Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

People are complicated. Love is not.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

This blog will pay for itself.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

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

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Gun-Humpers Open Thread: Oh, Yay, Another 80s Retread!

Gun-Humpers Open Thread: Oh, Yay, Another 80s Retread!

by | 110 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

Just in time for the Oval Office Occupancy’s big anti-Iran push!

Reader Interactions

110Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    The immunity deal North was given accidentally resulted in a later case against him being dismissed.

    As a result, Mueller and company will never give people close to Trump immunity in exchange for testimony.

    I thought that’s what Flynn got. I must have gotten mixed up with all the scandals going on.

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    Chuck Robb for the ultra burn! [as my kid would say.]

    Never let Ollie forget he’s a traitor.

  3. 3.

    Roger Moore

    Was Oliver North the Patient Zero for nominating disasters costing the GOP Senate seats they ought to have been able to win?

    I thought that was David Duke.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    @germy: Does Flynn have immunity? I thought he was getting a sweetheart deal on one minor charge but was still facing some kind of punishment.

  7. 7.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    I thought that’s what Flynn got.

    North was given limited immunity in exchange for his Congressional testimony, and that wound up hurting the prosecution when he was charged for some of those same acts. Flynn got a plea deal in exchange for ratting out his co-conspirators. Not at all the same thing.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    Vaguely surprised that Trump didn’t pick him for some sort of deputy National Security Adviser type position.

  9. 9.

    schrodingers_cat

    When you live in the past you forgo your future. When they said they wanted to take their country back they meant in time. Unfortunately t is always greater than zero, you cannot back.

  10. 10.

    Patricia Kayden

    The NRA should have went with George Zimmerman. He’s probably responsible for less deaths than Ollie. /s

  11. 11.

    efgoldman

    @trollhattan:

    Never let Ollie forget he’s a traitor.

    And a convicted felon who got off on technicality. At the time, RWNJs called that “coddling criminals”

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    I like the phrasing that LG&M went with:

    “RUSSIAN-BACKED TERROR GROUP SELECTS NOTED INTERNATIONAL ARMS SMUGGLER AS ITS NEW PRESIDENT.”

    I think I’d change ‘PRESIDENT’ to ‘LEADER’, but otherwise perfect.

  14. 14.

    Mary G

    Wow. Chuck Robb needs to come out of retirement and coach every Democrat running for office this year. What a barn burner.

  17. 17.

    Yarrow

    @Mary G: I was thinking the same thing. We need more Democrats who can talk like that about their opponents.

  19. 19.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev:

    I think I’d change ‘PRESIDENT’ to ‘LEADER’, but otherwise perfect.

    It wouldn’t be accurate, though. The president of the NRA is a figurehead. Wayne LaPierre will remain the effective leader of the NRA.

  22. 22.

    Humdog

    It really is like The Emperor’s New Clothes. Shitstain’s strutting around naked has ‘worked’ for him, so now everyone on that side is letting it all dangle about, daring us to notice their brazen offenses. Gaslighting hundreds of millions in plain sight. It can make me really shaky feeling.

  23. 23.

    Ruckus

    It’s reassuring to know that my prejudice against the NRA is in fact a rational one.
    IOW they really are an crime organization masquerading as an activities membership organization.

  26. 26.

    MomSense

    I think I’ve watched Childish Gambino’s This is America a dozen times. I notice something new every time. It’s a tour de force.

  27. 27.

    randy khan

    @Mary G:

    The funny thing is that Robb usually was a pretty lackluster campaigner. Everyone agreed that the real spark plug in the family was his wife. (Who was, you might say, to the manor born given who her father was.)

  29. 29.

    ruemara

    If we’re gonna do 80’s, I demand my rent go back to 80’s levels. Granted, I was a child, but, I’d be happy with 90’s level rents. & Housing prices. I cannot stand these people. We have to consider if our punishments for high crimes & misdemeanors are severe enough. If the same motherfuckers keep showing up in the news 5, 10, 30 years after they commit astounding crimes – then we we need to step it up.

