I was watching some clips of Trump’s disastrous town hall from last night earlier today, and just a little bit ago I watched Michael Cohen talking about Trump on Joy Reid’s show. While Cohen was talking, I wondered if he had actually changed as a person and felt regret, and I believe in redemption and am willing to accept maybe he has in fact changed. And that’s when it hit me- that’s one really nice thing about Trump.
I will never have to have sympathy for or change my mind about him or give him the benefit of doubt. Ever. He’s never going to change. He can’t. His frontal lobe is so shot from decades of meth abuse, dementia, and his personality is so warped from his narcissism and general sociopathy that Donald Trump will never change. Should he lose the election, and even more stuff comes out and his bank records and taxes are revealed and all the misdeeds brought to light, even as he is being perp walked to jail, he will not show contrition or even attempt to change. He can’t, and he won’t.
He’ll blame everyone else and just keep trying to foment a civil war until we have him in a Hannibal Lector mask locked in restraints somewhere in a basement.
So that’s something positive about Trump.
Alison Rose
I second that emotion.
West of the Cascades
Kudos to you for looking for signs of repentance and redemption in Michael Cohen. I fear you’ll look in vain, but it’d be nice to think that spending time in jail after being tossed aside like garbage by the guy you tried to protect might change a person. Being able to unabashedly hate Donald Trump and his spawn with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns really is their only redeeming quality.
But it’d also be nice to get Trump, Ivanka/Jared, Uday, and Qusay a little prison time to see if there’s a shot at redemption for them, too.
Baud
He would never throw the Emperor into the abyss to save Don, Jr.
Roger Moore
My feeling is that Trump’s inner circle is basically a cult. Cohen is behaving like a lot of cult escapees by turning hard on the cult and its leader. The reactions of some of the never Trump ex-Republicans seem pretty similar.
Calouste
If during one of the debates Joe Biden gets asked if he has anything nice to say about his opponent, he should answer “more than 200,000 Americans have died while my opponent sat there twiddling his thumbs. Do you expect me to say anything nice about someone like that?”
japa21
two things:
1: I actually do believe that Cohen has changed and feels regret for what he has enabled. Not so much some of the specific things he has done so much as what Trump has become with his assistance.
2: Trump will never see a day in jail. No jury will convict him. None will ever find a verdict of non-guilty either. Any jury that sits in a trial of him will end up divided, even if there is just one juror that is a member of his cult. Civil suits with significant financial penalties is a whole other thing, however.
germy
Tonight on PBS
Republican decision making, at least.
zhena gogolia
@Calouste:
That would be great.
How is he getting away with this?????
Anybody remember Benghazi?
Baud
@Calouste:
Joe could say that Trump has made us realize how fragile our democracy is.
hells littlest angel
I’m pretty sure I could watch Trump walk toward an open elevator shaft without the slightest guilt as I said not one word.
Ken
Oh, is that the punishment for sedition? I was wondering.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Benghazi helped lead to an election loss. Trump is hopefully heading for the same result.
Ken
@hells littlest angel: Well, remember what Mel Brooks said. Tragedy is when I cut my finger, comedy is when Trump falls down an open elevator shaft.
And so many people who pal around with Putin end up falling down open elevator shafts.
Baud
@Ken: Slander. Putin throws people out of windows.
Gin & Tonic
I’m probably in the minority, but I feel that Michael Cohen is an irredeemable asshole who is faking contrition to sell a book. If he spends the next 50 years cleaning out bedpans in a COVID ward, I may begin to change my mind.
The Moar You Know
Cohen is a very, very adroit psychopath. The kind who everyone raves about how he turned his life around, until someone gets in his basement and finds his museum of preserved genitalia.
Nobody should trust that fucker.
PeakVT
You see, Loki, life is about growth; it’s about change, but you seem to just want to stay the same.
Baud
Cohen becomes irrelevant after election day. I don’t care what’s in his heart right now.
