Grifters Gonna Grift

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Trump’s Press Campaign Proudly Declares Him A Comic-Book Villain

by Anne Laurie| December 11, 201910:29 pm| 65 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Republican Stupidity, Trumpery

… a comic-book villain who is mere seconds away from getting the beat-down of his life…

So you're arguing that Trump is Thanos ("The Mad Titan") who wants to kill half of all living things, but in the end winds up defeated and dying, taking all of his sycophantic followers down with him?
Great work, everyone. https://t.co/gFLPVch2An
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) December 10, 2019

Nicely (in the original sense of the word) encapsulating the modern Republican Party: Parasitizing a smarter group’s work, failing to pay attention long enough to spot the problems with the stolen ideas, and not caring how much they get kicked around afterwards so long as the check clears. Per the Guardian:

… Shortly after the House brought two articles of impeachment against the president for his efforts seeking foreign interference to bolster his own political interests, the official Trump War Room re-election campaign Twitter account posted a video to social media that superimposed his face over that of the villainous Marvel comic book character Thanos.
In the scene from the movie Avengers: Endgame, Thanos snaps his fingers, attempting to destroy the diverse array of heroes from throughout the universe who’ve teamed up to defeat him. I am inevitable Trump/Thanos says…
The video then cuts to footage of Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and Jerry Nadler who magically vanish much like in the movie. Not the movie in question, mind you, the previous one, but these low-effort trolling operations from Trump’s social media team tend not to be heavy on consistency or logic.
Marvel Universe timeline discrepancies aside, the choice of this moment from the film was a strange one, as it’s seconds before Thanos realizes he’s about to be defeated.
Among the chorus of critics to point out the many other flaws at work in the analogy here was Jim Starlin, the artist who created the character of Thanos in the 1970s…

The creator of Thanos responds to that Trump ad: "Seeing that pompous fool using my creation to stroke his infantile ego, it finally struck me that the leader of my country and the free world actually enjoys comparing himself to a mass murderer." https://t.co/hsQgvTmB8F
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) December 11, 2019

In the far future when historians look at this time period I’m convinced that they’ll call it the Era of Stupid. https://t.co/4ii8kWI9G5
— Gay and Bad ???????? (@SJGrunewald) December 10, 2019

Can't wait until the Trump campaign superimposes his head onto Hitler's body in the "Downfall" video.
— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) December 11, 2019

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Trump’s Press Campaign Proudly Declares Him A Comic-Book VillainPost + Comments (65)

Sunday Pharisees Open Thread: The New Failson Falkirk Center

by Anne Laurie| December 1, 20197:15 pm| 106 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Religion, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Assholes, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To

Jerry Falwell Jr. and Charlie Kirk had to come up with a name for their new think tank, so they just mashed up their two names and called it the Falkirk Center. https://t.co/dFVxfPaJ26
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 30, 2019

Jerry Jr. (last seen defending himself against charges of real estate fraud, self-dealing, misappropriation of funds from the university he inherited, and nightclubbing in Miami Beach) has gotten together with Charlie Kirk (founder of TP-USA, last seen bulk-buying failson Trump Jr’s ‘best seller’) have a new grift, per the Washington Examiner:

Growing concerns in conservative circles that liberals are trying to convert young Christians into socialists by distorting the Bible and U.S. Constitution have prompted Virginia’s Liberty University to form a new center to push back on the media, academics, and Democratic politicians.
The new think tank, announced Saturday in Lynchburg and previewed to Secrets, was co-founded by two key leaders in the Christian youth movement, Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr. and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
The Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty, a combination of their names, will “play offense” against efforts by liberals to water down Judeo-Christian values in the Bible and Constitution in their bid to build support for big government, said Kirk.
“The fastest-growing religion in America is atheism and secularism and with that is the rise of leftism and statism and, as people veer away from the church and veer away from the Judeo Christian values that built our country, people are more likely to embrace statism,” he said in an interview…
It will operate under a 501(c)(3) charter and is owned by Liberty.
The plan to go on offense is similar to how President Trump operates, and it’s no coincidence that both Falwell and Kirk are leading defenders of the president.
Kirk, who stressed that it was an “honor” to work with Falwell in the bid to “organize an army of believers in faith and liberty,” said he expects to be attacked as he and Liberty’s president have for their support for Trump…
“If you want to be loved today as a political conservative, go against the president. You’ll get the best press you could ever possibly imagine. But if you want to stand for what’s right, if you want to stand for truth, defend our country, then you have to stand behind this president,” said Kirk, who has been accompanying Donald Trump Jr. during his book tour to colleges and universities to promote Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us.

All the failsons gotta hang together, it’s both natural affinity and a defense against their (many, legitimate) enemies.

