Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

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

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

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

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Second rate reporter says what?

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Books are my comfort food!

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

The revolution will be supervised.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

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

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

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

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Monday Morning Open Thread: How Was Your Weekend?

Monday Morning Open Thread: How Was Your Weekend?

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And in front of all his closest “friends”, too: He was sharing his box with Melania, TX Repub Kevin Brady, John Ratcliffe (who would’ve been Trump’s next DNI if he hadn’t been caught lying), Matt Gaetz, Kevin McCarthy, David Perdue, Lindsey Graham, Liz Cheney, Mac Thornberry (one of the many Texas Repubs retiring rather than facing questions about Trump), Kay Granger (token female TX Repub), Steve Scalise, Mark Meadows, and Andy Biggs (the Arizona Repub who introduced a motion to censor Adam Schiff).

You knew he wouldn’t wanna watch someone else get cheered…


… When the president was announced on the public address system after the third inning as part of a tribute to veterans, the crowd roared into sustained booing — hitting almost 100 decibels. Chants of “Lock him up” and “Impeach Trump” then broke out at Nationals Park, where a sellout crowd was watching the game between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros…

Presidents often throw out the ceremonial first pitch when they attend a baseball game, but that honor Sunday instead went to chef and humanitarian José Andrés, who has faced off with Trump in court over scuttled plans to build a restaurant in the Trump International Hotel and has criticized many of Trump’s policies. Andrés received a loud ovation when he appeared on the field before the game…

The Nationals and Major League Baseball leadership were reluctant to discuss the president’s visit. Chased down a hallway in the bowels of the ballpark, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred declined to comment on his golf outing with Trump on Saturday at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va. “I’m not talking,” he said before boarding a freight elevator where Secret Service dogs were sniffing nearby….

Think his aides can keep him from taking “credit” for jinxing the home team?
 

Reader Interactions

229Comments

  4. 4.

    Aleta

    It almost seems planned (well, at least the routine right before the booing). Imagine what he came expecting, making it all the worse. He announces the killing on the morning of the game. That night the jumbotron revs the crowd to wave hats and cheer, and then the ol’ bait and switch to him!

    On the clip I saw, he pretended to be surprised, ‘Hey Melania look, isn’t that something. I’m on screen and the stadium is waving red hats and going wild.’

    In fact, until a few minutes ago WUSA9 on their YT channel had a clip up with this pre-written caption:

    Nats fans were excited to see President Trump at Game 5 of the World Series!
    13,858 views• Oct 27, 2019
    Nationals fans gave President Trump a warm welcome during Game 5 of the World Series at Nationals Park. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPz9DTgJXrE (I wonder if it will stay up.)

    What a PR disaster. Seen round the world.

  7. 7.

    JoyceH

    @Amir Khalid: I’m sure if Trump had his druthers, he’d much rather censor Schiff than censure him. If you censure a fellow, he can keep on talking and saying all those mean things.

  8. 8.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    #LockHimUp
    #TrumpBooed
    #veteransforimpeachment
    Barron
    Boos

    Are ALL currently trending on Twitter.

  10. 10.

    cain

    Our president will be quite raging I would think. I don’t think he will be showing up to any sporting events henceforth.

    Can’t wait for this administration to get kicked to the curb. If shenanigans occur I think we are going to be hurtling to something insane..

  14. 14.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    For something more pleasing than Trump’s visage…

    Star Trails at Red Rock.

    I(along with Madame) made the trip up to Red Rock Friday evening, it was a bit of a last minute decision on whether to go due to the most direct route being closed by the Tick Fire. I opened up just in time for us to head up there. I had a bit of a problem(compounded by a low battery on my cheep Windows tablet) setting up the sighting with iPolar, so it took some time to get some wide shots. I finally charged the battery enough and got the sky tracker sighted, got some wide shots of Orion and a close-up of the Orion nebula. When I first processed the nebula shot I got star trails…WTF! Turns out one image had star trails and I believe was caused by a small(2.0) earthquake(Red Rock in near Ridgecrest, so it’s an aftershock).

  15. 15.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    “And then he stood up and waved expecting cheers and instead got ‘Lock Him Up’ chants. I tell you it was the funniest shit I have seen in a long time”

    ~ Hillary Clinton

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    They couldn’t pay me enough to be in the same venue as him. If I’d had tickets to that game I’d have sold them for a nickel and sued MLB for the difference.

  20. 20.

    JPL

    Good Morning. Is it possible that trump has no clue how much he is hated? When you watch on mute, it’s apparent that Melania comes to that realization, but I don’t really care.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Hong Kong’s financial secretary has said the region is in recession after more than five months of anti-government protests, and said it was unlikely to achieve annual economic growth this year.

    “The blow to our economy is comprehensive,” Paul Chan said in a blog post on Sunday, adding that figures out on Thursday would show two successive quarters of contraction – the technical definition of a recession.

    “The government will be announcing its advance estimates for the third quarter on Thursday. After seeing negative growth in the second quarter, the situation continued in the third quarter, meaning our economy has entered technical recession,” he wrote.

    “It seems it will be extremely difficult for us to reach full-year economic growth of 0 to 1%. I would not rule out the possibility that the full-year economic growth will be negative.”

