Trump tells 40,000 Boy Scouts: "We could really use some more loyalty, I will tell you that." pic.twitter.com/7gQ04lsdU5
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 24, 2017
So this all seems horrible. https://t.co/39e44vOqnA
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 25, 2017
Well at least it was over before it got so dark they'd have to light the torches pic.twitter.com/qRdsh1TKVH
— On Trial for ?????? (@ZeddRebel) July 24, 2017
This is nauseating. I'm an Eagle Scout and a former scoutmaster. The BSA was never partisan. https://t.co/T6W2jGx8eE
— Dan Kennedy (@dankennedy_nu) July 24, 2017
what he wants is fucking hitler youth https://t.co/F3vuv6vIhg
— I'm So Over This (@Johngcole) July 24, 2017
When I was a teenager, my slightly younger brothers were Boy Scouts. Worst thing I knew of the BSA was that, lacking adequate supervision, even reasonably intelligent and not-otherwise-sociopathic boys between the ages of 11 and {number to be determined} tend to rile each other up to do stupid & dangerous things. And the dumber the individual, the more dangerous “ideas” he’d come up with. Seems like the GOP has turned into a boys’ club with the same issues…
GOP lawmaker blames "female senators" on health care bill, says if they were men he'd challenge them to a duel. https://t.co/bLy5jlDHCt
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 24, 2017
Meet Blake @Farenthold, the @HouseGOP guy who blames "some female senators" for Trumpcare's failure & says he'd fight them if they were men. pic.twitter.com/1lXXhD3gJF
— Ron Hogan (@RonHogan) July 24, 2017
A GOP House Rep musing about wanting to murder women GOP senators is, like, the 6th biggest story today.
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 24, 2017
Villago Delenda Est
The GOP is the party of disgusting fascist pigs.
TriassicSands
@Villago Delenda Est:
Always with the understatement. They aren’t nearly that good.
mai naem mobile
Former CIA director John McLaughlin tweeted that the speech sounded like a third world dictator’s political rally.
Major Major Major Major
That picture of the guy with the woman and the pajamas… is… disgusting.
Sister Golden Bear
As a former Eagle Scout, I’m trying to stop myself from hurling.
(Thankfully, when I was a kid, my troop was just about going out and backpacking, rather than the quasi-militaristic organizations that so many troops seem to be today.)
Mnemosyne
This seems like a good thread to repeat my story of one of our cats pooping on my couch tonight.
I think it was meant as a territorial message to the other cat who’s been an asshole lately, but I’m the one who had to clean it up. ?
Anne Laurie
@Major Major Major Major: No kidding, that’s why I tucked it below the fold.
In a future history — assuming there are any future historians — Blake’s will be the visage to illustrate “Preston Brooks — second time as farce” when they describe the Second American Civil War. (And one can only hope that era is not known as ‘The Great Unwinding’.)
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne: Just out of curiosity, does the word “oversharing” come up in your daily life much?
Mnemosyne
@Anne Laurie:
Daily.
ETA: The poop that Keaton left on my couch was more attractive than that asshole in the pajamas.
Major Major Major Major
@Anne Laurie: @Mnemosyne: I’d rather hear about cat poop than, say, mucus.
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
Honus
And the people of his Texas district overwhelmingly vote for this stupid goon.
Joyce Harmon
If you want to feel better about things, go over to Facebook and find the home page of the Boy Scouts of America and read the comments there. Plenty of people in scouting are horrified and livid about that display at the Jamboree. There are a couple posts that have close to 200,000 comments, and people have complained that the BS are deleting comments – but they can’t keep up. At one point, they were getting 100K comments PER HOUR. Lot of people checking in demanding the Boy Scouts apologize for that atrocity and going on record that THIS IS NOT NORMAL, and is completely unacceptable.
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: Keaton is a great name for a cat.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Say it’s snot so…
;)
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne: Let it be a task on your road as an aspiring author to learn how to TAKE A HINT, already.
Anne Laurie
@Joyce Harmon:
This is very good to hear!
TenguPhule
I did not know that Fat Bastard from Austin Powers was actually a Republican lawmaker.
NotMax
@Joyce Harmon
Will say again that that ought to be the lede of each and every story in which Dolt 45 is mentioned.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
You thought….WRONGLY.
TenguPhule
@mai naem mobile:
What does he mean like?
TenguPhule
@Villago Delenda Est:
Wrong, we could get some decent bacon and hams from pigs.
The long pork from these GOP fuckers is inedible.
