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You are here: Home / 2024 Elections / Saturday Night Horrors Open Thread: The Contender

Saturday Night Horrors Open Thread: The Contender

by Anne Laurie|  March 17, 20241:59 am| 107 Comments

This post is in: 2024 Elections, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Trumpery

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Kudos to whoever is dressing Trump in shirts bearing his name and city, in case he wanders off without supervision – though since he's out on bail, a GPS ankle monitor may be more appropriate. pic.twitter.com/25qi1tPZaE

— Kop*wow ???????? (@KPLWW5) March 14, 2024

It would be the ultimate Trump move, to not repay the GOP for the nomination. https://t.co/Gs9K48FABN

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 15, 2024


.@SarahLongwell25: "One of the main tactics of autocrats is to exhaust people…You break through by not getting exhausted. This is the time for Joe Biden and his campaign to roll out 1,000 surrogates to go on offense against Donald Trump and say you do not want this guy." pic.twitter.com/EbrVvYYByv

— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) March 14, 2024

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Reader Interactions

107Comments

  1. 1.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    March 17, 2024 at 2:07 am

    Wow, he looks terrible in this picture. Good.

    ETA: I love the Keven Young comment.

  2. 2.

    piratedan

    March 17, 2024 at 2:11 am

    so much of getting the message out is to truth gallop those peeps that keep spouting their Fox and Facebook talking points.  It requires politely refuting their propaganda, sometimes showing receipts and often-times just making them uncomfortable that their bullshit doesn’t fly here.  They need to understand that THEY are not in the majority.

  3. 3.

    FelonyGovt

    March 17, 2024 at 2:12 am

    Is that photo real? He looks AWFUL and sick (she said hopefully)

  4. 4.

    sab

    March 17, 2024 at 2:16 am

    Dana Houle,

    You go.

    I am old and tired and thus lacking energy. I vote every time, but, quite frankly, others younger than me need to care about the future. When I was young I did care, but the next generation only cared about themselves ( talking about you, gen X)  so everything got fucked up. Worked against it for years, but I am old and retired and it is not my problem because I will be dead when climate change really kicks in and I have stepkids but no actual progeny kids, so not my kids, not my problem.

  5. 5.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 17, 2024 at 2:18 am

    @FelonyGovt: There’s a pic of TFG at the Mar-a-Lago breakfast station, in sweats and a MAGA hat.  He …. isn’t wearing makeup or his girdle, and while he doesn’t look as sickly as in this shot, he sure AF was unrecognizable to me!  So I completely believe that that’s a real pic, no photoshopping.  All those wise-head journos who declaim on his robustness, his manifest fitness, etc, are all getting fooled by makeup, hairspray, and a girdle.

  6. 6.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 17, 2024 at 2:20 am

    @sab:

    talking about you, gen X

    nostra culpa. nos maxima culpa.

  7. 7.

    John Revolta

    March 17, 2024 at 2:21 am

    Ohhh shit, he’s off his meds! Quick, another round of “Biden Is Old” stories, STAT!

  8. 8.

    sab

    March 17, 2024 at 2:24 am

    @Chetan Murthy: We fucked up a lot, but you are the first I have seen of your generation accepting you did too (assuming my rusty Latin read you correctly.)

  9. 9.

    eclare

    March 17, 2024 at 2:27 am

    @FelonyGovt:

    I know!

  10. 10.

    Ruckus

    March 17, 2024 at 2:28 am

    @Chetan Murthy:

    SFB does more to attempt to look human than almost any other sack of shit on this planet. Of course he fails 100% of the time, to me he never looks alive, well or even human – he does resemble a sack of shit though. A large, lumpy, useless, overfull sack of shit.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    March 17, 2024 at 2:29 am

    Dolt 45’s new rally theme song?
    //

  12. 12.

    eclare

    March 17, 2024 at 2:30 am

    @sab:

    Ahem…Gen X only cared about themselves?  Generalize much?

    Older Gen Xer here.  My first presidential election was in 1988, some older people elected Reagan, not us.

