I think this reveals a profound unconscious misogyny. The failures of his male lieutenants reflect the fact that they are persecuted just as he is persecuted. The failures of his women lieutenants represent the failure of all women to slavishly adore him and desire to be raped by him.
Excellent points, but I don't believe he and his minions are entirely unconscious of their misogyny. They know what they are doing. They want us barefoot, pregnant, and compliant. They want us "in our place".
It’s not? Because from my vantage point, the same dystopia from The Handmaid’s Tale’s isn’t just a figment of my imagination—it’s starting to look like our new normal—reality! Just saying….:)
It also says a lot about the sort of women who are willing to work for him/his administration. I don’t know of any that seem especially competent, but they all seem to overestimate their own ability. Do they really think it will be different for them? Even men working with this administration ought to realize that they have a sell by date and that the end is usually humiliating.
Co-conspirators in misogyny? So it appears. But isn't it part of the "vision" of America, wherein, white male power was the top of the pyramid? MAD MEN!
I'm not sure. Bovino also got the boot. Trump has a rapist's philosophy, and some men can manage to convince him that they are victims of the evil MeToo femiNazis who think rape should be a crime, but he'll fire them if they get in the way of his income streams.
My personal opinion / guess is that Trump is flailing, and his sons are convincing him that if he gets rid of women in his Cabinet, it will look strong. His sons are not very bright, and Trump screws up whenever he listens to them, but he can't trust anyone else.
They probably see how bad his mental decline is advancing, and are scrambling to hide it, while working to steal as much money as they can. Unless at his next public appearance he starts drooling and barking like a dog, will any in his administration do anything about their “problem.”
Bovino got the boot as the most present (in the news) and highest one in the chain who could be spared. It also gave the Felon a chance to bring in the Czardine, Homan, from the wilderness of having to be rescued from the videos of him taking a (GASP!) bribe from an undercover Federal Agent.
I'm pretty sure there is no trust in this administration starting at the top. These folks were supposed uphold the Constitution, not pledge loyalty above all else to Hair Fuhrer. What does that say?
Ugh, I'd hate to work in this environment - your back is always vulnerable to the shiv. What a life.
Kate - (in 12th Dr Who voice): That’s not the question! …trust, I mean. The question is, how much can I use this pigeon?
A significant variable here: size matters. 50k in a fast food bag is street thug penny ante - THIS pigeon is a lazy hack, insufficiently equipped to be any threat to The Boss. You’re hired! You’ll take orders, try to please, not stab the boss nor skim too much from whatever assets you get your grubby mitts on.
OTOH, someone who can engineer multi millions or even a billion (koff koff musk koff) worth of extraction? …with no telltale video of the handoffs (koff jeffrey koff)? Now THERE’s a playa to be reckoned with. Time for a little art of the deal. Still, no trust. Just a different type of use
I think the open bribes are only an issue if the mob boss doesn’t get his split. Did the Nutlick family properly share their recent insider trading spoils?
Bribe… such an ugly word. Baksheesh, vigorish, juice, sweetener - so many nice ways to say tribute for the tribune. Let’s be dignified gentlemen while we take up our collections
I think Bovine Boy got the boot because he designed his own Nazi uniform and wore it in public. trump wanted to design it himself. He was mad Bovino beat him too it and it didn't have enough gold on it.
The delicious part of it all is that none of the people whom Trump wants to target have done anything wrong. So Trump is going to end up like the Queen in Wonderland, beheading successive hapless AGs for the remaining days of his pathetic administration.
He won't do any better than Bondi did. The facts and the law are not there to get an indictment. Trump doesn't control grand juries, thank God. Until Trump 2.0, I didn't realize how brilliant the grand jury requirement was. It's a bulwark!
He and a lot of his admin have a rapists philosophy and I keep hearing it more and more in the language they use. The most recent was his weird TV speech about the Straight of Hormuz "...take it and cherish it." Dude!!
This isn't unconscious, this is basic, blatant, run-of-the-mill anti-women behavior--- and the misogyny ---they're wearing it on their sleeves. They're proud of it. It's part of the image they want to project.
Firing a general because he approved the promotion of a black woman who then would stand near Trump who cannot tolerate being close to a black woman. Once again I ask, why that is not enough to impeach this man?
It is enough. But that is what is so terrifying about Kegseth. We immediately see he is batsheet crazy, seriously damaged and dangerous for the entire planet and then crickets.
