this morning, Donald Trump’s White House hasn’t nominated anyone for one-third of those posts. Making matters slightly worse, when the president does choose people for vacancies, it often seems as if the White House hasn’t made any serious attempt at vetting these nominees before they reach Capitol Hill for consideration.

    And why is Team Trump failing so spectacularly in this area? The Washington Post answered that question in amazing detail over the weekend, taking a closer look at Trump’s White House Presidential Personnel Office (PPO) and its role “hobbling the Trump administration’s efforts to place qualified people in key posts across government.”

    [T]wo office leaders have spotty records themselves: a college dropout with arrests for drunken driving and bad checks and a Marine Corps reservist with arrests for assault, disorderly conduct, fleeing an officer and underage drinking.

    The Presidential Personnel Office (PPO) is little known outside political circles. But it has far-reaching influence as a gateway for the appointed officials who carry out the president’s policies and run federal agencies.

    Under President Trump, the office was launched with far fewer people than in prior administrations. It has served as a refuge for young campaign workers, a stopover for senior officials on their way to other posts and a source of jobs for friends and family, a Washington Post investigation found. One senior staffer has had four relatives receive appointments through the office.

  36. 36.

    MomSense

    April 2, 2018 at 10:31 am

    @Elizabelle:

    I so want a house cleaning with perp walks and mascara streaked faces.

    I think Mueller’s got him by his nether comb over and he is starting to figure this out. He has always gotten away with it until now.

    The problem is what he may do as he feels increasingly trapped. I hope we survive it.

  37. 37.

    Snarkworth, short-fingered Bulgarian

    April 2, 2018 at 10:32 am

    @rikyrah: Interesting. Thank you.

  38. 38.

    cynthia ackerman

    April 2, 2018 at 10:32 am

    Said the Kremlin aid, “When our presidents we[re] talking on the telephone …”

  39. 39.

    MomSense

    April 2, 2018 at 10:33 am

    @rikyrah:

    Trump and his team drained the $wamp alright – right into their own pockets.

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:35 am

    Winnie Mandela has passed away at the age of 81.
    RIP.

  41. 41.

    NotMax

    April 2, 2018 at 10:36 am

    Putin can bring along the latest version of The Thing.

  42. 42.

    MomSense

    April 2, 2018 at 10:37 am

    @rikyrah:

    What’s worse is I haven’t forgotten what extraordinary is like and to go from stellar to hell is traumatic.

  43. 43.

    Spanky

    April 2, 2018 at 10:37 am

    This is going to be a weird week — I can feel it.

    LOLOLOLOL. What week of the last 74 or so hasn’t?

    And yet we persist.

  44. 44.

    MomSense

    April 2, 2018 at 10:38 am

    @cynthia ackerman:

    Let me guess which of the double entendres they meant.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:38 am

    “If either Congress or a court holds that Trump must give up certain parts of his operations (or segregate any monies… from foreign governments), he may finally need to decide whether the presidency is worth giving up parts of his financial empire.” https://t.co/6vgRIA97rX

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 2, 2018

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    April 2, 2018 at 10:41 am

    @MomSense:

    I so want a house cleaning with perp walks and mascara streaked faces.

    A few unexpected suicides wouldn’t hurt either. Real ones, not the kind Putin arranges.

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    April 2, 2018 at 10:44 am

    @Roger Moore:

    I prefer long jail sentences.

  48. 48.

    Mike in NC

    April 2, 2018 at 10:45 am

    Those Russians distracted Fat Bastard with a large chocolate chip cookie while they made sure the hidden cameras and microphones were working correctly.

  49. 49.

    patrick II

    April 2, 2018 at 10:47 am

    But here, he looks like a supplicant

    He looks like the new kid awkwardly trying to be one of the guys. The supplicant comes out when he meets Putin. At times he looks like he wants to roll over on his back and show Putin his belly like a good dog.

  50. 50.

    mainmata

    April 2, 2018 at 10:48 am

    @yastreblyansky: Ironically, he has that blotched face, out-of-it look of someone who is a chronic drunk even though he doesn’t evidently drink (but apparently neither did W while President…hmm maybe/maybe not).

    Anyway, it is abundantly clear that he is totally owned and controlled by Putin and I interpret this photo as Lavrov and Kislyak as being awkwardly embarrassed by having this unexpectedly really stupid mole they need to handle who is the President of their country’s major rival power and OMG I don’t think that they knew what to do then. Since then, of course, Pooty has been behaving very badly and has handled his mole very well.

    Thanks to our GOP Congress for endlessly screwing this country over.

  51. 51.

    GregB

    April 2, 2018 at 10:50 am

    It is just so demoralizing watching the gross and blatant greed and corruption and outright racist policies that are enveloping the US government.

    Then there is the architecture of propaganda that is getting built.

    There there are the millions who hope to benefit from this all and when and if they don’t are ready to make others pay for them missing out on the looting spree.

    Perilous times.

  52. 52.

    FlipYrWhig

    April 2, 2018 at 10:51 am

    @Roger Moore:

    a good tailor would do a much better job hiding his paunch than that.

    For a (supposedly) rich guy, he is hella cheap.

    You’ve probably heard of body dysmorphic disorder, but Trump has the world’s first case of body eumorphic disorder: the obsessive idea that one’s own appearance is flawless and magnificent.

  53. 53.

    FlipYrWhig

    April 2, 2018 at 10:52 am

    @mainmata: It really does look like the face of someone who’s struggling not to say, “What’s so funny?”

  54. 54.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 2, 2018 at 10:52 am

    @mainmata:

    Ironically, he has that blotched face, out-of-it look of someone who is a chronic drunk even though he doesn’t evidently drink

    IIRC gin blossoms are from chronic capillary issues, easily also caused by hypertension, obesity, diabetes, other things that in any sane universe Trump would have.

