Trump just had a press conference and made the following statements:
- He plans to use “economic force” to make Canada a state.
- He wouldn’t commit not to use military or economic coercion to control Greenland or the Panama Canal. He also questioned whether Denmark has any right to Greenland.
- He said that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas had not returned the hostages by the time he’s sworn in.
- He said that he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
- He said he’s considering the Jan 6 pardons and name-checked Ashli Babbit as the only one killed on 1/6.
Some commenters were upset about John Ganz’ assessment that “His political skills should not be underestimated.” in the piece I posted yesterday. These statements are a demonstration of Trump’s particular skill — a barrage of nonsense mixed with threats, few of which will be acted upon. The nonsense is short and basic enough to be grasped by anyone, and it’s formulated in a way that will make the news. He knows how to work the levers of TV culture, and he’s good at keeping his nonsense front-and-center, while the shenanigans are going to happen where the distracted reporters aren’t looking.
With that in mind, let’s go through these in order:
- He already scored one win with Canada, baiting the weak Justin Trudeau to come to Mar-a-Lago and be subject to Trump’s dominance displays. Whether or not he understands just how terrible broad 25% tariffs would be for the US and Canada, he clearly rattled Trudeau. With the Canadians looking at an election, expect him to keep this line of bullshit going, with Poilievre claiming that he can work with Trump, etc. I will be very surprised if any big tariffs are enacted, and my guess is that this will ultimately backfire for Trump when it comes to Canadian domestic politics, if the Liberals and NDP get their acts together and leverage Trump’s unpopularity in Canada to criticize the Tories.
- Greenland or the Canal are two areas where I think it’s going to be all talk. Just think of all the “explainers” and “but he has a point” this will generate of the next few months, though.
- Bibi will make the right noises and do nothing to seek the hostages release– it’s not in his interest to cut short the war. Trump also relies on support from people like Miriam Adelson, who supports Bibi, so he’ll just cheer on ever more violent responses in Gaza.
- Expect a dismissive comment from Claudia Sheinbaum, who hasn’t been rising to Trump’s bait and has sky-high approval ratings in her country. I bet this one just might pass Congress and get signed by Trump, but mapmakers will probably stick with Gulf of Mexico, or they’ll use two names interchangeably (as is done with the Gulf of California / Sea of Cortez). Still, it will generate media noise.
- He’ll probably do some kind of selective pardon of the 1/6 offenders, and give Ashli Babbit some award (like the Presidential Medal of Freedom), but he’s probably getting pushback on this from his staff because it will be a negative story at the start of his presidency.
The guy watches a lot of Fox News. Fox is very good at distractions, many of which end up in mainstream media. Trump serves them up on a plate. Don’t underestimate them, and don’t think that anyone who says Democrats should just ignore this stuff has the right attitude. These claims will generate press. The press wants replies. Our electeds should be saying that what Trump is saying is stupid for whatever reason they choose (there are plenty to choose from). This goes 10X for 1/6. To do otherwise is political malpractice.
Cervantes
Don’t even imagine that there’s some sort of political strategy behind this. He’s just completely lost his marbles, it’s just insane. No need to say anything fancier than that.
Hildebrand
This is why the legacy media wanted Trump to win – because his never ending torrent of knavery is good for clicks and views.
The Democrats need to feed the beast just enough to keep the idea in front of people that Trump is a loon.
Baud
The benefit to Bibi is to make Trump look good in the hopes of getting Trump to endorse whatever plans he has for the post war situation.
IOW, I don’t know how it will play out.
Soprano2
@Hildebrand: I agree. Every day I get multiple news alerts on my phone about something TCFG has done or said. I never got alerts like that about Biden or Harris.
Baud
@Hildebrand:
Exactly. People who wanted Trump are getting what they wanted.
Old School
Can Trump drop the “North” from “North America”?
We’re the real America! No need to qualify it!
azlib
Curious these statements have nothing to do with tax cuts for billionaires or deporting immigrants.
different-church-lady
1) He’s insane.
2) People want a president they can identify with.
Baud
New Mexico may be in trouble.
WaterGirl
The lying in state ceremony for Jimmy Carter started at 2pm.
I timed my post to go up at 1:50 to coincide with that.
I have moved my Jimmy Carter post to later.
Shakti
Cold take: A non trivial amount of surviving voting Americans had their cognitive resources scrambled by covid, which include the ability to reason through a train of thought and long term information retrieval. This means a lot of people think Trump is smart when he says things that make them feel good but would likely be disastrous for them directly if he seriously attempted it or succeeded.
What is this pulling focus from that the competent evil people would really love you not to pay attention to or see?
An Ashli Babbit pardon would serve a a self validating erasure mechanism for him. Which is why he’ll do it instead of just not bringing it up again.
different-church-lady
@WaterGirl: They’re delaying the start a bit. They heard an odd whirring noise coming from inside the coffin. Turns out it was the corpse rotating at a high speed.
Steve LaBonne
@Shakti: Most people have always been idiots without any help from a virus. I used to have those kinds of surreal conversations with my Foxified co-workers and I retired in 2018.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Following the link to the Gulf of ‘Murka material revealed this most pertinent take:
different-church-lady
@Steve LaBonne: I’m pretty sure it’s more digital viruses than physical.
Trollhattan
@Old School:
“Make Americas Great Again.”
And really, isn’t “America” too informal? We should make Vespucci great again.
eemom
WG had a nice positive post about President Carter up, only to be stomped by today’s edition of “Wile E. Trumpotee, Super Political Genius”. Oh well.
different-church-lady
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: “Why bother with the bread when we can just give them the circus?”
JML
I would actually love to have Canada merge with the US and have a bunch of new states; it would fix some of our structural problems quite nicely, at least in the short term. But Canada ain’t interested, and i can’t really blame them. but this is exactly the kind of performative nonsense that Faux News and his base eat up. He doesn’t need to actually accomplish anything, just mock and dismiss and lord it over Canadian politicians. bread and circuses, with more expensive bread.
Matt McIrvin
@Shakti: I would believe that we’re witnessing the effects of mass COVID-induced brain damage, but that doesn’t really explain how the first Trump administration happened or how people reacted to it then.
I do think that a lot of Americans associate Trump with the days before COVID, and not with the pandemic itself, which failed to magically go away when Biden came in and in fact got worse for almost everyone away from the blue coasts. I sometimes wonder if we’d be counting Biden as a fantastically popular success if only the Omicron variant hadn’t happened, leaving the vaccine as an almost magical pandemic-ender (but something like Omicron was probably inevitable).
different-church-lady
@JML: I’m so old I can remember when the Amero was terrifying.
Ohio Mom
I see Trump is addressing the all-important price of eggs.
I used to think he was deranged but now I think it’s all an act. Like a magician, he diverts our attention to play tricks on us.
Back to my chores. I can’t dwell on this too long or I’ll get too depressed to move.
Warblewarble
Expect Jan 6th to be renamed Ashli Babbit day.
pat
A lying psychopathic malignant narcissist is sundowning. In front of the whole world. Lord knows what damage he, and his “cabinet” of clowns, can do in the next four years.
raven
It’s the Gulf of California not Bay of California.
Matt McIrvin
I think we can predict that this will probably be Trump’s war cycle. The question is just WHAT war it will be, and he’s too incoherent to help us guess, since he’s basically declaring war on everybody right now. (For Hitler it really was just about everybody. But everyone has nukes now, which complicates the picture, though maybe not for Trump.)
Remember, GHWB actually did have a little war with Panama.
Shakti
@Steve LaBonne: Perhaps…
But maybe it’s my dad’s age, but his reasoning, and following a train of thought skills are worse than they were in 2023, when he contracted covid.
It’s not a good feeling to be getting older but then feeling like you’re smarter/wiser mostly because people around you seem stupider, and because of anything you accomplished or experienced.
