Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Stand up, dammit!

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

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

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

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

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

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

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

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / “The Medical” (Open Thread)

“The Medical” (Open Thread)

by | 405 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Even for grandpa banana-pants, this is fucking nuts.

There has never been a President that has worked as hard as me! My hours are the longest, and my results are among the best. I’ve stopped Eight Wars, saving many millions of lives in the process, created the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country, brought Business back into the United States at levels never seen before, rebuilt our Military, created the Largest Tax Cuts and Regulation Cuts, EVER, closed our open and very dangerous Southern Border, when previous Administrations were unable to do so, and created an “aura” around the United States of America that has led every Country in the World to respect us more than ever before. In addition to all of that, I go out of my way to do long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations at the Great Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, seen and supervised by top doctors, all of whom have given me PERFECT Marks — Some have even said they have never seen such Strong Results. I do these Tests because I owe it to our Country. In addition to the Medical, I have done something that no other President has done, on three separate occasions, the last one being recently, by taking what is known as a Cognitive Examination, something which few people would be able to do very well, including those working at The New York Times, and I ACED all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know. I have been told that few people have been able to “ace” this Examination and, in fact, most do very poorly, which is why many other Presidents have decided not to take it at all. Despite all of this, the time and work involved, The New York Times, and some others, like to pretend that I am “slowing up,” am maybe not as sharp as I once was, or am in poor physical health, knowing that it is not true, and knowing that I work very hard, probably harder than I have ever worked before. I will know when I am “slowing up,” but it’s not now! After all of the work I have done with Medical Exams, Cognitive Exams, and everything else, I actually believe it’s seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean “THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.” They are true Enemies of the People, and we should do something about it. They have inaccurately reported on all of my Election Results and, in fact, were forced to apologize on much of what they wrote. The best thing that could happen to this Country would be if The New York Times would cease publication because they are a horrible, biased, and untruthful “source” of information. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

This one long tweet-scream was posted last night at around 9 PM.

I think it’s interesting that Piggy complains about undergoing “long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations at the Great Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.” Probably best to leave that detail out if you’re trying to squash rumors about your health.

Also fascinating that he describes taking multiple “Cognitive Examination(s)” in front of “large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know.” Seems like that detail will also fail to dispel speculation about his possibly (definitely!) demented state.

I try not to think too much about when IT will HAPPEN because who knows? But stuff like this is a reminder that IT will HAPPEN eventually.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

405Comments

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    The whole thing is great, in the sense that it’s almost…reassuring.  Or as you put it, BC, “it will happen”.

    So great that he thinks taking 3 cognitive exams is a feat of strength!  Time for our intrepid snooze media to put that out there and interview folks in the street, to get their reaction.  I wonder if they will find it ‘strong’?

  11. 11.

    Jeffro

    trumpov, this morning: “I sure told THEM, didn’t I?  question MY health and amazing brain, ha!”

    maybe he could tour the White House roof again?  please?

  19. 19.

    Jeffro

    also – did not realize that the best thing that could happen to this country would be if the NYT stopped publishing.

    I thought it was if Elmo decided to ride one of his own rockets?  Followed by Bezos deciding to go on an extended OceanGate cruise.  NYT ceasing publication is third at best.

  20. 20.

    Josie

    @Geminid: ​
     My ten year old granddaughter showed me some fiction writing she was doing. I explained the concept of paragraphing and why it helped the reader. In five minutes she had transformed her story using paragraphs. A shame that our intrepid leader cannot learn such a skill.

  22. 22.

    Jackie

    His rally went so well last night, I wonder when his next will be! He’s supposed to do a series of how Affordability is doing great under his leadership.
    I noticed his new favorite number for affordability is 37. Buy your kids two pencils; not 37. Buy your child two or three dolls; they don’t need 37!

    Susie Wiles must be tearing her hair out.

  23. 23.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: If nothing else, Trump certainly made the case for paragraphing.

    ONLY THE WEAK USE THE ‘ENTER’ KEY OR AS I CALL IT THE ‘RETURN’ KEY WHEN YOU HAVE EVERYTHING IMPORTANT TO SAY (UNLIKE BIDEN) THEN DURING BREAKS IN TESTING MARVELOUS TESTING IN FRONT OF STRANGERS MOST OF WHOM I DO NOT KNOW WELL THEN YOU DON’T REALLY NEED A ‘RETURN’ KEY DO YOU EXCUSE ME DOCTOR WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME TO POINT TO THE CAMEL AGAIN I DON’T SEE A CAMEL ON THIS PAGE I SEE A DOGGIE WITH A CURVED BACK AND ALMOST HOOF-LIKE PAWS AND WHILE WE’RE AT IT I WANT ANOTHER DIET COKE AND A PEACE PRIZE THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    Spelling and grammar too coherent for this to have been written on his own.

    Methinks he doth protest too much.

  25. 25.

    RevRick

    @Miss Bianca: What I find fascinating ( in watching a train plow into a car sort of way) is that he can write a coherent sentence, but the sum of the parts is absurd and horrifying. Because there’s no way a staffer could even approximate this mixture of coherence and crazy.

  28. 28.

    hitchhiker

    I just love reading about his deep fear of aging and dementia. Imagining him suffering is a good way to start the day.

    Some of my friends lament this kind of thinking when they give way to it, but I don’t. It’s healthy and rational and human to despise the despicable.

  32. 32.

    Melancholy Jaques

    I will never get over the fact that in addition to the billionaires & bigots, normies thought that asshole was a better choice for president than any woman ever.

    Everything in the first eight lines, all his claims, are lies. Easily provable lies. And this is nothing new. He’s been like this from 2015 till now. They look at him and hear this shit and think, yeah, that’s my president.

    Fuck me running.

  33. 33.

    RevRick

    @Jackie: Who buys their kids two or three dolls, let alone 37, to begin with? (Speaking as a parent who went nuts trying to get Cabbage Patch dolls for our kids}.

  34. 34.

    Scout211

    @Jeffro: LOL

    FTFNYT responds:

    The New York Times said on Wednesday that it would not “be deterred by false and inflammatory language” in response to President Donald Trump’s latest claim that the outlet’s reporting on his age was an attempt to “libel and demean” him.

    The paper said its audience deserved “in-depth reporting and regular updates about the health of the leaders they elect.” The statement came in response to Trump’s Tuesday attack against the paper, apparently over a November article focused on his declining energy, which argued the Times should “cease publication because they are a horrible, biased, and untruthful ‘source’ of information.”

    “Mr. Trump welcomed our reporting on the age and fitness of his predecessors; we’re applying the same journalistic scrutiny to his vitality,” spokesperson Nicole Taylor wrote in a statement. “Our reporting is heavily sourced, based on interviews with people clsoe to the president and with medical experts. We won’t be deterred by false and inflammatory language that distorts the role of a free press.”

    His “vitality” is in pill form, but whatever.

  35. 35.

    hitchhiker

    @Jackie:

    Susie Wiles must be tearing her hair out.

    She’s evil. She’s roped herself and all he rest of us to this goddamn shipwreck, and she’s earned herself a little footnote in history as an evil person.

  36. 36.

    Miss Bianca

    @RevRick: I guess what I’m wondering is…do *any* of the people who voted for this shambling, decompensating heap of grievances read any of this and feel any…shame? alarm? remorse?…for their part in putting it into power?

  38. 38.

    kindness

    OK, so if Trump sluffs off his mortal coil while still president, what are the odds that Trump’s inner circle doesn’t release the info right away?  I mean, their grifting will suffer and they know it.

  39. 39.

    Peale

    @rikyrah: Lordy I hope so. I don’t know how much more of this “maybe this time they’ll realize that he’s insulting them” suspense I can take.

  42. 42.

    Old School

    I’d like to see those losers at the New York Times correctly identify the rhinoceros!  Especially when they are being watched by large numbers of doctors!

  45. 45.

    Peale

    @kindness: One of the reasons they are so desprate to get their mitts on Warner Brothers is that they want the horcrux technology that comes with their IP so that the dark lord will never leave them.

  47. 47.

    JoyceH

    It used to be treason in Britain to speculate about the health and demise of the king – but then there was a couple little civil reorganizations during which they beheaded one king and deposed and exiled another, and then – speculate to your heart’s content.

  49. 49.

    becca

    @rikyrah: it would be so cool if Leo excommunicated some certain scotus types. I wouldn’t be surprised.

    He’s started clipping the wings of Opus Dei.
    Righteous.

  50. 50.

    Raoul Paste

    @NotMax: “ Methinks he doth protest too much”…

    It sounds like pure panic.  And it would have prompted universal calls for the 25th amendment if Biden had written it.

  51. 51.

    Subcommandante Yakbreath

    One of our local TV stations showed Trump’s whole speech (instead of Kevin Costner’s BabyJesusFest), which lasted until 9:00, so maybe he was still wired from all the applause and ass-kissing. Or maybe somebody else did write it for him.

  52. 52.

    Suzanne

    @RevRick:

    Who buys their kids two or three dolls, let alone 37, to begin with? (Speaking as a parent who went nuts trying to get Cabbage Patch dolls for our kids}. 

    You have to have multiple Barbies so they can have a house party, friend.

  53. 53.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    I have to ask myself, why are they (or He, Trump) publishing a post like this?  Do they really think it helps? [ETA, or is it to mollify Trump himself? Eek.]

  54. 54.

    RevRick

    @Miss Bianca: I don’t care about their inner life experience. As long as they change the way they vote, I’m good with that. And we’re getting a lot of evidence that a significant swath have changed who they’re voting for.

  55. 55.

    JoyceH

    And it amuses me to no end that he doesn’t realize how much he’s exposing himself when he talks about how difficult those cognitive tests are, considering that they are designed to be trivial for those not in cognitive decline. Do you think his staff gets him to take the tests by telling him they’re measuring how smart he is?

  56. 56.

    Scout211

    @RevRick: Who buys their kids two or three dolls, let alone 37, to begin with?

    Most parents, actually.  Barbie needs her friends, Rev. ;-)

    ETA: And Suzanne got there first.

  57. 57.

    RevRick

    @Suzanne: Yes, my wife had a collection, but they were acquired over years. Buying a kid 37 dolls screams of compensation for parental neglect.

  60. 60.

    catclub

    @Melancholy Jaques: ​
     

    He’s been like this from 2015 till now. They look at him and hear this shit and think, yeah, that’s my president.

    Yes. This is why I do not want the GOP to listen up.
    Look and see what they hear.

  62. 62.

    JoyceH

    @Scout211: I saw something someone had written some time ago and it made me think huh. Used to be that when girls played with dolls, they had them doing the things they saw adults doing. But now when dolls have tea parties, they’re performing an activity that only dolls do these days.

  63. 63.

    RevRick

    @NotMax: The problem with that claim is that it only makes Trump look pathetic and crazy. No staffer would ever do that to their boss, unless they plan on going all Brutus on them.

  64. 64.

    Jackie

    @hitchhiker:

    Susie Wiles must be tearing her hair out.

