Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

People are complicated. Love is not.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Come on, man.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  3. 3.

    TenguPhule

    I’m at peak schadenfreude.

    Event horizon, maybe. But like peak wingnut, you’re gonna eat those words.

  6. 6.

    RobertDSC-iPhone 6

    I feel like Admiral Akbar slumping in his chair in relief when he sees the Death Star blow up.

  15. 15.

    trollhattan

    @zhena gogolia:
    Same.

    An avowed pessimist I’m veddy pleased at today’s events, which I totally was not counting on. We can’t rest until Trump repeats Nixon’s final helicopter flight away from the White House and out of our lives.

  18. 18.

    Mary G

    Stop the Kavanaugh hearings!
    Stop the Kavanaugh hearings!
    Stop the Kavanaugh hearings!
    Stop the Kavanaugh hearings!
    Stop the Kavanaugh hearings!
    Stop the Kavanaugh hearings!
    Stop the Kavanaugh hearings!
    Stop the Kavanaugh hearings!
    Stop the Kavanaugh hearings!
    — Paola Mendoza (@paolamendoza) August 21, 2018

  19. 19.

    lamh36

    @lamh36:

    @frankthorp
    29m29 minutes ago
    More
    Sen @LindseyGrahamSC on the Manafort conviction: “none of them suggested he colluded with the Russians, but it does suggest that he was, you know, a tainted businessman.”

    @frankthorp
    Follow Follow @frankthorp
    More
    GRAHAM: “I don’t know how much you can expect President Trump to know about his business practices before he signed on. But I do believe that if the government knew Manafort was a shady character they should have told the Trump campaign…

    Soooo we’ve lost the EDIT function?

  20. 20.

    Schlemazel

    @TenguPhule:
    From your lips to His noodly appendages!

    The Cohen thing is HUGE, the Manafort thing (at this point) is big & happy time but the “unnamed candidate” bit from Cohen is a knife into the teeny black heart of Tronald Dump. Tomorrows tweets should be a thing of beauty!

  21. 21.

    Mike in NC

    Lost by all the breaking news is that protestors at UNC-Chapel Hill knocked down a particularly ugly Confederate statue nicknamed “Silent Sam” today. Former GOP governor and current ratfucker Pat McCrory had a sad on his radio show and called the protestors Nazis. Projection again with these fools.

  22. 22.

    schrodingers_cat

    Question for BJ hive mind:
    WTF is a white nationalist? Is there a white nation? Its too kind a name for these losery losers who want to relive a past that never existed.

  23. 23.

    SRW1

    @lamh36:

    if the government knew Manafort was a shady character they should have told the Trump campaign

    Without a doubt It’s all Obama’s fault! He let Trump down.

  24. 24.

    Yarrow

    I’m at peak schadenfreude.

    Oh, not yet. Just wait until it’s the eldest three Trump kids’ turn. Schadenfreude still to come.

  27. 27.

    Jim

    Not long ago, I looked up schadenfreude, weltschmerz, ennui, and angst, to see which one I had. Turned out it was all of them.

  30. 30.

    opiejeanne

    @eemom: Me too. I don’t know what to do with myself or how to be this afternoon. Last week I felt how surreal this has all been, after I read yet another ridiculous transcript of a speech (coal is doing great) or another tweet. I just had to walk away for a few days and tune it out just to get my equilibrium back. I mean, it’s dizzying to pay attention to any of these people on the right, but especially Trump.

    The news is coming almost too fast for me to absorb.

  32. 32.

    ByHookorbyCrook

    I did not expect to see Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator before the midterms. I do not know where this will be going, but profiles in courage, like Lindsey, show a lot heads retreating into asses for the duration.

  34. 34.

    Yarrow

    @Baud: Oh, their time is near. Tick tock you Trump traitors. Tick fucking tock.

    @schrodingers_cat: It is indeed. I have been waiting for today for ages. It’s fantastic. But it’s only the beginning.

  35. 35.

    randy khan

    I am deeply desirous of a much greater level of schadenfreude. I am hopeful that I will get that feeling so often over the next year or so that I will be confident I am spelling it correctly every time.

  38. 38.

    Mike in DC

    @Mary G: The easiest way to stop the Kavanaugh hearings is for Mueller to issue a subpoena for Trump’s testimony. Boilerplate standard legal ethics would require the nominee to promise to recuse themselves from any decision with regard to 45. And he couldn’t avoid answering whether US v Nixon is settled law. I’m about 60% certain that if Kavanaugh pledged to recuse, that 45 would pull his nomination.