Kay
I think Michael Cohen is the best former Trumpster too. He’s just a regular crook. Judge him for that if you must but at least he never pretended to be anything else.
He got in with the wrong crowd. Had he met up with ordinary ponzi schemers or something instead of these international, nation-destroying villains he would have been happier.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia:
Ben Ghazi, an actor maybe?
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I still love “Sez who?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Kb7IDmFF4
Kay
Speaking of celebrity criminals:
Rudy owns a “payroll company”. Yeah, sure he does.
zhena gogolia
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I think he was in Anatomy of a Murder.
germy
Alimony and cigars, probably.
John S.
@?BillinGlendaleCA: He was excellent in The Big Lebowski.
Nicole
@japa21:
God, I hope you’re right, as I have vented here before that the rich and powerful never pay for anything they do. Vanity Fair ran an entertaining article this summer about Doris Duke basically getting away with murder.
But then again, the old phrase, “from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” exists for a reason and man, it’d be nice to see it play out with the Trumps.
And yes, it’s a relief to know I’ll never need to find it in my heart to forgive DJT for anything. Then again, my opinion of GWB hasn’t changed since 2008, either, no matter what Ellen may try to tell me.
Chetan Murthy
@The Moar You Know:
People forget he was in tight with the Ukrainian mob before he was introduced to Shitler; indeed, that was part of his draw for Shitler. And Cohen has never give up his mobster buddies to the Feds. It’s part of why he went to the slammer, even when he was willing to give up Shitler.
debbie
Hannibal Lector is an excellent metaphor for Trump.
Does anybody read The Fifth Column? One of my FB friends has been linking to his videos. I hesitantly took a look at the one defending Woodward and was pleasantly surprised.
Kay
@germy:
He’s an amusing Trump crook because he must be really bad with money. He’s been grifting and skimming for nearly 20 years and he doesn’t have any money. The length of his criminal career will soon exceed the length of his former “straight” life.
Baud
@Nicole:
You know who else feels that way?
Jesus.
Kent
The other good thing about Trump? He functions as a mirror of truth for everyone else. Hold him up to say a Susan Collins and she reveals who she really is. That is his super power.
kindness
Video of Trump doing a perp walk would certainly bring a smile to my heart & face.
Just Chuck
I honestly don’t care what Cohen feels or what his soul is like. I want him to dish the goods that puts T behind bars, and unless and until he does that, he’s just another squawk in the noise.
Chris Johnson
@Calouste: He should count minutes. And say “You know, by the statistics, two people have died of COVID while we were here talking. Right now, since the cameras went on and you welcomed us to this stage. Don’t know exactly who, don’t know exactly where, but I know we could have done better and this man went to a lot of trouble to see to it that we didn’t. And look at him smiling, because I’m not going to be able to do as you ask. To this guy, the important thing is he thinks it makes ME look bad. And you want me to think of one good thing to say about him. Nope. I’m sorry, I can’t.”
Another Scott
@Calouste: +1. There’s more to life than feeding meaningless lines to American TV personalities for fear of being called “uncivil” while hundreds of thousands die.
Relatedly, a good thread from today –
Another day in Trumplandia.
VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
Such an unending parade of grifters and weirdos in the Trump circle.
There was one guy, he showed up drunk to a talk show. I can’t remember his name. The host of the show told him she could smell alcohol on his breath. He denied it.
What a strange and ugly administration.
jonas
@Kay: Giuliani spent years prosecuting the mob. I guess along the way he picked up a few tips on how to launder money, racketeer, and so on while staying under the radar. Same with Bernard Kerrick and that whole crew. Corrupt AF.
Geminid
I watched Michael Cohen when he appeared before the late Elijah Cummings’ House Oversight Commitee, about a year and a half ago. It seemed like Cohen showed genuine remorse. And in his final comments Elijah Cummings seemed to show real sympathy for Cohen. As for trump, he has to be one of the most miserable humans I have ever seen. I would pity him, if he wasn’t so destructive to other people.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Moderately more fruitful acting career than Al Kida.
