257 Comments
User's avatar
Justin Lee's avatar

Dear Mr. Egger,

I’m sorry if I ever wrote a comment in Morning Shots criticizing you or Bill. I never want to give you anything other than praise and adoration. Also, I’m sorry for going through your garbage, and I’m not mad that you called the police. I want to be a better person. I have to sign off now, as it will soon be count time here in the D.C. Central Detention Facility.

With all my heart,

Justin

Andrew Egger's avatar

You're hired.

James Richardson's avatar

He might need a pardon first...

Patrick Rutledge's avatar

I wonder if this won't be a requirement for Membership Renewal at the Bulwark...

Jim Swift's avatar

You have to take the allegiance oath wearing merch, Patrick 😉

Patrick Rutledge's avatar

Left hand or right hand raised, or both???

Justin Lee's avatar

God only knows what it takes to become a Founder.

kathi in va's avatar

Apropos of nothing, I saw that they are now selling a “blow job lady” Halloween costume.

Dave Yell's avatar

Won't get it from DJT

McRob1234's avatar

Andrew Egger, in the past twenty years you have caused myself, and the city of New York, a good deal of distress, as we have watched you take our beloved Yankees and reduced them to a laughing stock, all for the glorification of your massive ego!

What? It worked for George Costanza. ;)

Sean McInnis's avatar

Jim or Bill might leave you Egger, but Justin never will!

Tim Coffey's avatar

This, as they say, wins the Internet today.

Brent_in_FL's avatar

P.S. Do you and Bill like rabbit stew?

Robin's avatar

You win the internet today.

Jessica Fillion's avatar

Your comment shows a blatant disregard for the need of randomly capitalized words. Do better. Be best.

Ann Williams's avatar

“The very model of a modern MAGA senator”. 🤣🤣🤣

Gilbert and Sullivan would be so proud.

jpg's avatar

Not having any international knowledge/expertise puts Darline firmly into the America First camp.

Suz Stiles's avatar

this is one of my fave Randy Rainbow parodies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-LTRwZb35A

Ann Williams's avatar

It’s funny so much of that is true now but you can tell from all the shots with Theresa May how old it is.

LHS's avatar

I love Randy. His voice is amazing, and his wicked humor and timing thereof are perfect.

LHS's avatar

I wonder if the title to Andrew's post intentionally evoked Britney Spears? 🤔

Dave Yell's avatar

Leave Natalie alone! :)

Left in WashState's avatar

It reminded me of when Luntz jumps up in Seth Meyer's audience an protests jokes about famous people with "Leave him/her alone!"

Edward Sala's avatar

I was thinking Tom Petty.

Sophia's avatar

The letters made me sad. Natalie Harp is clearly mentally ill. She seems manic (forgetting to eat or sleep), and her obsession is scary. This woman needs help, but of course Trump is happy to use her like he uses everyone. What a sick man, and what a sick administration.

Alan Johnston's avatar

"Natalie Harp is clearly mentally ill"

Either that or, as I have seen suggested elsewhere, a Russian plant. Maybe she's both?

Diana E's avatar

And/or she is being emotionally abused. Her letters sound like domestic abuse victims I have known and worked with. Melania clearly has control in her relationship with Trump and he needs a fawning female “mini me” sycophant to make up for it. However, sometimes victims will snap. There is nothing more dangerous than a cornered animal.

LHS's avatar

I imagine actors with nefarious purposes could plant information that they know Ms. Harp would pass on to Trump. Yeah, real secure we are these days.

Don Gates's avatar

I don't know if Russia needs a plant with Trump. He is the plant.

V J's avatar

BUT, the prez is more emotionally ill

Left in WashState's avatar

A mad Russian? dump's female Rasputin?

Ann Williams's avatar

And now she has made him a laughing stock so he’s going to kick her to the curb, like he eventually does to everyone.