Annie
I’m wondering how soon Tr*** will pardon David DePape — the guy who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home and beat the living daylights out of her husband — on his federal convictions. DePape has also been convicted in state court and Tr*** can’t do anything about those judgments, so he won’t just get out. But I bet Tr*** would love to make the federal stuff go away, just as a second-finger salute to Nancy.
No Nym
@Shakti: We are not a country that values intellectual pursuits or even truth. Aside from COVID, we’ve had increasing resistance to educating kids and more pressure to pacify them; book banning; a media environment that seems to dissolve brain cells on contact (think “reality” TV, FOX Entertainment); the end of investigative journalism and civic discourse; the rise of fundamentalism, which also kills critical thinking and an authentic response to events. RFK, Jr. would say food additives are part of it too, so there–I am fair and balanced.
Are you not entertained?!
Suzanne
Having a low cunning at the thuggish, circus-y, and used-car-sales dark arts of politics isn’t the same as being a quality individual or an effective public servant.
zhena gogolia
@eemom: Sad.
prostratedragon
@Matt McIrvin:
✔️
sab
@JML: When I was a kid in Florida they kind of taught us that the poor benighted Canadians had come out on the wrong side of the American Revolution. Since my grandmother and mother had actual Canadian cousins I knew better.
Getting the prairie provinces would be like getting two more Dakotas, and they would probably vote the same.
Shakti
@Matt McIrvin: @Matt McIrvin:
The first term Trump had the benefit of not being a formal politician and having deep dives into his career.
But I believe the lack of long term memory and logic holes accounts for not associating the pandemic with Trump. Because there was quite a bit of time with Trump and the pandemic and in fact the worst part in coverage and in actual restrictions was during Trump’s term. The economic crash happened in 2020. Like…logically if you gave the guy credit for the good economy, he is responsible for the bad one.
If you were furloughed or laid off because of the pandemic that’s one to one. I’m not sure if we’d even have the “inflation” or the “food and housing” spikes now but for not preventing the global pandemic.
lowtechcyclist
and
don’t exactly mesh well, in my thinking.
I would say most of us should just ignore this stuff. What good does it do me to get all het up about this latest bunch of crap?
Maybe political professionals need to make some sort of response, but I’ll be damned if I can see what you’re saying it should be. Clearly they shouldn’t jump into every rabbit hole Trump sets in front of them, because that would be political malpractice too. But instead they should do…..what??
dexwood
@Baud: We’ll deal with it, we’re used to outside threats, afterall, Texas has been our neighbor a long time. /s
Matt McIrvin
@sab: I think their coming out of it with a better political culture has more to do with them not having the slave states and their slaver aristocracy than with anything structural or to do with the Revolutionary War.
catclub
I think you need to fix the alert settings on that phone.
Old School
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom:
I think it’s instinct. Like a schoolyard bully.
Scott P.
While there does need to be a response, these need to be seen like the V-1 and V-2 attacks on London and shouldn’t distract us from the more important theaters of the conflict.
Barbara
I agree that this shouldn’t just be ignored, but nor should it be responded to in a complicated manner, like Greenland actually being part of NATO and so on. Here is a one size fits all response to any of these by any Democrat:
“How does invading Greenland or Panama lower the price of eggs?”
Feel free to pen your own similarly skeptical response in terms of the basic message — which is —
And if you want to go in a policy related direction, you might try something like —
prostratedragon
It’s going to be a very, very, very, very, very, {…} long four years:
Matt McIrvin
@Shakti: Trump got punished for fucking up the pandemic response in 2020, but memories are short under the best of circumstances and most of the country doesn’t associate it with him any more; I suspect if you ask them many will say it started under Biden.
In part because in their neighborhood it effectively did: in 2020 they were still pretending it was a far-off irrelevancy while the bodies piled up in New York City.
sab
Sea of Galilee is now Lake Tiberias.
catclub
@Shakti:The terrible pandemic response by Trump was why he was not re-elected … in a walk.
Any half normal president in the pandemic would be re-elected.. he is holding the country together under terrible conditions.
However, amnesia kicked in pretty good. US voters have the long term memory of a mayfly.
sab
@Barbara: Also too I thought being anti war was part of his schtick.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
Thanks WG
Matt McIrvin
@sab: Everything is mutable; all that is solid melts into air. In 2016, we established that the Iraq war had been started by President Hillary Clinton and he campaigned against that. Now his attitude on war can be anything you want.
Steve LaBonne
@Barbara: Not having an official leader of the opposition is a glaring flaw in our system. Legislative leaders really can’t do this job because they’re busy herding cats, some of whom look in the mirror and see themselves as the next President. Chair of the DNC is not the kind of job that comes with a megaphone. I don’t know how to solve this problem.
zhena gogolia
@Steve LaBonne: The media will treat Republicans as leaders of the opposition (McCain in the old days, Trump for the last 4 years). They will never treat a Democrat that way. Hillary was supposed to sit down and shut up. Same will happen to Kamala, probably even worse. And Democrats themselves will echo the media on this.
catclub
@Matt McIrvin: 1. curse you for typing faster.
No, the pandemic was real everywhere by about June 2020. I was in Mississippi and there were lots of deaths of people I knew. There was also already state Governors (like John Bel Edwards) who were doing a great job in daily briefings.
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara: Republicans believe that inflation is primarily about oil prices and can be fixed with DRILL BABY DRILL, LLLIQUID GOLLLLD. I think the Greenland thing is about some idea that inflation will be fixed by drilling for oil there. It’s completely stupid but in a standard Republican manner, so it’s a viable story.
Jeffro
as many have already noted, parsing trumpov’s insanity, or trying to guess exactly how this will all shake out, is in itself insane
Unless Greenland has the secret codes for bringing down egg prices, I suggest we just keep pointing out that he’s nuts.
(except for pardoning J6 rioters, which he is not going to do on any sort of case-by-case basis: he’s going to pardon all of them, right there from the Inaugural platform. For that I suggest that we point out he’s nuts AND a traitor to the Constitution AND that the GOP should never, ever again try to pretend to be the “party of law and order”)
catclub
@Jeffro: I would say it is past time to say that electing Trump has driven egg prices through the roof already.
Suzanne
@prostratedragon: Greenland in January. I hope his testicles freeze off.
karen gail
Not sure where I saw this comment, but it makes “sense” out of Trump’s election. “The US is the abused spouse who has gone back to abuser; after all said abuser promised would change.”
Belafon
Will they mention any of this on Fox?
Jeffro
Ok, ok…I’ll do it. I just need a little time off next Wednesday (dentist appt) but other than that I’m good.
RandomMonster
New America!
Jeffro
@prostratedragon:
@Suzanne:
hey, if enough trumps take enough flights (especially to places with iffy weather)…who knows?
JaneE
The Gulf of Mexico was a productive fishery. The “Gulf of America” is rapidly becoming a dead zone. The name change may be very appropriate by the end of Trump’s administration.
TBone
Headline:
As Trump Eyes Greenland, Danish King Makes It Bigger On His Coat Of Arms
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/as-trump-eyes-greenland-danish-king-makes-it-bigger-on-his-coat-of-arms/ar-AA1x7axb
Quaker in a Basement
@sab: I think one of us misunderstands. There will be no “provinces.” Trump clearly says he wants to make Canada a state. One. The 51st. A state with 40 million inhabitants, larger than California, one that spans 6 time zones. Toronto and Montreal would hold an outsized influence over the outcome of future presidential elections.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think any territory has even been deemed a state without the consent of the inhabitants. If Trump is serious about this, he really has lost his mind.
