Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We still have time to mess this up!

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Cole, when it comes to calico cats, restraint is overrated.

Bark louder, little dog.

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

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Cole is on a roll !

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

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

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

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

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Late-Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Someone Should Tell Sec. Nielsen Where the Word ‘Quisling’ Came From

Late-Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Someone Should Tell Sec. Nielsen Where the Word ‘Quisling’ Came From

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Nielsen’s Norwegian ancestors would second Mr. Rauchway’s rebuttal.

Just red meat for The Base, before the big lie, per the NYTimes:

what was said
“I haven’t seen any evidence that the attempts to interfere in our election infrastructure was to favor a particular political party. I think what we’ve seen on the foreign influence side is they were attempting to intervene and cause chaos on both sides.”
— Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday

the facts
This is misleading.

Ms. Nielsen’s claim contradicts an assessment from the intelligence community and was later reaffirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee — as she knows, since her spokesman had to walk back similar comments she made in May. …

But she had plenty more ‘jests’ for the crowd…

I bow to no one in my lust for delicious pork products, but asking who doesn’t love bacon? right after defending, y’know, NAZIS, seems a little too on-the-nose.

It’s almost as if there were some kind of pattern…

Reader Interactions

60Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    She’s listening in on the Venus line
    She’s picking out names
    I hope none of them are mine

  3. 3.

    The Midnight Lurker

    Neilsen is a disgrace. She’s done nothing to protect our voting systems.

  4. 4.

    The Midnight Lurker

    Bacon. Well, there it is… the stupidest thing I’ve heard in… wait, the President* is speaking now.

  5. 5.

    The Midnight Lurker

    It’s creepy being here all alone. Kinda like Mike Pence. Did you ever notice, we seldom talk about ol’ Mike. He’s the invisible man.

  6. 6.

    jl

    If we have a future history, Nielson is one of the names that will likely acquire an historical meaning. A top candidate. Along with Quisling.
    But I admit, there are a lot of good candidates.

  7. 7.

    jl

    @The Midnight Lurker: The BJ commentariat periodically leaves comments explaining why he is in on the dirt. I’ve posted links to Indiana reporters who say his MO in the Trump administration is exactly the same as in Indiana: get in on the grift at the earliest opportunity, lie his ass off, and pretend he is too stupid to know what is going on.

    But, he’s running silent and deep, so not much news on him.

  8. 8.

    The Midnight Lurker

    I can’t shake the feeling that Trump is just the giant side shitshow. That something darker is underneath all this, and we’re missing it. I keep looking at the board from Putin’s side as well as the GOP, trying to figure their next moves. I’m stumped.

  9. 9.

    The Midnight Lurker

    I’m an amateur magician. I do tricks for the kids/grandkids/friends. Played a few nightclubs — just for the experience.
    There’s a theory in magic – misdirection. Everybody has heard about it, but to actually watch other magicians put it into practice is a thing of beauty.
    “Misdirection” rings in my head like a great gong every time I see Trump.

  10. 10.

    jl

    @The Midnight Lurker: Next move is more tax cuts for rich people, and more gutting social insurance. The GOP is just deciding whether to it before or after the election.

    The darker side I can think of is long run consequences of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the SCOTUS for voting rights. That’s why everyone should vote now and 2020 while you still have a chance. And if the dirt is bad enough on the process of getting those two skunks on the court, elect a Congress that will remove them.

    I think they should be removed anyway. I read about a Gorsuch decision where he ignored the definition of a word that was written into the law itself for the purposes of proper interpretation of the law, and went riffling through effing English dictionaries until he found one what worked for his argument. It’s totally corrupt and I think that is enough to impeach a justice.

    The Constitution is not a suicide pact, and we are getting to the point where corrupt reactionary frauds can write 1 + 1 = -5 and no one says anything. That is dangerous. They all need to go, Roberts too.

  11. 11.

    The Midnight Lurker

    Putin is an aggressive chess player. Burns though a lot of pieces to get to his objective. He has a particular disdain for pawns. Does his best to get them all off the board so he can move about more freely.
    He has to get the sanctions lifted. His clock is ticking. What would be your move?

  14. 14.

    The Midnight Lurker

    Humiliating Trump doesn’t get Putin anywhere. It’s like when Trump orders children separated from parents. It’s just cruel. Even at home, it plays well with the nationalists, but not as strongly with the oligarchs. He’s giving them a bad name. It doesn’t achieve a political end that’s… for lack of a better word… copacetic.

  15. 15.

    The Midnight Lurker

    Maybe things in Russia have gotten really bad, but Butina is the lowest rent spy I’ve ever seen. She would have been crushed if the GOP wasn’t so stupid, right?