    She’s evil. She’s roped herself and all he rest of us to this goddamn shipwreck, and she’s earned herself a little footnote in history as an evil person.

    Absolutely. These scheduled rallies are her idea. She is also stupid, if she truly believed he could actually sell affordability as fake news. I don’t feel sorry for her – I hope she’s bald this morning.

  66. 66.

    JoyceH

    As for dolls, nobody buys 37 dolls at once, they buy them one at a time. We didn’t have many dolls, but a lot of stuffed animals. Are people supposed to stop buying their child gifts that they know they want and would appreciate because they already have “two or three”? What do they buy the kids instead? Meme coins?

  67. 67.

    dmsilev

    Christ. It’s like reading the last three or four pages of Flowers for Algernon. Except that (a) the protagonist there was legitimately smart for the middle third of the story and (b) the protagonist was a kind and gentle soul at his core, even when his intelligence was slipping away.

  68. 68.

    catclub

    @Miss Bianca: ​

     Damn…why is the FTFNYT deciding it can suddenly stand up to him?

    which argued the Times should “cease publication because they are a horrible, biased, and untruthful ‘source’ of information.”

    That was one of the only truthful statements in the whole screed. I think the other one expresses how desperate he remains for attention. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.” That one he really means.

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    @JoyceH: No one loves Piggy enough to tell him he’s humiliating himself every time he brags about being able to correctly label drawings of elephants and lions or remember a short series of words in order. His family probably wishes for his demise even more fervently than we do so they can pick over his carcass like the vultures they are. I assume his political associates hope to grab power for themselves.

  70. 70.

    Bupalos

    “The best thing that could happen to this Country would be if The New York Times would cease publication because they are a horrible, biased, and untruthful “source” of information.”

    Ah, the horseshoe theory of politics rears its ugly head again. But you can tell Trump doesn’t read BJ, or he would have used the standard “FTFNYT” form.

  71. 71.

    JoyceH

    @Jackie: Remember when GWB went on the road to sell the public on his plan to privatize social security? The more he talked about it and the more people knew about it and understood it, the less popular the notion became. And GWB was no genius but he was a heck of a lot smarter and more coherent than Trump is.

  72. 72.

    catclub

    @jonas: What a completely normal, stable thing for a President of the United States to write one evening!

     

    He dictates it. Reads over it, and then confirms that  they publish it verbatim. Completely normal.

  73. 73.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @JoyceH:

    Do you think his staff gets him to take the tests by telling him they’re measuring how smart he is?

    I’ve been wondering what the motivation is for these tests. I don’t see why his staff or other grifters would be motivated to get him to take these tests. It’s the responsible thing to do, so given this crew, why is it happening? Simply having to take the tests is not good news. Having to take more than one is very much not good news. And it’s only going to get worse if people continue to make him take them.

    So who is making Trump take these tests and what is their motivation?

  74. 74.

    catclub

    @JoyceH: but he was a heck of a lot smarter and more coherent than Trump is.

     

    and what do intelligence or coherence have to do with convincing Trump voters of anything?

  75. 75.

    Bupalos

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: Who knows what’s going on behind the scenes in Trumpworld, but I think one plausible explanation is that Trump’s competitors inside the administration have decided his political decline has passed a certain point and are actively undermining him.

    On the other hand, a durable truth about Trump and his narcissistic personality disorder is that he is flatly and literally incapable of seeking out or taking advice.

  76. 76.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jackie: LOL! Did anyone see the rally?

    I didn’t, but there was an article in Politico (I think) yesterday about how White House operatives felt like they had to pivot him away from “affordability is a Democrat hoax” and get him to feign awareness of what people are experiencing.

    The article also said unnamed operatives were worried Trump would go off script because he really believes the economy is great. And why wouldn’t he? It’s great for him, with all the bribes rolling in.

    I did not see the speech or read any excerpts, but it sounds like he went off script.

  78. 78.

    jonas

    I haven’t gone over to Bsky yet to see, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Newsom’s comms team mocks this. There’s so much to work with.

  79. 79.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Bupalos: one plausible explanation is that Trump’s competitors inside the administration have decided his political decline has passed a certain point and are actively undermining him.

    Yes that’s certainly plausible. I suppose then the answer to @Chief Oshkosh’s question is Vance.

  81. 81.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffro: OMG, that made me literally laugh out loud!

    As for FFOTUS’ latest thing he vomited out on his own platform, I’m becoming more and more convinced that his fixation on the same things over and over again is a symptom of some type of dementia.

    ETA – he’s obsessed with saying Biden was the worst president ever because Biden beat him and he knows it!

  82. 82.

    catclub

    CNN:

    Trump’s ‘treason’ attack shows how deeply the NYT’s aging report stung

    If even CNN can notice….

  85. 85.

    RevRick

    @Scout211: I grew up in a home where I was told I could ask for three things for Christmas (because that’s what my parents could afford), and have been broke for two-thirds of my life, so this is foreign to my experience.

  87. 87.

    dww4

    @Miss Bianca: I’m surrounded by  Trump voters and am forever asking myself this.  Particularly how do these law and order voters justify to themselves that third vote for him after Jan 6?

  88. 88.

    jonas

    @catclub: Reads over it,  has it read back to him, and then confirms that they publish it verbatim. Completely normal.

    Trump is functionally illiterate. He hasn’t read or written a damn thing himself since elementary school, which is why he can’t tell how these tinfoil hat screeds look/read when they’re published.

  89. 89.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    “ChatGPT, please rewrite in the style of a demented narcissist, for example Donald Trump.”

  90. 90.

    Bupalos

    @Miss Bianca: As always, the NYT and the rest of ‘the media’ favors things that generate interest and engagement and boost their profile and properties. I’d look more to demand and the citizenry in general rather than the news-dealers for this miraculous change of heart.

  91. 91.

    Soprano2

    @JoyceH: Yes, and I don’t for a minute believe he scores a perfect score. I saw my husband take that test, and I missed a couple of the questions! It’s easy, but not that easy. I think it tests different types of cognition. My husband can identify animals, but cannot tell you what year it is.

  93. 93.

    jonas

    @dww4:    Particularly how do these law and order voters justify to themselves that third vote for him after Jan 6?

    Very simple. In conservatives’ minds, there are groups in society whom the law binds but does not protect, and others whom the law protects but does not bind. Guess which group they see themselves in?

  95. 95.

    Soprano2

    @dmsilev: Oh  man, I cried and cried the first time I read that story. I think of it now as a template for what’s happening to my husband, except that isn’t due to a drug.

  97. 97.

    different-church-lady

    …most of whom I do not know…

    You’re the president: knowing things is YOUR FUCKIN’ JOB.

  98. 98.

    Bupalos

    @jonas: This is literally true I think. I’m reminded of when the UK PM or someone handed him a note for him to read, and he looked at it, handed it back, and said “you read it.” Trump likely has severe dyslexia, among his other issues.

  99. 99.

    geg6

    OMG, Wonkette just broke me.  I now have a picture of the rumored new MAGA/America First power couple in my head that I can’t scrub out.  And now you must suffer with me: Lauren Boebert and Kid Rock. *shudder

  100. 100.

    Memory Pallas

    @RevRick: ​
    Products with lots of interchangeable pieces are now marketed in in prepacked configurations that, over time, you buy more than one of. This is as true of Legos as it is of Barbies. That said, each Christmas you plus up by one or two (can’t speak to birthday parties where 25 kids are each bringing a present.)

  103. 103.

    prostratedragon

    This account from nyt (archive.ph) is so off-the-chart messy I can’t even cigure out hoe to extract summary paragraphs from it:

    Inside the Pentagon’s Scramble to Deal With Boat Strike Survivors

    But this is significant:

    Behind that policy was a quieter goal: to ensure survivors did not end up in the U.S. judicial system, where court cases could force the administration to show evidence justifying President Trump’s military campaign in the region.

  104. 104.

    Suzanne

    @Scout211: One of my good friends grew up in Jakarta, and she to.d me that she was given Barbie clothes as gifts before she ever got the Barbies. LOL.

    Barbies are also one of those toys that get often handed down to younger siblings, cousins, etc. I got a bunch of them when my cousins outgrew them.

  105. 105.

    Fester Addams

    @kindness:

    what are the odds that Trump’s inner circle doesn’t release the info right away?

    Pretty sure our first indication of Piggy’s demise will be wild moves in the crypto markets (where insider trading is de rigueur).

  106. 106.

    different-church-lady

    Here’s your mandatory reminder that the reason we have this senile old fool for president is because for a half a year nobody would shut up about the idea we shouldn’t have a “senile old fool” for president.

  109. 109.

    Melancholy Jaques

    “ . . . we’re applying the same journalistic scrutiny to his vitality,” [FTFNYT] spokesperson Nicole Taylor wrote in a statement.

    That is a lie. They are not even coming close. And they will back off after this, move on to other subjects.

  110. 110.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Mr. Bemused Senior:

    @Bupalos: one plausible explanation is that Trump’s competitors inside the administration have decided his political decline has passed a certain point and are actively undermining him.

    Yes that’s certainly plausible. I suppose then the answer to @Chief Oshkosh’s question is Vance.

    Which would mean Thiel is working to undermine Trump, which means he sees diminishing returns on Trump’s continued Occupancy and is trying to smooth a transition via the accepted view becoming medical incompetency.

    The plan proceeds accordingly…

    Of course, Thiel may be misunderstanding how a cult works.

  113. 113.

    Bulgakov

    And when “It happens” the sustained celebrations across the globe might momentarily knock the Earth off its axis.

  114. 114.

    Layer8Problem

    @NotMax: Oh, and thanks for the recommendation for Piste Noire. We enjoyed it. And a different look for Thibault de Montalembert from Call My Agent!

  116. 116.

    catclub

    @Chief Oshkosh: ​
     

    Of course, Thiel may be misunderstanding how a cult works.

    Yes, ‘you told us our god is not a god but an idiot with dementia, thanks!’ is not how it will go.

  117. 117.

    terraformer

    I watched the hour-long documentary “The Bloody Hundred” last night, about the B-17 squadron that’s the focus of the Apple show “Masters of the Air.”

    One part stood out to me was FDR’s speech and the quote:

    “Yes, we believe that the Nazis and the Fascists have asked for it — and they are going to get it.”

    I’d not heard that before! It’s amazing and sad to me that so, so many people are ignorant or don’t believe *what WW2 was about*, which was halting the spread of fascism and the Nazis – the very idea and people that MAGA supports without reservation today. Just, what the *actual* fck? How is this not a huge albatross around their collective necks? How can people support, well, fcking Nazis?

    I think Dems should include that quote regularly in their social media posts.

  118. 118.

    JML

    In the category of “But the leopards were supposed to eat MY face!” I saw this bit today:

    x.com/RonBrownstein/status/1998052813159763978

    Once again, only Democrats have agency? (And the Vichy Times certainly has competition from the Post with their “everything the Dems do is wrong, bad and stupid unless they do what we say” nonsense)

    But any non-white people who thought that a) voting for the Orange Fool wasn’t going to put them in the crosshairs anyways, or b) that the Democrats would be able to save them from their own stupidity ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.

