Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

All your base are belong to Tunch.

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

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

No one could have predicted…

People are complicated. Love is not.

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

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

Infrastructure week. at last.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Let. Us. SAVOR Open Thread: #TrumpTulsaFAIL

Let. Us. SAVOR Open Thread: #TrumpTulsaFAIL

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… Big Number: 59%. A Fox News poll released Friday found that 59% of Americans said crowded campaign events are a bad idea, given the risks posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The poll also found that Republicans sharply diverge with Trump on the issue of mask wearing, with 70% saying they have a favorable view of them despite Trump consistently eschewing masks at public appearances…


A lovingly detailed saga of every massive #FAIL:

… Scanning cable news coverage earlier in the day, Trump was disappointed to see pictures not of massive lines forming outside the Bank of Oklahoma Center in Tulsa but of Geoffrey Berman, the federal prosecutor Trump’s attorney general had attempted unsuccessfully to dismiss the night before, a person familiar with his response said.

Hours later, the President was informed six campaign staffers in Tulsa had tested positive for coronavirus ahead of his scheduled arrival — an unfortunate reminder of an ongoing pandemic Trump’s critics say he is ignoring. After initially dismissing the revelation, a source familiar with his reaction said Trump erupted when it was subsequently reported in the media — overtaking coverage of the rally itself.

Still, a determined Trump was intent on breathing new life into his staggering campaign. He took off for Tulsa, convinced large swaths of his supporters would be waiting for him there…

When the President landed in Tulsa at 5:51 p.m. local time, the crowds his aides had promised him had failed to materialize. Air Force One flew over the arena, where Trump had been told thousands of supporters would be waiting to hear from him before he went inside, but saw nothing resembling the sea of people he’d been expecting.

While he was in the air, the campaign had canceled the outside appearance given the apparent lack of enthusiasm.

Once viewed inside the White House and Trump’s campaign as a reset button for a presidency beset by crises and self-inflicted wounds, Saturday evening’s campaign rally in Tulsa instead became plagued with pitfalls, a disappointing microcosm of the blindspots, denial and wishful thinking that have come to guide the President as he enters one of the most precarious moments of his first term…

After a nearly two-hour speech notable mainly for its discursiveness, Trump left Tulsa on Saturday night having spent around three hours in the city. The six advance staffers who had tested positive for coronavirus remained in their chain hotel rooms, quarantined for the foreseeable future…

For the past week, the rally has consumed Trump’s attention, according to people familiar with the matter. The President invited Oklahoma’s governor to the White House on Thursday for a roundtable that was also a venue for Trump to hype his event.

“We’re going to be in Oklahoma. And it’s a crowd like, I guess, nobody’s seen before. We have tremendous, tremendous requests for tickets like, I think, probably has never happened politically before,” Trump said. Later, during the same event, Trump appeared to be idly scrolling through his phone while two women business owners detailed their experience during the pandemic…

Ultimately, aides said Tulsa was about something far more important than mere politicking; after a dreary stretch, the event was meant to provide Trump the adulation he craves and to re-energize him after weeks spent wallowing in sagging poll numbers and critical media coverage.

Trump told staff he wanted all of his surrogates on-hand when he landed in Tulsa on Saturday night, so aides invited dozens and chartered a private plane to transport them all. Photos from the flight show none wearing masks.

“I guarantee you after Saturday, if everything goes well, he’s going to be in a much better mood,” a Trump political adviser said. “He believes that he needs to be out there fighting and he feeds off the energy of the crowds.”

After Trump finished speaking, a person familiar told CNN that two Secret Service agents had also tested positive for coronavirus.

No loyalty from the NYTimes courtiers, of course — “Trump Rally Fizzles as Attendance Falls Short of Campaign’s Expectations”:

… The weakness of Mr. Trump’s drawing power and political skills, in a state that voted for him overwhelmingly and in a format that he favors, raised new questions about his electoral prospects for a second term at a time when his poll numbers were already falling. And rather than speak to the wide cross-section of Americans who say they are concerned about police violence and systemic racism, he continued to use racist language, describing the coronavirus as “Kung Flu.”…

Mr. Trump was furious about the unused outdoor stage and the comparatively thin crowd in the stadium, according to two people familiar with his reaction. News broadcasts carried video of the partially empty stadium, and even the Drudge Report, a reliably conservative website, carried an all-caps headline that said “MAGA LESS MEGA” with a picture of rows and rows of empty blue seats….

… Trump had no message of sympathy for those who lost friends and family to the virus, complaining instead that extensive testing was making the pandemic look worse.

“I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please,’” he said, in what appeared to be a striking admission that he’s prioritized politics over accurately tracking the spread of the virus. A White House official said later the president “was clearly speaking in jest.”

Despite the protests against racism and police brutality that have swept the nation in recent weeks, the president made scant reference to the issues raised by demonstrators. Trump did, however, lace his speech with racist comments, at one point calling the coronavirus, which originated in China, the “kung flu.”…

The anemic turnout in the deep-red state of Oklahoma may be a red flag for Trump’s reelection campaign, which is trailing by nearly double digits to Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee…

Ed Rollins, a veteran Republican strategist who leads a super PAC that backs Trump’s reelection, said it was a bad idea for the campaign to stage a rally with the coronavirus still spreading unchecked. The campaign’s failure to meet its own crowd expectations was a worrisome sign about its competence, he added.

“Any time you put on a show and you get bad press out of it, that’s not a good strategy,” Rollins said. “The bottom line is you’ve got to know your audience, and the reality is it certainly doesn’t convince me they’re counting well.”…

Yet Trump managed to impress his fans among the “Leftists”, for… reasons…

But remember!

Reader Interactions

173Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    Want folks to realize how much of a zero last night was for Dolt45.

    He got punked by a bunch of social media savvy teenagers.

    The speech sucked.

    The arena was only a third full.

    And, the race riot he wanted didn’t happen. The BLM protesters wound up in the Black Wall Street neighborhood and had a dance party, leaving the Dolt45 acolytes in the dust.

