This is one reason many of us voted for Harris... so we wouldn't be moved to generate thousands of words of disbelief on Sunday mornings over what our C in C did the day before. May whatever deity one worships save us ALL from this for the next 3 1/2 years!!
I'm not sure about that. Maybe rainbow flags at each corner. Hard to explain, but I think it should retain some stateliness, some gravitas, as it's the symbolic heart of the nation. But just my opinion.
Hopefully, we manage to reclaim the government & reconstruct it as it needs to be. It's gonna take a lot of pain for MAGAts to realize the need, though.
True! MAGAs are the most determinedly, willfully ignorant folk imaginable. They hate weakness and apparently view draft-dodging Donny as "strong"...they think "libs" are weak and hate libs for their 'weakness'. They are sick, sick people and if another pandemic comes along, I'll guarantee they won't wear masks (masks are "weak").
I guess all we can hope for is that they self-select themselves out of the gene pool, by NOT wearing masks during the next pandemic.
I'm not thinking that far ahead. Too many variables, e.g., will JD Vance be living at 1600 Pennsylvania when the next presidential election rolls around?
I think my remark didn’t land. The very idea that Vance who lives here in Cincinnati could be living in the WH in a couple of years is an effing nightmare.
Answer to your question : Eugene McCarthy was running.
During the Carter administration. I liked Jimmy and the press was crucifying him over gas shortages. Then Reagan pulled the hostages stunt and I’ve payed attention ever since.
None whatsoever; in fact, just the opposite. In four years the P2025 crew will have everything tied down and IF elections are permitted, they will be empty exercises to allow citizens to feel they still have a voice. The results will be carefully rigged.
My granddaughter’s husband did his PhD on cancer research. He’s from Brazil. He’s teaching at a northwestern college now and they have a 5 year old daughter. I keep wondering if he’ll be deported. I keep wondering if his students will ever have funding for cancer research.
If Northwestern is on the shitlist then trouble but dopey has one with Harvard and they have more money than any of his grifts all added together that makes him a loser in that one brain cell that screams for help, it can’t breathe!
For anyone who has lost a cherished pet this is a heartfelt tribute to Mark’s wonderful devoted canine companion Bode. May he Rest In Peace across the Rainbow Bridge 🌈 ❤️❤️❤️.
Jeff, you (and Jonathan Larsen) give me hope that there are still reasoning, literate, and terminally sane people out there somewhere. The longer your posts are, the longer I’m in that positive, happy place where alternative facts are called lies and we can say out loud that the emperor has no clothes. You are not wasting your holiday in front of your computer, you are lifting hearts.
Apologies to Mrs. Spouse for us taking up so much of your time.
I’m glad you totally focused on this one horrible very bad speech. I saw other parts of it, and he kept hitting on the killing, killing, killing for peace. He mocks someone else for bankruptcy, he doesn’t hear himself. One big damaged garbage brain. Not connecting the atrocities of the crusades to convert people. Damaged beyond repair. Bless you, Jeff, for doing the Lord’s work on Sunday.
Lucian K. Truscott IV, who I have infinite respect for, says we shouldn't be mocking Trump's speech. we should instead be trying to understand why his long ramble about trophy wives actually makes him a dangerously effective communicator.
I'm a subscriber to Lucian and love his writing. I did not like that piece at all. Why should we learn from a batshit crazy person? Is that what we've come to?
Agreed. It is a mistake to just poke fun, because his shtick works, works well with a large cohort, and our efforts that point out the inanity and insanity of his words and deeds doesn't actually grow the resistance.
Donny's approval started inching back up the moment Democrats stopped going to El Salvador to make noise about all the innocents disappeared into the slave-labor gulag. which tells us that Dems can NEVER let up the pressure, not for one moment, because it all gets immediately forgotten
Same for me, Arne! I didn’t like the piece but I hear what Lucian was pointing out. It works for the cultists, but not for the rest of us. He’s not winning over ANY new cult members, just more grifters who know what an easy mark he is.
What’s not to like? Voracious parking enforcement; jacked up, aggressive Saturday drivers with ‘Free Tibet’ stickers on their cars; and for some reason way too many pedestrians wearing all black who step off curbs AT NIGHT without a glance or care in the world. Those are things that were crazy making for me when I worked there.
Oh, and I thought you lived here, until the last line. You forgot bicyclists running stop signs, difficulty driving and parking on main streets due to bicycle privilege, no shopping on Shattuck anymore (when I was young, all shopping was on Shattuck and Telegraph), etc. The City of Berkeley is extremely sensitive about pedestrians (and bicyclists) being killed by cars. Perhaps it's the bicyclists' and pedestrians' faults, hmm? For a long time people despised cars, but now that a) most cars are EVs (we have two) and b) the despisers are in their seventies (us) and disabled (my husband, from Covid), and have to drive because walking is so difficult, we don't despise drivers anymore. I don't know anyone with a Free Tibet sticker on their car... We live two blocks west of San Pablo and the farthest east we go these days is Andronico's on Shattuck unless we're going to an estate sale.
