I met Elvis' ghost. Big ghost. Famous ghost. Almost as famous as me. He had tears in his eyes. He said he had been afraid to haunt Graceland for years. Too scary, he said. But he's back now because it's safe. I made Memphis safe for the things I see in my mind again.
Andrew: "After their euphoric initial response to Trump’s announcement yesterday of “productive talks” with Iran, markets gradually sank throughout the afternoon as it settled in that the economic situation remains as dire as before."
I'm not sure "euphoric" is the correct word. Maybe "credulous" is better, because the markets always make the mistake of taking Trump at his word when in reality no one should ever take him at his word. I did see someone made a killing on the S&P futures market yesterday, so maybe the "correct" people made their money yesterday.
I take solace in the fact the MAGAe are getting porked good and hard. I imagine the cognitive dissonance they're experiencing -- or what passes for cognitive dissonance for them -- and the creeping realization that he porked them. Of course, they deny that because they have to, but it's fun to imagine the mayhem going on between that mostly empty volume between their ears.
I don't think they've detected they've been had. In their minds, America is respected around the world (again). There is global peace and no "forever wars." Gas is $1.25/gallon. The economy is the envy of the world. The future is bright because of Donald J. Trump and, if the elections weren't all rigged by Democrats, he would win again in a landslide. His polls all show it: 100% positive.
I think this is accurate for *most* of his voters, dcicero. But not all. When the MAGAe look at their credit card statements or when they balance their checkbooks, they're going to notice that a gallon of gas is more expensive today than it was in February. Whether they're able to deduce the causal relationship between our actions in Iran and gas prices may be another matter. Reality can be a nasty bitch.
I think it's likely they're having no realization at all. They get their news from right wing TV and radio (no reading sites like the Bulwark, HCR, etc) and are only hearing how wonderful everything is and how this 5D chess game the administration is playing is coming together soon (in a couple weeks) and everyone will see how brilliant the Orange Man Baby is...
It's sad, but I think you're right. They hear nothing but positive news from every source they pay attention to AND they hear nothing but negative news about Democrats, which feeds the "I can't believe anyone believes that crap!" response.
I'd like to believe it breeds a certain amount of complacency. Everything's going great. No need to get all wound up about the election. He's got 100% job approval, as does every Republican, so my vote's not that important.
Gullible fools. It’s the 50th time they have had the rug pulled out from under them and they somehow still end up being Charlie Brown with the football.
I'm at the point where I've accepted we're about to have a correction. I'm not happy about it. In fact, I'm fucking pissed about it because in my view what Trump is doing is deliberate wealth destruction for the majority of us. But it is what it is.
It’s pretty much already here. The Dow is currently at 46,221 (though it keeps changing as I write this) down from a peak of about 50,200 in February which is a >8% drop.
Although there’s no universally accepted definition a drop of 10% in a month is usually considered correction territory and markets don’t seem to be properly pricing in how long it will take to get oil and LNG flowing at pre-war rates even if the Iran war ended tomorrow with no further damage to energy infrastructure. There was an extremely worrying article in the Economist yesterday about how the best case scenario is still likely going to be disastrous, especially for LNG given the damage to Qatari facilities.
I moved a big chunk of my retirement investments out of the UK to US and Asia-Pacific focussed funds after the Brexit vote (because of my job I’m not allowed to make investment decisions beyond allocating my pension savings between certain approved managed funds). The US stuff did quite well for a while but Trump is rapidly destroying the gains and non-US markets are suffering as well.
Of course if money, rather than World War 3 (or World War Trump as I assume he’ll try to brand it), turns out to be my main retirement concern I guess I should probably consider myself lucky.
I have been hoping and praying that my fund manager has been able to figure out the best investments for my retirement account. The last statement was the second time my account was lower at the end of the quarter even though I take monthly distributions from the account.
Pretty weak market open today. Seems to me that the TACO dopamine rush is losing its juice. The market might start needing a daily TACO. Certainly a sign of addictive behavior.
Given that the person(s) who made a killing did so by placing an order 15 minutes before President Man’s announcement, I suspect they’re closely related to someone whose name rhymes with “lump.”
Yes, See Paul Ktugman's sub stack post today. Many traitors in Trump's orbit made a killing on the oil futures market with insider trading. The grift is endless.