  2. 2.

    bbleh

    Mmmm, schadenfreude.

    Mixed with salty tears and brewer’s yeast, it’s great on popcorn!

  3. 3.

    Miss Bianca

    Still savoring. And Michael Moore can just go fuck off. Seems like he’s just so damn mad that whichever of his precious white working class voters who aren’t the Trumpenproletariat went for Biden over Bernie, he’s almost *rooting* for MAGA-tism.

  4. 4.

    cope

    HIs Tuesday trip to Arizona should be quite a treat for us schadenfreude fans as well, although I wonder if they will pack any group meetings with paid attendees just to make up for last night.

  5. 5.

    Mike G

    … Trump had no message of sympathy for those who lost friends and family to the virus

    “I never imagined Trump would fuck MY feelings!”

    Leopards eating faces, etc.
    At least now Trump’s campaign team has a million-strong mailing list of names like Hugh Jass and Holden McGroin.

  6. 6.

    JPL

    For trump to lose his base, it would take a covid infected boy dead in his bed. Those folks are rabid, although I do think they don’t want to hang out with a loser.

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    Hopefully, the disaster last night will shut up the MSM.

    Some of them were like, “shouldn’t Joe Biden be out doing big events?”

    And, I was like, “um, no. He actually cares about his voters.”

     

    BUt, if Biden did it, then there is their BOTH SIDES???

     

    instead of them pointing out how ridiculous and selfish and DANGEROUS that shyt was.

    just unequivocally a wrong and bad decision wrapped up in narcissism.

     

    But, they continue to try and normalize Dolt45?

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    I’m surprised that we’re not yet drowning under a wave of Trump Tweets proclaiming his complete triumph yesterday and that anyone who says otherwise is a tool of the Fake State and is spreading Deep News. I guess his handlers have managed to hide his phone and turn off the tv.

  11. 11.

    J R in WV

     

    The six advance staffers who had tested positive for coronavirus remained in their chain hotel rooms, quarantined for the foreseeable future…

    So… Does anyone think the Trump campaign will actually pay for their stay? Medical costs? Flight home?

    ‘Cause I sure don’t!

    Trump will screw them coming and going!!

    (And wasn’t it Mittster who cancelled everyone’s campaign credit card the very evening of the election?  So trustworthy an employer!!)

  13. 13.

    Martin

    @Miss Bianca: Nah, he’s just trying to scare you into voting.

    I don’t think that’s a good way of going about it, but that’s kind of his schtick. Bernie wasn’t his first choice – Michelle Obama was. He was pretty clear that if you want to guarantee a Trump loss, nominate her. I agree with that.

  16. 16.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    Oh, fingers are sooo crossed that this is a portent of the future.

    Wonder if he has any doubts now about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue and no one doing anything about it?

  17. 17.

    RSA

    “I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please,’” he said, in what appeared to be a striking admission that he’s prioritized politics over accurately tracking the spread of the virus. A White House official said later the president “was clearly speaking in jest.”

    120,000 dead Americans is great comedy material.

  18. 18.

    CaseyL

    @dmsilev: I hear he’s playing golf.

    I like the idea that T* may start smelling of Loser Stank.  That’ll peel off a few voters who just want to go with the winners.

  20. 20.

    West of the Rockies

    @Juju:

    Brutal.

    It would appear that Trump is genuinely approaching that notorious 27% mark.  The BOK was at about 33% capacity, with only the most hardcore, low-information Morlocks in attendance.  Things won’t get better for him.  Loser Stench is his new cologne.

  21. 21.

    Mike in NC

    Dear Speaker Pelosi: My birthday is coming up this week. Can you please impeach Fat Bastard again just as a favor for me? TIA…

  23. 23.

    Ken

    an unfortunate reminder of an ongoing pandemic Trump’s critics say he is ignoring

    No, CNN. Trump says he’s ignoring it. Actually “ignoring” would be several steps better than what he said, since at least then he wouldn’t be interfering with testing programs.

  25. 25.

    Ladyraxterinok

    Such a relief none of the fears came to pass.

    From what I heard locally, protestors and especially the blacks here and their leaders wanted —and achieved—a very peaceful Juneternth celebration and audience for Rev Al!!

  27. 27.

    Greenergood

    However badly and incoherently  Drump spoke and behaved on Saturday, we still must GOTV totally. No quarter for complacency – Biden knows that and we all need to heed it. Drump and his minions will use EVERY. Trick in the book.

  28. 28.

    debbie

    @RSA:

    I don’t know why people are surprised at his statement. He said the very same thing back in January or February when he didn’t want that cruise ship filled with sick passengers to dock. “I like my numbers low. I want to keep them low.”

  29. 29.

    dexwood

    BOK one-third of capacity. Not quite 27 per cent, but getting there. Mockery and ridicule, pour it on.

    west of the rockies got there before me. Hat tip.

  30. 30.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    We’re really making the schadenfreude last! I approve of that. We’ve had our share of dark days and will doubtless have more. For now, let’s point and laugh

  31. 31.

    Ken

    @West of the Rockies: I’ve seen no confirmation, but earlier today there was a post that broke down the attendance. Many of the people in the 6600 count were venue staff, security, campaign staff, news crews, etc. so it was closer to 27% of capacity.

    There was also a claim that a large fraction of the attendees were paid actors. I don’t know if I believe that, but if those numbers are accepted it was more like 20%.

  32. 32.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Mike G:

    I’d bet any amount of money that Trump has not spent a nanosecond grieving over the deaths of 120,000 Americans.  His monstrous indifference to the pain and suffering of his fellow citizens is beyond despicable. He’s a flat out psychopath and i can’t wait to see his totalitarian ass removed from the White House.

     

    @rikyrah:

    The speech sucked.

    At every rally, Trump reveals himself to be an emotional basket case with the thinnest skin and the most fragile ego.  His speeches are nothing more than verbal diarrhea.

  33. 33.

    Yutsano

    My God. Watching him walk off Marine One. That was the most dejected I had ever seen him. Let’s repeat that on November 3rd eh?