  16. 16.

    Emerald

    @The Midnight Lurker:
    Yep. They think they’ve already got it rigged. And maybe they have.

    For awhile.

    Mitch McConnell would never even have tried to hold that SCOTUS seat open unless he KNEW the next president would be Republican.

  17. 17.

    The Midnight Lurker

    @Emerald: Oh, “Cocaine” Mitch is up to his carapace in this thing. How far back do you think that goes? And about that “Cocaine” thing… is it true, or was that Blankenship slinging shit?

  19. 19.

    The Midnight Lurker

    @Emerald: Oh, he wouldn’t have done it unless he was certain of the following:
    A. Hillary would loose.
    B. Somebody he would ‘trust’ assured him it was done deal.
    C. He got a huge fucking payout.
    I can’t see how it can’t be the Russians. And I can’t see how he couldn’t have been an active part of the plot.
    Mueller needs to turn Mitch’s life inside out.

  20. 20.

    Citizen Alan

    @Emerald: @Emerald:

    While it was vile and despicable, I don’t think Turtle’s actions re Merrick Garland prove that he knew the fix was in. Garland was considered moderate and more importantly fairly old for a SCOTUS justice. It cost him nothing but having to endure scorn from Democrats to block the nomination knowing that if Hillary won, they could still rush Garland onto the Court and deprive her of the chance to nominate someone who is more liberal and who would be on the court for 40 years. In the end, it was one final example of Obama’s efforts at conciliation being used against him by the enemy.

  23. 23.

    The Midnight Lurker

    @Citizen Alan: Sorry Alan, I think that is being a bit naive. The timing stinks. Now… I’m willing to entertain the idea that Mitch didn’t know it was Putin pulling the stings, I’d listen to that theory.

  25. 25.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    I’m confused by people on the left who think the situation with Russia is a side issue or a distraction. The Trump-Putin alliance is part of the global white supremacist fascist movement

    To be scrupulously fair, so are the people on the “left” who think the situation with Russia is a “distraction” (i.e., Griftwald, etc.).

  26. 26.

    The Midnight Lurker

    @(((CassandraLeo))): What happed to Greenwald? I used to really like his work. And anybody, left or right, who thinks this Putin/Trump thing is “just” a “distraction”, needs to have their head examined.

  27. 27.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    I’ve had a horribly dark thought, and have been fighting with it for a couple of hours. There is no chance in hell that the Russians/Republicans will not mess with the mid-term. The Republicans have been doing this obviously for over a decade(recently), The information on how deeply the Russians have interfered with the most recent election seems to grow by the week. The Republicans just zeroed out any increase to election security in the face of a REALLY FUCKING OBVIOUS threat, and our mantra (which I do think is the best way forward) is register, register other people, And vote in November.

    Here is the problem. The Republican party and the Russians have messed with the election in the past to great success, and they have no reason not to now since the blow back has (so far) been manageable, and have all the reasons in the world to keep both houses of the legislature in the mid-terms so that their house of cards doesn’t fall on themselves and wipe their party from the face of the earth.

    If we get the massive turnout and win to the point where the Republicans can’t even cheat it. That would be AMAZING. I would be so insanely happy I’d go around with a big shit-eating grin on my face for a month. But if we lose, It’s probably all over except for a weaker rear-guard action that has been happening over the past two months. PLUS the 5th Justice, PLUS the knowledge that with the structural advantages that Republicans will continue to build into the system (HELLO census 2020!!!) that the democratic part of the United States has been completely neutered in their favor.

    I had a long and specific conversation with my elderly mother (I’m 45) about laying groundwork to leave the country for New Zealand. I’d prefer Japan or Australia, but It’s completely crazy-pants that WE ARE EVEN HAVING THIS DISCUSSION! I mean I’m white, and a Ph. D engineer so it wouldn’t be too hard (Yay white privilage :\ ), but WHY ARE WE EVEN HAVING THIS DISCUSSION IN THE FREAKING FIRST PLACE!!

    So my horrible dark thought: If Fuckery from the Republicans/Russians is assumed, and Democrats will be blamed for any outcome (If we loose Fox news will blame deep-state interference for not winning more. If we win, it will be STOLEN ELECTION OMG RISE UP morning evening and night. and twice on Sundays). Do we organize and put the vote out like we always have, or realize that rural districts provide a much larger and more effective threat surface based on resources and (effective) votes that densely packed urban areas?

    I don’t know. I really don’t, but the time since the start of Trump it as coarsened and made me more cynical (Guns to a knife fight etc.). Plus that the Russians are pushing for control, but are happy to root for injuries. I just don’t know where to go anymore. That plan would be effective, but it seems like all paths forward lead to darker alleys. Including the high road.

