So it seems that the nation’s felon-in-waiting, the Duck of Mar-a-Lago,* the keeper of the hairpieces, The Former Guy his own self yesterday was to deliver a “major announcement” today.
And here it is:
Former President Donald Trump unveiled Thursday a “limited edition collection” of NFT trading cards featuring cartoon-like images of himself depicted as a superhero, Hollywood actor and more, after teasing a “major announcement” on his Truth Social account.
My reaction:
If I may speak on a subject beyond whatever expertise I may have, this is not what a real presidential campaign/candidate does in the first month after announcing a run.
Which makes this article from a reliable mouthpiece for DC GOP murmurings so interesting (warning: link to The Hill):
At every Republican gathering, there is one question that no one dares to voice: Will former President Trump drop out of the 2024 presidential race?
I find the author’s argument plausible. A health issue will crop up sometime next year, and so Trump will reluctantly abandon his selfless quest to save America, and will instead fundraise as a kingmaker. Much of the grift potential of an actual run, and none of the work and the annoyance of showing up in flyover country to talk to people he disdains.
That said, I’m reminded that Trump has never not been the guy who hawked frozen steaks and shitty vodka in the discount aisle of American retail. What we’re seeing in this latest Yuuuuuge announcement is that old truth: the country’s still big; he’s (once again) revealed to be small.
Tiny.
This thread…it is open
*An homage: I loved the scene in The Unforgiven when Gene Hackman reads the title of the book lauding Peter O’ Toole’s Richard Harris’s prowess with a firearm as “The Duck of Death…” (Thanks, Omnes, for the correction.) (Re the offending “the”. Dagnabbit, you jackals. Must you expose my creaky memory with such swift, ruthless, and, alas, accurate correction?)
Image: possibly Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen, Laughing Fool, c. 1500.
different-church-lady
The frightening thing is, those aren’t hairpieces.
Omnes Omnibus
Um, it’s Richard Harris. Otherwise, love the painting and agree with you.
Geoduck
And yet, every last political site I visit has an article up about this. (Mocking the whole idea, but still..) He certainly can still get the word out with minimal effort on his part.
Tom Levenson
@Omnes Omnibus: Aiiieeee! I even knew that.
Will correct now.
UncleEbeneezer
“At every Republican gathering, there is one question that no one dares to voice: Will former President Trump drop out of the 2024 presidential race?”
My prediction/answer: No.
He wants the attention and fundraising that running for President provides.
JustRuss
@Omnes Omnibus: Also , the film is Unforgiven, no “the”.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I said it in the down-below thread on Florida but maybe it bears repeating here: anyone willing to pay 99 US dollars for a poorly-crafted digital head-swap of TFG and some roided-out body builder with a photoshopped supersuit on it needs to have their head examined, preferably by a board-certified proctologist.
Anonymous At Work
I really really *really* tried to process TFG’s announcement as real and not a The Onion article. End result, I failed. My only escape was “Maybe he thinks this is how to get arrested on criminal charges in The Bahamas and not in the US.”
And TFG is running until he drops dead. His narcissism overwhelms his intelligence, and both serve to feed his greed. Fundraising for a PAC to play kingmaker puts him on the sideline but in a better position to grift, but it puts him on the sideline.
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: In 2016, almost every pundit and blogger who wasn’t a committed Trumpster thought he would just lose interest and drop out at some point, almost up to him getting the party nomination.
Trump will stay in. One difference from 2016 is that he always led in the primary polls then, from the moment he got in, and he doesn’t now. So I can’t guess what happens beyond that.
Alison Rose
His video announcement, I swear…if I didn’t know better, I would absolutely assume it was parody by the best impersonator ever. He literally starts it off by saying he was a better president than Lincoln and Washington. At this point, I feel like taking him out would be an act of mercy toward him more so than toward the rest of the world.
Omnes Omnibus
@JustRuss: Now you’re just plumbing the depths of errant pedantry. Is that how you want to live your life? Take a good long look in the mirror, boyo.
Super Dave
@Anonymous At Work: I agree with you, but using his intelligence as a comparison to his narcissism is clearing a pretty low bar.
BC in Illinois
Think big!
@PatriotTakes
Note:
OzarkHillbilly
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I don’t know. Think about the collector’s value 20 years from now when you have one of 3 complete sets still in existence and yours is the onl….
What am I thinking. Never mind.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Re the virtual trading cards: Ask yourself, if someone wanted to create a parody of Trumplandia, how would it be any different?
Tom Levenson
@Omnes Omnibus:
@JustRuss:
Fine. See the correction.
Dangerman
Trump will drop out when he drops and not a moment sooner.
I was sure he was going to announce for Speaker as that puts him Number 3 in line. Didn’t forsee 99 cent NFTs.
They are 99 DOLLARS?!
Scout211
I dunno, I am leaning toward Trump never dropping out, in order to pocket the largest amount of cash. He may profess to be a kingmaker, but we all know he would never support anyone other than Donald J Trump as the rightful King. The grift is much more profitable if he is still running and is perceived by his fans as being wronged by the “deep state” and the “rinos.”
