It’s possible that the narcissistic injury Trump suffered when his stupid comments about injecting bleach and/or beaming light into people’s bodies to cure COVID-19 became international punchlines exceeds all other self-inflicted humiliations he’s suffered in office. Trump has been ridiculed before, obviously. He was roundly criticized for his obsequious behavior toward Putin in Helsinki, was impeached for shaking down a vulnerable ally like a common protection racket enforcer and countless other acts of self-ownership, all of which would be deeply humiliating to a normal person. But Trump isn’t a normal person.
Also, a Greek chorus of wingnut sycophants has trailed him through each and every misstep, insisting that he didn’t say what he said and that if he did, it wasn’t as dumb or corrupt or treasonous as it obviously was. But you can tell by Trump’s own angry denials and threats to take his ball and go home (i.e., shut down the conferences), etc., that this is different. There are a few remoras clinging to Trump’s anal fin even through this episode — Geraldo Rivera, for one. But the lunatic output on Twitter since the bleach ingestion incident is, well, probably as close to a “cry for help” as an ambulatory stack of toxic garbage can emit.
This may be another sign:
Dog help us. I’m not saying BleachGate was a “turning point” — we’ve rotated at high speed for three years and change now, so I no longer believe in such things as “turning points” like Bush’s Katrina, Obama’s tan suit, etc. But I do believe a flailing, failing madman can plumb new depths of decompensation right before our eyes as the prospect of exposure and an electoral humiliation loom.
Open thread.
trollhattan
On is the new off? Yeesh.
bemused
President Chaos.
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan: “Push – the other Pull!”
Gretchen
Biden is giving a news conference at 3:30 with Kamala Harris. Will Trump try to be on tv at the same time?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wish there were some agreed-upon way to measure, and bet on, the level of crazy. I’m gonna guess today’s a 7.5/10. People have been making fun of him, calling him stupid, for five days now. I’m predicting he struggles through a prepared statement, starts taking questions and riffing, trying to appear upbeat and confident, and within 15 minutes some reporter (probably a woman) will set him off.
geg6
Back on? Seriously? This should be epic. Not gonna watch, but will monitor the online world to see reactions. Either he’ll be drugged to the gills or he’ll go full Trump.
cope
By November 3rd, every damn thing in this damn world will have been thrown against the wall. The problem with seeing what sticks is that the wall is now covered with layer upon layer of outrageous lies and behavior on the part of the president*.
That is all, I’m not good at extending metaphors.
artem1s
there is no bottom to the abyss of a narcissist’s attempts to recover their
lostnon-existent reputation. and there may be no end to the media’s fascination with watching a massive train wreck in real time. he is the penultimate child actor who spends the rest of his life trying to reclaim his ‘popularity’ by getting his mug plastered all over TCM every couple of months or so. The further away from prime time he gets the worse his offenses will be. It is the only art he has ever perfected and to be honest he has topped even Mel Gibson, O.J. and Michael Jackson on the ‘ick’ meter – over and over and over again.artem1s
@Gretchen:
Biden is giving a news conference at 3:30 with Kamala Harris.
VP announcement? or AG?
germy
The chaos reminds me of jobs I had back in the ’90s. Grunts like me in the small offices, the sales force a bunch of caffeinated blowhards running in and out, “middle” management engaged in their own power struggles, and upper mgmt., clueless and isolated. “There’s an important meeting today at three! Be there!” “Meeting’s been cancelled!” “Meeting is back on again, be there!”
I guess tRump wasn’t lying when he said run gubmint like a bizness.
wjs
Over the weekend, Paul Krugman wondered if the whole thing with Trump telling people to inject bleach into their bodies to cure COVID-19 was some sort of turning point as well.
There’s no way anyone who still supports Trump is going to be convinced to do otherwise by something he says in public. They’re all in on the white nationalism. Trump can’t be shamed. He can’t be fixed. He’s just Trump. He says things no one else in public life would ever get away with.
I think we’re just restating the obvious, over and over again. They want their racist president to do racist things, and nothing else matters.
germy
@artem1s: I thought it was too early for that; the last news I read was that they were forming a task force or something to consider all the vp candidates.
feebog
I haven’t watched a live
shitshowpress conference for a couple weeks. Mainly because I’m afraid the Missus will throw something at the TV and I’ll have make a trip to Costco to replace it. Maybe I can get her to go out and weed the backyard for an hour or so…NeenerNeener
My RWNJ sister liked an FB post this weekend claiming that only Democrats were stupid enough to drink bleach, and that’s why Biden had to put up a tweet telling people not to. RWNJs forget that Democrats mock and despise Trump, so we would never do anything Trump suggested. We weren’t the ones calling poison control last week.
germy
Didn’t Barr say he was going to force all the states to open by May 1?
Maybe Barr will have a statement to share. And will they be taking questions?
Baud
@germy: Right. At most this would be a trial run as part of the vetting process to see how well they fit together.
zhena gogolia
@artem1s:
I don’t see why he would announce AG before VP.
germy
PenAndKey
@germy: Given that the federal government doesn’t have any constitutional authority to do anything of the sort I’d say “him and what army”, but that just seems like tempting fate.