Doug R
@Steve LaBonne: The Russians and their bot helpers were pushing the anti-vax agenda even back then:
Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate
prostratedragon
Fatst-moving events:
Andrew Lawrence:
Hakeem Jeffries:
Belafon
@Suzanne: Which would be the difference between being a politician and a statesman.
Scout211
Apologies if this has already been posted. I’ve been offline.
FIRE will represent J. Ann Selzer pro bono.
catclub
@Jeffro: I will just say that I am amazed by how well airports work in bitterly cold places.
Belafon
@prostratedragon: Some people are pre-ready to criticize Democrats. Yes, pre-ready.
Quaker in a Basement
@lowtechcyclist:
It should be: “The president-elect is observably insane. These are the rambings of a person who urgently needs evaluation, supervision, and medication.”
Percysowner
I am in no way, shape or form a politician, but boy I think the Liberals in Canada should point out that the Conservatives are looking to take 10 Provinces and 40 million people and make them as important an Rhode Island with 2 U.S. Senators, a highly gerrymandered House of Representatives. Plus they get the joy of the United States Healthcare system.
@JML: Except Trump is very, very clear that Canada will be ONE state and ONLY ONE state.
Melancholy Jaques
@Hildebrand:
I agree that the legacy media wanted him to win, but I’m not sure that his act will continue to draw people to legacy media. They have been in steady decline for years.
We should stop referring to the legacy media by their legacy names. It isn’t the Washington Post, it’s Billionaire Bezos’s Bullshit. It isn’t the LA Times, it’s Dr. Soon-Shiong’s Shit Show. I can’t think of what to call the FTFNYT. Help me out with this.
TBone
Another Tuesday, another dick measuring contest.
UncleEbeneezer
@Belafon: “If only Dems would do___” always yields a quick Google result of examples of them doing just that.
Doug R
@catclub: And you forget that his actions made the pandemic as bad as possible.
1,400,000 dead Americans because he pulled the CDC team out of China, ripped up the pandemic playbook and then when he saw COVID hit blue states first, he backed off on testing.
If Hillary had been selected by the Electoral College, she’d be sitting in front of her 49th congressional hearing on how she let 50,000 Americans die on her watch.
catclub
they misspelled kookery.
Emily B.
@Matt McIrvin: Declaring war on everyone—but not on Russia.
Trollhattan
@Suzanne:
“Why is it always dark? Make the sun shine, again!”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Quaker in a Basement:
Wild, Wonderful West Virginia. Good piece on how it became a state and how that process wasn’t exactly kosher:
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-west-virginia-starts-controversial-statehood-process
The entire ‘Canada Merges with the USofA” thing reminds of a Clive Cussler novel where that happened in the end.
catclub
Well. I don’t forget. But a whole lot of US voters did.
Jackie
@eemom:
Even here, TCFG is sucking up all the oxygen. Sure would be nice to have some non Trump/non Musk threads.
Old School
@Quaker in a Basement:
And Greenland will become part of Alaska.
catclub
@Warblewarble: we need more national holidays in january.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@prostratedragon: Hakeem got that in one. Good!
Also, apologies for squashing the Jimmy Carter thread. Hit post and had an unexpected and long phone call. I would have pulled this if I had noticed.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
That’s because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are actual living, breathing, adult human beings. And shitforbrains is a 8 yr old in an almost 80 yr old body, very barely within the minimums for being human, let alone an adult human. His siblings are/were actual human beings, he plays at it. VERY BADLY. (And I apologize to actual 8 yr olds for making this comparison.
And kids – Do NOT grow up like him, be at least past the minimum on the positive side of adulthood when you get there. That will put you miles and miles ahead of shitforbrains on the path of life.
Belafon
@WaterGirl:
Which was the point of the news conference.
Bupalos
Replacing “nonsense” with “policy initiatives” and this describes the politician we need to find. Trump is a trash monster, but he really does know how to do American politics right now. We either figure out how to produce these political weapons systems or we really might lose our democracy in the next decade or two.
Emily B.
@Percysowner: Canada = 1 state? Mmm. Let him try that with Québec.
Matt McIrvin
@Quaker in a Basement:
Hawaii was annexed without consent, though statehood was later. Trump has decided he’s a fan of William McKinley, wants to restore his name to Denali too.
KatKapCC
@eemom: Not meaning to be flippant because I agree, but this made me laugh and I desperately needed that, so thank you.
TBone
Meanwhile, North Carolina has gone rogue…
https://bsky.app/profile/mayasen.bsky.social/post/3lf6ercqrz226
https://bsky.app/profile/georgetakei.bsky.social/post/3lf6fujfems2q
Peale
@Emily B.: When the right wing is still freaking out 25 years later that we sometimes have to “press or say 1 for English”, I really don’t think they are going to take kindly to laws that say that official documents need to be made available in French.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Ann Telnaes on the 10th anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo killings.
She makes an important point. Yes, too many monsters use language and comics for nefarious ends. But it’s essential that governments not restrict free expression, as satire, mocking, etc., are important tools for keeping them in line (and removing them when they cross the lines).
Best wishes,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@Quaker in a Basement: It’s an insult to the very notion of “serious” even to suggest that Trump might be serious about shit like this.
rikyrah
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t like doing post-election quarterbacking, but, I do believe this:
The Democrats dropped the ball. From January 1, 2024 – onward..they should have been running ads
” Are you better off than you were 4 years ago”
And, showing, on a daily basis, how he failed at COVID.
Every ridiculous thing he said and did and all the things he didn’t do.
I know it would have been expensive, but, they should have done it.
Suzanne
@Belafon:
Agreed. Though even calling him a “politician” feels like giving him more esteem than he deserves.
But, because I am feeling more reflective and less sarcastic today….. I do think it’s important that we retain the language and acuity to describe what he does well. These are tools of manipulation and propaganda, and those tools are working. He is adept at using them. He has an instinct for imagecraft, and it is a powerful thing.
We can never counter it if we cannot see and name it. We discount its effectiveness, because we personally find it shameless and grotesque. At best, we call it vibes.
SpaceUnit
I heard he’s going to eliminate vowels and make the English language consonant-only!!!
For fuck’s sake people.
Barbara
@Jackie: +1
KatKapCC
@Jackie: Or even just fewer than the dozen Trump/Musk posts per day. I get the need to inform and be informed but like…wtf.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Trollhattan: Meh. Sounds Furrin’.
/MAGAt
catclub
I felt certain that this was the segue to/ from renaming the Gulf.
Tell Trump that Amerigo Vespucci was an eyetalian
and we need to rename the US after a real American, possibly Geronimo, or Chief Seattle.
Baud
@prostratedragon:
Doesn’t matter what Dems say. The line will be they haven’t been saying it.
rikyrah
Variety
@Variety
Peter Yarrow, Singer With Folk Legends Peter, Paul & Mary and Co-Writer of ‘Puff the Magic Dragon,’ Dies at 86
https://x.com/Variety/status/1876680499134898379
Baud
@SpaceUnit:
Fr fck’s sk ppl.
Bupalos
@prostratedragon: Let them
eatcakedrink maple syrup.Keith P.
@Baud: This is good news…for East Arizona!
West of the Rockies
@Percysowner:
This is beyond ludicrous. Had any Democratic politician (or 99% of Republican politicians) said Canada should/will be one US state, (s)he would be called an idiot. Trump says it, and the cult squeel with glee.
I will dance so many jigs and drink a fair amount of alcohol when he fucking croaks.
Princess
Re: 1. Even many (not all) Canadians who would vote Trump if they were Americans are going to be put off by Trump’s acquisitive talk about Canada Polievre caving to Trump. You can draw a direct line from Trudeau going to Maralago –> Freeland resigning –> Trudeau stepping down. Right now Doug Ford is covering for Polievre by being the Conservative who attacks Trump. But Poleivre won’t be able to hide. This will be especially true if the Liberals choose a leader willing to take the fight to Polievre about Trump. Singh should resign too; he’s useless and I see lots of NDP voters who are angry he’s siding with the conservatives. I think Canadians are hungry for an attack dog vs Trump. Or maybe that’s just me.
