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You are here: Home / Archives for Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece

Hail to the Hairpiece

Trump, the GOP, and Cosplay Masculinity

by Tom Levenson|  November 3, 20207:20 pm| 34 Comments

This post is in: Election 2011, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Politics

Trump, the GOP, and Cosplay Masculinity

ETA: The posts are coming fast and furious, aren’t they. Well, heck. This is a full service blog. Graze and munch as you like.

While we wait for consequential news, this is a good time to point y’all to an article that ran in the Gray Lady a few days ago by a friend of mine, Susan Faludi.

Faludi has been a great writer and thinker for a long time now, and in some ways this piece, “Trump’s Thoroughly Modern Masculinity,” is a distillation of a lot of the work she’s done since Backlash.

Here she points out that the way Trump expresses his notion of American maleness is an inversion of both prior ideas and of gender representations. In particular, she notes how the claims that Trump channels “Greatest Generation”* machismo gets completely wrong the lived experience of those who lived through the Depression and the war:

The masculine archetype of the 1930s and ’40s was the anonymous common man who proved his chops through communal building, not gunslinging. In a 1932 speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that “the man of ruthless force had his place in developing a pioneer country” but he now endangered the nation.

“The lone wolf, the unethical competitor, the reckless promoter,” he said, “whose hand is against every man’s, declines to join in achieving an end recognized as being for the public welfare, and threatens to drag the industry back to a state of anarchy.” New Deal America championed a manliness of usefulness, demonstrated through collective service and uncelebrated competence.

The ’30s ideal of heroic civil servant carried into World War II, and was enshrined in Ernie Pyle’s battlefront dispatches valorizing unsung grunts — “the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys.” Pyle disparaged the silk-scarfed “flyboys,” whose camera-ready star turns Pyle instinctively distrusted.

Of the grunt ethic, Pyle wrote, “We are all men of new professions, out in some strange night caring for each other.” This service-oriented prototype of manhood — tending to the needs of others, providing protective support, spurning the spotlight — was essentially a maternal masculinity, all the purported qualities of motherhood, recoded for the Y chromosome.

That’s Biden’s version of masculinity, Faludi notes. By contrast, Trump is a cosplayer’s idea of an alpha male.

Contemporary manliness is increasingly defined by display — in Mr. Trump’s case, a pantomime of aggrieved aggression: the curled lip, the exaggerated snarl. Display permeates his ratings-obsessed presidency. It’s why he chose his vice president (he “looks very good”) and his former defense secretary (“If I’m doing a movie, I’d pick you, general”). The chief executive of Newsmax, Chris Ruddy, noted of his friend Mr. Trump’s inclinations, “It’s more about the look and the demeanor and the swagger.”

Ornamental manhood is the machismo equivalent of “I’m not a doctor but I play one on TV.” Or, in the boogaloo movement’s version, “I’m not actually a soldier but I wear camo and walk around downtown with my big gun.” (In Mr. Trump’s case, it’s “I’m not a successful builder but I played one on ‘The Apprentice.’”)

What gender stereotype, Faludi asks, does such posturing evoke? Well…

The hallmarks of contemporary ornamental masculinity — being valued as the object of the gaze, playing the perpetual child, pedestal-perching and mirror-gazing — are the very ones that women have, for half a century, struggled to dismantle as belittling, misogynist characterizations of femininity. The preoccupation with popularity, glamour, celebrity, appearance — what are these qualities but the old consumer face of the Girl? If Mr. Trump is reclaiming a traditional stereotypical sex role, it’s one that long belonged to women.

That’s hitting Trump where he lives–and it is an argument that, to my mind, is spot on. The implicit argument, or at least what I read into it, is that this election is all about freedom, not just in formal, legal terms, but in the degree to which we gain the power to construct for our identities and lives for ourselves.

Anyway, read it for yourself…it’s a good essay. And talk about whatever.

*How I loathe that phrase–and how much my family members who actually did their part in WW II scorned it!