  31. 31.

    Mike in NC

    Ollie North has been collecting wingnut welfare since the late 1980s. Talk radio, book endorsements, speeches, etc. At one time he might have claimed to be Born Again just for the cachet. During the Iran-Contra hearings somebody noted that he once ran around naked waving a pistol. The perfect face of the NRA.

  34. 34.

    Droppy

    Hey, come on, Oliver North is A Great American. You just have to redefine “American.” And “Great.” Well, and “A” too. But otherwise, come on.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    Iran-contra was wild. Just a crazy story. It’s wildly underrated in the annals of Right wing nuttiness, IMO.

    I’ll never forget how puffed up North was. He was all offended ego and HUGE self-regard. Oh, his little face! So pained. So feeling sorry for himself at the hearing. The whole thing was just appalling but it was treated like it was “noble” when almost everyone involved was lying and continued to lie for years. To the American pee-pul! Lied right to our faces, over and over and over.

    It’s perfect in a way. This is the perfect capstone to a career that never should have gotten off the ground. He should have been identified and sidelined early, as just too full of himself to even be considered for a promotion.

  39. 39.

    Jay

    @ruemara:

    Most of these people never faced charges. That old “spirit of bipartizanship” or claims of “scandal fatigue” ensured that the rot was never rooted out.

  40. 40.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Ollie’s outrage surpassed Gordon Liddy’s outrage, which I hadn’t thought was possible.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    @Mike in NC:

    He has. It’s nuts that one can have an entire career as a Right wing grifter. And it’s WILDLY profitable.

    There’s nothing comparable on the Left. There are grifters, sure, but they’re scrapping over crumbs on cable. There are HUNDREDS of Right wingers who do nothing BUT this stuff. They could fill a convention hall and probably do. They could just go to one another’s speeches for 3 days.

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: Doubtful. Until she ages out of being the ideal spokeswoman. Then they’ll find someone younger and more attractive to do it.

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    I didn’t know that Oliver North was still alive.

    So, the NRA drag him out of the dustbin of history so that he can give old gun fetishists a stiffy. Pathetic.

  45. 45.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:
    Well the obvious answer would be that their guy is far richer and far less squeaky clean than he lets on, with a real possibility of some shady dealings that he’d not like to be in public. Like that maybe they file as married……..
    The other reason is the same as for every other messiah ever, one doesn’t question the messiah for if one was that smart and all knowing, they would be the messiah.

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @rikyrah:

    Why are Wilmerites so afraid of the demand for the release of tax returns?

    The moment it turns out that he did anything wrong, they have to admit to themselves that their trust in him was misplaced. Unfortunately, they have so much invested in their Bernie worship that they aren’t willing to accept that. It’s what happens when you treat politicians as idols rather than human beings.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    Oh, God it was worse. He was offended. “Mad” is fine. It’s the fucking pouting that gets me. They can’t just be happy crooks and grab and go. They have to be given R E S P E C T. They have to LECTURE us in the midst of their lawbreaking.

    Insufferable. An unbearable person. He’s the perfect fit for this rotten, corrupt organization he now heads. I hope they give him a million dollars a month. That mean less for whatever sleaze they’re up to with Russia and whatever election interference they’re planning. If this thing ever gets competently investigated and prosecuted the NRA will be in it up to their eyeballs.

  48. 48.

    Sab

    Completely OT, but WTF is wrong with NPR? I was driving around listening to drivel on NPR today when they started babbling about the Bhutanese Happiness Index because supposedly they are the happiest people in the world. Then they interviewed some Bhutanese druggie who used drugs because he had been so bored.

    WTF! There are about 3000 ( old number , possibly many more) Bhutanese who are currently refugees a couple of miles from me in my city because they fled Bhutan’s ethnic cleansing. They are here and not in Asia because they were afraid for their lives.

    Are there no adults working at NPR these days. How did this story even get on the air?

    I am supposed to be sending my check off to these people for annual pledge, but WTF!