;)
Rusty
Now they want to turn the power of the state against their political enemies. Headline from a NYT news alert:. Breaking News: Attorney General William Barr is said to have suggested sedition charges over violence at protests, as well as possible charges for the Seattle mayor.
germy
@jonas: I read somewhere that he very … selectively… prosecuted the mob. Went after some people while leaving other people alone.
prostratedragon
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Popular 1960s tv show with Vince Edwards maybe?
KVdP
I usually lurk, but I’m also ever the contrarian:
If Individual 1 truly has an untreated personality disorder, does that count as a mental illness and hence we would need to feel empathy?
Anya
Speaking of Trump, his voters don’t make sense. They love him because they perceive him as a powerful and macho businessman who can’t be intimidated but at the same time, they argue that some secret deep state cabal still loyal to Obama is sabotaging him. They need to vote for him again so that he can fight this super secret powerful group. How does that make any sense. If he wasn’t able to defeat them before why do they think Trump will be able to defeat Obama’s secret army?
M31
and how much we value the Post Office,
and how much we appreciate it when the President isn’t a two-bit huckster with llama spit for brains
and
germy
@Anya:
They seem to glory in their contradictions.
Chris Johnson
@debbie: Beau is fantastic. Highly recommended. He’s a southern Dem, possibly some kind of ex-military from some of the things he knows. He’s very upset by noises made towards gun control, and he hides his power level but what he’s hiding isn’t that he’s a MAGA chud: he is hiding that he is a dedicated anarchist who’s deeply committed to fighting hierarchical systems. There’s stuff to learn from him, even if he doesn’t have the answers to all things… and his ‘it’s just a thought’s seem like they’d be brutally effective at converting wavering Trumpists, because he’s able to highlight stuff that’s just wrong and put it across convincingly in sound-bite form.
And he has an AMAZING T-shirt collection. It’s always different and it’s always fantastic. And there’s some kind of symbology to when the ‘Curious George’ symbol on his hat is affixed upside down, but I’ve not been let in on that one or haven’t paid close enough attention.
Beau is great. It’s good to have him out there undermining the Trumpies. Another good ‘un is Trae Crowder (the Liberal Redneck), who is more comedic and less thoughtful/serious in tone. Trae says some of the funniest shit you could ask for, and his outrage is always directed rightly :)
Another Scott
Honestly, I don’t know if he’s actually brain damaged, or just plays a brain damaged person on TV. But…
And it’s only Wednesday.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Really? Were is this from?
jonas
Probably Kudlow.
germy
Sure Lurkalot
@Kent: Yep yep yep. My bro was just a wacky libertarian pre-Trump. We could have discussions about policy. In February 2016, he thought Trump was a joke. Now he has self righteous contempt for anyone or anything that contradicts Trump…it’s deep state or fake news. I lost my sister to cancer in February. I lost my brother to Trump.
geg6
@germy:
Sam Nunberg. Gawd, I can’t believe I know that.
Baud
@Sure Lurkalot:
I’m sorry.
jonas
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: From what I’ve read, people have always said Trump snorts aderall.
germy
@jonas: No, not Kudlow.
Wait, he seemed drunk, too.
No, the guy I remember was younger. He was a big trump booster, and was on all the talk shows. I think he went into rehab or something.
germy
@geg6:
That’s him.
Baud
@Anya:
They’re reflecting their own lives, where they tell themselves how powerful they are but yet can’t seem to control the world around them.
trollhattan
For generations to come, when the parent of a special needs child says to them, “You can do anything, you can be president!” they won’t be lying.
Thanks, Donny.
debbie
@germy:
Why the fuck would you take out the blue states???
geg6
@germy:
Every now and again, Ari Melber or Joy Reid will have him on. Melber called him out for being drunk once.