  119. 119.

    Jackie

    @Betty Cracker:

    I did not see the speech or read any excerpts, but it sounds like he went off script.

    I don’t think he was ever on script.

    I saw excerpts this morning on MJ. He had the people standing behind him holding up signs saying “lower prices” and “higher wages.” They looked reluctant, (knowing those signs were BS,) but they chose to be there…

  120. 120.

    Citizen Alan

    @geg6:  I’m honestly not surprised. Kid Rock was literally on my Bingo Card as the next GOP President after Piggy (and Vance but only if Piggy dies in office). Every GOP President of my lifetime has been exponentially worse than the one before except for Ford who doesn’t count.

  122. 122.

    different-church-lady

    @Geminid: ​

    I think paragraghing also helps the writer better organize their thoughts.

    That explains Trump: no thinking, no paragraphs.

  126. 126.

    Old Man Shadow

    The man could be drooling and catatonic and everyone would still treat him like a normal president.

    As opposed to the other old guy who slowed down a bit and was declared brain dead by the media.

    Those are just the parameters of our Hell dimension.

  128. 128.

    Jackie

    @catclub: Speaking of CNN, the WH media staff is reportedly pissed that CNN has (so far) refused to invite Stephen Miller on in spite of repeated requests. LOL

  132. 132.

    AM in NC

    @prostratedragon:  Wholeheartedly agree with this designation.  Spent two weeks in Italy in November and about ate myself into a coma.  Also learned to make tortelli di zucca, a mixed cheese soufflé, sautéed artichokes and garlic, and tiramisu.   Every place has different, amazing cuisine based on the local ingredients grown/produced there.   We barely scratched the surface!

  133. 133.

    Geminid

    @hitchhiker: I’m seeing more and more  criticism of Wiles coming from “populist” conservatives. They attribute the administration’s political failures to her malign influence.

    The general idea is that Wiles helped the “corporate wing” of the party capture Trump and stymie the “America First” movement. This attitude can be summed up in a nickname given her: “Swamp Granny.”

  134. 134.

    Bupalos

    @different-church-lady: That’s more a reminder that a lot of people just believe deeply in counterfactual scenarios that have little to no support in data trends. “Biden just definitely would have won despite his already terrible and declining polling if everyone had just shut up and pretended it’s totally normal to fall into incompressible word-salad in a high-profile debate.” That’s one of those “can’t fail, can only be failed” kind of statements.

  136. 136.

    JMG

    My best guess is that Trump’s multiple “cognition” tests (who knows what they really are, he sure doesn’t) are part of an ongoing stroke recovery process. Remember when he dropped out of sight for about a week? That’s when I think the stroke happened.

  137. 137.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Yes, Ferrell and Rachel McAdams playing an Icelandic duo in the Eurovision contest. (I thought it was hilarious, but suspect I’m in the minority here on that!) The funniest thing was the cheesy songs and effects.

  138. 138.

    WTFGhost

    @RevRick: Well… I’ve been there. Now, me, I was in excruciating pain, and I was sometimes seeing “words” and “letters” turn into strange blobs on the page, which I realized meant I’d lost my ability to process language, but, then the wave of pain past, and they resolved back to ordinary words and letters. I’ve started typing a word in Google, to find out how to spell it, forget the word, then, lose all of my working memory so I don’t even remember the subject matter.

    When I’m in pain, grievances hurt. It hurts that you Jackals are sew meen to me, not understanding what I *INTENDED* and instead responding to a *REASONABLE INTERPRETATION OF WHAT I WROTE*, and that kind of thing. Me, I’m a grownup, and I know it’s the pain talking, so I can ignore it, most of the time.

    I hope you and all can handle the times I can’t ignore it.

    If anyone hoped he’d suffer, he’s suffering, but, it’s not really all that pleasant or useful to watch, IMHO. That’s why love is stronger than hate; we’d rather feed the hungry, comfort the oppressed, and see justice brought about; hateful people want to see people reduced to babbling twuths late at night, and end up disappointed that it doesn’t feel better.

  140. 140.

    Miss Bianca

    @Geminid: “Swamp Granny.” Huh. I wonder if Susie Wiles is going to end up as another one of those GOP women who is suddenly shocked, SHOCKED to discover that their fellow Republicans are rank misogynists.

  141. 141.

    Ruckus

    @Miss Bianca:

    Normal human language, no matter its variation doesn’t have any words for this shit. Other than pure shit.

    Neither does any abnormal human language.

    Now medical language does have words but those words are medical words that describe the medical issues but do not describe the entire concept of him in any human way other than bonkers.

  143. 143.

    Jayne

    @Betty Cracker:  I sometimes wonder if part of why the GOP’s trying so hard to dismantle the medical profession is so there’s no one around to tell Cheeto Benito that getting multiple cognitive function tests over the course of 10 months isn’t usually a sign of how much better your brain is than all the elderly plebes who only got one (1) test with their regular checkup.

  144. 144.

    p.a.

    Prolly are people seeking to undermine President GreaseStain, knowing he can’t last or will eventually bite someone.

    But in a positive spin maybe even the invertebrate MSM will be able to undermine the underminers with something their petty horserace minds can still function with: “what did you know and when did you know it?  How long did you allow this tuber to act as President?”

     

    Also too: are the odds good any still-functioning military in position to do it have replaced the nuclear football with a squeaky toy?

  146. 146.

    mrmoshpotato

    Medical Examinations

    Not a proper noun.

    Great Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

    Since when does a VA hospital need a hypeman(baby)?

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @Miss Bianca:

    It’s two words and you left out the third word with starts with an F.

    And yes I swear. I was in the USN and worked in/owned a machine shop most of my working life. In the USN we heard more swear words than any other words. People thought you must be sick if you didn’t swear constantly. I was actually amazed that ship to ship communications didn’t have any swear words in them.

  150. 150.

    Josie

    @Geminid: ​
     Definitely. After a lifetime of writing, I think in paragraphs. If a writer doesn’t use them, it throws me off and discourages me from reading their work.

  151. 151.

    Betty Cracker

    @Miss Bianca: & @Geminid: As a REAL swampbilly, I kind of wish Wiles’ detractors would quit pushing her in my lane. She was born in Florida but not in a particularly swampy area, and IIRC, she grew up wealthy and mostly lived in the Northeast. She’s a creature of Mar-a-lago, not the swamp, damnit! 

    @Steve in the ATL: He was hysterical in that movie! I’d only seen him in Downton and had no idea he had anything like that in him!

  152. 152.

    They Call Me Noni

    @AM in NC: Have you seen the Stanley Tucci “Searching for Italy” series?  It’s a very good watch.  I believe it was on CNN.

  153. 153.

    Ruckus

    @Josie:

    our intrepid leader

    So that’s what he is! And here I’ve never given him this much credit.

    (Yes, I do understand that it’s snark…) (both intrepid and leader!)

  156. 156.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mr. Bemused Senior:

    @Betty Cracker: I have just ordered this DVD from the library. I CANNOT WAIT to spring it on my Pal D, who is a huge European metal geek. Plus, while I’m “meh” about Will Farrell, I have adored Rachel McAdams since first seeing her in Slings and Arrows.

  157. 157.

    p.a.

    @Josie: I had a college book, American and British Technology in the Nineteenth Century by H J Habbakuk, and the only reason I remember this book 40+ years later is that each chapter was virtually one long paragraph.😱  Just a bear to read.

    Coincidentally; just bought, haven’t started, Satantango, Lásló Krasznahorkai, novel translated from Hungarian.  Same thing: what is this thing, paragraph?, but just browsing in the bookstore, the language is beautiful, so I’ll give it a go.

  158. 158.

    WTFGhost

    @JMG: No, he’s taken cognitive tests in the past, but, he doesn’t seem to realize that they’re intended to find people who are having really serious cognitive issues. “Acing” them is expected for a 7-year-old or so. It’s true, Biden probably never took a cognitive test, because he never babbled word salad the way Trump does.

    @Bupalos: You know, I watched the Biden debate, and I am sick and tired of people neuro-shaming Biden for having a stutter. No, he did not “fall into incompressible word-salad in a high-profile debate.” That’s not a fair characterization of what happened. It is, in fact, a vicious, nasty, characterization of a good man with a known disability. You want to hold a discussion where you act like a 12-year-old, I’m sure Disney+ has a kids section.

    @JoyceH: Well, were it not a billionaire whose conspicuous consumption and lavish opulence, one could say it hearkens back to a simpler time, when “things” were not so important. Given that it’s a billionaire telling y’all your paychecks are growing and prices are dropping, it seems like the kindest thing you can do is put a nice, soft, custard pie where he’s about to faceplant, to keep him from breaking his nose.

  159. 159.

    Ruckus

    @Melancholy Jaques:

    Many people that walk upright, have 2 arms and 2 legs, have very little more. To them a leader is someone who can read the entire menu at a minimal food truck. Which is of course the labels on the sandwiches and the drinks which tells them it’s diet or regular soda.

  160. 160.

    different-church-lady

    @WTFGhost: ​

    You want to hold a discussion where you act like a 12-year-old, I’m sure Disney+ has a kids section.

    Nominated!

  161. 161.

    Hoodie

    I’m more and more convinced that he’s been diagnosed with something pretty serious like a stroke and they’re concerned about what damage that might have caused or will cause in the future. There appears to be no reason for all those cognitive tests otherwise. Part of the challenge for his doctors may be to differentiate effects of structural damage due to something like a stroke from his underlying personality disorder. It’s possible that simple aging, his rampant failures, etc., is just making the latter worse. Or it could be a combination of both.

  162. 162.

    Ruckus

    @Miss Bianca:

    A large percentage very likely do not see this in the concept of the actual reality of the entire situation. They VOTED for this wonderful, smart business man. Admit that he’s not within a lot of miles of who they think (such as it is…) he is? It will take a lot to make them see this. That does not say that a lot of people don’t see it, just that a very likely not insignificant amount of people will and do see it. Because unless one has their head parked in an abnormally dark and smelly place (which many of them likely do…) it should be very visible. Very, very, very visible.

  164. 164.

    gene108

    Trump’s incoherence is part of his strength. People in 2024 read into his ramblings what they wanted to believe would happen if he was elected.

    The MSM helped by same washing his statements.

  165. 165.

    zhena gogolia

    @WTFGhost:

    You know, I watched the Biden debate, and I am sick and tired of people neuro-shaming Biden for having a stutter. No, he did not “fall into incompressible word-salad in a high-profile debate.” That’s not a fair characterization of what happened. It is, in fact, a vicious, nasty, characterization of a good man with a known disability. You want to hold a discussion where you act like a 12-year-old, I’m sure Disney+ has a kids section.

    Thank you.

  167. 167.

