Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

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

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

When I was faster i was always behind.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

We still have time to mess this up!

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Promises, Promises! We Can Only Hope

Promises, Promises! We Can Only Hope

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🌼

Can I just say that one thing I hate about social media is that too many people are so cryptic in their posts, as if we can read their mind or know what they just looked at that prompted them to write what they did.

For instance, I can take this two different ways.

The SC can move quickly when they want to, and they have done that here. (possible subtext: this is super fast, only one month away!)
OR
The SC can move quickly when they want to, and they have NOT done that here. (possible subtext: they could move super fast, but instead they set this for over a month from now when it’s too late for the primary ballot in CO.)

Update:

Mueller She Wrote included this for context in her tweet.

BREAKING: SCOTUS has GRANTED cert in the §3 14th amendment challenge. Petitioners brief due 1/18. Respondent’s brief due 1/31. Reply due 2/5. Oral arguments 2/8.

Seeing those details, 2/8 seems pretty fast.  Not quite two weeks for a brief from Trump.  Another 13 days for the state.   5 days for Trump to reply.  Oral arguments 3 days later.

But that sort of just makes my point.  How hard is it to include a bit of detail?

🌼

Including this just for fun, because it’s true.  Though someone did point out in a reply that (fake) jack Smith left out the category of the lawyers who work for Trump for free.

Promises, Promises! We Can Only Hope 1

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  3. 3.

    HumboldtBlue

    Eight years and counting that we’ve had to endure this fat fucking traitor and a media obsessed with making him seem he’s just another politician. This is so motherfucking tiresome.

  6. 6.

    SpaceUnit

    TFG needs to be subdued with a tranquilizer dart and fitted with a tracking device in case he bolts for Russia.  Clearly he could be a national security risk.

    Mostly, of course, I just like the idea of shooting him in the ass with a dart.

  8. 8.

    Ken

    I’d think hearing “I’m going to leave the country” from most criminal defendants would result in a hearing in which phrases such as “flight risk”, “revocation of bail”, “surrender passport”, and even “confinement” would feature prominently

    Oh, and in other legal schadenfreude, Rudy Giuliani’s request for an indefinite extension in his Fulton County trial has been denied. The judge was not at all impressed with “I haven’t finished my homework”.  Read it here (bluesky link — I am so glad they now allow non-members to read posts).

  11. 11.

    smith

    @SpaceUnit: Most people facing 91 felony counts would be forbidden to leave the country and would have their passport confiscated. Somehow it didn’t happen here, can’t imagine why.

  16. 16.

    TS

    SCOTUS will put him back on the ballot. He will leave the country if/when he loses the election.

  19. 19.

    Brachiator

    BREAKING: Trump is thinking about leaving the country if the U.S Supreme Court hands Trump a shock ban from Running for President

    This is supposed to be a threat?

    Has Trump been reading Brer Rabbit? If so, he didn’t get it.

  23. 23.

    Bill Arnold

    I’m glad this was on Fox. It’ll rattle some Republicans.
    ‘Uh-oh’: psychic’s prediction of ‘sense of loss’ for Trump unnerves Fox News host – Jesse Watters seemed disappointed by Paula Roberts’s tarot card reading, which also foretold ‘lots of money’ for Biden (Martin Pengelly, The Guardian, 3 Jan 2024)
    More on Trump’s draw: Let’s Talk About the Five of Cups Tarot Card

    Oh, this is bad. Like really bad. Draw the blinds and put on your saddest emo playlist because it’s time for a good cry. This is really not how you saw this playing out, but something has gone horribly wrong, and now you’re dealing with the wreckage.

  24. 24.

    eclare

    @smith:

    I think most people with 91 felony indictments would be forbidden from leaving their state of residence.  But, he’s running for president, seemingly the ultimate job with absolutely no consequences.

  25. 25.

    brendancalling

    @SpaceUnit: I won’t be happy until I see him in an orange jumpsuit, preferably strapped into the electric chair or a gas chamber gurney. I say this as someone who is pretty fervently anti-death penalty. But this motherfucker needs to be put down like the rabid raccoon he is.

  26. 26.

    brendancalling

    @TS: he won’t leave. He won’t leave til he’s dead. And even then we’ll be haunted by his ghost.

  27. 27.

    SpaceUnit

    @TS:

    I agree. The court will save his skin.  They’ll likely rule that Congress must pass a resolution specifically declaring trump’s actions an insurrection.