Honestly I don’t care what it’s for, if those two are working together in any capacity that’s good enough for me.
Butch
@germy: We must have been working for the same company.
Seriously, though, Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns & Money is speculating that Trump is going to follow a lifelong pattern and quit. He’s quit everything he’s ever done the minute it became challenging or unpleasant and Campos thinks he’s going to follow his old pattern. A girl can dream, I guess.
MattF
I’ve noticed that the list of bad qualities attached to Trump gets longer and longer, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. A couple of nights ago I got to ‘liar, narcissist, asshole, criminal, racist, moron’ only by leaving out a few that didn’t seem to help. He is what he is. More than four out of ten of our fellow citizens approve. I don’t think that’s going to change, neither slowly nor all at once.
zhena gogolia
@Butch:
That’s my dream too, but whenever it surfaces somebody says he’ll never quit. He’s afraid of prison.
germy
West of the Rockies
I think the Chewable Chlorox event may cause some Trump voters to stay home in November (a dozen here, a few hundred there, a couple thousand over there). I think they will send fewer memes, disappear from Facebook. I don’t think it’ll be a catastrophic (for Trump) ghosting, but it will have some measurable effect ultimately.
I wonder if Trump is fretting over potential prosecution, loss of power, the onset of irrelevance. The vision of him suffering emotional and gastric distress is delightful.
JoyceH
I do think the reaction to the bleach suggestions hit him harder than a lot of other things. When liberals and moderates and other sensible people criticize or are outraged, he loves that! But mockery and parodies and memes, that really hurts. Inciting criticism and anger feeds his sense of self-importance, whereas mockery makes him feel smaller and that’s wounding.
germy
@Butch:
I’d love a thread someday where commenters here share stories about frustrating jobs/bosses/coworkers they had.
Redshift
I’m not sure what news the Ms. had on earlier (either local news or CNN, probably) and they had a clip of the FoxBot press secretary talking about how we may see some changes in “format,” but not because there was anything wrong with it, oh, no! And they’re probably going to be talking more about the economy.
Then there was lipless chinless Mnuchin saying that with things opening up things will start to get better in June and July and they hope the economy will be doing really well by September or October. It couldn’t be any more transparent that they care about nothing but “the economy” doing well enough to get the buffoon reelected, and they don’t care how many of us have to die to make it happen.
bemused
Damn, no time set when trump does his rant fest? I hated him pre-empting so much of Ari Melber’s Beat shows instead of Chuck Todd’s useless hour.
Baud
We’ve been doing that since Day 1. The difference this time is that the seriousness of the occasion has actually penetrated Trump’s narrow feedback loop.
laura
Any guesses who this loathsome skidmark is taking this out on? I mean, he’s got to be raging neck veins a popping and just shitmouthing any/everyone in sight to blame for his own stupid stupid self. He’s got to be melting like the cores at Fukushima with embarrassment and shame and CANNOT accept anything resembling blame or consequences or ridicule. So good luck with that people who work for the administration and the my pillow guy. We’ll see who ends up offering themselves up for blame like that guy who got his face in the way of Cheney’s shotgun. How long it takes should be a clue about the level of trump’s rage. But it will surely happen.
pamelabrown53
@artem1s:
I don’t think there is a news conference. You may be thinking of a Town Hall where KH speaks about COVID and it’s effects on minority communities. It’s sponsored by Biden for President.
dmsilev
So, anyone who had “three days” in the “how long will he last without his rally-substitutes” pool, claim your winnings.
I honestly thought he’d make it a day or so longer. He’d see the press-conference-without-Trump and that would be enough to push him back in. Guess it was just the suggestion of pcwT that was enough.
PenAndKey
@Baud: To a raging narcissist there are few things more horrifying than public ridicule and scorn. He could dismiss it when it was just liberals because “own the libs” outrage fueled his ego and he could dehumanize us. This one, however, stung him because it wasn’t just us going “wtf is this guy on”. Even his usual defenders can’t successfully defend the “put disinfectants in the body and see if that works” remark and without that shield, or power over the people who could mock him, he’s got nothing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JoyceH: also the whole Noble meltdown of yesterday, with the added layer that people were mocking him for spending his wife’s birthday having a day-long twitter tantrum. Somebody who focuses a lot on trump’s narcissism says his three biggest triggers are his intelligence, his business career, and his net worth. I imagine the suggestion that his marriage is, um, something less than a passionate love-match is in the top ten.
anarchoRex
gonna be hilarious when Trump floats cancelling the election and points to NY as an example.
Hungry Joe
It’s great fun to imagine Trump’s having a Ceausescu moment — the “long-adoring” crowd suddenly, cumulatively, has had enough, and turns on him — but it ain’t going to happen.
“This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a plotz.” (I’d add “Apologies to T.S. Eliot,” but he was an anti-Semitic prick, so … )
bemused
@NeenerNeener:
How do they convince themselves of crap like that? Oh never mind, they have to know of trump friends/fans that are that stupid but they get more joy from pretending Dems would drink bleach.
