August 23, 2017

If you're going to pick out the "57 most outrageous quotes" from a Donald Trump speech, you need to put them in order of outrageousness.

At CNN, Chris Cillizza has "Donald Trump's 57 most outrageous quotes from his Arizona speech," but they're in chronological order. He's trying to bowl us over with numerosity, but if you start reading them, and it's a big slog. Most of them aren't even "outrageous," just susceptible to some criticism or clarification. I end up scrolling looking for anything I'd call "outrageous." What's the most outrageous thing here? I don't even know. 57 is just too damned many. It makes Cillizza look peevish and nit-picky.

To be fair, when you say these are the "57 most outrageous quotes," they don't need to be that outrageous. These are just the most outrageous quotes from the set of quotes that were Trump's speech. Maybe he made 500 statements. These are just the 57 that struck Chris Cillizza the hardest. And it's a way for people who don't want to have to watch or read the whole thing to get a feeling for what was said.

Nevertheless, the headline aggravates me, because it clickbait-promised a torrent of outrageousness and I can't find anything too exciting. And when I realized that the ordering was merely chronological, I felt ripped off by the come-on.

I ended up skimming, but I stopped at #28 and laughed:
"Now, you know, I was a good student. I always hear about the elite. You know, the elite. They're elite? I went to better schools than they did. I was a better student than they were. I live in a bigger, more beautiful apartment, and I live in the White House, too, which is really great."
Not outrageous, just Trump being Trump. I guess for some people any of Trump's Trumpish statements are experienced as outrageous and perhaps Cillizza is entertaining them or helping them with their horrible mood.

That reminds me: I think the tearing down of Confederate statues is something people are doing because they can't tear down Trump. It's like kicking the dog after a hard day working for a boss you hate.

223 comments:

1 – 200 of 223   Newer›   Newest»
mccullough said...

'57 Chevy. Heinz 57. Not a number that conjures up much

Chuck said...

lol. Last night, in the open thread that was topping the Atlhouse home page before the Trump speech got started, I was recalling my favorite quote of the day about the prospects for the speech which concluded, "What could possibly go wrong?"

Indeed.

Jake said...

Taking down the statues is also a really easy way for enlightened white people to be more enlightened.

Jake said...

Come to think of it, is an enlightened white person even more white?

Fernandinande said...

"The teenagers who wore MAGA hats to Howard aren’t martyrs for free speech"

They were cursed at and robbed, but it's their fault because Blacks.

The comments are blood-curdling.

Ken B said...

That quote alludes to his victory. That alone makes it an outrage to CNN.

tim in vermont said...

They are outrageous because Hillary isn't POTUS.

n.n said...

Come to think of it, is an enlightened white person even more white?

Catastrophic Anthropogenic Rainbow Compression, which is apparently a progressive (i.e. monotonic) condition, is a cause for a communal suicide cult.

Fernandinande said...

"Chinese Social Media Notices US Cultural Revolution"

tim in vermont said...

And Ted Cruz isn't President.

n.n said...

"The teenagers who wore MAGA hats to Howard aren’t martyrs for free speech"

My guess is neither rainbow (i.e. rarefied white) nor black (i.e. rainbow exclusive). WaPo shows its color diversity.

n.n said...

And Ted Cruz isn't President.

They tried to cast Trump as a social liberal, and failed. They tried to cast Trump as a DNC agent colluding with the post-coup regime in Kiev, with British intelligence assets, and failed. They tried to cast Trump as a class (e.g. color, sex) diversitist, and failed. What is a leftist to do? Tear down statues and target people with Lee or Li in their name.

Comanche Voter said...

I went to better schools than they did; that's a statement that I'd have rate as at least 3/4 true. And he graduated. Gore is one of the "elite", but he mostly flunked out or didn't complete his various education efforts.

But I went to better schools than you is sort of a variant on "my membrum virile is longer than yours". Now that "better schools" shinola is important to a lot of our coastal elites.
But lots of the commenters on this blog have had professional careers and pretty shiny diplomas, scholastic honors and such from some pretty fancy schools. And among our professional confreres I think that most of us have seen some highly credentialed fools.

So if Trump wants to play the mine is longer than yours school credential wise with the coastal elites--let him. He's probably right--but the whole topic is not very important.

Michael K said...

Some one who has seen the Cultural Revolution this resembles it a lot.

No one on campus dared challenge the Red Guards. Capitulations from school authorities only emboldened them. They led students to strike, refusing to take classes from people who were deemed less than ideologically pure. Professors, teachers, and school administrators were paraded and forced to make numerous public self-criticisms about “transgressions” against government-sanctioned orthodoxy. Soon, college entrance exams were suspended and many schools, from universities to high schools, were closed. The entire education system was paralyzed.

Without schools to go to, the Red Guards traveled all over China to spread their ideas and tactics to the “real world.” Other people, such as factory workers unhappy with the shortages, organized their own groups to challenge leadership of their own work units. Since no one was working, businesses, factories, and many government agencies were shut down. The entire country fell into lawlessness and chaos.

Like Mao’s Red Guards, some American college students and their supporters have been shouting down anyone who dares to disagree with them.


She has seen it before.

Fabi said...

Fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap, fap

Damn it, Chuck -- close your bedroom door if you're going to jerk off!

tpceltus said...

I liked it when he said he owned a home in Charlottesville.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Not outrageous, just Trump being Trump.

What is with your obsession for normalizing this guy? He's not a normal person. And neither was that quote.

Freeman Hunt said...

"Now, you know, I was a good student. I always hear about the elite. You know, the elite. They're elite? I went to better schools than they did. I was a better student than they were. I live in a bigger, more beautiful apartment, and I live in the White House, too, which is really great."

Heh. That is great.

(Still hope the Confederacy-honoring statues come down though. I could go for a John Brown statue reading "Liberty without compromise," though.)

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I think the tearing down of Confederate statues is something people are doing because they can't tear down Trump. It's like kicking the dog after a hard day working for a boss you hate.

A "dog" that got half a million Americans killed trying to shred the constitution in order to build and expand a slaveholding empire to the Caribbean and South America.

It's time to admit that the only people deranged by Trump are those who can't get enough of defending everything that psychopath does.

grackle said...

I think the tearing down of Confederate statues is something people are doing because they can't tear down Trump. It's like kicking the dog after a hard day working for a boss you hate.

The most astute analysis of the issue I’ve seen yet. A rare Bingo! for our hostess. For her and Meade a McCulloch ROB 1000 Programmable Robotic Mower for those bothersome lawn chores.

MikeD said...

mccullough: You forgot Obama's 57 states!

Browndog said...

Tearing down Confederate statues, and beyond, is nothing more than a small minority asserting it's power over the majority, via faux moral superiority.

I have no dog in this fight, but you have to ask: What do they really have in mind? Because with the left, their true intention is vastly different than what is stated.

The entire point to their existence is deception, in order to obtain a greater truth.

peace through violence...

Dave in Tucson said...

@Althouse said
> 57 is just too damned many.

Seriously, don't they have any editors at CNN anymore? Nobody's gonna read through 57 quotes, even if they were all amazing. How did they not winnow this down to the best 10? Even CNN doesn't really care about this anymore.



@mccullough said
> Not a number that conjures up much

Reminds me of that one scene in The Manchurian Candidate...

Earnest Prole said...

Not outrageous, just Trump being Trump

I presume you added the word not to avoid a tautology. But isn't outrageous most of the man's charm?

Otto said...

'I think the tearing down of Confederate statues is something people are doing because they can't tear down Trump. " No, the tearing down of the statues is because it is going to reduce the obscenely high rate of unemployment amongst black males, it is going to reduce the obscenely high number of unwed black teen moms and lastly and most importantly it is going to increase the markedly low black PSAT scores. What folly.

Browndog said...

I loved last night's rally. Loved it.

To Ann's point about Trump saying "They call themselves elite. I think we're elite."-

Trumpianism on display- Who the fuck are you? (The Who)

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

~
I had to read The Golden Bough in some intro to humanities in undergrad. I’ve sometimes seen Trump as both the author and encyclopedist of his golden bountiful sayings, except that his self-encyclopedism falls short in real time memory regarding what he said about Afghanistan, maybe owing to his trust in his golden bounty charm to turn things around, and if a real turn around fails, then to hell with academia (since Trump has been there, and exceeded that) because there’s always a return to the default populism of Kiplingesque “just so” stories.

