Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everybody saw this coming.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

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

Second rate reporter says what?

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

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

We still have time to mess this up!

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

How stupid are these people?

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

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

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

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

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

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

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

The lights are all blinking red.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Friday Morning Open Thread: Traditional Silly-Season Fare

Friday Morning Open Thread: Traditional Silly-Season Fare

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Of course he hasn’t got the funds to indulge in the traditional upper-class-male mortality-panic status goods, like cars or yachts, but couldn’t Melania introduce him to Funko Pops or Magic: the Gathering cards?

Per the Washington Post:

… The presidential request has bewildered aides, some of whom continue to believe it isn’t serious, but Trump has mentioned it for weeks. The two people with knowledge of the presidential demand spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal such White House planning.

As with many of Trump’s internal musings, aides haven’t told him the idea is preposterous and instead are waiting for more direction before they decide how seriously they should look into it.

Among the things that have been discussed is whether it is even legal, what the process would be for acquiring an island that has its own government and population, and where any money to purchase a giant landmass would originate…

Reader Interactions

120Comments

  2. 2.

    WereBear

    Remember when someone said W explains everything like he’s a six year old because that’s how it’s explained to him, and we all laughed?

    Seems so long ago, now.

  6. 6.

    Tony Jay

    Well, now, let’s not be too hasty. It was quite a long time ago but I’m pretty sure that I remember it being vital to hold Alaska and Greenland before you get North America’s full quota of armies in the next round.

    Hold on, don’t you need to hold Mexico too? Ooooh, he’s gonna be mad when his turn comes around.

  9. 9.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Steven Shepard
    @POLITICO_Steve
    ·
    11h
    New @foxnewspoll
    :

    Biden 31% (-2 from last month)
    Warren 20 (+8)
    Sanders 10 (-15)
    Harris 8 (-2)
    Booker 3 (+1)
    Buttigieg 3 (-2)

    Last week’s Monmouth Poll showed Wilmer sinking to 9 points in Iowa. Today’s Fox Poll shows his nationwide numbers are in free fall.

    He’s collapsed from 25% to 10% in TWO short months. This is a bigger bomb than an Adam Sandler movie.

    And it’s only gonna get worse.

  11. 11.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Lizzie Warren took an axe,
    And gave Wilmer forty whacks;

    When she saw what she had done,
    She gave Sirota forty-one.

  12. 12.

    Montanareddog

    Here’s hoping he ends up in the same situation as Fezzik found himself, before he was “rescued” by Vizzini

    From 1’23”
    …Unemployed, in GREEENLAND!

    ETA: in fact, the whole of Vizzini’s rant could be applied to him: “YOU! Friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless…”

  13. 13.

    Central Planning

    I feel like I should create a for sale listing on eBay, craigslist, or forsalebyowner for Greenland. Or maybe a Kickstarter/GoFundMe. Maybe double-dip – generate the funding at Kickstarter and then pay myself to by Greenland. What could go wrong?

  16. 16.

    hells littlest angel

    Putin: I send my enemies into exile in Siberia, Donushka. Do you have anything like that?

  17. 17.

    Kay

    This was a good documentary and it’s free.
    It’s about Charlottesville and it’s part of a PBS/Propublica series. The reporters look at film of white supremacist events, identify the repeat attendees – there were more events than Charlottesville, there were three in California prior to Charlottesville- and follow their social media presence to make an initial ID and then follow that up by locating them in person. Some of the “leaders” have serious criminal records. They really crawled out from under rocks with Trump’s election, and that is the event that brought them out. Every single one they interview sees Trump’s election as a validation of their movement.
    What I saw- the college Republicans marching with the tiki torches, people you might dismiss as clowns- was actually a sanitized version of what they really are. That’s better than the reality.

  18. 18.

    PST

    Ice-free Greenland can be America’s breadbasket when the Great Plains and the Central Valley are scorching desert wastelands. Trump is just absorbing the climate data and looking ahead.

  22. 22.

    Jeffro

    so much inside baseball in several of those tweets…it’s like a pop quiz for internet political junkies.

    “What was that ‘feral pigs’ and ‘vetbros’ thing all about, Grandpa?”