  30. 30.

    hitchhiker

    Can we deport all his followers with him?

    Srsly, my ideal scenario is that he loses the election and is then tried in each of these cases and found guilty. Maybe he’ll be like Harvey Weinstein after that, a bloated old fool who used to dominate every room he was in … until he didn’t.

    I want to think that Adam Kinzinger is right when he says that five years from now, most people will pretend they never liked him, never voted for him, and never believed him.  It could happen. If it does, I’ll be a happy 75-yr-old.

  33. 33.

    Jackie

    If TIFG leaves the country 🤞🏻🤞🏻, he’d better take his MAGA congress critters with him!

  35. 35.

    Bill Arnold

    @WaterGirl:
    D.J. Trump’s love-letter buddy Kim Jong Un “cannonizes” opponents with a 20mm rapid fire antiaircraft gun.
    That seems a bit excessive, though.

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    Top 10 states people moved to in 2023

    Texas
    Florida
    North Carolina
    South Carolina
    Tennessee
    Idaho
    Washington
    Arizona
    Colorado
    Virginia
    (Source)

  38. 38.

    smith

    @Omnes Omnibus: A quick tour through Google says he did not surrender his passport for either federal trial or in GA. Couldn’t find anything about NY, but I’d guess not.

  40. 40.

    Mallard Filmore

    @TS: 

    SCOTUS will put him back on the ballot. He will leave the country if/when he loses the election.

    I am more worried about all the documents he will carry away as “luggage”.

  41. 41.

    NotMax

    @Omnes Omnibus

    It was reported at the time (early August) that the terms of release upon arraignment in the D.C. case before Magistrate Judge Upadhyaya did not include seizure of passport.

  42. 42.

    Brachiator

    @Ken:

    Oh, and in other legal schadenfreude, Rudy Giuliani’s request for an indefinite extension in his Fulton County trial has been denied.

    I’m looking forward to reading his “Letter from a Fulton County Jail.”

  43. 43.

    Scout211

    Another SCOTUS case to watch.

    CNN — 
    The Supreme Court said Friday that it will decide whether emergency room doctors can perform medically necessary abortions in states that prohibit them, bypassing the court of appeals to resolve on an expedited basis a lawsuit brought by the United States against Idaho.

  44. 44.

    MomSense

    The decision to disqualify trump from the Maine primary ballot was stayed pending judicial review.  So he will appear on our ballot because of the SC delay in hearing this matter.

    I thought that the CO decision was stayed as well meaning he will be on their ballot pending the SC decision. Is that not the case?

  45. 45.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax: My vague recollection is that the reporting of his personal papers mixed in with the secret stuff at Xanadu included at least one passport (e.g. an official one and a personal one).  They might not have been current – I dunno.  IIRC, they were returned to him (but this was before he was charged, IIRC again.)

    I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he didn’t actually have a current passport.  Remember this is the guy who supposedly had to run home to the Turnip Tower when he was campaigning in 2016 because he “wanted to sleep in his own bed”.

    Dunno.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  46. 46.

    smith

    @SpaceUnit: I agree. The court will save his skin.  They’ll likely rule that Congress must pass a resolution specifically declaring trump’s actions an insurrection.

    I realize that the Dirty Six will do anything they damn well please, but it’s not obvious to me why this would be something to be decided by Congress and not the courts. Usually if you’re legally depriving someone of a right they would otherwise have, you’d have a judicial procedure with due process to do it. Also, they certainly would at least entertain the possibility that both houses could soon go Dem, and then where would the Orange One be? If they decide to save him, I think it’s more likely they will say he’d have to be criminally convicted of violent insurrection, not something he’s been charged with in either the federal case or in GA.

  48. 48.

    Anoniminous

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The fact he has not gone twitter batshit about losing his passport is good enough to conclude he still has one is conclusive using Abductive Reasoning.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    Court won’t uphold the ban. They’ll state that the enforcement mechanism for the 14th amendment is Congress on 1/6 accepting the EC delegates, since Congress provides the remedy for insurrectionists via a ⅔ vote, and because a strict reading of the 14th amendment says they cannot hold office, but nothing about them running. And it’s up to Congress to determine who can hold the office.

    Like with the emoluments clause which USSC rendered impossible to enforce, USSC will effectively render it nonexistent though this mechanism. They’re strict constructionalists right up to the point that the constitution forces an outcome they don’t like, at which point they’ll render the constitution unconstitutional.

  52. 52.

