Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

All hail the time of the bunny!

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

“Alexa, change the president.”

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Republicans in disarray!

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Late Night Open Thread: Dignity Wraith Strikes Again

Late Night Open Thread: Dignity Wraith Strikes Again

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When Scaramucci leapt aboard the Trump Titanic a million years ago — okay, last week — he started his tenure by deleting all evidence of any less-than-Trump-worthy opinions. Which went over, on Twitter, about as well as you’d expect…

Didn’t take long for the Trump Reverse-Midas Curse to strike such an obvious target…

As Josh Marshall said, Trump doesn’t actually turn his minions evil — he just has a gift for exposing the rot at the heart of anyone who stands too close.

Reader Interactions

132Comments

  1. 1.

    Marcion

    Who would win a screaming match: Scaramucci or Rahm Emmanuel? I want to lock both of them in a room and have them yell “YOU’RE DEAD! DEAD!!!” at each other till one of them strokes out. Put it on PPV

  2. 2.

    ? Martin

    Mooch only supported those things because it allowed him to be a contrasting voice at Fox, which put him in demand. It’s not that he doesn’t support those things, rather like Trump he only supports what lines his pockets. Integrity is for little people.

  3. 3.

    Hungry Joe

    When I try to imagine the goings-on in the White House these days it’s always with a soundtrack from They Might Be Giants:

    Triangle man, Triangle man
    Triangle man hates particle man
    They have a fight, Triangle wins
    Triangle man

    I know — doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. That’s the point, kind of.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    You can tell what kind of human being the Mooch is by the fact that his wife prematurely gave birth without him present.

  6. 6.

    TriassicSands

    The Mooch will have to prove himself, but I’m open to the possibility that he is as bad/evil as Trump. Probably not as stupid, but you never know.

  8. 8.

    cmorenc

    This White House is a rogue’s gallery of evil sociopaths, like the bad guys in a DC superhero comic book.

  9. 9.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Just to be clear: What he did while his child was being born is not about “family” being dragged into this… it’s about him.

    Unless – does he think people find that story nasty because of what his *wife* did (gave birth) while he was busy?

    We can’t exactly rule that out… not entirely.

  11. 11.

    catclub

    Felix Salmon has had fun at Scaramucci’s expense before. And they have obviously butted heads before.

    OTOH, I think Scaramucci is a MUCH more effective self-promoter ( he started out without any $200M from Pop) than Trump. So not garbage in that sense. Whether aiming that skill in favor of Trump will work. Not so sure.

  14. 14.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @cmorenc: Specifically, a collective of Silver Age Batman’s most Z-list villains. (BTW – if we’re casting for a D.C. film/series where everyone’s a douche, Silver Age Batman is Jeffrey Combs or Mike Judge, and Bronze Age-beyond is either Tony Todd or H. Jon Benjamin).

  21. 21.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Marcion: Rahm. He’s got military, albeit Israeli military because, you know, serving in the US military was not an option or something, experience.

  27. 27.

    lgerard

    This New York Post Page 6 article on the Mooch’s divorce is hilarious.
    The author solicited the most over the top fawning endorsements of him and strung them together in one article
    My favorite

    “

    Anthony is an American success story by any measure,” Kellyanne Conway, counselor to The President, told The Post. “He’s someone who breathes the rarified air of Harvard Law School, Goldman Sachs, enormous wealth and wildly successful, but he never forgot his roots and for all his celebrity, maintains his humility.

  34. 34.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Ludicrous, Moochie-Poo talking about who has class after all his ranting about cock-blocking and self-fellating.

  37. 37.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @Adam L Silverman: Superman and Joker are Seth MacFarlane (as Stan Smith & Stewie), Commissioner Gordon is Patrick Warburton, Wonder Woman is Katey Segal, Black Canary is Nicole Sullivan, Plastic Man is Dan Castellaneta, Dick Grayson is either William Salyers or Curtis Armstrong, Alfred is Patrick Stewart, Catwoman is Wendie Malick, Barbara Gordon is Pamela Adlon and Vicki Vale is Anna Faris.

  39. 39.