    “Ehhhh…you had to be there. Now hush, President Swift is coming on to the holo-jector…”

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @Baud:

    NPR

    On Friday, however, Israel’s interior ministry said Minister Aryeh Deri had decided to allow Tlaib to conduct a “humanitarian visit” to her 90-year-old grandmother. According to the statement, Tlaib sent a letter to Deri accepting conditions and limits on her visit and promising not to advance boycotts against Israel while she is there.

    There was no word on whether Israel had changed its position on Omar, a Somali-born American. She had been scheduled to arrive on Saturday in Israel, where she and Tlaib planned to tour the West Bank and visit the contested Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem.

  25. 25.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    Can’t stir up gossip about division without first throwing in a wedge, can you?

    Can you smell the cunning stunt? Smells like…. predictability.

  27. 27.

    bemused

    This is completely bonkers and there’s no end to what his demented brain will invent and obsess over.
    I never could have imagined only a few years ago our country being held hostage by a berserk president and his flying monkeys.

  31. 31.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: thanks for this, Kay – will check it out later today. Cville is my new hometown, and it’s still (naturally) very much in everyone’s minds here.

  37. 37.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: And proudly so!

    Every now and then though, I look at a string of tweets or other references and it’s like, “that would take me an hour to explain to a normal person” ?

  38. 38.

    ET

    Where the hell is this coming from!?? I know he gets a lot of his notions from Fox, but would Fox have been talking about Greenland recently?

    I know he is a real estate guy and he wants a legacy but this seems like it comes of left field.

  39. 39.

    WereBear

    @bemused: I never could have imagined only a few years ago our country being held hostage by a berserk president and his flying monkeys.

    I was around NYC in the 80s and what astonishes me is how blatantly untrustworthy Trump appeared then, when he was in much better shape and could speak coherently. By that time he was an object of contempt for the entire area, which is why he scuttled off to Atlantic City.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    No- but I just started facetiming with them which is fun. They gave me a tour of the house. It’s new construction, attached two stories built around a commons- a green. We were going to go for Christmas but our daughter’s baby is due first week in January so we changed it to June. He says he stopped following US politics – Trump disgusts him- but it’s not true- he still emails me about it. I think Trump is visiting Denmark in September. He’s stalking them.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: When the trials begin, I am sure the lawyer who argued this case will say, “I was only following orders.”

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @ET:

    I know he is a real estate guy and he wants a legacy but this seems like it comes of left field.

    Worse, it came out of trump.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    The documentary led to a court martial of one white supremacist and another getting fired from a defense contractor where he held a security clearance, because they actually ID’d these people and tracked them down. With their social media presence it’s not that difficult- it’s time consuming- they had to plow thru 250,000 posts on the various message boards and attach messages to faces- but there’s repeat appearances – frequent fliers- and that along with video of the events gives them a lot of information to find them. There are also people who have left the movement and they give information.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I sometimes feel bad about him because he started following politics with Bush v Gore (he liked Gore a lot) and stopped with Trump – he was a Clinton supporter. I don’t feel like he’s asking that much- he’s a mainstream Democrat. He just wants a sane government. One that can, I don’t know, hold a clean and orderly election, put together some trains and track, let alone have them run on time :)
    I don’t know if he’s coming back. He likes Berlin and they say if his contract runs and he doesn’t get another one they’re going to Germany.

  49. 49.

    Princess

    It’s probably a good rule of thumb to assume that every awful idea Trump did not learn from FOX, he got from Putin.

  50. 50.

    satby

    Been up since 4 am and had three cups of coffee, but I keep nodding off. Going back to bed for an hour before I head out to the market.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I think the Trump people think he helps himself politically with overseas travel. Like a stage setting. It’s funny, because that’s always been a second term thing – a lame duck thing. They can’t get anything done domestically so they head out to “talk to world leaders”.

  53. 53.

    mrmoshpotato

    Oh for fuck’s sake.

    I’m tired of slamming my head against tables, and my eyes have rolled away yet again.

    What horrible news is about to drop (again) that this moron is talking about buying another country? Is Mexico going to pay for it? Has Vincente Fox called Dump a blithering idiot lately?

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The FBI could fight far-right violence if they wanted to – but they don’t

    When white nationalists commit deadly attacks like the El Paso shooting, these crimes fit the statutory definition of domestic terrorism. Terrorism remains the FBI’s top priority. It ranks hate crimes fifth and organized crime sixth, however. So, when FBI agents or federal prosecutors initially label far-right violence as hate crimes, or gang crimes, they de-prioritize these cases, limiting the available resources and narrowing the scope of the investigations.

