Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Republicans in disarray!

Consistently wrong since 2002

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

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Come on, man.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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

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

Second rate reporter says what?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

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

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Open Thread: Trump’s Latest Waaaaahll Proposal

Open Thread: Trump’s Latest Waaaaahll Proposal

by | 154 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

The Oval Office Occupant was in Pittsburgh to share his ‘wisdom’ with the Shale Insight Conference, because it’s nice for him to get an ego-boost from people wearing suits for a change. Of course, in a ‘sympathetic’ venue, you can always count on some off-teleprompter mayhem…

I’m beginning to wonder if it’s gonna come down to a question of whether the impeachment proceedings can be finalized before the guy has a complete mental breakdown. At least Nixon (reputedly) talked to the portraits on the walls of the White House in private…

Also predictably, the non-functional walkback from his staff afterwards:

Reader Interactions

154Comments

  3. 3.

    Mary G

    Adam alert!

    Unaccompanied Veteran Service for: SP4 Jack Parker Whittington – U.S. Army.February 16, 1960 to August 5, 1963. Service is scheduled for:TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019 at 11:00 a.m.Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery11463 State Highway 195Killeen, TX 76542Please RT— Sunday, Bloody Sunday (@arkansawtravler) October 24, 2019

  5. 5.

    glory b

    The conference was in Pittsburgh. I’d imagine that there weren’t many folks from Kansas and Colorado there, although I don’t know anything about shale oil production in those states

  6. 6.

    Sloane Ranger

    Of course Colorado borders Mexico. It says so right there on the map. New Mexico. Obviously more modern than Old Mexico but still Mexico! Why did all those 44 loser former Presidents allow a shithole country like Mexico gain such a foothold in the mid West?

  8. 8.

    Mai naem mobile

    History books are going to have a ball discussing Trumpov’s dementia in addition to the narcissism . Its going to sound a million times worse than Reagan or Wilson.

  13. 13.

    Lofgren

    This sounds like a botched joke about building a wall between Colorado and Kansas that was written for a Colorado visit.

  14. 14.

    Miss Bianca

    @NotMax: completely o/t, but may I just take this opportunity to thank you for posting that link to the vaudeville dictionary last night or whenever it was? I was astounded by how many of those terms I knew, either because I was a theater major or because they passed into the common lexicon. Fun reading on a snowy Colorado day, as I prepare for The Wall to come ripping through my state!//

  16. 16.

    jl

    Few people know that Mexico and New Mexico are two different things. Both are dumps, a mess. New Mexico is run by Democrats. And Mexico…. ,,,many people have said it has big problems.

  22. 22.

    RedDirtGirl

    Niece update: I visited her tonight and she’s able to go home tomorrow. Thanks to all for your kindness.

  25. 25.

    orchid moon

    I guess those of us in Colorado will be protected from hoards of illegal Hatch chilies migrating from New Mexico

  27. 27.

    jl

    @Lofgren: I listened to the clip. I don’t think it was a joke, and he was not suggesting a wall between New Mexico and Colorado. I think he just forgot where the state of Colorado is on the map. When we build Wall for Canada, Wyoming will probably get some Wall.

    President Trump: ‘We’re building a wall in Colorado’ | USA TODAY
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOZv_083p2s

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    At least Nixon (reputedly) talked to the portraits on the walls of the White House in private…

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Dump yells at Hillary’s portrait.

  32. 32.

    schrodingers_cat

    My two worlds collide:
    Modi’s troll-bot army is attacking Ilhan Omar on Twitter by circulating a photo of woman with a gun that looks somewhat like Omar but the picture was taken before Omar was born. They are attacking her because she asked some tough questions on Kashmir in a Congressional hearing.

  34. 34.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Glendale will get some Wall. Not many people know this, but it’s a mess. Many of my friends from Glendale, prominent people, the best, have told me privately that Glendale has some problems, big problems.

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    Saw your comment yesterday* responding to my comment of the day prior (about the silly film Love in Pawn). Just to acknowledge, thanks.