Oh, remember parking enforcement is a revenue producer and also a discouragement to driving. I've lived here 64 years, if you need any tips...
To be fair, I worked in Berkeley 20 years ago. I have friends who live there, and my son and his wife recently moved to Albany. There are marvelous stores in Berkeley. I love the varied architecture in the homes, especially. Berkeley bikers never bothered me that much, probably because cyclists in general tend to be a privileged bunch, and I’ve seen that everywhere I live. I do believe that cars and cyclists should share the road. A little goodwill wouldn’t be amiss.
Is that still an Andronico’s on Shattuck? I thought it changed into a Safeway. Ha! I had a very Berkeley moment there one night. A young woman (probably a student) was pitching a FIT because there weren’t any ripe organic avocados! It was difficult to prevent myself from snorting. Talk about clueless privilege.
Albany's city government and schools, except for Berkeley High, are much better. Absolutely, cars and bicycles should share the road, and state law mandates that they are subject to the same vehicle code. However, that's not how bicyclists view it. I have yet to see one stop at a stop sign, and some will run red lights. I've called bicyclists on running stop signs on Gilman (they had to stop at San Pablo) and they just laughed at me. When I still drove, I tried to be considerate, but I've never noticed bicyclists with that trait. My father, a professor at Cal, rode his bike down to the University every day, and never had an issue, and I was a passenger on his bike until I was five, which was a long time ago. Safeway changed the name back to Andronico's about 15 years ago because so many people complained. Have you ever been to the Andronico's in the Sunset in the city? It's like dying and going to heaven. And my son says the one in Palo Alto is even better. These days I am most often a Berkeley Bowl West person...
Exactly. To the extent he is an effective communicator, it isn't that hard to make outlandish claims and straight up lie that you can (and will) give people what they want. None of it is true, it is all incoherent and insane, but he will say anything to anyone at a given time, then say something else tomorrow. Doesn't matter if it is true or even possible to deliver on those "promises" in the future. I don't think enough has been said about how much the fact that the Apprentice created this false narrative and persona of him as a successful businessman has mattered.
To the extent he's gifted at anything, he's gifted at determining what people want to hear and then shamelessly lying that he will deliver. It's the classic conman playbook, and he is a world class liar that plays on people's insecurities and deep desires.
They will continue to dismiss his cray-cray speeches by saying "he is who he is." What other leader in the history of the world is permitted such a wide berth of rationale for his insane and inflammatory rhetoric? Un-fucking-believable.
Other leaders of the world are mostly totally repelled by Little DFF as well they should be.I am embarrassed that this butt hole is the leader of my country and his clown car administration is just as horrible.
A Bloomberg reporter whose beat is the environment and energy reported on Trump’s unhinged and barely coherent speech today before Army grads at West Point. She acted like Trump gave a normal speech and said Trump’s advice to the Army grads was “do what you love, think big, work hard and never give up…”
nytimes sane washed it too. And not sure why they think he misspoke here - "“The job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows, to transform foreign cultures,” he continued, before seeming to misspeak by adding, “but to spread democracy to everybody around the world, at the point of a gun.”"
Donnie Demento did mis-speak: he meant to say, "to end democracy for everybody around the world, at the point of a gun."
I don't think the sane-washers actually hear the same whacked-out horseshit the rest of us do. In fact, I don't think any of them listens to anything Donnie Demento says; they just make up what they think a real president might say (Biden excluded, of course: DO YOU KNOW HE'S OLD?!?).
I agree, and I think it's worse since they've started scrubbing the transcripts from the Internet — I know there are many, myself included, who refuse to listen to him speak out of that gross anus mouth of his. The stupidity and his voice are intolerable.
How many reporters just read the prepared remarks dispersed ahead of time and actually compare it to what was actually said? How many actually watch the full batshit remarks? I'd wager not very many and it redounds to his favor time and again. He is so insane and incoherent, reporters have spent the last decade trying to assign meaning and logic to something that is devoid of both.
She obviously didn't read it the whole way through. I just tried to and can't figure out if he just couldn't read the monitor and was free wheelin' a lot of it, especially later in the speech when his mind was fading out. What an incredibly ugly stupidifying man.
I hope Trump's dementia doesn't "lose its momentum" and accomplishes its mission ahead of schedule. What a banal perspective on a terminally malevolent demagogue whose very low IQ utterances from his asshole mouth resonate as homilies with his mediocre "base." And "Truscott IV" -- seriously, "the Fourth", Fauntleroy?
Lucian K. Truscott IV IS HIS NAME! His father (Lucian K. Truscott III) and grandfather (Lucian K. Truscott, Jr.) were war heroes, and he is also a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson. How dafuq can you diss someone for a name that they were born with?
You have not followed Lucian. His family is immersed in the military and he was imbedded with troops in Iraq for reporting. His own son is at West Point, following the family tradition. He is also a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, his slave. I think he was “feeling” his readers out. Not for a second do I believe he will ever be in Donny Convict’s corner.