It’s tough to make a weighted list among already impossible religious scalars. The best fertility ritual is to ejaculate as many serial impossibilities as ejacu-Tweet allows, superfecundity, and then when any one word-magic (it just takes one) reproduces in a harvestable and non-toxic pleasure fruit (the latter, non-toxic, being more important, unless killing a population is the goal), then religiously self-proclaim "Genius, just so!”

brylun said...

I agree with Ann Althouse: Kicking the Dog!

Tank said...

As I said about Trump right from the beginning (before I was even for him, and that's way back):

Trump is entertaining and fun.

Fun.

tim in vermont said...

zK8q1h2ohog/Vj9aWg9XGDI/AAAAAAAAOYQ/OyxvK3clVxQ/s1600/Victim-of-the-Cultural-Revolution-2.jpg

Tactics of the left have not changed. Find the one decent person in the picture.

People like Unknown Troll can't tell they are part of a mass hysteria.

Incidentally, the picture above is from Chinese social media where they are laughing at our 'cultural revolution.'

TTR should know better than to join this mob.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Tearing down Confederate statues, and beyond, is nothing more than a small minority asserting it's power over the majority, via faux moral superiority.

Who knew that the morally superior majority were those respecting and honoring an attack on the United States and its constitution in order to expand a slaveholding empire from its territory to South America and killing a half million Americans in the process? Wow!

chickelit said...

I'm not on Facebook but I heard that this was making the rounds today.

LOL!

tim in vermont said...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zK8q1h2ohog/Vj9aWg9XGDI/AAAAAAAAOYQ/OyxvK3clVxQ/s1600/Victim-of-the-Cultural-Revolution-2.jpg

Link

Chuck said...

If this column by Chris Cillizza counts as "Trump Derangement Syndrome," what the heck is the term that we ought to apply to Trump's own obsession with "the media"?

Achilles said...

Outrageous is telling everyone they will be able to keep their doctor while knowing that is a lie.

Outrageous is sending the IRS after your political enemies.

Red Line anyone? The list would take forever. How is that Russian Collusion coup coming along?

The left is a joke.

They are pretty much defined by the guy getting shot in the peter with a tear gas canister as he protested Trump. An asshole that deserved it and everyone points and laughs at them while they are writhing on the ground in pain.

chuck said...

Fifty seven? That's one outrage for every state. Who says Trump isn't organized?

Browndog said...

Michael K said...

I read an account of a woman that was in Cambodia as part of the Peace Corp, teaching English. When the Khmer Rouge came to their village, the students dragged their teacher into the street and burned him alive. The day before, they loved and respected him.

Bruce Hayden said...

Ok, I feel for the click bait, and, yes, Cizzilla is a tool. As Glenn Reynolds says: Dem operative with a byline. A lot of what Cizzilla says is just partisan snark - for example, he makes a big thing out of nothing - such as:

"15. "Or the Washington Post, which I call a lobbying tool for Amazon, OK, that's a lobbying tool for Amazon."
"Amazon doesn't own the Washington Post. Jeff Bezos does."

Ok, Trump was only figuratively right - Bezos owns WaPo and runs Amazon, but, no, Amazon doesn't "own" the WaPo. The usual problem that Trump may be literally wrong, but is figuratively right. Gotcha's that just make the person pointing them out look foolish.

Achilles said...

Chuck said...
If this column by Chris Cillizza counts as "Trump Derangement Syndrome," what the heck is the term that we ought to apply to Trump's own obsession with "the media"?

Trump is taking down an enemy of the people of this country. We love watching him call those disgusting shills and sellouts out as the liars and whores they are.

Big Mike said...

I think the tearing down of Confederate statues is something people are doing because they can't tear down Trump.

I beg to differ, Professor. The modern Democrat Party has turned itself from a legitimate political party into a howling, slavering mob of nihilists out to tear things down because building things is hard but tearing down is FUN!!! It's especially fun if it involves sticking a finger in the eyes of the middle class and people who just want to be left alone so they can work a job and put food on the table and clothes on their kids' backs. Obama will make you care. Just ask his wife, remember?

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Scott Adams has a good post today that somewhat fits in with this topic: The Magical Thinking Opposition.

pacwest said...

" If this column by Chris Cillizza counts as "Trump Derangement Syndrome," what the heck is the term that we ought to apply to Trump's own obsession with "the media"?"

Necessary?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

"I end up scrolling looking for anything I'd call "outrageous.""

Jesus.

chickelit said...

Chuck queried...If this column by Chris Cillizza counts as "Trump Derangement Syndrome," what the heck is the term that we ought to apply to Trump's own obsession with "the media"?

Pushback

Drago said...

"lifelong republican" Chuck"...what the heck is the term that we ought to apply to Trump's own obsession with "the media"?"

If you think our LLR and #StrongCNNDefender is just going to sit there and let his beloved CNN be be called out without rushing bravely and courageously to their defense, in just the same way he defends Stolen Valor dems, you are sadly mistaken.

Inga...Allie Oop said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wince said...

That reminds me: I think the tearing down of Confederate statues is something people are doing because they can't tear down Trump. It's like kicking the dog after a hard day working for a boss you hate.

I think it was to drive a spike between Trump and any mainstream support.

Except that polls indicated most people agree with Trump and, as Trump predicted, the left took it to ridiculous extremes.

Drago said...

Achilles: "Trump is taking down an enemy of the people of this country. We love watching him call those disgusting shills and sellouts out as the liars and whores they are."

Indeed.

Anyone defending these shills, sellouts, liars and whores in the media is clearly guilty of the same offenses.

Clearly and irrefutably.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Trump is Deranged, Why Isn't It Exceedingly Evident to You Syndrome

Drago said...

Unknown: "Trump is Deranged, Why Isn't It Eceedingly Evident to You Syndrome"

The complete collapse of the dems/left/"lifelong republicans" Trump/Russia collusion lies have forced a pivot to establishing a basis for a 25th amendment takedown on Trump.

"unexpectedly", naturally.

Browndog said...

Ask yourself one simple question:

Will removing these monuments further racial healing in America?

Before you answer, that was the question, when Nikki Haley answered 'yes', when she took down the N. Virginia Battle Flag on the grounds of the State House.

If the answer is no, then why, all of a sudden?

brylun said...

Chuck, you're not defending Stolen Valor dems, are you?

Drago said...

The Russia/Collusion lies were such obvious lies you must ask why that farce wasn't exceedingly evident to anyone with a brain?

Wince said...

I like this GIF.

Drago said...

brylun: "Chuck, you're not defending Stolen Valor dems, are you?"

Ol Chucky was in full blown Richard Blumenthal defense mode sometime back. Chuck decided it might be cute to minimize and discount Blumenthals repeated Vietnam service lies made repeatedly over a number of years and over several campaigns.

I'll bet Maddow was doing the exact the same thing and there is rarely any daylight between Maddow and Chuck on any issue.

Michael K said...

"what the heck is the term that we ought to apply to Trump's own obsession with "the media"?"

I will take this seriously. What you and the media see as obsession is a technique that seems to be working.

Somebody, probably at NRO, posted a wish that Trump would behave like Bush did. A gentleman while being savaged by the media.

How did that work out ? Maybe it's time to try another tack.

A guy named John Boyd thought of a concept he called the "OODA loop" and, if you got inside the enemy's loop, you could react faster than they could think of new tactics.

A guy named David Hackworth took a loser battalion and by working their asses off and thinking fast, turned them into "The Hardcore Battalion." He would set up ambushes for the VC and NVA and sometimes they would take a Huey and make two or three fake ambushes so the enemy would not know which was the real one. When he took over the battalion, they cowered in their base afraid to go "outside the wire." By the time he finished, they were setting up ambushes and killing NVA in their own ambushes.

Does anyone see a parallel to Trump and the media ?

I do. The Bushes and Romney were cowering in their base.

Trump is right in the media's face,
and SE Cupp today had a column (I can't find it) that Trump is "winning" his war with the media. She has been a pretty much NeverTrumper.