  40. 40.

    A Ghost To Most

    Oooh, Nick Akerman just used that magic phrase with respect to Shitler: unindicted conspirator.

    I feel like I’m 18 again.

  41. 41.

    HeleninEire

    @Baud: The only American news I can get here is NBC live; 11:30 pm here. Looks like I’ll be watching for the first time tonight.

  42. 42.

    Nicole

    I just hope it all matters in the end. Because all the stuff that came out about Iran-Contra ended up not mattering, and all the stuff about the selling of the 2nd Iraq War ended up not mattering and you know, third time’s the charm or something. A sizable chunk of America will take white supremacy over democracy.

  45. 45.

    Schlemazel

    On a personal note I got really good news today. I was cleared to have the procedures that will eventually lead up to my diverticulectomy. It is a nasty road but the end result are going to be a huge improvement in my miserable life.

    It is almost enough to make me giddy

  47. 47.

    Mike in NC

    @schrodingers_cat: It’s a euphemism for White Supremacist for squishes who don’t like to be lumped in with neo-Nazis and Klansmen. We can’t let them get away with it.

  48. 48.

    Roger Moore

    @schrodingers_cat:

    WTF is a white nationalist? Is there a white nation?

    It’s perfectly possible to be a nationalist for a nation that doesn’t currently exist. There were German and Italian nationalists before Germany and Italy existed as countries. So a white nationalist is somebody who thinks there should be a white nation, even if there isn’t one currently.

  49. 49.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Nicole: there should be outrage all over the land, but I do think this is having more of an effect on voters’ opinions than is reflected in the polls. I think health care security, a dignified retirement and economic justice are the stronger campaign issues, but this is dragging Rs down. Not as much as it should, but it’s happening. I think.

  50. 50.

    celticdragonchick

    Eh…it’s a slow news Monday so I’ll just…wait…what the fuck just happened??!!!

  51. 51.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I may even watch the local Fox affiliate. They’ll probably have a viewer poll asking if in fact there are witches to hunt.

  53. 53.

    opiejeanne

    @raven: LOL! That was my reaction. Sarah something, but I never found out what her last name is or her field of expertise.

    I’m over on CNN now, waiting for Avenatti to speak. He’s always entertaining (No, I don’t want him to run for president unless he runs as a republican). My stomach is almost upset because of too much joy.

  57. 57.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    what a fucking day

    Mike Levine @ MLevineReports
    In other huge news, Republican congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife have been indicted by DOJ for allegedly using $250,000 in campaign money for their own personal expenses, including trips to Italy and Hawaii, and dental work.

    this guy is the junior version of RW nut job Congressman Duncan Hunter, isn’t it?

  58. 58.

    Roger Moore

    @opiejeanne:

    The news is coming almost too fast for me to absorb.

    Here’s a new piece to digest:

    Some news – Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) has been indicted along with his wife for the misuse of $250,000 worth of campaign funds and falsifying campaign finance records – full story to come shortly w/@MaeveReston— Laura Jarrett (@LauraAJarrett) August 21, 2018

    Funny how many Republicans are grifters.

  60. 60.

    JWL

    If I had to pick my peak schadenfreude moment during Watergate, it would be when The Trickster gave his farewell speech to a roomful of White House staffers, all of whom he’d been bullshitting along with the rest of the planet. Watching it, I vividly recall wondering if he was going to lose it, and break down wailing, sobbing, and shrieking. I would have enjoyyed that.. Instead the maudlin bastard invoked Teddy Roosevelt and his mother, the only surprise being that he didm’t give Checkers a shout out, too.

    Relatively speaking, the low rent Teapot Dome scandal was to Watergate what Watergate today is to Trump’s Treason*, that is, dwarfed in criminal magnitude.

    *(or whatever the hell this mess ends up being nicknamed).

  62. 62.

    eric

    CNN:

    Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife indicted in use of campaign funds for personal expenses

  66. 66.

    PPCLI

    The hits just keep coming. Representative Duncan Hunter and his wife were just indicted for converting $250,000 of campaign funds into personal cash. So now both the first (Collins) and the second Representative to endorse Trump are under indictment.

  69. 69.

    debbie

    36m ago
    17:47
    Donald Trump just spoke to reporters outside of Air Force One after landing in Charleston, West Virginia.

    He commented briefly on the Manafort guilty verdict, calling it “very sad” and noting that it had “ nothing to do” with Russian collusion.

    “We continue the witch hunt,” he said.

    Okay. If you say so.

  70. 70.