The Falkirk Center's mission, according to Charlie Kirk, is to find out whether Jesus was a socialist. pic.twitter.com/xhHV1LWPC6
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 30, 2019

That Jesus dude notoriously condemned religious profiteering, promoted multiculturalism and sharing material goods across the community, and gave away free food and healthcare. (Also, He preferred hanging with his group of fellow believers to getting an honest job, and when one of the overworked women of the movement asked for a little help in the kitchen, slanged her off for not properly valuing the worth of intellectual labor.) So: Signs point to YES!

Falkirk “will operate under a 501(c)(3) charter and is owned by Liberty.” So Charlie Kirk will keep running fake charities to hide political activity. And Trump’s IRS ensures wealthy Evangelical donors take 100% tax write-offs. #nonprofits https://t.co/yvBiFMMNXP https://t.co/sBaytQrGWH
— Nancy Levine ?? (@nancylevine) November 30, 2019

@JerryFalwellJr and @charliekirk11 should do like Trump's buddies Lev and Igor and call it Fraud Guaranteed
— Birmingham Weekly (@BhamWeekly) December 1, 2019

Sunday Pharisees Open Thread: The New <del>Failson</del> Falkirk CenterPost + Comments (106)

Repub ‘Traditions’ Open Thread: Feelers… Nothing More Than Feelers…

by Anne Laurie| November 25, 20196:42 pm| 53 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Republican Venality

Warm profile in the Times. Get her on the Emmys. Maybe she can guest on Sesame Street. We cannot rest until all of the people who lied to us, daily, in the name of advancing the agenda of a lunatic racist bonehead have been fully rehabilitated! https://t.co/NawCZSXDzK
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) November 25, 2019

This is probably true. https://t.co/MCPr2azL32
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 25, 2019

Sarah Sanders must not know many people then https://t.co/g4fS2LS4VZ
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) November 25, 2019

The people she knows best are Republicans. Even the ones who can read would rather not risk muddying their propaganda skillsets. Fox News and the Oval Office Occcupant’s twitter feed tell them all they need to know to succeed in grinding through their daily routines.

This is real. Americans love to laugh at idiots. They worship fame. And to elevate dumbasses because it makes them feel superior, or at least equal. This is a dangerous combination. Trump wasn't quite the first, but he's opened the floodgates.
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) November 25, 2019

Every so often, the Republican Party reaches a new nadir, where they can’t even scrape up a conventionally good-looking figurehead to spin the propaganda on television. Now it’s Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who looks entirely too much like her old man (nepotism, of course, being her only qualification). Last time the GOP was about to get stomped, it was the Albino Amphibian who led the charge:

Also likely devastated: the dozens of creditors to whom @newtgingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign still owes a collective $4.63 million. pic.twitter.com/qGDJ6lYVQH
— Dave Levinthal (@davelevinthal) November 25, 2019

Gotta hand it to Newt: He’s an inspiration to every soulless grifter in American politics.

Repub ‘Traditions’ Open Thread: <em>Feelers… Nothing More Than Feelers… </em>Post + Comments (53)

The other obstruction and witness intimidation case tied to Russia and Ukraine

by David Anderson| November 15, 201912:16 pm| 75 Comments

This post is in: An Unexamined Scandal, Election 2016, Goddamned Traitors, Grifters Gonna Grift, Mueller Report, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Russia, Trump Crime Cartel, Trump-Russia

Just another day when a president's oldest political adviser is convicted on 7 criminal counts including lying to Congress and witness tampering during a break in an impeachment hearing in which the president's tweets from the morning are described as intimidating by the witness.
— Philip Bump (@pbump) November 15, 2019

Roger Stone was convicted on all counts of obstruction, false statements and witness intimidation.

Open Thread

UPDATE 1

1) Trump on his way to impeachment
2) His longtime political adviser convicted on 7 counts
3) His personal lawyer under investigation for ties to 2 indicted associates
All happening around the noon hour on a Friday.
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 15, 2019

At least this Friday has the courtesy of news-dumping during normal business hours.

The other obstruction and witness intimidation case tied to Russia and UkrainePost + Comments (75)

Repub Venality Open Thread: Oh, Joy, Another 80s Reboot We Didn’t Need

by Anne Laurie| October 26, 20197:47 pm| 74 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Excellent Links, Grifters Gonna Grift, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Venality, All Too Normal

Look, this is what white working-class voters in Ohio and Iowa wanted. https://t.co/ej8aWokp37
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) October 26, 2019

Turns out those ‘Opportunity Zones’ aren’t just a financial lifeline for Jared Kushner’s family of grifters — it’s a smorgasbord for allll the financial predators among Donny Dollhands’ associates…

