According to the Nats, the White House cited a scheduling issue.
— Barry Svrluga (@barrysvrluga) March 28, 2017
.
Apart from booing the Coward-in-Chief, what’s on the agenda for the day?
I asked a bunch of MLB teams if @realDonaldTrump is welcome to throw out the first pitch at their stadiums this year https://t.co/gG0DygjZlp
— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) March 28, 2017
[NSFB Warning: Do *not* click on that link during breakfast or while consuming fluids]… A trip to the mound for Donald J. Trump in the near future would be anything but ceremonial. It would mark the first time our president, who ran on the platform of American Toughness, showed his face in public since his inauguration. Over the last three months, Trump has been safely chauffeured from the White House to one of his hotels to his campaign rallies to his private club and back again, insulated by a gauzy cocoon of yes-men who tell him that any polls that show him to be unpopular are fake, and any people protesting against his agenda are paid. In the early days of his own presidency, Barack Obama participated in town halls, appeared on The Tonight Show, and sat courtside at an NBA game between the Wizards and the Bulls. Trump on the other hand was forced to cancel his only public appearance yet, a friendly trip to a Harley-Davidson factory in Milwaukee, out of fear that protesters would steal his headlines and undercut his populist narrative.
Potential booing aside, Trump would surely welcome a chance to show off his athletic prowess and Adonis-like physical form. After all, according to his personal physician, the soon-to-be-71-year-old is the “healthiest individual ever elected president”—George W. Bush’s six-minute miles and Barack Obama’s visible abdominal muscles be damned.
Trump has actually already thrown out a ceremonial first pitch once, as a civilian back in 2006 in honor of the Jimmy Fund (see photographic evidence here), so I know it’s possible. And with the baseball season rapidly approaching, I decided to sleuth it out myself….
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
He wanted to avoid this:
satby
Fuck Trump (apologies to raven)
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone???
Schlemazel
@satby:
The judges will allow it.
SFAW
He’s acting as if going out in public will allow that bully, Obama, to take his lunch money again.
Although Shitgibbon could stand to skip lunch a few hundred times.
weaselone
His tiny hands can’t wrap themselves around a baseball. There’s a reason he sticks to golf.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@rikyrah: Hello!
OzarkHillbilly
The new CiC: Our Coward in Chief.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
As I’ve said many times, Trump is a coward.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
I’m shocked! I’m shocked!
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Sending tweets is hard.
SFAW
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Maybe because they tweeted по Pусский?
PIGL
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: well I suppose she’s decided his stand against evil of vaccinations is more important. One of us pick one’s battles after all, don’t you know. Focus on what’s really important.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Good morning!
????
Glad to see you smiling again.
SFAW
@PIGL:
Well, shouldn’t Hitlary’s e-mails, and her Wall Street speeches come before the vaxxer stuff?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Is it? I’m not a twit so I don’t know.
/snark
Schlemazel
@weaselone:
Come on! His hands are yoooge, why I bet he could palm a baseball!
PIGL
@SFAW: they already did, my dear, they already did.
Schlemazel
@SFAW: You know she would just have brought in a half dozen Goldman people to run the government . . .
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ???
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@SFAW: That reminds me
Baud
@Schlemazel: And her child trafficking ring.
Baud
Lordy, GMA has Chris Christie on to talk about Nunes’s ethical obligations.
NorthLeft12
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Ms. Stein’s work is done. She has helped saved the US from the evils of a Hillary Clinton presidency so she can safely rest in her bunker until she is needed again.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….. gasp….. wheeze….. Stop it, yer killing me.
Baud
@NorthLeft12: This.
SFAW
@PIGL:
But lately?
@Schlemazel:
Thank FSM we dodged THAT bullet, right?
@NorthLeft12:
I hadn’t considered that angle. Thanks
Baud
Lordy, Christie is leading Trump’s panel on the opoid epidemic.
