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Well the bar rooms and smelly bordellos

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Some very strange stuff went on at last night’s Roy Moore rally. Here’s one of his friends talking about a visit they made to a Vietnamese brothel where there were lots of underage girls. The fact that Moore left without sampling the wares is supposed to prove he’s not a pedophile.

Here’s Roy Moore’s wife talking about how one of her attorneys is a Jew. It looks like some Amy Schumer skit gone horribly wrong.

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    Joey Maloney

    I expect some very strange things will be going on during the ballot count to match.

    An Alabama lawyer went to court and got an order requiring the AL Secretary of State to preserve digital images of every ballot cast, to allow for a manual recount and for general transparency.

    Then late last night,

    BREAKING: We just got a call from attorneys John Brakey and Chris Sautter from #Alabama. The State Supreme Court, without a hearing, but on the pure "ex-parte" (i.e. private) complaint of the State, "stayed" — that is, OVERTURNED THIS MORNING’S RULING TO PRESERVE ALL BALLOTS! https://t.co/lZevAjpXhH— Greg Palast (@Greg_Palast) December 12, 2017

  2. 2.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    At Jones’ rally last night, Charles Barkley noted that if you submitted an accurate summary of the run-up to this election as a screenplay, it would immediately be thrown into the trash.

    Obligatory reiteration that a Moore victory (or at least a blowout) would be unambiguous proof that Alabama Republicans are beyond saving.

  3. 3.

    Jerzy Russian

    Maybe it is just me, but if I were on stage talking about my friend who has been accused of improper and illegal activities involving minors, I would to mention visits to brothels, nor would I mention that said brothels involve underage girls.

  4. 4.

    Waldo

    I understand it’s a badge of honor for some guys to say they’ve never paid for it. Just didn’t know “it” included sex with underage girls. Way to go, Roy. Even predators have pride.

  5. 5.

    mike in dc

    @Jerzy Russian:
    Yeah, considering that Moore’s alleged stalking of teenage girls took place after he returned from overseas, I think most people have a different takeaway than this guy.

  6. 6.

    Nicole

    @Joey Maloney: Ugh. I mean, I know elections have been stolen since humans started having elections, but it’s still frustrating. For that matter, I don’t understand why anyone would let states get away with not having paper ballots. Oh wait, yes I do. See above. But shame on voters for not burning shit down over a state not having paper ballots as a record.

  9. 9.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    The very fact that Moore is using this story to defend himself tells me everything I need to know.

  12. 12.

    Another Scott

    I’ve watched the video excerpt twice. I don’t understand his facial expression (the serious expression with the seemingly knitted brow) nor how he could possibly think that telling that story would possibly help Moore’s candidacy. If Moore is so Upright and Moral and all the rest, and that wasn’t a “legitimate” brothel, why didn’t he have that other MP guy arrested, or drag him back to base, or at the very least tell him “you shouldn’t be here, you’re risking punishment, and you need to leave with us”? Aren’t MPs supposed to enforce the UCMJ (and protect the Army from scandal among other things) – isn’t that their function??

    Go DougJ, so that Moore can slink off to his grifting retirement and not pollute DC any more than the Trumpists have already done.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  14. 14.

    Barbara

    Channeling Roman Polanski again: We all know that it takes superhuman virtue to resist fucking little girls.

  15. 15.

    oatler.

    The right wing approach is always “look how bad we’ve gotten because of you leftists! Look what you’re making us do!”

  17. 17.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Jerzy Russian:

    Occurs to me that Moore, as an MP, could have gone to the Provost and had the place declared off limits, if he was so concerned.

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    Adam Silverman has hypothesized from the beginning that Moore honed his predator skills in Vietnam as an MP.

    Nothing from that surreal scene last night has convinced me that Adam is wrong.

  21. 21.

    PIGL

    Singing:

    You ladies of lubricity
    Who dwell in the bordello
    Ha-ha ha-ha ha-ha ha-he
    For I am that kind of fellow.

    (We are not talking about yer maudlin romance here, willy.)

  23. 23.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s Treasury Dept embarrasses itself with one-page ‘analysis’
    12/11/17 12:57 PM—UPDATED 12/11/17 01:55 PM
    By Steve Benen

    …………………………………………………..

    The Treasury Department said Monday that the GOP tax plan currently before Congress would need an assist from other Trump administration priorities to pay for itself.

