Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

White supremacy is terrorism.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Repub Venality Open Thread: The Bedminster Mysteries

Repub Venality Open Thread: The Bedminster Mysteries

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Long, but worth reading in full (should be paywall-free):

… Prosecutors accuse Trump of showing off classified documents to employees and others not authorized to see them — not once, but twice at his sprawling golf club on the rural plains of New Jersey.

According to the indictment, Trump bragged in July 2021 about a sensitive military plan with two of his staffers, as well as the writer and publisher of a forthcoming book from his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, during a session at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.

In an audio recording of the session near the club’s pool, Trump can be heard acknowledging the secrecy of the documents to the group — who included communications staffers Liz Harrington and Margo Martin, according to people familiar with the matter, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the criminal case…

Trump’s behavior in New Jersey is yet another data point showing that the former president did not simply stash the boxes of sensitive documents, unopened and untouched, in the basement of his Florida club and forget about them. Instead, advisers said he was personally attached to and hyper-aware of the boxes, instructing that at least some of them accompany him from place-to-place, and appeared aware of what was inside…

Trump opened his Trump National Golf Club Bedminster for business in 2004 over the July Fourth weekend. Pre-presidency, the club served as a destination for high-profile golf and tennis tournaments, as well as a venue for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s lavish wedding. “Wouldn’t you want to be buried here?” he told the Wall Street Journal in 2015.

During his presidential transition, he interviewed candidates for his cabinet there, resulting in a made-for-television spectacle that was broadcast across network news.

While president, Trump would frequently decamp from Washington to his New Jersey club and hold meetings with top government officials there, particularly in the summer months. There, he installed a makeshift office among the luxury cottages that surround the club’s 25-meter swimming pool and has resided in a separate cottage in the same complex, where he stores his belongings, according to people who have visited.

At least some of his prized “beautiful mind paper boxes” — a phrase used by aides to describe his complicated and disorganized filing system that only he seemed to understand — usually trailed close behind him, staying in his private cottage…

Aides said they preferred when Trump vacationed at Bedminster while president than when he spent time at Mar-a-Lago, which he frequented in winter months. One adviser said there were fewer “crazies” among the membership of the less flashy New Jersey club and fewer opportunities to bend his ear around the pool or over dinner about their pet issues…

When Trump’s indictment was unsealed this month, the former president was, as usual, at Bedminster. Members of his campaign and legal teams hustled to New Jersey to join him there. Trump was said to be dining on the patio in the evening and playing golf the next day.

Recently, Trump’s legal team has hunkered down on the property in a room painted olive green in the main clubhouse, according to people familiar with the team’s activity. Alina Habba, a lawyer on Trump’s team, has conducted interviews from the room, appearing in television appearances sitting between an American flag and a black-and-white silhouetted portrait of Trump’s scowling face.

Maggie, how could you!?!…

Speaking of intimate associates…

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  1. 1.

    Tony Jay

    “Dig her up! Dig her up!”

    Be silly not to. It’s not like that gobshite ever showed any respect for the women in his life.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    “Bravado” reminds me of “locker room talk”, the talking  point that he settled on to explain “grab em by the pussy”.

  4. 4.

    Ken

    I am shocked that Melania Trump didn’t follow secure e-mail practices in her government job, after her father made such a big point of it during the campaign.

    Well, no, I’m not shocked, especially since (per rawstory, linked by Sanjeevs in the earlier thread) he apparently hired her because she has great breasts and backside, and he fantasized about having sex with her.

  5. 5.

    cain

    @Old School: maybe they are hoping that Trump will panic and try to move the documents on the sly and they can catch him in the act of doing something criminal.

    The dude is never going to give up those documents.

  6. 6.

    West of the Rockies

    Watching the slow diminishment of the GOP is absolute bliss.  I wish we’d witness more pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth from among the base though.

  8. 8.

    Alison Rose

    Lawrence O’Donnell had a good segment on this last night, calling out Trump’s patently absurd BS that the papers were just “building plans”. Sure, building plans that were “confidential” and “secret”. Are they building plans for an alien storage facility in Roswell? A new prison next door to Gitmo for abortion providers? A charter school where the only textbooks are The Art of the Deal and Mein Kampf?

  10. 10.

    JoyceH

    Okay, wait. When they say “near the pool”. Did this conversation take place in a room, with just the voices we hear in the recording? Or – did it take place at an umbrella table out on the pool deck, with swimmers wandering through while Trump waved around our national secrets?

  12. 12.

    Alison Rose

    @Ken: (Re: Ivanka) We kind of already knew he thought this way, didn’t we? There was that interview he did years ago, WITH Ivanka, where he said that if she weren’t his daughter, he’d probably be dating her. And that little twat just laughed like it was the funniest and totally least disgusting thing ever said.

  13. 13.

