how are these people going to be able to afford magic beans nowhttps://t.co/k0VywYN77H
— TreasonHat (@Popehat) December 20, 2018
How is The Family Grift going to get its hands on the money that the suckers are sending in to pay for The Wall?
Our lines are open. This is a free call.— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) December 20, 2018
My personal theory, based on sixty-plus years of study, is that a certain percentage of humans have a need for “faith” only a little less strong than the need for food, and possibly a little stronger than the need for sexual gratification.
If these people can’t find a healthier outlet, they are only too happy to follow grifters and charlatans, whether those outlets be quasi-religious (Scientology, Objectivism) or openly dishonest political, like Cosplay Socialism or Donald Trump’s GOP…
The QAnon crew, confronted with yet another misspelling in a Trump tweet, gets to work "decoding" the true meaning of "boarder." pic.twitter.com/dpnt6IYhjQ
— Travis View (@travis_view) December 17, 2018
A former congressional candidate appears to have been posing as JFK Jr. to make money off QAnon believers. https://t.co/VmMC7gyH2p
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) December 14, 2018
it's super-tempting to think these people deserve to be scammed. https://t.co/8vuKKGo5kK
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) December 14, 2018
Villago Delenda Est
These creatures deserve to be enserfed.
In the words of the distinguished efgoldman, fuck ’em.
Jerzy Russian
A fool and his money are soon parted. One wonders how that fool got together with his money in the first place.
JaySinWA
Kickbacks from the venetian blind factory that is making this “slat wall”. Along with the steel factories that will be put back in service. //
NotMax
Madame Blavatsky was a piker.
Jeffro
Wait…is someone saying that magic beans aren’t really a thing?
Oh crap…
randy khan
At the rate they’re going, the border wall GoFundMe would reach its goal several years from now, and would reach the actual $5 billion that Trump wants in a couple of decades.
Bless their hearts.
JaySinWA
@Jeffro: Crap is what beans are magic for.
Hungry Joe
“It is immoral to allow a sucker to keep his money.” — Canada Bill Jones
Ivan X
@Anne Laurie: I feel as though you are sometimes not given as much recognition as some here, but let me say that your posts are the ones I consistently look forward to, and that your writing, however spare, between whatever inanities you bring into the light, is *efficient*, and I mean that in the best way, as a verbose person who admires getting it done with less. However trite it is to say, don’t ever change.
Platonailedit
Exactly.
HinTN
@randy khan:
Indeed
Platonailedit
@randy khan: What will be the cap it can reach? 2 mil? 5 mil? Glad that wwc folks are keeping that grifter in luxury, less money to spend on elections.
Mike J
I wish I owned that sucker list.
Platonailedit
If the brits are going to handle brexit no deal like they are doing now with the Gatwick drone problem, they are truly fugged.
Kelly
Looking at the overall situation the anxiety that’s been crushing me since November 2016 is entirely justified. It really is all going to hell. Somewhat oddly, I feel better about myself.
sukabi
@Platonailedit: maybe Mattis walked in on Drumpf taking a call from Putin and heard one too many “Da, yes sir”s is what tipped him.
JaySinWA
@Platonailedit: Last I looked they were over 10 million. Suckers born every second these days. Perhaps it will slow down as the founder is exposed as apparently known scammer. You can monitor the progress here https://www.gofundme.com/thetrumpwall
ljt
@Ivan X: second
JaySinWA
@Kelly: John, is that you? // Sorry, couldn’t resist. I think a lot of us have been anxious. Hang in there.
JaySinWA
@JaySinWA: Crap, he is getting straight up coverage on the major networks without reference to his scammy past. The one positive thing might be that the publicity means he won’t get to skim or steal the money outright.
Kelly
@JaySinWA: @JaySinWA: The next 2 years are gonna be a wild, wild ride. I’m somewhat optimistic the mud will stick to enough R’s to weaken the R party for a generation. Kinda like the idea of a promising young asshole like Cotton getting appoint Sec Defense then being drug down into the flames by Trump.
JaySinWA
@JaySinWA: At least NBC news is on the case with the fund raiser’s history. https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1075909276814725120
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/founder-viral-fundraiser-trump-s-border-wall-has-fake-news-n950636
NotMax
@JaySinWA
Actually, as the purported funneling of the fundraising is impossible under current law, the whole thing ought to be shut down by the GoFundMe site. Would they permit their name to be used for fundraising to build a perpetual motion machine?
tobie
@Ivan X: Ditto! Always love your posts, AL.
Duane
@Jeffro: In America magic beans you.
NotMax
@tobie
Liked them much more before they became a Twitter repository. YMMV.
Adam L Silverman
@Platonailedit:
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: I’ll sell it to you for only $999.95.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Kelly:
Tom “Bobble-throated-Slapdick” Cotton, like Huckleberry Graham, has long had a hard-on for war with Iran. Off the toppa my melon, the only person more wrecklessly dangerous that Trump might name would be his NatSec Advisor, John “Moustache-of-Misunderstanding” Bolton. Careful what you wish for.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Cue Mike the TV.
