Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

What fresh hell is this?

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I did not have this on my fuck 2021 bingo card.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

We still have time to mess this up!

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

‘Forty-two’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

Infrastructure week. at last.

I really should read my own blog.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The revolution will be supervised.

This is all too absurd to be reality, right?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Oh, Ruuuuuudy….

Oh, Ruuuuuudy….

by | 179 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

…don’t take yer love to town:

The Guardian: The reputation of Rudy Giuliani could be set for a further blow with the release of highly embarrassing footage in Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to Borat.

In the film, released on Friday, the former New York mayor and current personal attorney to Donald Trump is seen reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals while reclining on a bed in the presence of the actor playing Borat’s daughter, who is posing as a TV journalist.

Following an obsequious interview for a fake conservative news programme, the pair retreat at her suggestion for a drink to the bedroom of a hotel suite, which is rigged with concealed cameras.

This happened in July during the filming of the “Borat” sequel. And Giuliani feels good about himself because he called the cops when the Borat character burst into the room, identified the “journalist” as his 15-year-old daughter, and told Giuliani that she was “too old” for him:

“This guy comes running in, wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit,” Giuliani told the New York Post. “It was a pink bikini, with lace, underneath a translucent mesh top, it looked absurd. He had the beard, bare legs, and wasn’t what I would call distractingly attractive.

“This person comes in yelling and screaming, and I thought this must be a scam or a shakedown, so I reported it to the police. He then ran away,” Giuliani said. The police found no crime had been committed.

Giuliani continued: “I only later realised it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen. I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me.”

Oh my fucking GOD, 2020, can you please just STOP?

Hey, maybe Biden can use this if Trump spends every minute of this week’s debate (when his mic isn’t muted because he’s such a puling orange baby that muting presidential candidate’s mics is now a thing) bellowing about Hunter Biden’s emails, e.g., “Oh, you mean from the hard drive allegedly obtained by your personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, recently seen playing pocket perch in a hotel room with a young lady in the ‘Borat’ sequel?”

I mean, not really, but good lord, these fucking people!

I’ve never been a Sacha Baron Cohen fan — his shtick is just not my brand of humor. But kudos to him for exposing that fucking whack-job Giuliani for the repulsive old goat that he is.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

179Comments

  1. 1.

    MomSense

    🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    So, all of those child-porn accusations were, in fact, projection?

    Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me.”

    “Because he burst into the room to stop me.”

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    @MomSense: Look,. we have two choices: we can talk about Jeffrey Toobin’s genitalia or we can talk about Rudy Giuliani’s genitalia. Those are the rules, I’m sorry.

  13. 13.

    different-church-lady

    @germy:

    But it looks like she’s an undertaker preparing him for burial:

    Well, metaphorically that’s exactly what she’s doing.

  14. 14.

    Lyrebird

     

    @dmsilev: the bigger vomit inspiration is her age, but it doesn’t say how old the actor was.  Am I old for wanting to say “actress”?  Dunno.

     

    Either way, I’m with @MomSense

    , I just don’t know how to put the little pukey emojis in.

     

    ETA: i did get it that you are making a funny

  15. 15.

    catclub

    @Gravenstone: I saw that $8B  (if actual spend, not the usual airline miles credits) is a big number. Although the same articles typically mentin that the Sacklers extracted about $10B from Purdue while the Oxycontin was rolling.

  16. 16.

    cope

    Too funny. I just read this Guardian article before popping in here to see what’s new.

    I laughed a lot at Cohen’s first Borat movie but really have no desire to see it again. Maybe this one will be the same way. It’s interesting to me that the people and groups Cohen punked in the first movie were pretty much on the fringes of the system but from what I have read about this new film, he gets his licks in with privileged insiders (Giuliani, Pence, CPAC). We just got Prime (don’t judge me) so maybe I’ll give it a go.

  18. 18.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @germy:  At first I thought somebody had photoshopped a skeleton hand onto his wrist as a joke. No, his hand is that bone white color.

    Add that to the weird purple hands on McConnell people posted earlier and… are these people all literal zombies?

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    you think Rudi’s self-aware enough to go hide in the Hamptons place I’m sure he owns, with a couple of cases of scotch and good red and cigars and let somebody leak to Page Six that he’s in rehab while his people say “no comment”?