Lucian does make a valid point. The art of the con is what the orange felon is good at. And he has a full propaganda machine behind him to amplify his disinformation and gaslighting.
Whereas Democrats always seem to be in reactive mode; countering his message rather than proactively leading with a vision for the future that everyone can rally behind.
My take is what you wrote, with a twist: A growing segment of Americans are depressed and unhappy with their lot, and are desperate to find a narrative that makes them feel better about themselves. They are weak-minded so they have no requirement that the narrative is truthful. Along comes prolific shameless liar and yarn-spinner Donald Trump, perfectly willing to spew just the right lies to fill the audience’s gaping pit of need. It’s a match made in Heaven or in this case, Hell
Agree. We need to understand as much as possible about the “why” of the cult. It’s reached beyond any kind of reasonable point. This guy and his minions are setting up the framework to wipe out groups of people. We thought it wrong for Hitler to do (I know, ridiculous understatement), and any other miserable hating dictator. Why is this country allowing it? How can we ever be trusted by any other nation … ever? Half of our people and our constitution support this crap. Why?
Lucian K. Truscott IV is also a national treasure, a West Point graduate, an excellent writer, and the sixth-generation great grandson of President Thomas Jefferson.
He obviously appeals viscerally to some people. We might find it infuriating, crazy, or funny, but I agree we must take his ability to hold people's attention seriously and figure out how Dems can pull in those who don't like our message.
These ass clowns who say they support Trump and his policies 100% yet didn’t like his West Point speech are beyond laughable. The speech is Trump. The pointlessness is Trump. Yes, somebody wrote the speech but then the “Great Man” tore it up in his mind and delivered this garbage to the future leaders of the one entity that must remain non politicized, all while wearing that ridiculous made in China hat.
1. What a novel way to win friends and influence people: at the end of a gun.
2. Well, at least the internet is forever. The Orange House may purge, but we still have screen shots of his posts and social media video of his incoherence.
It would be VERY useful if one of the nerds among us were to set up a web site in Norway or the EU and populate it with Trumpobelia scraped up using the Wayback Machine.
Hell, if they started a go-fund-me I'd be happy to chip in.
seems to me I just read, as well, that trump said America SHOULDN'T be spreading democracy with a gun and should just retreat into isolationism and let the rest of the world do what it will - not that contradictions matter in the trump universe we currently inhabit...
'At the point of a gun'! 😂🤣....I guess Putin will be having a word with D!.
I had a date and was expressing my fondness for Levittown as a youngin'& how Bill Levitt developed housing in Pennsylvania & L.I. The next day the liberal lass gave me the heeve ho 😅....I'd forgotten he was a racist...
They sure do considering you need a letter from a senator to get into West Point. These cadets worked so hard to make it to graduation and yet they have to be subjected to this deluge of babbling bullshit that would get most escorted to the exit at most jobs. Also, who's dressing dear leader these days? Between that hideous pink tie and wearing that hat since the dead ferret wasn't cooperating yesterday morning, it's beyond belief that he's allowed to appear at such high profile events looking like such a disheveled baboon.
But it needs to be asked … how many agreed with his babble (if that’s possible). How many signing senators are brown nosers? I have a feeling more than we’d hope for were honored to have him there.
I wish it was possible to have something like an exit interview with the West Point grads. To get a feel for how many reacted positively and how many negatively.
We keep getting told about Biden's disastrous debate performance. It's true, he was clearly I'll, but he was not demented.
In the transcripts, the loud, confident, swaggering trump was batshit crazy and relentlessly lied. Biden was lucid, coherent, and knew what he was talking about.
The debate was measured only on performance and entertainment value, not content and educational value
You are 100% correct. Apparently many viewers took non-stop lying as a win, but I don't believe any debate judges would have given t the win. Biden won.
I was really pissed off at the Washington Post’s coverage of that batshittery. Sanewashing is a mild word for it. And can you imagine what the media would have done if Biden had stood there and said (and done) the same?
Apparently this twit doesn’t know that about 25% of those cadets, all of whom entered WP during the Biden years are FEMALE. Probably not going to succumb to “ trophy wife” syndrome. What a putz.
He hates anyone with any melanin in their skin. I'm going to assume that at least 20% of the grads are faintly brown and may have Hispanic surnames. How do they feel, knowing what they know?
The first home I ever owned, in suburban KC, had a covenant that no home could be sold to a member of the Hebrew tribe. It was by that time unenforceable, but… yeah, it had been enforced when the first owners bought it. For certain. The happy ending is that the son of the man who built it, who then ran the company, ended up going to prison for various tax crimes.
