Have we done this one yet? It’s all over Twitter, and it is amazeballs:
This video should be playing on every screen on the planet. pic.twitter.com/QzxJR50uC3
— ? (@Chasedogman) January 3, 2020
Here’s a transcript for those who wish to avoid the horror of watching Trump’s slimy meat-slab lips opening and closing like a beached blowfish as he frantically waves his stubby hands and the light gleams on the brassy cotton-candy comb-over:
Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak, and he’s ineffective. We have a real problem in the White House. So, I believe that he will attack Iran sometime prior to the election because he thinks that’s the only way he can get elected. Isn’t it pathetic.
Yes, it is pathetic because this nine-year-old video is all the explanation we need for the assassination of the Iranian general earlier this week. It’s all projection — every fucking word of it. It always is:
- During the Obama years, Trump used to complain about how lazy President Obama was. In office, Trump sits around on his lard ass live-tweeting Fox & Friends.
- Trump lambasted Obama for squandering taxpayer money by occasionally golfing. Since taking office, Trump has spent more than the combined salaries of every president from George Washington to the present on golf trips to self-branded resorts — while praising himself annually for “donating” his salary.
- Trump whines about Democrats spying on his campaign in 2016. His own campaign eagerly worked with a hostile foreign power to coordinate the distribution of stolen emails to smear Democrats.
- Trump screams “witch hunt” about an exhaustively documented investigation led by a lifelong Republican who was appointed by a Trump appointee. Then he orders the DOJ to fan out worldwide and investigate alleged malfeasance that previous Trump-appointed officials have fruitlessly investigated multiple times, finding nothing.
- Trump claims the DNC/Ukraine/Soros worked together to sandbag his campaign and calls critical op-eds from Ukrainians “election meddling.” Meanwhile, Trump’s goons place hit pieces against Biden in U.S. media outlets, and Trump used the power of his office to shake down a vulnerable ally for reelection assistance in the form of a phony investigation of Biden.
I could go on — Trump certainly does, daily demonstrating more capacity for projection than every cinema chain on the planet combined and multiplied by infinity. At this point, would it surprise anyone to learn that TRUMP was actually born in Kenya?
Recommended Reading: 2019 Retrospective
sukabi
It would surprise me if he was actually born in Kenya.. or anywhere as I’m pretty sure he’s just an animated pile of crap.
bystander
The minute I heard twitler say, “No Benghazi”, I knew we were in for a real sh*t show.
Boris, Rasputin's Evil Twin
Never thought I would find myself considering Nixon’s virtues, or even thinking he had many, but Trump made me think of Tricky Dick almost fondly.
JPL
Wouldn’t it be nice if Steyer or Bloomberg used their money to mock this. That might even embarrass his base.
germy
He accused the Clinton Foundation of being the most corrupt thing in the world. Meanwhile he used funds donated to his own “foundation” to buy crap for himself.
hilts
Betty,
I agree with every word in your post. Unfortunately, many villagers, especially the crew at Morning Joe will fall in line behind Trump on this Iran story and many commentators on cable and in the pages of the NY Times and Washington Post will say this was Trump at his most presidential.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
he needs to believe everyone is as dishonest and empty as he is
I’m an atheist, and religiosity in pols often makes me cringe– it’s part of why I was slow to get on the Obama train, but I know and admire a great many seriously devout people. And the cynical pragmatist in me just likes having someone who can answer them back in their own language.
And I can’t believe, especially given the news today (oh, boy), that I’m quoting the guy who wrote a whole book about how Saddam did 9/11 (The Connection), but that’s the way we live now, in the times that trump has made.
germy
@JPL:
The only campaign commercials I see on TV are from Steyer and Bloomberg. Mostly Steyer ads, where he claims he “defeated” the NRA
Ruckus
Born in Kenya?
Nothing stupid would surprise me about trump. He is the epitome of doing stupid stuff to enhance himself and failing miserably at it. Moms could teach their kids about abject failure by just pointing to him. Some will say “He won the presidency!” but he had to have another country cheat for him to do it and that other country and it’s leader own him. Literally. Own. Him. He is everything wrong with human beings, all in one craptastic package.
Baud
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrumpCriticizesTrump/
Dorothy A. Winsor
I saw there was a clip and assumed it was the one I just saw on twitter in which someone asked him if he had an exit strategy for Iran, and he said we weren’t going to need one.