    Worse, as a matter of policy, the justice department defers the vast majority of hate crimes to state and local police and prosecutors, who are often ill-equipped or uninterested in pursuing these cases. Justice department crime victim surveys estimate there are approximately 230,000 violent hate crimes annually, yet federal prosecutors charge only about 25 hate crimes defendants each year. State and local law enforcement, however, are not picking up the slack. Only about 12% of state and local law enforcement agencies report hate crimes occurring in their jurisdictions, and in some states, reported hate crimes are rarely prosecuted as such.

    ……………………..

    The legacy of our government’s official sanction of white supremacy continues to linger, particularly infecting our criminal justice system and immigration policies. The FBI remains an overwhelmingly white, male organization, which may partly explain why it would treat white supremacist violence as a less serious concern than an imaginary Black Identity Extremist movement. Recent reports documenting law enforcement cooperation with violent far-right groups and antipathy toward their victims at riotous demonstrations in Sacramento, California, and in Portland, Oregon, demand investigation to see what role bias plays in the police response.

    Though the justice department and FBI officials have claimed renewed interest in tackling white supremacist violence, their actions raise continued concerns about how they are using counterterrorism authorities.

    More troubling, recent reporting that revealed the active participation of police officers in white supremacist groups and racist social media activity by a small but significant number of police officers and border patrol officials makes clear that overt and organized racism continues to fester within agencies sworn to protect the public safety as well. The FBI has repeatedly warned its agents about white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement, urging caution about sharing sensitive intelligence about domestic terrorism cases. But it has taken few concrete actions to protect communities of color from these racist officers. Given this disturbing reality, giving law enforcement greater domestic terrorism powers may not be the safest or most effective solution.

    Michael German, a former FBI agent, is a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I’m convinced they think the proximity to other leaders – the images- raises his stature. So they can all behave like poorly raised 7th graders here but if they show him “making a deal” with other world leaders he borrows some credibility. It’s amusing that such America Firsters need their moron propped up by standing next to others, in other countries.

    He gets nothing thru Congress. It’s all executive action and it’s his first term, not his second. The modern presidency is such he can do a lot of damage thru just his low quality hires, but a lot of that can also be UNDONE with the next President, with the exception of the bottom of the barrel judges, who we’re stuck with.

  57. 57.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud: Can think of no other valid reason – although they have royalty there – he does like meeting royalty.

    Why any country in the world would want him to visit is beyond sane understanding.

  58. 58.

    hueyplong

    It depresses me to know that I’ll soon hear idiots asserting how important it is for us to acquire Greenland ASAP.

    It depresses me more to realize that if you’re in another country, events are teaching you that the only way to immunize your nation against stupid aggression from Trump is to be led by a dictator (and the more clownish and arbitrary the better).

    This is thrown out in the forlorn hope that someone will suggest an exception to that rule.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It is troubling. I think it’s politicized. They had a double murder in Florida- one of the white supremacists killed two of his comrades and when they searched the apartment they found serious explosives. The FBI wouldn’t talk to Propublica but the fact is these people were planning a mass murder. Law enforcement didn’t stop them. What stopped them is they’re violent and one happened to murder two others. If two Propublica reporters can ID these people on video at their events, follow internet sites to verify the initial ID and then find them in real life one would hope the FBI could.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WereBear: What I can’t quite wrap my head around is why are these assholes still walking around. Why aren’t they in jail awaiting trial for attempted murder?

    THIS is why there are starting to be public service announcements about “don’t drink bleach.”

    Hmmmmmmmmmm…. Maybe they can run those ads on FOX.

  61. 61.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Kay: I think his numbers may rise when he’s out of the country, but that’s because he’s not tweeting as much. He does better when people have a chance to forget about him.

    I can’t wrap my head around the idea of buying Greenland. WTF?

  62. 62.

    Kay

    He wants Greenland because he wants a big monument to his ego. I’m taking their increasingly unhinged lust for power as a good sign. Hopefully they think they have to grab everything that isn’t nailed down because their time is almost up. They really have ramped up the outrageous behavior and authoritarian impulse. Now the low quality hires are throwing their weight around, independent of Dear Leader. I saw one of their bottom of the barrel US attorny was making campaign appearances smearing local (Democratic) officials. They’ll reach new lows. There is no bottom.