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    @Martin: 
    Martin –
    Norton tells me that site/page launched a malicious attack. You might want to kill the link. [Yeah, I realized the edit window has probably expired.]

  37. 37.

    laura

    I hope he is still so consumed with rage that he can barely see for the high blood pressure. I hope the entire trump “family” and campaign paid escorts/remoras are all enjoying a Father’s Day get together and are getting the reaming that only a narcissist in complete melt down and blame-casting can deliver. I hope that the press revealing just how pwned he got from our nation’s youth and the celebrating of an ego crushing that can be seen from outer space is playing on an endless loop in his sad interior dialog. Everyone knows he’s a loser and he knows everyone knows – even gym jordan the jacketless nuisance and soon to be unemployed Martha McSally saw what we all saw – a loser in the full flower of his quick skid into the dumpster.

  39. 39.

    SFAW

    @Ken:

    There was also a claim that a large fraction of the attendees were paid actors. I don’t know if I believe that, but if those numbers are accepted it was more like 20%.

    I saw that tweet (or whatever it was). I think someone was making a joke. [Of course, if that person had used “crisis actors” instead of “gig actors,” that would have made it more obvious.]

  40. 40.

    MattF

    And… John Bolton says he’ll vote for Biden. Sigh. I suppose I have to approve of that.

  43. 43.

    lgerard

    Jared and Ivanka have already leaked the story that they are pissed about the whole thing.

    So now we know that they are not responsible for any of this.

  44. 44.

    Mary G

    The knives are out for poor Brad. CNN has a piece up about how Jarvanka are pissed at him that ends thusly:

    Another campaign adviser summed up the evening by saying “it went poorly.”

    Parscale was already under pressure inside the Trump campaign, the adviser said, as the President has occasionally expressed disappointment in his performance over the last several weeks.

    Parscale is facing a “decline of confidence,” from Trump’s inner circle, the adviser added.

    “Kellyanne (Conway), (Paul) Manafort and Corey (Lewandowski) never had rally size issues,” the adviser said of Trump’s former campaign managers.

    “It went poorly” is the understatement of the year. So far.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I agree. I slept better last night than I have in weeks, and I’m getting back to my work against him tomorrow. Today is just gloating and revenge for Hillary.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    Barr is lying again. He’s turning out to be a Trump-level liar. I wonder if all the people who told us he was prestigious and well-connected so therefore wouldn’t be horribly corrupt realize (yet) that they’re very poor judges of character. This is a big mistake they made. Not sure how they could have missed this one. I don’t think people go from “good” to “bad” at Barr’s age. He always sucked.

    Marc E. Elias
    @marceelias
    ·6h
    AG Barr was interviewed this morning and said some dangerously ignorant things about vote by mail.

  46. 46.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @rikyrah: But, they continue to try and normalize Dolt45

    Keep in mind Trump is really from the MSM. His show was on MSNBC. At lot them likely see nothing wrong with Trump’s narcissism because they are narcissists themselves.

  47. 47.

    Ken

    @Mary G: “Kellyanne (Conway), (Paul) Manafort and Corey (Lewandowski) never had rally size issues,”

    They were working with Trump 2016, when it had novelty. Now that’s worn off, leaving just the man and his record.

  48. 48.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @dmsilev: I’m surprised that we’re not yet drowning under a wave of Trump Tweets proclaiming his complete triumph yesterday and that anyone who says otherwise is a tool of the Fake State and is spreading Deep News. I guess his handlers have managed to hide his phone and turn off the tv.

    Or maybe Trump is that humiliated. I suspect a few more of incidents like that I we will see Trump bail off to some resort.

  49. 49.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    @Mary G: How to apply for tickets to President Trump’s Phoenix “Students for Trump” event…

    I’m sure that Boaty McBoatface will really enjoy going to that event. Four or five thousand times, or so.

  50. 50.

    zhena gogolia

    Haven’t read the comments yet, but boy did I enjoy reading this post. Thanks, Anne Laurie.

  51. 51.

    Mike in NC

    A White House official said later the president “was clearly speaking in jest.”

    They keep repeating this lie over and over to try to cover for him. Fat Bastard doesn’t joke or jest or understand sarcasm. He’s a bully who lacks even a single molecule of wit in his lizard brain. Cruelty and retribution are all he has.

  54. 54.

    Jay C

    @Martin:

     

    @Mary G:

     

    Well, the Phoenix venue is a 3200-seat megachurch rented for the occasion, so it’s unlikely they will have much of a problem filling it up. If the Trump campaign can’t turn out 3000 folks in ARIZONA, he might as well just resign now, and leave it to Mike Pence to clean up the mess…..

  56. 56.

    Mary G

    @Kay: People on Twitter are saying that this didn’t age well:

    Ok, folks, I know Barr has said some bad stuff, but let me express the perhaps unpopular view that say that this would be a very decent outcome. Barr was a very fine AG. He knows and values the department’s traditions and supervised at least two special prosecutor investigations. https://t.co/MtlKZcGUNY
    — Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 6, 2018

    I see that on my TL every time Barr produces his bullshit. Wittes also vouched for Kavanaugh before his hearings and had to take it back.  ETA: Lots of mainstream long time Republicans just can’t see what’s right in front of their noses. The GOP is been rotting away for decades. But I think the stink is just impossible to ignore any more.

  57. 57.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    June 21, 2020, 7:37 p.m.

    President Trump and several staff members stood backstage and gazed at the empty Bank of Oklahoma Center in horror.

    ***

    The president, who had been warned aboard Air Force One that the crowds at the arena were smaller than expected, was stunned, and he yelled at aides backstage while looking at the endless rows of empty blue seats in the upper bowl of the stadium, according to four people familiar with what took place.

    ***

    When he landed back at the White House and walked off Marine One, his tie hung untied around his neck. He waved to reporters, with a defeated expression on his face, holding a crumpled red campaign hat in one hand.

