Hey Critters! Sorry for my extended absence. Been working my fanny off and finally get some time to breathe.
Today, the day after Christmas, I’m not going to give us too much bad gnuz…
Finally,
Larry Flynt trolls Don Jr. by hiring mistress that blew up Trump’s marriage to New Year’s Eve soiree
H/T Raw Story
Karmic Ending. Enjoy
Happy New Year to you all!
Open Thread, pick it up and run with it!
RUCerious @TPZoo
TheZoo 
Just stopped in to see if anything was happening here. It’s been a while, but I really lost interest when my contributions were left hanging out to dry on a regular basis. No one likes to be pushed aside, and that was what has happened here.
???
I’ve always respected your contributions.
Happy to have you back.
The Zoo was formed as an alternative to a toxic environment that lacked moderation at Think Progress.
The trolls were running wild there.
I miss a lot of the opinions and posts that made up the Zoo.
Hi fatherbob,
It’s nice to see you again. 🙂 I agree with everything vinylspear wrote, and I’m so sorry you feel ignored. I’ve been trying to do better by this place and our bloggy friends, but have not had much success with getting my brain to cooperate.
Happy New Year, fatherbob! We enjoy your wisdom and your snark. 🙂
Donald Trump’s insistence on a border wall has clearly demonstrated that he don’t need no education.
All in all he’s just another prick with no wall.
*shamelessly stolen from a protest sign
Hahahahahahaa!
Don’t do that to me when I’m drinking cofvefe.
Uh, Happy New Year?
I drove past the White House the other day. It had been a while, and the place seemed smaller, somewhat tawdry, almost haunted. I imagined bats winging in and out , spider webs in the corners, and the president upstairs in the family quarters, talking back to the TV, railing against Nancy Pelosi, the Federal Reserve, Robert S. Mueller III, Emmanuel Macron, Theresa May, Jim Mattis, Jeff Sessions, Stormy Daniels and . . . who am I forgetting? Oh, yes, Barack Obama for, well, everything.
The car slowed. I thought I heard a wail from the upper floor: President Trump going mad.
Or maybe I am. I would not be surprised. Trump has that effect on people.
Damn you, you did it again! 😀
FFS! The only people who don’t like Elizabeth Warren are cons and banksters!
Not to be one to pick at nits but, you left out psycho killers…
Well, maybe not.
Thanks for posting this, I watched and listened for a few minutes, and it was very soothing.
Which is good, because I lost my job today, after 25 years. My health this past year has been pretty bad, and I was out sick off and on for a total of about six months. In our Customer Service department, that’s not workable. At least I got severance, so I got that goin’ for me. 😦
So sorry to hear you’ve not been well, let alone losing your job. Either one is a life event that can be difficult to deal with. I’ve had health problems the past several years, which has made life difficult, but fortunately, at least I’ve been able to keep working, albeit at a slower pace. I hope others have been supportive and helpful along the way, I personally know how important that is to your improvement and state of mind. My hope for the best, and a steady recovery.
I’m on a long waiting list for this procedure….
Thanks, fatherbob, and also thank you for continuing to contribute here, even when the place is so empty you’re not even getting an echo. Until I was ‘terminated’, I often read threads and comments at the office at lunchtime, but could never remember my password to be able to join in. As I decompress, and when I’m up to doing so, I’ll try to contribute the occasional thread to relieve RUC from his often thankless efforts.
My main health issue these days is the arthritis in my spine. I can’t spend hours at the computer, as was required in my job. I’ve been going to physical therapy for the arthritis/sciatica in my lower back, plus a pinched nerve in one shoulder. I can continue the PT ’til the end of the month on my company plan – after that, I’ll see if the NYS version of the ACA is cheaper than getting on Wayne’s plan (at the same company.)
For the time being, I’m almost enjoying this new (and still paid) time off. Hell, if I have to be out of work, at least it’s during the current hope-rekindling episodes of the trump-Russia saga. Right now, new revelations are coming out almost as fast as trump can lie, so I’m glad I have some time to try to keep up.
Gotta go to bed, I have PT tomorrow morning. Thanks again for your kind words.
A rhetorical question.
What has China taught the world about walls?
A. They make great tourist attractions
B. They keep out invading Mongol hoards.
C They’re easy to build when you have forced labor.
D. They isolate a culture for centuries thereby limiting trade and exchange with the outside world.
There’s no right or wrong answer. Chat among yourselves!
MSNBC is announcing as ‘Breaking News’ that the American detained in Russia is entering his ‘fifth day’ in captivity! The clue that this is happening is apparently that yesterday was his FOURTH day in captivity!
Andy Card is calling Romney a ‘rookie Senator’ and treating him like he doesn’t know how government works. Romney was a governor, and knows way more about government than Trump does YET! Romney would support policies every bit as bad as Trump’s, but he isn’t a ‘rookie’.
Oh, and the RNC has a member calling for a rule to prevent primary challengers to Trump. They may regret it if they adopt that rule. The only chance to salvage their 2020 ticket overall could be to dump Trump if his unfavorable rating gets any higher.
