Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

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

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

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

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

We will not go back.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

This really is a full service blog.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / SSDD Open Thread: Don’t Watch — Why Give Him the Satisfaction?

SSDD Open Thread: Don’t Watch — Why Give Him the Satisfaction?

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Donny Dollhands’ minions will be watching the network ratings tonight like dogs watching bacon frying. *Nothing* will be as effective at annoying the Oval Office Squatter as hearing that he couldn’t draw an audience to top the Big Bang Theory rerun on the three-digit cable station.

If there’s anything of note beyond ‘Lying Liar Lies Some More’, it’ll be recapped instantly, especially on social media.


 
When both Joe Manchin and Politico are expressing their doubts up front…


 
My personal bet as to why MAH WAAAALLLL is suddenly a national crisis:

ETA:

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    I won’t – yeesh, can’t stand to – watch, but I will follow Daniel Dale’s twitter. That man is a National Treasure, and he’s not even ‘Murrican!

  2. 2.

    Baud

    SSDD Open Thread: Don’t Watch — Why Give Him the Satisfaction Ratings?

    That’s what he really cares about.

  3. 3.

    Ked

    “drastically misinforming him”

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    oh god I can’t breathe

  6. 6.

    laura

    An informal office poll results show that no one plans to watch the reichstag fire/campaign rally/ego massage/power grab for multiple reasons including sending a message to the broadcasters that this show should have been cancelled long ago.
    Very little appetite to be lied to by the liar-in-chief.
    My guess is that the new emergency powers and demand for border cash is a new slush fund for the private prison industry. The demand for more beds suggests a plan to arrest/incarcerate indescriminently. If there’s room for baby Maria, there’s room for me and you too.

  7. 7.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    Re-posting for visibility:

    Update: Some commentators may remember me asking about investing a week or so ago. After being given very good advice, I did some more research and discovered that it’s not as scary or confusing as I previously thought, especially for the long-term investing I plan on doing. Much of it depends on how much risk I’m comfortable with taking as well as the length of time for the investment. As young as I am, I won’t have to worry about market fluctuations much. Having a diversified portfolio with low fees, and with Vanguard, commission-free buying and selling is also important

    I came across this:
    Build a fully diversified portfolio with just 4 ETFs

    A mix of growth ETFs like the Total Stock Market ETF along with some Bond Market ETFs in my portfolio like in the link would reduce my overall investment risk.

    The only problem now is investing the minimum amount needed to cover buying a single stock of each ETF, and I’m not flush with cash atm. But that’s not a big deal. I at least have a plan. Does it sound like I’m on the right track?

  8. 8.

    MattF

    Not gonna watch the orange thing spew bullshit. I’ve seen it before– we’ve all seen his act before, repeatedly. The likelihood of something of note happening is zeeero.

  13. 13.

    Sebastian

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    Jesus Christ, you are such an attention addict. Perpetually in a damsel-in-distress mode and then when called out we all have to spend three threads plus one warmed up victory round thread to discuss how you were slighted or someone slighted you.

    Open a Betterment account and pick your allocation and transfer one cent into it. There is no minimum and it’s mostly ultra-low fee Vanguard anyway.

  14. 14.

    Jeffro

    Pompeo’s knowledge of all things criminal/unethical/scuzzy for the past few years should be pretty interesting to hear about. Then again, unfortunately, with so much else on their plates Congressional Dems might have to let this one slither away. It’s a shame – he clearly knows what Trumpov is about and where all the bodies are buried (including one non-figuratively)

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    It’s funny, Jimmy Carter is widely acknowledged to have been an ineffective POTUS*, yet one of (if not THE) best EX- Presidents in American history.

    Donald Trump is widely acknowledged to be one of (if not THE) worst Presidents in American history, and I honestly can’t think of one single thing he could do that would or could redeem his reputation.

    *(Not entirely sure I agree with this assessment anyhow. He was handed a bum economy and an international crisis. Either would conceivably be enough to sink a more charismatic personality. Further, he was eroded by the Ted Kennedy primary challenge. And then he was opposed in the general by the movie-star glamour of Saint Reagan. I don’t know how anyone could survive all that.

    But I do love him.)

  16. 16.

    jl

    Why is Manchin mouthing the ‘If only the good Tsar knew!’ line?

    And, given news reports that Manafort shared internal Trump polling into with Russians, maybe Trump will just sputter “No collusion!’ for 8 minutes? See Josh Marshall’s twitter feed.

    Would be sad and unfair if Trump was flat stone cold busted just before he had to give a major address. Hope it doesn’t change its reported weak sauce nature.