Ken
@germy: Don Junior?
No, you said he went into rehab. Hmm…
debbie
@Chris Johnson:
Thanks!
Chris Johnson
@Another Scott: Jesus CHRIST. He is STILL trying to kill his own voters. I swear to God the man will settle for leading all the MAGA chuds over the cliff and then… what? Be welcomed home to Russia as a hero, having served his master well?
It doesn’t fucking work that way, but this guy just will not let up. I think he believes himself. All he knows is, deny everything, and nobody at all matters. Least of all his god damn VOTERS. It’s hard to wrap your head around the ability to do that much damage to your own side.
Competent Nazis would at least be able to protect their own people. Mind you, Nazis weren’t run out of Russia in a Potemkin empire. Trump is wrecking his own side simply because they are more within his grasp.
Wear your masks kids! Don’t get bored of staying safe, Trumpenfuhrer is even now keeping coronavirus on the boil even if he has to stoke the fires with the bodies of his own supporters!
‘losers’.
geg6
Wow, just saw the cheesiest commercial starring Ed Rollins for Trump. It was like a late night Ronco commercial but with lower production values. Jesus, it was bad.
trollhattan
The grift never stops.
If I lived in Placer County I’d be on this
guyGore’s ass.?BillinGlendaleCA
@jonas:Kudlow’s more of a Peruvian Marching Powder* kind of guy.
*h/t to Robin Williams.
RobNYNY
@jonas:
I have known other lawyers who changed sides when they found out how much money the other side was making.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: Residents of blue states are not really American.
trollhattan
@geg6:
Ed Rollins? Is he some walking corpse from Reagan days?
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Except, of course, for roughly 1.5 days following 9/11/01, during which we were all New Yorkers or something like that.
Chris Johnson
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The problem with him and the problem FOR him is, he really does believe his own bullshit.
If you’re Trump, the blue states are hellholes full of thugs and rioters and coronavirus. And the red states are freedom and guns and they’re all herd mentality so they’re immune from getting sick as long as masks don’t take all their oxygen. And he BELIEVES it. When he’s saying something like ‘take all the blue states out and we’re the best in the world’ he thinks that’s REAL, because nothing is real to that man except getting praise even if he has to praise himself. Even the red states are only good because they believe in him.
If they die or are hurt, they’re losers and suckers once they can’t help him.
Horrible fucked-up person. Astonishing.
Chris T.
@jonas: No, his drug-of-choice is apparently cocaine. I think I remember who the drunk one was but can’t recall his name right now…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: Yup, and Rudy was “America’s Mayor”.
Brachiator
@Anya:
You have posed the question very well.
I think a partial explanation works like this. Trump supporters react to the overwhelming evidence of Trump’s corruption by erecting a correspondingly massive conspiracy theory defense. Someone as “great” as Trump could never be defeated by an ordinary enemy.
And because these people are largely insecure racists and sexists, Trump’s enemies must be race traitors, nonwhites and powerful Others such as Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, etc.
Unfortunately, once Trump is gone, they will need to find another false savior to latch onto to feed their elaborate fears.
Chris T.
@geg6: Yeah, Nunberg, that’s the guy.
jonas
Because in a second term he can finally suspend that pesky Constitution, declare martial law and just have them disappeared. And all will be well.
Mike in NC
C’mon, man! Cohen needed to spend time in the slammer for those sportcoats.
Elizabelle
Will read the thread now.
Checked in on Rachel Maddow for a minute. She was taking 2 minutes of words to get where you thought she might be going, so turned her off. The verbosity, and how dumb — or patient! — she must think her audience is, repels me.
jonas
@Chris T.: Yes, I know way back when Kudlow was supposedly fired from his investment banking job or something because of his drug problem, but more recently he’s clearly been hitting the hooch — ruddy complexion, slurred words, making no sense. The last part is mostly just because he’s a Republican, but you get my point.
