So the president is denying something that no one has actually reported – that he had a series of mini-strokes. https://t.co/GcatJopYV9
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 1, 2020
Thing about being a habitual liar — trickster stories across the world are rich in this theme — is that they’re never completely sure how much of what they say is bullshit, either. That’s how Coyote / Mercury / Ananzi / Old Nick / Bernie Madoff ends up embarrassed; he falls into one of his own traps, mistakes his own grift for an opportunity. What if it were true?
Trump, clearly, is terrified of losing his grip & having his ‘pet’ media turn on him. Thus his ongoing accusations that his political opponents are weak, sick, demented, failing. But what if his own brain turned on him? How would he even know? And what would his enemies do if they discovered his weakness?
And so, being Donald Trump, how can he not talk about something that occupies so much of his scattered attention?
WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP TALKING ABOUT ME HAVING THIS VERY SPECIFIC DIAGNOSIS THAT NO ONE MENTIONED BEFORE I BROUGHT IT UP? pic.twitter.com/6yBZqXUhzO
— golikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) September 2, 2020
Spill blood in the water, and you expect the media to resist?
uh oh https://t.co/OUMWKYmDdx
— kilgore trout, non mini-stroke haver (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 1, 2020
and another thing, im not having mini strokes, don’t put it in the paper I’m having mini Strokes https://t.co/Ncj2uZrJwH
— kilgore trout, non mini-stroke haver (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 1, 2020
Can't wait until Trump starts running TV ads in battleground states denying that he had a series of mini-strokes.
— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) September 2, 2020
I predict that Trump is gonna have a Col. Jessup moment during an upcoming Fox News interview where he says "You're goddamn right I had a stroke, but it was no mini-stroke! In fact, all of the doctors at Walter Reed were surprised by how big it was!"
— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) September 2, 2020
the implicit assumption that they're working according to a strategy underlines exactly what their strategy is. they will continue to fuck everything up, all the time, and they will continue to receive the benefit of the doubt. https://t.co/xsSrI62UaX
— golikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) September 2, 2020
But when even the Mad Bitcher starts to smell something unfragrant…
The White House needs to explain what really happened on Trump's Walter Reed visit | Analysis by CNN's Chris Cillizza https://t.co/fSSJhZGZpp pic.twitter.com/0nroXpaWjc
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 1, 2020
Opinion: Why is Trump insisting, unprompted, that he hasn’t had "mini-strokes"? https://t.co/KrmVMrimxW
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 2, 2020
Paul Waldman, at the Washington Post, is not above gloating:
… This all has the air of chickens coming home to roost given that, in 2016, Trump repeatedly suggested that Hillary Clinton was covering up some serious illness. The Trump campaign aired ads showing her coughing and stumbling. The lie was echoed in every part of the conservative media universe, from Breitbart to Fox News to, perhaps most critically, the National Enquirer…
That’s not to mention that Trump regularly says that people he disagrees with, whether it’s Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi, are mentally ill or demented. It’s fair to say there is no one in American public life who has tossed off more false accusations of illness than Donald Trump.
So I don’t claim to know whether Trump suffered, as he says, “a series of mini-strokes.” It’s extremely difficult to diagnose from afar, even if you’re a medical professional, which I am not. What I do know is that if Trump actually were the victim of a false allegation of infirmity — which, to repeat, no journalists are actually making — no one would be less justified in complaining…
This is why there’s an internet meme about ME SOWING / ME REAPING…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also, they keep changing the story about the spontaneous, just because it’s too rainy to golf unplanned trip to Walter Reed last November
Pence is saying he “doesn’t recall” if he was told to be ready to assume responsibility in case of anesthesia, but he remembers being told the President had a doctor’s appointment, which I’m pretty also contradicts the original story.
Quote Tweet
Bruce K
By the way, when Trump refers to himself as “your favorite President”, I have to say that as far as favorite Presidents go, I wouldn’t rank him in the top fifty.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: and looking for that, for my sins, I find this:
Just Chuck
The stories being reported about the health of Comrade
BrezhnevAndropovChernenkoTrump are utterly false!Just Chuck
Oh and notice even Haberman isn’t covering for him this time.
Anonymous At Work
Trump’s fear of cognitive decline is also based on his father’s Alzheimer’s, although a bit of it could be his brother’s alcoholism (Trump is a teetotaler, apparently, for that reason). In 2016, the speculation for why a family member was present at each and every meeting was that they were guarding against any signs of Alzheimers (now I believe it to be normalizing that his family would be ever-present).
This sounds like pretty visceral fears here.
Yutsano
@Just Chuck: Give her time…
Searcher
Anyone remember the “I am not a witch” ads?
zhena gogolia
@Just Chuck:
At least Yeltsin used to have the honesty to do press conferences from his hospital room.
Just Chuck
@Anonymous At Work:
Maybe when it comes to alcohol. He most likely wakes up snorting Adderall off the Resolute Desk.
MisterForkbeard
In keeping with the whole “Trump attacks are complete bullshit and he’s working with the Russians”, I was completely unsurprised to see this: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dhs-withheld-july-intelligence-bulletin-calling-russian-attack/story?id=72747130
In early July DHS had an intelligence bulletin on the fact that Russia was already implementing (and was going to increase) false attacks on Biden’s mental health and accuse him of dementia in order to help the Trump campaign. That bulletin was blocked by Chad Wolf to protect Trump’s precious attack lines against Biden.
Super weird that Trump and Russia just keep aligning. Maybe the press should look into that.
Baud
@Yutsano:
“Both sides need to come clean about their mini-strokes.”
Searcher
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
A reporter on the Hayes program last night said that trump has been ranting at people that Maggie Haberman is telling people he has Parkinson’s. There is no public record of Haberman ever saying this.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The real question is who stole Trump’s strawberries.
