Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

“Squeaker” McCarthy

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / NANCY SMASH! / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Yeah, This’ll Work (But Not for the GOP)

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Yeah, This’ll Work (But Not for the GOP)

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Nancy Smash, you’re our only hope…

IIRC, even with the Squatter-in-Chief’s compliance, a bill could be enacted with a veto-proof majority — *if* the GOP decides not to follow Dear Leader over the cliff…

Interesting sidelight, from Vanity Fair, yesterday:

… According to sources, Don Jr. has told friends that he tried lobbying Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Jared Kushner to convince the president that he needs to stop acting unstable. “Don Jr. has said he wants to stage an intervention, but Jared and Ivanka keep telling Trump how great he’s doing,” a source said. Don Jr. is said to be reluctant to confront his father alone. “Don said, ‘I’m not going to be the only one to tell him he’s acting crazy,’” the source added…

There is a long history in the Trump family of denying serious illness. According to a Trump family friend, Trump’s father, Fred Trump Sr., insisted on working even after his Alzheimer’s disease advanced in the 1990s. “To retire is to expire!” Fred Sr. would say. The friend said that as Fred Sr.’s disease worsened––he once came down the stairs wearing three neckties––the family created a system so that Fred could think he was still running the Trump Organization. Every day Fred Sr. would go to the office in Brooklyn and they would give him blank papers to sort through and sign. The phone on Fred’s desk was set up so that it could only dial out to his secretary. “Fred pretended to work,” the family friend said…

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52Comments

  1. 1.

    Morzer

    I suspect that it comes down to Trump hating anyone and everyone who votes against him. He’s got quite a record of attempted political payback in his four years in office.

  2. 2.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Don Jr. has told friends that he tried lobbying Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Jared Kushner to convince the president that he needs to stop acting unstable.

    ?????

    Oh that is very good. Thank you for a rare laugh, AL

  6. 6.

    MattF

    Who knows what’s going on– not me, anyhow.

    So…. maybe McConnell and a posse of his Senators want to make a live demo to the base of what they can do as long as they control the Senate. And a hopped-up Trump can be convinced that it’s genius.

  7. 7.

    germy

    Watch this one:

    — Barr assigned Bash to investigate Obama Admin for supposed "unmasking" scandal: officials looking at names of US persons on Russia intel reports

    — Bash suddenly resigns

    — His deputy is passed over, Barr installs his own guy insteadhttps://t.co/u6pUHbszes

    — Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) October 6, 2020

  9. 9.

    Ken

    Hmm, all those twitter pundits saying “I don’t understand this,” and our own Tom Levenson on this nearly-top-10000 blog got it right away: “Après moi le déluge”.

  10. 10.

    Percysowner

    Repeating from the previous thread

    Well Ohio suddenly has shenanigans.

    Some Franklin County voters receive wrong absentee ballots in mail

    Please see the following statement from @FranklinCoBOE regarding the absentee ballots affected by the error. pic.twitter.com/KfwO3LiFNY— Franklin Co. Boe (@FranklinCoBOE) October 6, 2020

    Today we became aware of a company named Civitech, unaffiliated with our office or any county board, which mailed voter registration applications to certain individuals, but with names/addresses pre-printed on the application that are different from the recipient. (1/2)— Ohio Secretary of State Comms Team (@SecLaRoseComms) October 6, 2020

     

    I’m sure will be STUNNED to hear that Franklin County is a pocket of Blue surrounded by red. Wonder how this happened?

  11. 11.

    Hoodie

    I can see two possibilities, which are not mutually exclusive.  The first is, while he’s always been a lunatic, the steroids and ‘rona have pushed him over the edge into suicidal grandiosity.  The second is in line with what Swan says; he knows he’s losing, but he’s reinforcing his brand (which looks like deliberately trying to lose) in order to hold on to the lunatics who will continue to be his marks after he leaves office.

  12. 12.

    Geminid

    It looks like Mark Meadows has used trump’s illness to get the upper hand over Mnuchin. Meadows’ Freedom Caucus was instrumental in the republican congressional failures that helped create the blue wave of 2018. Now he’s guiding the republicans to a defeat of historic proportions in 2020.

  13. 13.

    germy

    NEW: Stephen Miller has tested positive for COVID, per senior administration official. Adds Miller has been working remotely for last 5 days, testing negative every day through yesterday, and is in quarantine after a positive test today.— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) October 6, 2020

  19. 19.

    Humanities Prof

    Stephen Miller tests positive, per TPM.

    If it gets just ONE of these fuckers, could it be him, please?

     

    Edit:  germy beat me to it.

  22. 22.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Analyzing Trump’s actions a bit more seriously, he has always advocated walking away from negotiations to (in his view) gain leverage.

    He once told Ambassador Richard Burt, an arms control negotiator, that the way to deal with the Russians (Soviets at that time, I think) was to arrive late, stride over to the table, thrust his finger into his counterpart’s chest, yell “Fuck you” and stomp out.

    There is a parallel here, and he’s done it before. Many people on Twitter are saying they expect this to last a couple of days.

    But Tom could be right too. Things are looking bad for the Republicans.

  26. 26.

    RaflW

    Double posting from below (but will skip triple-posting as Cole has bigfooted but here I will be for now).

    Heard an episode of Fresh Air maybe 10 days ago, about nuclear weapons. The guest described to Dave Davies that decades ago Trump called some top political appointee who was to be negotiating with the Soviets on (probably?) SALT — or START. Anyway, Trump calls the guy and says, I have the thing for your negotiations: Go into the room on the first day, slam your hand down and yell at them. And walk out.