Kelly
A friend of 40 years that was always been libertarian and had been drifting to intolerable right wing why does the government always have it hands in his pockets ranting is now a very strong Biden and Democrats supporter. Horrified by Trump and the Republicans backing everything. He understands democracy is on the line, Black lives matter, only Democrats will save civilization from climate change, health care is a human right. No more both sides. It’s a welcome change.
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
@The Moar You Know:
I don’t trust him as far as I can throw a piano.
Kay
So there really are anti-Trump Republicans. I’ve been “working” at the Biden headquarters here (I sit there and talk) and some have been coming in for yard signs. I try to get them to take our candidate’s sign for the state legislature (which I will throw in free with a Biden sign – she needs the exposure) and I notice the anti-Trump Republicans won’t take it, which I think means they’re all still voting GOP downballot.
There’s enough that they might matter though.
schrodingers_cat
I feel no sympathy for either the Orange Clown or his political minions, whether they are crooks like Cohen or generals with chests full of medals like Kelly and Mattis. Working willingly for the man who has zero human qualities tells me everything I need to know about them.
jonas
Because Covid-19 is clearly all Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom’s fault.
No, seriously. That’s what he means.
VeniceRiley
I bring good tidings of great joy via her polliness, Rachel Bitecofer
https://www.niskanencenter.org/bitecofer-epstein-september-update/?fbclid=IwAR3yqiugh4eHzv9fImtdy70mLahTIMKZ2pN4j23YVG9Hhzt2A5vWi4fbeFY
WaterGirl
@geg6:
I laughed out loud. For real.
Raoul Paste
geg6
@trollhattan:
Exactly. Those fuckers won’t just die already.
Baud
@Kelly: Nice to hear.
Lapassionara
@Elizabelle: I’m there with you. I don’t watch, and when it is over I ask Mr LP what the program was about, and he gives me a nice succinct sum up. Maybe Rachel needs a verbosity translator.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Elizabelle:
This was the best commentary I’ve ever seen from Rachel. She was equal parts passionate, heartfelt, illuminating, and eloquent.
She expressed more intelligence and common sense in 5 minutes than Trump has expressed in 74 fucking years on this Earth.
Citizen Alan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Fixed that for you.
Another Scott
Good, good. Keep bringing it back to people – everywhere – who are still being destroyed by this horrible problem.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mortality/drug_poisoning.htm
Death rates per 100,000 (from 2018):
West Virginia 51.5
Delaware 43.8
Maryland 37.2
Pennsylvania 36.1
Ohio 35.9
New Hampshire 35.8
New Jersey 33.1
Massachusetts 32.8
Kentucky 30.9
Connecticut 30.7
Rhode Island 30.1
Maine 27.9
Tennessee 27.5
Missouri 27.5
New Mexico 26.7
and on and on.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@Lapassionara: It’s like a personality flaw.
One night, there was a chyron with breaking news up. Maybe 5 to 7 words got the point across. But not our Rachel. She was filibustering and not even approaching the point yet, although you sensed she was going there. Bunch of wholly filler words.
Like the chyron was inducing anxiety in her. She just. couldn’t say it.
I am so, so grateful that neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris is like that. They are effective communicators.
Elizabelle
@Wyatt Salamanca: What are you talking about?
The herd immunity segment?
Brachiator
OT. Has there already been a post about Charles Feeney, who gave away his $8 billion fortune?
He kept $2 million for himself and his wife.
Elizabelle
@Brachiator: Never heard of him. Yea Charles Feeney!
Lapassionara
@Elizabelle: it is a personality type. Some are like that, and she speaks to them. She drives me batty, although I want to like her because she is working for progress, but I cannot stand to wait for her to get to the point.
NotMax
@germy
Texas, Iowa, South Dakota, Arizona, Oklahoma, etc. Those blue states?
