Weird that he didn’t work out. You’d think the face coozie would have done it. pic.twitter.com/R3Bn0u9ny4
— Schooley (@Rschooley) July 16, 2020
Feel free to run it through your kidneys first, of course…
Brad Parscale just held an at times emotional staff meeting at the campaign's headquarters to hand things over to Bill Stepien, according to two sources.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 16, 2020
Brad Parscale’s job disappeared in the warm weather, like a miracle.
— Jesse Daniel Lifson (@DoYouEvenLif) July 16, 2020
Ferrari Brad’s still got a sinecure in the campaign, of course. But it’s all back-room grifting now, waiting for instructions from the GRU, passing unmarked envelopes to the Trump Crime Cartel’s WAGs…
OMG. https://t.co/xPk5Jg9WWv pic.twitter.com/lmv14KhXWx
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 16, 2020
I know! Of all their ads that was the one that I was the most dubious about working.
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 16, 2020
Maybe that's why they are doing loyalty interviews. https://t.co/H02V2SvcL2
— Jeff Miller (@jmillerwrites) July 16, 2020
In the middle of a devastating pandemic and a searing economic crisis, the White House has an urgent question for its colleagues across the administration: Are you loyal enough to President Donald Trump?…
The interviews are being arranged with officials across a wide range of departments including Health and Human Services, Defense, Treasury, Labor and Commerce and include the top tier of Trump aides: Senate-confirmed appointees. Officials are expected to detail their career goals and thoughts on current policies, said more than a dozen people across the administration with knowledge of the meetings.
White House officials have said the interviews are a necessary exercise to determine who would be willing to serve in a second term if President Donald Trump is reelected. But officials summoned for the interviews say the exercise is distracting from numerous policy priorities, like working to fight the pandemic, revitalizing the economy or overhauling regulation, and instead reflect the White House’s conviction that a “deep state” is working to undermine the president…
Trump’s new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, worked for Chris Christie.
When Christie left office, he had 14% approval.
So, Stepien is a perfect hire.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) July 16, 2020
whispers: Parscale is not the reason the president's poll numbers are in the sewer
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 16, 2020
Ken
Really? Because it was the only one that was about the one thing Trump cares about other than himself – money. Saying Parscale was wetting his beak before the big guy (or his useless family) got his cut of the grift was sure to get his attention.
Alison Rose
Okay, my opinion of the Lincoln Project has improved a lot.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ken:
Color me surprised that it worked, too. Can’t really say why, it just seemed like a long shot. I thought even he might see the obvious goading in the ad. But apparently not!
dmsilev
Keys and registration for the Death Star?
hueyplong
Drezner thought even Trump could see the play in that ad.
But we’re talking about a guy who gets played by N Korea.
There is no floor.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@dmsilev:
Imagine comparing your campaign organization to a fictional WMD owned by the villains and thinking you’re somehow a good person
piratedan
with Stepien involved, I wonder how many urban Dem strongholds are close to bridges he can shut down? so is this case where the Trump Administration is moving on from Marmalard to Nidermeyer?
dmsilev
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Not to mention, it was a fictional WMD with a fatal weak spot that the good guys used to blow it up.
Jay Noble
I’m trying to imagine what the Biden WH budget is going to have to be to replace all the missing office equipment and supplies. Will the shelters and food pantries be able to accept anything from the kitchens?
Kent
@Alison Rose: Me too. Although I was impressed with them from the beginning.
Actually I don’t know why we thought the tough ads needed to come from official campaign channels. All the most hard-hitting GOP ads of the past from Willie Horton to the Swift Boat nonsense was all from outside groups.
I’m liking a tag team approach with the nasty stuff coming from Lincoln and other outside groups, freeing up Biden to run a positive genial campaign. We just need some others besides Lincoln to fucking step up. Nothing they are doing takes serious money, just creativity and a a little creative evil.
Baud
@Kent:
VoteVets has some brutal ads. Not sure where the other groups are.
debbie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
He really should have gone with The Borg. //
FelonyGovt
Two sources, huh. Rick Wilson is right. They are VERY leaky.
germy
Brantl
@hueyplong:
There is no Republican floor needs to be a rotating tag line.
Anne Laurie
@Alison Rose: To be fair, somebody had to be sacrificed to appease Dear Leader’s wrath after the Tulsa fiasco… and Parscale had made himself an obvious target. The Project Lincoln ad just gave Jarvanka something concise to wave at Daddy when he started yelling about ‘useless people who can’t even get me a decent reception in Oklahoma.’