I hope he drops out, but I just don’t see it.
Math Guy
He is nuts. Why don’t the the MSM just come out and say it?
Betty
@UncleEbeneezer: He still thinks it will keep him out of prison.
JustRuss
@Omnes Omnibus: yeah, I’ll get right on that. Sheesh.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I think he will keep it up until he scream he’s been cheated. Look at these superhero cards; Trump’s brand demands he be strong at all times, so heath issue is right out. He’s not old and weak, it’s your’ the one who is old and weak in Trumpland(r), so Trump will have to drop out because America failed him.
The MAGA hats are also pushing mems that the nation owes Trump for fours years of his life.
MattF
Trump decides things on gut instinct, so explanations of his actions with the word ‘because’ in them are always wrong. To get it right, you’d have to think the way he does… and what sane person actually wants to think the way he does?
Wyatt Salamanca
The Laughing Fool bears an uncanny resemblance to Putin, who is likely also laughing at Trump’s latest pathetic attempt to grab attention.
With each passing news cycle, Trump is revealing himself to be even dumber than I had previously imagined. He’s just a bottomless pit of stupidity.
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus:
Don’t make me come north to slap you with a velociraptor from The Jurassic Park!
Tom Levenson
@Scout211: Not going to say you’re wrong, but if he consistently polls behind DeSantis, and the money slows, I could see him looking for a face-saving way out.
Tom Levenson
@mrmoshpotato: A lot of reptile kink on the blog today. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you…
Tom Levenson
@Wyatt Salamanca: It’s actually an uncanny resemblance to a longtime friend of mine, which always leaves me a little uneasy…
But still. What a great portrait.
mrmoshpotato
@Math Guy:
Why didn’t they say it in 2015?
Because they enjoy jerking off to it too much!
dm
As the video went on I started to wonder:
– deep fake? How can this be real?
– is he wearing a girdle? he looks awfully thin (for him)
– like the Melania NFT, does Trump get 100% royalty on resale?
mrmoshpotato
@Tom Levenson: Haha! Not sure I wanna peruse this morning’s posts.
Orange is the New Red
He won’t quit the race. He thinks it’s a Get Out of Jail Free card.
MattF
So… what is that object in the fool’s hand?
Frankensteinbeck
Trump has suffered visible and severe cognitive decline since 2016. To some extent that helps with the section of the GOP that wants a ‘your racist uncle’ candidate. But it can be taken too far, he’s only going to get worse, and it hurts with everyone else. His obsession with whining about the 2020 loss doesn’t help with anyone, even the people who still worship him, even the base that are and long have been obsessed with the belief that Democrats cheat. They’ll pour money into the cause, but his whining doesn’t motivate them to vote like his spewing racist hate did.
He’s still clearly the media’s favorite clown, but the whining doesn’t do it for them either. They’re more at a stage of going “Come on, give us the wacky Trump we used to love!”
The GOP machine hated dealing with him in person, hates that he’s become a losing brand, really hates him for stealing money from them, but doesn’t dare violate the sacred code of total war by saying in front of their voters that maybe Democrats are right about a Republican.
But… like always, 2024 is a long, long way away in political terms. We’ll see.
dm
@MattF: renaissance eyeglasses, though perhaps missing lenses
Alison Rose
@dm: Times were tough in 1500. The supply chain was absolute shit.
OzarkHillbilly
They are welcome to gift him the entirety of their life savings: $2.24 in nickel and copper, half a pack of stale Marlboros, A Budweiser beer bottle half filled with tobacco spittin’s, 3 used condoms from behind the pick-em-up truck seat, and the creme de la creme, a vomit encrusted t-shirt from that time he got Bobby Sue so drunk she puked all over him in the middle of sex behind the Motel 6.
Dangerman
@mrmoshpotato: Clicks and eyeballs.
It’s the same reason that car chases in LA are are covered (and coveted) so heavily. Heaven help us if Trump ever leads the CHP in a high speed pursuit. Although being grabbed by a CHP posse would be a curious twist of fate.
Gravenstone
I’ll be curious what the fallout from this is when it finally becomes clear to Trump that this “big announcement” results solely in mockery and laughter at him from all quarters.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tom Levenson: I may have awakened some latent perversion among the jackaltariat. You have my apologies. I had no idea.
karen marie
@Tom Levenson: I think it more likely that he uses a claim of ill health to accuse DeSantis of poisoning him and an excuse as to why he’s not putting on rallies.
rikyrah
Complete clown show
dm
Maybe the Muskelon will spring for a full set.
Who among the Q will be the first to find the message hidden in the digital signature of their NFT?
James E Powell
@mrmoshpotato:
I’m not one to give the press/media any benefit of the doubt, but I believe that they did not think Trump could win. Their promotion & protection of him was driven by their hatred of Hillary Clinton. They thought she would win & they wanted her to go into office damaged.
