This is stunning:
That Scaramucci’s marriage was in trouble was hardly a secret. Long before Ball filed for divorce on July 6, Scaramucci was open with friends and associates about what he believed to be the sorry state of their union and how they were struggling through regular counseling sessions.
He just hated that his relationship was being discussed in public. A follow-up report from the Post said that Scaramucci didn’t attend the birth of their son last week. Instead, he sent Ball a short congratulatory text.
Scaramucci said this is an unfair characterization of events. He told me that Ball’s due date was Aug. 9, so when he boarded Air Force One to West Virginia last Monday to attend the president’s address at the National Scout Jamboree, he didn’t think he’d be in danger of missing the birth. As soon as she texted him that she was going into labor, he said, he looked into chartering a plane from West Virginia but discovered that there was a wide no fly-zone around Air Force One. He explained that he decided to wait to fly back to Washington with the president, then travel to New York from there.
What the fuck is wrong with these people?
oldster
It’s no surprise that Trump loved this guy like a son–a smart son, instead of the doofuses he produced. They’re cut from the same cheap cloth.
The fact that Kelly sh*t-canned him will be one of the first big grievances that Trump holds against Kelly.
(And there will be many more to come, until Trump fires him, too, to replace him with Tucker Carlson.)
Boatboy_srq
What’s wrong with them? Among other things, they don’t believe there’s any way to get around Ahmurrrrrca besides planes and cars (though why Mooch didn’t rent one and drive back is something only his divorce lawyer knows). Hence the fixation on 9/11 when their sole means of cross-country transport suddenly became dangerous (although Amtrak and Greyhound mysteriously did not), and on their disaffection with public trans.
Major Major Major Major
ETA nm
Yarrow
I guess it would have been impossible to find a way to drive to an airport outside the no-fly zone.
Boatboy_srq
@oldster: Lord Dampnut doesn’t yet understand that competence and loyalty fall on opposite sides of the blade. Let’s hope that continues, and perpetuates down his chain of succession.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t have any kids and I’m not a multi-millionaire, but I’m thinking in his situation I rent a car, drive to the nearest airport outside the no-fly zone, and get back to NYC
artem1s
the guy could have had a fucking limo waiting at the airport to drive him back to see his new kid. It’s what? a 6-8 hour drive to DC (OK, NYC I guess, but still about the same amount of time)? or he could have gone to anyone one of a dozen airports within a 50 mile radius and had a private fucking jet meet him there. all he had to do was order one of his fucking staffers to do it. these people are stupid beyond imagination.
my bet is he saw the text and didn’t even read it for two, three days. asshole.
Cheryl from Maryland
From what I have read, while not attending the birth of his child was a dick move, their marriage was full of such actions by “the Mooch.”
dmsilev
I’m also kind of impressed by this bit:
(emphasis added). Can we add “spiritually off the record” to our lexicon?
Major Major Major Major
Honest question. Do we know he can drive?
Humdog
The child was born onMonday and he did not visit until Friday. What happened all the other days he flaked?
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fuck that, just drive back to NYC. Google Maps tells me you could do that in less than 9 hours.
oldster
@Major Major Major Major:
No, but we know he knows how to hire a town-car.
dmsilev
@Yarrow:
Of course it would have been impossible. Trump’s grandeur is such that his no-fly-zone extends for 1000 miles in all directions, including straight up. NASA has to adjust the orbit of the space station so it doesn’t pass over Trump.
Gin & Tonic
@Major Major Major Major: He’s from Lawn Guyland, not NYC. Of course he can drive.
Victor Matheson
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Even if you drive the whole thing it’s only 8 hours.
Chet Murthy
@Humdog: from personal experience (thankfully from a distance, or I might have publically berated the guy), I can attest that the shitbird’s just tryin’ to get his story straight for the next woman he puts his (ahem) moves on. Gotta have a plausible story that doesn’t make himself out to be a heel, eh. Only has to be plausible, not convincing.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: We don’t. But someone in the entourage would have known how to drive. He could also have delegated to a staffer to get him a driver. Glen Jean, WV may be in a rural area, but it’s not completely without any modern conveniences like phones and vehicles.