In the 1980s, Michael Milken embodied Wall Street greed. A swashbuckling financier, he was charged with playing a central role in a vast insider-trading scheme and was sent to prison for violating federal securities and tax laws. He was an inspiration for the Gordon Gekko character in the film “Wall Street.”
Mr. Milken has spent the intervening decades trying to rehabilitate his reputation through an influential nonprofit think tank, the Milken Institute, devoted to initiatives “that advance prosperity.”
These days, the Milken Institute is a leading proponent of a new federal tax break that was intended to coax wealthy investors to plow money into distressed communities known as “opportunity zones.” The institute’s leaders have helped push senior officials in the Trump administration to make the tax incentive more generous, even though it is under fire for being slanted toward the wealthy.
Mr. Milken, it turns out, is in a position to personally gain from some of the changes that his institute has urged the Trump administration to enact. In one case, the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, directly intervened in a way that benefited Mr. Milken, his longtime friend.
It is a vivid illustration of the power that Mr. Milken, who was barred from the securities industry and fined $600 million as part of his 1990 felony conviction, has amassed in President Trump’s Washington. In addition to the favorable tax-policy changes, some of Mr. Trump’s closest advisers — including Mr. Mnuchin, Jared Kushner and Rudolph W. Giuliani — have lobbied the president to pardon Mr. Milken for his crimes, or supported that effort, according to people familiar with the effort…
The former “junk bond king” has investments in at least two major real estate projects inside federally designated opportunity zones in Nevada, near Mr. Milken’s Lake Tahoe vacation home, according to public records reviewed by The New York Times.
One of those developments, inside an industrial park, is a nearly 700-acre site in which Mr. Milken is a major investor. Last year, after pressure from Mr. Milken’s business partner and other landowners, the Treasury Department ignored its own guidelines on how to select opportunity zones and made the area eligible for the tax break, according to people involved in the discussions and records reviewed by The Times.
The unusual decision was made at the personal instruction of Mr. Mnuchin, according to internal Treasury Department emails. It came shortly after he had spent time with Mr. Milken at an event his institute hosted…
Mr. Milken — operating from an X-shaped trading desk in Beverly Hills, Calif. — was a Wall Street legend. He pioneered the junk bond, which enabled financially risky companies to borrow billions of dollars and ignited a wave of often-hostile corporate takeovers that came to define a go-go era. His firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert, hosted an annual event, which came to be known as the Predators’ Ball, where the era’s greatest financiers mingled. Mr. Milken became a billionaire.
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Then, in 1989, federal prosecutors charged him with violating securities and tax laws and with being part of a lucrative insider-trading ring. The next year, Drexel Burnham went bankrupt.

Mr. Milken pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison and paid $600 million in fines. After cooperating with the government, he ended up serving about two years behind bars…

Mr. Milken, however, has largely managed to restore his reputation — and his clout. His family gave tens of millions of dollars to his Milken Institute, which he founded in 1991 and whose board of directors he leads. After battling prostate cancer, he helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fund cancer research…

The most public display of his renewed stature comes each spring in Los Angeles when Mr. Milken presides over a glitzy gathering at the Beverly Hilton — the same venue where his famed Predators’ Balls took place three decades ago.

The Milken Institute’s annual conference attracts thousands of the world’s most powerful people — from government, finance, medicine, Hollywood and the like — for a frenzy of high-powered networking and conspicuous consumption… Mr. Milken is the power broker at the center of the action. Onstage, he interviews famous guests. In private, he organizes exclusive dinners. Some have called the event the Davos of North America.

In the Trump era, cabinet secretaries and White House advisers have been among the event’s marquee guests, more so than in other recent administrations. Coveted speaking roles have gone to Ivanka Trump and her husband, Mr. Kushner, giving them access to an elite audience.

At last year’s event in Beverly Hills, attendees included Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Mr. Mnuchin. The Treasury secretary was accompanied by several senior aides, including Daniel Kowalski, who is overseeing the department’s drafting of the opportunity zone rules…

To quote a famous predators’ motto from the first Gilded Age: Anything not nailed down is mine. Anything I can pry loose is not nailed down.

Repub Venality Open Thread: Oh, Joy, Another 80s Reboot We Didn’t NeedPost + Comments (74)

Friday Morning Open Thread: Scorpion Season

by Anne Laurie| October 25, 20194:32 am| 129 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Sports, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

New Scorpio moon Sunday, Selket protect us. Pluto and Mars will be in opposition, which means all the nastiest skeletons are due to fall out of closets, but since it’s a new moon it will take up to six months to resolve the ensuing crises. Then Mercury goes retrograde between Halloween and November 20th, which portends mechanical failures, missed opportunities, and gremlin activity on all fronts…

(In my defense, sports fans are notoriously superstitious.)

