Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

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

Please don’t feed the bears.

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

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

We won’t go back.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

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

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

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

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You are here: Home / Politics / Impeachment Inquiry / Repubs in Disturbingly Close Array! Open Thread

Repubs in Disturbingly Close Array! Open Thread

by | 82 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , ,

… Over the past three years, Trump has spent his days at Mar-a-Lago — which he calls “The Southern White House” — surrounded by an unpredictable cast of Palm Beach residents, wedding guests and the characters Trump invites down for a meeting or a round of golf. It’s often led to a more freewheeling atmosphere, in which the president feels more comfortable to freely meet with people, knowing he’s outside the strictures of official Washington…

Multiple former White House officials said that Trump is much more comfortable when he is relaxing down at Mar-a-Lago and is surrounded by many fewer staffers who try to keep out shady individuals when he’s in the White House. One of those former White House officials described Trump as feeling “liberated” and at home when he’s at Mar-a-Lago…

In the early days, there was some consternation among White House officials about the lax situation. The Secret Service was “never happy,” according to the first former White House official.

“It was a bunch of hangers-on,” that official said. “You just don’t want to put the president in the same room with some folks … who were maybe closer to him when he was a developer or living in New York than you’d want, who were controversial in their own right, whether they were involved in lawsuits or other things.”

Back then, “every guy would bring a friend and the friend was some guy from some country or [a] lobbyist,” said a person close to the White House. “I think they put the kibosh on that and became a lot tougher on screening and who members were bringing as guests.”

The person remembered one time when a member showed up with people from a sub-Saharan African country who wanted to talk to Trump. In a sign that staff were trying to put some limits on things, the individuals were turned away…

War criminals, serial rapists, global gangsters — no problem! But anyone whose skin is darker than Tiger Woods’…

Laurence Leamer, the author of “Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump’s Presidential Palace,” said one reason that Trump is in a better mood at the Palm Beach resort is because no members or visitors to Mar-a-Lago challenge Trump directly when they’re at his resort. Leamer noted that numerous one-time members who object to Trump’s policies resigned over their political differences.

“He can’t stand to be criticized or challenged. And when he asks you, ‘How am I doing?’ you just say ‘You’re doing great,’ that’s it, that’s what he wants to hear,” said Leamer, who has talked with Trump many times at Mar-a-Lago over the years…


And the GOP ‘professionals’ will be syringing flavor-aide down the babies’ throats…

Reader Interactions

82Comments

  1. 1.

    Nicole

    “He can’t stand to be criticized or challenged. And when he asks you, ‘How am I doing?’ you just say ‘You’re doing great,’ that’s it, that’s what he wants to hear,”

    Like I said in the last thread, he’s Little Anthony in that Twilight Zone episode.  Except without actual abilities, which makes the GOP’s endless fearful stroking of him even more embarrassing.  I guess losing an election = getting sent to the cornfield.

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    in that clip of Giuliani rambling about being the prosecutor in the impeachment trial, as he walks away it looks like he has a tumbler of something, I’ve read that he likes single malts. In this picture tweeted out by Olivia Nuzzi, and as I read that, he sent it to her, he’s holding a martini, what my parents used to call “loud mouth soup” (my mom) or “asshole soup” (my dad, when my mom wasn’t around– he was old-fashioned, my old man

    ETA: and lest anyone be offended, my dad regularly had a bowl of said soup in the evening (gin based), and their youngest son occasionally has a bowl (vodka), sometimes two, never three. At least not in years.

  4. 4.

    Emma from FL

    My New Year’s Resolution is to spend a couple of hours each day in the (mental) company of people that are intelligent, creative, competent, and insightful.  Just to remind myself that there is more to the world and to human beings that those  malodorous paskudnyaks.

    And yes, that includes the present commentariat.

  8. 8.

    Jinchi

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Giuliani rambling about being the prosecutor in the impeachment trial

    That’s how I heard it too. He’s asking if anyone has the courage to allow him to prosecute the case (against his own client) as a racketeering case. Or does he think he could do a fast switch and prosecute Joe Biden in the Senate?