  13. 13.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 17, 2024 at 2:32 am

    @Ruckus: The funny part is, he wears a fucking ferret on his head, and … *HE’S ORANGE* [cue the clip from House, MD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGCVQZxMf80 ]

    I mean, I agree with you that he’s … *trying* to look human.  But he’s so …. manifestly, visibly, unavoidably *failing* !!

  14. 14.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 17, 2024 at 2:42 am

    @SarahLongwell25: “One of the main tactics of autocrats is to exhaust people…You break through by not getting exhausted.

    To quote Arlo Guthrie: “I’m not proud. Or tired.”

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    March 17, 2024 at 2:42 am

    @eclare

    All generalizations crumble. Including this one.
    ;)

  16. 16.

    sab

    March 17, 2024 at 2:43 am

    @eclare: You have a point. I was born 1954, first voted ’72.  Things went nuts with Reagan, but a lot of his voters were decent people, just wrong

    My baby sister, different generation, still votes her ethics. We often coincide.

  17. 17.

    Ruckus

    March 17, 2024 at 2:46 am

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I’m only 3 yrs younger than SFB but compared to me he looks at least 30, possibly 40 yrs older, and not in any way or anything like actually living health. I’ve seen corpses that look a hell of a lot healthier than he does. And I’ve never seen a corpse that looks close to that bad…..

  18. 18.

    eclare

    March 17, 2024 at 2:47 am

    @NotMax:

    It is a granfalloon.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granfalloon

  19. 19.

    eclare

    March 17, 2024 at 2:49 am

    @sab:

    So your cohort were decent, just wrong, but my cohort only cared about themselves and fucked everything up.  Got it.

  20. 20.

    SpaceUnit

    March 17, 2024 at 2:50 am

    @eclare:

    Yup.  Boomers staggered from their dipshit hippie salad days to their MAGA base dead end, trampling everything into muck as they went.  They’ve got no business blaming anyone else for the wreckage they caused.

    ETA:  I mean, if we’re going to generalize.

  21. 21.

    Tony Jay

    March 17, 2024 at 2:52 am

      Area Man (76) escapes from Umpa-Lumpa themed cult.

    “It was horrible,” he says “Not the sex-rituals or the fascism, but all the incessant singing…”

    The Roald Dahl estate was approached for comment but remained too far away to hear us properly.

  22. 22.

    gene108

    March 17, 2024 at 2:52 am

    I want most of those 1,000 surrogates to be former Trump officials or Trump Org employees.

    There are two to three dozen who’ve publicly stated they won’t endorse him, with varying degrees of denunciation.

  23. 23.

    AlaskaReader

    March 17, 2024 at 2:55 am

    A whole lot of old people are intractable assholes whose past professional actions and current electoral actions have almost certainly brought about the literal demise of mankind as a whole. 

  24. 24.

    eclare

    March 17, 2024 at 2:57 am

    @SpaceUnit:

    I mean every generation has its issues, but to single out Xers is ridiculous.  We are so small in numbers most people forget we exist.  To think we have any impact is laughable.

    https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/06/05/generation-x-americas-neglected-middle-child/

  25. 25.

    sab

    March 17, 2024 at 2:59 am

    @Ruckus: And he doesn’t even drink. He is just nuts with a rapidly declining dementia. A twofer.

    My dad, who I deeply respect, has a slow dementia. It diminishes him because he does not have the brain he used to have. Ignoring it does not mean it goes away.

    Watching him decline is very painful, but he underneath is still him, but diminished.

    I do not think the Trump kids have that comfort ( he is still the same decent guy)  nor would they recognize it. Neither he nor they are decent people. The concept of decency would elude them. Wouldn’t even register.

  26. 26.

    Tehanu

    March 17, 2024 at 3:00 am

    First:  I’m really surprised Dump appeared in public looking like that. Maybe his dementia has reached the point where he actually thinks he looks good.

    Second: I’m a Boomer and I don’t go around blaming my parents’ generation or my kids’ generation or their kids’ generation for everything that’s wrong in the world. AFAIC that’s exactly the same kind of thinking as “everything that’s wrong in the world is the fault of” minorities/uppity women/immigrants/Harvard grads/… — in short, masses of people described by their ethnicity or their gender or whatfuckingever. If I wanted to think like that, I’d be a Republican and I wouldn’t be coming here.  So fuck off with that crap. @SpaceUnit:

  27. 27.

