Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

We still have time to mess this up!

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

The willow is too close to the house.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Thursday Evening Open Thread: Trump’s Wheels Are Falling Off

Thursday Evening Open Thread: Trump’s Wheels Are Falling Off

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Cash rules everything around him… Dolla, dolla, y’all, get the money…

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102Comments

  1. 1.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    For no particular reason except I’m happy to be hanging out with my bride, I’m playing my “Happy” playlist.

    Currently up: “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas. Feels just right for this moment, I could see playing it a lot over the next few months, culminating on election night.

  3. 3.

    cain

    Just amazing how they prop up this idiot. Just so reluctant to attack a Republican. It must be some left over shit from 9/11.

  5. 5.

    frog

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: 

    Currently up: “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas.

    I recall that there were two versions of that work. A short version that top 40s stations could play, and a longer one that listed a lot of cities that had dancing.

  6. 6.

    Turgidson

    “Evan Gershkovitch is coming home.  Here’s why that’s bad news for Kamala Harris.”

    – Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman

  7. 7.

    Scout211

    JD Vance, the weird VP nominee has been all over the media trying to make sense of Trump’s racist ramblings from yesterday and reframe them to the media.  And then the prisoner release happened and he went even further, giving Trump credit for the releases.

    “Look, I think it’s great news, at least what little we know. We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with,” the Republican vice presidential nominee said, before going in a completely different direction.

    “But we have to ask ourselves, why are they coming home? And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house,” Vance said. “That’s a good thing. And I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.”

    . . .

    But this was easily disproved Thursday after the release of the hostages, who also included Marine veteran Paul Whelan and Russian American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva. National security adviser Jake Sullivan was asked about Vance’s claim at a press conference Thursday, and he dismissed the idea.

    “I don’t follow,” Sullivan replied.

    Weird.  Yeah, we don’t follow either.

  10. 10.

    gratuitous

    President Biden does it again, not bad for a doddering old guy, huh? It really rankled the felon, too. You can tell because he wants to know all the details, and boasting that whatever the details are, he did better. Well, “better” if you don’t ask him too many questions like what the hell he’s talking about. Just trust him, okay? Has the felon ever lied before?

  12. 12.

    JaneE

    Weird is thinking like a rapist, that women are just dumb meat to be used.  The concept that women are people, that women can be intelligent, skilled, capable just is unthinkable.  There is no place in their mind for that memory to form.

  13. 13.

    Chet Murthy

    @Baud: “Biden’s successes have more and more Democrats questioning the wisdom of Harris’ candidacy” /NYT

  14. 14.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: Oh, that one is so likely!

    I loved their — “This Norwegian town is suffering” (because Biden’s policies brought clean energy manufacturing back to the US).

  15. 15.

    Jay C

    I’m still waiting to see some sort of statement from TCFG regarding the 8/1 Prisoner Deal that acknowledges in the least the feelings of the released prisoners, or their families. So far, Trump’s comments on the deal have been, mainly focused on his own ruffled feelings, gripes about how Joe Biden (and his Administration) have handled it, jabbering about “money” issues (like he cares), and bitching about the media coverage. IOW, Me, me, me…..

     

    Whereas President Joe made the involvement of the prisoners’ families the main focus of the  coverage.

    Wonder if the “MSM” will notice?  (rhetorical question)

  16. 16.

    Leto

    His words need to be overlaid with POWs, showing how he’d abandon every-fucking-one of us. I will never trust a Republican to fulfill their oath to come for us. Never. Anyone who does is beyond a fool.

  20. 20.

    hueyplong

    @Jay C: It’s possible Trump “recognized” the families by musing over whether some wives wish they’d been able to make life insurance claims.

  21. 21.

    Chet Murthy

    @Leto: “he knew what he signed up for”

    I remember that.  It was a gut-punch, and I’ve never served.  I cannot imagine what it was like for those who did.

  22. 22.

    dmsilev

    Man, that ‘weird’ thing is really getting under their skins, isn’t it? No clue about how to respond or brush it off or whatever, just this aggrieved ‘I’m not weird. Don’t say that I’m weird’, couched of course in the weirdest ways possible.

  23. 23.

    Leto

    @Scout211: too bad Trumpov didn’t follow in the glorious steps of Nixon and Raegan in sinking deals for the current administration, thereby fucking over Americans/Vietnamese, in the prospect of winning the election. Would it be possible for our stenographers to put those two things together, and report on it? Idk. Crazy talk here.

  24. 24.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @MattF: You know he was negotiating a deal with Putin to hang onto them and release them on Inauguration Day, a la Reagan and the Iran hostages.