  23. 23.

    germy

    Which New York Times op-ed columnist will be first out with some screed about the lack of civility and how booing trump means Democrats are going to lose in 2020— ?Imani Gandy Corn? (@AngryBlackLady) October 28, 2019

    ‘Cancel Culture Run Amok: You Can’t Cancel the President’ by Bari Weiss
    ‘SJWs are Ruining Baseball’ by David Brooks
    ‘The Booing of Trump Reminded Me of How Much I Hate Hillary Clinton for Some Reason’ by Maureen Dowd
    ‘Booing is What They Used to Do to Jews’ by Bret Stephens

    — ?Imani Gandy Corn? (@AngryBlackLady) October 28, 2019

  24. 24.

    Gin & Tonic

    Best take on the whole situation was “what kind of asshole doesn’t take his 13 year-old son to a World Series game?”

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: The kind who knows there is a good chance he’ll get booed and doesn’t want his child to be subjected to that kind of embarrassment? Oh wait a minute, we’re talking about trump, never mind.

  28. 28.

    waratah

    I would really have liked for Mac Thornberry to have been voted out, but that probably would not have happened. I will take the retirement and glad he was there with Trump getting booed. The photo will be in history books forever.

  30. 30.

    satby

    Good morning all ( especially our morning sunshine @rikyrah: !) Great to hear those clips this morning.

    I signed up with Chef Andres’ WCK to volunteer but they prefer volunteers to be local to the disaster whenever possible. So I thought I would pass on the latest volunteer alert to our west coast jackals in case anyone would like to help that great group:

    Please note, because the situation is still evolving, we are not asking anyone to come into the area to volunteer. There are safety concerns and accommodations are extremely limited so we are asking only those who are local to signup at this time. If we do eventually have a greater need, we will reach back out. Thank you so much for understanding and your willingness to help!

  32. 32.

    Immanentize

    Hello All,

    It seems that Crazy week started on Sunday this time. I hope you all get through this one with your faculties intact. Mine are certainly at risk.

  33. 33.

    Tony Jay

    +++++++++++++BREXIT MINI BULLETIN++++++++++++++++++

    EU agrees 3-month extension to Brexit deadline just like clever-clogs old me said they would.

    Liberal-Democrat/Scottish Nationalist alliance converges to pull Johnson’s cojones out of the fire by agreeing to support a one-line election motion should the Government’s own request for a 2/3 Parliamentary majority authorising an early Election fail this afternoon.

    Labour’s plan to force Johnson to reopen his mouldy turd of a Withdrawal Agreement Bill so that it can be exposed to sunlight and amended to remove the clause that allows for a No-Deal crash-out at the end of December 2020 now looks like failing, unless the Lib-Dems and SNP can be made to think again about backing Johnson’s desperate election pitch.

    These fucking people….

  35. 35.

    Immanentize

    @Tony Jay:
    Hi TJ. Isn’t the problem with amending the December 2020 date that it is just too far off right now for people to care about? Isn’t the assumption that much will change by then?

    And will January be filled with bank revelations regarding money laundering?

  38. 38.

    Immanentize

    @satby: my immediate life is manageable, but It just seems that things all around me have become meaner in the last few months. Politics, yes. Work situation, yes. Even my friendly neighborhood tailor had a bug up his bum Saturday. I need a vacation from interesting times to pure boredom.

  42. 42.

    satby

    @Immanentize:

    I need a vacation from interesting times to pure boredom.

    So say we all. Toxic environments create toxic behavior, and this nation (and GB, for Tony Jay) have become very toxic.

  43. 43.

    Tony Jay

    Hi TJ. Isn’t the problem with amending the December 2920 date that it is just too far off right now for people to care about?

    I agree that one is a bit off in the wild nether. 8-)

    But seriously, the people who – should – be caring about this are the MPs in Parliament who have styled themselves the ‘Party of Remain’ (while doing bugger all to accomplish this other than snipe at Labour). I can understand the SNP wanting an Election so they can complete their destruction of Scottish Conservatives and gain a proper mandate for another Independence Referendum, but the Lib-Dems should be as anxious to close off the No-Deal loophole as Labour, but they’re not. Instead their leader, Jo “Britain’s Purest Spolier” Swinson, seems much more interested in attacking Labour and ensuring Johnson gets to campaign on a “Only I Can Bring Brexit Home” platform.

    And will January be filled with bank Revelations regarding money laundering?

    It could start then…. unless Johnson manages to scrape through a Lib-Dem endorsed December Election and ram through his Withdrawal Deal before January 1st. Then they all make out like gangbusters and we are screwed.

  45. 45.

    Princess

    I think it was a salutary experience for all those GOPers to have been there standing beside their Dear Leader as he got booed. They’re all so deep within the bubble that I’m sure they believe his press releases about how popular he is. I just wish there had been more GOP senators there.

  47. 47.

    Tony Jay

    @debbie:

    Did BoJo ever let those 20+ Conservatives back into the party?

    Nope. But they’re mostly being meek little Baaaaa-lambs and trying the “We are still Tories, watch us vote” route. They’re the reason we can’t have a 2nd Referendum voted through, since they refuse to stop hoping that Johnson could get his Withdrawal Agreement passed. They – might – provide the votes for an amendment to the actual Bill that orders it to go through a Confirmatory Public Vote (a 2nd Referendum by another name) but thanks to the Lib-Dems and SNP we might not get the chance for any amendments, instead barreling straight into an early Election.

  48. 48.

    Jeffro

    Attending a Nats game earlier this season, I saw more than one Washington jersey with the number ’45’ on the back…and in place of the player’s name, it said, “IMPEACH”

    Totally awesome. Love DC!