    John Revolta

    March 17, 2024 at 3:00 am

    @NotMax: That’s what they call the Greatest Generalization

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    March 17, 2024 at 3:02 am

    @gene108

    Kevin Drum so far lists 18 “principal officers.”

  29. 29.

    sab

    March 17, 2024 at 3:02 am

    @eclare: Generalisations are wrong. Just a boomer reacting to attacks on us. We all screwed up, you guys as much as us guys.

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    March 17, 2024 at 3:06 am

    @John Revolta

    Nice.

  31. 31.

    SpaceUnit

    March 17, 2024 at 3:07 am

    @eclare:

    I’m not very keen on generation theory.  Every once in a while a demographic comes onto the scene that’s worth noting (and boomers were certainly worth a footnote in the history books), but mostly it’s just a bunch of woo.  It’s just another way of dividing people.

  32. 32.

    eclare

    March 17, 2024 at 3:08 am

    @sab:

    Where was the attack on boomers that caused you to blame my generation for fucking everything up?  You brought that out of nowhere with no provocation.  That kind of rationalization, generalization, whatever, is dangerous.  I am glad all you do now is vote, you talking to potential voters in my generation or younger would be bad.

  33. 33.

    eclare

    March 17, 2024 at 3:11 am

    @SpaceUnit:

    Yep.  But some people dig into their beliefs.  Agreed that boomers have some special characteristics, add to that the fact that the numbers were huge, they were going to have an impact.

  34. 34.

    opiejeanne

    March 17, 2024 at 3:19 am

    @John Revolta: That photo of TFG makes Biden look like a teenager by comparison.

  35. 35.

    SpaceUnit

    March 17, 2024 at 3:22 am

    @eclare:

    I think we’re in agreement.  Boomers were very notable in their numbers and the influence they’ve had on our society and culture.  That influence wasn’t overwhelmingly positive.  It was all over the map, really.

    But I’m not so sure it makes sense to keep bracketing people born in their wake into generations X, Y, and Z.  It’s become just a lot of bullshit.

  36. 36.

    Quadrillipede

    March 17, 2024 at 3:22 am

    Off to bed, but I wanted to share this video I just finished. It seems to cover pretty much everything anyone in 2019 could expect to know about how DNA encodes sex and gender, packed into just 14 minutes:

    • Science Proves There are More than Two Human Sexes
  37. 37.

    eclare

    March 17, 2024 at 3:26 am

    @SpaceUnit:

    Agreed.  The generalizations about generations are pretty useless.  As I commented above, they are granfalloons.

  38. 38.

    opiejeanne

    March 17, 2024 at 3:31 am

    @Tehanu: Applause.

    The first time my youngest kid made noises about how awful boomers are I shut that right down. Piegeon-holing like this turns people into things, dehumanizes them, so you don’t have to think of them as people, you don’t even have to think.

    For instance, see what happened in Rwanda when the Hutu decided to do something about the Tutsi.

  39. 39.

    SpaceUnit

    March 17, 2024 at 3:36 am

    @Tehanu:

    Thanks.

     

    You can fuck off as well.

  40. 40.

    AlaskaReader

    March 17, 2024 at 3:42 am

    “There was never any more inception than there is now,

    Nor any more youth or age than there is now,

    And will never be any more perfection than there is now,

    Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.”

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 17, 2024 at 3:50 am

    @Ruckus:

    I’m only 3 yrs younger than SFB but compared to me he looks at least 30, possibly 40 yrs older, and not in any way or anything like actually living health. 

    Well, when you stuff your disgusting, orange, fascist face with burnt steak and McTrashass’s “food”…

  42. 42.

    Quadrillipede

    March 17, 2024 at 3:59 am

    @sab: I’m a Gen X myself. I’ve spent a few decades keeping tabs on some of my contemporaries. In my experience a plurality started off good and ate still good, a large minory went rotten, a small minority were rotten the whole time, and a few started off bad, but somehow were able to fix themselves. We’re a bit of a mixed bag as a generation. Now I really should put my phone away for the night…

  43. 43.

