Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

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

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Is trump is trying to break black America over his knee? signs point to ‘yes’.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

We still have time to mess this up!

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

This fight is for everything.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Celebrate the fucking wins.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / GOP Stupidity Open Thread: He’s Not *My* Daddy, You Weirdos

GOP Stupidity Open Thread: He’s Not *My* Daddy, You Weirdos

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I bet most adult children of these guys either got jobs from their family connections or they vote Democratic.

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— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) July 15, 2025 at 1:02 PM

I had a deeply dysfunctional family of origin, and the literal scars to prove it. But the older I get, the more firmly I believe: Anyone over the age of 25 needs to restrict discussion of their ‘daddy issues’ to their bedroom, therapist’s office, or memoirs. Ditto ‘mommy issues’. Talking like this in public is deeply weird, and frankly embarrassing to the rest of us.

And this goes double for the GOP’s Christianist pap — although anyone willing to vote for an obvious, self-satisfied little freak like ‘Paster’ Johnson is probably a lost cause.

Mike Johnson: "God miraculously saved the president's life — I think it's undeniable — and he did it for an obvious purpose. His presidency and his life are the fruits of divine providence. He points that out all the time and he's right to do so."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 15, 2025 at 10:43 AM

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idk how you’d frame it, that’s for the pros, but i think there’s probably an avenue for “you’re not my fucking father” messaging for dems next year, because this is incredibly weird and unpleasant and inappropriate

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— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) July 15, 2025 at 12:38 PM

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fwiw, i think this also indicates that there’s no actual messaging strategy behind defending the tariffs or the medicaid cuts or anything else, they are all just trying to freelance it, which is *extremely* unwise with midterms coming

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— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) July 15, 2025 at 12:49 PM

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this is going to matter because this shit is all corrosively unpopular and the effects are just starting to be felt, it only gets worse from here and they’ve got nothing in the tank for anyone to feel good about

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) July 15, 2025 at 12:51 PM

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— Garrett (@fluidmotiondesigns.bsky.social) July 15, 2025 at 11:45 AM

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    bbleh

    MEANwhile Courtier Central WaPo is reporting that Pastor Mike has “broken publicly” with the Dear Leader over the Epstein files and that many Republicans who voted down the Dem measure nevertheless want the files released.

    So it definitely is having an effect.  And even when they release SOME version of SOMETHING, nobody in tinfoil-hat land will believe it for a minute.  This is acid that don’t stop.  (Note to Dems: PILE ON FFS!)

  2. 2.

    J.

    That cartoon/graphic just confirms my believe that many (most?) MAGA cultists are sado-masochists.

  3. 3.

    J.

    @bbleh: I just saw that, but Johnson is just doing a Collins. He’d never vote against or do anything to harm Dear Leader. It’s just talk.

  4. 4.

    Harrison Wesley

    So small business owners are at fault for whatever the mess is that we’re supposedly in? I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

  6. 6.

    bbleh

    @J.: agree he won’t take legislative action, but it’s TREASONOUS talk.  Dear Leader has said the matter is CLOSED and he’s saying it’s not!  And in politics, talk matters.  Says to me that MAGAland is roiled up enough that they have to at least pretend they’re listening, even if it means contradicting Dear Leader.

    Also, CNN is running a VERY unflattering picture of Reichsminister Bondi, just sayin’…

  7. 7.

    suzanne

    Anyone over the age of 25 needs to restrict discussion of their ‘daddy issues’ to their bedroom, therapist’s office, or memoirs. Ditto ‘mommy issues’. Talking like this in public is deeply weird, and frankly embarrassing to the rest of us.

    I swear these people would just be happier if they went to a dungeon and paid a professional. YOLO.

  8. 8.

    bbleh

    @suzanne: they would if they dared.  Secretly they would LOVE to.

    (This btw is one of my 500 Reasons Libruls Are Happier — we have WAY better sex lives.)

  11. 11.

    H.E.Wolf

    @J.: I feel so bad for that snek.

    Right-wing authoritarian followers, on the other hand? Shame on the lot of them. (And prison terms for their crime-committing leaders.)

  14. 14.

    Sure Lurkalot

    The Daddy shit is ludicrous as is a woman’s place is to be subservient wife to Daddy and ever pregnant Mommy.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    God apparently didn’t give a fig about the guy fatally shot in the same incident.

    Shove your smug, conceited dogma where the moon don’t shine, Johnson.