Jeffro
PEOPLE!
There has NEVER, EVER been a better time to ‘rub it in’ with any RWNJ family and relatives than RIGHT. NOW.
Go go go go go!
trading cards!?! Seriously?? They were willing to give the nuclear codes to Mr. Trading Card Guy
LOLOLOLOL
dmsilev
Good job on Trump joining in on a hot new trend for making money.
Oh, wait, I’m being told that NFTs are last year’s scam and that weird drawings of apes aren’t nearly as attractive to suckers as they used to be. It’s “buy high and sell low”, right?
hilts
Trump is running the laziest Presidential campaign I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t even have the energy to step outside of his own goddamn house.
Despite his pathetic polling numbers, I’m not convinced that DeSantis or any other Republican has the guts to enter this race.
Snarki, child of Loki
@karen marie: ” I think it more likely that he uses a claim of ill health to accuse DeSantis of poisoning him and an excuse as to why he’s not putting on rallies.”
No GOPer would EVER deliberately poison the water supply going to a place where they have political opposition!
…wait, I’m getting a call from someone in Flint, MI.
Okay, never mind.
PaulWartenberg
JESUS. THIS WAS THE THING WE WERE SO AFRAID OF?!
I can come up with better trading cards than mf-ing trump. who’s with me?
“The Library of Periphery”: You get five different player types – Director, Researcher, Cataloger, Outreacher, Circulator. You get a set of magical books to use as playable attacks, with the objective of keeping your opponent from acquiring one magic book card you set aside as a prize. You can play only three of the five types at one time, each of them with offensive and defensive capabilities you can mix and match.
I think this is doable. Now I need artists and a publisher.
Falling Diphthong
Last night I told my husband about the image (which I had initially assumed was a liberal parody, but no) and that the rumors were that Trump would either demand to be made Speaker of the House, or do something way less interesting than that.
This is way less interesting than that.
mrmoshpotato
@karen marie:
Even though it’s ridiculous, poisoning accusations definitely wouldn’t be below the orange shitstain.
...now I try to be amused
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Someone once suggested an evolutionary explanation for the Trump phenomenon. Trump is a creature of instinct that lucked into an environment perfectly suited for him, but he couldn’t adapt when the environment changed.
Anonymous At Work
@Super Dave: Intelligence, cunning, mastery of thieves’ cant, whatever you call it, if TFG could imagine a better way to grift, if has to involve him being the sole being in the limelight because his narcissism demands that as the first priority.
mrmoshpotato
@James E Powell: They also loved jerking it to the ratings Dump’s blather was giving them. Oh, that sweet, sweet boner pills ad money.
Scout211
This.
That is one reason why I don’t think he will drop out. The money keeps coming in without Trump having to even leave his house.
I would not be surprised if he declares himself an independent at some point so he doesn’t even have to deal with the RNC or any other candidate. Because “running for president” for Trump is just another grift to him. In fact, it’s his most profitable grift ever.
gene108
Only way Trump drops out of the Republican primary is if he’s convicted of whatever potential crimes he’s being investigated for, and sent to jail.
The motherfucker couldn’t accept the fact he lost the 2020 election, and actively worked to try and undo the results and have himself declared the winner, in the last couple of months he was in office.
There’s no fucking way his ego will allow him to drop out before the first vote is cast, and even after the last vote is cast and counted, if he isn’t winning. He’ll contest the results at the convention trying to get himself declared the winner.
Danielx
@UncleEbeneezer:
Also he doesn’t want to go to jail.
...now I try to be amused
@Scout211:
Passive income!
mrmoshpotato
@hilts:
Please don’t call it a house. He lives in an apartment on the grounds of a country club.
trollhattan
@Falling Diphthong: While Nancy SMASH demonstrates Speaker is a 24/7/365 job, McCarthy, Ryan, Cantor et al demonstrate it can be less than that but still, it’s more work than Trump has ever done or is interested in doing. Plus, after president being speaker is rather a letdown, no?
Picturing him behind Biden during SOTU does give me the willies, I cannot deny. I’d park three Secret Service there with cattleprods. Women.
Math Guy
@mrmoshpotato: This is different. In 2015 he was a novelty and most of the country really did not know who he was outside of his television persona. Now we know and this stunt is obviously pathetic and futile.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
There have been stories Trump barely steps out of his rooms at Maro-Largo anymore. Bit like Putin.
trollhattan
As a recipe for breaking the Republican Party into bits, this tops the list.
Roger Moore
@Anonymous At Work:
Absolutely. I don’t think he’ll let losing the nomination stop him, either. The grift is just too good. That said, I could easily see him remaining as a candidate formally but focusing far more on the grift than a realistic chance of winning, especially if he is failing as a candidate.
Kelly
More than just the media and more than just Hillary Clinton. I have an old friend that regularly votes for people he expects to lose with the idea that somehow this keeps the winner from becoming overconfident and becoming oppressive. I’ve been responding with bemused scorn for 40 years.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I will take that challenge.