Paul Krugman's sub-stack this morning speaks of anomalies in the overall futures and oil markets that seem to be explainable only via insider information.
The most pervasive fiction in modern political commentary is the pretense that Donald Trump's current operational decay is a recent development rather than a lifelong condition finally stripped of its bureaucratic camouflage. The prevailing narrative, that his erratic handling of crises marks a drastic cognitive or strategic decline, obscures a far more damning reality: This profound ineptitude has always been his baseline. During his first administration, a buffer of institutionalists actively suppressed his most destructive directives, manufacturing a mirage of quasi-functional governance. Those officials possessed the direct observation required to invoke the 25th Amendment, or at the very least, a civic duty to report his absolute incapacity to the electorate. Instead, their cowardice preserved a completely fabricated image of executive competence.
Egger’s depiction of a president slurring through a Memphis address, thoroughly detached from the geopolitical realities of an Iranian conflict, does not illustrate a novel deterioration. It is the inevitable exposure of an isolated solipsist operating without his former handlers, left only with the sycophancy he demands.
As Bill notes, the strategic imperative is to capitalize on this momentum, but i really think that doing so requires the opposition, and particularly those with prominent platforms, to abandon the illusion that these blunders are unprecedented anomalies.
The true political advantage begins with the uncompromising, plainly articulated recognition that the erratic figure currently retreating on both foreign and domestic fronts is exactly who he has been his entire life.
"During his first administration, a buffer of institutionalists actively suppressed his most destructive directives, manufacturing a mirage of functional governance. "
Well, that's because you're paying attention. It's also true that other people have made this same observation. Tom Nichols is one. Tim Miller is another. What we're finally getting now is high test, uncut Trumpism. And we have it coming.
Very well said. He's been propped up forever by more competent people who see a way to capitalize on his showmanship. Mark Burnett is an obvious example. But Trump wasn't even a very good developer. Plenty of people have made money in real estate without scamming partners or cheating subs. Not him.
What operational decay? Does a man who continues to exercise rigid control of Republicans in both Houses, has intimidated European leaders, plays up to dictators with impunity, has terrorized illegal immigrants, shut down DEI in our universities, reversed climate change policy, and enormously enriched his family have a weak mind? Delusion, delusion.
An infant with a hammer can shatter a stained-glass window, but most of us do not confuse the resulting pile of shards with architectural genius.
To equate the capacity for demolition with executive competence is to commit a profound category failure. You have listed a catalog of wrecking-ball maneuvers: intimidating cowardly legislators, dismantling environmental regulations, terrorizing vulnerable populations, and operating the presidency as a family syndicate. None of these actions require a sophisticated intellect or operational mastery; they require only the absence of ethical restraint and a willingness to smash the load-bearing walls of democratic governance. A toddler can pull a tablecloth and ruin a banquet in seconds, but we do not applaud the child for their strategic brilliance. You are mistaking the sheer, terrifying velocity of institutional collapse for the cognitive vitality of the man pushing it over the edge.
On the other hand, if Trump feels like a beacon of intelligence to you, I have deep empathy for the hardships in your life.
Someone on an NPR interview this morning (about rural grocery stores going out of business) said something to the effect of "this is a business, business is math, and the math doesn't work." And yeah, I thought, "tell that to the people who thought Trump was a great businessman" who would bring all those fabulous skills to running the government. The math has not worked for him for years, and now he's brought that arithmetic incompetence to the country and the world.
LOL indeed. The proposition that the executive is executing a decades-long performance of profound ineptitude to achieve some esoteric strategic advantage requires a total suspension of rational thought. It demands that we believe he spent his entire public life meticulously crafting the persona of an incoherent, incapable buffoon simply to outmaneuver his critics in a phantom game of 5D chess. That is a staggering, frankly delusional, commitment to an act, without any supporting evidence.
Occam’s razor isn't even needed here. Empirical truth will do. The incompetence is entirely genuine. There is no hidden tactical utility in slurring through public addresses, mismanaging domestic security funding, or bumbling through Middle Eastern geopolitics. The historical record, exhaustively corroborated by the explicit warnings of his own first-term cabinet, confirms that what appears to be a total deficit of intellectual and operational capacity is exactly that.