CaseyL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, she wouldn’t tell us, the mere plebians. That’s news she would save for her inner circle of gossip-mongers and investors.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Trump may say Mags is spreading rumours of “Parkinson’s” because he can’t pronounce “Alzheimer’s” any more?
kindness
I’d like to think that with the actions of Trump and the Republicans in Congress our MSM would be able to give up on the veneer that Republicans are principled and honorable. Except no matter what the MSM insists on the meme and refuses to let go of the Both Sides.
That whole 4th Estate that our Founders thought would keep our leaders honest to the citizenry isn’t working.
NotMax
Open thread?
Mom called. She’s super pissed with the NYT.
Political reporting? No.
Op-eds? No.
Because they’ve announced they will no longer be including TV listings in the paper. Part of her morning coffee regimen is to scan the TV page and circle things she might want to check out that night.
Anyone have suggestions as to places online she can look for daily NYC/Long Island (and cable) listings?
Yutsano
@Baud: It’s coming. We’re mocking it now, but a call for Biden to release his full medical records (protip: he already has) is getting served up. And you already know what’s coming next. “Oh but what about the records he’s hiding?” It’s getting predictable and boring at this point.
Barbara
I understand “mini-strokes” to be the same as TIAs, or Transischemic Attacks, which are fairly common. My father in law had several and his doctor badgered him to get better control of his high blood pressure, which, at least for him, seemed to be the only thing he needed. TIAs could also be a precursor to a larger stroke event (which is what happened to my mother in law).
So it’s kind of dumb for Trump to spread rumors about himself only to refute them. The only thing he needs to do to refute them totally is release the medical records.
Immanentize
A Doctor researching mental cognition once described Alzheimer’s as having the effect of distillation — people often become more intense versions of their primary character traits.
feebog
While it is true no one should diagnose from afar, there are indications he suffered some type of event in November that has left him with some weakness on the right side. The inability to lift a glass of water for instance. Most notably is the dragging of the right foot, which can clearly be seen in multiple videos over the past nine months. Lastly, the slurring of words has become much more prominent in the last few months.
TS (the original)
@Bruce K:
He ranks last for my lifetime of Presidents that started with Truman and I would think last going back to Washington, but there are some I know nothing about.
artem1s
The thing about habitual liars is they don’t get the basic concept that their lies will always beget more lies. You can’t keep them straight in your head and so you are always compounding the problem by trying to cover up the last lie you told with a new one.
I have a favorite quote from West Wing about the advantage of campaigners telling the truth even if it may not help them in the moment. Some people – and especially narcissists – are so tied to their public image that they can’t wrap their head around the concept that it’s just easier to remember the truth – and less damaging in the long run.
“I told him that, if asked about it tonight, he should — if only because it’s the easiest thing to remember — tell the truth.”
different-church-lady
It’s called a suspiciously specific denial.
artem1s
@Bruce K:
I see what you did there!
Omnes Omnibus
????
different-church-lady
@NotMax: No. She MUST BABBLE INTO THE REMOTE!! Because fuckin’ tech bros, that’s why.
Calouste
@CaseyL: The same as I assume that all the “no one brought this up” lines in the tweets by the various news orgs in the original post mean that they damn well suspected that those mine strokes had occurred, they were just to scared to bring it up. I have definitely seen speculation about those strokes going back since the Walter Reed visit, and the video that Drudge posted is also a month old, maybe more.
Yutsano
@feebog: No way would he do any kind of therapy. No rehab for him! Could you imagine him with some 5 foot nothing therapist* trying to tell him what to do? And BTW that dementia test? It also evaluates general cognition. I was given a version of it when I was in the hospital. The more you have to do in the test the greater the cause of concern. There is definitely something wrong.
taumaturgo
When anyone feels no shame in telling a deliberate lie, there is no evil, I tell you, they will not do. Buddha
Me thinks the press is failing for a tramp. It works as follows: Trump spout some doublespeak bullshit and the press runs with it. Headlines, twitter, and Facebook go wild while the country burns, and the law and order folks continue with the rampage. The Democrats and Biden are buried to the back fold of the newspapers and days later when they muster a response, they are buried again because Trump will parade a quack with dubious medical records supposedly to squash the controversy Trump himself created. Rinse and repeat all the way to election day.
Butch
I believe that a Trump “strategy” and a Clizzila “analysis” are in the same category.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Right? I almost tossed my waffle when I saw that this morning.
different-church-lady
What’s gonna be really fun is when MAGAs start having strokes just to pwn the libs.
SFAW
@Baud:
NYT Pitchbot-worthy
ETA: Hah! Beat ya to it, d-c-l!
Immanentize
@artem1s: But not everyone did….
germy
If I recall correctly, they criticized Hillary for taking bathroom breaks. So then she cut back on the bottles of water, and then got dizzy from dehydration.
They’d criticize every breath she’d take. I still get mad thinking about how she was treated.
Catherine D.
I like the “your favorite President, me,” wording. The “me” is a nice touch.
different-church-lady
@Baud: That’s good material for Doug J’s “NYT pitchbot” account.
Immanentize
@Calouste: The Lincoln Project has a running motif of “He’s not well.” It is really starting to percolate.
LuciaMia
I thought he’d already accused them of that.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He was joking, of course. Interesting though that he felt comfortable being so ribald in front of Huckabee’s professional Christian spawn.
NYTimes headline pitch:
“Sanders memoir reveals bawdy side of Trump’s sense of humor”
different-church-lady
@TS (the original): Are you counting Grover Cleveland twice or once in that list?
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
From your keyboard [sic] to FSM’s
orkiettyorechetieoriechetear-like appendages.clay
@TS (the original): Knowing nothing about them automatically puts them ahead of Trump, who we know WAY TOO MUCH ABOUT.
different-church-lady
@Immanentize: That’s the thing I love about the Lincoln Project: they’re doing the dirty work, leaving Biden to float above it clean.