    Priceless

  58. 58.

    dmsilev

    @Mike in NC: Also, they roll that lie out even when it’s massively inappropriate. The obvious follow up question to the anonymous White House official would be ‘so, what other national and global tragedies does the President think is humorous?’. Or, ‘how many deaths will it take before Trump stops making jokes about his handling of the pandemic?’,

  59. 59.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @cope: His “rally” here is at some out-of-the-way Assemblies of God (spit) megachurch that seats 3,000. Reports are that the church was not aware that Trump himself was coming there for a rally when it was rented out and have been scrambling to prepare, fwiw. I’m sure the church leaders, and probably most of their congregation of brainwashed cultists, are actually more than happy to have their Chosen One personally visit their Temple of Doom. It’s supposed to be 110F here on Tuesday (it’s 109 on my back porch right now) so that ought to complicate things a little in regards to any sort of a crowd.

  61. 61.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Greenergood:

    I’ve been wondering what kind of October surprise Trump’s team will dream up.

     

    @Yutsano:

    My God. Watching him walk off Marine One.

    That’s one of my two favorite moments of the weekend, the other one being Trump taking a sip of water last night.

  66. 66.

    dmsilev

    Also, guess who will be in charge of the turnaround?

    Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law who serves as the de facto campaign manager, and who was involved in the decision to choose Tulsa as the host city, was not among the group of advisers with the president at the event. But he will be among those to whom the president turns to figure out what rallies look like going forward.

    I endorse this decision.

  67. 67.

    Gravenstone

    @cope: According to one breakdown reported in an earlier thread, almost a third of the attendees were paid for this one as it is. At this rate they might as well just use actors for the whole thing.

  68. 68.

    TS (the original)

    @Kay:

    It seems the republicans now realise the only way they win in November will be via fraud, cheating & voter suppression. This is what Biden & the democratic party have to address. This issue of minimal polling places is spreading through Southern states with each primary election and is combined with difficulty in getting postal votes. Almost like the same person/group is orchestrating each election.

  71. 71.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Once I built a tower up to the sun
    Brick and rivet and lime
    Once I built a tower, now it’s done
    Brother, can you spare a dime?

  72. 72.

    SFAW

    @dmsilev:

    Well, considering that Jared has brought a lasting peace to the Middle East, has provided his father-in-law with a perfect blueprint to jump-start the economy, has solved the racism problem in the US, and has developed a vaccine for AIDS  smallpox  SARS COVID-19, he would seem to be the logical choice. Everything he touches turns to shit gold.

  73. 73.

    WaterGirl

    @Juju: Trump’s voice in that ad as he is explaining about the ramp and the water (Water Gait) sounds jus like I would picture one of those religious leaders who handle the snakes.  Just awful.

  74. 74.

    Chyron HR

    @Baud:

    I’m actually surprised Trump allowed himself to be seen like that.

    AG Barr has yet to rule that a can may not, in fact, look at a king.

  78. 78.

    dmsilev

    Art teacher arrested at Trump rally plans to fight charge

    When Sheila Buck left her apartment two blocks from President Trump’s rally Saturday, she knew she might provoke some people with her black “I can’t breathe” T-shirt. She wound up handcuffed in a jail cell for hours, as video of her arrest played on television.

    […]

    During a decade teaching art in predominantly black elementary schools in Tulsa, Buck said, she witnessed many episodes of discrimination directed toward her students. “I have seen how they’re treated when I took them on field trips,” the 62-year-old Catholic school art teacher said. “This was a chance for me to have my voice heard.” So on Saturday, Buck put on a black mask to protect herself from the novel coronavirus and draped a black cloth over her head, forming a loose hood she said was intended to look like garb worn by the lead character in HBO’s hit show “The Watchmen.”

    […]

    She said she knelt down to pray and was approached by uniformed Tulsa police and law enforcement officials who she said appeared to be Secret Service, dressed in plainclothes and wearing ear pieces.

    “They said, ‘You’re not allowed in here,’ and I said, ‘Yes I am, I have a ticket.’”

    Good job by the Trump campaign and their allies in the Tulsa PD making Ms. Buck about 1,000,000 times more visible than she would have been if they had just let her say her prayer and not bothered her.
    Also, from the comments on that piece, “So it was a 62-year-old grandmother who kept the 993,800 Trumpsters from entering the arena.   We might have known.”.

  79. 79.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Is there anything for which Jared wouldn’t be a good replacement?

    Mike Trout? Jacob deGrom?

    Oh, you said “anything,” not “anyone.” My bad.

  81. 81.

    J R in WV

    @Mike in NC:

    June 21, 2020 at 8:05 pm

    A White House official said later the president “was clearly speaking in jest.”

    They keep repeating this lie over and over to try to cover for him. Fat Bastard doesn’t joke or jest or understand sarcasm. He’s a bully who lacks even a single molecule of wit in his lizard brain. Cruelty and retribution are all he has.

    As if there was ANYTHING about 120,000+ DEAD Americans that anyone would joke about!!! Anyone but Trump, that is. As you say Mike, Trump “doesn’t joke, or jest, or understand sarcasm” — not at all~!!~

  83. 83.

    Gravenstone

    @Villago Delenda Est: Inside the venue the AC will be cranked up to 11. Just the perfect environment for spreading covid-19 about. If these dumbfucks insist on holding these events in hotspot states, the odds will catch up to them.

  84. 84.

    lgerard

    One thing I did not understand about trump’s extended (with drum solo) version of the ramp story.

    He left out the part abut the big strong men crying (strongly) as he negotiated that treacherous incline.

    Perhaps he just forgot about it in the excitement of the moment and it will show up as he further embellishes this story over the next 6 months

  85. 85.

    SFAW

    @Mike in NC:

    Fat Bastard doesn’t joke or jest or understand sarcasm.

    Slightly disagree. He’s more than happy to use sarcasm when insulting one of his “enemies.” But, yeah, the idea that he was joking is ridiculous. They tried that bullshit when he talked about injecting bleach, too. Having heard him saying it, he sure-as-shit wasn’t a joke, nor an attempted one.

