• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

This fight is for everything.

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

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

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

75% of people clapping liked the show!

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

How stupid are these people?

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

Shut up, hissy kitty!

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

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

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

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

In after Baud. Damn.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Agonize - Organize / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Proud to Be A Democrat

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Proud to Be A Democrat

by Anne Laurie|  February 28, 20194:15 am| 118 Comments

This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

FacebookTweetEmail

BREAKING: The House of Representatives just passed #HR8 to require a background check on every gun sale. Together, we voted, we demanded action, and the House delivered the first gun safety legislation in over a decade. Read @GabbyGiffords’s statement: https://t.co/mpSpUHEiLz

— Giffords (@GiffordsCourage) February 27, 2019

From the party that can walk *and* chew gum!

As congressional Democrats re-introduced a bill that seeks to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Rep. John Lewis remembered the civil rights era, warning that “there are forces in America today trying to take us back to another time.” https://t.co/AmJjpJfjey pic.twitter.com/CHYfBTKX2u

— ABC News (@ABC) February 27, 2019

Today, I was proud to once again introduce a resolution with @SenThomTillis to establish the John S. McCain III Human Rights Commission, which will examine human rights violations through regular hearings and briefings and promote human rights. pic.twitter.com/khsOdQe70y

— Senator Chris Coons (@ChrisCoons) February 27, 2019

While Michael Cohen is testifying and President Trump is in Vietnam, those border wall prototypes in San Diego are being torn down by @CBPSanDiego. https://t.co/hpDLQz05Ib pic.twitter.com/boNaBK1Qa8

— Danny Freeman (@DannyEFreeman) February 27, 2019

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: The GOP Table-Thumpers
Next Post: On the Road and In Your Backyard »

Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    February 28, 2019 at 4:36 am

    Good Morning, Everyone ???

  2. 2.

    plato

    February 28, 2019 at 4:42 am

    Anyone else want Michael Cohen to compile and release a list of the 500 times he says Trump asked him to threaten someone?— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) February 28, 2019

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 4:44 am

    @rikyrah: Blech.

  4. 4.

    Lapassionara

    February 28, 2019 at 4:50 am

    @rikyrah: good morning.

  5. 5.

    plato

    February 28, 2019 at 4:51 am

    To the Mark Meadows of the world:Stop wheeling out your ONE Black friend as proof that you, or someone else, is not racist.It AIN'T working. If you weren't doing or saying racist shit in the first place, you'd never need to prove it.#CohenHearing— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) February 27, 2019

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 4:54 am

    Johnny Manziel released by Montreal Alouettes and barred from CFL

    Another day ending in “Y”.

  7. 7.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    February 28, 2019 at 4:58 am

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning! ??

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    February 28, 2019 at 5:03 am

    Heckuva Infrastructure Week, eh wot?

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    February 28, 2019 at 5:13 am

    Found on Amazon Prime, Origins, a French police series. Interesting enough to stick around for the short season of six episodes, although the string of coincidences within each episode reaches so long as to challenge credulity. Premise revolves around a hotshot police homicide detective who is teamed with a professional genealogist/anthropologist/historian.

    Not as engaging (nor as in your face gritty and grisly) as was the French police series Spiral, but not chopped goose liver either.

  10. 10.

    TS (the original)

    February 28, 2019 at 5:21 am

    Today, I was proud to once again introduce a resolution …. to establish the John S. McCain III Human Rights Commission, which will examine human rights violations through regular hearings and briefings and promote human rights.

    Didn’t think I see the day when the US needed a Human Rights Commission.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    February 28, 2019 at 5:25 am

    @TS (the original)

    If it must have a recently deceased Congressional attribution, John Dingell would be a MUCH better choice.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 5:32 am

    @TS (the original): Didn’t think I see the day when the US needed a Human Rights Commission again. FTFY.

  13. 13.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 5:37 am

    @NotMax:

    John McCain had a strong record on Human Rights, Chaired often and left behind a Human Rights Foundation. It’s a good “nym” to choose, if only to ratfuck and left foot the ReThugs.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    February 28, 2019 at 5:45 am

    @Jay

    Spotty record. Let us not forget he voted against creating an MLK Jr. holiday, consistently opposed Dreamers legislation as well as the instigation of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and other LGBTQ matters.