Yeah, I know they’re snakes and it’s “in their nature”, but we’re not married to them.
germy
Trump may have his “pet” media, but blood is blood, and if they smell it they’ll start panting. It’s who they are.
SFAW
@NotMax:
Does Newsday still print it/them?
NotMax
@germy
As a footnote to history we’ve learned that Kim has worse taste in women than he has in politics.
//
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
Twice: once for Grover Cleveland, once for Grover Cleveland Alexander?
patroclus
@artem1s: That fact is the basis for one of Sam Rayburn’s famous aphorisms – “Always tell the truth the first time and then you don’t have to remember what you said.”
PPCLI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If you watch the full exchange with Bret Baier, it’s even more astonishing how carefully Pence avoids expressly denying the story. He goes on at some length talking about how super-healthy Strokeahontas is, and takes the line “well, you know the Vice President understands that he must always be prepared to step in, that’s the job”. Baier then asks roughly “but were you asked to be on standby then”, and then Pence fixes specifically on the word “standby”. “Well, I don’t recall being asked to go on standby…”
Astonishing in its non-denial-denial-ness. Essentially an admission.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy:
he’s a crude bully, I’m sure he takes extra pleasure in taunting his more religious underlings.
“Two Corinthians… that’s the one you like, right?” The contemptuous snark in his voice was grating even to this atheist.
StringOnAStick
@Immanentize: I definitely saw my mom become a more “intense” version of herself as her dementia progressed. Watching FOX all day and night while my dad hid in his office to avoid her increasing anger and hostility certainly added to it. She never was a warm person, and by the last year, she was hell on wheels.
TRump ‘s continuing effort to present a “strong like bull!” image is laughable, common to his age and macho persona . My dad the macho “I’ll die with my boots on!” Bircher wing nut is 88 and lies to cover up his increasing infirmity because in his eyes it is incredibly unmanly. Trump’s current lying about his medical state is the same deal. TRump thinks he’s still the cocksman he was when he was hanging with Epstein and banging models; reality is seriously closing in on him in oh so many ways.
laura
President cornered rat’s projector seems to have experienced a bit of a technical difficulty. In a normal family, the kids would be having a teleconference on what to do about dad. I’ll wager it’s every grifter for hisself included the Jared’s. And the entire gop is just fine with this – just fine and dandy, nothing to see here, move along, maga, winning(!) while the punditocracy are interceding/hedging/hoping that their access to the green room and studio can ride this out no matter what the outcome of the election.
MomSense
I am so furious that with so much disqualifying information about this president, we Democrats are still going to have to work work our asses off to win this election. It’s absurd and tragic and enraging.
180,000 dead Americans, economic disaster, corruption, incompetence, cruelty, racism, mentally and physically unfit, convicted associates, campaign officers, and upper level administration officials, multiple investigations, bounties on us service personnel, and on and fucking on.
Frankensteinbeck
The national press leans heavily to soften things for the right and make everything accusing for the left, but Trump is so bad he regularly gets the media to actually call him out.
@Barbara:
His medical records contain something embarrassing. Not dangerous, you understand, just embarrassing. Maybe he’s a little fatter or shorter than he says he is. Or he has ADHD. This is literally worse than evidence of a crime to a toxic narcissist.
Ksmiami
@Anonymous At Work: Can I get a hearty fuck him I hope he dies refrain? His rule is leading us to ruin
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
THE MESS BOYS
MattF
1) From a semi-famous journalist (Sam Roberts of the NYT) ‘Never believe a rumor until it’s officially denied’.
2) The classic Parkinson’s symptom is the ‘miser’s twitch’, in which the thumb is rubbed against the forefinger.
PPCLI
@Just Chuck
I have to admit, she is a true master of the access tightrope walk: say just enough critical-sounding things that can be pointed at to maintain the illusion of “critical independent journalist” while acting as dedicated stenographer for Trumpite framing and Ivanka-apologism 99% of the time.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The Chines posted a style sheet about that in the first few months Trump was in office. How many times has Pelosi rolled Trump?
I think there is also a martyr element to this too “You mean people have hurt with all your meanness to me”. Liberals are mean has been a big theme with the Right for a while.
Ksmiami
@germy: Dean Baquet is certainly on the tumbrels list…
Kay
@MomSense:
It is. The country won’t survive these levels of corruption. The corruption has already profoundly affected our quality of life, from everything on disease spread to mail delivery and that will get worse. The US is a worse place to live under Donald Trump and the GOP Congress, for just about everyone who lives here other than the top 1%. It’s lurching downward. Big drops monthly.
PST
@Yutsano:
That was my experience too. I asked my doctor why she had only asked me about the five words and had me draw the clock. She said she has to evaluate me for cognitive decline at my checkups now that I’m over 65, but if a patient starts out fine she skips most of the test. I would imagine that in a patient being evaluated for symptoms of a transient ischemic attack, however, the doctor would want to score the whole test.
StringOnAStick
@Frankensteinbeck: The embarrassing thing in his medical records is that he’s incontinent. Magats won’t like that, especially the elderly ones who need him as their avatar.
different-church-lady
@NotMax: The wink could have been, “Can you believe how easily I’m playing your boss?”
ET
Good liars don’t lie about everything to much trouble keeping track. He is’t a good liar – even his supporters know he lies all the time – he just lies all the time about everything so it is more about the volume of his lies.
But when you lie as much as tRump, it is all you know and you have so fuck with your own mind and “thinking” processes. I don’t know much about how the brain works, but I wondered if he has really rewired himself.
Jay C
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Probably 100% true, but he’s still considered (disgracefully, unironically) God’s Anointed Ruler by a non-trivial segment of the electorate.