Image: William Hogarth, The Polling, from the Humours of an Election series, 1754-55

Trump, the GOP, and Cosplay MasculinityPost + Comments (34)

Yes. They Really Are Assholes.

by Tom Levenson|  October 31, 20208:20 pm| 166 Comments

This post is in: Biden-Harris 2020, Crazification Factor, GOP Death Cult, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Politics, Vive La Resistance

Did what amounts to a symbolic bit of electioneering today–a lit drop in Salem, NH. I haven’t been nearly as active-on-the-streets as I usually am, for a variety of reasons; it’s been money and a bit of post-carding for me.

So this was my first real on-the-ground experience outside the Brookline, MA bubble–which really is a bubble. Our politics basically runs from tote-bag liberal to unreconstructed lefty, and that’s fine by me. (Like a lot of town-governed-towns, actual local politics is run by a small, deeply embedded cabal and it’s just as tricky as you might imagine, but that’s for a different post.)

New Hampshire, though it’s been pretty blue for a while now still has plenty of the Hamshirtucky that made it a rock-ribbed/crazy right wing state for a long time. So when we showed up at the local HQ in Salem NH, we were met by a wall of Trump signs and some very loud MAGATs, using a bullhorn to taunt Democrats for all kinds of things.

Yes. They Really Are Assholes. 4

One of the weirder moments in that monologue, by the way, was a sudden diversion into California mandating all-electric cars by 2035, as the highly informed and judicious asshole with the bullhorn complained about the quality of CA’s current grid. He then asserted CA is a shithole of state, and as a scion of the place, I wondered what it was that so upset him: the weather? The food? The quality of higher ed in the state? Etc.  Take it from me folks:  New Hamster has its virtues–but it’s not going to win most competitions with the Golden State.

But I digress.

What struck me was the purity of the demonstration: this was simply an expression of assholery.  This guy, at least, had some stamina, and he was a blessedly silent performer:

Yes. They Really Are Assholes.

He was doing his Trump dance for at least three hours that I could check, so give the man some points for persistence.

But this captures the tone of what was being bullhorn across the street:

Yes. They Really Are Assholes. 1

The good news is that all this involved a fair amount of local resources: ten or dozen people (none masked, of course), lots of signs, lots of energy. The D’s had three or four folks at the HQ–and all the volunteers (and there were a bunch) were out canvassing and dropping literature.  The Trumpanzees went for what really amounts to political masturbation.

So yeah, it was uncomfortable, and it was intended to be so: these scumbags wanted to make some other folks lives miserable, and between the horns (some truckers driving big rigs really enjoyed leaning on theirs) and the blather, they did a pretty good job.

Except for the fact that the Democratic GOTV effort was completely undisturbed.

But besides being forced to come to some conclusions about how these losers were raised, it was a reminder that these are not people with whom one can respectfully disagree. From the top down, they are performative jerks–on their best days.

Oh–and they cheat all the time, large and small.  One more photo (ETA: actually loaded the photo this time):

Yes. They Really Are Assholes. 2

What you’re seeing is a Trump flyer, placed in a mailbox. As everyone here likely knows (at least everyone who has canvassed in the last many decades) that’s a big no-no. Just last night in our volunteer training Zoom, they told us at least three times that it is a federal crime to do that. We saw Trump leaflets in each of the open mailboxes we passed.

Admittedly, when the tally of Trump-era crimes are totted up, this won’t rank high. But to me that’s what’s telling: there is simply no rule, no matter how minor, that they won’t break.

Fuck ’em. Let’s roll their sorry asses through Tuesday. Even my cup of coffee agrees:

Yes. They Really Are Assholes. 3

This thread.

It is open for anything.

Image: Jan Pietersz. Saenredam, The Fool, between 1590 and 1600.