    Ksmiami

    March 17, 2024 at 4:33 am

    @eclare: our parents didn’t even notice us. Seriously.

  44. 44.

    Ksmiami

    March 17, 2024 at 4:34 am

    @Quadrillipede: I blame leaded gasoline exposure

  45. 45.

    Ksmiami

    March 17, 2024 at 4:36 am

    @SpaceUnit: I think it’s just an outgrowth of marketing departments…

  46. 46.

    SpaceUnit

    March 17, 2024 at 4:45 am

    @Ksmiami:

    I think you are absolutely correct.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    March 17, 2024 at 4:47 am

    Never trust anyone over 5.

  48. 48.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 17, 2024 at 5:00 am

    @Quadrillipede: My understanding is that Gen X is defined as birthdates 1965-1980.  So 45-60yo today.  Looking at 2020 voting patterns ( https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-2020 ) it would appear that Gen X and Boomers broke for TFG, where Millenials and younger broke for Biden.  That’s mostly what I mean by feeling that Gen X failed.  I also feel that we imbibed far too much of the materialist go-go 80s, and that continued into the 90s.  But really, all of that is complex and debatable.

    What’s not debatable, is that my generation voted for TFG overall.

  49. 49.

    NotMax

    March 17, 2024 at 5:07 am

    @mrmoshpotato

    burnt steak

    Noo Yawkers might remember the mini-chain Tad’s. I go far enough back to remember when the steak dinner was $1.19. (Not shown is the side salad.)
    ;)

  50. 50.

    Ksmiami

    March 17, 2024 at 5:08 am

    @Chetan Murthy: I hated most of my X cohorts to be honest- WOLVERINES

  51. 51.

    Ramalama

    March 17, 2024 at 5:10 am

    @Ksmiami: yes plus the smoking of our elders while traveling in cars running on lead. The ashtrays for god’s sake in the door handles.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    March 17, 2024 at 5:14 am

    @Ramalama

    The little wing windows drew the smoke out.
    ;)

  53. 53.

    stacib

    March 17, 2024 at 5:17 am

    @NotMax: That was Ronnie’s Steakhouse here in Chicago.  The meal looked exactly like your linked pic. :-)  My mother would take the four of us there to “teach” us how to eat in public.  (OMG, I haven’t had that memory in a long time)

  54. 54.

    Ksmiami

    March 17, 2024 at 5:28 am

    @Ramalama: I remember the trays. My parents didn’t smoke but we used them for holding our chewed gum

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    March 17, 2024 at 5:34 am

    @stacib

    (OMG, I haven’t had that memory in a long time)

    As the old cooking oil ads put it, “It all comes back except for one spoonful.”
    :)

  56. 56.

    bjacques

    March 17, 2024 at 5:34 am

    Anyone blaming previous generations for fucking things up is just waiting their turn to fuck things up in their own way. Boomers spent plenty of oxygen blaming the Silent Generation

  57. 57.

    Ramalama

    March 17, 2024 at 5:48 am

    @NotMax: I forgot about those wing Windows. Yes, yes, yes. The number of times I cracked them, never getting relief.

  58. 58.

    NobodySpecial

    March 17, 2024 at 5:59 am

    @Chetan Murthy: 49-50 is not exactly an overwhelming majority according to that poll.

  59. 59.

    Ramalama

    March 17, 2024 at 6:05 am

    @Ksmiami: my parents used them, gross gross gross ashes sitting there full up for days. Flicking ash out the windows then. It wasn’t easy to pull out full ashtrays to dump. Or my parents had other things on their minds. Nasty habit; lovely people.

  60. 60.

    patrick II

    March 17, 2024 at 6:05 am

    Why is his hair so white? I saw him at some bits of a rally from a couple of weeks ago; it was the usual color.  It could not have grown out gray since then and I doubt he uses gray hair dye.  So, he is either wearing a wig during his rallies or this is an old picture. Unless someone can come up with something else.

  61. 61.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 17, 2024 at 6:11 am

    @FelonyGovt:

    Is that photo real? He looks AWFUL and sick

    Oh, it’s real.  Trump has declined physically as well as mentally.  He always looked strange, but now he looks like he’s melting.  Not just old, but decrepit.  I’ve been noticing it.  The more people see him as the election goes on, the more it will hit them.  Biden looks and acts like you hope you will when you get his age.  Trump looks and talks like you’re scared you will.

