Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…
Historic! Historic, I tell you! That’s the mainstream media hot take on Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong Un and the 20-pace corpulent shuffle across the border and back (no golf cart!). A few tidbits from the coverage:
“Lots of good things are happening with North Korea,” [Trump] told South Korean business leaders, repeating his belief that the US “would have been at war with North Korea” if someone else had been elected to the White House.
The latter is a bald-faced lie. That a ruthless despot had nuclear weapons and was testing missiles was worrisome of course; doubly so with a thin-skinned despot-wannabe in control of America’s nukes.
But was anyone certain the US was going to war with North Korea before our unhinged leader Trump began taunting their unhinged leader Kim on Twitter? Once again the arsonist wants credit for dousing the fire.
There’s more:
Trump said at Seoul news conference that Obama was “begging” for a meeting with Kim Jong Un…
An emphatic NOPE on that from PBO’s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes:
Trump is lying. I was there for all 8 years. Obama never sought a meeting with Kim Jong Un. Foreign policy isn’t reality television it’s reality.
Per CNN’s Jim Acosta, Trump attacked the REAL enemy several times during the coverage:
Still grumbling about the media, Trump says press “would have hit me hard” had Kim Jong Un not shown up for the DMZ meeting.
True, just as restaurant reviewers would hit a pizza joint hard if its free pizza promotion failed to attract a customer. Why on earth wouldn’t Kim show up to collect his unearned imprimatur of legitimacy from the orange clown? Kim may be evil, but, unlike Trump, he’s not stupid.
Acosta again:
No breakthrough after DMZ meeting with Kim Jong Un. Trump says both sides will designate teams to keep the negotiations going over the next few weeks “to see whether they can do something.”
In other words, it was a photo-op. And you know what? Maybe that’s okay.
People who know a lot more about foreign policy than I do say it’s a mistake to give Kim the legitimacy he craves without extracting a major concession. Maybe they’re right, but it’s possible they’re wrong. We make peace with enemies, not friends, and sometimes that requires extending a hand without preconditions to get things started.
But I wish the non-wingnut media would wait until Trump actually accomplishes something before blowing up my phone with hosannas about the historical shitgibbon. Oh, and this from NPR’s David Folkenflik:
The American contingent in NK appearance included Trump’s daughter and son-in-law advisors and his Fox foreign policy adviser, Tucker Carlson, per multiple reporters.
Reminds me of that time President Obama brought Sasha, Malia and Bill Ayers along for the Autocrats Roadshow. Except that never happened, and if it had, the media explosion would have rendered the prospect of nuclear annihilation redundant.
chopper
no us president has ever dropped trou and taken a big steaming shit in the middle of a press conference either, that would also be ‘historic’.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I saw this live, I heard the bit about “first U.S. president”, not “your excellency”; it just shows how much they know how to pull his strings. “your excellency” is what makes the letters so ‘beautiful’.
also on this trip:
rhetorical of course, but what the fuck is he doing bring the plastic princess up on stage for military personnel?
MomSense
Javanka and Tucker fucking Carlson?
I don’t even have swear words for this.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
there was a lot of chaos around the early moments of the meeting, security bellowing at the press and a lot of shoving and shouting
I suspect that’s what comes of a lack of planning and advance work
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s so gross, the way he trots that vapid mannequin out and foists her on everyone else in the world. Did you see that clip where Ivanka tried to insert herself into a conversation with Macron, et al, at the G20, and they all stared at her like “why is this perfume counter attendant crashing the summit?” Jesus, it’s embarrassing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Jerzy Russian
You forgot to put “and wearing funny suits” to the title.
MazeDancer
Watching endless insanity while US Media endlessly covers it.
Pimp Ivanka seems to be Trump’s goal #2, right after Pimp the Donald.
And while Dems do completely normal primary stuff of comparing and contrasting, the White Men of Media are angry Dems won’t listen to them. And start shouting “Circular Firing Squad”.
No. The only attack is coming from White Never Trumpers. If the Dems won’t cater to them, they’ll try to destroy all hope.
“Too far Left” will become the “But her emails” of 2020.
Privileged White Men Anger will kill us all.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Ivanka doesn’t even know how to dress as if she’s going to work in a powerful position among mostly men.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: I’ve had positive encounters with perfume counter attendants when trying to purchase gifts for a girlfriend. I don’t think Ivanka would be helpful in that situation.
Baud
Only Trump could go to North Korea.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Since I dress like a 10-year-old boy most of the time, I rarely offer fashion criticism, but damn, that woman wears some ugly-ass frocks! I don’t doubt those hideous dresses with belled sleeves and godawful prints that look like an elderly auntie’s shelf lining from 1959 cost a fortune. I just hope she’s the fool paying for it, not us.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
to a lot of old guard Broderist media, probably including a handful of her colleagues at MSNBC (BriWi, Mrs Greenspan, Morning Joseph) Rachel Maddow is a mirror image of Tucker Carlson
B.B.A.