 

Yes. They Really Are Assholes.Post + Comments (166)

COVID-19 Update (Domestic Edition) – Sunday/Monday, March 8/9

by Anne Laurie|  March 9, 20204:57 am| 14 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Hail to the Hairpiece, Healthcare, Republican Stupidity, Repubs in Disarray!, World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It)

Scapegoating isn’t a thing and has never been a destructive force in human history. https://t.co/HkPhR251aD

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 9, 2020

GOP: It’s all fun & games until some plague-ridden constituent slobbers on you…

BREAKING from me & @AlexNBCNews : Members of Congress are becoming increasingly anxious about coronavirus and there is growing pressure on leadership to take steps to protect lawmakers — even potentially recessing for a period of weeks, according to two Democratic sources

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) March 9, 2020

And Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., is also self-quarantining after close contact with the CPAC attendee, as are several members of his senior staff. Gosar is closing his Washington office for the week.

“Members are very nervous,” a senior Democratic leadership aide said.

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) March 9, 2020

siri show me "life comes at you fast" pic.twitter.com/waafXDmivx

— Mass for Shut-ins (is a podcast) (@edburmila) March 9, 2020

man if only you knew someone who could declare and emergency and fund sick leave https://t.co/ygyHnhk0En

— John Cole (@Johngcole) March 9, 2020


Hail Sekhmet, Goddess of Consequences…

We now know there was at least one person at CPAC with coronavirus ??pic.twitter.com/Q1HVuXsJUE

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 8, 2020

CPAC, which today confirmed an attendee was infected with coronavirus, is where then-acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney accused the press of hyping coronavirus, which he described as a media ploy to try to bring down Trump.

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) March 8, 2020


(Former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was fired, by tweet, after hours on Friday. And immediately dispatched to Northern Ireland.)

"The CPAC Virus" does have a ring to it. https://t.co/AGLnc4ZnyA

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) March 9, 2020

show full post on front page

The reason I am tweeting this: I have been flu-sick unwell for the past week and now I am finding out there are people I was in direct contact with who were in direct contact with the infected.

And yes, I know who it was.

— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) March 9, 2020

“Public-health officials worry that the consequences of living with a President and a general disinformation universe that undermine facts and science could have increasingly dire consequences.” https://t.co/CoWEWCvy08

— Millie Tran (@millie) March 9, 2020

Other Republicans might starve the CDC of resources or people. But they'd probably at least focus on trying to contain the virus. Trump's entire focus is containing stories on the virus. So he's explicitly making the pandemic worse. Hard to imagine almost anyone else doing this.

— Grudge of Whales (@grudging1) March 9, 2020

"The response of this whole issue of the coronavirus is it should have been paint by numbers, but really they're making it like they're trying to recreate the Sistine Chapel."

— Dr. Corey Hébert on how the Trump admin. has responded to COVID-19.https://t.co/U1GPhFKJn1

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 8, 2020

No one is capable of convincing the President to help Americans not die of a virus https://t.co/Ib5KcCi9QI

— Grudge of Whales (@grudging1) March 9, 2020

US top health officials warn that containment of the coronavirus is no longer possible, the country needs to pivot to aggressive efforts to mitigate its spread — “The next two weeks are really going to change the complexion in this country”https://t.co/3s9fa9FcdV

— Alfons López Tena (@alfonslopeztena) March 8, 2020

How testing failures allowed coronavirus to sweep the U.S. via @POLITICO for iOS https://t.co/CmrwbRWNkl pic.twitter.com/PXOsllAFby

— Tatum O'neal (@Tatum_Oneal) March 8, 2020

I can now update this number: We can verify at least 3,000 people in the US have now been tested, given data we’ve collected at @COVID19Tracking.

That’s in line with the estimate of “perhaps 2,500 people tested” as of Friday 6pm that @ScottGottliebMD tweeted yesterday. https://t.co/jqpkL2gcsb

— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) March 8, 2020

Tony Fauci, who is beloved among journalists for his frank, quick callbacks, said “it’s still possible to stop the disease, but health authorities would have to know where it was to do that, and he said the lack of testing capacity was a huge obstacle.” https://t.co/ckTCL4GgLO

— Amy Maxmen (@amymaxmen) March 9, 2020

This is a brilliant thread from @JeremyKonyndyk — if you don't want to read all of it, here's a quick summary: every day that the administration continues to dawdle on getting our health care system ready for what's coming, it raises the risk of a major failure of that system. https://t.co/N9mPtXdWHm