    Ken

    @West of the Rockies: @bk: Ooops. The article said “while working in the White House”, and I hadn’t realized Melania had a role that could be described that way. I should have said “after her husband made such a big point of it”.

    I assume I owe an apology to Ivanka, who I’m sure followed all secure e-mail practices.

  14. 14.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Old School: INAL, but maybe because a search warrant requires some sort of recent and fresh intel that there is likely evidence of a crime at a given location.  Somebody at MAL snitched which gave FBI enough to get a judge to sign off on search warrant.  I’m not sure that this info coming out now is enough to meet the requirements.

  15. 15.

    oatler

    “the rural plains of New Jersey.”

    there is a land, known of but by few, beyond the rust-wracked Hulks of Atlantic City….

  16. 16.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Alison Rose: ​And that little twat just laughed like it was the funniest and totally least disgusting thing ever said.

    It might have been funniest and totally least disgusting thing he ever said

  17. 17.

    Alison Rose

    @Ken: Wait…now I’m even more confused. It was Melania who had shitty email practices, per the tweet. But the article you linked to is about Trump drooling over Ivanka’s body. I think you’re mishmoshing these two different articles together.

  19. 19.

    RandomMonster

    @cain:

    @Old School: maybe they are hoping that Trump will panic and try to move the documents on the sly and they can catch him in the act of doing something criminal.

    I have to think there is a reason they haven’t searched. And the only thing I can come up with is that they are collecting evidence of what Trump is doing with the documents. Like, you know, letting Saudi Arabians photograph them.

  20. 20.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    So an actual real life experienced lawyer just allowed his client to get on the stand in a elder guardianship case in a bid to serve as guardian for his dementia-suffering father, who he’s been ripping off for years.  The emergency guardian (institutional) already identified that somebody had been siphoning off 10-12K per month since January alone.

    On cross by me (I’m guardian ad litem on a private payscale because of the extent of the estate), he defiantly admitted that the money was going to both his account and his solely-owned mortgage brokerage account. Also said that the “trust” in which he’s been operating a rental on the primary residence (the only thing transferred) basically consists of just his own pocket.  Even after I torched his ass and the judge torched his ass and I warned him of his rights to not self-incriminate, his lawyer helpfully said that “receipts” for all the expenses attributable to his father will be provided.

    Elder Abuse (which includes financial crimes) is a Class C felony in Kentucky – 5-10 years as a penalty. The emergency guardian has an appointment with the detectives today.

    Lawyers will understand why I had to resist the urge to touch myself…..

  21. 21.

    Geminid

    @JoyceH: I think this conversation happened in a cottage adjacent to the pool, where Trump has his office.

    The WaPo article gives a good idea of the surroundings at Bedminster. A somewhat different scene than Mar-a-Loco, more like a Bedlam-minster.

  23. 23.

    Mike in NC

    Well, we got a call from our vet earlier. Took our 14-year-old ragdoll cat in for sedation and an oral exam this morning because he’d been showing signs of gum disease and he had an unidentified mass in the back of his throat. She confirmed that it was a tumor and was basically untreatable. She recommended that we not have him resuscitated under these circumstances. We agreed that he shouldn’t suffer and reluctantly let him go.

    Pierre was a great companion and we’ll miss him terribly.

  24. 24.

    Ken

    @Alison Rose: Yes, I confused Trump’s wife and daughter, because (1) they both “worked in the White House” and (2) they’re both hot chicks that Trump totally wants to have sex with.

  28. 28.

    Jeffro

    meanwhile on CNN, at least they’re covering this:

    McCarthy called the former president yesterday to apologize [for saying trump ‘wasn’t the strongest GOP candidate for 2024]… He told the former president he misspoke and blamed the reporters for taking the comments out of context. Later, his campaign sent out a fundraising email saying Trump was stronger than ever”

    Those boots aren’t gonna lick themselves, eh Kevin?

  29. 29.

    kindness

    What I don’t understand is how the kids didn’t reject burying their mother at the golf club.  That is so over the top tacky.

  30. 30.

    steppy

    @RandomMonster: IANAL, but as I understand it, a search warrant requires fresh evidence of crimes being committed, to establish probable cause. An audio tape from 2 years ago is pretty stale evidence. I strongly suspect that the FBI is working hard to get that fresh evidence.

  32. 32.

    mainsailset

    Certainly because Jack Smith’s team is way ahead of the media on its investigation it goes without saying that a NJ grand jury is already at work on this. The observation that the 37 MAL charges did not charge the Bedminster revelations but only mentioned them, could easily be explained by venue. A NJ case will could likely start with the Bedminster tape and then use the 37 MAL counts as descriptors without charging them in NJ. Likewise, the DC grand jury will deliberate on crimes within their venue and Smith can include MAL and NJ findings as descriptors. That said, my bet would be that we’ll hear from a NJ gj next and then the DC grand jury will be the one that wraps all this up into a whopper of a set of charges.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mike in NC:

    I’m so sorry. You made the right call, of course — your last loving act for Pierre — but I know how hard it is. My condolences.