I don’t know what that means.
hitchhiker
That’s our president. But not for long. I remember when the 2nd W administration was winding down, how it seemed like we’d been stuck with him forever … now in less than half that time it’s much, much worse.
JPL
@bystander: Someone needs to ask him about the embassy attack in Benghazi. ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: I see the one where he tells me we both know term limits are the answer. More than once I have said “Fuck you” out loud back to the TV.
Somebody posted poll results earlier showing Bloomberg at 11%– one poll, outlier, he’s going nowhere yada yada, but god that was depressing for so many reasons.
Ruckus
@hilts:
Too late, already happening.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t want to know.
germy
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor: he thinks he’s won, it’s over. That idiot Elise Stefaniak is tweeting about the victory of “Peace through Strength”.
germy
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He apparently can’t imagine that someone he strikes or assaults or insults will strike back. It’s bizarre.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I don’t know what that means.
That’s OK he has far less of a clue than you or I do.
germy
Ruckus
@hitchhiker:
As bad as GWB was, and he was bad, trump is far, far worse. GWB is ten times the human that trump is, and that is not damning with faint phrase because GWB barely qualifies.
JaneE
If you look at whatever Trump accused Obama of doing that Obama didn’t actually do, then you have a road map for Trump’s actions and plans. It may not even be intentional.
The GOP chooses to live in a world where everything is the opposite of reality. Sooner or later it will come back to bite them, but not before they do real damage to the country and the world.
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m half-expecting to see an “Arbeit Macht Frei, baby” thing in the not-too-distant future
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fellow atheist, and I also applaud when Democrats who are Christians reclaim Jesus from the Party of the 7 Deadly Sins. That’s one of the things I found interesting about Buttigieg before he left me on the side of the road with a hard swerve to the center. (To be fair, it paid off for him!)
mrmoshpotato
Glad we have 63 million piles of deplorable Trump trash ready to enlist for their orange god-emperor. Oh wait…
When is Susan Sarandon getting drafted? Will she be leading a company of deplorables?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It helps with his gay hating base who don’t want to believe Pete can sincerely be Christian.
James E Powell
@germy:
I’m only seeing the Bloomberg ad and only when I watch sports. I’m in SoCal. All that money and what’s it bought him?
I know it’s a useless exercise, but think how that money might have been better spent.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ruckus: you’re reading a different NYT and WaPo than I am. The Times leading ME correspondent, Rukmini Callimachi, has a viral twitter thread (she’s apparently on vacation) pointing out that the administration’s justifications are “razor thin”. The top story on the Post’s website is headlined “Trump plunges toward kind of MidEast conflict he pledged to avoid”, and it’s a news piece, not opinion. This is the very right-wing Anne Applebaum’s reaction to the Post story about trump’s decision, which makes pretty clear that they remembered the “imminent threat” language after the fact:
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yeah, I’m having the same impression you are. No “aluminum tubes.” Bret Stephens s–t something out but I can’t bear to look at it. Other than that, the NYT is not cheerleading. Yet.
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I imagine that’s because he, as with most bullies, only strikes those without the wherewithal to strike back or defend themselves.
One of the things I had hoped for during the 2016 Debate, where he was stalking Hillary around the stage, was for her to turn around and say to him “Back the eff OFF, you candy-ass, before I pound you into next week.” Now of course, she is too classy to have done that, but I think he would have started crying — literally? Figuratively? Not sure which — if she had.
hilts
@Ruckus:
We are completely fucked. Even if a Democrat beats Trump, McConnell will resume his role as the Grim Reaper.
Just cue the killer asteroid that wipes out all life on this planet.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW:
“Waaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!! I’m gonna tell my daddy Vladdy on you!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
a long article from 2016 about how the trumps probably laundered Islamic Revolutionary Guard money through their unfinished and now abandoned project in Baku, Azerbaijan.
germy
@SFAW:
HRC mentioned that moment during her interview with Howard Stern. She said she was tempted to turn around and tell him to “back off, creep” but she knew if she reacted… the press would have a field day with the “excitable woman” and “if she can’t tolerate Trump, how is she going to face Putin” etc.
mrmoshpotato
@hilts: That’s why we retake the Senate too (and welcome Senator McGrath with open arms).
Another Scott
@germy:
Not only did he buy crap for himself with funds from his foundation, he has a history of buying fake crap. He’s too stupid to know the difference (and thinks nobody else does either).
VF:
You can guess the rest, but it’s worth a read.