And a segment which (even more disgracefully, IMO) may enable him to eke a victory (or at least avoid a blowout) in several states
cain
The cause of this tweet is the fact that it was reported that Pence was going to take over. That would have sent Trump around the bend. No one takes over for daddy. I knew he would be triggered by that – and I was proven correct.
Frankensteinbeck
@kindness:
I seriously do not think the Founders thought this. They may have thought it was worth a try, but until the post-WWII period everybody took it for granted that newspapers were wildly slanted tools of propaganda for somebody.
@taumaturgo:
Then it’s the stupidest fucking trap ever, because these neverending scandals have contributed heavily to Trump’s downfall. He was badly underwater before COVID, because nobody believed him about anything and everyone who wasn’t 100% an asshole just wanted this fire hose of assholery to stop. Way, way more damaging than just a few actually meaningful scandals, even shit like children in cages.
sdhays
@Catherine D.: I appreciate it. Otherwise I would get confused that he’s talking about President Obama.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady:
Amen!
NotMax
@SFAW
Never thought to ask. The existence of Newsday has been blocked from the mind since time spent as a paperboy for them back when left a lingering proverbial bad taste in the mouth.
mrmoshpotato
This is so fucked up that I can’t gloat, and I’ve made no secret of how much I hate this racist, fascistic, pussy-grabbing, Soviet shitpile mobster conman who’s a goddamn traitor to the United States.
Good job to all of the selfish shithead children who decided “Fuck Hillary! I’m not gonna vote! That’ll show her!”
patroclus
@Kay: It’s not just mail service and disease spread and crumbling roads and bridges – it’s a LOT of other things too. The one thing I’m noticing is that we’ve suddenly run out of coins. Because of COVID, the Mint stopped making new coins and the Federal Reserve District Banks have none to dispense to banks, who then can’t give them to retail stores, currency exchanges and other businesses. Virtually every store here in Chicago has no coins; some have gone to no-cash only. It’s really creating havoc (and starting nonsensical arguments) all over.
PPCLI
@Yutsano: Indeed. He even seemed to be struggling when he was reciting “Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV”.
And he described it that as a task that isn’t easy to do. WTF? Remembering a list of 5 words is something anyone can do easily unless they have some cognitive deficit. (Or are drunk, or have some degree of sleep deprivation,…)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jay C:
and he tries, with more success than I would have predicted, to hide his contempt for them. “Our beautiful churches… our terrific religion…”
Now that I think of it, he’s been much more successful than I would have predicted in tamping down the kind of salacious asides he enjoys, like that speech to the boy scouts jamboree when was pretty much openly talking about hookers and blow, like telling Jethrene (behind closed doors) to go make herself KJU’s concubine
cain
@Barbara:
My grandfather was like that – had a lot of mini-strokes that started his cognitive decline. He lived to be a 100 years old, but he wasn’t really the same man.
bluefoot
Trump STILL hasn’t responded to Russian bounties on American soldiers. Why has the press just let this slide?
I know, stupid question. But seriously, wtf?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PPCLI: one part of that sticks with me, “you get extra points if you get them in order”
he’s still the 13 year old trying to impress Fred with how much they like him at the military school Fred shipped him off to
Yutsano
Ahh JRub. You, I, and the billions of electrons know that none of these questions will be asked of Dolt45 in a debate or any “serious journalists” in the MSM. But if anyone needs further evidence of the bridges she’s burning there’s a few more in flames.
sdhays
In fairness to Dump, he was accused of having mini-strokes on Twitter, which is obviously a forum he pays attention to. He’s obviously lying because he lies about everything, but I find the media pretending like the mini-strokes thing came out of thin air is trying to make something out of nothing.
Regarding Dump advertisements denying his mini-strokes, is the Dump campaign advertising at all in battleground states? The last I knew, they were only advertising in the DC market with a target audience of one.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: https://www.tvguide.com/listings/
Hope that fits the bill.
UncleEbeneezer
Just wanted to thank all of you who chimed in with comforting words about the loss of our dog Juniper. The grieving sucks, but all the kind words really do help and they are much appreciated.
PPCLI
And, most deliciously in retrospect, Drudge was relentless in pushing the “Hillary is on Death’s Door!!!” theme. Don’t dish it out unless you are prepared to take it, Strokeahontas.
cain
@germy:
They are currently screaming hypocrisy because Pelosi went to a salon in SFO. I was not aware that salons were closed in SFO. But the sheer noise is amazing to behold.
They’ve summoned more outrage about her salon visit than the 185k people that have died.
Delk
Trump and mini-strokes sounds like the punchline to a Stormy Daniels joke.
patroclus
@cain: My grandmother and my Mom too. My Dad took to calling them “developments” or “incidents” because mini-stroke really doesn’t mean much of anything. It’s just a sign of aging. And is very noticeable to people close to them and who knew them well when they were younger.
Bruce K
@TS (the original): There were about half a dozen during the pre-Constitution days under the Articles of Confederation, but Grover Cleveland is generally counted twice because his terms were non-consecutive, and Trump’s final numerical ranking depends on whether you include Jefferson Davis in the list.
The Moar You Know
When I was nine, I punched my little brother. He screamed “I’m gonna tell Mom!” and ran off.
I figured I’d preempt that. So I ran into my parents bedroom and yelled “I didn’t do anything!”
”Didn’t do what?” I was fucked. Lesson learned.
I was nine. Trump is 72.
Yutsano
@bluefoot: Remember that poll that had 37% of the military voting for him? I highly doubt they have forgotten about the bounties. Especially those that have lost friends on deployment in Afghanistan. Hell I have a friend there now and I’m scared af for him because you know Putin ain’t stopping that.