Remember when Paul Ryan and the Rs changed the way math worked so their crooked budgets could seem plausibly functional? That is now gone. Math goes back to being a science based on logic again.
“Math goes back to being a science based on logic again.”
OMG, I hope I can adjust to real math!
Before Trump was elected.
I have struggled with what to call this rant so I’ve settled on:
Donald Trump is a psycho con man with a shrunken amygdala.
Why does Donald Trump want to be the next President of The United States?
A person should ask why.
Just for the sake of argument, let’s take insanity to the next level and pretend that The Donald has actually become President of the United States.
Here are but a few examples:
1) He no longer has to hire personal security for the rest of his life. The Secret Service will be his new security team from the day he enters office until the day he dies. He can now fire his security firm and use the one that has the latest and greatest equipment at our expense.
2) He will get insider information to the sweet sweet deals that he cannot access in his present situation. Billionaire or not, those trade deal doors are closed to him.
3) The ability to penetrate real estate deals and contracts in the Middle East that were out of bounds to him previously. You thought Halliburton was bad? Just wait.
4) His operating costs are now outsourced to the American tax payer. Meaning, all of his transportation, lodging, vacation, meals, entertaining, all living expenses are now on the shoulders of We the People
5) He gets a spiffy new jet and an entourage of hand picked toadies to grovel at his every whim.
6) He will get to fire people on a scale that has never been seen before on any episode of the apprentice. He will publicly humiliate anyone that he suspects of undermining him.
7) He can speculate on which states are the least profitable and sell them to The FSSR or China.
8) He can yell at press conferences and no one can tell him to shut up or turn off his microphone.
9) He gets free prime time TV spots that he would have to pay for if he were not President.
10) After he is done being President, he will never ever go away. He will not retire to his bathroom and start painting creepy pictures.
11) His cabinet would consist of like minded psychopaths and his appointments to Federal agencies would be equally terrifying.
12) Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un share many sociopathic traits. Let’s start with bad choices in hair stylists.
I’ve heard a penis called a lot of names, but never an amygdala!
Now, let me continue reading.
“He will not retire to his bathroom and start painting creepy pictures.” – Heh! Lordy, I hope not!
No mushroom pictures…..
Appropriations bills begin in the House. The House has passed a bill unanimously acceptable to the Senate only weeks ago. If McConnell won’t allow a vote on it now, it’s all on him.
MSNBC is reporting the Federal workers will miss their first paychecks THIS FRIDAY. The way it’s been portrayed, they were already in danger of foreclosure and starvation. Which side was perpetuating this myth?
I’ve heard so many people refer to him as ‘the orange anus’…
well, this just confirms it!
This young lady is going to be hell on wheels.
This just struck me as silly.
Transportation experts see Uber and Lyft as the future. But rural communities still don’t use them.
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/11/18179036/uber-lyft-rural-areas-subscription-model
‘Do As I Say, Not As I Do:’ Rand ‘Socialized-Medicine-Is-Slavery’ Paul Headed to Canada for Some Surgery
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/14/do-i-say-not-i-do-rand-socialized-medicine-slavery-paul-headed-canada-some-surgery
Well, it’s got to be cheaper to travel and have it done there than stay home and do it local. It can’t be that the quality of care is better there, can it?
Interesting thing about allathat….If he has health insurance paid for, by we, the taxpayers, why:
1) is he going out of the country and…..way, way, way out of any network?
2) does he want to pay out of pocket for 100% of his treatment/surgery?
3) don’t we have the same coverage, if his goverment health insurance is paying for treatment worldwide?
I don’t know if this is related to his neighbor attacking him, but he may be able to get approved for out of network much easier than an average citizen. The facility claims to be the ‘global leader in non-mesh hernia repair’ and I’ve seen ads on tv for lawsuits against mesh repair failures.
Even then, it still puts to bed the claim that socialism kills quality medicine.
If it’s out of the US, domestic health care providers won’t cover it, unless it’s an emergent situation. He’s worth millions from insider trading, so I’m sure he’s just spend some of his mad money.
https://twitter.com/TopRopeTravis/status/1085299802974445568
+100
If Trump is a bigly huge billionaire and wants the wall so much, why doesn’t he cut a check from his huge tremendous wealth and then deduct it through another one of his many failed real estate ventures?
Just thinking out loud. I know this is a temper tantrum and won’t go away.
If Cohen has corroborating evidence that Trump told him to lie to the Feds, he’s toast. Supposedly there was all these recordings of people he talked to on the phone?
Land line or cell phone? There’s a legal distinction between the two.
From a friend…
The problem, as always, with everything, is Trump. Trump isn’t just a rich guy, or the president. His every move, every thought, revolve around presenting himself as his own, vulgar, demented, version of what a rich man is. This is a man who lives in a gold tower and, so desperate to inhabit his sad, cartoon version of wealth, literally sh*ts in a gold toilet. He is hyper-conscious of status signifier, even though the signifier he chooses signify exactly the opposite of his intention for anyone with a semi-functional aesthetic sense, the most famous, desperate, social climbing as*hole in a world full of them. He is, always, always, always trying to look wealthy, special, “classy”, and terrified of looking otherwise. That’s the whole point of being Trump.
