Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

This blog will pay for itself.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

I really should read my own blog.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Trump’s Not Playing 3-Dimensional Chess, He’s Sitting at the Table Eating the Puzzle Pieces

Trump’s Not Playing 3-Dimensional Chess, He’s Sitting at the Table Eating the Puzzle Pieces

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I heard this last night on a podcast, and it was too good not to share.

Trump’s Not Playing 3-Dimensional Chess, He’s Sitting at the Table Eating the Puzzle Pieces.

It’s funny, but is it true?  Figuratively speaking.

They think Joe Biden is playing 3-dimensional chess, though, by putting out his plan and baiting the Rs on social security, medicare, etc.

Why does Joe Biden only get to play 3-dimensional chess when Barack Obama got to play 11-dimensional chess???  Or has inflation devalued 11 to a mere 3?

The only silver lining to the dumpster fire is the mockery.  I am totally here for it.

Totally open thread.

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  2. 2.

    geg6

    Sounds about right to me.  He’s an especially weird character, kind of like some sort of tv trope of a serial killer.  Profoundly stupid, with an underlying sly cunning.  He’d eat the puzzle pieces only because he knows it will disturb and probably unnerve most anyone else who’s playing.

    If the NY DA is going to charge, it should be coming soon, so I hope he gets some putting practice in before that happens or he’s going to be more grumpy than usual.

  5. 5.

    Alison Rose

    Why does Joe Biden only get to play 3-dimensional chess when Barack Obama got to play 11-dimensional chess???

    Because Obama went to Harvard Law School.

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    @geg6: I suspect that eating puzzle pieces is a reference to his eating pieces of paper in his office, as well as the more obvious reference.

    He is not a normal human being.  I think he’s like sociopath / psychopath who doesn’t actually feel normal feelings but who watches other people and tries to mimic them.  Except that T**** totally failed on even the mimicking part.

    But yes, sly cunning.  That may be his one defining real trait.  He definitely believes there’s a sucker born every minute.

  7. 7.

    Pappenheimer

    When the whole “Buy Greenland” brouhaha brewed up I tried to convince  a coworker that this was just Trump reacting to the last person he talked to (turns out I was right). She remained, and probably remains, convinced there was a some intricate plan involved in antagonizing Denmark for no actual territorial gain.

  10. 10.

    Roger MacGuffin

    @WaterGirl:

    Congratulations for ignoring Biden’s hypocrisy about his support for gay marriage

    Biden misstated his record on gay marriage during a recent interview with Kal Penn, claiming to have had an “epiphany” on the matter in high school while neglecting to mention his more than 50 years of opposition to it.

    But despite Biden’s supposed teenage heel-turn, the future president went on to oppose same-sex marriage for a half-century as both a senator and vice president.

    In 1973, just a little over a decade after Biden’s epiphany, he said that his “gut reaction” was to believe that homosexuals in the military and government posed “security risks” to the country. In the 1990s, Biden voted for both the Defense of Marriage Act and also supported a measure to defund schools that presented homosexuality as “a positive lifestyle alternative.”

    https://www.mediaite.com/politics/joe-biden-claims-to-have-had-high-school-epiphany-on-gay-marriage-neglects-to-mention-50-years-of-public-opposition-to-it-afterwards/

  11. 11.

    geg6

    @WaterGirl:

    I suspect that eating puzzle pieces is a reference to his eating pieces of paper in his office, as well as the more obvious reference.

    Either way, it’s the same thing.  That one weird quirk that all the tv serial killers have.  And it’s so out of the norm that it weirds everyone out.

  13. 13.

    geg6

    @Roger MacGuffin:

    Hmmm, why would a politician not express his support for gay marriage fifty years ago?  I cannot imagine why that would have been problematic.

    I am not disturbed by this in the least.

  17. 17.

    Alison Rose

    @Roger MacGuffin: Okay, first off, there are approximately 17 million topics someone could possibly post about. Not posting about one of them does not equal “ignoring” it. And your snide attitude here isn’t doing whatever the fuck your aim here is any favors.