    Then again, we haven’t lived in a sane universe since David Bowie died, as he was singlehandedly holding everything together.

  55. 55.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 10:55 am

    @MomSense:

    The problem is what he may do as he feels increasingly trapped. I hope we survive it.

    I fear a nuclear strike. I seriously fear it.

    And, because I do…
    I mean it when I say it…
    Those who put us in this position..
    WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN.

  56. 56.

    Barbara

    April 2, 2018 at 10:56 am

    @GregB: Yes. I just returned from vacation and it’s like I have to rebuild my protective coating for not getting demoralized by the onslaught.

    Also, the stock market is tanking, presumably as a result of Chinese tariffs and the general escalation of trade war tactics.

  57. 57.

    randy khan

    April 2, 2018 at 10:56 am

    Weird by pre-2016 standards or weird by current standards is what I want to know.

    I haven’t read the tweets, but I find myself imagining something about how DACA is tied to the deal that Amazon gets from the USPS and that it all could be fixed if the Dems weren’t getting in the way of what Sinclair wants to do.

  58. 58.

    mainmata

    April 2, 2018 at 10:58 am

    @Betty Cracker: This is what bothers me too. The GOP Congress is a body of treason abettors and their leaders should be, in fact, indicted for treason (when it all comes out) but, of course, they won’t be.

    We continue to drift into a state of anarchy somehow combined with autocracy. Bizarre.

  59. 59.

    MomSense

    April 2, 2018 at 10:58 am

    @rikyrah:

    It’s not an irrational fear with him. I’ll never get over the people and entities who enabled him or the voters who inflicted this horror on the world. I’ll never forgive them for this. Never.

  60. 60.

    Barbara

    April 2, 2018 at 10:59 am

    @randy khan: It’s just bizarro world. There is no logic. It’s an alternative reality that he constructs day to day based on random FoxNews pieces.

  61. 61.

    trollhattan

    April 2, 2018 at 11:00 am

    @Elizabelle:
    McConnell’s most treasonous act was to install in the USSC the guy who will protect him, so it looks like Turtle is safe for the foreseeable future.

  62. 62.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 11:02 am

    @rikyrah: Trump only hires the Best People.//

  63. 63.

    Elizabelle

    April 2, 2018 at 11:03 am

    @mainmata: Don’t say that. They very well could be indicted (convicted, I cannot say) and they will be dealt with harshly.

    I would like to see a lot of serious prison for a lot of people. Mercers, politicians, operatives, everyone who fucked with our elections and accepted illegal cash and fomented corruption.

    We may not get the media help the Parkland kids did, but this is just as important to march and mass for.

    Anyone who cannot get the danger we face is goddamned ignorant. And sadly, we have whole industries working to keep them that way.

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    April 2, 2018 at 11:03 am

    @randy khan:
    Anybody who thinks Trump has or ever had any intention of preserving DACA has been drinking the TrumpAde. He hates it, hates those it protects, and will dangle it as bait in front of the Democrats so long as they respond. Fund his fucking wall and it’s still gone. This ain’t rocket surgery.

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    April 2, 2018 at 11:05 am

    @trollhattan: I hope he is not. I wonder what John Roberts and the others think about this.

    Situations can change. See “Parkland.”

    That is a stolen Supreme Court seat. It is unprecedented. Cannot let them get away with it, once all has played out.

  66. 66.

    manyakitty

    April 2, 2018 at 11:06 am

    @rikyrah: Maybe this can be his excuse to cut and run. Uncle Vlady can take him home to Mother Russia after his visit.

  67. 67.

    d58826

    April 2, 2018 at 11:07 am

    Der Fuhrer going on and on about how great he is and oh yes something about Easter eggs. FLOTUS looks like she would like to be in a galaxy far far away. The stuffed rabbit seemed happy though.

    https://twitter.com/ABC/status/980819999785811970

  68. 68.

    manyakitty

    April 2, 2018 at 11:09 am

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Then again, we haven’t lived in a sane universe since David Bowie died, as he was singlehandedly holding everything together.

    No kidding. Noooooo kidding.

  69. 69.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 11:09 am

    @trollhattan: I don’t think Nancy and Chuck will deal with him at this point, they got burned once.

  70. 70.

    d58826

    April 2, 2018 at 11:10 am

    @Elizabelle:

    Situations can change. See “Parkland

    Between 1994-2004 there was an assault weapon ban. Did we have any mass shootings (school or otherwise) during those 10 years?

  71. 71.

    manyakitty

    April 2, 2018 at 11:11 am

    @Elizabelle: Round ’em up and send them all to Gitmo.

  72. 72.

    Thoughtful David

    April 2, 2018 at 11:11 am

    @trollhattan:
    True. I think he’s making a mistake with these latest tweets, though. Once you kill the hostages, your bargaining power goes way down.

  73. 73.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 2, 2018 at 11:12 am

    @d58826: We had Columbine.

  74. 74.

    trollhattan

    April 2, 2018 at 11:12 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    I hope not. Neither is a fool and any hopes of Trump being moderated by those around him can be tossed into the congressional dumpster. He cans anybody who doesn’t tell him how amazing he is, hourly.

  75. 75.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 11:17 am

    @trollhattan:

    He cans anybody who doesn’t tell him how amazing he is, hourly.

    Remember his first cabinet meeting?

  76. 76.

    mad citizen

    April 2, 2018 at 11:19 am

    Trump is Col. Klink from Hogan’s Heroes, only with twitter.

  77. 77.

    randy khan

    April 2, 2018 at 11:19 am

    @trollhattan:

    I agree – if he actually wanted DACA to stay in place, he wouldn’t have done any one of about 25 things he’s done to undermine it, starting with his original announcement that he’d decided it was illegal.