@Betty Cracker: That “perfume counter attendant” is the next president of the United States. In her own mind anyway.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I’m old enough to remember when the “liberal” media FREAKED out when Raoul Castro shook Obama’s hand at Mandela’s funeral.
Amir Khalid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Actually, Elizabeth Warren’s dog would be better qualified than Jared and Ivanka; he would know not to insert himself into the proceedings
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Have we ever seen her in a business suit or a jacket like the ones May and Lagarde were wearing in that pic?
Baud
To be honest, in this case, I’m happy letting the media fawn over Trump the Peacemaker. Beats the alternative.
MattF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There’s an odd thing— wingers are often quite proficient at Stalinist rhetoric. They treat it as a joke, but, y’know, ha ha hmmmm.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
The Russian hookers who pissed on Dump are more qualified than ivanka. At least they work for a living.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’ve always wondered about a self-styled “businesswoman” who doesn’t seem to have heard of business attire.
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker:
Right there with you on dressing like a 10 y/o boy ? and also right there with you on the “wtf is she wearing?” puzzlement at her wardrobe choices.
Eta: puzzlement extends to the whole clan. Who dresses these people?!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
B.B.A.
Thirty years later, Jon Lovitz still rings in my head – I can’t believe we’re losing to this guy.
Baud
@B.B.A.: Well, technically, we’re not losing to him according to the polls. We previously lost to him due to a variety of factors that I don’t see a reason to delve into right now.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
The nepotism is gross but it’s interesting that the Trump Administration promotes the President’s daughter and her husband on trips overseas and not in the United States. They stay away from the last mile- they seem to know that if it appeared that the President’s family members were running US domestic policy people (people who can vote in US elections) might object.
They only feel free to flaunt the blatant and undemocratic nepotism in other countries. They don’t do it in this country. If the Trump Administration actually believed that having the Trump family members making US policy decisions was popular and accepted by US voters they’d be deploying these two here, in the United States.
cmorenc
Supposedly Kim’s hairdo is in part the result of his paranoia against risking trusting others with scissors so near his head, posing a potential assassination risk – and so Kim cuts his own hair using a mirror. It would be fun if Trump became equally paranoid and did his own hardo – but maybe Trump’s ‘do doesn’t ever need cutting, so long as he keeps the orange possum on top of his head well-fed.
Amir Khalid
@MagdaInBlack:
My theory: too unaware to employ a stylist*, too stubborn to take advice from one, or both.
ETA: * A damning flaw in a self-styled fashionista like Ivanka.
debbie
@MazeDancer:
Even worse, she dreams of being the first woman president. ?
Mike in NC
I read this morning that Fat Bastard has a “personal pastor and spiritual advisor” named Paula White. She is apparently a Pentacostal grifter hired by the world-class conman and sexual predator, who looks like a blonde FOX News anchor. You just can’t make this shit up.
MagdaInBlack
@Amir Khalid:
Employ a stylist who is paid to say ” Yes you look marvelous ! ” ? (?)
They’re surrounded by Yes- people, so of course.
Kay
Has anyone in the media asked GOP members of Congress if they’re comfortable with the President’s daughter and her husband running US foreign policy?
That seems like a good question. Is this now the norm?
When the President is elected we’re electing his whole extended family? If so we need to know that, because we’ll have to evaluate every single adult member. The candidate could avoid it, but only if he or she voluntarily consents to some kind of enforceable ban on hiring family members. They have to choose, and they have to do it before election day.
Would be a great debate question between Trump and the eventual D nominee. Raise your hand if you’ll vow not to hire members of your family. Elected officials in my COUNTY can’t directly hire family members. The standard is lower for the Presidency? That can’t be right.
Eunicecycle
@Betty Cracker: Ivanka’s dresses look like some of the ugly ones her company used to make. The one she was wearing in the “readout” video looked like something from Little House in the Prairie. I used to have to dress professionally and would never wear those dresses. And she should cut her hair!
tobie
Kim and Trump not only have weird hair cuts but are also fat. The two looked like they were having difficult walking toward each other given their weight. Today seems like a good day to recall the two Americans hacked to death in 1976 after trimming a tree in the DMZ on a mission agreed upon by all parties in advance.
I’m just back from a month abroad. Spent the last 6 days dealing with a health crisis with mr. tobie. Everything’s fine now but it was a reminder you should always know the emergency phone numbers wherever you go!
Mike R
@Mike in NC: No you can’t and would this much BS even be acceptable in a made for TV movie.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mike in NC: word on the street is Dump is having an affair with her.
Mai Naem mobile
@Dorothy A. Winsor: i know I sound superficial but why can’t Ivanka just wear a freaking power suit. How hard is that you can get them in different colors. She wouldn’t have to wear black or grey. She wears dresses that make her look like a little girl at a birthday party. and the fucking hair. She looks like a freaking teenager. And then the voice. Arrghh anyhow the Republicans have lost any right to say anything when there is a Democratic president and whatever the heck they do. I don’t care if if Mayor Pete brings his husband to the Vatican and kisses his husband in front of the Pope.
Ruviana
@cmorenc: I’ve read that his his hair closely follows his grandfather’s style to invoke “Great Leader” to the population. Now maybe grandad was paranoid about scissors, I’d believe it.