Bad Lieutenant said...

chickelit said...
Chuck queried...If this column by Chris Cillizza counts as "Trump Derangement Syndrome," what the heck is the term that we ought to apply to Trump's own obsession with "the media"?

Pushback

Self-defense

Jupiter said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...

"A "dog" that got half a million Americans killed trying to shred the constitution in order to build and expand a slaveholding empire to the Caribbean and South America."

Ruthless, Toothless and altogether Truthless is now a big fan of the American Constitution.

Michael K said...

I found Cupp's column about Trump winning and in the NY Daily News, of all places.

“They’re trying to take away our history. And our weak leaders, they do it overnight. These things have been there for 150 years, for a hundred years. You go back to a university and it’s gone. Weak, weak people.”

Simultaneously, on the other side of the country, something else was happening. ESPN was scrambling to release a statement on a baffling assignment change that a sports website had caught wind of.

The decision to remove an Asian-American announcer named Robert Lee from calling University of Virginia’s home opener — “simply because of the coincidence of his name,” as ESPN inexplicably admits — unsurprisingly lit up the Internet with outrage, jokes and memes.


Yup the media is losing. Big Time.

Henry said...

57 is a magic number.

Senator Iselin: I mean, the way you keep changing the figures on me all the time. It makes me look like some kind of a nut, like an idiot.”

Mrs. Iselin: Well, you’re going to look like an even bigger idiot if you don’t get in there and do exactly what you’re told…Who are they writing about all over this country and what are they saying? Are they saying: “Are there any Communists in the Defense Department?” No, of course not, they’re saying: “How many Communists are there in the Defense Department?” So just stop talking like an expert all of a sudden and get out there and say what you’re supposed to say. Mrs. Iselin: Would it really make it easier for you if we settled on just one number? Sen. Iselin: Yeah. Just one, real, simple number that’d be easy for me to remember. [Mrs. Iselin watches Sen. Iselin pour Heinz Tomato Ketchup (with its “57 Varieties” slogan on its label) onto his dinner plate] [Cut to Senate chamber]

Senator Iselin: There are exactly 57 card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the Department of Defense at this time!


This is comment 58.

Michael K said...

"Ruthless, Toothless and altogether Truthless is now a big fan of the American Constitution."

Ritmo is a fan only of himself.

I have never seen a positive comment from him.

rcocean said...

When someone with the National Megaphone is constantly lying and misrepresenting you, you fight back.

Fighting back is not being "obsessed".

Constantly criticizing Trump every single time he opens his mouth - Now, that's "Obsession".

Browndog said...

The biggest threat to Trump, and the America I cherish, is the media.

I think he has long understood this, which is why he attacks them so vehemently. I have only recently come to understand this. The power of suggestion, of advertising is well documented.
I followed the twitter feed last night--#Pheonixrally--and saw in real time how effective propaganda is.

In real time.

tim in vermont said...

That GIF was hysterical. Trumpers have more fun.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

...and I live in the White House, too, which is really great.

I hear that place is a dump.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

"Trump is Deranged, Why ..."

.. the tag, underappreciated, “Trump derangement syndrome,” is an hysterical attempt to lab-demonstrate (in this local lab) that derangement is omni-directional, and it goes virally contagious (“into your mind it may creep”), and worse, as many syndromes, it’s mutating .. since I can’t find even a minimalist core syllogism to it, I’m leaving it all straddling the hoary line between anecdote and data ... observation, for now, is much more fun ...

robother said...

Even Joltin' Joe only got to 56.

harrogate said...

Trump is better than anyone ever was or ever will be

Humperdink said...

57? Only 57? LLR could listed one hundred (100) before he hit the snooze button twice.

buwaya said...

"He's not a normal person."

Neither am I.
But he, unlike me, is free to let out his inner freak.

The only truly free men in the US are billionaires and paupers (or at least a minority of blue-collar union workers).

I think its good that your leader, at least, is a free man.

Rusty said...


"Ritmo is a fan only of himself."

One would think if one had to have a fantasy life he would make it a happy one. Ritmo is just a miserable human being. His make believe world reflects it.

rehajm said...

I don't think its kicking the dog. It's elitist lefties flailing to come up with something to motivate African Americans show up and vote for the next sour old white leftie lady they try to drag across the finish line.

mockturtle said...

This is all-too familiar. There were books ridiculing Reagan's supposed gaffes.

Sebastian said...

"It's like kicking the dog after a hard day working for a boss you hate." Cute, but no: they are scorching the earth, asserting their will to power, the people and democracy and history be damned.

57: one for every state. Someone had to say it.

Laslo Spatula said...

"It's like kicking the dog after a hard day working for a boss you hate..."

It's bad enough kicking the poor dog.

But then they go and Hate Fuck it.

It is wrong to Hate Fuck dogs, people.

Just the idea of it makes me want to give Sarah McLachlan a dollar.

I am Laslo.

chickelit said...

harrogate chides: Trump is better than anyone ever was or ever will be

No, just better than Rodham this time around.

Look, I've told you idiots a dozens of times: Get rid of Rodham, and you get rid of Trump. But there she is again today, selling herself and threatening to run again or to have a kingmaker role. So long as the Rodham wing dominates the Democrat Party, Trump is invincible.

tim in vermont said...

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/206212f5-e5b3-465b-91e1-ce3494ef0dc8

Drago said...

harrogate: "Trump is better than anyone ever was or ever will be"

Lefty takes time out from treating obama as a earth-bound God to project leftist cult behavior onto the right.

Unexpectedly.

tim in vermont said...

Trump is a light bringer!

David Begley said...

Ann:

This foolishness will never stop.

I note that Trump went to Fordham, a Jesuit school, for a year or two. Then to Wharton. So, yes, Trump went to the best schools.

Sprezzatura said...

"Somebody kicked my dog Mavis and I'm gonna find out just who the hell it was
I'm all messed up on cough syrup now, so just like nevermind"

buwaya said...

"The best fertility ritual is to ejaculate as many serial impossibilities as ejacu-Tweet allows"

I don't know. You may want to reevaluate your fertility rituals there, that does not seem very effective. There actually are fertility rituals that seem to stand a good chance of working.

Tagalog ladies concerned with this problem, for instance, used to travel to Obando to dance. This involved practice and etc., which may well have improved their attractiveness to their spouses. No doubt it put them in a better mood at least.

The key to fancy, or even magic, is a grounding in reality.

David Begley said...

CNN is just rabid anti-Trump. A parody. Not credible.

Bay Area Guy said...

The Trump critics are so overwrought and so over-the-top, that it actually fortifies (in my mind), Trump's viewpoints, policy prescriptions and demeanor.

It really is like the case of hysterical PC college kids screaming rape where none occurred. (See Rolling Stone UVA article).



traditionalguy said...

The 1776 guys drove out the Royal Governors and fought 8 bloody years to the death to defend their small States they claimed as their own. The 1815 guys drove the best veteran British Army Units fresh from beating Napoleon and its mass Fleet out of the western border of our land to keep the Louisiana Purchase and to unblock the Mississippi River so their States would survive.

Then a group of States chose to form a new Country, and after 3 years they came within winning one battle (at Jonesboro, Georgia) of defeating the invading Armies so their states would survive.

So Confederate soldiers defending their States were not the enemy. The Cotton Plantation capitalists in NYC and London arranging the new wealth that came from feeding cotton to the British Cloth manufacturers were the enemy. They were 10% of the Confederate States citizens that had to defend their States from total war.

So go dishonor yourselves.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

Partisan dog cohorts aside, the unexplored derangement syndrome is an unexplored gold mine of dis-ease among those lumped overall who voted consistently with the great 46.9 percent, that is, those who did not vote at all. If a recent American Spectator article is correct-leaning (“Two Kinds of Trump Supporters”), then pro-Trump means far less "pro" (over recent time trials) and almost exclusively anti-Democrat. There is always a deliberately deranged praxis inculcating chaos, as set-ups for “I am the only one who can fix it,” but this too is really non-partisan, so the non-voting dropouts may be the less deranged bloc of all (on a greater or lesser scale), until shines a better day.

Narayanan said...

Trump is right handed. Nice tech-magickery on the video to switch-swing .

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Black live matter
All lives matter
Police lives matter

D-hack press lives do not matter.