NotMax
If (when) the pitch goes wild or falls short, Dolt 45 will readily place blame on Costa Rica, where MLB baseballs are made.
germy
WaPo
Baud
@germy: Excellent.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Chris Christie — Quinnipiac Poll — January 31, 2017
Approve………..17%
Disapprove……78%
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: That’s worse than Trump!
germy
There was a time when I thought Christie would be our Attorney General. I didn’t factor in the Jared grudge.
amk
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Two pigs in a pod.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: May they live long and rot.
Kay
MSNBC came to our community health clinic and interviewed “Trump voters” who are on Medicaid. I say “Trump voters” because there is a surprisingly large group of people who don’t vote but say they do, based on my wholly unscientific canvass of talking to people on Medicaid. There’s also a large group of people who either think they pay federal income taxes when they don’t because they don’t make enough OR think payroll taxes are the same as the federal income tax. There’s a whole other group of people who think they paid a “death tax” when they actually paid probate costs and fees on property they inherited OR property taxes that were in arrears when the property was transferred. It’s usually unpaid property taxes. Say…. 90% of the time “death tax” claims are wholly untrue.
I know I whine about media constantly but shouldn’t they have covered “how the health care law helps people” BEFORE the election, since one candidate vowed to “repeal” it? It’s a little goddamned late to cover the benefits of Obamacare, people.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Just give him a few more weeks.
Gindy51
@NorthLeft12: Or her money from Putin runs out…..
rikyrah
Dolt45 is a coward.And, I am sure that he can’t throw a ball with those tiny hands.
Humboldtblue
The only person who would be more unpopular than Trump would be the asshole/s who cut the talons off this gorgeous bald eagle and left it to die in southern Oregon.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Both sides, Kay.
Both sides ???
debbie
@Kay:
I’d bet most of those people still believe their government wouldn’t lie to them.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
I was intrigued by that, too. Really surprising.
It is almost as if their biggest patron called and said “Товарищи, я знаю что это ваша самая серьезная проблема, но на этом вы должны молчать, иначе финансирование прекратится.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: One candidate promised to repeal it and replace it with something that would offer more care and cost less. Now that candidate had no specifics and had no idea how healthcare works, but he did say with his plan you’d be so tired of winning.
JPL
@Baud: At least he’s not going to promote healthy eating to schools.
Humboldtblue
And all this Trump and the first pitch stuff was shut down yesterday when the link to the top 10 reasons he would refuse included the one TRUE reason the combover cockwhistle is a-skeered
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: Irony is dead
amk
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39428442
The kenyan warned repeatedly not to do stupid shit.
Fester Addams
@Schlemazel:
All we know for sure is he can pick up a golf ball (and toss it back on the fairway).
Tokyokie
I booed President George H.W. Bush when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch one year when W. was the front man for the Rangers. And that was before his approval rating tanked.
SFAW
@amk:
If only he had warned us not to drink antifreeze.
Thanks, Obama.
Hal
Blink blink
Is this Greenwald’s way of getting people to talk about him?
bystander
@Baud:
Next up: Ted Kascynski teaches your kids decoupage!
Kay
It’s maddening, really. You have no idea. Every fucking day now I read about how Obama actually did help “the white working” classes in places like the place where I live but NONE of this was covered BEFORE the election.
In fact, the narrative was THE OPPOSITE.
They had to know, right? They had to know he wasn’t passing laws and rules that applied ONLY to black people? They also had to know that there were boatloads of lower income white people. No one put 2 + 2 together and said “maybe Obama IS helping these people” even inadvertently- even if they thought he was snobby and elitist? Even if he SET OUT to to screw them (if that was your take on him) it wasn’t working because they were participating in these programs?
I’m going to the high school today to volunteer for “CEO Day” (embarrassing name but fine idea). We go and conduct fake interviews with high schoolers so they can learn how to interview. I hire and fire in our office so I go. I want to tell them Donald Trump is cutting our after school program which benefits 100% white working class since we HAVE ONLY white working class in the program. 2+ 2= 4. The black “elitist” President did a hell of a lot more for them than they white “populist” President will ever do. I won’t say it because it’s not what they’re there, to listen to my political rants, but that is what I’m thinking about this morning, and it seems such a shame, such a waste.
