Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

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

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Let’s finish the job.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

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

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: The Oval Office Occupant Is (Further) Decompensating

Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: The Oval Office Occupant Is (Further) Decompensating

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Edith Wilson stepped up after her husband’s stroke, and Nancy Reagan did her best to harry Reagan’s advisors into covering for his decline into Alzheimer’s. But even if Melania cared, can we pretend she has any actual influence over her anchor-husband?


Reader Interactions

60Comments

  1. 1.

    tybee

    spent most of the day sitting in a waiting room at a surgical center, watching msnbc reporting on the dipshit in the whitehouse. what a maroon.
    swmbo had a total knee replacement that went well. i’m headed back there now to haul her off to physical therapy.
    miracles of modern medicine and all that, eh?

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    Is Ttump profoundly confused? Is he working hard to profoundly confuse the public? The answer to both has to be yes.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Blech.
    Someday, I would like to wake up in an alternate universe not knowing where I am, who the fuck are these people, or WTF is going on.
    Instead, I keep waking up in this same old crappy universe, still in the middle of Misery, still surrounded by the same shitty hires, and still with absolutely no clue WTF is going on one day to the next.

  7. 7.

    PsiFighter37

    Fuck him. Nancy Pelosi is going to become Speaker today and start making this turd’s life that much harder.

  9. 9.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    republicans endorse communist take over of independent country

    Charlie Wilson is turning over in his grave.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    Trump will not let the spotlight shine on Pelosi today. He’ll do something to make sure the media is focused on him, but what I don’t know.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Trump is rewriting history. When I listened yesterday, my first thought was think about the children. If tweens and teens listened to the president, they’d walk away confused as to what is the truth especially those in trumpette households.

  12. 12.

    TS (the original)

    The very serious people on MJ are treating trump’s comments as if he knows what he is talking about. They may disagree with him but surely the only response is that there is a mad man in the WH surrounded by a group of sycophants who either know zero about US policy over the past 50 years – or they literally don’t care as to how and why the world implodes.

  13. 13.

    sukabi

    @JPL: as long as that results in Pelosi maneuvering him into a corner and out of office I’m fine with that.

    Or if he opens another avenue for Mueller, also a win.

    As long as he’s yapping like a deranged lunatic he’s shedding support.

  15. 15.

    Jeffro

    I’m just picturing what would happen if Obama had had a cabinet meeting with a weird poster of himself on the table. Never mind what he said (although if it was anything close to Trumpov’s ramblings naturally it would be 25th Amendment talk all day every day, as it should.) Just the poster.

  16. 16.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Jeffro:

    I’m just picturing what would happen if Obama had had a cabinet meeting with a weird poster of himself on the table.

    Op-Ed’s questioning why the VP and Cabinet hadn’t taken action to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.

  17. 17.

    trnc

    @JPL: I told someone yesterday that Pelosi is going to have her foot so far up Individual 1’s ass, he’ll know what Gucci tastes like. If we wants to get attention, that’s fine. Nancy will be glad to give him the spotlight while she works in the background to expose more of his misdeeds.

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    My husband is a liberal who votes the straight Democratic ticket and despises Trump. But he doesn’t follow politics like we do. I turned MSNBC on while making dinner last night, and he saw a few clips of that cabinet meeting. His jaw dropped. He knew all along Trump was corrupt and amoral, but he didn’t realize how unhinged Trump is until he saw that, and it disturbed him greatly.

  24. 24.

    gene108

    Yeah, Pakistan is in Afghanistan. Pakistan is supporting the Taliban, which Pakistan created 25 or so years ago.

    Also, does Trump want Russia to recreate the USSR borders? Sure sounds like he does.

  25. 25.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I thought it was Saint Ronnie Raygun that single handedly bankrupted and brought down the Soviet Union? At least that’s what every Republican was claiming at the time.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    Ugh, the low quality hires enduring the annual, televised “kiss Donald Trump’s ass” meeting. Such a gross, sad way to start the new year. Imagine all those grown men and women who have to pretend Trump’s huge picture of himself is great.

    Soul-killing job. Whatever opportunities for profiteering it offers aren’t worth it.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    as it was blown-up to poster size and placed in front of the president during the meeting.