    Also, it is perfectly possible, and in fact quite plausible, that someone could have a personal epiphany on the topic but, considering the time and place, not have felt like they could be out in front of it in their public life, especially once he got into politics. Show me the long list of Democratic politicians at the time Biden first got into office who were loud and proud about their support for same-sex marriage.

    Biden, Obama, HRC, and others probably all personally had no issue with SSM for years and years before publicly saying so, because that’s the shitty homophobic society we live in. Their past public opposition doesn’t mean that their current support matters less, at least not to me.

  19. 19.

    RevRick

    @WaterGirl: I’d say Trump has a feral instinct for what the GOP base wants, which is both the right to denigrate those they deem lesser and the right to claim ownership over certain things they feel due to them as the “real Americans”, that is Social Security and Medicare. He flanked his opponents on both the right and the left.

  24. 24.

    jonas

    @Alison Rose:Because Obama went to Harvard Law School.

    Well, Joe went to Syracuse. That should allow him at least, what, 6 or 7-dimension chess skills?

  25. 25.

    narya

    @Ramalama: I haven’t listened to this week’s ep yet, but yes, I mostly like it. Harry Litman is . . . an acquired taste, but overall it’s pretty good. I like “Strict Scrutiny” better, as well as “Pod Save America” and “Serious Trouble,” but this one is definitely in rotation.

  27. 27.

    Alison Rose

    @West of the Rockies: I only went to junior college, so I’ll be over here playing checkers against my cat. And losing.

    (I kid. It was a good school.

    ETA Also the one and only real college party I went to (or more accurately, got dragged to), was at Chico. Oh Lord.

  28. 28.

    JohnC

    @Roger MacGuffin: WTF dude?! He never claimed to have had an epiphany on SAME-SEX MARRIAGE in high school! His statement was about how his dad helped him to understand that gay people can love each other and should be accepted not reviled. For this to have happened in NINETEEN SIXTY is extraordinary. Yes, he didn’t reach endorsement of full marriage rights for fifty years, and he was one of many many who voted for the Defense of Marriage thing, but it will always and forever be true that he came out in favor publicly BEFORE Obama.

  33. 33.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Roger MacGuffin: in 1973, LGBTQ absolutely represented a security risk because it was eminently blackmailable.

    I’m willing to believe that Biden didn’t have an issue with it (he certainly didn’t go out of his way to act anti-LGBTQ) but also continued to represent the median democratic voter, which has generally been his deal. But yes, it’s a little eyebrow raising.

  34. 34.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Roger MacGuffin:

    Clearly, the proper response is to show his liberal ass what for and refuse to support him. A term of DeSantis or Trump will bring about the change in America we need for puppies and rainbows and kittens and unicorns.

  35. 35.

    Geminid

    @Kelly: Song for a Trump aide:

    “Counting burgers on the wall, that don’t bother me at all.

    Playing Cats from nine to five, for that wretched 45.

    Snorting Adderall and looking at this, crazy zoo,

    Now don’t tell me, I’ve nothing to do.”

  36. 36.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    I’m making the mistake of watching to Wolf of Wall Street as I work. I know this was supposed to be great, but I hated literally every character in it.

  39. 39.

    hueyplong

    @Paul in KY: I thought that whole nearly top 10,000 thing meant that I could safely fly under random troll choad radar by reading posts here.

    Is there a manager on duty to whom I might complain?

  41. 41.

    West of the Rockies

    @Alison Rose:

    Chico State was party central in the 80’s, early 90’s.  It was never my scene.   I was a studious grad student with a Wednesday morning classical music shift at the local station while working on my thesis (Romeo and Juliet).  Christ,  I really should have been less of a nerd.

  42. 42.

    H.E.Wolf

    Remember also that “MacGuffin” is famously (or notoriously) an Alfred Hitchcock shorthand term for something that misleads the audience into thinking it will be important to the plot. :-)

  43. 43.

    West of the Rockies

    @Paul in KY:

    He’s not yet reappeared to attempt to defend or add nuance.  Doesn’t even have the strength of his convictions.