Aleta
My brother got a lot of weird ideas about patriotism from being in the Scouts. (He told me I could be arrested if I didn’t stand when the SSBanner played at the end of the broadcast day. He also sang taps at almost every sunset.) On the other hand, my partner got his buttons cut off in a formal expulsion ceremony.
fuckwit
Every day this keeps getting more fucked up.
John Revolta
Oh fatherland, fatherland, show us the sign
Your children have waited to see
The morning will come when the world is mine
At the Boy Scout Jamboree!!!
Major Major Major Major
@fuckwit: it’s almost impressive.
hellslittlestangel
Pretty sure that by “duel,” Farenthold meant a pie-eating contest.
Brachiator
Sigh. This lawmaker, who talks about challenging women lawmakers to a duel, looks like a dork who spent most of his school years tagged with the nickname “Farthold.”
I wonder how long it will take for him to walk back his dumbass remarks.
I don’t know the context of the pajamas photo and can’t work up to much outrage over it. It looks like the typical cautionary tale about why people should not post stuff on social media.
It would be a hoot, though, if he were partying with lobbyists here.
Mel
@Major Major Major Major: @Anne Laurie:
Wow. Pajama boy is the stuff of nightmares. There is not enough brain bleach in the world to purge that image!
And guess who is among the top 4 donors that pour money into his campaign coffers? Koch bros, of course…
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Reminded of a comedy monologue which includes California, pet poop and an inspirational denouement.
TenguPhule
@fuckwit:
As always, a masterful understatement.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne:
That’s a rather low bar.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major:
Having a nurse in the family now…we hear stories.
Tony J
Sure you would, you tubby shitweasel. Suuuuure you would. The second one of them issues a statement taking you up on your offer you’ll be all “Why can’t these hysterical bitches take a joke?”
The reign of the alt-President is certainly bringing out the very best in alt-America.
JGabriel
Kyle Griffin via Anne Laurie @ Top:
… says the man who is loyal to no one but himself.
Keith P.
@JGabriel: “The fuck?”, says Jeff Sessions.
Tokyokie
@Honus: He’s represents a majority Hispanic district. A decent Democrat with adequate campaign funds should be able to take him down.
patrick II
A reason Trump gives inappropriate speeches is because he just doesn’t know anything else, so lack of loyalty, Hillary, election victory, who he holds grudges against at the moment is pretty much all that he knows and all he thinks about.
The garbled, unfinished sentences that he gave during the Times interview shows what happens when he tries to talk about anything else.
Anne Laurie
@Brachiator:
Your full-service blog in action: Pajama’d boy, circa 2014.
(I had to search for the exact post, but its existence is seared into my memory.)
Charley
Ok, this is a serious question: I am not from the US, but I don’t understand why anyone would not want to have healthcare coverage for as many people as possible?
eemom
If the Boy Scouts are such a great org, why the fuck did they invite him? Did it come as a big surprise that he would go all Hitler youth on these kids?
Gin & Tonic
@eemom: They invited him because he is the President. Three of the most recent four Presidents have accepted their invitation and spoken at a Jamboree. Two out of those three understood the nature of the occasion and gave appropriate remarks.
Fuck this insomnia.
Kansi
As recently as yesterday morning I thought Trump could not disgust and alarm me to a greater extent. I was wrong. That speech is both disgusting and bone chilling.
NotMax
@Charley
Because they’re sociopathic.
Because they harbor an ingrained worldview that anything which accrues benefit to someone else must ipso facto be lessening benefit for them, that basic human dignity and propriety is finite.
Because they’re sociopathic.
Because the insurance cartel expends vast resources to lobby for the companies’ advantage as opposed to that of the beneficiaries.
Oh, did I mention they’re sociopathic?
NotMax
@NotMax
Publishus prematuris.
Ought to read:
that basic human dignity and propriety are commodities and are finite.
evodevo
@Villago Delenda Est: An insult to all the pigs I’ve ever raised …
Brachiator
@Anne Laurie:
.A shit stain with a guaranteed future. Somehow, I am not surprised. And other parts of his background fit what I expected.
The sad thing is that this little puke probably feels emboldened and vindicated by Trump’s election. His anti-woman sentiments go deep.
Ugh
Viva BrisVegas
I’m sure those women say the same thing. They would also fight him if he were a man.
gkoutnik
@Sister Golden Bear: First time I’ve heard Eagle Scout in the past tense. Once an Eagle, always an Eagle. And BTW, this 67-year–old Eagle Scout is horrified that someone allowed that person* anywhere near those kids.
NorthLeft12
I am a little surprised that there is not more outrage over Deadbeat Donald’s stupid, ignorant, and inappropriate remarks to the Boy Scouts.