Sprezzatura said...

My baby's got two hands
My baby's got two feet
My baby's got a forehead
And all the chicken you can eat (all right, whoo!)
My baby's got two elbows
My baby sure has a nose
My baby, she's got ten toes
And my baby's got a couple o'those (oh-ho, yeah!)
My baby drives a truck
My baby sure is good luck
My baby has a pet duck
And my baby is a heck of a ffff-riend (woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!)
Yeah, that's right
Somebody kicked my dog Mavis and I'm gonna find out just who the hell it was
I'm all messed up on cough syrup now, so just like nevermind (yes m'am!)

buwaya said...

"It is wrong to Hate Fuck dogs, people."
"Somebody kicked my dog Mavis "

Neither of these would make for a good fertility ritual.

Sam L. said...

Some folks just don't cope well with reality when if disagrees with their fantasies.

Narayanan said...

Trump also studied subjects that are necessary for a producer .

Todd Roberson said...

Funny thing is:

My dad and I took our annual father and son trip this week and stayed down at Lake of the Ozarks. Room came with cable - of course - which I gave up on a long time ago as a complete waste of money. After numerous martinis in the bar we came back to the room and turned on CNN. Then randomly turned it on and off to see how long it took for the name "Trump" to surface each time we turned it on. I don't think I need to tell you the results of our "research" ...

(We nearly crapped our pants laughing as a seven person panel - complete with "Brady Bunch" graphics discussed how "unhinged" Trump is!)

Question for CNN:

Let's say you're right and Trump is a complete - fill in the blank - and needs to be impeached. Let's also assume your influence gets 'er done.

What the hell will you peopl talk about all day?

Browndog said...

If this keeps up, the 46th President may be our last, which ever way the cookie crumbles.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

“ ... The key to fancy, or even magic, is a grounding in reality ...”

Aye! And the only reality in science grounded neo-Darwinian reproduction (since The Golden Bough magica didn’t suit realist-you!) is observable, measurable, and global – superfecundity – as the first step in the grounded science syllogism (Gould’s elaboration), though the more spare and elegant reduction of the statement qua statement (not the observable reality), since we're word-paring here, is simply “mutate-select,” which assumes superfecundity, without saying so, so that the bottom line is always which of the too-many sacred sperm - catch!

Big Mike said...

Well, if you read Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge, by John Ringo and Larry Correia (available through the Althouse Amazon portal), then 57 is a sign from God.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

... it's a description of what is, not convertible (except in Count Vico) to a proposition ... to just keep fucking! ...

buwaya said...

"(since The Golden Bough magica didn’t suit realist-you!)"

On the contrary. These ancients were realists and empiricists.
Respect them.

Sprezzatura said...

"And some may say
When usually it's Nothing
Surely you're happy
It should be this way ?
I say "No, I'm gonna kill my dog""

wholelottasplainin said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...
Tearing down Confederate statues, and beyond, is nothing more than a small minority asserting it's power over the majority, via faux moral superiority.

Who knew that the morally superior majority were those respecting and honoring an attack on the United States and its constitution in order to expand a slaveholding empire from its territory to South America and killing a half million Americans in the process? Wow!

**************

The a-historical TTR strikes again.

South America was where the vast majority of African slaves were taken to, particularly to Brazil. Caribbean colonies were in second place. Sugar plantations, and all that.

If the South wanted to "expand" into those areas they would have been met and opposed by the slave owners already there.

(see Hugh Thomas, "The Slave Trade")




Af

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

“On the contrary. These ancients were realists and empiricists. Respect them.”

Touche! Both for ancient-they and ancient-you, I shall respect! And I do, belovingly.

Does this answer mean that I am saved from the Google all-words search that just now I started - “ asexual hermaphroditic reproduction in reptilians?” Since we’re in confessional mode now?

roesch/voltaire said...

I think the best one was Trump claiming the CNN cameras were shutting down and not streaming his speech while I watched it live--he is a pathological liar and his folks eat it up. Never mind he didn't have the graciousness to pay a few words in tribute to an American senator who has severed his country and now is fighting cancer because it was more important to know that Trump has a house in Charlottesville. He is a tin Trumpet if there ever was one.
.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

"No Sex Needed: All-Female Lizard Species Cross Their Chromosomes to Make Babies"

Scientific American!

This means Hillary election is not preventable!

buwaya said...

"If the South wanted to "expand" into those areas they would have been met and opposed by the slave owners already there."

To be fair, in Central America at least it seemed, on the surface, like very easy pickings.
William Walker took Nicaragua with 60 men, though he couldn't keep it and died badly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(filibuster)

It certainly seemed like even a small-ish Anglo army could achieve great things. But there was a reason the great European powers were leery of this sort of thing, as large white armies in those places had a tendency of becoming very small white armies. The diseases of the place were enormously intensified by the presence of a large number of non-immune hosts.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Ann said:

That reminds me: I think the tearing down of Confederate statues is something people are doing because they can't tear down Trump. It's like kicking the dog after a hard day working for a boss you hate.

YES!

Big Mike said...

@roesch, next to Barack ("if you like your doctor ...") Obama, Trump is a piker.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Not a liar - I would expect CNN to shut down his speech. He was daring them to shut it down.

Anonymous said...

It makes Cillizza look peevish and nit-picky.

Breathing makes Cillizza look peevish and nit-picky.

Todd Roberson said...

Follow up question after a rare day day of CNN (weather wasn't the best at LOTO today):

Is the Russian collusion thing over ... ?

Didn't hear anything about it today after hearing from earnest politicians how goddammed important it is and that we need to get to the bottom of it.

David Begley said...

Todd:

Wrong! Breaking news. Trump aide wrote an email and mentioned Russia and WV. Leak. Impeach. Racist.

roesch/voltaire said...

He was lying don't make excuses-- he claimed the red lights were going off and that they never showed the crowd- both lies not taunts because he knows they will not shut it down any more than he will not watch CNN.

Brookzene said...

If the answer is no, then why, all of a sudden?

But the answer is yes.

Todd Roberson said...

David Begley:

Russia and West Virginia.

Now there's a gal I'd like to meet!

Peace - and bye!

Brookzene said...

Oh, he's obsessed with the media alright. What's more disturbing is how obsessed he is with himself. "Me me me me me me" constantly. He's like a child and that can't end up well.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"hands up don't shoot" liars at CNN - I hardly care if Trump isn't accurate about CNN. Screw CNN.

Bob Ellison said...

Cizzilla is the political editor who thought Trump looking at the sky was a story worth pics and video.

This guy produces for CNN. He's what, 50-ish?

Brookzene said...

He was lying don't make excuses-- he claimed the red lights were going off and that they never showed the crowd- both lies not taunts because he knows they will not shut it down any more than he will not watch CNN.

Sorry, "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" cancels out every lie Trump tells on a daily basis. It's like the card his fans play for him so that he has no responsibility to ever tell the truth to the American people.

Sprezzatura said...

"Now there's a gal I'd like to meet!"

It's cool when folks 'round here (icnl Meade) use "gal" earnestly.

But, I'm thinkin of switchin' to using "broads", since the irony is lost on geez.....er.....I mean temporally-experienced inter tubers, aka the Alt-demo.

Old people are funny.




Brookzene said...

Trump is better than anyone ever was or ever will be

Geez. I wouldn't have even said that about Hitler.

Brookzene said...

Reagan's supposed gaffes.

Trump's supposed gaffes. Heh. That's pretty good.

Sprezzatura said...

"he claimed the red lights were going off and that they never showed the crowd- both lies"

Actually the pro-DJT move would have been to not show the crowd size toward the end of the DJT jabber. Wapo did a piece that noted how many rally participants were leaving even while DJT continued to speak for 75 minutes. Wapo did note that to get in the building these folks stood in 107 deg heat, so it makes sense that folks were dunzo.

Todd Roberson said...

Whoops ... Sorry ...

I meant to say:

"Now there's a cis-gendered heteronormative biological female with whom I'd like - given the proper consent forms and mutually agreed upon ground rules and pronoun usage - to share a frank discussion of gender roles and white male privkedge ... And then bump uglies.

NTTATWWT.

steve uhr said...