  45. 45.

    Jeffro

    @Pappenheimer: they always think trump is some sort of genius, because that means that they’re smart for following him.

    If they ever admit that he’s a complete fucking moron, well then, what will they have to face up to about themselves?

  47. 47.

    Paul in KY

    @hueyplong: I haven’t checked up on the rank order yet, but maybe we’re in the 9990s? If so, that invites a whole mess of internet losers to descend upon one’s blog to shitpost.

  48. 48.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @WaterGirl:

    [Trump] is not a normal human being.  I think he’s like sociopath / psychopath who doesn’t actually feel normal feelings but who watches other people and tries to mimic them.  Except that T**** totally failed on even the mimicking part.

    I’m struck by how utterly devoid of humanity Trump is. No love. No curiosity. No whimsy. No sense of humor, unless you count his delight in cruelty. Just a black hole where a personality should be. It’s like his parents set out to raise the perfect bully.

    But yes, sly cunning.  That may be his one defining real trait.  He definitely believes there’s a sucker born every minute.

    He’s right. An uncomfortably large number of Americans actually identify with this freak.

  51. 51.

    West of the Rockies

    @…now I try to be amused:

    Well said.  He takes no evident pleasure in children or animals.  He cheats and lies.  He is greedy, self-indulgent and without honor.  A tapeworm brings more humanity to the table.

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    @West of the Rockies: He seems to be a one-and-done, hit and run troll.

    This is not the first time, but I was gonna give him one last chance to prove me wrong in that assumption.  Which he declined to do.

    It’s so odd.  It always starts with a dig at me in particular for not covering a certain thing, always with a slant against our side.  So bizarre.

  57. 57.

    hueyplong

    @WaterGirl: Looks like maybe you’ve got a whatabout/stalker troll.  The quality is low enough to be an additional insult to you personally.

  60. 60.

    Paul in KY

    @WaterGirl: Someone’s got a crush…. He probably lurks at your blog (sad to say).

    Edit: A few jackals seem to have hit on that before me. As is usually the case.

  63. 63.

    artem1s

    @WaterGirl: Trolls are out and about throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. Remember how hard they tried to make the sexual predator thing stick to Joe during the 2020 race? Every single Tweet about the campaign was filled with the #MeToo hashtag telling women they should be demanding a hearing based on very questionable rumors about an aide being molested in a hallway.

    There’s going to be more. They will get way weirder before it’s all done.

  66. 66.

    WaterGirl

    @danielx: Going forward, I’ll just add catcake to the thread when I see him.  Perhaps I’ll even add catcake as an update to the post up top, as a reminder to anyone who might be tempted to answer.

  68. 68.

    Redshift

    @RevRick:

    I’d say Trump has a feral instinct for what the GOP base wants

    I’d say it’s not so much an instinct as a process. I heard a fascinating interview with a comedian who talked about TFG’s rallies as being the same process standups use to refine their routines in clubs. You try out a lot of different bits, see which ones get a reaction, discard or refine the ones that don’t, etc. Part of the reason other wingnut politicians haven’t been able to replicate that is that they’re not willing to risk looking like a rambling idiot to start it off, and they have actual things they believe in or want to do, whereas he’s a pure narcissist who only cares about getting adulation, and will say whatever gets it for him.

  69. 69.

    Pappenheimer

    @Redshift: very much this. You could see the shift from “people want me to build a wall, but I think its’s a bit silly” to “I will BUILD A WALL” to “I WILL BUILD A WALL AND MEXICO WILL PAY FOR IT.” Artful dodging to try to stay in front of the angry crowd.

  70. 70.

    Mobile

    @MisterForkbeard: “Eminently blackmailable” in 1973?  As a Federal employee from 1966 to my retirement, I knew plenty of gay folk who worked for the Federal government.  We were all familiar with the canard that being gay was a danger to national security.  Yet, I can recall no instance of anyone actually being blackmailed as a result, inspite of a 1950’s regulation restricting gays from federal employment.  I am aware of the pink purges of the 50’s.  By the early ’70’s, however, most agencies turned a blind eye to individuals who violated the restriction.  My husband, who was employed by another agency, and I were both in positions to review adverse NAS investigations.  We were both dismissive of any information of that nature.