  17. 17.

    chopper

    @laura:

    current word is he’s not going to go the national emergency route. if so, it’s probably cause mcconnell told him he couldn’t guarantee 51 GOP votes in the senate supporting it after the house immediately votes to put the kibosh on it.

  18. 18.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Sebastian:

    spend three threads plus one warmed up victory round thread to discuss how you were slighted or someone slighted you.

    I don’t know about any of the rest of that shit, but nobody slighted me. I was just updating anybody who was interested about something I’m doing. You didn’t have to read it and there’s no reason to be insulting.

  20. 20.

    Mike in NC

    I also can’t stomach Fat Bastard’s nonstop lies and stupidity. Will change the channel immediately if I hear that voice or see him on TV. He really makes my skin crawl.

  22. 22.

    Nora

    My husband and I are going to the gym tonight. While we usually arrive around 8 and leave around 9, tonight we’re going to make a special effort to get there early and leave early, so we won’t be subjected to the Trump Lyin’ King show.

  25. 25.

    Sebastian

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    No, that’s your general MO. It’s a beef with Omnes or CornerStone or someone else or you having “misspoken” and then endless conversations about how you misspoke and didn’t mean it and then more discussions why that wasn’t meant like that and so on. I really don’t pay attention because it’s the same thing all the time with one thing being constant. You.

    Several commenters told you to not bother and just open a FinTech account. There is a mylti-billion dollar industry to take care of EXACTLY YOUR PROBLEM. But nooooooo, we are about to revive that conversation AGAIN how you are going to optimize $7.32 per week investment across ETFs, moneymarket, stocks, index funds and who knows what.

    Open a Betterment account, pick your strategy (Goldman algo if you feel frisky), change it every 5 minutes if you want to, and transfer your money into it. Just stop this already for Chrissake.

  27. 27.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    It’s David Bowie’s birthday. If there is anything in our current culture more unfair than that he is dead and the Pusillanimous Pamplemousse is alive, I can’t think of it offhand.

  28. 28.

    Jeffro

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Donald Trump is widely acknowledged to be one of (if not THE) worst Presidents in American history, and I honestly can’t think of one single thing he could do that would or could redeem his reputation.

    In the movie version of this presidency, assuming we live that long, DJT has some sort of epiphany (based on what, I don’t know) that all his life, he has been getting away with shit and knowing that one day the bill would come due, and decides to come clean – not just about conspiring with Russia but what he knows about GOP dark money, Mitch and Paul knowingly enabling Trumpov’s treason, money laundering and tax fraud across the decades, and even admits he’s a total sleaze for cheating on his third wife with multiple women that yeah, he paid off using hard-earned dollars from ordinary Americans who stupidly thought they were going to ‘make America great again’. (I almost gagged just typing that).

    Fully disclosed, he walks out of Mueller’s totally-not-likely but made-for-TV classic police interrogation room, strides outside, and…and…one way or another (but ideally, just by Big Mac) he meets his just reward. But before he goes, the camera slowly pans in (not too close – that fat orange face fills the frame quite quickly). And he says, “Don’t be me, America. Just be…be best, America. Be best.”

    And then we all party and irrigate his gravesite quite substantially anyway. But at least he redeems himself, like 15% of the way.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    Joe Manchin is “drastically misinformed” if he thinks that Trump’s problem is just that he’s getting bad information from his staff.

  34. 34.

    randy khan

    The idea that a current humanitarian crisis would be solved by funding a wall that literally will take years to build (or, probably more accurately, years to *start* building) doesn’t even rise to being laughable.

  35. 35.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Sebastian:

    No, that’s your general MO. It’s a beef with Omnes or CornerStone or someone else or you having “misspoken” and then endless conversations about how you misspoke and didn’t mean it and then more discussions why that wasn’t meant like that and so on. I really don’t pay attention because it’s the same thing all the time with one thing being constant. You.

    That’s happened in the past, yes. I’ve gotten away from that though. I’ve written off Corner Stone. Omnes and I don’t have any problems AFAIK.

    Several commenters told you to not bother and just open a FinTech account.

    This may come as a shock, but I don’t read every single reply to me, try as I might. I don’t recall any commenters recommending FinTech. I do remember a bunch of people recommending Vanguard though.

    But nooooooo, we are about to revive that conversation AGAIN how you are going to optimize $7.32 per week investment across ETFs, moneymarket, stocks, index funds and who knows what.

    I was just planning on investing in ETFs. That will be enough for now.

    Open a Betterment account, pick your strategy (Goldman algo if you feel frisky), change it every 5 minutes if you want to, and transfer your money into it. Just stop this already for Chrissake.