    Tax cuts alone aren’t enough, Treasury said in a one-page analysis, citing welfare reform and infrastructure spending as additional boosts to the economy.

    The Treasury Department argued this morning that the Republican promise will prove to be true if (a) we assume that the regressive tax breaks supercharge the economy; and (b) policymakers also agree to pass Trump’s non-existent infrastructure plan, Trump’s non-existent welfare reform plan, and wait for Trump’s regulatory reform plan to work wonders.

    In other words, the Trump administration is conceding that Republicans are wrong about one of the core promises of the party’s own tax plan. The Treasury effectively declared this morning, “The tax plan will pay for itself if everyone agrees to pass a bunch of other proposals, which haven’t been written, and which have nothing to do with the tax plan.”

    Second, let’s not skip past that “welfare reform” tidbit too quickly. Trump’s Treasury Department is now saying, in writing, that Republicans can pay for tax breaks for the wealthy, not only by raising taxes on the middle class, but by cutting benefits to the nation’s most vulnerable. The document is describing class warfare at its most depraved – taking money from food-stamp beneficiaries, and giving it to millionaires.

    And third, the entire Treasury Department analysis literally fits on one page. If we exclude the headline, the document isn’t quite 400 words (by comparison, the blog post you’re reading right now is 622 words).

  30. 30.

    No Drought No More

    If Alabama wasn’t so politically backward, I’d suspect both stories were told that because the Moore campaign realizes the outcome will be determined by the content of the two candidates character, and that the judge is therefore fucked.

    Even so, their brag belies their blindness, and sounds all the more preposterous for it: (“Roy refused to fuck kids when he could have fucked the legally”; “Roy and I are friends with a killer of Christ”). The only question now is: just how how spiritually and politically unhealthy are Alabama’s voters?

  33. 33.

    bemused

    That brothel video! Moore supporters cluelessly just keep showing everyone who they are. Dumb as a bag of rocks.

  34. 34.

    rikyrah

    The Underlying Crime in the #TrumpRussia Investigation
    by Martin Longman December 11, 2017

    Carol Lee and Julia Ainsley of NBC News wrote a helpful piece that explains that Robert Mueller is focusing heavily on an obstruction of justice case against the White House, providing a good refresher and timeline.

    Special counsel Robert Mueller is trying to piece together what happened inside the White House over a critical 18-day period that began when senior officials were told that National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was susceptible to blackmail by Russia, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

    The questions about what happened between Jan. 26 and Flynn’s firing on Feb. 13 appear to relate to possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump, say two people familiar with Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling and potential collusion with the Trump campaign.

    I have no problem with the special counsel’s office looking at obstruction charges, but I think it will be a shame if that is all he comes up with that he feels he can bring as evidence of criminal behavior. I think we should be focused first and foremost on the underlying behavior that led to a cover-up.

    To illustrate my point, let’s go back in time a bit.

    On December 1st, 2016, Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn had a meeting at Trump Tower with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. At this meeting, they allegedly discussed a possible easing of U.S. sanctions. Kushner also proposed using Russian diplomatic facilities in the U.S. to set up a secret communications backchannel so that the transition team and the Russians could communicate without U.S. intelligence services overhearing. A couple of other things happened at this meeting that should interest us.

  36. 36.

    The Moar You Know

    My family (both sides) lived in Alabama for almost 200 years. Now I don’t have a single relative anywhere in the state.

    Progress!

  38. 38.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s Victory Was Not Legitimate
    by Martin Longman December 11, 2017

    In my previous piece, I noted that Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time on January 11th that the Russians had been responsible for hacking into Democratic servers and stealing and leaking damaging materials. And that’s true as far as it goes. But he didn’t stick with that story.

    I’d forgive you if have forgotten, but Anthony Scaramucci was briefly Trump’s communications director, even if he never signed the paperwork to get a paycheck or make his position official. Back in July, he went on CNN’s State of the Union and tried to explain why the president keeps lapsing into doubt about the Russians’ culpability.

    On Sunday, Mr. Trump’s new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, repeated the White House position that Mr. Trump remains unconvinced by the evidence Russia was the culprit behind the election hacking. He said that when the subject comes up, Mr. Trump cannot separate the intelligence findings from his emotional sense that the issue is being used to cast doubt on his legitimacy as president.

    “It actually in his mind, what are you guys suggesting?” Mr. Scaramucci said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “You’re going to delegitimize his victory?”