    Miss Bianca

    @zhena gogolia: @WTFGhost: Seconded. Fuck this ageist, ableist bullshit. It’s bad enough getting it sprayed in our faces constantly by the GOP, but it’s absolutely insufferable coming from ostensible liberals.

  169. 169.

    different-church-lady

    @Jackie: ​What’s additionally weird is that this isn’t the first time he’s brought this out. Obviously he is so detached from reality that he believes “Your kids have too many toys” is a line that works.

  172. 172.

    Alce _e_ardillo

    @Old School: Most of whom he didn’t know (they introduced themselves 30 minutes before,but you can’t expect anyone to remember that far back, can you ?)

  175. 175.

    scav

    Raise your hand anyone who thinks Trump or his buddy Epstein restrained themselves to fewer that 37 teenagers.

  176. 176.

    Alce _e_ardillo

    @JMG: perhaps, but global memory loss is unusual for CVAs,  more likely is aphasia, or apraxia, or difficulty with executive functioning.

  177. 177.

    Interesting Name Goes Here

    @Miss Bianca: My God.

     

    I just don’t have any words for this shit anymore. Just…Jesus Christ.

    I have words.  No one is going to like them, though, because we all need to “forget about the past and come together” or whatever else is being said lately to avoid having to confront hard truths.

    I saw a report yesterday about a certain mayor in a certain city in the state of Michigan whining about Democrats not doing enough to help his constituents after those constituents helped elect Trump by a large margin.

    Maybe he should go ask that Democratic congresswoman who stood by him and helped him get precisely what he wanted.

    Fresh out of sympathy, and fresh out of fucks.  May they continue to have the day that they voted for.

  178. 178.

    Jeffro

    @Scout211: Mr. Trump welcomed our reporting on the age and fitness of his predecessors; we’re applying the same journalistic scrutiny to his vitality

    ah there’s that damned liberal bias again(!)

    keep it up, NYT…you owe the country bigly, the least you can do is apply the #SameStandards to the GOP for once

  179. 179.

    StringOnAStick

    If you’ve ever had a job in a nursing home (raises hand, though it was long, long ago) you realize pretty quickly that many people become just more exaggerated versions of themselves with aging and changes in cognition.  Sweet people got sweeter, mean people become who every employee tries to pawn off onto the newbie employee (quick shout out to which ever poor sod is caring for my hideous shit pile of a narcissistic aunt).

    This tweeted insanity is another part of our long national voyage on the good ship Malignant Narcissist, with the added feature that he’s becoming loony enough that the people who used to care about keeping the crazy under better wraps are now at the fuck it stage.  When you’re a mean old bastard, eventually those around you are exhausted and past being exasperated, well on the way to Not My Job to Put Makeup on the Pig Today.  I’m sure the court dramas and Byzantine interpersonal games are getting quite exciting on board the ship.  May all of them never again be served a restaurant meal without added spit or other biological products.

  180. 180.

    Jeffro

    @kindness: OK, so if Trump sluffs off his mortal coil while still president, what are the odds that Trump’s inner circle doesn’t release the info right away?  I mean, their grifting will suffer and they know it.

    right?

    they got away with 5 days of no-trump when he likely had that stroke over last Labor Day weekend…who knows what the max # of days without him in public will be

  181. 181.

    Ruckus

    @JoyceH:

    Dolls used to be either hand made or did not exist, now (actually for decades) one can buy dolls that look at least very close to what an actual human being looks like. I know because I worked on the second set of Barbie doll molds the summer I was 13/14 yrs old. That’s a while back. (yes, that is being a tad sarcastic…) I machined the parts that formed the torso of Barbie and then helped polish them to the final finish so that they could create millions of dolls. And yes that was a rather long time ago. Millions upon millions of Barbie dolls have been made and sold since.

  182. 182.

    Rand Careaga

    @Citizen Alan:

    Every GOP President of my lifetime has been exponentially worse than the one before except for Ford who doesn’t count.

    I had my issues with Bush the Elder, but it’s a stretch to call him “exponentially worse” than the Gipper.

  185. 185.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: So you’re saying I shouldn’t take it personally?  ;-) You’re right, of course.

    On a related note, I will never in a million years understand how anyone could think Donald Trump of all people would take on public corruption of all things! God knows I completely sympathize with folks being pissed off about self-dealing, but to imagine for one second that THAT GUY is going to stop it? Jesus, it’s like expecting me to safeguard the nation’s cheese supply.

  186. 186.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2: [trump is] obsessed with saying Biden was the worst president ever because Biden beat him and he knows it!

    damn straight

    I hope that as Donnie fades to black for the last time, he hallucinates the combined laughter of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.  Mean, but as someone correctly noted upthread, it’s okay to despise the despicable.

  187. 187.

    Gvg

    @RevRick: yes and I have known parents who overcompensated for a poor childhood. They didn’t neglect their kids but did give more things than were necessary, especially if it was something they had wanted but been unable to have, such as art lessons….I have also known women who collected expensive dolls or rare barbies. They would allow their kids to acquire collections too. Son had all the original Star Wars figures. All kinds of things go on, not just one.

    Collecting is something people seem to do really easily. It’s usually not a problem.

  189. 189.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Betty Cracker: … how anyone could think Donald Trump of all people would take on public corruption of all things!

    What do you mean? He took it on… or took it over anyway. Same thing.

  192. 192.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Miss Bianca:

    Damn…why is the FTFNYT deciding it can suddenly stand up to him?

    They are not standing up to him; they are using him to pander to their sorta liberal subscribers. As Michelle Wolf put it in her great speech at the correspondents’ dinner, they created the monster and now they are profiting off him.

    If the FTFNYT had any interest in democracy, the rule of law, freedom of the press, or even common decency, they would have done everything in their power to keep him from returning to the White House. They did not.

  195. 195.

    Anonymous At Work

    @Chief Oshkosh: You assume that Thiel doesn’t have a plan to get rid of the need for the cult that will work through sheer brutality.  The cult is only needed if there is a legitimate counting of votes with a necessity of accumulating more votes in a majority of districts and states.

  197. 197.

    Ruckus

    @Gvg:

    Collecting is something people seem to do really easily.

    As a prior mental health counselor we spent more time discussing our patients than actually talking to/with them. Because that often gave us a better picture of who they were. Our one vision was closer but the overall came from different directions, a very, very valuable process. And collecting was and is a part of humanity. It can give one concepts of issues they don’t fully understand. It can give one a more complete picture than they see of themselves. It can show that sometimes collecting is trying to fix something missing in their own lives. Even if the collected is different or even far different than the desired. And sometimes far different is about an unknown which is difficult to find an answer for – which can make the real unknown concept a bit less stressful.

  198. 198.

    Belafon

    The problem Trump has is that he’s such a narcissist is when doctors tell him Alzheimer’s (or whatever cognitive condition he might experience) is progressing faster than they’ve seen in any patient before that he’ll take it as a complement.

  199. 199.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: I think one area of public corruption Trump’s fans hoped he would clean up relates to Jeffrey Epstein. Now, that has come back to bite him.

    New Lines Magazine posted an excellent article on this December 1st. It’s by Ryan Biller, and titled:

          The MAGA Battle Over the Epstein Files

    Trump’s image as a warrior against supposed elite pedophile cabals now faces a unique threat.

    I’ve linked to this article here before but it’s really good and I like to boost New Lines, so I will link to it again:

    share.google/OUXCGmdhST0GUpRYE

  200. 200.

    NotMax

    @Layer8Problem

    Good to hear. Got distracted by other stuff so have not yet begun watching it. Found the trailer intriguing enough to add it to the queue.

    BTW, have you ever tried Homicide Hills? Two thumbs up. I download episodes of that and of Captain Marleau to cast via her Roku from the phone to Mom’s TV when I visit.

  202. 202.

    AM in NC

    @They Call Me Noni:   Yes, thank you! I enjoyed it very much.  And after CNN cancelled his show, he moved it over to the National Geographic Channel for a 2025 season (can stream on Hulu, I believe).  I think there is another season coming in 2026.

  203. 203.

    laura

    I have a plan for When it Happens– first, I’m going to run out into the street banging some pan lids together to alert the neighbors, then we’ll assemble for cork popping, jig dancing, high fives all over the place, tears of joy and whatnot. When I get over myself, I’ll come back in and take the aluminum cake pans and covers off the top of the refrigerator and gather all the ingredients I’ve stocked. I shall bake three cakes, three being the number, neither two, nor four, and commence to bake three, if I haven’t mention the number, Devil’s Food Cakes, frost same and drive two of them to the Davis park-and-ride, where at approximately 4:45 pm west coast standard time, I’ll meet up with two former coworkers, one of whom works til 4:30. The current worker will say a convocation because she is a Woman of great faith. Then we will hug and cry tears of joy, there will be more happy dancing and general relief. They will both take cakes home and share with their family and friends. I’ll share my cake, the third of three, with friends and loved ones. It will be A Day I tells ya! A DAY!

    that’s my plan and I’m sticking to it.

  204. 204.

    Nettoyeur

    @rikyrah: Funny how sending out masked goons  to round up people based on their skin color or accent affects attitudes of the target population.

  205. 205.

    Jackie

    Another discharge petition! Speaker Johnson’s breaking a record for the most successful discharge petitions ever!

    “A group of House Republicans will file a discharge petition this week on a bill to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies for two years,” Punchbowl News reports.

    “And they have enough support to force a vote if all House Democrats sign on.”

  206. 206.

    zhena gogolia

    @laura: I’m too superstitious to make any plans. But yours sounds good! You’re lucky to have neighbors who will actually be sympathetic with your mood. I’m afraid mine won’t, at least not all of them (there are a few who will).

  207. 207.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Harrison Wesley: I think it’s an old exclamation of astonishment – “Great Walter Reed!”

    Like “Goodness Gracious Great Gherkins of Aldi”?

    🎵Goodness Gracious Great Gherkins of Aldi🎵

  211. 211.

    Jackie

    @Belafon: I believe it’s just an extension, but until the petition is made public… ? I doubt Dems would sign it if there’s trickery involved.

  212. 212.

    mrmoshpotato

    @StringOnAStick: Well put.

    And definite shout out to that poor sod as I too have a hideous shit pile of a narcissistic aunt (who doesn’t talk to me anymore after I told her she was wrong about something 3 years ago.)

  213. 213.

    Deputinize America

    @rikyrah:

    He’ll keep Cubans, particularly los antigüedades that are so prevalent along Calle Ocho because they’re corrupt and pretty deplorable in their own right.

    The rest are lost to him forever – he burnt every lifeline and bridge, I suspect.

  214. 214.

    jimmiraybob

    I have tried to avoid commenting on his mental “decline” since I have always considered the unrepentant 34x convicted felon, conman, life-long sleazebag, and adjudicated sexual predator,  to be an ignorant, narcissistic, perpetually-lying, bumbling, imbecile.  That being said, as of today I concede that his mental state is in serious decline.

