He's Basically Useless

 

Trump posted the above impotent whinge on his dreadful Truth Social account, and I suppose someone may have let Putin know about it and if they did, I am sure of one thing. 

Putin would have laughed his ass off.  It's pathetic. It reeks of frustration:

The exchange shined a light on a rising sense of exasperation among the president and his advisers at his inability to mount a successful pressure campaign against Putin to end the war. Trump bristled at a reporter’s suggestion that he had not applied pressure to the Russian leader.

“You don’t know what pressure I’m putting on Russia,” Trump snapped. “We’re putting a lot of pressure on Russia, and Russia knows that.”

Trump then argued that “it takes two to tango, and you have to have Ukraine want to make a deal, too.”

Moscow, he said, has already made a substantial concession by not “taking the whole country.”

“Stopping the war,” he said, is a “pretty big concession.”

Part of Trump's frustration may well be not knowing exactly what a "concession" is. It's possible he only recently abandoned that idea that it meant someone was selling hot dogs and sodas during the negotiations. When Trump says "You don't know what pressure I'm putting on Russia," though, I believe that part--it's just that Russia doesn't seem to be aware of it either. That's why THIS IS NOT WORKING.

Greenland Gets a Visit from the Creepy Neighbors

 You know, you could imagine a world where the US was a good neighbor, the kind you could borrow salt from in a pinch, the kind that didn't threaten territorial expansion, where Usha Vance could have had a nice little three-day vacation, seen the sights, taken in a sled dog race, mingled with the locals--without being protested. Sure, they might not have been as thrilled to see her husband, but that would only because Jerkwater Dipshit Vance is kind of a pill. 

We don't live in that world now. We live in a world where people went door-knocking to see if anyone wanted to visit with the Second Lady and everyone in Greenland was like, "Hard pass." 

This is why what could have been a nice little weekend became three hours at Pituffik AFB, where VP Vance, with servicemembers as a backdrop, made a kind of creepy speech in Greenland's general direction, with comments that sounded along the lines of, "Nice but very cold place, would be a shame if something happened to it," and "Denmark could never love you the way we could."

Every Picture Tells A Story

 

https://t.co/4WcVZ6oW4w pic.twitter.com/RvHmjuyWIN

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) March 22, 2025

I am trying not to see Steve Witkoff's interview with Tucker Carlson in the worst possible way and there is not actually a not-bad way to view it. First of all, Tucker Carlson? Second if all--we are just going to pass on with a straight face that the former KGB agent prayed after the Butler incident as if that is not serious applications of narcissist lube?

And of course we are, because Witkoff is another fucking significance-junky looking to get high off ego strokes. This is a personality the Kremlin is totally aware of. But what sends me is the idea of a portrait.

Trump's "charity" slush funds was all about Trump portraits.  All Trump ever wanted to know about himself was that he oughta be in pictures. (Can someone help me with a thing where I wonder why Trump sees himself as Norma Desmond, Grizabella and Evita?) He's a just a diva. And Witlesskopf is playing very stupid and credulous, too.

And it doesn't appear to be an act. 

Not for the first time, I find myself wondering if anybody knows how to play this game? Look, stupid rich fuckboys, I THOUGHT, at least were sent out in the world with some idea that the world was going to try to blow smoke up their skirts and to be careful of being rolled. Ane here these putzes sit, heaven's own bocce balls. Innocent as little fawns in a sunlight-gilded bower in the eye of a sniper rifle. 

Playing a Weak Hand of Trump Cards

 

Trump has been saying that Ukraine "doesn't have any cards" but I've noticed that Trump kept publicly sweetening the deal (no NATO for Ukraine? cede territory?) just to get Putin to this point--a phone call, as if suspecting Putin is the actual harder person to bring to the table and hoping he could do it with an "all carrot, no stick" approach. 

People sometimes ask what Lincoln or Reagan would have made of the peculiar character who leads their party. Today I'm thinking of Theodore Roosevelt, who said, "Talk softly and carry a large stick." Trump might talk loudly, but who knows what "big stick" he would ever use on the one man he never criticizes? 

