Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, man.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Republicans do not trust women.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

So very ready.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Friday Evening Open Thread: Wingularity

Friday Evening Open Thread: Wingularity

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Somewhere, Molly Ivins and Hunter Thompson are sharing a beer, shaking their heads about how easy the current crop of political humorists has it…

Jennifer Jacobs, in the Des Moines Register article:

… “(Trump) left me with questions about his moral center and his foundational beliefs. … His comments reveal no foundation in Christ, which is a big deal,” evangelical conservative activist Sam Clovis said in an email just 35 days before he quit his job as Republican Rick Perry’s Iowa chairman and signed on with Trump’s campaign.

In the emails, shared by Perry backers Wednesday with The Des Moines Register, Clovis castigated Trump for his past liberal positions and admission that he has never asked for God’s forgiveness for any wrongdoing.

In an interview Wednesday, Clovis verified that he’d written the sharply worded criticisms of Trump, including one email in which he praises Perry for calling Trump a “cancer on conservatism.”…

Clovis defected from Perry’s team at a time when the former Texas governor has been struggling to cover his campaign aides’ salaries.

Iowa Republicans said Wednesday that Clovis’ move raises questions about how he reconciles endorsing Trump with his previous stances and statements, and whether he was motivated less by ideology and more by the promise of a big paycheck from a business mogul who has said he is willing to spend as much as a billion dollars to get elected…

***********
Apart from wishing confusion upon our enemies (who are pretty confused already!), what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?

Reader Interactions

120Comments

  1. 1.

    Calouste

    whether he was motivated less by ideology and more by the promise of a big paycheck

    Considering that for movement conservatism and Prosperity Gospel, money is their ideology, I don’t see a contradiction.

  2. 2.

    Scout211

    What is happening with this blog and why does Is it Down Right Now say that this blog is “down for everyone” and “the server isn’t responding?”

    It has said that for the past three days.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    OK, Jehovah. You have one last chance to prove you exist. Meteor on The Donald and Mooselini tonight.

    Get ‘er done.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    Can we get a GoFundMe going, to pay for a PI to follow these two horny-for-each-other klowns after the interview?

  14. 14.

    shell

    Sarah Palin Will Interview Donald Trump

    I dont think the usual use of the word ‘interview’ should be applied here. Try ‘tongue bath.’
    *************
    Awaiting the birth of my eldest nephew’s first baby. My sisters gonna be a grandmother!? Goddamn, I feel old.

  15. 15.

    Gimlet

    If Erika survives the mountains, it could regain intensity over the Straits of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane center added.

    Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency on Friday, noting the storm could travel “up the spine of Florida” from Sunday into next week.

    Scott said the Tampa area on Florida’s Gulf Coast was a major flood concern due to saturation from rain this month.

    I’ve heard Republicans repeatedly say “America’s broke”. They need to cut the budget. Perhaps Gov. Scott could talk to the IMF about a loan if it’s necessary. They’ve done well by Greece I think.

  17. 17.

    sm*t cl*de

    evangelical conservative activist Sam Clovis

    OMFSM, that photograph. It cannot be natural to have a head so closely resembling a carbuncle. It is as if he blew his original head off with a shotgun, and the new one is partway through growing back.

  19. 19.

    Heliopause

    Trump’s got good numbers again today on Pollster.

    If you knew nothing about the polls and asked yourself at the outset, out of the field of 17, “who are the three most dangerous, batshit insane candidates who would get us all killed if elected,” I think the answer would be pretty easy: Trump, Carson, and Cruz. Current Pollster average of these three together is 46%. If you asked yourself, “who are the three candidates that the party establishment would be most comfortable with” they would be, IMO, Bush, Walker, and Christie. Together they are polling 15.4%. OK, let’s help out the establishment by giving them Rubio, which gets them up to 22%. Now add Kasich, they’re up to 26.1%. Not looking good. Better throw in Fiorina; 31.9%. At least they’re past Trump now. Fine, make it Everybody Else: 44.3% TrumpCarsonCruz beats Everybody Else, and that’s giving Huckabee and Santorum to The Establishment. Funny.

  20. 20.

    Thoughtful Today

    I assume…

    Ted Cruz’s Dad’s revised prophecy is where Ted Cruz becomes Trump’s Vice President and then Cruz masterfully engineers a House Of Cards moment in March of 2017!

    12 years of Prophecy instead of only eight!

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @efgoldman: It has been a bit slow for me as well. Perhaps Steve needs to scare the bejezus out of the server hamsters or something.

  22. 22.

    Mike in NC

    This guy Sam Clovis is clearly someone who never missed a meal in his life, and he was happy to dump Perry for 30 pieces of Trump’s silver.

  23. 23.