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    @Gravenstone: Not wow enough, IMO. The Sackler family made $13B off pushing oxy. This settlement leaves $5B unaccounted for. The Sacklers should be sharing a 1996 Ford Taurus to shuttle between their singlewide trailer and Walmart greeter jobs. THEN I’ll consider it truly wow.

  24. 24.

    JPL

    @germy: You can watch Borat  if you have a prime memberships starting Friday.

    The picture spoke a thousand words to me, so I’m gonna pass.

  26. 26.

    RaflW

    But I’m sure we’ll still hear from sanctimonious Republicans that Cal Cunningham’s texts are a problem.

  27. 27.

    Immanentize

    @Gravenstone: The settlement is a total dodge — the Sacklers walk away with their money, the DOJ has asked for the documents to be sealed (preventing individuals from learning the truth and suing) and the company goes into bankruptcy.  It is a protection of billionaires deal.

  28. 28.

    Bruce K

    Y’know, I could have been happy going another fifty years without hearing a mention being made about Mr. Noun-Verb-911’s unmentionables…

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    Boston Globe 2 days ago: “Biden’s lead gives Democrats an uncomfortable sense of deja vu”

    Boston Globe 2 minutes ago: “A Biden landslide? Some Democrats can’t help but whisper. “

  30. 30.

    Baud

    @Immanentize:

    the DOJ has asked for the documents to be sealed (preventing individuals from learning the truth and suing)

    Weird, since the company won’t exist anymore.  Why would there by trade secrets to protect?

  31. 31.

    Immanentize

    @catclub: There will be no 8 billion.  The deal is that the company will be taken over as a public trust, continue selling pharmaceuticals and the profits will go to the settlement.  What could go wrong??

  32. 32.

    Nicole

    Between Giuliani and Toobin, I have had to allot more than enough brain space to old white men touching their puds, thank you very much.

  33. 33.

    RaflW

    @dmsilev: Qan*n is very much in the Bannon “flood the zone with shit” style. By manufacturing volumes of garbage allegedly about democrats, it lets Trump photos with Epstein and or Ghislaine just slide thru. And Rudy groping his sad sac. Or Gaetz and his ‘son’ Nestor.

  36. 36.

    Keith P.

    “Rudy, I’ve got good news and bad news.  The good news is that I know a lawyer/fixer who can make this picture go away….”

  38. 38.

    RaflW

    @Gravenstone: Should have been some jail time, tho. Even if it was a cushy white collar joint, the ring leaders needed to have their liberty deprived for some period of time. They always have more money than they hand over. So fines for this level of crime are never, IMO, enough.

  39. 39.

    germy

     

     

     

     

    Posing as a conservative journalist in the mold of Tomi Lahren—albeit with a strong eastern European accent—Tutar sits down with Giuliani in a Manhattan hotel suite for an “interview” in which she mostly flatters him into creepily flirting with her. “I’ll relax you, you want me to ask you a question?” Giuliani says as she giggles in response. After blaming China for the coronavirus, he agrees to “eat a bat” with his interviewer, who repeatedly touches his knee to egg him on.

    Baron Cohen first interrupts the interview dressed as a sound engineer with a large boom mic, but leaves before it’s over. At that point, Tutar offers to “have a drink in the bedroom” with Giuliani, who happily obliges.

    On what appear to be hidden cameras, we see Giuliani remove her microphone and ask for her phone number and address as he sits down on the bed. He starts patting her backside as she removes the microphone from his pants. Giuliani then lies down on the bed and starts sticking his hands down his pants in a suggestive manner.

    But before anything more can happen, Borat bursts into the room and shouts, “Put down your chram!”—his preferred word for penis. “She’s 15! She’s too old for you!”

    The startled Giuliani, who had no reason to believe his interviewer was underage, sits up abruptly and gets out of there as fast as he can. “Rudy, Trump will be disappoint! You are leaving hotel without golden shower!” Borat yells after him.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-rudy-giuliani-got-caught-red-handed-with-borats-daughter

  40. 40.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: It’s not the trade secret stuff, it’s the internal communications regarding the scheme to cook the software for doctors looking for drug prescription information that will be sealed.  That and Sacklers involvement.  It is a very stinky deal.  All future money.  With escaped liability for all but the company itself as an entity.