Picture: Super Hero Body Builder Trump-Jesus(tm) is breaking the cross Deep State nailed him while a half she-demon dragon Hilary Clinton writhes on the grown in fear next to a laptop that screen flashes “E-MAILS” is big red letters.
mrmoshpotato
@Math Guy: Fair point.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@karen marie: Yes, That sounds like something Trump would pull.
PJ
@gene108: He can, and will, run from jail. The only way he would drop out is if he got a promise of a pardon from another Republican candidate that he thought he could enforce (and I don’t see how he could enforce it unless he had some serious dirt on that candidate, which, with some help from his Russian friends, is not impossible to imagine.)
M31
lol Trump trading cards, the reddit forum “Dark Brandon” is laughing its collective head off
Scout211
Trump preparing for his “superhero” debut.
Paul in KY
@MattF: Prop spectacles? Maybe a torture device?
Renie
Whoever advised him to do this, must really detest him. This has got to be the stupidest thing he has done until the next stupid thing.
Gremcat
I also think he will drop out at some point and be the “King” maker. He will have a deal in place that the nominee (DeSantis, probably) will issue him a pardon once he becomes POTUS in exchange for not going scorched earth on the GOP. I think this is why he hasn’t seriously gone after DeSantis or vice-versa.
The GOP nominee will have TFG like an albatross around his neck.
Jeffro
@gene108: I know I have beaten this dead horse before, but…I still can’t help wonder if at the last, to save his “fortune” and keep himself out of jail, trumpov squeals like a stuck pig. About everything. GOP officials’ personal scandals. Russian money laundering into GOP campaigns. Who ELSE is on Putin’s payroll.
I just keep seeing him at that standard-issue police interrogation table, babbling away, hoping and praying that it’s enough.
Ah well, a guy can dream…
UncleEbeneezer
JL Cauvin essentially predicted this 18 months ago!!
Rocks
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Dude! Acid flashback much?
trollhattan
@M31: Some Dark Brandon cards by somebody like, oh, Banksy would be amazeballs.
Or, Diamond Joe trading cards from The Onion. I would so get those.
moops
not just NFTs, but hilariously BAD NFTs. Of course. On Bizzaro Earth that is just what a former President and next GOP Presidential candidate gets involved in.
When the GOP freed themselves from the concept of shame, this was likely all inevitable.
artem1s
Please oh please tell me he’s decided to grift with images of Disney trademarked super heroes!
frosty
@UncleEbeneezer:
I just clicked on that … you’re right!!!
Jackie
President Biden has some MAJOR NEWS of his own!
”I had some MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS the last couple of weeks, too…
— President Biden, mocking Donald Trump on Twitter.
From Political Wire
stacib
@trollhattan: Nobody loves Democrats THAT much. Will never happen. The Republicans will hide him in a hole first.
Dan
@UncleEbeneezer: Yep. The “he’s just in it for the grift” idea seems to be the new version of “he’s just running to hype the new season of The Apprentice”.
moops
Can Trump run as an R presidential candidate even if he doesn’t win the nomination?
Spanky
@Renie:
So. Melania then .
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Spanky: Ha!
I gotta say, this time he surprised me. This is pathetic.
Keith P.
So what in the world is this “artwork” supposed to be portraying?
Noskilz
He has many problems that not being president will not solve, so I think he will not leave the race unless he is physically incapacitated.
That isn’t to say the attempt won’t be a ridiculous mess from start to finish, just that throwing in the towel is likelier a far, far uglier outcome for him than just blundering through it. It seems like that would be an admission that he’s finished with no cards left to play other than wait for the Feds and lawsuits to take him apart. If he isn’t running for president, even the fantasy that he will be able to reclaim presidential immunity and the ability to enrich himself by abusing his office is over.
I suppose he could step aside with the idea some other GOP candidate would pardon him, but that seems like it would depend on him trusting that person to follow through, but that doesn’t seem particularly compatible with someone as habitually exploitative as Trump. If he’s too weak to run, why would the people he expects to screw him the way he screwed them keep their promises? He was all about ruling through fear, and having to strike such a deal seems like admitting those days are over for good. All those articles about various GOP officials wanting to distance themselves from him can’t be doing his paranoia any good.
MazeDancer
Read about the video, the insanity of the trading cards, your comments here,
Watched the video.
Still can’t believe it’s real.
What would it look like if he was announcing he shouldn’t be taken seriously?
Buy my trading cards and give me the nuclear codes!
Cannot actually be real.
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: That would be so-Trump!
Paul in KY
@Roger Moore: I think he’s doing that now.
Gravenstone
@mrmoshpotato: Roger Stone has claimed to have been poisoned several different times now. So you know Trump has the accusation rattling around in his vacuous dome if only for that association alone.
VOR
He was literally laughed at during a speech to the UN. World leaders were laughing about him during a conference, don’t recall if it was G7 or NATO. Putin probably couldn’t suppress a smirk everything he saw his puppet. I think Donnie’s ego simply can’t accept the idea that he is a laughing stock.
