Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it’s a trap.

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

Republicans don’t trust women.

White supremacy is terrorism.

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

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

No one could have predicted…

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

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

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

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Dipshit Incel Addict Holds Diminished Old Man Hostage

Dipshit Incel Addict Holds Diminished Old Man Hostage

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I didn’t get a chance to watch King Elon and his kid (Klingon? MouseClick?) give a press conference while diminished partially senile Vassal Trump looked on, but it looks like it was a banger.

Asked to respond to people who say he’s orchestrating a hostile takeover of government, Elon Musk lies that “a majority of the public voted for President Trump”

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 11, 2025 at 2:32 PM


This is just pure, unadulterated political fucking poison. Nobody voted for Musk. Trump said a lot of things, but he never said that he would put this clown in charge of the government and just sit there and nod vacantly. He’s going to take away your kids’ IEP. He’s going to take away money that keeps your University — and the University Hospital that saves lives — running. He’ll break all the rules that you have to follow just to screw you in order to make himself and his buddies richer.

The politics of this are not hard. A posse of unfuckable nerds has infiltrated our government to steal our money because Trump let them.

Edit: Forgot this gem:

Reporter: You said an example of fraud that you have cited was $50 million of condoms was sent to Gaza but after a fact-check apparently it was Gaza in Mozambique meant to protect them against HIV. 

Musk: First of all, some of the things I say will be incorrect

[image or embed]

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM

Reader Interactions

100Comments

  2. 2.

    MobiusKlein

    My eyes must be degenerating.  That u-tube thumbnail looks like two D-list actors playing trump and leon

  3. 3.

    bbleh

    The cap, the posture, and the nervous hair-brushing, definitely say to me “here’s a guy who’s comfortable in his own skin and knows what he’s doing.”  Really, I couldn’t be more confident.

    [rummages frantically through fridge for bottle of Valium]

  4. 4.

    Gravie

    The trolls, bots, and MAGATs are out in full force, wondering querulously why we’re upset about an audit that’s exposing waste and fraud. I slap them down every time I can.

  5. 5.

    K-Mo

    Wow.  I 100% agree with the OP.  Trump looks *terrible* here even with the sound off.  It’s bonkers.   As the repercussions of Musk’s monkeying around become more and more salient, expect to see variations of this picture propagating across the mediasphere.

  6. 6.

    Mathguy

    Looks like a remake of Willy Wonka with an Oompa Loompa and one of the kids with their shithead father.

  8. 8.

    SpaceUnit

    Since this is an open thread may I interrupt the never-ending trainwreck for a moment to ask a question of the experienced cooks on the blog?

    I was going to start a pot roast in the slow cooker tomorrow morning but I just realized I don’t have any beef broth.  Do you guys think I could substitute chicken broth?  I really don’t want to go back to the store for one stupid can of broth.  It’s ten degrees and snowing here.  Seems to me that chicken broth would work okay, but I don’t want to ruin a twenty five dollar cut of meat.  Need the BJ hive mind.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    Fuck, a majority of the people who voted in 2024 didn’t vote for Trump. He won a plurality of the popular vote, not a majority.

  10. 10.

    JennyMenace

    He wears his coat perpetually indoors these days, in an effort to cover the steroid-related weight gain.

  12. 12.

    Jeffg166

    @SpaceUnit:

    Broth is mostly salt to start. Chicken stock should be fine. Water would be OK. With everything else in the pot it will come together. Add wine.

  13. 13.

    Steve LaBonne

    @SpaceUnit: I wouldn’t do that, but in a pinch I guess it wouldn’t be too terrible. (Oddly I am making a pressure cooker pot roast right now.) Per the previous comment, 100% on the wine if you have it.

  14. 14.

    Quinerly

    @SpaceUnit:

    Sure. Use chicken broth. In the future, you might want to keep some “Better than Bouillon” on hand. I love the large jars at Costo. I keep the beef and chicken ones as back up in the refrigerator

    Edited to add…some red wine too.

  15. 15.

    MagdaInBlack

    You would think someone as brilliant as elno would be a wee bit more articulate, wouldn’t you? He uses a lot of words to say nuthin. Even his accent can’t save it.

  18. 18.

    Poe Larity

    “RADICAL LEFTISTS” in Kansas are sore about sorghum:

    Kansas farmers and grain elevators could be left without a market for last year’s sorghum crop after President Donald Trump dismantled a federal foreign aid program.

    Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. It housed Food for Peace, which used America’s agricultural surpluses to fight world hunger, expand international trade and advance foreign diplomacy.

    Shutting down the food aid program could adversely affect the Kansas agriculture industry, which has an overabundance of sorghum, also known as milo.

  24. 24.

    Leto

    First of all, some of the things I say will be incorrect

    “I was told there would be no fact checking…”

  26. 26.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Quinerly: Is that the ketamine? I’ve no experience with those users. Just weed.

    (not implying you know from ketamine, just askin  =-)

  32. 32.

    Suburban Mom

    @SpaceUnit: Yes!  Chicken or vegetable broth will work fine.  Depending on the other ingredients you might want to amp up the other seasonings.  A bit of soy or fish sauce would add a little meaty umami if you think you need that.

  33. 33.

    Dan B

    @SpaceUnit: Certified Chef here.  Chicken stock is quite neutral and the beef will essentially turn it into beef stock.  Wine too

    I second fish sauce and soy.  A tiny pinch of sugar and extra herbs.

  34. 34.

    SpaceUnit

    @Suburban Mom:

    Thanks.  Yes I plan to add a bit of soy sauce to the mix.  I’ve also found that McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning makes a great rub before you sear the meat in a pan.

    I’m not a terrific cook but I’m always trying to learn new things.

  37. 37.

    Quinerly

    @MagdaInBlack:

    No experience with ketamine. Actually, had to look it up when Matthew Perry died.

    Never have done any drugs so I’m pretty naive. Not even a pot smoker.

    I do know “high” and Musk was flying pretty high. Granted, I never have paid much attention to him when he has spoken. I did today. Watched him. Really a poor speaker. Sputtering, stuttering, and stammering. Trump was gazing on him….totally enraptured. Very weird visuals…..especially considering they were in the Oval Office.

  39. 39.

    SpaceUnit

    @Dan B:

    That’s kind of what I was hoping.  Thank you.

    And okay I’ll try a tiny, tiny pinch of sugar.  The only herbs I’m planning to use are some fresh sprigs of thyme.

  42. 42.

    Leto

    NASA unveils plans to bring stuck Starliner crew back to Earth next month

    Assuming the dates hold up, Wilmore and Williams will have logged nearly 290 days in orbit since launch June 5 on a mission originally expected to last a little more than one week. That’s how long Boeing and NASA managers thought it would take to complete the Starliner’s first piloted test flight.

    As it turned out, the Starliner, built as part of a NASA program to develop independent commercial crew ships to ferry astronauts to and from the space station, ran into propulsion problems and propellant leaks that prompted weeks and then months of tests and analysis.

    In the end, NASA managers decided the risks were too high to bring Wilmore and Williams down aboard the Starliner. Instead, they opted to bring the ship down by remote control, without its crew, and to keep Wilmore and Williams aboard the station until they could ride home with Hague and Gorbunov at the end of the Crew 9 expedition.

    NASA originally planned to bring all four back to Earth in February, but late last year, another month was added to the mission because of work needed to ready the Crew 10 Dragon for launch.

    I literally forgot about those two. Fucking Gillian’s Island space adventure.

  44. 44.

    Harrison Wesley

    This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a skipping dipshit.

  45. 45.

    bbleh

    @Quinerly: Trump was gazing on him….totally enraptured.

    Enraptured or just out of it?  The guy is almost 80, has his own life history of very-off-label drug use, and is — not to put too fine a point on it — pret’ dam’ stoopid.

    The whole thing kinda has a surreal feel. Buñuel does the Oval.  The nervous babbling and fidgeting, the vacant stares, the kid wandering around.  I was half-expecting a unicorn to walk through.

  47. 47.

    Leto

    @Baud: you all were discussing that a thread or two down, and it tracks with Avalune’s union. Leadership pretty liberal, all the members Trumpov voting conservatives. They don’t think anything will happen, that it’s all just bluster/“Trumpov being Trumpov.” Ok.

  49. 49.

    MagdaInBlack

    It is inconceivable to me that anyone can listen to those two men speak and think they’re smart guys.

  50. 50.

    bbleh

    @Quinerly: maybe a scratchy radio in the background playing, I dunno, old Brazilian ballads, that occasionally and unexpectedly increases in volume and drowns out what Melon is saying, but just as with the unicorn, neither of them notices.

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    Watching the first Musk clip.  Never heard him speak before.

    And yes. Trump voters are going to get what they voted for.

    Good and hard.

  55. 55.

    catclub

    @Baud: ​
     

    The media will still hang on every word, just like with Trump.