:)
Adam L Silverman
@poleaxedbyboatwork: It won’t be Bolton. Bolton can’t get through a Senate confirmation. That’s why all of his political appointment jobs have either been for positions that don’t require them, like his current one, or have been recess appointments.
Frankensteinbeck
This is the essence of the ‘crazy person board of pictures connected by strings’ trope. It is the basis of the Sovereign Citizen movement and why they call themselves that. It’s the thought process of conspiracy theorists. They cannot grasp or accept coincidence. Once you’re at that stage, the odd little things that stand out become more important than the overall message. It MUST mean something that ‘citizen’ is capitalized in one part of the document and not the other. Follow that logic, and you leap straight into Cloud Cuckoo Land.
@Platonailedit:
Maybe the wrong question, exactly because of the metaphor they used. The point of the ‘straw’ that broke the camel’s back is that the ‘final straw’, the last thing that makes a person snap, can be tiny. It’s the whole pile that finally got too big.
NotMax
@poleaxedbyboatwork
Dana Rohrabacher? Erik Prince? Gen. Jerry Boykin?
(shudder)
James E Powell
Agreed. We see it in the people who join multi-level marketing schemes. For some, it’s like a substitute for sexual gratification, like gambling or drugs. A friend’s wife bankrupted their family by joining one scheme after another until all the money was gone. A couple of time I went with them to the presentations. I’d point out the obvious flaws, the transparent bullshit, and the improbability of success. I was rebuked and derided for my lack of faith. No amount of reasoning or begging could dissuade her.
Gravenstone
@Adam L Silverman: Who knew that Centauris walked among us?
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Of those three, Prince would be the most likely potential. But I don’t think he can get confirmed because he’s currently in business with/backed by the PRC government. And that’s got him squarely in the sights of the Special Counsel’s Office. Also, I don’t think Prince is willing to take the pay cut and he definitely is unwilling to work within the rules.
John Revolta
“I recall what my dear Poppa said to me, just before they sprung the trap; he said ‘Son, you can’t cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump.’“
Duane
@Major Major Major Major: For $19.95 a month I provide monthly sucker list updates, and includes my newsletter. Call 1-800-BIG-DUMB
NotMax
@Adam L Silverman:
Brownback? Liz Cheney?
(One could go on all night with this.)
Freddie Kreuger?
Mary G
@Ivan X: Concur.
jl
If you send cash, Wall will come.
Platonailedit
@Adam L Silverman:
Jeebus. Why? How?
Platonailedit
@Ivan X:
My list of favs
1. AL
2. BC
3. AS
4. …..
Kelly
@poleaxedbyboatwork: Everything Trump touches dies. There for we must bind all evil to him.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: What is it with you and mucking up the reply button tonight?
jl
IN Wall we trust.
Edit: Wall is already undergoing some magic mystical occultation, being already here and saving the country for hordes of alien beings, and yet to come, needed for our salvation.
Wall will become a religion, and Trump the prophet, soon.
Adam L Silverman
@Platonailedit: Because he sucks up to the President. And because he and his sister and brother in law own most of the Vice President.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Adam L Silverman:
Fair enough. Prolly not. Will only say strange things just keep on a-happening in the Trump saga. DeVos got confirmed. Pruitt. Price. Zinke. Carson. Et al. All persons who were singlemindedly devoted to dismantling the work of the instituions they swore to protect than serving the public interest. (With a little grifting throwed in just for lagniappe.)
Chief example: It seems an eternity ago that virtually no one thought Trump would “win”. Until he “did”.
How’s that Lily Tomlin quote go again?
Platonailedit
What is over/under that this coward will haul his sorry lil ass back to DC to vote one last time for the vile scum’s agenda?
NotMax
@jl
All those slats, and no Abbie.
;)
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
SHIFT key being recalcitrant of late. New keyboard* due to arrive next week. Thanks for the fix.
*Excited, as it’s mechanical, low profile and highly recommended by people whose opinions on these things I value..
Yutsano
@ljt: Thirdeded.
jl
I think Trump’s family has Presbyterian roots, so He might go with an English Protestant version of the doxology. Won’t be Presby though, that takes way too much organization and Rule of Law crap than Trump will put up with.
” As Wall was in the beginning, Wall’s now and ever shall be, Wall without end. Amen.”
Mary G
Another scary quote in David Graham’s article in the Atlantic:
frosty
@Ivan X:
I agree. You read twitter so I don’t have to! And you come up with some great ones that I have to show my friends.
Amir Khalid
A propos of nothing, a YouTuber shows how to make a giant Snickers bar. Caution: the giant bar contains about 2kg (4 1/2lb) of ingredients, so it’s probably not meant to be consumed by one person unless they’re really hungry.
NotMax
Weird little movie running in background (found on Amazon Prime), Once in a New Moon, about an insular little English village suddenly wrenched into outer space and an orbit around the Earth.. Made in, believe it or not, 1934.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Kelly:
We are of one accord re: your initial statement.
