Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Usually wrong but never in doubt

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Optimism opens the door to great things.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

This blog will pay for itself.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

No one could have predicted…

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

He really is that stupid.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: The Trump Cabal, On Beyond Shameless

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: The Trump Cabal, On Beyond Shameless

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Used to be, an elderly racist like Jefferson Beauregard Sessions would be required to festoon his confirmation hearing with platitudes about ‘youthful indiscretions’ and ‘having learned better since then’. But this gang can’t even permit themselves such rags of hypocrisy, because the official GOP line is that racism is good and honorable — so much so, even discussing racism is an offense against honor. You know what happened, last time that was true for Congressmen?

As I noted last night, tensions escalated over the gag rule to the point where a South Carolina senator attempted to murder a Massachusetts senator on the floor of the Senate chamber. I doubt the current GOP Senators have anyone with that level of conviction in their ranks, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the security teams weren’t being a little extra alert right now.

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I’m trying to think about which Republican could physically take on Warren. Maybe Cotton because he is youngish.

  6. 6.

    The Moar You Know

    As I noted last night, tensions escalated over the gag rule to the point where a South Carolina senator attempted to murder a Massachusetts senator on the floor of the Senate chamber.

    And pretty much succeeded. Charles Sumner was crippled for life after the attack.

  8. 8.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I checked my memory with Wikipedia and Warren has 3 older brothers. I have 4 older brothers, so I can tell you from experience that they almost certainly taught her to fight dirty. It’s what older brothers do. ?

  9. 9.

    efgoldman

    @The Moar You Know:

    Charles Sumner was crippled for life after the attack.

    And Liz Warren holds the same exact senate seat. Although I think she might be the one actually administering the beat down.

  10. 10.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    Don’t forget, though, that Brooks “won” by cheating — he brought a weapon knowing that Sumner didn’t have one and he had his friends surround the desk so nobody could try and stop him. He even waited for Sumner’s back to be turned before attacking him. So much conservative bravery there.

  11. 11.

    Brachiator

    From the news Internets:

    President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court expressed to lawmakers on Wednesday that he was upset to see the president attacking the federal judge who temporarily suspended his ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. In a private meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), SCOTUS pick Neil Gorsuch said it was “disheartening” and “demoralizing” to see the president bash Bush-appointed federal Judge James L. Robart as a “so-called judge” after a ruling on the travel ban went against Trump’s policy. The president additionally denigrated the ruling as “ridiculous.”

    So, will Trump call Gorsuch a “sissy” and punch him in the neck? ‘Cause you know, Small Hands Trump is all about manliness.

  12. 12.

    ? Martin

    @Mnemosyne:

    I have 4 older brothers, so I can tell you from experience that they almost certainly taught her to fight dirty.

    Take it from someone who grew up in NYC in the 70s – there’s only two kinds of fighting – fighting dirty, and getting your ass kicked. Always, always, always fight dirty.

  16. 16.

    Patricia Kayden

    Is Sean Spicer on drugs? No, really. Only someone on drugs would make such a claim about Mrs. King.

  18. 18.

    efgoldman

    @Brachiator:

    will Trump call Gorsuch a “sissy” and punch him in the neck?

    Pumpkin Pimple never punched anything more menacing than his teddy bear, which is also the last thing that loved him.

  19. 19.

    Renie

    Can someone translate for me this tweet he sent out earlier:

    Big increase in traffic into our country from certain areas, while our people are far more vulnerable, as we wait for what should be EASY D!

  24. 24.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @? Martin:

    I think more likely they realized they fucked up. Warren has the courage to be first, and (sort of) paid for it.

    Maybe. At least, I’m sure they realized they fucked up. But I wonder if they would have invoked the same rules if a vagina-deficient Senator had been reading the letter last night.

  25. 25.

    Mike in NC

    @Renie: If some adult took away his ridiculous toy and smashed it with a hammer, he would go right around the bend.

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    I checked my memory with Wikipedia and Warren has 3 older brothers. I have 4 older brothers, so I can tell you from experience that they almost certainly taught her to fight dirty.

    Wouldn’t that be “Injun style?”

  30. 30.

    Lizzy L

    Sean Spicer resigns.
    Sean Spicer is fired.

    One of these things will happen, it’s just a question of which and when. What d’you think — was Spicer required to sign a NDA? I’m betting he was.

  37. 37.