— Ronald Klain (@RonaldKlain) March 8, 2020

REMINDER: Trump fired the US pandemic response team in 2018, then eliminated their positions https://t.co/ftbQJ57PnL

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 9, 2020

They will own coronavirus just as mightily as they own libs and they will not necessarily do it in that order however

— Asawin Suebsaeng (@swin24) March 8, 2020

Still mostly hitting blue states

— Michael Low (@mlow29) March 7, 2020

By "blue" he means "places where a lot of people live"

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 7, 2020

I'm a doc trying to save your skin
if you were an actual person you'd understand that

— Greg Dworkin (@DemFromCT) March 7, 2020

Feels like just a few days ago he was telling people it was okay to go to his rallies. https://t.co/PPkqP3atxV

— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 9, 2020

Yeah, except he can’t change — any more than my elderly rescue dog can stop eating poop, regardless of her current nutritional status. He won’t give up his ego-stoking rallies, or even his glad-handing strangers at Marred-A-Largo, unless he’s forcibly prevented from doing so. And frankly, I don’t think there’s anyone in his immediate circle, including Princess Ivanka and Trophy Wife #3, who care enough about the old man to even try very hard…

The thing about Fox News sugarcoating this and discouraging measures to mitigate community transmission is Trump will still be president if cases explode. If they want to protect Trump as always, make people listen to common sense measures they can do. https://t.co/Cl02B5zup9

— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 9, 2020

COVID-19 Update (Domestic Edition) – Sunday/Monday, March 8/9Post + Comments (14)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Running Down Our Resistance

by Anne Laurie|  February 19, 20207:02 am| 142 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Warren for President 2020

McConnell-Trump Contagion - Tom Toles

(Tom Toles via GoComcis.com)
.

And there’s another damned debate tonight, because one of the cranky old men involved threw a tantrum about not getting enough TV time in 2016, so now we all get an introduction to a different cranky old man that nobody likes except the people he’s already bought (including a lot of ‘journalists’ who’ll drop their… objectivity for anyone who offers them free food & a novelty tour).

I’m only gonna watch second-hand, via twitter & your comments, because there’s only so much blood-pressure medication can do. Be sure to let me know if Cranky Old Man #1 shows signs of having another infarction, or if Cranky Old Man #2 tries to order his security personnel to remove one or more of the other debaters.

My only sure bet is that one or both of them will wag a finger at Elizabeth Warren, probably at the encouragement of the moderators. Fortunately, I have faith in my favorite Senator…

DRAG HIM, LIZ https://t.co/7FMWWeeUw8

— Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) February 18, 2020

Hate to disagree with @DrJasonJohnson, but if Warren goes at Bloomberg tomorrow night, it’s not a “suicide mission.” It’s a return to her fundamental political identity and the most basic theme of her career. It’s not Christie v. Rubio at all.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) February 19, 2020

A lot going on here. https://t.co/MaCSxi0wLi pic.twitter.com/StfoPNEqqE

— Matt Pearce ?? (@mattdpearce) February 19, 2020

Something to watch for tomorrow night: Bloomberg’s mental sharpness. Like Sanders, he’s 78 years old (Biden is 77), so it’s a legit concern w all three

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 19, 2020

If Hillary Clinton had a heart attack 4 years ago and said this, CNN would have run non stop panels featuring Sanjay Gupta, Dr. Oz and a magic wall that only showed various searches of WebMD. https://t.co/kbg5Ps8HKl

— Lily Adams (@adamslily) February 19, 2020

Most unpopular qualities for a prez candidate in the new NBC/WSJ poll (combined reservations + very uncomfortable):

Socialist: 67%
Heart attack in past year: 57%
75+: 53%
Self-funder: 41%
Under 40: 40%
Gay/lesbian: 27%
Woman: 14%

Feb 14-17, RVs, MOE +/- 3.3%

— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) February 18, 2020

There are still so many candidates and SO MANY PRIMARIES LEFT. 2 of the whitest states in the union have voted and we’re ready to call it for either of the guys that won(?) or the guy buying all the ads?

