Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Come on, man.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Bark louder, little dog.

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

Battle won, war still ongoing.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

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

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Second rate reporter says what?

Peak wingnut was a lie.

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Show & Tell

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Since the earliest days of the Trump administration, we’ve heard tales of the lengths to which aides and briefers must go to try to capture and hold the attention of their distracted, dumb, lazy, self-absorbed boss. As the Dothraki say, “It is known.”

But for some reason, this anecdote from a Time article describing how an intel agency tried to keep Trump from buying Kim Jong-un’s denuclearization bamboozle really brings it home:

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGIA), which oversees the spy satellites that map and photograph key areas, had tried to impress upon Trump the size and complexity of the North Korean site. In preparing one briefing for the President on the issue early in his administration, the NGIA built a model of the facility with a removable roof, according to two officials. To help Trump grasp the size of the facility, the NGIA briefers built a miniature version New York’s Statue of Liberty to scale and put it inside the model.

Mind-boggling. Maybe McConnell got Trump to cave on the shutdown with a demonstration in the White House driveway involving a steamroller labeled “Pelosi” and a stale circus peanut labeled “Trump.”

Reader Interactions

71Comments

  2. 2.

    mapaghimagsik

    I fully understand the need for models and pictures for some very very unengaged (read intellectually lazy) people. In my corner of the murderverse, where we lie about marking underground pipes that are supposed to keep people from digging into them, I have had to draw pictures — literally pictures, to help people understand the debacle unfolding around them.

    Even then, the power that be have decided that the date for the replacement for the system that allowed for possibly 250,000 false records from 2011 to 2016 is more important than the system being designed to actually prevent false records.

    The mind boggles, until you realize money and jobs are at stake.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    Good thing, I guess, they didn’t present it to him as a puzzle where he had to connect the dots.

    Because we (and they) all know he’s incapable of that.

  4. 4.

    Mike in NC

    Flipped on MSNBC while doing laundry a little while ago, and they were reporting the White House being “rattled” over accurate disclosures about Fat Bastard’s appalling slothfulness.

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    From the same article:

    After a briefing in preparation for a meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May, for example, the subject turned to the British Indian Ocean Territory of Diego Garcia. The island is home to an important airbase and a U.S. Naval Support Facility that are central to America’s ability to project power in the region, including in the war in Afghanistan.
    The President, officials familiar with the briefing said, asked two questions: Are the people nice, and are the beaches good?

    The authors and witnesses make the (rather obvious) point that trump is thinking in terms of building yet another failed hotel complex, but I’m fascinated by the word “nice”. Putin says “nice things”, he likes it when people are ‘nice to me”. Obviously it reflects the paucity of his vocabulary and shallowness of his intellect, but there’s something else about it. The infantile neediness at the man’s core is the closest I can come to putting a finger on it.
    KJU’s letters addressing him as “excellency”, the projected pictures of himself in KSA, and now Bibi Netanyahu’s latest offering to small god of his large ego. How are the people of Israel not embarrassed by this?

  8. 8.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Good thing, I guess, they didn’t present it to him as a puzzle where he had to connect the dots.

    Oh, bullshit. He can connect the dots.

    Wait a minute — did you mean “and have them look like the intended drawing/picture”?

    Never mind.

  9. 9.

    lgerard

    Toys for trump!

    Perhaps we should have a nationwide contest to see who can best explain simple concepts to the stable genius with the best brain using action figures and Lego blocks.

  10. 10.

    Yutsano

    @Mike in NC: I weep for the wee childuns. I really do.

    Christ. We were already hella aware he lazy he is. Now it’s undeniable. And not even Nootie can spin that top fast enough.

  11. 11.

    MattF

    I picture an NK briefing with Mickey Mouse pointing to an H-bomb. And grabbing Minnie’s lady parts to keep Donnie’s attention.

  18. 18.

    feebog

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’m fascinated by the word “nice”.

