So, we just heard from President Obama, who dropped some truth bombs at the University of Illinois a short while ago. He spoke in complete sentences and full paragraphs.
His successor made some remarks on Air Force One during roughly the same time period, while on his way to one of the hinterland hellholes* where he can still show his face without getting pelted with rotting produce.
The most newsworthy nugget is that Trump wants Sessions to add another item on his “Abuse Law Enforcement Powers to Appease Trump” to-do list: force the NYT to out the anonymous op-ed writer.
Poor Sessions. He thought he’d be living the dream, spending his days interpreting DoJ policy to maximize misery for brown people, women and gays. But Trump just won’t stop publicly demanding that he do flagrantly illegal things!
Anyhoo, a few excerpts from the AF1 gaggle, via The Post:
Asked if he trusts his White House staffers, Trump said, “I do, but what I do now is I look around the room. I say, ‘Hey, if I don’t know somebody . . . ’ ” He added, “We have a really well-run, smooth-running White House. It’s a well-oiled machine. It is running beautifully.”
“Gary Cohn, if he ever took a memo off my desk, I would have fired him in two seconds,” Trump said. “He would have been fired so fast. He would have been fired within the first second that it took place.” [An image of the memo in question appears in the book.]
Trump went on to characterize Woodward’s tome as a “big, fat ugly book with all the misquotes and all the lies.”
Trump defended his intelligence and fitness for office, which critics have questioned this week because of Woodward’s revelations and the anonymous Times column.
“I can’t get up and talk in front of a crowd, many times without notes, for an hour and 25 minutes and get the biggest crowds in the history of politics. . .you don’t get up and do that because you don’t know how to think or talk,” Trump said. “You can only do that if you’re at a very, very high level. I’m highly educated and always did well — always did well — no matter what I did.”
The “biggest crowds in the history of politics,” I tell you! Also, here’s Trump trying to pronounce “anonymous” last night (trust me and click):
Anomynous. pic.twitter.com/sJ36OGPgOy
— Levi Gibian (@LeviGibian) September 7, 2018
Also, Trump is looking forward to a letter from an admirer:
“A letter is being delivered to me, a personal letter from Kim Jong Un to me, that was handed at the border” on Thursday, Trump said. “It’s an elegant way, the way it used to be many years ago before we had all the of new contraptions that we all use. I think it’s going to be a positive letter.”
Who among us doesn’t pine for the days when letters were elegantly handed through a fence that traps 25 million people in a dystopian horror-state?
In all the palace intrigue speculation around Woodward’s book and the anonymous op-ed, the effect on foreign policy hasn’t been discussed enough, IMO, now that the worst suspicions about the Trump administration have been confirmed.
If Kim is a crafty homicidal maniac — and I think he is — he’ll use Trump’s pathetic neediness to his advantage. Trump will probably offer to ship OUR nukes to Pyongyang next week in exchange for a challenge coin and a signing ceremony.
Open thread.
*Save the hate; I choose to live in one of those places myself, as do many good people (not including me).
schrodingers_cat
King Lear has gone off his rocker.
waspuppet
He doesn’t surprise me often, but the fact that he really thinks we’re supposed to be impressed that Kim Jong Un likes him still managed to throw me.
Jeffro
I think we all remember when President Obama, at a campaign rally, noted his approval of a local Democratic congressman who had body slammed a reporter, right? And us Dems were like, “I remember that, that was hilarious!” And the whole rally roared its approval. Well, I mean, what else are you gonna do with the enemy of the people, right?
sigh
Citizen Alan
I look at those creatures sitting behind Shitgibbon and am reminded of the last line from Animal Farm about pigs and humans looking around at one another and not being able to tell which was which.
Elizabelle
Trump is pathetic, and dangerous. We can never allow his kind to come to high office again. I think we will prevail here.
Mary G
I criticize people in red states, but not all of them. Even in West Virginia, where Trump got his biggest margin of victory at 68.5%, there are people like us, Cole and J.R. being but two of the finest, who didn’t vote for him. Just like there are 4,483,810 idiots here in deep blue California that voted for the Republicans. Generalizing is lazy and the flyover people who bitch about elites disrespecting them get their fuel from it.
HeleninEire
@schrodingers_cat: Nah. This is more like Caligula has gone off his rocker. Imagine that.