 He got his phone call, though--after being made to wait and being cut up by Putin amongst his real homies. His 30-day ceasefire was pretty much rejected, as Putin heaped thoroughly unacceptable conditions into the mix. Trump seems unfazed that he has been disrespected, again. 

Trump, the irascible, the petty, the critic of or his critics--he doesn't feel any need at all to respond to Putin? What gives? 

Yes, Donald, He Is Disrespecting You

 

Reporter: Do you believe Putin is disrespecting you by attacking Ukraine?

Trump: What did he do? Is he disrespecting me? Who are you with? pic.twitter.com/4tAwEQlRec

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 10, 2025

Desperate weak boychild Trump doesn't get it--Putin isn't his bestie. That's part of what made him so mad when President Zelenskyy quite correctly pointed out that Putin had violated ceasefires before. Trump was MAD, I tell you! Because who would dare to question the rilly rilly tight bestie relationship Trump had with the guy who very obviously did not support an entire bot/disinfo network to make him president as if he was a total fucking patsy who could be easily manipulated into rolling over for Russia by financial or conspiracy theory means? Putin thought he was a useful tool-a puppet? As if!

Trump has complained a few times lately that Putin went through the Mueller investigation (the "Russia, Russia, Russia hoax") and maybe is also pretty sure the first impeachment impacted on Putin as well. 

Was he on the phone with his bestie? Did Putin comfort him and tell him they were in it together? 

Because whatever Trump was going through, Putin was safe in Moscow laughing his ass off that the US was having some chaos. No way, no how, was Putin BOTHERED in any way about what happened to Trump. 

Look at Jeremiad Dispenser Vance, Telling Stories

 

One of the things that allegedly happened today was that Jabbering Defendant Vance, noticing that his Munich speech and his sabotage of Zelenskyy in the Oval office and the entire pro-Russia side the current Administration has been taking was a "Bad PR THING", decided to tell stories about taking his three year old for a walk. (Do we walkies our toddlers now to help them toilet or WTF? Because this is what my Boomer parents do for their Boston Terrier. Me and my brother did our toddler doodies in the wee people pot. Like a very long time ago, so maybe I don't know how the millennial parents are managing baby shit right this minute. Maybe we walkies our toddlers to protests because it's never too late to rub your kid's face in your crapulence. I'm not a parent. I'm just saying--bet? No cap? How sway? Or whatever the kids say these days about these things.)

I do know how to manage insufferable political lying dipshits though, because while I never had babies, I have the craziest scruples about people who have Secret Service protection and whose street is closed to keep protesters AWAY who maintain they and their toddler child were so BESET! 

Video of the protest has emerged and it's pretty clear Vance is lying; the protest was at the bottom of Vance's street, which was closed by police.

It would have been impossible for the protesters to "follow" Vance and his family around as he claimed. pic.twitter.com/rTkCCNg6qi

— Jimmy Rushton (@JimmySecUK) March 9, 2025

See--it's a hard thing to think this actually happened, but if it did, it only could have if some father put his kid RIGHT THERE, but I charitably don't think he did that. I think he just crafted a story not thinking it would ever be fact-checked to the satisfaction of the audience he wanted to BELIEVE that "slava Ukrainie" protesters were "shit persons". 

This is Juvenile Damage

JD Vance claims that efforts to suppress misinformation and hate speech "are going to destroy Western Civilization. They're gonna destroy Europe, and they would destroy the United States of America if we allowed them to fester. Thank God we have a president now who believes in… pic.twitter.com/EKIIF4rXoD

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 4, 2025

March 4, 2025

Sometimes I wonder what JD Vance stands for, but to me, the persistent thing about him is that he tells stories. He creates narratives. He likes a good yarn. Jesuitical Dissembler Vance is insisting that lying is good, actually. I guess if you have a problem with it, you are probably "virtue-signaling." 