Kay
It’s actually a very relevant question if Biden is the nominee, because the Trump Administration and Trump campaign have made Biden’s son an issue. They opened the door to much tougher analysis and vetting of Ivanka and Jared, and to the question of why the Trump Administration relies so heavily on the Presidents family members. I can guarantee President Joe Biden won’t hire his son. President Trump hired his daughter and son in law and they run foreign policy.
All questions about a candidate’s family should be analyzed in this frame, because this is the frame the Trump Administration chose. Voters either get exhaustive vetting and analysis of every adult family member or voters insist the President vows not to hire any.
MomSense
@cmorenc:
I thought I read at some point that Melania does his hair.
Keith P.
It wasn’t a photo op. It was Trump getting to say “I’m the first president to do X.” It will be followed at some point with “I won’t say this, but lots of people are saying this is the most amazing foreign policy moment in the history of all time.”
Chyron HR
@Baud:
“The Lord Our God, Death To The Negroes and Feminists Who Denied Him His Holy Throne” (formerly Bernie Sanders) is losing the primary again, which means the human race as a whole is losing.
Mike in NC
@cmorenc: I once read that Melania was tasked with arranging that ridiculous thing on top of Fat Bastard’s head. Apparently it’s a lengthy process.
MagdaInBlack
@Mai Naem mobile:
I think there is a subset of women who do not “age gracefully” as my mother liked to say.
They maintain the frilly girly look and the long hair etc, well past the expiration date. And yes, I’m being petty. ☺
On the other hand, I guess its none of my business as long as they’re happy with their look…
Kay
@Eunicecycle:
I’m ashamed and embarrassed that we’re the only country parading a family around as rulers at this thing. It’s fucking disgusting and everyone in that administration and in the R side of the US congress should be ashamed. I get that they don’t respect voters or the country as a whole but jesus christ. Have some SELF respect. It diminishes every single person who worked hard to get those jobs or was elected to them. It makes their effort a joke, because obviously nothing they do actually requires preparation or skill or merit. Anyone can be slotted in to replace them.
Why work hard at anything? This job has no requirements. Anyone can do it.
B.B.A.
@Baud: The polls were wrong in 2016, why should I trust them now? All those factors you refer to still exist.
@Chyron HR: Do not lump me in with those shitstains. Sanders is an agent of whatever the KGB calls itself now and should go fuck off back to Russia.
debbie
@Mike in NC:
Then we must excuse her for her nonsense. Inhaling all those hairspray fumes can’t be good for her brain cells.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He’s not wrong. Our allies, according to his love object, are MBS and Duterte.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Marshall Kim: Hey, you want to see something cool?
Dump: Yeah. Is that real? [looking at vintage Russian battle tank]
Marshall Kim: It was a gift to my grandfather from Stalin.
Dump: In my country, it’s pronounced “Stallone.”
Marshall Kim: You’re so funny, Donald
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
Third choice: Her delusional thinking that she’s a fashion trendsetter.
Baud
@B.B.A.:
The polls weren’t that off in 2016. In any event, believe the polls or don’t, but don’t say we’re losing when the polls say we’re not.
The Dangerman
@Mai Naem mobile:
If you’re whole existence is based on keeping Daddy happy, you keep Daddy happy.
Kay
@MagdaInBlack:
There’s something with wealthy Republican women and long hair. I don’t know what it is, but it’s some kind of cultural marker, because you see it a LOT. It sticks out to me in my own acquaintence circle because generally ordinary working women have shorter hair styles when they are middle aged. The Dem woman in the US Senate are kind of the “norm”. Harris, Warren, Klobachur- that’s the range that you see. It’s so prevalent my 17 year old son and his friends make fun of it- they say we all have the same hairstyle. Wealthy GOP women are the outlier. LONG.
Baud
@B.B.A.:
Well, Comey is gone and we are more aware now than we were then of the other factors. So not exactly the same.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@B.B.A.: the polls were right. They said Clinton would win nationally by 3 points and she won by 2 points.
hilts
The Reasoning of Ratfucker Tucker Carlson:
h/t mediaite.com/tv/tucker-carlson-north-korean-regime-is-monstrous-but-leading-a-country-means-killing-…
plato
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Creepy asshole.
Eunicecycle
@Kay: I think the Trumps are all narcissists. They have an exaggerated sense of their own importance and superiority. They are just BETTER than everyone else. Actually learn and grow? Not necessary for them!
germy
@tobie:
I’m guessing bullet-proof vests under the clothes.
Tehanu
I’d sure hate to be told I was going to be one of the North K. team members. Remember what happened to the last bunch.
(Actually, that’s a bit of a passive way to put it; it should be “what the murderous dictator Kim did to the last bunch.”)
debbie
@hilts:
Carlson: “Let them eat grass!”
debbie
@germy:
Nope. Fat, fat even without them.
B.B.A.
I’m congenitally incapable of optimism. I thought I had made this clear by now.
Fine, I’ll shut up for another few months.