  18. 18.

    stinger

    @J.: Yabbut — the Felon is no Pelosi. She didn’t care if Dems had to badmouth her a little back home, in order to show “independence” and get re-elected. But there’s no “Just win, baby” with the Felon. He demands performative suck-up at all times. Pastor Mike may be getting out over his skis.

  24. 24.

    Other MJS

    I avoid conspiracy theories, but ballistics experts seem to think that a bullet that even nicked his ear should have shredded it. But it looked like the tampon he wore healed it up nicely.

    Just too goddam convenient.

  25. 25.

    Splitting Image

    @Harrison Wesley:

    So small business owners are at fault for whatever the mess is that we’re supposedly in? I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

    To be fair, many small business owners vote Republican. Culpability for this mess goes hand in hand with that.

  26. 26.

    Loquacious Scribble, PhD

    Anyone over the age of 25 needs to restrict discussion of their ‘daddy issues’ to their bedroom, therapist’s office, or memoirs.

     

    And Star Wars movies. Can’t have a Star Wars movie without someone destroying a planet over daddy issues.

  27. 27.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @suzanne: Trouble is, that requires things like mutual consent, and that kills the mood for some of the people currently in power. The First Felon is practically an adjudicated rapist, after all.

  29. 29.

    suzanne

    @hueyplong: Perhaps. God. They’re so gross.

    Why can’t they just be into spankings and wetsuits and buttplugs with tails on them like normal people?!?!

  30. 30.

    gene108

    Theoretically, we were promised no tough medicine. We’d slap tariffs around on this country and that country, and they’d be begging us to build factories here to avoid the tariffs.

    I think it’s a fair question, which won’t be asked by the media, regarding new manufacturing facilities being built here. Onshoring manufacturing is the stated purpose behind these tariffs.

  32. 32.

    bbleh

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: as I understand it, technically, he IS an “adjudicated” rapist.  He is not a CONVICTED rapist, because he couldn’t be criminally charged due to the statute of limitations, but he was found liable for sexual assault in civil court, and the judge said that his actions amounted to rape as the word is commonly understood.

    So yes, “convicted” felon (on other charges) and “adjudicated” rapist.

  33. 33.

    gene108

    @Harrison Wesley:

    So small business owners are at fault for whatever the mess is that we’re supposedly in? I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

    We’re all responsible for our own financial messes. We’re also on our own for all our health issues.

    Seems to be a recurring theme with Republicans now.

    Financial problems? You should’ve saved more, or gotten a better job, or a less expensive car, or diversified your business, etc.

    They are worse when it comes to healthcare. They are itching to pass judgment on who is worthy or not worthy to receive medical care based on things like diet, exercise, inherited conditions, etc.

  34. 34.

    bbleh

    @NotMax: the cover-up is what bites them in the ass.  Hey! maybe THAT’s why Republicans get involved in cover-ups so much!  It’s a sorta “legitimate” way to, um, get it.

  35. 35.

    Chetan Murthy

    @J.: I have the previous version of that t-shirt: instead of super rich Daddy, it’s just Daddy.  I’ve worn it around San Francisco a few times and it’s actually quite surprising how many people comment on it and know what it means. And of course I get lots of compliments.

  36. 36.

    piratedan

    damn shame that there’s not enough “tough” medicine for Billionaires to take, yet plenty for the rest of us, strangely enough that there isn’t a fucking tariff on that, per DJT and KNOWING how tariffs work, it would practically pay for itself…..

  37. 37.

    Jeffro

    @Other MJS:

    I avoid conspiracy theories, but ballistics experts seem to think that a bullet that even nicked his ear should have shredded it. But it looked like the tampon he wore healed it up nicely.  Just too goddam convenient.

    I thought the theory was that he was nicked by the slightest shred of flying glass from a teleprompter screen?

    anyway, given trumpov’s ties to professional wrestling, where the wrestlers cut themselves all the time for dramatic effect…it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that’s what happened

    BUT

    as with most conspiracy theories, it requires that we believe in a rather widespread cabal of players who are able to keep The Big Secret secret.  And this group is so dumb and full of BS on a good day, I just can’t see them all keeping their lips zipped.

  38. 38.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @NotMax:

    God apparently didn’t give a fig about the guy fatally shot in the same incident.

    No doubt the faithful have convinced themselves that God intended that Mr. Comperatore gladly sacrifice his life for the good of the country and its finest president.

  39. 39.

    The Audacity of Krope

    God sent Trump to destroy America and as much of the world as possible with it. The Divine will protect him on this holy mission.