Trump is odd in so many ways and all bad ways. Now he is going to shut down the government if Mexico does t pay for the wall? I'm confused

Browndog said...

Trump is odd in so many ways and all bad ways. Now he is going to shut down the government if Mexico does t pay for the wall? I'm confused

No, you're just dishonest.

Tank said...

Hitler was not as fun as our President.

He is the best!

Sprezzatura said...

Todd,

Your still missing the target. Let me help:

"I'm murder city's Sargeant Slaughter
Guaranteed to get more cut than a barber
I betcha I'll drill your heifer like Black & Decker
This pussy wrecker and white water couldn't get it wetter
I'm guaranteed to leave her swiss cheese for more cheddar"

Sprezzatura said...

"No, you're just dishonest."

Actually DJT may wanna pay attention to this point.

R's always loose the gov shutdown debate anyway.

But this time it's much worse:

--Total R control of gov
--DJT is saying he'll shut the gov if American tax payers don't pay for the wall that he promised would not be paid for by American tax payers.


Sheesh.

Todd Roberson said...

3rdGrade -

I'd like to continue this enlightening discussion, but unfortunately my mom has now grounded me and taken away my privilege - not my white privilege - but my access to the Commodore computer I use to access the inter web.

Thus - peace - and goodnight!

Gretchen said...

57 quotes Chris thought were annoying. Chris get over yourself. If the press treated Trump fairly, he wouldn't obsess about crowd size. It drives the press crazy that he gets around them by tweeting and getting out to rallies.

Every Trump voter I know hates the NeoNazis. They are not racists. They also know it is possible to condemn both Antifa and Nazis. Peace protesters don't wear black masks or carry clubs. Every Trump voter I know is sick of the left and sick of being called a Neo Nazi. The left is eerily like the Red Guard.

Rabel said...

"It's like kicking the dog after a hard day working for a boss you hate."

That's good. But I'm pretty sure a lot of little doggies would tell you that it's not entirely metaphorical. They have given in to anger.

Kitties too. Especially kitties. For the most part they look like cat people to me.

buwaya said...

His criticisms of the mass media are quite specific.

Yes there are petty bits here and there - but his judgement about the importance of "petty" things is certainly better than mine.

But lets consider substance - matters that he raised in the speech. A healthy republic would thrash important matters out in the open, but the venues for this thrashing out prevent this from happening. They actively suppress the discussion.

Trump discussed -

- The impact of illegal immigration is something the media has carefully avoided, as also the cultural and economic consequences thereof. There is absolutely zero substance in the media. There is no great debate out in public between, say, Zuckerberg and Borjas. There should be battling spreadsheets, but no. The other side does not dare be candid.

- There is, likewise, no substantial discussion on the means whereby illegal immigration is to be reduced (the wall, say), and this includes the change (the great reduction) in the rate of illegal immigration. This is a major matter rarely discussed.
Nobody wants to even discuss the (very necessary and overdue) immigration bill on its merits.
It does not exist, even as no-one wants to speak against it.

- The filibuster rule. Is there an argument here? Is there a defense? No.

- And healthcare reform. Again, substance, argument on merits, or of the condition of the current mess? Not a bit, not an ounce.

- And etc. really, at some length, a bit of a state of his mind across the board on his worries and achievements.

I feel his frustration. There is substance to work on and hash out, and to fight over. But the other side simply refuses to put their cards on the table, to come clean on WHY they oppose this or prefer that. They prefer to fight him on HOW he says XYZ, and not what he says. It is a cosmically dishonest performance.

He is not the first Republican executive who has been opposed with this disingenuous rigamarole. He is the first to have fought back. Whatever his infelicities that is his great achievement.

He is Falstaff, vain and boastful and no true gentleman, but yet a man, against the Devil himself and his demonic hordes.

D.E. Cloutier said...

Re: Confederate Statues

Instead of worrying about old statues, protesters should focus on modern-day slavery -- the Nigerian women forced into prostitution in Europe, the Mexican women forced into prostitution in the United States, the Asian men forced to work as slaves on fishing vessels in Southeast Asia, and the Afghan, Yazidi, and African women forced by Islamists to live as sex slaves.

Meanwhile, protesters who are stuck in the past should check out this book: "Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, The Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800" by Robert C. Davis.

From the History Department, Ohio State University: "In this book, Davis uses many new historical sources to re-examine one of the least understood forms of human bondage in modern times -- the systematic enslavement of white, Christian Europeans by the Muslims of North Africa's Barbary Coast. Far from the minor phenomenon that many have assumed it to be, white slavery in the Maghreb turns out, in Davis's account, to have had enormous consequences, ensnaring as many as a million victims from France and Italy to Spain, Holland, Great Britain, the Americas, and even Iceland in the centuries when it flourished between 1500 and 1800."

Ohio State University link:
https://history.osu.edu/publications/christian-slaves-muslim-masters-white-slavery-mediterranean-barbary-coast-and-italy

Davis bio:
https://history.osu.edu/people/davis.711

Palgrave Macmillan published the book.

You can find the book at Amazon.

Browndog said...

Every time there is a government shutdown, like over Planned Parenthood, they blame the republicans...


Then along came Trump-

gadfly said...

[Althouse] ended up skimming, but ... stopped at #28 and laughed:

"Now, you know, I was a good student. I always hear about the elite. You know, the elite. They're elite? I went to better schools than they did. I was a better student than they were. I live in a bigger, more beautiful apartment, and I live in the White House, too, which is really great."

Not outrageous, just Trump being Trump. I guess for some people any of Trump's Trumpish statements are experienced as outrageous and perhaps Cillizza is entertaining them or helping them with their horrible mood.

I used Trump's words in a readability calculator and got scores mostly below fifth grade. so Trumps good schools and good grades by a good student didn't help his intelligence level. Frightening but not funny.

Text Readability Consensus Calculator

Purpose: Our Text Readability Consensus Calculator uses 7 popular readability formulas to calculate the average grade level, reading age, and text difficulty of your sample text.


Your Results:

Flesch Reading Ease score: 87.7 (text scale)
Flesch Reading Ease scored your text: easy to read.
[ f ] | [ a ] | [ r ]


Gunning Fog: 5.6 (text scale)
Gunning Fog scored your text: fairly easy to read.
[ f ] | [ a ] | [ r ]


Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 3
Grade level: Third Grade.
[ f ] | [ a ] | [ r ]


The Coleman-Liau Index: 5
Grade level: Fifth Grade
[ f ] | [ a ] | [ r ]


The SMOG Index: 4.4
Grade level: Fourth Grade
[ f ] | [ a ] | [ r ]


Automated Readability Index: 1.2
Grade level: 6-8 yrs. old (First and Second graders)
[ f ] | [ a ] | [ r ]


Linsear Write Formula : 3.4
Grade level: Third Grade.
[ f ] | [ a ] | [ r ]


buwaya said...

Here again, what is the comment?
About HOW he says things?

That is, at bottom, completely dishonest.
It is a vile way to argue.

Michael K said...

"a few words in tribute to an American senator who has severed his country "

Well I wouldn't be that harsh. He did kill 160 some sailors when the jet he was supposed to be flying had a "wet start" and set off a huge fire that almost sank the aircraft carrier they were all on.

gadfly is obsessed with the grade level of Trump's speeches.

CNN is looking like the insane asylum TV station,

other than that, all is proceeding as planned.

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

... Public-Trump isn’t to be read literarily, he’s not a Thomist ... Trump’s a master oralist ... see Jesuit oral-proxy scholar Walter Ong ... at campfires everywhere, speaking elemental bytes to specific audiences, tailored orally (by Big Data) to fit local lineages ... literary standards and objective criteria for literature just don’t apply ... Private-Trump’s first language is mathematics ... and he’s no more telling us his secret mathematica of crunched-numbers than Soros tells of us his polydox algorithms for harvesting global currencies ... trade secrets ... we campfire folklore addicts may only listen ... and watch ... the results ... puzzling in the meantime over the attractor of arcana and showmanship ... until ...

Bay Area Guy said...

Cilliza Bill of Particular No. 58:

In 2000, Trump' failure to support Dingell-Norwood

Birkel said...

Use big words and complex sentence structure so Leftists like gadfly will like you, President Trump. That's the ticket.

iowan2 said...

