Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

Books are my comfort food!

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

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

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

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

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Bigly Numbers, At Last!

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Bigly Numbers, At Last!

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107Comments

  5. 5.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Love hurts, love scars, love wounds
    And mars, any heart
    Not tough or strong enough
    To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain
    Love is like a cloud
    Holds a lot of rain
    Love hurts…… ooh, ooh love hurts

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    “The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.”
      – Ambassador Kosh, Babylon 5

  14. 14.

    JPL

    Trump university was a scam, and trump had to pay a large fine. Why is it only 64 percent think he committed a crime? He’s a crook.

  16. 16.

    Immanentize

    I’m with Blech this morning. I somehow managed to scratch my eye in my sleep? How odd….

  17. 17.

    A Ghost To Most

    @NotMax:
    The clips of cars being buried by the avalanches on I-70 should be shown to T as coming attractions.

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    @JPL:
    Neither Trump nor his “University” was prosecuted, as such; they were sued. Per Wikipedia, Trump was not convicted of a crime and did not actually lose the lawsuits — he did have to pay a US$25 million settlement — ergo he is not a crook, so there.

  23. 23.

    Kay

    Jennifer Epstein
    ‏Verified account
    @jeneps
    Follow Follow @jeneps
    More
    Pres. Trump suggested today WH won’t cooperate w Dems: “President Obama, from what they tell me, was under a similar kind of a thing, didn’t give one letter. They didn’t do anything. They didn’t give one letter of the requests. Many requests were made. They didn’t give a letter.”

    This probably is what they tell him. That it’s a “similar” kind of thing. Of course, some of the people telling Trump this may themselves be in some peril with disclosures and oversight, so they have some personal interest in lying to him. They’re all now personally invested in lying and stonewalling and that investment grows every year they stay with him. That’s how the infection spreads to more and more people.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Amir Khalid:

    ergo he is not a crook, so there.

    No, he is not a felon. My ex wife broke many laws before she was finally convicted and sent to prison.

  29. 29.

    Princess

    Sure these poll numbers may look bad for Trump, but Quinnipiac has a 1.7% Republican lean according to 538, so they in fact are even worse.

    ETA that lean seems to be old data. Not sure where they are now.

  31. 31.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    As Colbert pointed out last night, there was one crazy old man who kept demanding Obama release his birth certificate.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Oh, I think it’s more than him. Trump has a lot of employees, including his many employees in Congress. Everyone knows the way to win favor is to flatter and lie to him. It isn’t even about Trump. It’s about the self-interest of the people who surround him.
    You can’t blame the foreign leaders who play this game- they are literally doing their jobs when they trick him.
    It would be politically risky but it would be fun to try if one were a D Senator. Be the Senator who is “friends” with Trump. You could get all kinds of concessions.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Amir Khalid: That’s when one pulls out the snubnosed .38 and says, “So I’m not a murderer until I get convicted of blowing your brains out?”

  36. 36.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I think the birther conspiracy deserves a serious telling, like a whole book or a movie. I don’t think it should go unexamined. I feel like it was a turning point in our descent and choices were made- there was a decision made to cover it as if it were a serious question. It’s important to out it together in one place. I want it part of the record, with all the players- Trump, the GOP, media.

  37. 37.

    JPL

    @Baud: Trade wars are easy to win.

    Daniel Dale is going to release the number of lies that trump told at CPAC. Expect the number to be high.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I agree, but I think it was part of something bigger, not something isolated. It was the next “logical” step after disputing Kerry’s military service.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Kevin Drum:

    T-Mobile’s patronage of President Trump’s Washington hotel increased sharply after the announcement of its merger with its Sprint last April, with executives spending about $195,000 at the property since then, the company told congressional Democrats in a letter last month. Before news of the megadeal between rival companies broke on April 29, 2018, the company said, only two top officials from T-Mobile had ever stayed at Trump’s hotel, with one overnight stay each in August 2017.

    I’m sure it’s jut a coincidence. All the other hotels were probably booked solid.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @debbie: Which was itseld the next logical step after portraying Gore as a serial liar.

    We could go further back in time as well.

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Moms Demand Action Founder Says Male GOPers Wore Pearls To Mock Her Group

    Some male members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives made a controversial sartorial choice Tuesday morning at a hearing on a proposed gun control measure: pearls.

    The jewelry, donned by at least six men on the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, angered many of the volunteers present from gun-control group Moms Demand Action, according to founder Shannon Watts.

    “When I walked in statehouse, lobbyists and lawmakers said ‘look, we’ve seen lawmakers wearing pearls to mock the moms,’” Watts told TPM.