Betty Cracker
@Mary G: Gosh, and I used an asterisk and everything…
takebakawashi
@Citizen Alan: people sitting behind the Shitgibbon aren’t all bad…
http://time.com/5390134/plaid-shirt-guy/
Mary G
The closeups of the guy in the plaid shirt behind Twitler at the rally making faces before he was removed are all over Twitter. That alone is going to unleash a tornado of butthurt.
trollhattan
@HeleninEire:
Caligula’s horse is blinking “save me” from the senate floor.
TaMara (HFG)
@Citizen Alan: There are hilarious videos on twitter showing how those paid participants are unceremoniously asked to move because they were rolling their eyes, falling asleep and otherwise not earning their $18 an hour wages. Not a spoof. Really happened.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Citizen Alan:
To add to that theme according to Huffington post the people behind Trump were being purged for wrong looks or insufficient enthusiasm during Trump’s speech.
And, is Trump now making another rally speech today as rebuttal to Obama? Talk about proving that Anonymous Editorial claim that Trump isn’t really in charge of the government.
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat: King Leer, with Ivanka as Goneril.
MattF
Good news is that Obama’s speech was the just kickoff in a campaign– reports are that he’s going full steam until election day. I guess the RW will try to ignore it, but Trump’s obsessive attitude towards Obama probably precludes that. One can hope so, anyhow.
MattF
@dmsilev: Except that Lear really did love Cordelia. But didn’t know it. And, to be fair, Cordelia didn’t help him figure it out.
JPL
Twitter is informing me that Trump is telling the crowd in ND that we are a developing nation.
chopper
@Mary G:
nice.
chopper
@JPL:
hey, drumpf finally got something right.
Mary G
@Betty Cracker: I was agreeing with you. It’s one of my pet peeves. ?
TenguPhule
At the Montana rally, Trump accused the NYT of treason for publishing the op-ed.
Going to root for casualties on this one.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
So my suggestion of imprisoning all Republicans in FEMA camps is a go then?
jimmiraybob
The Muppets have not yet responded to a request for comment on these unconventional pronunciations …… Update: The Muppets have just released this official statement, “Mahna Mahna, da do da doodoo, Mahna Mahna, da do da do, Mahna Mahna, da do da doodoo, da doodoo, da doodoo, da do do do do do.”
Mary G
@MattF: Richard Cordray in Ohio is going to get the next Obama appearance next Thursday in Cleveland. Right to a big swing state FTW!
maya
@JPL:
Stuck in a dark room chemical bath.
Amir Khalid
What law does El Presidente think empowers the DoJ to demand the op-ed writer’s name? Or does his argument amount to “I’m the President, damnit! I want what I want, and I want it now!”
OldDave
I’m not a fan of Rick WIlson, but boy did he have fun with the Malodorous Mango’s attempt to say anonymous: Link
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid:
Yes.
Anonymous Coward
ROTFLMAO the fourth estate at work
If that’s the metric for serving on the Supreme Court CNN should have been paying me for the last fifteen years.
MattF
@Amir Khalid: I think you’ve got it. “I am the law.”
C. Isaac
@MattF: Only with Rob Schneider bellowing it instead of Sylvester Stallone.
TenguPhule
Murdered Russian exile survived earlier poisoning attempt, police believe
Gin & Tonic
You know who had the biggest crowds in the history of politics?
Cheryl Rofer
@waspuppet: The fact that he’s impressed that Kim Jong Un seems to like him is what throws me.
Imm..
@TenguPhule: @Amir Khalid:
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all and I want it now
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
FDR?
MattF
@Cheryl Rofer: They’ve bonded.
trollhattan
@maya:
Nice–you’ve earned my day’s first golf clap.
Immanentize
@TenguPhule: @Amir Khalid: Musical interlude:
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all and I want it now
Baud
@Cheryl Rofer: @MattF:
The Interview II is the worst sequel ever.
trollhattan
@Baud:
I vote for “Memento 1–the day before all that later shit happened”
germy
Trump said he tried listening to the speech but it put him to sleep.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cheryl Rofer: There really aren’t that many (as in zero?), so he crows when somebody says they do.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
Zombie Kim Jong just doesn’t pass the smell test. And who in the world commissioned Donald Trump to play an American president?
dmsilev
@germy: I believe that.