    Mike in NC

    Last night I installed an update to the OS on my iPad and it seems to have helped with loading BJ.

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mike in NC: Sam Clovis doesn’t just look like he’s never missed a meal in his life. He looks like he’s had seconds and even thirds at most of them.

  25. 25.

    chromeagnomen

    @efgoldman: hey hey hey! i’m just catching up on postings, and i see yesterday that you are actually considering rooting for the mets for the rest of this year?!?!?! what the fuckity-fucking-fuck!!!

    /red sox fan since the early 50s

  26. 26.

    WereBear

    I like that Trump is ripping the veneer off the Republican pretense of sanity and statesmanship. Next Presidential cycle it will be that robot that vomits and a Triffid.

  28. 28.

    lgerard

    @Amir Khalid:

    @Mike in NC: Sam Clovis doesn’t just look like he’s never missed a meal in his life. He looks like he’s had seconds and even thirds at most of them.

    He’s corn fed

  29. 29.

    M. Bouffant

    @Thoughtful Today: They’d have to wait until 2019. 22nd Amendment says you can only run twice if you serve less than two yrs. unelected.

    No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

  30. 30.

    cckids

    @shell:

    Awaiting the birth of my eldest nephew’s first baby. My sisters gonna be a grandmother!? Goddamn, I feel old.

    I found out via FB this year that a classmate from high school has SEVEN grandchildren.

    We are 52 years old. That is just not right.

    Plus, to completely blow my mind, this meanest-of-the-mean girls has become (at least on FB) an uber-Xtian. I’m glad she lives all the way across the country.

  31. 31.

    mai naem mobile

    Maybe the Trumpster thinls he can get Princess Sarah of the Northwest Snowbillies Megan Kelly’s Fozxy gig.

  32. 32.

    A guy

    I really don’t know if it’s good or bad but trump is kicking everybody’s ass. There no denying it

  34. 34.

    PurpleGirl

    @Scout211: BJ was loading slowly for me, but it’s back to normal for me. Not seeing any other problems with it. But then I’m still using Win XP… (Can’t afford to buy all new software for doing things, so I stay with what has been a stable platform for me.)

  38. 38.

    Cacti

    POTUS has ordered an across the board 1% pay raise for federal civilian employees and 1.3% for military personnel for fiscal year 2016.

    Link

  42. 42.

    gnomedad

    @sm*t cl*de:

    It is as if he blew his original head off with a shotgun, and the new one is partway through growing back.

    Do you know how much that stings?

  43. 43.

    Myiq2xu

    Source: FBI ‘A-team’ leading ‘serious’ Clinton server probe, focusing on defense info

    An FBI “A-team” is leading the “extremely serious” investigation into Hillary Clinton’s server and the focus includes a provision of the law pertaining to “gathering, transmitting or losing defense information,” an intelligence source told Fox News.

    The section of the Espionage Act is known as 18 US Code 793.

    A separate source, who also was not authorized to speak on the record, said the FBI will further determine whether Clinton should have known, based on the quality and detail of the material, that emails passing through her server contained classified information regardless of the markings. The campaign’s standard defense and that of Clinton is that she “never sent nor received any email that was marked classified” at the time.

    It is not clear how the FBI team’s findings will impact the probe itself. But the details offer a window into what investigators are looking for — as the Clinton campaign itself downplays the controversy.

    The FBI offered no comment.

    A leading national security attorney, who recently defended former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling in a leak investigation, told Fox News that violating the Espionage Act provision in question is a felony and pointed to a particular sub-section.

    “Under [sub-section] F, the documents relate to the national defense, meaning very closely held information,” attorney Edward MacMahon Jr. explained. “Somebody in the government, with a clearance and need to know, then delivered the information to someone not entitled to receive it, or otherwise moved it from where it was supposed to be lawfully held.

  44. 44.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Myiq2xu: Which is significant for what reason, pray tell? Did Reagan on either Bush ever consult with the State Department about their overseas or foreign policy related speeches?

  50. 50.

    Baud

    I hope the servers are fixed soon so we can get the regulars back to dilute the paid trolls.

  53. 53.

    jl

    @Villago Delenda Est: From the link, Bill Clinton declined the two invitations, which means there must be an even huger scandal than we first suspected, somehow, than if he had accepted

    HRC did a thing, whatever it was, and something must be fishy about it. It is big news and raises questions, no matter what.
    If that is not fair and objective coverage of important news, I just don’t know what is,

  55. 55.

    Scout211

    Hmmm. Okay, on my mac and the site works fine.

    On the iPad, the desktop version takes forever to load but the iPad (mobile) version works fine.

    Still, Is it Down Right Now? says balloon-juice.com is down and the servers are not responding.

    Very strange.

  56. 56.