Aleta
To this administration, four ideas to make its worlds collide and explode.
mrmoshpotato
@Ksmiami:
Is that before or after taking baseball bats to his balls?
bluehill
@MomSense: The challenge is that the dems are trying to run a “normal” campaign while Trump will do almost anything to win. Maybe no qualification is needed. The Lincoln Project brings up Trumps mental deficiencies but I haven’t noticed that from dem candidates. Meanwhile, everyone from Trump down is parroting the same talking points about Biden. I don’t know what the answer is unless we become that which we loathe.
We’re counting on enough people in the swing states to see past this, but history has shown the big lie can be pretty effective.
Timill
@SFAW: Being in the South, I get to keep the numbers straight by including Jefferson Davis…
raven
It’s 2 years to the week since I had my “pons” stroke. I call myself lucky and don’t know if that is what’s causing my leg problems but I feel as if I’m ok.
sdhays
@bluefoot: Wasn’t it CNN that had its petulant running clock of how long it had been since Hillary had given a press conference to the morons that made up her national press detail? But no similar daily reminder of Russian bounties on US soldiers. The Administration isn’t going to do anything, so there’s nothing new to report. So “oh, well”…
Frankensteinbeck
@cain:
They were allowed to reopen that very day.
Because they’re actually outraged that their side is getting criticized. Nancy Pelosi is a powerful woman, both in rank and how she wields it. She is a terrifying threat and subconsciously a valid target, so she is always one of their top choices when they want to spew bile.
Baud
@bluefoot:
Biden raised it in his speech yesterday.
JCJ
@artem1s:
I saw a t-shirt once with”Maui Rules” – there was a list of 10 rules for Maui. My favorite was “Always tell the truth. There is less to remember”
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Grazie. Shall give it a look-see.
mrmoshpotato
@bluefoot: Our junior Senator here in Illinois hasn’t forgotten.
AnotherBruce
@Catherine D.: Donald Trump is Donald Trump’s best friend.
Baud
@Baud:
Speech was on Monday.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Searcher:
Anyone remember the “I am not a witch” ads?
Best election-related Halloween costume suggestion EVARS.
MattF
@Yutsano: It’s been a while since I was surprised to find myself agreeing with Rubin. She’s good on both on saying true things and on avoiding the usual RW bullshit. As ever, we shall see about the debates… but it’s correct to note that debate moderators should ask hard questions.
mrmoshpotato
Floppy ears!
Anonymous At Work
@Searcher: No, I think it was Trump signaling that “Yes, my family will be involved intimately with every aspect of my administration. We’re tied at the hip AND on the same life raft.” While odd at first, it faded. When he wanted Jared and Ivanka to have office space and formal roles, he ran into federal laws, so he made them informal, but not as much pushback on them being family since the focus became the avoidance of nepotism and archival/transparency laws.
CliosFanBoy
@UncleEbeneezer: Ohhh, I am so sorry……
MisterForkbeard
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dhs-biden-russia-election-mental-health
TPM is talking about this now: Trump openly has intelligence covering for Russia because it helps his campaign.
Another Scott
@CaseyL: Naah. She’s saving it for her book. It’s what FTFNYT reporters seem to do.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
gvg
@patroclus: That isn’t caused by the mint shutting down, per Washington Post. I just read about it. It’s caused by people mostly switching to online or cashless purchases due to covid. Basically coins just stopped being circulated. I have a bunch myself sitting in a jar because I hardly ever use cash anymore.
The coins not circulating is causing problems for specific businesses which still use them almost exclusively like coin laundries. Covid made this happen now, but it was going to soon anyway. Laundries need to figure out how to switch to card readers like everyone else, even vending machines.
Anonymous At Work
@Ksmiami: I hope Trump lives a much longer, non-senile life. I hope that he lives forever…after the Trump Organization is disbanded and forced into permanent bankruptcy, his children forced into honest jobs, and his days spent with the realization that he went from billionaire to broke in a single generation (thus validating his parents’ disdain for him).
As Papa Titus once said, “See that? That’s emotional damage; that’s much more powerful.”
Keith P.
Reap/sow was on full display this morning on CNN. Jim Sciuddo had Hogan Gidley on, and Gidley started complaining about the media speculating on Trump’s mental state. It was like t-ball, where Sciuddo had very little he could say other than, “Your boss does that to Joe Biden every single day!” This led to Gidley saying, “Well, you can plainly see Joe Biden saying the wrong words in interviews,” so on Sciuddo’s next at-bat, he has to come back with “But we can plainly see your boss saying the wrong words in interviews as well. How about “Yo, semites!”? Trump does not make his aides’ jobs any easier.
sdhays
@Baud: Biden actually gives a shit. Our media, less so.
FelonyGovt
@NotMax: How about the Daily News?
satby
@gvg: a lot of laundromats have, which is another burden on lower income people, because you have to put a deposit down on the card at my local chain of laudromats, and then also put a minimum (I think $5-10) onto the card. So a lower income person can’t just scrape up a couple of dollars to do a load of laundry, they need at least $10 just to get the card with a usable balance on it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Moar You Know:
bluefoot
@Yutsano:
@sdhays:
@Baud:
@mrmoshpotato:
I’m glad people are still raising the issue. I knew Sen. Duckworth was still talking about it, but I’m glad to hear Biden mentioned it yesterday. It boggles my mind that the press has just let it slide. The response to the coronavirus is a crime against humanity, and supporting Putin (ignoring Russian bounties, proposing Russian joins NATO, enabling Russian involvement in the US election) is treason. If I think about it too hard, I just want to throw things or cry.
Jinchi
So he sexually harassed Sarah Sanders?
I know Republicans will play this off as a joke, but Trump really isn’t that funny and I doubt he’s ever told a legitimate joke in his life.
bluefoot
@patroclus:
There’s a big sign at my local post office saying they can’t give change because of the coin shortage. You’d think a federal agency would be able to get coins. it’s seriously disturbing.