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid:
Somebody apparently told him that ‘national security’ is a magic phrase akin to ‘open sesame’ or ‘by the power of Greyskull’, so that’s what he’s going with.
MattF
@dmsilev: I’m just waiting for Trump to fire Sessions and nominate Sean Hannity as AG.
jimmiraybob
@Gin & Tonic:
The Führer?
NotMax
@Cheryl Rofer
Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane
I ain’t got time to take a fast train
Lonely days are gone, I’m a goin’ home
My baby jus’ wrote me a letter
catclub
OT: what does the Balloonitariat think of Slate’s article on Jon Huntsman as the anonymous NYT editorial writer?
It seems plausible to me.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
When has Trump ever cared about what the law says he can and can’t do? Trump wants the anonymous author identified; therefore, it is the responsibility of the Justice Department to force the NYT to reveal his or her identity.
piratedan
@germy: well that happens when adults speak to cranky toddlers about how things are….
Betty Cracker
So Trump is now threatening the “ruination” of Canada (via an auto tariff) if they don’t stop being so UNFAIR! What an embarrassing cocksplat.
jnfr
I don’t watch his rallies but I did catch some clips and read transcripts from last night and the way he is unable to speak really worries me. Not just the slurring, though that happens regularly, but the way his brain simply cannot follow a single thought for more than ten words. It’s skip, skip, skip from random to random and no connection that I can find.
The man ain’t right, that’s what I’m saying.
Baud
@Roger Moore: Right. Just like there’s no law allowing Google or Facebook to actually discriminate against conservative content, but nonetheless Sessions has demanded they meet with him.
NotMax
@MattF
Or his newest man crush, Ted Cruz.
(NotMax throws up in mouth a little.)
dmsilev
@Betty Cracker: Context: He desperately needs Canada to sign on to his fucking-over-NAFTA thing, and there’s a hard deadline of the end of this month.
MattF
@catclub: Big objection I can think of is that Moscow is a long way from DC.
catclub
@JPL: That is presently in the darkroom.
Baud
@NotMax: In fairness, Cruz might need a job after November.
MattF
@jnfr: That’s been true for a while. Negative attention span– loses the thread before it starts.
raven
@jnfr: And you figured that out. . when?
Gin & Tonic
@dmsilev: Yeah, and Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau are nobody’s fools.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: So Canada will not be able to sell Fords, Chevy’s and Chryslers in the US?
Canada is not the only one that puts in a bind.
Mike in NC
Just another dumb lie. That Austrian fellow had way bigger crowds.
Kim is going to troll Trump up until the day he’s carted off to prison.
raven
“The Madness of King George” (1994) – best scene
catclub
@Baud: I hate to say it, but certainly more competent AG than Sean Hannity would be.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
“Today I am announcing a retroactive tariff on William Shatner and Michael J. Fox.”
Emma
@jnfr: I am convinced he’s losing his mind very publicly. One of these days he’s going to get behind a podium and spout complete gibberish.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mary G:
They’re morons who have abandoned the values that have always made America what it is. They would rather be ruled by fascist autocrats than share the country with people who think differently and look differently than them. What gets me is how fucked up our poltical system is where barely populated states get to dictate authoritarian policy to the “blue states” where practically all Americans actually live
Chyron HR
@Emma:
“One of these days”?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Roger Moore:
How would the DOJ force the NYT to do anything? There’s issue of national security that they could possibly manufacture. I mean, undermining the president by being a slow-walking paper-pusher, no matter how wrong in principle (yes, even with Trump as POTUS), isn’t what I’d call a national security threat.
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
And the MSM will report exclusively on Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ “what the president MEANT to say” press conference without ever referring to the breakdown again.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mnemosyne:
Some reporter should ask Suckabee why she always has to correct what he said and why can’t he not fuck up all the time.
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
A repeat of his top 10 prior threats?
Gin & Tonic
@Mike in NC: Yeah, I’m no expert, but somehow this looks like more people than there were in Billings yesterday.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
Trump: I assure you, Ted Cruz has a fine dick.