Of course it's enough. Let's just check with Congress and the Supreme Court ...
Oh they say Trump gets anything he wants no matter how stupid and venal and harmful to the country. Weird. Well, I'm sure they don't get anything like bribes out of it, and the Supreme Court's recent rulings on bribery cases (bribery is good and we need more of it) aren't related at all.
Which "man"? The actual trigger puller or the one who no doubt at least blessed, if not ordered it? (Quotation marks for the obvious reasons: Chromosomes do not a man make.)
I suspect the consensus would be that being a jackass does not constitute a high crime or misdemeanor.
Seriously, Trump doesn't have to say anything for his poodles to know what he would prefer. I doubt he knew who this woman was. Hegseth knew what to do and did it.
The member of the cabinet who most deserves to be fired- Pete Hegseth- is the least likely to be fired. because he has perfected the art of performing belligerent masculinity for Trump.
I’m not sure. Hegseth and this war are not popular with Americans. Trump’s poll numbers are dismal. Someone has to take the blame. It won't be Trump of course!
Hegseth's job is to fire anyone who would stand in Trump's way when turning the Military against Americans (the enemy "within"). Once done, he'll get whacked. Classic corporate move.
Just read this headline on the NYT. "American Fighter Jet Downed Over Iran, U.S. Officials Say". Maybe Kegsbreath will be getting the boot sooner than we think, because this is gonna backfire on Trump bigly.
Over a lost fighter? I doubt it. This is a war, after all, and pilots do get shot down.
What's amazing to me is the ability of the Iranians to continue to project some combat power with the 0% combat power remaining to them. Maybe they need to extend that zero out to a few decimal places. They have 0.4499999% combat power remaining.
Iran could score big points with the rest of the world if they find these fighters and treat them with respect and dignity. If they go another route by treating them harshly, then it will be the catalyst that Trump wants and needs to get America behind him in hating Iran and supporting this war. Mark my words, this will be a turning point, whether for good or evil, we just don't know yet.
Might. But they could also publicly state that American service members captured in Iran will be designated as illegal aliens who because they entered the country illegally, are criminals and will be treated as they are in the US: caged, denied due process and deported to a foreign land, say, North Korea.
Show them in the cages with their tin foil blankets sleeping on the floor next to the toilet. How long do you think it'll be before Hegseth starts calling that a war crime? I'm guessing 3, 2, 1...
People pay for desalinization plants because they have no ground water or rainfall. Attacking desalinization plants is a war crime on par with deploying dirty bombs, in my opinion.
The only thing that is shocking is that there is a single living sentient woman on this planet who believes her loyalty and support of Trump will be rewarded or reciprocated.
So this daycare thing, further destabilizing the labor market and economy. No daycare, can't work, can't work, can't buy things. I imagine this admin like a giant game of Jenga, yanking random blocks out they thinks are useless or that displease him. Pull enough of the blocks out and you destabilize the tower. It feels like we're getting to that point. If he was trying to destroy America on purpose, would he be doing anything differently?
On the other hand, I have a bit of schadenfreude for all the Republicans who used to loudly proclaim "STATES RIGHTS!!" Please enjoy your state figuring out how to deal with FEMA disasters, daycare and having your elections federalized.
When I watched Bondi snarling at members of Congress the other day, I thought that she likely never did anything like that as AG of Florida; and that the notebook of counter attacks had been handed to her by someone else.
Eventually, the boy won the lawsuit and got his dog back. As part of the settlement, Bondi was given visitation rights. Guess who never bothered to visit the dog? 🤔
If she had, she would have, or should have, been disbarred. Hmmm. Now that she is not AG, she is "only" a member of the Florida Bar, no? Of course, she always has been (poor Florida) but now she is without the MAGA Mantle of Protection from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune....
I used to call that look being Foxified, but he has totally taken it over. I would love to see a piece written about who the person is that talks to these incoming women or newly loyal supplicants about what they need to do to make themselves physically acceptable to the president. You go back and look at before pics of these women and it's shocking. Lara Trump, Alina Habba they look like normal people.
We will see if Hegseth gets the blame for the failure of the war. Of course, the war isn't a failure. Of course, it really isn't a war.
What it really is, is an extension of blind, stupid hubris by a man who is an emperor in his own mind, and all the gold gilt that surrounds him serves to confirm that.
But this is MY Money, and those are real soldiers getting killed and injured, and the people in Iran are already oppressed by their government, and now they are losing their lives and homes because some madman needs to show that pedophiles can be powerful if left unchecked.