    Putin must be detecting the loser stink.

    I wonder how the flow of Russian dark money is going.

  25. 25.

    Kelly

    I did a week’s worth of laundry. Dried on the line. Two loads, no socks. Truly summertime

  26. 26.

    SW

    Weird just rocks their world view.  As a science geek I’ve been called weird for most of my life.  But I always considered it a badge of honor.  After all is said and done humans are just a weird species.  But these freaks have claimed the right to define normal.  It is the essence of their message. “We are what normal is.  Those people are not like us. They are others. Not real people like us”. Having that turned on them is more than they can bare.  It’s hilarious really.  The orange comb over.  The gold toilets the stuffed lion.  “I am not weird.  How dare you suggest that I am not normal” 🤣😂

  27. 27.

    bbleh

    He’s flailing.  The whole campaign is flailing.  Kamala-mentum, “weird,” couch-fucking, and the sudden loss of the MSM doing their work for them by undermining their opponent.  They’re dead in the water, and they have been for … a couple weeks now!  And he has definitely lost several steps mentally.

    Exhibit A: his appearance at NABJ.  Yes it was a deliberate attention-grabbing stunt, but he flubbed it significantly.  Exhibit B: Schumer a “proud member of Hamas.”  See Exhibit A.

    But NO COMPLACENCY!!  They’re gonna try to ratfk the election at every level.  It won’t be enough to win legitimately; we need to win OVERWHELMINGLY.  And that means donate! volunteer! GOTV!  96 days left!  MOVE!

  28. 28.

    Leto

    @Chet Murthy: hearing someone say that earns utter fucking contempt, because it shows they have no idea what it means to serve. I’m getting angrier as I read this and think about it, so just gonna take a pause here. Seriously, if he were on fire I wouldn’t even think about pissing on him to help him. There’s an irrational anger that comes over me when I think about him and the military. I just can’t.

  29. 29.

    suzanne

    Putin thinks his boy doesn’t have the juice.

    Better not stand near any windows, TFG!!!!

    Or…. please proceed!

  31. 31.

    KatKapCC

    “But weird I’m not.”

    Did he think phrasing it that way would make him sound normal?

  32. 32.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @SW: They are mad because they are supposed to define what is normal and what is weird.  To them, “weird” is supposed to be the people who challenge gender/sexuality norms.  But they really aren’t anymore.  We all know women with pink or blue hair and piercings.  We all know out LGBTQ people with non-traditional gender presentations.  We all know men who are Feminist and white people who are Anti-Racist.  That’s just not how it’s supposed to be, in the minds of these weirdo Republicans.  And it drives them nuts.

  34. 34.

    Chet Murthy

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    We all know women with pink or blue hair and piercings.  We all know out LGBTQ people with non-traditional gender presentations.  We all know men who are Feminist and white people who are Anti-Racist.

    I hear this is true even in Flyover Country.  If we can just hold out another cycle-or-two, all those people will be in prime voting age.  And the Republic will be saved.

  35. 35.

    Leto

    Watching Joy Reid, and she’s showing the clip of Biden singing happy birthday to that girl. Such a joyful thing, wholesome and heartfelt. Such a stark contrast.

  38. 38.

    Chet Murthy

    @Leto: I’m with you.  If you’re gonna pour on anything, make it charcoal lighter fluid.  Or gasoline.  Or olive oil.  Piss contains important minerals and nitrogen; it’s good for plant growth; we can’t waste it on TCFG’s sorry carcass.

  40. 40.

    VFX Lurker

    For those who missed it, sixthdoctor in the previous thread posted that Postcards to Swing States is accepting volunteers again for House districts. They will accept volunteers for Senate and Presidential swing states by August 5th.

    I signed up to write postcards to my neighboring district, CA-27. I volunteered for the minimum: 200 cards. They’ll send me the cards and message items, and I’ll provide the postage and the handwriting. Then I mail the lot out on October 24th.

    I also ordered postcards and stamps earlier today in anticipation of writing more Postcards to Voters. I should have ordered more stamps!

  42. 42.

    hueyplong

    @Leto: If you haven’t seen the whole thing, you really should.  Biden really goes out of his way to give credit to allies for stepping up and hammering on the importance of alliances and trust in general, and the whole thing felt like a total rejection of the vile transactional selfishness of literally everything Trump does and stands for.

    It was beautiful, and it got me kind of verklempt.

  43. 43.