    ? Martin

    @O. Felix Culpa: I think so. Remember, the letter is a real blot on the GOP. The letter should have been entered into the record 30 years ago, but Strom Thurmond buried it and we only recently found it again. For that reason it should be in the record – the GOP made a decision to bury it and now they need to pay for that. I think once they realized that their response to Warren’s actions only drew attention to the letter they didn’t want people to know about, their plan simply backfired.

    That said, now that this whole turmoil is done it only drives Dems to calcify around their opposition and GOPs to calcify around their support.

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Not only should Jefferson Beauregard Session III not be confirmed for AG, his head should be placed on a pike on the steps of the Capitol, as a warning to others for the next 10 generations that being a dishonorable racist shitmuffin has consequences.

  41. 41.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Renie: He’s saying we’re getting lots of increased immigration and plane traffic from his banned states while they wait for what should have been a easy decision from the courts, etc.

    It’s pretty seriously illogical. If you had a trip planned here from Syria or wherever, now is absolutely the time to take it. There’s zero evidence of any of that traffic being malign, and enough courts have weighted in on this (and Robart in particular seems to think that the government doesn’t really have a case) that Trump is clearly just compensating.

    Dude’s a manchild.

    @O. Felix Culpa: I think when faced with the inevitability of EVERY Senator reading that letter if they banned any one else for reading it, they just decided to quietly back down and declare victory.

  43. 43.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Renie:

    I think he means “EASY DECISION,” but I’m only guessing.

    As Betty Cracker and one or two others have mentioned, though, it does sound a bit like the SCROTUS’ idea of cool rapper slang.

  45. 45.

    Brachiator

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Not only should Jefferson Beauregard Session III not be confirmed for AG, his head should be placed on a spike outside the Capitol, as a warning to others for the next 10 generations that being a dishonorable racist shitmuffin has consequences.

    Ha!

    Nice Vir Cotto Babylon 5 reference

    Does that make Bannon Trump’s Mr Morden?

  47. 47.

    Lapassionara

    My theory is that Trump wears dressing gowns, or something like a bath robe, but with a fancier name.

  48. 48.

    Renie

    why does the Defense Dept have to rent space at Trump Tower? Is this normal? and do they have to pay market rates?

  50. 50.

    ruckus

    Shameless?
    It’s several thousand miles past shameless. They passed shameless a long time ago and can’t even see it in their mirror.

  51. 51.

    Aleta

    Spicer actually said that?
    Someone wrote it for him.
    Meanwhile the news says T ate dinner while he ordered the Yemen raid, not caring enough to review it properly. Congress abolished the agency that oversees voting procedures, while a plan to replace voting machines goes forward. A landslide of other things. It’s getting harder to breathe.

  53. 53.

    Ian G.

    I’ve always seen it as a massive cosmic injustice that Preston Brooks died before he could witness Sherman’s forces lay waste to South Carolina.

    @Mnemosyne:

    IIRC, a northern Republican Congressman offered to duel Brooks after the Sumner attack, but the pathetic coward Brooks declined, citing an inability to travel safely to the north (the duel would have been in Canada, where it wasn’t yet outlawed).

  54. 54.

    germy

    I’m wondering, in this new era of rolled-back regulations… how much longer can we trust the food we buy for our pets?

    A pet food company is recalling several lots of dog food because it may be contaminated with a euthanasia drug.

    Evanger’s Dog Food says it’s voluntarily recalling five lots of its Hunk of Beef product that may include pentobarbital “in an abundance of caution.” The food was distributed to retail locations and sold online in 15 states. The company says pentobarbital was discovered in a single lot of the food, but it’s recalling all lots manufactured the same week of June 6, 2016.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Renie: They had set up a space at the Obama’s house in Chicago for when they were there. I don’t have the details, but my guess is that this has to do with Command and Control (C2) of the military in case he’s at Trump Tower and has to be able to get into a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility in order to perform the Commander in Chief functions. My guess is they’ll have to put one in at Mar a Lago as well.

    In the case of Trump Tower it is completely up to the Trump Organization, ie him, whether to charge rent and what rate to charge it at. I’m pretty sure that the Obama’s didn’t charge rent in their Hyde Park home, nor did the Bushes at their ranch in Crawford.

  60. 60.

    PK

    Sean Spicer tomorrow: ” I’m sure if Rosa Parks was alive today she would move to the back of the bus. And if MLK was alive he would insist on drinking from the colored drinking fountain.”