I have never wanted a sweep so bad in my life. https://t.co/28scvLFa4v
— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) October 24, 2019

Per the Washington Post:

President Trump said Thursday that he plans to attend Game 5 of the World Series at Nationals Park on Sunday if the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros are still playing, though he will not throw the ceremonial first pitch.
“They’ve got to dress me up in a lot of heavy armor — I’ll look too heavy,” he responded when a reporter asked him about whether he would take the mound. Trump appeared to be making a reference to a bulletproof vest that presidents sometimes are required to wear by Secret Service when they are amid large crowds. A team official confirmed later that he will not take part in that on-field tradition.
Trump’s attendance at the 41,000-seat stadium in Southeast would mark a rare time he has ventured into the District’s entertainment and nightlife scene, other than his occasional visits to the Trump hotel a few blocks from the White House. It could also mean increased security restrictions at the ballpark for what is expected to be a capacity crowd.
The Nationals lead the Astros 2-0 in the best-of-seven series, with Game 3 scheduled for Friday night and Game 4 on Saturday, both in Washington. The Nationals would have to lose at least one of those games for there to be a Game 5 on Sunday…

Wow it’s only Thursday and I can already hear the booing https://t.co/poTeWPmpTO
— andy lassner (@andylassner) October 24, 2019

For the same reason he scheduled a rally in the middle of Chicago when Ted Cruz was gaining momentum during the 2016 primary? https://t.co/u4zSVq1Oxh
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) October 24, 2019

Elsewhere:

1. Clinton says Republicans are grooming Gabbard as a 3rd party spoiler
2. NYT bungles quote as her saying Russians are grooming Gabbard
3. Everybody craps on Hillary
4: https://t.co/eCJuej54hO
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) October 24, 2019

Good news for Kai Kahele, at least: Gabbard just announced that she’s dropping her ~~Senate~~ House reelection campaign. So, once her new third-party grift fails to install her in the Oval Office, she and Nikki Haley will be able to devote all their attention to competing for gigs on the Wingnut Welfare circuit.

Friday Morning Open Thread: Scorpion SeasonPost + Comments (129)

Late Night Open Thread Reminder: There ARE No ‘Better’ Republicans Than Trump

by Anne Laurie| October 22, 20192:07 am| 17 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Republican Venality, All Too Normal, Decline and Fall, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

Just some who are slightly more professional in their kleptocracy:

It's largely forgotten, but a reminder that Halliburton, the company of which then VP Dick Cheney had been CEO for 5 years, and which he left only to join the 2000 ticket, was awarded the lucrative contract to provide food, housing, fuel & other support for the wars he launched. https://t.co/DgdARlP2U9
— Peter Lettre (@plettre) October 18, 2019

There seems to be a shift among the Permanent GOPers to act as though the Oval Office Squatter is some kind of aberrancy that slipped past their time-tested barriers to such vulgar criminality.

Good for them, if they’re finally moving away from protecting their deplorables’ god-emperor. But the truth is, the only difference between this maladministration and the ‘usual’ Repub stint in the WH is that Trump insists, gleefully, on saying the quiet parts out loud.

Late Night Open Thread Reminder: There ARE No ‘Better’ Republicans Than TrumpPost + Comments (17)

The Doral Debacle Open Thread: “He’s in the Hospitality Business!”

by Anne Laurie| October 21, 20194:19 pm| 64 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Repubs in Disarray!, Trumpery, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, All Too Normal, Decline and Fall, Let A Thousand Watergates Bloom

So Mick Mulvaney told us. And Trump certainly set out a rich buffet for his detractors…

New: Trump canceled plans for a Doral-based G7 after hearing from Republican lawmakers that they were unable to defend the move, especially after having fielding questions about Ukraine dealings and Syria decision. w/ ?@vmsalama?: https://t.co/KOdR7KXHYN
— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) October 20, 2019

Trump was also told by White House officials that the controversy over the G7 location would overshadow any agenda he hoped to highlight at the international summit next year. https://t.co/KOdR7KXHYN
— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) October 20, 2019

MORE from me & ?@EricLiptonNYT?: Local officials in Doral weren’t notified of the cancelation — or the original choice, for that matter. And a former G7 sherpa for Bush says the choice of Doral would’ve posed ethical problems for visiting leaders. https://t.co/Yiww8pKXVB
— Katie Rogers (@katierogers) October 20, 2019

… “He had no choice,” Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor and longtime friend of the president’s, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “It shouldn’t have been done in the first place. And it’s a good move to get out of it and get that out of the papers and off the news.”
[And you know it just broke Christie’s heart to be called on to explain this for his old frenemy…]
The president first heard the criticism of his choice of the Doral watching TV, where even some Fox News personalities were disapproving. By Saturday afternoon, his concerns had deepened when he put in a call to Camp David, where Mr. Mulvaney was hosting moderate congressional Republicans for a discussion of issues facing them, including impeachment, and was told the consensus was he should reverse himself. Those moderates are among the votes Mr. Trump would need to stick with him during an impeachment.
“I didn’t see it being a big negative, but it certainly wasn’t a positive,” said Representative Peter T. King of New York, one of those at Camp David. He said the group told Mr. Trump’s aides that sticking with the decision “would be a distraction.”…
“I think there was a lot of concern,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a member of the Republicans’ leadership team. “I’m not sure people questioned the legality of it, but it clearly was an unforced political error.”
Mr. Cole said he did not speak to the president directly about it, but expressed relief that Mr. Trump had changed his mind, and was certain that other Republicans felt the same way. “We just didn’t need this,” he said.
By late Saturday afternoon, Mr. Trump had made his decision, but he waited to announce the reversal until that night in two tweets that were separated by a break he took to watch the opening of Jeanine Pirro’s Fox News program…
[Because a guy needs a little ego balm when he’s facing such a hurtful choice.]
“At the end of the day,” Mr. Mulvaney said Sunday, “he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business, and he saw an opportunity to take the biggest leaders from around the world, and he wanted to put the absolute best show, the best visit that he possibly could.”
[A show, he most certainly put on, regardless.]
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…[T]he selection, as the president had anticipated, touched off a wave of censure from Democrats and ethics experts.