    EDIT – @patrick II:

    Why is his hair so white?

    It always is in photos without makeup.  I think something he puts in his hair rather than dye it makes the yellow color.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    March 17, 2024 at 6:13 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Biden looks and acts like you hope you will when you get his age.  Trump looks and talks like you’re scared you will.

    Oh, that’s good. Should be repeated.

  63. 63.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 17, 2024 at 6:13 am

    @patrick II: Why are you calling that cotton candy shit on his head “hair?”

  64. 64.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 17, 2024 at 6:16 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    He always looked strange, but now he looks like he’s melting. 

    The Wicked Witch of the West Traitorous Shit of the Kremlin?

  65. 65.

    eclare

    March 17, 2024 at 6:25 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I can’t wait til we can sing “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead.”

  66. 66.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 17, 2024 at 6:39 am

    @eclare: Tell me about it!  It’ll make the 2020 election celebrations look like “Meh! 🤷‍♂️”

  67. 67.

    topclimber

    March 17, 2024 at 6:44 am

    @SpaceUnit: Hey, a little respect here. We boomers aren’t done messing things up yet.

  68. 68.

    VeniceRiley

    March 17, 2024 at 6:48 am

    @NotMax: “Wesson Oil, It all comes back, but a teaspoon.” I remember you, Florence Henderson!

  69. 69.

    Chris Johnson

    March 17, 2024 at 6:53 am

    Am Gen X. We didn’t do it. If we did you can’t prove it. :D

    It can’t have been us, there aren’t enough of us. And to this day nobody notices us. And Millennials incessantly call us boomers, which doesn’t go over well, but that’s why it’s Millennial humor so they only get worse.

    In our defense if we did vote for Trump (I sure didn’t) it was because we believed he was not real. And turns out, yeah we had his number, he IS not real and that’s why we liked him, which is OUR humor and our bad and just goes to underscore our nihilism.

    It’s nice that less doomed generations exist. Gives an old GenXer hope and a little bit of sad amusement. Yeah, we saw the worst… but survived it, and that should give everyone else a bit of hope, too.

  70. 70.

    TBone

    March 17, 2024 at 7:17 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: I have temporary hair dye.  I used to use it to blot out my gray streaks in the front. Now IDGAF since I earned every gray.  It’s the same stuff that caused Rudy to have brown rivulets running down his sweaty face.  Rump prolly uses same stuff or the new spray on equivalent.

  71. 71.

    EarthWindFire

    March 17, 2024 at 7:27 am

    @eclare: I’m one year behind you. I won’t deny that our generation has more than its share of Reaganite assholes. But, as one of Nancy’s old just say no commercials said, we learned it from watching you. I saw plenty of Boomers turn their backs on their old idealism. They raised Gen X.

  72. 72.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    March 17, 2024 at 7:33 am

    Few political arguments are more useless than people of different ages insulting one another.

  73. 73.

    MagdaInBlack

    March 17, 2024 at 7:36 am

    @EarthWindFire: Ya know, I often ask myself that question, when people complain about the next generation (whatever generation that may be) or about their own kids:  Well, who raised them?

  74. 74.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    March 17, 2024 at 7:55 am

    @Chetan Murthy: I’m a GenXer too. Yes we broke, barely for TiFG but not as heavily as boomers so if a boomer is claiming that’s how we fucked it all up well take long look in the mirror because you’re even more to blame, generally speaking.

    I’ve never voted for a Republican for POTUS and volunteered for the Dukakis campaign in my first election…boy was that thankless.

    At least we were steeped in irony growing up though so can get a laugh out of it when some Gen Zer wearing a Nirvana t shirt says OK boomer to us.

  75. 75.

    The Thin Black Duke

    March 17, 2024 at 7:56 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Amen. As the old song goes, yesterday’s gone. Unless someone has a time machine, arguing about who’s to blame is useless and exhausting.

  76. 76.