    This is a reminder that we’re dealing with a crazy person. At times, Trump understands his campaign was sending people all over the globe to meet with Russians. He knows that his team met in Trump Tower with Russians who were promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. He knows that his campaign chairman owed a Russian oligarch $15 million dollars and offered to give him private briefings and hoped to be released from some of his debt. He knows that his son-in-law was meeting with Russian intelligence officers and Putin’s representatives and trying to set up back-channels to communicate with them outside of the eye of the American intelligence community. He knows that he promised a relaxation of sanctions, which is why so much Russian help was forthcoming. He knows he’s in deep shit.

    …………………………………

    He wants his victory to be legitimate, but it’s not, and I don’t know why there is this persistent drip-drip-drip of liberal columnists who think their highest calling right now is to lecture other liberals about being too outspoken about it.

    About the only thing Trump is correct about is the fact that his victory won’t be seen as legitimate if it becomes accepted that he colluded with the Russians.

  39. 39.

    Roger Moore

    @rikyrah:
    The key thing, IMO, is that the Republicans have already admitted that their plan won’t pay for itself. You can’t argue on the one hand that the plan will pay for itself and on the other hand that we have to cut social insurance programs to pay for the giant hole it’s made in the budget.

  40. 40.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    That video from the Guardian interview of him praising Putin and then breaking into perfect Russian is even something else again. WTF.

  41. 41.

    Nicole

    @dr. bloor: Yeah, but what about the rest of the nation? Oh, never mind. Same answer, I fear. I grew up in the Alabama section of Pennsylvania, after all. I should know from having seen it.

  42. 42.

    Ben Cisco

    Hearing from plenty of friends and family back home. ALL are posting after having been to the polls. Due to her recent surgery, mom wasn’t able to participate but did cast a vote. Quote: “If it doesn’t work out, next time someone asks where I’m from, my answer is, “I’m with the Jedi!”

    Hoping that the side of good prevails.

  44. 44.

    Aleta

    @Joey Maloney: Incredible. With the paper ballots opponents can get around a requirement to preserve by arguing it takes up too much space, but that argument doesn’t work for digital storage.

    So what argument can they possibly use to overturn the ruling? They’re keeping that private. “The ruling would upset they way we’ve always done it — throwing out the votes we call questionable.” ? “The ruling would allow challenges and recounts, and that would take time and invite protests, chaos, disturb the peace.” ? Or “not enough people to scan the ballots” ? Sure seems like they think they’re entitled to tamper.

  45. 45.

    Nashville fan

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    I am glad I am not the only one who thinks we may be burying the lede with this whole “Roy Moore” situation . . . me thinks that we need to be planning the second American Revolution instead of Senate campaigns . . . sure hope I’m wrong . . . but Russia has been buying up our politicians for years apparently . . . we are figuring this all out waaaaaay too slowly . . .

  49. 49.

    Nashville fan

    @Woodrowfan: Hope that is not supposed to be comforting . . . I learned some Spanish in high school . . . he rolled that off his tongue like he uses it regularly . . . c’mon ‘Merica . . . wake up!

  51. 51.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Nashville fan:

    The problem is though that the country is now controlled by the Russians at the highest levels – a bargain made with them by rich white men and their lackeys so they wouldn’t have to share the country with women and minorities. Peak straight white male christian depravity.

  54. 54.

    Nashville fan

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: There was a time when your comment would have seemed crazy . . . like in 2016 . . . but now . . . there is literally no other explanation. We have been sold to the highest white bidder . . . damn.

  55. 55.

    The Moar You Know

    Mighty white of Mrs. Moore to give a shout-out to her Jew attorney. And I do mean white.

    You guys would not believe the anti-Semitism there. My grandparents made my parents change my little brother’s original middle name as it was “too Jewish”. From “Alan” to “Allen”. I am not kidding, sure wish I was.

  56. 56.

    oldster

    I too am very curious about Moore’s apparent fluency in Russian.

    Could he have learned it in the Army? You’d think if he had been a linguist, he would not have been an MP–they would teach you Russian if they wanted you to do translating or intelligence work or the like.

    But he most likely learned it young–it’s rare for anyone to pick up an accent that good at age 50+.