3. Not getting the hostages released will be Trump’s excuse for turning Gaza to glass. Which will make Bibi happy. Unfortunately. It’s tragic but the best chance for Palestine and its friends was always getting Harris elected. I know so many of my acquaintance who did not vote at all or voted third party protest votes.
Nettoyeur
@Quaker in a Basement: I will go you one better. The only politically feasible way for Canada to join the US is as at least 4 states: one for eastern Anglo Canada, one for western Anglo Canada, one for French speaking Quebec, and one for indigenous Nunavit. That’s 8 Senate seats and a bunch of electoral votes. The National Review website is already up in arms over the one state idea as the path to Medicare for All and (intheir minds) worse. Imagine how the rich GOP wingnuts will react to 4 new likely Democratic (or at most a liberal Republican one in the West) states. Oh yes, and special language rights for two of them. Not gonna happen.
oldgold
From TPM:
On dubious authority, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued an order Tuesday purporting to block the public release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s closing report by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Cannon’s order — which blocks Garland from “releasing, sharing, or transmitting the Final Report or any drafts of such Report outside the Department of Justice” — does not distinguish between the two volumes of Smith’s report, potentially stretching her already strained authority even further, to the Jan. 6 case in which she’s never been involved. (Emphasis Supplied)
Suzanne
@West of the Rockies:
Come dance by me.
II
@Princess: This was predictable. The pro Palestine purity ponies who voted against Kamala (or didn’t vote) will get what they voted for, not what they wanted. Just like the 2016 purity ponies kept Hillary from beating Trump in 2016, and the Nader voters got Bush II elected in 2000. Chumps.
Betty Cracker
@Barbara:
I have the political instincts of a concussed snail, but that sounds perfect to me, FWIW.
Harrison Wesley
Seated in the Golf Cart of Triumph in front of his palace at Mar-a-Lago, the once and future King Swino raises the Diaper of Defiance against the Woke of the world: “Fie and bigly! Kovfefe on your houses!”
lowtechcyclist
@Doug R:
And Trump would have won in a landslide in 2020 because the media would join him in painting that as a catastrophic failure on her part.
The Congressional hearings would wrap up sometime in 2022 with the conclusion that Hillary deserved to be publicly executed on account of all those deaths, and an expression of disappointment that there didn’t seem to be any applicable Federal law they could charge her under.
Roberto el oso
I eagerly await the suggestion that the Rio Grande be called ‘Big River’, or maybe ‘Yuuuge River’.
frog
@Jeffro:
To be a bit more specific, Trump has promised to come down hard on darkie crime.
prostratedragon
A little Baroque madness. Pity the poor violist.
Elizabelle
@Melancholy Jaques: Putz Sulzberger’s Vichy Times.
@mistermix.bsky.social
Maybe this is more to everyone’s liking.
Ruckus
@Steve LaBonne:
I don’t know that I’d say most. Absolutely would use too many. But not most. There is no doubt that within the human race a fair percentage of us that are idiots, as measured by tests or their lives to date, but it’s not actually most. There are those that get taken in by any change, good, bad or totally shitty. They either accept change without even blinking or they see that change is inevitable and go along with any change.
I’ll ask questions. How do we keep a reasonable, rational country for the next how many years? How do we educate the population about rights and responsibilities? How do we get a rational press that isn’t owned by people that see the almighty dollar as the guidepost of the country, or the world? How do we live in a world where change and power need to be shared – not ours alone? How do we change the concept that the dollar is the almighty guide of everything? How do we bring back the concept of humanity – rather than trying to destroy it – or at least hide it?
I’m an old fart, I have maybe 25 yrs of life left. I’d like to leave it better than when I got here. We have the potential to be better. And about the same potential to be far worse. It’s a choice we ALL have to make. And the choice cannot be selfish, it HAS to be about all of us. I’d like to see better, to be better, and not greedy. But making it better has a cost, more to some and less to others. We have a guy who is the wealthiest human demanding to make it worse. WTF? We have people demanding that we bring back full on racism, WTF?
We as a whole have a pretty good deal in this concept of country. But there are still some/many that get pushed out by others for asinine reasons. Sure it’s humanity, in all the positives and all the negatives. Do we need a moto? Be Better? Be Less Selfish? Tax multi billionaires higher as we used to do? All of that, none of that?
Trollhattan
@oldgold:
She’s so headed to SCOTUS, isn’t she. What a good little minion.
Captain C
@Hildebrand:
While I am all for freedom of the press and the protection of journalists, I’m starting to warm to the idea that if an outlet acts as infotainment and propaganda (looking at you FTFNYT and WaPo), maybe they should start losing some of their protections. Not all the way there yet, but let’s just say if His Grossness decides to go after the FTFNYT despite their years of obsequious asskissing and sanewashing, I ain’t donating to their defense fund.
Citizen Alan
Nepo Sulzberger’s Play Pen.
Hoodie
Trudeau (or whoever succeeds him) should calmly invite the Chinese to discuss natural resource development plans and to see if they have better offer. Trump is on some kick where he thinks natural resources (oil, gas and minerals) are the thing and the US needs to counter the Chinese. Canada should get some leverage to support a ridiculous price, e.g., 20 Senate seats and a favorable buyout of Canadian reserves at a premium in USD or, better yet, gold. That would call his silly bluff. Trump doesn’t want to invade Canada and their exports could probably go elsewhere fairly easily if plays the tariff card.
frog
@Quaker in a Basement:
It will take some time to make these areas a state. Meanwhile, Trump’s team will loot the place for all they are worth. Impoverish and starve the inhabitants to make Real Americans in the True 50 States feel rich.
Think Europe in the 1940s.
Captain C
@Baud: The problem is that once the hostages are free, the war is pretty much over and Bibi can then be tossed in jail once found guilty on his corruption (delaying this is his main reason for continuing the war, I think). I am of the impression that the prosecutors have him dead to rights, but if someone knows more on this please feel free to correct me.
rikyrah
@Princess:
But, we knew what was gonna happen with Gaza once November 5th happened.
Omnes Omnibus
@prostratedragon: No pity for violists. They chose viola.
Captain C
@pat: We may have a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency before long.
rikyrah
@oldgold:
GET THEE ENTIRE PHUCK OUTTA HERE.
Omnes Omnibus
@frog: Oh ffs!
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s why Trump was elected. Cut people some slack.
Captain C
@Barbara:
Mine is going to be, “this may not be what you wanted, but it is exactly what you voted for.”
Possibly followed by, “No, I can’t help you financially after you blew all your cash on an exploding wankpanzer and bad online prop bets. Thoughts and prayers, though.”
Omnes Omnibus
Why are we treating the Canada and Greenland stuff as though it is real?
Ella in New Mexico
Once again, every screed by Trump is a tell of the hand he’s holding. Today’s “news conference” was all about smokescreening and getting his worshippers not to see all the bad, bad shit he’s dealing with right now:
Sentencing will proceed Friday on 34 felony counts which he and his lawyers are desperately trying to stop from happening–even though they’ve been reassured he gets nothing more than a conditional discharge.
Cannon pathetically trying to stop Smith/AG from releasing the report on Trumps document/intelligence crimes (not gonna work and Biden can overule based on seperation of powers per some lawyerly folks I’m reading)
Carter’s funeral in which a truly good, decent and well loved ex-President will get a ton of attention, overshadowing his recent Presidential victory and putting a spot light on his dirty, sleazy, corrupt legacy. And with flags being flown at half-mast until he gets sworn in and orders them taken down.