That commencement speech was absurd, not logical, unfitting for our officer corps grads to listen to. But then I would not have expected anything less unhinged. It’s Memorial Day, it’s a time to honor our fallen heros, our active duty and vets. Is it too much to ask our President to act as a leader today and not make it all about himself? Or must we endure another round of golf at one of his shitty roach infested hotels? My grandfather fought in the Spanish American war, got shot in his leg, could not remove all the shrapnel…. he was a great forecaster of the weather and I bet he would have kicked Donald with his bad leg for destroying our Democracy …Best to all…
It's absolutely too much to ask at this point to expect anything different from the turd than what we are fed on the daily. That ship has sailed, or rather never got off the dock in the first place.
me, for the umpteenth time at 7am: 'it's Sunday, maybe I can actually crank out a short one this time'
me, four hours and sixteen hundred words later: 'goddammit'
This is one reason many of us voted for Harris... so we wouldn't be moved to generate thousands of words of disbelief on Sunday mornings over what our C in C did the day before. May whatever deity one worships save us ALL from this for the next 3 1/2 years!!
I’m always curious about what people imagine will happen at the end of the current 4 year term.
Fumigation. And sage burning.
Don't forget the garlic.
That’s for Stephen Nosferatu Miller, right?
Some for each.
and salt in every corner of the building.
Yep!
And sprinkling with holy water, and maybe invite a priest to do an exorcism just in case.
Yes, Marie, THIS. The entire White House will have to be cleansed.
After this white nationalist shit, I’d like to add a fucktastic rainbow paint job across the “White House” and may it never be called that again!
I'm not sure about that. Maybe rainbow flags at each corner. Hard to explain, but I think it should retain some stateliness, some gravitas, as it's the symbolic heart of the nation. But just my opinion.
I am doing that right now!
OMG! Glorious!!!
At this pace I can't envision him making it to year 2. Then what kind of cover up of his mental competency from his sycophants will we witness?
Huge mop-up and reconstruction, I'd guess.
Reconstruction being the key word.
I like your optimism.
Replacing all the ketchup-stained wallpaper.
And diaper drips.
Oh, ugh, did I really have to go there....
OMG! Ewwww!!!! I'd rather clean up after our puppies....
Hopefully, we manage to reclaim the government & reconstruct it as it needs to be. It's gonna take a lot of pain for MAGAts to realize the need, though.
True! MAGAs are the most determinedly, willfully ignorant folk imaginable. They hate weakness and apparently view draft-dodging Donny as "strong"...they think "libs" are weak and hate libs for their 'weakness'. They are sick, sick people and if another pandemic comes along, I'll guarantee they won't wear masks (masks are "weak").
I guess all we can hope for is that they self-select themselves out of the gene pool, by NOT wearing masks during the next pandemic.
and yet....they apparently follow Jesus, the most woke liberal of them all. Cognitive dissonance.
They don’t folllow Jesus’ teachings. They just “take the lord’s name in vain”
They blindly follow their tv preacher whom Jesus would have kicked out of the temple.
I'm not thinking that far ahead. Too many variables, e.g., will JD Vance be living at 1600 Pennsylvania when the next presidential election rolls around?
What a mean thing to say on Sunday morning.
huh?
Vance at 1600 is a nightmare. His 1/2 brother is running for mayor here.
When did you start paying attention to U.S. politics? Not taking a survey; I'm just curious.
I think my remark didn’t land. The very idea that Vance who lives here in Cincinnati could be living in the WH in a couple of years is an effing nightmare.
Answer to your question : Eugene McCarthy was running.
During the Carter administration. I liked Jimmy and the press was crucifying him over gas shortages. Then Reagan pulled the hostages stunt and I’ve payed attention ever since.
Wut????
I like how you remind us that if Trump goes during the next years, JD will be running the country.
Correct
I'm thinking the Trump Family and the Project 2025 will still be here, but we can hope.
Do we have good reason to believe there will anything approximating “free and fair” elections?!?
None whatsoever; in fact, just the opposite. In four years the P2025 crew will have everything tied down and IF elections are permitted, they will be empty exercises to allow citizens to feel they still have a voice. The results will be carefully rigged.
I think he’ll burn down the White House and I’m not kidding. He is on a destructive rampage.
Mark Elias, the founder of Democracy Docket, wrote a tribute to his dog Bode. You can read it here: Bode died on May 20th. 🐶🐶🐶🐩🐩🐩
https://kathleenweber.substack.com/p/marc-elias-loses-bode
That is so sad. I know how much he loves Bode.
I wish canine cancer and ALL cancer could be wiped out. 🐾😭
My granddaughter’s husband did his PhD on cancer research. He’s from Brazil. He’s teaching at a northwestern college now and they have a 5 year old daughter. I keep wondering if he’ll be deported. I keep wondering if his students will ever have funding for cancer research.
If Northwestern is on the shitlist then trouble but dopey has one with Harvard and they have more money than any of his grifts all added together that makes him a loser in that one brain cell that screams for help, it can’t breathe!
It's coming any day now. RFKJ is all over it.
For anyone who has lost a cherished pet this is a heartfelt tribute to Mark’s wonderful devoted canine companion Bode. May he Rest In Peace across the Rainbow Bridge 🌈 ❤️❤️❤️.