To insist he is merely "playing dumb" is not political analysis; it is a desperate psychological defense mechanism deployed to avoid confronting the terrifying reality of a fully incapacitated president.
Absolutely spot on! During his childhood and young-mid adult life he had Daddy covering up his stupidity. After Daddy was gone it was the Russian mob and its oligarch bosses. Now it's his Cabinet, subservient magat controlled Congress, and the conservatives on the SCOTUS. During his entire life he had someone covering his ass.
I gotta say, I disagree that Trump thinks the Golden Age is around the corner. His Golden Age is right here, right now. You want Elvis's guitar? Go ahead. You want gold and billions and customized jet planes and your own currency? Be my guest. You want to knock down the White House? Sure, you can even pretend you have the right to do that! We are living in Trump's Golden Age. And I don't think he gives a tin shit what happens around the corner. The Supreme Court demonstrated again yesterday that Rupert Murdoch and Leonard Leo are the people actually running the country. And Trump knows those guys have to give him all the gold toys he demands. And that be that. Why worry about the future when, in the present, you can get people like Marco Rubio who used to criticize you to wear clown shoes in front of the entire world? Hell, the US media won't even report on the Epstein files any longer. The Golden Age is now. Enjoy it while it lasts. Trump's attempts to grasp onto it and keep it here will be ugly.
Although I do enjoy how he is both for and against the war in Iran that might not be a war. It makes it harder to bring up objections to the war when I really don't know what side he's on in this conflict.
The problem is that most of Trump's power comes from muscle. He can threaten people and follow through. He can have the women he slept with followed by goons until they shut up. He can send ICE to your city. That's always been Trump's power: lawyers, guns, and money. And he still has that power, multiplied by ten.
Ugh, no more billionaire chuds running for office, please.
Steyer and Bloomberg flamed out mightily in the 2020 primary. These Dem side donors keep trying to get back on that horse. No thanks! And by the way, making us repeat our "No Thanks," over and over again is just rude at this point.
If Steyer et al. want to donate money to get out the vote or voter registration efforts like Next Gen, fine. But put reputable, salt of the earth folks in charge. We don't want or need Epstein class leadership in this country.
Don't forget Howard Schultz. Why is it so, so hard to get men in politics to understand that no means no? Why do these people even WANT to get into politics? They have way, way more influence over American lives as business people. It's just an ego boost.
Yea, Bloomberg actually did a great job as Mayor of NYC. He understood the city and got things done and greatly improved the infrastructure and operations, plus kept the budget in surplus. Not perfect, but much better than his successors.
An authoritarian leader who surrounds himself with fawning lackeys and who is convinced that the People adore him is an old story, but a new one for the American presidency. How far we have fallen.
Foghorn Leghorn shivving Trump wasn’t on my bingo card, but here we are! Agree with Bill though that overall Dems haven’t done a great job making the case that ICE is already funded. That this entire shutdown is about basic things like masks and judicial warrants. The only reason TSA wasn’t getting paid is Trump. I’m sure Russ Vought is creaming his pants at the thought of privatizing TSA though.
I can see it now. Privatize TSA, pay them even less than what little they make now, and watch the result! "Hey TSA guy, here's 5 Benjamins if you let me take this gun through". Pay them less and you'll have less vigilance. You get what you pay for!
Ah, but privatize, and your donors give you an even bigger chunk of change from the venture they've just added to their prisons and camps. What do you care if it makes air travel less safe for ordinary citizens?
Yes, and gifted some people with the intelligence not only to get through law school but also to make sure no private jet ever had to fly with an empty seat.
The Nazis made a "Potemkin village" out of Theresienstadt to fool the outside world into believing that their concentration camps were happy places to live. Those around Trump have to build a "Potemkin village" of praise and agreement in order to make him think that he lives in a Disney world of happy people who adore him.
The elected Republicans, oil billionairs, new tech vunderkins, and third-generation inherited billionaires still love Trump. He will protect their money as long as they shower him with praise and gold-gilt. None of them, includng Trump give a damn about the lives of the rest of the 99.9% of the world.
Trump sees the military as his toy. The tariffs didn't work, so now he is using bombs. They aren't working either, and Trump can't beleive it. He is dealing with an enemy that is even more fanatical than he is, and they have been at it for much longer. They are willing to fight to the death and bring the world down with them. Now, it's Trump's choice. He asked for it. Everyone suffers.
"Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) confirmed on Sunday that Republican senators were ready to accept the Democrats’ offer. That is, until Trump said no: “It would have worked. We could have had TSA paid by the end of the week, but the president said, ‘No deal.’”
Let's not lose sight of the fact, though it seems Sen. Kennedy and his lick-spittle GOP colleagues have, that "No Deal" was never up to trump. It was up to them - so going into the long lead-up to the midterms, can we please start now painting them into the corner of their own loathsome responsibility? When they "blame" trump, we have to make it absolutely clear that they had a choice and sided with trump on every single stinking atrocity that trump commits.... And VOTERS need to hold them RESPONSIBLE for everything trump has done, because he couldn't have done any of it without their acquiescence, help and applause.
If there's ANY way Dems can force a vote on standalone TSA funding, they need to do it. Put GQP congress ppl on the record voting against it, and/or Trump vetoing it.
Re DJT: It occurs to me that all the soft soap and ego massages are nurturing the decomposition of this person's brain function. He is progressively more distanced from reality. Another thing for the cultists to answer for. Surely I am not a mental health professional but, frankly, catering to delusion like this, is not beneficial. In fact at least in this case, gasoline on the bonfire seems apt.
Oh, thats a hoot. It all put me in mind of a Morey Amsterdam riff on the DVD show in which he concludes by telling a phone caller to disassemble his phone, place it in a paper bag, go to a graveyard at midnite, swing it over his head and scream like a chicken. Not germane, but still after 50 years it makes me laugh. "They need the eggs." Makes me laugh to write it. Thanks.
I met Elvis' ghost. Big ghost. Famous ghost. Almost as famous as me. He had tears in his eyes. He said he had been afraid to haunt Graceland for years. Too scary, he said. But he's back now because it's safe. I made Memphis safe for the things I see in my mind again.
I'm not sure that what he saw in white sheets were ghosts. 😀
Mike, that's one of your cleverest!
That's a low bar to clear. 😀
I was worried that it might come off the wrong way, I'm glad the joke landed correctly.
For the record, I'm trying to ridicule the bigots
Solid quip Mike. I wish it'd been mine.
Saw the ghost of Elvis
On Union Avenue
Followed him up to the gates of Graceland
Then I watched him walk right through
Now security they did not see him
They just hovered 'round his tomb
But there's a pretty little thing
Waiting for the King
Down in the Jungle Room
She said, "Tell me are you a Christian child?"
And I said, "Ma'am, I am tonight"
Love me some Marc Cohn.
I was already struggling to keep this out of my head. That's not happening now.
But did he say "Thank You!"?
Especially ghosts...
For once, this Trump can write legible sentences without using capital letters. What a relief!!!
Andrew: "After their euphoric initial response to Trump’s announcement yesterday of “productive talks” with Iran, markets gradually sank throughout the afternoon as it settled in that the economic situation remains as dire as before."
I'm not sure "euphoric" is the correct word. Maybe "credulous" is better, because the markets always make the mistake of taking Trump at his word when in reality no one should ever take him at his word. I did see someone made a killing on the S&P futures market yesterday, so maybe the "correct" people made their money yesterday.
Yeah, there seem to be a few in Trump's inner circle who have the uncanny ability and timing to consistently make fast, big money in the markets.
I'm sure the MAGAe are fine with all of this provided libs are owned.
As long as the libs are owned, everything else is gravy.
I take solace in the fact the MAGAe are getting porked good and hard. I imagine the cognitive dissonance they're experiencing -- or what passes for cognitive dissonance for them -- and the creeping realization that he porked them. Of course, they deny that because they have to, but it's fun to imagine the mayhem going on between that mostly empty volume between their ears.
I don't think they've detected they've been had. In their minds, America is respected around the world (again). There is global peace and no "forever wars." Gas is $1.25/gallon. The economy is the envy of the world. The future is bright because of Donald J. Trump and, if the elections weren't all rigged by Democrats, he would win again in a landslide. His polls all show it: 100% positive.