    Yarrow

    While Scaramucci was stealing all the limelight Bill Browder testified in front of the Senate Judiciary committee. I didn’t see it, but reports are that his testimony was riveting and it was terrifying as to what Putin will do, how he operates and what that means for us here in the US. NPR has a good article on it.

    In what one senator called one of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s “most important” hearings, Browder, a wealthy businessman-turned-activist-turned Putin-adversary shed a chilling new light on a Russian system of government that operates ruthlessly in the shadows — as Browder described it for lawmakers: a “kleptocracy” sustained by corruption, blackmail, torture and murder with Putin at its center.

    “Effectively the moment that you enter into their world,” Browder told senators investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, “you become theirs.”

    “They’ve got you both ways: with the carrot of continued bribery, and the stick of exposure and blackmail if you defect?” asked Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

    “That is how every single one of their relationships work,” Browder confirmed. “That’s how they grab people and keep them.

    “And once you get stuck in with them, you can never leave.”

    Apologies if there was already a thread on his testimony. I may have missed it between health care and the chaotic week.

  43. 43.

    TriassicSands

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    What if the question were “Who are the two people in the world you would least like to spend 5 minutes (or any time at all) with?” (I had to make it two because Trump has to be one of them and I think in the past week The Mooch has made a strong case for his being the second.)

  44. 44.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @Adam L Silverman: You’re right – the “k” in his surname is supposed to be a “c.” And anyway, it’s not an especially ludicrous name (by Serbian standards it’s downright pedestrian) – certainly much less fucking stupid than Walker Bragman and Brogan Morris.

    I will also add that DK2 and Holy Terror are probably the two worst-illustrated comics I have ever read – and Holy Terror the worst comic I have read, period.

  48. 48.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks. I haven’t had the chance to watch that yet. I remember reading an article about him a year ago or so and how disgusted he was at the lack of response by the London police to his friend’s death, which he was certain was a hit by Putin.

    I didn’t know if I’d missed the thread, if there had been one. It was a very busy and chaotic week for sure. I look forward to your post.

  49. 49.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): You could tell he was starting to lose it in Dark Knight Returns. The farther you got into the books the worse the art got. Jansen’s inks couldn’t do a damn thing. I’m not going anywhere near Dark Knight Returns 3, nor his forthcoming Superman Year One. Other than turning Selena Kyle into a dominatrix for Batman Year One, that was at least a coherent narrative story arc. Dark Knight Returns started going off the rails when Miller couldn’t keep who was and was not the fascist allegorical stand in as we got into book 3.

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack

    Okay, this has got to be pretty high up in the hierarchy of trivial First World problems:

    I sort of want to watch the Swedish crime show Lackberg’s Fjallbacka Murders on MHz, the third-tier Eurotrash cable channel, but I’m not super interested and would like to have it on in the background while I read Balloon Juice and monitor it as needed. The problem is that I can’t do that with these foreign shows, because I have to actually watch them so I can read the goddamn subtitles. Damn it to hell.

  52. 52.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    Okay, screw it. Over to Law and Order: Criminal Intent on Ion, to be followed by Psych at the top of the hour. (I’m half an hour behind on the DVR.)

    Note: The Psych episode, which started a few minutes ago in real time, is the pilot, if anyone wants to get caught up on the back-story.

  53. 53.

    gene108

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Fat fucker has no work to do in Trenton? Fucker’s been absent from the state most of his second term.

    If he didn’t want to be governor he should’ve quit and tried out his pet projects like running for President or being Trump’s errand boy.

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack

    @Raoul:

    Mmm, Inga . . . But I’d probably end up with surly Sven.

    I’d record it for later except that the DVR is full (as usual). Need to whittle away at the backlog.

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: Again: eventually he’s going to pull this schtick with someone who doesn’t care who he is. And when that happens things are going to be ugly. That’s what these idiots don’t get. Whether it’s the alt-right schmo Baked Alaska deciding to have a go at Malcolm Nance in LA today or Cernovich being unable to handle being teased by Vic Berger – there’s video of both of these – at the same Politicon in LA this weekend, these guys are eventually going to pull this stuff on the wrong person at the wrong time in the wrong place. I don’t write that because I want to see them get hurt, or anyone else get hurt, or anyone using violence to settle something stupid. But the reality is that it’s coming. And they’re going to squeal like stuck pigs when it does even if it is someone just brushing passed them to move out of their way like Congresswoman Waters did with Mike Tracy.