    Chet Murthy

    @hueyplong: I remember early on in the Ukraine full-scale invasion,  Biden made a point of “leading from behind” with our allies, always making sure that some group of our allies were the ones making proposals, and the US joining-in.  Same idea: he understood that building multilateral alliances was always better, even if to do so you had to work slower.

  44. 44.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Baud: You can count on slow, general social progress to some extent.  You just can’t count on it to win elections or prevent horrible legislation by Republicans.

  45. 45.

    FDRLincoln

    Joe is still an effective and excellent president. Age has harmed his communication skills but with the nuts and bolts of the job, he’s brilliant.

    Harris will be too.

  46. 46.

    Chet Murthy

    @hueyplong:

    a total rejection of the vile transactional selfishness of literally everything Trump does and stands for.

    When the news broke about this prisoner swap, I remember thinking: “well, now we can see another benefit of the US hegemonic alliance system: when our people are taken hostage by our enemies, our allies will sacrifice their own short-term well-being for our sake.”  [esp. in the case of that assassin Krasikov [sp?] who was imprisoned in Germany]

  48. 48.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @VFX Lurker: I think CA-27 is one of the races that our UDH (Pasadena) will be working on, when I start writing next week.  It would be great to win that district back again.  Especially since we helped Katie Hill turn it blue for the first time in 2018, and it was supposed to be the best opportunity to flip in 2022.

  51. 51.

    hueyplong

    @Chet Murthy: Yes, today wasn’t a stand-alone event.

    And Harris is free of these obligations so she can campaign full time.  It’s synergistic and, without getting into how we got here, I’m glad we’re here and that people feel like the wind is at their backs despite the long and probably difficult road ahead.

  52. 52.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Maxim: It’s very dated, like me. A sampling:

    “Dancing in the Street” Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

    “Dancing in the Moonlight” King Harvest

    “Celebration” Kool & The Gang

    “Saturday in the Park” Chicago

    “jessica” Allman Brothers

    “Root Beer Rag” Billy Joel

    “Oh Happy Day” The Edwin Hawkins Singers

    “Looking out my Backdoor” Creedence Clearwater Revival

    @frog: I’ve got the long version. “Philadelphia, PA” “Don’t forget the Motor City”. The version I originally knew was probably the short version as I did all my listening on AM top 40 stations on a transistor radio.

  55. 55.

    Leto

    @hueyplong: agreed. It really shows the foolishness of conservatives plans to “go it alone” in the world. You can’t. We can’t. That’s not how this works. We’re stronger, more secure. We’re able to do more in every aspect because of our alliances.

  60. 60.

    FastEdD

    We are working on a lit drop/door knocking campaign from Labor Day to early October when PAV ballots arrive. All this week I’ve been on the phone and emails and texts training folks on how to use the app to record the houses we’ve been to. I will be a mega effort visiting 93,000 houses for the first time. Since it is SoCal we are emphasizing voting from the bottom of the ballot to the top. Not worried about MVP winning in CA but I am thrilled to see this enthusiasm because maybe it will help carry some school board, water district, and city council candidates to victory.

  61. 61.

    Almost Retired

    @VFX Lurker:  terrific!  The 27th bugs me.  There should be no Congressional District in Los Angeles County with a Republican representative.  But Christy Smith wasn’t a great candidate.  Whitesides is astronaut-adjacent, so he should resonate in the Antelope Valley.

    You have inspired me to postcard for the 27th (and for Will Rollins against the wretched Ken Calvert in Riverside County).  I feel like California’s “it can’t happen here” smugness led to too many Dems staying home and cost us at least four or five SoCal seats.  Together with the New York Dem fuckery it seems like CA and NY arrogance undermined the efforts of the hard work by swing state Dems.

  62. 62.

    Jeffro

    back on topic: MAGA hates being called “weird” because most all of them went MAGA after being ostracized/shamed/looked at funny for their weird views on women, gays, people of color, or a host of other things.

    (see also: Chris Rufo and diversity training)

    “weird”, in their minds, brings up the thing that they did/said/thought that made them feel like they weren’t so special after all and might just in fact have some growing up to do.  MAGA tells them that not only are they perfectly normal for being troglodytes, not only do they not have to do the work of growing up, but they should also definitely lash out at the people/society that made them feel less special.  perpetual vindication for losers.

    we’d do just as well to call them “vampires” because they do no reflecting at all

  69. 69.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @SW: There’s weird as in “adorkable,” and weird as in “WTF dude?!”. I agree Republicans are so used to being the “normal” people who define who’s “not normal” is a major reason they’re losing their shit. Especially when it’s the latter meaning that is being thrown at them. I don’t think they’d even recognize the former meaning if it was used affectionately.