    K-Mo

    March 17, 2024 at 8:23 am

    @eclare:

    https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a1451/worst-generation-0400/

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/when-comes-baby-boomers-still-all-about-me-180953030/

    https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/opinion/keller-the-entitled-generation.html

    https://www.audacy.com/fm1019/blogs/matt-malone/study-shows-baby-boomers-most-sensitive-and-self-centered

    https://newrepublic.com/article/94550/baby-boomers-selfish-social-security-welfare-capitalism

    Etc

  77. 77.

    Princess

    March 17, 2024 at 8:36 am

    My god, Trump looks awful. I thought he had Ozempic-ed himself into losing lots of weight. I guess it was interfering with his cheeseburger enjoyment so he stopped.

    This whole generations thing is nothing but marketing categories, designed to sell us stuff by slicing us into affinity cohorts.

    The Boomers were a one- time phenomenon of rapidly expanding population and economic growth. Gen X was invented by Douglas Copeland and was originally much smaller, like 1965-75. Anyone remember Generation Y? They stopped talking about that when they decided Millenials would be helpful at a category. Don’t make this stuff your entire personality. It’s not real.

  78. 78.

    Eyeroller

    March 17, 2024 at 8:45 am

    @K-Mo: I am a second-half Boomer (“Generation Jones”) and we usually get tagged as particularly selfish and status conscious (“keeping up with the Joneses” was the origin of the term).  I think it’s true that experiences when young do shape people–my age group had a lot of competition for jobs etc., but we also were catered to by corporations because we were such a large market.

    A lot of GenX consists of the children of the Silent Generation.  Only the older Boomers might have had Xers.  One of the reasons GenX is so small is that their Silent Generation parents would have been born during the Depression or WWII and for some mysterious reason (/s if not obvious), the birthrate was low during those years.  So that’s a small generation also.  Silents are also for some reason very conservative.  Millenials are the “echo boom.”

    But what we’re avoiding here is that this is largely about white people.  Cohorts get less and less “white” the younger they are.  White people stopped voting for Democrats in the aftermath of the Civil Rights era and haven’t really come back.  Younger white people are “better” in our view, but not as much as we’d like, and any increase in liberalism among whites seems to be largely due to young women.  We’ve all heard about the issues of young white men.

  79. 79.

    Nukular Biskits

    March 17, 2024 at 9:02 am

    Good mornin, y’all!

    Rain on the way again today down here. Which is why I planted three trees yesterday: 2 Eastern Redbuds and a bottlebrush tree/bush.  Wanted to plant more but running out of time.

    This morning? Just gonna drink coffee, read the news and visit with my sister.

  80. 80.

    AM in NC

    March 17, 2024 at 9:07 am

    @piratedan:  I’ve been doing that at the FOX website.  Politely refuting their points with receipts; informing them of entire stories they’re being kept ignorant of; AND explicitly pointing out that their FOX bubble makes them think they are a majority, and then they are repeatedly shocked when they lose elections.

    I remind them that, outside their billionaire-funded propaganda channel, large majorities of Americans support abortion access; support taxing billionaires more to shore up Social Security; support funding Ukraine to take down Putin; want the Affordable Care Act.  MAGA is against ALL of those things, so don’t be surprised you lose elections.

    Since a decent number of older FOXbots also support these things, I figure it’s a good way to attack both FOX and drive a wedge between the MAGA and National Security Republicans of Old.

  81. 81.

    Nukular Biskits

    March 17, 2024 at 9:21 am

    With reference to the discussion (at least that of the first twenty or so comments) about generations and who bears what amount of fault for the current state of things, I offer this:

    Every generationBlames the one beforeAnd all of their frustrationsCome beating on your door

    Mike + the Mechanics, “The Living Years”

     

  82. 82.

    K-Mo

    March 17, 2024 at 9:23 am

    @Eyeroller:

    Gen X is stereotypically sarcastic, cynical, disaffected and noted for rolling their eyes

    Boomers are stereotypically selfish, self-absorbed, and self-righteous.

    A lot of ink has been spilled blaming boomers for our current ills, generally because they started out so idealistic and then sold out to live in the burbs.

