“A thing called space. You know about that right? Space. We’re going to have space covered very well. We’re covering it now but we have to cover it to a much greater extent” pic.twitter.com/FYq1JQ36C7
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) November 28, 2019
Cranky grandpa, like others of his ilk, gets hauled away from his comfort zone for the big media-friendly “family” holiday. (Hey, it’s not like anyone in his biological family was gonna miss him.) Kudos to his handlers, who seem to have succeeded in readjusting his meds to the point where he can, however briefly, perform well enough to excite the Media Village Idiots. Such as Politico, back to d/b/a Mr. Pierce’s Tiger Beat on the Potomac:
… It was a journey shrouded in more secrecy than usual even for a presidential trip into a war zone. And it merged the made-for-TV drama Trump savors with a military display he loves: the U.S. commander-in-chief on Thanksgiving, less than a year from the next election, surrounded by cheering troops in Afghanistan.
For a president who at times seems to be at war with his own military leaders, it was a celebration of America’s troops that a small circle of White House aides planned carefully for weeks to prevent leaks that could scuttle the trip…
This time, 12 of the 13 journalists who traveled with Trump — representing news wires, print and broadcast outlets — were picked up on the roof of a public parking garage near Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington and not even told where they were traveling until just before they arrived in Afghanistan. Cell phones, hotspots and any other devices emitting a signal were confiscated from everyone traveling on Air Force One — yes, even the president himself…
The president moved through the sprawling base in a 15-vehicle motorcade that included tan Toyotas with soldiers standing in the truck beds holding combat rifles. Trump was followed into each location by teams of heavily armed combat troops in fatigues, helmets and night-vision goggles.
[Just like a Tom Clancy movie, if Tom Clancy’s hero was a fat old man who can barely strut from his motorcade to his golf cart.]
Journalists were barred from reporting on the trip until just before their departure from Afghanistan, after briefly getting internet access on the base to file. For three hours, they watched the president — in a blue suit with a red striped tie — serve turkey in a cafeteria, pose for photos and deliver remarks in a hangar to 1,500 military personnel.
[And if The Reality-Show Star had completely lost it — stripped down & proclaimed himself Emperor of Everywhere, started babbling about his Deep State enemies poisoning his Diet Cokes — no evidence except those untrustworthy flacks’ unsupported testimony. Prep work is vital!]
For once, Trump made no mention of the troubles he’s facing at home. He didn’t discuss House Democrats pushing to impeach him in the coming weeks for pressuring Ukraine to opening politically advantageous investigations against a potential 2020 opponent. He also didn’t mention his rift with military leaders, including a new one just days before this trip.
[Space Farce, though. Space Farce, we’re doing more and more… ]
He entered to the song that greets Trump at every rally — “God Bless the USA” — and was greeted with loud cheers and chants of, “USA! USA!” About 50 troops in fatigues stood behind him on a makeshift stage with a helicopter parked stage left.
Trump heaped praise on the troops and bragged about his accomplishments, specifically praising the work to destroy the Islamic State and al-Qaeda…
After a 13-hour journey, and a brief period on the ground, Trump also wistfully told the troops that his Thanksgiving meal had been cut short. “I sat down, I had a gorgeous piece of turkey and I was all set to go. And I had some mashed potatoes and I had a bite of mashed potatoes, and I never got to the turkey, because Gen. [Mark] Milley said come on over, sir, let’s take some pictures. I never got to my turkey. It’s the first time at Thanksgiving that I’ve never had anything called turkey.“
Soon after, Trump hopped back onto his plane for another long flight back to Mar-a-Lago…
Expect more of these resume-padding reach-arounds, where the horse-race media touts lavish praise on the dedicated worker bees gentling Trump between MAGA rallies and no-detail-left-to-chance media ops… right up to the point in the impeachment inquiry when ‘I had NO IDEA such horrors were being unleashed!’ becomes a more opportune defense than ‘How can we swap leaders NOW, when everybody LOVES the big guy so?’
The funny part is there is a long-standing left critique of the thanksgiving mythology but Trump didn’t bring that one up and state tv has to go with what dear leader says.
— Adam Serwer?? (@AdamSerwer) November 27, 2019
On this Thanksgiving morning, I’d like to remind everyone that Trump tried to compete with two Native American casinos which are now among the most profitable in the world while his went bankrupt.
Happy Thanksgiving!
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) November 28, 2019
Jay Noble
Did he throw out any rolls of paper towels?
WaterGirl
Boghan is in John’s twitter in the sidebar. If John loved us, we would have a Boghan thread. All hail Anne Laurie for looking out for us.
ThresherK
Per Politico
Yeah, I’m gonna need a couple of other sources on that.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jay Noble: Nah, they knew what they signed up for.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl:
Are you new here?
Amir Khalid
Okay, what do these alleged people want to change Thanksgiving’s name to?
NotMax
War is hell.
//
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: I’m not sure, but I’m sure it’s part of the War on Christmas.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
In case you aren’t aware of it, site went kablooey a little before midnight blog time, lasting around 15 minutes.