My first thought was that he has no respect at all for his marks.
Paul in KY
@stacib: He’ll have an ‘accident’ where he tried to eat that 24 oz steak that was shoved down his throat.
Renie
LOL trump fanboys are trying to walk it back now by saying the cards was not the major announcement. Some policy about restoring free speech is the ‘major announcement’. Guess they realize everyone is laughing at them.
Lapassionara
@Jackie: this is so good.
Geoduck
@hilts: Not that the Shiatgibbon would even know who he is, but Warren Harding managed to get elected president from his own front porch.
Kayla Rudbek
@artem1s: I would be cheering on the Nazgûl (aka the Disney IP lawyers) every step of the way.
Barbara
Jason Isbell just tweeted one word: Brokemon . . .
Quaker in a Basement
But a question that many, apparently, dare to voice: “He can’t be fucking serious, can he?”
Quaker in a Basement
@VOR: Oh, absolutely right. You hear him time and time again painting this as the worst of all possible fates: “The world is laughing.”
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
Phew! I was in a panic thinking Dump had finally found Obama’s real birth certificate.
Seriously, I hope nobody took his announcement seriously.
With Dump, it’s “Always be
Sellinggrifting.”rikyrah
HuffPost Women (@HuffPostWomen) tweeted at 9:03 AM on Thu, Dec 15, 2022:
“This is the part of the abortion debate that most Americans were not aware of until Roe v. Wade fell,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who introduced a bill to protect fertility treatments. https://t.co/ldsNp08Jxp
(https://twitter.com/HuffPostWomen/status/1603405480403009539?t=LY0SwPUVXwfopqwFXjzrMA&s=03)
PAM Dirac
@Frankensteinbeck:
He can still spew the hate, but the blowhard at the end of the bar can spew the hate. The biggest reason he became so big is that he had the power to make the libs respect them, he could DO things. While he was president he might not have done as much as they would like, but he was the center of power and attention. Now it is becoming more and more clear that he can’t really do anything, he can stop the steal, he can’t prevent the Jan 6 crowd from going to jail, he can’t stop the DOJ and FBI from taking things from him, he can’t get people (including himself) elected and he can’t get the libs to stop laughing at him and them. I think he’s just going to fade into sillier and sillier grifts until he is memory holed.
ArchTeryx
Unforgiven is still one of the greatest Westerns ever made, precisely because it takes all those hoary Western tropes and smashes them into little pieces, then feeds them to the chickens.
It’s replaced what life was actually like in the Old West – dirty, brutal, full of little tinpot dictators ruling their fiefdoms with iron fists, and a lot of people trying to write their own hype to the point of believing their own bullshit.
The whole “Duck of Death” bit was Hackman’s sheriff roasting one wannabe gunman so badly his writer quit and took up with Hackman instead, while he was unceremoniously driven out of town.
Then, of course, he met a real (retired) gunslinger, and pissed him right the hell off. Things don’t go well for anyone at that point.
Burnspbesq
@UncleEbeneezer:
He will have difficulty running from even a minimum-security Federal lockup.
Bill Arnold
@Keith P.:
Old School
@Keith P.:
Donald Trump. Inventor of Space Force?
Mike in NC
Surprised that FOX News hasn’t announced a Mar-A-Lago holiday special. They could trot out Fat Bastard and his kids to sing “We’re Dreaming of a White Supremacist Christmas” etc. Throw in Steve Bannon dressed as the seediest Santa ever. Melania must still have those red trees in storage.
Trapped Lurker
@Omnes Omnibus: Um…speaking of pedantry…it’s actually “arrant” not errant…
(slinks off with head down…)
frosty
@Trapped Lurker: Yeah, you’d BETTER slink!
Keith P.
@Old School: It looks like he’s playing with his own butthole
Anoniminous
A piece of history to give what needs to be known to understand Trump and the Republican Party:
Change the embolden to “We want Making America Great Again bread prices!” and Bob’s your sister’s brother.
PaulB
Yup. He released a new “free speech” video on his Truth Social account. Apparently, he’s a bit jealous of the attention that Musk has been getting. The Trump quotes below are from a right-wing blog that I’m not going to link to, since I’d rather not drive traffic their way:
I found this because I’ve been nosing around in the fever swamps to see how his NFT announcement was going. It’s … not pretty. Even his most fervent supporters aren’t happy with his NFT “Major Announcement!”
trollhattan
@David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch: We have the same media we had in 2015-16, more or less, the folks who would broadcast live from Trump rally sites, featuring an empty lectern in the background as everyone awaited the perpetually late candidate to show up.
They can’t quit him.
Bill Arnold
@Keith P.:
Moon is on his six. The twit will be shredded soon (metaphorically!!!). Moon loathes him.
trollhattan
@Old School: I want to see every one they rejected as too “over-the-top.”
trollhattan
@Bill Arnold: Never taunt moon.