    He hired bad people and there are a lot of them. They want to remain in power.

  63. 63.

    Greg

    I would say to Denmark’s government, open negotiations. Their price? Full and total commitment to stopping and reversing global climate change. Trump and the GOP need to take immediate and drastic steps now just to begin a process. Call it a good faith deposit. And if at the end of some term, say 99 years, if targets have been met, then the sale is finalized. If not, the deal is off. In the interim, Greenland stays as it is. But Trump over the barrel. He has telegraphed his desire, now take him for everything he has got for it.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: They have more important things to do, like tracking the eeeeeevil mooooslims and keeping a close eye on all the uppity darkies in case they start to get ideas.

  66. 66.

    hueyplong

    @OzarkHillbilly: A more clever idea would be to pay Hannity so much that he’ll say an extremely small dosage of bleach per day– say, a drop– mixed with distilled spirits, is what makes him a Manly Champion of the Right.

    Then have Obama, Warren and any combination of the currently spotlighted young female Democratic members congress strongly assert that Hannity is dead wrong and on no account is anyone to touch so much as a drop of bleach, no matter how it is mixed.

    Being RWNJs, they’ll simply assume that a larger dose will get even better results than Sean got, while simultaneously owning the libs.

    Et voila. Health care fixed, highways emptied of absurd bumper stickers, mass shootings ceased without the delay that accompanies legislation or constitutional amendment, Nazis back into their rightful place as subjects of ridicule a la The Blues Brothers.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I can’t wrap my head around the idea of buying Greenland. WTF?

    I think it’s completely in keeping with the Trump family character. They build monuments to themselves. That’s what the wall is. It’s the least surprising thing in the world that they want to make a big, splashy purchase with someone else’s money. That’s the family business. It isn’t even real money, which is also consistent with their whole lives. They’re broke. They’ve run up a trillion dollars in debt. That’s when it becomes even more important to project “success”. I’m somewhat gratified by the fact that Donald Trump thinks Donald Trump needs to project success – he sees the myth slipping and he knows this long con better than anyone. It’s his life. They’re not confident. That’s good for us.

  68. 68.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Haven’t seen the documentary yet, but I have read ProPublica’s related reporting. Also followed that bizarre story about the murders in Florida because it happened not far from my daughter’s university. The thing that gets me about that story is that after the murders and the cops picking up the perpetrator in a house filled with Nazi propaganda and weapons, they let the surviving Nazi go on about his business, and he bought an AR-15 and a thousand rounds, picked up an affiliated Nazi in another town and set off for the Keys. When the sheriffs in Monroe Co. stopped them and found no luggage but lots of ammo and body armor, they concluded they’d miraculously stopped a mass shooting. The FBI just let the guy go! He’s doing five years in prison now, last I heard.

  69. 69.

    hueyplong

    @Kay: In optimistic moments, yours is the take I envision from historians of our times.

    Not sure what unpleasant experiences will be required to get us there is Nov 2020 goes poorly.

  72. 72.

    Patricia Kayden

    @JPL: I’m thinking that he and his White Supremacist pals can go live in Greenland unmolested by people of color since we ain’t going up there.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    This is horrible but I lost a lot of faith in the FBI when they couldn’t catch the mass murdering abortion opponent who was leisurely camping for 3 years or whatever it was. Hiking, camping, fishing – he was on vacation. Seems like they shoulda caught him, given that local law enforcement will track someone with a felony warrant here thru OH, MI and IN and they usually catch them. That’s 3 or more police agencies coordinating. They almost always pick them up.

    Seems politicized to me. I know if they had found a “New Black Panther” cell with explosives at the scene of a double murder like they did with white supremacists that would have been a national panic.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    they let the surviving Nazi go on about his business, and he bought an AR-15 and a thousand rounds, picked up an affiliated Nazi in another town and set off for the Keys. When the sheriffs in Monroe Co. stopped them and found no luggage but lots of ammo and body armor, they concluded they’d miraculously stopped a mass shooting.

    That’s in the doc. The (female) cop talked about how nervous she was confronting them because she knew they were armed. Watching it my sense was they were compliant because they were surprised and didn’t have time to recover. She appears out of nowhere and confronts them and handcuffs them in seconds. She didn’t know the extent of it until they searched the car.