    Rupert Murdoch loses title “Biggest immigrant billionaire asshole breaking the US”.

  56. 56.

    Elizabelle

    The second clip:  unseen foreign female journalist, asking hard questions of President Musk.  Asks him, basically, how they can rely on what he says.  Good for her.

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    @dc:  Musk bought the presidency.  Would not be surprised if The Felon is sitting quietly there, hands folded, because Musk is giving him untold millions of dollars, maybe even billions, personally, for the privilege of destroying our government and credibility.

  61. 61.

    Shalimar

    @Quinerly: To me, Trump’s expression in that first clip was more “how is this idiot richer than me?”

    edit: I do not think the guy who slapped his kid in his college dorm room for not wearing a suit to a baseball game has any appreciation at all for Musk’s style.

  64. 64.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Steve LaBonne: I have one at work, one of our body techs. We have agreed to not ever discuss it. I do know he has no use for elon.

    But yeah, I get your point. Oy

    eta: He and I are the only Anglos at that shop. Imagine his attitude towards that.

  65. 65.

    RevRick

    @bbleh: Given how deranged and delusional Trump sounded in his Fox interview with Bret Baier, we should be grateful that Trump is gazing vacantly into space. William Saletan at The Bulwark noted how enraged Trump became when the subject of the 2020 election came up and his vehement insistence that it was rigged. Trump really believes that shit, because he has sunk into a narcissism so deep that he can no longer distinguish a reality separate from his desires.

  67. 67.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Musk: First of all, some of the things I say will be incorrect

    Isn’t an admission of error the kiss of death in Trumpland?

  68. 68.

    bbleh

    @RevRick: At least in the parts I saw, Melon was careful to sprinkle his remarks with appropriate praise for Trump’s Magnificent Victories, his Overwhelming Mandate, and I dunno probably various parts of his anatomy as well, so there wasn’t much to arouse him.

    Also I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Orange Guy dosed before the Baier interview but not before this.  The differences between his “up” appearances and his (increasingly frequent) zombie-like ones are striking

    But as to the NPD, yeah, he does seem to be manifesting the received wisdom that it gets materially worse, even at an accelerating rate, with age.

  69. 69.

    Bill Arnold

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:
    On Trump’s Truth Social, every post is a Truth. (Truth is both a noun and a verb.)
    You could have one account Truth “X is True” and another Truth “X is not True”, and both [posts] would be Truths.

  72. 72.

    trollhattan

    Trump spent a good deal of the final weeks of campaigning merely swaying to awful music and reciting the alphabet. Incorrectly.

    A phalanx of Doctor Nicks can keep him ambulatory four years, I’m guessing.

  73. 73.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, … EFF.org:

    EFF Sues DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management to Halt Ransacking of Federal Data

    By Jason KelleyFebruary 11, 2025

    [ OPM logo inside of giant eyeball ]

    EFF and a coalition of privacy defenders have filed a lawsuit today asking a federal court to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the private information of millions of Americans that is stored by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and to delete any data that has been collected or removed from databases thus far. The lawsuit also names OPM, and asks the court to block OPM from sharing further data with DOGE.

    The Plaintiffs who have stepped forward to bring this lawsuit include individual federal employees as well as multiple employee unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees and the Association of Administrative Law Judges.

    This brazen ransacking of Americans’ sensitive data is unheard of in scale. With our co-counsel Lex Lumina, State Democracy Defenders Fund, and the Chandra Law Firm, we represent current and former federal employees whose privacy has been violated. We are asking the court for a temporary restraining order to immediately cease this dangerous and illegal intrusion. This massive trove of information includes private demographic data and work histories of essentially all current and former federal employees and contractors as well as federal job applicants. Access is restricted by the federal Privacy Act of 1974. Last week, a federal judge temporarily blocked DOGE from accessing a critical Treasury payment system under a similar lawsuit.

    […]

    Web page with Complaint and link to 19 page .pdf

    Good, good.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  77. 77.

    danielx

    @RevRick: ​
     

    Trump really believes that shit, because he has sunk into a narcissism so deep that he can no longer distinguish a reality separate from his desires.

    True, but it’s not like this is new.

  78. 78.

    different-church-lady

    Today we had something utterly insane happen in the Oval Office and everyone’s just standing around going, “Well… uh…”

  80. 80.

    JoyceH

    Musk is really becoming toxic. I see on Maddow that angry citizens who want to protest somewhere near where they live are choosing Tesla dealerships as protest sites. The stock is tumbling.