  41. 41.

    Gravenstone

    @Betty Cracker: I’ll take pulling Purdue Pharma off the board as a good first step. Clawing back the additional ill gotten gains from the family can be an ongoing affair.

  45. 45.

    zhena gogolia

    and of course the people who thought that Hillary Clinton was somehow responsible for the behavior of Anthony Weiner are not going to make the same argument about Trump/Giuliani.

    Merrick Garland.

  46. 46.

    PPCLI

    Rudy doesn’t appear to be the sort of person who can identify an obvious set-up from a comedian known for setting people up.

    Imagine how he could be manipulated by a dedicated, crafty intelligence service with lots of resources.

  47. 47.

    RaflW

    I have to sort of love that a comedian and Hollywood film maker can so easily, perfectly punk Rudy, but that shitstain O’Keefe always has to resort to deceptively edited crap to try for his lame ‘gotchas’.

  48. 48.

    different-church-lady

    It’s kind of amazing that on the day it’s revealed that the president has a secret Chinese bank account all we can talk about is his lawyer’s junk.

  49. 49.

    mrmoshpotato

    Wow. Ghouliani was compromised by a comedian!

    Just think about that for a second. And the leader of this group of dumbfucks has a “very good brain.”

    ETA – “a pink transgender outfit”

    I haven’t seen what Pedo Rudy is talking about, but the stupidity of that description offends me.

    ETA2 – “I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me.”

    Oh, he got you, you disgusting pedo vampire.

  53. 53.

    germy

    How long before someone uncovers (or photoshops) a photo of Sacha Baron Cohen standing next to Hillary Clinton? Maybe #45 will retweet it, and accuse her of “complicity”

  54. 54.

    cope

    I would like to take exception to the first sentence of the Guardian article.  To my mind, Giulani’s reputation could not possible be brought any lower.

  55. 55.

    Gin & Tonic

    You’d think a 76-year-old guy would have over the decades at least developed the self-awareness to recognize that when nubile young women who are *way* out of his league keep entering the picture, something is going on. I’m sure his visits to Budapest and Prague and Kyiv were just fullof those sorts of encounters, now in the files of many, many intelligence services.

  56. 56.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia:

    To be fair, as far as we know, Rudi thought he was going to have a fling with an adult woman.  Not in itself a scandalous thing.  But maybe there’ll be more when the film is released.

  57. 57.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud:

    The point is the one G&T makes at #55. This shows how indiscreet and stupid he is — what do you think Russian intelligence can do with him?

  58. 58.

    The Moar You Know

    Purdue Pharma paying a massive fine and shutting down due to role in opioid crisis.

    @Gravenstone:  This was expected, and the Sacklers are keeping most of the money. The fine is a percentage of what the company made over the years.

  60. 60.

    germy

    And the right wing response, with its usual grasp of logic and facts:

    Sasha Baron Cohen claimed the girl he sent into a hotel with Rudy Giuliani was 15? This means the film crew and Baron Cohen are guilty of child sex trafficking and child pornography. Even for a “prank,” you cannot use an underage person for a sexual activity. pic.twitter.com/obxSg2v6P0

    — Cernovich (@Cernovich) October 21, 2020

    “Arrest Cohen!”

    What idiots.

  67. 67.

    Just Chuck

    I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me

    On camera, hands down pants, then getting punked by SBC.  Um Rudy, that’s the very definition of “got you”.

  68. 68.

    PJ

    @different-church-lady: The reveal about Trump’s taxes, wherein we found out he was in hock for over half a billion dollars to undisclosed foreign entities, was just over three weeks ago, and it was forgotten by the time of the first debate.  So, yeah, the media half-life of the President’s secret Chinese bank account, through which money is not in any way being laundered, nor through which are any bribes “licensing fees” being accepted, is about four hours.

  70. 70.

    Oklahomo

    @dmsilev: Well, since Bill Cosby’s mug shot was trending yesterday and Harvey Weinstein is crying abut dying in prison we could discuss their dangly junk.

  71. 71.

    PPCLI

    @Baud: There is a huge yuck factor whenever a drunk clumsy letch starts pawing his privates in a hotel room with a woman young enough to be his great-granddaughter. And actually seeing it unfold…. YUCK.