But it was also criticized by conservative legal scholars, who were already uncomfortable with a number of recent actions by the White House, including pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and his son Hunter Biden.

“It is really just about him ordering the country to pay him money,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a Department of Homeland Security official in the George W. Bush administration who is now a senior fellow at the conservative R Street Institute. “It is just indefensible.”

Pushing the Doral site also threatened to hurt the United States’ standing globally, legal experts said, in light of its decades’ worth of efforts to combat corruption by other foreign governments, according to Jessica Tillipman, a lawyer who specializes in an American law known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

“This is no different than any other corrupt leader of an oil-rich African country who is taking money from the government and taxpayers,” she said….

Scholars who have studied the history of Group of 7 gatherings — dating to their start in the 1970s — said they could cite no other time when a president effectively tried to force global political leaders to pay his or her family money at a resort owned by the head of state.

“This was unprecedented,” said John Kirton, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto and the director of the G7 Research Group, which studies these gatherings. “This was astounding and embarrassing to the United States.” …

LOL cave. But he still got a free f***ing tax-paid infomercial for his chain of Florida bribery mills from the White House podium.
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) October 20, 2019

Imagine his face when Bill Barr told him, “Actually this might be a problem for us.”
— Schooley (@Rschooley) October 20, 2019

The phrase "Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility" is indicative of a measured, eminently sane and presidential man. (I will call you later!) https://t.co/cBKVgnOmeB
— Elizabeth de la Vega (@Delavegalaw) October 20, 2019

Tfw people make a big hassle over your crimes and stuff https://t.co/qfnDjcGNEh
— IrrationalHostilityHat (@Popehat) October 20, 2019

Thoughts and prayers to all the bedbugs at Doral that will be going hungry. ????
— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) October 20, 2019

He's the whiniest, unmanliest grifter who ever grifted. But he whines! He whines for you, forgotten America! pic.twitter.com/TOMzvCc822
— Dan Murphy (@bungdan) October 20, 2019

Trump’s G7 Doral move was like shooting on the wagons that are circling him.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) October 19, 2019

Thinking tonight of all the Republican officials who defended Trump's decision to hold the G7 at his own hotel… what do they say now?
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) October 20, 2019

Sen. Ken Cramer (R-ND) on Trump’s decision to award G7 summit to his own Miami property: “It may seem careless politically, but on the other hand there's tremendous integrity in his boldness and his transparency”https://t.co/50KObtK7q9
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) October 18, 2019

I'm almost sorry Trump didn't double down on the also-impeachable G7 thing, but at least he waited long enough for enough Republicans to get out on a limb defending it before he sawed it off behind them.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 20, 2019

Let’s recap: Congressional GOP spent an entire week defending the president for something that was clearly unethical & very probably unconstitutional all for no reason b/c Trump realized he had to fold.
Don’t forget most Rs were totally fine with it. Lesson: don’t defend Trump! https://t.co/Z1OwmXzOYV
— Heath Mayo (@HeathMayo) October 20, 2019

It is #ExtremelyFunny that Mick Mulvaney confessed, in detail, to high crimes and misdemeanors while lavishly announcing a WHOLE OTHER premeditated act of thievery that has now been called off less than 60 hours later.
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) October 20, 2019

When do they announce that the G7 is going to Turnberry?
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 20, 2019

Look on the bright side!

Given that Trump caved on Doral within two days, I really don't think he'll refuse to concede and then maintain that position for the 11 weeks between election day and inauguration.
— Boo-risma Executive Board Member (@agraybee) October 20, 2019

The Doral Debacle Open Thread: <em>“He’s in the Hospitality Business!”</em>Post + Comments (64)

Late Night Open Thread: So Where’s Your Tipping Point, Repubs?

by Anne Laurie| October 18, 201912:25 am| 115 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Grifters Gonna Grift, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Repubs in Disarray!, Nobody could have predicted

G7 to Doral is hardly today's only news about @realDonaldTrump profiting from his presidency:
An evening of prayer for the Kurds is scheduled for Trump Hotel DC.
Trump will profit from people praying for a remedy to a crisis he instigated.
via @1100Penn https://t.co/AoSL97C28O
— Zach Everson (@Z_Everson) October 18, 2019