NeenerNeener
@zhena gogolia: There’s a gossip web site that said last week that one of the two candidates for Prez is contemplating a female VP and has promised to retire midway through his term and let her take over. Now, if this is Biden it’s no secret except for the “retire midway” part. But if Trump is thinking about dumping Pence, he could be replacing him with either Ivanka or Nikki Haley. He could leave the country and avoid jail and neither Ivanka or Haley would go after him.
anarchoRex
@pamelabrown53: hi Pamela, sorry we didn’t get a chance to meet, covid sure nipped that in the bud.
West of the Rockies
If I’m not mistaken, Trump is now down to Biden in MI, FL, AZ, NC, PA, and WI. Between now and November, he won’t develop empathy. The economy won’t improve in any helpful way for him. Unemployment won’t drop to under 10%. He won’t become articulate or inspirational. In short, I think despite 4/10 white people being racist/misogynistic assholes, and 3/10 Latinos and 1/12 blacks voting against their own interests, Trump will crumble like Thanos at the end of Infinity Wars.
Betty Cracker
@wjs: Trump has already tipped his hand on the racist thing he’ll do to retain deplorable support during and after the pandemic: the immigration pause by executive order. Maybe this press conference will be about that and the “testing” thing is just a ruse, who knows?
There was an interesting piece in The Post last week about a donor call Stephen Miller had in which he claimed the EO was just the down payment on a broader immigration crackdown. Apparently Miller was “stung” by criticism from racist shitheads that the immigration “pause” didn’t go far enough. The call was to get them on board.
JustRuss
I have a coworker who’s convinced the media is out to get Trump. And yeah, he didn’t literally say “you should drink some bleach”. Trump rarely says anything clearly, he tosses out word salad that can be interpreted a number of ways. Like any good grifter. Amazing how many people haven’t caught on to that yet.
JoyceH
@Baud: True. But he’s been in a state of perpetual bewilderment since he was inaugurated. Obama mocked him at the correspondence dinner, and Obama had all that love and respect. So hey, if he took away Obama’s stuff, HE would get all that love and respect. But it didn’t work and he doesn’t understand why. Look, he’s got Marine One, he’s got the Resolute desk, so why doesn’t everyone love him?
Omnes Omnibus
@MattF: Long ago I simply decided to characterize Trump as a bad person with no redeeming qualities. It’s easier and accurate too.
West of the Rockies
@Baud:
I’d like to see the fat Trump baby balloon show up again with a manifestly-shat diaper.
Elizabelle
@NeenerNeener:
(1) the president cannot fire the VP. Resignation or death.
(2) If the Vice President dies, resigns, or becomes President, the President can appoint a new Vice President. The appointment needs to be confirmed by a majority vote of both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
Do you see a majority of the House going for Ivanka?
Mnemosyne
@artem1s:
What Pamela said — I think it’s a townhall about Covid-19, not a press conference. He’s been doing a lot of them.
Also, IIRC it’s illegal to announce cabinet appointments before one is elected — it falls under bribery, I think.
I still have my fingers crossed for VP Kamala Harris, though. I think she’s by far the best choice as long as there aren’t any skeletons hiding in her closet that we don’t know about. She’s not universally popular with lefties in San Francisco, but I don’t see the whole “Kamala is a cop!” thing playing badly with white suburban moms. ?♀️
Faithful Lurker
Way off topic: Does anyone have Cole’s recipe for super weed killer? It was posted here years ago and I thought I had kept a copy but can’t find it now. I know it had bleach in it. And no, I’m not going to drink it.
Thanks.
Baud
@West of the Rockies:
Maybe this time with a light shining up its ass.
ET
This is the trap he set for himself.
He didn’t have to go to every single meeting.
He didn’t have to speak (or word vomit) at every single meeting.
He could be less of an idiot every time he opens his mouth.
He could take this as an opportunity to step back.
But, and this is a BIG BUT, he is constitutionally incapable of not being at the center of attention.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Too lazy to be a serial killer, but possessing a serial killer’s soul.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@geg6: Why not both!
Butch
@germy: OK, so every year we had to fill out a self-evaluation, an evaluation I will stress of one’s own performance, and it included the question “would you work with this person again?” My entry in any thread like that would be in “Wait! Come back! I’m not done” territory.
Baud
@Butch: “I would never work with anyone who would have me as a colleague.”
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
A townhall without the town present? How does that work, fill the room with Roombas that have masks?
pamelabrown53
@anarchoRex:
Manana. I plan on being around when this is over!
NeenerNeener
@Elizabelle: Yes, but Pence could be convinced to announce he didn’t want to run again by Kochs, Mercers, etc.
ETA: the few celebrity gossip sites that friends have sent me to recently are a hot bed of QAnon bullshit, so even if there was a grain of truth in the VP pick one it was a very small grain.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Who’s left in the Trump donor rolls? It’s hard to envision somebody shoveling millions into his maw, at least the April 2020 edition Trump. “Keep dope alive!”
trollhattan
@NeenerNeener:
Don’t they convince Mother, then Mikie falls in line?