See what happened there? Lying is good and being concerned with what is true is fatally dangerous. (I personally despise the term "virtue -signaling" FWIW--people have VALUES and CONFESS THEM and LIVE BY THEM publicly if they are sincere in any fashion. Scoffing at the notion means you are basically an amoral putz.)

An Observation

 

There seem to be two main schools of thought with respects to dealing with Trump's narcissism. One is that he needs a constant supply of ass-kissing, so give it to him so that you can deal with "Nice Trump." Behave a certain way, and you can expect positive results. The other is that he's just a shameful cretin and treat him like one until he slinks off fuming.

Trump strikes me as being as socially hierarchical as can be imagined; very kiss up, punch down. Even if we didn't suspect (or know) that he's compromised, he would treat Putin more deferentially because in his eyes, this is a multibillionaire with nukes. This is why it's okay for Elon Musk to go about the White House dressed like a large teenager, but Zelenskyy, who is dressed in solidarity with his people at war, gets a chiding. 

Self-Evident

 

Macron publicly humiliated Trump at the White House, shutting down his false claim that Europe was loaning Ukraine aid.

In reality, France gave billions—Trump just didn’t do his homework.

Another day, another world leader treating him like a clueless intern. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/ZeGETlnYPB

— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) February 24, 2025

Yesterday, the government of President Trump sided with a horrific evil, a war criminal, an invader, and enemy of democracy, and Trump himself tried to tell his little lies about why he thought it was all right for him to do so.

And was corrected.

It is, after all, a little thing, an OBVIOUS thing, to tell the truth. But it isn't done often enough, and still less to his stupid, mulish face.  

Trump tried to say that why he did what he did was self-evident. It's an opaque answer hiding a basic truth--Trump is unfit for whatever reason you care to name, but among them, the truth is not with him. And a nation that would be "great" cannot be afraid of the truth. 

Macron also pointed out yesterday that they ceased talking with Putin after Bucha, to rub Trump's face in what it is he is trying to make a deal with, like a stupid boy signing his soul away to the devil. Does it make any impact of Trump? Probably not. But it should affect the conscience of people who still have one of those dusty, put-away with the good china things. 

As with truth, we could stand to use that a little more, as well. 

Cowardice Chasing Stupidity

Welcome to a stupid enterprise--emissaries from the Trump Administration appearing in Riyadh ready to deal away things they have no control over to appease Russians who our best intelligence indicates have no intention whatsoever to end the war in Ukraine.  They sat there and discussed what we were willing to stipulate without Europe or (and ESPECIALLY) Ukraine there, like their input would not matter. 

Because what the hell is the country that was actually invaded even doing in the picture, right? Let alone our NATO partners, huh? Like, what ABOUT Poland?

The picture above is a portrait of "cowardice chasing stupidity". Collectively, they might know what they are doing has no fucking chance in the world of leading to anything productive because of course not--but they are all dancing to Trump's incredibly foolish tune. 

What is Intelligence, Anyway?

 

 

Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed for Director of National Intelligence and sworn in and we're just going to see about that, aren't we? 

Does it sound like I have issues with this? Well, yeah. I was a little surprised that Sen. McConnell was the only Republican who voted against her, but it seems that the Senate GOP have decided that they aren't picking these fights with Trump and are just going to let him have what he wants. I do not think they are being honest with themselves about what he wants or what the results will be of giving it to him. 

The position of DNI was created in response to intelligence failures leading up to 9/11. The point of the office was to coordinate our various intelligence agencies and correlate the information into more cohesive overviews. But intelligence is only as useful as the people looking at the products. 

And I simply don't have faith in Tulsi Gabbard's judgment. 

Benghazi, Beirut or 9/11

 

“The Trump administration is not refusing to share power with an opposing party. It is refusing to follow the constitutional limits of a government that its own party controls completely,” @jonathanchait argues. https://t.co/BLf6KSSlSs pic.twitter.com/wPtTTdgW2i

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) February 11, 2025

I know there's good reason to just reminisce about when bipartisan shit was possible, but my biggest problem with this Trump infestation is the epistemic closure--the failure to have any light that lets in the darkness that is absofuckinglutely going to happen. You can disobey the laws of man--but not gravity.