    I am now considering surrendering to the authorities for my seditious and treasonous thoughts and actions.  Imagine if millions of people flooded the FBI offices around the country doing so.

  215. 215.

    Deputinize America

    @NotMax:

    I think the really unhinged stuff is usually by the body man of the moment, like Cheung (with an occasional assist from Miller).

  217. 217.

    laura

    @zhena gogolia: not “all” the neighbors are down, me and the one’s that are down will be jubilant to play in their stupid, hateful faces. We are owed! It’s righting a great wrong and we will not be deterred in celebrating.

  218. 218.

    Deputinize America

    @prostratedragon:

    Reminds me – I’m mulling over two dinner possibilities for dinner.

    Mushroom risotto with some genuine truffle oil (not the cheap imitation American product), or my own concoction of salsiccia pomodoro using San Marzano tomatoes with basilico over pici pasta from Pisa?

  219. 219.

    BellaPea

    @Betty Cracker: I didn’t see the rally, but read an article by someone who did go. It was apparently held in a conference room in a casino and only like 200-300 people showed up. I saw clips on MS-NOW this morning and he looked like death on a cracker and sounded like a gargoyle.

  220. 220.

    jimmiraybob

    @JMG: “… Trump’s multiple “cognition” tests (who knows what they really are, he sure doesn’t) …”

    I believe it went something like this, “Sir….sir….are you awake?  Can you open your eyes for me?  Sir?  That’s a boy.”

  221. 221.

    Bupalos

    @WTFGhost: You see it how you see it. I believe it’s an accurate description of what I saw, I believe Biden became genuinely confused at points in that debate, particularly in the portion that ended with the formulation about “beating medicare.” It’s simply not something I can recall seeing from a presidential candidate before, simply losing his train of thought and trailing off into the “beating medicare” non-sequitur on live TV. And not really even excusing or showing recognition that the language was incomprehensible. That’s not a stutter.

    The deeper point is that that entire debate was scheduled early to try and arrest or reverse terrible polling and internal unrest and concern from Dems about that terrible polling.  It wasn’t something an incumbent would normally do, and it went about as bad as it could have. To come back with this revisionist counterfactual that the only thing that lost the 2024 election was a kind of media inspired fake concern for cognitive impairment….

    Well, of course I should let it go… no need to beat a dead donkey.

  222. 222.

    jimmiraybob

    @mappy!: ​
     

    I’m not an attorney but would this be considered an acknowledgment of awareness that they were committing crimes?

  223. 223.

    Tenar Arha

    @Chief Oshkosh: I can think of one other alternative explanation. Unlike a loving family that wants to protect the money so their parents have resources in their old age, a family with that much money means big inheritances. So his children or his wife could be insisting he takes the tests. Do we know who’s his healthcare proxy? (Legally, if not specified, it is the wife).

  228. 228.

    Betty Cracker

    @laura: One of my neighbors is an armed Trump cultist, one of the few true believers around here who still proudly wears the Red Cap of Petulant Losers. I avoid him like the plague, and in our few unavoidable encounters, he didn’t strike me as the violent type at all. But I hear disturbing accounts from others about the depth of his devotion to the demented yam (there are exceedingly weird Trump shrines in his house, for example).

    So, WHEN (dog-willing I should live to see the day!) IT HAPPENS, our celebrations will probably not be as raucous as yours lest we attract incoming gunfire from a distraught cultist driven mad with grief. That said, we’ll be dancing and clinking glasses of bubbly with great joy here too! I have never despised another human being so much in my life.

  229. 229.

    Ruviana

    @Jackie:  He mentioned her at the rally including calling her “Susie Trump” a couple of times with a convoluted explanation about why.

  233. 233.

    Deputinize America

    @mappy!:

    He’s never going to get to go to Europe again.  Hedgseth is fucked, too, as is that dipshit admiral.

    I suspect Noem and Homan realize that they have significant risks that way.

  234. 234.

    coin operated

    @HopefullynotCassandra: This. Multiple cognitive tests mean they’re tracking. Same for multiple MRIs…whatever is eating him has a physical component. I’m willing to bet his MRIs have more dark spots than a dalmatian.

  236. 236.

    divF

    @Ruckus: My father used to tell a story about his commanding officer taking him aside and saying, “Top*, do you think you could tone down your language a bit?”. His response was, “Major, these are a bunch of 18- and 19-year-old draftees**. I have to use this kind of language just to get their attention.”

    *Dad was the first sergeant.

    ** This was in 1971.

  238. 238.

    Geminid

    They say you learn something new every day. Today I learned that “most people (with the exception of a few commenters at Balloon Juice)” believe Bernie Sanders would have beaten Donald Trump in 2016.

    This really is a special place.

  242. 242.

    Castor Canadensis

    @terraformer:

    I’d not heard that before! It’s amazing and sad to me that so, so many people are ignorant or don’t believe *what WW2 was about*, which was halting the spread of fascism and the Nazis – the very idea and people that MAGA supports without reservation today. Just, what the *actual* fck? How is this not a huge albatross around their collective necks? How can people support, well, fcking Nazis?

    It’s called the “grandfather rule”. If something happend in the recent past, you can get your grandmother or grandfather to tell you the truth about it.

    There aren’t a lot of WWII veterans around to flag the claims with “That’s a lie. I was there”.

  245. 245.

    Castor Canadensis

    @p.a.:

    Prolly are people seeking to undermine President GreaseStain, knowing he can’t last or will eventually bite someone….

    They’re  making sure they can replace him super-quick if he reaches for the football (:-))

  247. 247.

    Jackie

    This can’t be good?

    The U.S. military seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, reported Bloomberg News on Wednesday. The report called the move “a serious escalation” amid President Donald Trump’s saber-rattling to remove Nicolas Maduro from power.

    Bloomberg added that “seizure may make it much harder for Venezuela to export its oil, as other shippers are now likely to be more reluctant to load its cargoes. Most Venezuelan oil goes to China, usually through intermediaries, at steep discounts owing to sanctions risk.”

    mediaite.com/media/news/just-in-u-s-seizes-oil-tanker-off-venezuela-in-serious-escalation

  248. 248.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I had a scaled down version of that cognitive test the last time I went to the doctor. I asked him for it because my memory is crap. You’ll be happy to know I counted backwards by 7 just fine.

  249. 249.

    Archon

    I don’t know how future generations will process statements like that coming from the President of the United States.

    If anyone in my family wrote a non satirical comment anything close to that there would be an immediate intervention.

    The President is literally deranged. There is no way this can last another three years.

  250. 250.

    trollhattan

    Live in the Time of Trump.

    Had to ask the dude shopping our recycling bin to move his shit so we could leave the garage. He did and only then did I notice his parked car on the other side of the driveway: a late model Jaguar with new temporary paper plates.

    It’s tough out there, yo.

  252. 252.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Geminid:

    I think one area of public corruption Trump’s fans hoped he would clean up relates to Jeffrey Epstein. Now, that has come back to bite him.

    It isn’t that they wanted him to clean it up. They wanted the Epstein files because they were certain that the files would be filled with Democrats and other famous people they associate with liberals or woke or some other thing they hate. It’s the vestiges of the QAnon claims that Democrats are pedophiles.

    It is an annoyance for him for now, but his voters will not abandon him over it.

  253. 253.

    HopefullynotCassandra

    @Bupalos: ever wonder what focusing on Mr. Trump’s utter lack of knowledge and outright lying when questioned might have done?

  254. 254.

    Marc

    @Layer8Problem: ​Here is the only acceptable way to discuss this topic:

    Here’s your mandatory reminder that the reason we have this senile old fool for president is because for a half a year nobody would shut up about the idea we shouldn’t have a “senile old fool” for president.

    All other thought on this topic must be immediately countered by outraged True Democrats.​

  255. 255.

    PJ

    @trollhattan: A lot of bottle and can collectors where I have lived have cars (never seen a Jaguar, though!)  It’s how they get the recyclables to the redemption centers.  I wouldn’t mind it so much but some of them just dump what they don’t want into the trash or into the paper bin, and you have to re-sort everything.

  257. 257.

    Captain C

    “long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations at the Great Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.”

    Misread that as “Emanations” and thought that was even more TMI than we’ve come to expect from the First Felon.

  258. 258.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Baud: I don’t think there’s been any point in my life when I could successfully do that [count backwards by 7].

    If I had a nickel for every time I was asked to do that [ETA that I can recall :-) ] … I wouldn’t have any nickels.

  259. 259.

    HopefullynotCassandra

    @Eyeroller: the grift is strong in this White House, but surely even MAGA can see the main beneficiaries of that grift are named Trump, not Wiles.

  260. 260.

    Captain C

    @hitchhiker: Like coverup artist Bill Barr, Susie Wiles quietly helped out two of the worst presidents we’ve ever had and thus deserves whatever frustrations and grief she gets from her job.

  261. 261.

    Captain C

    @Miss Bianca: I suspect even many of the ones who admit to being appalled still figure no one could have known (as all the people who did know are Others who don’t have to be listened to) and therefore they’re in the clear, even if they voted for the First Felon 3 times.

  262. 262.

    They Call Me Noni

    @AM in NC: I’ll have to watch for it as I so enjoyed the previous episodes.  I love that he explores the parts of Italy that we have not visited.

  264. 264.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Jackie: That would be fantastic news for a number of reasons.

    If nothing else, it validates the entire Democratic efforts during the shutdown and makes Trump and Johnson look terrible. I wonder if they’ll try the same dance they did with Epstein – when it becomes clear they’re losing against a genuinely popular position they’ve publicly attacked repeatedly, they’ll just pretend they always supported it and vote for it.

  267. 267.

    Geminid

    @Melancholy Jaques: I suggest you read the New Lines article I linked to at #199. It’s long* and detailed, with material I was aware of and much I was not. There’s a lot of good observational reporting that speaks to the questions you raise.

    * And I mean long– a “33 minute read.” Like most New Lines articles, there’s little excess  verbiage; it just covers a lot of ground.

  268. 268.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Bupalos: Biden wasn’t nearly as bad as the media and republicans like to portray him as, but that debate was pretty awful.

    What’s really stupid is that Trump has had worse word salad and topic shifts for YEARS now, and the media just collectively decided to shrug. The main difference is that Biden looked confused and is a democrat, and Trump gets animated, lies and is a Republican

  271. 271.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    NPRs coverage of Trump’s affordability tour was brutal this morning. They have consistently hammered on the damaging impacts of tariffs since Liberation Day. They have talked a LOT about how they increase prices and hurt both consumers and small businesses

  274. 274.

    Ruckus

    @terraformer:

    Some think they will benefit from their hate.

    And as long as they look like those in power and support them getting higher in the level of power they will have a place.

    Humanity really isn’t a lot different than many other breeds of animals. We can communicate at a different, higher level, (sometimes!) many have an understanding of their bodies that they can do things others can’t – or at least can’t do well, we can learn more than other mammals, do things other mammals can’t, but that doesn’t make all or any of us perfect. We all carry our human baggage, some need bigger bags, some a pocket or two. Some recognize themselves as top of the heap (what’s that heap consist of?) some as high above the heap, and some are the garbage collectors of humanity. Are any of us perfect? NO. It’s just that some prove it daily. Or even more often. But we all show our humanity at some point in a life of breathing, belonging, leading or following.