  56. 56.

    Raoul

    @gene108: I’m assuming fat fucker knows he should draw that gov’t salary and bank the pension dollars as long as he legally can. His future prospects look more used car lot than prime wingnut wellfare.

  60. 60.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: There wasn’t a thread. I plan on doing one tomorrow. Provided something completely bizarre and over the top doesn’t happen between now and then.

  62. 62.

    Adam L Silverman

    @gene108: One of his sons works for the Brewers. My guess is he was there visiting family and they went to a game. As for doing his job back in NJ, at this point I’m pretty sure the folks in NJ are happy he’s not there.

  63. 63.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    There wasn’t a thread. I plan on doing one tomorrow. Provided something completely bizarre and over the top doesn’t happen between now and then.

    “Provided” is doing a metric shit-tonne of heavy lifting there.

  68. 68.

    danielx

    @Marcion:

    Who would win a screaming match: Scaramucci or Rahm Emmanuel? I want to lock both of them in a room and have them yell “YOU’RE DEAD! DEAD!!!” at each other till one of them strokes out. Put it on PPV

    This idea has merit…..yes! Merit!

  72. 72.

    sharl

    @catclub: I was momentarily confused by that Felix Salmon tweet, but he provided a link in a subsequent tweet to a 2013 NY Magazine story by Kevin Roose that provided some background:

    …Not everyone likes Scaramucci. Reuters blogger Felix Salmon called him “sleazy” and a “popinjay” in a blog post that sparked a long-running feud between the two men…
    …
    “The problem is,” Scaramucci says, “snarky gets readership, but it closes your circle of accessibility. Like, Felix Salmon, he gets readership. But he’s universally hated. I think even his wife hates him. If you’re not snarky, you get a wide circle of accessibility.”

    LOL, good ol’ Felix.

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Okay, let me revise that: the house always wins provided it is owned by and being run by someone who is actually competent and not just using it as a laundromat.

  93. 93.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @Adam L Silverman: Seems like it; he promoted the tweet and the author of the article is listed as DownWithTyranny. And being über-leftist is fine too (although I have a stronger tolerance for the Jacobin/Splinter News types). But the list provided here indicates that this is less about advancing leftism and more about preemptively whining how none of the 2020 candidates live up to your standards (Bernie almost certainly won’t run and Warren is not a certain contender).

    He also seems to have a siafu colony up his ass about DWS, so.

  97. 97.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ruckus: I’ve seen one news write up that Christie’s NJ State Police personal security detail moved directly behind the guy in the Cubs jersey. If that was the case Christie’s behavior was even worse. He got razzed, he’s a public figure who has built his political career on being polarizing. He then reacted the way you would expect him to because he has very thin emotional skin. But if he deployed his security detail officer in an intimidating manner in order to allow him to be an ass in public that’s just abusive.

  100. 100.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @SFBayAreaGal: In one of the season seven episodes, Combs is playing Brunt, and in the next scene, he’s playing Weyoun. Incredibly versatile.

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I didn’t say the guy had to threaten him. Just that neither of those two cities seems to have created a very large pool of people who wouldn’t call him a fat fuck and/or tell him to fuck off. And I’d bet that person would get a lot of at least verbal support from the surrounding fans, security officer or not.

  102. 102.

    Adam L Silverman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: His problem is going to be the new director of his PAC. She’s completely polarizing. I’ve written here in comments before that the Democrats should try to find and offer the first chance at every open slot to women and women of color and then men of color. Given who the base of the party is and who actually has been doing the hard work and actually showing up to vote: women, women of color in specific, and people of color. But Turner is going to try to burn everything down to the ground in her pursuit of purity. And whether Bernie knows it or not, or suspects it or not, or would believe it if you told him, she will eventually turn on him for doing something practical. And when she does, he’s toast.