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know. We underestimate the existential threat of Canada at our own peril. Face it, they look like us, talk enough like us it takes time figure out they are foreign, and they have infiltrated all levels of our society – Celine Dion, Shania Twain, William Shatner, James Doohan, Peter Jennings, Pamela Anderson, Will Arnett, to former co-workers…the list is endless…
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
“Because as you all know, both men have time traveled to San Francisco and somehow I wasn’t paid for it.
Major Major Major Major
Hmmm.
TenguPhule
@catclub:
No, American customers just have to pay more for the parts. Which will meltdown the American auto industry in all three nations.
Emma
@Chyron HR: Well he speaks partial gibberish now. One can still follow, although it takes some effort. I mean the “is he speaking any recognizable human language” level of gibberish.
Bill Arnold
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I’m sort of hoping that they try. We know that the “The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed” (WaPo). Is the Trump administration/are the Republicans sure that the New York Times and WaPo and other news outlets don’t already have such safes/vaults?We know that that many press outlets bend over backwards to make leaks to them secure and easy.
Pretty sure that the press could and would defend itself successfully given the current political climate. (disregarding any stochastic anti-press violence (none dare call it terrorism) deliberately (and sigh deniably, probably) caused by Republican rhetoric, notably DJTrump rhetoric.)
If we go much further down the authoritarian paths, the press would no longer be as safe.
TenguPhule
Reproduced in Full from Wapo, Trump’s word salad on AF1.
Chyron HR
@Mnemosyne:
Say, isn’t it interesting that she goes around covering up for Trump’s deranged destructive impulses and trying to maintain a veneer of “respectable” “conservatism”, just like the aoxomoxoa op-ed writer claimed to? (chin rubbing emoji)
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
Wait, now I have a better answer: evangelicals will say they understand him because he’s speaking in tongues, and the MSM will credulously report whatever their “interpretation” is.
TenguPhule
I am not making this up.
p.a.
The pendulum didn’t just swing from Obama to drumpf. The bob shot into space, the rod flew off and tore through the Constitution, and the support structure crashed into every minority neighborhood in the country.
eemom
My question is, how can a man of his age and size who has to be off the charts at risk of heart attack or stroke, who’s spent the last week in a constant state of rage which must be skyrocketing his blood pressure, not drop dead?
I have no answer except my old theory that there are some people so evil that they stay alive because the fucking devil won’t take them in hell. See Cheney, Richard.
jnfr
@raven:
Definitely in general it’s been clear from the start. But like @Emma and others I see it unraveling faster now.
jnfr
@MattF:
Yes, exactly.
Chyron HR
@TenguPhule:
“I don’t know Papadopoulos, I don’t know. I saw him sitting in one picture at a table with me that’s the only thing I know about him. But anyone who ever sat at a table with me even one time should have lifetime immunity from prosecution from all crimes. The bombing of Canada begins in five minutes. No collusion.”
TenguPhule
Another day, another Constitutional Crisis rearing its ugly orange head.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
OT.
Noticed in the replies to your query about things Arthurian that no movies were mentioned.
Qualified recommendation for Excalibur (1982). Is it flawed as a film? Yes. Sometimes plodding? Yes again. Visually arresting enough to keep your interest? Yes to that, too.
It does however mostly succeed in capturing the flavor of the fantasy and the lore of the legend. Think of it an appetizer before plowing into the main course of reading Le Morte d’Arthur.
catclub
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
you are not the first to identify the constitution as a gun pointed at the head of the nation. Just waiting for a trigger finger.
TenguPhule
From yesterday’s hearing. Seems we missed this.
TenguPhule
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@TenguPhule: No surprise, but still it’s kind of amazing how his little pea brain works, how selling us out to a hostile foreign power is not treason, but disrespecting the king is.
I just listened to Obama’s speech. I feel hopeful.
He didn’t quote Michelle’s infamous “they go low, we go high” line which I still love and still believe in, but he did kind of move around in that territory briefly, about saying no to people who think we should adopt their tactics and morals.
The opening of the speech, all in the past tense, is kind of depressing if you let it be. It’s a long list of what America used to stand for up till about 2016 or so. But it’s also a rallying cry, about how we still stand for that and we can go back there.
John Revolta
“It’s a big, fat ugly book and it smells bad. Its mama dresses it funny. Every time I go to town, the boys keep kicking my dog around. Anominuous.”