    Either way, Trump is overpaying this guy.

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jinchi:

    Or does he think he could do a fast switch and prosecute Joe Biden in the Senate?

    that was how I heard it– he also says he invented racketeering, which is an interesting Freudo-Kinsleyan slip

  14. 14.

    JGabriel

    baby new year sloth  @ david_lee_sloth via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    Mar-a-Lago has the best and most beautiful Kool-Aid; everyone’s talking about it. It’s the most perfect Kool-Aid. It’s tremendous.

    To be fair, Jim Jones used a cheap, off-brand, off-tasting clone of Kool-Aid (Flavor-Aid) to save money – just like the cheap, off-brand, off-tasting clones Trump uses for all the fixtures, shop gifts, and food in his hotels and for his Trump-branded products.

    People talk about how Trump likes to get McDonald’s because of its consistency, but the primary reason is because Trump knows what he puts in his restaurant food, and he doesn’t want other hotels and restaurants giving him the same low-quality, tainted, expired shit he feeds his own customers.

  17. 17.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I was going to point that out myself, but then I saw your reply, laughed, and my original thought apparently flew right out of my head.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Plus, what if they went back in and edited at the last minute?  And edited again? (new 5-minute edit window each time)

    You might never get to comment.

  21. 21.

    HeleninEire

    Y’all are over-analyzing what Giuliani was talking about/meant.

    He was drunk.

    The end.

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    The site has been so quiet for the last week that I just went to look at the Analytics.  I noticed that 89% of BJ peeps are in the US.  And we have more mac users than not.  I’m hoping the slowness is just the holidays.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    Did anyone watch the 5-part Crisis on Infinite Earths?  (3 parts so far)

    Since I have been feeling puny, I am catching up on some TV. I am able to get 2 of the episodes on reruns this week, wondering if it’s worth trying to track down the third before the final two episodes air in a couple of weeks.

  26. 26.

    Bill Arnold

    Those clips via Acyn Torabi are interesting. Nancy Pelosi for sure has a much better mental model of Donald J. Trump than he does of her. And Melania seems to be smarter than Donald.
    And when DJT did a tweet today including the following: “She’s all lies. Most overrated person I know!” he was doing a hi-fidelity projection.

    The Wolf Blitzer interview of Trump in the replies is fun as usual:

    Before Trump contracted a case of the brainworms, he had a different impression of Pelosi. pic.twitter.com/3150rTvsao
    — Joshua (@billyliberty) January 1, 2020

  27. 27.

    bucachon

    Oh Rudy. So he says he doesn’t know if “anyone” would “have the courage” to have him try the case. Huh. Wonder who decides that? I’m guessing Donald will decide (and will he have the courage?) or does ivanka stage an intervention and tell him who?

  28. 28.

    CaseyL

    Trump campaign Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany: “In 2016, President Trump was the foregone nominee from the beginning. Never did anyone go up against President Trump. We loved our nominee.”

    See, this is the kind of thing that gets me:  this utter shamelessness in lying, this total subsumption of self into authoritarianism and personality cultism.  I cannot wrap my head around it, no matter how I try.

    And I’m not sure what it portends, politically.  I don’t know of they’re that sure they’ll stay on top because everything is already rigged, or if they’re simply that incapable of individual conscience – or even individual consciousness.

    If the latter – I guess we owe some thanks to Putin and Trump, for bringing all these automatons out into the open where we can see them, and fixing them firmly in the GOP where they can be ushered into oblivion.

    If the former… well.  Let’s not go there.

  29. 29.

    PsiFighter37

    @Bill Arnold: Melania is as smart as a bag of hammers. I watched her speak for the first time in a clip when she got booed in Baltimore…literally could not be more of a picture of a Russian (Slovenian) mail-order bride.

  30. 30.