    Myiq2xu

    This one is definitely on topic:

    WTH, LAMESTREAM MEDIA! STAY OUT OF MY BIBLE

    WTH? Lamestream media asks GOP personal, spiritual “gotchas” that they’d NEVER ask Hillary, or they’d feed the question to her and/or liberal cohorts before they asked it on-air (we know how these things work, lapdog media… the public’s on to you), so good on Trump for screwing with the reporter. By the way, even with my reading scripture everyday I wouldn’t want to answer the guy’s question either… it’s none of his business; it IS personal; what the heck does it have to do with serving as commander-in-chief; and these reporters trying to trip up conservatives can go pound sand until they ask the same things of their favored liberal pals. I’ll cover this in my interview with Donald Trump and other candidates tonight on the One America News Network show “On Point.” The more the media does this, the more they empower America to reject them and their bias as voters run to the anti-status quo candidates daring to Go Rogue.

    patheos.com/…/dear-media-donald-trump-does-not-…/

    – Sarah Palin

  59. 59.

    Scout211

    @Baud:

    I hope they have a follow-up on those people after at least a year living in those tiny houses. I am not sure that living in those tiny houses will turn out they way they think it will.

  61. 61.

    Roger Moore

    @Thoughtful Today:

    12 years of Prophecy instead of only eight!

    Nope. If the VP succeeds the President less than two years into the term, he’s only eligible for reelection once. Check the 22nd Amendment. Also, too, the 12th Amendment requirement that the VP meet the same eligibility criteria as the President means you can’t wriggle around the 22nd by having somebody who’s termed out run as VP and then have the President resign.

  72. 72.

    cckids

    @WereBear: Ha ! Well, at least all the FB stuff she posts is about “letting God take over”, etc. She’s not at all political, very family-oriented from what I see. It’s just such a total reversal from her HS persona it is surprising.

  73. 73.

    Gimlet

    After defying multiple orders to issue marriage licenses to gays and lesbians, a Kentucky clerk is taking her case to the Supreme Court.

    Rowan County clerk Kim Davis on Friday filed an emergency request with the court to put a temporary hold on a lower-court ruling that effectively forces her to begin serving gay couples, saying that complying with the order would violate her religious beliefs.

    Davis’ request was addressed to Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees emergency petitions from Kentucky.

    The petition goes on: “If Davis’ religious objection cannot be accommodated when Kentucky marriage licenses are available in more than 130 marriage licensing locations … then elected officials have no real religious freedom when they take public office.”

  74. 74.

    Thoughtful Today

    ;)

    A couple of ya’all are confusing our neo-Prophets Master Plan with Constitutional safeguards.

    Spoiler alert: They’re not the same thing.

  75. 75.

    Rich (In Name Only) in reno

    This is the Whore of Babylon interviewing the Beast as prophesized in the Book of Revelations, isn’t it?

  77. 77.

    Kropadope

    @Myiq2xu:

    This one is definitely on topic:

    Unfamiliar with the term “open thread,” smarty pants?

    Only someone who would quote Sarah Palin as an authority on anything would aggrandize their own intelligence so much. “She was a governor and almost VP. If she’s smart enough to do that, I must be a genius!!!”

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    They are all about the GRIFT. This entire post was hilarious. Of all of them, Trump is the most honest. Think about that…..LOL

  82. 82.

    JGabriel

    Des Moines Register via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    Iowa Republicans said Wednesday that Clovis’ move raises questions about how he reconciles endorsing Trump with his previous stances and statements

    Expecting consistency from a Republican political consultant? That’s hilarious.

  85. 85.

    ThresherK

    @Baud: Wait, is that being cross-promoted with “Little People, Big World”? I consume absolutely no reality TV.

  86. 86.

    jibeaux

    This split between the chamber of commerce types and the even nuttier types is coming, if they keep losing non-gerrymandered races. There won’t be anything to lose, and in the nuttier minds everything to gain by embracing their true batshit selves. Do you think we’re at that point yet, or later, or never? I think we’re close. I don’t think Republicans want Trump as an independent, and they simultaneously favor him above the others and he wins highest marks for the one they won’t support (there’s your split.) Fascinating dynamic.

  87. 87.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I’m stuck at LaGuardia past my bedtime trying to get from Manchester NH to Detroit before I have to get up in the morning. It’s already an hour past my bedtime.
    Some day I’ll be too old for this shit.
    Maybe soon.

  91. 91.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Friend of mine in Florida is getting email from Publix urging her to stock up before the hurricane. They send her a list of possible buys, including latex free examining gloves. Since she’s an English professor, she puzzled over what she’s meant to do with them.

  92. 92.

    Gravenstone

    @JGabriel:

    Expecting consistency from a Republican political consultant? That’s hilarious.

    I think this is what you meant …

  95. 95.