Laura
He told me that Ball’s due date was Aug. 9, so when he boarded Air Force One to West Virginia last Monday to attend the president’s address at the National Scout Jamboree, he didn’t think he’d be in danger of missing the birth.
I read that as ‘the bitch set me up.’ Always finding a way to blame a woman -tale as old as time.
The Mooch’s concern about discussing the marriage publicly has a straight line to another story in the press this week in which a man killed his wife and was caught trying to toss her body over the side while they and their three children were aboard a cruise ship. He had to kill her because she would not stop laughing at him.
John
@Major Major Major Major: Even if he can’t he has the money to hire a car. My bet is he told Trump he wanted to leave and Trump wouldn’t give him permission, and now, like the simpering Salacious Crumb that he is, he won’t throw Jabba the Trump under the bus.
rk
I actually seriously thought about this question yesterday when I heard the interview between Chris Cuomo and a guy named Ed Butwosky. Reached the conclusion that someone in Trump’s circle thinks up an evil, but stupid plan and then finds and finds depraved, immoral morons to implement the plan. Majority of people associating with Trump and republicans are morons. Also, does anyone seriously think that Scaramucci cared about the birth of his child? If you care you find a way. If you don’t you find excuses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTWZ9IkPa1E
Yarrow
@Laura:
Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them. Never more true than this sad example.
Major Major Major Major
@John: that was kind of my read on the situation too. Humiliating toadies gets Trump off.
cmorenc
@oldster:
Oh, please – don’t give Trump the idea of bringing Tucker Carlson into his Administration. Trump might not listen to our suggestions, but one of his minions in Trump’s momentary favor may pick up on the idea and suggest it to him. True, accepting a post in the Trump Administration places people at high risk of being destroyed by proximity to the toxic boss from Hell, and gee it would be a shame should something bad happen to poor Tucker :=) Nevertheless, if Tucker’s position very frequently put him in the MSM outside the Fox bubble, the spectacle could be unbearably annoying while he lasts, almost as much as the fact that a toxic imposter like Trump is POTUS. And it would probably take a few months, not a few days (as with Mooch) for Tucker to get kicked aside by Trump like yesterday’s garbage.
MattF
@oldster: I’m guessing Sean Hannity, actually.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
trump strings people along, casts them aside and brings them back, look at Christie and Roger Stone. The Mooch already used his access to trump to jack up the sale of his hedge fund to Chinese bankers, and if Reince doesn’t want to wind up selling real estate or insurance in Kenosha, he’s gonna need rubes to think he’s worth a fat retainer because he gets invited to Mar-A-Lago for Tiffany’s birthday party. trump won’t be there, but that butler might slip a note to the Beast if Reince slips the butler a fat envelope.
Major Major Major Major
Trump signed the Russia sanctions bill.
enplaned
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The flaw in that thinking is no Uber in WV… A guy like Scaramucci sees a place like WV as little different from subSaharan Africa…
sukabi
@cmorenc: it won’t be Carlson, he’ll replace Kelly with Hannity.
germy
Saw this comment over at LGM:
Good question.
Laura
@John: John, I would bet the biggest, shiniest nickel that he did no such thing. The Mooch spent a lot of time and planning and maneuvering to get on board the trump train -and get his head shoved up to the shoulders in trumps ass.
The very last thing he cared about, or made contingency plans in advance for, or wasted a freaking week to visit, was his wife and their child.
Travelling with trump, dining with fellow trump fluffed Kimberley Guilfoyle, playing bad ass insider with Ryan Lizza, and having a baby due at any time. One of these things is NOT like the others.