  15. 15.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 5:50 am

    @NotMax:

    Yeah, well he wasn’t all that concerned with Human Rights in ‘Merika,

    His focus was a broad.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 5:54 am

    @Jay: I sympathize. I have been rather focused on broads from time to time too.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 5:57 am

    Heh:

    To be clear, the House Republicans thought they were doing a fine job for their Great Leader by trashing his former lawyer at every turn. Cohen is undoubtedly a proven liar who lied to Congress: we know this because he confessed to doing just that in his guilty plea last year.

    Trump’s loyalists in the House seemed to think that was the end of the story. Who could believe a proven liar like Michael Cohen? The only snag is that he was lying on behalf of his client, one Donald Trump. So the more they talked about his lies, the more he talked about his lying client.

    Like so many things in Trumpworld, this line of questioning is several diopters worse than shortsighted. It is the kind of brilliant argument dreamed up after several beers: a bar-room brawl masquerading as political strategy.

    – Richard Wolffe

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    February 28, 2019 at 6:00 am

    Heh.

    Among the B-est of 1930s B movies running in the background (anything from Chesterfield Studios falls into that category). Scene is the meeting place of the lodge of the order of Whales. The password to gain entry?

    Sperm.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    February 28, 2019 at 6:03 am

    @OzarkHillbilly

    The Laffer curve of logic.

    “The less sense we make the stronger our case.”

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 6:15 am

    @NotMax: I am almost sympathetic to their plight but then I remember, they picked trump in the full knowledge of who and what he is. The arc of history may be long but the arc of karma appears to be short and brutal.

  21. 21.

    Steve in the ATL

    February 28, 2019 at 6:20 am

    @rikyrah: you wake up way too early. Blech.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    February 28, 2019 at 6:26 am

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Perhaps only because it is such a fun word to say, maybe we ought to refer to it as the hippopede of karma.

    ;)

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    February 28, 2019 at 6:27 am

    House Dems also issued a metric fuck-ton of subpoenas yesterday to get to the bottom of the family separations atrocity.

    Meanwhile, the local newspaper in my little town posts weekly online polls about various topics. The current one asks people to weigh in on the greatest threat to the U.S. Choices include Russia, China, North Korea, US-based hate groups, Middle Eastern terrorists, and “illegal immigrants” from Central and South America. The latter is winning by a mile.

    Friends, I live among the very stupid.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 6:31 am

    @NotMax: Hippopede… I like it. Brings to my mind an image of a thousand legged hippopotamus.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    February 28, 2019 at 6:31 am

    @Betty Cracker

    Putting the duh in Floriduh?

  26. 26.

    BlueDWarrior

    February 28, 2019 at 6:32 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Johnny Manziel is a human tragedy in the vein of self-destruction. He had enough talent, IMO, to be a good NFL QB, in the vien of Russell Wilson. But his own vices and demons just won’t let him properly exploit his talent.

    My only hope he doesn’t end up doing 10-20 in a State Pen. somewhere..

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 6:32 am

    @Betty Cracker: At least I ain’t the only one.

  28. 28.

    Immanentize

    February 28, 2019 at 6:48 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Friends, I live among the very stupid.

    By choice!

  29. 29.

    Alien Radio

    February 28, 2019 at 6:51 am

    @NotMax: that’s the basis of the Chewbacca defence.

  30. 30.

    Steve in the ATL

    February 28, 2019 at 6:51 am

    @Immanentize: thought of you yesterday—when I got off the plane in Houston there was a giant “RICE” banner hanging in the airport. I assume the school and city are launching a marketing campaign based on the Immp’s imminent (heh) arrival.

  31. 31.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 6:53 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    You guys promised there wouldn’t be any math in Buddhism.

  32. 32.

    Steve in the ATL

    February 28, 2019 at 6:56 am

    @Jay: (nobody tell him about the Noble Eightfold Path….)