  37. 37.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    For those wondering about the specifics of their air quality right now, here’s a site where you can get the details, including a breakdown of the major components of your air pollution.
    If your curious about how far south the smoke from up north reaches, Louisville KY is at 208, Bowling Green KY (southern edge of the state) is at 124, Nashville is at 112, and Memphis at 70. In all cases, the major pollutants are PM2.5 and PM10, which is to say particulate matter 2.5 microns and 10 microns in diameter.
    (For more details, the helpful folks at the California Air Resources Board have explanations easily understood by the average jackal without a scientific background.)

    Plumelabs, the AQI site at the first links, breaks out what outside activities are unsafe. People in Louisville should not only avoid heavy exertion outdoors, but should skip eating outside and keep young children indoors.
    If you’re

  39. 39.

    Brachiator

    Trump’s base, the GOP leadership and the political press keep pretending that Trump is a stable genius.

    He is a weird, insecure man baby who needs to impress people how important he is. Classified documents for Trump are like Star Wars figures to an 8 year old boy.

    This reality TV show is sad and tiresome and needs to be cancelled.

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Tony Jay:

    “Dig her up! Dig her up!” 

    Be silly not to. It’s not like that gobshite ever showed any respect for the women in his life.

    What (not who) is in “Ivana’s” casket disgustingly buried at a golf course?

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate, and she’s trash for marrying the fascist shitstain just like his 2nd and 3rd wives are too.  Especially that eurotrash, gold-digging, birther bitch (or maybe she’s his Kremlin handler.)

  48. 48.

    Kay

    People are as satisfied with the candidates as they always are:

    Ariel Edwards-Levy
    @aedwardslevy
    oh, wow, nearly half of registered voters say they’re not satisfied with the two major presidential candidates and want other choices!
    also, did I mention it is the year 2008 and the candidates are John McCain and Barack Obama

    Ariel Edwards-Levy
    @aedwardslevy
    @aedwardslevy
    same story in May 2000 with Bush/Gore

    Ariel Edwards-Levy
    @aedwardslevy
    and the 1992/1996 fields

    Ariel Edwards-Levy
    @aedwardslevy
    and Carter/Reagan in 1980

    It’s really a fools game to listen to low propensity, low info voters- they’re morons. You have to deal with them but no one should take them seriously as far as policy.

  50. 50.

    Chris Johnson

    Still thinking ‘beautiful mind boxes’ means ‘the guy’s carrying around papers which he thinks contain his instructions from his Russian handlers, like in the movie A Beautiful Mind’.

    Not sure whether in Trump’s case it is literally true that he’s carrying around papers that expose him as a freaking mole, maybe he just thinks he is, or he’s carrying around classified stuff he thinks is most suited TO his Russian handlers.

    I guess we’ll figure it out eventually.

  52. 52.

    Tony Jay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I like to think that the casket is just the outer case of a Russian Doll type affair, and when you reach the smallest casket, barely the size of a peanut, you pop it open to find Trump’s actual bank balance glittering in a coppery dirt of way,

  54. 54.

    Kay

    Political Polls
    @Politics_Polls
    2024 New Hampshire Democratic Primary:
    Joe Biden 68%
    Robert Kennedy Jr. 9%
    Marianne Williamson 8%

    I call this The Rogan/Musk/Greenwald magic- they promote a candidate and the candidate drops ten points in polling, immediately. It’s also working on Ron DeSantis, their other pick.

  55. 55.

    Ken

    @Kay: Good news for the “No Labels” ticket! As we all know, third-party candidates swept to victory in all those elections on the strength of that dissatisfaction with the traditional parties.

  56. 56.

    MattF

    He’s all bullshit. Every thing he says is bullshit. It’s. All. Bullshit. Using anything he says as a premise of any sort of argument is an elementary error. I could continue in this vein, but fuckit.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    Politiical news is so weird with how it’s stubbornly ahistorical. These are people who have no other analytical tool other than “THIS is like THAT” – rough, often ill-fitting comparisons- and they didn’t even check whether voters are always unhappy with the candidates?

    I bet No Labels has a lavishly compensated polling group too- they’re paying people for this crap analysis. Someone on the team is making 500k a year for this.

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Thank you for flagging that. I’ve privately fretted a bit about what those polls could mean for the strength of Biden’s support.

  63. 63.

    cope

    @Old School: Smith’s prosecutors have subpoenaed surveillance tapes from Bedminster. This might provide the probably cause needed to physically search the place. The idea was broached last year but without probable cause, they didn’t make the move at the time.  More seems yet to come, though.