Redshift
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I read that he apparently deleted a lot of his Twitter ranting from the weekend, so that seems like another sign the “Noble” mockery got to him.
Lapassionara
How is it that the country went months without any kind of press briefing, and now we are subjected to one a day, and from Trump himself? I could see this if he were telling us what had been accomplished with respect to increased testing or the like, but just to lie and exaggerate, it is just too much to bear.
Plus, I see from my Twitter feed that the Berniacs have been reenergized by the fact that NY cancelled its primary and are calling on Biden to step aside and for Bernie to take his place.
We need an intervention.
anarchoRex
@pamelabrown53: you still gonna be commenting here when this pandemic is done? I will make sure to come back and look you up.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@JustRuss: It is in their interests not to “catch on” If they can convince themselves that the person they voted for or at least (in some peoples cases) helped get elected through inaction, is some how not the selfish, childish, self-centered and deeply stupid person he appears, then they can let themselves off the hook for helping to land us in this disaster. No, Trump is not responsible for the pandemic, he is responsible for his inaction and lying at the start of the actual pandemic. A competent president would have possibly listened to their National Security people as well as the WHO and the CDC and taken actions that might have prevented the worst of what we are going through. A competent President might also have put forward or pushed a large stimulus and aid package to stave off the worst of the economic impacts. But she was “over prepared” doncha know. And we wouldn’t want that. So we ended up with the Orange Fascist Racist.
dmsilev
@Lapassionara:
Fixed for greater accuracy.
NeenerNeener
@Lapassionara: Bernie wasn’t going to win the NY primary with or without a write-in campaign so why do the Berniacs have their knickers in a knot about canceling the primary?
randy khan
@Elizabelle:
He doesn’t need to do any of that if he just replaces Pence with someone else on the ticket. There’s no obligation to nominate the same person you had in the first election. (And that’s part of how Harry Truman became President.)
Roger Moore
@wjs:
I’m going to give my standard response to this: Trump needs more than his hard core supporters to get reelected. There is also a softer core of voters who lean Republican in the sense that they like the Republicans’ racist policies but will change their tune if the Republicans’ malfeasance starts to hurt them personally. Those are the kind of voters who said in 2008 that they were going to vote for the n****r. Those voters will probably vote against Trump- or at least stay home- if they can be convinced that Trump is responsible for the mess we’re in.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: I think trump would dump Pence for Haley in a heartbeat. I suspect she doesn’t want to tie herself that closely to him. I see her and Christie playing the same game of being allies, but with a distance for 2024.
@Redshift: he tried to cover up by more or less claiming that he was calling the Pulitzer a “Noble” prize, which is arguably even more pathetic.
Mikeindublin
He’s a punchline on 2 different WhatsApp chat groups I belong to…in Ireland.
THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR TRUMP!!!
trollhattan
@Lapassionara:
My
dimenickel store ‘splanation is he uses these to replace his Triumph of the Will road tour. And that’s probably as much thought as he put into it. “Camera, good!”What he didn’t think through was that media people other than Fox would be in the room. As imperfect and cowed as they are, eventually the others started to notice he’s lying and profoundly ignorant, all at once, and they might as well report that.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
This is my shocked face
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: He will double down on the anti-immigrant rhetoric. His base will be happy, everyone else will yawn. Immigrants and their loved ones will be screwed. Same as what has happened since T took office.
Barbara
@Lapassionara: It would be funny except that it epitomizes such a strong feeling of entitlement, and is very similar to the lens through which Megan McCain sees the world, e.g., demanding that Biden have a bipartisan cabinet. “No matter what happens, my side should win.”
Monday always seems to be the worst day for me. On the brighter side, over the weekend I finally made a rye bread from The Rye Baker using rye sour dough sponge. I can say without a doubt it is the best bread that I have ever personally baked, and at least in the top 10 I have ever eaten.
randy khan
Apropos of dead-enders, I have a Facebook friend who’s worked in the Republican Party and has gone full Trump. When I posted about how Trump’s full pivot on Georgia opening up was even Trumpier than the bleach thing, he was rash enough to tell me that if I’d seen the press conference I would know that Trump never said to inject bleach or that they should try to get light inside people’s bodies. It was pretty satisfying to post the exact words Trump had used and quote Reagan quoting Thomas Paine back to him.
Roger Moore
@Butch:
I don’t think Trump is going to resign if that’s what you mean by quit. But I could definitely see him washing his hands of everything associated with COVID-19 by announcing that one of his task forces will take over all the day-to-day operations and he won’t be directly involved. It would be his way of dumping all future blame on the committee.
germy
ReOpen NC leader says she tested positive for COVID-19
Ryan
Will today be the day Trump becomes preznit?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mikeindublin: I talked to a friend in France yesterday, with a wide web of international friendships, and she said the same thing about her What’s app groups.