Cheers,
Scott.
opiejeanne
@mrmoshpotato: Yes! We shouldn’t just lie down and die, not just yet. We need to work to elect more Democrats to the US Senate and House. We need to take it all.
trollhattan
@germy:
Glaring at him and pointing to his lectern without a word could have been epic.
It’s what Nancy would do.
Brachiator
@JPL:
It would just go over their heads. And besides, this presidency is a travesty of a mockery of a sham.
Another Scott
@germy: It’s in her What Happened? book, also too.
Ah, what might have been…
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
“I have the original Renoir in a jar, over there on that gold shelf.”
“The painting?”
“No, Renoir. The guy.”
MattF
@Another Scott: Repetition of the same lies, over and over again, is a Trump trademark. It’s called perseveration— well-known (and irksome) behavior for a toddler, a tell-tale sign of neurological problems in an adult.
senyordave
@trollhattan: I think you win the internet for today.
Baud
@germy:
She is correct.
Yutsano
@hilts: With all due respect: fuck your defeatism. We ain’t lost the election yet and there are Dems all over the country dying to get Dolt45 out of the White House. And that means coming for Yertle too.
dww44
@JPL: Yes to the first sentence and hardly likely on the 2nd one. The malevolent force is strong with that group.
jc
It’s a shame that Trump is going to need to be considered credible in spades in the coming year. Unfortunately, credibility has to be earned, it can’t just be claimed in his alternate reality spin machine. And damn, sir, you’ve done an amazing job of not earning it. I hope your bottomless bad faith is your undoing.
LeftCoastYankee
Maybe he’s one of those Nigerian princes….
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
OK it’s not all knob polishing for him but there are a lot of people rushing to say how presidential this is and how valuable this attack is. And yes I’m paraphrasing but the majority of pushback I’ve seen is not coming from the MSM.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
John Revolta
I think her best reaction would’ve been along the lines of “Donald…………are you okay? Can we get somebody to lead Donald back to his podium? I think he’s lost…………”
Pelosi would’ve been more like “Donald, go stand over in your spot. The grownups are talking”.
That would’ve worked too, but Pelosi has always had fewer fucks to give.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Bernie-twitter, of course, is outraged at the suggestion that Bernie supporters are not appropriately and righteously outraged about something. Same at Warren town-hall today
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott: “Is that the real ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in your plane?”
“Yes. The one in Rome, fake, total loser, sad!”
M31
“The next 6 months in Iran will be critical” — Tom Friedman, probably
Juju
@JPL: It was a consulate, not an embassy in Benghazi.
trollhattan
@senyordave:
Thankyavermuch. I’ll take good care with it.
When I think of Trump collecting “art” I flash to Carmella Soprano’s Lladro collection. WWCSB
Much of what I understand about Trump I learned from “The Sporanos” and “The Godfather” although their food was much better.
mrmoshpotato
@opiejeanne: Little edit here.
That’s better.
Butter Emails
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Most American’s aren’t going to give a rat’s butt about offing Soleimani one way or the other unless it causes blow back that exceeds what is now the current background noise of death and destruction in the region.
Ruckus
@hilts:
That’s not what I said.
Yes it’s not all daisies and caviar but we do have to fight and we can still do that. This is a democracy, of sorts, and in any democracy there will always be a segment that doesn’t want anyone else to get anything, just like in any other political system. Right now those people seem to have won, in Vlad’s trying to overthrow our system and make himself richer. But they haven’t. They are losing more and more as every day goes by and their “leader” makes an even bigger ass of himself.
I thought Vietnam was a bad time but this is worse. Which means we have to work harder to make it better.
I’m going to suggest that after we do that, maybe we should reflect upon on our internal weaknesses as a country and address those. We started out with 3 equal branches of the government but have lost control of that. We need to take that back.
mrmoshpotato
@Brachiator: Turfucken.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: my mom had a bunch of lladro, I originally wrote “has” but now that I think of it, I don’t remember it in her apartment. Maybe it went to the goodwill when they downsized.
This has me thinking of the movie The Freshman, which I love, but the relevant clip is not on the youtube
ETA: WWCSB? what would Carmela Soprano buy?
mrmoshpotato
@senyordave: Does he want it all? There are parts no sane person would want to have.
oatler.
Maybe significantly, Chuck Todd’s twitter feed has been dormant since Dec 19.
Suzy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: publicity works. I find it outrageous that a billionaire can buy himself relevance in a primary. And Bloomberg doesn’t even participate in debates.
I wonder… who is/are the second choice(s) of Bloomberg supporters ?