    SpaceUnit

    @smith:

    We’re pretty much in agreement.  I think the SC will rule that there must be either a conviction in a courtroom OR a declaration by Congress.  Something official.  Not sure if they’d accept a resolution by one or more state legislatures as definitive.  And if they did, a bunch of red-state legislatures would immediately declare Biden an insurrectionist on the basis of something idiotic.

  55. 55.

    Scout211

    @SpaceUnit: Not sure if they’d accept a resolution by one or more state legislatures as definitive.

    They only accept that when it applies to abortions.

  58. 58.

    bbleh

    There’s too much wiggle room for the SC to strike down any DQ.  No mention of the President specifically, some definitions of the word “office,” the wording of the Presidential oath, the putative exclusive role of Congress (entirely unspecified but wtf), the importance of Teh Peoples having their choice (Article II qualifications notwithstanding), the definition of “insurrection” and the appropriate means for determining that someone “engaged in” it, blah blah blah.  And also the fact that red-hatted firebombers will target their houses and their families if they do otherwise.

    Brown shirts, red hats.  Anyone else see a parallel here …?

  60. 60.

    TS

    @brendancalling:

    And even then we’ll be haunted by his ghost.

    I don’t doubt there will be a long term impact from him or his ghost, but if he looks like going to prison – he will get his “good friends” overseas to help him out.

  63. 63.

    TriassicSands

    @Ken: ​
    I’d think hearing “I’m going to leave the country” from most criminal defendants would result in a hearing in which phrases such as “flight risk”, “revocation of bail”, “surrender passport”, and even “confinement” would feature prominently

    Yes, but we’re dealing with a former President of the United States. The rules don’t apply. He could murder someone while in office and couldn’t be indicted until he was out of office, except that if he were running for the presidency again the rules couldn’t apply because it might make his supporters angry, and then they would raise hell, and we can’t have that.

    I wonder. If Jefferson had had access to a time machine and had seen the U.S. in 2016-2024, the words “all men are created equal” might have disappeared from the Declaration of Independence. Instead, there might have been something like, “a lot of people are dumbasses.”

    Had Madison and Hamilton visited us, the Federalist Papers and Constitution, not to mention the Bill of Rights, might be quite different. Would the 2nd Amendment have been worded the same way? I strongly doubt it. And, I suspect, there would be an explicit right to privacy.

    Seeing the U.S. today, they might have returned to the 18th century and decided the Revolution wasn’t such a great idea. Unless, of course, they got a look at Brexit and Boris Johnson and his successors. In that case, the history books might have to deal with the mysterious suicides of Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton after a mysterious absence to no one knows where.

  64. 64.

    TS

    @Scout211:

    The Supreme Court said Friday that it will decide whether emergency room doctors can perform medically necessary abortions

    IF EVER there was a contradiction in reality this is it – lawyers deciding if a doctor can perform a medically necessary operation – do we need legal opinions for inserting a stent in a heart, doing bypass surgery, removing death threatening melanomas, providing chemotherapy, etc etc etc.

    And we attack other countries for their treatment of women while some states are asking lawyers to take from women life saving operations.

  65. 65.

    Raoul Paste

    @Jackie: “ how drugged is he going to be?”…

    Well, he won’t have a tranquilizer dart in his ass, except in some of our fantasies

  69. 69.

    Queen of Lurkers

    @SpaceUnit: There is a hilarious story by P.G. Wodehouse called “Crime Wave at Blandings” featuring Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle (different universe from the Jeeves/Wooster stories) wherein at least 4 characters, including Lord Emsworth, shoot the hated ex-secretary Baxter in the rear with an air gun. Trump’s posterior would be a singularly attractive target.

  71. 71.

    bbleh

    @Bill Arnold: @Subsole:  lulz.  I’ll bet the “Biden” card was the 10 of Pentacles.  And it really is to laugh.  You almost couldn’t make up a clearer dichotomy.  We need some pious pronouncements about the Lord’s mysterious ways.  Isaiah 55 mofos.

  72. 72.

    RevRick

    @TS: Trump’s “attorney “ Alina Habba has put Kavanaugh in an awkward position by suggesting he owes Trump. Given his thin skin he might wander over to the other side (and it’s not as if there isn’t plenty of quite public evidence of Trump’s attempted autogolpe). And if Kavanaugh breaks ranks, might not Roberts, too, who would try to persuade Coney and/or Gorsuch to join him. This would end up doing the dirty work for McConnell as he so fervently hoped the courts would.