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    Last thought for the morning: Those who complain about booing this or any President as un-American know nothing about the county’s history of lusty disagreement and show nothing but contempt for the common folks who (hopefully) do the voting.

  52. 52.

    Steve in the ATL

    @WereBear: are you still around? Asked a cat question of the night people and they were useless.

    Why is my cat now eating green peppers?!

  54. 54.

    Tony Jay

    @Quinerly:

    They found the only thing that worked was a desperation game of strip-poker with everyone’s phones in the final pot. Sweat-browed West Wing apparatchiks are frantically card-counting for Ivanka to keep Tang the Terrible distracted, but since shes dumb as a post…..

  58. 58.

    Ken

    @Quinerly: Obviously the booing caused him to do some much-needed reflection and soul-searching, which has led him to reformation and repentance. We can anticipate his resignation and full confession to a multitude of crimes, most completely unsuspected, later today.

  59. 59.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Immanentize: I was going to say that, but you said it better. People need to read some history. Civility is not just overrrated, it is ahistorical.

  61. 61.

    randy khan

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I doubt that the Nationals wanted him there – they know their market – but you really can’t say no to the President, no matter how you feel about him.

  62. 62.

    Immanentize

    @Gin & Tonic:
    There is a big “civility” movement in the court systems. Although I am all for proper decorum, “civility” in the courts has most often been used to empower judges to shut down arguments they don’t like while issue their own uncivil harangue.

    Enforced civility can kiss my ass.

  64. 64.

    tokyokie

    @Geoduck:

    He definitely knew. None of these are the clip showing the golden moment where it hits him.

    Omigawd. In that clip, he goes from anticipating adulation, to starting to cry, to pissed off in the course of a few seconds. But to quote many of his supporters: Fuck your feelings.

  70. 70.

    tokyokie

    @Immanentize:

    Last thought for the morning: Those who complain about booing this or any President as un-American know nothing about the county’s history of lusty disagreement and show nothing but contempt for the common folks who (hopefully) do the voting.

    As someone who booed lustily when George H.W. Bush threw out the first pitch at a Rangers opener back when W. was the titular head of the franchise two ballparks ago, I wholeheartedly agree.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    The Denmark contingent had their first encounter with Danish health care system and they’re impressed. My son had what he thought was a minor fall from a bicycle but turned out to be a fracture. Waited a week for it to “get better” as is his normal practice, nurse for initial (telephone) screening- screened in, saw doc the following day – whole thing done in one location. They have a system where every med you buy is recorded by the pharmacy (including non-prescription meds) and then relayed back to doc, which seems smart.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    I love how spontaneous the booing was- flip a switch to them on the screen and cheers turn to boos. You can’t stop that.

    I think the Trump people spend a lot of time feeling mistreated and under appreciated so this will just add to their whiny self-pity.

  74. 74.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Kay: I had a filling fall out in Aalborg Denmark. It took them quite a while of rummaging through drawers to figure out what to charge someone who was actually paying for dental service. I think it ended up being about 2000-2500 kroner

  76. 76.

    SFAW

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Asked a cat question of the night people and they were useless.

    Not to put too fine a point on it, but “they were useless” is not an appropriate recounting of “they were ignoring me” or “they were giving me bogus advice (probably intentionally).”

  78. 78.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @JPL: What is he even saying? That life is horrible unless rich people can get health care and poor people have to die peering in the windows?

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @randy khan: The Nationals are not MLB. 2nd, yes one can say no to the President. It happens all the time. The McCain family said no. The hospitalized victims of the El Paso Walmart shooting said no. I am absolutely 110% certain there have been millions of other times people have said “No” to Presidents, not just this one, we just rarely hear about it because most people “respect the office” and do it quietly.

    No doubt I would not only say “No,” I’d add “go fuck yourself.” too.

  80. 80.

    Spanky

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Why is my cat now eating green peppers?!

    Because he can.

    Seriously, cats have weird tastes, and can suddenly latch on to something uncatlike. Why does one of my cat have a thing for sweet potato skins?

    And just for the record, green peppers are safe for cats. Always best to check.

  83. 83.

    OzarkHillbilly

    These climate scientists. Now they’re going too far!

    For the millions of people who descend on Munich for the annual bash, Oktoberfest is a celebration of beer, bands and bratwurst.

    But as the dust settles for another year on the world’s largest folk festival, and die Bierleichen (“beer corpses”) return to the land of the living, environmental scientists have released the first analysis of methane emissions from the 16-day party.

    Researchers at Technical University in Munich walked and cycled around the perimeter of the festival last year with mobile sensors aloft. The instruments found the event emitted nearly 1,500kg of methane – 10 times the amount that wafted off Boston, Massachusetts, in the same period.

    The scientists attributed most of Oktoberfest’s emissions to leaks and incomplete combustion in cooking and heating appliances. Though an appreciable part of the rise in the gas, about 10%, was attributed to the flatulence and burps of attendees.

    Next thing you know, they’ll be passing out tickets for farts!!!

  85. 85.

    Skepticat

    Why is my cat now eating green peppers?

    Because s/he can. Small amounts actually are somewhat good for cats, though they can’t metabolize most of them.