JanieM
@PaulB: Wait, rikyrah posted a tweet this morning that said that JD Vance is going to try to ban porn nationwide. Don’t these people talk to each other and get their stories straight…?
Gravenstone
@trollhattan: Never taunt
moonHappy Fun Ball.Ken
from every side
Donald’s tiny hands reached out, and they reached wide
Trump has called the suckers to him, opened up the doors
Never been a fraud like the Foundation Trump Mark Two!
rikyrah
philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) tweeted at 6:42 AM on Thu, Dec 15, 2022:
Prince Harry and Meghan reveal Tyler Perry is the godfather to their daughter, Lilibet
https://t.co/jOaFl8wr8O
(https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1603369930933825536?t=zXtjQ-ftLMkUhSlXC-NdHA&s=03)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: I hope they’re living their best lives
Denali
Well, he has successfully done what he has done for the past …….years- grabbed public attention. I thought (wrongly)that he was fading. What will rid us of him?
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
@Burnspbesq:
/fixed
I would bet Dump hasn’t run 10 feet in the 60 years since he left high school.
prostratedragon
@Renie: I’m betting no one could have stopped him.
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
@JanieM:
Dumb. Just plain dumb.
To paraphrase LBJ, I’d rather have Porn Hub in the tent pissing out, than Porn Hub outside the tent pissing in.
sdhays
@Frankensteinbeck: I think deplatforming him from Twitter completely destroyed the Trump we were subjected to prior to 2021. On Twitter, every vomit-tweet he made would get amplified by both supporters and detractors and get pumped straight into the media, which just loved feeling that hit rush into their bloodstream.
Truth Social doesn’t have that. Anything he posts there is little more than a press release. No network effects. No trending. No grabbing everyone’s attention by the …. It has isolated him so he doesn’t have any realtime feedback on how people are responding to what he says. He’s broken, and I’m not sure he could even recreate the old magic if he gave up and went back on Twitter (which would probably collapse anyway).
He can still win the Republican nomination, but what made him difficult to deal with before is greatly diminished.
Betty Cracker
@PaulB: I’m still kind of gob-smacked that the dolt is trying to hawk NFTs now. Last year, maybe. But now? Sweet Jeebus.
This “Trump Aims to Regroup” article in the WSJ has an off tone:
Policy events? As if. Maybe he is just going to milk the rubes for most of 2023 and then drop out.
ArchTeryx
@trollhattan: While entirely ignoring both Hillary Clinton’s AND the sitting President’s speeches. For an empty lectern.
If anything was proof how utterly in the tank the political and cable media was for Republicans in general and Trump in particular, it was that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Trapped Lurker: I was wondering when someone would catch that.
Ruckus
@Anonymous At Work:
“His narcissism overwhelms his intelligence”
I think a correction is in order.
His narcissism IS his intelligence.
IOW his narcissism is the entirety of his intellectual capacity.
Or maybe a better way phrase it is “His intellectual capacity is all based upon and within his narcissism.”
Renie
@PaulB: what’s the big issue with the tech industry? there were a couple of GOP nutjobs tweeting about tech today…in between tweets about illegals at the border.
Love how he assumes he is going to be president again. LOL
scav
I have visions of late night talk show teams just downing pens, weeping hysterically into table tops and ordering additional bottles of booze as they decide to simply go with a rotating powerpoint display of these cards as their entire show tonight.
Viva BrisVegas
@PaulB: Isn’t that essentially the 2nd Amendment?
So Trump agrees with the 2nd, up to and including porn replacing Saturday morning cartoons.
What about Desantis using the power of the state to go after Disney’s right to speak?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: Weird. He did rallies all through 21 and 22, as I recall. No uncounted chickens but he sure seems off his game
Bill Arnold
@Renie:
They’re all-in on “The Twitter Files”.
Which is basically some internal documentation at a company that was striving to keep a popular social media environment from becoming an unusable toxic cesspool of dis/misinformation, with limited advertisers. Cherry-picked subset of such documentation provided to a couple of has-been wingnut “journalists”, who have been further cherry-picking, and writing it all up breathlessly.
It is bullshit, and lies; leftists were banned (and shadowbanned) by pre-Musk twitter all the time; it was not particularly partisan. They basically want unfettered disinformation. (Amplified by twitter for $8, $11 on an iPhone.)
Reading between the lines, I’m presuming (without looking hard) that there are planned moves to strengthen liability laws so that the wealthy can squelch speech at will by pointing lawyers at the speech of opponents, and similar workarounds for the rich and powerful to squelch the speech of the lesser people at will.
Mai Naem mobile
I want to feel like we are watching a Christopher Guest/Larry David/Albert Brooks movie except we are part of it not just the audience.
Frankensteinbeck
@trollhattan:
Even Fox cut away from his candidacy announcement this time. The media wants its 2016 clown show back, absolutely, but he’s not the same clown anymore. His new material is boring and whiny. Nobody is going to let him call in for free interviews on the morning shows if he’s going to whine about losing 2020.