    I like to picture the low quality hires planning this – spending a work day on it, fighting over who gets to present it to The Boss, and claim credit. If he likes it they all high five one another. “What about if we make a huge, flattering poster glorifying him and present it to him on television?” There were like five prototypes and a lot of discussions with the people charged with making it- they had to look at proofs, etc. This involved at least 10 people, “working”.

  35. 35.

    artem1s

    So he’s admitting he’s Mad King Aerys? Who will the Kingslayer turn out to be? Mattis? Kelley? yea, right. Not one of them has enough sense, let alone balls, to take out the 25th and wield it.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    I like to think back and remember how often media and Republicans portrayed Obama as conceited. Remember that? How he used “I” too much? How he lacked “humility” and they were all offended by his uppityness for 8 years? Why couldn’t he just wear his simple cloth coat and clear brush on the ranch?

    Good God. Now Republicans attend these mandatory Dear Leader events and media all slavishly broadcast them.

  44. 44.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yup. All those news stories about the brave Afghani ‘freedom fighters’ who went to Pakistan and came out of the hills to raid the Soviets!

    The reporters sending back stories of their brave stays with these wonderful Afghanis!!

  45. 45.

    Schlemazel

    @tybee:
    Good luck to swmbo. We have friends who have had artificial joints put in and there are 2 constants: First everyone says “I wish I hadn’t waited so long!” and secondly the only one who had complications did not follow doctors orders and immediately started to try to do more. So follow doctors orders and expect a really positive outcome

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Trump holds this annual event so they can all publicly kiss his ass. It’s a public humiliation ritual.

    I think his grown children are awful people and should have found work on their own, but OTOH they all had to endure this shit their whole lives, so they have paid dearly for those nepotism slots.

  47. 47.

    SFAW

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    My God, Kay; Obama wore a TAN SUIT once.

    Not only that: he once put HIS FEET UP ON THE DESK! And he was also caught NOT WEARING A SUIT in the Oval Office!

    Thank FSM the nation survived his evil.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Here’s a member of the worst political team in the country, promoting the narrative:

    After President Trump’s victory, Obama wondered if he wanted too much from the American people, if we were really ready for him. “He’s saying that, sadly, we were not enlightened enough for the momentous changes wrought by the smartest people in the world,” Dowd writes, adding that Obama thinks “We just weren’t ready for his amazing awesomeness.”

    They regurgitated this same shit for 8 years. Now they stand around and record Donald Trump with his Donald Trump poster at an annual, mandatory propaganda broadcast.

  51. 51.

    Anne Laurie

    @Kay:

    I think his grown children are awful people and should have found work on their own, but OTOH they all had to endure this shit their whole lives, so they have paid dearly for those nepotism slots.

    Remember the old saying, Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations?

    Fred Trump made the family fortune as a slumlord; Donald has stumbled through his life coasting on the old man’s fortune and his own lack of ethics; the grown kids raised in Donald’s shadow couldn’t pour water out of a boot if you printed the instructions on the sole — and are probably going to end up broke, if not actually in jail.

    With any luck, Tiffany and Barron will realize that their best chance is to change their last names and drop well under the radar.

  52. 52.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: Have you ever read the book? Hilarious. So funny I couldn’t bear the idea of watching a movie based on it. The man was definitely a larger than life character and he was not alone. Hard to believe it really happened:

    • The charismatic Congressman Charlie Wilson. While Ronald Reagan and William Casey were unable to persuade Congress to fund the Nicaraguan Contras, Wilson was procuring hundreds of millions of dollars to support his Afghan “freedom fighters” through back-room machinations that would have made even LBJ blush. A colorful man of many contradictions, he worked hard and played hard, earning the reputation as the “wildest man in Congreeeeeess” while representing an archconservative Bible-belt district in Texas.

    • The out-of-favor CIA operative, Gust Avrakotos, whose working-class Greek-American background made him an anomaly in the patrician world of American spies. Nicknamed “Dr. Dirty”, this blue collar James Bond was an aggressive agent who served on the front lines of the Cold War where he learned how to stretch the Agency’s rules to the breaking point.