  81. 81.

    Peale

    @Gravie: AN AUDIT IS CONDUCTED BY ACCOUNTANTS AND LAWYERS AND NOT SOMEONE WHO TWEETS “I DON’T LIKE THIS. IT MUST BE ILLEGAL. STOP PAYING EVERYONE.”

  82. 82.

    FelonyGovt

    Just got off a telephone Town Hall with Rep.Ted Lieu. He said that Congressional Dems are adopting a three part strategy, legislation, mobilization and litigation. He said that 55 lawsuits are pending to halt the administration’s illegal activities and the administration keeps losing them. Of course, he seems to be assuming that the admin will obey the courts, which of course is not a given.

    He said “Democrats are with you” and suggested that we post on social media, write letters to the editor, and talk to others, and ask Republicans “the same questions being asked of me”.

  83. 83.

    Peale

    @Sister Golden Bear: Since we’re not following any other rules these days, Elon is probably parading his spawn around as the future claimant to the thrown. Like Trump dies and we go into the Musk Regency until junior here is old enough to rule.

  85. 85.

    prostratedragon

    @catclub:

    Rupert may be an asshole — What am I saying?! — Rupert is an asshole, but I don’t think he begins to be as stupid as this crew, or as controlled by off-topic pathologies.

  86. 86.

    different-church-lady

    @FelonyGovt:

    …and suggested that we post on social media…

    This shit depresses me: I’m supposed to walk into a Nazi bar and tell them they’re Nazis?

  87. 87.

    Quinerly

    LOD’s first 18 mins tonight was quite good. Drilled down on Musk’s power plays in the Oval Office today; Trump’s recoiling from Musk’s kid when the kid approached Trump; and Trump and Musk’s lying.

  89. 89.

    sentient ai from the future

    re: slow cooker pot roast, i can absolutely endorse better than boullion.

    but penzey’s has their own stock concentrates now, in a wider array of types than BtB (fish, most notably) and they are fantastic though pricier. but still. PENZEY’S!

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @Quinerly: I saw some video of Turkish President and Musk with kid taken last September. Musk was visiting Erdogan at the Turkish Consulate in New York and brought his son along.

    Edogan: Where is the mother?

    Musk: She’s in San Francisco. We’re divorced.

    Erdogan: ….

    Paw Paw Recip tries to small talk the kid with no response. Then someone brings a soccer ball and Erdogan presents it to the young Musk. The kid won’t touch it. So Erdogan, who was a real baller in his youth, expertly bounces the ball a couple times and holds it out again. The kid tries to crawl over his father’s shoulder, thinking “Who is this scary man, and what is he trying try to do to me with that big round thing?”

    Pleasantries over, Musk and Erdogan plus a few consular officials take seats around a large coffee table and the kid gets them hear discuss business and politics.

  92. 92.

    Marc

    Josh Marshall: I tell ya, I’m tryin’, dear friends. I’m struggling here not to engage in hyperbole. But I don’t know what else to call these people besides political commissars. And again, they report to Elon Musk. He’s already very clearly operating here as an independent actor whose actions the President blesses after he’s found out what’s happened. This is a parallel overlaying of authority over the entire structure of the U.S. government.

    We’re in dystopian quasi-science fiction territory here.

  96. 96.

    Quinerly

    @Geminid: the entire visual today in the Oval Office was just so very weird. Musk’s attire, the kid, Stephen Miller and another goon standing by, Musk’s speech pattern and mannerisms, Trump gazing at him yet recoiling from the kid, and the press not really asking follow up questions. Musk talking twice as much as Trump.

    Trump really doesn’t look well.

  98. 98.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):

    Since there’s a discussion about cooking, I could use some advice from the chefs and cooks here:

    i have a tube of anchovy paste, and I don’t know how to use it, never have.
    will it go ok for umami, just a teaspoon or two, in Asian chicken or beef stir fry? Would it blend with Italian seasonings, like oregano?

    I’m open to ideas. I’ve been cooking since I was a kid, but this is a new ingredient to me. I’m afraid it could overpower whatever I put it in. What flavors would marry well with it? Ginger? Carrots and onions?

    Thanks in advance

  99. 99.

    K-Mo

    @apocalipstick: Truth.

    Looking at this video again, I’ve come to the conclusion that Trump must have had an accident in his pants just before the camera guys came in.  He’s pinned in behind that desk like someone superglued him there.  It’s unnatural.

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