  44. 44.

    Scout211

    I have been offline lately so this likely has been discussed already, but is anyone else sick of Trump making everything about the World Cup about him?

    The NFL says, Hold my beer.

    While watching the FIFA Club World Cup final match July 13, he told streaming channel DAZN TV he was considering issuing an executive order to change the name of the sport in the U.S. from “soccer” to “football,” as it called around the rest of the world.

    “I think we can do that, I think I could do that,” Trump said with a laugh for the interview published July 14.

    “They call it ‘football,’ but I guess we call it ‘soccer,’ but that change could be made very easily,” Trump added. “But it’s great to watch.”

    ETA: Also too:

    According to The Daily Beast, Trump didn’t just hold up the trophy at one point on Sunday. He actually kept it for himself. The one that Chelsea captain Reece James held up was a replica.

    Seriously! That’s what Trump apparently said during the DAZN broadcast

  45. 45.

    Eolirin

    @suzanne: Pft. They don’t even do that in any of the interesting ways.

    That’s the thing that gets me down the most about these assholes. Absolutely no imagination worth a damn

    The world they want to trap us in isn’t just bleak, it’s also dull.

  48. 48.

    Jeffro

    Thomas Edsall, just calling it like it is: America’s elites and institutions are not doing their job in protecting democracy

    (gift link)

    It’s interesting to see how a combination of inside help (Vought, Miller, Wiles) and a complicit, craven Congress (Johnson), and business/academic elites who don’t care to take a stand (almost all of them) are having anti-democracy multiplier effects.

    But the biggest enablers, according to Edsall and others (and I’d have to agree)?  The Roberts Court.

    Capitalizing on Democrats’ weakness, President Trump is winning his battle to undermine democracy in this country.
    But he has not won the war.

    A host of factors could blunt his aggression: recession, debt, corruption, inflation, epidemics, the Epstein files, anger over cuts in Medicaid and food stamps, to name just a few. Much of what Trump has done could be undone if a Democrat is elected president in 2028.

    But for federal workers, medical and scientific researchers, lawyers in politically active firms, prominent critics of Trump — thousands of whom have felt the sting of arbitrary firings, vanished paychecks and retracted grants, criminal inquiries and threatened bankruptcies — the 2028 election may prove too late to repair the damage.

    And that’s before we even begin to talk about the anti-immigration crackdown.
    Trump’s assaults are aimed at targets large and small, some based on personal resentments, others guided by a more coherent ideological agenda
    Instead of authoritarianism, Theda Skocpol, a professor of government and sociology at Harvard, has coined two phrases to describe the Trump agenda:

    Trump’s immediate goal is better described as creating a governing system I call “competitive sycophancy*,” where all power centers inside and beyond the federal government are run by competing sets of people vying to flatter him and manipulate resources and rules to his personal and family advantage. They do one extreme thing after another, try to outdo each other, and he chooses who to back, with shifts and chaos and unpredictability week after week.

    *also known as “working towards the Fuhrer”, but I digress…

    “Patrimonial corruption” is the only through-line result, along with sheer inefficiency and incompetence at key institutional and public-regarding tasks.

    Thanks to the fawning of the G.O.P. and of most elite-run U.S. institutions, he already basically has this system in place. One part of it that is a possible route to pure coercive authoritarianism is the new ICE-centered private army run without limits by Stephen Miller — and there will be constant efforts to push that into a centralizing and terrifying threat against all political opposition.

    But, Skocpol contended, “we are not there yet”
    One group of legal scholars, Vladeck writes, argues “that the court is letting the president win these ‘small’ fights in the hope that it will either moot the need for big fights down the road or, at the very least, arm the court with a larger reservoir of good will and capital to spend when those big fights come.”
    Vladeck sees three problems with this line of reasoning:

    First, these aren’t one-off disputes; they’re a flood of cases. As opposed to letting the president or Congress get away with one maneuver in one case, the net effect of the court’s 16 interventions in favor of Trump to date has been to greenlight a truly unprecedented amount of lawlessness by the executive branch.

    Second, and as a result, the court’s interventions are causing an enormous amount of real-world harm — whether with respect to over a million individuals losing their previous immigration status; countless migrants being removed to third countries; federal employees being fired; grants being canceled; or otherwise.

    Third, and most important, whereas the court’s appeasement in prior episodes helped to defuse constitutional crises, the behavior here only enables continued bad behavior by the executive branch — both at the policy level and with regard to defying adverse lower-court rulings.