  65. 65.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @UncleEbeneezer: That’s what they’re floating as the reason for not approaching a judge for a search warrant. Doesn’t make sense to me as I’ve read other articles that say that the intelligence community and FBI really, really want to secure that specific document AND they say that they can’t find it. Maybe those articles are wrong, but, well, if Trump was waving the Iran war plans around at Bedminster, why not search Bedminster? If the document is still missing and was last in possession of someone who we know lied about having stealing other documents, then this is ongoing, not something that happened in the past, beyond some stricture for recency required for a subpoena. I’m sure someone will wander along and tell me why that is totally unreasonable and stoopid.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I love how Rogan et al picked woo woo RFK Jr over woo woo Marianne Williamson as the viable candidate, although they are polling the same.

    It’s because Williamson is 70 years old, female and doesn’t do pushups with her shirt off at campaign events. The bitter middle aged men who are aging poorly passed on the girl.

  67. 67.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Mike in NC: Oh, I am so sorry to hear of your loss. We can know in our minds that we do the right thing for them, but it can tear our hearts out.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    When you canvass you realize that “independent” voters (so Right leaning) sighing and moaning that none of the candidates are good enough is a political constant in the US.

    They have such high standards because they’re of course big achievers themselves. “It’s easy!”

  72. 72.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Brachiator:

    the political press keep pretending that Trump is a stable genius.

    A commentator on MSNBC said “Trump isn’t dumb” and I was like, there is absolutely no explanation that fits this documents case except that Trump is monumentally stupid.  Dumb as fucking dirt.  An idiot man-baby.  If he were anything but stupid, he would have done things differently.  It is just possible that if he were deliberately scheming to get himself thrown in jail for the rest of his life he could not have done it better.

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    Uh huh
    Uh huh 

    The Biden Accomplishments Guy™ (@What46HasDone) tweeted at 11:56 PM on Tue, Jun 27, 2023:
    Paging @MotherJones and @TheProspect who both recently wrote articles downplaying the Biden admin’s role is leading the charge to get rail worker’s paid sick days.

    Here’s a whole video for you by the IBEW praising the Biden admin. Apology forms are available at the front desk.
    (https://twitter.com/What46HasDone/status/1673918147282313217?t=d1qWew34_IJeJ7gjq3omJw&s=03)

  74. 74.

    sdhays

    @Tony Jay: It’s a small thing, but this:

    “Wouldn’t you want to be buried here?” he told the Wall Street Journal in 2015.

    is just such a weird, weird thing to say about your golf club resort.

    “Wouldn’t you want your bones to rot here for all eternity?”

    What?

  75. 75.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Isn’t RFK old too?

    The media is beating the age drum on Biden and the rats can’t find any spring chickens to challenge him?

  77. 77.

    rikyrah

    CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) tweeted at 8:36 AM on Tue, Jun 27, 2023:
    In his new book, @WesleyLowery shares what he defines as “whitelash,” how it follows moments of racial progress and how he sees that cycle impacting the upcoming presidential election: “I think we have to be willing to look things in the eye and call them what they are.” https://t.co/igrmvqOhNh
    (https://twitter.com/CBSMornings/status/1673686695210807296?t=pDhdWylp6LZ0j1EN4O1YBw&s=03)

  78. 78.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @rikyrah:

    Apology forms are available at the front desk.

    Oh, man, those exist? I wish I knew about them — would’ve saved me a lot of time over the decades.

  80. 80.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: thanks for posting this!  I think I saw the first tweet in that series but not the rest.

    Americans: “why can’t I find the perfect candidate who represents me perfectly on every issue, perfectly?”

    also Americans: “452 varieties of toothpaste for me to choose from…why only 2 choices for president?”  (because these things are the same, you see…)

  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    I call this The Rogan/Musk/Greenwald magic- they promote a candidate and the candidate drops ten points in polling, immediately.

    It’s the candidate, not the person giving them exposure.  I think there are a lot of Democratic voters who are vaguely dissatisfied with Biden because he isn’t their perfect dream candidate, and they’ll say they support the non-Biden candidate of the month as long as they don’t know too much about them.  As soon as they get some exposure, though, people realize how awful they are and the support disappears.  The same thing happens with the not-Trump support on the Republican side.  It exists, but doesn’t translate into durable support for any of the deeply flawed non-Trump candidates.

  83. 83.

    Tony Jay

    @sdhays:

    Don’t the Mafia have a thing about burying people on golf courses? Maybe that’s where he got it from.

    “Don Frazelli buried two of his cousins on a municipal course outside Vegas. Sure, he shot them both in the back first, but still, such class!”

  84. 84.

    JoyceH

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    A commentator on MSNBC said “Trump isn’t dumb” and I was like, there is absolutely no explanation that fits this documents case except that Trump is monumentally stupid.