Musk is the thing that woudn’t leave and he’s getting sick of his almost daily efforts to out do him up as “the most important man on the planet” who is hogging all the attention Trump wants right now.
Oh, and the people who are really running his Presidency pretty much told him to suck it up because his dumb tariff ideas are off the table.
UncleEbeneezer
@II: I think what they wanted (organizers at least) was to be able to claim they were the election spoiler (Twitter link):
cain
**yawn** – same old shit.. Americans have voted for this.
What worries me is that tax cut. I’m already paying a lot more it seems than before and now I feel like I”m going to be paying even more and have a shittier fed
That’s where we are going to have to attack Trump is when taxes go up. All this other stuff is just blovating.
If he does get into a land war with Panama and others – that’s going to create a lot of chaos that Trump has no attention span to deal with.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: I am not going to pretend that much of this is anything other than nonsensical ravings.
ETA: This administration is going to do real, actual, terrible shit. I won’t waste my time on the silly shit.
Captain C
@oldgold: Garland should release both reports anyway and ask her “what the fuck you gonna do about it, you bought-and-paid-for hack?”
West of the Rockies
@Suzanne: Deal! Gonna be a River Dance Revival…
Old Man Shadow
I think MAGAts are actually delusional enough to believe that Canada, Greenland, and Panama would be honored to give up their sovereignty.
Anyway
@Quaker in a Basement: @Nettoyeur:
Why is anyone taking the Canada drivel seriously and thinking up how many states etc.? The ONLY response to “let’s make Canada (one or many) state” should be pointing and laughing. It’s a sovereign country – shame on National Review.
Miss Bianca
Why the fuck are we even talking about Canada as one or any number of states?? For fuck’s sake, people – even *we* are starting to normalize Trump’s BS.
I can’t imagine any of our Canadian commenters are amused by this notion.
@Anyway: you and O2 got there first!
Spanky
@West of the Rockies:
If he wants to be another McKinley, so be it.
prostratedragon
@Suzanne: That needs to be a song.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@rikyrah:
Liz Cheney on the subject (it still feels beyond weird to type that):
prostratedragon
@Jeffro: Under one of those posts someone callwd for the intervention of the Mighty Crevasse.
Jackie
@Trollhattan: We are actually forced to hope Thomas and Alito refuse to retire and don’t croak for the next four years. Gag!
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
OT: Saw Uncle Joe flying over the store last night.
OGLiberal
I just give the fuck up. I’m too old to go fight this shit and it’s not my kids’ job to do so. Keep our heads down and get a paycheck…that’s as simple as it will get. That’s where I’m at. What I believe is clearly in the minority. And moving somewhere else isn’t going to help because people are lunatics everywhere. Just take care of you and your family and do the best you can. I’m not willing to die for any of this and nor are my kids…and as long as I have a say I won’t let them.
Matt McIrvin
@Spanky: The only thing that really killed McKinley (and James Garfield) was the appalling state of medical care at the time he was shot–with modern surgery and antibiotics, anyone in reasonable health could have survived that. Never mind the guys with guns; Trump’s COVID infection was a worse kill shot and he already managed to survive that.
MagdaInBlack
@Anyway: My thoughts exactly. Why are we talking about this as if it could happen? Why are we sane-washing his bs?
Jackie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Who is this “We” you speak of? Although the same “we” are doing TCFG’s bidding of breathlessly discussing everything that disgorges from his mouth…
Blech
prostratedragon
@Belafon: I believe Jeffries’s remark had the earlier time stamp.
VFX Lurker
Because “his
politicalBS skills should not be underestimated.”(I have fixed the original quote).
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
At one time I was a mental health counselor, constant training with reviewing of patients, knowledge of mental health and counseling.
It showed me a lot about humanity and holes that people fall (or dive) into. And all of those holes exist, in many forms and depths because someone creates them. shitforbrains is deep in the one he dug for himself long ago. In the math of life he’s a nothing. In the reality of life he’s a scared little boy that believes everyone should love and admire him no matter what he does. And he keeps doing the dumbest things because he’s who he is and because his mental growth curve took a dive around when he was 10-12 years old and hasn’t recovered one iota.
Geminid
@Captain C: Netanyahu’s trial on three corruption counts has been ongoing despite the war. It’s been proceeding in fits and halts since April of 2021. Netanyahu still hopes to derail the prosecution and the war helps him buy time for this but he has other reasons to prolong the war, mainly to salvage his political position and to prevent a state inquiry into the events of October 7 and their antecedents.
different-church-lady
It’s too early to talk about the 25th Amendment, but I’m setting a reminder for 12:01 PM on January 20th.
Old Man Shadow
Though it is probably bullshit, I wouldn’t dismiss the threats against Greenland or Panama entirely Goofus wants to be a great man and great men in history are conquerors who take what they want with violence
And Conservatives are generally dumb and ignorant enough to believe that everyone wants to be a part of the American empire.
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: Because…. the president-elect is talking about it?
I mean, maybe he thinks he’s on a TV show, and maybe half the country believes it, but here in reality he’s still actually the president-elect.
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
It is the party of law and order – for EVERYONE ELSE.
OGLiberal
@Jackie: Yes, the “We” dictate the headlines the, when read – if at all – drive public opinion and, regardless if read or not, drive the narrative, even if it’s BS.
Dems need to just start lying. Being truthful and relying on facts wins nothing. Just BS the fuck out of shit.
different-church-lady
@Ruckus: “You get the law, and we get to order.”
cain
@Old Man Shadow:
He doesn’t have the focus – while he’s busy with greenland, the dude is going to start talking about withdrawing out of NATO. The entire world owes the U.S. something and so his plan is to do pressure tactics with everyone.
In 4 years, the U.S. is going to be very diminished and we deserve it.
Ruckus
@Quaker in a Basement:
he really has lost his mind.
What little that was there in the first place.
Lily
If only Canada would pretend to agree and announce their intention to vote the GOP out, universal health care in, abolish the EC and expand SCOTUS, to get him to shut up.
different-church-lady
Josh Marshall, with the understatement:
different-church-lady
I mean… maybe if he does start a war with Canada, they’ll invade and liberate us?
OGLiberal
@Ruckus: And half of the country that voted thought he was A-OK. The problems we face are much larger than Trump. Our society is sadistic….and not just in the US;
p.a
Maybe tRump will stir up some filibusterers to Canada, Greenland, Panama. Nice to see the whack-os taken out by American designed/supplied weapons.
Ruviana
@Hoodie: Maybe he wants Canada so he can get their big water faucet.
OGLiberal
@Geminid: That fucker will get away with it because Israeli voters like it. Like Trump.
Steve LaBonne
@Lily: Canada will soon have a guy who is nearly as crazy and stupid as Trump as Prime Minister.
zhena gogolia
@Ella in New Mexico: I like your attitude!
different-church-lady
@OGLiberal: Israel has a much better track record of prosecuting war criminals than we do.
Trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s pretext for yuge tariffs with both. Impacts re. Canada are obvious, Denmark less so, but it gets interesting once one digs into what Denmark exports.
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/imports/denmark
The uprising of the Wegovy patients in particular, will not be pretty.
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: Well, good luck surviving the next four year with any sanity intact. This kind of stuff is complete bullshit. At most, it should be mocked.
rikyrah
Rachel Bitecofer![]()
![]()
(@RachelBitecofer) posted at 3:09 PM on Tue, Jan 07, 2025:
Canada outperforms America in pretty much every metric, from life expectancy, to education, & infrastructure & overtook us as the world’s largest middle class a decade ago.
They look at us like we’re a 3rd![]()
country where you’re likely to get shot.
They have 0 interest
(https://x.com/RachelBitecofer/status/1876738017739559008?s=03)
prostratedragon
@Jackie:
[Ten minutes after I first saw this comment] Oh dear. Why not pass the time by listening to a little Shostakovich?