  78. 78.

    Leto

    April 2, 2018 at 11:20 am

    @d58826: Glad to see Sean Spicer can still find work.

  79. 79.

    clay

    April 2, 2018 at 11:22 am

    @Roger Moore:

    He’d so much better with a bespoke suit; a good tailor would do a much better job hiding his paunch than that.

    That would require:

    a) money. Trump is notoriously cheap, even though he can ostensibly afford better. See: his meal choices, the sorry state of his hotels, etc.

    b) patience. He would have to stand still for a fitting. This is a man who (apparently) won’t wait long enough for his self-tanner to work properly, which is why he’s unnaturally orange. No way he’s going to get properly fitted when an off-the-rack suit will “be just fine”.

  80. 80.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 2, 2018 at 11:27 am

    I love this headline from TPM, “swing district”

    Swing-District Rep. Donovan Accused Of Helping Girlfriend’s Son After Heroin Bust

    And if Donovan is who I think he is– a bellowing, cement-headed loudmouth who makes Peter King look like Daniel Webster– I really hope he goes down. One thing that surprises me

    Donovan has been dating Serena Stonick, O’Connell’s mother, since 2011, and the two have a child together.

    I figured Donovan would be a professional Catholic type, and a “child out of wedlock” would still matter to Rs in Staten Island

  81. 81.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 11:27 am

    @clay: Apparently his reason for his meal choices is that he likes pre-prepared food that’s anonymous because he’s afraid of being poisoned*.

    *Then again, McDonald’s?

  82. 82.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 11:30 am

    Dow down 314

  83. 83.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 2, 2018 at 11:30 am

    @d58826:

    To quote the inestimable GWB: “Well, that was some weird shit.”

  84. 84.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 2, 2018 at 11:32 am

    @rikyrah: business reporter on NPR says China will be going after soybeans later this week. Maybe trump and Chuck Grassley will be having a demented-old-man twitter-fight by Friday.

  85. 85.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    April 2, 2018 at 11:34 am

    @Mike in NC: No joke. There is no question in my mind that Trump was told to bug the Oval Office by putting something on his desk. (Not that he knows, to him it’s just a singing snow globe that says “with love from Vlad”).

    The question I’ve been wondering is whether the US has ears in the Oval Office. I hope so, even though keeping secrets from the guy whose ass fills that chair is technically illegal and a very bad precedent.

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 2, 2018 at 11:39 am

    @clay:

    This is a man who (apparently) won’t wait long enough for his self-tanner to work properly, which is why he’s unnaturally orange.

    Similarly, according to Ivanka, with the hair-coloring. From Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury:

    The color, she would point out to comical effect, was from a product called Just for Men—the longer it was left on, the darker it got. Impatience resulted in Trump’s orange-blond hair color.

  87. 87.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 11:43 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Just for Men

    Cause, if you use the stuff for the ladies your junk will fall off.

  88. 88.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 11:44 am

    I believe that the kids have hit the RW hard because it’s the gun issue.
    I have long said that the RW is mad, despite controlling Congress and the White House..
    Because, so many of us on this side, said, OH HELL NO.
    PHUCK YOU.
    We have NOT gotten over the election.
    We have NOT forgiven anyone who made this possible.
    And, we have been pulling receipts about 44 and his entire family, when they pull that, ‘ but, you should respect the Office of the Presidency’ bullshyt.

    They are mad.
    The MSM, despite the numerous articles about the deplorables, are shook too.
    We tolerate them, at first. Now, we’re telling them, stop with this bullshyt. We don’t give two shyts about these people, and we understand them quite fine.

    They are so used to our side turning the other cheek. Not only have we not shown any cheeks, but we’re standing here with a 2 by 4, ready to ‘talk’ to anyone asking us to do it.

    It’s not 2000.
    It’s not 2004, after Shrub lied us into TWO wars.
    This is on a whole other level, and the MSM, along with the RW, doesn’t grasp it.

    But now, one of their solid pilars – this gun bullshyt, is finally under attack.
    The kids are who we’ve been waiting for – and, we have their backs, and it scares them to no end.

  89. 89.

    Major Major Major Major

    April 2, 2018 at 11:46 am

    @schrodingers_cat: @d58826: there is inconclusive/negative evidence that the assault weapons ban decreased violent crime or homicide; while it did decrease deaths due to assault weapons, I don’t recall whether it decreased overall firearms deaths but I’m sure that is at the link.

  90. 90.

    Leto

    April 2, 2018 at 11:46 am

    @rikyrah: 475 and continuing to drop. I honestly hopes this breaks the “we need a CEO to run everything” myth forever. They had their chance, it’s pretty much an abject failure, stop doubling down on the bull$hit mantra.

  91. 91.

    Felanius Kootea

    April 2, 2018 at 11:47 am

    RIP Winnie Mandela. The obituaries have been brutal but I try to imagine being a 28 year old with two young daughters to raise, banned from working by the same apartheid government that put my husband away for 27 years. I don’t think I’d emerge from that experience as a well-adjusted 55 year-old. I admire her courage and defiance and wish many things had turned out differently for her. She started out as South Africa’s first black social worker, full of promise, unbroken. The apartheid government broke her in a way they didn’t break Nelson (she was tortured and beaten while jailed for 17 months, 13 in solitary confinement). My heart aches for her daughters and grandchildren.

  92. 92.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 11:47 am

    Dow down 478

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 11:51 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    business reporter on NPR says China will be going after soybeans later this week.

    Oh well…elections have consequences.

  94. 94.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 11:52 am

    @rikyrah: I’m tired of all the Winning.

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 2, 2018 at 11:52 am

    the guy who’s too nutty for regular Fox

    Max Tani @ maxwelltani
    Lou Dobbs has been on speaker phone during White House meetings on issue like trade and taxes.
    Per @swin24, Trump has even cut off WH officials so Dobbs can get a word in.