  61. 61.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Adam L Silverman: Makes sense to me. The White House Communications Agency, that handles Presidential communications for Commander-In-Chief type tasks, is a military agency.

  62. 62.

    Corner Stone

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    But I wonder if they would have invoked the same rules if a vagina-deficient Senator had been reading the letter last night.

    *checks thread for Gin & Tonic or Billin*
    WHEW
    Ok, now. I made the god damned mistake this morning of watching some TV. I know, I know. Anyhoo, you should have seen Sen Dick Durbin spinning like a top making excuses this AM about why EW was singled out but Udall was allowed to do virtually the same thing.
    Shorter Dick: EW is so smart, and the things she says get so under their skin, they just can’t take it. But Udall is so thoughtful and considered in his approach…he gets some leeway.

    I guess that will teach me to turn on the small picture motion machine display thingamajig.

  66. 66.

    Millard Filmore

    @germy: When the granny starvers cut welfare and food stamps, it will not be just pets that have to watch out.

  67. 67.

    01jack

    @germy:

    I’m wondering, in this new era of rolled-back regulations… how much longer can we trust the food we buy for our pets?

    Ironically, the apparently innocent pet food company called for more regulation to keep drug-contaminated meat out of the supply chain.

  70. 70.

    Gelfling 545

    @Baud: That business of him not owning a bathrobe has me concerned that he might be wandering about the place in a state of nature. In the words of the philosopher (Daffy Duck) “What a revolting development this is. “

  72. 72.

    DCF

    Senator Ted Cruz can read Green Eggs And Ham on the Senate floor, but Senator/Professor Elizabeth Warren is barred from reading a letter from Coretta Scott King….
    Mitch McConnell Aimed to Silence Two Powerful Female Voices Last Night
    Elizabeth Warren and Coretta Scott King will be heard.

    http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a52937/mcconnell-silence-warren/

    SPW appealed McConnell’s decision and lost by 49-43. She was thereby disqualified from participating in the “debate” over the Sessions nomination. It was fascinating to watch McConnell lose control of the situation. His clumsy intervention could have had only three purposes. The first would be to shut SPW up, which seems like an awful waste of time, since the Democrats had planned their speaking schedule for the 30 hours anyway and, while her voice would be missed, its absence wouldn’t be entirely crucial. The second would be to minimize the impact of Coretta King’s letter, which seems like a complete waste of time since the damn thing’s been in the public record for more than three decades. So let’s settle on the third: McConnell did it because he had the votes to do it. Pure authoritarian impulse. Works for me.
    (Another more unlikely possibility is that McConnell thinks Sessions might be in trouble and is giving him the precious snowflake treatment, but he got Betsy DeVos through and, by all accounts, she was a tougher sell.)
    After the vote on Warren’s appeal, the Senate pretty much lost what was left of its mind. Young Marco Rubio rose and delivered a plea for bipartisan civility and you could almost smell the dung of the 2020 Iowa State Fair in the chamber.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Aleta: If they wanted to do it and make it look less obvious, they’d just activate him from the US Naval Reserve.

  74. 74.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So we had a handful turn out at McConnell’s church – several never got there (TERRIBLE traffic a they were contacting me), and there was atrocious weather. It was such a thrown together lashup, the woman who I was working with and I agreed to not contact media and to use it as a test run.

    We organized it on a closed indivisible forum, and generated a lot of interest, but many of those who would normally attend announced unavoidable child commitments, given the short notice.

    Interestingly, there were a half dozen police cars in sight and about 12 pacing cops awaiting us. They outnumbered us. We were met in the raking lot (which has public characteristics as a transit authority leased park and ride) by a sheriff’s deputy who informed us “no signs and no protests on the parking lot, no exceptions”, and were shunted to the lawn at the far corner of the lot.

    Fun thing about those nice conservative Christian friends of Mitch – they didn’t come out to engage us, and despite having clear notice that we were going to proceed with respect and simply read the King letter, they were still unwilling to hear it – which told me something important about them.

    Even though weather and notice and awful traffic conspired against us (as I said, several were on the way and never could get there), I’m not displeased. They might giggle over todays number, but McConnell now knows that the nature of the game has shifted toward chasing people he likes, and that some of them won’t have a platoon of cops that they can call, nor will they be monitoring activists prior to the fact. plus, the numbers can only increase from here forward.