Kay
@Eunicecycle:
The truth is there are thousands of brands of mid-priced women’s clothing. Thousands. “$100 shoes marked down to $50” has to be the most saturated market ever to exist. She put a bow on a dress that any woman can find 100 versions of, for between 20 and 100 dollars. Most of them have some kind of name attached to them. Exactly like hers.
There must be some market calculation here, where people can offer the exact same thing over and over and all stay in business, and I’m pretty sure it only works if the dress costs 30 cents to make, because it doesn’t make any sense. They HAVE to be shipping this shit somewhere else when 70% of it doesn’t sell. Either that or it goes directly to a land fill.
MagdaInBlack
@Kay:
It has to do, I think, with expectations of what is “feminine” (and I do hate that word) among certain conservative circles.
Someone also mentioned the voice: the passive little girl voice. I’m running into that quite often lately, and I instantly do not trust it: it’s fake and manipulative.
Steeplejack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Bob Hope USO tour! “Hey, how about that Joey Heatherton?”
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @hilts: What would Stalin say?
What would Hitler say?
chris
@Mike in NC:
Hard to keep up, ain’t it?
JPL
In the olden days, human rights mattered.
The Dangerman
@chris:
Good grief; she even kinda looks like Ivanka.
droog
I said it on the other thread and I’ll say it again here. Trump walked out four months ago in the Vietnam summit and North Korea didn’t sweat it. Even killing their own staff was a North Korean signal to Pompeo and Trump that theatrics and needling foreign office staff won’t get them far. Now Trump crawls back asking for a second chance and, being ever the showman, hides the defeat by dressing it with an unprecedented photo-op.
Trump says NK could have embarrassed him. He still doesn’t get that their aims are not to make him look good or bad. He’ll be gone at some point and NK will have made long term gains.
Baud
@JPL: Not really that much. And frankly, our main concern with NK is their nukes. If they were willing to give up nukes in exchange for aid or trade or something similar, every president in history would have jumped at the chance, human rights be damned. What past presidents would not have done is elevate Kim’s stature like Trump has in the mere hopes of working out a deal, or so the media and the easily fooled back home would portray them in a good light.
jimmiraybob
Given the security logistics, etc., it would have taken more than the few hours between trump’s tweeted invite and the photo/propaganda op. Putin probably set this up months ago.
Another Scott
@Mike in NC: Given the documented treatment of one of his previous wives over his hair, she probably feels that she doesn’t have a choice.
There have been a couple of times in the last couple of years when someone who knows what they’re doing has combed his hair, but it always quickly reverts to the the usual monstrosity.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@hilts
“…and such small portions!”
//
germy
chris
@The Dangerman: You noticed that too?
trnc
I think a simple “Produce the evidence, asshole” would have sufficed, but that’s just me.
Eunicecycle
@Kay: I have seen some of her clothes in discounters like TJ Maxx and Marshalls. Actually saw a dress that I might try on, but then saw the label, “Ivanka Trump.” NOPE! It was just a plain shift-type dress but the print was pretty.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: I have long hair. I am neither wealthy nor Republican. I have sported hair of different lengths. And currently my hair is three of four inches longer than Kamala Harris, cut in layers. Last year I had almost waist length hair that I used to braid or put up in bun. My hair is dark brown-black and wavy. My hair grows quickly and longer hair is just easier to maintain for me. Otherwise I need monthly haircuts and styling with a flat iron. With my current length I can go between 4 and 6 months without a hair cut and needs little styling. I don’t think one needs to get soccer mom bob to be taken seriously. YMMV.
ed
did a quick search for this, surprised it wasn’t posted, found on reddit. I really don’t want Joe as primary winner, but i’ll vote for a wet fart at this point.
Fake Joe Biden web site set up by Trump campaign operative. newsweek.com/fake-biden-campaign-website-being-run-secretly-trump-campaign-operative-report-1446693
MagdaInBlack
@schrodingers_cat:
It isnt really about the length so much as it is the whole trying to maintain the “sexy innocent girlish non-threatening to insecure conservative males” look.
Somehow I dont think thats your look ??.
Many women of our age group (ok, mine, I’m 61) pull off long hair magnificently.
Its all in how its done.
plato
From 2 years ago.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
We’ve talked abiut this so I think I knew that. I should have specified. It’s a particular look. It’s “celebrity” hair. I think they’re probably using extensions. I think it comes from reality tv and “influencers” on the internet.
Repatriated
@Betty Cracker: g
It’s worse than that. She has to be there.
He knows on some level that his mental faculties are failing him, and he needs her there because she’s the only person on Earth who he trusts to look out for his best interests.
germy
@plato: Lots of things Kendzior tweeted two years ago have come true. She was warning everyone a while ago.
germy
MagdaInBlack
@Repatriated:
That’s what I’ve concluded. She’s his emotional support/enabler.
germy
This twitter thread shows how gullible our elite media betters are:
Bill Arnold
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Re Paula White
And I naively thought she was just doing some sort of weird theological ego fluffing. It’s full-service fluffing?