I worry about her in the same way I worry about Graham Platner - that they could eventually take the same path as Jason Arday. They are all fragile, damaged people who have found themselves in the center of a brutal media pile-on and shunned (or soon to be shunned) by the institutions that gave their lives purpose even if only for a short time. (To be clear, I don’t excuse rape allegations or the arrogance that kept Platner in the Senate race after doubts started surfacing about his behaviour to women, and Arday’s and Harp’s “transgressions” are piddling compared to that, but I still wouldn’t want him or really anyone in such despair following such a fall from grace that he would take his own life.)

Donna Brady Miller's avatar

I agree, he will kick her to the curb. He’ll also be cruel when he does it thereby adding to her future misery.

Richard Courtney's avatar

Or die in the bunker together. Toxic devotion has a long history. Although Trump is too much of coward and narcissist to do that.

Catherine Cuneo's avatar

Neither of the transgressions are piddling. Just in different orbits

Ann Williams's avatar

A better way to put it for sure.

Steven Insertname's avatar

When someone tries to get rid of a stalker, that's when they get dangerous.

Ann Williams's avatar

If you’re calling Harp a stalker I’m not sure I agree with that - stalkers do not usually receive any encouragement from their targets. If taking her in the catering cart to the “real” Air Force One isn’t encouragement I don’t know what is.

But I do agree she could be dangerous if/when she’s abandoned by Trump, to herself, to him and potentially to others.

Kurt's avatar

Sophia, thank you for reminding us that compassion is one of the important human qualities that separates us from MAGA cultists, grifters and cynics.

drM's avatar

Sophia…you are absolutely correct. This poor woman needs help, and my fear would be the embarrassment of having these letters made public, will drive her over the edge. I hope she gets the help she so desperately needs, before she does herself harm.

Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

Trump himself is too mentally ill to recognize what a threat she can be to him. The Secret Service must be pulling their hair out. It seems the political types like Susy Wiles have given up from sheer exhaustion and failure to contain her.

Linda P.'s avatar

Pretty sure Ms. Wiles doesn't need much sympathy in this regard.

MadisonMarie's avatar

Oh that assumes the Secret Service is as it used to be... I doubt that. There have been quite a few hints that many if not most of them have "drunk the kool-aide" too.

Lynn  Bentson's avatar

You mean like when they tried to put Mike Pence n a car on Jan6 ?Or like when Tony Ornato left the secret service to be deputy chief of operations in the white house and participated in J6? Or when the secret service wiped all their phones as part of an "upgrade" ? Like then ?

Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

Which is why they would see her as a threat in an administration fueled by knives in the back competition. Many of them want to protect their 'God', especially since they haven't exactly covered themselves in glory on this front.

Dave Yell's avatar

Two words: Fatal Attraction

Badgerblue's avatar

Fatal Attraction. What could go wrong?

Daphne McHugh's avatar

Mental illness is the benign explanation.

Steven Insertname's avatar

She's a stalker whose stalking dreams have come true.

Tom's avatar

Shuttering the drone battalion after what we've seen over the last 6 years is absolutely absurd, but no more absurd than trying to drag battleships back 30 years for the aesthetic, I guess.

LHS's avatar

As Ron Filipkowski sarcastically noted in last night's Today In Politics: "Cool, cool. We are going back to a military prepared to fight 20th century wars. What could go wrong?"

Ray in the LA South Bay's avatar

Or changing aircraft carrier catapult launch systems to G-D steam. (And I do not mean General Dynamics.)

LHS's avatar

Perhaps he has been channeling James Watt?

Mark D. Garfinkel, Ph.D.'s avatar

You mean... James "ketchup is a vegetable" Watt, the secretary of agriculture under Reagan?

Alan Johnston's avatar

Secretary of the Interior but, whatever. Still a douche bag.

Dave Yell's avatar

DJT: You mean Ketchup isn't a vegetable? Damn!

Magus Perde's avatar

I'm waiting for the return of steam rail and the use of whale oil for fuel. I'm sure it's coming.