    As the dementia sets in he is losing his vocabulary. Thus the repetitive use of words like “nice”, “beautiful” and “powerful”. My Mother is on the same downhill trajectory. The difference is that she is 95 and well aware she is slipping.

  19. 19.

    J R in WV

    To help Trump grasp the size of the facility, the NGIA briefers built a miniature version New York’s Statue of Liberty to scale and put it inside the model.

    Oh my GAWD~!!!~

    Who knew the DPRK was capable of recreating a vast sculpture like the Statue of Liberty, and would then locate that monument to freedom in their nuclear weapons manufacturing facility!!!

    I’m thinking that’s the first thought that butterball orange circus peanut president had when he saw that model. Just sayin’…

  20. 20.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    NGIA briefers built a miniature version New York’s Statue of Liberty to scale and put it inside the model.

    I thought sure this was going to end with them building a scale model of Trump tower as comparison. I wonder if they included a tiny King Kong?

    What a maroon.

  21. 21.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    I like how the Trump peanut is one of those “circus peanuts” you can buy that come in a bag. Angry Circus Peanut indeed.

  22. 22.

    rk

    I’m one of those people who needs to have images (pictures?) in order to understand complex things. In that respect the media age has been a boon to me. I’ve done entire courses barely reading a textbook, but going online and listening to video lectures and understanding the entire topic. I wouldn’t blame Trump if that was his actual issue. Having said that, I just think Trump’s basic problem is that he has become an idiot over the course of his lifetime. He was born rich and money has always saved his ass. Bankruptcies? He found a bank and Russians to loan him money. Failed in relationships. Found women to marry, have affairs with and produce numerous mini Trumps. Racist, misogynist thug? NBC gave him a show and edited out all his racism and stupidity (that is one scandal which no one really talks about). Obvious idiot? Millions of votes and the presidency. Idiot corrupt President? Protected by the party. He does not learn because he has never had to learn anything. As a society we protect certain types of people even if it destroys us.

  23. 23.

    satby

    I’m kind of over all the “he’s stupid and lazy” stories. Ok, we all know now. He’s manifestly unfit for the office he holds and unable to fulfill the functions he needs to as president.
    What I want to see, in excruciating detail, are stories about all the people refusing to perform their Constitutional duty to remove him via the 25th Ammendment, or by informing Congress to begin impeachment hearings. Everyone focussing on Drumpf and not his fellow looters and enablers is prolonging the travesty, and they should be held just as accountable.

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    @MJS: Excellent point. Even as a child, I despised circus peanuts and would glare at any adult offering them. Little did I dream that a semi-sentient version would one day ascend to the highest political office in my country.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    @satby:

    I think when we reach the point of being absolutely sick of it is when the normal public are just starting to get it, though.

    It takes that long and that many repetitions to get thru. They simply don’t pay as much attention.

  29. 29.

    NonyNony

    Circus Peanut Libel!

    No matter how much you hate Circus Peanuts, an actual Circus Peanut would be a better President than Trump.

  30. 30.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    @MattF: I’m reminded of the Handmaid’s Tale episode where (spoilers) Serena Joy visits Canada and the officials give her a schedule without any words on it.

  32. 32.

    satby

    @Kay: I get that, but both the media and other elected officials have known all along. Way past time to put a spotlight on the complete lack of patriotism in both.

    And I also want a unicorn.

  33. 33.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    @satby: +1

    No +111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

  38. 38.

    Kay

    @satby:

    I don’t know if there’s a word for this, but in the past it always seemed to me to be cumulative. Public opinion would change and it would seem to be “overnight” but really it was just the slow accumulation of stories that show “stupidity” or “incompetence” or “corruption”.

    It’s like pols are almost the last to know that any image or reputation they had is damaged. So, you, the myth of “dealmaker” rides along for a while based on Trump saying he is one over and over again, and then it just slowly becomes “not true”.