Ugh. Imagining some weird God-emperor/messiah/immortality shit combined with kinky meatie stuff.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
I’d say, “Odds not good.”
Ruckus
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Wanna bet pissing on drumpf was a pleasure?
Another Scott
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Meh.
Newsweek:
(Emphasis added.)
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike in NC
Trump probably appreciates Kim’s unique fashion taste and asked for the name of his tailor. Maybe his barber, too.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Of course, the bon-er pi-ll dungeon words are still working.
Help?
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
@Mike in NC:
Part of her pre-nup? (It would be irresponsible not to speculate.)
glory b
@germy: Paula White used to be on the African-American Evangelical circuit. I believe she was with TD Jakes and his “Potters House” ministry.
Brachiator
The sad thing is that this despicable lie will become the public record for many people.
Trump is the PT Barnum of Bullshit. The Greatest Snow Job on Earth.
Also, Trump is jonesing go for a Nobel Prize. Carter and Obama both have one. Trump just gots to have it. And then, once he has his Peace Prize, he can bomb the shit out of Iran and kill a few more immigrant babies, cause that’s how Trump rolls.
MagdaInBlack
@Bill Arnold:
Since we’re speculating, the Rev. White is married to a member of Journey*. Did she save him from a life of rock’n’roll sin and debauchery, or did she join him ?
* According to her website.
debbie
@Brachiator:
He will never get the Peace Prize, considering his immigration and refugee policies. Did Hitler ever get one?
debbie
@debbie:
It might be interesting for the Committee told him this, if only to see his conflictedness. Like Faust’s, “I’ll give up my Wall!”
SiubhanDuinne
@MagdaInBlack:
He’s her third husband, according to her Wikipedia entry, so that’s another thing she and Trump have in common.
And there’s a hint that she had an affair with yet another evangelical grifter, Benny Hinn.
JPL
@debbie: Hitler Had Lindbergh preaching America First, not Tucker and all of Fox news.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne: This is the funniest part of her wikipedia page:
I suspect she never read the book she waves in our faces.
Another Scott
In other news, aljazeera:
(Emphasis added.)
The internationally recognized government isn’t a participant, the Taliban wants an announced withdrawal timeline before agreeing to anything, and Pompeo thinks they can get an agreement by September 1 (“no pressure!!”). That’s a recipe for success!!
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Have you ever heard any republican politicians?
The only thing they could possibly be accused of working hard at is sucking, both at their jobs and as humans. They have no skills or merit. The only requirement is that they have loyalty to republican bullshit. Republicans elected Mike Dense to the governorship of IN, twice. Someone keeps voting for Steve King. 70+ million assholes voted for drumpf. They like bumbling idiots running their party, running the country. They think that the drumpfs and the denses and the kings are good people and good politicians. I sat on a plane once, next to a couple, the woman was reading a large book by famed author Rush Limpballs. They complained most of the flight about having to sit with the lower classes in steerage. They complained out loud that they hadn’t paid for first class where they belonged. At one point I almost told them out loud that the entire steerage class cabin wishes they had the money to pay for first class because then we wouldn’t have to sit with them. I used to fly around the states about 30 weeks a year, that’s a lot of individual legs and I only sat next to someone close to as bad once. And she was only close. I once got called a bastard by my seat mate for falling asleep before the door closed and the plane sat there by the gate for 45 minutes for being the only person on the plane not pissed off. I laughed out loud with the guy as he said it. I asked him if I had been snoring. It was a good flight.
Brachiator
@debbie:
Trump has better propagandists.
Some Fox News pundit is already beating the drum for Trump
foxnews.com/opinion/harry-kazianis-is-trumps-north-korea-strategy-nobel-prize-worthy-obama-got-one-f…
Baud
@Another Scott:
Afghanistan is going to get fucked, but if Trump can somehow conclude of crappy peace treaties with NK and the Taliban, that solves a bunch of problems for us.
Baud
@Brachiator:
Than Hitler? I think not.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Yeah, I noticed that. The whole “prosperity gospel” thing almost demands a certain level or hypocrisy. Or heresy.
I mean, prosperity is fine. I approve of it, and wish I had some. Just don’t cloak the pursuit of it in Christianity and pretend you’re allowed to totally twist Jesus’ words to justify your greed.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Yeah, while they’re busy trying to copy Hitler and Goebbels (and to be fair, Mussolini more than Hitler) they’re not particularly adept at it. Those who have fallen under Trump’s “charm” were all deeply predisposed to do so. I don’t know anybody who flipped from being a liberal Dem or even that mythical middle-of-the-road Republican to become a mouthbreathing Trumper.
germy
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Are you suggesting we deny ourselves, Suburu Satan?
Plato
@Brachiator:
The usual rw noise machine does what it does. So? The Nobel committee is not full of idiots.
germy
@trollhattan:
Bret Stephens calls them “ordinary voters”
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
I would never.