    @Jeffro: Just like the protagonist in their anthem is “I’m So Straight.”

  70. 70.

    Jackie

    @Scout211: I like the version that after Putin saw the explosion of energy and manic excitement following these past ten days of Kamala… Putin knows TCFG is a LOSER and cut the deal with Biden while he could – to leverage the best prison swap possible.

    Putin doesn’t think TCFG will win in Nov. I wonder if he’ll disengage from our election.

  72. 72.

    mr perfect

    “I’m not weird, they’re weird.”  Trump using the “That’s you, what am I” defence.

     

    He is right, he’s many things.  A liar, a cheat, a fraud, a convicted felon, a serial sexual assaulter and rapist, a conman, a trust fund brat, a loser, a fucking idiot.  I’m being nice ATM.

  73. 73.

    Bill Arnold

    @TBone:
    Just a note for those who don’t know; upper case WEIRD was appropriated by the psychology/behavioral sciences research community about 15 years ago. Since most of the target political audience don’t know this or isn’t bothered by it, it’s probably OK.
    WEIRD is a backronym that stands for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic.

    It was coined in 2010 to label the populations most commonly sampled by researchers in the experimental behavioral sciences, including psychologists, cognitive scientists, and economists. By design, the WEIRD concept was meant as a kind of social mirror developed to raise the consciousness of researchers to the pitfalls of generalizing about “humans” based on data derived from narrow and rather peculiar slices of humanity.

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    also OT: I think all of the main VP candidates are going to be there in Philly in a show of unity for the ticket, regardless of whoever is selected.

    I’m seeing that Shapiro and Beshear have already canceled their weekend plans…Walz?

  78. 78.

    Villago Delenda Est

    That “Weird/Weirder” thing?  I ordered a T-shirt with that on it just the other day.

  79. 79.

    craigie

    It’s almost time to pivot from “weird” to “creepy”. That should be the thing that finishes them off.

  81. 81.

    wjca

    @Jackie: Putin doesn’t think TCFG will win in Nov. I wonder if he’ll disengage from our election.

    No way.  He may cease wasting money on the Presidential campaign. But

    a) that just allows him to focus on Congressional races.  If he can hold either the House or the Senate, aid to Ukraine will be less.

    b) any and all dissention in American society is a plus for him.

  82. 82.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: ​
     

    “Root Beer Rag” Billy Joel

    Man, I didn’t know anyone besides my wife and me who remember this one. Great upbeat, fast-paced instrumental!

    “Oh Happy Day” The Edwin Hawkins Singers

    Yeah, this one’s special.

  84. 84.

    lowtechcyclist

    @craigie: ​
     

    It’s almost time to pivot from “weird” to “creepy”. That should be the thing that finishes them off.

    Seconded! Because boy howdy, they and their ideas are majorly creepy.

  85. 85.

    lowtechcyclist

    @mr perfect: ​
     

    “I’m not weird, they’re weird.” Trump using the “That’s you, what am I” defence.

    Reminds me more of “I’m the sane one, it’s everyone else who’s crazy” from ancient SF flicks.

  89. 89.

    Trivia Man

    @Jackie: Not completely. A main goal of Putin is maximum chaos. Whatever divides Americans from each other is great for him. Fighting in the streets best of all. Look for more russia russia russia

  91. 91.

    wjca

    @Princess: Trump has a thing about birth certificates. What a weirdo he is.

    Since every accusation from him is projection/confession, perhaps there there is something interesting on his.  Or maybe he got told at some point that Fred wasn’t actually his father.

  94. 94.

    Tony G

    @dmsilev: A primary characteristic of both Trump and Vance is their fundamental humorlessness.  They are not capable of laughing at anything except the pain of other people; they are certainly not capable of laughing at themselves.  So for both of these sociopaths — and for other weirdos like Stephen Miller or Mike Johnson — every setback causes a reaction of childish petulance — which causes still more ridicule.  They deserve nothing but mockery from normal people.

  98. 98.

    Martin

    @Jackie: Given that the deal has been in the work for like a year, I think that’s not quite capturing it.

    My guess is that right now Putin is better able to control dissent outside the country than inside the country, and so getting these people out is helpful and getting his assassins home is also helpful.

  99. 99.

    wjca

    @Tony G: But Putin also wants another four years of Trump, because Trump is such a corrupt, weak, stupid man.

    But he doesn’t have unlimited resources.  If he has decided Trump is a lost cause, he’ll put those resources to work elsewhere.  (Except to the limited extent necessary to maximize chaos.)

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