  59. 59.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @oldster:

    His sycophantic praise of Putin though – that’s the cherry on top of the whole Roy Moore shit sundae. #kompromat

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    I’m still trying to figure out whether Moore knows anything other than “Hi, how are ya?” Being able to say that phrase does not necessarily mean he’s fluent.

    ETA: But I agree with Conster re: his sucking up to Vladi. What IS it with these evil fucks and their idolizing of Putin. (Yeah, I know: would-be authoritarians love the ones who actually are.)

  61. 61.

    oldster

    Huh–I had not realized he went to West Point.

    Okay, so he very well could have taken courses in Russian. That would have been a natural thing for them to train students in, back in the late ’60s.

    And he may have had an ear for the language, but then washed out of the training to be an intelligence officer because he was not very bright (to judge by the anecdotes about his time in law school, collected in the New Yorker article on how he got the nickname “Fruit Salad.”)

    To do intel work, you have to be able to string together coherent thoughts. But linguistic ability is a bit flukier–sometimes language-smarts go with thinking-smarts, and sometimes they don’t.

    Okay, so now I’m betting he had a couple of years of Russian at West Point. What he has done with it more recently, I do not know.

  63. 63.

    MomSense

    @oldster:

    The problem isn’t that he speaks Russian, the problem is that he praised Putin and Russia, said the US spreads a lot of evil in the world, and then sent his message to Putin in Russian.

  66. 66.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @SFAW:

    I can’t even begin to imagine what Vlad’s carnal predilections are. Creeps all have sniffers that attract them all to each other. You have to assume that Moore’s lifetime of sketchy behavior, especially if he spent time overseas, did not go unnoticed.

  67. 67.

    Nashville fan

    @SFAW: Uh huh . . . there are too many Russian coinky dinks . . . out of all the languages in the world and all the leaders in the world . . . the one being agressively pushed by the Nazi Steve Bannon just so happens to remember Russian greetings . . . okay . . . I guess we should all get to work on our Russian in actuality . . . the press is openly and brazenly attacked HOURLY . . . we have already been TOLD that the President is above the law . . . these folks tell brazen lies TO OUR FACE . . . and all of this information was well known BEFORE the election . . . but the top of the news was more Hillary emails on new “devices” . . . which of course is not even possible because email does not change based on the device . . . duh . . . and we have OTHER seemingly low level Republican candidates in places like Iowa who have been team Russia all along in plain site . . . but yeah . . . maybe it is nothing . . . lets just wait for the “investigation” to present its report . . . Trump to ignore it . . . the media to feign surprise . . . and martial law to ensue . . . and then maybe we will get to the bottom of things . . . (Anybody remember those Nazi’s in Charlottesville . . . they have ties to Russia too . . . who could have known)

  68. 68.

    Mary G

    I can’t find the tweet right now, but Julia Ioffe, who should know, says the “speaks Russian fluently” thing isn’t true – he basically says “hello, how are you” with an accent off of Rosetta Stone. Of course, the fact that he chooses to speak it at all is pretty sketchy.

  72. 72.

    SFAW

    @Nashville fan:

    Uh huh . . . there are too many Russian coinky dinks . . . out of all the languages in the world and all the leaders in the world . . . the one being agressively pushed by the Nazi Steve Bannon just so happens to remember Russian greetings . . .

    Jeez, take a breath. The Russian language thing is not the disturbing part — he was asked what he’d say to Putin, thought he’d impress the rubes by speaking “perfect” (so to speak) Russian that he learned at West Point. The disturbing part is the hard-on these mofos get for Putin and his “governing” style.

  74. 74.

    Ben Cisco

    @SFAW: She’s actually doing OK, just not good enough to work the polls on a concrete floor for 10 hours. She made what was for her a difficult call. I’m just glad she’s looking out for her own health and not trying to be a superhero.

  75. 75.

    eric

    @SFAW: except that they are not truly pedophiles. Moore seems to like post-pubescent girl. I would not wager a penny that Vlad does not partake.

  77. 77.

    SFAW

    @Ben Cisco:

    I bet your mom is already a Jedi.

    You’re not wrong.

    Well, if that’s the case, I expect her to get chauffeured around to various voting precincts, saying “Moore’s not the candidate you’re looking for” to whomever is an obvious Moore supporter.

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    @eric:

    except that they are not truly pedophiles.

    Yes, I realize the term is supposed to be something like “ephebophiles,” but (A) pedo gets the point across (“right church, wrong pew”) and (B) most people (including myself, obviously) are unfamiliar with the correct term.