SiubhanDuinne
Has anyone heard from Scotian in the last few days?
germy
@SiubhanDuinne: I believe I saw a comment yesterday.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: He posted a little bit yesterday.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@trollhattan:
Right. The Nazis built what they had from scratch. The Republican Party is an old established party that has been moving toward Trump since at least 1968.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Well we do know that his goals for working out deals are never what we think one would do it for. For drumpf the art of the deal is making it. Not making it work properly or well, that’s way beyond his level. It is all the vision of the deal, not the specifics or the gains. drumpf is 10000% narcissist, it defines his life, his every move, what little thought happens under that ugly rug, inside that ugly fat melon.
Brachiator
@Baud:
I was exaggerating to some degree in posts clearly bashing Trump’s pretensions.
Still, I wonder:
Adolf’s helpers were almost exclusively within Germany.
Murdoch has media properties around the world dedicated to helping Trump. And that’s just one guy.
And if you Google Trump Nobel Prize, you see the campaign for Trump starting to take shape.
lamh36
Here’s a close up look at the jacket, also just a really good photo of Kamala
twitter.com/notcapnamerica/status/1145371058008154112
trollhattan
@germy:
Check out the big brain on Bret.
Love how racists try to inoculate themselves from charges of racism by shouting “racist” first. Winning.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
@Another Scott:
Thanks. Must have been a thread I missed
trollhattan
@lamh36:
Heckova jacket there, senator. :-)
Hair up is a good look.
Baud
@lamh36:
The jacket is sweet.
germy
@Baud: They took some inspiration from the writings of Henry Ford and America’s 19th century westward expansion, IIRC.
trollhattan
Lemieux has a thread about this abomination.
What in the actual fuck?
lamh36
@trollhattan: it really is a fabulous jacket. Harris is very photogenic
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: @trollhattan: if like me you’re curious about the column but don’t want to read it, this twitter thread gives you a sense of it. And as will happen when racists get all HOW DARE YOU! when called out, people are digging out his old columns, like the one where he argued in favor of colonialism, and another when he described hatred as “the disease of the Arab mind”
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
If memory serves, Trump has already been nominated before. But the Nobel Peace Prize gets a shit ton of nominees every year. Many are frivolous or serve an obvious political agenda, or both, and you know how seriously the committee takes those.
Baud
@germy:
Sure. I just meant the Nazi party wasn’t a long-standing German political party. You can trace the history of hate back through the centuries.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: Whoops. I was mistaken. I got “The Pale Scot” and “Scotian” mixed up. A quick Google search shows this thread from June 24. I don’t know if there’s anything more recent.
Sorry for my confusion.
I too hope he’s doing well.
Cheers,
Scott.
gene108
@Baud:
Not really. The Taliban is backed by Pakistan. Maybe Saudi Arabia and some Persian Gulf states.
This is why they are able to persist for so long.
India, I think, has been the number two sponsor of aid to Afghanistan after the USA.
Basically, the issue in Afghanistan is more multilateral than just the US talking with some mooks saying they are the Taliban.
Trump wants a withdrawal to help his re-election chances. Maybe get a few on the Left, who said we was the Peace candidate. Maybe make a claim for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The result will be chaos in Afghanistan.
Pakistan does not want an Indian friendly government on its western border. They will work to topple the current government, if the US leaves.
And that leaves us where?
Baud
@gene108:
The point is, once we’re out, our next president doesn’t have to figure out how to withdraw and take the blame for it. There will be other problems, for sure.
Bill Arnold
@Ruckus:
QFT. And he’s so needy that he has a long-standing habit of enforcing praise contractually. Very related,
Anyone who worked for the Trump 2016 campaign should be considered tainted by a non-disparagment-forever NDA they might have signed. They are contractually still Trump campaign officials. (Well, at least they should be forced to deny it.)
Sinclair is forcing its stations to run a commentary segment that’s essentially a Trump campaign ad – Former Trump aide Boris Epshteyn hosted a new “must-run” gushing about the president’s 2020 campaign (Pam Vogel, June 30, 2019)
Are pro-Trump commenters legally bound to say nice things about Trump? – Networks keep booking Trump guests who can’t disparage Trump (Paul Farhi, September 11, 2018)
chris
@lamh36: Yup, she’s still my pick.
Brachiator
@Plato:
Well, hopefully there are fewer since the 2018 sexual abuse and financial misconduct scandal that rocked the Academy.
But my main point is that Trump cares less about statesmanship or world peace than he does about being able to show up Jimmy Carter, especially after Carter called him illegitimate.
I couldn’t sleep, so was up watching Trump live at the DMZ. Goddam he looked smug, but was basking in a moment that may not amount to anything. And yet he expects to be bathed in glory.
Frankensteinbeck
And the barkeep says, “You assholes again?”
@trollhattan:
There is a segment of voters, and it is not insignificant, who vote randomly. They flip flop all the time in no predictable or useful way. They are essential to the pundit need to assert Republicans are not white supremacists.
@Brachiator:
The Nobel committee still does not give a flying fuck. No amount of right wing whining, NO amount, will affect their decision. If they think Trump deserves one, he will get it. If not, he won’t.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I think it’s as much that it’s a different time. We have almost instantaneous world wide communications which we didn’t really have 50-60 yrs ago.