    * (I think it was yesterday. It’s hard to keep track these days; a 24-hour stretch often feels like several months, yet events of late 2016 are as fresh in memory as this morning.)

  37. 37.

    Mary G

    We’re going to need a bigger warehouse:

    US trade office recommended Ukraine be given trade privileges earlier this year. Just before papers went to POTUS desk in August, it was pulled back. Bolton told USTR head Robert Lighthizer that POTUS wanted to do nothing to help Ukraine. w/@davidjlynch: https://t.co/xeRgRLeXrS— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) October 24, 2019

  42. 42.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @RedDirtGirl: Terrific update. Thanks for posting it. I’m holding your family, and especially your niece, in the light.

  55. 55.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Immanentize: Thanks. He says he’s feeling better today. I think he is finally being more honest with his wife about his issues, which may help. The guy wasn’t even being honest with his shrink for a long time. But who knows. Day by day…

  58. 58.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Immanentize:

    Step into my Hundai

    Made me think of Flo & Eddie with “what say we hop in the trunk of your Gremlin and get our rocks off”

    But that’s a little different.

  60. 60.

    Immanentize

    @RedDirtGirl:
    It’s funny. But not. Reading that I thought who would I tell last about my most serious struggles? My Shrink and my wife….

    Lucky for me, right now I got neither so I am on the zero deception train.?

    ETA. I should add — being vulnerable to those you love and who you trust is hard. That’s what I meant.

  61. 61.

    West of the Rockies

    @West of the Rockies:

    Also, I can at least envision some Republicans getting verrry nervous about this inter-agency counter investigation. There will be some GOPers who won’t stand by Trump if he’s going to burn everything down so wildly recklessly. That’s my hot take.

  62. 62.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Sloane Ranger:
    Why should school kids learn US geography?? Obviously you can become president of US without knowing any??

    Must be hard to be a teacher these days!

  66. 66.

    glory b

    Now on Maddow’s show, DOJ is opening a criminal investigation into the 2016 Russia investigation. So much for Durham being a careful institutionalist.
    Working theory: the Obama admin put together a hoax, CIA agents fooled FBI agents into investigating a false Russia investigation story.

  67. 67.

    HumboldtBlue

    Skate Park Susan gets arrested.

    A touch of irony is found in the correction at the bottom of the story. All that’s missing in the NBC chicken.

    CORRECTION (Oct. 24, 2019, 3:35 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled a nickname given to a white person who called police to complain about the conduct of persons of color. She was called “Permit Patty,” not “Permit Paddy.”

  68. 68.

    raven

    @Immanentize: Been throwing those lures! Strange day in the boat, 8ft swells offshore so we stayed in close and caught about everything there is that you can’t keep! We had a plumping emergency at the rental and had to stay in most of the day but I caught a nice Pompano and we just ate it! Better days ahead.

  76. 76.

    dexwood

    I’ll take that wall to our eastern side, but I’m kinda fond of our northern neighbors.

    “Poor New Mexico! So far from heaven, so close to Texas!”, Manuel Armijo, Mexican governor of the territory of Nuevo México, 1841

  80. 80.

    Martin

    Democrats need to force this classified information to become public. There’s just no way around it any longer. When the administration is spinning conspiracy theories and now criminal assertions behind the veil of classification, then we’re just going to have to dump it out into the open and deal with the consequences.

  82. 82.

    chris

    I’m almost ashamed to admit that I owned a Gremlin. Worst piece of junk I’ve ever owned and believe me I know from junk.

  83. 83.

    Martin

    @Martin: I should note, the House intelligence committee under Schiff can propose declassifying any classified documents and with a full vote of the House approve that declassification. They don’t need the Senate or the President. They can do this by themselves. It’s not done often, but these aren’t normal times.

  84. 84.

    Immanentize

    Just an FYI. I just read/learned that Captain Beefheart was born in Glendale.

    Sorta makes sense, right, Raven?