How bad does @realdonaldtrump’s Doral need this business? Look what’s happened there during his presidency. In ONE YEAR, from ‘16-‘17:
—revenue fell 13.8%
—Net operating income fell 62% pic.twitter.com/RTr9OST3wd
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) October 17, 2019

She makes a good point! We *dont* know if @realdonaldtrump is making a profit or losing $ overall. To me, the bigger Q is: is Trump using his power to force people to pay him money?
Today, the answer was a huge yes. https://t.co/J0tzQyjSwG
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) October 18, 2019

Trump doesn't want to put out any fires. His campaign (and Putin) taught him and his team that ten fires are better than one. Only so many firefighters, only so much water, and they are far easier to start than to put out. https://t.co/VoNs0ESUSm
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) October 17, 2019

It always feels like it’s getting worse, but also it’s getting worse.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 17, 2019

Trump calls Rep. Louie Gohmert "a man who is smart as hell."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 18, 2019

NEW: Things aren't getting better for the Senate's most vulnerable Republicans.
Incumbents in #MESen #NCSen #COSen #AZSen and #IASen saw their net approval slide in the third quarter, with a 9 point drop for Joni Ernst – the biggest fall in the Senate. https://t.co/hSIvK5ez1A pic.twitter.com/KlLZJGPE9r
— Eli Yokley (@eyokley) October 17, 2019

I’ve said since November 2016 that:
A. I don’t think Trump will finish his term
B. Likely that Repubs will turn on Trump, not out of principle or because it’s a good move for them, but because Trump will get so bad that it’ll be their least catastrophic option
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) October 17, 2019

Late Night Open Thread: So Where’s Your Tipping Point, Repubs?Post + Comments (115)

Late Night Open Thread: Outta the Clown Car, CREEPsters!

by Anne Laurie| October 13, 201911:58 pm| 85 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel, All Too Normal

The Ukraine scandal is the Sharknado of Watergates.
Lurid, loud, and dumb, with screenwriting as awful as the CGI.
Everyone in it is so terrible, and the handful of people who were big 15 years ago are obviously just there for a paycheck.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) October 10, 2019

There was a bumper crop of good post-Watergate books — I still have copies of a few, including The Friends of Richard Nixon and Trout Fishing in the Reflecting Pool — but the prospects for post-Ukranium-1 ‘excellent reads’ is almost stunning:

Starting the impeachment inquiry may have seemed risky, but when it leads to headlines like "Associates of president's personal lawyer arrested as they try to flee the country" you gotta say that prospects look pretty good.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 10, 2019

One big difference now vs. Watergate: Many Nixon people really were Nixon people; they had worked for him for years, believed in him, and were intensely personally loyal. Even so many turned on him to save their skins, but not all did, and many didn't easily. Trump? Not so much.
— Jonathan Bernstein (@jbview) October 13, 2019

lol Giuliani getting sucked into illegal Ukraine dealings while trying to defend Manafort’s illegal Ukraine dealings like some sort of moron quicksand
— Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) October 12, 2019

If you're feeling down, ask yourself what's going to be more enjoyable:
Trump and Giuliani publicly turning on each other, or
Trump and Lindsey Graham publicly turning on each other.
Because both will happen.
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) October 11, 2019

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Late Night Open Thread: Outta the Clown Car, CREEPsters!Post + Comments (85)

Balloon Juice After Dark Open Thread: GO COUGARS, Sen. Warren!

by Anne Laurie| October 5, 201912:13 am| 104 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Repubs in Disarray!, Warren for President 2020, Clown car

Friday night, presumably the young & impressionable are either in bed or off partying somewhere, let’s indulge in a nice rowdy game of Kick the Wohl-ball!

First off — if Warren isn’t our 2020 candidate, the winner should most definitely hire her social media staff instanter, because they are GOOD:

Never trust a politician without a sense of humor. https://t.co/9EPDh5oWb5
— Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) October 3, 2019

Backstory / fisking, ICYMI:

This is some genius viral marketing I can’t believe Warren’s campaign thought of thi— I’m sorry, I’m being told this is intended to hurt Warren? https://t.co/I22IYFnRtE
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) October 3, 2019

Some 69 year old woman convinced a marine she was Elizabeth Warren and it worked ?????? https://t.co/PahA9E6jdg
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) October 3, 2019

The owner of the escort agency that Jacob Wohl's fake Warren accuser said he worked for disputes the story and says he would never employ the alleged escort — He's "not up to caliber to work at our agency."
Story from @ejdickson https://t.co/1ANs1oHhw9
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) October 3, 2019

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Balloon Juice After Dark Open Thread: GO COUGARS, Sen. Warren!Post + Comments (104)

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Dinesh D’Sousa Eats Another Bug

by Anne Laurie| September 23, 20198:00 pm| 119 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, All Too Normal

Very suspicious how the Swedish girl looks Nordic. https://t.co/akzvxQYn53
— Je Suis Corn Pop (@agraybee) September 23, 2019

Someone on twitter – Kevin Kruse? — suggested that D’Sousa might not be as stupid as he comes off, but he assumes that his marks are every bit stupid enough to pay him for acting as though he is.