Will Hegseth get the blame for the failure of the war? Sure. But first, we have to lose the war. And I start to wonder what that looks like. This isn't a war that the US can lose militarily, just as Vietnam couldn't be lost militarily. We have, compared to the Iranians, overwhelming military superiority. In the words of Captain America, "We can do this all day."
The "weakness" we have, compared to the Iranians, is democracy. We'll have elections. Sure, Trump will meddle in the national ones, but we do have state and local elections and those people do make a difference. The Iranian government never has to worry about that, which is why Trump and Hegseth need to bring this to some kind of conclusion -- not victory, although they'll call it that -- quickly. When gas gets expensive, the people become restless and express displeasure at the ballot box.
Two things are noteworthy about the regime of the orange narcissist-felon:
1. This is a fundamentally criminal enterprise and all its enabler/sycophants are complicit;
2. The seeming 'concession' by Squeaker Johnson does not include the requested Democratic provisions of uniforms, names, no masks, and body cameras for the DHS thugs.
The essential Democrat mandate is not to yield on . . . anything. The criminal enterprise must be thwarted at every turn, and the return to conventional law enforcement must be achieved. Until these two salient points (and many others, such as obeying judges' decisions) are made, adhered to, and repeated again and again, nothing will change.
"The essential Democrat mandate is not to yield on . . . anything." I've often wondered why the Dems haven't done exactly that. Bring Congress to a screeching halt. Do absolutely nothing. Approve absolutely nothing that Trump wants. AND have daily sitdowns at the Capitol. Sigh. I guess I am expecting too much from the "Let's play nice" Dems. I am glad they have refused to fund ICE without the very reasonable rules re: masking, etc. being passed. And enforced.
The Democrat problem is that they keep using the antiquated rules of sanity, good manners and proper behavior, whereas the regime doesn't give a toss for any of that old stuff. This grotesque impedance mismatch makes genuine dialog impossible. Many metaphors come to mind, and a silly one is this: trying to use a water pistol on a charging rogue elephant, or speaking seriously to a malevolent idiot.
"Once again, Trump here betrays his staggering ignorance of the inadvisability of trying to reshape mammoth global supply chains by “hey, here’s an idea” presidential fiat."
With President Man, I'm often reminded of Albert Brooks feeding lines to William Hurt (via Holly Hunter) in "Broadcast News": "I say it here, it comes out there." Except he was providing good information.
Abigail Adams was more prescient than most would give her credit for. I am surprised at Bill’s surprise about misogyny and fascism/authoritarianism as the will to male dominance has always been clear. The male figure was always the prominent/dominant one in Nazi Germany always portrayed at height of masculinity. The male will to dominate is a feature not a bug of these regimes.
"The women get the boot while the men get off scot-free."
With all that's good and wonderful in the universe, I am BEGGING SNL to do a cold open with both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler tomorrow night. There will NEVER AGAIN be a better time for it...
I greatly appreciate Andrew not subjecting us to Barak’s multiple siren emojis. It was interesting to note that no where in the Axios piece did it mention that the bridge was still under construction and not entirely open. But hey, when you’re dead set on committing war crimes like this admin is, why bother worrying about the facts.
I found it weird that Trump hadn’t fired anyone for the first 14 months of this administration. I thought maybe it was because this time everyone he put in the Cabinet was handpicked and so there was likely to be less turnover. No, it turns out that his biggest tongue bathers just took longer to let him down. Now that he’s broken the seal, I do expect many more personnel moves going forward. Well, good riddance to bad rubbish. These people should find no employment in polite society for the rest of their miserable lives.
The Orange menace is flailing around at the moment which means he’s is looking for those who have *betrayed* him since it is never his fault. No number of loving tongue lickings will save them from his feelings of betrayal.
Yeah I think the Bondi firing at this particular time was an attempt to distract people from the War in Iran and from the stupid speech he gave. Yes, he's been mad at Bondi for not getting results on his political persecutions but I think he probably spends a lot of time grumblings about the failings of his employees but doesn't usually act on the grumbling unless he has some precipitating temptation to do so.
To me, it’s a sign that he was mentally declining when he took office. He let Wiles, Vought, and Miller run the show so he could revise his TV personality. Being hit by reality, he would rather spend his time thinking of places to build and put his name on. He does not know what is going on, therefore he cannot figure out who he needs to fire. Or rather get someone else to fire. He never does that. Can’t face the person directly.