    Come on. How the fuck did that happen? They let him go? They could have easily have had two dead cops, so they’re not even protecting their own.

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    The explosives take me back to a Bernie Mac routine about him explaining why there were no Black terrorists.

    ” Blow up stuff? Blow up what? The first time a Black man tries to by explosives, he’s gonna get arrested.”???

  80. 80.

    germy

    @rikyrah:

    Greenland is abundant in minerals. Mining of ruby deposits began in 2007. Other mineral prospects are improving as prices are increasing. These include iron, uranium, aluminium, nickel, platinum, tungsten, titanium, and copper. Despite resumption of several hydrocarbon and mineral exploration activities, it will take several years before hydrocarbon production can materialize. The state oil company Nunaoil was created to help develop the hydrocarbon industry in Greenland. The state company Nunamineral has been launched on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange to raise more capital to increase the production of gold, started in 2007.

    wikipedia

  81. 81.

    germy

    Greenland has a population of 56,370 (January 2013 estimate), of whom 88% are Greenlandic Inuit (including Danish-Inuit mixed). The remaining 12% of people are of European descent, mainly Greenland Danes.

    wikipedia

  82. 82.

    Chris Johnson

    @ET:

    I know he is a real estate guy and he wants a legacy but this seems like it comes of left field.

    Not at all.

    He serves Putin, and is a weird, twisted, and untrustworthy servant. Putin keeps him guessing about where he stands in Putin’s graces.

    Strangling Epstein was a message, sent. Trump is scrambling desperately to appease his real master.

    Putin wants shipping through the Arctic.

    It’s that simple. Trump either wants to give it to Putin, or go ‘I’ll run it for you, boss!’ Remember, Trump is stupid and demented. Not controlling Greenland may mean NOTHING against Russia’s plans for Arctic shipping. But to Trump, he looks and goes ‘it’s big! and in the way! if I buy that, Vladimir will have to let me live, because I’ll have Greenland!’

  83. 83.

    PST

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I’m thinking that he and his White Supremacist pals can go live in Greenland unmolested by people of color since we ain’t going up there.

    You might check out An African in Greenland. The author stumbled onto a book about Greenland as a boy in Togo and became fascinated by the country (no snakes!) and its people. He spent years working his way across Africa and then Europe, and finally achieved his dream of living among the Inuit.

  84. 84.

    trnc

    @JPL:

    Greenland is where he’s planning to send the dems after he retains power in 2020.

    I think it’s more like Thor being king of New Asgard in Endgame, except Thor wasn’t as fat.

  86. 86.

    debbie

    I guess I missed the announcement that Greenland had put itself up for sale.

    @Kay:

    This morning, I heard that the supporters of Ohio’s nuclear bailout are fighting citizens’ efforts to put the rate hikes on the ballot by calling the increase a tax hike, and as such, it is exempt from any referendum. I think this is an appallingly stupid tack to take because it puts conservatives in the position of seeming to support tax increases. Do you think Dems can take advantage of this (despite their ineptitude)?

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “I also get a little bit annoyed when we have people in those sorts of countries pointing the finger at Australia and say we should be shutting down all our resources sector so that, you know, they will continue to survive,” he said.

    “They will continue to survive, there’s no question they’ll continue to survive and they’ll continue to survive on large aid assistance from Australia.

    “They’ll continue to survive because many of their workers come here and pick our fruit, pick our fruit grown with hard Australian enterprise and endeavour and we welcome them and we always will.

    “But the fact is we’re not going to be hijacked into doing something that will shut down an industry that provides tens of thousands of jobs, that provides two-thirds of our energy needs … and I’m only talking coal, let alone all of our other resources.”

    Could he be any more of a privileged white man?

    The acting opposition leader, Richard Marles, said on Friday evening: “These are ignorant comments from the acting prime minister and he should know better”.

    I can’t say for certain, but I think maybe he does.

  90. 90.

    Another Scott

    Denmark’s foreign ministry tweeted that Greenland is not for sale. Maybe Donnie will try to buy New Zealand or Madagascar next.

    In other news, Nancy at WaMo – What happens after ICE raids:

    Last week, ICE raided five meat-processing plants in Mississippi, detaining 680 people who were assumed to be undocumented. The initial stories focused on children who were “devastated” with no parent at home. In a statement the day after the raids, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that approximately 300 of the people who had been detained were released.