Mnemosyne
@MattF:
It’s also a trademark of narcissists. They tell the same lies over and over again until the people they’re dealing with give up and let them “win.”
In many ways, narcissists are emotional toddlers in adult bodies, so it makes sense that they would still be doing toddler behaviors.
JPL
@Juju: lol That was my point. I doubt that trump knows the difference.
SFAW
@germy:
I understand her reasoning, and agree that the Villagers would have responded “poorly,” but I think that poor response would have lasted for one, maybe two weeks. I think she could have also turned it to her advantage: “Hillary will handle Putin, Kim, Iran, or [insert appropriate name] as easily as she handled den Scheissgibbon.”
Baud
@Suzy: Bloomberg or Bust, baby!
JPL
@oatler.: I read that they are considering giving the entire 4-6 pm time slot on MSNBC to Nicolle. Chuck would go to 9 am when Stephanie Ruhle moved over to NBC as their full time business reporter.
Baud
@SFAW:
See, she IS a Warmonger!
patrick II
I don’t think he sits around all day just because he is lazy. I think he doesn’t know what to do. He knows how to con and how to appeal to the lowest of low denominators. That’s it. He doesn’t understand even how to have fun, to enjoy music or arts, to have a kid’s science fair, or even what science is, let alone the complexities of affairs of state.
That is more than lazy, that is a very damaged human being afraid to admit his inadequacies even, or especially, to himself. Unfortunately it seems contagious.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Si. It was endlessly fascinating to me how Tony would always eventually buy Carm off no matter what awful thing she caught him in. Made it all the more devastating when he bought Anthony Junior off with an M-series Bimmer. Only Meadow seems to have escaped the Soprano grasp (or did she…?)
Kay
Speaking of birthers:
Every single Trump is awful.
Baud
@JPL:
Who is they? I thought Chuck Todd was the political director for the whole team.
trollhattan
@patrick II:
“He’s in Executive Time. And it’s all Executive Time.”
Have they converted the WH briefing room into a TRUMP casino yet?”
Ksmiami
@Ruckus: literally the reason I’m unhappy with the Democratic primaries is this: We are in a cold-but heating up Civil War with people (Republicans) who are against Constitutional Democracy and I don’t think we have time to figure out whose health plan is best etc – literally we are in an existential battle and the lead guys don’t seem to understand this fact
trollhattan
@Kay:
That Melania quote reads wonderfully in a Natasha Fatale accent. That same afternoon:
“Okay Donald, I am saying everybody who voting is, thinking Obama not American is, on the teevee. I can have Saks card of credit back now?
Ruckus
@patrick II:
It isn’t contagious it’s just an unreasonably widespread disease that rears it’s ugly head every so often.
Kay
@trollhattan:
The double standard for the two First Ladies is interesting, to say the least.
The NYTimes tracked Michelle Obama back 4 generations, yet not a word on Mrs. Trump’s background or family.
No explanation why one was treated like they were conducting a background check and the other was given a complete pass.
John Revolta
@patrick II: He knows how to have HIS kind of fun. But since he can’t screw around with hookers or hang out at beauty pageants or grab starlets by the p***y anymore, yeah. He’s bored and has no idea what to do with himself.
Baud
@Ksmiami:
I kind of agree. It has not been satisfying to me.
ETA: I’m not the people they need to worry about.
jimmiraybob
There was a time that I would have reflexively assumed that this meant “against” the 7 Deadly Sins (negative virtues). But I can’t think of one that they don’t embrace like a stuffed teddy bear.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I feel as if Biden is the one who gets it more than the others. He wasn’t my first choice but I’m coming around.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: You’re amazingly optimistic.
“Hillary coughed! Is she going to die?!”
trollhattan
@Kay:
No kidding. I’ve been “informed” with straight face that Michelle’s mom was on the WH payroll as the girls’ nanny. Meanwhile those Trumplings are all there for free, surrendering millyuns because they love their country so much. Ugh.
JPL
@Baud: Andy Lack. I googled and came up with this article
wallace https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/report-mtp-daily-could-be-dropped-from-the-5-p-m-time-slot-giving-nicolle-wallace-2-hours-on-weekdays/425639
I need a tutorial in how to link..
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Biden has been the best over the past 4-6 weeks in taking a more “visionary” view of what Trump represents. I don’t know that it’s affected the polls much though.