    Dobbs, these sources all independently recounted, has been patched in to senior-level meetings on issues such as trade and tax policy—meetings that featured officials such as senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, former top economic adviser Gary Cohn, former chief strategist Steve Bannon, trade adviser Peter Navarro, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

    There is no limit to the shit Mnuchin will eat for this man

  96. 96.

    Thoughtful David

    April 2, 2018 at 11:53 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:
    The Russians haven’t needed a bug in the WH–all they’ve had to do is ask. Jar-Jar had been running around to various meetings in various countries and turning over terabytes of valuable espionage. Vlad just gives Trump a call periodically to get what he needs. No need for high tech–it’s more efficient and less risky to just ask for it.

  97. 97.

    MomSense

    April 2, 2018 at 11:53 am

    @rikyrah:

    I always knew the Obama generation kids would be amazing.

  98. 98.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 2, 2018 at 11:56 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Just for Men

    Cause, if you use the stuff for the ladies your junk will fall off.

    This explains so much.

  99. 99.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    April 2, 2018 at 12:00 pm

    Sometime in the last 12 hours, Lavrov is reported to have stated that the Skripal poisoning was probably carried out by the Brits to make the Russian Federation look bad.

    I like to think that Cameron or Blair would have recalled ambassadors and lobbied POTUS for a Russian exclusion from SWIFT.

  100. 100.

    kdaug

    April 2, 2018 at 12:01 pm

    @The Moar You Know: …in the tool department

  101. 101.

    Jack the Second

    April 2, 2018 at 12:01 pm

    Usually the employee visits the boss’s office for a performance review, so this is a bit irregular, but whatever.

    Aren’t persons of interest asked not to leave the country until the investigation is complete?

  102. 102.

    prostratedragon

    April 2, 2018 at 12:04 pm

    So, I guess Papadopoulos is just a guy who regularly gets a little tipsy and blabs all kinds of things to any ol’ body who sits by him at a bar. Right.

  103. 103.

    Frankensteinbeck

    April 2, 2018 at 12:05 pm

    @MoxieM:
    Like the Syrian bombing, the diplomat expulsion turned out to be a meaningless symbol because Trump did it in a way to make sure it wouldn’t inconvenience Putin.

    @Elizabelle:
    Mueller will save no one. We must save ourselves at the ballot box. We CAN do it. Mueller’s job is to sweep up the trash afterwards.

  104. 104.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    April 2, 2018 at 12:06 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’ve started seeing ambulance-chaser commercials about Just For Men.

  105. 105.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 12:07 pm

    Dow down 510

  106. 106.

    The Moar You Know

    April 2, 2018 at 12:11 pm

    Between 1994-2004 there was an assault weapon ban. Did we have any mass shootings (school or otherwise) during those 10 years?

    @d58826: This is not complete, missing at least one school shooting I know of:

    Damageplan show shooting Columbus, Ohio 12/8/2004
    Lockheed Martin shooting Meridian, Mississippi 7/8/2003
    Navistar shooting Melrose Park, Illinois 2/5/2001
    Wakefield massacre Wakefield, Massachusetts 12/26/2000
    Hotel shooting Tampa, Florida 12/30/1999
    Xerox killings Honolulu, Hawaii 11/2/1999
    Wedgwood Baptist Church shooting Fort Worth, Texas 9/15/1999
    Atlanta day trading spree killings Atlanta, Georgia 7/29/1999
    Columbine High School massacre Littleton, Colorado 4/20/1999
    Thurston High School shooting Springfield, Oregon 5/21/1998
    Westside Middle School killings Jonesboro, Arkansas 3/24/1998
    Connecticut Lottery shooting Newington, Connecticut 3/6/1998
    Caltrans maintenance yard shooting Orange, California 12/18/1997
    R.E. Phelon Company shooting Aiken, South Carolina 9/15/1997
    Fort Lauderdale revenge shooting Fort Lauderdale, Florida 2/9/1996
    Walter Rossler Company massacre Corpus Christi, Texas 4/3/1995
    Air Force base shooting Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington 6/20/1994

  107. 107.

    No Drought No More

    April 2, 2018 at 12:13 pm

    If Putin really wants to have fun, he’ll order Trump to reverse course on his immigration policies. Or bark like a dog or quack like a duck on an international broadcast. What choice would Trump have but to submit to his master’s command? The defection from his ranks of those Americans who can be fooled “all the time”- as Abe charitably styled them and their their ignorance- can only effect his poll numbers. Putin can expose his treason.

  108. 108.

    Matt McIrvin

    April 2, 2018 at 12:16 pm

    @d58826: Yes, 1999 was a bad year, including Columbine. But the 1990s ban didn’t ban any already existing guns– they were grandfathered in. We can do far better than that.

  109. 109.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 12:20 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Interesting that they seem to increase from 1997 to 1999 and then fall back to one or less a year.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    April 2, 2018 at 12:29 pm

    They all look gross in that pix. Probably jeering at someone.

    I’m so, so sick of these jowly old men. Ugh. Just someone else. Anyone else. I’d literally rather the world be run by high school sophomores.

  111. 111.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    April 2, 2018 at 12:32 pm

    @No Drought No More:

    Or fuck a pig during prime time…

  112. 112.

    The Moar You Know

    April 2, 2018 at 12:33 pm

    Interesting that they seem to increase from 1997 to 1999 and then fall back to one or less a year.

    @BillinGlendaleCA: The list isn’t terribly accurate, got that from Mother Jones and they definitely missed some that I know about. Point stands: the ban didn’t stop mass shootings. I might further point out that Columbine didn’t even involve an assault rifle; pistols, a shotgun, and a carbine. Neither did the Roof shooting in South Carolina, or Hasan’s Fort Hood shooting, both were done with pistols only.