Baud
NBC wants to be the NYT of TV.
germy
The Moar You Know
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He’s the best idiot we’ve ever had as President. I’ll admit I didn’t think it would work either, primarily because it was all true and documented.
Anya
@Ken: IKR? It was the only one I thought would work on Trump. They literally ran that ad in Fox Washington DC. They knew what they were doing.
germy
I was hoping to watch the 30 Rock special on TV tonight, but apparently my local NBC affiliate refuses to air it, and so instead my local newscasters are filling the hour with something hastily put together, going over the same stuff they went over three hours ago.
Patricia Kayden
azelie
@Ken: I agree. The ad was gaudy and prurient. I saw it and thought that they had targeted their tiny audience perfectly.
germy
(Translation: He wouldn’t give me maternity leave)
Ken
Did they report it to the IRS?
Kay
I love how elaborate the file is.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose:
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTpF-ucHCqA
Brachiator
@Kent:
It’s been noted that Bloomberg is not stepping up with his promised support.
Anya
Is Lara Trump Eric’s wife or Junior’s ex?
Martin
I’m not surprised that it worked in the sense that it made Trump mad. I’m surprised that Trump took the bait. I shouldn’t be – he always takes the bait.
But I hope Dems are learning something about the rapidity with which Lincoln Project responds, and how to play to the other guys rules of the game, and not always to Dems rules. If Trump responds to personal slights, deliver personal slights that cause him to damage himself.
Benw
@piratedan: does this mean we’re not on double SECRET probation anymore!?
Martin
@Ken: Hah! Good one. These are Trumps.
Martin
@Baud: Assumes evidence of governing.
Aleta
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: That was never going to happen.
germy
We laugh, but Brad has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Isn’t he basically an IT guy who elbowed his way up the trump ladder, and is now richer than Jay Gatsby?
He’ll retire to one of his mansions or spend some vacation time on his boats. Probably pick up some extra cash now and then as a “campaign expert” on cable talk shows.
piratedan
@Benw: I think we’re a “go” to enter a float in the homecoming parade…..
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@dmsilev:
It’s almost like Parscale was only familiar with SW through cultural osmosis
Anya
Looks like the Florida convention (if it happens) will have more cans of Goya beans than actual participants.
The Moar You Know
@Anya: probably both. This crew has a really distressing habit of passing women around like party favors.
HumboldtBlue
May I introduce two rays of sunshine into this raining parade of Trumpism?
Teija and Maliya Kabs are rapidly becoming two of my favorite people.
Kay
@Martin:
But Brad Parscale was bad so I wanted him to keep his job.
I will never trust the Lincoln Project. I can’t help it. I look at that Rick Wilson and all I see is professional GOP political person who could not get a national campaign job because his entire political party is insane.
They got us into this mess. They aren’t going to get us out of it.
Brachiator
@Martin:
Trump is no longer a promise. He has a record, a record largely of incompetence and failure.
He can be branded a failure and a loser, and that’s just the facts.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@debbie:
Yeah, but the Borg were actually smart lol
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@The Moar You Know:
It’s too bad so many non-idiots are willing to carry his water for him
Baud
@debbie:
Or an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
The Moar You Know
@germy: Well, yeah, but he’ll be digging through dumpsters in five years if he’s not dead of COVID by then. Guys like that, they get a lot of money, they fuck up. Always. Like what happens to lottery winners.
Which is what he is. He didn’t get where he is by being smart, he got there by having a swastika tattoo in the right place that he showed to Trump at the right time. He just got lucky.
He won’t stay lucky.
Benw
@germy: I mean, he’s rich enough for West Egg, he doesn’t have *East* Egg $$
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
That’s a shame. I’ve begun watching the nightly NBC broadcast and they’re pretty straight with their reporting
Martin
@Kay: I have no problem using them when it is convenient for us and then throwing them in the dumpster the moment they aren’t. That’s how the GOP roll anyway, they won’t mind.
germy
@Kay:
No, I don’t trust them either. And the same people who are excited by them are the same people who were fooled by Bloomberg.
I like that they’re directing their ads to get under the donald’s skin, but I think the future they envision is a more polite Republicanism, just with the same harmful policies.
germy
@Benw: I personally can afford Poached Egg.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Anya: Eric’s wife, or as I like to call her, Mrs Gummo.
another perspective on The Lincoln Project, from top Obama aide (current O’Bro) Dan Pfeiffer
These ads are catnip to political junkies, including me, including the casts of Morning Joe and Meet The Press. But I don’t know how many votes they move or create. Like Mary Trump’s book (also, pol-junkie catnip, including me), the electoral value is probably that they drive The Beast crazier and distract him further from doing the small things that would likely make him more popular (advocating for masks and calling for more stimulus). And thus make Uncle Joe’s boring old “together, we can beat this thing” ads more effective.