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 6:58 am

    @BlueDWarrior: shrug… My reaction to most Manziel news tends toward pointing and laughing. My depth of empathy is limited and it doesn’t reach to whatever demons he is battling. I think that is partly (mostly?) due to the fact that I was married to such a person for 5 years and finally left when I got it thru my thick skull that I couldn’t save her. I even predicted she would end up in prison. It took a while, but she ended up doing 6 years at Chillicothe.

    From what little my sons tell me, that 2nd kick in the head has finally got her attention. Mind you, I ain’t buying the act, but there is a very small part of me that hopes for her sake, as well as my sons who still love their mother, that she really is a better person these days.

    I guess I hope the same for Manziel and most days am able to resist the urge to P&L and just pass on the sad news.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 7:00 am

    @Jay: As a creature of whim, I never promise anything. Never.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 7:00 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning.

  36. 36.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 28, 2019 at 7:00 am

    @Jay:

    You guys promised there wouldn’t be any math in Buddhism.

    We said Baudism.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 7:05 am

    Vox

    President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un won’t sign a deal in Vietnam after all.

    In an abrupt change, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump’s press conference, originally scheduled for around 4 am, will now start two hours earlier. But that’s when Trump and Kim planned to host a signing ceremony for a potential agreement like they did last year in Singapore. About an hour after that, Sanders told reporters in Hanoi that “No agreement was reached at this time, but their respective teams look forward to meeting in the future.”

    The sovereignty of the United States is safe for now.

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 7:06 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: There is math in Baudsim too tho. How else can he add up all those high $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ donations he’s been raking in?

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 7:09 am

    @Baud:

    The sovereignty of the United States is safe for now.

    I’m not so certain of that. Was there anybody besides the interpreters in the room with them? Do we have their notes?

  40. 40.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 7:09 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Plus, there will be the need to add up time served.

  41. 41.

    debbie

    February 28, 2019 at 7:13 am

    @Baud:

    A campaign issue is left to live on.

  42. 42.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 7:14 am

    @Steve in the ATL:

    The Noble Eightfold Path has no math in it. I’ve read it all, even in sanskrit.

  43. 43.

    satby

    February 28, 2019 at 7:14 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning ?

    @OzarkHillbilly: ?

    @NotMax: insane. Knowing that it’s driving the TOTUS nuts sparks joy.

  44. 44.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 7:15 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Baudism has no math either. Just triple book accounting.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 7:17 am

    @Jay:

    You not gonna rat me out like that rat Cohen, are you?

  46. 46.

    debbie

    February 28, 2019 at 7:21 am

    @Jay:

    Also, to be fair, his POW experience and his capacity to forgive those who imprisoned and tortured him.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 7:24 am

    @Baud: I think he just did.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 7:25 am

    You know you are in trouble when your lawyer has to apologize for things he said in your defense: Robert Richter apologises for describing George Pell’s abuse as ‘vanilla sex’

  49. 49.

    randy khan

    February 28, 2019 at 7:26 am

    @Baud:

    President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un won’t sign a deal in Vietnam after all.

    So much winning.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    February 28, 2019 at 7:27 am

    @Immanentize: True, and I knew what I was getting into since my family has inhabited this swamp for generations, but it still amazes me to be confronted with hard evidence of the stupid. I can only conclude these dimwits are listening to Trump and watching Fox News because there certainly isn’t a local Central and South American immigrant crime wave in these parts, just the usual white meth heads burning down trailers and shooting at each other. It’s right there in the crime report, dummies!

  51. 51.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 7:27 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’s ok. Juicers aren’t credible. My allies in Congress will destroy him with taunts like “Liar, liar, pants on fire” and “I know you are but what am I?”

    ETA: And, of course, “he who smelt it, dealt it.”

  52. 52.

    Alien Radio

    February 28, 2019 at 7:32 am

    @Baud: You have missed off I’m rubber and you are glue..

  53. 53.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    February 28, 2019 at 7:32 am

    @Baud: I’m shocked, I tell you.

  54. 54.

    Patricia Kayden

    February 28, 2019 at 7:34 am

    And of course, Trump sides with Kim on the mistreatment of an American citizen.
    https://twitter.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/1101026814103875584
    I wonder how his family feels about this given that they are big Trump supporters.