    I used to ask when a point like this came up in a mental health session – that I was not on the patient side of, because a lot of people get told (by someone, might be themselves) they are the very top of the pile. This pile of humanity is big overall, and there are more than a few piles, but we aren’t all in the same pile. Which CAN make it harder for some to see their pile, which they/we can grow out of and move on to a better pile. But we all also have our limits of growth, often because of the basis of our pile. Some move up because of growth, some stay or move down – because they can’t move up, they are where they are and have zero concept of growth.

    My point is that we are all human. But humanity is a very large group, made up of smaller groups, some destined to fall and stay at the bottom, some will learn and move up. And some will stay where they are. It’s humanity, in all it’s sides, all it’s good and in all it’s bad.

  277. 277.

    WTFGhost

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It makes sense to me. If he’d said “quiet, bitch,” well, he was pissed, let his internal censor slip, but he didn’t say “bitch” or worse, he said “piggy,” which… WTF? I hadn’t heard it, but the sound of it, “quiet, QUIET PIGGY!” has the sound of “you just crossed a line and I’m not forgetting you.”

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: He’s like the Green Hornet, he comes in, pretends to muscle in on the criminal operation, takes it over entirely and then… something about a DA or prosecutor or something? I don’t think he ever listened that far into the GH serials!

  278. 278.

    Greg

    I am trying to determine what the GOP will settle on. Will they 25th him on January 21, 2027 so Vance can get 10 years, or will they Weekend at Bernie’s him because they all know that without him the con comes apart in moment, and that none of them are strong enough to grab the reins?

  280. 280.

    Matt McIrvin

    as the youths say:
    “i ain’t reading all that
    I’m happy for u tho
    or sorry that happened”

  281. 281.

    Ruckus

    @Hoodie:

    One’s life is a combination of all the sides of that one person. Some of the sides may be small and some may be large, most of us are not square cubes, with one disc of speech or only one possible line of sight.

  282. 282.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Belafon:

    The problem Trump has is that he’s such a narcissist is when doctors tell him Alzheimer’s (or whatever cognitive condition he might experience) is progressing faster than they’ve seen in any patient before that he’ll take it as a complement.

    Part narcissism, part BEING A MORON.

    Fran Liebowitz was probably right when she said you don’t know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump.

    (Can’t find the exact quote.)

  283. 283.

    Matt McIrvin

    A big strong uniformed man came to him and said “Sir”, tears streaming down his face, “Sir, this is an Arby’s”

  284. 284.

    Baud

    Via reddit, DEI palette cleanser.

    Former President Barack Obama surprised a group of 27 elementary school students at the Bessie Coleman branch of the Chicago Public Library on Tuesday. Obama read the children a book about Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman and Native American woman to hold a pilot license.

  285. 285.

    trollhattan

    @PJ: ​
    Yep, snagging them is one thing and making a holy mess is a different thing.
    IDK how it even pencils out given it would take about one-hundred containers to buy one gallon of gas. And your Jag back seat smells like stale beer and apple juice instead of Connolly hides. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯​

  286. 286.

    Bupalos

    @MisterForkbeard: I mostly agree with that, but I think we should think about the things that cause politicians to end up with the media winds at their back or in their face, and not just to ascribe it to it being “wired for Republicans.”

    When politicians appear to defy political gravity, I think it’s generally because they’ve tapped in to sources of political energy that weren’t apparent or didn’t apply in a different era. To the extent that Trump has gotten favorable treatment (I’m not sure this is really that clear overall, but I do grant that specific weaknesses of his would have generated more press in prior eras) I think there are reasons that go well beyond “the media wants him to win.”

    Frankly and in retrospect, Obama had a media wind at his back. And there again, not because they wanted him to win. More like ‘because he was as going to win, because he seemed to know something about political dynamics that the conventional wisdom hadn’t accounted for.’

  287. 287.

    Elizabelle

    @BellaPea:  Satan, please call Trump home, soonest.

    That would be the best holiday gift, evah.

    And perhaps something can happen to Vlad, too.

  290. 290.

    Ruckus

    For those of you wondering about Joe Biden, did you see the commentary he did in the last couple of days? Sure he’s old, and as an old myownself I have to say he sounded rather normal. Having had a job or two with enormous pressure of one kind or another (Try climbing a mast of an over 437 foot long war ship and then having to climb 23 feet out on the yardarm without any one to help or hold the rope, to work on a piece of electrical equipment) I’d say that he made a video a day or two ago and sounded pretty reasonable. I’m only 7 years younger than Joe Biden and he sounded fine to me. But. And it’s a big, hairy but, that job likely had/has far more pressure than climbing and working that far up and out in the air, held in place by a rope I TIED, because my work took both hands. I’ve been in some pressure situations in my lifetime but I seriously doubt anything like being president. Or even close.

  291. 291.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Bupalos: I think part of this is acknowledging that the media is absolutely wired for Republicans and there’s only so much you can do.

    Politicians that break through are typically ones that:
    1. Are really, incredibly talented (Obama) – Obama was also hillary’s opponent, and the media loathed her
    2. Being somewhat anti-Democratic Party (Bernie) – and he also benefitted from being Hillary’s opponent

    I have no doubt that the media would have turned on Bernie immediately should he have become the nominee. What it does show us is that we can’t be timid and expect the media to actually be good stewards of information – especially in the current era of social media.

    What we can do is realize that the media really is subject to flattery and propaganda and Dems should invest in that to get a good relationship with the media and to give them good, ‘popular’ narratives they can sheep along with.

  293. 293.

    patrick II

    I was surprised at his oqualifier “among” in “among the best” .  I was sure _he would say “the very best, then better than Abraham Lincoln, “.

  295. 295.

    Old School

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Fran Liebowitz was probably right when she said you don’t know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump.

    (Can’t find the exact quote.)

    …

    Echoing the reported opinion of former US secretary of state Rex Tillerson, Lebowitz thinks the biggest danger of Trump is that he is a moron. “Everyone says he is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”

  296. 296.

    jonas

    @Betty Cracker:  On a related note, I will never in a million years understand how anyone could think Donald Trump of all people would take on public corruption of all things!

    Literally: “He can’t be corrupt — he’s already so rich!” I’ve had people tell me that to my face. It really is one of those “best argument against democracy being a five minute conversation with the average voter” things.

  298. 298.

    AMagicianNamedGob

    @Geminid: This has always fascinated me about MAGA.  Why do they think he is going to uncover Epstein’s dealings?  They were documented best friends for a long time.  Why woud you be close friends with that guy if you weren’t into the same things as him?

    He has admitted to lusting after his then teenage daughter, admitted to going into Miss Teen USA dressing rooms…I could go on…

  300. 300.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: On the right, “public corruption” or “the swamp” is code for “Black people getting advantages”. You can be outrageously, openly taking bribes and as long as you’re enforcing the racial hierarchy they want it doesn’t matter, you’re just being smart.

  302. 302.

    Matt McIrvin

    @AMagicianNamedGob:

    This has always fascinated me about MAGA.  Why do they think he is going to uncover Epstein’s dealings?

    I think the roots of this are in the 2016 election cycle, when they used ties with Epstein as a hammer against Hillary Clinton, through Bill’s connection. Even then, it was absolutely public knowledge that Trump was buddies with Epstein. Nevertheless, it was MAGAs who brought him up, not Democrats, and it was to hit Hillary Clinton. I remember seeing that all over social media.

    But as with everything in 2016, there was a double standard–Hillary Clinton’s indirect connection to Epstein was more damning than Trump’s blatant one, in part because everything with Republicans behaving badly is “dog bites man”, not “man bites dog”.

  303. 303.

    Timill

    @Baud: I am frequently amazed at how much of Western civilization was changed because Mick Jagger and Keith Richards caught the school bus from the same stop.

  304. 304.

    Betty Cracker

    @jonas: True, I’ve heard that unbelievably naive bullshit line in real life as well. It beggars belief.

    @Matt McIrvin: I think that absolutely explains a subset of Trump voters, probably a majority, but not all. There are lots of stupid people too, and they vote.

  309. 309.

    Elizabelle

    @glc:  From glc’s Bloomberg (archive.is) link, had you not seen it.

    A Danish intelligence agency has for the first time described the US as a potential security risk, signaling a shift in the Nordic country’s view of its close ally amid geopolitical frictions over Greenland.

    The Danish Defense Intelligence Service — one of the two key espionage agencies in the Nordic nation — said the US is increasingly prioritizing its own interests and “now using its economic and technological strength as a tool of power, also toward allies and partners,” according to its 2025 intelligence outlook publishedWednesday.

    It also highlighted the US’s growing interest in Greenland, a territory of the Danish kingdom, as a result of heightened great-power rivalry in the Arctic.

    … “The United States uses economic power, including threats of high tariffs, to enforce its will, and no longer rules out the use of military force, even against allies,” the agency said.

    They are not wrong to do so.  And I don’t blame the rest of the world for never trusting us fully again, given the damage that a few too many low information voters (or cheating) can do in swing states.  Too precarious.

    Have not yet looked at their report.  Was wondering if Trump’s no filter mouth might be a security risk too.  Would you share intelligence data with that?

  310. 310.

    Ruckus

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Just an aside I also think that newspapers are starting to lose the power that they once had. Some of which is because of what we are doing right now. Most of us will never see/hear most of the rest of us, even with meetups, if for no other reason than we likely live a long ways away, but we still can have reasonable, rational discussions. With the web, we get to communicate with people we very likely will never actually met. But a newspaper is one way communication, not multiple ways. Even TV has some communication more than a newspaper. And while it may waste a few electrons, what does it take to print a newspaper? Ever been in a large newspaper facility? I have. The cost to print one is not in any way cheap. In reality it is very often just a waste of a natural resource, paper and of ink. The process of creating and printing a newspaper is not inexpensive and what happens to that paper after we are done with it? Sure it can be reused a few times but the process to do that is not cheap or totally environmentally neutral. Do you still have a small town newspaper? If no, why not?

  311. 311.

    Matt McIrvin

    @jonas:

    Literally: “He can’t be corrupt — he’s already so rich!”

    If you or I were that rich, we wouldn’t care about grabbing every dime to the point of abandoning basic morality or debasing our reputations.

    But because we work that way, we’re never going to be that rich.

  312. 312.

    dnfree

    @WTFGhost: ​
      I understand that you have problems processing words, and that you are sympathetic with Biden because of his lifelong stuttering issue that became more difficult to manage as he got older. But I’m an old person myself, and I’ve watched Biden over decades. What happened during the debate was NOT his long-time stuttering issue. The vacant look on his face alone had nothing to do with stuttering. He looked like he didn’t know where he was and what was going on. Even when he seemed to recover a little, he wound up saying something about getting rid of Medicare.