    I do think that the more serious damage this inflicts is that it brings out what an easily bamboozled, credulous dork Giuliani reveals himself to be. A more hapless sucker than I had imagined, and I had imagined that he was an easy mark.

    Yes, Rudy, tell me again about how you are convinced that your contacts weren’t GRU agents.

  76. 76.

    pamelabrown53

    @PPCLI:

    This! …and from a lech who purports to be an international security expert. Surely 2020 has killed irony, too.

  77. 77.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @cope:

    from what I have read about this new film, he gets his licks in with privileged insiders (Giuliani, Pence, CPAC)

    Wait, Pence? Really? Had not heard that, but HAHAHAHAHA if true!

  79. 79.

    Suzanne

    @dmsilev: 

    Look,. we have two choices: we can talk about Jeffrey Toobin’s genitalia or we can talk about Rudy Giuliani’s genitalia.

    Stop the world. I want off.

  80. 80.

    RaflW

    @mrmoshpotato: The principal at Giuliani Security & Safety LLC, fondling himself (after Borat had come in the bedroom once in a different disguise, even!) on hidden camera. The writers in 2020 are awfully close to the edge here.

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @germy:

    According to the Grauniad article, she’s not actually underage:

    Although unfortunate, the circumstances of the setup appear consensual, with Giuliani led to believe he was being courted. Bakalova, 24, is highly plausible in the sting, despite also having to pretend, for the benefit of viewers, to be a feral child posing as a far-right journalist.

  84. 84.

    Evil_Paul

    @RaflW: I was just thinking…

    …wasn’t there some kind of James O’Keefe “sting operation” where he tried to seduce a female journalist by having an interview on a boat and then showing her a dildo?

    Like, I mean, that was it?  That was the whole plan?  He was going to show her a couple of sex toys and she was naturally going to rip her clothes off and have sex with him right then and there?  Instead of being grossed out (like she actually was)?

    It really is the truth: Every accusation is a secret confession.  Republicans accuse Democrats (and lefties in general) of being creepy-ass horn dogs because that’s how they are themselves…

  86. 86.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @dmsilev: So, all of those child-porn accusations were, in fact, projection?

    Of course they were, there’s been all kinds of talk of Trump and 14 years old for years now.

  88. 88.

    Delk

    @dmsilev:

    we have two choices: we can talk about Jeffrey Toobin’s genitalia or we can talk about Rudy Giuliani’s genitalia. Those are the rules, I’m sorry.

    Somewhere the Old El Paso girl is struck mute.

  89. 89.

    trollhattan

    @Suzanne:

    Seriously. Can I down a REALLY GOOD bottle of wine and wake up in exactly two weeks? Have enough vacation days stocked up.

  90. 90.

    MisterForkbeard

    @germy: And just think, this is the kind of compromat that a few (good) improv actors got on Rudy without any trouble or much effort.

    Imagine what the Russians have got him for.

  91. 91.

    oldgold

    “If Borat was able to compromise Rudy, imagine what a trained intelligence officer could do.”

  92. 92.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Sister Golden Bear: usually well-off white gay men—usually hate trans people as much as the bible humpers do, and for year have been trying to exclude us from the LGBTQ community, and any anti-LGBTQ protections. for

    One of girlfriends was a manager at a men’s clothing store in SF and she had a to fire a twit like that. Him and his boyfriends would sneak off into the backroom for sex then go out on the floor and harass the openly gay staff members. That was quite the eye opener for me.

  94. 94.

    Barbara

    @Betty Cracker: My understanding is that the Sackler family is not covered under the settlement.  That’s from a quick analysis provided by my office.  Not that getting at them would be a simple matter, but it must reflect something of a compromise from earlier this year, in which protecting members of the Sackler family was considered to be a high priority for the company.  YMMV.

  98. 98.

    pamelabrown53

    @Tom Levenson:

    Hah!!! Just like Trump can thank his COVID diagnosis for burying his tax return story, Melania’s FU Christmas story and Guillfolye’s (sp) sexual harassment story.

  99. 99.

    Barbara

    @germy: Irony is dead.  Seriously, like NBC should be prosecuted for using 14 year olds to lure men to a house for a good time . . . oh wait a minute, there was no actual underage girl.