I think this is accurate for *most* of his voters, dcicero. But not all. When the MAGAe look at their credit card statements or when they balance their checkbooks, they're going to notice that a gallon of gas is more expensive today than it was in February. Whether they're able to deduce the causal relationship between our actions in Iran and gas prices may be another matter. Reality can be a nasty bitch.
I think it's likely they're having no realization at all. They get their news from right wing TV and radio (no reading sites like the Bulwark, HCR, etc) and are only hearing how wonderful everything is and how this 5D chess game the administration is playing is coming together soon (in a couple weeks) and everyone will see how brilliant the Orange Man Baby is...
It's sad, but I think you're right. They hear nothing but positive news from every source they pay attention to AND they hear nothing but negative news about Democrats, which feeds the "I can't believe anyone believes that crap!" response.
I'd like to believe it breeds a certain amount of complacency. Everything's going great. No need to get all wound up about the election. He's got 100% job approval, as does every Republican, so my vote's not that important.
Let's hope it's about what they feel rather than what they 'think'. Pain is at the Walmart & Exxon. That hurts....
In any event, owning the Libs is getting very expensive. It's the one kind of inflation I can applaud.
Owning the Libs does come with a price. There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Maybe they enjoy it. Getting porked might be the best entertainment they have.
MAGA: Make America Grift Again
Gullible fools. It’s the 50th time they have had the rug pulled out from under them and they somehow still end up being Charlie Brown with the football.
I'm at the point where I've accepted we're about to have a correction. I'm not happy about it. In fact, I'm fucking pissed about it because in my view what Trump is doing is deliberate wealth destruction for the majority of us. But it is what it is.
Yea as I approach retirement age, I realize more and more that retirement likely isn't in the cards, because I believe a correction is coming too.
It’s pretty much already here. The Dow is currently at 46,221 (though it keeps changing as I write this) down from a peak of about 50,200 in February which is a >8% drop.
Although there’s no universally accepted definition a drop of 10% in a month is usually considered correction territory and markets don’t seem to be properly pricing in how long it will take to get oil and LNG flowing at pre-war rates even if the Iran war ended tomorrow with no further damage to energy infrastructure. There was an extremely worrying article in the Economist yesterday about how the best case scenario is still likely going to be disastrous, especially for LNG given the damage to Qatari facilities.
I moved a big chunk of my retirement investments out of the UK to US and Asia-Pacific focussed funds after the Brexit vote (because of my job I’m not allowed to make investment decisions beyond allocating my pension savings between certain approved managed funds). The US stuff did quite well for a while but Trump is rapidly destroying the gains and non-US markets are suffering as well.
Of course if money, rather than World War 3 (or World War Trump as I assume he’ll try to brand it), turns out to be my main retirement concern I guess I should probably consider myself lucky.
I have been hoping and praying that my fund manager has been able to figure out the best investments for my retirement account. The last statement was the second time my account was lower at the end of the quarter even though I take monthly distributions from the account.
Pretty weak market open today. Seems to me that the TACO dopamine rush is losing its juice. The market might start needing a daily TACO. Certainly a sign of addictive behavior.
But they're owning the libs...
When will Wall St. learn?
They're making a killing. I'd say they learned very, very well.
Mind boggling that they still believe what comes out of his mouth...
Given that the person(s) who made a killing did so by placing an order 15 minutes before President Man’s announcement, I suspect they’re closely related to someone whose name rhymes with “lump.”
Or maybe it was Barron.
Not to mention, Iran is charging $2 million per cargo ship to pass through the Straight of Hormuz.
Yup, we’ve got Iran right where we want them🤪
Yes, See Paul Ktugman's sub stack post today. Many traitors in Trump's orbit made a killing on the oil futures market with insider trading. The grift is endless.
I was thinking more along the lines of another Trump Pump and Dump scheme.
Paul Krugman's sub-stack this morning speaks of anomalies in the overall futures and oil markets that seem to be explainable only via insider information.
They made a a better killing on oil futures (6 to 1 actually). All in a 5 min heads-up just prior to trump yapping
The most pervasive fiction in modern political commentary is the pretense that Donald Trump's current operational decay is a recent development rather than a lifelong condition finally stripped of its bureaucratic camouflage. The prevailing narrative, that his erratic handling of crises marks a drastic cognitive or strategic decline, obscures a far more damning reality: This profound ineptitude has always been his baseline. During his first administration, a buffer of institutionalists actively suppressed his most destructive directives, manufacturing a mirage of quasi-functional governance. Those officials possessed the direct observation required to invoke the 25th Amendment, or at the very least, a civic duty to report his absolute incapacity to the electorate. Instead, their cowardice preserved a completely fabricated image of executive competence.