Gin & Tonic
@Major Major Major Major: As quietly as possible, I’ll bet.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: he only voted for the good parts of Wray
snark aside, enough has come out since his first hearing for Dems to have insisted on at least another round of questioning. Might not be parliamentarian-approved, but at least they could have raised a stink.
Chet Murthy
@enplaned: No Uber, but yes Hertz. More damning for him, per @artem1s: he just gets one of his staffers to do the driving, while he lolls in the back seat doing …. (uh) whatever he does (brain bleach needed). Honestly, he’s a multi-tens-millionaire — he could have hired the local limo driver in that one-horse town to drive him to NYC for …. what? $1k ? $2k? c’mon, it’s gotta be peanuts. For the birth of his second child …. the mind boggles. Truly boggles.
sukabi
@Major Major Major Major: huh. Maybe he’s tossing the b all to Tillerson…
A Ghost to Most
@cmorenc:
It would be worth it to see Fucker Tarlton get orange slimed.
Mike J
As much as I hate to (partially) defend Mooch, driving back would be silly when you know Trump isn’t going to sit out in the woods with a bunch of screaming kids any longer than he has to.
It’s going to take an hour and a half to get outside the no fly zone. The flight back to DC on AF1 would only take a half hour. If Trump were going to leave in any reasonable amount of time, it makes sense to stay.
Of course the fact that he didn’t go to NY until Friday proves the whole story was a lie anyway. That doesn’t mean anybody would be eager to spend hours sitting on 95 when it wouldn’t save them any time.
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Interesting point, though. He sold it supposedly to avoid conflicts of interest because he’d be taking a post in the WH. If he’s not employed by the WH in that sort of position before the end of the year, he’s facing a huge capital gains tax liability, that he wouldn’t be facing if he were in a position where he was required to avoid a conflict. So talking up his “access” to jack up the price will bite him in the ass.
I’m looking here on my desk for the world’s smallest violin. Sorry, must have misplaced it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that was my first reaction, but I think enplaned’s point was you can imagine The Mooch screaming at his assistant over the phone: “What the FUCK is Hertz? Don’t fucking talk to me about standing at a counter, get a fucking Maybach with chilled Pelegrino and Walker Blue in the back seat down here to fucking Bugtussle NOW or I’ll buy you a fucking one way ticket back to fucking Middlebury! in coach! I went to Harvard Law!”
JanieM
@John:
This. The guy’s a fncking billionaire. Never mind just hire a car, he could buy all the roads between wherever he was and wherever his wife was, and clear the highways for his car and stable of drivers.
He didn’t give a sh!t, that was the problem. Whether that was exacerbated by Trump not “letting” him is irrelevant.
These people — are they really that accustomed to having any crap that comes out of their mouths not challenged as the cobbled-together idiocy that it is? (Rhetorical question. Obviously, yes they are.)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@oldster:
He’ll replace Kelly with Ivanka.
RSR
The no-fly zone means you can’t fly in the area without (prior) permission. AF1 lands at Philly International regularly, and that doesn’t shut down the airport. (There’s a brief hold – on the ground and in the air – during AF1 arrival and departure, but otherwise ops continue.)
It’s a poor excuse and deceptive.
Hungry Joe
I have a writer friend who is always promising that her next book will be “What is WRONG with People, Anyway?”
bemused
If true that Mooch’s wife requested some space from him after the baby was born early, who could blame her? He probably made that up too. As a father figure, I feel sorry for all his kids.
Someone here mentioned a video compilation of Mooch copying Trump hand and other movements. Wow, almost exactly the same. He had to have studied Trump very carefully because it doesn’t look natural or accidental. Mooch wanted that job more than anything.
LAO
So, since this is a “sociopath” thread as well as Republicans — seems to me that the Shkrelli jury will be rendering a verdict today. My bet is after lunch (NY juries always eat their free lunch).
sukabi
@Chet Murthy: he could have bought a brand new car with the $ in his pocket and driven back if he wanted to, it’s not like he’s broke or anything.