    Preliminarily, it appears that approximately 30 detained aliens were released yesterday on humanitarian grounds at the individual sites where they were initially encountered, and another 270 detained aliens were released after being processed by HSI at the National Guard base in Pearl and returned to the place where they were originally encountered.

    But at least five days after the raids, there were still reports that some children had not been reunited with their parents.

    In addition to the trauma experienced by these children, it’s also important to consider what these raids mean to those small rural towns in Mississippi. According to a report in USA Today by Justin Victory, even the 300 people who were released can’t return to work at the food processing plants. So Koch Foods, Inc., one of the plants that was raided, asked the state to conduct a job fair to find workers. About 25-30 people showed up.

    To understand what happens in these communities over the long term, Univision created a documentary about the town of Postville, Iowa, which was devastated by a similar raid back in 2008. The Des Moines Register reports that:

    After the raid, businesses and restaurants shut down on Main Street. About 50 homes were forfeited to Freedom Bank and property values plummeted, said Adam Weigand, the bank’s senior vice president.

    […]

    Of course the families and communities are wrecked. One of the least surprising thing in the world. :-(

    Will it get voters these rural states to reconsider their political views? Hard to say… :-(

    “People are policy” – you won’t get sensible policies out of monsters.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I haven’t followed it at all. It’s one those that exhausts me- I can’t be bothered to figure out who is doing what. My sense (just) watching the battling ads is Republicans think it reflects poorly on them, which usually means it’s egregious- bad enough to have broken thru as “corrupt” to the general public, so something they must lie about.

  93. 93.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: It’s pathetic that we live in a world where Denmark needs to tell the President that Greenland isn’t for sale.

    It’s more pathetic that Trump may think this is a negotiating tactic.

  94. 94.

    germy

    @rikyrah: Bernie charged his mother-in-law rent to live in his condo???

    Jesus! My wife is talking about having her elderly mother move in with us. I can’t imagine their reaction if I said I wanted to make her pay rent.

  95. 95.

    Baud

    @germy:

    Hate to defend Bernie, but some parents prefer to pay their own way. I didn’t see the underlying evidence so I don’t know what the context is here.

  96. 96.

    Sloane Ranger

    My 2 pence is that Trump’s been told that the US hasn’t acquired any new territory for about 100 years and thinks this is his chance to have a legacy, e.g. Louisiana Purchase, Alaska Purchase. Plus, it’s currently owned by Denmark, so he thinks it’s full of rugged, blond, blue eyes Aryan types, just the sort of immigrant he wants. No-one has the guts to tell him the actual demographics.

    He thinks he can buy it, have it declared a State and it’s white Nordic population will vote for him (they’re bound to as they’re a – white and b – he would have saved them from all that socialism). Behold, another Electoral College win!

  97. 97.

    Another Scott

    @germy: Charging rent is one way to keep assets in the family as they run down her money before she goes on Medicaid. It’s not unusual, and it’s a consequence of the various (often) perverse incentives before people can claim benefits that we all pay for.

    That said, I don’t know Bernie’s MIL’s particular circumstances…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    Katie Rogers
    @katierogers
    ·1h
    Even among the die-hards at the front of the NH rally line, there was detectable unease about the economy.
    “Listen, I’m hoping to God he closes with China. Just get the deal done. All of my money’s in stocks.”

    He “closes” with China. They really still buy his bullshit.

    She’s gonna lose her shirt and I don’t have any sympathy. Investigators says people who get conned are not always “naive”. A lot of the time they are greedy and they think they are “winning’ at someone else’s expense. The con tells them two things- that they will win and more importantly that someone else will lose. They’re seeking an edge- a special benefit.

  100. 100.

    germy

    @Another Scott:

    as they run down her money before she goes on Medicaid.

    That’s something else I don’t understand. I’ve seen the opinion here that we shouldn’t have Medicare For All, we should have Medicaid For All. But isn’t Medicaid the last resort, demanding that you exhaust your life’s savings (or “transfer your assets” as the experts advise) before qualifying? What am I missing?

  101. 101.

    debbie

    @Sloane Ranger:

    and thinks this is his chance to have a legacy

    Oh, he’s got a legacy all right. It takes a real genius to decimate American agriculture, and it takes an even realer genius to convince them that he’s doing all this tariffing for them when in fact he’s doing it for his rich buddies doing business in China.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    @germy:

    No one’s plans are about Medicare or Medicaid as they exists today. It’s all about appropriating the label.