    Whelp, that’s my rant. If the community needs proof of not-a-russian-or-republican-troll, Talk to NotMax. I also live in Albuquerque, so Cheryl could meet with me or a proxy of her choice.

    I’m off to bed, I’ll read replies in the morning.

    Hkedi

  28. 28.

    The Midnight Lurker

    @The Midnight Lurker: And I know it seem like I’m going against my whole “Trump as misdirection” theory, but no. Trump is doing colossal harm to our government, our environment, our international relations (except with Russia), and we’ll be decades repairing the damage. But it’s like there’s another bigger, darker thing… ahh, shit. Maybe it is the global/nazi/facist/white people rule shit. My problem has always been that to pull this off, they’re really, really going to need better white guys.

  29. 29.

    The Midnight Lurker

    @Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: I think your “dark thought” is running around in a whole lot of heads. Yes, I think they’re emboldened too. And I think they’ll stop at nothing to upend our midterms. I’m talking about both Russians and the GOP. Sleep tight. See you in the morning.

  30. 30.

    Ruckus

    @The Midnight Lurker:
    The thing that helps is that they don’t have and can’t find better white guys. They turned the barrel over and are scraping the bottom, you know, the shit and the maggots, not just the scum that’s left after every thing else is gone from the inside.

  32. 32.

    zhena gogolia

    @Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]:

    You don’t sound like a troll at all. I marvel at all the (highly educated) people I see and interact with who are seemingly oblivious to what’s going on. We don’t even talk about it at dinner parties any more, as if it would be impolite.

  33. 33.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @The Midnight Lurker: A few things:

    1. Dunning-Kruger. He’s extremely capable on the one specific issue of (white cis dudes’) civil liberties, and he thinks that makes him an expert on everything else. Unfortunately, he’s too stupid and ignorant to know what he doesn’t know.

    2. He’s always been like this; he was just much better at hiding it at one point. He wrote passionate defences of Ron Paul back when Paul’s white supremacist newsletters first came to light. Various other shit he’s been saying for decades on immigration etc. has always been awful. He evidently frequented right-wing discussion boards in the ’90s and by his own account he claims to have been for the Iraq war before he was against it.

    3. Kompromat and/or blackmail and/or Kremlin payroll. Adam confirmed awhile back that Snowden was compromised years ago, and if Griftwald himself wasn’t already a Russian intelligence asset, they probably blackmailed him with threats to Snowden’s wellbeing, or who else knows what.

    4. Other things? Anyway, at least 1, 2, and probably 3.

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    Bacon?

    Bacon?!?!,/b>

    head/desk
    head/desk
    head/desk
    head/desk
    head/desk
    head/desk

    ad infinitum.

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    @Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    A difference this time around is that people know what to be vigilant about and whence it comes. Operating with the knowledge of concrete evidence, as opposed to supposition, cannot be anything other than a plus.

  38. 38.

    prostratedragon

    Seems to me we should try to do better at getting out the vote. And in many states the urban vote can still carry Senate and statewide races (not to say that rural races should be sacrificed). Here in IL, we have a vandal governor (Rauner) mainly because of low turnout in Chicago, which went overwhelmingly for the Democrat last time. I should check some figures sometime, but I think the Chicago margins of Quinn over Rauner and Clinton over Trump were similar, but the outcomes were opposite.

    (Just scanned the <results at wikipedia for 2016. Hilary won IL easily based on only 5 Chicago metro counties plus Quad Cities, Urbana-Champaign, and a St. Louis metro county. The 2014 gubernatorial election results are not broken down. Maybe I’ll get around to finding some this weekend.)

    On repeated practice: “Vayamos al diablo”

  40. 40.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    I predict Putin’s minions will ostentatiously rig one low-level race for the Democrats—every single vote for dogcatcher in Assnugget Alabammy will be a write-in for Hillary Clinton or something along those lines.

    Then the media will claim the Russians are really trying to help the Democrats—no puppet you’re the puppet—and no Democrat victory can be considered legitimate ever again.

    As an added bonus republicans can launch another Hillary Clinton investigation and every time she’s mentioned on Foxnews the old folks have to change their Depends so it’s a win-win for everybody (the human race excepted)..

    Slightly off topic; someone in the last thread mentioned Yertle the Turtle Mcconnell’s affinity for soap parties and I can’t find any gossip on google—if someone could direct me in the correct direction for dirt-digging I’d be ever so grateful:)

  43. 43.

    Dan B

    @The Midnight Lurker: Trump is the best chaos agent but has never been exemplary at pulling success from the jaws of failure. Quite the opposite. It’s a surprising hypothesis that he’s a pawn in amuch bigger game.