Gawdhelpus
Mary G
Obama in Anaheim tomorrow with my next representative, Mike Levin, and six other Democrats flipping seats here! Two other candidates I support with postcards, not money, they have plenty of that:
ellie
I have an ethical dilemma and need help. I am an editor for a trade publication. I was sent a case study by a company. There is a very obvious misspelling in the headline. This company has printed these up to give to prospective clients. Do I say something to them? I know, as an editor, you can look at something over and over and miss rather obvious mistakes, but I don’t want anyone there to get fired. Their marketing department is in-house.
Your thoughts?
RedDirtGirl
@TaMara (HFG): One of them wiped her nose on the flag.
eclare
@eemom: Agree 1000%, too evil for hell.
TenguPhule
JFC, This guys failed an ETHICS review so badly that even the Bog people didn’t think he could pass a nomination.
hueyplong
@ellie: The obvious solution is to publish an anonymous op ed in the company’s internal paper of record that exposes the misspellings. Use the word “lodestar” twice to divert attention from yourself.
You’re welcome.
Elizabelle
@ellie: I’d say something. If that goes out to clients, you are also going to be responsible for not catching the error.
You can’t do anything about the original misspelling, but not catching it now would seem to be the kiss of death. Spare them the embarrassment. Maybe they’ll be more careful next time.
ellie
@hueyplong: I LOVE this!
Elizabelle
@hueyplong: LOL. Lodestar.
Mary G
@ellie: Say something tactfully, which isn’t easy, but you can phrase it as being concerned they will lose clients who are grammar Nazis. Someone will say it eventually, and if you don’t, they will blame you.
Mnemosyne
@ellie:
I would tell them, because SOMEONE is going to tell them at some point, and it’s better for them to know before they get sent out to the clients. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that someone would get fired, unfortunately.
Immanentize
@ellie: Seriously. Tell them ASAP. They will thank you for saving them so much embarrassment. As soon as anyone tells them, they will throw them all away anyway. Really, tell them before they are mailed or distributed.
Immanentize
@hueyplong: chicken dinner
Elizabelle
@ellie: Also, people make mistakes. Hopefully, they learn from them. Perhaps the company will be gentle with whoever made this one.
randy khan
I’m guessing that this would result in permanent exile to journalistic Siberia by the White House Press Office, but I would love to hear the response if a reporter asked Sanders or – even better – Trump himself why he feels compelled to lie about the size of his crowds, and also how many of the attendees are paid to be at his events.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
At its heart, penalizing states because they happen to be emptier is a specious argument. What about less populated ‘blue’ states such as Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont and Hawaii?
It’s the political tenor and, yes, both prevalence of cultural diversity and ready exposure to the unfamiliar that impacts more than the size of the population. It’s that in the eternal tug of war between give and take, give has been banished that lies at the root of the problem. The speed of the pendulum may be inconsistent but its movement is ineluctable.
oatler.
@John Revolta: You skillet-licker!
Barbara
@ellie: So, if the choice is correcting without saying something or correcting with saying nothing, then I guess I might say something so that they proof their materials a little better. I am guessing that someone proofed the content without even noticing the headline. Stuff like that happens.
JPL
@TenguPhule: That’s unfortunate because President Obama’s speech was amazing. You could just sit back and listen, while at the same time imagining that he is still our President. Perfect escapism.
Inventor
@ellie: The only chance to save the job will be to tell them. If it is published and sent to customers, then someone’s going to get fired.
trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
You know how Trump came home from the Bastille Day parade and wanted his own Big Damn Military Parade? Li’l Kim brings Trump there for one of those monstrous and bizarre Arirang festivals and he’s going to demand one of those, STAT. Good luck finding that many Americans who will follow instructions that long.
Aleta
You know who’d believe a personal communication from a man like Kim Jong Un is a token of respect? Someone whose role model was a Mafia head.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Papadapolous got 14 days in jail ?
Nicole Wallace asks what I did: Does this mean Mr Mueller spoke up for him?
MSNBC former federal proseucutor of the moment calls it a light sentence for a fairly minor charge from a judge known to be lenient
Mary G
Bad news on the teen front; he was vaping marijuana in class today and is suspended for five days. His family wants him sent to a military school in Guatemala where all the elites send their problem children. His mom was going to take him to therapy and be evaluated for ADHD and he refused to go.