    I have no problem with banning assault weapons, nor any problem with banning any kind of semiauto rifle entirely (long overdue) but you wanna address gun violence in this country effectively, you MUST go after pistols as your primary goal. They kill by far the majority of victims.

    If it goes bang, ban it. I’m there now.

  113. 113.

    zhena gogolia

    April 2, 2018 at 12:34 pm

    @Kay:

    Me too.

  114. 114.

    Brachiator

    April 2, 2018 at 12:34 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    He’d so much better with a bespoke suit

    But he would still be Donald Trump.

  115. 115.

    ? Martin

    April 2, 2018 at 12:36 pm

    @No Drought No More:

    As it is, I’m looking forward to the stupid looks on the faces of all the stupid bastards that got the country in this mess, on whatever day it is that shoe does drop, and Trump’s treason is exposed.. Lest We Ever Forget, either: congressional republicans know it already, yet continue to aid and abet the traitor.

    In the goal for a white supremacist nation, these are the eggs they are willing to break. Any shoe that might drop will be seen as an attack on that goal and they will cast themselves as the victim.

  116. 116.

    ? Martin

    April 2, 2018 at 12:39 pm

    @The Moar You Know: I’ve decided we should adopt the ‘Repeal and replace’ approach to the 2nd Amendment. There should be some right to own guns. I wouldn’t want to live in Alaska and not own a gun. But clearly the 2nd Amendment is too vaguely worded to be useful, so let’s repeal it and replace it with something more clearly worded and more restrictive.

    ‘Repeal and replace’ should be our new mantra. The GOP love that approach after all.

  117. 117.

    debbie

    April 2, 2018 at 12:40 pm

    I’ve always been struck by this photo* of Trump’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak the day after he (Trump) canned Comey:

    To me, he looks like a kid who was just invited to sit at the grownups’ table for the first time.

  118. 118.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 12:41 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    you MUST go after pistols as your primary goal.

    Then you’re doomed to failure, that ain’t gonna happen. What’s better is, treat guns like cars(license, registration and liability insurance).

  119. 119.

    Chyron HR

    April 2, 2018 at 12:41 pm

    @? Martin:

    I wouldn’t want to live in Alaska and not own a gun.

    Oh, I’m sure you’d get used to it eventually.

  120. 120.

    Frankensteinbeck

    April 2, 2018 at 12:45 pm

    @The Moar You Know:
    The less guns, the safer. I do recognize the need for a limited amount of guns in rural areas. Europeans don’t have to worry about dangerous wildlife.

  121. 121.

    debbie

    April 2, 2018 at 12:48 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    Re: Damageplan show shooting Columbus, Ohio

    The gunman used a Beretta 9 mm., not usually included in assault weapons. Also, as I recall, the shooting was the result of a fight over Pantera, nothing to do with a school.

  122. 122.

    Ruckus

    April 2, 2018 at 1:03 pm

    @The Moar You Know:
    It isn’t the suits. It’s the dummies the suits are on. Misshapen lumps of shit do not fill out a suit properly. And that’s why they look like shit, it’s exactly what they are, lumps of shit in bags.

  123. 123.

    The Moar You Know

    April 2, 2018 at 1:03 pm

    The gunman used a Beretta 9 mm., not usually included in assault weapons. Also, as I recall, the shooting was the result of a fight over Pantera, nothing to do with a school.

    @debbie: OPs question was regarding mass shootings, not school shootings. Kind of a distinction without a difference, though. Neither one stopped during the 94-04 ban.

    Most mass shootings, school or otherwise, don’t involve assault weapons, as I noted above.

  124. 124.

    Ladyraxterinok

    April 2, 2018 at 1:04 pm

    @rikyrah: Did you see that a senior HS girl in Pence’s hometown is organizing a Gay Pride celebration in the town for her required-for-graduation sr project? And David Hogg tweeted congratulations and support to her? There really is a national revolution being led by intelligent, dedicated teenagers. And it’s gaining steam!

  125. 125.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 1:07 pm

    @The Moar You Know: But what assault weapons do give you is a higher body count.

  126. 126.

    Brachiator

    April 2, 2018 at 1:07 pm

    @No Drought No More:

    As it is, I’m looking forward to the stupid looks on the faces of all the stupid bastards that got the country in this mess, on whatever day it is that shoe does drop, and Trump’s treason is exposed.. Lest We Ever Forget, either: congressional republicans know it already, yet continue to aid and abet the traitor.

    If actual evidence of Trump’s capitulation to Putin ever surfaces, the Republican leadership will beg that it be suppressed “for the good of the country.”

  127. 127.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 1:11 pm

    @Ladyraxterinok:
    love this!

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    April 2, 2018 at 1:12 pm

    @Brachiator:
    What’s the old saying, can’t dress up a pig?
    That’s the problem here. Bespoke, not bespoke, doesn’t matter. I used to know a Savile Row trained tailor. Made some very fine suits. Some/most very, very fine. But he could only do so much with Savile Row camouflaging, the inside had to be at least close to the same level of fine. And these are not fine examples of what insides it takes to make a good suit look good.

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 1:12 pm

    Zinke’s Interior Dept Disproportionately Reassigned Native American Workers
    By Alice Ollstein | April 2, 2018 6:00 am

    Nearly a third of the senior Interior Department (DOI) career officials reassigned under Secretary Ryan Zinke in a major agency reshuffling are Native American, even though Native Americans make up less than 10 percent of the Department’s workforce, a review by TPM has found.

    The finding comes days after Democratic lawmakers demanded an investigation into whether Zinke discriminated when he reassigned 33 career officials last summer, and follows on reports that Zinke has repeatedly told DOI officials he doesn’t care about diversity — which prompted one member of Congress to accuse Zinke of working to create a “lily-white department.”