    Watts said that she was given differing rationales for the significance of the pearls. “I heard a couple of stories: that a member of Moms Demand Action years ago complained that she was intimidated by an NRA member wearing pearls; someone else said it was to symbolize pearl-clutchers.” She said that some of the lawmakers also wore pins shaped like automatic rifles.
    ……………………………..
    Former Republican Rep. Victoria Sullivan claimed on Twitter that the pearls were a favored accoutrement of the Women’s Defense League, a pro-gun rights group, and that the lawmakers were showing support.

    Women of the @WDLNH wear pearls to hearings, rallies, and events as a sign of solidarity. Shannon Watts knows knowing about NH, neither do MOST of the moms demand people in attendance. NH is one of the safest states in the country. These ridiculous women want to make us victims. https://t.co/TqYp8O2iai

    — Victoria Sullivan (@VSullivan4NH) March 5, 2019

    Yeah, Watts isn’t buying it either.

    None of the committee members, including the lawmakers who can be identified in pictures to be wearing the pearls, responded to TPM’s requests for explanation.

    One look at the picture and you’ll understand why.

  47. 47.

    JPL

    @debbie: If not now, soon.

    Trump associates are going to refuse to testify before Congress. Will this be the end of congressional oversight?

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    Numbers. Trump is transforming the judicial branch:

    From HuffPo

    The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Allison Jones Rushing, 37, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, making her the youngest federal judge in the country.

    The Senate voted 53-44 to put Rushing into the lifetime court seat. Every Republican present voted for her. Every Democrat present opposed her.
    Democrats raised a number of concerns with Rushing, who is a partner at the D.C.-based law firm Williams & Connolly. She worked for Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian organization that has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. She has argued that there were “moral and practical” reasons for banning same-sex marriage. And some lawmakers said she simply lacks the experience or legal ability to be a federal judge.

    “She has practiced law for nine years. How many cases has she tried to verdict or judgment? Four. Has she been the lead attorney on any of those cases? No,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on the Senate floor. “That is the most scant, weakest legal resume imaginable for someone who’s seeking a lifetime appointment to the second-highest court of the land.”…

    Senate is voting on two more circuit court nominees this week, both of whom, like Rushing, are young, ideological and Federalist Society members….

    Trump is dramatically reshaping the nation’s federal courts. With Rushing’s confirmation, he has now gotten 32 circuit judges, 53 district judges and two Supreme Court justices confirmed. That’s so many circuit judges ― more than any other president confirmed by this point in his first term ― that 1 in 6 seats on U.S. circuit courts is now filled by a judge nominated by Trump.

    The stakes for 2020 have never been higher.

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/allison-jones-rushing-trump-judge_n_5c7ee103e4b0e62f69e74912

  52. 52.

    satby

    @rikyrah: Good morning ?
    @OzarkHillbilly: ?
    @Baud: Good morning to you. The trouble is that much of the stuff we use every day is now made in China, so we all had to just cough up the extra money to cover the tariff and buy anyway. I’m a micro scale manufacturer, and the small plastic jars I use for lotions, as an example, are pretty much only made in China now. The tariffs were just another sneaky tax on us.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    If you work in a state court system it was just so nuts because a birth record IS the record. That’s the original document. It doesn’t get better than that, and no one, no one, questions it. Thousands of times a day in courts all over America, the document Obama was relying upon is accepted without question but in this ONE instance media pretended it needed corroboration. I’ll tell you a secret. Courts don’t even require the raised seal. We submit a copy on pleadings. Never once have I seen anyone demand more. It literally comes from “the recordkeeper” for vital records. There’s no looking in “vaults” or interviewing attending physicians.

    Pure racism. The black person had to provide MORE than any other person ever has to. The whole system would grind to a halt if this document weren’t accepted. It’s used constantly. Media ignored all of that and pretended this were an actual controversy. Have they not done this themselves? I KNOW they fucking have. Did anyone ever ask them for a BETTER record than a birth certificate? No. Never.

    It’s like how they forget how voting works when black people vote. All of a sudden there’s this presumption of fraud.

  54. 54.

    MomSense

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Same here and I’m still furious about how Obama was treated by Dems over trade. It’s especially frustrating that the Obama administration had a long plan – the stimulus invested in green energy, the Paris accords set goals for all the participating countries to transition to green energy, and the TPP gave incentives for them to buy green energy from us instead of china. But no we freaked out about old Wikileaks information about a previous iteration of the TPP and bought into the BS trade killed manufacturing.

  56. 56.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @OzarkHillbilly: Hey there, I think *I* have the territory east of the Mississippi, or at least east of western IN, for that job.

    @Kay: I agree that it was a kind of tipping point, and a nasty old mobbed up man with a peculiar skin tone was going on about the birther stuff all the time.