  101. 101.

    Barbara

    @Immanentize: I am not a defender of the Sackler family or Purdue Pharma, but my guess is what the DOJ wants to cover up is the many interactions between Purdue and the FDA and the DEA.  It’s simply not possible that Purdue would have gotten away with what they did for so long without the complicity of both agencies — as well as the DOJ, in the earlier prosecution that was settled in 2006.  Not a chance.

  103. 103.

    Betty Cracker

    @Barbara: I have no expertise on the topic nor insights into the legal machinations. Just expressing a conviction that since those scumbags profited from an enterprise that caused untold misery and death, they should be stripped of every ill-gotten nickel.

  104. 104.

    trollhattan

    @Barbara:

    The po-lice are doing this very thing all the damn time to…we won’t call it entrap, men seeking underage girls. If it’s not on line or over the phone, it involves female officers who look underage. Did nobody watch “21 Jump Street” for pete’s sake? Since Rudy was a frickin’ federal prosecutor, he knows the rules and ropes at a working level.

  105. 105.

    JPL

    @pamelabrown53: I sure hope that Biden brings up that trump paid China $188,000 in taxes and only $750.00 to the USA.    He might also mention that most could not get a security clearance with that background.

  107. 107.

    Barbara

    @trollhattan: I bought a really expensive bottle of wine to share with my mother (a huge Hillary fan) at the end of October of 2016.  I can’t even bear to think about that now.

  109. 109.

    mrmoshpotato

    @different-church-lady: LMAO!  Eww!!!  You ought to be ashamed of yourself!

    ETA – Also, Dump paid more in Chinese taxes than US taxes, has a Chinese bank account no one knew about and is owned by Xi and Putin.

  111. 111.

    PJ

    @Tom Levenson: My joke (slightly revised) from downstairs:

    I hear Rudy hired Jeffrey Toobin to file an injunction against the movie, but they couldn’t stop working on the motion in time to stop the streaming.

  113. 113.

    Argiope

    OT, so reporting in from a Board of Elections in the northeastern part of OH. Second day doing poll monitoring. So far a ton of ballots are being dropped off in cars. The sheriff’s deputy has recently remembered to direct traffic instead of standing around staring at the line of voters—I guess someone made a call—and the Homeland Security jeep has only swung through once. Maybe they saw me leave my car and photograph them? Anyway besides that and some mild traffic snafus all is going swimmingly and voting business is brisk. Short lines and organized staff. I’m not sure I’m optimistic, but volunteering feels better than just waiting. And lots and lots of masks because our Repub governor is one of the rare types who isn’t trying to kill us.

  116. 116.

    Jinchi

    @germy: This screengrab:

    If this is what Sacha Baron Cohen has on Rudy, I never want to know what Russian intelligence has on him.

  118. 118.

    Charluckles

    The Presidents personal attorney was just roped into a classic honeypot by two comedic actors. Pre-Trump this would be a career ending national security scandal.

  119. 119.

    PPCLI

    @JPL: Oh I have a feeling that this bit of information will find its way into the debate.

    Along with the observation that this means he paid the Chinese 250 times as much money as the USA.

    And that this means the Chinese know things about the comings and goings of his money that no American knows, besides him and his accountants. And a lot of money was coming and going from China. Xi knows all about it, but we don’t.

  120. 120.

    pamelabrown53

    @JPL:

    I do too. It’s practically a guarantee that Trump will accuse Biden of being a Chinese tool at tomorrow’s debate.

    Biden alerting the public that Trump paid more taxes to the Chinese than to America would be the perfect foot in Trump’s mouth.

    What say you, fact checkers?!

  122. 122.

    LuciaMia

    At first glance I thought he was just playing a character in Borats movie. Rudy has always loved having a turn in front of the cameras. Remember his hostings on SNL? And his love of cross-dressing?

  125. 125.

    patrick Il

    Giuliani had to know this was coming, so theoretically he could have passed  off the Hunter  harddrive “discovery” to  another minion  but didn’t . Why?

    No one else would take it?

    It would lack authenticity coming from someone else?

    Entitled with no sense of consequences?

    Too dumb?

    He thought video of his handsome self fondling would be attractive to voters?

