Little girl in a new Pro-Trump ad: "Thank you, President Trump, for letting us say 'Merry Christmas,' again."
This is nuts! pic.twitter.com/VvN5qQqSyQ
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) December 21, 2017
It’s a legal fund disguised as a campaign fund.
— Inglorious Jayelle, Evidence-Based Former Fetus (@GreenEyedLilo) December 21, 2017
Are there American antecedents for the sort of cult of personality Trump is building for himself? https://t.co/X3jXNWSK4b
— Jacob Remes (@jacremes) December 22, 2017
Jim Jones https://t.co/Cpc1NWFQQE
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) December 22, 2017
I was *just* listening to a podcast that features Jones sermons, both in Indiana & Guyana. The energy & devotion he was able to generate by violating norms, making his audience complicit in the transgressions, was so spooky and on-the-nose.
— Medieval peasant logician (@jokelley) December 22, 2017
Well, it’s a gift, of sorts. Although I don’t think it’s one Trump actually shares — he certainly riles people up at those rallies, but it’s a self-selected bunch of angry racists eager to feed on each others’ negative energy. As in all aspects of his career, he’s a user, not a generator.
On the positive side, Trump’s too much of a physical coward to kill himself. So, in the ever-Trumpian “second time as farce” mode, worse we’re liable to witness is an all-networks media meltdown where he demands — fruitlessly — that his ‘loyal fellow patriots’ use their Second Amendment ‘rights’ to TAKE AMURKKA BACK from the libtards and luzers.
After which, his most trusted Secret Service agents tenderly lead him off-stage, for delivery to a “secure location” with lots of gilded accessories… and doors that lock on the outside.
Mnemosyne
I know people keep saying the Secret Service would never allow Trump to be arrested because their mission is to protect him, but I can’t imagine they wouldn’t agree to some form of house arrest with themselves as the guards/bodyguards if Mueller had the right indictments.
The Dangerman
I wish I was as confidant about “fruitlessly”; there are many Timorthy McVeigh’s out there. All being told that the FBI is out to get
David KoreshTrump.Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@The Dangerman: I try to comfort myself that while there are many of them, they’re all too stupid to figure out how to release the trigger locks on their guns.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Used to illegal to buy a Christmas tree.
We used to have to huddle in the attic and whisper Christmas carols to make sure none of the liberals reported us to Reich Marshall Biden.
People just don’t what it was like before we started winning again under Chancellor Drumpf
mike in dc
@Mnemosyne: Removal via impeachment would likely remove Trump’s secret service protection. And secret service protection for his entire family. No presidential pension either.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Kim Jong-il
Duane
Another example of how evil the conservatives have become. They happily use merry Christmas to pit us against one another. Its evil to use religion to further your political agenda. They’ve done it for years, but that is pathetic
Mnemosyne
@Duane:
Not just religion, but the one holiday of their purported religion that’s supposed to be about “peace on earth, goodwill towards all.” They’ve turned that exact holiday into a divisive weapon against everyone else.
Ruckus
@Duane:
Why? Religions have been using people to further their political agenda for centuries. Why does it only work one way?
RandomMonster
Jim Jones wouldn’t have had 36% of the electorate behind him. A closer analogy for your cult of personality would be the NSDAP winning 33% of the vote in 1932.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: It may be their job to protect the physical person of the President, but they’re also sworn law enforcement. I’m sure they’d escort him for his booking.
James E. Powell
They can do shit like that TV ad – and have a lot of people believe that there was some liberal Democrat imposed ban on saying Merry Christmas – because when they started spreading that lie we liberals & Democrats laughed or ignored it or tried to mollify their deranged asses. We should have shouted LIAR! we should have made them back down and admit the lie, but no. We Democrats are always being civil, trying to reach out, understand, and other completely useless efforts to gain the approval of people that want to see us wiped off the face of the earth.
I can not throw up enough.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@James E. Powell: I used to say Merry Christmas quite alot, I make an effort to say Happy Holidays now.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Remember how Drumpf changed the GOP platform to ban lethal aid to Ukraine. NOW, after Flynn turns states evidence, Drumpf flip flops and decides to let a marginal amount of arms to be sold.
Obviously, this is to set up a defense when Mueller reveals Drumpf’s treasonous acts.
The Dangerman
@RandomMonster:
Disagree. Stick an “R” after a name, you can even run a pedophile for office.
mike in dc
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: As has been pointed out elsewhere, this is meaningless unless we sell them Javelin ATGM systems(or similar). The only way for them to break the stalemate is to have anti-armor, anti-air and improved artillery capabilities.
Duane
@Mnemosyne: They’ll use. ” Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown”next. Linus says the democrats won’t let him say the meaning of Christmas.
Angrifon
On the Jim Jones thing, I guess we can only hope it ends the same way.
Duane
@Mnemosyne: They’ll use “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” next. Linus says the democrats won’t let him say the meaning of Christmas.@Ruckus:
Millard Filmore
@mike in dc: So Putin did Trump a favor and approved the sale.