Fan - I recall reading some months back, perhaps over Epstein cover up botching or Kash Komix follies, that ‘sources’ said he wouldn’t fire anyone YET because it would make him look weak. In a sentient moment he could’ve grokked that his hiring decisions DO reflect on his judgement (admit that’s bit of a stretch but at least possible in terms of his concern about image)
Now let's do Kegseth and that pudding-faced Liar Leavitt. Keggers needs to fired then jailed immediately. Maybe just don't bring her back after maternity leave.
My husband predicted yesterday that after the Iran War Apprentice challenge concludes (badly) that Hegseth will be fired. Right now Little Marco seems to be in the middle of the Topple Cuba challenge...we'll see how long Trump lets that one go on before convening the boardroom and firing him.
I think this reveals a profound unconscious misogyny. The failures of his male lieutenants reflect the fact that they are persecuted just as he is persecuted. The failures of his women lieutenants represent the failure of all women to slavishly adore him and desire to be raped by him.
How about conscious misogyny. He just doesn't think it's a bad thing.
And neither do his supporters!
Excellent points, but I don't believe he and his minions are entirely unconscious of their misogyny. They know what they are doing. They want us barefoot, pregnant, and compliant. They want us "in our place".
Sign at NO KINGS in Frankfurt Germany on Saturday:
The Handmaids Tale
Is Not an Instruction Manual
It’s not? Because from my vantage point, the same dystopia from The Handmaid’s Tale’s isn’t just a figment of my imagination—it’s starting to look like our new normal—reality! Just saying….:)
All of the horrible things in that book have been done somewhere in the world.
Excellent point! And now it’s coming closer to home—and fast!…:)
It wasn't just a novel, it was a warning!
Agreed, these people don’t hide their disdain for minorities and women in general—it’s a feature, not a bug!🐛
Well said.
So do the Heritage Foundation, NAR Seven Mountains Mandate, and White 'Evangelical' Christians.
It also says a lot about the sort of women who are willing to work for him/his administration. I don’t know of any that seem especially competent, but they all seem to overestimate their own ability. Do they really think it will be different for them? Even men working with this administration ought to realize that they have a sell by date and that the end is usually humiliating.
internalized misogyny - MAGA women also hate women
This is the truest statement on the internet today.
This could be my next yard sign!
Reminds me of an old Chris Rock bit:
"Who's more racist, black people or white people?
Black people, because we hate black people too!"
"Follow the money."
Co-conspirators in misogyny? So it appears. But isn't it part of the "vision" of America, wherein, white male power was the top of the pyramid? MAD MEN!
I'm not sure. Bovino also got the boot. Trump has a rapist's philosophy, and some men can manage to convince him that they are victims of the evil MeToo femiNazis who think rape should be a crime, but he'll fire them if they get in the way of his income streams.
My personal opinion / guess is that Trump is flailing, and his sons are convincing him that if he gets rid of women in his Cabinet, it will look strong. His sons are not very bright, and Trump screws up whenever he listens to them, but he can't trust anyone else.
They probably see how bad his mental decline is advancing, and are scrambling to hide it, while working to steal as much money as they can. Unless at his next public appearance he starts drooling and barking like a dog, will any in his administration do anything about their “problem.”
I would do almost anything to see him bark like a dog and to hear the explanations after the fact.
You can be sure that Fox already has those explanations lined up, beginning with it's all Biden's and Obama's fault.
That damned Jimmy Carter !
They'll say it's a false flag,
Why he's doing the weave and triggering us libnuts while playing 5 dimensional chess . 🙄
“like a dog” will be the final Florsheim to drop 😉
Hah!
Bovino got the boot as the most present (in the news) and highest one in the chain who could be spared. It also gave the Felon a chance to bring in the Czardine, Homan, from the wilderness of having to be rescued from the videos of him taking a (GASP!) bribe from an undercover Federal Agent.
Which brings up a paradox. If a man takes a bribe openly, does that mean Trump can trust him more or less?
I'm pretty sure there is no trust in this administration starting at the top. These folks were supposed uphold the Constitution, not pledge loyalty above all else to Hair Fuhrer. What does that say?
Ugh, I'd hate to work in this environment - your back is always vulnerable to the shiv. What a life.
Agreed. They'll all turn on each other (or are working to undermine others) at the first opportunity.