  59. 59.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: Around the same time that all that was happening, I had to order a new birth certificate for I-9 eligibility for a job. The only birth record I had was the flimsy, faded certificate my parents had been given at the hospital when I was born… and I’d misplaced that. Pretty soon I found it again, but it was faded almost to complete illegibility and was nearly impossible to photocopy.

    The new certificate they gave me was, of course, the same sort of thing Obama posted publicly. I’ve used it to get a job and a passport. It’s not “the original” because it’s not from 1968, but there’s nothing better now unless somebody is willing to go over that illegible slip of paper with a microscope. And nobody has ever quibbled.

  60. 60.

    MomSense

    @satby:

    In my experience, New Hampster Republicans are some of the nastiest you will encounter anywhere in the US.

  61. 61.

    A Ghost To Most

    @rikyrah: True , but never underestimate greed and spite.

    To the fucking rich man
    All poor people look the same

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I remember during the height of the birther craze, I had an epiphany about the racist implications of the whole thing — how it affected people. I always knew birthers were racist to the core, of course, but up until that point, I also thought they were funny, in a fitting-object-of-derision kinda way — such zany characters, like the demented dentist Orly Taitz! And that scammy NYC real estate developer with the ridiculous clump of orange cotton candy on his noggin!

    Anyhoo, after PBO released his birth certificate in a futile attempt to bring the absurdity to an end, I saw a clip of the reaction of Baratunde Thurston. He was crying and shaking with barely contained rage. He seemed broken because these fucking racist assholes had actually forced the president to show his papers. I didn’t find birtherism so funny after that, and I was and still am kind of ashamed I ever did.

  67. 67.

    danielx

    Yet another morning of waking to a frozen hellscape. Could be worse, I could be one of the guys out there installing fiber optic cable in the neighborhood.

  68. 68.

    MomSense

    @satby:

    John Sununu, NH Republican. And never forget Laura Ingraham and Dinesh D’Souza came of age as nasty Republicans at Dartmouth In NH.

  69. 69.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    We took our son and DIL out for dinner last night to celebrate their wedding anniversary. She brought her copy of Michelle Obama’s book to loan me. People sometimes say we didn’t know how good we had it with the Obamas, but you know what? Most people here did.

  72. 72.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @danielx: I was thinking about this the other day when I finally ventured forth at 18 degrees (the day started at zero). It was a perfect winter day with the sun bright in a clear bluebird sky, the trees on my place etched in stark contrast against the whiter than white snow, absolutely beautiful, almost perfect except for the gusting winds (to 20 mph I’d guess, not too bad). I thought back to my younger days when scraping the ice off the rafters was just the start of the day. I actually gloried in it back then, never felt more alive, and I was a little pissed at myself for spending so much of the day hibernating with my woodstove.

    That lasted about a half hour.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah, houses. If the weather forecast was for warming temps, they’d usually find something else for us to do the first couple hours. If not, we were told to “be careful up there. We don’t need a hike in our workmen’s comp”. Then why are we going up there?

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    And now I’m gonna see if I can snag some of that sleep that evaded me last night. Y’all play nice now, ya heah?

  81. 81.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Betty Cracker: @Baud: Birther movement was never funny even when Orly Taitz was its biggest proponent. It was an implicit warning to any black person, immigrant, any one deemed the other to show them their privileges depended on the goodwill of the majority. Grow too big for your boots and we will cut you at the knees, no exceptions.
    After all this is the country that denaturalized people because they were deemed not white enough less than 100 years ago.
    ETA: The contrast in the media coverage of T and Obama shows how racist our media is

  85. 85.

    Original Lee

    @Immanentize: I may be a little late to your comment, but you should see your ophthalmologist. I had the “scratched my eye in my sleep” thing several times, and by the 4th or 5th time was told I was actually reopening scar tissue from previous scratches. It’s called recurring corneal erosion syndrome.

  86. 86.

    Bemused senior

    @JPL: My husband and I are listening to Michelle Obama reading it on our long commutes. It is so wonderful to hear it in her voice.

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    @Original Lee:
    Oh shit! Thank you, but also, really?

    Meanwhile — good news! After people got to their Reps, the Dem resolution on Anti-Semetism has been postponed perhaps to include comments about Anti-Islamic speech as well.

  89. 89.

    rikyrah

    @schrodingers_cat:

    ETA: The contrast in the media coverage of T and Obama shows how racist our media is

    You ain’t never lied.

    The absolute desperation to try and normalize this traitor. The absolute curve given to him and his lying, incompetent goons. The numerous ways that they have tried to not call all the racist shyt going on with this Administration actually RACIST….

    yep…

  90. 90.