    My exact takeaway from listening to that tape is that EVERYONE involved is galaxy-level stupid. And STILL talking about Hillary after all these years?!

    Has he gotten less coherent in the past few years, or was he this bad, say, when campaigning in 2016? I know he was more coherent decades ago when he’d be interviewed and be coherent and aware of current events and have things to say about issues that wasn’t so off the wall as he is now. But recently – is he getting worse?

  85. 85.

    Gravenstone

    @Tony Jay: I know everyone snarks on the idea of purloined docs interred with Ivana. But the reason I doubt he actually did any such thing is that would put them out of his convenient reach for those later moments when he wants to raise some quick cash by selling them to foreign powers  reminisce…

  86. 86.

    Betty Cracker

    @Roger Moore: I think we might underestimate the number of voters who think Biden is doing an okay to good job but think he’s too old to run again. I know lots of folks in that camp, though I am sure they’ll show up when the choice is Biden vs. whatever horror the GOP horks up.

  87. 87.

    JoyceH

    @snoey: ​
     

    I believe Trump has always intended to be buried at one of his courses. Bedminster or the one in Virginia, can’t remember which one. I’m sure he envisions a Trump Monument as a pilgrim destination.

  88. 88.

    Jeffro

    @Frankensteinbeck:A commentator on MSNBC said “Trump isn’t dumb” and I was like, there is absolutely no explanation that fits this documents case except that Trump is monumentally stupid.  Dumb as fucking dirt.  An idiot man-baby.  If he were anything but stupid, he would have done things differently.  It is just possible that if he were deliberately scheming to get himself thrown in jail for the rest of his life he could not have done it better.

    This, absolutely.

    I’m also done with “he’s not smart, but he IS cunning/clever/whatever”.  Only in the most basic, moment-by-moment sense is the guy cunning in any way.

    his two super-powers are 1) nearly five decades of fawning publicity and 2) his utter and complete shamelessness.  if those somehow equal “smart” or “cunning”, then I don’t want to be smart.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Isn’t RFK old too?

    He’s 70, so yeah, he’s old. But remember that some of these people are the same people who backed Bernie Sanders, who is 81, and Donald Trump, who is 77.
    The Biden age narrative is untethered from reality. That they’re drawing this huge distinction between Trump at 77 and Biden at 80 tells you that.

  90. 90.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Roger Moore:

    The same thing happens with the not-Trump support on the Republican side.

    I don’t think this is true.  The other candidates against Trump are ghosts.  They’re names nobody sees in the press doing something.  Only two have gotten done anything:  Nikki Haley and DeSantis.  Haley never had a snowball’s chance in Hell.  DeSantis was doing great and the GOP primary voters clearly loved what they saw until Trump started punching and DeSantis didn’t have the guts to fight back.

    Now, in a general election, DeSantis has exactly the effect you’re describing.  He’s the kind of ‘is that even human?’ horror show, with policies that are repugnant and vile to the mushy middle, who goes down in flames as soon as he stops being just a name they hear about on the news.

  92. 92.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @JoyceH:

    Has he gotten less coherent in the past few years

    Yes, he has.  He sounded dumb, but he basically made sense in 2016.  Trump has been visibly cognitively declining this whole time.

  93. 93.

    mrmoshpotato

    @kindness:

    What I don’t understand is how the kids didn’t reject burying their mother at the golf club. That is so over the top tacky. 

    Because they’re piles of shit just like their fat, orange, fascist father.

  96. 96.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    The Biden age narrative is untethered from reality. That they’re drawing this huge distinction between Trump at 77 and Biden at 80 tells you that.

    The real issue with Biden’s age is the VP is a Black woman.  If the VP were a White dude, they would be a lot more OK about it.  In the highly unlikely event that Trump names Nikki Haley as his VP candidate, concern about his age will suddenly become more important.

  97. 97.

    sdhays

    @mrmoshpotato: Because they wanted the same tax breaks their father did. They’re entangled with the business, so tax breaks clearly outweigh any wishes from a dead lady.

    Honestly, when I read that the club gets some tax breaks for being a “partial cemetery” or whatever, it all made sense. It’s just another opportunity to grub up some more money. Donnie’s clearly been salivating over the opportunity to bury someone there for years.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    joanna
    @JoannaMang
    ·14h
    Listened to a Zoom call in which Boomers vent and rant about “neighborhood children” (my kids) kicking a ball in the street. I feel like I need a shower. These people reject life itself, they are shriveled inside and out

    I am determined not to allow this to happen to me. I think it’s what’s behind a lot of the “cancel culture” bullshit and doomsaying about “the youths” and it’s awful.
    Get older gracefully. Try not to become bitter and horrible just because you’re not young anymore and are no longer on the cutting edge of culture. I hae two friends who this has happened to – they hate young people.
    Nikki Haley is wrong. The 1980’s and 1990’s were not so fucking great. Making the “Golden Age of America” whenever you personally grew up is insanely self centered and silly. My God, read a novel from another era- get some perspective.
    I think I have a bit of an advantage because I had my youngest son when I was older so he has sort of kept me from hating/resenting the next generation – I actually think they’re great.