BC in Illinois
@ellie:
At one point in my life I committed editing. And you re right:
Emphasize this point when you tell them, but do tell them. The other commenters are correct. Someone will catch it. It will be better that you say something, before they do.
[I have a first edition of a Lutheran study bible that misspelled the word “Luthern” on the first line of the first sentence of the preface. Everybody needs an editer.]
** I saw a license plate once that said “EDITER.” I was tempted to steal it.
Barbara
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: That’s a little extreme. I do agree, generally, that the Electoral College and the Senate are problems for our collective future, but that the bigger short-term problem is that the best available antidote has been screwed up by gerrymandering and voter suppression. That’s where the immediate actions should lie, not screaming at the wind about a problem that is foundational and much more difficult to correct.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And I read today that he and his wife got a book deal.
Mandalay
@TenguPhule:
Since the lawyers’ name is John Dowd, not Jim Dowd, I can’t help wondering whether Trump is playing eleventy dimensional chess to craftily distance himself from someone who (according to Woodward’s book) called Trump a “fucking liar” who could end up wearing “an orange jump suit”.
The other ghastly possibility is that Trump is stupid and senile, and can’t even remember the name of his personal lawyer. Can’t possibly be that…
BC in Illinois
@BC in Illinois:
This blog does need an editing function.
Mary G
The advisers must be tearing their hair out:
Democrats are concerned, I’m sure.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: but of course….
Reporter giving a different spin than the lawyer, says the judge said somebody with P’s record probably wouldn’t do time, but the judge was pissed that P put his own personal and financial interests before the interests of the country.
NotMax
@elle
Letting it slide makes you an accessory after the fact. Better to make a pit stop to fix a dicey tire than spinning out later in the race.
IMHO.
Betty Cracker
@ellie: I’ve had to do that before, and it sucks, but yeah, call their attention to it. No one should be fired over it because shit happens.
PS: Funniest typo I ever saw (after a huge envelope print run!): AFFIX LABIA HERE
Aleta
@Betty Cracker: And bragging about how angry at him the Japanese will be. An insult in itself.
Mandalay
@germy:
IANAL – are there no Son of Sam laws any more? On the surface it just looks like Papadapolous is seeking to profit from his crime.
trollhattan
Boy howdy, Republican disarray on display.
Article neglects to mention Donnelly was arrested carrying a loaded gun through airport security while serving in the state assembly.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
Yeah, we should only penalize them if they were on the losing end of the Civil War.
Barbara
@Mary G: It only gets harder when you try to deal with ADHD later in a child’s development. The experience of people I know trying to force their kids into behaving by imposing military style discipline has not been very positive. I hope they figure it out without sending him to a potentially harsh environment that is not well-regulated and sounds like a collection of children with intractable problems.
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
Not expelled yet? At this rate he’s going to be in juive till he’s 21.
Jeffro
@JPL:
I know, right? Sometimes I watch comedians on YouTube to unwind…I might start throwing some Obama speeches into the mix. Seriously!
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
Make him kill the hostages already.
Chet
Trump fills half of an arena. Obama filled Mile-High Stadium.
And then there was that time he went to Berlin.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: In my mind’s eye I see Kellyanne Conway talking to him in her best mom-of-toddlers voice, coaxing him not to be racist in his response. I predict he, or his idiot son, will at least retweet something from a David Duke supporter in the next 24 hours.
TenguPhule
@Mandalay:
IOKIYAR.
les
@NotMax:
Really, “not giving disproportionate advantage” is not the same as “penalize.” You may be looking for the straw man office–it’s down the hall.
TenguPhule
@les: Living on an island in the middle of the ocean, we’d rather not be at the mercy of the mainland’s majority when it comes to finances.
Brachiator
Another perceptive Betty Cracker post. A couple of things sparked by her commentary:
I have not been following the news closely the last week or so, but I get the impression that the GOP leadership is very quiet, and at best meekly cautions Trump about going too hard after Sessions. No matter what is revealed about Trump, or what Trump does, he is still the GOP’s main man.
I also see that pro-Trump congressional candidates still welcome Trump’s backing. The GOP base is hanging on for dear life, and dismisses the current revelations as typical partisan attacks. It’s up to Democrats and other people with sense to take these clowns down.