If we claim we want to “save democracy” we have to let it actually happen🤷🏾‍♀️

— brittany packnett cunningham (@MsPackyetti) February 16, 2020

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Running Down Our ResistancePost + Comments (142)

Floriduh Man Open Thread: More Scenes from the Potemkin President’s Vrroom-Vrroom Sunday Afternoon

by Anne Laurie|  February 16, 202011:41 pm| 63 Comments

This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, All Too Normal

Like most NASCAR viewers, I'll just be watching in hopes of seeing a crash. https://t.co/OSjeInXiao

— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) February 16, 2020

I like that the car is comically distorted as if Trump was a character in a Tim Burton movie. https://t.co/JYpn20U2nG

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) February 16, 2020

Highly efficient president fits his workout into his campaign rally. https://t.co/RjtxuiO0hK

— Khashoggi’s Ghost (@UROCKlive1) February 16, 2020

You get a Big Mac and you get a Big Mac and YOU get a Big Mac… https://t.co/ohon2iz8bs

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) February 16, 2020

He needs it written down whenever he’s not talking about himself and his list of grievances. https://t.co/95bKFa8Zkg

— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 16, 2020

show full post on front page

He loves NASCAR so much that he left immediately after his appearance https://t.co/b3OEMqzSZm

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) February 16, 2020

if Biden's campaign were at peak efficiency he'd be lapping him in the Trans Am. https://t.co/r7ejDwydRE

— zeddy (@Zeddary) February 16, 2020

honestly what's the max speed that the Secret Service will even tolerate in that thing, 50? This is gotta be like cheering for the Zamboni

— zeddy (@Zeddary) February 16, 2020

All my lolllz 😭

Instead of Trump’s pace car lap at Daytona FOX viewers were instead “…treated to a commercial from Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.” https://t.co/mGRTgmEEFr

— Dennis Herring (@dcherring) February 16, 2020

pic.twitter.com/WIkQcmi2Bh

— Matt "Barron not Baron" Wilkinson (@justcallmatt) February 16, 2020

Daytona official confirms to me the plan was for President Trump to stay for a few laps, but because of the rain delay, he didn't get to. Pool says his vehicle rolled out around 3:41 p.m. ET. #NASCAR #Daytona500

— Jon Alba (@JonAlba) February 16, 2020

Over-the-top flourish: He had to prep for Stephen Miller’s wedding. SRSLY:

"The President is at Trump International Hotel for the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Miller," confirms @JuddPDeere45.

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) February 17, 2020


(It would be in poor taste for an almost-top-10,000 blog to mock a private celebration, but if you’re curious, @Zeddy has a nicely curated collection of Stephen Miller wedding gifs… )

Trump's campaign manager tweeted a dramatic photo of Air Force One at Daytona, saying ".@realDonaldTrump won the #Daytona500 before the race even started."

The shot was of George W. Bush's plane leaving in 2004. Parscale deleted three hours later.https://t.co/q0B4FK6jEt

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 17, 2020

#ETTD – Everything Trump Touches Dies…

It is hurricane-esque raining right now at the #Daytona500. Hard to believe there is a race tonight. #NASCAR

— Jon Alba (@JonAlba) February 16, 2020

BREAKING: The #Daytona500 has been postponed. Red flag. Green flag tomorrow at 4:05 p.m. #NASCAR @MyNews13 @BN9

— Jon Alba (@JonAlba) February 16, 2020

You can tell Idiocracy was not a documentary, cuz it had better scripting and prettier actors.

https://t.co/icquDcQxAe pic.twitter.com/KWrMOM4OCm

— The Mall Krampus (@cakotz) February 15, 2020

Floriduh Man Open Thread: More Scenes from the Potemkin President’s Vrroom-Vrroom Sunday AfternoonPost + Comments (63)

Repub Venality Open Thread: The Night Caligula’s Horse Delivered the State of the Union Speech

by Anne Laurie|  February 9, 20207:59 pm| 61 Comments

This post is in: Goddamned Traitors, Grifters Gonna Grift, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Venality, All Too Normal

Trump's State of Disunion - Jack Ohman

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

 
Of course it was a load of manure — that’s the best the beast is capable of producing. More shame on the gutless GOP sacks in suits who, to protect their own sinecures, not only voted the horse as their leader, but insisted it was the finest orator and firmest patriot since Tailgunner Joe McCarthy dined alone (with his DTs).