Benw
@piratedan: REMAIN CALM! ALL IS WELL
hahahahaha
Kay
@Martin:
But doesn’t it seem weirdly personal? Like it isn’t about the country at all but is instead about them seeking revenge, as individuals against other individuals in their professional political world? Oh, and also raising a shit ton of money and paying themselves, but the second is related to the first, of course.
Lawyering is adversarial and I have as big an ego as anyone, but the worst mistakes I have ever made as a lawyer were when it was about me instead of the person who hired me. I KNOW I’m off track the moment that happens.
HumboldtBlue
The Tower of London has been re-opened.
So there’s that.
Benw
@germy: eggcellent!
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
To isolate the most important part, he has a narrative. People think they know who Trump is and who Biden is already. They know it solidly. Trump is that asshole who makes listening to the news a daily pain, and Biden is your fun uncle. It is very hard to turn around a solidly built reputation. Trump’s team do not have the skill, and this isn’t like Hillary, where people wanted to believe that the woman seeking power must be a crook.
Van Buren
Loyalty interviews?
This really is going to end like Downfall isn’t it?
germy
Baud
Benw
@Kay: yeah they mad because Trump hijacked their political party which was doing just fine keeping the racism, brutality, and inequality on the DL thank you very much!
They ain’t mad that Americans are suffering
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Tim Miller, a Bush aide who is with (I think) Repbulicans Against Trump, the more staid NeverTrumpers, said there’s a sense of a need to atone. He’s much younger than most of them, and he may even mean it when he says it. The post-trump era– when Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz try to ride the trump train*– will show the depth of his sincerity.
*I think Hawley’s the most dangerous individual on their side. He’ll run through Cruz like a windshield going through a moth.
Yutsano
@debbie: We would have that cease and desist order filed tout suite. The Collective is also litigious.
germy
@Benw:
This interview was not what Rick Wilson expected:
Mike in NC
Would love to see Paracale without a shirt, just to count the neo-Nazi tattoos.
Anya
@The Moar You Know: My grandpa thinks he’s waiting for the VP announcement. Some of these guys have an insane dislike to Elizebeth Warren. It’s so irrational and dumb.
patrick II
@Ken:
We’re waiting for the audit to find out.
RSA
@Baud:
Side note: It’s weird how insulting that first phrase reads. In the past, “occupant of the Oval Office” might have been a silly but innocuous description of the President. Now, though, it’s a perfect description of Trump but not at all appropriate for 1 through 44.
geg6
@Baud:
Lots of other groups running ads against Trump and for Biden. Maybe it’s living in Western PA, but we see lots of pro-Biden ads from the campaign and outside groups, including the LP. The Trump ads are, universally, terrible. Both campaign and outside groups. They lost the best GOP ad men to the Lincoln Project, I think.
Warblewarble
BRAD FEGELEIN
germy
@Mike in NC:
Very first time I saw Parscale, he was on the CBS morning show with Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell.
At the end of the interview, he winked at them both in a very lascivious way that I’d never seen on a news program before. It was actually surreal.
Jay
germy
@geg6:
The only ads I’ve seen on TV were Pro Trump.
I’ve only seen the pro-Biden ads online.
Baud
@geg6:
Interesting. Obviously a lot for targeting going on.
Baud
@Jay: Damn.
WaterGirl
@germy:
Oh my god, this is like the parents of a kid who got put into the redbirds reading group instead of the bluebirds group.
No matter what the parents say, every kid knows which group is for the smart kids.
Yutsano
@Baud: From the WaPo article:
They’re all delusional. Every. Single. One.
Baud
@Yutsano: always be closing.
Benw
@germy: zomg how did they get him to agree to that!?
GOOD RACISM is gold, Jerry, gold!
The Moar You Know
@Van Buren: Hitler didn’t have access to nukes. So hopefully this just ends like any other presidency.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hawley is already going after the St Louis prosecutor who was going after crazy gun nut couple.
He’s also one of the earliest Republicans to tell his constituents with a straight face that he was going to protect pre-existing conditions, even though as Missouri’s AG at the time, he was trying to eliminate Obamacare.
Total snake. We will have to be very proactive here.
Anya
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Imagine falling in love and marrying Eric or Don Jr.
I agree with O’Bro Dan. I find him pretty sensible.