  49. 49.

    germy

    Fun fact: The White House trumpets “Talking with Kids about Being Online" as "a booklet by First Lady Melania Trump and the Federal Trade Commission." Except for an intro, it's exactly the same thing Obama's FTC put out. pic.twitter.com/AEf6F0gBbt— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) May 7, 2018

  50. 50.

    ruemara

    @rikyrah: Because most of the loud & proud current wilmerites on social media are also trolls, & know how compromised Brother Feet O’Clay Sanders is.

    @Jay: My point.

  53. 53.

    Mary G

    Uh, hope Yashar is wrong:

    I'm told there is a significant story coming out about a longtime Trump foe that will no doubt delight the President. It could easily have an impact on legal matters, but it will definitely dominate the news cycle. Story could be out as soon as tonight.— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) May 7, 2018

  54. 54.

    Jay

    @Kay:

    When I noticed this trend in the ’80’s, well, I’m still kicking myself for not setting up a Grifter PAC. You don’t have to actually spend any money on Politics, you can just use it for salaries, expenses, travel, fundraising. By the early ‘aughts, you could do 98% of this online. Rooking the Gullabillies will only be profitable for a few more decades as the Faux crowd die off.

  56. 56.

    Barbara

    @Roger Moore: North was given “use” immunity by Congress but the prosecutor was unable to prove that it had not learned material facts from his testimony in front of Congress that were later relied on for his prosecution. Congress was warned not to do it but ignored the warnings.

    When North ran for the Senate, then Senator John Warner was so outraged that a man who perjured himself in front of Congress might be joining him that he persuaded another candidate, Marshall Coleman, to run as an independent. The vote was Robb-45, North-42 and Coleman-12. Even so, Robb won by fewer than 60,000 votes. So if Republicans had nominated a non-convicted liar, most likely they would have flipped the seat.

    ETA: In 2000, George Allen pretty convincingly defeated Chuck Robb, whose image of being a man of integrity took a serious beating based on “retreats” involving beauty queens and blow jobs. In 2006, Jim Webb beat Allen by 8,000 votes.

  62. 62.

    Elizabelle

    @Barbara: All true. I became a real John Warner fan after the Oliver North episode.

    And, happily, (and as you know!) Virginia has two Democratic US senators today; Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (*sob*, who actually should be VP right now).

  63. 63.

    ruemara

    @Mary G: If we’re dumb enough to ignore the crimes of the POTUS & his administration because one of his foes have crimes, then it’s well deserved, the destruction of this country. No need to pollute the gene pool & culture with us any more.

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    @ruemara:

    If we’re gonna do 80’s, I demand my rent go back to 80’s levels.

    Watching Stranger Things is the closest I want to get to going back to the 1980s.

  67. 67.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jay:

    You realize that we can all use the scroll button, right?

    That old “spirit of bipartizanship” or claims of “scandal fatigue” ensured that the rot was never rooted out.

    Please explain how I misrepresented your comment.

  68. 68.

    Corner Stone

    @Mary G: I am confused as to what this is even supposed to mean? If it’s a Trump foe and s/he did something unspeakable….yes, and?
    You can’t label Rosenstein, Sessions, Wray or Mueller as “long time foe”. So who cares?

  71. 71.

    Mary G

    @germy: Based on no facts whatsoever, my mind went to Rosie and felt hopeful because she isn’t a political enemy, then I felt ashamed. Sorry, Rosie.

  72. 72.

    Weaselone

    @Mnemosyne:
    It would have to be someone that would grab the attention of the press. Hillary, Obama, Comey, Brennan, etc. Wonder if it will be kayfabe.

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    @ Mary G: the scoop: Melania’s throwing in the towel and fleeing without her prenup (which she’s decided is not worth sticking around for the paper it’s written on, given the defenestration the Donald is about to suffer).

    Although, secretly, she is turning state’s witness, too. It’s part of her “better physical and mental health” initiative.

  77. 77.

    Jay

    @Mnemosyne:

    See any mention of Democrats?

    Funny thing, you would think that illegal arms sales and cocaine distribution would also violate some kind of State Laws.