Kim better get in line. By now it is clear to allies that Trump is unreliable, and adversaries realize that they have a free pass at getting whatever they want by pushing Trump’s buttons.
And even though a lot of folks here may not be paying attention, UK Prime Minister Theresa May is having a hard time keeping her government together. She has been roundly mocked for her inconsistent efforts in dealing with BREXIT and also has her hands full dealing with party insiders trying to oust her. Former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson is dumping his second wife and clearing the decks to formally try to wrest Tory Party leadership from May.
So the world is looking at a situation in which two of the major Western leaders are viewed as ineffectual chumps by friends and foe alike. This is one hell of an infrastructure week.
NotMax
@Mary G
Strictly armchair diagnosis, it sounds as if there’s a deep and pervasive problem he’s encountering at his current school. The parental ‘solution’ also sounds like overkill and abandonment of responsibility.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Perfect timing with Brexit only 6 months away and everything projected to go to complete shambles.
Mary G
@Barbara: Yeah, I’ve been trying to discourage it by worrying about his safety there. She has gone to get him from the principal’s office and take him to her mother’s. He is the baby of the family and can usually wrap them around his little finger by being remorseful and apologizing. Turns out the school has already decided he’s ADHD and has him in a couple of special classes for it, which he hates.
Bill Arnold
@eemom:
We all know what to do, depending on our individual ethical standards. :-) Next up, Cat 6 paranoia storm!
“The Rage” is interesting; I’ve observed such an effect in a few elderly with vascular dementia; they realize (and remember) on some level that rage improves the blood flow to the brain and improves cognition, and indulge in it. (A brief skim of the literature suggests that the general belief is that the causality goes the other way, fwiw.)
I only bring this up because Projection! – there have been right wing rumors about Hillary Clinton suffering from subcortical vascular dementia since 2014 (with a year to live, all that time) So it must be true, by rule of projection, that DJTrump suffers from a similar condition. (Note; he doesn’t smoke or drink.)
Cheney, Richard, the man who had no pulse for a long while, eventually was “given” the heart of a younger person.
(I admit to, when hearing that his back was too sore to attend the B. Obama inauguration (?), to thinking that he must have hurt it carrying all those boxes of torture recordings when moving out of the VP residence. And he was amused by these stories, and the Darth Vader march that people used to play on portable loudspeaker systems when he was nearby.)
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
Sociopath in development?
NotMax
@les
Pish and tosh. Any perceived advantage is ephemeral. The system is set up to be proportionate by dint of being 1 out of 50. Population has naught to do with it, and the stance of the crowd is not set in stone.
Can the formula be altered? Of course. Should it be? IMHO, a short-term band-aid at best.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: Sorry, y’all signed up for this in 1959.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@trollhattan:
Finally, the mystery of who ran against Brown in 2012 is solved! Sounds like Donnelly is the arch typical California Republican – no one cares about him.
Barbara
@Mary G: It sounds like he really needs to talk to a therapist who knows kids like him. My kid’s doctor was very attuned to ways to explain ADHD and medication so that it wasn’t a bad thing, just something you had to deal with. As the psychiatrist explained to us, ADHD makes school a lot more work, and you get tired and frustrated. The drugs reduce the amount of energy your brain needs to expend just to focus, leaving you a lot more mental energy to actually receive information.
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
Unfortunately, he’s going to have a decision to make: accept the ADHD therapy and other measures to stay where he is, or get sent away. If he’s usually gotten away with stuff before, he’s probably expecting to get away with it again, so be prepared for him to have several rages once he figures out that it’s not going to work this time.
The pot smoking is not helping — that was the final straw before my nephew was sent to a therapeutic school. He was not addicted to it, but it had a very bad effect on his ADHD/bipolar brain. “Not a problem for most people” is not the same as “harmless,” no matter how much the pot advocates try to claim otherwise.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Maybe Japan will buy us out from Trump.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Memo to self:
Look up how to say “hindsight is 20/20” in Hawaiian.
:)
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
FWIW, this is the place where my nephew went, and was very successful. They are medically-based, though, so they will want to evaluate him for medications:
http://www.ybgr.org
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
All adolescents are sociopaths, medically speaking. There is some interesting psychiatric literature about it.
les
@TenguPhule:
Well, come up with a better system. Letting 20% of the population control 50% of the Senate is not a working system. As is, you’re plainly, balatantly and, in your view, possibly fatally at the mercy of the 20%. The majority is not threatening you.