I actually think Priorities USA has more effective ads than the Lincoln Project. Their 2012 ads against Romney were so devastating
Martin
@Kay: Of course it’s personal. What part of ‘own the libs’ are we struggling to understand. That’s how politics work. We don’t like that from our arena, but that’s where it is right now.
So when you have a President that makes *everything* personal, how do you run a campaign that isn’t personal? He’s going to make it personal.
Lincoln Project plays by the current rules of the game. Democrats always play by the rules we want to have in the future, which you never get unless you win today. Clinton isn’t changing the norms of politics from her den. But Trump is from the WH.
I hate this form of politics. Gotta play it though. Winning is too important.
raven
Rachel has Mary now.
Elizabelle
TRMS up. Mary Trump interview upcoming. Got to go get a glass of wine.
zhena gogolia
@Martin:
I’m with you.
Ken
@Yutsano: They also have the same limited vocabulary as the boss.
HumboldtBlue
This is a pretty good ad
Baud
@Martin:
Why the assumption that this would be a winning strategy for us though? I’ve seen no evidence of anything, except that we committed Dems enjoy some of the ads
zhena gogolia
@HumboldtBlue:
Yeah!
WaterGirl
@HumboldtBlue: Holy shit, that’s a good ad!
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I guess we won’t know until the election.
How can it hurt?
WaterGirl
Hoping someone can help me out here.
Who was the candidate that wrote something on their hand – maybe for a debate or an interview? There was a photo and it was awesome. Does anyone remember? Does anyone have a link?
That’s what I thought of when I saw the picture of the press secretary’s file.
Martin
@Jay: Parody account.
Anya
I get Alabama, Mississippi, and others but why is Missouri full crazy?
I know 3 people from Missouri and they’re all liberal. In 08 Obama came pretty close to winning it, unless I am misremembering and I am too lazy to google.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I think the argument is that Dem candidate ads should be just like LPs. Maybe that’s right but I haven’t seen evidence. It “hurts” only in the sense that each candidate has to choose an ad strategy, and if we’re going to fault a candidate for choosing a particular strategy, I’d want to be sure why.
Anya
@WaterGirl: Sorry, I can’t help. Just wanted to know if you’ve watched the latest Perry Mason episode?
Baud
@Martin: Ugh. Why can’t they be real?
raven
@WaterGirl:
In between the frontrunners during the Democratic debate on Tuesday stood Tom Steyer. You might have spotted him: he was the candidate caught in the middle as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren clashed off-mic at the end.
It was the most intriguing moment of the debate, but if you looked closer, you might have been intrigued even further.
On Mr Steyer’s left hand was a symbol, crudely drawn in pen: one large cross with a smaller cross in each quadrant.
It was not the first time the billionaire hedge-fund manager has been seen with it in public – he’s drawn it every day for at least two years – but this debate introduced the symbol to a new audience once again.
What is the symbol?
A symbol with five crosses like this is known as a Jerusalem Cross, and it was employed as the symbol of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the 13th Century. The kingdom was established by crusading European Christians who invaded and conquered Muslim lands.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Palin, I believe.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Sarah Palin??
Anya
@HumboldtBlue: It’s way over the top. For an ad to be effective it has to be persuasive. Who is persuaded by this ad?
Marcopolo
Maddow on w/ the Mary Trump interview now for those who want to watch or tape.
Martin
@Elizabelle: Yep.
HumboldtBlue
@Anya:
I’m not sure persuasion is the goal of an ad like that, it’s an attack ad on Trump and crew.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They aren’t working to get a Dem into office; they’re working to get Trump out of office. That’s half of our goal. Embrace it already!
debbie
@germy:
It’s all Trump here too.
The Moar You Know
@Anya: How on earth is that over the top? Jesus. It’s just stating facts.
The goal of ads like this is not persuasion as such, it’s to chop out from under the Trump supporters their continued belief (and they really do think this) that the vast majority of Americans is on their side. Every single ad like this cuts a little bit more of that belief out from under them. I thought it was brilliant.
Known in the trade as an “attack ad”. And those work, by the way. Better than most others.
It’s aimed at seniors, by the way.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: Oh, I embrace them. I’m willing to accept most co-belligerents until Biden is sworn in. And I enjoy them because I hate trump. What I’m arguing against is the idea that “we” need to make ads like LP does. I doubt they’re creating much traction among the youngs who are, according to what I read, anti-trump and Biden-resistant. They are, I think, aimed at and seen by a very small slice of the electorate that is over-represented in the Beltway media and, dare I say, Balloon Juice comment threads.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I’m pretty sure it was Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Chief Oshkosh
@Patricia Kayden: Talking to a friend today who’s had dealings with Kemp over the years. This guy has worked with many Democrats and many Republicans. He said Kemp is actually as dumb as he comes across on TV. Dumb as post, but mean as a snake.