  99. 99.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    The Biden age narrative is untethered from reality. That they’re drawing this huge distinction between Trump at 77 and Biden at 80 tells you that.

     

    Patently absurd

     

    They are clowning

  100. 100.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I remember when the olds were complaining about kids playing video games too much.

    And complaining how helicopter parents don’t give kids any freedom anymore.

  101. 101.

    robmassing

    @dmsilev:

    “Bravado” reminds me of “locker room talk”, the talking  point that he settled on to explain “grab em by the pussy”.

    100%. There is no way he ever used the word “bravado” before today. And a good chance he didn’t know what it meant.

  102. 102.

    rikyrah

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Now, in a general election, DeSantis has exactly the effect you’re describing.  He’s the kind of ‘is that even human?’ horror show, with policies that are repugnant and vile to the mushy middle, who goes down in flames as soon as he stops being just a name they hear about on the news.

     

    That entire ‘ run to the middle’ bullshyt that the MSM was going to try and gaslight that ‘ those policies aren’t really as bad as you think they are’..

     

    But, good for us..we have – IN REAL TIME – the effects of his policies.

    Pick an area and you see the effects on the ground in Florida.

    And, the more that you see these effects, the more he can’t pretend to ‘ pivot’ to the middle.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    @Roger Moore:

    I think it’s real in terms of Presidential electionn voters who are shallow and mostly morons – Biden looks old (that’s what they’re reacting to) but there’s no excuse at all for media professionals to hammer it relentlessly. Again- Donald Trump is 77 years old. Just a fact.

  105. 105.

    NotMax

    This word cottage they keep using. I do not think it means what they think it means.
    //

  106. 106.

    Ken

    @Gravenstone: Obviously he installed a secret passage from the clubhouse that runs under the course and allows access to the coffin from below. Then he had all the workers murdered to keep the secret, a pharaoh-like touch that appealed to his megalomania and narcissism.

    I am of course joking, although as with all things Trump, the true horror is you can’t be absolutely sure he didn’t do that.

  108. 108.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    They were playing Pokeman Go in my neighborhood the other day. So funny it’s back. They looked like 6th and 7th graders- middle school age.

  109. 109.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JoyceH:

    I believe Trump has always intended to be buried at one of his courses. Bedminster or the one in Virginia, can’t remember which one. I’m sure he envisions a Trump Monument as a pilgrim destination. 

    Well!  We will know where to go to piss!

  110. 110.

    Delk

    @Kay: I told my husband when we moved into our new place that I’ll never be that bitter old crank because I remember how my friends and I treated those old bitter cranks when we were kids.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It seems so obvious to me – RFK Jr showing off his stupid muscles, the entire middle aged centrist cohort whining about rude students at Oberlin, Elon Musk punishing everyone because he’s bitter over failed relationships, the middle aged male stand up comics thinking they’re entitled to young fans.

    They’re aging poorly – getting dumber and narrower and more shallow. You have to resist it! You can’t just sink into it like a comfy couch.

  113. 113.

    NotMax

    Why oh why are his latest sputterings always analyzed as if they’re statements of facts? The man is a known, proven liar. A fount – nay, a Niagara of fiction.

    @JoyceH

    Dunno about worse but you can confidently bet the farm he isn’t getting better.
    ;)

  119. 119.

    trollhattan

    @Kay: It’s because Williamson is 70 years old, female and doesn’t do pushups with her shirt off at campaign events.

    Somebody should let her know there’s a path to closing the gap. :-)

  120. 120.

    The Moar You Know

    @Mike in NC: I am so sorry. I have made that drive back from the vet’s office before.

    I may be facing the same thing here with my dog in a few days.  We shall see what tomorrow’s ultrasound shows.

    The day you get them you know that this day will come, and it is always too soon when it does.

  123. 123.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay: I am sure there are pictographs in caves that translate as “Ogg think young people lazy.  No beat bison on head with rock like real man.  Just kill with pointy stick.”  It was, and will ever be, thus.

  126. 126.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: They can.  They just have to pay.  And they suspect that the women might still be laughing at them behind their backs.

  127. 127.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    I’m also done with “he’s not smart, but he IS cunning/clever/whatever”.  Only in the most basic, moment-by-moment sense is the guy cunning in any way.

    Trump is cunning only in the sense that he has a strong primitive instinct to fight back in order to preserve his ego. But he always reaches into the same bag of tricks.