  87. 87.

    gwangung

    @Gravenstone: 
    Republicans might be hoping Trump catches it and succumbs; the presidency is lost with either him or Pence, but they might salvage more seats if Pence is heading the ticket….

  88. 88.

    japa21

    Watching the video of his walking from Marine One this morning made my birthday extra special.

    For about the last 30 years, celebrating my birthday hasn’t been a big thing for me. Sure, it was nice when the boys were young and watching them see me enjoy what they gave me. Same now with the grandkids. The two local ones were here today and I loved the handmade card, even if I had to heve them describe what one of the drawings was.

    But for the most part, what’s so special about being around another year?

    This year is different. Number one, because of my age and underlying conditions, the fact I am alive is an accomplishment.  Next year will be even more special if I survive everything this idiot is going to do to try to get reelected and what he will do if he loses. And even more special to celebrate the at least beginning of the righting of this ship we call the USA.

    So as I begin my next trip around the sun, I have a little extra skip in my step.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    @Rob: I’m pretty sure Mary G. knows that, but I believe that the point she was making still stands.

    He vouched for Barr and Kavanaugh, and Mary G’s point was that Benjamin Wittes appears to be a very poor judge of character.

    I am also disappointed in Preet Bharara for his early support of Barr.

  90. 90.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    He got punked by a bunch of social media savvy teenagers.  The speech sucked.  The arena was only a third full.  And, the race riot he wanted didn’t happen.

    He’s like a batter who struck out four times in one inning, all by himself!  A level of loser-dom that truly, only trumpov could pull off.

    Red America, we’ve been telling y’all for 4+ years now: everything this guy touches turns to crap.  Now mask up and let’s flatten this f-ing curve into the ground so we can get on with our lives.

  92. 92.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Gravenstone: I sometimes (when there isn’t a pandemic happening) work at a big sports stadium near where I live which has a capacity of 67,000. On a big match day when every seat is sold I’d estimate there are 2,000 police, safety, medical and security staff on-site along with at least another 2,000 service people providing catering and hospitality, event technical support, TV, press and communications etc.

    For a site like the one the Tulsa event was held in I’d put the minimum numbers of support personnel at around a thousand, including press and TV but that’s a estimate. The fire marshall said there were 6,200 people in the building, take that as you will but they really have to be sure about that number for event safety, especially when the tickets were vastly oversold (ha ha!) and they would have a plan to start refusing entry after the facility reached capacity.

  93. 93.

    West of the Rockies

    Attorney Hobgoblin Barr acts like he’s going to be in charge for a long time.  He’s down to about 200 days before it will be time to pay the piper.

  94. 94.

    Mary G

    The kids are alright in Thousand Oaks, CA, Billin’s childhood home (I think). Link goes to Newsweek.

    The 19 year old kid who put up the Black Lives Matter sign was smart—added a camera too. Caught law enforcement employees vandalizing the sign. Now arrested:Sheriff's, DA's Office Employees Arrested for Vandalizing Black Lives Matter Sign https://t.co/qW4AiEEnsM— Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) June 21, 2020

    White guys aged 58 and 60. Sad!

  96. 96.

    trnc

    Ed Rollins, a veteran Republican strategist who leads a super PAC that backs Trump’s reelection, said it was a bad idea for the campaign to stage a rally with the coronavirus still spreading unchecked. The campaign’s failure to meet its own crowd expectations was a worrisome sign about its competence, he added.

    So, Ed, if you think it’s bad campaign strategy, would you care to comment on how that shit works as policy? Because there is zero daylight between them.

  97. 97.

    Jeffro

    @TS (the original):It seems the republicans now realise the only way they win in November will be via fraud, cheating & voter suppression. This is what Biden & the democratic party have to address. This issue of minimal polling places is spreading through Southern states with each primary election and is combined with difficulty in getting postal votes. Almost like the same person/group is orchestrating each election

    Kind of like an evil ALEC…wait, that’s redundant…kind of like an ALEC that focuses on voter suppression specifically.  I’m sure their ‘playbook’ will get leaked, but in the meantime you are absolutely right: Dems have to pound on this NOW.

    Heck, they also have to pound it home that obstruction of justice (destroying evidence) between now and the inauguration WILL be prosecuted along with the many actual crimes this crime cartel has committed while occupying the Executive Branch.

  98. 98.

    Jeffro

    @West of the Rockies:

    Attorney Hobgoblin Barr acts like he’s going to be in charge for a long time.  He’s down to about 200 days before it will be time to pay the piper.

    Someone needs to show him RED DAWN and convince him to flee to the mountains before the Democratic hordes ‘invade’ in January.  I’m sure he’ll do fine living off of the land…

  99. 99.

    Mary G

    @Rob:

    @WaterGirl: I did know that, but I still think the fact that Barr wrote an unsolicited multiple-page letter about the snow white innocence of the president and disparaged Mueller’s investigation, as well as having gotten pardons for Iran-Contra players during his first term, before even being nominated should have been a clue.

  100. 100.

    Another Scott

    Yes, Donnie failed. Bigly.

    But let’s remember…

    The pro-lifers, btw, are the guys who think 120,000 unnecessarily dead Americans is a fair cost of tax cuts for the rich.

    — LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) June 21, 2020

    Donnie isn’t doing this all by himself. Hundreds of people who swore an oath, and who know that they have the power to stop him, are refusing to do so.

    We have to vote all the monsters out.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  101. 101.

    Ihop

    I can see a multi-part series on Netflix about the trials, tribulations and heartbreaks of six people quarantined for two weeks in the finest motel 6 in the greater Tulsa area. I can’t see if it’s a comedy, drama or truly wretched porn, though.

  102. 102.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @Villago Delenda Est: In the CNN report quoted above in the post they wrote: “After a nearly two-hour speech notable mainly for its discursiveness, Trump left Tulsa…”

    That jumped out at me. “Discursiveness”. Some fancy fucking $20 word that has several meanings, only one of which has a negative connotation, and even that one (“rambling”) is relatively mild and doesn’t come close to accurately describing the bugfuck trainwreck that is the vile buffoon’s speech. Trump castigates them constantly, calls them “the enemy of the people” and so on, and these fucking MSM politcal hacks just can’t help but normalize him and give him some cover anyway.