Isn't this the same story the NYT tried? All the proof that President Trump is a racist, only they too, struck out?

The Acela corridor is the only population that believes the MSM. Most of the rest of the country, has real life to live, and are forced to deal in reality. Only the fringe on the socialist left are getting their cues from Cilliza and the rest of that cabal.

Browndog said...

One has to ask: How many in this country want a civil war?

The follow up is: How many that want a civil war think they will not have to fight it?

Ralph L said...

Use big words and complex sentence structure
Press your pants and name-drop Reinhold Niebuhr.

buwaya said...

But Feste,

If I understand you correctly,
The argument here is quite a lot more basic than an oral vs written preference. Its not really a matter of preferences, or mindsets or anything of the sort.

I am a dull fellow, but good at getting to the nub of things. What we have here is quite simply a side with no secrets that is demanding truth from another that prefers to deal in lies, or rather, cannot do other than lie. Because the underlying truths cannot be revealed.

It is truly a Manichaean situation.

buwaya said...

You could write like Pynchon or speak like Branagh (or choose your favorite British Shakespearian). It makes no difference, because that is not the point. It is all squid-ink.

Guildofcannonballs said...

https://cumulus.hillsdale.edu/Buckley/index2.html#1503546619192_1

These #^#%# can pull their heads out of the genitalia and assholes and read up on Buckley.

And quake.

Quake in fear.

We got fucking New Yorker running this bitch now. President Donald Trump. So go read your Buckley, and figure out just how you are supposed to want to be acting to gain that favor you covet.

Earnest Prole said...

I used Trump's words in a readability calculator and got scores mostly below fifth grade. so Trumps good schools and good grades by a good student didn't help his intelligence level. Frightening but not funny.

That may be the stoopidest thing I've ever read in Althouse's comments (and that's saying something). Those who speak at a fifth-grade level are understood by everyone. Those who speak at a post-graduate level are understood by virtually no one. If your job is to be understood by everyone, what's the smart choice?

richard mcenroe said...

Why I trust the media:
"TRUMP IS CRAZY! TRUMP IS EVIL! MELANIA TRUMP WEARS HEELS THAT WILL SEND WOMEN STRAIGHT TO THE BREEDING CAMPS! oh, there's a hurricane coming ashore just down the road from you BANNON DRESSES FUNNY...!"

Achilles said...

Brookzene said...
Oh, he's obsessed with the media alright. What's more disturbing is how obsessed he is with himself. "Me me me me me me" constantly. He's like a child and that can't end up well.

You mean like Obama?

Jael (Gone Windwalking) said...

buwaya

Yes. Well said. More true overall than my lack of focus on press wars which I consider boring because of Machiavellian predictability.

I think Trump told the truth - in oral style - about Charlottesville before and after, but not when he orally used texted teleprompters. I’m with Michael K on the limited proposition that Trump lost too much and gained nothing in return for dumping protectionist Bannon, as a source either for text or speech, or plain heart against globalist Machiavellian presses who still love Trump no more for dumping Bannon. Zero sum.

On the real language of hidden numbers (econometrics) nobody has published (if anyone knows) solutions to the Mundell–Fleming economic number problems at global levels, and, I judged Bannon’s protectionism as at least a partial solution to them, but only temporary and not as a final destination, because those numbers remain intractable, and no sinister imputation of motive is needed to know that.

Trump’s prose statements as “truth-statements” exist mutually, maybe exclusively, in his mind and in the minds of his convinced followers, and consensus, or lack of consensus, doesn’t in my mind confer material qualities to whatever Trump says (a nod to your fair realism), and whether in the future Trump’s statements correspond to some sort of Count Vico riff (what is made/created is what is real) is yet to be seen (so is maybe, maybe not), but I refuse to grant truth status to his statements sui generis, admiring some, but not others, as highly entertaining, and as fun qualities that Hillary lacked, but Trump’s “Art of the Deal” (if you’ve read it) favors imagination as a first and prerequisite qualia, with the trick being making private imagination shared, and that’s really tough stuff.

Achilles said...

The budget showdown comes.

Go to the comments for the real fun. The WAPO wholesale manipulates and sanitizes their comments. It looks like they gave up here.

I think there might be 7 people outside of DC who would object to every member of congress being lined up shot in the junk with pepper spray every day they don't pass a real budget.

Trump went easy on them with Obamacare. I hope he breaks them this time. In the case there is no budget the president determines which bills get paid.

Is there a person other than Hillary who has fallen farther than Paul Ryan?

Carter Wood said...

Bruce Springsteen: 57 channels (and nothin' on)

walter said...

gadfly said...I used Trump's words in a readability calculator..
--
Don't worry gadfly.
You're hands are (still) clean...

Alex said...

I did think the school & apartment quotes were kind of silly, otherwise great speech. Great night. I also loved how Trump said antifa. He's almost a performance artist at this point.

Unknown said...

Trump flip-flops again. (NYTimes)

Between Teleprompter Trump and Unplugged Trump.

Luv it.

Unknown said...

@Unknown says Trump is Deranged, Why Isn't It Exceedingly Evident to You Syndrome

Because Trumpuppets think and believe what Trump says. A couple of decades of Fox News will do that. Read recently most public TVs (eg. bars) in flyover country are always switched onto to Fox News.

Unknown said...

"It seems he is just always focused on Russia," one senior GOP aide said. (Politico after Trump-Corker and Trump-Mitchell calls).

Russia, Russia, Russia. Everything else Trump says and does is just a distraction.

Kevin said...

If this column by Chris Cillizza counts as "Trump Derangement Syndrome,"

If?

Public: What did Trump say at the event last night?
Chris: Fifty-seven things I didn't like!

Kevin said...

Read recently most public TVs (eg. bars) in flyover country are always switched onto to Fox News.

Fascinating! Not the fact itself but that you had so little exposure to 85% of the country that this counted as news to you.

Here's another: most public TVs (eg. bars) in Boston are always switched onto to [sic] MSNBC.

tim in vermont said...

Russia, Russia, Russia. Everything else Trump says and does is just a distraction.

Just a distraction from what an admitted troll who is not here to discuss anything, just to deride, I forget your exact words, Unknown, just a distraction from what you want us to think about.

Whatever. The scooper trustworthy oxymoronically named intelligence agencies said so! All seventeen! With secret evidence they won't share! Those same agencies that leaks have shown can leave whatever tracks they wish on a hack, Those same agencies whose leadership was put in place by the same Obama who corrupted the IRS for political purposes.

Yeah. We should only think about that!

tim in vermont said...

Because Trumpuppets think and believe what Trump says.

You know what? You have no idea what people who don't think exactly like you think. It's been shown over an over again.


A couple of decades of Fox News will do that. Read recently most public TVs (eg. bars) in flyover country are always switched onto to Fox News.

Yeah! You've never been to "Flyover country" but you know good and well who should be ruling over that foreign land and what they need! How many conservative friends do you have? My bet is zero.

tim in vermont said...

Is there a person other than Hillary who has fallen farther than Paul Ryan?

I don't know how we get rid of him. When he sold us out on Obamacare as almost his first official act, by agreeing to eliminate the main pain-points for Democrats on the ACA without discussion and without asking for anything in return, I knew he was the wrong guy for the job.

tim in vermont said...

But Feste,

If I understand you correctly,


You're not alone!

Matt Sablan said...

The part about the statues feels true to me. They were a miniscule issue up to a few weeks ago when this exploded shortly after the Russia narrative started to die.

tim in vermont said...

The school responded to the incident with an inscrutable Twitter thread. “This occurrence and the responses on social media that followed emphasized the need for and importance of human interaction,” one installment read.

From the article linked by Ferdenande, the above was "inscrutable" to the lefty writer. Which goes to show the point I made above about clueless fools like Unknown.

The Twitter account for Howard’s dining hall was more forthright: “We will take any action necessary to ensure that HU students feel safe& comfortable in our dining spaces.

Now we are in our comfort zone, repeating lefty tropes about how fucking college students shouldn't be exposed to any ideas that they don't like, and need to be kept safe from any interactions that might make them think, or might allow them to understand the other side's POV. No fraternizing with the enemy!

Unknown could have written the article above, and I get he is completely mystified why people might think it is unintentionally hilarious.