  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Ted [email protected] tedlieu
    42m42 minutes ago
    Special Counsel investigation resulted in:

    -34 indictments
    -8 convictions/guilty pleas
    -A finding that Russia interfered in US elections in a sweeping & systematic manner

    AG Barr of @TheJusticeDept is now essentially trying to say that none of that should have happened. Really?

  86. 86.

    Jeffro

    Hmmm…this Barr guy has opened a criminal investigation into his own Department’s Russia investigation.

    Maybe he’s not on the up-and-up after all?

    I wonder if he’ll find that trumpov was framed?

    Verily, it is a mystery…

  89. 89.

    Matt McIrvin

    Are Republicans still saying “we want Wall” without an article, like it’s a beloved friend or a system of belief?

  94. 94.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    It’s quite possible Donald Trump is this ignorant that he thinks New Mexico is part of Mexico.

  95. 95.

    Aleta

    If he starts giving out walls to places like Colorado (doesn’t he know they went for HRC?), other states will want one too. Can we just put one around Mar o’ L and call it quits?

  97. 97.

    Immanentize

    I am exhausted and must sleep, but I ought to tell the story of when I met Jimmy Carl Black (Mothers of Invention drummer) and Ronnie Lane (Faces) while they was waiting for their friend, Arthur Brown (Fire!), who was receiving cancer therapy in Austin, Texas, one day.

    The Brits stick together tight.

    My life has been odd.

  100. 100.

    Mary G

    Expect angry tweets and phone calls to Fox:

    Sen Graham & McConnell’s resolution condemning the House impeachment inquiry adds Portman as a cosponsor, here are the 8 GOP Senators who have not yet signed onto the resolution:

    Alexander
    Collins
    Enzi
    Gardner
    Isakson
    Murkowski
    Romney
    Sullivan

    https://t.co/1azOKFCFQQ— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) October 24, 2019

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this seems at least plausible

    Julian Sanchez @ normative
    So here’s my bet: This has been an absolutely abysmal news week for the administration. They very much want to shift the media narrative back in a more favorable direction. One option: Leak just enough information about an old & peripheral development to imply a bombshell.
    It would, for instance, be pretty unsurprising if the review had, long ago, spawned a criminal probe of some of the clearly unlawful leaks related to the investigation. It’d be more surprising if it hadn’t, really. Worth reporting, but not exactly front page material.
    But leak one little breadcrumb with no context, leaving the natural implication that this is a new development, and you’ve got fodder for a speculative feeding frenzy that the Deep State Coup is about to come crashing down.

    trump can talk at his next few Hates about “a real investigation folks, we’ve got some big things coming, big things, the Deep State is very nervous, believe me”

  106. 106.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Wag: There was some strange contract thing going on then, too, when Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan couldn’t even use their own names, so became Flo & Eddie when they went to the Mothers. And that Happy together is 100% perfect.

    I think of Frank in some ways as an Art Blakey or a Miles Davis – a grad school for musicians.

  109. 109.

    the Conster

    @Martin:

    No, that’s political. There’s no OLC memo that says the AG can’t be indicted. Who could arrest him if a warrant for his arrest was issued? Who would be responsible for indicting him? The Deputy AG?

  112. 112.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jeffro:

    Hmmm…this Barr guy has opened a criminal investigation into his own Department’s Russia investigation.

    He’ll find no collusion even as the Russkis tweet, “Trump is our bitch and has been sucking Kremlin ass since ’87, you damned morons! Here is our file on him!”

  114. 114.

    NotMax

    @Martin

    Not quite the same in the Senate. Reading through the Senate rules on impeachment, as amended, and associated minutiae regarding precedent*, the Chief Justice is only required to participate if a President is subject to conviction. Also, for other cases, conviction may be handled, voted on and carried out by a committee designated to do so rather than the entire body (and has been done that way for some cases involving judges).

    AFAIK, only one cabinet member has been impeached, the charges being for “criminally disregarding his duty as Secretary of War and basely prostituting his high office to his lust for private gain.” The Senate did hold trial and a vote, but after he had resigned. Thereafter the Senate agreed to not hold trials for government officials who resigned or offered resignation. (ref. 1 – ref. 2)

    *Three guesses who found himself with a significant chunk of spare time to fill. Usual caveat applies: IANAL.