SFAW
@Tokyokie:
So it’s YOUR fault that his popularity dropped?
bystander
Apparently a job requirement at MSNBC is for females to have a big hair swoop, preferably over the left eye. Kind of like the requirement that all female weathercasters wear skintight bandeau dresses.
MJS
If the Nationals need someone to throw out the first pitch, there’s someone with experience who happens to currently live in D.C. He’d be a wildly popular choice, and as a bonus, having him do it would drive Trump absolutely nuts.
rikyrah
@Kay:
How is telling them the truth a political rant?
Tokyokie
@SFAW: Well, had anybody other than the two guys with whom I went to the game had noticed……
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
It is. Tax cuts for the rich are much more productive.
Kay
@debbie:
Oh, God, disagree. They believe their government lies to them all the time, but about the most ridiculous things that no one would lie about it because they are either outlandish or don’t matter.
Rather than look at whether Hillary Clinton was lying to them about Wall Street influence or “free college” or anything that might actually have BEEN something she would lie about they investigated whether she was covering up a pedophile ring. You know that saying “follow the money”? They believe “DON’T follow the money, but follow something else”. They are MUCH more likely to think there’s a secret plan to take their guns or read their emails than there is a secret plan to take their Social Security. This is tragic. It’s so incredibly misguided! They’re so wrong on motive!
evodevo
@Kay: Yes. This. Some of my co-workers fall into the category of “I vote for the man, not the party” nonsense – they hold redneck conservative views – but cannot possibly have participated in the elections they say because they moved into and out of several precincts in rapid succession (there’s NO WAY they are registered to vote in this state). They are evidently ashamed to admit they don’t actually vote, but lie and say they do. Just as well, since they would have voted for Cheeto. And yes, they have NO IDEA what taxes they actually pay or where they go to, just LOWER MY TAXES THEY’RE TOO HIGH TRUMP WILL LOWER TAXES etc. etc. They know NOTHING about actual tax policy issues at the state, local or national level. The Fox Noise mantra is all they hear and no one attempts to explain it to them. it’s Holy Writ as far as they are concerned.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I feel like it’s an imposition because they’re there for something else- something very personal, really. I know this is patronizing but they are adorable in the fake interviews. They so want to do well. They’re told to dress up and so many of them don’t how to do even that but they often OVER DRESS more than the other. They wear the “dressy” clothes they have which are for weddings or whatever. The kids who volunteer for this are so earnest it breaks your heart because it’s self-selecting, right? These are people who want to get better at this.
gene108
@Baud:
Lordy, the motherfucker has a day job already. If he wants in on the Trump Admin that bad, quit being governor.
I’m tired of paying the salary of an absentee governor.
evodevo
AND half of the people I work with owe their, or their children’s, lives to MEDICAID ….
Kenneth Kohl
@Fester Addams:
Possibly, but that would involve bending over. I tend to believe he’d use the ‘foot mashie’.
Betty Cracker
@Humboldtblue: Poor eagle. What kind of scumbag would want to kill and mutilate such a noble creature? There’s an eagle’s nest cam streaming channel here that I waste a lot of time watching. This year’s eaglet has fledged already, so the nest is empty a lot these days, but eaglet and parents return occasionally. But it’s a wonderful time-suck between Dec-March.
laura
I can’t unsee that photo. So tiny gloves can’t make it to home plate. Won’t go to the Correspondents Dinner (and really, all the cool cats and kittens are going to Sam Bee’s), probably gonna have Jared doing the egg roll on the White House lawn. Besides insulting our allies and hiring retrograde racists and bag men, what the he’ll does he do?
Jim
I’m thinking BO should offer up his pitching arm. Or maybe Hillary.