502 error this time.
NotMax
@NotMax
Correction: a little before 11 p.m. blog time. Keep forgetting y’all changed your clocks.
Raoul
But the Turks got to the Kurds.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Good it wasn’t just me.
Jay
@Amir Khalid:
Fighting about Dressing vs. Stuffing Day,
Thankful forvthe Weed Gummies and Not Your Family Day,
turkey’s have always called it “The Reckoning”.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@NotMax: Oh, so both of you broke the site? And on Thanksgiving!
JaySinWA
@Amir Khalid: T-day maybe? Given that the war apparently originated with reports of liberal grief over traditional Thanksgiving foods and travel https://crooksandliars.com/2019/11/fox-news-war-christmas-expands, it isn’t at all clear why Trump is worried about naming rights.
NotMax
@Jay
Tryptophanpalooza.
JaySinWA
@Jay: The Turkey’s reckoning comes before Thanksgiving. This is the rendering day.
ETA a form of communion, sharing the body that was given for you, but no blood – probably a Catholic form.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
No rest for the bleary.
:)
mrmoshpotato
Reading that Politico excerpt hurt. It hurts to see this “rich” manchild who fell on his face into the presidency treated like he an actual serious, capable President of the United States.
And, seriously, who talks like this? I’ve heard steaks called “a good-looking piece of meat” but to call a piece of meat “gorgeous” is just *shivers*
And “all set to go”? Dammit Milley! This piece of poultry and I were just about to set off on a series of whimsical and zany adventures!
Jay
JaySinWA
@mrmoshpotato: It seems more likely that he was preparing to take indecent liberties.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: Foodcomastock!
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: Only the best people! (Twenty years for a 70-year-old. I think the sex trafficker of children will be dying in prison.)
mrmoshpotato
@JaySinWA: Hence my “*shivers*”.
JaySinWA
@Jay: This (the sentencing) is news from 2018, he was convicted in 2016. Not clear why it is recycled now as having “just” happened.
Jay
Jay
Looking forward to the Ken Burn’s Documentary on the War on Thanksgiving.
Jay
Villago Delenda Est
@mrmoshpotato: This is why every worthless stenographer at Politico needs a tumbrel ride.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
Meanwhile, on the talking picture machine, the Buffaloes massacred the Cowboys.
Sab
@Jay: I am frankly shocked that Adam Serwer did not know that. I even knew that and I am a white person from Ohio.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I’ll take the heat.
It was me. I was trying to post and whatever I did, someone/something did not like it. However it did the same thing last night, very late in continental US time zones.
I think there might be something amiss.
Amir Khalid
Calling Thanksgiving “Turkey Day” is like calling April 15 “Abraham Lincoln Day”.
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
And, seriously, who talks like this?
A person whose early-stage mental decline is showing in his word choices, is my guess.
lgerard
He’s no Bob Hope
Sab
@Amir Khalid: My dad is now in a “memory unit” ( i. e. he has no short or medium term memory) in a nursing home. He used to be a liberal Republican, which meant that he registered as a Republican and voted as a Democrat. He adored Bill Clinton, and admired Hillary. He voted for Obama, twice.
Now he likes Trump. Dementia speaks to dementia.
Sab
@Amir Khalid: I don’t think his dementia is early stage.
Sab
@Sab: Also, I didn’t put him in a nursing home because I dislike his politics. I put him in a nursing home because he fell down a lot and I wasn’t big enough to pick him up, and also I was afraid he would get loose in traffic and get hit by a car. Also, he used to twist his favorite cat’s tail. Not maliciously, just ignorant. Cat didn’t care until it hurt, but then it did care. The usual downhill slide with dementia.
Amir Khalid
@Sab:
I defer to your experience on that. It’s been my assumption all along that Trump is merely a boor whose education didn’t sink in very well.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: I’m not sure how much his education needed to sink in. (Where are his college transcripts btw?) He was going to inherit at least part of Daddy money.
I can’t believe millions of people voted for this imbecile. And are happy about it.
Sab
@Amir Khalid: I agree with you that he used to be just a normal boor. But now he is a boor with increasingly severe dementia.
The problem for Americans is that the VP isn’t a good alternative. He doesn’t have dementia. He was just born stupid and has stayed that way his whole life. A brighter VP could engineer a 25th amendment coup. Watching Pence is like watching a brain damaged Labrador retriever hoping for a promotion.
mrmoshpotato
@Sab: 1. Pence is a Christo-fascist who’d love to bring about the Biblical end of the world.
2. The 25th amendment is part of the Constitution. It’s not a “coup.”. Please don’t call it that.
Sab
@mrmoshpotato: Either way he is an idiot and he cannot do it. So we still have Trump. Who is doing amazing damage to our country, both internally and internationally.
Anyone who thought the presidency has no power hasn’t been watching.
Presidents are severely hamstrung for doing positive things. I had no idea that they could be so free to damage the fundamentals of our government.