    Also, and I don’t understand this but simply acknowledge it, he has been able to attract some friends and loyalists. And obviously they don’t simply follow him for the money, since he is likely to stiff them.

    Some people follow him because they are as angry and selfish and bitter as he is.

  128. 128.

    Geminid

    @Baud: A customer of mine is an RFK Jr. fan. She says that he represents what the Democratic Party used to be. Back in the day, Jane volunteered for Planned Parenthood and volunteered for the Paul Tsongas campaign. Now, she’s voted for Trump twice and reads the Epoch Times regularly.

    Jane and I talk politics some when I’m working at her place. I might have made a mistake the other day, though. She was talking up RFK Jr., and I suggested that Trump might pick him as a running mate. Jane said she “felt a thrill” when I said that.

  130. 130.

    StringOnAStick

    @sdhays: Maybe he needed someone to actually be buried at Bedminster in order to legitimize the tax break they’ve likely already been taking since day 1?  Ivana provided one last service to keep her kids out of jail.  It won’t be enough, but they tried I guess.

  131. 131.

    Betty

    “Listen to the tape. I never said document. I said papers. Totally not the same thing.” Easy peasy

  133. 133.

    trollhattan

    @Geminid: Cripes, that’s mental. Does she remember RFK enough to compare and contrast against his failson, or is she actually confusing the two?

    Once got a “Finally, a businessman in the White House” from a friend’s father a few years ago, and really, really had a hard time controlling my shit. He’d never said anything like that before over the years I’d known him.

  134. 134.

    mrmoshpotato

    @sdhays:

    Because they wanted the same tax breaks their father did. They’re entangled with the business, so tax breaks clearly outweigh any wishes from a dead lady. 

    Honestly, when I read that the club gets some tax breaks for being a “partial cemetery” or whatever, it all made sense. It’s just another opportunity to grub up some more money. Donnie’s clearly been salivating over the opportunity to bury someone there for years.

    All of them can still be sentient piles of shit too – which they are. :)

  135. 135.

    trollhattan

    @Betty: Heh.

    “How do you know they’re not padiffs?”
    “Padiffs?”
    “You know, padiffs–printed things that aren’t on paper at all but like, on your phone.”
    And, scene

  136. 136.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: She does not pay much attention to politics, and her information about RFK Jr. is filtered by media like Epoch Times. So is her information about the Democratic Party.

  138. 138.

    StringOnAStick

    @Brachiator: tRump can attract friends and loyalists because he’s a narcissist; in general such people draw others into their fantasy of being the Big Dog, and some people really need/respond to that and feel empowered by being associated in some way with the guy they think is All That.  Note that this works mostly for white males, so there is an implied status link to start with.

  139. 139.

    Citizen Scientist

    @Mike in NC: condolences to you and your family. I am certainly not looking forward to having that sort of conversation re: our cats with our vet in a few years.

  140. 140.

    Roberto el oso

    The thing about Biden’s visible age as compared to Trump’s is that Biden looks not only ‘normal’ but spry and fit. And the absence of trowels of make-up add to that normality. Trump’s Tammy Faye/Baby Jane level of assistance doesn’t so much hide his age as freeze him in a sort of grotesque timelessness. The few photos that have surfaced where he’s not blonded and oranged to the hilt make him look much frailer and older than Biden. Also, though I brace myself every time Joe insists on getting on his bike, he’s obviously still got good motor skills, compared to Trump’s combination of mincing and lurching. The thought of Trump on a bike is pretty hilarious … Monty Pythonesque, as it were … he’d roll about a foot and a half and then tump over like a sack of mealy potatoes.

  142. 142.

    RandomMonster

    @Mike in NC: My deepest sympathies. It’s so hard parting with a friend of so many years.

    (Not to steal from the warm wishes in this thread, but more to express empathy, our cat Maisie of 18 years had a stroke last week and we had to help her along, too. It never gets easier.)

  143. 143.

    Jay

    @Kay:

    the 80’s and early 90’s for me, absolutely sucked, except for the music,

    I had two good jobs before the 80’s, Union crane factory, then Union tire factory. The Crane factory job went away because it was just there to build container cranes for the Port of Vancouver, so it only had a 5 year shelf life. The tire job paid well, was stinky, dirty and hot, but the factory got sold and moved.

    Didn’t get another decent job until the late 90’s. Tech Company.

  144. 144.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    They’re aging poorly – getting dumber and narrower and more shallow.

    They’re resisting aging.  Part of growing up is accepting that who you are changes over time and that you can become better for it.  They’re stuck worrying about who they were when they were 20 to the point they’ve given up on trying to become better for their experience.  That’s why they’re so obsessed with what’s happening with the same college campuses that seemed so important when they were in college and why they keep trying to act like 20 year olds.