    JanieM

    @Original Lee: @Immanentize: Seconding Original Lee. I have corneal erosion issues too. My ophthalmologist suggests it could be due to severe dryness, as in, my eyelids aren’t all the way closed when I’m sleeping.

    I use drops at night and have also tried a mask (with mixed results) and even taping one of my eyelids shut, which is a nuisance. Anyhow, it’s not something to take lightly

  91. 91.

    rikyrah

    @Betty Cracker:

    Anyhoo, after PBO released his birth certificate in a futile attempt to bring the absurdity to an end, I saw a clip of the reaction of Baratunde Thurston. He was crying and shaking with barely contained rage. He seemed broken because these fucking racist assholes had actually forced the president to show his papers. I didn’t find birtherism so funny after that, and I was and still am kind of ashamed I ever did.

    Glad that I went back through the comments because I was going to bring up Baratunde’s reaction…
    He spoke for a lot of Black people that day.

  93. 93.

    L85NJGT

    @schrodingers_cat:

    It brings to mind a quote from Frances McDormand’s character in Almost Famous:

    Look at this: an entire generation of Cinderellas and there’s no glass slipper.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    “original” doesn’t matter. At all. It’s actually called a “duplicate original” to distinguish it from a photocopy.

    Of course it doesn’t matter. If your whole identity was reliant on this piece of paper that would be insane. That’s the whole point of keeping and storing “records” – so people can get one :)

  95. 95.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    “original” doesn’t matter. At all. It’s actually called a “duplicate original” to distinguish it from a photocopy.

    Of course it doesn’t matter. If your whole identity was reliant on this piece of paper that would be insane. That’s the whole point of keeping and storing “records” – so people can get one :)

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I was poking around on Twitter and basically @WDLNH’s schtick is to steal other people’s symbols and re-brand them as pro gun rights. They also sell hot pink hats with an AR-15 on them.

    So it’s an even bigger asshole move than it first appears. ?

  97. 97.

    Original Lee

    @Immanentize: About recurring corneal erosion syndrome: yeah, really, and that was my reaction, too. My ophthalmologist describes it as the area of a previous scratch is sort of like an area rug that’s starting to fray, and the eyelid is you walking over that area and sometimes tripping and occasionally catching your foot and unraveling some more off the edge. Yeah. I got the diagnosis after a “scratch” episode that was bad enough I had to go back daily for a week to make sure it was healing ok and had to spend three days in the dark with my eyes closed and antibiotic cream in the affected eye. I now have an OTC cream I use every night to prevent more incidents. It’s worked well for 6 months. The cream is a little pricey, but so worth it just for the peace of mind.

    ETA: Sitting in the dark with your eyes closed for three days isn’t as exciting as it sounds.

  98. 98.

    hueyplong

    It is almost invariably true that if you think a GOP talking point is almost humorously absurd, it’s because you don’t immediately recognize its deeply offensive nature.

  100. 100.

    Original Lee

    @JanieM: I started off with drops, but the cream lasts nearly 24 hours, so my eyeball makes it to the next dose without having daytime dryness issues (especially important in all this cold weather we’ve been having). It’s basically just sterile lanolin with enough purified sodium chloride mixed in to stimulate tear production.

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    @satby:
    You can get those jars made here still. But the cost is higher and no one will sell you the relatively small quantities that you need. You can purchase at nearly the same price if you can take shipments of say 10,000 to 20,000 or more. I bet you don’t use that many in a while. (I was in the business for decades, long ago, occasionally I keep up with what’s what.)

  102. 102.

    Gravenstone

    @JPL: Thought I already saw a tally of over 120, for 140+ minutes of witless yammering. So basically one a minute.

  103. 103.

    Kathleen

    @MomSense: I am so in agreement with your comment. All your comments actually. I’m still pissed about all that tariff noise. And 2016. And Slander’s role in that.

  104. 104.

    Gravenstone

    @Brachiator: And only possible because McConnell slow walked or otherwise obstructed multiple lower court appointments during Obama’s administration. The stolen Supreme Court seat is the one everyone talks about, but the damage was much deeper and more extensive.

  105. 105.

    L85NJGT

    @Kathleen:

    I want the old plant back. The one that made products no one uses now, with a bunch of hard workin white men doing tasks that were automated away thirty years ago. Not the new one where all those Mexicans work…..

  107. 107.

    EthylEster

    Frontpager quotes poll numbers: Trump approval: 38-55
    Frontpager also includes Josh Marshall tweet with embedded 8 second CNN video saying exactly the same thing.

    Newsflash: text is frequently the most info dense method of communication.
    Thanks for presenting the textual polls result up front.

    But Josh Marshall adds nothing except a very profound “lol”.
    You are enabling his tireless self-promotion.
    And the video adds nothing.
    You are enabling the pathetic CNN.

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