Egger’s depiction of a president slurring through a Memphis address, thoroughly detached from the geopolitical realities of an Iranian conflict, does not illustrate a novel deterioration. It is the inevitable exposure of an isolated solipsist operating without his former handlers, left only with the sycophancy he demands.
As Bill notes, the strategic imperative is to capitalize on this momentum, but i really think that doing so requires the opposition, and particularly those with prominent platforms, to abandon the illusion that these blunders are unprecedented anomalies.
The true political advantage begins with the uncompromising, plainly articulated recognition that the erratic figure currently retreating on both foreign and domestic fronts is exactly who he has been his entire life.
"During his first administration, a buffer of institutionalists actively suppressed his most destructive directives, manufacturing a mirage of functional governance. "
This. So much this.
I wish more people were willing to admit this. It seems so shockingly obvious to me.
Well, that's because you're paying attention. It's also true that other people have made this same observation. Tom Nichols is one. Tim Miller is another. What we're finally getting now is high test, uncut Trumpism. And we have it coming.
Where is Nancy Reagan and her ‘Just Say No’ when you need it?
He’s becoming more of who he has always been. Now he’s not only unfit, but also unfiltered.
Very well said. He's been propped up forever by more competent people who see a way to capitalize on his showmanship. Mark Burnett is an obvious example. But Trump wasn't even a very good developer. Plenty of people have made money in real estate without scamming partners or cheating subs. Not him.
It's hard to be so incompetent that you manage to bankrupt not one, but three casinos.
What operational decay? Does a man who continues to exercise rigid control of Republicans in both Houses, has intimidated European leaders, plays up to dictators with impunity, has terrorized illegal immigrants, shut down DEI in our universities, reversed climate change policy, and enormously enriched his family have a weak mind? Delusion, delusion.
An infant with a hammer can shatter a stained-glass window, but most of us do not confuse the resulting pile of shards with architectural genius.
To equate the capacity for demolition with executive competence is to commit a profound category failure. You have listed a catalog of wrecking-ball maneuvers: intimidating cowardly legislators, dismantling environmental regulations, terrorizing vulnerable populations, and operating the presidency as a family syndicate. None of these actions require a sophisticated intellect or operational mastery; they require only the absence of ethical restraint and a willingness to smash the load-bearing walls of democratic governance. A toddler can pull a tablecloth and ruin a banquet in seconds, but we do not applaud the child for their strategic brilliance. You are mistaking the sheer, terrifying velocity of institutional collapse for the cognitive vitality of the man pushing it over the edge.
On the other hand, if Trump feels like a beacon of intelligence to you, I have deep empathy for the hardships in your life.
Truth!
Someone on an NPR interview this morning (about rural grocery stores going out of business) said something to the effect of "this is a business, business is math, and the math doesn't work." And yeah, I thought, "tell that to the people who thought Trump was a great businessman" who would bring all those fabulous skills to running the government. The math has not worked for him for years, and now he's brought that arithmetic incompetence to the country and the world.
Misguided - please see my later post about Trump playing dumb
LOL indeed. The proposition that the executive is executing a decades-long performance of profound ineptitude to achieve some esoteric strategic advantage requires a total suspension of rational thought. It demands that we believe he spent his entire public life meticulously crafting the persona of an incoherent, incapable buffoon simply to outmaneuver his critics in a phantom game of 5D chess. That is a staggering, frankly delusional, commitment to an act, without any supporting evidence.
Occam’s razor isn't even needed here. Empirical truth will do. The incompetence is entirely genuine. There is no hidden tactical utility in slurring through public addresses, mismanaging domestic security funding, or bumbling through Middle Eastern geopolitics. The historical record, exhaustively corroborated by the explicit warnings of his own first-term cabinet, confirms that what appears to be a total deficit of intellectual and operational capacity is exactly that.
To insist he is merely "playing dumb" is not political analysis; it is a desperate psychological defense mechanism deployed to avoid confronting the terrifying reality of a fully incapacitated president.
