Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

The lights are all blinking red.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Official Portraits

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  2. 2.

    frosty

    Wow, a President and VP who smile and look happy!

    Odd thought: can we call Harris Veep or did Julia Louis-Dreyfus warp that title forever?

    ETA: Dammit Raven I thought I was going to beat you! Julia’s name took too long to type.

  3. 3.

    Mike in NC

    Nice! Happily, I never had to enter a government building while Putin’s Puppet and Mike Dense were dismantling the executive branch, so I never had to see the bloated Orange Clown’s ugly grimace. Retired from the Navy in 2010, so my certificate of appreciation bears President Obama’s facsimile signature.

  4. 4.

    Old School

    Good. I need to go the DMV this year. It’s nice to know I’ll get to see Biden’s picture smiling at me.

  5. 5.

    MisterForkbeard

    These are great. Joe looks like he’s happy and wants to be there, and Kamala in particular is just lovely – that’s how a competent, professional woman looks. I still can’t believe we have a black woman as elected VP. So much progress there.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mike in NC: Lucky you! I had to visit government buildings on two separate occasions during the shitgibbon error, so I couldn’t avoid seeing portraits of what appeared to be a sculpture formed of spoiled, Cheeto-dusted luncheon meat topped by urine-colored cotton candy.

  8. 8.

    Tata

    Madame Vice President. Vice President Kamala Harris. Madame VP. I say these words over and over, because they make me sooooo happy.

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    Holy shit!  Please, please, please.

    President Biden will create a commission to study whether to expand the Supreme Court, a goal of progressive Democrats.

    Friday, April 9, 2021 11:08 AM EST

    President Biden on Friday will order a 180-day study of adding seats to the Supreme Court, making good on a campaign-year promise to establish a bipartisan commission to examine the potentially explosive subjects of expanding the court or setting term limits for justices, White House officials said.

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    Our president and VP are so attractive, human, and humane, and work for us.

    Do not even want to address the smirking corpse official photo of the previous occupant.

  14. 14.

    p.a.

    President Biden to form commission to bribe, cajole, beg, threaten Sens Manchin & Sinema to allow the majority of the American voters to have their elected officials accomplish what they were elected to do.

  15. 15.

    PsiFighter37

    It will be nice seeing those in government offices and (eventually) customs / borders checks in airports instead of the former asshole.

  17. 17.

    bbleh

    And she has style, and he dresses well.  The contrast with Trump’s eighties-mob-boss look and the sometimes-tasteful-but-sometimes-embarrassingly-overdone Melania is welcome.

  18. 18.

    Leto

    You mean you didn’t like looking at constipated scowl for the past four years as the official portrait?

    @Mike in NC:  I did and it sucked; my first retirement certificate has Obama’s signature (that’s the one I display). My second retirement (after I joined the Air National Guard) I told my leadership, in no uncertain terms, to not even bother having it printed because I’d shred it if they did.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @MomSense: the LA Times has an article on the K-Hive that has (hold on to your wigs and keys) pissed off a lot of people on twitter, from the K-Hive to the Roses. A lot of the K-Hive also seems amused. I’m too dumb and too lazy to get around their paywall to read it for myself

  22. 22.

    bbleh

    @Elizabelle: Yeah, well, 36-member Blue Ribbon Commissions are where things go to die in DC.

    But the Biden people have surprised me before, so …

  23. 23.

    smith

    Joe and Kamala’s smiles are their secret weapon. I can’t think of a single current R politician who has a warm, genuine smile.

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    @bbleh:   I think expanding the Supreme Court and term limits is an idea whose time has come.  It’s possible even the great John [Roger B. Taney] Roberts sees the benefit.  [Albeit, the reactionaries now see him as practically a leftist.  Welcome, John!]

    Cynicism is a cheap sentiment, in my book.  Watch.  Advocate.  Hold them accountable.

  28. 28.