“If take the states out and just look at McMurdo station, we’re doing bigly fantastic.”
//
MoCA Ace
The first round of appointees (KKKeebler Elf, Mad Dog etc) were those republicans thrilled by their chance to stick it to the brown folks but too stupid to know they could not control the orange menace. Fuckem.
The second tranche were brought in by the party in a desperate attempt to reign in the Soviet shitpile mobster, or at least get him to stop screaming the quiet parts in public. Trump saw them for who they were and under-bussed them at the first opportunity. Fuckem harder.
What we are left with are the true believers, distilled down to the essence of evil by the dignity wraith. Anyone with a single sputtering brain cell knows exactly what squats in the oval office and wants no part of the train wreck that is barreling down on this country. Those left do not want to change or control Mango Mussolini, he is perfect the way he is. These people scare the shit out of me. Fuckem with the force of a thousand galactic collisions.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Trump got confused, he though he was talking about the election.
OT, I finally made your corn/rye bread. It has a wonderful texture! I thought about adding a little more rye and a little less unbleached next time, but I wondered if that would change the texture? I think maybe I’ll add more caraway seeds.
Chris T.
@Lapassionara: I keep wishing my DVR had a 4x speed mode, so I could watch the whole show in about 12 minutes…
jonas
@Kelly: Well, as they say, a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged. I guess a new Biden voter is a libertarian who’s been…I don’t know? Struck with the image of the entire country collapsing if that orange fascist nightmare is reelected?
I have an aunt and uncle who were lifelong evangelical Republicans recently announce that they want nothing more to do with Trump and have quit the party and will vote for Biden, so there’s that, too. It’s a drip here and drip there, but I think come November, it will add up to a wave. Call me crazy.
A Ghost to Most
@Lapassionara: The 20 minute wind ups drove me away.
GE taught me precise and consise back in the day. Rachel ain’t that.
Urza
@KVdP:
Even if you are a better person, no, in this particular case you don’t need to feel empathy for the bastard. It would be akin to feeling empathy with Stalin for having a bad childhood which caused him to kill so many people.
Gin & Tonic
@Brachiator:
Greedy sonofabitch.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Excellent. Enjoy.
Now let me tell you about the rest of the religion…
;)
Ohio Mom
KVdP @ 43:
Yes, personality disorders are considered a form of mental illness, and I suppose a highly evolved person could find it in them to feel pity for how miserable a person Trump is. He’s never known real love, has no sense of humor, and the list goes on. It’s a very stunted life he has.
But I have come to terms with knowing I’m not that highly evolved. I mainly can’t get past the fact that he is a criminal. He knows right from wrong, even if the distinction doesn’t interest him.
Anyway, Welcome out from lurking. Stick around.
jonas
@Elizabelle: Yeah, some people seem to like these 20-minute, slow explainers using 4th-grade words and a lot of repetition and recapitulation, but I can’t take them either. Maybe that makes me a latte-sipping coastal elitist or something, but that is, actually, what I am.
WaterGirl
@MoCA Ace: That’s an amazing summary.
dww44
@Roger Moore: I actually think Cohen turned on Trump a long time ago because, to his credit, his love for his family was and is greater than his misplaced fealty to Trump. IMO he has changed …..repented, if you will.
jonas
@Brachiator: I had followed all these Cornell initiatives over the years, but didn’t realize they were all bankrolled by this one guy. Amazing.
MoCA Ace
@Elizabelle: So another day ending in Y then. I know she’s on our side but I can’t stand her verbosity and the fact that she typically delivers 5-minutes of content per show.