Jeri - yeah, thought they were signing up for 🎼 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLkAo0Kbfl8 ...instead end up feeling like they're in Shawshank. Poetic
Kate - (in 12th Dr Who voice): That’s not the question! …trust, I mean. The question is, how much can I use this pigeon?
A significant variable here: size matters. 50k in a fast food bag is street thug penny ante - THIS pigeon is a lazy hack, insufficiently equipped to be any threat to The Boss. You’re hired! You’ll take orders, try to please, not stab the boss nor skim too much from whatever assets you get your grubby mitts on.
OTOH, someone who can engineer multi millions or even a billion (koff koff musk koff) worth of extraction? …with no telltale video of the handoffs (koff jeffrey koff)? Now THERE’s a playa to be reckoned with. Time for a little art of the deal. Still, no trust. Just a different type of use
Homan - $1 thug
musk, epstein - $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ - Gentlemen Thugs
You cracked the code!
Typo alert: Steal, not deal.
Eagle eye! 😂
Oh man, now I feel slow. You're right, the amount of the bribe is extremely important, as is who the bribe is coming from.
I think the open bribes are only an issue if the mob boss doesn’t get his split. Did the Nutlick family properly share their recent insider trading spoils?
Depends how much of the bribe wanders to the Felon.
Bribe… such an ugly word. Baksheesh, vigorish, juice, sweetener - so many nice ways to say tribute for the tribune. Let’s be dignified gentlemen while we take up our collections
That's easy... More.
Trust him to do his dirty work - yes.
I think Bovine Boy got the boot because he designed his own Nazi uniform and wore it in public. trump wanted to design it himself. He was mad Bovino beat him too it and it didn't have enough gold on it.
But even though he’s male, Todd Blanche better get cracking on getting Comey.
The delicious part of it all is that none of the people whom Trump wants to target have done anything wrong. So Trump is going to end up like the Queen in Wonderland, beheading successive hapless AGs for the remaining days of his pathetic administration.
He won't do any better than Bondi did. The facts and the law are not there to get an indictment. Trump doesn't control grand juries, thank God. Until Trump 2.0, I didn't realize how brilliant the grand jury requirement was. It's a bulwark!
He and a lot of his admin have a rapists philosophy and I keep hearing it more and more in the language they use. The most recent was his weird TV speech about the Straight of Hormuz "...take it and cherish it." Dude!!
This isn't unconscious, this is basic, blatant, run-of-the-mill anti-women behavior--- and the misogyny ---they're wearing it on their sleeves. They're proud of it. It's part of the image they want to project.
Women don’t even get a pass when they defend a child rapist.
Excellent point.
I wouldn’t rule out him firing male staff too.
Jon Lovett was robbed of the great honor of being today's "Cheap Shots". I demand a recount!
https://x.com/jonlovett/status/2039770187952697401?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
For those of us who try to avoid xwitter, Lovett’s Cheap Shot-worthy observation:
“In a surprise twist, the Epstein files released the attorney general”
Easy to avoid twitter. Just insert "cancel" after the x. Like this:
https://xcancel.com/jonlovett/status/2039770187952697401?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet It may take a few seconds to load, but it works 99% of the time, for any X.com tweet, video, etc. And the traffic does not go to X! (Thanks to Jay Kuo of Status Kuo on Substack, for teaching us to use xcancel.com!)
Thank you for sharing that! Leave it to Lovett....
That was a great one.
Thank you!
Robbed.
Damn straight!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Saying the quiet part out loud.
Firing a general because he approved the promotion of a black woman who then would stand near Trump who cannot tolerate being close to a black woman. Once again I ask, why that is not enough to impeach this man?
It is enough. But that is what is so terrifying about Kegseth. We immediately see he is batsheet crazy, seriously damaged and dangerous for the entire planet and then crickets.
Of course it's enough. Let's just check with Congress and the Supreme Court ...
Oh they say Trump gets anything he wants no matter how stupid and venal and harmful to the country. Weird. Well, I'm sure they don't get anything like bribes out of it, and the Supreme Court's recent rulings on bribery cases (bribery is good and we need more of it) aren't related at all.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/06/supreme-court-limits-scope-of-anti-bribery-law/
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/04/26/u-s-supreme-court-justices-take-lavish-gifts-then-raise-the-bar-for-bribery-prosecutions/
https://fixthecourt.com/2024/07/recent-supreme-court-cases-that-license-corruption/
https://afj.org/article/supreme-court-rules-bribes-are-fine-if-youre-paid-later/
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/1e6elt1/supreme_court_justices_by_gifts_received_oc/
It's not like a pattern or anything concerning!