  55. 55.

    Patricia Kayden

    February 28, 2019 at 7:35 am

    @Baud: The Art of the Non-Deal!!

  56. 56.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 7:37 am

    @Alien Radio: Didn’t want to reveal all my cards.

    @Patricia Kayden:

    If they are big Trump supporters, I couldn’t care less how they feel.

  57. 57.

    satby

    February 28, 2019 at 7:38 am

    @Betty Cracker: We won’t get a better country until we get a news media that’s better. Our little experiment with having a propaganda channel masquerading as a news channel has brought destruction on our democracy.

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    February 28, 2019 at 7:39 am

    @Patricia Kayden: I’ve wondered that too. They allowed Trump to use them as political props when he was talking tough about Kim. I didn’t blame them for it since they were trying to get their son back. Now Trump is making excuses for their son’s murderer. I hope they call him out for it. It’s outrageous.

  59. 59.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 7:41 am

    @Baud:

    Not yet.

  60. 60.

    satby

    February 28, 2019 at 7:41 am

    @Baud: anyone who remains a Trump supporter now is all in on either the grift or the treason. Don’t care how they feel, they need to be sidelined.

  61. 61.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 7:43 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    They won’t.

  62. 62.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    February 28, 2019 at 7:44 am

    So Trump moves his press conference up by two hours into the slot where there was supposed to be a signing ceremony because apparently there’s no agreement to sign “this time” (says Huckabee Sanders). My guess is he wants to hurry home where he can tweet in real time about Cohen and his long list of enemies, all of whom are Americans.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    February 28, 2019 at 7:44 am

    @IvanCNN
    6h6 hours ago
    More
    “The whole world was waiting for an agreement and so we were. We’re as perplexed as the world now. We’re in the process of figuring it out” — South Korean government official tells CNN after abrupt early end of US-North Korean Summit in Hanoi

    Are you perplexed? I’m not. I just assumed everything Trump and his low quality hires told us about this summit was a lie. Maybe this is how diplomats have to talk.

  64. 64.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 7:45 am

    @satby:

    Yup.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 7:47 am

    @Kay:

    Yeah, that’s diplospeak for “Trump is a fucking baffoon.”

  66. 66.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 7:47 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s not just Faux. The rot runs deep.

  67. 67.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 7:49 am

    @Kay:

    It’s the rose ceremony in the Batchelor.

  68. 68.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 28, 2019 at 7:51 am

    @Kay: I think the ROK(South Korean) government thought these negotiations would be done in a normal way. Lower levels hash out the details and when the summit happens it’s just more of a signing ceremony. I guess they haven’t read ‘The Art of the Deal’.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 7:51 am

    @Kay:

    Are you perplexed?

    I am perplexed by their perplexion.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 7:53 am

    Dallas Morning News (“Sources: Beto O’Rourke won’t challenge John Cornyn for Senate, paving way for presidential bid“):

    Beto O’Rourke has decided not to run for U.S. Senate next year against Texas Republican incumbent John Cornyn and likely will announce a campaign for president soon, people close to the former El Paso congressman told The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday.

    Numerous people close to O’Rourke said they expect him to announce his presidential campaign within weeks. O’Rourke on Wednesday wouldn’t reveal his political plans except to say he has made up his mind

    https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/beto-orourke-apparently-running-for-president/

  71. 71.

    Kay

    February 28, 2019 at 7:55 am

    @Baud:

    Donald J. Trump
    ‏Verified account
    @realDonaldTrump
    29 Dec 2014
    More
    Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully or write poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.

    One of my sisters is making fun of Cohen’s accent. “Cohen: Mizzda Dtrumpp” :)

  72. 72.

    Steve in the ATL

    February 28, 2019 at 7:58 am

    @Betty Cracker: my RWNJ sister, who lives in rural Tennessee, is deeply concerned about attacks on white farmers in South Africa.

    And she wonders why we only speak once a year.

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    February 28, 2019 at 7:58 am

    @BlueDWarrior:
    He really did waste his talent ?

  74. 74.

    rikyrah

    February 28, 2019 at 7:59 am

    @Immanentize:
    What is Little Imma going to do with his last summer before college??