I wrote to him how upset that I was to hear that news. Our pets give so much to us. Tore me up.
I did too…💙
Tears in my eyes, blurring my vision.
So sad. Our pets usually donʻt outlive us so most of us have had this tragic experience. But Bode was a particularly sweet dog from all accounts.
Thank you!
Thank you, Jeff. We appreciate your efforts.
Jeff, weve all been there. Thats why historical pieces are so much easier to write about. Current event shit is hard.
I love your WTF gifs.....I always forget to use them.
I did however, include a piece of AI love and joy for our run on this.
LIked, Restacked, and quoted yours, also including a BSky drop to my however many the fuck followers I have (as per my usual).
https://thistleandmoss.com/p/the-rambling-decline-inside-donny
I may have watched that video on repeat for I dunno, an hour or so.
Wow! What a disgusting speech-well summarized-considering how incoherent it was!
I actually search for my Tiedrich "fix" in my inbox every day!
Me too!
Jeff, you (and Jonathan Larsen) give me hope that there are still reasoning, literate, and terminally sane people out there somewhere. The longer your posts are, the longer I’m in that positive, happy place where alternative facts are called lies and we can say out loud that the emperor has no clothes. You are not wasting your holiday in front of your computer, you are lifting hearts.
Apologies to Mrs. Spouse for us taking up so much of your time.
Here is a transcript of his West Point ramble https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-speech-commencement-address-west-point-usma-may-24-2025/
For the time being, Roll Call has a lot of transcripts of his ...best words...
You made my day 100% better.
I’m glad you totally focused on this one horrible very bad speech. I saw other parts of it, and he kept hitting on the killing, killing, killing for peace. He mocks someone else for bankruptcy, he doesn’t hear himself. One big damaged garbage brain. Not connecting the atrocities of the crusades to convert people. Damaged beyond repair. Bless you, Jeff, for doing the Lord’s work on Sunday.
It was worth it!
Don't look now, you sound like Eric Cartman.
Yes, but we're so happy you did! It's a long weekend so take tomorrow off!!
We love you!
And we appreciate your hard work- thank you
I know the feeling. My typing fingers have a mind of their own. I just have to live with it.
🤗
Lucian K. Truscott IV, who I have infinite respect for, says we shouldn't be mocking Trump's speech. we should instead be trying to understand why his long ramble about trophy wives actually makes him a dangerously effective communicator.
it's an interesting perspective: https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/i-watched-trumps-west-point-commencement
I'm a subscriber to Lucian and love his writing. I did not like that piece at all. Why should we learn from a batshit crazy person? Is that what we've come to?
useful (if infuriating and despair-making) to contemplate how trump works his evil magic
More useful if it included concrete examples of how to counter his manipulative tactics.
Agreed. It is a mistake to just poke fun, because his shtick works, works well with a large cohort, and our efforts that point out the inanity and insanity of his words and deeds doesn't actually grow the resistance.
Alas, Trump's approval ratings are on the rise.
Donny's approval started inching back up the moment Democrats stopped going to El Salvador to make noise about all the innocents disappeared into the slave-labor gulag. which tells us that Dems can NEVER let up the pressure, not for one moment, because it all gets immediately forgotten
“inanity and insanity” just became one of my favorite new phrases.
Same for me, Arne! I didn’t like the piece but I hear what Lucian was pointing out. It works for the cultists, but not for the rest of us. He’s not winning over ANY new cult members, just more grifters who know what an easy mark he is.
Because we need to understand the why of this.
I wish you could live next door to me. Berkeley, what's not to like, except the home prices and the city council?
What’s not to like? Voracious parking enforcement; jacked up, aggressive Saturday drivers with ‘Free Tibet’ stickers on their cars; and for some reason way too many pedestrians wearing all black who step off curbs AT NIGHT without a glance or care in the world. Those are things that were crazy making for me when I worked there.
Oh, and I thought you lived here, until the last line. You forgot bicyclists running stop signs, difficulty driving and parking on main streets due to bicycle privilege, no shopping on Shattuck anymore (when I was young, all shopping was on Shattuck and Telegraph), etc. The City of Berkeley is extremely sensitive about pedestrians (and bicyclists) being killed by cars. Perhaps it's the bicyclists' and pedestrians' faults, hmm? For a long time people despised cars, but now that a) most cars are EVs (we have two) and b) the despisers are in their seventies (us) and disabled (my husband, from Covid), and have to drive because walking is so difficult, we don't despise drivers anymore. I don't know anyone with a Free Tibet sticker on their car... We live two blocks west of San Pablo and the farthest east we go these days is Andronico's on Shattuck unless we're going to an estate sale.
Oh, remember parking enforcement is a revenue producer and also a discouragement to driving. I've lived here 64 years, if you need any tips...