  86. 86.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:
    I had an attack of diverticulosis when I was teaching in Lund, Sweden. Luckily, one of my colleague’s partners was a nurse, and she told me exactly what buttons to push when I called in for an appointment. As your son reports, it was all in one facility — urgent care and the local hospital. Then they did something that is really impossible in the States — they took my blood, processed it in minutes in the same room, and confirmed my infection. Antibiotics prescribed and Bob was my uncle.

    They too were most apologetic because I was not on the Swedish health Care system. “i am so sorry, but this is going to be quite expensive. How much? $78….” I laughed and thanked them all.

  87. 87.

    Ken

    I see from the reporting that Trump arrived late to the game, after the ceremonial opening pitch. Did that late arrival require, say, delaying/interrupting the game for thirty minutes or more so the Secret Service could do the necessary sweep and then escort the VIPs to the box?

    If so I expect it didn’t help the crowd’s mood (not that it would have changed the outcome, I’m sure).

  91. 91.

    Immanentize

    @Ken:
    Baseball fans are both mighty and rough. During the earthquake in San Francisco (1990 something?) My friend’s brother was at the Giant’s game. The whole stadium shook and people were freaking, total silence for at least a minute, he told me. Then people started chanting :. Let’s play ball!

  93. 93.

    Kay

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    He’s not even a liberal Democrat and he hates our health care system because it’s so complex. I bet there’s a lot of that out there – people who just don’t want to navigate this anymore. He’ll pay taxes! Just leave him out of health care payment management. His argument on taxes is “I’ll pay I just want something to work in return for paying”. They paid quite a bit too- they have no children and are higher income. His Danish tax rate would be not that large a jump when you count in all the taxes, fees, etc. they were paying in the US.

    Something is going on this year with the dependent verification health insurers. I am getting a LOT of complaints from people that they are getting repeated requests to verify dependents with hard deadlines to throw their family members off plans. So they added a new pain in the ass paperwork layer with the attendant anxiety. I wonder if some genius figured out they can legally kick dependents off if they make it impossible to verify dependents.

  94. 94.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I wonder, Trump seems to think polling is faked and the only true measure is a live audience. Not impossible Trump was trying make up his mind whether it’s time to bail on the Presidential gig. Or just he was such an idiot as think killing Al-Whatzhis face made it all good. It sure feels like Trump thinks he is talking to his dad all the time, doesn’t it?

    And I am with Josh, I would think Trump would get some love at something as white, upper middle class as baseball fans

  96. 96.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Why is my cat now eating green peppers?!

    To throw up. Cats are obligate carnivores, one of the very few animals unable to digest anything but meat. Granted there’s a tiny chance of it just being an individual personality thing, but 95% of the time cats eat any vegetable matter it’s to make themselves sick to prevent hairballs blocking their digestion. Your cat has found that green peppers make them particularly nauseous, and yet with that exquisite tang which completes the experience.

    @tokyokie:

    In that clip, he goes from anticipating adulation, to starting to cry, to pissed off in the course of a few seconds.

    Yep. He thought he’d finally beaten Obama and was looking forward to adulation. The next couple of days are going to be wildly unpleasant for him as he watches his moment of triumph turn to shit and mockery.

  100. 100.

    Gin & Tonic

    Headline on BBC: “Trump booed at baseball match” Match?! Don’t those stupid fuckers understand the American language?

  101. 101.

    Elizabelle

    Does my heart good to see that orange imposter booed.

    I wonder if this might help decide him not to run for re-election. Although his criminality demands putting off the legal day of reckoning.

    Mostly, all of this just makes me feel terrible for Hillary Clinton. She should be in office. Not this bozo. Every day is a reminder of how she was cheated.

  104. 104.

    Cacti

    Trump: “Why did they all start pouring warm beer on me?”

    Secret Service: “That’s not beer, Mr. President.”

  105. 105.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    It see the Russian bots out are out claiming it was all faked by the liberal media. I wonder how long before Trump believes that.

  106. 106.

    Elizabelle

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: What I am seeing is rightwingers assuring us that Jimmy Carter, both Bushes and Nixon were also booed at baseball games. Which may be true, but I suspect not to this extent.

    Normalizing Trump, always. Suspect Fox and Friends had a response prepared for this one.

  110. 110.

    bemused

    @Spanky:

    Our two cats like licking plastic. I can’t give them an empty cardboard box to play in without removing most of the packing tape or leave photos out because they start licking and chewing on them.
    We have a dog that is crazy for steamed broccoli.

  111. 111.

    germy

    Aww.

    It really amazing how many Libs can't even permit Trump to have *one good day* (nobody will remember this stuff by Tuesday) after US forces kill perhaps the world's most wanted terrorist.
    — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 27, 2019

  115. 115.

    Betty Cracker

    I’m glad MoJo, Senator Coons, et al, are tut-tutting about the booing — that guarantees more coverage of said booing.

  118. 118.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle: My hope is that one day in the not-too-distant future, the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation commission are followed in full, starting with a newly Democratic-packed SCOTUS overturning the 2016 election of trumpov due to his collaborating with/acting as an agent of a hostile foreign power, and (retroactively) naming Hillz as our 45th president.

    The butthurt squeals from the trumpublicans would be so intense, I wouldn’t need any Christmas presents for the next decade.

  125. 125.

    Jeffro

    Slightly OT but intriguing: Fox News dot com has a fairly prominent article up about how that judge’s ruling that DOJ must give the House impeachment inquiry the Mueller grand jury materials may seal trumpov’s fate (and not in a good way).