    Keep up the trolling though.

  81. 81.

    Mary G

    And, it’s Schneiderman. New Yorker, Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow, so probably credible:

    Now Schneiderman is facing a reckoning of his own. As his prominence as a voice against sexual misconduct has risen, so, too, has the distress of four women with whom he has had romantic relationships or encounters. They accuse Schneiderman of having subjected them to nonconsensual physical violence. All have been reluctant to speak out, fearing reprisal. But two of the women, Michelle Manning Barish and Tanya Selvaratnam, have talked to The New Yorker on the record, because they feel that doing so could protect other women. They allege that he repeatedly hit them, often after drinking, frequently in bed and never with their consent. Manning Barish and Selvaratnam categorize the abuse he inflicted on them as “assault.” They did not report their allegations to the police at the time, but both say that they eventually sought medical attention after having been slapped hard across the ear and face, and also choked. Selvaratnam says that Schneiderman warned her he could have her followed and her phones tapped, and both say that he threatened to kill them if they broke up with him. (Schneiderman’s spokesperson said that he “never made any of these threats.”)

    A third former romantic partner of Schneiderman’s told Manning Barish and Selvaratnam that he also repeatedly subjected her to nonconsensual physical violence, but she told them that she is too frightened of him to come forward. (The New Yorker has independently vetted the accounts that they gave of her allegations.) A fourth woman, an attorney who has held prominent positions in the New York legal community, says that Schneiderman made an advance toward her; when she rebuffed him, he slapped her across the face with such force that it left a mark that lingered the next day. She recalls screaming in surprise and pain, and beginning to cry, and says that she felt frightened. She has asked to remain unidentified, but shared a photograph of the injury with The New Yorker.

    Not good. That is an extremely shiny object.

  88. 88.

    Elizabelle

    Well, that’s a shame, but it’s not like Schneiderman is the only person in his office with full knowledge of what they’re working on.

    Trump can crow all he wants (and he will), but he is still in for a major hurting. Tick tock, as Yarrow will say.

  90. 90.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jay:

    See any mention of Democrats?

    You do understand the definition of that word you keep slinging around, yes? Or did you think that “bipartisanship” meant the Republicans and Libertarians working together?

    Funny thing, you would think that illegal arms sales and cocaine distribution would also violate some kind of State Laws.

    Which US state has jurisdiction to prosecute illegal arms sales in Nicaragua? South Dakota?

    You may be surprised to hear that illegal drug sales across state lines are actually governed by federal law. You may want to watch a few episodes of “Law & Order” to brush up on this stuff.

  93. 93.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Yes! We see how well Comey getting fired worked out; we got Mueller. Can Cuomo appoint Preet Bhahra??

  94. 94.

    Mary G

    @Baud: I hate to say it, but I am taking money out of savings for home repairs, and I’ve decided to take some extra and send it to Emily’s list. We need to get more women in politics, because this isn’t a red/blue thing; it’s that men have too much power and can be very hormonal with it.

  95. 95.

    trollhattan

    @Mary G:
    Doesn’t this mean Trump now has to admire him?

    Schneiderman, Schneiderman, does whatever a Schneider can….

  97. 97.

    CarolDuhart2

    Is AG appointed or elected? In any event, things have progressed far enough that a substitute can continue the work. Why character counts, it won’t really effect the validity of the evidence or the facts of the case.

  99. 99.

    Elizabelle

    And we have a new thread about Mr. Schneiderman.

    ETA: There’s an echo in here.

  100. 100.

    CarolDuhart2

    Yes, another 80’s retread. Way to reach out to the Parkland generation that grew up with active shooter drills. If anything, he’ll probably double down on the paranoid rhetoric with a bit of military, “we must keep our guns to prepare for war” on the side.

  107. 107.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Sab: I turned them off after Bush v Gore. Still some good oneoffs but the whole thing has lost its way. In my dreams Cokie Roberts and Robert Siegel go into Thunderdome, and Audie Cornish walks out alive and unharmed.

Comments are closed.