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: Mock it, AND take it seriously.
pajaro
On Gaza, I doubt that we have any operational plans for anything we could do there as a direct combatant, and there’s not much in the way of anything for us to bomb–the place is destroyed, with some parts having been bombed multiple times and most of the population living in tent cities. Trump really wants the credit for ending this, as he said, on day one. Like his similar sentiment on Ukraine, he’s not going to get his wish, because his good buddies Vlad and Bibi are not interested in stopping just yet. On Greenland, I suppose attacking a NATO ally would end the alliance, if that’s his goal, but short of that, he’s just playing games–they’re not up for sale. My guess is that is supporters will say he’s just joking, or that this is some cool bargaining strategy. On Canada, I’m sure he will be able to point to some trade concession that he can spin as the payoff for his threats.
Of course, I could be wrong, and he could simultaneously enter a war in the Mideast, blockade our northern neighbor, and take economic or military action against a NATO ally, on day one, bringing down the alliance, ending our incredible long term relationship with Canada, and putting the Arab world on war footing against us, while he closed the border with Mexico, and got the rest of the world to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of the US.
Suzanne
Someone should grab a map, cross out GULF OF MEXICO and scrawl GULF OF AMERICA on it with a Sharpie, and then hand it to Donnie Two-Scoops. Hand it to him, with tears in their eyes….”Sir, you did it, nobody said it could ever be done, it’s YUUUUUGE. It’s the best Gulf that ever Gulfed.”
Michael Bersin
@sab:
The complications of a such a merger would include ICE/Border Patrol having to wear RCMP uniforms, Francophones detained in camps for deportation to [place to be decided], and “eh” replaced with an open mouth and drool.
MatrixLinks
Long time lurker, first time commenter from Canada. With respect to Trump’s desire to make Canada the 51st state, I can wait until the Republicans find out there are 27 million democratic voters in Canada, and with a population of 38 million, Canada would have more Electoral College votes than California.
rikyrah
Protect Kamala Harris![]()
(@DisavowTrump20) posted at 11:29 AM on Tue, Jan 07, 2025:
![]()
NEW: Liz Cheney on Trump’s latest attempt to block the Jack Smith Report: “Trump is already doing what despots do— he is trying to conceal the truth and threatening to jail those who investigated him.”
RETWEET if you stand with @Liz_Cheney against Trump! https://t.co/6Bj3J90S2R
(https://x.com/DisavowTrump20/status/1876682561642234215?t=PJweM8ELYIjj0Wl5X-kM9g&s=03)
OGLiberal
@different-church-lady: I love Josh. I have been reading him since before Ballon Juice was the evil empire. He is correct. And I actually thing the immigrant stuff is window dressing given the masters of the universe dependence on their labor. The real goal is to go all Ayn Rand on this country and make douchebags like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos happy.
If I didn’t have a wife and young kids I’d be praying for the asteroid to take us out.
Princess
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s making me furious to see people in here talking about how to slice up Canada.
ETA thanks Anyway and Miss Bianca. Some of the rest of you sound like Russians eyeing Ukraine.
rikyrah
Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) posted at 1:50 PM on Tue, Jan 07, 2025:
BREAKING: North Carolina Supreme Court blocks certification of the court’s election and will hear losing candidate Jefferson Griffin’s (R) 60k ballot challenges. Justice Allison Riggs (D), who won by 734 votes, recused herself from the case. More to come. https://t.co/UWQVLmtMFx
(https://x.com/DemocracyDocket/status/1876718022515167491?t=nUekSc6kBenpuCJ0msV7Og&s=03)
Mai Naem mobile ¹
I was talking to a work acquaintance last week. He’s liberal and we’ve talked politics before. Anyhow, he said he tends to overtime and overanalyze stuff and decided that he was giving too much of his time and headspace to TFG. I’m trying to do the same. We need to stop reacting to his every word. He’s crazy and stupid and if Americans can’t figure it out in the next couple of years, we’re screwed and nothing is going to change that except for TFG kicking the bucket. Preferably of natural causes even if the MAGats won’t believe it’s natural causes.
OGLiberal
@different-church-lady: I’ll believe that when I see Bibi in cuffs v. returned to power.
Jackie
@different-church-lady:
Choose our poison: an unhealthy old man or a just turned 40 yr old man who’s just as evil – if not more so? “WE” lose either way.
Tim C.
Couple quick things:
villiageidiocy
The federal government has geographical naming standards it applies to all governmental data. I don’t know how those standards get formally changed, but it’s a thing. One of the reasons it does so is to maintain friendly relations and business standards with other countries, e.g. Rhodesia -> Zimbabwe, Ceylon-> Sri Lanka. I’m familiar with the problems it engenders while researching biological data, when geographic names may reflect a change not merely in a country’s name, but actual boundaries, and the literal location of an organism remains in one place. Wandering boundaries due to wars and colonial activities cause all sorts of data issues and in a perfect world one can build out the database to accommodate the winds of change, but in reality it requires resources not easily available.
This is a good example of properly picking our battles and focusing our ire. Renaming the gulf is an idiot’s idea of a smooth move. All for show, but those who do real work will find easy ways to manage it.
KatKapCC
@rikyrah: Still feels epically weird to “stand with Liz Cheney”
(To be clear, I DO stand with her on these issues. Just the weirdness of that. Imagining going back in time a decade or so and telling my past self…)
TBone
@@mistermix.bsky.social: there’s a recipe open thread not far from here. Walking distance, in fact.
OGLiberal
@Suzanne: That this would work with his voters – and it would – is a sad commentary on US voters. And correct since this asshole will be president again not because January 6, 2021, worked but because your neighbors thought, “well, why not?” this past November.
different-church-lady
@Mai Naem mobile ¹: Counterpoint: we’re already screwed, and we have to take Trump seriously because it’s the only way we can un-screw it.
Lily
He wants to be King so badly. His family recorded in the best nobility books. Already claims relation to a king of Norway, a queen of Denmark, Swedish royalty and of course Scottish and English. All he needs is association with a proper piece of land.
different-church-lady
@Tim C.:
When you’re famous, they let you do it.
different-church-lady
@Lily: Well, for fucks sake, just make him the King of Greenland and maybe he’ll leave us alone.
Mai Naem mobile ¹
@different-church-lady: i think many Americans have memory blocked 2019-2020 and on top of that the trauma of 2019-2020 means people don’t even remember 2017-2018. We’re going to have to go through 2.0 so that Americans get to remember this idiot all over again.
TBone
@Lily: see #63 and #74 for confirmation
Suzanne
@Lily:
Let’s give him the Sun! It’s the very best! It’s GOLD!!! Tell him that they called Louis XIV “the Sun King”, and that this way, he could be even better! And then we can put him in a rocket and send him there. Maybe he’ll get close. I don’t care.
Trollhattan
@Suzanne:
“Sir” said the burly Marine with tears in his eyes, “I have Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz on the phone for you sir, and they want to discuss changing the name from Gulf of America to Gulf of Texas. They sound serious, sir.”
TBone
@Suzanne: bwahahaha!
Geminid
@OGLiberal: In the election held Nov. 1, 2022 Israeli voters split 50-50 into pro-and anti-Netanyahu camps. But two opposition parties fell below the 3.25% theshold, stranding 6% of the vote. That’s how he could form his coalition.
Afterwards, Netanyahu steadily declined in popularity right up until the October 7 attack when his support cratered. He’s made a very small comeback since this past June but he’s still way down in approval. One recent poll showed that while 75% of Israelis said they trusted the IDF only 23% trusted Netanyahu’s government. There are plenty more polls with similar results.