    I’m surprised it’s even up, much less spinning in a non-RWNJ direction.

    Hmm…

  127. 127.

    Josie

    Was there no one in the White House familiar enough with American history and baseball fans who could have headed off this debacle? I am neither a pundit nor a presidential advisor, but I knew as soon as his visit to the stadium was announced how this would play out. As Kay says, really bad hires.

  130. 130.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Trump is losing the suburbs for the GOP at a rapid pace. The World Series fans are mostly not billionaires / multi-millionaires. They are mostly people who are upper middle class / lower upper class suburban people. Sure they want low taxes, but they also want competent leadership.

  131. 131.

    Betty Cracker

    @Josie: That surprised me too. There’s a reason Trump only appears before handpicked crowds of rabid supporters. I’ve seen some speculation that he thought the al Baghdadi operation would guarantee cheers, and while he and his people certainly seem stupid enough to believe that, it may be a stretch that they’d commit to going to the park before the outcome of the operation was certain.

    Just read somewhere that Trump may release some of the video of the special forces operation. I’ll be shocked if they don’t, regardless of what the military or nat-sec people advise. Anything to control the news cycle.

  132. 132.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Betty Cracker: Obvious to me what happened with the al-Baghdadi operation. He sold out the Kurds to the Russians and the Turks to get their support or acquiescence in killing al-Baghdadi.

  133. 133.

    Gin & Tonic

    Since I am unable to watch Trump on TV or listen to him on the radio, is this true?

    Trump, apparently speaking about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, refers to him as: "The Russian — the new Russian president, a good man…" Ouch. https://t.co/mpPtnCz6uq— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) October 28, 2019

  134. 134.

    Cacti

    Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) has joined the tone police in tut-tutting the completely deserved booing of Trump.

    Could all of the Vichy/Stockholm syndrome Dems kindly STFU?

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    @Cacti: Normally Coons is on-point and then some but sign me up on the STFU-Coons petition as well.

    I love how when the president* is a Republican, much less Donald trumpov, being roundly booed at a World Series game is somehow gonna rebound back on US. Um, no thanks for that take, Coons/Joe & Mika/beltway putzes. It’s a sign that the guy is wildly unpopular.

  138. 138.

    JWR

    First tweet of a bright new day. (Ahhh. Feel the winning!)

    The S&P just hit an ALL TIME HIGH. This is a big win for jobs, 401-K’s, and, frankly, EVERYONE! Our Country is doing great. Even killed long sought ISIS murderer, Al-Baghdadi. We are stronger than ever before, with GREAT upward potential. Enjoy!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 28, 2019

  139. 139.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I’m sure that’s how he regards it. I heard a questioner (an American) at a conference a couple of weeks ago ask why Ukraine was so upset about Russian incursions, since there are lots of ethnic Russians in the area and the Ukrainian language isn’t really a language but just a dialect of Russian. Needless to say, this person was given a bit of edumacation on the spot.

  140. 140.

    Betty Cracker

    @Gin & Tonic: Agreed, but on the comparatively trivial question of whether Trump could bank on the timing of that outcome to coincide with attending game 5 of the World Series, I remain skeptical. Maybe he just figured a mostly white and wealthy crowd would be friendly or at least neutral.

  143. 143.

    different-church-lady

    @zhena gogolia: Just looked more carefully at that exchange: it seems like the “some libs” was a response to something dumb Jamie Lee Curtis tweeted rather than aimed at the baseball crowd.

    Still the “one good day” take is monumentally fucked up.

  144. 144.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Cacti: what you have to understand about both Biden and Coons is that for decades Delaware had a reputation as a state where extreme partisanship was punished. They still take it as an article of faith that bipartisanship is the best way to be re-elected. And Coons is a former Yale Divinity student so he’s predisposed to see good in people.

    Neither one seems to realize that Delaware’s demographics have changed pretty drastically. Kent and Sussex counties are now hard right (other than in Rehoboth and a few other spots) while New Castle County is solid blue. Centrism is no longer the smart play.

  146. 146.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @Betty Cracker:He had a meeting of the Impeachment Strategy Genius Brigade

    Sharing “the Washington Suite” with Trump for Game 5 of the World Series between Nats and Astros. Melania TrumpKevin BradyJohn Ratcliffe Matt Gaetz Kevin McCarthyDavid PerdueLindsey GrahamLiz CheneyMac ThornberryKay GrangerSteve ScaliseMark MeadowsAndy Biggs. pic.twitter.com/YNIrakfiKt— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 28, 2019

  148. 148.

    ET

    @JPL: I don’t think he has a clue.

    He thinks he is great and is told by everyone that he is fabulous. His handlers cherrypick the audiences, pack them with is fanatics, and prefer friendly environments. Why would he know? I think that is why he thinks there was cheating in the 2016 election and he always obsessed with the inaugural photos.

    He needs more and bigger cheering all the time. Hence why he went to the game after the al-Baghdadi news. He thought This whole stadium is here for me and cheering me. He sees himself as the tough conquering hero so of course everyone else does and will cheer him for it too because his fabulousity is so obvious.