So this compulsive would-be elitist invites a college football team to the White House, many of whom come from modest backgrounds, to be feted by the leader of their nation on what should be one of the proudest days of their lives, looking forward to some sumptuous, chef prepared, eight course White House meal, and this cheap creep, rather than giving them something to remember, tosses a bunch of the same slop they’ve been eating their entire lives at them as a cute little publicity stunt. One of the players actually commented that he thought it was a joke.
Trump could have served almost any other guest to the White House exactly that meal, any president could have, and it would’ve been fine. Imagine Obama, or Clinton, or Reagan, serving a bunch of McDonald’s to Queen Elizabeth or Vladimir Putin. People would have chuckled a bit, and it would’ve shown the leaders to be human, just like us, juice dripping down their chins, just like every other “politician and foreign dignitary eat hot dog” shot.
But Trump is way too stupid to understand the endearing, folksy irony of that. Trump is never going to serve that slop to his Saudi buddies, or his Russian handlers, or any other VIP. He feeds those people steak at Mara Lago (because steak is his idea of the way rich people eat, of course).
Trump didn’t feed those kids McDonald’s because he genuinely loves McDonald’s, that would probably be a little endearing. Of course he genuinely does love McDonald’s, but that’s not why he did it. What’s bugging us all is that this compulsive, status-obsessed wannabe fed those kids McDonald’s because he looked at a bunch of working and middle-class kids, of various ethnicities, none of whom are famous or powerful, and he thought “People like this eat hamburgers, they don’t need steak. McDonald’s will be fine for these people.”
Trump, tone deaf and socially repulsive as always, managed to ferret out precisely the wrong thing to do and do it. Out of the sociopath’s inability to empathize with another, his would-be elitist’s obsession with class signaling, and likely just pure stinginess, he fed exactly the wrong food to exactly the wrong people, the one group of White House guests who really should have been treated like VIP’s. People who would have enjoyed it and allowed us to enjoy it.
What amazes us, what infuriates, us about Trump, is that while reveling in his abject personal grossness and complete lack of taste or class or style, as well as his touted working-class preferences, he has somehow convinced himself that he is the wealthy, cultivated sophisticate every single Burger King eating one of us knows goddamn well he ain’t. Somehow, some-frucking-how, he manages to both revel in his supposedly working-class appetites and then look down on people who eat the same slop he does. It’s Apeneck Sweeney convincing himself he’s Louie the 14th because every day he voids his three Whopper lunch into a gold toilet, putting his nose up at the rest of us for having a cheeseburger and, you know, having porcelain in our bathrooms, too fucking stupid to know how completely, utterly, transcendentally boorish and cheap and gauche and truly nasty every single fucking thing he does and says is, as well as every toilet he has plated.
But under all that, what bugs us, what really bugs us, what’s so infuriating about that photo, is that smug ass look on his face. Like he just did those kids the biggest favor in the world. Yeah, kids, here you go – I eat steak (ketchup steak, but still steak) every night because I’m the king sh*t on the mountain, but you peasants will be overjoyed when you see that I’ve thrown these lovely hamberbers to you.” That look says it all – sure it’s your first time at the White House, the biggest day of your lives, but you’re still just peons. Behold the generosity of your leader and the bountiful table scraps he has laid before you, this day.
In those pictures, standing behind that table, that smug, sh**-eating grin twit, presenting his grand $3000 repast, is looking directly at us.That’s him telling us “yeah, I’m using the highest office in the land as nothing more than a grift to line my pockets, I’ve given all my friends and the actually wealthy people I want to s*ck up to all the favors I can as fast as administratively possible, but here you go, you jerks, serfs, peons, eat the slop up. I’ll be having prime rib, but you look more like the type to enjoy a couple bucks worth of cold a*s McDonald’s.”
Like a five year old thinking he’s stealing candy when everyone sees exactly like he’s doing, this moron thinks he’s getting away something. He thinks he’s terribly clever and crafty for pulling the most blatant, obvious, half-assed political scam in the history of the republic, and to make matters worse, he thinks we’re a bunch of dumb asses for falling for it. That’s what’s so obnoxious about it. This knuckle-dragging imbecile manages to stumble backwards into office on a wave of reactionary race-hatred and he thinks he’s Machiavelli and PT Barnum rolled into one, pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes, when we all see exactly what the he*l he’s doing. It wasn’t brains or cleverness or tactics that got him elected, he was just the most evil, stupid asshole around at exactly the point that a bunch of people wanted exactly that sort of evil, stupid ashole.
That’s what’s really bugging us about those photos. He’s the shittiest, nastiest, most classless little twit, a complete, daddy-gave-me-everything, failure, and everyone knows it, but there he is, the most powerful man in the world, telling us “I’m better than you, so I take what I want and you’ll like it, but here’s some good-ass fries on a silver platter……. losers.”
Nancy didn’t blink. Good.
If you take a deal now, they can say that was your plan all along.
YOU become the terrorist hostage takers!