    I’m with you — the Village must be destroyed.

  103. 103.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Mike in NC: Trump is the most humourless politician I have ever been aware of – there’s no way he was speaking in jest because he doesn’t understand anything that subtle. The only thing he thinks is funny is cruelty

  105. 105.

    Baud

    @Ihop:

    I can see a multi-part series on Netflix about the trials, tribulations and heartbreaks of six people quarantined for two weeks in the finest motel 6 in the greater Tulsa area.  Trump as he’s walking down that ramp.

  109. 109.

    trnc

    @debbie: He has said it several other times since then. In what he thinks is a strong counter, he has also said several times that plenty of tests are available for anyone who wants to get one, which everyone knows has not been true. The one thing he doesn’t say on the subjet? “We need more tests and we are working to make them available.”

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Martin: Jesus, she was never going to run.  She will never run.  Also, HRC was the most admired woman in the world until she ran for President.  Do you really think that people wouldn’t find reasons to hate Michelle Obama if she ran for office?

  116. 116.

    rk

    Six of his campaign people got the virus. Two secret service agents did. He doesn’t wear a mask, no one around him does. Yet he’s not got Corona. Why?

  118. 118.

    jl

    There been an assumption that Trump will act out more, become more destructive, try more tricks to ‘bust out the joint’ as I think mob TV shows put it. I think that is likely, since Trump’s moods change on a dime, and he’ll get that megalomaniac manic urge whenever something he perceives as ‘nice-to-him’ occurs. We, and Democratic leadership need to prepare for that.

    OTOH, Trump hates hard work, especially unless something he perceives as triumph and total domination will ensue easily and quickly. So, he might just give up and start fantasy plans for his wingnut media empire after defeat. Probably swindling the feds has been very profitable, but a lot more work than sucking money out of his Trumpster dupes with shrink wrapped steaks and stanky resorts someone else built. He doesn’t have any Truman in 1948, or Nixon in most of his elections (except as VP to Eisenhower, which he rode as an accessory) in him. In their own very different ways, Truman and Nixon were the ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’ type of person. Trump is not.

    So, what happens next is extremely unpredictable.

    But, from what I’ve read, Biden needs to get his ass in gear wrt to getting regional campaign and GOTV operations going. Last I read, he was very slow in doing that.

  119. 119.

    Patricia Kayden

    Dear @parscale:K-Pop fans didn't prevent MAGAts from attending the rally.ANTIFA didn't prevent MAGAts from getting into the perimeter.You just suck, and your candidate sucks. Make sure to hide your Ferraris. Kiss kiss.#TulsaFlop— Liberal Librarian (@Lib_Librarian) June 22, 2020

  122. 122.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    MIT Technology Review has a good article about the apps of the Trump and Biden campaigns.  It includes a chart comparing the permissions requested by the two campaign apps in Google’s Play Store.

    Data collection—as Parscale’s comment suggested—is perhaps the most powerful thing the Trump 2020 app does. On signing up, users are required to provide a phone number for a verification code, as well as their full name, email address, and zip code. They are also highly encouraged to share the app with their existing contacts. This is part of a campaign strategy for reaching the 40 to 50 million citizens expected to vote for Trump’s reelection: to put it bluntly, the campaign says it intends to collect every single one of these voters’ cell-phone numbers. This strategy means the app also makes extensive permission requests, asking for access to location data, phone identity, and control over the handset’s Bluetooth function.

    Team Joe, the app put together by Joe Biden’s campaign, has some surface similarities to the Trump app, but it is a very different proposition. It does some things that the Trump app does, including sending users notifications of upcoming campaign events or training sessions for digital activists. But where the Trump app has range of uses, from spreading tailored campaign messages to airing live streams of rallies, Team Joe is largely built for a single purpose: relational organizing.

    The Official Trump 2020 App has a much longer list of access requests. It wants to read your contacts and know your precise and approximate location (GPS and network based).

     

    h/t https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/21/1004228/trumps-data-hungry-invasive-app-is-a-voter-surveillance-tool-of-extraordinary-scope/

  123. 123.

    jl

    @Amir Khalid: I think Trump sincerely has this lizard brain swindler’s impulse to believe that that if something can be hidden, it’s not there. That’s been a guiding principle of keeping his scams going for decades now.

    But in another part of his head, he must dimly realize that to the extent his BS messed up early testing and PPE for the country it was a disaster that cannot be salvaged, and he failed.

    So, on both counts, no way he can ever do anything adequate on those fronts. Tests and PPE have to both stink and be not important, otherwise he stunk up the whole country and is bigly, a total fool and failure, and a dumb slob, and he can never admit that to himself.

  125. 125.

    Calouste

    When the shitgibbon is going to inspect the wall in Arizona, can we just have a small earthquake that is going to make the section that he is at fall over? It doesn’t have to fall on in, just slowly toppling over in the background while he’s giving a speech will be fine.

  126. 126.

    trnc

    @SFAW: It’s hard to believe they think anyone buys it. It’s one thing to say it’s a tasteless joke or that DT has no comedy skills whatsoever. For anyone who might take at face value the claim that it’s a joke, don’t they wonder why there has never been any serious statement saying that we actually need more testing?

  127. 127.

    different-church-lady

    It’s kind of amazing that even when things break our way, the press still manages to focus on the wrong stuff: yeah, the attendance numbers were a disaster, but the most important thing that happened was he admitted he took steps to set back the health of the country just to make his numbers look better. THAT should be the main story.

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

     

     

    There is an entire genre of YouTubers who have reaction videos to old music. It’s quite a rabbit hole. Watching the young ones discover certain artists. Also, the artistry of those singers, who had to be successful before all the technical help that today’s singers can get.
    The power of their voices.???

  131. 131.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Jesus, she was never going to run.  She will never run.  Also, HRC was the most admired woman in the world until she ran for President.  Do you really think that people wouldn’t find reasons to hate Michelle Obama if she ran for office?