    The White House on Wednesday explained what President Biden meant when he misspoke and said “We finally beat Medicare” in last week’s presidential debate.

    “He meant to say he beat big pharma,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a briefing when asked about the president’s words. “I mean, that’s what he meant to say.”

  313. 313.

    Redshift

    @Jackie: Great, so in addition to being proud of making our troops murderers, he’s bragging about turning the Coast Guard into pirates.

    USA Today has some more details, like the Orange Menace reassuring us that “It was seized for a very good reason” and “I assume we’re going to keep the oil.”

  315. 315.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:So, WHEN (dog-willing I should live to see the day!) IT HAPPENS, our celebrations will probably not be as raucous as yours lest we attract incoming gunfire from a distraught cultist driven mad with grief. That said, we’ll be dancing and clinking glasses of bubbly with great joy here too! I have never despised another human being so much in my life.

    Yes, yes, and yes.

    Remember to stock up on Pedialyte or sugar-free Gatorade in addition to champagne, peeps!  It’ll be a life-saver for more than a few of us!

  317. 317.

    dnfree

    To Miss Bianca @ 167, my observations of Biden at the debate are not “ageist, ableist bullshit”. I’m old myself, and I’ve seen Biden for years. My opinion and yours of what happened at the debate are just different.

  318. 318.

    HopefullynotCassandra

    @Geminid: frothy wingnuts need their scapegoats.  They just took a scalp from a rather innocuous, decent fellow at Oklahoma University.  That is the MAGA scandal de jour so far as I can decipher.  Apparently, a “student” decided she would ignore the assignment* and instead affirm her support for all things biblical, even though said student neither reads, nor writes Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek.

    * the assignment was a reaction essay to a study that found d&d/different dressing boys and tomboy dressing girls had a little bit more difficulty being accepted than their “traditionally” dressed peers. The biblical abusing student chose to not read the study in favor of opining about her great devotion to the Bible and her belief that said Bible determined that only two genders exist.   So far, the above mentioned innocuous educator has been placed on leave for awarding the student a “F” for utterly failing to complete the assignment set before her.  The TA was fired.

    The student composed the essay poorly, too; because, of course! she did.  It is so “triggering” for some folks to read a coherently composed essay!

  319. 319.

    Jeffro

    @MisterForkbeard:What’s really stupid is that Trump has had worse word salad and topic shifts for YEARS now, and the media just collectively decided to shrug. The main difference is that Biden looked confused and is a democrat, and Trump gets animated, lies and is a Republican

    yup

    the problem is as simple as a lack of the #SameStandards

  320. 320.

    Jeffro

    @Greg:Will they 25th him on January 21, 2027 so Vance can get 10 years, or will they Weekend at Bernie’s him because they all know that without him the con comes apart in moment, and that none of them are strong enough to grab the reins?

    Vance will never, ever, get a term of his own (much less 10 years)

    But yes, they all know that without trumpov there, it will all start to come apart quickly.  The problem is, the entire rest of the GOP are what Kay used to call “low-quality hires” and exactly none of them can keep this reeking, flaming, port-a-potty on wheels between the ditches.

  321. 321.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ruckus: Newspapers have already lost most of their power because people don’t read them.

    But, also, we have right-wing oligarchs buying up major media outlets and blatantly censoring the content and manipulating the editorial line, and it’s so obvious what they’re doing that it debases the papers and the TV channels as sources of information.

    Maybe that’s the purpose; maybe debasing the New York Times and the Washington Post so they no longer have any control over received wisdom is almost as good, for these guys, as using them to manipulate received wisdom. But as Heather Cox Richardson has observed, this kind of thing has happened before. With luck it leads to the emergence of new media outlets that don’t necessarily exist yet.

    The oligarchs think they’ve plugged that hole too by dominating big social media, but as that too gets debased, maybe people go elsewhere. Maybe we go offline and end up distributing our own print zines–many of us have the means of making them in small runs at home. Those technologies haven’t disappeared, it’s just a matter of making use of them.

  322. 322.

    Bupalos

    @MisterForkbeard: anlmost all politicians at the level we’re talking about are “incredibly talented.” And if we falsely ascribed the ways that politicians make use of and hack the wiring of the media landscape to just some eternal favoring of Republicans qua Republicans, we’d miss our opportunities.

    Obama wasn’t really being ‘incredibly talented’ when he basically mocked Romney for stating Putin was basically public enemy number 1 in foreign affairs. He was capitalizing on a thirst for hopeful change, which was the hallmark of his incredibly successful campaign. Romney was basically buried in the media landscape for that ‘mistake,’ it was almost reported as a scandal that he had exposed himself as having such outmoded views. And Obama didn’t really suffer at all when Putin later invaded Crimea, and began engaging in all manner of open fuckery culminating by the end of that administration in really meaningful election interference.

    It’s not that Obama used his amazing skills to dodge media blowback on that, it’s that there was no blowback, because the way he had positioned himself initially as an agent of change in many ways had hacked the media and changed political gravity. He was, in essence, allowed to make that kind of a mistake. Just as Trump is allowed to make a lot of mistakes in the direction of essentially destroying the establishment.

    None of that is to deny that there are particular structural advantages for Republicans in this regards as champions of the well-off and corporations… which obviously can have very significant media implications. I just think it’s important to understand that this is a game that future Dems can and will win, just as past Dems have done.

  323. 323.

    dnfree

    @Baud: ​
      Counting backwards by some designated single-digit number is my brother’s sleep aid. Going by 3’s, maybe 397…394…391…. Another night he might do counting by 4, or 7.

  325. 325.

    Jeffro

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Part narcissism, part BEING A MORON.

    Fran Liebowitz was probably right when she said you don’t know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump.

    this is the correct order: it all start with him being a world-class moron and progresses from there.

    the narcissism, the corruption…

    …and then you add the dementia/Alzheimer’s on top of that.

    Just unreal.  But it all started with Donnie being a dunce and doing nothing about it.  Because money and privilege.

  326. 326.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: I also think a lot of it is this more generally tribal “Trump is for US, not for THEM.” Where “US” and “THEM” are very vaguely defined. WE want corruption defeated, WE want the Epstein files released, so Trump must want it too. Trump clearly not wanting to do it creates serious cognitive dissonance.

  327. 327.

    dnfree

    @Bupalos: ​
      When I saw the debate where Romney identified Russia as the biggest danger to the US, I agreed with him. Both Obama and Hillary Clinton had hopes of coaxing Putin into being some kind of normal leader by treating him as if he was one.

  328. 328.

    Old School

    @dnfree:

    my observations of Biden at the debate are not “ageist, ableist bullshit”

    Glad you don’t want to go around this again.

  329. 329.

    Geminid

    @AMagicianNamedGob: Ryan Biller’s New Lines article examines the phenomenon. I linked to it at comment #199, the one you are responding to. I can’t explain it one tenth as well as he did.

  330. 330.

    TerryC

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Last year I asked the VA for a baseline cognitive test, as I am 78 and I thought it would be nice to go forward with that knowledge. It turned out fine, and had a couple of components similar to those described, but was much more complex and took 3+ hours.

  331. 331.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Ramona: Yes, I know that his docs are advising…someone that Patient Dump needs to have the cog tests. Trump strikes me as someone who would blow that off unless someone other than docs as part of a normal protocol is advising him to take the tests.

  332. 332.

    Captain C

    @Anonymous At Work:

    You assume that Thiel doesn’t have a plan to get rid of the need for the cult that will work through sheer brutality.

    For this to work he needs to work around the fact that a good chunk of the brutes he needs are firmly ensconced in the cult.

  333. 333.

    Redshift

    @Betty Cracker:

    On a related note, I will never in a million years understand how anyone could think Donald Trump of all people would take on public corruption of all things!

    He never said he was going to do that, he said he was going to “drain the swamp.” Just because everyone knows that means fighting corruption doesn’t mean that’s what he means by it. It was perfectly obvious to me once he started talking about “swamp creatures” that he intended it to mean “anybody who tells me I can’t do whatever I want.”

    I’d bet a lot of his fans heard it that way, too, but if they were dumb enough to believe it meant corruption, I’d be willing to bet they took it to mean “anyone who’s doing things you don’t like.” (Plus, they’re very dumb.)

    The people I really fault are all the journalists who wrote stories puzzling about why he didn’t seem to be fighting corruption when he said he’d drain the swamp, and suggesting what he could be doing differently if he wanted to do that, instead of writing about how he was just lying about the whole thing!

  334. 334.

    Ruckus

    @trollhattan:

    Might? That seems like it might be a very real no.

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I believe that a lot of the media top staff may be for him but I’m not sure that a lot of the rest of the media staff is. And on the same hand how many people voted for him the second time? Enough to elect him. We really shouldn’t forget that the top 2 political parties are Conservative and Liberal. Why is anyone’s guess, but it’s been this way for my over 3/4 of a century. Sure there are others but they’ve always been the top 2, as the others are rather small. One side seems to be, how do we run a reasonable, rational government and the other, ME, ME, ME, ……….. I’ll leave it up to you all to figure out which is which.

  335. 335.

    Elizabelle

    @glc:  I sent that to several of my friends.  Thank you.  😅

    I think we may know via fireworks.  At any time of the day or night.

  336. 336.

    Baud

    Former Special Counsel Jack Smith is starting a law firm with three other attorneys who investigated President Donald Trump and his supporters.

     

    Timothy Heaphy, who is joining Smith at the new firm, on Tuesday confirmed the plan first reported by The New York Times. Heaphy is a Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner who served as chief investigative counsel for the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

  338. 338.

    Jeffro

    @Matt McIrvin:WE want corruption defeated, WE want the Epstein files released, so Trump must want it too. Trump clearly not wanting to do it creates serious cognitive dissonance.

    which is amazing, all things considered when it comes to trumpov and cognitive dissonance in his followers, but yes

    “He…he is fighting the release of the Epstein Files?  but why?  all of his enemies are named in th…hey…wait a minute…”

  339. 339.

    Geminid

    @HopefullynotCassandra: I thought that student and her mother wanted to hitch a ride on the TPUSA bandwagon, and that’s why the essay was written as it was. I know I can be very cynical about such matters, but that’s how this affair smelled to me; like a set-up. That teacher was just a stepping stone.

    Speaking of TPUSA, I think their annual convention will be held ten days from now, in Phoenix. That will be quite a scene.

  340. 340.

    Captain C

    @HopefullynotCassandra:

    said student neither reads, nor writes Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek.

    It would have been hilarious for the prof or TA to enlist a member of the classics department to write a withering critique of that paper from the angle of ‘this is a shit analysis of a shit translation.’

  342. 342.

    Redshift

    @HopefullynotCassandra:

    frothy wingnuts need their scapegoats. They just took a scalp from a rather innocuous, decent fellow at Oklahoma University. That is the MAGA scandal de jour so far as I can decipher. Apparently, a “student” decided she would ignore the assignment* and instead affirm her support for all things biblical, even though said student neither reads, nor writes Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek.