    I agree with you that all of this is driven by the dominant, white, wealthy members of the generations who have defined the cultural zeitgeists.  There’s a lot of interesting variation in human experience within.  Maybe we’ll see that rise more to the surface in generations to come.

  83. 83.

    Nukular Biskits

    March 17, 2024 at 9:27 am

    @Baud:

    Never trust anyone over 5.

    And, in keeping with the wisdom found in song lyrics, I offer this:

    Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes

    God bless little children while they’re still too young to hate.

    Tom. T. Hall, “Watermelon Wine”

  84. 84.

    Scout211

    March 17, 2024 at 9:37 am

    @Princess: My god, Trump looks awful. I thought he had Ozempic-ed himself into losing lots of weight. I guess it was interfering with his cheeseburger enjoyment so he stopped.

     

    I would like to see when that photo was actually taken because it looks very much like those golf pictures that were taken during his term of office that embarrassed him.  I really don’t think that is a recent photo but I could be wrong. I don’t even know if they were recent photos when they first went viral during his term, but they really embarrassed him.

    He has lost weight recently and does look a bit thinner now.  I really don’t think that photo is a recent photo, but who cares? If it embarrasses him I applaud the photo going viral again.

  85. 85.

    Salty Sam .

    March 17, 2024 at 9:37 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:   Few political arguments are more useless than people of different ages insulting one another.

    Nominatd!

    … and now it’s time to leave this thread and go do something less boring.

  86. 86.

    Another Scott

    March 17, 2024 at 9:38 am

    @FelonyGovt: Made me look…  It’s from Bedminster from August 13.

    Getty Images

    The More You Know!

    :⁠-⁠\

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  87. 87.

    Miss Bianca

    March 17, 2024 at 9:40 am

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Wow, if that’s a recent photo, he looks like 10 pounds of shit in a five-pound bag.

    Make that 280 pounds of shit.

    As you say: good.

  88. 88.

    Scout211

    March 17, 2024 at 9:43 am

    @Another Scott: Thanks!  So the photo was from August 2023, way before he started his weight loss, possible Ozempic-taking regimen.  Not a recent photo but not from 4 years ago.

  89. 89.

    Betty

    March 17, 2024 at 9:53 am

    @Chetan Murthy: I believe it was the same Sarah Longwell featured in the video above who said the Stormy Daniels case could be good for Trump because it shows male vigor. Two things: it was a quite a few years ago now and I believe Stormy said there wasn’t that much vigor involved.

  90. 90.

    prostratedragon

    March 17, 2024 at 10:00 am

    @stacib:  We also had a few Tad’s, e.g. one around State and Randolph. I remember $1.49 there and $1.95 in NYC, so NotMax must be truly The Ancient of Days.

  91. 91.

    prostratedragon

    March 17, 2024 at 10:02 am

    @bjacques:   Some boomers I know always thought that was both dumb and shortsighted.

  92. 92.

    SFAW

    March 17, 2024 at 10:07 am

    Gee, with all the inter-generational slap-fighting going on, I was kinda hoping we’d migrate into a “the music those kids lissen to today is terrible. In MY day …” sober and rational discussion.

    But so glad it distracted from Anne Laurie’s original thesis/post, because … something something mumble something.

  93. 93.

    Seonachan

    March 17, 2024 at 10:17 am

    I know no one is reading this thread by now, but I just want to point out re: Gen X voting patterns that the age brackets in the 2020 exit poll cited above don’t quite match up with generational cohorts. The poll shows people aged 45-64 voting Trump over Biden 50-49%. But in 2020 Gen X was aged 40-55; so this age bracket included 9 years’ worth of younger Baby Boomers and excluded 5 years of younger Gen Xers.

    The Pew Center did a study that explicitly broke down the vote by generation, and it shows Gen X going for Biden 51-48, with Baby Boomers going for Trump by the same margin. So I guess the only thing we can conclude is that both generations are moderate centrists who are eager to vote No Labels this year (/s),

  94. 94.

    StringOnAStick

    March 17, 2024 at 10:20 am

    @Quadrillipede: That was fantastic!  I’m sharing that link widely!  So much great information that is so relevant to current culture war insanity and a bit that is very relevant to a misdiagnosis I received as a teen.

  95. 95.

