Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Consistently wrong since 2002

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

White supremacy is terrorism.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

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

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Murderous Douchebags Open Thread: A Note on Translation

Murderous Douchebags Open Thread: A Note on Translation

by | 112 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , ,

From a native Russian speaker (who emigrated to America in his teens):

Sounds a lot like a Michael Cohen analog, actually — talk like a made man, act like a cheap shyster offering payoffs funded by a second mortgage.

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  1. 1.

    Surly Duff

    That’s funny.

    When I plugged in “снять” to Google Translate, the first result is “Shoot”

  3. 3.

    MattF

    And the references to ‘painting houses’ are about how the Homeowners Association wouldn’t let him paint his house electric green.

  4. 4.

    mrmoshpotato

    I think my “Soviet shitpile mobster conmen” is perfect for this post.

    “Alexa!  Do all the shitpile mobster crimes!”

  5. 5.

    Martin

    The other information coming around shows John Solomon as much more of a participant in this scheme, with Lutsenko offering to dish dirt on Biden in exchange for Yovanovich being removed as ambassador and Solomon getting the clicks.

  7. 7.

    Kay

    I love how none of these Trump people have actual jobs. They haven’t worked in years. When is the last time Rudy Guiliani had an actual position?
    I don’t think they can be rehabilitated at this point- they’re career criminals and they’re too old to gain any new skills.

  9. 9.

    droog

    @Surly Duff:

    That doesn’t amount to much of an argument.

    What would non-English speakers take home if they ran the US expression “to fire” via Google Translate? Or “terminate”? Or the UK’s “to sack”?

    You can imagine people who speak other languages making the worst, most sinister interpretations of those slang terms. So, likewise, we shouldn’t pay too much attention to Google Translate’s best efforts.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    I don’t take them seriously as any kind of physical threat either, honestly. They’re lazy and coddled and they buy a lot of stupid shit and sit around talking really loud. The only reason they’re of any consequence at all is they latched onto the crook who took the presidency on a fluke.

  12. 12.

    robmassing

    It’s a crazy exchange, providing the circumstances and the characters involved, but I can’t imagine any Russian who would read this word and think murder or kidnapping.

    Ah, but those Russians, they never think murder or kidnapping.

    QED

  13. 13.

    VeniceRiley

    On the other hand, I don’t think you’ll ever see – kill her – in writing. That’s just silly. So, like Trump, they talk around it. Use other words. Imply. Am I seeing that wrong? I don’t think I am. I’m convinced they were trying to hound her out, and, if necessary as a last resort, do it by stopping her ability to draw breath.

  14. 14.

    brettvk

    This is interesting, but it begs the question of whatthehell these guys were up to. Maybe they didn’t actually mean Yovanovich any physical harm for all their big talk, but why even imply that they have her under surveillance? Surely Lutsenko is smart enough to know that if he wanted Yovanovich gone the State Dept was the entity that would remove her. Why would he be impressed with this 3rd-rate spy stuff?

  16. 16.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Couldn’t this have all been veiled talk in Russian? As in euphemisms? “Her time will come” and “remove” her in the context of stalking and monitoring her sure sounds ominous to me. A lot like how criminals might discuss committing a murder or kidnapping

    ETA: @VeniceRiley:

    Exactly. Implying is the right word. It’s rare to see “Let’s kill her” written out like that. That’s clear cut evidence of conspiracy and intent to harm

  17. 17.

    Kay

    @VeniceRiley:

    do it by stopping her ability to draw breath.

     

    Really? These are the people who hatched an entire elaborate plan to beat Joe Biden by enlisting another country into launching a fake investigation into him because they were too chickenshit to compete with him. They’re sleazy, two bit cowards. It’s more likely they stupidly stumble into angering an actual murderer and get killed themselves. They like cigars and sitting on their asses bragging and buying huge tacky houses on hinky credit. She’s MUCH tougher than any of them.

  19. 19.