Kay
@rikyrah:
They sometimes GET summer jobs at this thing because someone who shows up for a interview workshop is likely to be a pretty good employee as compared to someone who doesn’t so it’s a safe bet if you hire teenagers at all to take those teenagers. Then they’re like “it worked already!” :)
It’s fun. I get a big kick out of the natural promoters- it’s like they’re born knowing how to exaggerate their accomplishments.
efgoldman
@germy:
I’m only disappointed that the felon O’Keeffe wasn’t indicted too.
germy
@efgoldman: I didn’t see him mentioned in the article. It’s like he doesn’t exist.
Elizabelle
@evodevo:
This is why I think we need to get rid of Fox, or make it actually play fair. It’s a plague, and we cannot outprogram it. Fox is making this country angry, cynical, and ungovernable.
Jeffro
@germy: Made my morning!
Consequences, how do they work?
OzarkHillbilly
100-year-old San Francisco woman dies one month after losing eviction battle
No comment
efgoldman
@Kenneth Kohl:
Probably carries one of these in his golf bag.
MomSense
@Baud:
But it’s so much easier for his tiny fingers to type on a phone than for the rest of us.
Jeffro
Just a quick link to a decent summary of where we’re at by Josh Marshall at TPM: The Gravity Is Strong, Part #2
efgoldman
@Jim:
Why would Hillary allow BO to offer her up?
ThresherK
@Kay: That’s not whining. Carry on with documenting our poor misunderstood unpopular media’s fascination with the poor, misunderstood, shrinking minority Trump voters.
I like stories where Titanic goes in search of a second iceberg.
efgoldman
@Elizabelle:
All true, but Faux Noise is a cable-only network. Per statute and court decisions, there is no way to control non-p0rn content. It would require major changes in legislation that won’t happen, and most likely would be croaked in court anyway.
Their audience is immutable but they are dying off. They are losing old audience faster than they gain younger watchers.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Mini Trumps in the making? Say it ain’t so… (just kidding, I get a kick out of those kids too)
germy
@efgoldman: What would a day of faux noise broadcasting look like fifteen or twenty years from now? Surely they’ll still be as odious?
Isn’t there a new younger generation of shannitys and o’reillys ready to step up?
(for example that smarmy asshole who does interviews in the street to entrap libtards, and was recently given his own show)
Humboldtblue
@Betty Cracker:
The poaching and mutilation I see reported in Oregon is staggering at times. The OSP Fish and Wildlife Division is very good but also very busy. This area of Southern Oregon is considered the Mississippi of the state. White, very poor and as near to sundown towns as you get in the west.
Betty
@Kay: That’s a good summary of the appalling ignorance of the average American voter. And I agree that the media has a responsibility to do a better job of educating the masses on these issues. Alas, it doesn’t see to be in the interest of those in charge.
OzarkHillbilly
@efgoldman: Yeah, look what happened to her the last time he offered her up.
efgoldman
@germy:
They won’t ever have trouble staffing. There are a lot more job seekers in that business than there are jobs, especially TV on-air jobs.
But they don’t, and probably won’t, attract younger viewers, which is what counts. For one thing, the majority of cord cutters – regardless of politics – are young. Cable is a declining business. TV news in general is a dying business/ Rupert is a dying business. The long term trend for them is down – a gentle slope, but still down. It won’t happen until after I’m gone, but nothing lasts forever. They’re reduced to pure rant for part of the day even now.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Every low income teenager of either sex should be issued a pair of khakis that fit, a belt, a short sleeved shirt with a collar and leather shoes for all interactions with middle-upper/ middle class adults. This is comforting to adults! It’s non-threatening! It’s controversial to tell them this, blah, blah, “individuality” but it’s the truth and it will make their lives easier. They can do whatever they want with their hair because this uniform is universally recognized and puts them in the “safe” category. People are shallow and (mostly) conventional. Why not just admit it?
Patricia Kayden
@David Canadian Anchor Baby Koch:
I believe President Obama was booed at a NASCAR event on one occasion too. Comes with the territory. Too bad Trump is too weak to take the boos along with the applause that comes with being the leader of the free world. Sad.
germy
@efgoldman: I wonder if Rupert’s offspring are (as we speak) exploring new media opportunities to make up for declining TV news and cable. They’ve got to keep that money rolling in somehow.