If Israeli voters “like it” as you say, Netanyahu would call new elections. Instead, he’s desperate to avoid them and so are his coalition partners.
eemom
@Jackie:
Ah, but Couch Fucker isn’t a John Ganz (whoever the fuck he is) Anointed Political Genius like trump. That’ll fix it.
Trollhattan
@MatrixLinks:
Waves from California.
We have circa 39M so call it a tie. Also, too, feel free now to be as angry as we are Wyoming gets one rep and two senators with a whopping 584k. My city has 525k and the metro area 2.7M, and we’re a peanut.
Noskilz
I think there is just a large chunk of the electorate who are willfully ignorant fools.
They don’t know, don’t care and don’t want to know or care. Until something proves to be a problem for them personally, it isn’t a problem for anyone as far as they are concerned.
I do hope the world’s reaction to this idiocy to a hard “f*ck off” – he spent a lot of his first term being blown off by international leaders, and it would be nice if his second was a lot more of the same.
His followers wanted an irresponisbile buffon, and I sincerely hope he is treated like one.
Princess
@Geminid: Exsctly. It’s going to be interesting when the good Americans, the 50% who hate Trump, realize that the rest of the world discounts their existence the way so many of them discount the existence of those 50% of Israelis. Trump is going to make Americans, not just America, pretty unpopular I believe.
Barbara
@Captain C: Oh sure, that will make them vote for us next time.
To be persuasive, political messages need to be simple, easily understood, snappy, and repetitive. They should not include gloating or other ego-driven elements. They can be easily adapted: “What the fuck does Greenland have to do with the price of milk?”
@Steve LaBonne: Leaders often emerge because they voice an opposing viewpoint. Any politician can say this. Any politician at whatever level – the goal is to get the message out, not to refine a top down messaging machine. Yeah, of course, maybe do that as well, but it isn’t necessary.
Elizabelle
@prostratedragon: Thank you! Love Baroque. That piece was lovely, and the Youtube segued into
Jordi Savall & Le Concert des Nations “Les Fêtes Royales in Baroque Versailles”
from the 2022 Boston Early Music Festival. Loving it.
More Baroque. Less ridiculous convicted felon.
OGLiberal
@Geminid: I’ll believe it when I see it. The dude is a survivor and the only time he lost in recent memory was to folks who were as wingnut as he is. Prove me wrong, Israel. Remember when Labor ran stuff there? They no longer exist. It’s all just a bunch of wingers fighting for power.
Elizabelle
@Princess: Yes indeed.
Suzanne
@Trollhattan:
LMAO.
Honestly, some right-on-the-money scathing impressions would be a good tool in our toolkit.
I still say “strategery” every once in a while.
Archon
Watching that press conference I genuinely don’t know how this can last 4 years.
That was surreal.
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
THIS.
Steve LaBonne
@Barbara: Jeffries, among other Congressional Democrats, has been saying pretty much all the things we want Democrats to say. Did you hear about that from the mainstream media? I didn’t think so. That’s the problem.
Geminid
@OGLiberal: Even if he is convicted you won’t see Benjamin Netanyahu imprisoned for two more years at least. There won’t be a trial verdict for months and then the appeals will begin.
His coalition’s mandate will run out in 2026 so he’ll be out of office then unless his coalition blows up before that.
Elizabelle
@Princess:
Although. A jackal (maybe hitchhiker?) suggested our analogy is Vichy, France, with Nazis occupying. We do not hold all the French responsible for that collaboration, and there was definitely an active resistance.
That is possibly more apropos.
OGLiberal
@Archon: It’s what pretty much most of your neighbors want.
Kay
Idiot swing voters are all saying “NOW I remember! THIS is what I didn’t like about him! How he never, ever shuts up”
Captain C
@Barbara:
It’s for use on people who always find an excuse to not do the right thing. Occasionally, one might have an epiphany and decide not to be a horrible person.
Miss Bianca
@Lily: ok, *that* I could get behind.
TBone
Junior
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/01/donald-trump-jr-lands-greenland
Poe Larity.
I think we just want BC and Alberta. Too many French in the east.
Geminid
@OGLiberal: The eight-party coalition that ran Israel from June 2021 to December 2022– the last six months as a caretaker government– was not anywhere near as wingnutty as the current government. Arab nations and Turkiye recognized this and acted accordingly, and they knew that situation better than you do. Labor was part of that government as was the more liberal Meretz and the Arab Ra’am Party.
I think what’s going here is you just despise Israelis. You can admit it; plenty of other people despise Israelis.
Edited to substitute “despise” for “hate.”
TBone
@Archon: don’t you remember the Covid pressers???
Another Scott
@OGLiberal:
That’s the whole point of all this nonsense from Donnie and his minions, you know. For us to give up. For us to say everything’s too stupid. For normies to say they’re sick of politics and are going to tune it all out.
That’s what they want us to do.
Don’t.
There’s a difference between thinking we have to pay attention to every mouth noise from him every 3 days and giving up.
We can beat them in important ways.
Fritschner:
We need to keep our wits about us.
Hang in there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
OGLiberal
You know, the best way to win over voters is to tell them that gas and eggs will be cheap and that the Ramirez family won’t be moving to your neighborhood. Just lie – works for Trump and nobody seems to care. Just have a man with a penis deliver that message since that’s where we still are.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Oh well. Bad to be so stupid.
Had you all noticed how The Convict was on the cover of very few magazines (except for parody and satiric reasons)? Because he really does not sell.
I think “legacy” media is going to continue to be surprised how little people click and check in.
I can’t stand his ugly orange face. At least one can always hit mute and never hear his voice.
TBone
@Another Scott: 🎯 that’s indeed the point of all of this flooding of the zone before he even gets within pissing distance of the White House, and it will be flooded every damned day from here on out.
Maybe we should all get hip waders.
OGLiberal
@Geminid: I don’t hate Israelis. I hate Bibi. And why is he still running shit? Could ask the same about our own lousy nation.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott:
Very true.
And I am wickedly glad that many in the DC press corpse have to follow his every utterance and ejaculation now. Those fucks deserve it.
We do not.
Another Scott
@Archon: That’s your first mistake. Why did you watch it?
The whole purpose of the press conference today was to take attention onto himself and off of President Carter’s events at the Capitol. Donnie cannot stand not being the center of attention. Don’t be at all surprised if he does something to try to grab attention at the State Funeral service at the National Cathedral on Thursday.
It’s what he does.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
RaflW
Reading about this parade of braggadocio from Trump here at Balloon Juice is helpful. It let’s me know what the bloviator is up to without having to engage in any clicks to any MSM news sites. One of my goals for 2025 is to pay as little trackable attention to the shitshow as possible.
Anand G. has a good post up about the disengage-nationally, engage at a personal scale options one can take this time ’round:
Elizabelle
The Gulf of America is between the sane and decent on one side, and the unsane and delusionally greedy on the other.
Baud
@RaflW:
Agree.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Nice.
Elizabelle
@Baud: And sad. But. We also live in the reality-based world.
schrodingers_cat
@RaflW: Actually I remember doing the same after W was reelected. Stopped following politics at the granular day to day level.
Jeffro
boy you’re not kidding
lowtechcyclist
@different-church-lady:
Yeah, but he says so much horseshit that there’s really no point in trying to suss out what he might actually do come January 20.
Of mistermix’ list, I’m trying to think of a single one of them that requires any sort of advance planning on the part of Democrats. Trying to conquer Greenland or re-take the Panama Canal can’t be done overnight, nor using “economic force” to force Canada to be part of the U.S. If he signs an executive order requiring all Federal employees, websites, publications, etc. to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” we can all just point and laugh. All hell has already broken out in Gaza, so he’s way behind the curve there. And there’s not a damned thing we can do about any pardons he issues.