    Spanky

    These are the people who hatched an entire elaborate plan to beat Joe Biden by enlisting another country into launching a fake investigation into him because they were too chickenshit to compete with him. They’re sleazy, two bit cowards.

    Hmmmmmm. When you frame it that way …

  21. 21.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    I doubt that Parnas or Hyde would do the deed themselves. They’d hire a hitman. And I’m sure Putin would be glad to help them out

  23. 23.

    Kay

    Joe Biden. Uncle Joe. The big tough Trump men were so terrified by Joe Biden that they sat down and hatched a dumb-ass plan to drum up a phony announcement of an investigation and were caught. Too chickenshit to take Joe Biden on in a non-rigged competition, they frantically started cheating.

    They better hope they never encounter an actual bad guy in all their sleazy business deals. They won’t survive.

  25. 25.

    JPL

    State Department took the threats seriously.   She was not only called home on the next flight, but previously was assigned additional security.   mmmm

  26. 26.

    zhena gogolia

    In the sinister context of goons who are spying on the movements of the US Ambassador, the original translation is perfectly reasonable. “get rid of” is quite correct. “Get rid of” doesn’t necessarily mean “kill” in English either, does it?

    I’d probably translate the second phrase as “She’s not going anywhere,” meaning we have time to do whatever we want. You can interpret that as something innocent if you wish to

    ETA: This apologia reminds me of, “Well, he didn’t say to Zelenskyy, ‘I’m about to extort you,'” so he didn’t mean to extort him!”

  27. 27.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    OT

    Congratulations to the family of the Alex Karras on his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

    Most will remember him as “Mongo” from the classic “Blazing Saddles” and football fans will remember from him from George Plimpton’s book and film “Paper Lion”, as well from Jerry Kramer’s seminal book “Instant Replay”.  He was also a staunch Democrat.

  30. 30.

    germy

    Not only does he omit all punctuation and use the completely wrong form of the pronoun “me,” he can’t even spell Lutsenko’s first or last name properly.

    Lots of people text differently than how they write otherwise.  I get the impression Malamud thinks too literally.

    When I text my adult children, they laugh because I write in full sentences.  They always use abbreviations.

  32. 32.

    WhatsMyNym

    Not only does he omit all punctuation and use the completely wrong form of the pronoun “me,” he can’t even spell Lutsenko’s first or last name properly.

    It seems that Slava hasn’t ever used text messaging before (or read the comments in a blog). Spelling is not the first thing on the writer’s mind.

    ETA: germy said it before me!

  33. 33.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @VeniceRiley: Agreed in that the wider context (that Adam pointed out yesterday) is that SOMEBODY keeps throwing journalists out of Russian hotel windows and SOMEBODY keeps tossing the Russian apartments of western diplomats and SOMEBODY is mugging westerners right in front of the US Embassy guards.

  34. 34.

    waspuppet

    @Kay: What, “respected legitimate businessman” doesn’t do it for you?

    Would you believe “cybersecurity expert who regularly buttdials, texts passwords to random people, leaves his phone in cars and had to go to the Apple store because he locked himself out?”

  39. 39.

    M31

    yeah, and the trumpies knew that once there was an announcement by Ukraine, there would be endless, breathless, concerned journamalism by the FTFNYT — “Clouds swirling around the Biden campaign” “What did Joe know” “corruption on BOTHSIDES”

    trump can always count on the NYT

  47. 47.

    catclub

    According to Parnas’ WhatsApp exchanges, someone appears to have had the ambassador under physical and electronic surveillance last March, as Giuliani was making his moves against her position in Ukraine.

     

    Or someone was delusional and pretending to have her under surveillance. From what we have heard from Hyde, I think this is more likely. Where were his travels?

  50. 50.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jay: And George Conway is a bitch for playing this “I despise the administration my wife works for” game.  Fuck him and Kellyanne Conjob.

  54. 54.

    patrick II

    @catclub: 

    Or someone was delusional and pretending to have her under surveillance. From what we have heard from Hyde, I think this is more likely. Where were his travels?

