Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

I personally stopped the public option…

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity.

Good luck with your asparagus.

Usually wrong but never in doubt.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense.

Not all heroes wear capes.

I thought we were promised Infrastructure Week

This blog is Obama’s Katrina.

Word salad with all caps

Han shot first.

Shock troops for the Unitarian Jihad.

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

This Blog Goes to 11…

This is how realignments happen…

No one could have predicted…

Reality always wins in the end.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Hot Air and Ill Informed Banter

Militantly superior in their own minds…

What fresh hell is this?

Consistently wrong since 2002

Yes we did.

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Political Weathervanes Open Thread: The Media Villagers Switch Sides

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Thursday evening, erstwhile Young Republican Jonathan Karl got the first question at Trump’s hastily-called ‘presser’, and boldly demanded, “President Trump, why did you lie to the American people?”

Trump, predictably, responded by calling it ‘a very bad question’, ‘not true’, a ‘disgrace‘ promoted by The Failing Blah-Blah-Blah. Karl spent the first segment of the nightly national news taking a victory lap.

Comes a point, in every failed autocracy, where pulling down the wounded Beast becomes more rewarding than protecting It from Its many enemies. Annie Linskey made her journamalistic bones at the Boston Globe hate-stalking Elizabeth Warren during Warren’s senatorial campaigns; she was lured to the Washington Post to do the same job, then promoted to ankle-biting Joe Biden once he wrapped up the nomination. But now Trump is the ‘high visibility’ target!

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C.R.E.A.M. Open Thread: The Failing Trump Campaign

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Spare a (fleeting) thought for the dilemma of the Trump court’s unofficial stenographer. On the one hand, Ms. Haberman will never have such a soft and richly rewarded role in the Biden White House. On the other, if the S.S. Trumptanic has cratered on its iceberg, who else has such a saleable stock of ready-made ‘Eyewitness to Infamy’ anecdotes already drafted for a quickie book contract?…

… His rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., was relatively broke when he emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee this spring, and Mr. Trump and the Republican National Committee had a nearly $200 million cash advantage.

Five months later, Mr. Trump’s financial supremacy has evaporated. Of the $1.1 billon his campaign and the party raised from the beginning of 2019 through July, more than $800 million has already been spent. Now some people inside the campaign are forecasting what was once unthinkable: a cash crunch with less than 60 days until the election, according to Republican officials briefed on the matter…

Among the splashiest and perhaps most questionable purchases was a pair of Super Bowl ads the campaign reserved for $11 million, according to Advertising Analytics — more than it has spent on TV in some top battleground states. It was a vanity splurge that allowed Mr. Trump to match the billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg’s buy for the big game.

There was also a cascade of smaller choices that added up: The campaign hired a coterie of highly paid consultants (Mr. Trump’s former bodyguard and White House aide has been paid more than $500,000 by the R.N.C. since late 2017); spent $156,000 for planes to pull aerial banners in recent months; and paid nearly $110,000 to Yondr, a company that makes magnetic pouches used to store cellphones during fund-raisers so that donors could not secretly record Mr. Trump and leak his remarks…

Critics of the campaign’s management say the lavish spending was ineffective: Mr. Trump enters the fall trailing in most national and battleground state polls, and Mr. Biden has surpassed him as a fund-raising powerhouse, after posting a record-setting haul of nearly $365 million in August. The Trump campaign has not revealed its August fund-raising figure…

Nicholas Everhart, a Republican strategist who owns a firm specializing in placing political ads, said the $800 million spent so far shows the “peril of starting a re-election campaign just weeks after winning.”…

Every one of these grifters has been stealing from the till since the infamous day in 2016 when Putin’s interference first bought a ‘win’ for a complicit GOP, and now they’re squabbling over who should’ve showed a little more fiscal restraint.