Barbara
@trollhattan: But telling people to ingest bleach or Lysol — that was his own spontaneous riff obviously meant to show what a smart boy he was, a bit of inspiration inferred from a presentation on how to disinfect surfaces a possible cure. I mean, no hostile press questioning prompted that bit of idiocy. And I thought it WAS a joke when I read it, until I saw that inspired TikTok video made by Sarah Cooper to the actual Trump soundtrack.
Oklahomo
@germy: Remember how in the late 90s the office crazy escalated because of “the NEW PARADIGM!!!!” of the internet?
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@trollhattan: You are right about the daily pressers taking the place of his “I Love Me” rallies. What he did not understand, because other people literally do not matter or really register for him, is that even the cowed reporters in the press room were not going to take the deaths of (now) 55,000 people with just an EH and a shrug. He did not get that someone there MIGHT do a little push back.
JaySinWA
@Butch: Split personalities much?
different-church-lady
The trick is going to be getting voters to remember all this come November.
(Saying we’re not still in the middle of it come November…)
rikyrah
For a respite thread????
rikyrah
In m-o-d-e-r-a-t-i-o-n, please help.
different-church-lady
@Butch: Mentally he’s already quit. He just hasn’t packed up his stuff yet.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Oklahomo: And now I have to find my copy of Buzzword Bingo. We used to play it during meetings with one manager, he could NOT speak at the office without using as many buzz words as possible. Example synergize, we are going to synergize the sales force. Ummm no you are going to fire half the sales force. See also right-size, leverage and value-added
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m getting the sense that at long last the press is starting to understand the game, and they’re deliberately poking the bear, having finally figured out he’s toothless.
p.a.
Possibly the trumptards’ last line of defense could be the claim that trump is the greatest performance artist since Andy Kaufman. It’s close to all they have left.
pamelabrown53
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I disagree. Haley has been further and further right on the wingnut scale. In fact, I’d speculate that she is, in fact, auditioning to be tRump’s replacement.
different-church-lady
@West of the Rockies: The psychological impact of 24 million newly unemployed has not sunk in yet.
germy
@Oklahomo:
Definitely. And we were ordered to “get on top of it” while struggling with macs and PCs that could barely run.
Barbara
@randy khan: People who have forged careers as Republican operatives have been self-immolating their principles for the last three plus years. I think many are trying to keep their heads down in the hopes of a better “after Trump” life.
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
But he can choose a new running mate for 2020, which is what’s being suggested here.
laura
Well, Needy Amin’s decided to brief the nation tonight after all. Should be interesting but not informative.
A Ghost to Most
I believe t* is plotting on how to delay/cancel the election, using his plague as his excuse. That’s the Hail Mary play.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
That’s me!
zhena gogolia
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
How about siloed?
zhena gogolia
@p.a.:
“Here I come to save the day!”
youtube.com/watch?v=Yxp23Gkvn9g
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: I think that’s mostly true, but screwing a million American citizens out of their $1,200 stimulus check for the crime of being married to a non-citizen strikes me as a bad strategy for reelection, particularly since at least a couple of states with a lot of immigrants are swing states. Also, many businesses flat cannot operate without immigrants, so Trump has gaping holes in the so-called ban, which hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Also too, Asian and Russian brides of Trump supporters….
Brachiator
Ain’t it the truth! Trump ain’t normal. And one thing about him is this weird, tough, self-defense mechanism he has to fight off, deflect and to bounce back from slights, disgraces and humiliations.
He appears to deeply believe his own bullshit, and can deny like a muthafucker, and this is augmented by his willing sycophants and toadies, who stroke his fevered brow and whisper in his ear that he is great and all is right in his world.
I don’t think he has ever admitted error or fault.
He is wounded, and probably looking around for someone to take the fall.
But he ain’t no superman. He uses the power of the office of the presidency to insure that he can always surround himself with protectors. He has had willing enablers all his life. And of course, he pays people.
He would crumple like a used tissue if his enablers walked away from him. He flirts with disaster with his obvious lack of concern for the American people, who he claims to love. But again, his most devoted base refuse to believe what is right in front of them.
So he will sulk. But unlike Achilles in his tent, Trump does not have any real fight in him. He will just stumble along like he always does, depending on the craven self-interest of the GOP leadership to pull him along.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Well, that’s not it. I can’t find the original, so here’s Jim Carrey:
youtube.com/watch?v=E64OI0FTnwU
James E Powell
@germy:
We’d hit double TBogg.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: OT. What’s the skinny in Florida on DeSantis saying that the State’s seniors are just waiting to meet their maker? “God’s waiting room?”. Really?
Oklahomo
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: From the software side, the great buzzword of the 90s: client-server.
Miss Bianca
@Butch: I know, I read that post this morning and had that same reaction: “a girl can dream”.
Betty Cracker
@different-church-lady:
Truth. Not for the deplorables, and not for most of us non-lunatics either, probably. I was moved along that path a little by the realization that our fledgling might have to reoccupy the nest at some point. There goes happy hour. Oh wait…
James E Powell
@Barbara:
Republican operatives have never had any principles, unless ambition and greed are considered principles.