    That was my first thought too, but then I considered the increased security around her, and the call home because of threats to her safety. But now I am wondering whether security issues were real or a pretense to call her home. They lie so much it is difficult to parse. That’s the point I guess.

  55. 55.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    She is tougher, and smarter and a far better human being than than any of trump’s “henchmen,” but – while none of them have the balls to be that stupid, they are stupid in so many other ways that hiring someone to do what they would very probably never do would be something they very well might do. Especially when cornered, especially if they had run into the corner on their own.

  56. 56.

    germy

    Susan Collins throws cold water on new Lev Parnas evidence. “I wonder why the House did not put that into the record and it’s only now being revealed.” Told it was just turned over, she says: “well doesn’t that suggest that the House did an incomplete job then?” @Phil_Mattingly— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 15, 2020

    She cannot be dumb. The court just allowed them to be released. Surely she knows this.

    — Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) January 15, 2020

  59. 59.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    They did run into a real bad guy, name of vlad. Who doesn’t  seem to have any problem permanently taking care of business. And seems to own most of them.

  64. 64.

    dmsilev

    @germy: “Can’t you do a better job of keeping your craziness at least vaguely deniable or defensible? You’re making the rest of us look bad.”

  66. 66.

    Jay

    @catclub:

    in the Globalized world, you don’t have to travel. You can Discord, Whats App, Skype, Telegram.

    Just as Ohio Nazi Moms ( @Tradwife) don’t have to travel to South Carolina to indoctrinate and radicalize Dylan Roof into Nazism and “accelerate” him into a mass murder in a church,

    MAGAt’s don’t have to travel to Eastern Europe to make the connections to enable them to put together a collection of thugs, to tail and threaten an Ambassador. All one needs are the “connections” to make contact and someone to vouch for you and your bonafides.

    More and more, it looks like it was a MAGAt inside the US Embassy that was running the ground game in Ukraine for Rudy and Team Dump. Malcom Nance is retweeting some State Department Protection Service guys who are “freaking out” that it seems, “the calls were coming from inside the house”.

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    @Aleta:

    Perfect :-)

    Wonder how much time he spends in makeup before each court appearance. The walker is a nice touch. “How could this man hurt a fly, or even threaten one?”

  73. 73.

    Jay

    @gene108:

    Putin has a lot of plausible deniability. From mobsters to Wagner, there are enough “loose cannons” and The West seems disinclined to hold him to task for the work his Minions do.

  74. 74.

    trollhattan

    @trollhattan:

    Also in America’s Finest News Source.

    Sanders Campaign Doubles Down With New Ad Warning Americans They’ll Never Be Able To Hear A Female President Over The Sound Of Her Vacuum

  75. 75.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @gene108:

    Well, as Adam said the other night, somebody is roughing up and threatening diplomatic staff in Russia. It’s happened before in plain sight in front of embassies. If, for whatever reason the Russians or their allies in Ukriane, wanted Yonvaivich (sp) gone badly enough, I’m sure he could’ve done it and make it look like an accident

  76. 76.

    Jay

    @Kent:

    Naw, just like any decent Lawyer advises their Client to get a hair cut, shave, wear a suit and cover up the tattoos,

    Weinstein’s lawyers have him playing the role of an infirm, elderly, kind old Granpaw to play the sympathy and misunderstood cards.

    They probably even got him to swap out the pocket full of Viagra, roofies and amyl nitrate for Werther Origionals and Scotch Mints.

  86. 86.

    Barbara

    @germy: Re, whether Susan Collins can be that dumb — no, of course not, but she certainly hopes her constituents can be that dumb.  Even with all that, I don’t like the obsessive focus on Collins because there are at least four others who deserve just as much: McSalley, Gardner, Tillis, and Ernst.  All up in 2020, all beatable.  Ernst and McSalley, in particular, campaigned on their woman warrior national security chops.  Rolling over and letting Putin tickle you until you pee is not my idea of someone who is going to make America secure.