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Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: The Cheney Indicator

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I would not willingly shake Liz Cheney’s hand (and, if forced to do so, I would count my fingers afterwards) but I have full respect for her political instincts, as honed at her daddy’s biomechanical knee. The old man skittered away unscathed from a CREEP position during Watergate, used his position as head of Dubya’s ‘search committee’ to insert himself into the White House as regent, and is apparently as immune to normal human mortality as he is to every norm of human civility. If his dear daughter is willing to slap the FreeDumb Caucus around like this, I am happy to assume that the FreeDumb Caucus is not long for this world. Per Politico:

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus tore into Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) during a heated GOP conference meeting on Tuesday, lobbing attacks at her for breaking with President Donald Trump, supporting Dr. Anthony Fauci and backing a primary opponent to one of their colleagues.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Freedom Caucus co-founder and one of Trump’s top allies, called out Cheney, the GOP conference chair, for all the times she has opposed Trump and began ticking off some recent high-profile examples, according to two sources in the room. While Jordan praised her defense of Trump during impeachment, he also said Cheney’s recent rebukes of Trump — which have focused on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, his Twitter rhetoric, and his foreign policy — were not helpful.

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, the head of the Freedom Caucus, even accused Cheney of undermining the GOP’s ability to win back the House and said that if someone has a problem with Trump, they should keep it to themselves.

Cheney responded to the criticism by saying she disagrees with Jordan’s assessment and making clear her views are her own.

To Jordan, whose arch-conservative Freedom Caucus was a constant pain for GOP leadership when the party was in the majority, Cheney said: “I look forward to hearing your comments about being a team player when we’re back in the majority,” according to two sources in the room.

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Late Night Sad Trombone Open Thread: Jeff Sessions Has Lost His Runoff

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It was so good once, in the Olde Days, when their mutual deep, abiding hatred of non-white people was such a strong bond… The Washington Post, “Sessions loses runoff in Alabama as Trump helps vanquish a key supporter he came to despise”:

They stood center stage before a cheering crowd of thousands five years ago, shaking hands in a half embrace that seemed to cement a political and ideological bond that would serve as the foundation for Donald Trump’s presidency

“We have a man here who really helped me — and he was the one person I sought his counsel, because he’s been so spot on. He’s so highly respected. Has anybody ever heard of Senator Jeff Sessions? Huh? Jeff, come up, where’s Jeff? Get over here, Jeff,” the former reality TV show host said to a roaring ovation in August 2015.

“Donald, welcome to my hometown, Mobile, Alabama,” then-Sen. Sessions (R-Ala.) said, donning a white “Make America Great Again” cap. “The American people, these people, want somebody in the presidency who stands up for them, defends their interests and the laws and traditions of this country.”

That once remarkable bond came to a crashing end Tuesday night when the Associated Press declared that Tommy Tuberville had defeated Sessions in the runoff to be the Republican nominee in November’s Senate race against Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.). The result culminated four months of Trump imploring Alabama’s voters to reject Sessions, the man who the president once said he leaned on for advice in forming his “America First” agenda.

Running for his old Senate seat — which he abandoned in early 2017 to become Trump’s attorney general — Sessions endured one brutal insult after another from the president. Trump’s endorsement of Tuberville in the race has always seemed to have more to do with Trump’s anger at Sessions over his recusing himself from the Russia investigation while attorney general than with any particular support for the former Auburn University football coach.

“I will tell you, I got to know Jeff Sessions very well,” Trump told Tuberville supporters on a conference call Monday night, “I made a mistake when I put him in as the attorney general. He had his chance and he blew it. He recused himself right at the beginning, just about on Day One on a ridiculous scam, the Mueller scam, the Russia, Russia, Russia scam.”…

Tough noogies, Jeff Beau Three! In the Trump Crime Cartel, all loyalty runs in one direction.

Late Night Sad Repub Trombone Open Thread: Jeff Sessions Has Lost His Runoff

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Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Cue the Nano-Violin Orchestra!