Absolutely spot on! During his childhood and young-mid adult life he had Daddy covering up his stupidity. After Daddy was gone it was the Russian mob and its oligarch bosses. Now it's his Cabinet, subservient magat controlled Congress, and the conservatives on the SCOTUS. During his entire life he had someone covering his ass.
I gotta say, I disagree that Trump thinks the Golden Age is around the corner. His Golden Age is right here, right now. You want Elvis's guitar? Go ahead. You want gold and billions and customized jet planes and your own currency? Be my guest. You want to knock down the White House? Sure, you can even pretend you have the right to do that! We are living in Trump's Golden Age. And I don't think he gives a tin shit what happens around the corner. The Supreme Court demonstrated again yesterday that Rupert Murdoch and Leonard Leo are the people actually running the country. And Trump knows those guys have to give him all the gold toys he demands. And that be that. Why worry about the future when, in the present, you can get people like Marco Rubio who used to criticize you to wear clown shoes in front of the entire world? Hell, the US media won't even report on the Epstein files any longer. The Golden Age is now. Enjoy it while it lasts. Trump's attempts to grasp onto it and keep it here will be ugly.
Although I do enjoy how he is both for and against the war in Iran that might not be a war. It makes it harder to bring up objections to the war when I really don't know what side he's on in this conflict.
Oh my, Kate! PREACH it Sister!
Andrew Egger has a great grasp on trump's mental processes. ''Trump is a lifelong pathological solipsist'' is as succinct as it gets.
Growing up in Philly we used to call that "being a piece of shit".
That part's right but underrating Trump is his greatest delusion
The problem is that most of Trump's power comes from muscle. He can threaten people and follow through. He can have the women he slept with followed by goons until they shut up. He can send ICE to your city. That's always been Trump's power: lawyers, guns, and money. And he still has that power, multiplied by ten.
Nice Warren Zevon pull, there.
Yes, Kate and others have a talent for adding pertinent music/movie/TV references in their comments. Just another reason to subscribe to The Bulwark!
So when will Elvis (I mean, Trump) leave the building?
I remember seeing those National Enquirer headlines while standing in line at the grocery store: "Elvis seen at nearby Tennessee mall"
I always wondered who bought those. Now we know...early croMAGAnon man.
In a pine box, maybe?
My biggest hope is that he lives long enough to watch us take his name off of everywhere he put it.
Excellent point!
But there are some correctional facilities and sanitation stations that could be named for him.
When I lived in San Francisco, there was a bill to name the local sewage plant after Dubya. I don't remember if it passed or not, tho.
Oh...good thought. Perhaps they can carefully remove his name off the Kennedy Center and install it over his prison cell.
Can they double his daily Big Mac consumption, please.
I'm eagerly awaiting the announcement that the SBMOD has entered the building!
This is taking such a long time -- is it somehow possible that Big Macs are the elixir of life?!?
All I can think of is Eddie Murphy's impersonation of Elvis in "Delirious".
"I have lived...a life that's full..."
< Elvis farts >
"...'cuse me".
Not fucking soon enough.
Trump: "I want Greenland!"
Staffer: "Sir, you know what's even better than Greenland? Graceland."
Trump: "Ok, I want Graceland."
Staffer: "On it, boss!"
His esthetic has always been Elvis, Scandinavian minimalism, on the other hand, I would bet brings out his insecurities.
re: "TOM TERRIFIC"
Ugh, no more billionaire chuds running for office, please.
Steyer and Bloomberg flamed out mightily in the 2020 primary. These Dem side donors keep trying to get back on that horse. No thanks! And by the way, making us repeat our "No Thanks," over and over again is just rude at this point.
If Steyer et al. want to donate money to get out the vote or voter registration efforts like Next Gen, fine. But put reputable, salt of the earth folks in charge. We don't want or need Epstein class leadership in this country.
Don't forget Howard Schultz. Why is it so, so hard to get men in politics to understand that no means no? Why do these people even WANT to get into politics? They have way, way more influence over American lives as business people. It's just an ego boost.
My astute ego-in-check Cajun neighbor always insisted it is better to be the King-maker than to be the King.
Slightly mean to Mike Bloomberg, but point taken.