So, the Bush folks felt ecstatic when they got the White House--finally! In 2001. After two long terms of the Bubbas! The grown-ups were in charge! And they pretended the little thing with the missing "W"'s was a big old riot of Democrat malfeasing--

And they didn't have their eye on the ball about the PDB that said Bin Laden was planning an attack on our soil. 

TWGB: Terminal Main Character Syndrome

 

A young DOGE staffer has left because the Wall Street Journal had some questions, as in, "Is this racist account you? " I'm sure Elon Musk is shocked--shocked! That there are little racist pishers in his Kekistanian domain.  Wow. So exotic and not-vetted. 

What's really funny about this is, when our actual confirmed Secretary of State, former US Senator and former presidential candidate Marco Rubio, made a big statement about not going to the G20 in Johannesburg:

I wanted to ask the Real President (tm) Elon Musk if this was the result of his bitch titties being in a wringer over the concept of the US confronting the Woke Mind Virus on what used to be his terf. I mean, "turf".

Of course, I do. I was just confused because the US is obviously in a transitional period and our pronouns stopped being US and seem to be he/huh! regarding Astroboy. 

He's not the president that MAGA voted for, but he's what they got. Up in our databases, taking our numbers, deciding the size of the government HE thinks we deserve. Regardless of what any vetting into him might show, or what his conflicts of interest might be. 

The "Riviera of the Middle East"

 

There's something hilariously ghoulish about Trump's desire to own Gaza. We've gone from MAGAs claiming he's for America First and against war, to him talking about re-taking the Panama Canal, Greenland, and maybe making Canada the "51st state"--and now he has dreams of turning Gaza, a place he says is associated with so much death--

And turning it into the "Riviera of the Middle East." 

That's right, we will have to first permanently relocate the people already in Gaza. Then remove all the rubble and rebuild. And of course there will need to be a military presence....

The Shart of the Deal

 

So, while Elon Musk was in Germany entirely not beating these allegations of being a Nazi, the far-right dipshit he supported here in the States was alienating allies, first, by a really dismayingly confrontational call with Denmark over Greenland, and then by starting a completely unnecessary trade war with Colombia.

For Trump fans, this is one cool demolition derby. For people who give a shit, this is absolutely nutso. None of it is necessary. It's all unforced political and diplomatic errors.

We have a military presence on Greenland. We could get more access with honey than vinegar. We do not have to OWN it. (Don't get me started on the absurdity Trump is putting on with the "Canada/51st state" shit.)  Are we resettling some of our people up north? (Is this a meta-commentary on global warming?  We've had a great trade situation with Colombia, and they have worked with our DEA and immigration authorities historically very well! 

So what is the problem? Trump is! He needs to be a big macher. He needs to make things worse and then maybe pull them out and take credit for the crisis that was of his making.

See? The Shart of the Deal. He makes the mess and pats himself on the back for other people cleaning it up. 

In Defense of Wonks

 

Klippenstein is a good reporter and a generally good egg, but my God, the juxtaposition of housing as a problem (which can be understood in terms of zoning, affordability, Nimby-ism, etc.) and matters of foreign policy, that are obviously understood as federal in nature, is just...

Look, I would like it if HUD had a strong hand and a strong plan for overriding local twattery that keeps housing unaffordable. But there are limits to what can be legally done at the executive level to demand housing access--it's complicated!

Foreign aid is a bit different, isn't it--it's one thing, it doesn't go through state and muni filters You're not dictating to developers and actual neighborhoods with people in them about what they do and don't want. It doesn't have a myriad of red tape things to fool about with. 

We're not talking about the difference between apples and oranges, but apples and eggs. Knowing the difference is very useful, because you really shouldn't expect apples to fall out of any aperture of a hen. Klippenstein isn't an idiot and isn't juxtaposing those things thinking otherwise. 