HumboldtBlue
Christ, Joe, gimme a heads-up I’ll need a tissue.
jonas
Yep. They’re actually pining for the Reichstag Fire incident that will give them unlimited power. Barr’s totally on board (and stockpiling kerosene). So are Kushner and Miller. They watch the Hitler’s rant from Downfall meme and think, “yeah, but if the Russians are on *your* side, this all turns out great…”
Mo Salad
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I was thinking a correction to Jay McInerney was in order, but he actually went with Bolivian Marching Powder in “Bright Lights, Big City”.
sanjeevs
@Brachiator: Feeney played a significant role in bringing about the Northern Irish peace agreement – he bankrolled a lot of initiatives in the 1980s and 1990s.
Nobody knew at the time.
geg6
@jonas:
My John’s brother, not a Trumper but hasn’t voted since the 1970s…literally…has re-registered to vote just to vote against Cheetolini. One vote at a time, I say. I’m Team Tortoise.
Jackie
@jonas: Sam Nunberg on MSNBC.
Jackie
@jonas: Never mind – geg6 beat me by a mile.
hitchhiker
@A Ghost to Most:
Rachel is teaching. It’s annoying when you already know the context, but she never assumes that the majority of her 3-5 million viewers do.
The windup is so that people who don’t have time to pay attention throughout the day or the week or whatever will know why it matters that this guest be heard. I think it probably also keeps her centered, in the sense that she doesn’t waste time once the guest is there.
I get why it’s irritating, but then I only listen to the podcast of her shows and only catch the rerun if there’s something I need to see, like video or graphics. That’s rare. The podcast is up every night on the west coast around 8 pm, right when I’m cleaning up the kitchen and want something to distract me. I can also fast forward if I think I already know the back story.
Rachel has become the go-to destination for writers looking to build sales; she’s very successful at persuading buyers that they need to read this book!
Bill Arnold
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Haven’t heard of meth abuse, but have heard/seen strong rumors of Adderall use, recreational and to help himself focus for performance events (crowds, interviews). His pupils are often extremely large for a man his age:
What about Medications/Drugs as a Cause of Trump’s Large Pupils?
Since Adderall is “equal parts racemic amphetamine and dextroamphetamine”, that might do it, though I have no first-hand knowledge of adderall abuse. (Alternatively, possession by a [X] :-)
geg6
@dww44:
I agree. Read an interview with his daughter, who was anti-Trump since she was young and her dad was just starting to get close to that asshole. And she knows the kids well and has no truck with them either. I think he’s still a bit of a conman and Ukrainian gangster adjacent, but I believe he loves his family dearly and wants to be better for them. His daughter is a lovely woman from what I read in the article. I think it was in Vanity Fair.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Christ, Woodward reminds me of why I hate him when it comes to the Mueller investigation. “Well, in fact, there was no collusion…” COLLUSION IS NOT A MOTHER-FUCKING LEGAL TERM. and no pushback from Star-Fucker O’Donnell.
Uncle Cosmo
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Or maybe Bolivian marching powder – which is a quote from the first page of Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City (1984). Haven’t been able to google up an etymology for which came first.
Eunicecycle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I noticed that, too and had the same reaction. And “no collusion” doesn’t mean there was nothing wrong!
Kay
The attorney general is another Trump Administration nutcase. Totally out of control.
Anyone who believed this person was decent and law abiding is a lousy judge of character and should never be trusted again.
Hoppie
@A Ghost to Most: You meant concise, right? Just sayin’…
Kay
The Trump Administration invading a church and teargassing protesters was actually NOT the worst thing they did that day. They did much worse things, like stockpile munitions to kill protesters. It’s just that storming the church and teargassing the protesters was so bad that no one dreamed that was only phase one.
We really should have known. There is no bottom.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Uncle Cosmo: Robin’s reference would date to his standup albums, early Mork and Mindy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Christ, Woodward’s a lousy interview. He’s now explaining to the MSNBC audience that Jared Kushner is the President’s son-in-law and a top White House staffer.
Astounding how bad he is on TV having been around DC media for going on half a centur
ETA: his old man’s droning is getting to the point of comically sad
his justification of trump supporters is full-on Cletus safari/we must understand these noble savages, and we must never, ever look down upon them
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, it is the dumb ass contingent tuning in from “Let Me Explain this to you, but not just now!” Rachel Maddow show. // snark!