  75. 75.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 28, 2019 at 8:00 am

    @Baud: In other news, apparently there’s a food shortage in Tokyo in the aftermath of a young Korean-American woman’s visit to the city where she ate everything.

  76. 76.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 28, 2019 at 8:01 am

    @rikyrah: Hookers and blow.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 8:02 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Daughter of Godzilla?

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    February 28, 2019 at 8:02 am

    Just wanted to thank the fellow jackals for the great Cohen threads. As someone who has been involved with a work project that doesn’t allow us to have our phones or outside internet connection, the threads we’re a great way to catch up ???

  79. 79.

    rikyrah

    February 28, 2019 at 8:03 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    You know you wrong for that ??

  80. 80.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 8:04 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I don’t think the youngs do hookers and blow. As I understand it, they’re into hookers and avocados.

  81. 81.

    rikyrah

    February 28, 2019 at 8:04 am

    @Kay:
    He really is out of central casting.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 8:04 am

    @rikyrah:

    work project that doesn’t allow us to have our phones or outside internet connection

    Sounds sinister.

  83. 83.

    satby

    February 28, 2019 at 8:05 am

    NPR just said that TOTUS is already on his way home. After wasting more millions of tax $$ on a bullshit trip designed to distract the “news” media in this country from his increasing legal peril here.

  84. 84.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 28, 2019 at 8:05 am

    @Baud: Yeah, I put “Jinsunzilla eats Tokyo, news at 11” on her one of her instagram posts about ONE of her meals. She got home and picked up a Double-Double from In-n-Out.

  85. 85.

    rikyrah

    February 28, 2019 at 8:06 am

    @Betty Cracker:
    They only call out the Black President. They won’t say shyt about Dolt45 ?

  86. 86.

    satby

    February 28, 2019 at 8:06 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: sounds like she’s having fun!

  87. 87.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 28, 2019 at 8:06 am

    @Baud: Kinky.

  88. 88.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 28, 2019 at 8:07 am

    @satby: She got home on Tuesday, it was basically a long weekend across the Pacific.

  89. 89.

    Chyron HR

    February 28, 2019 at 8:07 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    And of course, Trump sides with Kim on the mistreatment of an American citizen.
    I wonder how his family feels about this given that they are big Trump supporters.

    As always, TV’s greatest TV show has the answers.

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    February 28, 2019 at 8:09 am

    @Baud:
    Not sinister. Just security. Good kind of security. Only have a week more on the project. It’s been tough to be disconnected for such a long stretch of time everyday. Thank goodness for lunch ?

  91. 91.

    Jay

    February 28, 2019 at 8:09 am

    @Baud:

    Netflix and chill

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    February 28, 2019 at 8:10 am

    @Baud:

    I don’t think the youngs do hookers and blow. As I understand it, they’re into hookers and avocados.

    That’s Tinder and avocado toast, actually.

    Or so I’ve been told.

  93. 93.

    Kay

    February 28, 2019 at 8:12 am

    @rikyrah:

    I like his big hangdog, droopy face. I felt overall he came off as a sympathetic character. I thought his most effective parts were when he told Republicans he knows what they’re doing because he’s done it himself and where he warned the public not to do it- not to believe Trump or follow him or “you will pay”. I’ve felt exactly that since the beginning. That we, and specifically I, will pay for this.

  94. 94.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 8:14 am

    @Kay:

    https://goo.gl/images/kAgCUg

  95. 95.

    Betty Cracker

    February 28, 2019 at 8:17 am

    @Baud: I’m really hoping Biden stays on the sidelines.

  96. 96.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    February 28, 2019 at 8:18 am

    @satby: Shoot. It’s better when he’s not here. Even though he was in a supposedly big deal nuclear negotiation, he didn’t dominate the air waves (thank you, Cohen) the way he does when he’s just hanging around the WH watching TV and tweeting.

  97. 97.

    Baud

    February 28, 2019 at 8:18 am

    @Betty Cracker: Me too, but I fear he won’t.

  98. 98.

    satby

    February 28, 2019 at 8:19 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: but he’s not as liable to give away essential security when he’s here.