To be fair, I worked in Berkeley 20 years ago. I have friends who live there, and my son and his wife recently moved to Albany. There are marvelous stores in Berkeley. I love the varied architecture in the homes, especially. Berkeley bikers never bothered me that much, probably because cyclists in general tend to be a privileged bunch, and I’ve seen that everywhere I live. I do believe that cars and cyclists should share the road. A little goodwill wouldn’t be amiss.
Is that still an Andronico’s on Shattuck? I thought it changed into a Safeway. Ha! I had a very Berkeley moment there one night. A young woman (probably a student) was pitching a FIT because there weren’t any ripe organic avocados! It was difficult to prevent myself from snorting. Talk about clueless privilege.
Albany's city government and schools, except for Berkeley High, are much better. Absolutely, cars and bicycles should share the road, and state law mandates that they are subject to the same vehicle code. However, that's not how bicyclists view it. I have yet to see one stop at a stop sign, and some will run red lights. I've called bicyclists on running stop signs on Gilman (they had to stop at San Pablo) and they just laughed at me. When I still drove, I tried to be considerate, but I've never noticed bicyclists with that trait. My father, a professor at Cal, rode his bike down to the University every day, and never had an issue, and I was a passenger on his bike until I was five, which was a long time ago. Safeway changed the name back to Andronico's about 15 years ago because so many people complained. Have you ever been to the Andronico's in the Sunset in the city? It's like dying and going to heaven. And my son says the one in Palo Alto is even better. These days I am most often a Berkeley Bowl West person...
Exactly. To the extent he is an effective communicator, it isn't that hard to make outlandish claims and straight up lie that you can (and will) give people what they want. None of it is true, it is all incoherent and insane, but he will say anything to anyone at a given time, then say something else tomorrow. Doesn't matter if it is true or even possible to deliver on those "promises" in the future. I don't think enough has been said about how much the fact that the Apprentice created this false narrative and persona of him as a successful businessman has mattered.
To the extent he's gifted at anything, he's gifted at determining what people want to hear and then shamelessly lying that he will deliver. It's the classic conman playbook, and he is a world class liar that plays on people's insecurities and deep desires.
I agree. A f***ing psychiatrist needs to study his addled sociopathic brain. Not us.
My reaction too.
It is always a good idea to know the workings of an enemy's mind in order to find a way to stop him. That even applies to Shitforbrains trump.
They will continue to dismiss his cray-cray speeches by saying "he is who he is." What other leader in the history of the world is permitted such a wide berth of rationale for his insane and inflammatory rhetoric? Un-fucking-believable.
Other leaders of the world are mostly totally repelled by Little DFF as well they should be.I am embarrassed that this butt hole is the leader of my country and his clown car administration is just as horrible.
Just Donnie being Donnie. What the fuck!!!
I love Lucien’s word smithery but have to disagree with him.I learn nothing from Little DFF except to loathe him more if that is possible.smh
From MeidasTouch:
A Bloomberg reporter whose beat is the environment and energy reported on Trump’s unhinged and barely coherent speech today before Army grads at West Point. She acted like Trump gave a normal speech and said Trump’s advice to the Army grads was “do what you love, think big, work hard and never give up…”
Gag. Sanewashing again?
nytimes sane washed it too. And not sure why they think he misspoke here - "“The job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows, to transform foreign cultures,” he continued, before seeming to misspeak by adding, “but to spread democracy to everybody around the world, at the point of a gun.”"
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/24/us/politics/trump-speech-west-point-commencement.html?unlocked_article_code=1.J08.TMzr.UgqrjaJBM37U&smid=bs-share
Donnie Demento did mis-speak: he meant to say, "to end democracy for everybody around the world, at the point of a gun."
I don't think the sane-washers actually hear the same whacked-out horseshit the rest of us do. In fact, I don't think any of them listens to anything Donnie Demento says; they just make up what they think a real president might say (Biden excluded, of course: DO YOU KNOW HE'S OLD?!?).
I agree, and I think it's worse since they've started scrubbing the transcripts from the Internet — I know there are many, myself included, who refuse to listen to him speak out of that gross anus mouth of his. The stupidity and his voice are intolerable.
How many reporters just read the prepared remarks dispersed ahead of time and actually compare it to what was actually said? How many actually watch the full batshit remarks? I'd wager not very many and it redounds to his favor time and again. He is so insane and incoherent, reporters have spent the last decade trying to assign meaning and logic to something that is devoid of both.
There’s a Crosby/Kaye drag scene in ‘White Christmas’ At a military club if im not mistaken… geez
Well, he kinda spoke the truth by mistake right there.
She obviously didn't read it the whole way through. I just tried to and can't figure out if he just couldn't read the monitor and was free wheelin' a lot of it, especially later in the speech when his mind was fading out. What an incredibly ugly stupidifying man.
And what incredibly low standards the average voter has
I was there - it was stupefying…
Oh gag!
😡😡😡😡
WTF. This is why we’re here. MSM normalizing this shitshow.
Read it, Lucian is exceptional, but I can’t agree with this one though!!