My personal feeling is that D’Sousa remains the emotionally stunted middle-school kid who once ate a bug on a dare in the playground. The attention he garnered, however negative, convinced him he had One Amazing Trick that he could always fall back on. So, whenever he needs a quick attention-fix (otherwise known as ‘earned media’ or ‘free publicity’), he sidles over to Political Twitter and asks ‘Wanna see me eat a bug?… ‘

Worst of it is… he’s not wrong that Thunberg gets more media attention than an equivalent activist who looked like, for instance, Andrea Dworkin. Not because climate crusaders are quasi-Nazis, but because mainstream media would rather look at “pretty” people than those who are merely educated. For instance:

pic.twitter.com/aFZ1B3dreL
— Occam's Rancor (@occamsrancor) September 23, 2019

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Dinesh D’Sousa Eats Another BugPost + Comments (119)

Open Thread: (Open) Hands Across the Waters

by Anne Laurie| September 21, 20197:14 pm| 151 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, India, Open Threads, All Too Normal

Trump to host India’s Prime Minister at “Howdy, Modi!” event – CBS News https://t.co/FA4JvXbFlN via @GoogleNews
— mojo (@mojoreturns) September 21, 2019

Schroedinger’s Cat posted about this rally on Wednesday. I can’t claim her expertise in Indian affairs, but it’s gonna be interesting to see how the American grifters navigate the tricky politics of this event…

‘Delighted’ by Trump’s decision to join Houston rally, says Modi, as organisers of #HowdyModi rally rush new arrangements for the US President. Some issues over planned protests, criticism on 370 by US lawmakers remain. Reporting @the_hindu https://t.co/pbWWxOUc8C
— Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) September 17, 2019

Howdy Modi is a community summit hosted by Texas India Forum (TIF) for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, September 22nd at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas at 10 am. Over 50,000 attendees have registered in three weeks for the sold-out event though online registration, waitlist registration for free passes is still open. The live audience will be the largest gathering for an invited foreign leader visiting the United States other than the Pope. The “Howdy Modi” summit has been organized with the support of more than 1,000 volunteers and 650 Texas-based Welcome Partner organizations…

There’s the GOP’s omnipresent xenophobia, for instance:

A bill intended to speed up green cards for Indian and Chinese immigrants caught in a years long backlog just failed on the Senate floor. Blocked by GOP Sen David Purdue. Indian immigrants waiting in the Senate gallery put their heads in their hands and covered their eyes
— Michelle Hackman (@MHackman) September 19, 2019

Or a certain ‘Democratic’ presidential candidate, who may not have been willing to risk such public connection with a controversial figure:

Corporate Media: Tulsi did a principled thing!
Tulsi: Absolutely not, correct this lie. https://t.co/40BnK68nRg
— Charles Я. Davis (@charliearchy) September 18, 2019

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Open Thread: (Open) Hands Across the WatersPost + Comments (151)

PHRASING! Open Thread: “Water Sports”

by Anne Laurie| September 17, 20199:50 pm| 40 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Trumpery, All Too Normal, Clown car, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

Not the Onion:

Secret Service wants jet skis to protect Trumps: "The first family is very active in water sports" https://t.co/MFuTJWAOEr
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) September 16, 2019

Proximate ~~excuse~~ cause:

New: Alt-right grifter Jacob Wohl and all-but-admitted white nationalist Nick Fuentes are planning a “free speech” rally on some sort of yacht in Miami next week: https://t.co/hE0dVqfnwW
— Jerry Iannelli (@jerryiannelli) September 16, 2019

A veritable who’s who of right-wing con artists, alt-right media hounds, and outright racists apparently plan to hold some sort of Art Basel for Grifters conference in Miami this month. An avalanche of some of the worst pundits online — including at least one fascist — say they’ll hold a “Demand Free Speech” rally Saturday, September 28, on an undisclosed yacht somewhere in the Magic City.
The event’s top billing? Serial con artist Jacob Wohl, who is charged in California with a felony for unlawfully selling investments in a company called Montgomery Assets, will apparently debate Nick Fuentes, a self-described “American nationalist” who has appeared on white-nationalist programs and at one point was recorded going on an anti-Semitic rant about a fellow conservative blogger by calling him a “race traitor” and saying he “worked for Jews.” It’s unclear what Wohl and Fuentes might actually debate, but the event seems designed more to generate protests and controversy than to conduct intellectual discussions…
… [T]ickets are being sold on the website 1776.shop, which is run by Enrique Tarrio, a Miami native who leads the neofascist Proud Boys group. “Early-bird” VIP tickets cost $150 for whatever reason. Among the other guests, the group says Zoe Sozo, an ambassador for the campus conservative group Turning Point USA, will also attend…

My personal bet would be that these clowns haven’t so much as charted a boat — once enough ‘VIP tickets’ have been sold, they’ll announce that ‘the (((globalists))) have forced us to reschedule to an as-yet-to-be-determined date, for the safety of our supporters’. And as proof: Secret Service agents on jetskies!