    Quaker in a Basement

    OK, so if an elected president is disqualified from nominating a supreme court justice because he has less than a year remaining in his term, what should we expect when the president has a long, long history of appointing crooks, incompetents, and partisan flunkies?

  71. 71.

    oatler.

    Matt Gierke
    ‏

    @gierke_matt
    2h2 hours ago
    More
    Replying to @chucktodd
    Please take the day off.

    I’d much rather have more informed folks like Katy Tur talking about today’s news.

    Maybe there’s a Nats game on tv you’d rather be watching?

  74. 74.

    Yarrow

    @Cheryl Rofer: Do not go to war with the FBI.

    Let’s also remember Pence was Manafort’s choice. Pence headed the transition. Pence is a traitor. Tick tock, motherfucker.

  76. 76.

    debbie

    More from Guardian Live:

    3m ago
    23:23
    Erin Durkin
    Cohen entered the courtroom on the 20th floor of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan at 4:03pm and sat at a table with his attorneys. He turned and winked at someone in the crowd. He reviewed a series of documents and shook his head repeatedly as he looked them over.

    The judge, William Pawley, asked a series of questions to establish his competence. Asked his age, Cohen said: “in four days I’ll be 52.” Asked if he had any drugs or alcohol in the last 24 hours, said yes: “last night at dinner I had a glass of glenlivit 12 on the rocks.”

    Asked if he wanted to enter a plea of guilty, Cohen said: “yes sir.”

    It was explained to Cohen that, if sentenced concurrently, he faced a total of up to 65 years and that any estimate of how much time he would get from his attorney might be inaccurate. Cohen said: “No estimate was given to me your Honor.”

    Cohen was asked to describe what he did with regard to each crime. On the first five counts, he said: “I evaded paying substantial taxes” on income he knew was omitted from his tax returns.

    On count six, he said that, in order to get approved for a home equity line of credit, he signed an application that omitted some of his liabilities.

    On count seven, the illegal corporate contribution, he said that, in the summer of 2016 – in coordination with and “at the request of” a candidate for federal office, in order “to keep an individual with information that would be harmful to the candidate and the campaign from publicly disclosing this information,” he arranged a payment through a media company of which he was the chief executive.

    “She received compensation of $150,000.” This was done “for the principle purpose of influencing the election”.

    On count eight – the illegal excessive campaign contribution – he said that, in coordination with the candidate, he “arranged to make a payment to a second individual with information that would be harmful to the candidate and the campaign”. He said he used a company under his control and paid $130,000. These funds “were later repaid to me by the candidate”.

    This was done “for the principle purpose of influencing the election”.

    Asked if he knew these actions were illegal and wrong when he took them, Cohen said: “Yes your Honor.”

    The assistant US attorney, Andrea Griswold, reviewed what would have been the government’s case.

    On tax evasion, she said Cohen failed to report more than $4m (£3.1m) in income.

    On illegal contributions: “These payments were made in order to ensure that each recipient did not publicise their stories” about “alleged affairs with the candidate”.

    She said the government had texts, phone and email records, and statements from the individuals involved as evidence.

    Asked how he now pleaded, Cohen said: “Guilty, your Honor.”

    He was released on a $500,000 personal recognisance bond to be signed by his wife and one other person. His travel was restricted to parts of the states of New York, New Jersey and Illinois, as well as the city of Washington DC. He agreed to surrender his password. Sentencing was set for 12 December this year.

    After the hearing, Cohen left in a car with his attorneys as some bystanders shouted, “lock him up!”

  77. 77.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    @Roger Moore: I think they are folks that want active measures to be taken to create a white nation. Though not necessarily getting their hands dirty doing it. More than happy to encourage others to.

  79. 79.

    MisterForkbeard

    @SRW1: The best part about this was that it was immediately reported in the media as “Manafort is a shady guy with a lot of weird connections to Ukraine”. So… it’s not like Trump couldn’t have known Manafort was a lying, cheating lawbreaker.

  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    @Mike in DC:

    The easiest way to stop the Kavanaugh hearings is for Mueller to issue a subpoena for Trump’s testimony.

    I don’t think there’s any easy way of stopping the Kavanaugh hearings. The Republicans are desperate to get somebody confirmed before the election, and they don’t have time for a new nominee. Their window of opportunity is narrow, and they don’t want to miss it.

  82. 82.

    debbie

    Just in case you missed it:

    On count seven, the illegal corporate contribution, he said that, in the summer of 2016 – in coordination with and “at the request of” a candidate for federal office, in order “to keep an individual with information that would be harmful to the candidate and the campaign from publicly disclosing this information,” he arranged a payment through a media company of which he was the chief executive.