    His never ending pit of need is one of his most unattractive traits (among many). It means that everyone around him all the time has to reinforce those things he sees about himself all the time even if it means they have to lie (to everyone) and make fools of themselves.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @Immanentize:
    Agreed.
    Isn’t that the whole reason for a democracy, we get to decide our fate? Has the gop forgotten that they work for us? Yeah that’s a rhetorical question. This is what happens when money is your only motivation, people think that money is everything and that those with money get to do whatever the hell they want and everyone else has to just shut the fuck up and take it. I’d imagine finding out that isn’t how it works to be “enlightening.” trump is not the only one in the world learning that hard truth once again this morning.

  150. 150.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Sit down and shut up, Joe. This President is disliked worldwide. And, and people around the world need to hear that Americans opposed his authoritarian, hateful and hurtful rhetoric.Don't lecture us, Joe.— ??Aunt Crabby calls Bullshit ?? (@DearAuntCrabby) October 28, 2019

    Oh Trump trash JoeJoe and his hatred of the 1st amendment.

  152. 152.

    Aleta

    @germy: @germy: It really amazing how many Libs can’t even permit Trump to have *one good day* (nobody will remember this stuff by Tuesday) after US forces kill perhaps the world’s most wanted terrorist.
    — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 27, 2019

    That’s nuts. He has plenty of good days. The people who keep his cocoon warm see to that.

    He ventured out in public on the belief people would be afraid to boo a man who was using the military to shield himself that morning and that night. But Silver the criticizes people who used this one chance to speak to him directly, after three years of political segregation and non-democracy. .

  156. 156.

    Ruckus

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:
    Most likely that is exactly what DD is saying.
    Most of the wealthy think like trump does, with just a touch less narcissism. That their wealth makes them special. No, it makes them wealthy. And often quite shitty humans. Through out history people have had to learn this lesson. That they have to learn it and relearn it over and over is a testament to the power of money. What most people buy with their money is total obnoxiousness.

  157. 157.

    Cacti

    The media doesn’t understand why the public can’t see what a big deal the death of al-Baghdadi is to the media.

  159. 159.

    different-church-lady

    @Ruckus: Very often lately I’ve been wondering which is the cart and which is the horse: does money make people shitty, or is there something about human nature that makes money gravitate towards people who are already shitty?

    On my more insecure days I wonder is morality is a sucker’s game, invented by shitty people to make sure money doesn’t gravitate towards people like me.

  160. 160.

    Ruckus

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    It sure feels like Trump thinks he is talking to his dad all the time, doesn’t it?

    Well considering his maturity level is about 5 yrs old, that actually seem just about right. Considering Fred sort of clinches it. trump didn’t get to be who he is by himself.

  161. 161.

    ThresherK

    @Betty Cracker:

    There’s a reason Trump only appears before handpicked crowds of rabid supporters.

    That reminds me of a lot of GWB’s appearances during his reelection campaign. Some of the photos were hilarious.

  162. 162.

    Jeffro

    @khead: Having lived in DE and VA for almost my entire life, I’d have to say much of rural Virginia, not Delaware = South Carolina.

    Delaware’s pretty easy to understand by county:
    – New Castle = New Jersey
    – Kent = Dover + a few farms and trailer parks
    – Sussex = Iowa + retirement complexes + DC’s getaway beaches

  165. 165.

    WereBear

    @SFAW: I do take my jackal obligation to be the resident Cat Whisperer for the BJ crowd VERY SERIOUSLY.

    And… It seems to be my destiny.

    Which is okay! I’m here for cats and their people, always.

  166. 166.

    catclub

    @different-church-lady:

    Very often lately I’ve been wondering which is the cart and which is the horse: does money make people shitty, or is there something about human nature that makes money gravitate towards people who are already shitty?

    Well, the hidden brain guy of NPR – Shankar Vedantan – had a piece on this just yesterday.
    It is mostly the first. Power corrupts – or maybe money power corrupts in this case. people who become powerful lose empathy was what the study said. in the experiment to see how generous people are with dividing a windfall, poor people are more generous than rich people. So since some of those poor people might go on to be rich people, they will change when they are rich – is the statistical prediction.

  168. 168.

    CaseyL

    @Tony Jay:

    while doing bugger all to accomplish this other than snipe at Labour

    I know you like Corbyn, but his refusal to allow Labour to come out strongly in favor of Remain is the problem: the other Parties can’t trust him, because he is in fact pro-Brexit. Not pro-Tory Brexit, to be sure, but he’s always been in favor of leaving the EU.

  169. 169.

    catclub

    @Aleta:

    @germy: @germy: It really amazing how many Libs can’t even permit Trump to have *one good day* (nobody will remember this stuff by Tuesday) after US forces kill perhaps the world’s most wanted terrorist.
    — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 27, 2019

    ha ha. I remember all the way back to 2011 when the right wing gave Obama weeks – nay months – of adulation when Osama bin Laden was killed.

    as to the Morning Joe upset. I think there is a difference between Trump leading a chant and a Democrat leading a lock him up chant at their rally.
    The second one has not actually happened. The one at Nationals park looked spontaneous – not led by the leader.

  170. 170.

    different-church-lady

    @different-church-lady: And now that I think about it, Curtis’ tweet probably makes more sense in the context of something dumb Trump said during his announcement, the full stupidity of which I have yet to bear direct witness to.

  171. 171.

    Avalune

    Serious question – do we think he fully understands the sounds were boos and that they were for him? I’m not convinced he would even pick up on that until Fox explained it to him…

    I mean I know he left early but that doesn’t seal it for me. Dude isn’t exactly very perceptive or attuned to reality in general.

  172. 172.