    Bill Arnold

    @CaseyL:

    or if they’re simply that incapable of individual conscience – or even individual consciousness.

    It’s a hive mind, and Donald J. Trump is the Queen.

  32. 32.

    Jay

    Nans Losi looks for Squiddy Roe Poe’s with Countsil yes she does! But why doesn’t we peachers HER? Yes that’s it! If she peachers us precious we peaches HER!— Gollum J. Trump (@realGollumTrump) December 23, 2019

  33. 33.

    CaseyL

    @Bill Arnold: We say things like that, but I wonder if it isn’t, somehow, literally true.  Biologically it shouldn’t be possible, human brains aren’t wired that way, but my god…

  34. 34.

    Bill Arnold

    @PsiFighter37:
    OK will look for a video.
    I was watching her face while listening to DJT; she was clearly parsing what he said and seemed to be annoyed or similar. She may hear these rants privately.
    So, DJT is as smart as a smaller bag of hammers, or a larger bag?

  35. 35.

    Bill Arnold

    @CaseyL:

    We say things like that, but I wonder if it isn’t, somehow, literally true.

    I often censor what I really think. (Sometimes by telling the truth. [1] :-)
    Seems very cult-like, at the least.

    [1] Fun quote: “It’s not enough to be able to lie with a straight face; anybody with enough gall to raise on a busted flush can do that. The first way to lie artistically is to tell the truth — but not all of it. The second way involves telling the truth, too, but is harder: Tell the exact truth and maybe all of it…but tell it so unconvincingly that your listener is sure you are lying.” (Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love)
    Trump is inept and goes with basic lies, sometimes garbled.

  37. 37.

    trollhattan

    @HeleninEire:

    2020 Rudy would go off-script reading from the Queens phone directory. He’s addled and addicted to the sound of his own voice, which sounds like nobody else I can think of whatsoever.

  38. 38.

    Bill Arnold

    @Gravenstone:

    Nice to see I’m not the only one getting the Jonestown vibe, I guess.

    With nuclear weapons!!!
    I hope (reasonably but not completely sure) that the military top brass love their families enough to have put into place a secret anti-Trump-nuclear-lashout protocol.

  42. 42.

    Mike in NC

    Nancy Pelosi is so overrated that she managed to IMPEACH his fat ass on the first vote. That stain is permanent. We do need another article of impeachment for being Putin’s whiny bitch, however.

  43. 43.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jay:
    Another one, roughly the same genre:

    Me in 2010: "For teens, dystopian novels reflect the Orwellian strictures and Mad Maxian exuberances of high school, creating a narrative space both ludic and cautionary."Me in 2020: "Kids are, like, driving flamedeath-escape boats. Fuck knows why they read my shit." pic.twitter.com/4C5fDaruE5— Scott Westerfeld (@ScottWesterfeld) December 31, 2019

  47. 47.

    Patricia Kayden

    Goals

    Here's hoping that a year from now, we are reporting on the distinguished Americans being appointed to new positions in an administration headed by a psychologically normal president who has disclosed his honest finances and owes nothing to any foreign thug or dictator— David Frum (@davidfrum) January 1, 2020

  49. 49.

    CaseyL

    @Gravenstone: Jonestown was a few hundred people.  TrumpCult is a few tens of millions.  A society simply can’t function with that many biological robots willing to do anything, and I do mean anything, their masters tell them to.

  51. 51.

    Aleta

    Reporter: “How about your New Year’s resolutions?”

    Melania (thinks this whole gig is a pageant): “Peace in the world.”

    DJ (has no frontal cortex): “Peace is right. But I’m not sure you’re supposed to say resolutions out loud. I don’t want to say what my resolution is because I think we jinx it. But I can tell you we really have a good resolution. And it’s a resolution for our country. We love our country. Our country has never done better than its doing right now.”

    Video clip

  52. 52.

    mrmoshpotato

    This is your friendly reminder that Trump lost the Iowa caucuses in 2016.

    “How stupid are the people of Iowa?”