Chetan Murthy
@zhena gogolia:
@Ksmiami:
Wait, wut? [to be clear, I’m Team Broken Glass] Sure Biden gets that he’s gotta throw actual punches at Don Bedsore. But I don’t think he extends that to the entire GrOPer establishment; quite to the contrary, he’s on record as believing that GrOPer Senators will change their tune if he meets ’em halfway. He can’t even fucking call ’em out for wanting him to testify — when he was one of their colleages for god-knows-how-many fucking years.
His inability (unwillingness? does it matter which?) to call it what it is: a cold-but-warming Civil War, is part of what makes me think he’s a bad choice.
patrick II
@John Revolta:
Good point.
hitchhiker
@JPL:
That would be an excellent move.
Ruckus
@Ksmiami:
How can they run on “There is fire everywhere, and the president – and his party have their heads lodged in the exit orifice. Elect me to fix that!” It’s what’s needed but saying it out loud doesn’t elicit the warm response that one might expect in professional vote getting circles. Clinton actually won, but is she president? And if it were someone just saying I’m better, I’m better at the top of their lungs, BS would be the overwhelming candidate. How’s that working out? I would think that most people running for a top national office would have at least a touch of narcissism, an appreciation of their accomplishments and record, and little shame in discussing that over and over. That President Obama seemed to have none is, in my mind, a testament to him as a person, and to his mom as a parent. It’s the overwhelming level of narcissism that’s bad and trump isn’t the only one with a case of it.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
But who has?
Baud
@JPL: Thanks.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Well no overt or spoken reason.
The one that needs no explanation of course is “she’s a democrat!”
Snarki, child of Loki
Trump’s birth certificate says that he was born in JAMAICA, not Kenya.
Tots jerk chicken, he is.
Chetan Murthy
@Baud:
To be elected to high office in America, as a Democrat, one must genuflect in the direction of bipartisanship. So it is written. So you won’t find other candidates saying it, but you will also not find them arguing that they can bring Moscow Mitch to the table to deal fairly. Only Biden argues that.
Ksmiami
@Baud: I know I was accused of being anAnti Bernie troll but I am genuinely fearful that Trump’s re-election is the end of everything- I know Joe appears to make nice overtures to the GOP but I’m hoping that it’s to try and get the 3-5 percent of ppl we need in swing states – the other candidates are lobbing shit at eachother
hitchhiker
Well, okay. Let’s say Biden imagines a future in which Pelosi is the speaker with a healthy majority and Mitch has lost his majority by a hair.
What does he lose by suggesting he’d be happy to work with them? I mean, there are now more people who want to call themselves Independents than people who want to call themselves R or D.
Of course the Rs are not going to play ball, no matter what, ever. It’s become their brand to be assholes, and they’re stuck with it.
But right now, during the campaign, he’s got to talk to Independents and convince them that he really is the generous-spirited, well-seasoned, sane elder who wants to be done with all this ugliness.
(I think this is how he sees himself, for real.) He can only govern if he has a majority, and I don’t think for one second he really believes that Mitch would come around, or allow any of his members to cooperate.
But he still has to signal willingness, because that’s his brand.
LuciaMia
At this point I would almost welcome a military coup. At least it would take the nuclear codes out of his hands.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
That’s a different issue. The fact that Biden is limiting his fight to Trump doesn’t change the fact that he is only candidate a making broad thematic arguments against Trump, while the others seem to be focusing on policy, right or wrong.
prostratedragon
Just joining the thread, but if anyone has already nominated this for the rotating tags, I second.
debbie
Damn, he’s aged a lot in 8 years. Good.
mrmoshpotato
@LuciaMia: Go tell that to Stonekettle.
He’ll let you know what he thinks of that.
ThresherK
In that thread there’s a pic of the FTFNYT front page of the day when Bill Clinton, in the middle of being hunted by impeachment, ordered the strike which came within 90 minutes of hitting Osama Bin Laden (three years before 9/11, five years after the “little” World Trade Center attack).
Replete with “wow, history repeats itself” shit comments.
Republican? No, Bernie fan.
What a good look for them!
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: Years of being the Kremlin’s bitch and yelling about a black man who’s infinitely better than you will do that.
Chetan Murthy
@Baud:
*cough*
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/4/19/18508224/elizabeth-warren-mueller-report-trump-impeachment
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/22/kamala-harris-impeachment-donald-trump-1287206
I got bored and stopped there. Warren, Castro, Harris, all back in April 2019. And sure, Harris & Castro are gone now. But Warren is a top-tier candidate.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
I’m talking about how they’re implementing their primary campaign strategy. Not individual statements about specific events.