    They really get a very generous grant of trust from the public, based almost solely on the office, not the inhabitant of the office. . It takes real work to piss it away, and when they do people try to tie it to a discrete event “Trump’s Katrina!” but really it was just erosion of credibility.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I don’t pretend to know much about Israeli domestic politics, but I believe moving the embassy was popular, especially with Bibi’s voters. And trump is popular with Sheldon Adelson, who spends a lot of money in Israel. Trying to link to the Wiki article about Israel Hayom, the free daily newspaper that Adelson publishes, but the ink button is borked. I don’t know if people read it or wrap fish in it, but it’s a way to saturate the media, I imagine, the way Rupert does here.

  44. 44.

    Major Major Major Major

    @ruemara:

    And dammit, will the save my name function ever work right again?

    Last time I looked at it, I found that it would require some digging to even diagnose, and we decided to just fix it by doing the rebuild. (This was when the rebuild was going to be in November.) I have not been consulted since.

  47. 47.

    VOR

    @ruemara: Because he isn’t their President. The antics are amusing at a distance, only alarming when you have to live with the chaos every day. Israeli’s aren’t checking CNN every morning thinking “What has the circus peanut tweeted out today?”

  48. 48.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The threat to Likud comes only from a center-left alliance, the poll suggests: Should Gantz team up with Yesh Atid, together they could win 26 seats to Likud’s 27.

    The poll noted the center-left bloc overall appeared poised to win just 54 seats — not enough to cobble together a coalition, unless they formed a coalition with ultra-Orthodox parties that could mean difficult compromises for secularist Yesh Atid and liberal Meretz

    Divided opposition? Sounds like 2016 all over again.

    And Donald Trump is more popular in Israel than he is in Russia!? The mind boggles.

  49. 49.

    Brachiator

    @Yutsano:

    Christ. We were already hella aware he lazy he is. Now it’s undeniable.

    The excuses for His Inadequacy come down to one of the following.

    Trump is like a chief executive running a business. He delegates decisions to his expert staff and advisers. You know, like Ivanka and Young Jared.

    Trump has tremendous instincts. He don’t gots to spend time agonizing over decisions.

    Trump is not Obama or Hillary. Ergo, magical white man.

    Trump is rich. He must know what he is doing.

    Trump is making America great again. Why you hating on Trump?

  50. 50.

    Michael Cain

    @ruemara:

    And dammit, will the save my name function ever work right again?

    I gave up. I have a piece of JavaScript that runs against every page I download. Among the other things it does, if it’s BJ the code finds the name and email fields if present and fills them in.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    “Lazy” is sort of new too. To add to the pile.

    One can be very hardworking and still be incompetent and corrupt :)

    Now he’s lazy too.

    He never had any real redeeming personal qualities and that deficit will start to matter more and more as the myths around him melt away. I saw they’re reportedly trying to make him appear optimistic and generous in the SOTU. We’ll see how that goes but that’s a heavy lift, given his actual ( mean-spirited and petty) temperament and lack of character. Not a lot to work with in that department.

  56. 56.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Brachiator:
    The excuse making reached new levels of pathetic and cult of personality-level worship when his supporters defended his fast food banquet for the Clemson Tigers.

    They actually tried accusing lefties of being elitist snobs or something and that they were “losing their minds” over it! I mean, for fuck’s sake, he owns a hotel that probably has room service and the like only a few miles away. How hard would have been to get some catered food to the WH?

    And it didn’t even have to be caviar or lobster tail; restaurant-style burgers and fries would have been leagues ahead of McDonald’s if that’s the kind of food the Clemson players allegedly wanted. Perhaps Adam or somebody could answer this: when were the normal WH kitchen staff furloughed and how long could it have taken to get Trump’s kitchen staff security clearances to work in the WH kitchens?

    Fundamentally, this isn’t about “elitist” food snobs, this is about Trump’s cheapness and incompetence. If lefties are losing their minds, it’s not because Trump served slop at the WH; it’s from disbelief that there are idiots that would try to justify it.