  115. 115.

    Amir Khalid

    @West of the Rockies:
    It is a diminutive of Padhraic, the Irish spelling of Patrick. As a football fan, I remember Patrick “Paddy” Viera, a black Frenchman who played for London-based Arsenal FC in the 1990s.

  116. 116.

    NotMax

    Sigh. Italics fix,

    @Martin

    Not quite the same in the Senate. Reading through the Senate rules on impeachment, as amended, and associated minutiae regarding precedent*, the Chief Justice is only required to participate if a President is subject to conviction. Also, for other cases, conviction may be handled, voted on and carried out by a committee designated to do so rather than the entire body (and has been done that way for some cases involving judges).

    AFAIK, only one cabinet member has been impeached, the charges being for “criminally disregarding his duty as Secretary of War and basely prostituting his high office to his lust for private gain.” The Senate did hold trial and a vote, but after he had resigned. Thereafter the Senate agreed to not hold trials for government officials who resigned or offered resignation. (ref. 1 – ref. 2)

    *Three guesses who found himself with a significant chunk of spare time to fill. Usual caveat applies: IANAL.

  117. 117.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Martin:

    Can you start giving us briefs on the parliamentary process underway interspersed with extraordinarily detailed information about the rules of house investigations?

    Seriously.

  118. 118.

    James E Powell

    @Wag:

    I’ve been using the phrase “like a big rock show” as a general call to rally for however many years it’s been since that album came out. I think everyone who knows me well has heard me say it but I doubt any of them know where I stole it from.

  119. 119.

    Anne Laurie

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Are Republicans still saying “we want Wall” without an article, like it’s a beloved friend or a system of belief?

    See, these are the educated Republicans, not the esteemed Deplorables who chant ‘worship words’ at their hatenannys. That’s why spectators noticed Colorado doesn’t actually border (old) Mexico…

  120. 120.

    James E Powell

    @HumboldtBlue:

    This Congress of Jackals has so many experts on so many subjects, I more or less assumed we had at least two experts on congressional procedures generally and impeachment specifically.

  123. 123.

    West of the Rockies

    @Amir Khalid:

    So writer Paddy Chayefsky went by a name that was an insult to others and himself? Weird. Language changes along with cultural norms. Anyway, I appreciate all the info.

  124. 124.

    Anne Laurie

    @West of the Rockies:

    A slur on the Irish, or a slur the Irish use on some other group? I thought Paddy was a name.

    Oh, there’s still Irish-Americans use ‘Paddy’ as a nickname for Patrick. But it’s not as common as it was in my (late boomer) generation, and it wasn’t as common then as it had been in my father’s day.

    These days it’s most often meant as a slur, so I’d personally avoid using it unless it’s to refer to someone you’re sure claims it. Y’know, like the way there’s a rap artist known as Old Dirty Bast*rd, but the man still gets called O.D.B. outside of the music press.

    (But then, I still wince a bit every time ‘Mick’ Mulvaney’s name shows up in print, speaking of slurs… )

  129. 129.

    Immanentize

    @oatler.: Funny thing about my meeting them. Arthur Brown ended up outliving the other two….. They were all just amped up jazz musicians with very sick takes on life. Loved them all.

    Oooh la la!

  130. 130.

    Anne Laurie

    @West of the Rockies: True story: When I was growing up in the Bronx (& Chayevsky was at the height of his fame), there was a folk belief Sydney Aaron earned the nickname ‘Paddy’ because he was so verbally adept, his fellow Dewitt Clinton high school classmates said he talked more like a mick than a… well, you know.

    But then there’s *this* story:

    While serving in Germany, he reportedly attempted to avoid kitchen duty by requesting to be allowed to attend Catholic mass with a frequency that inspired his fellow soldiers to joke that he must be Irish to attend services so regularly.

  131. 131.

    Steve in the ATL

    @RAVEN:

    Can you be on vacation if you are retired?