    Former government officials tell TPM that they see the reassignment of top Native American staffers as part of an effort to remove internal opposition to Zinke’s plan to open up more tribal and public lands to the fossil fuel industry.

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/zinkes-interior-dept-disproportionately-purged-native-american-workers

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 1:13 pm

    Dow down 527

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 1:15 pm

    With $538k And Counting, McCabe To Stop Accepting Legal Defense Fund Money
    By Matt Shuham | April 2, 2018 11:45 am

    Andrew McCabe, the recently fired former FBI deputy director, announced Monday that he would cease accepting donations for his legal defense fund at 7:00 p.m. ET after raising more than three times his original goal.

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe last month, days before McCabe would have been eligible for his pension, for making “an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lack[ing] candor – including under oath – on multiple occasions.”

    At press time, the legal defense fund, hosted on a GoFundMe page, had raised $538,246, with donations flowing in every couple minutes.

    “The outpouring of support on GoFundMe has been simply overwhelming and has led to contributions that have left us stunned and extraordinarily grateful,” McCabe said in a statement Monday (read the full statement below). “The GoFundMe campaign began organically, with generous people spontaneously giving to accounts that others had set up.”

  132. 132.

    tobie

    April 2, 2018 at 1:15 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I just got home from the doctor’s office and find out the DOW is in free fall. I guess we have the Trump/Dobbs/Wilbur Ross trade war to thank for this.

  133. 133.

    d58826

    April 2, 2018 at 1:17 pm

    @The Moar You Know: thanks for the research. And yes I was thinking specifically AR15 type weapons. Obviously you can do a lot of damage with a 9mm hand gun and a couple of spare clips/magazines.

    All of these killings are the result of a chain of events in the shooter’s life. No way we can protect ourselves from that chain of events. BUT if we pull out the link labeled ‘gun’ we can certainly reduce the damage done.

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 1:18 pm

    Scalia’s Goal Of Unwinding Voter Protections Is Becoming A Reality
    By Richard L. Hasen | April 2, 2018 11:07 am

    In a Supreme Court term already bursting with election cases, from two partisan gerrymandering disputes to a fight about the permissibility of Ohio’s voter purges to a lawsuit challenging bans on political clothing in Minnesota polling places, it’s easy to overlook yet another significant voting appeal the Court will hear later this month. In Abbott v. Perez, the Court will examine whether the state of Texas violated the Voting Rights Act and the United States Constitution when it drew congressional and state legislative district lines in ways that hurt Latino and African-American voters. The protracted and difficult litigation involves redistricting plans from way back in 2011 and shows how much was lost when the Supreme Court killed another key provision of the Voting Rights Act in its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder case.

    Abbott v. Perez could well preview what’s likely to come in the next few years. All three branches of government have pulled back on protecting voting rights, and the effects of that move are becoming clear. We may soon fulfill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s vision of an emasculated Voting Rights Act and much weaker protections for minority voters by the federal courts.

  135. 135.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 1:20 pm

    Future Onion Headline: “Putin asks, why are all these Republicans suddenly sucking my dick?”

  136. 136.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 1:22 pm

    Steven Bochco, RIP.

    Man, he was a part of my TV Viewing days.

  137. 137.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 1:26 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Or fuck a pig during prime time…

    Hasn’t Melania suffered enough?

  138. 138.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 1:28 pm

    Down down 608

  139. 139.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 1:28 pm

    @Chyron HR:

    Oh, I’m sure you’d get used to it eventually.

    Surrounded by climate-change denying Republicans and starving polar bears?

  140. 140.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    April 2, 2018 at 1:29 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    Once had to be too many.

  141. 141.

    Ruckus

    April 2, 2018 at 1:30 pm

    @manyakitty:
    What possible reason would Vlad want the shitgibbon in Russia? Possibly on a leash as a pet? Possibly to show off how strong he is, because he got him elected and he owns drumpf? None of those are as reasonable to Vlad over keeping him right where he is, fucking up Vlad’s opposition from the inside. And Vlad doesn’t even have to do a lot, drumpf is capable on his own of completely fucking up the US.

    For Vlad, keeping his toady right where he is is best.

  142. 142.

    Ab_Normal (at work)

    April 2, 2018 at 1:31 pm

    @MobiusKlein: You rang? ;)

  143. 143.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 1:32 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Down down 608

    And this is just a 3 billion opening shot tariff from China.

    Imagine the bloodshed the moment that soybeans and corn are mentioned.

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    April 2, 2018 at 1:34 pm

    @mad citizen:

    Trump is Col. Klink from Hogan’s Heroes, only with twitter.

    That is a low blow. Very low.
    Col Klink would like a word about being compared to the utter waste of oxygen in the WH that you libeled him with.

  145. 145.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 1:34 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    I want a full housecleaning after this. Including jail terms. (You know I want Mitch McConnell to swing for this. It is treason. He colluded to prevent full and free elections. And who knows what we will see on the financial end.)

    I think we as a nation are going to have to officially brand the Republican party a terrorist organization going forward.

  146. 146.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 1:34 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    And this is just a 3 billion opening shot tariff from China.

    Imagine the bloodshed the moment that soybeans and corn are mentioned.

    uh uh uh

  147. 147.

    Spanky

    April 2, 2018 at 1:35 pm

    Yeah, the kidzz these days are doing pretty great things. Back when I was their age, all I did was stupid shit.

    Say what now?

    Imagine uncoiling a condom and stuffing it up one side of your nose, then plugging the other nostril and inhaling until the long piece of latex slides into your throat. Then what? You reach back and pull it from your mouth.

    Why would someone do that?