A lot of punditry has once again switched into 2016 mode, in which every transgressive act, and every freakish moment, is treated as revolutionary political theater, and not the shabby burlesque it truly is. https://t.co/ZRtwjlCdEF

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) February 5, 2020

Commentary, at this point, would be superfluous… El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago delivered his State of the Union address, one of the few constitutional responsibilities of his office that he hasn’t ignored. Which is not to say he hasn’t degraded it, too. On Tuesday night, he turned it into a cheesy spectacle that belonged in, say, a casino sinking into bankruptcy in Atlantic City.

He bestowed the Presidential Medal Of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh, hanging it on that rancid bag of old sins, right there in the House chamber. He arranged a surprise family reunion for a soldier home from deployment, right there in the House chamber. He told an African-American schoolgirl that he, personally, was going to see to it that she can go to a good school. He congratulated another child on not having been aborted, and promised that he, personally, would see to it that nobody was. These Dear-Leader-Grants-a-Wish moments are straight out of a dog-eared playbook used by various members of the Kim family in North Korea. Weaponized sentimentality is a powerful tool in authoritarian hands.

The speech itself was the usual farrago of lies and bigotry…

This is a lying, criminal president*, aided and abetted by a political party that lost its mind long before it lost its way, and that now swallows poisonous pablumlike this:

If forcing American taxpayers to provide unlimited free health care to illegal aliens sounds fair to you, then stand with the radical left. But if you believe that we should defend American patients and American seniors, then stand with me and pass legislation to prohibit free government health care for illegal aliens.

It’s morning in American carnage.

The State of the Union is hurting because of the occupant of the White House, who consistently demonstrates contempt for the American people, contempt for Congress & contempt for our constitution. I cannot in good conscience attend tonight's sham #SOTU ? https://t.co/DTwG3Y7dK3 pic.twitter.com/Hres8eAFkK

— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) February 4, 2020

"Bullying people on Twitter doesn't fix bridges. It burns them. Our energy should be used to solve problems," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says in Democratic response to President Trump's #SOTU speech. https://t.co/bulmjJOCUb pic.twitter.com/vFN3q17evK

— ABC News (@ABC) February 5, 2020

show full post on front page

Actually the only Democratic response needed. https://t.co/sNtvNn8Kdn

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) February 5, 2020

A reminder of how this started https://t.co/UvUzCdCgoX

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) February 5, 2020

Don't be distracted.

He did it once. And he will continue to cheat in the elections.

He abused his power once. And he’s planning on doing it again.

For Trump and Republicans in Washington, it’s #StateOfTheCoverup. #SOTU

— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) February 5, 2020

And it turns out even a lot of the rubes low-info voters weren’t buying what the Oval Office Occupant was ‘saying’…

Nielsen says Trump's ratings for the State of the Union were down 20% from last year and well below the numbers in 2017 and 2018. https://t.co/8FKPwWetOj

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) February 6, 2020

Pelosi is estimated to be responsible for roughly 80 million dollars in DCCC fundraising in 2018 alone. Part of the reason she's in charge is because she pays everyone's bills. https://t.co/Y033Vf3AIk

— Iowasca Tripper (@agraybee) February 5, 2020

1) Pelosi does some glib meme-y thing that some people politely applaud on Twitter
2) Republicans absolutely lose their shit
3) Twitter leftists absolutely lose *their* shit
4) Some ham-faced Midwestern white guy runs for the Speakership in 2020, loses badly
5) Rinse, repeat

— dn (@dnnation) February 5, 2020

Repub Venality Open Thread: The Night Caligula’s Horse Delivered the State of the Union SpeechPost + Comments (61)