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: I would add: It’s not about the Haberman-Axios type media or the hard-core MAGAts, it’s about the great lumpenmittel that is confused by politics so they retreat to “Oh, it’s all just partisan bickering” or some such pseudo-savvy Broderism. Like the woman I heard on NPR this morning, a government worker who voted for trump and regrets it and was laid off during the shutdown and doesn’t think we need a wall so has now arrived at this insight: Oh, it’s all just politics. I don’t know what it takes to get through to these people. With Bush it was years in Iraq and Katrina and Jack Abramoff and and a move to privatize social security, with Nixon it was, as I understand, the tapes, and Vietnam, and Agnew? (asking, I was a tot). I do find it hard not to look down my liberal-elitist nose at them.

  60. 60.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    There’s something(s) deeply fucked up in this country when an incredibly shiftless, incompetent, corrupt, degenerate meathead got to be president and load up the WH with trump clones.

  61. 61.

    Brachiator

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

    The excuse making reached new levels of pathetic and cult of personality-level worship when his supporters defended his fast food banquet for the Clemson Tigers.

    They actually tried accusing lefties of being elitist snobs or something and that they were “losing their minds” over it! I mean, for fuck’s sake, he owns a hotel that probably has room service and the like only a few miles away. How hard would have been to get some catered food to the WH?

    After a while, I ignored most of this stuff because Trump’s cheap ass actions were so ridiculous that I didn’t care about the lame ass rationalizations.

    However, I will give Trump this much: I understand some of his appeal, even though it’s all bullshit. Trump openly hangs out with elitists, defined by their money, not their education or other achievements. And 99.9999% of the goobers who support him would never be allowed within a mile of Trump’s hotels or Mar-a-Lago.

    However, Trump’s personal tastes are about as knuckle-dragging low as anyone could ever imagine. And so, Trump is exactly who a lot of his supporters would be if you dropped a fortune in their laps. He is their ultimate fantasy figure, as dumb as they are, but with money.

  63. 63.

    ET

    This feels like proof that everyone who has to deal with him in terms of explaining some of the more complicated things a president has to deal with, thinks he is incapable of understanding more complicated than “fire bad, tree pretty” to borrow from Buffy. I also have a feeling that while they “respect the office of the President” that they don’t necessarily much “respect the President”. At least in private.

  65. 65.

    Mike in NC

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve been to Diego Garcia, albeit over 20 years ago. To answer his questions, yes there are some nice beaches. The atoll sits just below the Equator and get brutally hot at times. As to the people, there really aren’t any because they were forced to move elsewhere. Aside from a handful of Filipinos and other civilian contract workers, DG is 99% military personnel.

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: I have a circus peanut story.

    We lived fairly close to the Brookfield Zoo so we used to go quite often when I was a kid. I’ll pause the story right there to add a little background; we had the sex talks very early, and we learned the real names of the personal private parts, too. Also, my parents would walk naked from the shower to their bedrooms, so we had seen them both naked, not sure if that’s typical or not.

    Now, back to the story. So we are at the zoo, and you could put your nickel/dime/quarter into something like a gumboil machine. So my mom walked us over to the machine and said we would buy peanuts to feed to the elephants. At five years old I apparently yelled, “Not Daddy’s!”

    The End.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    Tres cute.

    Can remember glass domed vending machines on elevated subway platforms in NYC. One penny to receive a palmful of peanuts to feed to the pigeons. From personal taste testing, always stale peanuts.

  70. 70.

    gene108

    Kind of fun on Twitter, to see people (1) rise to Trump’s defense that he is too hard working and (2) claim Obama was lazy, golfed all the time, hung out with celebrities, and gave speeches, and didn’t do any actual work, like Trump is doing.

    Those poor souls get slammed pretty hard, which I don’t think they are used to, because they rarely venture out of their bubble.

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