Which "man"? The actual trigger puller or the one who no doubt at least blessed, if not ordered it? (Quotation marks for the obvious reasons: Chromosomes do not a man make.)
Sorry David. Pushback incoming on your chromosome comment… helmet handy?
I suspect the consensus would be that being a jackass does not constitute a high crime or misdemeanor.
Seriously, Trump doesn't have to say anything for his poodles to know what he would prefer. I doubt he knew who this woman was. Hegseth knew what to do and did it.
The member of the cabinet who most deserves to be fired- Pete Hegseth- is the least likely to be fired. because he has perfected the art of performing belligerent masculinity for Trump.
And Trump might need him for the election if the Dems are successful at putting limits on ICE.
I’m not sure. Hegseth and this war are not popular with Americans. Trump’s poll numbers are dismal. Someone has to take the blame. It won't be Trump of course!
Hegseth's job is to fire anyone who would stand in Trump's way when turning the Military against Americans (the enemy "within"). Once done, he'll get whacked. Classic corporate move.
Hegseth was given the position to willingly and possibly gleefully turn the military on the American people when needed. if they get too uppity.
Just read this headline on the NYT. "American Fighter Jet Downed Over Iran, U.S. Officials Say". Maybe Kegsbreath will be getting the boot sooner than we think, because this is gonna backfire on Trump bigly.
Over a lost fighter? I doubt it. This is a war, after all, and pilots do get shot down.
What's amazing to me is the ability of the Iranians to continue to project some combat power with the 0% combat power remaining to them. Maybe they need to extend that zero out to a few decimal places. They have 0.4499999% combat power remaining.
Iran could score big points with the rest of the world if they find these fighters and treat them with respect and dignity. If they go another route by treating them harshly, then it will be the catalyst that Trump wants and needs to get America behind him in hating Iran and supporting this war. Mark my words, this will be a turning point, whether for good or evil, we just don't know yet.
Might. But they could also publicly state that American service members captured in Iran will be designated as illegal aliens who because they entered the country illegally, are criminals and will be treated as they are in the US: caged, denied due process and deported to a foreign land, say, North Korea.
Show them in the cages with their tin foil blankets sleeping on the floor next to the toilet. How long do you think it'll be before Hegseth starts calling that a war crime? I'm guessing 3, 2, 1...
People pay for desalinization plants because they have no ground water or rainfall. Attacking desalinization plants is a war crime on par with deploying dirty bombs, in my opinion.
Not just your opinion, Tom. but, as my sign at the US Consulate in Frankfurt showed yesterday:
I can do what I want
What's a war crime to me
I'll do what I say
And then all will see
When I your out "Jump"
My Army will go
Until I revert to
Donald J. Taco
Good man!
Thanks! 🍻
David - Kipling got nuthin on you bro!
I'm shocked that a confirmed rapist is not a fair employer of women in the workplace.
Yes. Shocking. (They're 100% predictable)
The only thing that is shocking is that there is a single living sentient woman on this planet who believes her loyalty and support of Trump will be rewarded or reciprocated.
By now, shouldn't people realize that the only people Trump likes are himself and his reflection?
Soooo, he's not a vampire? At least that's one good thing about him. 😀
Are you sure? With all that makeup troweled on his face.
At this point, I'm not sure about anything. 😀
That's an acknowledgement that he's not an eternal being. (Dodging a bullet there...)
Hey and let's make sure that the only thing Americans' tax dollars pay for are his and Hegseth's misadventures to the tune of 1.5 TRILLION next year.
"It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all of these individual things. They can do it on a state basis."—Donald Trump
Because they are so successful at "military protection."
The stupidity of this nation and many of its voters burns.
MAP - that soundbite should fit into every Dem ad between now and 2028!
Trump = a short term answer to grievances perceived and real. (This just shows where grievances get you!)
So this daycare thing, further destabilizing the labor market and economy. No daycare, can't work, can't work, can't buy things. I imagine this admin like a giant game of Jenga, yanking random blocks out they thinks are useless or that displease him. Pull enough of the blocks out and you destabilize the tower. It feels like we're getting to that point. If he was trying to destroy America on purpose, would he be doing anything differently?
On the other hand, I have a bit of schadenfreude for all the Republicans who used to loudly proclaim "STATES RIGHTS!!" Please enjoy your state figuring out how to deal with FEMA disasters, daycare and having your elections federalized.