Even the note he sent his wife wasn’t as personal or caring as one you’d get from a complete stranger.
Major Major Major Major
@germy: of course not, we all know this Russia/Comey stuff is just a distraction from why Hillary really lost.
Another Scott
What’s wrong with them? They’re broken human beings with damaged brains. And what’s worse, they’re case studies of the Dunning–Kruger effect.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
RSR
In fact, here’s a TFR in WV right now: http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_7_1502.html
NotMax
Boy scouts: “Be prepared.”
Scaramucci:: “Huh? That’s for effin’ losers.”
LAO
@Major Major Major Major: And meanwhile, Tillerson turns down $80 million to counter Russian Propaganda. What a world we live in.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
IIRC the short congratulatory text was very generic, something like “Congratulations, I’ll pray for our child”.
I’ve asked my wife how long our marriage would last if I was on travel when she went into labor and what she got from me was that text instead of my presence (or at least evidence I was seriously trying to get home). We don’t have an exact answer, but it’s measured in milliseconds. Something less than the time to read the message.
In Moochie’s case, the marriage was already on the rocks, but still they’d agreed he’d be there for the birth. The fact that he wasn’t even trying to get home, that he thought the text was sufficient, shows the bog-standard Republican incapacity for empathy. As does the fact that he didn’t show up on Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Or Thursday. Or, presumably, use the “telephone” feature of his phone on Monday or any other time.
mai naem mobile
He’s just a big fat liar like Dolt45. He didn’t see the kid for several days later. How did this moron become so wealthy when he can’t even make up a reasonable lie about this.
cmorenc
@sukabi:
Agree Hannity would be more likely than Carlson, but also more toxically annoying than even Carlson while he lasted. Hannity actually manages to make Carlson look – well not good, but not quite so bad by comparison., grading on a HUGE curve.
eric
@germy: no, just solid pragmatism to rebut the claims of the Neoliberals that he can never play ball. /s
NotMax
@cmorenc
And Carlson has way too much invested in bow ties to give them up and switch over to ties that hang down to the knees.
different-church-lady
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Hey, c’mon now, everybody knows it’s still not possible to make voice calls on those things.
Alex in NYC
Are we sure she wanted him there?
NonyNony
@cmorenc: Neither Hannity nor Carlson would take the pay or status cut required to become Trump’s Communications Director.
And Carlson would never be in the running. He’s too much of a weenie for Trump to think he could do the job properly.
(I’d honestly love to see Hannity give up his show to become Trump’s full-time toady and abused monkey-boy, but there’s not a chance in hell of that happening, sadly.)
stibbert
Kinda surprised that the internet didn’t rebrand him as “Shkrelimouche, America’s biggest dickhead.”
LAO
@Alex in NYC: Apparently, he still hasn’t met his son. LINK
different-church-lady
@LAO: Some day his son might thank him for that.
MattF
Trump signs Russia sanctions bill. Vlad has a sad.
Elizabelle
This reminds me a bit of an All in the Family episode. Archie was not there for Gloria’s birth, but, he told Edith, he was “there when it counted.”
Learned helplessness on the part of a gazillionaire, or, more likely, unrestrained ambition to be part of Trump’s administration coupled with a rocky relationship with the Mrs., soon to be the second ex-Mrs. Mooch.
Also, didn’t he call The New Yorker on Wednesday night?
Gin & Tonic
@MattF: And bans the press from the signing.
Captain C
@Gin & Tonic: Heck, Mooch could probably afford to hire a party bus to make that drive for him.
Captain C
@dmsilev:
That’s what they tell him, anyway. It’s not like the few people who are actually loyal to him would know the difference.