    Another Scott

    March 17, 2024 at 10:22 am

    @patrick II: I think it’s safe to assume that undated photos on the intertubes are never current.  Stuff is always being recycled.

    (See above – that photo is from August 2023.)

    I initially thought that that photo couldn’t be him – the nose is all wrong.  I guess carrying an extra 50-100 pounds, and being a horrible person, will do that to your face…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  96. 96.

    Another Scott

    March 17, 2024 at 10:35 am

    @K-Mo: Made me click.  First one – Paul Begala.

    Nope.  [ ctrl-w ]

    …

    Reagan wasn’t a boomer.  He was born in 1911.  He’s part of the “Greatest Generation” [ spit! ]  Gingrich wasn’t a boomer.  He was born in 1943.  He’s part of the “Silent Generation” [ spit! ]  Maybe political monsters have nothing to do with what generation they’re in.

    [ rant ] Generations are defined as the average reproductive age of females when they have their first child.  That’s it.   It’s not about hair styles or music tastes or buying habits or political views. [ /rant ]

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    K-Mo

    March 17, 2024 at 11:10 am

    @Another Scott: eclares question was “Where was the attack on boomers .  . .”

    The answer was, lots of places

  98. 98.

    Quadrillipede

    March 17, 2024 at 12:01 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: Ah, there might be a disconnect there, as most of the Gen X people I’ve personally interacted with were British or Canadian.

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    March 17, 2024 at 3:42 pm

    @sab:

    Everyone declines as they age. They do so at different rates for sure but everyone does. It becomes less obvious in people that have some health issues that really aren’t normal decline. Alzheimers for example. And even there it’s not a by the numbers event or a by the numbers rate. All living creatures stop at some point and at some rate. Had a cousin that made 6 months, his aunt made 95 yrs. It’s life, in all it’s versions, hills, valleys, success, and rates of decline.

  100. 100.

    Ruckus

    March 17, 2024 at 3:55 pm

    @sab:

    Sorry about your dad. I was sitting with mine, in his hospital bed, with my arm around him when he passed. There was zero question in my mind that he had but my sisters sitting a couple feet away didn’t believe me. I had to order them to get the doctor to confirm it.

    Your point that they are not decent people is, in my mind, absolutely correct. They had him for a father, and they hung around him, seemingly worshiping him. I doubt that they would ever conceive of him as anything less than the greatest. Greatest what I won’t say but I will put it only in  negative terms.

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    March 17, 2024 at 4:07 pm

    @Quadrillipede:

    Generations are always mixes of human beings. Some good, some not so much, some great and some are just pure shit with feet. It isn’t generational, it isn’t rational, it is normal, it is more obvious currently because of things like what we are doing right now – open communications, TV, that there are a LOT more of us than when I was born (and we do know what causes that!) but it is humanity. There are all possible ranges of humanity. We have to control the worst and hopefully get them to adjust, but we also have to accept that not everyone is going to be on the positive side of the aisle, that is humanity. No matter how hard we try, no matter how little we try we are never all going to agree with all the rest of us. We run the gamut of possibilities – we are human.

  102. 102.

    Paul in KY

    March 18, 2024 at 12:27 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: That kind of photo needs to be in any POTUS campaign ad that mentions/touches on TFG.

  103. 103.

    Paul in KY

    March 18, 2024 at 12:29 pm

    @Tony Jay: I did enjoy Hugh Grant’s version in the recent Wonka movie. The poshest Oompa Loompa.

  104. 104.

    Paul in KY

    March 18, 2024 at 12:31 pm

    @Tehanu: Shows how fucked up his campaign minders are if they let him go out looking like that. Maybe he escaped?

  105. 105.

    Paul in KY

    March 18, 2024 at 12:32 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: I’m sorta surprised he’s still alive. I did think he’d stroke out in his term.

  106. 106.

    Paul in KY

    March 18, 2024 at 12:33 pm

    @NotMax: I sorta miss the little wing windows :-)

  107. 107.

    Manyakitty

    March 18, 2024 at 5:17 pm

    @Paul in KY: same. Or every single day since then. How does the relentless drip of charge after charge, fine after fine, case after case, not wear him down?

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