So what’s the point of wasting a moment thinking about this bullshit? Tomorrow or the next day, he’ll be spouting a totally different torrent of bullshit. It’s what he does. I’m with Omnes on this: why are we even talking about this horseshit?
(Bullshit, horseshit, potato, potahto.)
Jeffro
YUP
I swear I was thinking the exact same thing earlier today when I heard about his rambling, nonsensical, whiny press conference: “why didn’t we remind people of just how BORING he is?”
ah well, hindsight, 20/20, all that
Chigail
@catclub: Greenland has its own commercial airline staffed by indigenous people and flies to Europe. They also fly smaller planes connecting the widely spread settlements around the country. Greenlanders are NOT a “bunch of dumb natives” waiting for help from white people. Trump will be very surprised.
OGLiberal
@OGLiberal: And you know what, maybe I do hate Israelis. At least those who put Bibi back in power. I hate the assholes in this country who put Trump back in the White House. I hate them because they are bad people. These are people with whom many folks interact and have no bad experiences but they are bad people. You can’t vote for Trump or Bibi’s crew and be good. You just can’t.
Geminid
@OGLiberal: My apologies. I realized that “hate” was too strong a word so I changed it.
It took your assertions that Israelis broadly support Netanyahu and his government as a reflection on their collective judgement and character that went beyond your animus towards their Prime Minister, so I wanted to point out that they in fact do not support him and would toss him and his rotten government out on their asses if they could.
As to why that fucker is still in power, I explained how Netanyahu was able to form a government after a 50-50 election in 2022. Under their electoral system he doesn’t have to call elections until 2026 unless he loses a vote of no-confidence, like Olav Scholz just did in Germany.
TBone
@RaflW: *chef’s kiss
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
The “serious” in shitforbrains territory is that he is seriously demented.
Fair Economist
I’m cool with Trump annexing Canada. It’ll become more than one state, and in the process help with our monstrous pro-Republican Senate bias.
Also, too, big improvement on our chances for national health care.
Now the Canadians may have a different opinion…
Bill Arnold
@JML:
Ten states. 20 Senators.
Fair Economist
@Steve LaBonne:
Exactly.
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
I’m an old. I’ve seen two generations ahead of me get old and often senile. shitforbrains is on that senile track and he seems to be in high gear, throttle to the floor.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steve LaBonne:
I remember one of our Canadian commenters compared him more to GWB than Trump. So not good, but not Trump
Chief Oshkosh
@TBone: At least the idiot son was flown over on Trump’s 757, although I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to steal the cost of the trip from the US taxpayer.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
I wonder if folks made fun of Hitler’s territorial ambitions back in the 30s, too. People also thought him a clown, and in a lot of ways he was, like Trump is too, but was still dangerous and crazy.
I sincerely hope it’s all bullshit, but I’m not sure
Another Scott
@Bill Arnold: +3 Territories. Might as well go for broke and make them States, also too.
Let’s see, 63 stars, yeah that works (7 rows of 9).
;-)
Best wishes,
Scott.
Kay
Has the NYTimes published the first “why we must invade Denmark” editorial yet?
Thats next week.
Starfish (she/her)
Would the Quebecois break off to be their own country?
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Like I said, there is enough actual horrific shit going to go down. I am not going to freak out about the fantasy shit.
Betty
@Old School: Do you think he knows Mexico is part of North America? If you think about it, America refers to Central and South America as well. He needs to change it to the Gulf of the United States.
Geminid
@pajaro: If Trump enters a war in the Middle East it will be against Iran and in particular its nuclear weapons program. That won’t set the Arab world against us; some of those countries would likely cheer him on because they don’t want to see a nuclear-armed Iran.
Chris Johnson
@Cervantes: There is strategy but it is not his.
Trump is just there to make Russia look sane by comparison.
He is just there to personify the demented shit Putin has been saying about us for years.
He’s there to point at and say ‘see? America is the great imperialist!’
That is an easy job to have the man do: just get him going and goad him behind the scenes, tell him Greenland thinks he’s gay or something. It really doesn’t matter. He doesn’t have to be good at his threats or be able to carry any of it out.
He is just there to be pointed at as ‘what America is’, while being directed by Russia the whole time.
cmorenc
@oldgold: Even worse is that if either Thomas or Alito retire while Trump is Potus, Cannon is the most likely nominee Trump will choose to replace them.
Chris Johnson
@Melancholy Jaques: Pravda.
Simple as that. I have already seen a picture where they put up a giant white billboard with ‘TRUTH’ on it.
They’re Pravda. No further naming is necessary.
Chris Johnson
@Starfish (she/her): I’m a Vermonter and would unironically learn French to join them :D
cmorenc
@oldgold: Even worse is that if either Thomas or Alito retire while Trump is Potus, Cannon is the most likely nominee Trump will choose to replace them. She is clearly auditioning for the next opening.
RaflW
@Tim C.: “Things are going to break”
This I think is also what my quote-post from Anand Giridharadas is hinting at. Things are going to break, but if we at the grassroots can start doing some of the repair and nurturing health at the roots.
So that when things break, there’s somewhere to go, people resourced by connected, functioning community to welcome the brokenness.
Ruckus
@Cervantes:
Of course you got bingo but.
Most everything he wants to do has been spoon fed to him by someone because he’s not able to make up the BS he’s spouting. He is aging out and seemingly at a rapid pace. I’ve seen this in family prior generations and friends prior generations. I call it old fartitus. I’d say it is noticeable in about 90% of those that get old fartitus. Possibly more. Now if you are wondering old fartitus is when the body still works reasonably and looks not old and frail but the brain is aging out.
He is as good, as human, as in touch as he is ever going to be. It is all downhill from here. What I wonder is who is actually going to be running things. It may be him, but I wouldn’t bet pocket change on it. Once that road downhill to senility gets a green light, there is no stopping or slowing it down. And once it gets above 2nd gear, it picks up speed and the road downhill gets steeper. And from snippets I’ve heard, he’s about maxed out in first gear. Sure there are times he will sound as close to human as he ever has, but this right now is about as good as it gets.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Tim C.:
What makes you think they will be obeyed?
RaflW
@cmorenc: As terrible as she is, I’d rather have her stupidity in that seat than a smart and ruthless hack. If she does end up elevated to SCOTUS, anything she might get assigned to write should be easier to overturn later if we manage to wrest control of the Court from the MAGA.
And she’ll be a clear foil for us in making “The Court is illegitimately stupid and venal now” claims.
Steve LaBonne
@RaflW: This is where I do my periodic commercial for the value of liberal religious communities of all kinds.
Geminid
@Ruckus: Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susan Wiles is running this show as much as anyone is. She won Trump’s confidence three years ago and he knows he needs her now.
Fun Suzie Wiles fact: Her second job in politics was working on Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, and she was his Chief of Staff once he retired. Wiles has dealt with dementia before.
MagdaInBlack
I think they just wind him up and send him out to yammer his nonsense to keep him out of their hair and keep us distracted while “they” go about making their really awful plans.
Ksmiami
@cain: I believe Balkanizing here is the only way forward.
Dan B
@Barbara: I agree that simple and repetitive messages are key. Jeffries had a good message but no one is repeating it, at least anyone corporate or social media influences would notice. Endless repetition can break through.
Misterpuff
@Harrison Wesley:
Wave The Bloody Diaper!
Thor Heyerdahl
As a Canadian I’ll channel my inner Walter Sobchak on behalf of my fellow Canucks
cmorenc
@Ruckus: The real brains will be jd vance as Trump lapses into unbroken senior moment mental status. That is a both good up to a point(vance is not insane) and bad (he has evil techno-fascist notions, coupled with calculating shrewdness).
Roberto el oso
We have become a very silly people. That there are still large numbers of folks who look to the US as a harbinger of decency gets sadder every day.