When Russia Has Shown You Who They Are

 

All the videos of the Azerbaijan Airlines flight showing the damage show holes in the wreckage have entry holes on the port side and exit holes on the starboard side, likely with a slight angle from below. pic.twitter.com/z4NxEapLWd

— Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) December 25, 2024

Russia shot down that plane just like they shot down MH17 in 2014 and just like they shot down Korean flight 007 41 years ago. Soviet or Putin, we have a structure of murderousness and lying; and taking no responsibility for the loss of many human lives. 

Russia needs disinformation to exist, and this is why I deplore the idea that the structure for seeking out disinformation is being dismantled in the name of "free speech." Democracy can only exist with a well-informed public, yet US conservatives like the idea of a disinformed public softened up by foreign powers because they have so far benefitted from it. 

If I hadn't in the last 40 years of my political awareness seen a brilliant reason to not support the GOP ever--holy shit! Watergate, Iran/Contra and the yellow cake /WMD's lies are like tiddlers in comparison to any and every pretense that Russia is a reasonable honest nation we can do business with. We are absurdly weakened by such a stance. 

A Man, a Plan, a Canal--A Dumbfuck (UPDATES)

 

I’m sorry, Panama pic.twitter.com/WmUwtw5jpu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 22, 2024

Just as with Canada, which Trump wants to be our 51st state or first province, whichever the case may be, the dotard who wanted to buy Greenland is looking to expand and retake the Panama Canal. I don't know who put him on this current tip. Maybe some import-export guy from Vandelay with a Mar-A-Lago membership. All I'm saying is, this is the next four years. 

Tiresome, innit?

UPDATE: He's talking about Greenland again. For all I know, the Trump Administration will be looking at invading Mexico not just because of the cartels, but if they are going to call Baja "California" then goddamn it....

UPDATE:

“… the United States feels ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” https://t.co/LcNGY8SRX9 pic.twitter.com/Hg3Lo007us

— DrLeoStrauss - same handle @bsky.social (@DrLeoStrauss) December 23, 2024

Well, shit.

The End of Assad

 

I haven't really known where to start this week. Tblisi? Romania? But it's Syria. Good gracious if I were ever to believe, God. The rebels took over everywhere. Everything, after so many years, fell. And Bashar al-Assad's Russian friends have been run off, too. And he has fucked off to Moscow. (Actually, I know he was in Moscow last week and never noticed him leaving. When the heck did he leave to fuck off on back?)

I don't know if Assad-cheerleader and avid consumer of RU agitprop, Tulsi Gabbard is at home crying into her Putin shaped comfort woobie, but the quality of her often-offered pro-Assad and pro-Putin opinions are about to take an uncommon beating.  Which she totally has earned. 

I also don't know how Trump and them feel about what Romania has done with respects to their dodgy election. I personally think Trump should have been disqualified as an insurrectionist, but we just don't do stuff like that here, regardless of what our Constitution says. 

I do winder if some of the people who voted for him are feeling the buyer's remorse yet. And what exactly would happen if we tried to stage a "do-over" here. 

But this post isn't about the US--it's about this:

We Have Met the Stupid, and it is Us

 

I have talked about the stupidity of using polling as a "story" for news purposes before. People are measuring opinions, but you can't measure facts. If an opinion is just wrong as to the facts, what did you learn? People might not answer honestly. They might be just vibing and have never thought about your question before. It might be useful for a news organization to see what sorts of things the public needs to be more educated about--but is it news?

Look, the above chart is from two years ago, about when I wrote the post I linked to. Yougov.com found that people wildly misestimate the size of various groups. When you see that people are estimating 21% of the population is transgender, bathroom panic starts to make more sense, until you ask yourself if people responding to the question even really understand fractions. Do people really think one out of five people are trans? Do they think like one in four are Muslim, and that one in three are atheist? 

These numbers don't jibe with anything in people's actual lived experiences. What this poll shows is that people are innumerate. Their mental math is broken. They aren't converting their concept of how many people per are anything--they are just really bad contestants on "The Price is Right".