You, Jeff Tiedrich, commenting on your own excellent post mocking tRump, agree with Truscott IV who says we should stop mocking tRump?
<Insert your angry incredulous man muttering WTF .gif here>
Here’s a pretty spot-on rebuttal to Truscott IV: https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/i-watched-trumps-west-point-commencement/comment/119950663?r=1pv3tg&utm_medium=ios
OUTSTANDING rebuttal!
I hope Trump's dementia doesn't "lose its momentum" and accomplishes its mission ahead of schedule. What a banal perspective on a terminally malevolent demagogue whose very low IQ utterances from his asshole mouth resonate as homilies with his mediocre "base." And "Truscott IV" -- seriously, "the Fourth", Fauntleroy?
terminally malevolent demagogue whose very low IQ utterances from his asshole mouth resonate as homilies with his mediocre "base." applaud.
Lucian K. Truscott IV IS HIS NAME! His father (Lucian K. Truscott III) and grandfather (Lucian K. Truscott, Jr.) were war heroes, and he is also a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson. How dafuq can you diss someone for a name that they were born with?
You have not followed Lucian. His family is immersed in the military and he was imbedded with troops in Iraq for reporting. His own son is at West Point, following the family tradition. He is also a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, his slave. I think he was “feeling” his readers out. Not for a second do I believe he will ever be in Donny Convict’s corner.
Lucian does make a valid point. The art of the con is what the orange felon is good at. And he has a full propaganda machine behind him to amplify his disinformation and gaslighting.
Whereas Democrats always seem to be in reactive mode; countering his message rather than proactively leading with a vision for the future that everyone can rally behind.
My take is what you wrote, with a twist: A growing segment of Americans are depressed and unhappy with their lot, and are desperate to find a narrative that makes them feel better about themselves. They are weak-minded so they have no requirement that the narrative is truthful. Along comes prolific shameless liar and yarn-spinner Donald Trump, perfectly willing to spew just the right lies to fill the audience’s gaping pit of need. It’s a match made in Heaven or in this case, Hell
👏
Is it one OR the other? I think we can do both. I know I can.
I love that: the Art of the Con.
I read that piece by LT and at the end I thought wtf?! I really don’t know what he was thinking!
Canadian here: read it also. I don't remember such an "interesting " perspective towards Biden. I could be wrong about that being Canadian.
Agree! The man is demented. Impeach and remove! He's attacking our country daily.
Agree. We need to understand as much as possible about the “why” of the cult. It’s reached beyond any kind of reasonable point. This guy and his minions are setting up the framework to wipe out groups of people. We thought it wrong for Hitler to do (I know, ridiculous understatement), and any other miserable hating dictator. Why is this country allowing it? How can we ever be trusted by any other nation … ever? Half of our people and our constitution support this crap. Why?
Lucian K. Truscott IV is also a national treasure, a West Point graduate, an excellent writer, and the sixth-generation great grandson of President Thomas Jefferson.
I think both things can be true.
What Truscott says makes sense, in terms of knowing and understanding one's enemy and his tactics.
That said, mango man is so entirely evil and batshit, he begs to be mocked, even though we understand his tactics.
He obviously appeals viscerally to some people. We might find it infuriating, crazy, or funny, but I agree we must take his ability to hold people's attention seriously and figure out how Dems can pull in those who don't like our message.
These ass clowns who say they support Trump and his policies 100% yet didn’t like his West Point speech are beyond laughable. The speech is Trump. The pointlessness is Trump. Yes, somebody wrote the speech but then the “Great Man” tore it up in his mind and delivered this garbage to the future leaders of the one entity that must remain non politicized, all while wearing that ridiculous made in China hat.
He is truly insane with dementia. I'm so sorry that those cadets had their big moment ruined by that despicable man.
It is my considered opinion that the guy could soil the Shroud of Turin and not lose any votes.
Spot on Richard! Well put.
Richard, exactly 💯!
1. What a novel way to win friends and influence people: at the end of a gun.
2. Well, at least the internet is forever. The Orange House may purge, but we still have screen shots of his posts and social media video of his incoherence.
It would be VERY useful if one of the nerds among us were to set up a web site in Norway or the EU and populate it with Trumpobelia scraped up using the Wayback Machine.
Hell, if they started a go-fund-me I'd be happy to chip in.
Yeah, I was wondering if the Wayback Machine would be of use
seems to me I just read, as well, that trump said America SHOULDN'T be spreading democracy with a gun and should just retreat into isolationism and let the rest of the world do what it will - not that contradictions matter in the trump universe we currently inhabit...
IOKIYAR
haha, not being fluent in these (what's the proper term) letter thingees, I had to google - obviously Rs are OK with *whatever*
'At the point of a gun'! 😂🤣....I guess Putin will be having a word with D!.
I had a date and was expressing my fondness for Levittown as a youngin'& how Bill Levitt developed housing in Pennsylvania & L.I. The next day the liberal lass gave me the heeve ho 😅....I'd forgotten he was a racist...