But then, I have to believe that people are running out of rage over his ongoing criminality and foolishness. I assume that is part of his “plan”.
JoeyJoeJoe Junior Shabadoo
@Tony J:
Back in the 70s, his mom Cissy was a liberal in the Texas legislature. She ran for Governor at least once. She would Oppose the Senate bill too.
Tony J
Presuming any of the female Senators he’s threatening are aware of that, the response writes itself.
H.E.Wolf
@JoeyJoeJoe Junior Shabadoo:
Texas genealogy alert…
The horrible Randolph Blake Farenthold is the son of George Randolph “Randy” Farenthold. Randy was the child of George Farenthold’s first marriage. George F. ‘s 2nd marriage was to Frances “Sissy” Farenthold. Blake is thus her step-grandson.
“Sissy” Farenthold, now 90, is a badass Texas liberal in the tradition of Anne Richards, Barbara Jordan, and Molly Ivins.
SiubhanDuinne
@JoeyJoeJoe Junior Shabadoo:
It’s not that close a relationship. Sissy Farenthold is Blake’s step-grandmother. But you’re right, she was and is a liberal, ran twice for Governor, and holds political positions which are mostly 180° removed from his. Thanksgiving dinners chez Farenthold must be … interesting.
delosgatos
Farenthold is a caricature of every caricature of the fat cat bad guy in gilded age political cartoons.
FlipYrWhig
@Charley: Because some of the people who’d get it would be lazy, effeminate, and/or dark-complected, i.e. undeserving in Republican eyes. That’s always a reliable reason why American politics is being stupid at any given time.
frosty
@gkoutnik: This Eagle Scout is also disgusted. I don’t fault the BSA for inviting him, the President is an officer in the BSA. I fault Trump for not understanding the occasion, the audience, and for being completely inappropriate. I hpoe they’ve learned. They had better not invite him again.
glory b
@frosty: I feel as though the BSA owes the rest of us an explanation and some sort of apology. My African American father was an Eagle scout back in the pre-Civil Rights Era south, and he loved scouting and its outreach to rural black kids back then. It makes me want to cry to see this, I’m glad he can’t see this.
Mike in NC
When Berlin was about to fall in 1945, the Hitler Youth were among the most fanatical defenders of the fascist regime. Maybe Bannon mentioned that to Trump.
H.E.Wolf
@SiubhanDuinne:
I salute your much-more-concise explanation of House Farenthold. :)
P.S.: Thanks to Sissy, I can always remember how to spell WaPo reporter David Fahrenthold’s surname, because it’s just one more “h” than hers.
Mnemosyne
@Anne Laurie:
I was hoping for some cat behavioral advice to help prevent it from happening again, but I guess my hint was too subtle.
jetkestrel
@Charley: For some people, the “they’re just sociopaths who don’t care about the deaths of people they don’t personally know” argument is actually true, but for most of the non-monstrous Republicans I know it’s some combination of:
1) They believe that the American system is the best system that could possibly exist, so any changes to health care will make things worse. These are the people who will tell you earnestly about the friend of a friend’s relative in Canada who waited for MONTHS and MONTHS with CANCER before finally being forced to travel to the US to access life-saving treatment.
2) They believe that the government providing health care for everyone is simply unaffordable. Health care, to them, is a wildly expensive luxury good, and while it would be nice if the government could just buy it for them in the same way that it would be nice if the government could buy them a house or a new car, it’s ridiculous. They worry about health care prices themselves, they may have dealt with huge medical bills, and they think of that scrimping, saving and worry as the normal state of things. These people often deeply resent Medicaid recipients as lazy moochers getting something “for free” that costs them a huge amount of money and anxiety.
3) They think that exorbitant and opaque health care pricing is a result of insurance companies and government regulations getting in the way of the natural relationship where a patient gives a doctor money and receives care. If the government would just get out of our healthcare, this line of thought goes, then doctors would have to charge reasonable amounts, people would take care of themselves so they wouldn’t have to spend too much money, the health care system would be fixed and things wouldn’t be expensive or confusing anymore. (This often coexists with the view of healthcare as a luxury good, as it assumes that you shouldn’t buy it if you can’t afford it.)
So: nationalistic ignorance, lack of charity, and market-worshipping nostalgic fantasies. Plus a surprisingly large subset of voters who know nothing about healthcare policy in general or current health care laws or bills in particular, but believe that whoever has the (R) after their name is looking out for people like them and fixing what’s broken, and anyone who says differently is a liberal liar.
frosty
@jetkestrel: Excellent writeup. Post it again in a live thread. I’ve grown weary of the “sociopath” arguments. These make a lot of sense.