But: Proactively mitigating harm rather than passively abiding it is the crux of the biscuit where it seems we part ways. There’sa purty big difference betwixt saying “we must bind all evil to him” [Trump], and saying “I want Cotton just cuz it’ll take the shine offa Cotton’s bobble-throated Adam’s apple — even tho/if Cotton might do more damage than just about anyone I can think of”.
One statement sez Trump is accountable. And he is. The other sentiment sez “I’m rooting for injuries, even if it means burn-it-all-down injuries for everyone.”
To each his own, but for my part, my sense of teh contradictions ain’t in that dire a need of bein heightened.
Mike in NC
@Mary G: Yup. Putin will try to take at least half of Ukraine within the next six months. Little Rocket Man will taunt the Dotard to where there is another near-war crisis. 2019 will be a bumpy ride until Mango Mussolini is gone.
joel hanes
If the Yippies could levitate the Pentagon, it must certainly be possible to wall the White House.
And probably a lot less expensive than a wall across the endless miles of the USA/EUM border.
Adam L Silverman
@poleaxedbyboatwork: They got confirmed a long time back. A lot has happened since then. And they were the best that the administration could come up with. The replacements now aren’t even close to that.
Adam L Silverman
@Platonailedit: He won’t. He said as much on a walk by interview on MSNBC. If just one other Republican senator doesn’t return, then McConnell doesn’t have a majority.
mrmoshpotato
Damn! That is quite the grift. I can’t imagine being so racist that you not only can’t admit being had (Who’s going to pay for the wall? MEXICO!) but you’ll fork over money to an OBVIOUS scam.
I’m thinking GoFundMe will be adding a ‘Racist As Fuck fundraisers not allowed’ clause in the near future.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
In tonight’s production, the part of the Apparent Mugwump will (once again) be played by Susan Collins.
;)
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: I thought it was that channel. Good, fairly simple recipes too and a decent amount of English subtitles.
Platonailedit
@Adam L Silverman: Corker’s ‘words’ mean jacksquat. If he hasn’t skipped out on even one vote so far, then the form says he won’t now either.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: The question is whether Flake has gone home and decided to just stay there. He, like Corker, is retiring. So they thought they’d taken their last votes on Wednesday. The other question is when Kyl’s resignation is effective. If he’s already resigned and gone home, thinking he too cast his last vote, then that’s even one less vote. If those three have gone home and don’t come back. McConnell has less than 50 votes.
Adam L Silverman
@Platonailedit: If he’s already on his way home and he’s not coming back, then he’s already on his way home and he’s not coming back.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: Was also involved in trying to setup a meeting in the Seychelles for a trump / putin back channel…
smike
@jl:
I think “wall” suits trump (and others fall merrily in line) because that is the way toddlers always demand things:
“Ice cream!”
No, son, you don’t need any ice cream.
“Ice cream!” “Ice cream!” “Ice cream!” “Ice cream!” “Ice cream!”
“Wall!” “Wall!” “Wall!” “Wall!” “Wall!” “Wall!”
Eric S.
@Major Major Major Major: That’s a bargain! At least my distant past at a Circuit City tells me that any item priced at n.95 is a clearance item.
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: Another crack in the wall for Yertle: Heller. If Dean says “fuck it all I’m out” there is exactly jack and shit Turtle Man can do about it. He may have increased his majority but the pieces got a shuffle.
NotMax
@Adam L Silverman:
Recall reading in passing of one R member of Congress on sick leave until the end of the session, but cannot remember if a House or Senate member.
NotMax
@NotMax
Whoops, I dood it again.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: That’s part of the sucking up to the President bit.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: You’re killing me. I’m fixing that, then I’m going to bed.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Senator from Mississippi. He resigned, the governor appointed that dumb as a rock neo-Confederate racist woman who just beat Espy to serve out the rest of the term.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: should also be “being in Mueller’s crosshairs”.
jl
Will be somewhat minor historic Senate session tomorrow, when the course of Trump’s idiotic Wall shutdown hinges on whether the Senate has shut itself down because the GOP members have decided to not do their damn jobs.
Whether in the big scheme of things that is a good thing or a bad thing is above my pay grade.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@NotMax: The short list for the Pentagon: Gary Busey, LaToya Jackson, Bobby Knight, Geraldo, Beetlejuice, and Susan Sarandon.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Yutsano:
Couldn’t happen to a nicer asshole. Unfortunately, the rest of us have to suffer at the same time because the GOP is such a shitshow.
prostratedragon
@jl: “Glory be to me, and a bit for my sons, and for Ivanka. [etc]”
M. Bouffant
@Ivan X: Anne’s good work in the Twitter fields alone is worthy of commendation & appreciation.
Kayla Rudbek
@Mary G: yeah, I woke up about half an hour ago with a nightmare that a missile was coming into my office window. If the Pentagon is nuked, my building is probably going down as well.
Batocchio
The “boarder” thing is just amazing. Trump misspells all the time. The idea that it was some code… wow.