    Of course, this may be the mellowing effects of the pint of Weihenstephaner on my brain talking.

  73. 73.

    Tony G

    Ha!  I wonder where Trump would go if he really did leave the country.  The standard joke for the past 8 years has been “Moscow”, but somehow I doubt that he would go there.  Trump has a feral instinct for self-preservation and, as dumb as he is, I think he realizes that he could be in physical danger if Putin decides that he’s no longer useful.  So … maybe Saudi Arabia or one of the other Petro-states in the Middle East.  I don’t know.

  75. 75.

    Tony G

    @RevRick: That’s true. Kavanaugh does “owe” Trump for his lifetime sinecure — but people like Kavanaugh (and Trump) have a tendency to not pay their debts.  Trump may be about to find out that his “friends” (in the U.S., Russia and elsewhere) don’t need him anymore.

  77. 77.

    Jackie

    @Tony G: North Korea. TIFG practically drooled over NK’s pristine beaches – imagining exclusive hotels built with his name on them.

    Of course only available to Kim and his family/friend. Not exactly a profitable venture.

  78. 78.

    Suzanne

    BREAKING: Trump is thinking about leaving the country if the U.S Supreme Court hands Trump a shock ban from Running for President

    Let’s send him to one of the Shithole Countries.

  79. 79.

    bbleh

    @Martin: @Tony G: except … why would they take him?  maybe as a signal to other KSA-friendly autocrat-wannabes, but that seems reaching a little far, especially compared to the near-term blowback they’d get.

    Also I don’t think he’d want to. First, to leave would be in a certain way to admit he lost, and he NEVER LOSES. Second, his market is still here: there’s enough people who will buy his sh!t — especially when he’s whining all the time about how his True And Righteous Victory was STOLLEN — that he could stay very comfortable and even relevant.  And third, can you REALLY see him living in another country?  Especially one with brown people who don’t speak English?  They’d have to set him up with an insulated palace, and again … why would they bother?

    He’ll stay here and whine and absorb the money of stupid people until he finally croaks of cardiovascular disease.  Let us hope for a speedy conclusion.

  80. 80.

    wjca

    @Tony G: Trump may be about to find out that his “friends” (in the U.S., Russia and elsewhere) don’t need him anymore.

    If he ends up as broke as seems likely (and hasn’t had the wit to stash money in the Caymans or somewhere similar), nobody will have any use for him.

    Putin has as much use for loyalty to others as TIFG does, so no safe haven there.  I somehow doubt the Saudis would gratuitously piss off the US for zero possible benefit.  Maybe we will be lucky enough that he decides to go to his buddy Kim.  And discovers how life is in North Korea if you aren’t part of the elite, which he wouldn’t be.

  81. 81.

    Paul in KY

    @Omnes Omnibus: If you are flying on a jet you own like I own my car, do you have to provide a passport/go thru security/do any of the things we have to do when we fly before you jet off to who knows where?

  83. 83.

    frosty

    @Paul in KY: ​Maybe not when you leave but you’d better have a passport when you land. I assume. I’m not a member of the Idle Rich so I’m not talking from experience.

  85. 85.

    Dope

    @Joseph Patrick Lurker: Given all the insane events that have taken place since 2016, it would not shock me if Putin had a dacha available for Trump

    trump will be staying in snowden’s guest room in moscow.

  86. 86.

    Tony G

    @TS: All kidding aside, I don’t think that Trump is going anywhere.  This talk of leaving is narcissistic preening for his cult.  As dumb as he is, he knows that authoritarian countries are not safe places to live.  And no democratic country would allow him in.   If (I hope) he loses the election he’ll continue to live in one of his luxury homes, issuing his wisdom to his cult members, and annoying everyone else.

  87. 87.

    kalakal

    The Saudi’s do have form in taking in universally despised ex leaders eg Idi Amin but I can’t see them taking TFG, too much downside.

  88. 88.

    wjca

    @Tony G: If (I hope) he loses the election he’ll continue to live in one of his luxury homes, issuing his wisdom to his cult members, and annoying everyone else.

    That would seem to depend on the state of his finances.  He could be down to just one luxury home (for example).  When the pyramid collapses, every mortgage gets called immediately.  Does he own anything that isn’t mortgaged to the hilt?

    Also, I wonder how many fans will keep shelling out cash without the prospect of returning their god-king to power.  Some of the cult members will tithe forever, of course.  But he might be reduced to living on little more than his presidential pension.  Oh, the horror!

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