  75. 75.

    trollhattan

    Buried in a rundown of absurdly expensive bottles of whisky is this beaut:

    26 Year Old GlenDronach signed by Donald Trump
    Sold at auction for 6,000 pounds

    In 2012, this bottle of GlenDronach single malt scotch was signed by Donald Trump to commemorate the opening of his Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The bottle was part of a limited run of 504, but was the only one signed by now President The Donald. It just sold at auction for 6,000 pounds (a little over $7,000) to a Canadian purchaser. Yes, a Canadian. The whisky is rumored to be bright orange with a touch of narcissistic treacle on the nose, and a nice sherry, oak, and racist finish on the palate.

  76. 76.

    Boussinesque

    @Brachiator: glad to see I’m not the only person whose mind immediately went to that. Now we just need to fast-forward to the conclusion of that particular exchange, preferably without having to experience the entire Shadow War in-between.

  81. 81.

    efgoldman

    @ruckus:

    They passed shameless a long time ago and can’t even see it in their mirror.

    Hell, they passed shameless so far back, they’ve gone around the other side and are coming back in again.

  82. 82.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    In the case of Trump Tower it is completely up to the Trump Organization, ie him, whether to charge rent and what rate to charge it at.

    They oughta’ take the space by eminent domain. Who’s he gonna’ sue? Himself?

  83. 83.

    father pussbucket

    I can only hope that if Muhammad Ali were still with us, he would repeatedly punch Sean Spicer.

  84. 84.

    nycmt

    @trollhattan: someone is paying seven grand for 500mls of 26 year old single malt? I have sixty year old slivovitz and ninety year old blended Scotch (Victoria Vat), I should sell it before the missiles come.

  85. 85.

    J R in WV

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    No one thinks there will be anti-aircraft or anti-drone/anti-missle installations? Cause I do.

    They’ll need the top floor of the penthouse, so as to have a 360 degree field of fire!

    Mar-a-Lago won’t be so tricky, they can just park trucks with Patriot units around the place.

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    efgoldman
    February 8, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    They passed shameless a long time ago and can’t even see it in their mirror.

    Hell, they passed shameless so far back, they’ve gone around the other side and are coming back in again.

    While shameless is still putting its pants on.

  87. 87.

    J R in WV

    @nycmt:

    @trollhattan: someone is paying seven grand for 500mls of 26 year old single malt? I have sixty year old slivovitz and ninety year old blended Scotch (Victoria Vat), I should sell it before the missiles come.

    No, no nycmt, you should drink it! I’ve had home made slivovitz that a friend’s wife’s father brought from the old country for the wedding. Plummy, sweet, delicious fire. I dunno about the Victoria Vat scotch, and I hope the slivovitz was in a barrel for a long time.

    I bought some really old cognac in the duty-free shop at Charles de Gaulle airport on the way back from our only trip to Europe – I had Euros burning a hole in my pocket. Still have a little of it left. Is good. Drink it when Trump does something especially stupid or illegal. Celebrate his failures, there will be plenty, with friends who will appreciate it.

  88. 88.

    J R in WV

    OK, comment about good booze in moderation. Anyone who can see why, please let me know so I can obfuscate that word next time.

    Thanks!

  90. 90.

    Debbie1

    @germy: I’ve been racking my brains trying to figure out who Trump reminds me of in that shortie negligee. Was is Chrissy Snow in her shortie nightgowns? Gerard Depardieu? Now I’ve got it! It’s Zap Brannigan, the sex-obsessed captain in Matt Groening’s cartoon Futurama. He used to go around in a Star Trek captain’s jacket – with NO PANTS, just like Tr*mp.

  92. 92.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Debbie1:

    I wonder if his daughter took the picture.

    Ugh ugh ugh yuck yuck barf

    ETA: Notice the way his finger is beckoning in a “come hither” gesture. Just makes me vomit in my mouth.

  94. 94.

    Aleta

    @nycmt:

    I have sixty year old slivovitz and ninety year old blended Scotch (Victoria Vat), I should sell it before the missiles come

    Once you’re living in the fortified silo drinking somebody else’s homemade (raisins and breadcrumbs in a ziplock bag) silovitz, you might obsess about whether you made the right choice.

  95. 95.

    John

    tensions escalated over the gag rule to the point where a South Carolina senator attempted to murder a Massachusetts senator on the floor of the Senate chamber.

    Not that it really matters, but I need to use my B.A. in American history for something: Preston Brooks was a member of the House of Representatives, not a Senator.

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