Captain C
@germy: At the extreme fringes of the cult, Wilmer can’t lose purity points no matter what he does or doesn’t do. He is, by definition, good and just, even when doing things which would permanently condemn anyone else to being a Bad Person and Neoliberal.
randy khan
@Gin & Tonic:
I’d just note that if he thought he was going to avoid tax liability by taking the job, he has, uh, very aggressive accountants. A sale announced before he took the job would not be one required by the conflict of interest rules, no matter when it actually closed.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It’s amazing the number of people who have homosexual D/S relationship’s with thier bosses. Trump and The Mouch are really begging for politcal slash fiction.
Captain C
@MattF: Ultimately, Vlad’s sad may well come from the fact that even though he may well be the richest man in the world, he can’t ever show it off in public, as no one, not even his most loyal supporters, will believe that he saved $200 billion on a Russian bureaucrat’s salary (though they may fake it as long as he has the keys to the polonium vault).
Imagine the good that investing half of that in Russia’s economy would have done by now.
Elizabelle
Incidentally, Fuck the Fucking New York Times, but this recent headline was genius. Still makes me laugh.
Divorce Report Capped Scaramucci’s First Week. There Was No Second Week.
There was no second week. Thwack!
Civilians? Mooch is/was on the field of battle? More word creep by someone in government. Not even in law enforcement (where we too often see the term “civilians” used inappropriately).
randy khan
@Captain C:
It’s like the inverse of the No True Scotsman fallacy for those folks – whatever he does is, by definition, virtuous.
Gin & Tonic
@randy khan:
You’ve seen the guy on TV, right?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@oldster:
I am betting with Colbert that Kelly’s replacement two weeks from now will be Ted Nugent.
H.E.Wolf
Previously on “As The Mooch Turns”: The Mooch had 3 children with his first wife, then began a workplace affair and had a 4th child with the much younger Ms. Ball, while not yet divorced from the first Mrs. Mooch.
Peale
@Captain C: Not really. My sense is that most Russian’s like being robbed and ripped off. I guess the question is what happens when he dies. He gained this all by looting and theft. My guess is that it will be looted and thieved the second he’s gone. As soon as someone finds it, the ownership structures he’s using to keep it hidden will be used to unravel the whole fortune.
Miss Bianca
@LAO: Oy. Gee, we WONDERS WHY, yes, we wonders….
Immanentize
@Alex in NYC: one possibility is that she personally did not want him there, but if a divorce was imminent, her best play would be to let Mooch be Mooch knowing he was likely not to show whether she wanted him to or not. He fails to show for a week!! Ka-ching!!
gene108
@enplaned:
As Uber is in sub-Saharan Africa, even that frame of mind would be mistaken.
NotMax
@H.E.Wolf
Capable of sticking it in but not sticking it out.
LAO
@Miss Bianca: I can’t think of a single reason why. Can you?
Immanentize
@LAO: @Miss Bianca:
This makes me so mad! How did Tillerson get to be head of Exxon if what he cares most about is the fee for of his competitor (in this case, Russia).
Unless….
randy khan
@Gin & Tonic:
Well, when you put it that way . . .
FlipYrWhig
@Captain C: My most slaveringly Bernie-loving FB friend was all wound up about how the Democrats did something with Israel or something like that, which was of course just the latest demonstration of how the Democrats are out of touch with their base (meaning him and people like him, of course) and yadda yadda yadda. Naturally he didn’t mention anything about the FBI director. Did Sanders roll out one of his patented “It was because I had a higher leftier purpose!” excuses, like with closing Guantanamo and voting for the crime bill in 1994?
Andrew
Even if that’s true–and it’s quite a big if–then get in a car and drive, numbnuts!
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
This assumes he wasn’t planning on selling anyway and is just using the job as an excuse. The Trump admin has been very generous with ethics waivers, so Mooch probably could have gotten one if he had asked. Also, too, the Republicans in Congress are going to do their best to lower capital gains tax.
Roger Moore
@mai naem mobile:
It’s a question of motivation, not ability.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: Both of my senators voted No on Wray. Good for them, too!