  87. 87.

    mad citizen

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I love Off Topic.  I read a lot of sports books when I was a kid.  Paper Lion was a memorable book.  Reading Karras’ wikipedia, I recall I also read Plimpton’s followup to that, Mad Ducks and Bears (1973).

    Karras was from Gary Indiana, a Greek-American.  Makes sense he was a democrate coming from there.

    Favorite part of his wiki: “On January 7, 1963, Karras’s ownership in Detroit’s Lindell AC Bar became a source of controversy when league officials urged him to sell his financial interests in the place because of reports of gambling and organized crime influence. After first threatening to retire rather than give it up, Karras admitted placing bets on NFL games and was suspended by the league, along with Green Bay Packers‘ running back Paul Hornung, for one season (1963). During his exile, Karras returned to pro wrestling, taking on such memorable characters as Dick the Bruiser. He was reinstated, along with Hornung, on March 16, 1964, by NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. Upon returning to action in 1964, Karras once refused when an official asked him to call the pregame coin toss. “I’m sorry, sir,” Karras replied. “I’m not permitted to gamble.””

  88. 88.

    Jay

    @James E Powell

    yeah, there was the Pajama Guy,……

    With the arrest and conviction of Gotti and various Gambino family members in 1992, Gigante was officially recognized as the most powerful crime boss in the United States. For the better part of 30 years, Gigante feigned insanity in an effort to throw law enforcement off his trail. Dubbed “The Oddfather” and “The Enigma in the Bathrobe” by the press, Gigante often wandered the streets of Greenwich Village in his bathrobe and slippers, mumbling incoherently to himself. He was indicted on federal racketeering charges in 1990, but was determined to be mentally unfit to stand trial. In 1997 he was tried and convicted of racketeering and was given a 12-year sentence. Facing new charges in 2003, he pleaded guilty and admitted that his supposed insanity was an elaborate effort to avoid prosecution.[2] He died while incarcerated in 2005 at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Gigante

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: The trump presidency has ripped the mask of Collins. For years I thought she was a sincere but weak moderate, slightly befuddled to find herself in the Senate. She is as partisan, as cynical and ambitious as Mitch McConnell.

  91. 91.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Barbara: I think Gardner’s done. McSally has a strong opponent in Mark Kelly, and I think has been consistently if only slightly trailing in polls. I’ve looked up Ernst’s likely opponent and would have to do it again– I would hope Iowa Dems figure out how to capitalize on Ernst’s call to “address Social Security” that means cut, “behind closed doors.” Someone posted recently a poll that showed Collins at 35% approval, that’s down more than twenty points of her pre-trump numbers, I believe, but she doesn’t seem nearly nervous enough. I haven’t seen or heard a word about Tillis’ opponent.

  93. 93.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    That might’ve been me? She was at 50% disapproval and 35% approval in October, which was the last time a poll was done to my knowledge. It would be interesting to know if that’s changed at all since start of formal impeachment hearings and this new evidence

    In addition to her being very cynical, I think she might be between a rock and hard place. A lot of her support I’ve thought comes from Dem crossover historically. Maybe she sees the best path forward is through, hence downplaying impeachment and the new evidence of Parnas and Hyde et al spying on a US ambassador, and will squeak a win in again through incumbency and some dirty tricks

  94. 94.

    Jay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist,

    For years I thought she was a sincere but weak moderate,

    It’s symptomatic. If you use The Political Compass in either historic mode, or in Global Mode,

    In historic mode it shows that the current crop of “moderates” and “centerists”, are far to the right of the 1950’s, 60’s “center” and right of even Saint Ronnie Altzheimers,

    In Global mode it shows that the current crop of “moderates” and “centerists” are far to the right of almost all Western Democracy “centers”. In Canada, both Bernie and Warren would barely be Liberals, ( which is our centerist party).

    The effect of this Overton drift over the past 40 years has left many people with the illusion that Collins is a “moderate”. Compared to Stephen Miller or Yurtle the Turtle, she sort of is, but only in her mealy mouth “I’m concerned” voice, her votes shows she is not. She just plays one on TV.