In other words, just another Republican.
Elizabelle
Rachel is SO verbose.
Mary Trump is not. She would be a cool customer on a witness stand.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They save Biden from having to say what they’re saying. They’re preventing Trump from being able to attack back at Biden with any success.
WereBear
@Kay:
Yes. It does.
They are personally pissed at Trump because he is making them into losers and hiring his own stupid people instead of their proven shivs in the back that gives them fame and fortune.
They will show him. And get their scam back.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: https://gawker.com/5466004/did-sarah-palin-write-notes-on-her-hand-at-the-tea-party-convention-update-yes
Energy
BudgetTax CutsLift American Spirits
HTH!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
Has heard The Donald use the N word and describes him as “virulently racist.”
It was how the [Fred] Trump family rolled. It’s how they talked, although not her immediate family, in Jamaica.
Martin
@Baud: I think this is one of those times that getting in the head of your opponent really matters. That’s part of competition – and normally if you hit the top level you have proven yourself immune to being baited. The catcher isn’t going to get the batter to strike out by telling him he slept with his wife – not in MLB. And not in politics either – you couldn’t get in Obama or Clinton’s head, or Bush Jrs or Romney’s either. The only time I ever saw that was ‘proceed governor’. You could tell in that moment, that Obama rattled him. It worked for all of 5 minutes.
But you can get in Trumps head. We have evidence that an ad helped get Parscale fired. Now, it’s debatable whether that is good or bad – Brad was a special kind of incompetent, but turmoil is always somewhat harmful. But if you have techniques that can force the Trump campaign to do thing that are self-destructive, that’s a good thing. You almost never find that in presidential campaigns. And I think it’s good to have this whole separate independent org whose job it is trolling Trump. That’s hard to defend inside the Biden campaign.
Mind you, we were allies with Stalin during the war. That lasted no longer than necessary. When you are facing an existential threat, you make common ground with whoever you need until that threat goes away, even if your ally is obviously going to be the new existential threat once you succeed.
Don’t optimize prematurely.
TS (the original)
@Elizabelle: Rachel is being verbose because Mary Trump is not. For whatever reasons, she is hard to interview – she answers any question with as few words as possible.
I assume that is who she is – no doubt brought up in that family she was allowed few words & never questioned what they did – but it appears she certainly listened.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@TS (the original): I’m a big Rachel Maddow fan, but verbosity is not unusual for her… As for Mary T, I’m sure it can’t be easy to be on TV if you’re not used to it, and this has to be hard for her. I bet it would have been easier in non-Covid circumstances, if they could have and met face-to-face and talked before the camera started running.
And she’s burning bridges. They may not be close, but I gather she’s had some relationship with the trumps: The WH dinner in 2017, I think, regular lunches with Aunt Maryann, who conspired to defraud her out of her inheritance. And her brother has picked the family over her from what I understand.
raven
@TS (the original): Rachel is always verbose, she’s a TALK show host!
raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ya figure a buck a book?
patrick Il
@Another Scott:
Why that was funny and widely reported was because she had been mocking President Obama for not being able to give a talk without a teleprompter, so she tried to sneak notes without anyone knowing.
Another Scott
Excellent.
(via dick_nixon)
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
No actual business work observed being done by The Donald.
As a ghostwriter, Mary could not figure out what he did. It was the other people in the office. And The Donald was kind of clueless.
ETA: That is KayBait. Trump does not work. Much like his crack Cabinet and flunkies. A lot of them do not do the work.
Except, regrettably, the Stephen Miller and Bill Barr types.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@raven: more than that, I would guess, but I have no idea. A few of our jackals have experience in publishing.
She hit 950K sales– paper, kindle and audible– pretty quickly. I’m sure it’s well over a million by now.
NotMax
OT.
Not sure my landlady resides in the same universe, sometimes.
She knows I’m currently wearing a sling on my right arm. She saw me go down to the street and roll the emptied trash bin up the steep driveway using only the other arm. Then sidled over and asked, “Oh, while you’re out here can I ask you a favor? Could you climb up one tree and cut off a branch that’s sticking out too far?”
*le sigh
rikyrah
@Kay:
Don’t trust them
But, I have to admit that they have talent
moonbat
@Benw: Exactly. They are mad that Trump stripped away their respectable veneer and revealed them for what they truly are. That’s all they are mad about. Anyone who has voted Republican since the Southern Strategy was put into motion under Nixon have known exactly what kind of game they are playing. Trump just dragged it out into the sunlight in all its ugliness for anyone to see. They imagine that by doing this ad campaign they can clean the Republican image. They can’t.