Big Mike said...

You mean like Obama?

Oh, Obama was way worse than Trump in his use of the pronouns "I", "me", and " my".

tim in vermont said...

Well I wouldn't be that harsh. He[John McCain] did kill 160 some sailors when the jet he was supposed to be flying had a "wet start" and set off a huge fire that almost sank the aircraft carrier they were all on.

I hope none of the three plucky and redoubtable naval officers who bravely put themselves between McCain and the bottom of his class at Annapolis were hurt!

tim in vermont said...

Gerard Baker, the editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, has faced unease and frustration in his newsroom over his stewardship of the newspaper’s coverage of President Trump, which some journalists there say has lacked toughness and verve.

Some staff members expressed similar concerns on Wednesday after Mr. Baker, in a series of blunt late-night emails, criticized his staff over their coverage of Mr. Trump’s Tuesday rally in Phoenix, describing their reporting as overly opinionated.

“Sorry. This is commentary dressed up as news reporting,” Mr. Baker wrote at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday morning to a group of Journal reporters and editors, in response to a draft of the rally article that was intended for the newspaper’s final edition.

He added in a follow-up, “Could we please just stick to reporting what he said rather than packaging it in exegesis and selective criticism?”
. - The New York Times from Drudge

The New York Times saw fit to print this story as evidence that the editor is in trouble for insufficient "verve" in criticism of Trump.

Heaven forfend that we the facts should be reported and paying readers should be given a fair shot at forming their own opinions!

Brookzene said...

You mean like Obama?

Trump it's always about what the press thinks or said about him (not about his policies). Me me me me me. It was on perfect display in Phoenix ("I don't wanna bore you..."). Perfect picture of neediness and insecurity (like CNN turning the cameras off on him). He's emotionally stunted. Retarded. Frightened.

Obama was never like that. He was very secure with who he was and his capacity to carry out his responsibilities.

Of course if you don't have the judgment to see the difference between an emotionally needy man and one who is secure, ymmv.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Mike said...

Ah, Michael K, let's not go there. The fire aboard the Forrestal in 1967 was not McCain's fault; he was a victim. In an effort to maintain a high sortie rate the command leadership on the Forrestal deliberately directed short cuts in the safety procedures while also being forced to employ leftover and less safe WWII ordnance. A Zuni rocket was accidentally triggered on a plane at the rear of the flight deck and it blew up among planes, including McCain's, fully refueled and ready to launch. Most of the ship's trained firefighters died in the initial blast, which did not help. 134 (not 160) sailors died.

tim in vermont said...

Of course if you don't have the judgment to see the difference between an emotionally needy man and one who is secure, ymmv.

If you like your plan, you can keep your plan, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor! Obama was secure enough to lie about issues that affect personally and even intimately nearly every single fucking American.

Big Mike said...

Obama was never like that.

What planet have you been on for the past eight years? Conservative commentators made sport of Obama's relentless use of the first person singular pronoun.

If you're bound and determined to lie, at least tell something plausible.

Big Mike said...

Getting back to Althouse's original post, Wharton really is the number one B-school in the country.

MikeR said...

For President Obama, it would be the 57 times he swore: "If you like your current health care plan, you can keep your health care plan - period."
In terms of malice and damage, I doubt Mr. Trump has anything to match it.

tim in vermont said...

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/i-me-obama-uses-first-person-pronoun-117-times-1-speech

Good point Bankwalker Mike! Of course this stuff never got reported in the mainstream press, which found time to list 57 statements that they didn't agree with and which caused them "outrage" for that reason. Seems like some folks are too easily outraged for their own good health.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

I think there is actually some logic in treating Confederate statues as a proxy for Trump. (No, I don't think Trump has any sympathy for the losers who go to Confederate gatherings). Progressives were mad about the election result for a couple of reasons.
1. They think they have a kind of scientific understanding of history--which forces are winning, and which are losing. Anybody who doesn't share the faith is practically attacking Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. The Confederates are historical losers, and should (according to this view) be treated accordingly.
2. They identify, or pretend to identify, with the people who are still somehow disadvantaged despite all the progress that has been made. Acceptance of the status quo is unacceptably right-wing from the point of view of those who have not yet made it--possibly including women in general. So going back to anything earlier (I think in some ways Trump belongs in the 50s), is even more reactionary. If you are not progressive, it follows that you oppose the interests of, and therefore hate, the oppressed. Any kind of gentle tolerance of all the Confederate bullshit seems to confirm that a substantial number of Americans are in this camp.
Surely there is something weird about the recognition of Confederates not only remaining, but growing. I don't think these folks are nearly as likely to be violent as antifa or Black Lives Matter, but they do seem to have the idea that the return of slavery would be a good thing. I still like Althouse's idea of a kind of confrontation of different and sometimes opposing statues/memorials/plaques with historical information. Can the federal government play a role, rather than leaving it to mobs?

Chuck said...

Kevin said...
"If this column by Chris Cillizza counts as 'Trump Derangement Syndrome',"

If?

Public: What did Trump say at the event last night?
Chris: Fifty-seven things I didn't like!


Well, the reason that I questioned why there isn't a "Trump's Own Media Derangement Syndrome" tag is because so much of the stuff that Trump says about the media is nothing but deranged.

~At the same moment that Trump was saying that the fake news media would never show the size of the crowd in the arena in Phoenix, the camera was sweeping a wide shot of the size of the crowd in Phoenix.

~When Trump talks about "the failing New York Times," and nobody watching CNN, Trump is wrong on the facts. New York Times readership is up dramatically. So is WaPo readership. CNN ratings are much better than before Trump.

~When Trump mentioned his former CNN butt-boy Jeff Lord, Trump said nothing about the openly stated reason for Lord's dismissal; Lord had posted "Sieg Heil" to a liberal activist on Twitter. Trump seemed to want to blame the firing on Lord's having done too good a job of explaining Trump. Maybe both things were true. Sieg heil.

~ Item number 14 in Cillizza's list was this: 14. "If you're reading a story about somebody, you don't know. You assume it's honest, because it's like the failing New York Times, which is like so bad. It's so bad." Remember about six months ago, when Trump visited the Times offices and did a lengthy sit-down with the editors, and when Trump said that "the Times is a great, great American jewel..."? Deranged.

~ Then there was the part where -- as Chris Cillizza noted -- Trump was rambling on about how the television "red lights" were being turned off. Trump was referring to the lights on television cameras that illuminate when that camera is selected by the program director to deliver the video feed. Trump was suggesting that many television outlets were shutting off their broadcasting of his speech because they didn't like what Trump was saying. That wasn't true. Nobody did that. Again; it's nothing so much as "deranged."

And so on, and so forth. Yeah; there are the routine misstatements and political lies told by Donald Trump (all of which are an order of magnitude above other politicians). But then, with Trump, there are the truly deranged comments. Things that are disprovable on the spot, but which Trump feels the need to claim with all his being as true and with apparent unawareness as to how wrong he is or what he is even doing. Deranged. A Derangement Syndrome.

Roughcoat said...

That reminds me: I think the tearing down of Confederate statues is something people are doing because they can't tear down Trump. It's like kicking the dog after a hard day working for a boss you hate.

Bingo.

Chuck said...

MikeR said...
For President Obama, it would be the 57 times he swore: "If you like your current health care plan, you can keep your health care plan - period."
In terms of malice and damage, I doubt Mr. Trump has anything to match it.

I would say that by far, Donald Trump has made more recklessly untrue promises about health care reform than Barack Obama ever did.

Trump said he'd promote a plan where there were no cuts to Medicare or Medicaid; that everyone would get better coverage, lower premiums, lower co-pays, lower deductibles, and that he would lower drug prices. That a Trump plan would "cover everyone" and that "the government" would "have to pay" for that.

The only reason that Trump is not a complete liar on a scale of about 100 times what Obama said, is that Trump never had the political wherewithal to get any sort of plan passed. Politically crippled, Trump's only hope was to pass something, anything that would allow him to claim a victory in the press in the form of a "repeal" of "Obamacare." Trump got nothing done, and so he is thereby saved from being a complete liar.

Michael K said...

Blogger Big Mike said...
Ah, Michael K, let's not go there. The fire aboard the Forrestal in 1967 was not McCain's fault;


That is certainly the majority view but there are other opinions based on some theories that he was being protected as the CincPAC's son.