  98. 98.

    Roger Moore

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    For years I thought she was a sincere but weak moderate, slightly befuddled to find herself in the Senate. She is as partisan, as cynical and ambitious as Mitch McConnell.

    Yep.  For a long time, she played at being a moderate who will give the Democrats bipartisan cover if they will water down their proposals enough to satisfy her. Now she has switched to being a party-line Republican and is trying to maintain that same moderate image by expressing concern or occasionally voting against her party when it won’t matter.  But she isn’t going against the party in a way that really matters.

  103. 103.

    Fair Economist

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I suspect the intent was for direct harm, and the words used ambiguous to hide intent. Trump didn’t need to know her whereabouts to fire her. Don’t forget State thought she was in direct personal danger, hence the abrupt depature.

  104. 104.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @catclub:   @patrick II:

    Here’s something I haven’t heard anyone say yet, if this Hyde guy was crazy, Rudy Calloody, Parnas and the rest of those MAGAts were taking a serious risk by letting him be in charge of the Ambassador’s tails and surveillance.  One bad day and Hyde could have done or ordered done the wrong thing.

    Also, the State Dept may have noticed the tails and surveillance.  Maybe they knew they were MAGAt-based, maybe they didn’t.  Maybe they thought they were Russian assets (technically, if Hyde was watching and tailing her, they were Russian assets.) If they knew they were MAGAts, then leaving her in position wasn’t going to be safe–the Presidents loony squad was after her.  So no matter what, the way best way to protect her was to bring her home.

  105. 105.

    Jay

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ:

    Hyde’s not crazy. He f/u’d “The Mission” after getting in deep with Mobsters, Wagner and other violent criminals. He knows names, faces and facts.

    He also runs contruction/landscaping, which relies on a large number of immigrants, undocumented and Eastern Europeans, which as a MAGAt, he has a low, bigotted, racist and stereotyped image of.

    So, knowing that he f’d up, that he left a trail that a blind man could follow, something happened at the Winter White Supremacy House, ( somebody said something, looked at him the wrong way) and as a “legendary tough guy in his own mind”, he had a panic attack, fears of tea, gym bags, open windows.

  106. 106.

    zhena gogolia

    @Another Scott:

    It means “to take off” in the sense of taking off a sweater. But it also means to remove someone from a post, or more colloquially to get rid of someone (not necessarily by killing them).

  107. 107.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Fair Economist:

     I suspect the intent was for direct harm, and the words used ambiguous to hide intent. Trump didn’t need to know her whereabouts to fire her.

    This. There’s no need to put her under surveillance if all they wanted to do was fire her. Trump could have done that (or reassigned her) at any time.

    Instead, he had his flunkies stalk her and the DOJ pulled her out for ‘security reasons’. There was direct and obvious danger… from the President’s bagmen.

  108. 108.

    Ruckus

    @germy:

    She can not be that dumb?

    One would think that, considering she manages to breath occasionally. But she is a republican so the possibility does exist that yes she is exactly that dumb.

  109. 109.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I’m tired of people putting the most innocent spin possible on any of myriad criminal and awful things Trump and his cronies have been up to! How much bad stuff does he have to do before everyone in the media and elsewhere starts by assuming the worst as a starting point?

  110. 110.

    oldgold

    New stuff.

    On Wednesday, Politico reported that House Democrats released yet another batch of material turned over by indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas — including voicemails between Parnas and Victoria Toensing, a right-wing attorney in President Donald Trump’s orbit.

    “Hey Lev. VT here,” said one message Toensing sent on April 23, 2019. “We’ve got a request to talk to the big one. So I just wanted to get the latest from you, if I could. I know it’s late there. I’m sorry.”

  111. 111.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    She [Susan Collins, R-Maine] cannot be dumb. The court just allowed them to be released. Surely she knows this.

    — Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) January 15, 2020

    Surely Jennifer Rubin knows Senator Susan Collins IS DUMB, as established by her entire political career?!?!!!!

Comments are closed.