  72. 72.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @WaterGirl:

    Your own personal troll.

    Someone to be aggrieved.

    Someone who’s peeved.

    Your own personal troll.

    Someone you cannot heed

    because they mislead.

    Reach out and touch pie!

  73. 73.

    Bill Arnold

    @Mobile:
    Please be careful. That topic was injected by an apparent hostile troll attempting/trialing a disruption narrative. (Troll, as far as I can tell from their several-ever comments. Not enough information, really.)

  74. 74.

    different-church-lady

    So we’re all agreed: because Biden didn’t do the right thing soon enough we should all kneecap him now that he is trying to do the right thing.

    Wait, I misspoke: so we’re all agreed we have trolls.

  75. 75.

    different-church-lady

    @Bill Arnold: Weird thing (or perhaps not so weird considering) is Campos at LGM is all over Biden for a different aspect of the same interview. Something must have touched some nerves.

  77. 77.

    Mobile

    @Bill Arnold: Thanks for the warning, Bill.  I was responding to MisterForkbeard who is not to my knowledge a troll.  I reponded as the subject of government employment of gays is near and dear to my heart.  It was not my intention to disparage the President or to feed the troll.  Federal employment rules, regulation and practices used to be my area of expertise and, as a gay man myself, the prohibition against the employment of gays tends to get my hackles up.

  80. 80.

    ColoradoGuy

    @Redshift: Excellent points, right on the mark.

    What T****, DeathSantis, and the workers in that troll factory in St. Petersburg are doing is fine-tuning their acts on different audiences. It’s all marketing from their viewpoint. Lies, truth, misrepresentation, demonizing, gaslighting, who gets hurt, etc. are all irrelevant to them; it’s whatever gets a reaction from the crowd, nothing else matters.

  82. 82.

    glory b

    @JohnC: When did we start having this demand that every politician have been born with the correct attitude towards every policy and that they remain frozen in amber for all time? No room to think, grow and adapt? Why should we care, as long as their policy decisions are correct?

  84. 84.

    stacib

    @WaterGirl: 52 pickup is done with a deck of cards.  :-)  You throw them all on the floor, and the other person has to pick them up.  BTW, I liked Pick Up Sticks, too.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @stacib: Yeah, I knew it was a different game, but I guess I wasn’t clear in my comment.  We joked about 52 card pickup, we but never did it.

    Signed, one of three sisters

  87. 87.

    Ruckus

    @…now I try to be amused:

    Just a black hole where a personality should be. It’s like his parents set out to raise the perfect bully.

    I believe that the credit goes mostly to his dad. And really there is no color to that hole, other than possibly shit brindle brown. He has been the shithole he is since he was a teen. You had to read certain financial mags to see that, because that’s where his slumlord dad was covered and where he first started showing up half a century or more ago, a crappy copy of his crappy dad. He’s crappy squared.

  90. 90.

    Matt McIrvin

    I don’t think I have the heart to spend the next year and a half getting into fights with every single progressive who swallowed some bad-faith trolling about how Biden sold us out, but it’s already starting and I hate it.

  93. 93.

    different-church-lady

    @glory b:

    When did we start having this demand that every politician have been born with the correct attitude towards every policy and that they remain frozen in amber for all time?

    Every four years, when the primary campaigns begin.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @jackmac: That obvious troll couldn’t possibly ruin my day with comments on Balloon Juice.

    I’m just glad that no one got really sucked in, and it didn’t derail the thread.

  101. 101.

    evodevo

    @geg6: Well, not only that, but back in the Seventies, being outed WOULD have exposed you to blowback/firing/etc. if you were State Dept/Military/whatever, and would have exposed you to blackmail attempts, just like the Soviet honeypot plots …so, I don’t see what is wrong with Biden’s position back then…

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