Immanentize
@Baud:
Yes, but he didn’t raise it in the right way! Or enough! Or using the magic word “demand”!
PPCLI
@bluefoot: And ignoring Putin poisoning of the main opposition leader.
Is ANYONE going to ask Trump about this? Bad enough that the media ignores anything that is “too stale”. But this just happened! It’s “news”.
Immanentize
@UncleEbeneezer: I am sorry to hear about the passing of your pup. But “Juniper” is a great dog name.
Aleta
1– @JonLemire BERLIN (AP) — German government says test showed nerve agent Novichok in samples from Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
2– (NYT, Aug. 26) Nadya Tolokonnikova is an artist and activist and a founder of the band Pussy Riot.
That last paragraph …
Jinchi
This might explain Trump’s story that the doctors were “surprised” at his performance on the test. It might be the first time they’ve actually had to score the whole thing.
…Or he might just be lying.
Kay
@patroclus:
People in other countries get affordable prescription drugs. We cannot have that, because too large a portion of our government is corrupt.
I chuckle at all these stories about people fleeing cities for rural and suburban areas- the quality of life is no better in rural or suburban areas- often it’s worse. You can’t escape the decline – it’s the whole country. Housing will be cheaper but you’ll need a car, and if you haven’t checked into “owning a car” in a decade you’re in for a surprise. It ain’t cheap.
Someone smart should calculate a “corruption tax”- what Americans pay extra every month NOT to crack down on it. It’s a lot! One quarter of US students cannot physically attend school but internet access is either not available to them at all or not affordable for their families. No one even tries to fix this, not the public sector, but not the private sector either. It’s apparently just the price they pay for living in a country that barely functions. That gap between the US and other higher income countries will widen.
Trump is turning it into a shithole country. He’s reducing the actual value of living here. All this bullshit about “Democrat cities”. My local government is 100% GOP. We were ravaged by opiates. Deaths spiked, neglected children spiked, crime spiked. You can’t “escape” this decline by “leaving Brooklyn” or whatever. You can’t run away from it. It’s everywhere. The Trumpiest counties in the midwest states are also the poorest.
Mike in NC
Trump probably has more drugs in his bathroom than Elvis ever did.
Jinchi
@Just Chuck: @Anonymous At Work:
Trump tells us that he self-prescribed and used hydroxychloroquine to prevent contracting coronavirus. I have no doubt he would inject bleach if his staff told him where the cleaning chemicals are stored.
Kay
@patroclus:
I did this analysis with my daughter and son in law two years ago. They wanted to have a baby. Okay, they have in demand jobs in health care so they can move anywhere. So we’d find affordable housing and then we’d start adding costs they’ll have to pick up- “schools are worse” or “we’ll need two cars” or “what about high quality day care”. Don’t forget to subtract! Lower housing costs means lower wages! Uh, oh. We’re back to the same number again!
A decent quality of life is expensive everywhere in the US and you have to cobble it together. All you’re doing is moving numbers from one column to another. The sum is the same. They can live in higher tax blue NY or lower tax red Florida. For “decent middle class life” they are going to pay about the same. The columns will just have different inputs and outputs. Lower mortgage payment OUT, lower wages IN. It’s all like that.
taumaturgo
@Frankensteinbeck: In reality, his base is as committed as a cult follower would be committed to the dear leader. Is the white suburban voter that would swing this election and if they buy into the fear-mongering it will overpower any consideration that the democracy as we know it may perish. BTW, they are the beneficiary of Wall Street gains, lower taxes, and lower exposure to Covid19.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: That’s the name our “temporary” dog came with, and I’m not a fan. Dogs shouldn’t have three-syllable names. The renaming committee is engaged in deliberations.
bluefoot
@PPCLI: It’s only stale when it’s Republicans. How many months and news articles were there about Hillary Clinton’s email practices? it’s as if the news media wants the US to implode.
JPL
@Yutsano: Biden should say that he will as soon as they finishing auditing them. Okay auditing might be strange, just say as soon as they’re ready, which will be after trump releases his taxes.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Go read up on propaganda; it only works if it has a bases of truth. Trump lying about Biden is reinforcing the Dem narrative that Trump won’t tell the truth.
Second, the election is a referendum about Trump. Trump screaming about how awful Biden might be is time Trump not talking about his accomplishments. Basically, by doing this Trump admits he sucks at the job of being president.
Kay
@patroclus:
I suggest all these people “escaping” the United States by moving to another part of it rent for a year. Go take a hard look at kids in rural areas. They’re not thriving. Not doing well. Have any of these people BEEN to the Trumpiest parts of Pennsylvania? I just spent a week in one. The most notable part of the town is two federally subsidized low income housing complexes. The biggest most active areas in that town would not exist but for the government they’re destroying. There’s their Republican small towns. That’s what they’ll find when they escape the “Democrat” cities.
Kay
@patroclus:
I feel like my son figured this out early. He figured he can pay 45% in taxes in Denmark or 30% in taxes and fees in the US and come out ahead, because he actually gets value for the money out of the taxes he pays in Denmark.
There go two miscreants
@Betty Cracker: I almost tossed my waffle
Could have been worse, there could have been pictures!
taumaturgo
@bluehill: What you are correctly perceiving is the democrat’s default setting of going on defense instead of going on offense. It doesn’t have to be all Joe, there are hundreds of Democrats that can join the fight. But as precedents tell us, the corporate democrat’s leadership prefers to stick to an old and outdated campaign playbook. I like you haven’t heard the message from the democrats that they are the defenders of the oppressed, which btw includes poor whites, the opposers to injustice, especially to summary police executions, the persecutors and prosecutors of white supremacists terrorism, and the protectors of the environment.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic:
Bold statement!