Those graduates and their families deserve a do over. I would be so fucking pissed to have my education culminate in that bullshit.
They sure do considering you need a letter from a senator to get into West Point. These cadets worked so hard to make it to graduation and yet they have to be subjected to this deluge of babbling bullshit that would get most escorted to the exit at most jobs. Also, who's dressing dear leader these days? Between that hideous pink tie and wearing that hat since the dead ferret wasn't cooperating yesterday morning, it's beyond belief that he's allowed to appear at such high profile events looking like such a disheveled baboon.
But it needs to be asked … how many agreed with his babble (if that’s possible). How many signing senators are brown nosers? I have a feeling more than we’d hope for were honored to have him there.
I wish it was possible to have something like an exit interview with the West Point grads. To get a feel for how many reacted positively and how many negatively.
Kermit the Frog was their second choice.
Kermit would've been a much better choice.
Kermit was awesome at the University of Maryland graduation.
"Donald said no one wanted to join the military under Biden while speaking to an entire graduating class at West Point who joined under Biden."
https://bsky.app/profile/rickylongthread.bsky.social/post/3lpxfazvipc2s
Facts / they mean nothing to
Donny Two-Dolls!
SMDH
Any media outlet that doesn’t accurately report on that shit show of a speech should never report on Joe Biden again..
We keep getting told about Biden's disastrous debate performance. It's true, he was clearly I'll, but he was not demented.
In the transcripts, the loud, confident, swaggering trump was batshit crazy and relentlessly lied. Biden was lucid, coherent, and knew what he was talking about.
The debate was measured only on performance and entertainment value, not content and educational value
You are 100% correct. Apparently many viewers took non-stop lying as a win, but I don't believe any debate judges would have given t the win. Biden won.
I think the non stop fire hose of lying is what crushed Biden’s performance. He expected an ordinary debate, not a stream of consciousness lie fest
👆
I was really pissed off at the Washington Post’s coverage of that batshittery. Sanewashing is a mild word for it. And can you imagine what the media would have done if Biden had stood there and said (and done) the same?
https://wapo.st/43wOrGi
Check out Bloomberg… wow
Apparently this twit doesn’t know that about 25% of those cadets, all of whom entered WP during the Biden years are FEMALE. Probably not going to succumb to “ trophy wife” syndrome. What a putz.
haha, some of them might! unless all the gay and trans get expelled...
He hates anyone with any melanin in their skin. I'm going to assume that at least 20% of the grads are faintly brown and may have Hispanic surnames. How do they feel, knowing what they know?
What, and I cannot stress this enough, the fuck?
I laugh every time I see the young man with the hair says it on a loop, thank you Jeff and it is a clear wtf.
The first home I ever owned, in suburban KC, had a covenant that no home could be sold to a member of the Hebrew tribe. It was by that time unenforceable, but… yeah, it had been enforced when the first owners bought it. For certain. The happy ending is that the son of the man who built it, who then ran the company, ended up going to prison for various tax crimes.
Just think, now that guy could buy a pardon from Donnie !!!
And he would receive a special private night at the infested motel by the swamps.
And this spiel was caught on tape, so at least there’ll be a record.
His minions will claim it's a deepfake.
No doubt.
🫣
That commencement speech was absurd, not logical, unfitting for our officer corps grads to listen to. But then I would not have expected anything less unhinged. It’s Memorial Day, it’s a time to honor our fallen heros, our active duty and vets. Is it too much to ask our President to act as a leader today and not make it all about himself? Or must we endure another round of golf at one of his shitty roach infested hotels? My grandfather fought in the Spanish American war, got shot in his leg, could not remove all the shrapnel…. he was a great forecaster of the weather and I bet he would have kicked Donald with his bad leg for destroying our Democracy …Best to all…
It's absolutely too much to ask at this point to expect anything different from the turd than what we are fed on the daily. That ship has sailed, or rather never got off the dock in the first place.
It’s a bad fucking dream and we’re living it. All anyone has to do is listen to this delusional asshole and it’s apparent he’s batshit crazy. 🤪
Would it be ‘unseemly’ to ask if it bothers anyone at the school that he appears to be switching sides in the Ukr war as well? No? Nevermind😞
Barking mad! (My apologies to dogs😂😂)
Why would they invite a draft dodger to give a speech at West Point?
That was my 1st thought
I miss Joe Biden. 😞
Hell, I miss Nixon.
Now, now.
Just kidding ; )
Maybe, but I see your point. At least with Nixon we weren't afraid every day.
Yes, but there was Hoover.
At least Nixon wasn't a fucking traitor.
I started reading the transcript yesterday and my own brain wanted to go fuckity-bye, too.
Biden lost his fastball, and now tRump has lost his screwball.
Maybe William Levitt’s decendants can go to the West Point stage and pick up the loose screws littering the floor
Please if there is a Pope don’t let him go to Arlington!
😂😂