    Elizabelle

    @Cameron:   I dunno there.  How would RBG have done with young blue eyes Paul Ryan’s crowd?

    Have to go out, but bookmarked some articles on John Boehner’s new book excerpts to enjoy later.

  31. 31.

    PsiFighter37

    @bbleh: I don’t think the suggestions of this commission are going anywhere. They aren’t even required to suggest anything.

    My hunch, though, is that some more modest suggestions are given, and Biden’s team pockets it and sees how the 2022 midterms turn out. If Dems hold the House and expand their majority beyond Sinema and Manchin, all bets are off in terms of what may happen.

  32. 32.

    Tony Jay

    @lollipopguild:

    I once described Mike Pence as looking like a man who has just awakened from a coma to find a stranger cupping his testicles. My opinion has not changed.

    Tang the Indicted just looked like the bones of a prehistoric sloth stuffed haphazardly inside a well-dried whale penis, and I haven’t changed my mind about that either.

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: In my experience, they’re like any other Twitter subgroup: some are positive and constructive, while others are cultish bullies, and the latter group gets most of the traffic.

  35. 35.

    cain

    y’all I might be fostering a puppy today – my two cats are gonna be pissed. Please pray for me.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle: I know that Joe promised something like this during the campaign, but I am wondering about the timing of this.

    I see the timing as a shot over the bow to McConnell and other Republicans who want to obstruct everything.

    Joe plans to get things done, so the Rs had better follow or get out of the fucking way.

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lollipopguild: always looked like an unhappy undertaker.

    @Cameron: but he has the perfect look for an extra playing an SS officer in a WWII movie.

    I had to scroll up to confirm that his hadn’t turned into a Prince Philip Memorial Thread

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    I know that it’s real, but, sometimes, I just don’t believe that a Black woman is VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

    I am still coming around to accepting it.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    She’s infinitely better looking than her broomstick-up-the-ass predecessor, that’s for damn sure.

  43. 43.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @cain: The reaction of the cats is unpredictable, but pissed has the highest odds.  As long as the puppy learns his/her place swiftly, I think things will work out.

  44. 44.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Chief Oshkosh: One of my caregivers at the VA walked me to the front door once passing the portrait of cadet bone-spurs, and joined me in covert face-making at it.

  45. 45.

    Ruckus

    @smith:

    When hate, destruction and theft are your guiding lights and ignorance and hate are your main tools it’s likely to be rather difficult to actually hold the thought on how to actually smile, as there is no place in a life such as that for humor and appreciation of other humans. Especially in a world that is becoming more diverse, open and actually at least attempting to have some level of human equality, empathy, respect, and less greed, hate and actual ignorance.

  46. 46.

    Geminid

    @PsiFighter37: However this Commission turns out, I think the President and Democrats in Congress will try to push through legislation authorizing more federal District and Court of Appeals judges.

  47. 47.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Mike in NC: I was working for the Army till June of 2017 so I did get to see him. Fortunately the director’s wing with the portraits was not on my usual path to my cubicle. Unfortunately i did have to walk by it for the exit interview, and it was an unpleasant surprise.

  48. 48.

    Ruckus

    @lollipopguild:

    Dense has always looked to me as a person who actually understood what he stands for, and doesn’t like it, but is too ignorant to understand that he can actually change that.

  49. 49.

    Cmorenc

    @bbleh: don’t be so hard on melania t sometimes dressing in an overdone fashion.  She has to live up to the standard expectations for a rich mans trophy wife so she doesnt get kicked off the gravy train.

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    From the NYT article on the court commission:

    Activists who say a larger court would give Mr. Biden the chance to appoint a number of liberal justices may be disappointed by his commission. People familiar with its charge from the president said the group will avoid making any recommendations to Mr. Biden or lawmakers.

    Instead, the panel of scholars, lawyers, political scientists and former judges will produce a research paper designed to be an authoritative analysis of the issue. The goal, the people said, is not to settle on an answer, but to provide Mr. Biden, members of Congress and the public an evaluation of the risks and benefits of making changes to the court.