    Miss Bianca

    @germy: Still trying to figure out if he was trying to make a joke or not. Cuz if he was, it didn’t come off, and if he wasn’t, I agree with one of the commenters who said, “you must be the dumbest motherfucker alive”, or words to that effect.

  174. 174.

    germy

    JUST NOW: Dem Sen @ChrisCoons not happy with the "Lock him up " chants at World Series last night."Frankly think the office of the president deserves respect, even when the actions of our president at times don't. "@NewDay pic.twitter.com/OJwZfv9Vp8— John Berman (@JohnBerman) October 28, 2019

    “The energized electorate who hates our opponent should settle down for this election year.” — democrats https://t.co/Duspyj4rmt
    — Matt Bors (@MattBors) October 28, 2019

  176. 176.

    germy

    @WereBear: You brought tears to my eyes one day. You wrote something about giving a cat knowledge of love. My wife wondered why I was crying in front of the computer.

  177. 177.

    Brachiator

    @catclub:

    Well, the hidden brain guy of NPR – Shankar Vedantan – had a piece on this just yesterday.

    I will see if I can find this. Sounds interesting.

    It is mostly the first. Power corrupts – or maybe money power corrupts in this case. people who become powerful lose empathy was what the study said.

    I’m skeptical about this. I think that some people do shitty things if they think that they can get away with it. The poor hope they get lucky and don’t get caught. The rich have more resources to buy their way out of trouble,

    in the experiment to see how generous people are with dividing a windfall, poor people are more generous that rich people. So since some of those poor people might go on to be rich people, they will change when they are rich – is the statistical prediction.

    Interesting. Very plausible, I guess.

  178. 178.

    Avalune

    The second one has not actually happened. The one at Nationals park looked spontaneous – not led by the leader.

    No no no, it was obviously a devious plot conceived by Dems, Soros, Space Aliens, Clintons. Obamas. Deep State. Atheists. Chuck and Nancy.

  179. 179.

    different-church-lady

    @Avalune: The way his face fell is an indication of at least dim awareness of his personal reality and actual reality not being in alignment.

  180. 180.

    Betty Cracker

    @Avalune: Trump Jr. on Twitter this morning:

    They know it was a PR disaster.

  181. 181.

    Avalune

    @different-church-lady: That’s good I guess. He’ll probably see it as an anomaly because so many people spend so much time trying to shield him. And those people will be pretty busy blowing smoke up his butt to help him forget.

  182. 182.

    germy

    @Betty Cracker: A commenter at LGM suggests that Barron, being neuroatypical, would not benefit from being in a crowded, noisy stadium (boos or no boos). Maybe Melania understands that. I suspect the father is barely aware of his existence.

  186. 186.

    Avalune

    @germy: @Betty Cracker: I don’t really see why bother with this criticism – kid probably didn’t want to go. Everything is a circus because we are talking about the president and his family (though the fact we are also talking about THIS president makes it a very extravagant circus) – boos or no boos. I don’t really feel like he has to drag the kid around everywhere he goes.

  188. 188.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    A commenter at LGM suggests that Barron, being neuroatypical

    What does this mean? Is this something known about Trump’s son?

  191. 191.

    catclub

    @Betty Cracker:

    Maybe he knew that the scumbag lobbyists and liberal elite in the 94% leftist swamp of DC would behave exactly as they did and therefore shielded a child from that kind of behavior.

    funny. I think if he knew it was going to happen, Trump would have just sent Barron.

  193. 193.

    catclub

    @Avalune:

    boos or no boos. I don’t really feel like he has to drag the kid around everywhere he goes.

    except a baseball game is just the kind of thing that kids are typically taken to – there are lots of kids! It is ‘family friendly’
    (except for the $800/ticket bit).

  194. 194.

    Avalune

    @germy: No, see, the space aliens I referenced earlier replaced all the baseball fans as part of the very elaborate dem plot.

  198. 198.

    Avalune

    @catclub: Typically probably being the key word here. When does this family do anything typical families would do?

    Here’s what I know – I had a kid, who was that age at one point, and it was pulling teeth to get him to go anywhere with us. Trying to take him to Rome and he’s all I’ve been there before in Assassin’s Creed and we’re like are you freaking kidding me right now? We made him go (and he begrudgingly enjoyed it) but we got to a point where we’d ask, “hey, we’re going to Belgium this weekend, wanna go” and he’d say “no” and we’d say “sweet, make sure you let the dog out and throw some food/water down.” So I’m not going to roast the man over not taking his youngest.

  199. 199.

    Avalune

    @Avalune: @germy: although the DC electorate is 94% Democratic (or so), the lobbyist corps is probably 50% GOP,

    I said the space aliens abducted the “baseball fans,” so clearly I’m not trying to be taken seriously here. In fact, it’s pretty safe to assume I’m just here to talk about animals, video/board games, knitting, to aggravate Leto, or otherwise be silly.

  200. 200.

    Just Chuck

    @germy: Did Nate Silver seriously just unironically go off on ‘libs’? What the ever loving fuck are they putting in the water supply the pundits are drinking?

    And that’s right Nate, even with the benefit of the doubt on that one tweet, you’re just a fucking pundit, wasting that big mathematical brain now on political “analysis”.

  202. 202.

    Tony Jay

    @CaseyL:

    Oh God, this again?

    The other parties have no problem trusting Corbyn. The Lib-Dems, led as they are by a former Cabinet Minister in Cameron’s Coalition who voted for every single Austerity measure and wants a statue of Thatcher put up in Westminster…… they have a problem.