Sab
@mrmoshpotato: 25th amendment has never been applied and probably never will be, so we cannot say if, in whatever circumstances, it was a coup. That depends.
If the VP replaces a president who is braindead from a stroke in Walter Reed, then yes, it is not a coup.
If the VP replaces a president who is in severe cognitive decline but still wandering around the White House issuing dangerous orders (he has the nuke codes), and still wanting to be president, then yes it is a coup.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Sab: Remember a few things about the 25th Amendment, it takes a vote of the VP and Cabinet, then the President can say “I’m OK” and it would require a 2/3 vote by both houses of Congress to say, “No you’re not”. And the President could come back again and again. It was really intended for a President who is completely incapacitated. It was passed in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination where there had been a possibility of the President(Kennedy) being technically alive, but being a vegetable, being unable to perform the duties of President.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Sab:
Actually it’s been invoked pretty often, when ever a President goes under general anesthesia they usually invoke it. I know George W. Bush invoked it a couple of times.
Sab
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I agree with you. It will never happen with a cognizant president. But if it did, in an extremely weird political climate, it would be a coup. But it never would happen. Hence impeachment is our only alternative.
I personally would be very concerned if a sitting president’s cabinet revolted like that. And Trump has proved that would never happen. Once you get to cabinet level in government, you sell your soul unless your president is a saint.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Wasn’t it put in to effect during Reagan going in for surgery as well?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Sab: The other thing about the 25th Amendment is that if the Cabinet did vote to say that Trump was unable to perform his duties as President, Pence wouldn’t actually become President, he would be the “Acting President”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: Yup. It’s been put into effect a number of times.
Sab
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s interesting. But our entire Executive branch is “acting” now, and that hasn’t slowed anything down.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Sab: True, but I don’t see the Academy giving any of them Oscars.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
@Amir Khalid: I’m sure everyone remembers where they were on the Thanksgiving Day Massacre (photo)
lumpkin
Still blathering about the space thing. Dumb fuck doesn’t even realize that his own people are just shinin’ him on. And he’s too incompetent to actually organize any effort to make it happen. Wouldn’t even know where to start.
lumpkin
@Sab: You are wrong. A coup is an illegal overthrow of the government. The 25th amendment is a legal process for replacing the president. Two very different things.
Grung_e_Gene
The holiday is officially renamed, ThanksObama
WereBear
Love it!
Zinsky
I think every Democratic presidential candidate should henceforth refer to Trump only as “the fat, lazy criminal in the White House”. Don’t even mention the word “Trump” since that just enhances his brand. Every ad should point out how little this pile of garbage works in a typical week – spending most of his time in the White House residence, watching FoxNews and almost every weekend (from Friday morning until Sunday night) on the golf course. Americans, by and large, don’t like lazy leaders. Have Trumps many crimes (bribery, extortion, sexual assault) scrolling in text over the images. To paraphrase Dean Wurmer, “fat, lazy and criminal is no way to go through a presidential election “!
Anya
Still mystified by Trump’s popularity with the military. It’s scary if you think about it — a greater number of military folks than the general public support a crass, xenophobic, racist POTUS who’s without honor.
Eric S.
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch: I laughed but I ws expecting Les Nesman.
Marklar
Was this finally the pivot we’ve been promised?
Tune in next week for Crime-Boss Apprentice to find out!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So Trump is so desperate he’s been reduced to acting like an adult. Unbelievable.
Citizen Alan
@Sab:
I finally came around to supporting impeachment a month ago. Not because of any new evidence; Shitgibbon has deserved impeachment since the day he took office. And not because of any change in the political dynamics; I still say there’s no possibility that MoscowMitch will allow a conviction in the Senate. It’s simply that Shitgibbon’s dementia and insanity has worsened to the point to where I now finally believe he’s more likely to start a nuclear holocaust than Pence who, despite his own insanity, could still have a moment of clarity and realize he might not be Raptured before the bombs hit!” Shitgibbon wouldn’t care about dying in WW3* if he could be sure in taking his enemies with him.
*Actually WW4. WW3 was fought in the summer and fall of 2016. The bad guys won.
Citizen Alan
@Anya: I blame Dubya. His administration deliberately lowered the admission standards drastically to get warm bodies for his splendid little wars. We went from 94% of inductees having high school diplomas down to 71%. It’s unsurprising that by increasing the number of soldiers who joined the military because they were otherwise unemployable wretches, we would increase the number of Trump supporters.
Ruckus
@Anya:
They support him because he says what they think.
They support him because he’s as logical as they are.
They support him because he’s that and they believe rich so that makes him smart. He believes what they believe and he is their president.
They’ve never had, in their minds a true leader, one who hates the same people they do, who thinks that money is everything and the the masters of the bank will save them.
They are as logical as he is. Not at all. They are the sheep that will run right over the edge of the cliff following him in his golf cart.
Bill Arnold
Savoring this. (Money could be better spent, but at least it is not spent on overt evil.)
WaterGirl
@NotMax: @NotMax: Super helpful, thanks for the details.