I don't fault him at all for flying his missions.

Michael K said...

I would say that by far, Donald Trump has made more recklessly untrue promises about health care reform than Barack Obama ever did.

Chuck has finally jumped the shark. Chuck, you can sound reasonable one day, then insane the next.

Roughcoat said...

I oppose pulling down Confederate statutes for precisely the opposite reason. It's a form of support for Trump. Or, it's a way expressing my antipathy toward the sort of people who oppose Trump. I don't really care about Confederate statutes. But there's a principle involved. I don't like the sort of people who pull down Confederate statues not so much because they hate Confederates and Trump but because they're the sort of people they are. Does that make sense?

MikeR said...

"I would say that by far, Donald Trump has made more recklessly untrue promises about health care reform than Barack Obama ever did." Wow.
"The only reason that Trump is not a complete liar on a scale of about 100 times what Obama said, is that Trump never had the political wherewithal to get any sort of plan passed." No. The reason is that he was _just talking_. I am stunned that there is yet an American who hasn't figured this out about Donald Trump. Like the rest of us - unlike all politicians - he just talks. He throws out ideas, and suggestions, and wild dreams.
Unlike politician Mr. Obama, who was part of a massive carefully crafted campaign to mislead the American people, with a promise that Politifact found True for a while until they shifted it slightly to Lie of the Year when they finally noticed. Malice, and damage.
Anyone who is collecting the Complete Words of Donald Trump as evidence is entirely out of touch with reality. No offense. Time you noticed.

Jess said...

Trump says things some find outrageous. Still, he's the President, controls the military, has the backing of those that are staunch supporters of the Second Amendment, and he can play the media any time he wants.

While the detractors steadily deteriorate to the point of foaming at the mouth, those that perform a service more substantial than the creation of sentences are seeing their opportunities becoming better. They control the production of tangible objects, and they are not happy with the attempts to destroy the country they keep operating.

Brookzene said...


While the detractors steadily deteriorate to the point of foaming at the mouth, those that perform a service more substantial than the creation of sentences are seeing their opportunities becoming better. They control the production of tangible objects, and they are not happy with the attempts to destroy the country they keep operating.


The trouble is Trump is not just the president of his base. He doesn't know how to be competently be president of all of the United States. Granted it's a tough job and not everyone's done it well in the past, but his failure to lead all of us is nearly catastrophic, to the point that he's asking to be removed. I personally think it's 50-50 he will resign but ymmv.

Ralph L said...

That is certainly the majority view but there are other opinions based on some theories that he was being protected as the CincPAC's son.
His father was CINCUSNAVEUR (Europe) at the time (and my father's boss), still a very high rank. He became CINCPAC a year after the fire (and again my father's boss).

GRW3 said...

For the six plus decades of network TV, the shows, both drama and comedy, have portrayed important New York City people as bold, brash and self promoting. OK, we got it, it's an image you like to promote (as you probably know the image of elite chic probably would not play as well). So when New York City Icon Donald Trump comes along, we aren't surprised he's bold, brash and self promoting. For "woke" people, the elite seem pretty low wattage.

Curious George said...

"Chuck said...
MikeR said...
For President Obama, it would be the 57 times he swore: "If you like your current health care plan, you can keep your health care plan - period."
In terms of malice and damage, I doubt Mr. Trump has anything to match it.

I would say that by far, Donald Trump has made more recklessly untrue promises about health care reform than Barack Obama ever did."

Chuck comparing campaign rhetoric with a direct lie by a sitting President to get a bill passed. Chuck is a dishonest weasel fuck like his GOP buddies, who are right behind Obama, in the eight years of lies about repealing Obamacare. Chuck the weasel fuck likes to make claim that Ryan passed a bill that was defeated in Congress. What Chuck the weasel fuck won't tell you is that it is not the straight repeal bill that they were passing when Obama was in office and it had no chance of surviving a veto.

Brookzene said...

Trump says things some find outrageous.

I mostly don't like that words like "outrageous" - they're emotive, tend towards getting a reaction and just get in the way of clear understanding.

"Trump says a lot of things that are untrue, self-serving, and distract from his agenda." That's clear and accurate as far as I can see, and it's a lot more helpful for someone to argue against or figure out what to do about it.

Big Mike said...

I would say that by far, Donald Trump has made more recklessly untrue promises about health care reform than Barack Obama ever did.

And I would say that you're simply wrong.

I think Donald Trump cares more about real people who work for a living. More than Barack Obama, more than Hillary Clinton, more than Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi, and certainly more than you.

Todd said...

Well based on the level of media we currently have, "Good morning" is considered an outrageous Trump quote...

Michael K said...

his failure to lead all of us is nearly catastrophic, to the point that he's asking to be removed. I personally think it's 50-50 he will resign

It's hard to tell if this is just a mis statement or a real indication of delusion.

Have you noticed thousands holding "Not My President " signs ?

Thousands holding "Resist" signs ?

Right after the election he made some conciliatory remarks about being president of everyone.

He was met with riots. Millions in damages in DC on Inauguration Day.

Obama has set up a "shadow government" in DC to try to undercut Trump.

The Democrats are blocking or "slow walking" his nominations.

They did the same thing to Bush but that got us 9/11 and they backed off.

Trump and his voters are dealing with an attempt to start a Civil War.

Now we have "John Brown Clubs" to provide ANTIFA with better weapons, than clubs and bottles of piss and coke cans filled with concrete,

Do you really think the armed forces are going to side with a bunch of left wingers who destroy the culture ?

Freder Frederson said...

Chuck comparing campaign rhetoric with a direct lie by a sitting President to get a bill passed.

Bullshit. As a sitting President, Trump continued lying about the Obamacare replacement.

Chuck said...

Michael K said...
"I would say that by far, Donald Trump has made more recklessly untrue promises about health care reform than Barack Obama ever did."

Chuck has finally jumped the shark. Chuck, you can sound reasonable one day, then insane the next.

I'm right! For every false healthcare promise you can give me that was uttered by Obama, I'll give you two from Trump. The apples-and-oranges aspect is of course the fact that Obama got his law passed, with a 60-vote majority in the Senate and later a 59-vote majority with reconciliation. So Obama has to answer for something that got done. Trump doesn't have to answer for any law because he never got a law passed.

Freder Frederson said...

He was met with riots. Millions in damages in DC on Inauguration Day.

You are so full of shit. Yes, there was some property damage on Inauguration day (which again I must reiterate, because you will claim I support these thugs), but millions? Bullshit.

Big Mike said...

Well, Brookie, there was this silly game that the press and the drooling Democrats used to play, where they'd parse what Reagan or one of the Bushes said down to the slightest comma, find something that they could plausibly say was wrong, and try to turn it into a club to beat him with. Reagan pretty much ignored the game, but the Bushes, having been raised as gentlemen, took it seriously, to their detriment. But after watching eight years of Barack Obama getting a pass on the most outlandish falsehoods, and ditto for Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and presidential candidate, the real human beings in this country can't be bothered with your foolish game and we delight in Trump positively getting in Democrat faces with his hyperbole.

Gsme's over; you lost.

Freder Frederson said...

Not outrageous, just Trump being Trump.

So an outright lie you just pass off as "Trump being Trump". Your need to lower your standards to defend Trump is getting quite pathetic. I almost feel sorry for you.

Big Mike said...

@Freder, go talk to Muhammad Ashraf.

Known Unknown said...

57 channels and nothing on.

Brookzene said...

Right after the election he made some conciliatory remarks about being president of everyone.

Oh, he always says things that he doesn't believe to appease people he worries and then reverts immediately into his true form. Since then what has he done to be president of everyone? He's the most confrontational politician of our age (if you want to open it up to outsiders Dutarte might give him a run for his money). These kinds of statements of his are always obviously self-serving and never backed by follow-up action or even words - they are forgotten. That's because they are self-serving.

Right after the election he also said "I was very honored, very, very honored when I heard that President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton was coming today, I think it is appropriate to say it. Honestly, there is nothing more I can say because I have a lot of respect for those two people."

Did you believe that, too? Or is that more evidence of his willingness to be president of all Americans? Give me a break.


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