  126. 126.

    jl

    The WWE election. The story arc builds. Biden’ the hero, his son the heel, Rudy’s the heel, his daughter’s the hero. But…. are the stereotypes real? Tune into the climactic death cage match, where the truth will be revealed

    Edit: I took it for granted that this story was a hoax, but looks like not. Or is Total Recall another prophecy? Get this year over with!

  127. 127.

    Mike in NC

    Trump’s shameless minions. Rudy will likely brag about this episode. Looking forward to seeing the movie.

  129. 129.

    Cameron

    @PJ: I think Trump himself will provide an opening about the Chinese bank account when he starts ranting and raving about the Bidens’ ties to China.  He’s pretty good at self-destructing.

  130. 130.

    Ken

    @Gravenstone: Apparently, [SBC] dressed up as Trump. Seriously.

    Hmmm. Trump dying at Walter Reed and being replaced by SBC would explain a lot about the last couple of weeks.

  131. 131.

    Mo Salad

    I was hoping for a headline referencing The Specials. Betty’s is a little older, but just as good.

    In interviews with SBC, he said that he wanted to make sure that this movie was released before Election Day, or as Rudy would say in that now forgotten YouTube video from last week, Erection Day. We now see why.

  132. 132.

    Calouste

    @Jinchi: 

    Of course we haven’t seen the footage yet, but from the description in the Guardian, Rudy doesn’t seem to react like a woman who he just met and who is decades his junior asking him to her bedroom is setting of any alarm bells. So yeah, that some else has compromise on him is as good as a certainty.

  133. 133.

    WereBear

    @Barbara: I bought a really expensive bottle of wine to share with my mother (a huge Hillary fan) at the end of October of 2016. I can’t even bear to think about that now.

    Likewise, we had a big bottle of decent bubbly to share with the friends we had over.

    Sigh.

  134. 134.

    Brachiator

    @dmsilev: 

    @MomSense: Look,. we have two choices: we can talk about Jeffrey Toobin’s genitalia or we can talk about Rudy Giuliani’s genitalia. Those are the rules, I’m sorry.

    Ha!

  135. 135.

    clay

    @PPCLI:

    I do think that the more serious damage this inflicts is that it brings out what an easily bamboozled, credulous dork Giuliani reveals himself to be. A more hapless sucker than I had imagined, and I had imagined that he was an easy mark.

    Even more so, because it seems like he didn’t realize (until probably just this moment) that the ENTIRE thing was a set-up.

    If you read his spokeswoman’s statement from back in July (found at comment #20), it says that Cohen burst in at the end of an interview about Trump’s COVID leadership.  So Rudy thought — even after it happened — that the woman ‘seducing’ him was a real journalist, and that his good time was interrupted by SBC.

    I guess he think’s he’s just irresistible, huh?

  136. 136.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Aleta: Jesus. Second to last paragraph.

    While filming my latest Borat film, I showed up as a right-wing singer at a gun-rights rally in Washington State. When organizers finally stormed the stage, I rushed to a nearby get-away vehicle. An angry crowd blocked our way and started pounding on the vehicle with their fists. Under my overalls, I was wearing a bulletproof vest, but it felt inadequate with some people outside toting semiautomatic weapons. When someone ripped open the door to drag me out, I used my entire body weight to pull the door back shut until our vehicle maneuvered free.

    I know SBC has a big following but this is nuts. Why take risks like this?

  138. 138.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @clay: As someone mentioned upthread, it keeps happening to him on overseas travel, so it must be that he’s irresistable, right?

    This is such classic honey trap stuff you would think any child would see through it. But not our pal Rudy. Nor (probably) Trump on his own trips.

  140. 140.

    Another Scott

    @catclub:

    NewYorker:

    […]

    The Sacklers may be embattled, but they have hardly given up the fight. And a bankruptcy court in White Plains, it turns out, is a surprisingly congenial venue for the family to stage its endgame. Behind the scenes, lawyers for Purdue and its owners have been quietly negotiating with Donald Trump’s Justice Department to resolve all the various federal investigations in an overarching settlement, which would likely involve a fine but no charges against individual executives. In other words, the deal will be a reprise of the way that the company evaded comprehensive accountability in 2007. Multiple lawyers familiar with the matter told me that members of the Trump Administration have been pushing hard to finalize the deal before Election Day. The Administration will likely present such a settlement as a major victory against Big Pharma—and as another “promise kept” to Trump’s base.