  147. 147.

    The Thin Black Duke

    No matter what chapter of history you’re born into, if you’re not both emotionally and financially secure, it’s gonna suck. What’s particularly horrifying about the present day is realizing that I had more options in my late 20s/early 30s than young people do now. When I was younger, I could afford to buy a junk car and get a year out of it before it died. I could afford to live by myself. I could manage to move to another state without worrying that I was going to be homeless. That America is gone now. The GOP took that away.

  149. 149.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    Falun Gong created the Epoch Times. They are a fine example of how oppressed immigrant groups, who you would think would be aligned with us, can be very right wing. Now, that “news site” is a looney right wing influence operation. Its people like that which make me believe demographics is not destiny. We can’t be at all certain the right wing loonies won’t win the day. We have to fight for the future.

  150. 150.

    Brachiator

    @Roberto el oso:

    The thing about Biden’s visible age as compared to Trump’s is that Biden looks not only ‘normal’ but spry and fit.

    Biden comes across as a slow, measured old man in reasonably good health. He often seems less energetic than either Trump or Bernie Sanders.

    He certainly appears to be mentally fit. I don’t worry about him, but it is not unreasonable that other voters might have concerns. And some in the press and Biden’s opponents will try to work this angle of Biden’s age to their advantage.

    ETA. I seem to recall that the press downplayed questions about Reagan’s mental fitness. Some pundits tried to make a big deal about McCain’s health, even though he came from a notably long-lived family. His mother lived to be 108, and attended her son’s funeral.

  152. 152.

    VOR

    @Alison Rose: My theory is TFG’s narcissism. He looks at Ivanka and thinks that is what he would look like as a woman. So as someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, naturally he wants to have sex with himself.

  155. 155.

    VOR

    @Brachiator: McCain would have been 72 1/2 at the time of his inauguration. He suffered life-long health impacts from his time as a POW. For example, he couldn’t raise his arms over his head. He also had been treated for melanoma (skin cancer) a few years prior. And his VP candidate was Sarah Palin. The cause of his death in 2017 was cancer, a brain tumor. There were legitimate reasons to be concerned about McCain’s health.

  156. 156.

    Kay

    @Roger Moore:

    There’s a brittleness though- an inability to bend and adjust. We saw it with covid.

    They plain freaked out. They STILL freak out about covid as if Biden is opening new quarantine camps- also BLM and Me Too. These are just not reasons to lose your shit and become a reactionary, shrieking Nazi. Calm down. I know it’s different than the 1990’s were. We’re going to be fine.

  157. 157.

    Brachiator

    @VOR:

    McCain would have been 72 1/2 at the time of his inauguration. He suffered life-long health impacts from his time as a POW. For example, he couldn’t raise his arms over his head. He also had been treated for melanoma (skin cancer) a few years prior. And his VP candidate was Sarah Palin. The cause of his death in 2017 was cancer, a brain tumor. There were legitimate reasons to be concerned about McCain’s health.

    Obviously there were reasons to be concerned about McCain’s health. But he died in 2017. Had he won in 2008, he may have been able to serve two full terms.

  158. 158.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Brachiator:

    Also, and I don’t understand this but simply acknowledge it, [Trump] has been able to attract some friends and loyalists. And obviously they don’t simply follow him for the money, since he is likely to stiff them.

    Some people follow him because they are as angry and selfish and bitter as he is.

    Yeah, Trump has some kind of charisma that works on some kinds of people. Walt Nauta is set to go to jail for him. Weird.

  159. 159.

    Anyway

    @Geminid:

    A customer of mine is an RFK Jr. fan. She says that he represents what the Democratic Party used to be. Back in the day, Jane volunteered for Planned Parenthood and volunteered for the Paul Tsongas campaign. Now, she’s voted for Trump twice and reads the Epoch Times regularly.

    How can anyone that volunteered for Planned Parenthood vote for Trump (and his party) twice?! Yikes, makes no sense.

    What’s Epoch Times?

  162. 162.

    Geminid

    @Anyway: Epoch Times is put out by a banned Chinese dissident group. There must be a lot of money behind it, because there is very little advertising and yet they do a lot of free distribution. My customer received some in 2020 and ended up subscribing. She may have been extra vulnerable on account of the isolation the pandemic brought..

    Jane and her husband are good examples of the “Negative Partisanship” dynamic. They have their reservations about Trump and his party, but right-wing propaganda has convinced them that the Democrats are a bunch of radical leftists.

    At this point, negative partisanship is the best appeal Repulicans can make. This dynamic has been around forever, and some political scientist coined the term ten or so years ago. Political scientist turned campaign professional Rachel Bitecofer gave a good explanation of this dynamic in her February, 2020 New Republic article about the upcoming presidential election, titled “Hate is on the Ballot.”

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