  103. 103.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ruckus: I didn’t think that’s what you’re suggesting. But when a plainclothes cop with his shield on a chain around his neck visibly moves behind you, followed by his boss coming over to berate you, discretion quickly becomes the better form of valor.

  104. 104.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @Adam L Silverman: So were Scalia and Ginsburg.
    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Which is kind of the point: Neither of them being frontrunners makes complaining about the EEVIL of everyone else running so much less complicated.

    To discourage this sort of cult-worship fuckery, I’ve increasingly been of the opinion that presidential candidates should be required to announce their runs with the public commission of one completely indefensible felony. Like punching a baby, or eating a sack of puppies.

  106. 106.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:

    discretion quickly becomes the better form of valor.

    Don’t disagree but I’ve been to baseball games before. That would have to be a pretty big cop and probably more than one to shut up a lot of fans. Riots have been started for much less.

  108. 108.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ruckus: When the Bucs started in Tampa, we had season tickets. In the old Big Sombrero that was Tampa Stadium. Anyhow, for whatever reason – karma, fate, random chance – no matter which of our four seats my Dad sat in, the guy sitting directly behind him would always get in a fight with someone sitting next to him. The seats behind ours were not held by season ticket owners. Dad had started the criminology department at USF, so knew a lot of cops, but by the end of the first season he was on a first name basis with the Tampa PD guys who worked that section. And every week he’d come home after the game with someone else’s beer, blood, or both on the back of his shirt.

  109. 109.

    jl

    After the skinny mini vote fiasco, I read that AZ gub Doug Ducey strongly opposed the skinny mini, and said that might have been real reason McCain voted no. But turns out Flake got a heads up from Ducey to vote yes. Maybe that was a favor to Flake, who maybe can’t survive if the super rich donors get too made at him and withhold funds. Anyway, the situation looks more confused than I thought. Ducey gave initial OK on skinny mini to McCain then changes his mind.

    Here is story from AZ paper. I read it once, then started again to see if I could figure it out, but.. stopped because not that important.
    Your new responsible serious daddy party: a bunch of confused incompetent con-people. If anyone knows the true story and it can be summarized in a short comment, thnx in advance.

    What Ducey told McCain ahead of his big vote to kill GOP ‘repeal’ bill
    azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2017/07/30/what-ducey-told-mccain-ahead-his-big-vote-kill-…

  111. 111.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    As I’ve said here before I’ve had a few careers and one of them was working in professional sports. I’ve seen fans be less than civil. At an event in gov fat fuck’s neck of the woods the venue could not find a security company one year, due to the fans and their concept that stealing a car out of the parking lot and setting in on fire, was normal. And fun. So they hired a local motorcycle gang to be security, sort of like Altamont back in 69. Can’t remember if this was the Hell’s Angels or not but none of them had even a whiff of choir boy about them. Best security at that facility that I ever saw in 12-15 yrs of events. You want something done right, hire professionals.

  112. 112.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Marcion:

    Who would win a screaming match: Scaramucci or Rahm Emmanuel? I want to lock both of them in a room and have them yell “YOU’RE DEAD! DEAD!!!” at each other till one of them strokes out. Put it on PPV.

    This is supposed to be a contest? Love him or hate him, Rahm is actually smart, and has experience in making sure that the people he says (screams) are going to be fucked do, in fact, get fucked. Scaramucci would leave on a gurney.

  114. 114.

    sm*t cl*de

    Family does not need to be drawn into this.

    Perhaps Scaramouche should pass this advice onto his friend / press-agent Schwartz, who was threatening to spill details about Priebus’ mistress(es).
    As well as reminding everyone about rumours that Scaramouch’s sale of his Ponzi scheme to Chinese money-launderers is really a multimillion-dollar exercise in infuence-peddling.
    Conceivably Schwartz is not a very good PR Rep, but there is something about the current slow-motion clown-car collision that attracts every other clown from miles around.