We have much more open borders now than we did 50-60 yrs ago. Some rich bastard can own media platforms that coordinate messaging a lot better than 50-60 yrs ago.
A conservative such as Murdoch has amassed a much larger fortune than most rich bastards did 50-60 yrs ago.
It isn’t the same world it was then. It would have been much more difficult to have the messaging and even notice that it was happening in anything approaching real time, with real effects. 50-60 yrs ago one had to read the daily paper, one wasn’t assaulted with the bullshit 24/7. Would Murdoch even have been allowed to own the media properties around the world the way he does today? Well no, because they didn’t even exist the way they do today.
smintheus
I remember wave after wave of gleeful Republican attacks on the well behaved daughters of Presidents Carter, Clinton, and Obama for the sin of being children growing up in the White House…or at least once, for going along on a trip by their mother. Now they maintain stony silence as Trump tries to turn his corrupt adult progeny into an American House of Windsor.
Another Scott
@gene108: Plus, the Afghan Taliban (supported by Pakistan) is different from the Pakistani Taliban (fighting Pakistan) and have different goals.
It’s a mess.
While I agree that it’s long past time that we should have stopped fighting there, the idea that there’s any hope of a peace agreement that passes the laugh test by September 1 is foolish.
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
@Ruckus:
Re Murdoch, this is among the things what media-mogul money can buy – the Anti-Defamation league has been tainted by Fox money for a while. A small amount relative to their (presumed[0]) assets, but still. Note that the article includes other examples; not picking on ADL here, just annoyed that they took the money. (in 2017)
How James Murdoch Uses Philanthropy to Distance Himself From the Taint of Fox News (The Intercept FWIW, Peter Maass, June 29 2019, will get you riled up warning.)(Bold mine)
James Murdoch, Rebuking Trump, Pledges $1 Million to Anti-Defamation League (Maggie Haberman, Aug. 17, 2017)
[0] ADL 2015 Anual Report, the latest on their website, says that their assets in 2015 were $142,304,000. Don’t know why they stopped issuing annual reports in 2016. One could speculate…
James E Powell
@germy:
That twitter thread is not open to ordinary average people.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: Is there a lesser known Nobel Fuck-off-and-die Prize, because everyone in this bastard administration has earned those in spades?
smintheus
@germy: By far the largest block of persuadable voters are those who didn’t bother to vote in the 2016 election. The next largest block are those who were prevented from voting by Republican machinations. By comparison, Obama/Trump voters are just a drop in the spittoon.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I’ll repeat.
drump is 10000% a narcissist. It is all he is. Everything in his world is about how great he is at everything, even as he is not actually a success at anything. If he was, given his inheritance, he’d actually be wealthy. He’s not. It’s his ineptitude that Vlad likes, and paid money for. How much did it cost Vlad to get drumpf inserted as president? In Vlad’s world, not a whole lot. He’s made fools of all of us for pennies. He’s created a world that favors chaos, which benefits him, for pennies. drumpf is Vlad’s modern day nuclear bomb, with very little effective fallout for him. The puppet master found the perfect puppet.
pamelabrown53
@schrodingers_cat:
But…do you wear headbands? There’s a certain “junior league” look that many republican women sport. Sounds like you just have longer hair that suits your lifestyle.
Chris Johnson
@Another Scott: You do realize that doesn’t bother him. Putin doesn’t need him to have a hard-on.
He flips out not when people suggest he has a tiny weird penis or erectile dysfunction… but when people suggest he is not rich.
Because that’s far more damaging to his world, and is the lie upon which all this is based. The man is broke and Russia pays for everything and expects a good performance out of its puppet.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
This is kinda obvious. Again, my point was not on what the Nobel Committee might do, even though the past scandals indicate that they are a lot less lofty than we think.
Trump may have been thinking about his little handshake visit for a while. But he is desperate for ego boosts and I could really see him wanting to take away the sting of Jimmy Carter’s rebuke. So he needed some spectacular bullshit. And he’s got it.
Also I think that Trump is impotent, and if he won a Nobel, it would give him a raging boner and he would be able to have his daughter-wife again. That’s his fantasy.
Chris Johnson
@debbie: Kissinger got one.
Your premise is invalid :P
jc
ABC News describes Trump’s brief visit to No. Korea “in terms of sheer performance…”
Isn’t “sheer performance” what Trump’s entire presidency has been about?
CaseyL
I am 63 and wear my hair long, because I love long hair AND don’t give a rat’s ass about what may be “appropriate” for my age. Of all the things to rag on Ivanka about, wearing her hair long is nowhere near the event horizon.
J R in WV
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Maybe Tucker’s allies, and of course Trump’s allies. Not my allies, not John Cole’s allies… not OUR allies at all. Our allies arrest war criminals and take them to The Hague. OF course, Tucker boy should be in The Hague either serving time or awaiting trial.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “Fuck it, we’ll do it live.”
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: Tapper is simply Villager offal.
germy
@James E Powell:
Wow, it’s suddenly protected. He must have gotten threats. It was open an hour ago.
schrodingers_cat
@pamelabrown53: Headbands look silly, so no.