    Of course it’s utterly idiotic. Maybe, possibly, some stunt like that works when you’re an NYC developer and you’re unhappy about the price of concrete or electricians.

    It’s not how nuclear non-proliferation works, and it for sure isn’t how winning a campaign works when you’re down by 12 points and all your staff are getting infected with a nasty virus.

    “I’ll fuck over the stimulus bill!” will impress voters as much as the similar move would have impressed Russian nuke-diplomats.

  29. 29.

    CaseyL

    If Trump is acting out due to drugs and underlying mental decay, there’s no way to know just what it is he thinks he’s doing.

    Because he ain’t thinking, not at all at all.  He’s deep into Psychotic Tourettes at this point.

  30. 30.

    Immanentize

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    was to arrive late, stride over to the table, thrust his finger into his counterpart’s chest, yell “Fuck you” and stomp out.

    That was the insane advice given to Riker in a STNG episode by a mad replacement captain regarding negotiations with the Kardashians.

    ETA.  I LOVE AUTOCORRECT:
    *Cardassians

  31. 31.

    RaflW

    To Burgess Everett’s ‘political bet’ tweet in the OP: What seems like a tolerable bet to social conservatives who want abortion gone and maybe some amount of pushing back on LGBTQ equality, sure seems like a terrible bet for business Republicans.

    No stimulus before the election was pretty damn likely. But it was easy to ‘both sides’ up to now (by lazy, shitty media people — too many of them). Even with the House having sent two different versions to the calcified Senate.

    But Trump has put down his marker. Now if no stimulus passes after the election but before Jan 20, Dems have what they need to message the fuck out of the GOP.

    I don’t know how this will play out. I sure hope it fuels the fires of people so mad they punish the Republicans right down to elected town officers, and certainly aiding the flipping of legislatures. But who knows what our electorate might do.

  32. 32.

    RaflW

    @germy: “Working remotely” has a lot more wiggle room than “quarantined.” So he was potentially typhoid mary-ing about town for 5 days before his positive, just staying out of the West Wing.

    Klassy.

  33. 33.

    ronrab

    Looking at Twitter gives some hint of how Trump/the GOP hope this plays – claim they walked away because Pelosi was being unreasonable. Doesn’t seem like a winner to me, but at least it’s comprehensible.

  34. 34.

    Croaker

    Stephen my child, you have come to me my son. For who now is your father if it is not me? I am the well spring, from which you flow. When I am gone, you will have never been.

    – THUSLA DOOM 

  36. 36.

    Kent

    @ronrab:Looking at Twitter gives some hint of how Trump/the GOP hope this plays – claim they walked away because Pelosi was being unreasonable. Doesn’t seem like a winner to me, but at least it’s comprehensible.

    Really?  Did they explain what she was being unreasonable ABOUT?

    Thought not.

  38. 38.

    Bill Arnold

    @Humanities Prof:

    If it gets just ONE of these fuckers, could it be him, please?

    I’ll note, just in passing, that the brain is sometimes damaged by SARS-CoV-2, indirectly through strokes, and there is some evidence of direct infection-caused damage.

  43. 43.

    Sloane Ranger

    My first thought was his judgement has been affected by the steroids, but trying to force concessions by walking away is a possibility and he has previous.

    But, how about this for completely out of the box thinking?

    No stimulus will mean all those lazy, deadbeat small business owners and workers currently sitting in their jim jams, binge watching TV and eating popcorn,  while waiting for their money for nothing stimulus cheques to arrive will be jolted into action in order to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.  They’ll re-open their businesses, hire staff and, as one, tell all those elite busy bodies with all their stupid rules where to get off. Lo and behold, economy takes off like a rocket, Trump saves capitalism!

  44. 44.

    ballerat

    @germy: Is that petulant child arms-crossed-over-chest thing also a nazi thing or just 1920/30s fascist? There is vid of Mussolini doing exactly that. Italian fascism was not the same as nazism.

    Obvious where Trump cribbed it from, though, including the arrogant bully head tilt and lips/jaw jutting out/backpfeifengesicht thing.

    Trump is too dumb to bother with history. Who tipped him to 1930s fascist public speaking body language? Who coached him? Even Il Duce and Der Führer were coached.

  45. 45.

    Kent

    @Bill Arnold: MORE evil?   They are both peak evil.  Barr just has more power.   Miller is targeting immigrants.  Barr is targeting democracy itself.   He is FAR more dangerous.

  47. 47.

    low-tech cyclist

    Nancy Smash, you’re our only hope…

    You mean, the same Nancy Smash that, just six days ago, gave up such leverage as she had by funding the government for another year?  Then relied on the goodness of Trump’s or Mnuchin’s heart in order to get a deal?

    All sorts of things she could have done.  She could have passed a CR that funded everything except ICE. Who wants ICE more, us or Trump & Co.?  I don’t get it.

  50. 50.

    Hoppie

    @low-tech cyclist: The funding extension is until 11 December.  Maximizes her leverage at that point, I would say.  Especially if they’ve been wiped out in the Senate and some of the Pukes still want to have a future.   Oh, and it was 14 days ago.  Duh.

  52. 52.

    Chris T.

    @Immanentize: Kardashians. ETA. I LOVE AUTOCORRECT: *Cardassians

    Dead thread, but I just have to say: No real need for the correction, both words mean the same creatures!

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