ETA: edited to clarify I’m talking about the primary so far.
Another Scott
@Baud: Eh?
E.g. Warren called for Trump’s impeachment after the Mueller Report was released. Biden didn’t call for Trump’s impeachment until October.
I think you’re making a bigger deal of Biden’s limited recent public statements than what Warren and others have done. Warren’s been after Trump for a long time – she hasn’t just been pushing her Plans for That.
My $0.02. YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
I specfied upstairs that I’m referring to the past 4-6 weeks.
Also, see my #109.
schrodingers_cat
Caturday Cat has a message for you!
For those who were curious, I have spotted Russian propaganda more than once on Indian political Twitter too.
Ksmiami
@Baud: yeah Twitter talk is cheap- Trump is a goddamn menace to society, nature and the world and a fucking mobbed up criminal who has no right to make life and death decisions for the rest of us. He is a sick sadistic pos who has no respect for America’s institutions or failsafes and I and 65 million other voters are not committing suicide for him
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: EW has hugged her “friend” even tighter. She is willing to sink with the M4A anchor.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: What are you referring to?
Spanky
Ksmiami
@Spanky: they can all die with their leader then I’m getting off this crazy train
rikyrah
That needs to be a Democratic Party ad, played on an endless loop
debbie
@Baud:
Given the length of the campaign season and the many, many appearances made by all candidates, there’s no reason why each of them couldn’t do both
ETA: This is the one thing I like about what he’s doing.
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: I’m not so sure.
E.g.Politico from December:
There are substantial differences between them. Warren is her own person in this race.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@debbie:
It’s all about strategy. No campaign can do everything worth doing. They all decide what they think will work best for them.
Biden could not get away with being an in-the-weeds policy person IMHO.
Kent
If he pulls the same shit again, I think the pitch perfect response by Warren or Klobuchar would be to turn around and say:
“Are you lost Donald? Do you need to take a moment?” turns and looks off stage and waves “can we get someone to help Mr. Trump back to his podium? He seems a little disoriented”
debbie
@Baud:
Definitely not.
debbie
@Kent:
How about, “Looking for something, old man?”
Mai naem mobile
Leave Kenya out of this Betty. Kenya deserves no connection to this asshole even though it is consistently in the top ten most corrupt countries in the world.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
What Biden says about Republicans, whether he believes it or whether he’s appealing to those “suburban” voters who like to hear about bipartianship means dick-all. The way to deal with Mitch McConnell is to take his majority away. That’s it. Willard Romney is a coward. Susan Collins is a fraud. Lamar Alexander is likely to be replaced by someone much much worse.
So which candidate is the least likely to inspire tote-baggers to go with split-ticket voting in the name of the kind of “keep them honest” clichés that stupid people who read the NYT and think of as high-minded and above-it-all?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud:
That’s what Ron Klain is for.
sukabi
@Baud: Biden would get hopelessly lost if he tried to get into details. He’s never been able to tell a simple story without wandering off after some random thought.
Kent
Um yes. This EXACTLY
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@Kent:
Thirded.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The Beast now saying on twitter that we have identified 52 sites (one for each of the hostages from 40 fucking years ago) in Iran as bombing targets if they retaliate. I’m sure they’ll back down now. Peace Through Strength.
If my math is right following the graphic TRMS had last night of active duty personnel in Iran’s neighborhood, from Syria to Afghanistan, that number is close to 60,000.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Gotta wonder if Saudi will attack us covertly and blame it on Iran.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
GOVCHRIS1988
@Kent:
As much as people keep believing the bipartisanship talk should hurt, Biden’s lead this whole time is proof that this might not be a bad strategy. We’re political junkies, so we of course know who Mitch McConnell is and how evil he is, but ask anyone outside of Kentucky who he is and it would be like Jimmy Kimmel asking who the vice president is outside his studio. Suffice it to say, you have to convince THOSE people to vote for you and in spite of them living in a blue state, probably believe the current Republican problem is a Trump problem that gets fixed with Trump than a longtime Republican one.
I don’t believe Joe Biden believes he will have true “bipartisanship” once he gets elected. Senator Voinovich told him as much when he was the new Vice President. But, an election is not about being right or forward, its about winning, and as of now, Joe Biden is winning.
JPL
@Baud: Won’t be the first time Saudi attacked us. Israel could play that card also.