Anonymous At Work
@Jinchi: Trump’s time before the White House have him avoiding alcohol. This is a personal trait for a long time with him. To me, it was always a fear of appearing weak (as opposed to being weak) around his father.
Kay
This is corruption. You’re paying 50 billion dollars a year to Homeland Security and they don’t return value. In fact, they DENY service to the public.
These individuals are robbing you. They’re collecting your money and not delivering the service you paid for. The connection between the quality of your day to day life and this level of corruption is direct. As the corruption increases, your quality of life will decline. It already has.
Bill Arnold
@MisterForkbeard:
That’s a pretty big story. Thanks for linking. Chad Wolf has a lot to answer for, but this is one of the seriously bad things that he’s done; if he was under Trump orders, that makes it worse.
Bill Arnold
@Barbara:
Too late for that. It is now well known by the press that he orders his doctors to lie. E.g. 6’3″ (with 3 inch lifts!), 239 pounds. So his medical records will be suspected to be falsified.
L85NJGT
@Kay:
My immigrant co-worker was clear eyed about it: “In America you pay for everything….”
Bill Arnold
@different-church-lady:
That tvtropes pages is wonderful. Worth reading including many of the links. (tvtropes is a rabbit hole.)
Timill
@L85NJGT:
[GIRLS]
I like to be in America
Okay by me in America
Everything free in America
[BERNARDO]
For a small fee in America
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
There’s no way to say, “You bastard!” with fewer than three syllables.
MomSense
@bluehill:
I just don’t know anymore what is normal and what isn’t. I think about 2016 and the fact that the Clinton campaign was forced to bring up Trump’s connections to Russia, his temperament, etc because the media failed to do so. The coverage they gave to Obama’s mortgage was about 1,000 times more rigorous. Then the media criticized Clinton for attacking trump and both sidesed her legitimate critiques and his bogus attacks on her.
I think if Biden goes after Trump’s brain the media will come back with the trump campaign counters that Biden is deteriorating blah blah blah. I just do not know that there is way to run a campaign as a Democrat that won’t be shat upon by the media.
They repeat uncritically that trump is running a lawn order campaign. They are barely covering COVID at this point. Russian bounties on US troops seems to be long forgotten.
I honestly think Biden is playing this as well as anyone possibly could.
Soprano2
My mother went to a car wash a couple of weeks ago wanting to pay cash for a car wash. They said they didn’t do that anymore, instead you have to buy a card to put money on. They refused to take her cash, and she didn’t want to buy a card, so she left. It appears that a lot of places are going this way, probably pushed some by COVID. In this case it actually makes sense, who wants to have a machine outside with a lot of cash in it that they have to empty every day? Much easier and safer to have everyone put money on a card.
Leto
@Kay: It’s also because that 45% is all upfront. The EU is upfront about their taxing system. In the US you pay that 30%, but then you have state/local taxes, you have a myriad of additional fees tacked on to everything. My friends from Europe who’ve come over here, that’s something they always remark on. It’s not just value, but it’s transparency. That counts for something.
Immanentize
@MomSense: I am not joking -+ I think the media is really holding back on their Covid reporting until we hit 200,000 deaths. Better to have a milestone story rather than a drip drip story.
Cynical, yes, but not joking.
Leto
@MomSense: I don’t know if you’re watching the Biden press conference right now, but the media is still shit. Their questions are still shit. They’re still asking questions as if it’s up to Biden to solve this shit as if he’s the fucking president.
J R in WV
@Gin & Tonic:
Good friend, who lived very seriously in the middle of nowhere, no one to hear him shout, named his dog Stella, and then stood in his woods shouting “Stella!!”
So funny. Our new puppies were first named BooBoo and CooCoo, now gradually being shortened to just Boo and Coo.
Ruckus
@Bruce K:
Not in the top 100 but who’s counting….
Also, I’ve been giving the bottom 5 worst president spots all to shitforbrains. He is a crappy enough human being to deserve all of them, and that’s saying something about a few of the other 44.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
You are probably right. The situation we find ourselves in is unprecedented. I don’t think we’ve ever had simultaneous pandemic, economic collapse and a president who is compromised by a hostile foreign power and whose administration, personal life and business life are all corrupt and criminal. We’ve never experienced this all as a package. The media can’t, more like won’t cover it with the seriousness it deserves. Living in this brokenness is exhausting and traumatic.
Nelle
@Kay: This. I’m not sure our taxes in New Zealand were that much higher, since we didn’t have a bloated military to support. The maximum a household should spend on prescriptions in a year was $200. Plus we didn’t have this sea of medical and insurance paperwork rising in the mail, nor did we have toake gambling decisions on what kind, what plan of health insurance we might need that year. The freedom of not fussing over it was wonderful and worth every dollar of taxes.
J R in WV
@Immanentize:
Won’t have to wait very long to know about this concept, will we? And nearly all Trump’s direct fault!
Matt McIrvin
For what it’s worth, speculation about this has been rampant by word of mouth, social media and blogs for ages even if the mainstream media never talked about it. It could just be Twitter getting into Trump’s head, the way it does.
danielx
@Frankensteinbeck:
A little?
Last I heard, according to his physician he weighed 236 pounds. If he’s not north of 300 I’ll eat one of my hats – suitably prepared, of course.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@danielx: if the hat is a cake….
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
The only things left reachable in the brain are long term memories and memories that one has used a lot. They act out, in different ways, those memories. And often become obsessed about them. I believe that is because that’s all they can remember. (Dad had Alzheimers.) Another side is that one of the things that can disappear is repression. A friend’s mom had Alzheimer’s and he said he’d never heard her swear in his entire life, not once, not one word. Except that with Alzheimer’s she swore like a sailor. And sailors say fuck, a lot. He said it wasn’t really funny but sometimes you just couldn’t help laugh that she knew all the words. Every last one, and how to use them.
danielx
@MomSense:
The very words.