    What’s our contingency plan? To borrow from ALS’s military/gamesmanship knowledge.

  44. 44.

    Dan B

    @The Midnight Lurker: Well put! We’re taken in by magic.

    My beef is liberals are kneecapped by a belief that getting the facts out there is communication. There’s no magic in facts. There’s no energy in policy, unless you’re deep into the weeds. But many communities and groups have tapped into the powerful magic of communication. America’s Civil Rights Movement was wise to the “magic” as were many others. None of them pushed policy or facts. They mobilized masses of “ordinary” people because the magic sauce was emotional connection.

  45. 45.

    Dan B

    @The Midnight Lurker: Precisely! How are they going to mess with and corrupt the mid terms? I’m betting on corrupting/invalidating and throwing it, and us, into chaos.

    At this point what else does Trump and his handlers have?

  46. 46.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: We have got to focus on the bread and butter issues that mean so much to ordinary Americans.

    Americans are not staying up every day worrying about Russia’s interference in our election.

    He literally said that a few hours after Manafort and Gates were indicted.

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    @Dan B

    There’s no magic in facts.

    Magic is transitory, it is ephemeral. There is power in facts. Building on a foundation of facts beats building on a foundation of magic in a walk. As I read it, perhaps you’re conflating communication and messaging; they are two distinct methodologies, which overlap noticeably but not in a majoritarian fashion.

    Positing that the civil rights movement did not “push” policy is bizarre. Confronting, deflating, altering and supplanting established policy with a more evolved policy was the end goal. Movements require time (and, it goes without saying, both effort and setbacks) to coalesce and blossom. Elections by their very nature represent a much more constricted window of opportunity.

  49. 49.

    Joyce Harmon

    @Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: Re your dark thoughts. Here’s something to help counterbalance them. Remember the Women’s March, the day after inauguration? The good guys put a MILLION people in the streets – before Trump had even done anything! If we come out for the midterms but the GOP/KGB jiggers the vote, you think people are going to say ‘oh well, we tried’, and meekly go back to their cubicles? AFTER we’ve seen what Trump does when he gets power? AFTER he kidnapped a couple thousand kids just for gratuitous cruelty, as well as all the other outrages?

    The midterms aren’t our only chance to take back power from the monsters; they’re just our best chance to take back power peacefully. You put that million back in the streets, only this time, instead of chanting and wearing pussy hats, they start pushing on the fence around the White House. Are the Secret Service going to start shooting grandmothers? And if they’re willing to do that, it’s not going to help them; because frankly, we’ve got more people than they have bullets. People are ANGRY, and I think the only reason it hasn’t already gotten violent is because of the prospect of the midterms and also Robert Mueller.

    Russia has gone to the dogs because the people have forgotten their own power, but never forget that the Soviet Union (The SOVIET UNION!) wasn’t toppled by US military might, but by the unarmed citizens of Moscow.

  51. 51.

    NotMaxn

    @Amir Khalid

    Frankly, ya got me. Don’t care for the stuff myself.

    Presenting its absence as a credible rationale for – well, anything – is outlandish, childish and plain insipid. May as well attempt using the Twinkie defense.

  53. 53.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Amir Khalid: Jews don’t eat bacon. She’s, ah, suggesting that the NATO leaders are part of the Global Jewish Conspiracy.

  54. 54.

    Van Buren

    Putin’s next move: 2 weeks before the election, he dumps a fuckton of incriminating stuff on Trump and several other Republicans. It results in a blue wave. He sits back and laughs while the USA goes through years of tearing itself apart.

  55. 55.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Van Buren: sowing division is really a very minor objective for Putin. what he wants is to have the damn financial sanctions lifted so he can he and Exxon can rape the Arctic.

  56. 56.

    Anne Laurie

    @Amir Khalid:

    What’s the deal with bacon?

    Real ‘Mericans — like Homer Simpson, or Dan Connor — uncritically adore pigmeat. It’s an actual trope; you can get tshirts that say things like ‘I’d grow my own food, if only I could find bacon seeds.’

    You know who doesn’t love bacon? ‘Globalists’, aka ‘The Jews’. And… err… Mooslems. You know: the Enemies of Trump’s Heartland Base. Who are, Qanon assures us, going to make bacon illegal once the ‘deep state’ takes charge; banning bacon cheeseburgers is supposed to be one of the signs of the Freedom Apocalypse.

    From a spokesperson for any other administration, I’d have assumed it was just a joke — but Can’t you people take a joke has a whole different meaning in the context of ‘Nazis, some of them, very fine people.’

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