    If the deal goes forward, it would mark a stunning turn in the decades-long saga of trying to hold Purdue and the Sacklers responsible for their role in the opioid crisis. But even more stunning is the projected outcome of the bankruptcy proceeding in White Plains. At a recent hearing, the judge, Robert Drain, became defensive when a lawyer representing creditors suggested that the Sacklers might “get away with it.” But, if the Sacklers achieve the result that the family’s legal team is quietly engineering, they seem poised to do just that.

    […]

    In a statement to The New Yorker, a representative for the families of Raymond and Mortimer Sackler denied all wrongdoing, maintaining that family members on Purdue’s board “were consistently assured by management that all marketing of OxyContin was done in compliance with law.” The statement continued, “Our hearts go out to those affected by drug abuse and addiction,” adding that “the rise in opioid-related deaths is driven overwhelmingly by heroin and illicit fentanyl smuggled by drug traffickers into the U.S. from China and Mexico.” At “the conclusion of this process,” the statement suggested, “all of Purdue’s documents” will be publicly disclosed, “making clear that the Sackler family acted ethically and responsibly at all times.”

    The states have asserted in legal filings that the total cost of the opioid crisis exceeds two trillion dollars. Relative to that number, the three billion dollars that the Sacklers are guaranteeing in their offer is minuscule. It is also a small number relative to the fortune that the Sacklers appear likely to retain, which could be three or four times that amount. As the March filing by the states opposed to the deal argued, “When your illegal marketing campaign causes a national crisis, you should not get to keep most of the money.” What the Sacklers are offering simply “does not match what they owe.”

    Nevertheless, in absolute terms, three billion dollars is still a significant sum—and the Sacklers have made it clear that they are prepared to pay it only in the event that they are granted a release from future liability. It may be that the magnitude of the dollars at stake will persuade Drain, the Justice Department officials on the case, and even the state attorneys general who initially rejected the Sacklers’ proposal to sign off. The problem, one attorney familiar with the case said, is that “criminal liability is not something that should be sold,” adding, “It should not depend on how rich they are. It’s not right.”

    Patrick Radden Keefe

    (Emphasis added.)

    Grr….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  142. 142.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @PJ: Hell, I remember when people were upset that Trump called everyone in the armed services, especially those who died in service, a bunch of losers. That of course was forgotten when it was revealed that he tacitly allows Russia to pay bounties on US military personnel heads.

    I may have those two events reversed in temporal order…

  145. 145.

    Mary G

    I tried to read the post, but there isn’t enough brain bleach in the world. Is it always Republicans he punks? Does he leave Dems alone for partisan purposes, or does he try with them and they are too smart to fall for it?

  148. 148.

    trnc

    I liked Borat a lot, but I thought Bruno fell flat. It was pretty much the same shtick but felt a lot more contrived. EG, as much as I dislike Ron Paul, I don’t think Cohen really got him the way he got people in Borat. Maybe Cohen thought RP would get pissed off, but he didn’t so it just felt awkward and I cringed more about Cohen than about RP’s reaction.

  152. 152.

    Lyrebird

    @different-church-lady: @pacem appellant: 

    Thanks, that’s a relief. And to work with SBC she’s gotta have… strong appreciation for irony, or something.

    What a pathetic situation, and what a shame that there are people in this country who needed this latest installment of slime to know what Giuliani is. Slime.

    @cope:&nbsp has the right of it.

    And triple thanks to Sir @Roger Moore: 

    Old, but not that old.

    :-)

  154. 154.

    Kent

    @Roger Moore:

    @pamelabrown53:

    Here’s what stumps me: how could SBC get near enough to Pence to prank him?

    The USSS were willing to let him.

    Oh to be a fly on the wall listening to secret service agents talking unfiltered about Pence, “Mother”, Trump, and the Trumplings.

  155. 155.

    FlyingToaster

    I can hardly wait for my 83-year-old mom’s take on this week in toxic masculinity…

  158. 158.

    jimmiraybob

    How is it that this guy’s not Attorney’s General?  Maybe, once Bill Barr’s been bigly bounced for not arresting The Donald’s political opponents fast enough, he’ll get his shot at true bigly-time glory.