Roger Moore
@Barbara:
Yep. And since so many Republican operatives went along, it will be nearly impossible for the Republican Party to move forward without including a lot of people who sold out their principles to Trumpism. Nobody will pay a price within the Republican Party for going along.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: my cousin’s 23 year-old has returned to the nest and to her parents’ delight has taken up mixology as a quarantine hobby
germy
This video…
Of course, they’re republicans, so they can’t help but be dishonest in their description of the video. It’s what Graham said before tRump won the election.
Now he’s fully on the tRump Train. Says #45 will make mincemeat of Joe.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: That’s an old joke among Floridians, but obviously a really dumb thing for a politician to say. DeSantis has been strutting around all weekend, crowing about how successful the state has been at bending the curve. I really hope he’s right, but I don’t think we know yet because the testing lags so far behind. Hillsborough County (where Tampa is) did a great job containing the spread, thanks to a Democratic mayor who put really strict guidelines in place (that DeSantis undermined). The rural counties, who knows…
Miss Bianca
@JoyceH: I remember Kay making the point that the self-styled MOTUs – Trump being the prime example – are just, in addition to being clueless about why people don’t automatically worship them, so fucking maddeningly WHINY about it. “We are sociopathically self-centered assholes who think that everything should belong to us and WHY DON’T WE GET THE LOVE AND ADMIRATION WE DESERVE FOR THAT?!”
Um..maybe because being a sociopathically self-centered asshole is not, actually, either a lovable or admirable trait? I’m just spitballin’ here.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hey, there’s an idea! :)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m half tempted to book a room, to see if there is “non-refundable” language in the fine print
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Do we know how the situation in Florida nursing homes is going? That is what your Governor was trying to talk about, I think.
James E Powell
@pamelabrown53:
Since she’s female and not a WASP, the press/media will promote her as moderate, much like they did with Rubio. This will make her popular in the Village, but the Republican base may not go for that act, much like they did not with Rubio.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@zhena gogolia: oh god yes that too!
germy
Immanentize
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Touch base. Put a pin it that for a moment.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: The state was burying stats on nursing homes at first. I don’t know if they still are or not; tbh, I haven’t followed the news as closely lately because it’s just so goddamned depressing, you know? Just got the news today that a close friend’s dad died in a nursing home yesterday. They tell her it wasn’t COVID, but nobody really knows for sure. It’s an awful situation.
catclub
I think any improvement at all will be taken by at least some of the media as another Trump economic miracle. Never mind all those lying eyes. There could lots of discussion of ‘positive trendlines’.
I hope you are more right than I am worried about.
Kent
Just thinking out loud but what would happen if Biden decided to do a “Democratic Response” to every one of Trump’s press conferences. Just go on TV on a daily basis AFTER Trump is done speaking, bring on various guests and just react and comment on what Trump said, and talk about what they would do differently. Take questions from the media and Americans.
Biden: “Now children, you really shouldn’t drink bleach no matter what the president says”
And then have chats with real public health experts about what Trump is doing and saying.
Trump’s head would fucking explode
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Zoom. Duh. They even take questions from the audience.
Josie
@Faithful Lurker:
I found this in my anonymous notes file, but it doesn’t have bleach in it.
Weed-Be-Gone
1 gallon vinegar
2 cups Epson Salt
1/4 cup Dawn dish detergent
Mix and spray on weeds in the morning, after dew has evaporated. Works better, is cheaper, okay for the environment.
Matt McIrvin
@West of the Rockies:
But Biden could still go down.
zhena gogolia
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
going forward
brainstorming
Kent
Unemployment is always a trailing indicator. Trailing WAY behind the stock market. Companies always put off hiring during an upswing until they can’t avoid it anymore. So even if the economy starts to turn around by November, the unemployment rate is going to be one of the last thing to start budging. Trump will be in the position of crowing about the Dow Jones reaching new heights when unemployment is at 20%. It isn’t going to be a good look for him.
pamelabrown53
@James E Powell:
Well the good news is if the (beltway) media/press do attempt to recast her as a moderate, tRump himself has gone scorched earth on the media/press.
OTOH, I would think that tRump’s most fetid/fervent supporters might find it unacceptable;e for him to choose a minority woman?
LuciaMia
The thing is, even it was true that Trump was trying to be ‘funny’. Thats even worse. A daily briefing where an anxious public tunes in to try to get some info, some reassurance, some help. This moron thinks its the time to try a little standup. Especially a sarcastic remark where he expects that a lot of people might not get.
Kent
NOTHING is for certain until January 21, 2021. And maybe not even then. From the state parties to the white house to SCOTUS. They will try every legal and illegal ways possible to steal this election. That is what they do.
I’m liking our chances. But we still have to make it happen.
cain
@Lapassionara:
I read that they removed Bernie’s name on the primary not that they cancelled it. Removing Bernie’s name is not a good idea I thought. But from a health perspective canceling the NY primary is a good idea.
cmorenc
@cope:
There’s a huge chunk of delicious irony, schadenfreude if you will, to the fact that all the publicity about Trump trying to extort Ukraine to dig up dirt about Joe / Hunter Biden has already exposed and largely defused its potential as Trump’s main personal attack theme against Biden. It’s already out there and been discounted by the non-Fox-addled majority of the electorate, and Biden has emerged with a solid lead despite this publicity. So in the end the story wound up being far more damaging to Trump than to Biden, despite the GOP having sufficient votes to stave off impeachment
Trump simply doesn’t have any available personal lines of attack against Joe Biden that don’t immediately and unavoidably reflect a far harsher spotlight back on Trump.