    It’s important not to leave out that the TA was trans, and wingnut organizations jumped on it pretty quickly. It seems doubtful she just decided to ignore the assignment to be churchy, and more likely the intent was to attack a person whose existence she disapproves of (not speculation about that part, because she frickin’ wrote it in her assignment!)

  343. 343.

    cain

    I don’t really understand why we’re talking about biden and that debate. It’s over. There is nothing to learn from that fiasco other than there was a media bias.

  344. 344.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    These people are not exactly rational though. Their guy is floundering and so is their party. They need a scapegoat, and they’re looking at Wiles.

    Works for me. We all seem to agree that if the leopards eat her face, she had it coming.

    They’d need more scapegoats in the weeks and months after they force her out, but they don’t think that far ahead.

  345. 345.

    Miss Bianca

    @dnfree: yes, well, evidently the average voter only cares about mental agility when the candidate is a Democrat. Because Trump was demonstrably more unfit in every way on his best day than Biden was at his worst. So, did I give a shit about the debate? No, I did not.

    I guess I’m not one of the average voters. But you, evidently, *are*.

  348. 348.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jeffro:

    Remember to stock up on Pedialyte or sugar-free Gatorade in addition to champagne, peeps! It’ll be a life-saver for more than a few of us! 

    Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate after all that champagne, champagne, champagne!

  353. 353.

    HopefullynotCassandra

    @Geminid: the student obviously needs some affirmative help.  Wingnut welfare may be her easy way out of life’s struggle.  Her essay was a hot mess.

     

    @Captain C: that is a suggestion I hope all of classical/religious academia is considering.  Turn this nonsense into Monty Python worthy nonsense analysis.  Please, oh please, someone somewhere with the actual know how do this!

  355. 355.

    WTFGhost

    @dnfree: What happened during the debate was NOT his long-time stuttering issue. The vacant look on his face alone had nothing to do with stuttering. He looked like he didn’t know where he was and what was going on. Even when he seemed to recover a little, he wound up saying something about getting rid of Medicare.

    What happened during the debate was not “incompressible word salad” either.

    Look: you can say “I saw him in the debate, and I knew he would lose,” and I won’t lose my shit. If you say “damn it, I know it’s not fair, but they’d called him old for so long, the debate was not going to go away!” then you’re being as fair as I could ask a person to be.

    If you instead say “I saw him in the debate, and I saw evidence of illness, actual, neurological illness, like ‘word salad,'” then I’m going to lose my shit, because no, no one saw that evidence. it never existed.  That is what matters to me.

  356. 356.

    Ruckus

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Personally I think that a lot of newspapers will cease to exist in the not all that distant future, because the cost will continue to rise and more and more people will wonder why we buy a newspaper, what with much of the same information is available on TV or online. I’m also not sure but a lot of small town newspapers seem to no longer exist, just not enough customer base for the cost of newsprint and a press to actually print the paper. For me the other side of the concept is that what real news do you get that you can’t/don’t get on line? Now it is possible that if you live in a small town/city, the newspaper may be important to see some things, like city meetings if you can’t go but if the city/county is low population then most likely a local newspaper is going to cost a lot per subscription, possibly ending that.

  357. 357.

    Ruckus

    @Captain C:

    As a vet and a user of the VA system, I’d say absolutely, positively, fucking never.

    (I threw that one word in there to prove my existence as a vet…..) My experience is that among US military members swearing is not just accepted it is mandatory. 10000% mandatory.

  360. 360.

    different-church-lady

    For all y’all MISSING THE GODDAMNED POINT ONCE AGAIN: the point of contention is not whether Biden should or should not have been the nominee. The point, FOR ABOUT THE SEVEN THOUSANDTH TIME is that too many people on our own side focused like a fuckin’ laser beam on Biden’s struggles and then took out a 9 foot highlighter pen from hell and a few 10,000 watt stage lights and helped the opposition make everyone pay attention to nothing but that, and then COMPLETELY FUCKING FORGOT ABOUT THE PART WHERE THE OTHER GUY WAS SEVERAL ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE MORE FUCKNUTS THAN IF YOU HIT BIDEN ON THE HEAD WITH A FRYING PAN AND MAYBE YOU SHOULD TALK ABOUT THAT GODDAMMIT WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

  364. 364.

    No One You Know

    @Chief Oshkosh: I should probably read downthread because it’s probably been said…but whoever monitoring him for compliance to Putin’s orders has to tell Putin when it’s hopeless and time to move to the next stage. And the new puppet.

  366. 366.

    No One You Know

    @Ruckus: You can’t get news that was critically vetted and reviewed by people with related knowledge when vomitting opinions in public works does well.  But you know that.

  367. 367.

    Ruckus

    @Miss Bianca:

    We all age out – if we live long enough. Now as it happens it is different for different people. I have a neighbor who is 99 years old and up until a few months ago would ride her senior scooter around the complex and stop and talk to people. Pretty amazingly she still made better sense than shitforbrains. She’s now rather bed ridden but one of my other neighbors visits her regularly and says she still herself. I would have voted for her last presidential election over shitforbrains. She’s still a better human than him.

  368. 368.

    dnfree

    @different-church-lady: I did not forget that the other guy was much worse.  (I’m also not in a decision-making position in the Democratic Party, just a person with an opinion).

    My primary concern was winning the election, as yours most likely was.  You believe the party should have stuck with Biden because you think he represented the best chance of winning.

    Before the debate I didn’t have an informed opinion on whether Biden could win, but after the debate I did have an opinion.  I thought there was little chance he could win, and at that late date I thought Harris was the only plausible option.  I think she came closer even with the strikes against her than Biden would have.

  370. 370.

    dnfree

    @Old School: At least I didn’t call anyone names, or disparage them.  My point is very simply that opinions may differ on this subject.  I’m also yet again not the person who brought the topic up.

  372. 372.

    different-church-lady

    @dnfree: 

    You believe the party should have stuck with Biden because you think he represented the best chance of winning.

    Actually, no I don’t. Which is why I keep hammering on MISSING THE POINT.

    THE POINT (for the 7001st time) is that no matter how bad you or I think Biden did at the debate, THE FREAK OUT MADE IT WORSE. It played right into the double standard.

  375. 375.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Geminid:

    The “Bernie Woulda Won” thing will never die because it absolves some people of their part in putting that asshole in the White House the first time.

  376. 376.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @RevRick: but girls generally don’t trash their dolls too badly, so they will have an accumulation from age 0-11 (which reminds me that I still probably have about a dozen dolls at my parents’ storage; no daughters or young nieces to pass them on to).

  377. 377.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @becca: if Pope Leo excommunicates the Catholic members of the Seditious Six, you will hear my cheers all the way across the country

  379. 379.

    glc

    @Betty Cracker:  You’re talking about Susan Wiles presumably.

    Trump listened to her during the campaign, grumpily, but she somehow got through to him that he simply couldn’t be himself.

    Nobody else in the administration really feels that way. He also doesn’t feel he needs to follow her advice, and boasts about it.

    It’s clear we’re getting whatever passes through his head in the moment, Miller and Vought can work with that, and Wiles is somehow present, giving advice, but not particularly effective. I find it a bit odd that she’s still there, as it doesn’t seem like a very rewarding experience for her.  Maybe she just doesn’t want to go looking for another job till this one is completely dead. Vance won’t keep her when he takes over.

    I think in Trump’s current mental state he has very little self-control left and if one works with him one improvises around him.

    Reagan was much more effectively managed when he had dementia. He was in worse shape, but perhaps that made it easier. Occasionally someone would sneak in past his handlers and make a little mess.

  380. 380.

    Geminid

    @glc: Susan Wiles was Reagan’s chief staff after he left the White House and sank into dementia, so she has some relevant experience in these matters.

    But I would not say she is as powerless as you do. Wiles has kept a low profile but I think she still plays a key role in this administration. Whether she will last is anyone’s guess, but Wiles hired on with Trump in Spring of 2021, so she’s already lasted much longer than expected.

  381. 381.

    glc

    @Geminid: Reagan was lost to dementia while still President, but he always took his wife’s views seriously, so the situation was considerably more structured throughout. There was also that tricky charade with Woodrow Wilson after his stroke …

  386. 386.

    Paul in KY

    @Peale: You can have all the horcrux tech in the world, but if you make dumbass decisions liking making one a living thing, others not buried at bottom of Marianas Trench, etc. etc.

  387. 387.

    Paul in KY

    @Betty Cracker: You know TACO Jr. and the one that was dropped on his head are counting the days till his demise. I bet he leaves it all to Barron. The looks on their faces will be sweet to behold…

  390. 390.

    Paul in KY

    @Ruckus: At my comm squadron the commander’s secretary was a kindly looking elderly lady. She could strip the paint off the wall with her cursing.

  392. 392.

    Paul in KY

    @Hoodie: I don’t think it’s a stroke, cause there would be physical signs in lack of movement on one side of body. Stuff you couldn’t really hide. I think he’s got early stages of Alzheimer’s.

  394. 394.

    Paul in KY

    @laura: I am going to get so fucking stoned and also drunk on some fine fine wine! Music will be played and happy tears will be shed.

  398. 398.

    Geminid

    @glc: It’s well-known that Ronald Reagan developed dementia during his presidency. I just said he “sank into dementia” when he he left office which is true enough.

    Nancy Reagan exerted inordinate influence on scheduling etc.and this was a widely reported story. But Reagan’s principal managers were his chiefs of staff– James Baker, Ronald Regen, Howard Baker Jr. and Ken Duberstien in the last year.

    Susan Wiles was much junior to them. She graduated from the University of Maryland in 2979 and hired hired with Reagan’s 1980 campaign after a stint as staffer for Rep. Jack Kemp. Kemp and Wiles’ father, sportscast Pat Summeral, had been teammates in the NFL.

    Wiles worked on advance teams, and developed a reputation for efficiency. My guess is that when planning began for Reagan’s post-White House office operation, someone suggested Wiles as chief of staff and Nancy Reagan liked the idea.

    It wasn’t that responsible a job, because Reagan’s activities were limited. I imagine Wiles helped carry on correspondence for a while, letter-writing and such.. And the job probably did not last too long before Reagan became a simple caretaking problem.

    But I expect Wiles learned some practical lessons along the way, about dealing with a dementia victim. Also, she probably was briefed by Duberstein, who was in a position similar to Wiles’ current one.

  402. 402.

    Elizabelle

    Yippee.  You guys just got this to a TBogg unit.  (That’s 400, right?)

    Proving to Professor Bigfoot that some threads still have some life in them.

  404. 404.

    Elizabelle

    @Ruckus:  Our newspaper was bought out by a hedge fund and sucks royally now.  Not even birdcage material.

    But:  the ABC TV affiliate has a very useful and accessible website; all 3 stations can be useful.

    For local news, maybe the TV stations will pick up some of the slack.

Comments are closed.