    There was some numbnuts here, a few weeks ago, who kept telling us (in one thread, may have been more) that Michelle Obama was “supremely qualified” for the job of president, and basically (verbally) fought anyone who disagreed.

    Fortunately, Martin’s been a pretty sharp, rational guy in most things, so I would never throw him in the same bucket as that other guy.

    And, of course, HRC’s “most admired” status was a big part of the reason for the endless Benghazi charades.

  133. 133.

    hueyplong

    In a less imperfect world Trump fires Brad and replaces him with Michael Moore.

  134. 134.

    Mary G

    Asshole, Jr.

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announces he’ll hold briefing about COVID-19 with limit press coverage on Monday at 2 pm. The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News once again not allowed to be there to ask questions despite both cities seeing huge spike in ICUs. pic.twitter.com/Fsjmb5mPTD— Jeremy Wallace (@JeremySWallace) June 21, 2020

    Republicans have done so many terrible things, but this is unforgivable banana republic bullshit. The Dallas and Austin papers – all of ’em Katie – should boycott.

  135. 135.

    jl

    What might prompt Trump to really throw in the towel and start planning how to stay ahead of the law and make some dough post WH, is if the foreign oligarchs who’ve been shoveling him money decide he’s a bad investment and pull out.

    One problem the Trumpsters may have is that they are too incompetent to to pull off really big corrupt schemes to grift big cash off of federal operations. I think by now there should be little doubt that the Kushner’s “operation bridge’ or whatever it was to get PPE into the US supply chain was a corrupt scheme to enrich the Trumpster gang and their camp followers. But I read a news story awhile back about how small potatoes it was in terms of total volume. Losers like Cuomo and Newsom ran rings around them, got themselves supply lines in the multi billions of dollars for billions of items of PPE. Way out of the Trumpster league. In that line of crime, you have to be able to actually perform various ordinary tasks of daily living, which was beyond them.

    But, if anyone has info that I am wrong, and the Trumpster crime ring ever really broke into big cash in their PPE racket, let me know.

  137. 137.

    jl

    @Wyatt Salamanca: Thanks, good to hear the Biden campaign is on the move.

    Edit: on a quick first skim, sounds like Trump app has more promise for sucking cash out of the marks than effective organizing. Which isn’t that surprising.

    Edit2: Wonder if the teens will decide that the Trump apps will be fun to play and toy with and thoroughly game for laughs.  Like a cat pawing a crippled mouse. I don’t know if the Trumpster have the brains to deal with that threat.

  140. 140.

    Martin

    @SFAW: Thank you. To the extent that getting young people and women to turn out, she’s a good choice. And I do think she would have brought the kind of energy we saw in ’08. If anything, she’s even more attuned to reaching people than her husband.

    That said, I also think she’s too smart to put any additional emotional burden on herself. I can’t imagine how hard 08-16 was. I don’t fault her one bit for deciding that was more than enough for one lifetime.

    But had she changed her mind, I think that would have been a sight to behold.

  141. 141.

    Morzer

    I am looking forward to Trump whining about how online teenagers with orange hair and crushes on BTS brutally rioted and sabotaged the greatest, bravest, most water-drinking, ramp-running president ever.

  144. 144.

    catclub

    @Baud: The video of that long explanation he tried to make, and then Biden in 2016  running up the ramp – no problem, is great.

  148. 148.

    Martin

    @jl: Yep. Trump is a very ’emperor’s new clothes’ individual. He relies on everyone to declare that they see the beautiful cloth, either out of loyalty to him or out of standard norms – for instance, the media not calling out a Presidential lie as a lie. He relies on that because he needs it for himself, and when it starts to fall off, he engineers a way to keep it in place. He fires people, he bullies Fox News, he finds new people willing to lie to him.

    As a private individual that wasn’t hard to maintain  – pretend to be someone else, call up the local tabloid reporter in NYC and play the role of the loyal person praising the fine cloth. He can’t do that any more. Sure, he’s got some cultist GOPer who will always be there, but his excuses which the press may have given him the benefit of the doubt for (at least publicly) and which some of the fence sitters would kind of buy aren’t working.

    He’s gone from someone maybe legitimately targeted to a ‘whiny little bitch’. The media are calling them lies, straight up. They  are digging into the excuses for the express purpose of calling them lies. He’s got loser stink on him, and its only  going to get worse until he delivers, which of course he can’t possibly  do because he’s stupid and lazy and totally self centered. His kids could carry him through his shitty real estate empire, but not running a country. John Fucking Bolton is tearing  him apart and voting for a Dem.

    Trump has three choices – 1) step up and work hard and actually govern, which will never happen because after 4 years he’s learned absolutely dick about his job and he doesn’t have enough time, given the crises surrounding him to learn it. 2) Accept his loser status which he cannot do, that’s what narcissism is – the inability to face the individual that you deep down believe yourself to be – and he believes himself to be a loser. He’s fought this battle for 6 decades and he’s past the point of giving into it 3) Go for even more extreme efforts to get people to praise his new clothes. And the only thing stopping that are the people he’s hired, and Congress, if they can really start taking this shit seriously. Possibly the public, but that probably involves dragging his body out of a crashed Marine One. I hope we don’t get to that point.

    I think our best hope here is a campaign that is so ineffective due to massive incompetency and low morale that it simply gets steamrolled in Nov. Kind of what happened to McCain.

  149. 149.

    Jay C

    @trnc:

    well, technically, Tuesday’s little Trump-a-palooza Isn’t a “church event”, Dream City having rented out the premises to some campaign shell org for the “rally”. Maybe they’re embarrassed…..

  150. 150.

    mrmoshpotato

    Why couldn’t the helicopter pilot have been holding a sign that said “Putin’s Pathetic Bitch ->”?

  151. 151.

    danielx

    @Mary G:

    “Kellyanne (Conway), (Paul) Manafort and Corey (Lewandowski) never had rally size issues,” the adviser said of Trump’s former campaign managers.