It's almost like when a woman puts on the Mar-a-lago face to advance her MAGA career, that doesn't win her respect or loyalty from MAGA.
There is no loyalty in MAGA beyond loyalty to Trump: everyone else is expendable and loyal do none but themselves.
But even "loyalty" is not a guarantee, as the Felon's history has shown time and again.
With trump, loyalty is a one way street.
When I watched Bondi snarling at members of Congress the other day, I thought that she likely never did anything like that as AG of Florida; and that the notebook of counter attacks had been handed to her by someone else.
don't give her so much credit, as AG of Florida she postponed an execution for a fundraiser and tried to steal a kid's dog:
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna53103834 -> "Attorney general vows to never again delay an execution for a fundraiser"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pam-bondi-exposed-as-dog-thief-who-got-in-costly-standoff-with-four-year-old-boy/ar-AA1WobZG --> "Pam Bondi reportedly hired a lawyer to stop a boy from getting back his dog that was lost during Hurricane Katrina."
Eventually, the boy won the lawsuit and got his dog back. As part of the settlement, Bondi was given visitation rights. Guess who never bothered to visit the dog? 🤔
I appreciate knowing there’s a dog in there somewhere! …pattern development. Paging O Henry
I'll bet the condemned was okay with it.
What's this thing with Trump women and dogs?
If she had, she would have, or should have, been disbarred. Hmmm. Now that she is not AG, she is "only" a member of the Florida Bar, no? Of course, she always has been (poor Florida) but now she is without the MAGA Mantle of Protection from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune....
Poor kristi...all that work I had done and all I got was the boot and a t-shirt.
Oh the humanity!
and bad skin!
Well, at least it was a cowboy boot.
At least 'lil Marco and the boys can take their super-sized Florsheims off, women have to disfigure themselves. Are duck lips permanent?
I used to call that look being Foxified, but he has totally taken it over. I would love to see a piece written about who the person is that talks to these incoming women or newly loyal supplicants about what they need to do to make themselves physically acceptable to the president. You go back and look at before pics of these women and it's shocking. Lara Trump, Alina Habba they look like normal people.
Leavitt, as well. Where is their self respect?
Kristi Noem does too!
She mutilated herself for that fat pig. How do you get to that point?
The duck lips just kill me
I wonder if that's painful. It looks painful.
Who'd a thunk it?
We will see if Hegseth gets the blame for the failure of the war. Of course, the war isn't a failure. Of course, it really isn't a war.
What it really is, is an extension of blind, stupid hubris by a man who is an emperor in his own mind, and all the gold gilt that surrounds him serves to confirm that.
But this is MY Money, and those are real soldiers getting killed and injured, and the people in Iran are already oppressed by their government, and now they are losing their lives and homes because some madman needs to show that pedophiles can be powerful if left unchecked.
Will Hegseth get the blame for the failure of the war? Sure. But first, we have to lose the war. And I start to wonder what that looks like. This isn't a war that the US can lose militarily, just as Vietnam couldn't be lost militarily. We have, compared to the Iranians, overwhelming military superiority. In the words of Captain America, "We can do this all day."
The "weakness" we have, compared to the Iranians, is democracy. We'll have elections. Sure, Trump will meddle in the national ones, but we do have state and local elections and those people do make a difference. The Iranian government never has to worry about that, which is why Trump and Hegseth need to bring this to some kind of conclusion -- not victory, although they'll call it that -- quickly. When gas gets expensive, the people become restless and express displeasure at the ballot box.
They'll blame the "woke" military first for failing, then they'll fire a bunch of generals but eventually it will come back to Petey.
Two things are noteworthy about the regime of the orange narcissist-felon:
1. This is a fundamentally criminal enterprise and all its enabler/sycophants are complicit;
2. The seeming 'concession' by Squeaker Johnson does not include the requested Democratic provisions of uniforms, names, no masks, and body cameras for the DHS thugs.
The essential Democrat mandate is not to yield on . . . anything. The criminal enterprise must be thwarted at every turn, and the return to conventional law enforcement must be achieved. Until these two salient points (and many others, such as obeying judges' decisions) are made, adhered to, and repeated again and again, nothing will change.
We can't do everything, so we should do what we must.