TenguPhule
@les:
All current and future Presidents must be born in the state of Hawaii.
les
@NotMax:
Really, the sarcasm tag is a thing. If you knew that, I don’t know what to say.
les
@TenguPhule:
I was about to cheer this, but then I thought, “Tulsi.” Don’t you have a queen or something we could borrow?
TenguPhule
@les:
Unfortunately there are no surviving members of the last royal family.
Aleta
@trollhattan:
“tricked” –that’s funny. Because no way could Trump be lacking in loyalty. No way he’s indifferent to the importance of his little-guy grassroots activists.
“Donnelly himself said he was so shocked that he had to abruptly pull over by the side of the highway.” He just couldn’t believe it! They’re the California Minutemen for god’ssake !! The elite ready-at-a-moment’s notice highly trained defenders of Donald’s civilian outposts!
He must have been tricked.
The Lodger
@ellie: I’m catching this a bit late, but yeah, typos can happen to anyone. Call them out on it, politely. It’s worth the cost of a second print run.
The Lodger
@Betty Cracker: Those self-sealing envelopes are a mess, aren’t they?
JWL
“It’s an elegant way, the way it used to be many years ago before we had all the of new contraptions that… [have recorded my crimes for prosecutors to read as if they were written in granite, and which, taken together, will prove the instruments of my sure doom]”.
That’s better.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Mary G: one of my closest friends and probably the most liberal person I know is from West Virginia (Morgantown in case anyone is wondering). It’s a bizarre state (although I’m from Florida so I really shouldn’t talk) but it has some great people like anywhere else.
Full Metal Wingnut
@jnfr: at the same time I remain amused by people who profess to love him so much. “He thinks the way I do!” Do they realize what they’re admitting about their own mental faculties?
pluky
@ellie: you can’t protect whoever missed this from the inevitable. you can give your client notice that something is amiss.
J R in WV
@Mary G:
Thanks!! We try! I did do phone bank duty for Hillary, and thought it was making a difference, calling into Ohio. Most of the people I talked to were going to vote for Hillary, one woman said “All of us going to vote for her, or they can get the hell out of my house!!” I LOLed at that.
Then I got called back after calling a number… it was a guy actually working for the campaign, in Ohio. We chatted a little, he was encouraged to get the phone call from a volunteer in WV, I was encouraged to find a campaign worker in Ohio.
But alas, twas not to be… I too think they cheated in those states, and the FBI should be digging out that felony… HAHAHAHaaa, Jefferson Sessions’ FBI working on voter fraud that threw the election…?! HAHAHA. Never gonna happen!
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
Darn you, Betty! I was eating breakfast when I read that!
J R in WV
@Baud:
Right. Just like there’s no law
allowingpreventing Google or Facebook to actually from discriminating against conservative content, but nonetheless Sessions has demanded they meet with him.Fixed that for you. Private companies can be as liberal or as conservative as they want to. Otherwise we could put Faux News down like a rabid dog. Did the best I could with the edits, without an edit. If you see what I mean, and I think you do….
J R in WV
@gene108:
;-)
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
Damn It!! my second strike through blew it off, now it doesn’t make nearly as much sense. There is no law forbidding a “news” outlet from being anti-Trump, anti-Nazi, Pro-Kitten, whatever. Else we would have shut Faux News down years ago, when we realized it was straight propaganda! But I got too fancy making that statement.
Baud, isn’t that you meant to say? Or did my ninja mind-reading skills fail for the first time???
ellie
Thank you everyone! I will tell them.
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
Do you suppose he has forgotten meeting with Russian diplomatic staff in the oval office not long after being inaugurated? Already? I mean, that’s a meeting with Russians in his white house with photos.
And then there was the one-on-one meeting with Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin in Helsinki not too long ago… another meeting with THE Russian he appears to have forgotten. No witnesses, also, too!!!
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
He has already forgotten the cheeseburger he’s just swallowed.
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
Truly !! Amazing times we live in…!!… And scary! I’m spending a lot on SF fiction lately to avoid being attached to the news of the political scene
Tarragon
@J R in WV:
But but but…. Science fiction is the most political of all genres.