    Apparently for the same reason young people have dared each other to pour salt in their hands and hold ice until it burns, douse themselves in rubbing alcohol and set themselves on fire, or bite into colorful liquid laundry detergent packets.

    So when the WaPo’s topics across the top included “Condom Snorting”, you know I had to click.

    And regarding the stock market falling – it’s been expected for months, it’s done it 2-3 times in the past few weeks, and Trump vs the Chinese on tariffs. So no surprises.

  148. 148.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 1:36 pm

    @clay:

    Trump is notoriously cheap, even though he can ostensibly afford better. See: his meal choices, the sorry state of his hotels, etc.

    To be fair, its a rare man who wastes filet mignon by burning them into inedibility.

  149. 149.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 1:37 pm

    @Ruckus: Col Klink’s dad was the conductor of the LA Philharmonic.

  150. 150.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    @Spanky:

    it’s done it 2-3 times in the past few weeks

    Uh, its done it a lot more then that once Trump decided to let his freak flags fly since Feb.

  151. 151.

    Kay

    April 2, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    Matt Pearce ?
    ‏Verified account
    @mattdpearce
    3h3 hours ago
    More
    A former Sinclair journalist sent me a screenshot of their contract. “I couldn’t leave because of this part of my contract.”

    It’s amazing. Sinclair gets money damages from the employee if the employee quits rather than read propaganda. 40% of annual salary plus a multiplier in certain situations.

  152. 152.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 2, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    @rikyrah: I was told that trade wars are good and are easily won.

  153. 153.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 1:40 pm

    @NotMax:

    Putin can bring along the latest version of The Thing.

    What kind of marketing department decided that naming their product after a well known murderous shapeshifting alien in the Arctic was a good branding?

  154. 154.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 1:41 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I was told that trade wars are good and are easily won.

    It will be a short victorious war. //

  155. 155.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 1:42 pm

    @Kay:

    Sinclair gets money damages from the employee if the employee quits rather than read propaganda.

    Its official then.

    We are trapped in 1984.

  156. 156.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 1:47 pm

    Dow down 670

  157. 157.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 2, 2018 at 1:47 pm

    @Spanky: I think there must be secret internet platform where teens plan conspiracies like this. “What horse shit thing should we tell the olds we’re doing to freak them out?”

  158. 158.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 2, 2018 at 1:48 pm

    @rikyrah: a great day for someone to hack the Beast’s twitter account and repost some of his “Look at the stock market!” stuff

  159. 159.

    rikyrah

    April 2, 2018 at 1:48 pm

    @Kay:

    thanks for the info, Kay.

    Will spread the word.

  160. 160.

    Ruckus

    April 2, 2018 at 1:49 pm

    @rikyrah:
    What scares the MSM is that the kids don’t need them. At all. The kids have an instant messaging system, in fact a few of them. They know what is going on better than the MSM and faster. Their world doesn’t depend on the MSM for anything. The MSM will be obsolete in the near future, and they know it. Will the kids stop using their methods of communication when the get older? I doubt it. Look what the MSM actually gives you. It’s gossip with some explosions once in a while. The kids have that and they get to control it. They aren’t going to give that up. The MSM will continue to speak to a smaller and smaller audience until they run out of any customers. They are running scared that they are rapidly becoming irrelevant. And they should be but because they are who they are they can’t change to even attempt to capture the younger audience. And they won’t. They are successful old farts and successful old farts have blinders on the size of small states because their way has been successful. When it stops being successful, they have no idea what to do. It’s why you see them continue to go in the wrong directions, they don’t know anything else and like most old farts aren’t willing to learn.

  161. 161.

    ruemara

    April 2, 2018 at 1:51 pm

    This is a dictatorship and he’s stopping by for a site visit to review documents and talk to his underling.

    Not sure how it’s still a question. I think every piece of intel is completely compromised by this traitor and his team. You’re going to have to clean the whole fucking government, prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law and rebuild, rewrite and restructure the IC, the law & all levels of government after this. And that’s if you get it back in 2018. If you don’t, you’ve fucked the world for a good generation or 2.

  162. 162.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 2, 2018 at 1:51 pm

    @Kay: IANAL, but this is what I was wondering about

    Renato Mariotti @ renato_mariotti
    This provision is very likely unenforceable. Sinclair journalists who want to discuss this provision can reach out to me.

  163. 163.

    Ruckus

    April 2, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    @Kay:

    I’d literally rather the world be run by high school sophomores.

    The chances that those HS sophomores would be able to do a 10,000% better job than the current occupant of the WH are extremely good so I’ll second your idea.

  164. 164.

    Jay C

    April 2, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    Dow down 653 now.

    Though (just as an opinion) – the index has only “lost” back down to its levels of last fall: after which the Dow was pumped up to new heights – so sellers have about a year or more of profits to take and still be ahead of the game.
    If it dips below 23,500 or so for any length of time without rebounding, however, then the fecal matter is definitely on course for projected impact with the impellr….

  165. 165.

    jimmiraybob

    April 2, 2018 at 1:58 pm

    The important question is will Vlad be in the reviewing stand for the big spring military parade?

  166. 166.

    prostratedragon

    April 2, 2018 at 2:00 pm

    @TenguPhule: compare off the top of my head Cerberus investment fund, the Macondo oil prospect, probably others. They either have a tin literary ear, or just love fucking with us.

  167. 167.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    @ruemara:

    If you don’t, you’ve fucked the world for a good generation or 2.

    I believe the classical version is seven generations down.

    And they were optimists.

  168. 168.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    @prostratedragon:

    They either have a tin literary ear, or just love fucking with us.

    I am convinced this is true.

  169. 169.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 2:04 pm

    @Kay:

    I’d literally rather the world be run by high school sophomores.

    Depends, are we talking D&D high school sophomores or Ayn Rand high school sophomores?