But I’m all for letting them burn the Trumpster fire every damn day. Do your worst. But don’t pretend you are on the side of angels now. We know better.
Ken
Will they, though? They’ve opposed Trump, called out many senators and representatives by name as complicit in his crimes, and said that the Republican party is a mass of racists and crooks who have done horrible damage to this country. Who’s left to take them back?
Maybe they’re banking on a split between the money interests and the deplorable 27%, and hoping the bankers will decide they need them?
Or possibly relying on the memory hole to make the last four years vanish, with a great consensus that Trump was an aberration and had nothing to do with the Republican party?
Elizabelle
He is failing at it because he is incapable at succeeding at it.
Cannot admit weakness.
Why are so many people continuing to allow this?? 140,000 and counting dead, and the vast majority of those people did not lose their lives …. All Donald had to do was listen to the scientists and wear masks and stay at home ….
to curry favor with Donald, the governors ….
[instead of dealing with COVID] “Donald is hawking black beans.”
TS (the original)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I wasn’t being critical of Mary – she is telling the truth about the trumps – which few seem capable of doing. She just answers questions without any padding. From what I have read of her book, it is similar, other than when describing psychological issues. Her one sentence description of Pence said everything about the man that needs to be said.
I am used to seeing Rachel interview people that have to be stopped from talking – Mary certainly does not fit that frame.
I’m finding as the interview progresses, the answers are more explanatory and interesting – as now the current comments on trump’s coronavirus response. And it ended
Elizabelle
“A second term would be the end of the American Experiment. No coming back from this.
Barr has gutted DOJ. Pompeo has gutted DOS. That is no longer hyperbolic. That is just how it is.”
How can we invite Mary to be a jackal??
Just One More Canuck
@germy: she’s right – this is a great opportunity for Brad to try something new
rikyrah
This is a great ad
Get it on the air ???
Kropacetic
His job, perhaps?
lgerard
Another trump family triumph!!
Elizabelle
I have missed some of the interview, but I think it’s been very good. Mary has been most forthcoming.
Will get back to reading her book later. Bought it on Kindle today, cuz the Amazon excerpt was so good. She is witty and observant and moves quickly.
Someone said it was well-edited, and that it is.
I do wonder if she misses her relationship with Aunt Marianne, even as that woman colluded to evade taxes and dick Freddy’s kids out of the family money. Mary mentions previous frequent lunches with her aunt, and Marianne appears to have been candid with her.
frosty
I chortled with every new link. Brava AL!!!!
Kropacetic
I prefer this.
NotMax
@Igerard
Aren’t there something like two million new coal miner jobs going begging by now?
//
Kropacetic
Naw, man, the coal companies hired machines. Can you imagine that?
Elizabelle
Lawrence is going to go on and on about the N word, when it would be great to have the Dahlia Lithwick approach — let’s look at the enablers. Why is that?
Stick with one headline-grabbing personal anecdote. Which does not appear in the book.
Another Scott
Of course, of course.
(Interesting thread.)
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
@TS (the original): Given her academic reputation, I think she’s very comfortable speaking in her area of expertise. But I think this is very out-of-water for her. Not unusual for academics IMO. Hardly universal, but asking a clinical psychologist to dish on people is like asking an ethical vegan to cut an ad for the American Beef Council. No part of it is going to be comfortable.
rikyrah
????
Martin
@NotMax: There were never 2 million. 180K was the peak, back in the 20s. About 30K now.
In other words, there are 50% more Apple Store retail employees than there are coal miners in the US.
Martin
@rikyrah: Fuck. Was really hoping the RNC Convention could get the Princess Sociopath for a week.
Martin
@Elizabelle: Who cares that he used the N word? Of course he has. How is this not assumed? What’s more, most of his supporters wish he would use it more.
Kropacetic
Well, they should get a real job like mining coal. /RepublicanFuckedUpPriorities
NotMax
@Martin
Did you not see the snark tag?
Do you not remember him waxing emphatically about the yu-u-uge increase in coal mining jobs he’d “create?”
;)
lgerard
@rikyrah:
Maybe there is hope for these people then
Elizabelle
@Martin: I know. It’s upping Trump’s cred with his white supremacist fanbois and girls.
Thank dog they’re on to talking about something else.
frosty
@HumboldtBlue: Wow, who did that one? No credits at the end.
“If you’re a senior who is calling, goodbye.”