  99. 99.

    A Ghost To Most

    February 28, 2019 at 8:22 am

    @Jeffro:
    Avocado Toast Sneakers

    I’m glad I’m an old.

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    February 28, 2019 at 8:28 am

    @Kay: Exactly right. It was so striking when Cohen was describing his role as Trump’s thuggish protector and the Republicans at the hearing were acting exactly like Cohen used to act.

    Also, this guy:

    Matthew Calamari looks exactly how Matthew Calamari should look. pic.twitter.com/rwW9Sz16uC

    — Zack Colman (@zcolman) February 27, 2019

    Jesus Christ. WaPo explains that Calamari first came to Trump’s attention by body-slamming hecklers at a tennis match. According to a book on Trump, Calamari and Trump reportedly had this conversation in a limo:

    “You’d do anything for me, wouldn’t you, Matty?” Trump asked from the back of the limo, according to Harry Hurt III’s 1993 biography, “Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump.”

    “Yes, sir, Mr. Trump,” Calamari replied.

    Moments later, Trump upped the ante: “Would you kill for me, Matty?”

    Calamari’s answer came quickly. “Yes, sir,” he said.

    We really are living in the worst mafia movie ever.

  101. 101.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 8:28 am

    @satby: I’m not sure there is a discernible difference.

  102. 102.

    rikyrah

    February 28, 2019 at 8:29 am

    Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) Tweeted:
    We got rolled, Part 2. Kim gets an international Head-of-State event, makes DJT an apologist for mass murder, gets to retain all of his nukes & then walks away. Trump. Got. Nothing. Not even air miles. #FAIL

    https://t.co/g5wajHdMBn https://twitter.com/MalcolmNance/status/1101054433373364226?s=17

  103. 103.

    rikyrah

    February 28, 2019 at 8:37 am

    @Kay:
    He told the truth. His final summation of all he lost was like a tale for the unwise.

  104. 104.

    Matt McIrvin

    February 28, 2019 at 8:41 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: The US never didn’t need a Human Rights Commission. Our treatment of suspects and prisoners alone reveals that. It’s just that most of the time we made anodyne noises on the world stage (which were generally regarded as hypocritical).

  105. 105.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 8:50 am

    @Matt McIrvin: Going back to the earliest days, before we were a country at all, all the way to the present day, we have repeatedly shown ourselves to be incapable of the slightest bit of self reflection much less policing ourselves.

  106. 106.

    Tenar Arha

    February 28, 2019 at 8:50 am

    @Betty Cracker: Keeps on reminding me of an anecdote I vaguely remember from the book tour for Nixonland about the election of 1966. (may not be accurately quoting bc I cannot find it via google) The people expressing the most fear of some kind of “black crime wave” reaching their towns were people with no experience of black people at all, esconced as they were in their sundown towns and rural enclaves. It’s why today, people who are far away from the southern border are ignorant & ignoring everything that everyone from there tells them, including that every congressional representative, Republican or Democratic, doesn’t want a wall.

    (And there is sociological evidence: there’s those commuter rail studies based on the suburbs of Boston that used Spanish speakers to prime certain regular trains & then surveyed those passengers. Basically anyone on a line which ended in a lily white burb was more primed to report with negative attitudes towards immigrants simply by hearing people sp@Betty Cracker: Keeps on reminding me of an anecdote I vaguely remember from the book tour for Nixonland about the election of 1966. (may not be accurately quoting bc I cannot find it via google) The people most afraid of some kind of “black crime wave” reaching their towns were people with no experience of it, esconsced as they were in their sundown towns and rural enclaves.

    The relatively recent Boston commuter rail studies that interviewed community sensitivity to immigration by simply priming passengers by hearing two people having a conversation in Spanish to each other were sad, but instructive.

  107. 107.

    WaterGirl

    February 28, 2019 at 8:52 am

    @Betty Cracker: Amazing, and not in a good way. Steep price to pay for your awesome view, but what a view!

    You will most certainly need to build a tiki bar in your new place as soon as it is warm enough to do so. Unless it actually came with a tiki bar???

  108. 108.