Kent
Exactly.
They tried tying Biden to China, even using footage of the Chinese-American former governor of WA, Gary Locke, in some ad that was immediately repudiated. But it is another case of projection. Trump has far more entanglements with China than Biden, especially on the coronavirus issue which will be the dominant frame through which every issue is filtered.
Calouste
@cain: AFAIK, all other candidates who have suspended their campaigns got removed from future ballots, unless those ballots had already been printed. Why would this be different for Sanders?
Betty Cracker
@cain: For sure it would be a dumb idea to hold an in-person primary in the middle of a pandemic, but is there any reason they couldn’t make it a mail-in vote? IIRC, it wasn’t scheduled until toward the end of June anyway. I have no idea what kind of mail-in ballot apparatus NY has in place. Maybe they couldn’t get it together quick enough to conduct the primary by mail?
I think the DNC gets to review the decision and a delegate allocation proposal from the state. I know people are saying it’s a pointless beauty contest, but that’s not really so since it affects delegates, who in turn have a say on party platform, etc. If there’s any reasonable way to hold the primary, they shouldn’t cancel it, IMO.
hueyplong
@Kent: This is why they’re going to inundate us with Biden’s a rapist/assaulter stories.
While all the more insane in light of Trump’s own history, the distinction is that GOPers don’t care about rape or assault accusations. However, such stories have been about the only effective bullet against Dem politicians since Jan 2017.
LevelB
Well, at least Trump has ensured we are no longer a laughingstock around the world. I’m guessing we are more likely to be regarded with abject horror.
B.
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: In principle, I agree with you, but I don’t know the ins and outs of the New York primary election system, and when I have read articles in the past, it seems kind of byzantine.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Barbara: I’m also a non-NYer, but a lot of people on twitter saying this has less to do with Bernie and Biden than Cuomo wanting bernie voters to stay home.
cwmoss
@cope: Ahh, Grasshopper. That is why metaphors must be mixed rather than extended.
hueyplong
Prepare yourself for a rash of “Reade corroboration” stories.
The timing should raise no eyebrows. None.
Faithful Lurker
@Josie: Thank you. That solution sounds like what I remember. The gallon of vinegar is the same shape as the bleach container. Visual memory strikes again.
dww44
@pamelabrown53: I agree with you. Apparently her ambition exceeds her good sense. Certainly exceeds and surpasses any principles that she has previously expoused.
Betty
@Barbara: There is a religious group named Genesis II that claims they had sent Trump info on the benefits of bleach earlier that week.
Ruckus
I got a letter today from the “IRS.”
I opened it and inside was a letter from the fucking white house. (That description is way to appropriate/inappropriate these days.) Signed by shit for brains his dumb ass self. Telling me that my wonderful, life saving $1200 had arrived in my bank account. This fuckstick has to tell me that money, that would not be enough for a lot of people had arrived 12 days ago, in my account. What a useless fuck of a human being. He’s worthless at the bank, at life and especially as a president. Just think what life would have been like if his far more than worthless dad had worn a condom. Or if his mom had pulled a Bobbitt and done the world a favor, cutting off a dick’s dick, and saving the world from another wanna be wealthy dick generation.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Huh, Col Jack Jacobs, MSNBC military analyst, West Point faculty and Medal of Honor recipient, breaking his usual studiously neutral, non-political tone to go after trump– in his still fairly mild way– for ordering an audience for himself at the WP graduation.
Ruckus
@bemused:
President Chaos would be about a 100000 steps up from the shit stain that is there now.
Yutsano
So…who ordered the puff piece on Future Spouse Number 4? Although it makes me sad to think of her having to deal with the mushroom,*
*Not really.
(Via Wonkette who really don’t skewer this nonsense enough)
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: All I can say is that I have a strong impression that Cuomo has never been shy about trying to push power in the direction where he wants it to rest. So yes, I can see how someone might reasonably believe that. But the conditions inside New York hospitals have been apocalyptic. I suspect that even if the vote were held, there would be a lot of consternation about certain groups being especially disadvantaged about not feeling safe to go out. I do think he should try to find some way to hold it if at all possible.
Ruckus
@artem1s:
You wouldn’t select an AG at this long before an election.
But it doesn’t mean the other either. KH is doing a lot to get dems elected, flipping the senate, and securing the house even farther.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Barbara: as best i understand, the primary is still taking place, but the presidential line has just been eliminated
Matt McIrvin
@cmorenc:
Historically, that second aspect simply doesn’t matter. It certainly didn’t in 2016. Jeffrey Epstein is the classic example: Trump and Bill Clinton both had connections to him; of the two, Trump was the one with actual associated rape allegations against him; who was Epstein mostly used to attack? Hillary Clinton. Not even Bill, really.
zhena gogolia
@Matt McIrvin:
It isn’t 2016 any more.