Yea, Bloomberg actually did a great job as Mayor of NYC. He understood the city and got things done and greatly improved the infrastructure and operations, plus kept the budget in surplus. Not perfect, but much better than his successors.
I'd vote for Pritzker.
An authoritarian leader who surrounds himself with fawning lackeys and who is convinced that the People adore him is an old story, but a new one for the American presidency. How far we have fallen.
Foghorn Leghorn shivving Trump wasn’t on my bingo card, but here we are! Agree with Bill though that overall Dems haven’t done a great job making the case that ICE is already funded. That this entire shutdown is about basic things like masks and judicial warrants. The only reason TSA wasn’t getting paid is Trump. I’m sure Russ Vought is creaming his pants at the thought of privatizing TSA though.
I can see it now. Privatize TSA, pay them even less than what little they make now, and watch the result! "Hey TSA guy, here's 5 Benjamins if you let me take this gun through". Pay them less and you'll have less vigilance. You get what you pay for!
Ah, but privatize, and your donors give you an even bigger chunk of change from the venture they've just added to their prisons and camps. What do you care if it makes air travel less safe for ordinary citizens?
Exactly! That's why God invented private jets for the ultra rich!
Yes, and gifted some people with the intelligence not only to get through law school but also to make sure no private jet ever had to fly with an empty seat.
My great aunt would say, "As we get older, we get more like ourselves."
The more face time Stephen Miller gets on media, the more citizens can see how abhorrent he is.
Yes...especially when his spiel is the same no matter how bad it gets. The "Baghdad Bob" thing.
The Nazis made a "Potemkin village" out of Theresienstadt to fool the outside world into believing that their concentration camps were happy places to live. Those around Trump have to build a "Potemkin village" of praise and agreement in order to make him think that he lives in a Disney world of happy people who adore him.
The elected Republicans, oil billionairs, new tech vunderkins, and third-generation inherited billionaires still love Trump. He will protect their money as long as they shower him with praise and gold-gilt. None of them, includng Trump give a damn about the lives of the rest of the 99.9% of the world.
Trump sees the military as his toy. The tariffs didn't work, so now he is using bombs. They aren't working either, and Trump can't beleive it. He is dealing with an enemy that is even more fanatical than he is, and they have been at it for much longer. They are willing to fight to the death and bring the world down with them. Now, it's Trump's choice. He asked for it. Everyone suffers.
More fanatical and a hell of a lot smarter than him and his lack of brain trust.
"Who knew Iran would close Hormuz?" -DJT
"Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) confirmed on Sunday that Republican senators were ready to accept the Democrats’ offer. That is, until Trump said no: “It would have worked. We could have had TSA paid by the end of the week, but the president said, ‘No deal.’”
Let's not lose sight of the fact, though it seems Sen. Kennedy and his lick-spittle GOP colleagues have, that "No Deal" was never up to trump. It was up to them - so going into the long lead-up to the midterms, can we please start now painting them into the corner of their own loathsome responsibility? When they "blame" trump, we have to make it absolutely clear that they had a choice and sided with trump on every single stinking atrocity that trump commits.... And VOTERS need to hold them RESPONSIBLE for everything trump has done, because he couldn't have done any of it without their acquiescence, help and applause.
If there's ANY way Dems can force a vote on standalone TSA funding, they need to do it. Put GQP congress ppl on the record voting against it, and/or Trump vetoing it.
Re DJT: It occurs to me that all the soft soap and ego massages are nurturing the decomposition of this person's brain function. He is progressively more distanced from reality. Another thing for the cultists to answer for. Surely I am not a mental health professional but, frankly, catering to delusion like this, is not beneficial. In fact at least in this case, gasoline on the bonfire seems apt.
Grandpa thinks he’s a chicken, and his family would dissuade him but they need the eggs.
The remark has the virtues of homespun warmth and blistering accuracy.
That’s based on a hazy recollect of a bit by Woody Allen on an album of his standup from the 60s.
Oh, thats a hoot. It all put me in mind of a Morey Amsterdam riff on the DVD show in which he concludes by telling a phone caller to disassemble his phone, place it in a paper bag, go to a graveyard at midnite, swing it over his head and scream like a chicken. Not germane, but still after 50 years it makes me laugh. "They need the eggs." Makes me laugh to write it. Thanks.