  49. 49.

    suzanne

    @Eolirin: I’m so glad that the jackaltariat, though we often disagree on a lot….. we’re aligned on what truly matters.

  52. 52.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro: ​
    No argument with that last bit of boldface. Each Seditious Six ruling in Trump’s favor has just opened the door to even greater abuses.​

  54. 54.

    WTFGhost

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: Technically, he is an adjudicated rapist, because the jury found to a preponderance of the evidence that he committed actions that weren’t technically “rape” in NY, but were within the common accepted definition of rape, e.g., “run right up and grab them by the pussy.”

    There’s also sworn testimony that he used his position in the entertainment industry to pressure Stormy Daniels for sex in a fairly grotesque manner, and Trump made no attempts to rebut the testimony. I’m not a 1stAmendment attorney, so I’m not sure what you can say, but you should have license to say some pretty horrible things, all with some form of “if what I’ve heard is true,” disclaimer.

  55. 55.

    Professor Bigfoot

    Open Thread:

    The Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket 

    Since April 4, #SCOTUS has issued 15 rulings on 17 emergency applications filed by Trump (three birthright citizenship apps were consolidated).

    It has granted relief to Trump … in all 15 rulings.

    It has written majority opinions in only 3.

    Today’s order is the 7th with no explanation at all.

  58. 58.

    Jeffro

    @lowtechcyclist: trumpov has “won” 16 cases in a row with SCOTUS…kind of unbelievable

    well, that’s probably not the right word

    “unconscionable” seems more appropriate

  59. 59.

    Other MJS

    @Jeffro:

    as with most conspiracy theories, it requires that we believe in a rather widespread cabal of players who are able to keep The Big Secret secret.  And this group is so dumb and full of BS on a good day, I just can’t see them all keeping their lips zipped.

    I love Merlin Mann’s quote: “My gut is that most conspiracy
    theorists have never been project managers. Their optimism is adorable.”

    I’d forgotten about the teleprompter shard theory, although that seems just as whacky. Also, why couldn’t God have saved him from the shooter by stopping the shooter?

    But I accept your assessment. Thank you.

  60. 60.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Murphy is supposed to be considering running for Tillis’ seat. I’m hoping for the weirdo pron guy from last time but I’ll take Murphy. Tone deaf rich guy.

  61. 61.

    Archon

    @suzanne: Repressed and/or unfulfilled sexual desire explains about 75 percent of mens anti-social and destructive behavior.

  62. 62.

    kindness

    The only people Trump’s BBB benefits are the uber wealthy and big corporations.  Everyone else just hands their hard earned money up the chain for the rich guys.  And Trump’s MAGA base knows this and doesn’t like it any more than us.  To see Republican reps suggesting they are parenting us is an insult to my parents.

  63. 63.

    trollhattan

    “The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Anthony Tata to serve as the Pentagon’s undersecretary for personnel and readiness, approving a nominee whose incendiary political commentary made him unconfirmable during President Donald Trump’s first term,” Politico reports.

    “The vote was 52-46 with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats opposed.”

    “Tata faced criticism over past remarks in which he called then-President Barack Obama a ‘terrorist leader,’ and accused senior Pentagon officials of being ‘compromised by hatred’ against Trump.

    Cool.

  68. 68.

    JGreen

    @The Audacity of Krope:   Yeah, people get that wrong about God all the time.  They keep saying God loves us and wants us to have good lives when instead He keeps sending us Trump and Mike Johnson and those like them.   Don’t think God is really on our side (though that probably depends on which football team you like).

  70. 70.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jeffro:But the biggest enablers, according to Edsall and others (and I’d have to agree)?  The Roberts Court.

    Buttery males.

  71. 71.

    Ohio Mom

    @NotMax: I definitely had a “this is where I came into the movie” moment when reading about the missing minutes of tape.

    That is a metaphor that is rapidly becoming obsolete but still remains nostalgic for me because I have many memories of that phase being uttered. I guess I should switch over to confessing a feeling of Deja vue.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Mai Naem mobile: Tillis was quoted by Politico the day after he announced his his retirement that he expected North Carolina Republicans to rally behind whomever Trump endorses. That sounds about right.

    I think Murphy and the rest are waiting for the White House’s decision. It might be to endorse Lara Trump, but Trump and his team could decide Lara is too risky a pick because she’s unproven as a candidate. Lara’s not going to win that seat on the strength of her singing, that’s for sure.