    Gin & Tonic

    So there was a Cole post, then it disappeared. Since it takes about a half-hour per page load, I can’t be 100% sure, though.

  100. 100.

    trollhattan

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    Removing passive voice once and for all?

    Gawd, I don’t know but suppose if there’s flooding the sewers back up and everything wet is a possible biohazard. I’d recommend going to higher ground but it’s Florida….

  106. 106.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was going to say, that the Republicans were always this bad and that Cole didn’t see it because he didn’t want to see it.

    The Florida recount, the run up to the Iraq War are just two examples from the top of my head about their general awfulness.

  107. 107.

    NotMax

    To save time, here’s the transcript.

    SP: Tough but fair question first. Iran is the devil, right?

    DT: In every poll, my support skyrockets when I talk about the evil of the so-called agreement with Iran.

    SP: Have you ever been to Mexico?

    DT: Beautiful beaches, beautiful people. Why they want to leave – well, that’ll stop once I’m president. (loud clap) Boom! Just like that.

    SP: How great are you gonna make America again? Really great, really, really great or super-duper great?

    DT: Just look around – I’ve built great things. I’ve had a great TV show – a ratings bonanza. Huge audience, huge success. I know great, great is what I do, why so many, many great, great people are flocking to me.

    SP: Let’s get the facts on the table before we go. You’re really, really rich, right?

    DT: You betcha. *wink*

  110. 110.

    Anne Laurie

    @Gravenstone:

    Didn’t they used to have a name for tiny houses? I think it was, an “apartment”?

    Yeah, except these are perfect little jewel boxes for special snowflakes…

    I’m not being fair (only seen a couple shows, when we’re at the gym on the weekend) but it’s on the same kind of take-a-semi-reasonable-concept-and-pound-it-into-senseless-display model as most of the HGTV shows I’ve seen. “Tiny houses” are defined as under 600sqft, which is okay for a single person with maybe a cat or small dog… then they find couples, with several big dogs, or two young kids, or she’s pregnant but they’re talking about zero-carbon earth toilets & gravity plumbing. And of course half the time, they’ve never owned their own home before, so they have no idea of upkeep beyond “call the landlord”. And it’s really hard to get the proper permits in most cities, so the acreage they settle for is either on the inlaws’ land, or so far out in the boonies that getting utilities hooked up will cost as much again as the house proper…

    At least half the few couples in the shows I’ve seen end up abandoning the concept within a few months, but we’re all assured it’s a valuable learning experience.

  113. 113.

    catclub

    @Omnes Omnibus: exactly.. If she had had the same emails on a federal server, having classified information on them is just as bad – actually worse, because all the machines have to be purged of classified info when there is ‘spillage’.

  114. 114.

    Kyle

    Like the big super PACs, I suppose he’s laying low until the carnage leaves a winner, but where is Karl Rove? It sort of freaks me out that he’s not being heard from, and you know that bastard is up to no good.

  116. 116.

    Anne Laurie

    @Kyle: Last I heard, the NYTimes said the sumbitch was “dedicating” his American Crossroads PAC to attacking Hillary Clinton. Same article said there was “a history” of bad blood between Turdblossom and JEB! (so the Establishment GOP is holding their skirts away from Karl’s contamination) and that newer fiercer ratfvkers like the Kochs were running right over his pudgy rump on their way to 2016.

    So, I’m not counting him out, not while he’s this side of the Styx. But I hope he’s enjoying getting kicked around by the monsters he helped create.

  117. 117.

    Kyle

    @Anne Laurie: I would like to hope that all the money he wasted in 2012 has diminished his influence but “rational thought” isn’t something I assume from the right wing folks.

  118. 118.

    NotMax

    Ingrid Bergman day on TCM. If anything, somehow she got better and better looking the older she became.

  119. 119.

    Mike G

    “His comments reveal no foundation in Christ, which is a big deal”

    A big positive deal as far as I’m concerned. We’ve had way too much of aggressive assholes who think, nay KNOW their Xtianity excuses any and all evils they commit.

  120. 120.

    low-tech cyclist

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was going to say, that the Republicans were always this bad and that Cole didn’t see it because he didn’t want to see it.
    The Florida recount, the run up to the Iraq War are just two examples from the top of my head about their general awfulness.

    They weren’t pure evil IMHO until 1993, when they decided to engage in massive resistance to Clinton’s plan for universal health care just because its passage would have hurt them politically. (Major props to Digby for refusing to let us forget about or overlook this history.)

    My dad used to say that both parties desire the best for this country, they just have differing views on what that is. This was when the GOP proved him wrong, putting their political fortunes ahead of the well-being of tens of millions of Americans.

    And then the Gingrich Revolution of 1994 came along and locked the GOP in as the Party of Evil.

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