  103. 103.

    bemused

    @WereBear:

    Media had 40 years of trump corruption and incompetence they could have heavily reported on during trump campaign and most did chose not to. They wanted the gravy train more than they valued journalism and our country.

  104. 104.

    TS (the original)

    @OzarkHillbilly: The Australian Government is full of privileged white men. As for climate change – they will resist as long as Sydney is not impacted and they can get money for coal – and the white majority vote for them – mind you the Australian opposition is not much better than the government – as well voting is compulsory or 50% of the country wouldn’t bother.

  105. 105.

    Bill Arnold

    @PST:

    Ice-free Greenland can be America’s breadbasket when the Great Plains and the Central Valley are scorching desert wastelands. Trump is just absorbing the climate data and looking ahead.

    Well yeah, this is obviously a God-Emperor Trump long game. But why Greenland, when we can just invade Canada? He’s not thinking clearly about this. Unless it’s a feint to make the Canadians complacent.
    P.S. I am quite certain that golf is somehow involved.

  107. 107.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: Medicare for all isn’t Medicare and Medicaid for all isn’t Medicaid. The difference between the 2 that people are making is in the benefits.

  109. 109.

    Another Scott

    @germy: It’s unfortunate, but people really need to plan ahead to care for their parents because the benefits issues and legal issues about health care, etc., are so complicated. We spent an hour or so with an “elder care lawyer” before J’s parents moved in with us. It was very helpful.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  110. 110.

    TS (the original)

    @debbie:

    Good to see Australia hasn’t changed their stripes.

    PM supposed to be visiting trump some time soon. They can, no doubt sign a declaration that climate change is fake news

  112. 112.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Kay: the house next door sold a few years ago for an absurd amount of money. Using that as a starting point, and some discounting for Toronto prices, and assuming I did the conversions correctly, the selling price for Greenland would about $836 Trillion. I want to see that episode of Property Brothers

  114. 114.

    Miss Bianca

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: OK, why does Wilmer sinking like a rock in the polls fill my heart with such unholy glee? Oh, yeah – because, as Kay rightly noted a few weeks back, after all his screams of Rigged!11!Primaries!11!!, looks like those “rigged” primaries gave him his best chance at winning! Now that he has tons of competition, looks like he ain’t all that.

    I still expect the hard-core Bros to bitch and moan about it when their man loses FAIR and SQUARE. Worth it. >: >

  115. 115.

    Barbara

    @germy: Medicare is the entitlement program for most people in the U.S. who are over 65, who are eligible by reason of disability or ESRD status. It does not cover non-medical expenses, such as room and board in a nursing home. Medicaid is the medical program for indigent people, which has previously been mostly limited to families with children. Expansion now covers all qualifying adults, whether or not they have dependent children. Medicaid also covers what we call long term care, which includes the cost of staying in a nursing home. People who are middle class usually never touch Medicaid until they get to the end of their days and need to move to a nursing home. Then, in order to qualify, they have to be indigent, which means, they have to “spend down,” (not give away) their assets. People in nursing homes, by and large, are still covered by Medicare, but only for medical expenses.

  116. 116.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kay:

    This. I’ve read that a lot of people who got taken in by Madoff knew perfectly well that there was something fishy with his investment returns. They just assumed it was insider trading instead of a pyramid scheme.

  117. 117.

    Citizen Alan

    @germy:

    It’s not that you must exhaust all assets. It’s that any assets you have when you die (or which you had within the prior five years) can be reclaimed by government. It’s why we put all my mom’s assets in a trust after my dad died. And I wish we’d done it a few years before he died when his health started to decline — I think she still has two years to go before she’s outside the 5-year look-back period.

  118. 118.

    Citizen Alan

    @Bill Arnold:

    In all seriousness, the reason I’m no longer interested in emigrating to Canada is that I figure we’re about 20 years away from going to war with Canada over water rights.

  119. 119.

    Brachiator

    @Miss Bianca:

    I still expect the hard-core Bros to bitch and moan about it when their man loses FAIR and SQUARE. Worth it

    They are bitterly complaining that the media is unfair to Bernie, either does not cover him enough, or tells lies about him. They will never admit that he could lose fair and square.

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