I really hope during the general election debate, when the moderator asks the Democratic nominee to say one nice thing about Trump, that person responds with, “how active his family is in water sports.” https://t.co/FGMjb693Yw
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 16, 2019

PHRASING! Open Thread: “Water Sports”Post + Comments (40)

Thursday Morning Open Thread

by Anne Laurie| September 12, 20194:58 am| 142 Comments

This post is in: Dog Blogging, Election Year, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity

“Difficulties strengthen the mind as labour does the body.”
Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher (4BC-66AD.) pic.twitter.com/7tnxzWbX48
— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith) September 10, 2019

Another DNC debate — this time in Houston — tonight. Not sure my mind has been sufficiently strengthened to survive this performance again…

The debate will be… not outside https://t.co/VUVE0klQrb
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) September 12, 2019

The important question, IMO, is which Repub grifter(s) are getting the rakeoff on this stunt? Per ABC:

… President Donald Trump’s campaign intends to counter-program the Democratic primary debate hosted by ABC News and Univision with an ad blitz that includes two full-page newspaper ads and flying a massive banner in the air that blasts socialism just before candidates take the stage.
“Socialism will kill Houston’s economy!” the ad reads, along with a number to text, according to a rendering provided to ABC News by a Trump campaign official.
The campaign is spending around $7,500 for the flight and production of the ad, which is scheduled to fly from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. local time — an hour before Democrats are set to square-off in their first one-night debate this cycle…

Speaking of dumb stunts, and the Media Village Idiots who love them:

He's already crowd-surfed, slam-dunked and done the cupid shuffle. What's in store for Thursday's debate? https://t.co/LPIxpGaG2X
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) September 12, 2019

If your mind immediately goes to full-frontal strip-tease, too late — a Libertarian candidate already tried that back in 2016. (He didn’t win, either.)

I call it… The Aristocrats! https://t.co/oWO6Zxk8z8
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) September 12, 2019

Speaking of MVIs, Yang’s got a new fan:

Andrew Yang is all of us https://t.co/Z7MRor1UvB
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) September 12, 2019

Still, keeping it positive:

Here's a shocker for you:
In CNN's polling going back to 2003, Americans have never, at any point, in any election cycle, been more enthusiastic about voting than they are today… 13 months before the 2020 election.https://t.co/dTyhQKJ8bN pic.twitter.com/1HrJwHvKdU
— G. Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris) September 11, 2019

Someone is scrambling to find POTUS a red Sharpie. pic.twitter.com/hTGNYZ8w5S
— Schooley (@Rschooley) September 11, 2019

Thursday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (142)

zzyzx on How Did They Do It? (Dec 12, 2019 @ 10:10pm)

JaySinWA on How Did They Do It? (Dec 12, 2019 @ 10:07pm)

Jim, Foolish Literalist on How Did They Do It? (Dec 12, 2019 @ 10:06pm)

cokane on How Did They Do It? (Dec 12, 2019 @ 10:06pm)

namekarB on How Did They Do It? (Dec 12, 2019 @ 10:04pm)

What fresh hell is this?

This is how realignments happen…

An almost top 10,000 blog!

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Just a few bad apples.

Word salad with all caps

Where tasty lettuce and good mustard aren’t elitist.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Too inconsequential to be sued

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Wetsuit optional.

I showered with Rahm and all I got was this shitty blog.

The revolution will be supervised.

How has Obama failed you today?

I thought we were promised Infrastructure Week

Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!

Mission Accomplished!

Gastritis Broke My Calculator

I can see Russia from this blog!

I personally stopped the public option…

Not all heroes wear capes.

Militantly superior in their own minds…

An army of rabid, anonymous commenters

Screw the Judean People’s Front. Splitters.

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Trump’s Press Campaign Proudly Declares Him A Comic-Book Villain

Sunday Pharisees Open Thread: The New Failson Falkirk Center

Repub ‘Traditions’ Open Thread: Feelers… Nothing More Than Feelers…

The other obstruction and witness intimidation case tied to Russia and Ukraine

Repub Venality Open Thread: Oh, Joy, Another 80s Reboot We Didn’t Need

Friday Morning Open Thread: Scorpion Season

Late Night Open Thread Reminder: There ARE No ‘Better’ Republicans Than Trump

The Doral Debacle Open Thread: “He’s in the Hospitality Business!”

Late Night Open Thread: So Where’s Your Tipping Point, Repubs?

Late Night Open Thread: Outta the Clown Car, CREEPsters!

Balloon Juice After Dark Open Thread: GO COUGARS, Sen. Warren!

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Dinesh D’Sousa Eats Another Bug

Open Thread: (Open) Hands Across the Waters

PHRASING! Open Thread: “Water Sports”

Thursday Morning Open Thread