    Tenar Arha

    February 28, 2019 at 8:55 am

    : @Betty Cracker: ?‍♀️sorry I was too late to fix my copy paste errors. Blame it on my phone being all thumbs today.

  109. 109.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 28, 2019 at 8:58 am

    @WaterGirl: You will most certainly need to build a tiki bar in your new place as soon as it is warm enough to do so.

    She’s in Florida. When is it NOT warm enough to build?

  110. 110.

    WaterGirl

    February 28, 2019 at 8:59 am

    @rikyrah: I just saw on Lawfare that they have a new “no bull” podcast up. It’s an hour and it includes Cohen’s testimony but edits out all the bullshit. I watched the whole thing yesterday and I’m still planning to listen to this. I found it really difficult to listen to all the Republicans bloviating and acting like the traitors to their country that they actually are.

    https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-podcast-bonus-edition-michael-cohen-vs-committee-no-bull

  111. 111.

    Kay

    February 28, 2019 at 8:59 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    People always think they will be great witnesses, but they rarely are, because most people aren’t accustomed to speaking publicly and they have difficulty coming across. The best most people can do is speak in order- “this happened and then this happened” – that can be tutored. What can’t be invented is their personality- their general way of being- I thought he might be good because he’s theatrical- that’s his personality- and he was.

  112. 112.

    VOR

    February 28, 2019 at 9:00 am

    @rikyrah: I bet Trump was completely distracted by the Cohen thing. Probably wanted to bail on the summit to go watch Cohen on TV. The summit was doomed anyway, but Cohen’s testimony probably prevented Trump from making concessions like last time.

  113. 113.

    chopper

    February 28, 2019 at 9:09 am

    @rikyrah:

    exactly. kim gets more international standing and recognition by telling the great almighty US to get packing than he does making a deal, and the US aint putting anything else on the table.

  114. 114.

    WaterGirl

    February 28, 2019 at 9:11 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: You are so right. I am an idiot. Build, baby, build.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    February 28, 2019 at 9:14 am

    @VOR:

    Trump believes his international (fake) deal making is beneficial as far as marketing, and Trump knows his base better than anyone.

    Cohen’s right. It’s all about marketing the brand. It’s kind of depressing really. No grand plan, no big goals- just pure greed, self-interest and pettiness. These aren’t big villains. They’re small. Cohen is a two bit crook and so is his boss. Entertaining, but average. There are thousands of Cohens. The fact that they have all this power is a real indictment of voters.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    February 28, 2019 at 9:17 am

    @VOR:

    Think about all the trouble Trump went to to fix that stupid portrait auction. The big “dealmaker” spends endless amounts of time and energy on this petty bullshit. That was Job One. The whole team was on it. They’re small.

  117. 117.

    Miss Bianca

    February 28, 2019 at 10:58 am

    @WaterGirl: Now *that* I would listen to – thanks for the tip! I was working on grant applications yesterday and just trying to keep up with the action via BJ comments. So sickened by GOP crap that I couldn’t bear to listen to history in the making. Tho’ I do like the image of Cohen going all memento mori on their asses – “As I was then, you are now. As I am now, so you shall be.” Too bad most of them are either so fucking stupid or so fucking compromised – or, hey, los dos – that they likely won’t take heed till way too late.

  118. 118.

    WaterGirl

    February 28, 2019 at 12:15 pm

    @Miss Bianca: They did the same thing with Barr’s testimony in the Senate. It’s a great idea, I think.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Image by ? (6/17/25)

Recent Comments

  • Jackie on Open Thread: Tim Walz Is A Good Leader & A Good Man (Jun 17, 2025 @ 10:31pm)
  • Omnes Omnibus on Tuesday Night Open Thread (Jun 17, 2025 @ 10:30pm)
  • Soapdish on Open Thread: Tim Walz Is A Good Leader & A Good Man (Jun 17, 2025 @ 10:29pm)
  • Tazj on Open Thread: Tim Walz Is A Good Leader & A Good Man (Jun 17, 2025 @ 10:29pm)
  • Jay on Tuesday Night Open Thread (Jun 17, 2025 @ 10:27pm)

Personality Crisis Podcast (Cole, DougJ, mistermix)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!