Aleta
Couple days ago, going across the parking lot from a box store to my car, a woman walking toward me was looking each person in the eye with a fixed smile aggressively saying Merry Christmas. After she passed I realized from the triumphant vibe that she’d been claiming Christmas for her side. I mean WTF.
patrick II
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Trump got Putin’s ok for which weapons he could send to the Ukraine on the phone last week.
Duane
@Ruckus: Using religion to further a political agenda is evil in any form, agreed. When I printed that the question was poorly stated.
lgerard
This is interesting
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)
I think of The U.S.S.R. under Stalin when I think of this kind of thing.
ThresherK
What’s the over / under on how many times NPR + PBS play this while “examining” it?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
It’s nice seeing young, blonde, female, Aryan Drumpf youth get some air time.
cmorenc
Why does Balloon Juice have ads for Gavin McGiness’s Get off my Lawn CRTV program in the header rotation? McGinness is a far right-wing asshole Trump apologist, using his platform to spew utter garbage in faux alpha-male mode.
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
There is, so I have read, no text in the Constitution that actually says POTUS can’t be indicted. Is there anything in it that says POTUS can’t be arrested?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
NotMax
Der blast from der past, a la Disney.
ZyklonBeaArthur
@James E. Powell:
I’ve been thinking about this issue a lot lately; did the Daily Show screw us by making Fox’s mendacity funny instead of evil?
I couldn’t agree with you more about Dems needing to push back with fury, incidentally, but i also think the MSM is hugely to blame as well. They let the little lies slide because they didn’t want to look like they were picking on the Republicans and the lies began to metastasize.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: As I said above, while the Secret Service is tasked to protect the President, they’ve sworn to uphold the law. I’d think that would include any valid arrest warrant.
mai naem mobile
That little girl looks too young for Roy Moore and Dolt45. The ad agency obviously didn’t do their job.
Keith G
How will Trump be relegated to the trash heap of history?
Policy. Policy. Policy. And the repudiation of Trump’s bizarre policy fever dreams during the next two national elections.
And that is the best way to have it done: Rejection of the man, his plans, his family, and his supplicants by American voters.
Aleta
-The Hill
Aleta
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
-The Hill
NobodySpecial
@Aleta: Like father in law….
Hildebrand
I don’t say Merry Christmas until the 24th. Why? Because its still Advent.
(Christian with an understanding of the Church Year stomps off the stage in a bit of a pedantic dither. Hmph!)
waspuppet
Remember when we were supposed to think Obama was a narcissistic cult-of-personality dictator because some kids in a school sang a song with a bunch of presidents’ names in it, including his because he was the current one? Remember how Fox spent days explaining how this was part of an insidious indoctrination plot? In fact, remember how parents demanded the option not to let their precious children listen to a taped message from that ni-CLANG! telling them to work hard in school?
Because I sure as fk do, and no I am NEVER forgetting that.
WereBear
@waspuppet: Nor I.
satby
My resistance to the tyranny of Merry Christmas aggressors is to walk up to them while they’re expounding (always loudly, always to a salesperson or vendor who isn’t in a position to disagree) and saying “oh, I hope you don’t mind saying Happy Hanukkah to me” . They always backpedal a bit and then end the conversation. If they don’t, I continue by pointing out no one ever gave a crap about what holiday wish they offered and they knew it.
I’m not Jewish, though my cousins in one side are. I’m just done being quiet when bigots think they can proclaim their bigotry in public without pushback.
Aimai
@James E. Powell: its not our fault. Stop with the stupid victim blaming.
MomSense
I fucking hate how stupid half the country has become. Jumping bean Jesus we can say whatever the hell we want to say. We don’t have to ask permission.
Denali
I volunteer at a Fair Trade store. I say thank you and come back and see us. The whole discussion has become radioactive. Yesterday, a woman came in and told us her story about her time as a volunteer with the Samaratin’s Purse organization – sounded like they do wonderful things for children – then she mentioned Franklin Graham. I guess my eyes glazed over; we just agreed that we all do great things and left it at that.
satby
@Denali: it is somewhat radioactive and I figure I lose some business over it. But that hurts no one but me, and I think the importance of fighting against this bigotry has become much more important than a few lost sales.
And it is bigotry, hiding very poorly behind so-called “religious freedom”. We need to call out its real name.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t think that the Constitution allows for arrest and house arrest.
You would have to see if the 25th Amendment provided for relief. In this case, Trump would be temporarily removed from office and Pence would become acting president.
Otherwise, charges that otherwise would lead to an arrest would have to cause Congress to seriously consider Impeachment, which they could decline to do, creating a Constitutional stalemate.
Bottom line. I don’t think that Mueller could ever order the arrest of the president.
LongHairedWeirdo
That violating norms might make one seem more powerful of a speaker is probably a well known trick. It’s how Gingrich was known as a “powerful communicator” back in the 90s. He would call anything Democratic anti-faith, anti-family, and anti-business. He would call King Herod’s slaughter of newborns as “the protection of traditional faith, and strong national security action!” had Herod been a Republican, and not able to harm the rest of the party.
Problem is, there’s not as many norms left to violate! And some day, voila! TRUMP!