Young conservatives are going to consume something.
Baud
@Kay:
Then Hillary might have won.
Patricia Kayden
@laura:
I hear he plays a mean golf game at Mar-A-Lago. Playing while White insulates him from charges of being lazy like what President Black Kenyan Obama had to endure.
Eric S.
@Humboldtblue: and I was having a good morning. Now I’m pissed off.
Oldgold
He would love to throw out the first pitch, but he is under audit.
Baud
@Oldgold: Heh.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
His hands are too small to operate those things. Of course, he might have his caddy or ball
washerboy, Spicey, operate it for him.Enhanced Voting Techniques
@SFAW:
Getting their funding from the GOP, other serious liberal stuff.
SenyorDave
@MJS: I love the idea! Having Obama throw out the first pitch would make Trump apoplectic at a level 11 on a 1 to 10 scale.
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
I think it was fully justified for the economically anxious class to be upset with President Obama for putting on airs, being uppity, and doin’ stuff that it’s not his place to do.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I agree, they say one shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but they (and we) do it all the time, it’s how humans navigate society. To look professional is to be professional.
This also reminds me of a couple studies I have read of. One where a white convicted felon was more likely to be called in for an interview than a black with a totally clean record. The 2nd was of the increased chances of a black person to get called in for an interview after “whitening” their resumes, doing things like changing their names from say Ayeshia to Alice, or leaving off an achievement based scholarship because it came from an obviously black organization (think NAACP). A pair of khaki pants won’t overcome that prejudice.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy:
Here’s hoping it’s each other.
Fester Addams
@Kenneth Kohl:
Ah, so that’s why the groundskeepers call him Pelé.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
No, it won’t. I watched one of those “investigatory reporting” show they used to have in the 1990’s once. They had a black reporter and a white reporter do a series of ordinary transactions in St Louis- buy a car, rent an apartment, shop for shoes. It was amazing to see the difference. It stuck with me because to see them side by side just hits you right between the eyes. All those shows were replaced by stupid fucking reality tv which ruined America’s progress and set us back decades. Someone told me reality tv came about because tv execs didn’t want to pay guild wages for professionals. It’s ALWAYS greed. ALWAYS.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s the other white meat.
Kay
Portman (Ohio)- or some PAC- put a paid ad in the local paper on how the GOP are cutting burdensome regulations. I just thought it was interesting because he was just re-elected and won by a lot and he’s smart- he’s a very savvy politician. Lies constantly, but in a much less oafish and obvious way than the low quality Trump hires.
He felt he had to promote the GOP right now in an overwhelmingly R area? Hmmm.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Exhibit 1: Trumps overturning of Obama’s climate initiatives, with the phrase of “A return to prosperity for America” (or somesuch) the day after Don Murray of Murray Energy said, “I’m all for the end of these regs but Donald should cool it on all the talk of bringing back coal jobs. It’s not happening.” (or somesuch).
The prosperity Trump is speaking of is solely for the fossil fuel execs.
hedgehog mobile
Who goes to a ball game in a fucking suit???? Apologies if someone already mentioned it.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: Heh.
PIGL
@Kay: I don’t think it’s complicated or difficult to understand… the owners of the media firms wanted Trump to win. They got what they wanted. It’s now in their interest to pretend to be news organizations again, for a while. Until next time.
Kay
@hedgehog mobile:
Trump wears a suit because he needs the jacket to hide the fact that he’s overweight. If Donald Trump took his suit jacket off and had natural hair and skin he would look like an ordinary old man who isn’t very “healthy” and worked at a desk his whole life- that’s what he is, after all.