@Betty Cracker:
If this report is true, Trump is sick. Very sick. That or his rally attendance has been vastly smaller and more propped up with actors than we’ve heard. Big rallies are Trump’s favorite thing in the entire world. He will only give them up if he is physically incapable, financially incapable, or incapable of getting an audience.
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
Are you sure it isn’t a utility shed? Painted gold.
rikyrah
The Spry Old Lorax (@SpryOld) tweeted at 10:31 AM on Wed, Dec 14, 2022:
Populism is the problem. Whether Left Populism (Bernie/Squad) or Right Populism (Trump/GOP), it’s all bad. Populism never ends well for Democracy, and it’s always very dangerous to any & all minorities. We must categorically reject it, left & right, before it destroys us all.
(https://twitter.com/SpryOld/status/1603065204610588672?t=uH1I6hrU2QarBUgdpfqpaA&s=03)
rikyrah
Harvard Appoints Its First Black President
After launching a $100 million effort to address its role in slavery and systemic marginalization, the world’s richest school turns to a Black woman to lead.
By
Keith Reed
The country’s oldest and most revered university just named its first Black leader.
Harvard University, an institution whose history dates back to 1636, is tapping Claudine Gay as its next president, the Boston Globe reported. Gay, who is currently dean of Harvard’s faculty of arts and scientists, will take over from Larry Bacow in 2023.
………………
Harvard naming a Black woman as president is sure to have an impact far beyond academia, because of the school’s reputation, high-profile and enormous financial means and because that institution’s history is deeply linked with slavery and other systemic manifestations of racism. Harvard has graduated eight presidents of the United States, including Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush and John F. Kennedy. The school has the largest reported endowment in the world, at $51.9 billion, giving it the ability to support research and other activities on a global scale. Harvard’s president doesn’t unilaterally allocate or manage those funds but the institution’s leader does have some sway.
https://www.theroot.com/harvard-appoints-its-first-black-president-1849900258?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2022-12-15
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
especially if he is failing as a candidate
IF? He might be running but as an actual candidate IF he’s failing?
And yes I didn’t expect him to win but then, as I’ve stated before I’ve seen the financial papers/magazines stories on him from decades ago. He sold racism to win 2016, because that’s all he’s got, his blatant racism. And that put him just over the top with the KKK voters.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: that’s usually what I think of when I think of trump.
”policy”
LOLOLOL
Frankensteinbeck
@Betty Cracker:
Upon further thought, it’s probably just someone’s wishful thinking. I thought he’s been running events? I know the ‘hiding in his room’ thing was just someone being metaphorical and half-serious about how the legal investigations upset him.
Renie
@Bill Arnold: Do you mean libel laws? Cuz it’s very hard for public figures to win either a libel or defamation lawsuit. If they try squelching free speech I’m sure the ACLU will go after them.
karen marie
@PaulB: “the new online censorship regime”
I have so many questions.
First one being, how many people were on the committee that wrote this bullshit? It all reads like it was written in Russian and put through Google translate
@JanieM: It’s only censorship if a Democrat does it.
Suzanne
@OzarkHillbilly:
This is the kind of illustrative detail to which many writers aspire (David Brooks, AHOY) and few achieve. Bravo.
I’m sure there’s something to add about Swisher Sweets, those Hostess mini donuts, sandals with socks, and ear hair.
PaulB
It’s an article of faith in extreme (and even not-so-extreme) rightwing circles that their views have been censored on social media for years, despite the abundant evidence to the contrary. The “Twitter Files” nonsense is all the “proof” they need that they have been victimized and that Big Tech has been oppressing them. Hence, the Florida and Texas laws (still being adjudicated) which radically limit the moderating that companies like Facebook and Twitter can engage in.
In some of those circles, “Big Tech” is almost as bad as “Deep State,” with some insisting that the two are in bed with one another.
PaulB
Maybe he’s jealous of Melania’s NFT initiative. The more likely scenario is that he was approached by a third party, and he signed on the dotted line when they waved a check at him and showed him the ego-boosting pictures.
Too bad we probably won’t ever see the email and text messages from his advisors when they heard about this. Some of them, at least, had to know just how stupid this was and how much of a laughingstock he would be.
Spanky
@Anoniminous:
[Scratches head. Scrolls on.]
Ken
Ignoring the obvious riffs, PornHub and related enterprises have a lot of data about what their customers are doing. You sometimes see these in aggregated form, such as “most popular search terms in each state”. If pressed, they might release some un-aggregated data, say, “most popular search terms in the Florida governor’s mansion”.
It reminds me a little of the adage about never picking a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. Or maybe the one about wrestling the pig.
Tom Levenson
@rikyrah: Just put up a post on that.