The Blockhead Chronicles's avatar

That still puts the military years ahead of much of MAGA, whose goal is either the 1950s or 1850s, depending on the issue.

Alito, of course, is shooting for the 1350s.

Steven Insertname's avatar

Bring back trench warfare! Everybody liked that, right?

RichinPhoenix's avatar

Maybe we should just follow this to its logical conclusion. Bring back World War II aircraft carriers with propeller Hellcats back when the legal name of the DOD was the Department of War. 😎

V J's avatar

going back in time is a pipedream

Garvin's avatar

I have a sad suspicion that our military is not investing in drones because the machines have no testosterone and yet still might outperform our WAR-FIGHTERS(!!!) on the battlefield, thereby hurting those WAR-FIGHTERS' feelings and lowering their male hormone levels to the point where the military would have to invest in additional treatments.

So it's ultimately a cost-saving move, don't you see?

J AZ's avatar

Garvin - you hit on our new get rich start up: a drone powered by our secret formula, an Ai developed liquid brewed from surplus reserves of Hydroxychloroquine, corn syrup, and a hint of T! Our incorporation is projected (by me) for market cap in 10 figures! So what if all 10 are zeroes, you think anyone’s checking math these days?

Steven Insertname's avatar

Make the corn syrup high-fructose, and you're on to something!

Left in WashState's avatar

Yep. You don't need big manly muscles to win in a drone war. In fact, I would bet most drone winners are on the nerdy side.

jpg's avatar

The man who can’t intake more than a couple pages of bullet points……do we really think he can/will read a page of single spaced sentences?

Sheri Smith's avatar

Perhaps he makes exceptions for fawning love letters?

jpg's avatar

Only if she video taped it and spliced it into his Fox News feed 🤣

Steven Insertname's avatar

He has time for anything that praises him. In fact that's about ALL he has any time for.

willoughby's avatar

Maybe she reads them to him in person.

Steven Insertname's avatar

It'd be hilarious if Susie Wiles had to read them to him. Or Melania.

Will Hinson's avatar

This morning the air was cool, the sun was shining through my window, I've been munching on my Dunkin' and sipping coffee and generally getting into the flow of the workday and things were O.K. Then I took a quick break to read Morning Shots, and then I read those letters at the end, and when I looked down my donut had turned to ash, my coffee became as mud, and the sun had retreated behind a blood-red cloud as though to announce it was leaving us forever.

Thanks team!

Tim Coffey's avatar

"Mr. Coffey is currently taking a short course on computational electromagnetics, specifically finite difference methods in the time domain, and is unable to post in detail this morning. This means Mr. Coffey, on many axes, is unlike Darline Graham because he's working to improve himself. Thank you, and have a nice day." -- Tim Coffey's "Morning Shots" Autoresponder.

J AZ's avatar

Tim - I’m inexplicably attracted to your repellent course of study

Tim Coffey's avatar

I hope you're not that masochistic, JAZ.

Kevin M's avatar

Natalie Harp is one sick and sad puppy.

Suzanne Clancy's avatar

Daddy issues, big time.

Brent_in_FL's avatar

Well, the Orange Muppet in the WH obviously has daughter issues, so it's a match made in hell...

Suzanne Clancy's avatar

Just read that her dad died by suicide and that she and her mom wanted to cover it up as he 'died in his sleep.' Wow, that just makes all of this so beyond sad. No more snarky comments from me on this topic; sounds like she is seriously damaged and in need of real help.

Richard Courtney's avatar

Exactly. Unfortunately her commitment to Trump and the acceptance of the cruelty isn't going to get her much real help or sympathy. It's an eerily similar path of Eva Bruan's toxic devotion, who also had substantial and traumatic daddy issues.

tupper's avatar

I hope for its sake, Ivanka doesn't have a pet rabbit

Dave Yell's avatar

Two words: intervention needed

TJ's avatar

She seems to be mentally ill. And the part about "scars" on her hands. Was she a cutter or does that mean something else?