This is sort of shallow but one of the things that gets on my nerves about conservative “alpha” males is how soft and pampered they all look. It bothers me because they don’t seem to be aware of it. Bannon is all puffy and coddled-looking too. Newt Gingrich looks like he should have a powdered wig and bows on his shoes. I could see him stepping out of a carriage. It doesn’t “fit” how they (apparently) see themselves, as rugged revolutionaries.
Kay
@PIGL:
USA Today had a piece yesterday on Trump’s Russian business connections. Public documents. Come on. This shit was available. Donald Trump has been doing business in the United States for 40 years. There are millions of pages of documents on this guy and a huge part of them are public.
They didn’t do their jobs. If they didn’t do their jobs because they were sure Clinton would win that’s not a good enough excuse. 16 fucking months the NYTimes spent on emails. The Paper of Record. Trump operated in their backyard. It’s inexcusable.
artem1s
OK Bamz, it’s time for you to get back in the game. The Nats need someone to throw out that first pitch. And we, the people, desperately need something to cheer for. If that chaps Twittlers ass and throws him into another incriminating twit fest, all the better.
artem1s
@Humboldtblue: Hmmm, maybe Rosie O should throw out that first pitch.
Tripod
@artem1s:
He’s a White Sox fan.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Kay: Fair enough–I’d forgotten about that.
Debbie1
@weaselone: If there were a Top 10 List of why Donald duck (get it?) is avoiding this traditional task, your answer about his tiny hands woul be on it.
Debbie1
Maybe Donald wants to avoid a Chris Christie on the mound moment. Ugh, that image still burns my retna.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@NotMax:
Hmmm… I don’t know. Maybe Major League Baseball could specify something about worker’s rights in the contract with the company that makes their baseballs? I imagine the owners and players could throw a little weight maybe.
PaulW
BARTOW LIBRARY 120th BIRTHDAY.
WE HAVE CAKE.
https://twitter.com/bartowpubliclib/status/847106952605810688
Feebog
@Humboldtblue:
I think Brookings is a bit of an exception to your description of Southern Coastal Oregon. I have studied the town pretty closely as I was thinking of relocating to that area. Weather and the lack of good medical care in town were the game changers for me. But yeah, some of the towns north look like they are ready to be ghost towns.
Brachiator
@Hal:
Won’t work.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
I stopped at that point. I am interested in actual reporting about the Russian connection, not in punditry twice removed. This kind of political noodling drives me crazy.
pluky
@Kay: You’ve just described the City Year uniform here in Boston exactly! Makes me wonder how much of your motivation went into its selection.
Boatboy_srq
@Kay: The whole “death tax” thing really bugs me. The biggest hit comes, not from estate tax, but from state property taxes when the property changes hands and gets revalued. if “death tax” fiends were at all serious, they’d push state houses to change how inherited property is valued; instead, they whinge about the federal obligation they’re almost certainly immune from.
Humboldtblue
@Feebog:
Brookings is filled with teabaggers. They elected a teabagger as Supervisor and they openly support a dickbag right winger for Congress. They have repeatedly voted down modest property tax increases to keep the county jail open and the Sheriff’s office up and running. The county is facing at minimum a $5 million dollar deficit, the port is falling apart and they are constantly chasing infrastructure issues with water and sewer because they refuse to pay for upgrades and maintenance.
You made a smart decision.
Feebog
@Humboldtblue:
Seems a shame that such a beautiful area is in the hands of nutbags, but there you are.
Uncle Cosmo
@OzarkHillbilly: Farcist Trump. Better: Fascist Trump: Never shows up anywhere unless he can make a megabuck off it. With maybe KAC shouting in the background, “Goosestep, Fascist, goosestep!”
EthylEster
It’s wasting time and pixels on bullshit like this that makes me think that Trump might actually reach his goal of making America stupid (again). Focus, people, on the substance.
Shana
@germy: To quote Skyfall, one of my favorite movies, “Last rat standing.”
Who goes to a ball game in a suit? Someone coming to a night game straight from work.
PIGL
@Kay: “it’s inexcusable”. Yes, it is. When Villago calls for their summary elimination, he is not being unreasonable.