    Can you check back later? Balloon Juice Deep Thoughts doesn’t start until 11 pm eastern.

  133. 133.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Are Republicans still saying “we want Wall” without an article, like it’s a beloved friend or a system of belief?

    If the Ukraine can drop its article, so can the wall!

  135. 135.

    Anne Laurie

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I thought it was because the cops were stereotypically Irish.

    That’s what Finley Peter Dunne’s Mr. Dooley said back during the first Gilded Age, too!

  138. 138.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Immanentize: sadly, I have to work sometimes! Life is so unfair. Plus, one of my speakers dropped out for the upcoming ABA meeting so I have to pad my speech. Can I say “pad” or is that offensive to the Irish? I’d ask my wife but she’s deep in the Jameson already. I keep explaining to her that we are Episcopalians and therefore should drink Bushmills, but you know these Irish chicks never listen….

  139. 139.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    Why should school kids learn US geography?

    At least ours is consistent! I about lost my mind trying to help my kids learn maps of Europe back in the 90’s. What happened to Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and the Habsburg empire?!

  141. 141.

    NotMax

    @Steve in the ATL

    Back in early grade school the class was divvied up into groups, each group assigned a different map to be made out of various colors of Play-Doh, the work to be done over a vacation break. I was in the group assigned Africa.

    By the time we turned it in it was already out of date.

  142. 142.

    Anne Laurie

    @Steve in the ATL:

    what about “Packy” as a diminutive of Patrick? I’d never heard that until I watched London Irish

    Far as I know, Packy never crossed the Pond — and even in the Isles, from my reading, it’s mostly a Northern Ireland thing.

    Although my dad (the original untrustworthy narrator) told me it originated in Liverpool, since tons of Irishmen spent some time in English dockland cities as dockhands (human pack mules). Since his own father was one of those guest workers (before he joined the RIC, which eventually paid for him to emigrate to Canada on his way to Manhattan), it might even be true!

  145. 145.

    sdhays

    @Ladyraxterinok: Answer: most American school children aren’t born with hundreds of millions of dollars from daddy to protect them from the consequences of being completely ignorant.

  148. 148.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Immanentize:

    Cops were Protestants until they were Catholics.

    I’m so old I can remember when the same was true of Supreme Court justices!

    ETA: that’s my second hat trick on this thread. Either it’s mostly dead or I’ve turned into TenguPhule….

  152. 152.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Amir Khalid: For a few years in the late 70s – early 80s I worked in a division of a MD government department whose director we all called Paddy, no abuse intended or implied. He’d been named Padraic by his Irish mum, after Padraig/Padraic/Patrick Pearse, Irish patriot who was executed for his role in the Easter Rising of 1916, and he wore the name with pride. (Dublin Airport is also named after Pearse.)

  153. 153.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @West of the Rockies: Born Sidney Aaron to Russian-Jewish parents in NYC. Per Wikipedia,

    While in the Army he adopted the nickname “Paddy.” The nickname was given spontaneously when he was awakened at dawn for kitchen duty. Although actually Jewish, he asked to be excused to attend Mass. “Sure you do, Paddy,” said the officer, and the name stuck.

  154. 154.

    lofgren

    @jl: Well the advantage of suspecting it’s a botched joke is that it can’t be disproven just because it doesn’t sound like a joke. I said the joke was about building a wall between Colorado and Kansas, not Colorado and New Mexico. In his speechwriters imagination, it would go something like this:

    “We’re also building a wall in Colorado, to keep the Kansans out.”

    Audience: HAHAHA oh, he sure got those stupid Kansans’ number!

    “We’re not building a wall in Kansas, because the same wall will also keep Coloradans out of their state.”

    Audience: Big cheer from people who drove overnight from Kansas to get to the Colorado rally. Coloradans: Hoohoo, yep, we are kind of assholes here in Colorado, he’s sure got our number!

    So it was a bad joke badly told at the wrong venue. This in no way contradicts the theory that Trump is senile and/or just goddamn dumb.

Comments are closed.