I turned it off, between LOD’s fervent praise and … just boredom. Of the paint drying kind.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I do believe that “no collusion” (ie. William Barr was right!) crap occurred within 90 seconds of closing my MSNBC window for the evening.
No, no, no.
Elizabelle
@hitchhiker: That’s a gracious assessment. And yeah, her style would be good for people we know who barely have time to turn on the news, let alone surf it.
Morzer
@dww44: Michael Cohen had a DumbAssSeen conversion.
Mary G
@Kay: I was just reading the WaPo article about that. It is horrific. Thank Dog for the whistleblower and whoever had the sense not to allow them to get this stuff:
Barr is officially the worst of the worst in my book now. Honestly, the House should just start impeachment already.
stinger
Something else nice about Trump: Sarah Cooper. If she never records another Trump “How To” video, I can still read: “So that was called action, not with the mouth, but an actual fact” and picture her lip-synching it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@stinger: I was just thinking today, haven’t had a new video from her in weeks. I hope she comes back. I wonder if somebody didn’t hire her
Emma from FL
Goodness, the smug sense of superiority. She is sooooo booooring… She taaaalkstooomuch…..
Maddow’s interview with Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, was the most watched show on cable Tuesday with just under 5 million viewers. The MSNBC show also drew its second largest audience ever, behind the 5.23 million for Maddow’s interview with the president’s niece, Mary Trump, in July.
She must be doing something right. Obviously she has an audience.
catclub
There was a time when the top republicans did not believe all the conspiracy theories, although they might have catered to them. Now they do. Barr was supposed to be an establishment republican from the 1990’s. Boy did that turn out wrong.
mrmoshpotato
Yup. The Soviet shitpile mobster conman definitely got his Roy Cohn.
Good on the selfish shitstains who screamed “Fuck her!”
dww44
@Wyatt Salamanca: Your take is my take. I’ve quite adjusted to Rachel’s method which seems to be so off putting to many here. In recent weeks, as she did tonight, she minces no words re the threat Trump poses to our democracy and to us.
I like it that her delivery is quite different from that of most other progressive political hosts. One may ken the end point but the journey there is often more worthwhile. And she genuinely cares. That comes through.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato:
Mai Naem mobile
I do believe Cohen has changed. It’s a just the feeling I get when I watch him talk. During the election I found Cohen to be one of the most annoying Trumpers. Now Anthony Scaramucci I didn’t think was a true believer and just wanted a WH gig for prestige. Now, Cohen comes across as much more genuine than Scaramucci.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Alright. Too many beers in to look up the history. :)
ETA – aaahhh yes, his Roy Cohen. True.
Fuck everyone who didn’t vote for her!
Uncle Omar
@Uncle Cosmo: BMP was pretty standard in the late 70’s hip Midwestern community…I first heard it from a letter carrier in East Lansing in mid-’79. I always surmised that the term blew in from one of the coasts before that.
mrmoshpotato
You’re talking about a guy who paid off a porn star to stay quiet about Dump rawdogging her while Dump’s third wife was nursing his 5th child.
You cannot cannot pit these two against each other. They are both shitbags!
Dopey-o
Adderal is a jiggered-up mix of benzedrine (or dexadrine?) based amphetamines. Hunter S Thompson was a long-time dexadrine abuser, but he actually accomplished some things.
I think HST managed to temper the amphetamines’ negative effects by dosing with bourbon and grass. And talent.
And yes i know he was a terrible person and yadda yadda and everyone in the Woody Creek Tavern hated him.
Gretchen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, I think she is signed for a tv special.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Makes sense the way Trump has been accusing Biden of taking drugs, projection. Also I wouldn’t surprised if Trump is on anti-depressants the way he seems to not understand the downside of things,