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
I applaud you for correctly using the accusative case.
Mnemosyne
@sukabi:
I actually wouldn’t be surprised if Biden has ADHD. I have it myself, so I don’t see it as disqualifying.
Trump probably has it, too, but he’s also a toxic narcissist, which is a way bigger problem than mere ADHD.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
trump’s top military advisor
Hurr hurr hurr
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Kay:
It could be as simple as the genealogist that they hire every four years knows nothing about researching the area, and they decided it wasn’t worth hiring a specialist for. Or Melania’s parents declined to give them the necessary information to get started.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I can’t recall. Did the media say that Obama appeared to be wearing a tan suit?
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Looks like Trump has decided to re-enact 1979, only this time the American hostages will be the troops that we just sent overseas, because taking a bunch of Americans hostage seems like the logical counter-move for the Iranians here. Great job, Donnie! ?
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Hillary Clinton: “A man you can bait with a tweet isn’t a man we should trust with the nuclear codes.”
https://www.vox.com/2016/7/28/12319846/hillary-clinton-dnc-speech-trump-nukes
I am freaking the f–k out.
Mai naem mobile
I was at CVS the other day and they had a sign for Epoch Times on their very small magazine rack in the front of the store. I was in a hurry so I didn’t take the time to see if they had the actual magazine on the rack. This store is a couple of miles from ASU not some rural redneck area.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I know next to nothing about Islamic culture and Persian history, but it occurs to me that if anything could at least make Shi’ites and Sunnis hate somebody more than each other, it would be blowing up some thousand-plus year old shrines that both sides consider sacre
ETA: wondering what idiots drew up the list for him, could just as easily been Bolton or Stephen Miller doing a google search like I just did.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If that asshole follows through with that, he will be no better than the fucking Taliban. ???
ETA: Remember the destruction of the statues of Buddha?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
If there is a God, why should They punish us for how we treated her?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: yup, first time they came on my radar
I imagine the police chiefs of every cathedral city in Europe is now updating their own security protocols.
raven
@debbie: The Buddha probably laughed when they did that!
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Combine that with Hegseth’s earlier tweet about the Kurds being willing to help us again. ??????
Kent
Several issues here:
Honestly I think political talent trumps carefully calculated policy positions every time. Obama and Bill Clinton won elections because they were generational political talents, not because of any policy positions they put forward. Honestly, Trump basically did the same thing but coming from the dark side.
Mai naem mobile
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Pompeo is known to be an evangelical nutjob so him pushing to blow up Islamic holy sites would be in line to bringing the rapture closer.
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Older than that — remember that the ancient Greeks were battling the powerful Persian empire at least 4,000 years ago. Some of the oldest historical sites known to humans are in that area. And Donnie’s going to bomb them because his fee-fees are hurt. ?
Hopefully the curators and other staff are packing up and moving what objects they can to protect them from the fate of the historical objects that were in Iraq that we didn’t give a shit about, either.
Also, someone can correct me, but I believe that deliberately bombing World Heritage Sites is an actual war crime. Again.
raven
@Mnemosyne: He doesn’t give a fuck.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
Oh, I know. And Pence and his buddies are happy to get rid of any evidence that human civilization is way older than their pastors told them.
I’m still pissed about the incalculable damage to our collective history, though.
joel hanes
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
if he had an exit strategy for Iran, and he said we weren’t going to need one.
I don’t know what that means.
I’m afraid that it may mean that the fucking moron thinks we can successfully invade Iran, occupy it indefinitely, and “take their oil”.
Kent
@Mnemosyne: The Iranians have deliberately sited their important military installations near all these religious and world-heritage sites as well as Silverman has pointed out:
https://mwi.usma.edu/irans-human-geography-wicked-problem-people-places-things-complicates-us-strategy/
Baud
@Kent:
I thought he was exclusive to us.
Citizen Alan
@debbie:
I sure do. I also remember that before 9/11 probably not 1 American in 10,000 had a clue what the Taliban was. It was when I realized that the overwhelming majority of American have zero clue about what happens in other countries until it affects us and only the vaguest clue thereafter.
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen Alan: Why limit your statement to Americans?
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I saw a short video of hers at one of her campaign stops where she is said that she is still BS’s friend and still supports M4A. This was posted by an EW supporter who was upset that EW was not taking the fight to BS like she did with Pete B.