    Unlike certain individuals…

    @StormyDaniels

    Told ya’ll he exaggerates about the size of things.

    10:59 AM · Jun 21, 2020·Twitter Web App

  152. 152.

    SFAW

    @Martin:

    I think you are, in general, somewhat smarter than I am. But if you keep on this Michelle thing, I may need to re-evaluate.

    Just because we all love her, and wish her husband could have run for a third term, does not mean she’s a shoo-in. And, I gotta say — although it pains me to say it — her “when they go low, we go high” thing at the 2016 Convention was close to the zenith (or maybe nadir) of politically dumb things to say. I didn’t doubt her sincerity, but the era of high-minded political campaigns is long over. If it ever existed. It certainly doesn’t exist now, given the Rethuglican Partei of the last 30-40 (or more) years, and acting like it does is political malpractice

    ETA: I would be ecstatic to be proved wrong about her. Of course, I’ll be pretty fucking happy with Biden, especially if he picks a great running mate

    ETA2: A downside to Mrs. Obama winning (hypothetically speaking) is that, even if the Dems retake the Senate, legislation would be a heavier lift for her than for Biden.

  154. 154.

    West of the Rockies

    Are there teams that know how to win when they’re leading and occasionally teams that just lose focus when they’re losing and fall apart?

    Trump is used to winning, intimidating the refs… But now he’s getting spanked and pranked, pantsed and mocked.  I think he is crumbling.

  155. 155.

    Morzer

    @SFAW: I love Michelle Obama, but the when they go low, we go high thing was fatuous tripe. I eyerolled when Barack occasionally sounded too good for this bad, sad world and I think it really irritated a lot of people that the Clinton campaign sounded holier than thou on a regular basis.

  156. 156.

    Another Scott

    @jl: The trouble with endemic corruption is that one never really knows what else is hidden.

    I’m reminded of the Steele Dossier:

    […]

    -TRUMP associate admits Kremlin behind recent appearance of DNC e-mails on WikiLeaks, as means of maintaining plausible deniability

    -Agreed exchange of information established in both directions. TRUMP’s team using moles within DNC and hackers in the US as well as outside in Russia. PUTIN motivated by fear and hatred of Hillary CLINTON. Russians receiving intel from TRUMP’S team on Russian oligarchs and their families in US

    -Mechanism for transmitting this intelligence involves ‘pension’ disbursements to Russian emigres living in US as cover, using consular officials in New York, DC and Miami

    -Suggestion from source close to TRUMP and MANAFORT that Republican campaign team happy to have Russia as media bogeyman to mask more extensive corrupt business ties to China and other emerging countries

    (Emphasis added.)

    tl;dr – Donnie and his administration are corrupt. Don’t assume that we know the full extent of the corruption right now.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  157. 157.

    Morzer

    @West of the Rockies: Trump iced his own kicker. I know some folks want Biden to be more out and about and in your face, but really, why not let Trump wreck himself in public, as he is so obviously desperate to do?

  158. 158.

    Morzer

    @catclub: You have to understand – that wasn’t any ramp. That was Trump’s Hamburger Hill and Battle of the Bulge rolled into one.

  159. 159.

    SFAW

    @Morzer:

    I think it really irritated a lot of people that the Clinton campaign sounded holier than thou on a regular basis.

    She was in a no-win situation. I think that, had she hammered the shit out of The Traitor on a daily basis, she would have been branded as “shrill” or “castrating bitch” by ALL the MSM, not just the FTFTFNYT. And since the MSM was getting its collective jollies by talking about her e-mails (etc), her policy positions never got the airplay they should have.

    And I still say that when The Traitor stalked her on the debate stage, she should have turned around and said “You better back the fuck OFF, asshole, before I slap the shit out of your fat ass.” [OK, maybe not that exact wording, but you get the idea.] Yeah, she would have taken a lot of crap for a couple of weeks, but I think there would have been an overall benefit.

  160. 160.

    SFAW

    @Morzer:

    You have to understand – that wasn’t any ramp. That was Trump’s Hamburger Hill and Battle of the Bulge rolled into one.

    For which a much-decorated veteran — a big guy, with tears in his eyes — gave him something like 20 Purple Hearts. And maybe also a “Congressional Medal of Honor.” And maybe also an Eisenkreuz.

  161. 161.

    Original Lee

    Was the General helping the Mango Mobster down the ramp Brigadier General Buzzard? I haven’t found any ID on the videos of the incident. Just wondering what the general thinks of all this.

  162. 162.

    Ken

    @Morzer: That was Trump’s Hamburger Hill and Battle of the Bulge rolled into one.

    Nice one. Nice two, actually. (Assuming you chose those two with malice, and Trump’s diet, aforethought.)

  163. 163.

    Kent

    The HS I taught at for a decade in Texas had a 10,000 seat stadium and would frequently fill it up for ordinary regular season games.  6,200 would have been a poor showing for a regular season Texas HS football game.

    Playoff games they would play in college stadiums and draw 20,000+

    State championship games at Cowboy stadium would be in the 50,000+ range.

  166. 166.

    jonas

    @SFAW: To suggest Trump gets, or uses, sarcasm or irony is to argue that he is engaging in an Andy Kaufmann-level trolling scam — literally so deep into his own act that we can’t quite tell anymore if it’s real or he’s really lost it. Fine for a Hollywood piece of performance art. For the President of the United States? Um..less so.

  167. 167.

    SFAW

    @jonas:

    To suggest Trump gets, or uses, sarcasm or irony is to argue that he is engaging in an Andy Kaufmann-level trolling scam

    No, he’s just doing it to be an asshole, or to attempt to show his dominance. He’s not especially good at it (i.e., sarcasm), just nasty. And “nasty” is pretty much all he has. I think irony requires a slight bit more self-awareness or intelligence, qualities he does not have. He’s not smart enough to do a “Kaufman-level trolling scam.”

  169. 169.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Just think, the 124 people who will die over the next month from the Tusla rally won’t even be noticeable for single days body count from The Virus in this country.

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