Ken
@Martin: At the current rate of “Oops, I’m washing my hair all that week”, a rowboat will be enough to hold the attendees at the Republican convention.
Frankensteinbeck
@Martin:
The centerpiece of Reagan’s transformative power in America was convincing whites that saying n-r is the definition of racism and nothing else counts. They loved him for it, and flocked to vote for all kinds of awful shit. That is still the only hard evidence of being racist to way, way too many white Americans.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Oh, I misunderstood. I don’t want our ads to be like the Lincoln Project. But I think on balance they’re helping, not hurting.
Kropacetic
@Frankensteinbeck: Side note, thanks for recommending She-Ra. Enjoyed every minute.
trollhattan
@Frankensteinbeck:
I cannot WAIT until “Reaganland” is published this summer. Long past time to start deconstructing that vile fucker.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
Right.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kropacetic:
ENTRAPDAK FOREVER. I loved so much seeing two such messed up people with no concept of how people work or even grasp of good and evil find someone to support them and make them whole.
Kropacetic
Exactly. Personally, I don’t have the stomach for people on our side cutting vicious, personal ads against our political opponents. But if some outside group wants to, that’s their prerogative.
Quiltingfool
@Anya: I’m from Missouri and I’m a liberal. Gonna be blunt. Most folks in my neck of the woods are racist. Now, they would deny that with every fiber of their being, but they are. Actually, I think they are afraid of black and brown folk; many of them have had little to no contact with people who aren’t white. When you have large groups of white folk who only interact with white folk, they view others with suspicion. It doesn’t help they get ideas about black and brown folk from Fox, either. So, they go Republican – they understood the dog whistle perfectly, and they love Trump because he screams the racism. They truly believe that they never got any “breaks” from anyone, but black and brown folks get to game the system all the time (and their taxes are paying for that).
These folks wear me out. They just can’t see that Republican policies hurt them and their children. It’s like they have this perverse desire to be harmed, simply because they are afraid if they get something good, someone unworthy will too.
One more weird story. One of my husband’s relatives told me his sister was afraid President Obama was going to enact policies that would cause white people to be treated as poorly as black people have been treated by whites. He told her she was nuts, but honestly, I think that is a big fear of white folk around here. They are afraid that black people want revenge. Frankly, I wouldn’t blame them, but all they want is fairness, justice and a level playing field. Why is that so hard to understand?
Kay
It’s shocking how often the things conservatives warn will happen if liberals take over then actually happen when conservatives take over.
3 more months of this desperation on the part of Donald Trump and his low quality thug militia. I wonder how bad it will get.
zhena gogolia
@TS (the original):
What was her one-sentence description of Pence?
Kropacetic
@Frankensteinbeck: Right? I didn’t find myself with a lot of sympathy for Hordak until the end. Though it was nice seeing he was capable of showing appreciation to someone. But I spent that whole time waiting for Entrapta to get a clue.
Persistent Illusion
@HumboldtBlue: If you are interested in the ravens at the Tower, read Chris Skaife’s book. He’s the Raven Master of the Tower of London and he’s hilarious.
Kropacetic
Because our media go out of their way to find the revenge sorts or others they can sell as scary and raise these people to a higher importance than the majority fighting for justice or even elected officials.
Kay
I’m glad Mary Trump is talking and perhaps it will help in some small way and I know this is ungenerous and “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” (unfair!) but I don’t trust a one of them as far as I can throw them.
Trust is earned and that family has withdrawn more in 5 years than they’ll ever be able to repay.
HumboldtBlue
@frosty:
I’m still not sure who made it.
Martin
I think this is where so much of my anxiety comes from. I need to do something. If there were plans to march on the WH to depose Trump I would be there. But that’s not where the public is, and I can’t understand why. I guess we’re just supposed to continue to allow it? I don’t know. I can’t reconcile this in my head.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kropacetic:
Which, really, she didn’t. Even going back to working for the good guys, she was doing what made her friends happy. And Hordak ultimately did not give two spuds about conquering the world (something I suspected early on). He was just trying to get Prime’s love. But they understood each other, and shared what made the other happy. You know, building things that go PEW PEW BOOM.
My favorite moment in the entire series is when Double Trouble lets Hordak know Catra lied about Entrapta, and Hordak goes absolutely apeshit.
HumboldtBlue
@Persistent Illusion:
Thanks so much for the tip.
It’s a fascinating little subject.
Patricia Kayden
Kropacetic
It went a long way to show the way their toxic command structure flowed downstream. The anxieties we see first expressed by lower level people consistently materialized almost identically in their superiors.