    Looking forward to Trump’s insistence he knew nothing about The Enquirer pay off.

  83. 83.

    Mary G

    @Cheryl Rofer: WWOOOOOTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!
    I’ve been saying that we need to go after Duncan, and everyone says, oh, his district is too red, why bother? Same thing they said about Issa.
    His opponent is Ammar Campa-Najjar, a 20-something former Obama Labor Department official whose mother is Mexican-American and his father immigrated from the Middle East. He is a rock star. Help him out if you can!

  84. 84.

    debbie

    Sorry, Rudi. This doesn’t count as truth not being truth:

    22s ago
    23:30
    Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says there is nothing in Cohen’s admissions that represent an allegation of wrongdoing against the president.

  86. 86.

    Schlemazel

    BTW – and I do want to add trigger warning since this will taint the good feelings a bit. I found the dedication speech for “ShitheadSilent Sam” monument demonstrators tore down last night.
    .
    seriously, this is ugly
    .

    The present generation, I am persuaded, scarcely takes note of what the Confederate soldier meant to the welfare of the Anglo Saxon race during the four years immediately succeeding the war, when the facts are, that their courage and steadfastness saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South – When “the bottom rail was on top” all over the Southern states, and to-day, as a consequence the purest strain of the Anglo Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern States – Praise God.

    I trust I may be pardoned for one allusion, howbeit it is rather personal. One hundred yards from where we stand, less than ninety days perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady, and then rushed for protection to these University buildings where was stationed a garrison of 100 Federal soldiers. I performed the pleasing duty in the immediate presence of the entire garrison

    http://hgreen.people.ua.edu/transcription-carr-speech.html

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    Awoke from sleep half an hour ago. The news was apparently so overwhelming that the power went out while I was in the little curmudgeon’s room.

    When lights came back on, reset all the clocks, made some coffee, digitally headed over to B-J and –

    *Big, broad, sh*t-eating grin*

  91. 91.

    A Ghost To Most

    Unindicted co-conspirator.

    I haven’t had this vintage in 45 years. It’s even better now.

  92. 92.

    Cheryl Rofer

  94. 94.

    eemom

    @debbie:

    Looking forward to Trump’s insistence he knew noting about The Enquirer pay off.

    “Perjury trap.”

    Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says there is nothing in Cohen’s admissions that represent an allegation of wrongdoing against the president.

    ???

  97. 97.

    p.a.

    Q: What happens to the great unwashed of MAGAt nation when, with their heads rammed so far up their own asses, their rectums pucker tightly shut at these and future convictions?
    A: DILLIGAF*
    (Do I Look Like I Give A Fuck)

  98. 98.

    Nicole

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I so hope you’re right. I’m really worried about Russian ratfucking of the November elections. I’m trying to tell myself our cockamamie elections system is so disjointed that it’s impossible to screw with it on a large level, but I don’t know.

  99. 99.

    dmsilev

    Lanny Fucking Davis:

    Michael Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, released the following statement Tuesday:

    “Michael Cohen took this step today so that his family can move on to the next chapter. This is Michael fulfilling his promise made on July 2nd to put his family and country first and tell the truth about Donald Trump. Today he stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”

  100. 100.

    MisterForkbeard

    @dmsilev: Lanny Davis: Gigantic tool. Also correct: Trump clearly committed a crime and is being shielded from indictment by the presidency.

    Hopefully he gets indicted ASAP after he leaves office.

  102. 102.

    danielx

    I’m at peak schadenfreude.

    Ain’t no such thing, though I understand the thought.

    Also too, shitgibbon tweetstorm coming in 10…9…8….

  103. 103.

    Schlemazel

    @Schlemazel:
    Sherman didn’t go far enough.
    The largest mass execution in US history took place in Mankato MN in 1862. 38 Sioux were hung after a short war with settlers. They had been deprived of their land & hunting & fishing rights. They had been promised regular food delivers from the government, The delivery never came & in the fall the natives were starving to death. Some started raiding settlers farm fields. Shots were fired. In the end 38 were hung for taking arms against the government. Not one single one of the treasonous bastards from the Confederacy was ever hung for crimes less justifiable and a million times worse

  108. 108.

    TenguPhule

    @lamh36:

    Soooo we’ve lost the EDIT function?

    Its not lost. It knows exactly where it is. It just can’t tell us.

  109. 109.