"The essential Democrat mandate is not to yield on . . . anything." I've often wondered why the Dems haven't done exactly that. Bring Congress to a screeching halt. Do absolutely nothing. Approve absolutely nothing that Trump wants. AND have daily sitdowns at the Capitol. Sigh. I guess I am expecting too much from the "Let's play nice" Dems. I am glad they have refused to fund ICE without the very reasonable rules re: masking, etc. being passed. And enforced.
The Democrat problem is that they keep using the antiquated rules of sanity, good manners and proper behavior, whereas the regime doesn't give a toss for any of that old stuff. This grotesque impedance mismatch makes genuine dialog impossible. Many metaphors come to mind, and a silly one is this: trying to use a water pistol on a charging rogue elephant, or speaking seriously to a malevolent idiot.
This is a long game. The power is so unbalanced that it limits choices. Stand for the wisest choices possible.
"Once again, Trump here betrays his staggering ignorance of the inadvisability of trying to reshape mammoth global supply chains by “hey, here’s an idea” presidential fiat."
The TV watching brain in action.
With President Man, I'm often reminded of Albert Brooks feeding lines to William Hurt (via Holly Hunter) in "Broadcast News": "I say it here, it comes out there." Except he was providing good information.
I had flashbacks of possible bleach injections and lights shining up my ass!
Abigail Adams was more prescient than most would give her credit for. I am surprised at Bill’s surprise about misogyny and fascism/authoritarianism as the will to male dominance has always been clear. The male figure was always the prominent/dominant one in Nazi Germany always portrayed at height of masculinity. The male will to dominate is a feature not a bug of these regimes.
"Was this irrational?", Andrew asks of oil pricing.
I ask in turn what, exactly, about any of this effin' Iran business *is* rational?
"The women get the boot while the men get off scot-free."
With all that's good and wonderful in the universe, I am BEGGING SNL to do a cold open with both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler tomorrow night. There will NEVER AGAIN be a better time for it...
Yes! Maybe Bill knows Lorne and can put in a call for us.
I greatly appreciate Andrew not subjecting us to Barak’s multiple siren emojis. It was interesting to note that no where in the Axios piece did it mention that the bridge was still under construction and not entirely open. But hey, when you’re dead set on committing war crimes like this admin is, why bother worrying about the facts.
I found it weird that Trump hadn’t fired anyone for the first 14 months of this administration. I thought maybe it was because this time everyone he put in the Cabinet was handpicked and so there was likely to be less turnover. No, it turns out that his biggest tongue bathers just took longer to let him down. Now that he’s broken the seal, I do expect many more personnel moves going forward. Well, good riddance to bad rubbish. These people should find no employment in polite society for the rest of their miserable lives.
The Orange menace is flailing around at the moment which means he’s is looking for those who have *betrayed* him since it is never his fault. No number of loving tongue lickings will save them from his feelings of betrayal.
Yeah I think the Bondi firing at this particular time was an attempt to distract people from the War in Iran and from the stupid speech he gave. Yes, he's been mad at Bondi for not getting results on his political persecutions but I think he probably spends a lot of time grumblings about the failings of his employees but doesn't usually act on the grumbling unless he has some precipitating temptation to do so.
To me, it’s a sign that he was mentally declining when he took office. He let Wiles, Vought, and Miller run the show so he could revise his TV personality. Being hit by reality, he would rather spend his time thinking of places to build and put his name on. He does not know what is going on, therefore he cannot figure out who he needs to fire. Or rather get someone else to fire. He never does that. Can’t face the person directly.
Fan - I recall reading some months back, perhaps over Epstein cover up botching or Kash Komix follies, that ‘sources’ said he wouldn’t fire anyone YET because it would make him look weak. In a sentient moment he could’ve grokked that his hiring decisions DO reflect on his judgement (admit that’s bit of a stretch but at least possible in terms of his concern about image)
Good.
Now let's do Kegseth and that pudding-faced Liar Leavitt. Keggers needs to fired then jailed immediately. Maybe just don't bring her back after maternity leave.
While she's out on leave, they should box her things and put it out on the curb and invalidate her WH credentials.
My husband predicted yesterday that after the Iran War Apprentice challenge concludes (badly) that Hegseth will be fired. Right now Little Marco seems to be in the middle of the Topple Cuba challenge...we'll see how long Trump lets that one go on before convening the boardroom and firing him.
The daily reminder that our governmental mysanthropes laugh every time ideas like these wander in their direction,
"...gender and racial equality are part of human equality, that respecting the dignity of every individual is part of the American creed."
The life blood of fascism is antagonistic to ideas like these.