I vaguely remember what it was like not having a president who felt compelled to be at the center of every news cycle all day and every day. I want to go back to that, soon, because the daily firehose spout of bullshit, lies, corruption and incompetence is wearing my spirit down.
Yutsano
@Nelle: The New Zealand army has the coolest name ever. Ngāti Tūmatauenga, “Tribe of the God of War”. You just can’t beat that.
Bill Arnold
@satby:
There’s also the point that the government, my bank and my bank’s “business partners” (fairly broad) should not need to know about specific purchases.
For some reason, after 7 months of zero evidence that contact transmission through fomites (contaminated surfaces) is even a minor mode of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, (no solid case studies last I looked), surface cleaning and hand washing are still a major part of recommended anti-covid measures. (Rather than focusing on limiting sharing of unfiltered exhaled air.)
If one were paranoid, one might suspect an anti-cash agenda, which is always present; an article a month talks makes an argument for eliminating anonymous cash. It’s a little more blatant in the UK.
Steeplejack (phone)
@NotMax:
Who’s her cable provider? They probably have a schedule on line. E.g., the one for Cox here in NoVA is quite good. (I might have had to enter my account nym and password at one point. ?)
Yutsano
@Bill Arnold: Last time I checked, the United States Mint is legally required to print physical currency. It doesn’t mean there can’t be a push for virtual dollars to exist, but they would be backed by an equal amount of physical bills. So paper dollars aren’t disappearing from the United States any time soon.
patrick Il
@different-church-lady:
One of the reasons that I think you should be happy about the Lincoln project is that if they hadn’t decided to cross over those big guns they had would be pointing at Biden and Harris and probably doing damage.. I for 1 am glad that has not happened and they have aimed their dark arts at Trump.
Matt McIrvin
@Yutsano: Is the printing of paper currency legally required, or just coins? (The Mint makes coins; Bureau of Engraving and Printing makes paper money.)
Ruckus
@PST:
One of my docs thought I’d had a TIA, from my description of an event. I got X-Rays, a brain MRI, a CT, several neuro and cardio exams and an angiogram. All negative. And I didn’t have another event so they just shrug their shoulders and go on with their lives. After they determined that I do not have Parkinson’s and can tolerate none of the meds they’ve prescribed I got the head neuro’s cell phone number and an enjoy your life speech. And no more constant exams and knowing that I at least don’t have any of the major neuro diseases (at this time) has made my life a lot more comfortable.
The Pale Scot
@NotMax:
The NY Post?
Shuffles and ducks ………
The Pale Scot
@Betty Cracker:
There will be an amateur pørn parody on P_rnHub by this weekend fer sure. And another made in Japan or S.Korea by the end of the month
Searcher
@danielx: If not he is just has ABSURDLY low muscle-mass, is just INCREDIBLY fluffy.
Ruckus
@ET:
I don’t think rewired is the correct concept. He is diseased, of that there can be no question. The actual diagnosis is not fully necessary to see that he has numerous issues. To possibly treat them, yes, to see that they affect his life and us, no. But to question that something is wrong, both mentally and physically is part of our privilege and rights.
Miss Bianca
@patrick Il:
I saw this as “aimed their dark darts at Trump” and then realized it works just fine either way!
lgerard
@NotMax:
I use this one
https://tvlistings.zap2it.com/?aid=gapzap
You can customize it by getting rid of all the religious and shopping channels
Seanly
I don’t go to conspiracy sites & most of my political blogs are here, LGM, Rawstory, Twitter & a couple of others I rarely check (dumped Slate when they went full anti-Clinton in 2015). Yet, I remember seeing something a couple of months ago about rumors or speculation that Trump had a stroke or has ministrokes. It might’ve been someone’s analysis of him slurring a bunch of words in a speech (maybe a Christmas speech with Pence in the background?).
So while the “legitimate” media hasn’t reported on Trump stroking out, it’s something that has been percolating online for 5 to 9 months.
There’s a pretty damning video of him with a shambling gait (kinda has to swing his right leg out & foot isn’t pointing straight ahead). From a factory or lab visit in NC?
DMcK
Anybody remember that presser he did with Netanyahu, oh, maybe in 2018? The one when, during Bibi’s remarks, his face suddenly went completely slack and he just got up and wandered off? I’m not a doctor by any means, but I could not and cannot shake the impression that something just went seriously awry; that a major cognitive/neurological event just took place on-camera.
susanna
@taumaturgo: I think so too.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@DMcK: Except with Trump it could be, he’s a man-child and governing is BORING so he wandered off to get a cheese burger. Remember this is probably the first time in his adult life Trump has to behave like a normal adult.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Seanly: At his acceptance speech last week Trump was dragging his left leg.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@The Pale Scot: and the next chapter of the Henti Magma “My Sister Can’t be Dictator!”
Feathers
@NotMax: When I gave up cable, I got an over the air antenna. I used tvguide.com to find out what’s on. They have an app for the phone as well. I checked and they have cable channels too.
Feathers
@patroclus: I use laundry in the basement. I still have coins from the last time I went to the bank, but I’m rationing them. I sublet, so I don’t get the buildings emails. I’m wondering if they have some workaround. i.e., letting us know when the guy is here to collect the coins, so we can trade him dollars for that.
I remember hearing when the shortage first started that the price could be reset to .25. Have everyone mark their quarters and then count up how much everyone owes the company that runs the laundry machines. The condo board could cover and then collect.
Sucks, though. I would have to Uber to the place that has card operated machines. Big and stupid expense when I have no money.
Ken
@Searcher: He’s big-boned.
Bill Arnold
@DMcK:
Yep. That was quite interesting. There was another one involving a bill signing where he … forgot to sign the bill, IIRC (need to check notes). (My speculations run a bit weirder. But these things are noticed.)