  159. 159.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @trnc: I just saw that. My god

    eta:

    @jimmiraybob: Am I mis-remembering that there was a brief riff between trump and Rudi because RG wanted to be either SoS or AG, and trump stiffed him?

  161. 161.

    Martin

    I know AOC isn’t everyones cup of tea, but I think she’s brilliant and delightful.

    Her Twitch stream playing Among Us was wildly successful, reaching about half a million voters – or about the sum total of every Trump rally. Both of my kids (both voting age) made a point of bringing it up, so she reached the right people. I watched a bit of it and it was wonderful. She was joined by some prominent Twitch streamers, and they were having loads of fun. Always nice seeing politicians being themselves.

    Here’s some highlights. Apparently Ilhan Omar is pretty ruthless, and has a pretty sick rig.

    Posting specs:

    Intel Core i7-10700K
    Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 Super
    G.Skill TridentZ RGB 32GB
    Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB M.2 NVMe main
    6TB SSD storage
    Corsair iCUE H100i AIO
    NZXT H510i case https://t.co/nSYcbJrgC2

    God, I want young people to take over so badly.

  162. 162.

    JPL

    https://twitter.com/lrozen

    Giuliani quickly sits up and appears startled by the presence of Cohen, who wears a pink outfit that resembles lingerie.
    Giuliani asks him: “Why are you dressed like this?”
    Cohen-as-Borat responds: “She’s my daughter. Please, take me instead.”
    “I don’t want you,” Giuliani replies

  163. 163.

    AWOL

    @trnc: Cohen made a fool of himself with Ron Paul on the HBO series. Anyone would be annoyed if  a “journalist” who came to your suite to do a filmed interview suddenly entered your bedroom without your permission and took over your bed and made suggestive and silly motions uninvited. I would have kicked him out, too. It was a nadir for Cohen, who tried to sell it as Paul being homophobic. Paul’s an idiot, but in this case, he was less idiotic than Cohen.

  164. 164.

    geg6

    Betty, I agree with you about Cohen’s Borat schtick, but you should watch him in The Trial of the Chicago 7 as Abby Hoffman.  He’s terrific.  Lots of good acting in it and much of the courtroom dialogue was taken directly from the trial transcripts.  In fact, other than some timing of events changes (when the names of the Vietnam dead were read during the trial and a few other small matters), it is pretty accurate all around.

  165. 165.

    catclub

    The reputation of Rudy Giuliani could be set for a further blow

    I bet among the juicerati it has not changed one whit.

  166. 166.

    trnc

    @JPL: no one can be that gullible though..

    Well, it is Rudy. Hard to believe he was a well respected prosecutor at one time.

  169. 169.

    Quiltingfool

    For Heaven’s sake.  I’ve been quilting placemats all day, come upstairs, check Twitter and see the Rudy G. mess.  Can’t we have one damned day where people act right?  Just one?  I can’t even.

  172. 172.

    germy

    Gentle reminder that the pranker is someone women who work in Hollywood warn one another about.

    — Xeni Jardin (@xeni) October 21, 2020

    He’s problematic, apparently, but sometimes it takes an asshole to take down an asshole.

  174. 174.

    Just Chuck

    @catclub:

    Isn’t Rudy the one that the whole “skull fuck a kitten” meme was founded on?

    (yes, memes are more than captioned gifs.  And BJ is now the top two hits for that phrase)

  175. 175.

    Just Chuck

    @geg6: SBC will often beat a shtick to death, and Borat is basically an Eastern-European retread of Ali G., but he is a damn brilliant performer.  It’s like that with a lot of comic actors: Adam Sandler has some serious range too when he’s not playing Happy Gilmore for the umpteenth time.

  177. 177.

    Another Scott

    @JPL:

    I decided to delete my Rudy Giuliani parody tweet. I apologize to all who took seriously. I was surprised by the reaction given the lack of reaction to similar parody tweets in the past. I’ll make sure in the future to flag satire tweets which aren’t real.

    — Nick Roberts (@nickroberts317) October 21, 2020

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  178. 178.

    columbusqueen

    Rudy’s claiming he was tucking his shirt in. Didn’t know that involved rearranging one’s junk for so long.

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