Somehow this made her charming to me in a way it didn’t for him. It was likely the excessive enthusiasm and evident curiosity.
Uncle Cosmo
Remember that when Agolf Twitler finally snarls, Das war ein Befehl! the accent and emphasis will be on the last syllable: FAIL.
WaterGirl
@Martin:
That’s exactly where I am, except that I would have added the word despair after anxiety.
satby
@Kent: @Baud: These guys aren’t doing too bad with ads either.
WaterGirl
@satby: That one is great.
Anya
@The Moar You Know: This is an attack ad that’s meant to persuade. It’s powerful and relatable.
Anya
I don’t know if they’re the same people or not, I think Republican Voters Against Trump have better ads than the Lincoln Project.
Another Scott
@HumboldtBlue: It goes back to this guy, but I don’t know if he made it. (He doesn’t cite anyone else.)
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
ballerat
God these pundits are so stupid. As full of themselves and as gullible as Trump. Of all the LP’s angles of attack, that is the one I knew would get to him. I am only surprised it took this long, I was expecting it the Friday the week following the ad’s release.
TS (the original)
@zhena gogolia:
I posted it on an earlier thread – when the family were at the White House for a dinner party, Pence was noted as being to the side in the Oval office – a little later Mary said
RedDirtGirl
@Kay: Truth!
ballerat
@ballerat: Aaaand I see Ken got there 182 comments ahead of me!
NotMax
@RedDirtGirl
You’re close by Prospect Park, IIRC. Any reports on how mask compliance is there?
Pure conjecture that compliance drops off the closer one gets to the Orthodox areas back along Atlantic Avenue. Would very much like to be mistaken about that.
ballerat
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Because it socked him hard in the only place he cares about, his ego.
He thinks of himself as the shrewd art-of-the-deal grifter. He suckers you, no one suckers him.
He can’t tolerate looking like a clueless mark. He is a genius. He is the artist of the deal. He grifts, everyone else is the sucker.
That ad by suggesting Parscale was making a sucker of him, grifting the master grifter, it hit him right in the most vulnerable part of his anatomy, his ego.
HumboldtBlue
@Another Scott:
That’s where I saw it, no other details.
catclub
@Anya: why not both?
dmsilev
The NYT tends to be somewhat prissy about their comments section, moderating out untoward language and the like. The Post, rather less so. I made the mistake of reading a Thiessen column, but partial amends were made by finding this gem left by some commenter who had run out of fucks to give:
Got quite a few ‘likes’.
NotMax
@NotMax
Amend that. Spotty memory. Back along Eastern Parkway rather than Atlantic Ave.
ballerat
@Baud: from the linked article:
They are collaborators. In everything.
ballerat
@The Moar You Know:
I agree. He had the right tattoo for the right time. Times change but tattoos do not.
James E Powell
I’m thinking the Lincoln Project ads are aimed at the Village and the Beltway Press to counteract or maybe undermine their constant efforts to normalize Trump and his gross corruption and bigotry
The fact that they are Republicans and well known in the Village means that what their messages cannot be completely dismissed like those from Democrats, who the Village and Beltway Press regard with scorn.
ballerat
@Quiltingfool:
Most white people are.
ballerat
@Kay: If unchecked, as bad as they say it would get under liberals.
ballerat
@Kropacetic:
Exactly what I hate about Democrats.
It’s as if you’re shipwrecked and cast adrift in a life boat. And you’ve got this deranged individual drilling holes in the bottom of the boat. (He doesn’t care — as long Those People in the back of the boat drown first.)
But you just can’t arse yourself to fight tooth and nail to keep that fool from sinking the boat.
Ruckus
@germy:
Easy way to see is Rick Wilson declaring being a democrat?
Yeah, I didn’t think so. The PTB in the republican mob have rules and shitforbrains violates every single one of them, the main rule being don’t say the crap parts out loud. shitforbrains is only the crap parts, only knows the crap parts and has no filter whatsoever. The republican party has been selling the same crap for at least the last 100 yrs and working up to destroying the country for their bank accounts. Does anyone think they are going to change? And if you do, why and how? They want to go back a few steps and to a time when they just didn’t say the crap out loud. shitforbrains isn’t their guy, but he’s got the brand and he’s who the overt racists chose for their “leader.” He can’t deliver what they want because he’s openly racist, past the acceptable limit for the plan and he’s a selfish idiot who is not capable of even the minimum that republicans expect out of the people that pretend to be in charge when elected. They don’t want him gone because they don’t agree with him, they want him gone because he can’t act like a normal human being, all the while screwing everything and making them richer.