    Not sure why anyone would fixate on recommendations to Biden since the chances that the current congress would change the court’s configuration is somewhere between nil and none. But raising public awareness of how we got to this pass is a worthy goal all by itself, as is sending a message to Bony Carrot & Co. like Baud said at #40. I hope Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse gets to testify.

  53. 53.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: I agree, bottom-up judicial reform is way to address this question. Here’s an article from 1998 discussing Rehnquist’s testimony to the Senate about overworked judges, and I have some recollection of Roberts making the same complaint. Dems should push “Judicial Reform” as a back door to the issue. Everybody likes “reform”.

    The Right cares far more about the Supreme Court than the Left. This has been true for going on 30 years, and from what I could see, not even the Garland-Barrett debacle did much to change that. Talking about “expanding the Supreme Court” will just give R Senate candidates a rallying cry. And 2022 is the next most important election in our lifetimes.

  55. 55.

    rp

    Having a commission openly studying the issue of expanding the court is a big f-ing deal. It’s gone from something dreamt about on liberal blogs and twitter to being officially on the table.

  56. 56.

    Ruckus

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    I recall that the shitgibbon’s picture didn’t display predominately at the VA facilities in the LA area. Either that or I subconsciously avoided where it was located, as I can not remember it being shown at all. Self preservation and a desire not to be thrown out of the building while the majority of my fellow vets cheered wildly.

  58. 58.

    Shakti

    Official portraits are official portraits. The main difference is that is their smiles are actual, real, genuine smiles we’ve seen on them IRL.

  59. 59.

    Ruckus

    @TaMara (HFG):

    I used to know someone who had a great dane and a pug. I don’t think the dane was as much subservient as amused but they did get along just fine. It was weird to see the loudest of the two of them didn’t come up the the other’s kneecaps.

  60. 60.

    Starfish

    Are the ducks getting surly? Pouting because you won’t buy them smart phones? Asking to drive the car?

  62. 62.

    FelonyGovt

    What a great looking President and VP! And the “goodness” just shines. I had the misfortune of having to go into a Federal building once last year and had to look at the portrait of the malevolent clown…

  63. 63.

    catclub

    @Cmorenc: along with all the predictions of Trumps demise in 2016, another set of wrong predictions seen here is that Melania would file divorce papers Jan22. I am disappoint.

  65. 65.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @catclub: symapethic and skeptical reports on The Beasts suggest they do not, in fact, hate each other, but one sympathetic bio did say flat out she stayed in NYC the first six months of his Occupation so that he would renegotiate their pre-nup. She knows his diet, his lifestyle, and I’m sure part of that renegotiation was a big payout if she sticks around long enough to be The Widow Trump. Which would have the added bonus of being able to give Ivanka a long, blue-steel, fuck-you-princess stare across the box

  67. 67.

    catclub

    Alan Weisselberg’s Daughter in law… will be the only one who goes to jail for income tax evasion:

    She told the New Yorker in a report last month that when when employed for the Trump Organization, “only a small part of your salary is reported.”

    She has said that the couple had not reported the apartment as income.

  69. 69.

    BC

    @cain:   I had a cat, then got a puppy several years later, and my male, neutered cat became a mother to the puppy.  Shared the box the puppy slept in, cleaned the puppy as his mother would have – just more thoroughly because he was a cat.  They were great friends for rest of cat’s life.

  73. 73.

    cwmoss

    @PsiFighter37: I think this commission on the S Ct is a warning to the R motherfuckers in congress and the reactionary racists already on the court, as well as to the squish Manchin and the lunatic Sinema: “Go ahead,  fuck around and find out.”

  78. 78.

    Another Scott

    @Yutsano:  Maybe he didn’t want to give TehHill clicks? Dunno. The link to TehHill story still works.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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