    Thanks for your advice. I’ll check it out.

  37. 37.

    Gin & Tonic

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: You can diversify over time. You don’t have to buy shares in each four to start. For someone with your time horizon, equities (common stocks) will almost invariably give you the greatest return. Buy a stock fund first, maybe next year buy into something else. But don’t sweat the details – you have 35-40 years to work things out.

  38. 38.

    dmsilev

    Idea: network airs the Presidential address, but with MST3k heckling in front of it.

    Finally, the one bit of footage which will crack the sanity of the MST3K crew.

  39. 39.

    Jeffro

    Fucking MSNBC opens with a montage of presidents addressing the nation during actual emergencies …nice job guys…

  44. 44.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Jeffro:

    Fucking MSNBC opens

    Opens what? Isn’t the damned Address to an Ungrateful Nation 2 hours away? I’m still at the office (on the West Coast). Ugh, the networks will hype this as breathlessly as if it were an empty podium in Badchunk, OH.

  45. 45.

    Ian G.

    The New York Islanders are one of the biggest surprises in the NHL this season, and I will be watching them (hopefully) continue their winning streak and their breathing down John Cole’s Penguins’ neck tonight. You couldn’t pay me enough to watch combover Caligula.

  47. 47.

    JR

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: just invest in an index 500. Save a small slice for a safe low interest investment, like CDs which are paying around 2.5 to 3 percent on the market right now. I would try for a 90/10 split at your age. You can eat a lot of risk. Keep in mind that you usually need 1000 to invest in most things

  48. 48.

    sukabi

    Re: Warren’s crowds…it’s not just the crazy cheeto in the WH that is worried…BS has to be shitting himself as Warren grabs the working class.

  49. 49.

    danielx

    Not gonna do it….

    – Because I start to get nauseous if I hear the shitgibbon’s voice for more than ten seconds.

    – Because various talking heads will go on and on and on about “presidential” he sounds, assuming any or all of the following: he 1) can emit two coherent sentences in a row, 2) if he doesn’t actually froth at the mouth, 3) doesn’t drool or shit himself, and 4) doesn’t end up on the floor kicking and screaming “I WANT MY WALL! I WANT MY WALL!”.

    Oh for the days when it was a scandal – a scandal, I say! – that Barack Obama demeaned the dignity of his office by wearing a tan suit and NOT WEARING A NECKTIE in the Oval Office. Good times, good times…but hey, there’s always the future: Elizabeth Warren Had A DNA Test and Isn’t Likeable! Chris Cillizza has reason to live….

  50. 50.

    eric

    Just Now…..
    FOX NATION
    Could we see a major shift of black voters toward the Republican Party in 2020?

    I shit you the fuck not…..this is why we cannot have nice things…..there is NO WAY on this or any other alternative earth that “black voters” are voting for the GOP.

    PS. Of course I did not watch the video.

  51. 51.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Barbara:
    It is what it is. I wasn’t always my best not so long ago. I just wanted to show I did my homework.

  52. 52.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @eric:

    Could we see a major shift of black voters toward the Republican Party in 2020?

    Snort. Can’t someone hack their chyron so it just shows a massive-font all-caps red “NOPE” scrolling over and over?

  55. 55.

    danielx

    @eric:

    Could we see a major shift of black voters toward the Republican Party in 2020?

    It could happen….and pigs might have wings.

  56. 56.

    catclub

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Jimmy Carter is widely acknowledged to have been an ineffective POTUS

    Didn’t he win a Nobel peace prize for settling the Egyptian side of the Israel/Arab wars? Which settlement has held for the last 40 or so years.
    He also put solar panels on the Whitehouse – which were promptly dismantled. He also made the US speak for Human rights ( which was also promptly dismantled). He did not sell arms to Iran to fund terrorists in Central america. Unfortunately fairly clueless in managing WhiteHouse/congressional business.

  59. 59.

    catclub

    @MattF:

    “The bulls make money, the bears make money– only the pigs lose.”

    Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered.

  60. 60.

    The Moar You Know

    Jesus Christ, you are such an attention addict. Perpetually in a damsel-in-distress mode and then when called out we all have to spend three threads plus one warmed up victory round thread to discuss how you were slighted or someone slighted you.

    @Sebastian: Might I suggest pieing his tiresome ass? I ran out of patience with that particular individual several months ago, because while you see attention whoring, I see deliberate, disruptive trolling. The pie filter is quite effective.