Ruckus
@Burnspbesq:
Does this mean you think he won’t do it so that the really, really insane people won’t send him money, even in jail? Because I think they will send him money, and want to riot because their candidate is being jailed by the evil democrats so that he can’t run. And the only possible way that won’t happen is if deathsantas gets far more insane so they will support him. I believe that there is a segment of every population that wants everyone else to belong and support their insanities and therefore vote for the most insane candidate. In our culture that’s SFB or someone who wants to be his replacement.
Ken
The line “giving it the ability” reminds me of Shakespeare’s Glendower and Hotspur:
G. I can call the spirits from the vasty deep.
H. Why, so can I, or so can any man; but will they come, when you do call for them?
This is of course my usual cynicism, and I’m sure that Harvard doesn’t just say they can use their endowment to support research, but actually do so.
Suzanne
I hope that a statistically significant chunk of his voters looked at this today and felt utterly humiliated/conned. What a fucken idiot. What fucken idiots VOTED for that fucken idiot.
(As a reminder, “fucken” is spelled as such due to the colorful language stylings of the hilarious Vicente Fox.)
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well, he’s in the best of health, I mean he does take care of himself so well, exercises
oftenregularlyon occasionnever, etc. And he’s oldish, 76 and has such respect for life that there is no real reason he’s even capable of continuing being the hateful ass that he is.Frankensteinbeck
@Ruckus:
He can’t hold rallies in jail. His contact with the outside world will be severely limited. He cannot meet with advisers. He won’t have makeup prep if he manages to schedule an interview during visiting hours. Trump cannot campaign from jail in a physical, ‘take part in the process’ sense. It will cripple him.
Also, narcissists in jail tend to commit suicide. Especially rich narcissists. Life without their whims catered to is not worth living.
Bill Arnold
@Renie:
I do. Sorry, definitely not a lawyer and that slipped through.
There is a lot of chat in RW Trumpian circles about changing libel/defamation laws (including vs the press), in apparent violation of the US constitution but the US constitution is what the Supreme Court says it is, and the SCOTUS is currently dominated by right-wing partisan hacks.
Miss Bianca
@Kelly: I’m sorry, but…that’s got to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. You must have the patience of the proverbial saint, because I don’t think I *could* stay friends with someone who announced that voting strategy to me.
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
Just a note.
I was being just a tad sarcastic. A small insignificant tad as it were.
Still am.
IOW I do agree with you. But reality has rarely entered SFB’s life, and I’m not sure it would know what to do if it found a way in, or if in fact reality has ever actually tried.
MagdaInBlack
@mrmoshpotato: You’re still listening to Hal, aren’t you? I love that dig. “tfg is so broke he doesn’t even own a home”
The Lodger
Hell with all this. I’m waiting for the Mark Meadows Text Trading Cards.
VOR
A lot of MAGAts are not poor. This has been seen w/J6 defendants. IIRC there was a woman who flew a private jet from Texas. MAGAts have enough disposable income to buy boats (and gas) for boat parades. To buy F-350 pickups to fly their flags. They are realtors, dentists, small business owners, and people with well-funded retirement plans.
Jay C
@Old School:
Joe Biden rocks the Ray-Bans look a lot better.
Not having a head shaped like a melon probably helps.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I think they are trying to coup GW Bush’s Mission Accomplish moment.
Subsole
@Tom Levenson:
How else is he gonna pay his mounting legal fees, though?
Subsole
@MattF:
“Them ain’t brass knuckles.
These is brass knuckles.”
Subsole
@Keith P.:
Subsole.mind.exe has encountered an error and needs to shut down.
TriassicSands
I don’t know. it would get him endless amounts of attention. It would keep him in the news. And it would be a historic first.
Of course, Trump would never put in the work or hours the Speaker job needs, but he was president and not doing that job never seemed to bother him. These aren’t jobs to him — they’re platforms to use to get all the things that do matter to him.
Although we know some things about Trump — e.g., nothing matters to him but him — he is so deranged that it’s hard for normal people to figure out what he’ll do — other than the constants — ongoing grifts, constantly seeking attention and adoration, lying and whining about everything, etc.
In a comment above, @gene108 seemed to believe that nothing could get Trump to drop out, but inevitable loss might, though he might have to do that before the loss became obviously inevitable, since then he could construct a phony narrative about why he was dropping out. Trump can’t accept loss (a constant). So, if in 2024, it is clear that he will not win the nomination, I might expect him to work out a way that he could quit and still claim victory.
Who knows?
TriassicSands
In TFG’s case, it might be a race between suicide and someone killing the POS. Also, killing oneself takes a certain measure of courage, something Trump lacks. As with so many things Trump, that future seems unpredictable. Plus, what are the actual chances he’ll ever serve a day in prison? He might be worried about it, but I doubt he seriously believes it will ever happen. He’s avoided accountability his whole life.
The only real accountability he’s ever faced was losing in 2020 and he denies that ever happened. Since the election was rigged and he actually won in a landslide, he wasn’t held accountable. Or so he would tell us.
Stay tuned. It will be ugly, and nasty, and disgusting. But it will be “interesting.” In a nauseating way.