Ruckus
@MattF:
There is a reason that narcissists often end up with power. Their bullying and bullshit works. Right up until the moment they go too far. And as long as most can just walk away from them, their influence and bullshit doesn’t get very far to so many. But this is of course far different. He “won” power. And of course he’s going to abuse it, that’s the SOP for narcissists.
Ruckus
@germy:
Talk about a TBorgg, or three.
westyny
I laughed at “remoras”
danielx
@germy:
One of several problems with that approach is that he’s running it like one of his businesses. There’s ample evidence as to how that generally works out.
hueyplong
@Ruckus: My daughter got the same White House letter today. Sending that to direct deposit people kind of puts the lie to the “wut? my name is on the checks? who knew?”
He undoubtedly pitched a fit about not having his name on the direct deposit.
Ruckus
@ET:
No. No he could not. He is manifestly incapable of that.
I think the use of the word constitutionally is not the best here. Seeing as there may be two constitutions in question, his and the one that belongs to the US.
He is structurally/mentally incapable, that’s for sure.
Duane
@Ruckus: Using the IRS name to send that letter should be illegal. Unsurprising Trumpov would be so underhanded. Most people see mail from the IRS and figure it’s trouble, but he doesn’t care. His policies created economic crisis and he’s claiming credit for the results. What a dumbass.
Yutsano
@Duane:Using the IRS name to send that letter should be illegal.
hueyplong
Cletus: Damn, hon, FoxNews has dumped Diamond and Silk.
BobbyJo: Why, I thought they were two of the good ones.
Cletus: Just goes to show you…
Both: … there are no good ones! Hee-haw!
zhena gogolia
@hueyplong:
Oh, Gawd, my own mayor just retweeted one. I knew he was a Berniebro but this is ridiculous.
Ruckus
@different-church-lady:
It has to be clear to him that walking away is better than hanging around. And his entire life, walking away was always the best – for him, not anyone else. Now walking away is actually dangerous for him. So I think he will stay until the pressure (that he puts upon himself) is at the breaking point. He’s always walked away before he hit the breaking point in his quest to be, not broke. But he won something. He’ never really done that before. Survived sure, but won? Only in his own mind.
hueyplong
@zhena gogolia: The hint was when some JoeMustStepDown stuff started trending on twitter this weekend, oddly ahead of today’s news.
They were laying the groundwork and don’t give a fuck whether it is transparent.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: I’m waiting twenty-four hours to see if anything more is found out about the alleged corroborator– if that’s a word.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Gee, I guess the Hunter Biden story isn’t so important after all. We have to find something else.
Ruckus
@hueyplong:
I thought about taking a sharpie and writing FUCK YOU, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT, and sending it back, directly to the WH.
But it didn’t seem like it was worth the stamp and envelop.
danielx
@Oklahomo:
Had a CEO back then who actually had a pair of dimes embedded within a hockey puck-sized and -shaped piece of heavy plastic. He had one of said item distributed to everyone who worked at corporate headquarters, which as I recall was about a hundred people at the time.
Commonest sentiment was putting one in a sock and using it to wail on the obnoxious bastard’s head.
hueyplong
@Ruckus: Did you see the Spanish version on the back side?
cwmoss
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed. Like Fran Lebowitz said in a New Yorker interview a couple weeks ago: everything that could be wrong with a human being is wrong with Trump.
prostratedragon
@trollhattan:
Precisely. The whole business with hijacking masks and ppe is his chickenshit way of achieving the rank of mass murderer, a thing to which the foul bastard probably aspires, but can’t summon himself up to do directly.
Ruckus
@hueyplong:
Yep.
Also thought of using Google translate for my reply and putting that on the back. Just so they would know I read it
JODER, TU PIEZA DE MIERDA MALVADA
danielx
@Kent:
And then there’s those tens of millions of dollars worth of loans which Trump owes to the state-owned Bank of China.
Wait, do those count as entanglements?
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: What is the actual story here? The only thing I can find was a video of an old Larry King video where someone calls in (likely Reade’s mother) saying her daughter had ‘some problems’ and wasn’t getting traction on fixing it, but also hadn’t gone to the press out of respect for the Senator and his office.
If that’s it, it doesn’t really show much beyond that Reade told her mom something had happened, and it certainly doesn’t say by whom. Doesn’t mean much to me.
Ruckus
@danielx:
I thought it was hundreds of millions he owed.
danielx
@germy:
Woman sets a new standard for chutzpah – that puts the old definition of murdering your parents and then pleading for clemency because you’re an orphan totally in the shade.
danielx
@Ruckus:
Could be, motherfucker owes so much money to so many people it’s hard to keep track.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MisterForkbeard: since this is an old thread… the latest, for now
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh, YAY.
GrueBleen
And this surely is the real, true ‘Trump derangement syndrome’; the never-ending attempts to justify every little thing he says.