    TenguPhule

    @trollhattan:

    . We can’t rest until Trump repeats Nixon’s final helicopter flight away from the White House where his copter proceeds to fall from the sky, crash, burn, explode and kill everyone inside.

    FTFY.

  113. 113.

    Carolina Dave

    @Mike in NC: Really?!?
    I heard “someone” of significance on the GOP had called the protesters NAZIS. Projection. Up down and sideways. The sad thing is McCrory was successful in defining himself as a moderate when he ran for governor the first time.

  114. 114.

    opiejeanne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think he’s the son of. I remember someone in the San Diego area who had their furnishings put up for sale either to raise money for a defense or to pay massive fines, about 20 years ago, and I think that was his old man. But I could be wrong.

  115. 115.

    Jeffro

    Fox news tonight: Manafort mumble mumble…Cohen mumble mumble oh my God! illegal immigrant kills white female college student!!!!1!!

    Respective time of segments: three seconds, three seconds, 10 minutes and counting

  116. 116.

    TenguPhule

    @Mike in DC:

    Boilerplate standard legal ethics would require the nominee to promise to recuse themselves from any decision with regard to 45.

    presumes legal ethics not in evidence.

  118. 118.

    Schlemazel

    @danielx:
    They will use about 8 inches of my small intestine to build a new bladder for me. I will comment here a little (I try not to go into detail as it is TMI) but ask one of the FPs for my email address and I will be happy to fill you in on how it goes. people here provided me a lot of great advice when I went through cancer 6 years ago.

  119. 119.

    opiejeanne

    @debbie: Charles Johnson on twitter:

    “Bystanders report hearing frenzied shrieks of rage emanating from the cabin, audible from the runway.”

    I think this was after the jet landed in W VA.

  121. 121.

    Millard Filmore

    @Schlemazel:

    I will comment here a little (I try not to go into detail as it is TMI) but ask one of the FPs for my email address and I will be happy to fill you in on how it goes.

    Maybe a daily update …
    day 1: “great pain!”
    day 2: “great drugs!”

  122. 122.

    Schlemazel

    @Millard Filmore:
    HA. When I had my pelvis repaired they gave me a self medicating button wired to give me morphin when I pressed the button (up to the limit I could have in a time period). It was not working, I was in incredible pain. I complained to my nurse, she checked the machine said it was fine & I should quit whining. Pain got worse. Doctor arrived about an hour later for a post op check. I complained to him, he rolled me on my side & saw the needle had come out and the drugs were just wetting the sheets.
    Great pain followed by great drugs!

  125. 125.

    Steeplejack

    @Schlemazel:

    If I am understanding you correctly, I have a friend who had that procedure done about 10 years ago. If you want, I could ask her if she would be willing to talk with you via e-mail.

  126. 126.

    opiejeanne

    @opiejeanne: His pop was never caught doing anything that I could find. I must be thinking of Duke Cunningham. I saw pictures of the furnishings they were selling, all gaudy, excessively ornamented, overstuffed, gilded crap. He undoubtedly paid too much for it.

  128. 128.

    catclub

    @Yarrow: What bugs me about campaign finance laws is they never suggest losing the office you won by cheating should be part of the punishment at some level.

  129. 129.

    catclub

    @TenguPhule: 1. Sessions promised to recuse, then weighed in on Firing Comey
    2. If they promise to recuse and then don’t, whatcha gonna do about it? Nothing. SC judges make their own ethics rulings.

  130. 130.

    Amir Khalid

    @TenguPhule:
    You do realise, don’t you, that there will be US Marines aboard that helicopter who had nothing to do with Trump or his crimes?

  132. 132.

    WaterGirl

    @Schlemazel: I am awfully sorry about the nasty road, but I’m glad you’re on a road that will get you somewhere better than you are now.

  134. 134.

    J R in WV

    @TenguPhule:

    . We can’t rest until Trump repeats Nixon’s final helicopter flight away from the White House where his copter proceeds to fall from the sky, crash, burn, explode and kill everyone inside.

    Just NO ~!!!~ There will be Marines on board that helicopter who have nothing to do with Trump other than being assigned to fly that aircraft.

  136. 136.

    opiejeanne

    @TenguPhule: You’re altogether too bloodthirsty, being willing to sacrifice people who haven nothing to do with this.

    I don’t want them dead, not yet. I want them to die in prison of natural causes after suffering in solitary for many years. .

  138. 138.

    Amir Khalid

    @catclub:
    Wouldn’t it be up to the Constitution to specify grounds for removal from an elected office defined in the Constitution?

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