    I expect there’s some private polling going on now because this is an important seat for Republicans.

    The White House might decide to go with Rep. Pat Harrigan, who is a 38 year-old West Point grad and Special Forces veteran. Harrigan ran for Congress in 2022 but lost to current NC  Attorney General Jeff Jackson, who was a very dynamic candidate. Then when Rep. Patrick McHenry retired, Harrigan won his seat last year. He looks like he’d be a safer pick than Lara Trump.

  73. 73.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @JGreen: To elaborate further on my thoughts on the matter. God is all existence. Life is how god experiences itself. This means the will of god is nothing more than the sum of the will of all life.

  74. 74.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Jeffro: I go with Occam’s Razor to explain the many Supreme Court lawless rulings in Trump’s favor: namely that the majority agrees with and supports him.  That’s it. No grand strategery to hold their fire for the hypothetical Big Cases to come.

  75. 75.

    hotshoe

    @NotMax: ​
     
    That’s one of the things I hate the most about Dominionists like Mike Moses Johnson.
    If I were a christian I would be ashamed to be caught worshiping a stupid-or-evil god like his, a god too stupid or too evil to save Dumpster without killing an helpless bystander.
    They’re sick. They’re sickos. All of them.

  76. 76.

    hotshoe

    @O. Felix Culpa: ​
     

    I go with Occam’s Razor to explain the many Supreme Court lawless rulings in Trump’s favor: namely that the majority agrees with and supports him.

    I have a hard time comprehending how five or six people who have reached the pinnacle of power — in our nation, almost in the whole world if you consider how influential US has been in global politics — could renounce their own prestige and publicly turn themselves into the snake on that flag.
    Your kingship, daddy, we want to you to step on us.

  77. 77.

    JGreen

    @The Audacity of Krope:   Then the sum of the will of all life is to give us Trump?  Oy, that’s a bit disheartening.

    And, just to be clear, I’m not really denigrating your belief.  I’m just making a small joke (I just act like a wise guy sometimes).

  78. 78.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @hotshoe: I don’t understand it either.  Why choose to be a lickspittle when you’ve got one of the most powerful lifetime positions in the world?

  79. 79.

    MagdaInBlack

    @The Audacity of Krope: I believe as you do. But, IF I believed in a participatory god, I would suggest Trump was sent to see just how sincere some of those cross-wearing, Jesus loving folks Christian values really are. And as it turns out, for a lot of them : not very.

  81. 81.

    Martin

    @O. Felix Culpa: Yeah, I suspect so. Checks and balances is a principle, not a law. It can be disposed of when the right circumstances present, and you have 3 branches eager to restructure the federal government around their own philosophy so they’re going for it. The laws that we passed to slow down a rash restructuring were only there to slow Democrats, after all.

  82. 82.

    mapaghimagsik

    Who would have thought that a campaign slogan might be “Who’s your daddy?”

  87. 87.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @JGreen: No, I appreciate it and, yeah, evidently.  Noah’s flood as a man.

    @MagdaInBlack: That is quite the vicious tribulation

    @Ramona: Precisely. And thank you for the new word. Glad I didn’t just assume “typo.”

  88. 88.

    Ramona

    I’ve often thought that the advantage of money (as a system) is the anonymity of its source (I mean its immediate sources as opposed to its origin in the Federal Reserve and banking system) but that this anonymity is also its disadvantage. What I mean by this is that if the identity of an individual extending credit were known and had to be slapped along with said credit, like say in a gift economy, then a fluid market economy could not possibly exist but neither could assholes like Trump and Elon have any power because a large chunk of people wouldn’t accept their ‘money’.

  89. 89.

    Ramona

    @The Audacity of Krope: Which new word? Have you read a non-fiction book by Aldous Huxley title if I remember correctly “The Divine” jeez I can’t remember “Principle”?

    Immanent vs Transcendent divinity is something discussed in Hinduism.

  92. 92.

    Ramona

    @The Audacity of Krope: I too am glad you didn’t assume typo. It’s a good word. It’s hard to explain what it means but your description of what you view as the divine is an excellent way to express the idea of the immanent divine.

  93. 93.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @The Audacity of Krope: Missed my edit window… by a wide margin. Added the Perennial Philosophy to my reading list.

    @Ramona: ETA: Well, now that you’ve given me terminology, you’ve connected me to a philosophical history. I have some reading to do.  I really appreciate it.

Comments are closed.