    Stupid enough to vote for a Soviet shitpile mobster conman in large enough numbers to give him all its electoral votes.

  53. 53.

    Bruuuuce

    @WaterGirl: I’ve seen all three. It will help to see the last two if you’ve seen all of the first set.

    Today’s TV has been Doctor Who. The daytime was the run-up to tonight’s new series premiere. Without spoiling the episode, it’s the James Bond parody DW has always wanted. (So far. It ends on Sunday, which will be the usual day for the series going forward.)

  55. 55.

    Another Scott

    @CaseyL:

    They’ve done it since the first cabinet meeting in 2017. VanityFair (June 12, 2017):

    […]

    “Never has there been a president, with few exceptions . . . who has passed more legislation, done more things,” he began, hailing his purported accomplishments, even though Congress has yet to pass any major legislative bills. “We’ve achieved tremendous success. I think we’ve been about as active as you can possibly be and at a just about record-setting pace.”

    The public portion of the Cabinet meeting would, in more ordinary times, have ended at that point. Instead, the event remained open as each member of the Cabinet attempted to outdo the president’s praise for himself, thanking him profusely and occasionally genuflecting before the press as they described what a humbling, life-changing privilege it was to be a part of Trump’s efforts to Make America Great Again. It was, New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush tweeted, “the most exquisitely awkward public event I’ve ever seen.”

    “Start with Mike,” Trump said, referring to Vice President Mike Pence, after instructing each Cabinet member to say a few words about the good work his administration is doing. Pence set the tone for the bizarre 11-minute spectacle that followed, heaping praise on the president while he sat quietly nearby, smiling. “It is the greatest privilege of my life to serve as the vice president to a president who is keeping his word to the American people,” he said.

    […]

    It’s all the Big Lie stuff. It’s transparent what he’s doing, but the press is, in general, too cowed to call it out.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  56. 56.

    JaneE

    In the straw poll at the county fair in our very very red county, Trump came in third, with about 27% of the vote.  By primary time, he got 75%, even though the nomination was a foregone conclusion by then.  In no way were the Republicans enamored with Trump then.

  59. 59.

    trollhattan

    @Jay:

    Well seen. Guessing it’s not Australia but it sure could be.

    We had smoke like that in fall 2018. Ugh.

  60. 60.

    Anne Laurie

    @PsiFighter37: Melania is as smart as a bag of hammers.

    She was smart enough to escape her despised home town, first for Italy, then NY.  And she was smart enough to impress Trump into negotiating an actual contract with her, which led to her ‘Einstein’ visa and an anchor-baby son, and allowed her to bring her parents over, so they can raise her kid at a safe distance from his (official) sperm donor.

    It makes more sense if you think of Melania in terms of a medieval daughter of the nobility negotiating with the local baron to become the wife of his old age.

    She may not be book-smart, but she’s made a brilliant career working her chances so far.   I suspect she’s also smart enough to have her own ‘escape account’ funding safely stashed well away from the Trump ‘family’ accounts, along with one or more passports (which the Secret Service may or may not know about; Putin almost certainly does).   Right now, the question is whether Big Don lasts until Barron turns 18 and/or finishes his education — my guess is she’s mostly sticking around in a job she obviously finds boring, if not distasteful, to keep an eye on the ‘first family’ kids and their legacy lawyers.

  61. 61.

    Bill Arnold

    @Anne Laurie:

    It makes more sense if you think of Melania in terms of a medieval daughter of the nobility negotiating with the local baron to become the wife of his old age.

    Thank you. I watched the video where she was booed in Baltimore and was not seeing the dumbness. (Have seen plenty worse, including with her husband.)

  62. 62.

    Anne Laurie

    @CaseyL: TrumpCult is a few tens of millions. A society simply can’t function with that many biological robots willing to do anything, and I do mean anything, their masters tell them to.