    • The eccentric staff of CIA outcasts hand-picked by Avrakotos to run the operation. Among them were “Hilly Billy”, the logistics wizard who could open an un-numbered Swiss bank account for the U.S. government in 12 hours when others took months; Art Alper, the “devilish” tinkerer from the Technical Services division who roamed the world creating such novelties as exploding typewriters and developed portable amplifiers that spread propaganda among the Soviet troops; and especially Mike Vickers, the former Green Beret so junior in status that he couldn’t send his own cables. His military genius allowed him to single-handedly redesign the CIA’s war plan. Through his highly specific blueprint, he created a systematic plan that turned a rabble of shepherds and tribesmen into an army of techno Holy warriors who gave the legendary Red Army their greatest defeat. Today, Mike Vickers is consulting for the Pentagon on the War on Terrorism and war planning for Iraq.
    The many women who shared the Congressman’s jihad. It all began with a Houston socialite, Joanne Herring who enlisted Wilson to the Afghan cause via her deep-seated hatred of Communism and her influence in Pakistan. Carol Shannon, Wilson’s personal belly dancer who he took with him to the jihad. Charlie’s Angels, Wilson’s female staffers so strikingly beautiful that they became a legend on Capitol Hill. And finally, Annelise Illschenko, aka “Sweetums”, the former U.S. representative in the Miss World competition who traveled with Wilson deep into the Islamic world in outfits that were not the most appropriate attire in the eyes of Muslim men

    A tale of hubris gone mad.

  53. 53.

    Schlemazel

    For the morning crew who didn’t see my note yesterday afternoon
    Surgery is scheduled for Feb 4 and it will be the least radical.
    It was a funny visit because the Mayo guy is one of the top guys in the world. He wanted the most radical surgery despite the findings not indicating it was necessary. The U guy was really reluctant to disagree so we reviewed the findings and he came around to thinking our original plan was still correct. It was the best outcome i could have asked for (except i wish it was sooner)

  58. 58.

    Another Scott

    @gene108: Pakistan created and supports the Afghan Taliban.

    But Pakistan doesn’t support the Pakistan Taliban that is causing all kinds of trouble for the Pakistan government. They’re different, at least in some respects…

    Brookings (from 2013):

    […]

    But there are some limits to Pakistani control of the Afghan Taliban. Even when Mullah Omar was in power in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, he refused to recognise the legitimacy of the Afghan-Pakistani border demarcated by the British in the 1890s, the so called Durand line. The Afghan Taliban provides some assistance to the Pakistani Taliban, which is engaged in an insurgency against the army and ISI and is responsible for dozens of terrorist attacks inside Pakistani cities. The Pakistani Taliban recognises Mullah Omar as their emir just like al-Qaeda does. Mullah Omar has never publicly criticised the Pakistani Taliban or its attacks like the attempt to kill Malala Yousafzai.

    It is an open question whether Pakistan could pressure the Afghan Taliban to make a deal with Kabul on a political settlement of the war. It could certainly make life very difficult for Mullah Omar and his lieutenants if they did not agree to a Pakistani supported deal. If it chooses to shut down sanctuaries and training camps, the Taliban would be under enormous pressure to accept a Pakistani diktat. But all of that seems highly unlikely. Pakistan’s generals believe America and NATO are going to cut and run after 2014. Newspaper reports that say that the White House is actively considering the so called zero option for no American troop presence after 2014 undoubtedly have reinforced the ISI’s belief. Time is on its side and its ally the Taliban will prevail sooner rather than later in the war.

    It’s like the world is complicated, especially when one supports armed groups.

    Or, in other words, it’s Thursday.

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  59. 59.

    bjacques

    I finally saw Charlie Wilson’s War since it’s on Netflix in NL. It’s a hoot. I really miss Phillip Seymour Hoffman. His boss is John Slattery from Madmen. I have the book, but it’s on my ever-growing “to read” stack. For those saying the CIA funded Osama bin Laden, his name doesn’t appear anywhere in the book, and P. J. O’Rourke, who went there, didn’t mention him either, for what that’s worth. The late, great Molly Ivins always said Rep. Wilson was a gentleman and a good Democrat.

    Fingers crossed for you, Schlemazel!

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