    In the Referendum Corbyn brought the vast majority of the Labour Party to the polls for Remain, took away the Tory majority in 2017 and has kept the Party mostly unified and consistently blocking Brexit ever since in the teeth of the most obscenely one-sided media environment since, well, since 2017.

    Corbyn isn’t the problem. Labour isn’t the problem. The Tories are the problem.

  206. 206.

    Ruckus

    @Josie:
    @Betty Cracker:
    You really think people close to his lowness would tell him he is hated by a majority? They are in on the con, even if only a very tiny bit, and anything that rattles that will cost them. Or they are true believers. In which case they are lost anyway and wouldn’t think to tell him. The point is that they have loyalty to him, not to the country. They have loyalty to power – the individual, not to democracy. This is very common throughout history. People will go with the perceived power rather than be equal. They don’t want equality, they want betterment. They will give up a lot for perceived betterment. They will suck ass for that perception.

  209. 209.

    Tony Jay

    @trollhattan:

    Sullivan. Mein Gott I’d forgotten that horrid little stain on the bedsheet of blogging still existed. Hardly surprising he’s a Flobalob fan. Just the right type of peon-slapping, faux-socially liberal Thatcherite gobshite to give a creep like Sully the trembles.

    Everything’s gone all red and echoing. I’m really shouldn’t spend so long leg-sweeping trolls on the Guardian live-blogs, it’s bad for my mental feng shui.

  210. 210.

    glory b

    Open thread, so I want to say I am devastated to red hat Charles Ogletree, one of the most brilliant African American legal minds, is succumbing to Alzheimers.

  213. 213.

    immanentize

    @Tony Jay: They went to whatever jumped up public school for university together. I still don’t understand why Sully wanted to become a US citizen or how that happened.

  214. 214.

    glory b

    “His name is Charles J. Ogletree Jr., and he was, not long ago, a dazzling, dominating legal mind, a theorist and scholar internationally revered for his brilliance and compassion. He inspired generations of students as a Harvard Law School professor, including the young Barack and Michelle Obama. He was a crusader for civil rights, the founder of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, and a prolific author who investigated police conduct in black communities and the role of race in capital punishment, long before the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

    For decades, his schedule was booked solid; there were weeks when his wife, Pam, barely saw him. He gave speeches around the world, and offered guidance at historic moments, as when apartheid ended in South Africa and he helped to draft that country’s brand-new constitution. He mentored young lawyers, analyzed high-profile cases on national TV, and still somehow found time for pro bono casework, aiding unknown defendants in gritty Boston courts.

    He was only 60 when his wife began to notice subtle changes in his speech. He was 62 when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Three years ago, at 63, Ogletree went public with his battle. He named his nemesis and vowed to fight it, the way he’d fought injustices so many times before. He is fighting still, holding onto what is left. But so much of who he was has been taken from him: Reading and writing. Traveling the world. Debate and discussion and his first great passion, fishing.”

    From the Boston Globe.

  215. 215.

    immanentize

    @glory b: This has, very sadly, been true for years. I worked with him in DC as his intern at PDS and later we did a number of fun projects together here in Beantown. He really hasn’t been able to do anything publicly for five or so years.

  216. 216.

    glory b

    Ogletree is the son of a farmhand with a 5th grade education, and a graduate of Stanford and Harvard.

  218. 218.

    Gin & Tonic

    Ukrainian TV is talking about Trump’s referring to Zelensky as Russian (as mentioned up-thread) and is calling it a Freudian slip.

  219. 219.

    glory b

    @immanentize: I hadn’t really followed him recently. The article mentions him working hard to overcome it, having a brief respite and then getting lost on a trip to Venice. I’m reading this during my lunch break at work and getting a bit teary eyed reading about how frantic his wife was.

    Really sucks that it struck him so early, just when he and his wife were looking forward to enjoying semi retirement.

  221. 221.

    immanentize

    @glory b: He was one of the best persons I have ever known. Kind, smart, tough. Probably my favorite ‘Tree’ quote was when someone on the Harvard Law faculty was trying to get people all stirred up about some Harvard Law faculty BS, Tree said the immortal (and oft-quoted by a number of us):
    “I try to reserve my outrage for lying police and racist judges.”

  222. 222.

    Gin & Tonic

    @cain: Huh? Sussex County as referred to above is in Delaware, across from Cape May, NJ. Beaches, but pretty downscale. The Hamptons are in Suffolk County, New York, a couple of hundred miles away. Beaches, too, but may as well be on a different planet.

  223. 223.

    janesays

    @debbie:

    Some of the signs were behind home plate, so it was kind of unavoidable for Fox to broadcast them…

    Interesting, too, because those seats were selling for more than $10,000 apiece on StubHub. IOW, it was pribably a fairly wealthy person (or someone with very rich friends) holding the “Veterans for Impeachment” sign.

  225. 225.

    janesays

    @Princess: There may will have been – it was a fairly wealthy crowd, and presumably there were a lot of DC power players in the stands, including, I’m guessing, more than a few legislators.

  227. 227.

    janesays

    @Immanentize: I don’t know if he was there (he certainly had the means and connections to be there if he had wanted to be there), but he was clearly having a lot of fun retweeting all of the video clips of Cheetolini being booed last night. I’m guessing he was probably sleeping on the couch after that.

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