  170. 170.

    Spanky

    April 2, 2018 at 2:05 pm

    @Ruckus:

    The chances that those HS sophomores would be able to do a 10,000% better job than the current occupant of the WH while snorting condoms are extremely good so I’ll second your idea.

    Minor adjustment. And seconded.

  171. 171.

    Ruckus

    April 2, 2018 at 2:08 pm

    @Spanky:
    I’m no expert or anything but I’d expect one’s attention to be what, maybe elsewhere if snorting a condom but then at least they might still have an attention span. So I’m giving them 5,000% better while doing that. Still good odds.

    ETA I wonder if when I was a teen condoms were hidden so that kids wouldn’t get the idea to snort them? Or if the old farts were just afraid that kids would think that safe fucking was OK. Oh well, we’ll never know.

  172. 172.

    Spanky

    April 2, 2018 at 2:11 pm

    @Jay C: Given that the current White House occupant is actively working to wreck the economy via trade wars, tariffs, and twitter-trashing major American corporations (Amazon, today), I’d say we’re in for a rough ride.

    I went to mostly cash immediately before the inauguration, having wildly underestimated the market’s capacity for denial, and missed out on the runup to where we are were.

  173. 173.

    Brachiator

    April 2, 2018 at 2:13 pm

    @Ruckus:

    What scares the MSM is that the kids don’t need them. At all. The kids have an instant messaging system, in fact a few of them. They know what is going on better than the MSM and faster. Their world doesn’t depend on the MSM for anything. The MSM will be obsolete in the near future, and they know it.

    This cuts a number of ways. The old MSM is going away, but it’s unclear as to what will replace it. Instant messaging is not journalism. It’s not even news. The MSM gives you gossip with some explosions. Instant messaging gives you Kim Kardasshian’s ass, spam and selfies. Instant messaging is reactive and kids control that very well. But you also have governments that seek to control or monitor social media, to demand back door access to devices, and to destroy net neutrality and shift control of the Internet to corporate entities.

    I applaud the kids who use Instant messaging and social media like 21st century versions of the pamphleteering that Alexander Hamilton and his buddies used. Everything old is new again. But it is just a few of many arrows in the Information Age quiver.

  174. 174.

    Ruckus

    April 2, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    @Spanky:
    I went to all cash during the recession, because I had no choice. I’ve stayed all cash ever since and I find it refreshing that I was ahead of the curve for once.

  175. 175.

    Ruckus

    April 2, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    @Brachiator:
    The MSM has long been only a gossip column. Some segments worse than others of course but look at what the main stream media puts out for content. There are places that do what we think of as journalism but the MSM isn’t often part of that, and getting less and less as the days go by. Sure internet communications are under attack and kids are going to use it to teach each other to snort condoms, but really, how is that a lot different from what’s on your TV or in your newspapers every day? Important news? What important news have you gotten from the main stream media in the last 30 days?

    ETA My suggestion that the MSM will disappear doesn’t mean in the next year, but as the HS kids of today become the adults in charge. That’s still a rather rapid change, in a historical context.

  176. 176.

    Brachiator

    April 2, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    @Ruckus:

    The MSM has long been only a gossip column.

    This simply is not true. The media is not a monolith, even though it’s nice to pretend that this is the case for media bashing purposes.

    There are places that do what we think of as journalism but the MSM isn’t often part of that

    Whenever I ask commenters where they go for journalism, typically I am offered opinion sites. This is not journalism, and the opinion and analysis sites typically depend on some mainstream site for their analyses.

    Sure internet communications are under attack and kids are going to use it to teach each other to snort condoms, but really, how is that a lot different from what’s on your TV or in your newspapers every day? Important news? What important news have you gotten from the main stream media in the last 30 days?

    I got news about China’s impositions of tariffs from traditional news sources, as did anyone who composed a Twitter post or Instant Message or included it in their FaceBook feed.

    ETA My suggestion that the MSM will disappear doesn’t mean in the next year, but as the HS kids of today become the adults in charge. That’s still a rather rapid change, in a historical context.

    I follow sites like Newspaper Death Watch to track the accelerating death of newspapers and magazines. That mainstream media is dying is old news. Much of it deserves to die. Some is dying because audiences are fleeing. But good journalism is not easy or cheap, and new models are not yet self-sustaining. I know quite a number of good journalists who lost jobs as a result of newsroom layoffs and tried to start online news sites which could not build a sustaining subscriber base.

    On top of this, you have Murdoch and Sinclair Broadcasting, which are eager to serve as right wing propaganda organs, with no pretense of honesty or integrity. Unfortunately, these properties have lots of right wing money to sustain them, and they are desperately trying to expand beyond their core demographics in order to try to influence the larger public.

  177. 177.

    Kayla Rudbek

    April 2, 2018 at 4:24 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: and some of the men’s hair dyes still have lead salts in them. I’m surprised that those are still legal.

  178. 178.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 4:30 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Apparently his reason for his meal choices is that he likes pre-prepared food that’s anonymous because he’s afraid of being poisoned*.

    *Then again, McDonald’s?

    To be fair, nobody would ever think of adding poison to Mcdonalds offerings.

  179. 179.

    Jay

    April 2, 2018 at 4:43 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Canadian’s don’t worry about dangerous wildlife.

  180. 180.

    SgrAstar

    April 2, 2018 at 5:07 pm

    @clay: little known fact: trump’s suits are Brioni, and they’re not cheap. He just doesn’t have any taste. He *wants* to look this way in his expensive, ill-fittin suits. Lipstick on a pig, guys… lipstick on a pig.

  181. 181.

    TenguPhule

    April 2, 2018 at 5:07 pm

    @Jay:

    Canadian’s don’t worry about dangerous wildlife.

    I know this is a lie because they have moose in Canada.

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