Repub Venality Open Thread: Money Changes Everything Memories

by Anne Laurie|  January 17, 202011:26 am| 51 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Foreign Affairs, Free Markets Solve Everything, Hail to the Hairpiece, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Repubs in Disarray!, All Too Normal, Assholes

People deny knowing Parnas. Then a they show up in a photo with him.https://t.co/N1kNAiXeSa pic.twitter.com/3zUwQO4I1O

— The Fix (@thefix) January 16, 2020

Maybe the way to get McCarthy to stop saying Putin pays Trump was for Putin pay McCarthy https://t.co/RrPhvpnhrn

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 15, 2020

The article itself looks at the entire picture of the donations into greater depth.

It's a #longread, mapping out how — through joint fundraising committees and PACs — Parnas and Fruman's donations reached so many politicians and entities. https://t.co/0SHsaWDp3i

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) January 15, 2020

Two weeks out from the 2016 elections, a first-time donor born in Ukraine lit up the map of the Republican Party with a $50,000 cash donation to Donald Trump’s joint fundraising committee.

By cutting just one check to Trump Victory Committee — well before he became a central figure in the impeachment of the president he helped elect — Lev Parnas left an indelible mark on two national and 20 state Republican entities.

Trump Victory subdivided his contribution into $33,400 for the Republican National Committee and $2,700 to Trump, the then-maximum allowable donations. The remainder went to GOP entities crisscrossing the country from New York to California, each receiving a modest sum of $661.90.

Official paperwork from the donation lists Parnas an employee of the Fraud Guarantee, the same company Parnas used to hire Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani in a relationship that has drawn scrutiny from federal prosecutors.

Three years later, down to the same month, the Justice Department on Oct. 10 unsealed an indictment of Parnas for using a straw donor and laundering foreign money into U.S. elections. Federal prosecutors claim he and his Fraud Guarantee co-owner, Igor Fruman, used the shell company Global Energy Producers to funnel $325,000 in foreign cash into America First Action, a Trump super-PAC.

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Federal records show that the total donations from Parnas, Fruman, Global Energy Producers and an alter ego identified by prosecutors exceeded $620,000.

Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader of the Democrat-controlled House, would later redirect to charity the $2,700 campaign contribution he received from Parnas, as well as a $2,173 contribution from Fruman to Majority Committee PAC, McCarthy’s leadership political action committee…

Through Protect the House, Fruman under his alias “Furman” funneled $2,445.34 to McCarthy’s Majority Committee PAC. McCarthy won his race, but his party lost enough members to transform him into the minority leader.

Parnas separately donated $2,700 to McCarthy, who claims to have returned the money to charity.

McCarthy did not respond to a detailed inquiry about Parnas and Fruman’s donations to him and the GOP.

For months, Parnas’ attorney Bondy has been clamoring for his client to testify before Congress, and Parnas already has begun sharing the contents of his iPhone and other evidence with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Bondy has goaded Congressman McCarthy and Vice President Pence with tweets showing photos of them with his client, bearing the hashtag #LetLevSpeak and #LevRemembers.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment to detailed questions about Trump and Pence’s relationship to Parnas — including a $5,000 in 2018 to the vice president’s Great America Committee PAC…

McCarthy and Parnas also attended fundraisers in summer 2018 for McCarthy and Pence’s joint fundraising committee Protect the House and America First Action Leadership Summit, benefiting Trump’s super-PAC. Attendance didn’t come cheap, with donors forking out up to $250,000 to walk through the door. These events, large-scale affairs for big-dollar donors, were hosted at the Trump International Hotel in Washington…

These boys really get around. Is @GOPLeader Kevin envious of the time they spent with @SteveScalise . Or do they not mind sharing? pic.twitter.com/GnoOklvgWm

— Jackie P-R (@JackiePR3) January 15, 2020

I'm shocked! Not. pic.twitter.com/L3u4zLTki8

— Laura Apollo (@lauraapollo) January 15, 2020

Repub Venality Open Thread: Money Changes <del>Everything</del> MemoriesPost + Comments (51)

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