Kate Laking's avatar

It’s not likely to be both hands if she has been a cutter unless she’s highly ambidextrous. My guess would be burns or frostbite.

Catherine Cuneo's avatar

Whats the point of knowing foreign policy if you’re just going to do as you’re told?

Also, as a S.C. resident, I don’t even care if she or the Freedom Caucus Ralph Norman wins the primary next week. He never accomplished anything for the good either.

BTW, someone might want to mention to our Senator that her Graham surname does not fly when voting under the SAVE act. Her support of this act is where I gave up any hope for her.

The Blockhead Chronicles's avatar

Amazingly, either one would still be ahead of Tom Tuberville in terms of intelligence.

Catherine Cuneo's avatar

Trying to decide if that insight makes me feel better.

Michael's avatar

The only difference between Harp and the rest of the creepy weirdos who worship Trump is her proximity to him. MAGA is deeply unwell.

Bryan Fichter's avatar

For a pathological narcissist like Trump, Natalie Harp is the perfect creation. Good God.

Shantha Smith's avatar

She was raised for this. As nauseous as her letters made me, this is also how one controls and manipulates a narcissist. She is extremely dangerous. Smeagol fawned all over Frodo while Gollum plotted betrayal and murder.

Richard Kane's avatar

Wormtongue also whispered sweet nothings into Theoden's ear.

TJ's avatar

Yeah, I think you are equating a movie or novel to real life. She seems to be a mentally ill person that needs professional help. Her father committed suicide in 2020.

TJ's avatar

She seems mentally ill. I thought she she was mentally ill for being so sycophantic towards Trump when the original quotes came out, but to read the entire letters I don't think it is a joking matter. I'm not implying she's a danger to anyone other than herself. She needs professional help.

Steven Insertname's avatar

People who are that ill are also easy to manipulate. A foreign actor with experience in, oh, say, the KGB could recruit her in like an afternoon, and then get her and her bottle blonde hair in front of Trump's eyes somehow. After that, she'll feed him whatever info you want her to.

Left in WashState's avatar

There are SO many pictures of her with a weird smile on her face when she is in his orbit. It would be less unnerving if the pics were one offs...but I have seen a BUNCH of them.

Kathleen Weber's avatar

It will be absolutely horrible when, not if, Trump crushes Natalie like a bug

Steven Insertname's avatar

Telling a stalker to leave is when they get dangerous.

Magus Perde's avatar

Trump, six months from now:

"Natalie Harp? I don't know her. She may have brought me coffee once."

Karen Christensen's avatar

I did not cheat! Promise, I read all the way through (excellent, as usual) before getting to the Natalie letters. I had expectations, because I've studied and written about women attracted to powerful men, and the letters surprised me by sounding somewhat genuine. I expected facile flattery, not the sophisticated flattery one needs with an intelligent and skeptical powerful man, but the sycophantic sludge of the Cabinet. I did not believe that she could, that any woman could, actually feel affection and concern for that particular powerful man. Creepy, crazy? I'm really struggling for the right words to describe them. But it does sound as though he's made her think he feels something genuine for her. Hard to fathom.

Diana E's avatar
1hEdited

2 words, “emotional abuse.” Or, “Stockholm Syndrome.”

Mark Rubin's avatar

Natalie: Geez! She makes most teens and tweens look exceedingly mature.

tupper's avatar

I waited, but really sorry I saw those letters at all.

Alan Johnston's avatar

And I'll never be able to unsee them

Marcia's avatar

The media has been referring to “notes from Natalie”, and I just imagined little post-it notes stuck around the room to catch trumpy’s eye.

This reality is so much worse.

LHS's avatar

They are sad and demonstrate emotional fragility on her part.

Linda P.'s avatar

Yes, clearly a cry for help. Wrong audience!

Steven Insertname's avatar

Emotional fragility is a prerequisite to joining MAGA. So naturally, she's a star!