    They’re mostly infinitely reprogrammable, for better or worse. When the Trump machine breaks to pieces, a tiny fraction of his off-base followers will go down with him, a larger fraction will withdraw from our reality into semi-closed communes, but most of them will just turn on Fox News and wait for their New Messiah to be announced… and lauded.

    All hail… Mike Pence? Tom Cotton? Trey Gowdey? Whomever, just paste the new cameo up on all the old posters!

  63. 63.

    Kattails

    @WaterGirl: I think this year when people talk about being tired and needing a break, what they really mean is that they’re effing exhausted and just need to get a bit of mental space. The site changes, however desirable, have had glitches for some users.
    I personally have had to work with a church bake sale, a sister moving back to the area (happy), Solstice pot luck, Christmas day dinner/potluck, New Year’s day potluck, am still seriously behind on Xmas gifts even if only need a couple.
    Or: …written in large, friendly letters on the cover, “don’t panic.”

  69. 69.

    lumpkin

    Just saw a headline from USA Today (I think) that Melania and Ivanka “stunned” at last night’s party.

    Feels like those halcyon days in Munich in the early 30’s.

  70. 70.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @PsiFighter37: Melania is as smart as a bag of hammers.

    Which still is smarter than Don the Con.  In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king and all that.

  71. 71.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Gravenstone: Nice to see I’m not the only one getting the Jonestown vibe, I guess.

    And it’s not just Trump; the whole hard right media culture is based on fear and finding more things to fear. Even without someone like Trump that can easily end in a Johnston with death as their own escape from the monsters in their mind.

  72. 72.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    the whole hard right media culture is based on fear and finding more things to fear 

    Exactly.  And it’s nothing new.  It’s Fox “News”‘s reason for existing.

    Ooooo spicy mustard!   Oooooo tan suit!   Ooooo sleeveless dress!  Santa Claus is WHITE! I’d go on but then I’d have to think about this cesspool of horseshit.

  74. 74.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    The Hill

    ✔ @thehill

    Question: What’s your New Year’s Resolution?
    First Lady Melania Trump: “Peace on the world.”

     
    bag of hammers

  75. 75.

    Jay

    @CaseyL:

    Aum Shinkiro is a researcher deep into QAnon and other US Political Cults. They lost some really decent, well meaning  people but gullible, to the Aum Shinkiro Cult collapse in Japan.

    Some of the people in the Doltus Cult, arn’t basically “evil”.

    Wishing for their deaths, sadly just mirrors some of the dreams of the Doltus Cult’s more evil members.

  76. 76.

    Jay Noble

    @WaterGirl: If you’ve kept up with any of the Arrow-verse goings on (Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, BatWoman)  you need to watch it all because there are revelations and consequences galore coming out of it.

  78. 78.

    Amir Khalid

    @lumpkin:

    Just saw a headline from USA Today (I think) that Melania and Ivanka “stunned” at last night’s party.

    Who gave them access to phasers, and why?

  80. 80.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Thoughts: is there a way to start a whispering campaign that the GOP is depending on #Qanon to save the President?  “We must hear our GOP senators denounce this ridiculous theory, publicly! They must assure us this debunked idiocy does not in any way influence their vote.”

    Just think how delicious it would be to see them put in that spot – risk harming Trump, or refuse to denounce utter nonsense.

    The only downside is – dear lord, what if they won’t denounce it? Will that *truly* be enough for the MSM to stop playing “is up truly *toward* the earth, and not the sky? Views differ!” ? You’d really hope so, but…  I’m just a tiny, tiny, tiny bit worried to find out the answer.

  81. 81.

    WaterGirl

    @Jay Noble: Thanks for that!  I watch all of those except BatWoman, but I am woefully behind on Flash and Arrow.  I will watch the two reruns this week and find a way to track down Episode 3 so I’ll be ready for 4 and 5 on 1/20.  Thanks again

    edit: Though I never followed any of those until the TV shows, no comics, no movies, so I never know the backstories and the bigger picture that others might see.  I still enjoy them but am well aware that some things are flying right over my head.

Comments are closed.