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They’re just… bad at their highly-compensated jobs. Parscale at least has the excuse, such as it is, that he’s too busy grifting to put any real energy into his work. But his detractors (hi, Jarvanka!) sending out ‘anonymous leaks’ about how Dear Leader totally sees through that terrible Death Star dude is just… amateur. If only they’d had the luxury of hiring a real campaign manager, and not just some code jockey bent enough to serve as a conduit for the GRU!

And when the Permanent GOP Party — as embodied by Steve Guest — decides to step in and Show How It Is Done… Well, in a climate where the old rules applied, the Biden campaign would have to cite Guest’s tweets as an in-kind contribution.

First, Mr. Parscale’s problems, per the Washington Post:

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale had an unusual cameo in the president’s first television ad of the year: Sandwiched among images of President Trump and Vice President Pence, the bearded Parscale appears twice, taking a selfie with supporters and hugging girls in red ball caps.

It was an unprecedented use of an ad — one that cost $142,655, according to the firm Advertising Analytics — to promote a campaign staffer. It sent a clear message to Trump’s orbit: Parscale, a colorful and outspoken public face of Trumpism, was the leader of the campaign.

But the image concealed a more complicated reality. As Trump’s reelection effort struggles, Parscale, despite his self-promotion, increasingly finds himself out of favor with his boss and hemmed in by newly hired staffers and recently promoted advisers, according to people familiar with the campaign.

A political novice who became a Republican celebrity after running Trump’s online ad effort in 2016, Parscale has long operated without a campaign manager’s usual autonomy, as Trump family members exert their influence.

Now Parscale’s role is being further threatened. Trump has made clear his displeasure with Parscale, especially after a disappointing rally in Tulsa, and the campaign has expanded its senior team in ways that diminish his role, according to multiple campaign and administration officials.

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Friday Morning Open Thread: If You Thought *You* Had A Bad Week…

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Point & Mock Open Thread: Trump Is *Trying* to Kill His Own Shock Troops (Again)

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Foggy Bottom denizens at the Washington Post take a little private glee in denigrating Florida’s late-summer weather:

… While no decision has been made, Republican officials are studying two outdoor professional sports stadiums near the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena where the convention is currently slated to be held. They are also looking more broadly into the logistics of pulling off an outdoor convention, according to two Republicans involved in the planning…

Trump was recently briefed on the options of moving the convention away from the indoor arena, officials said, and is expected to make a final decision in upcoming days.

Republicans involved in the planning believe there could be less risk of transmission and spreading for attendees in a larger outdoor arena than in the stadium, and attendees may be less concerned about taking part in such an event…

An outdoor convention could pose its own set of problems, however. Florida is particularly hot in the summer, with temperatures often climbing to 100 degrees, and rain is also a threat.

Republican officials have looked at the 121 Financial Ballpark, which hosts minor league games and seats about 11,000, and the TIAA Bank Field, which hosts the Jacksonville Jaguars and can seat more than 65,000. Both arenas are within a short walking distance of the VyStar Arena, an indoor facility that seats about 15,000. Republican officials recently toured both sites during a series of meetings in Jacksonville, officials say.

A spokesman for the Republican Party declined to comment.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested Thursday that it’s unclear what the circumstances will be in late August when the convention is held.

“I think the convention is a challenging situation, and a number of my colleagues have announced that they’re not going to attend,” McConnell said. “And we’ll have to wait and see how things look in late August to determine whether or not you can safely convene that many people.”…

The weekly count of admissions for coronavirus-like symptoms to health facilities in Duval County, where Jacksonville is located, has spiked to more than 700 from about 100 in early June, according to state health records. The county registered an average of 510 positive tests a day between June 29 and July 7, compared with 23 a day for the first nine days of June…

At this point, it honestly feels like McConnell and his minions are playing chicken with Dear Leader. You really wanna stand there at an outdoor stadium in the pouring rain, on camera, watching a bunch of amped-up old white people drop like flies?

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