  124. 124.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    Longer answer:

    I have really liked the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (8" screen) that I got last Thanksgiving (partially on your recommendation). It’s basically equivalent to an iPad Mini 4 but cheaper and Android. I found myself being on my “real” computer less and less. The only problem was no keyboard on the Tab. I thought about getting an add-on keyboard, and even fiddled around a bit with a small Bluetooth keyboard that I had at hand, but it was too much of a kluge. I wanted something compact and self-contained that could replace my laptop as a go-to travel and carry-around device. A separate keyboard would be ungainly to store/​transport and one more (separate) thing to keep track of.

    I thought about biting the bullet and getting a Microsoft Surface, which has been bubbling around in my mind for a long time. They are tempting, but, damn, they’re expensive. And did I really need all that firepower?

    When Mnemosyne said she was getting an Asus Flip I started checking them out and doing some research. Even fondled one briefly at Best Buy when I went in to pick up something else. And something clicked about what I really need. That latest global ransomware attack a month or so ago helped me clarify my situation: nowadays about 90% of what I do is either browser-based or Word and Excel. I can store documents on OneDrive if I need to. And since I have an Office 365 subscription, even the apps are (semi-)cloud-based. If I need to do any heavy-duty programming or database work, I can schedule it for when I’m at my real computer. I no longer have any clients that need “instant” response.

    The final nudge was when I found that this Flip—according to some official Google page I found—is 100% compatible with the apps in the Android store. (Some of the earlier Chrome OS devices were not.) I haven’t installed Word and Excel on the tablet yet, but if they work pretty close to the Windows versions then I’m all set.

    And so far I’m liking the Flip on its own merits. Haven’t done much typing yet, but the screen is very crisp and readable, and the machine’s general responsiveness feels subjectively “fast.” When I swipe the screen to scroll up or down, it doesn’t feel as fast and “slippery” as the Tab, but it’s fine. I’m still finding things I need to get used to, but so far I’m pretty happy.

    And this thing is small! It’s 7.2 x 10.4 x 0.6 inches. Maybe a tad heavy for reading in tablet mode in bed, but that’s not a deal-breaker for me. I pretty much use only my phone for reading in bed.

  125. 125.

    JAFD

    @Adam L Silverman: Good Morning from New Jersey !

    Apologies to the good people of Wisconsin. ‘Tis true, though, that we would rather have him making a dubka of himself on the shores of Lake Michigan than while actually ‘governing’ on the banks of Assunpink Creek (the stream running under Trenton’s Amtrak station – check GoogMaps if you believe not)

    Patrick Murphy (or even Kim G, ghod forbid) will have low bar to clear to be remembered as ‘best governor in decades’ (Of course, Cory Booker had even lower one for ‘best mayor of Newark in living memory’)

    Looks to be a beautiful summer day in the Garden State today, hope is as good a day where you are. May you have no troubles with the firstofthemonth bills, and a marvelous August.

  126. 126.

    SFAW

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Not always, Trump lost money on a casino.

    Well, as far as we know, it failed, but did Lying Littledick really lose money? Given his high ethical standards, one might speculate that he kept three (at least) sets of books, and skimmed what he could while the casino was tanking. It’s also not beyond the realm of possibility that his skimming was the proximate cause of the casino losing money.

    No, I have heard nothing to suggest the preceding actually happened. On the other hand, given his questionable business dealings over the last 30 years, it would be irresponsible not to speculate …

  127. 127.

    SFAW

    @sm*t cl*de:

    Halfway there. Now where’s this puppy you want me to punch?

    I haven’t heard that joke in years. Well, not that exact one — in the one I know, it’s wrestling an eskimo woman. Either way, thanks for the AM chuckle.

  129. 129.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Hungry Joe: The line I keep coming back to is from “Your Racist Friend”: “Can’t shake the devil’s hand and say you’re only kidding.”

  131. 131.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Villago Delenda Est: Combs actually made an Albert and Charles Band movie fun to watch–namely Doctor Mordrid, their cheapo 1992 Dr. Strange adaptation with the serial numbers filed off (apparently because Marvel yanked the rights partway through production). Most of their movies are punishingly boring, but Combs just sells it.

  132. 132.

    Mnemosyne

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Hey, someone else who’s actually seen Dr. Mordrid and liked it!

    Coombs is always great, no matter how bad the movie. He stole The Frighteners right out from under Michael J. Fox’s nose.

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