  62. 62.

    geg6

    @Sebastian:

    Honestly, I think you are being a bit rough on our young one. He asked questions, I thought they were good ones, and now he’s reporting on his research, which many commenters advised him to do. Skip his comments if you’re not interested but there’s no need to dress him down for commenting about this on an open thread. I am bored to tears and wish no one would talk about their devices or coding or Terry Pratchett but you don’t see me jumping down anyone’s throats about it. Jesus.

    About this ridiculous side show tonight, I just put together a huge cat tower my sister and BIL got us for Christmas and plan to watch Cleo scamper all over it. She loves to run and jump and will love it.

  63. 63.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Not to give him any rhetorical weapons, but TBH, it would be great if the Democratic response acknowledged the fact that there is, absolutely, an humanitarian crisis in Central America that really is in the best interests of the United States to address.

    And went on to make the case that this crisis will not be solved with a wall or by closing our borders or by putting refugees in prison. But that it does require intelligent, well thought-out strategies that will work to stabilize the governments and economies of these countries so that these human beings don’t have to flee for their lives.

  66. 66.

    Aleta

    Tech question about these ratings. Is it calculated using the proportion of TV sets tuned in, as counted by Neilson? Or do cable co’s actually have signals sent back to them from each set of their subscribers? W/o cable, theoretically a smart TV w/o cable maybe could be counted by individual local stations, but seems like it would be quite complicated (Channel 2 being different for diff locations)…

  67. 67.

    The Pale Scot

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Don’t do shit until after Brexit Day 3.29. The market hasn’t included in in its calculations and right now I’d call it +90% it’s going to be bad.The only way it won’t be is if the UK cancels, and that’s not in the cards unless MI5 rounds up all the Brexiteers and sends them to Kazakhstan

  68. 68.

    geg6

    @Aleta:

    It’s more complicated than it used to be. Nielsen still has “box” families (I was one a few years ago) but there are other ways to measure now with satellite, cable and streaming services.

  69. 69.

    Duane

    Part of me wants to watch, in case he goes ballistic, but not about to contribute ratings. It’ll be available later.
    The humanitarian concerns rest squarely with Trumpov’s maladministation. That should be made clear tonight for any thinking person. Own it then jump you fucker.

  70. 70.

    Barbara

    @geg6: Well-put. The other night we seemed to have one thread on cooking chicken while another simultaneously went on (and on!) about superhero comic books.

    ETA: Bill Fralic was in the high school class just after my brother’s. I knew I recognized the name

  71. 71.

    Aleta

    @geg6: So it seems like for this speech, non-cable non-sat TVs tuned to a station (not streaming) will not make a difference in the ‘real’ count. (Though they might be estimated in by proportion, even if not turned on.)

  72. 72.

    Steeplejack

    Alternate programming if you don’t want to watch Trump:

    If you’re looking for anything even remotely worth watching tonight at 9pm EST, I will be folding laundry in my underwear for 8 minutes on Instagram live. https://t.co/GhMowscZMP

    — Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) January 8, 2019

  74. 74.

    tobie

    @Ella in New Mexico: You’re right that it would be a breath of fresh air if politicians would acknowledge the political, economic, and climate crises that have led to an influx of refugees from Central America. I don’t think anyone will say it, as they won’t say how much we need large young workers paying payroll taxes to fund Social Security and Medicare for our aging population.

  75. 75.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @The Moar You Know:

    I see deliberate, disruptive trolling.

    You’re entitled to think that, but it’s not true. During those months in question I was going through a learning curve, dealing with some problems. I was being an asshole and I learned my lesson a month or so ago. Ever since I’ve tried to be a better person. All I’ve ever wanted is to share my (half-baked) insights and opinions. It saddens me that you pied me. I hope you reconsider in the future. I enjoyed talking to you, from what I remember.

  76. 76.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @SiubhanDuinne: With the help of super smug George Will, who prepped Reagan for the debates and then wrote about how well he did.

    Info about Will didn’t become known until some time later.

  77. 77.

    sukabi

    @SiubhanDuinne: what I remeber from Carter’s time was the endless slagging he got from the beltway chattering classes AND from the Democrats as well. It seems they were ALL pissed that the peanut farmer (he wasn’t one of them) won the presidency and they were all determined to show him his place.

  78. 78.

    Hitlesswonder

    @catclub: Yeah – Carter knew WTF he was doing and the US would be way better off if it had stuck to his plan. The failures of the USA are on us, not on Jimmy Carter.

  79. 79.

    GregMulka

    My violin arrived today. Time to start with the noise fit to drive away cats and make restless spirits regret their decision not to move on.

  82. 82.

    Feathers

    Folks! Apparently Stormy Daniels is over on instagram live-streaming herself folding her laundry, in her underwear.

    Sorry if someone else posted, but I’m on the bus.

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