  81. 81.

    NorthLeft12

    The sad part of the above two “testimonials” to the character of Roy Moore is that they will probably be reassuring enough to a large number of voters that want to vote for him anyway.
    “See! I told you he was just an ordinary guy like us! Not a racist bone in his body. Why, even the President said so!”

  82. 82.

    oldster

    Ah, okay–I see that I’m right on the small point and wrong on the more important point.

    He *did* study Russian at West Point.
    But he’s not fluent at all.

    “Asked what he would say to Putin should he meet him, Moore says “hello, how are you” in Russian.
    “I studied Russian at one time,” he says, laughing, “at the United States military academy at West Point. And that’s about all I could say to him.””
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/09/roy-moore-praise-putin-russia-alabama

    I was misled by a report which claimed that what Moore said in Russian was “maybe Putin is right,” which would take more competence to produce on the spot than merely “hello how are you.”

    Okay–now I am much less interested in the language angle.

    The fact that he is praising an antisemitic authoritarian plutocrat who has journalists and dissidents assassinated and has suppressed all political opposition in his country–that still troubles me.

  84. 84.

    rikyrah

    Alabama’s Secretary of State was an election monitor in Russia, where he deemed their election “free and fair” (it wasn’t) and said he’d implement Russian tactics in Alabama https://t.co/6R5j6NAgU3

    — Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) December 12, 2017

    In addition to monitoring elections in Russia and deeming them “free and fair”, Alabama Secretary of State also went on RT in 2015 to discuss American elections pic.twitter.com/yg6cgCNeRe

    — Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) December 12, 2017

    Alabama was one of the 21 states confirmed as a target of Russian election hackers in 2016 https://t.co/8RnbLaeHS4

    — Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) December 12, 2017

  85. 85.

    Nashville fan

    @rikyrah: I’m just saying . . . all the evidence is “hiding” in plain sight . . . but we are focused on “mall bans” . . . important . . . but ultimately just a distraction from the coup that happened on election day 2016.

  86. 86.

    raven

    “Disney-lands” or “boom-boom parlors”) were built by decision of a division commander, a two-star general, and were under the direct operational control of a brigade commander with the rank of colonel. Clearly, Army brothels in Vietnam existed
    by the grace of Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland, the United States
    Embassy in Saigon, and the Pentagon.

  87. 87.

    Emma

    @eric: Technically they are hebophiles — attracted to post-pubescent adolescent girls/boys. The joys of watching Criminal Minds.

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    @Timurid: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned who is called a whore.

    I’ll side with her on this one, but I will not forgive or forget her role as ring leader last week.

  92. 92.

    Amir Khalid

    A thought has occurred to me. Could it be that Bill Sailing’s teenage-bordello story is actually a public shivving of Roy Moore?

  94. 94.

    zhena gogolia

    @MomSense:

    Yeah, what he said in English was much more horrifying than his little RUSS 101 badly pronounced phrase that you learn on the first day.

  102. 102.

    J R in WV

    @No Drought No More:

    “One of our lawyers is a JEW!” is not saying that lawyer is a friend. She’s saying “one of our employees is a Jew…” which is a long way from friendship. Do they go places together? Have pot luck dinner together? etc. Probably not.

    I like the guys who work on our mechanical infrastructure, HVAC, pump, water systems, etc. They do good work, fix stuff the first time. Smart, friendly, competent.

    I pay the bills on time, they’re happy to come back and earn more $$ by fixing our infrastructure. I don’t know if or where any of them go to church/temple/mosque.

  103. 103.

    Vhh

    @oldster: I am a non native but reasonably fluent Russian speaker; I can live and do my job (physicist) in the language. Moore said “Hello, how do you do” with understandable but not what I would consider fluent pronunciation. Essentially the first phrase you learn in any language course. Moreover, that wording is not what one would say on meeting for the first time someone of Putin’s importance—it would be more like “very pleased to make your acquaintance.” I took four years of Russian language, literature and history at MIT, use Russian regularly in my work, and lived in Moscow. While I am sure one can get good Russian instruction in the military, you need real world experience in a language to be fluent. Not sure how one would get that as an MP in Vietnam. Roy Moore is intelligent, better educated (West Point + law school) than Trump, and far less ignorant of the world. This makes his political statements and behavior all the more shocking.

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