Villago Delenda Est
@Elizabelle: Here’s the thing. The Mooch had been chasing after a White House gig since November, and his wife wasn’t happy with it. So, yes, Trump had something to do with this.
Matt McIrvin
@FlipYrWhig: I always got the sense that if Sanders actually became President or even a major-party nominee, some of his fans would be seriously disappointed with how pro-Israel he is–not a Likud type, but he’s basically an ordinary mainstream Democrat on that subject.
Matt McIrvin
(More generally, I’ve noticed a tendency among the leftier Democrats to assume that the more economic-populist Dem politicians like Elizabeth Warren are also more anti-imperialist/non-interventionist on foreign policy, when in many cases they’re not.)
Chris
@MattF:
I wonder if Vlad the Impaler is having second thoughts.
Major Major Major Major
@Matt McIrvin:
For some lefties, “Israel has a right to exist and defend itself” is even a bridge too far.
Ellen
OK, for argument’s sake he couldn’t get there on Monday, the day the baby was born. He didn’t visit his son in the NICU until FRIDAY. He’s a monster, they all are.
Boatboy_srq
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: As I said, why he didn’t is between him and his divorce attorney. But the lack of an air alternative was apparently enough to slow him down significantly (both physically and intellectually, apparently) which is a fairly common wingnut failing.
Chris
@FlipYrWhig:
The idea that the Democratic base is screaming for moderation on Israel is one of the most hilariously wrong ideas I’ve ever heard out of the Berniebro crowd.
Wjs
Cocaine is a hell of a drug, part infinity.
The Moar You Know
@Peale: Like it? Not one bit. In fact they usually recognize that they’re being scammed well in advance of Americans, who I would say DO like being ripped off.
They accept it, though. Their “leaders” have been ripping them off for as long as there’s been a Russia and probably before that. Pretty ingrained in the culture that it’s going to happen, and you better keep your mouth shut and deal with it, because otherwise worse shit happens.
H.E.Wolf
@NotMax:
Ewwwwww!
(And you’re right.)
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
Yeah, I think it’s that Russians expect to get ripped off and try to minimize the damage as best they can through negotiation and bargaining, which is quite different from liking it.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
I’m feeling a bit exposed having to mop with all this mustard.
TenguPhule
@Chris:
Actually, we do have a purity problem about Israel on our side. It tends to get overlooked when we’re so deep in the crapper though.
randy khan
@Boatboy_srq:
Some wingnuts get flummoxed when they don’t get the seat on the plane that they want. But perhaps I shouldn’t overgeneralize from Ms. Coulter.
Chitown Kev
This White House is nothing less than Arkham Asylum.
Shalimar
@Humdog: That would have been the perfect followup question after listening patiently to minute details about why he couldn’t go visit on Monday during the Jamboree..
“Ok. Now let’s go through the next 4 days. Air Force One was back in Washington Monday night. You’re an hour and a half flight away from New York. Why didn’t you go that night?”
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin:
If hanging around Daily Kos during the Obama Years taught me anything, it’s that Leftier Democrats can be just as prone to group-think and mindless parroting as wingnuts. The only saving grace is that they at least believe in good instead of evil.
Boatboy_srq
@Mike J: That’s just a “do I lose my job in ten days, or in only five?” calculation.
Boatboy_srq
@randy khan: Mustn’t forget the Hasidic wingnut that made a Holocaust survivor deplane because he couldn’t sit next to a (gasp) female and HE couldn’t possibly give up HIS seat. Your generalisation is defensible from more than Coulter’s antics.
J R in WV
@Boatboy_srq:
Wait…The Hasidic nutjob didn’t want to sit beside a female on an AIRPLANE and so he made someone else (an elderly holocaust survivor) get off the AIRPLANE somehow… so Hasidic nut didn’t have to sit beside a female???
This is so fuqed up I don’t have words to express my amazed senses. Despicable immoral behavior on the part of the Hasidic butthole. Mistreated the aged holocaust survivor and everyone else around him.