Chetan Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: I could be wrong about this, but ISTM the citizens of other countries must necessarily know more about the USA, b/c what we do can so easily affect them. I know that when I lived/worked in Europe, the Europeans I met all knew far more about the USA (all facets) than I did about any of their countries.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Thanks.
Kent
This is exactly true. My wife’s family is from Chile so we spend a lot of time in Chile and I have lots of political conversations down there over wine and pisco sours. Once in a while we swing around to the observation that Chileans always know more about American politics than we do about theirs. To which I respond. “Fine. Tell me what you know about politics in Romania or Malalwi or Kazakhstan. Those are the countries most similar to Chile in size.”
debbie
@Citizen Alan:
Back then, the NYT was an excellent paper. They were doing all kinds of reporting on the Taliban, Northern Alliance, etc.
Chetan Murthy
@Kent: How aware were they of the politics of other South American countries? I’d guess *very*? Europeans were very aware of the politics of other European countries; less of countries further away. Thing is, most Americans know nothing of even Canadian or Mexican politics.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat:
I saw a tweet about that town hall and I got the impression that frame of the question (assuming we’re talking about the same one) is that she’s gone soft on Single Payer
StringOnAStick
@Kent: Mmm, pisco sours! I had one made with ginger juice in Puerto Natales last year that remains my favorite hard alcohol drink ever.
Kent
@StringOnAStick: My in-laws know better than to show up here without a couple of bottles of pisco and pisco sour mix packed in their bags!
It is astonishingly hard to find pisco here in the US. The very biggest liquor stores sometimes have a few bottles. Usually some moderate priced stuff from Chile and some ultra-expensive stuff from Peru. But you really have to search hard. The other problem is that liquor stores here don’t know what it is or where to put it. Pisco is white wine brandy. But they usually hide it with the Caribbean rums or some such.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Ksmiami: What does “fighting for the soul of America” mean to you?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Baud:
What does, amirite?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Chetan Murthy:
Sanders has some interesting theories about getting Republican Senators to vote for his M4A and other big plans. Biden’s not the only one who spins fantastical tales about R Senators.
Suzy
@zhena gogolia: Joe Biden says he entered the race precisely because Trump is an existential threat to the soul of the nation. From his interviews in the past few years, he wasn’t necessarily convinced about running, but felt the urgency after Charlottesville. Was revulsed at the damage Trump was inflicting, and felt that he was better positioned than many other democrats to rally a large coalition in order to restore governance on a normal, and more generous, footing. His domestic agenda is pretty progressive, but less so, obviously, than those of Warren and Sanders.
Warren and Sanders, at the core, have always been running on domestic policy, to confront income inequality and corporate power. In both cases, this domestic agenda has also been the core motivation of their entering politics.
Buttigieg, Booker, Castro entered the race to get more name recognition and maybe the vp slot. I think Kamala Harris wanted the same thing, maybe more.
Chetan Murthy
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Oh ha, yeah, his “we’re gonna have a RevolLUtion, and they’ll be FORCED to do it” shit? Yeah, that’s ridiculous. And that’s why he’s low on my list of candidates. And in any case, I’ve never heard him say that he can reach some sort of bipartisan agreement with the GrOPers. But they’re both pretty awful, sure.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Suzy: I think Harris was absolutely in it to win. Booker, too. There’s an old story that when CB was watching Obama’s 04 speech the friend he was with leaned over and said, “Well, Book, maybe you can be the second black president.”
I agree with what you say about Biden, but also I’d add in his son’s death. Beau was gonna be President Biden, and the father has picked up the torch from the son.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chetan Murthy: Yes, they know more because it affects them.
sab
@Kent: Thread dead, but I LOVE your reply. My dad has dementia and is lives in a memory unit. This is how we talk to the residents. I caught one of them escaping down an open stairwell. When I told her she had to go back she called me a piece of crap. I stood my ground. Fun times in eldercare. And I am 65 and keeping the very olds in line.
barb 2
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
OMG — Trump intends to nuke Iran. That is sort of like the Biblical mythology of destroying a nation, their people and the land they lived on. Their blood thirsty god told them to salt the land so that nothing could grow.
With Trump’s claim of not needing an exit strategy — we can translate that to a threat to nuke Iran and do nothing about any survivors?????
Early in his occupation of the white house – he claimed he could get out of various hot spots in just days. Turns out he was going the just nuke the nasty bits into compliance. Then one of his staffers told him he could not do that. I’ve read about that early threat to use nukes where ever he wanted. Perhaps he now has new staff who never say no?
I guess Trump would inform Putin first?