Raven Onthill
I look at the picture and feel like America is over. I don’t know why this particular thing hits me so hard, when there are so many other abuses from this administration. But there it is.
chopper
@MagdaInBlack:
funny, they say that the road ain’t no place to start a family.
MagdaInBlack
@CaseyL:
I think we were pretty upfront acknowledging we were being superficial. And that we were referring to a specific subset.
And as I said, intimately it’s no ones business.
Chris Johnson
@Another Scott: You do realize that doesn’t bother him. Putin doesn’t need him to have a hard-on.
He flips out not when people suggest he has a tiny weird penis or erectile dysfunction… but when people suggest he is not rich.
Because that’s far more damaging to his world, and is the lie upon which all this is based. The man is broke and Russia pays for everything and expects a good performance out of its puppet.
germy
Raven
@germy: Twarnt Mormons!
Ruckus
@germy:
Bet that went over well…….
Raven
What were you doing Donald?
“Fighting for her honor which is more than she ever did”!!!
Raven
@germy: She’s lucky they didn’t chop her to death with axes. See “Art Bofanis”.
tony in san diego
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Kim’s advisor’s know US history. When asked if he should be addressed as Your Majesty, Washington rejected that address, and chose Your Excellency.
mrmoshpotato
OT sorry.
I hope the US beats merry ol’ England worse than Thailand just to shove it in his merry ol’ face.
Mai Naem mobile
@CaseyL: I fully admit that I was being superficial. I really was not talking about the length of her hair but that it looks like somebody who is in their teens going out to party. If she is trying to fake it till she makes it the least she can do is dress for the role. It’s not like she doesn’t have the money or the staff.
germy
@Raven:
“Your Excellency!”
“You’re not so bad yourself!”
Raven
@tony in san diego: “Oh Your Excellency” “You’re not so bad yourself”!
debbie
@mrmoshpotato:
First response is the best:
Raven
@germy: Great minds. . .
sukabi
Nothing about his new press secretary getting in a scuffle with NK security?
rawstory.com/2019/06/white-house-spokesperson-grisham-injured-in-scuffle-with-north-korean-guards-at…
JPL
@germy: Kim jong un is not gonna be happy, so I expect one or more will be executed,
sukabi
@jc: it’s not that she’s got long hair, it’s that she wears it hanging in her face like a petulant 16 year old.
Sab
@mrmoshpotato: Me too. Is that game Tuesday?
Baud
Raven
@Sab: yes, 3pm
Steve in the ATL
@trollhattan: totally unenforceable, and really odd that the company would be monitoring her that much later.
Even if it were timely, which it’s not even close to, the work restriction would be limited to the work she was performing for them. Which, as intern, would be roughly “jackshit”.
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
None of the English players think that, the England coach does not think that, Piers Morgan can go fuck himself sideways (I presume he’s flexible as his opinions).
It will be epic, as the kids used to say.
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard required people on his campaign staff to sign “non-disparagement agreements”? That’s downright Orwellian (or Trumpian). Who dreams up such ridiculous bullshit? Oh, I can guess.
prostratedragon
@MagdaInBlack: But she could fulfill that role without trying to seem like a participant. Whether a President should be that needy on a permanent basis is of course another question.
NobodySpecial
Is it just me, or does Colonel Cantaloupe look like he’s aged 20 more years in that photo?
Ladyraxterinok
@Mike in NC: She’s often been a guest on the J8mBakker show.
Her ministry, along with those of Joyce Meyers, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, and 2 others, were asked for financial info some yrs ago by Sen Grassley after complaints from people who wanted to know where their donations were going. Meyers and Hinn complied, Copeland bluntly said ‘No way!’ Don’t remember about White. For reasons I don’t recall, Grassley gave up trying to get the info.
Lots of Evangelicals were furious that the govt was interfering in private church business.
Ladyraxterinok
@MagdaInBlack: There’re constant claims in romance novels that men prefer women who have long hair.
I was stunned when a young conservative religious woman told me yrs ago that her mother told her not to read romance novels because they create unrealistic expectations of life.
Made me think her husband (and the husbands of her friends maybe) were lacking in the bedroom.
Ladyraxterinok
@MagdaInBlack: Her 2nd husband, I think.
Ruckus
@Mai Naem mobile:
Wanna bet she thinks she’s changing fashion?
I’ve seen pictures of some of the stupid stuff worn at fashion shows. Is her crap more or less superficial? Or just in bad taste? And why would you expect more from anyone involved in any way with drumpf? My expectations for anyone in any way involved or supporting of drumpf to just be a supercilious ass.
SWMBO
@Baud: Pity they didn’t keep him.
Zinsky
Well. at least we didn’t have to deal with the horror of a former Secretary of State who used a private e-mail server! The horror! The horror….
Jerry Brickley
@chopper: you’re a real class guy.
Jerry Brickley
@Mike in NC: SOP. Clinton’s just murder people who blab.
Jerry Brickley
@Betty Cracker: Americans don’t say “frocks”.
You must be british and shitish.