Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

We still have time to mess this up!

Let there be snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

I really should read my own blog.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Late Night ‘Trump Crime Cartel’ Open Thread: Profiteering on the Pandemic

Late Night ‘Trump Crime Cartel’ Open Thread: Profiteering on the Pandemic

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And then there’s GOP fundraiser Mike Gula!

I figure it’s even odds Gula doesn’t actually have access to this mysterious supply, any more than that Nigerian ‘prince’ online has access to ONE MILLION DOLLARS (US$). But if desperate people wire him a bunch of money for stuff that doesn’t exist… who’s gonna complain they were rooked?

And if they do, well, it’s what a BSD salesguy does, overselling his prospects, sure he may have exaggerated his holdings slightly in the heat of the deal, but his intentions were only the best!

(He just better be giving the Oval Office Occupant a taste, something to wet his beak, is all I’m saying…)

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    joel hanes

     

    re Pallone and mysterious supplies of masks and such

    This is exactly why Trump has mostly not invoked the provisions of the DPA for pandemic materiel, and why the allocation of such materiel has mysteriously been assigned to FEMA and not to HHS.

  2. 2.

    Mary G

    This belonged in the earlier goat thread, but I just saw it:

    “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about with goats.” pic.twitter.com/El9rdVzHgz— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith) March 31, 2020

    Baby goats jumping is one of my go-to self-soothing Internet searches.

  3. 3.

    ema

    Speaking of crime cartels:

    Cash-strapped Americans — even those who lost their jobs — can’t expect to catch a break on their credit report if they miss a loan, rent or mortgage payment because of the coronavirus pandemic, a new report said Tuesday.

    The powerful financial industry successfully lobbied Congress to reject a moratorium on recording missed and late payments on credit reports during the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported.

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne

    As mrmoshpotato said below, it’s a bust-out. The country has served its purpose and now the Republicans are breaking stuff and looting on their way out.

  7. 7.

    Mary G

    I put up a link to this Forbes article in the last thread.

    I Spent A Day In The Coronavirus-Driven Feeding Frenzy Of N95 Mask Sellers And Buyers And This Is What I Learned

    Basically medical supplies go through middlemen and right now whoever can prove they have funds in the bank and can pay immediately upon ordering gets the goods. Government agencies who have to be billed don’t stand a chance and they’re all going overseas. Some of those overseas companies almost certainly owned by Republican grifters.

  10. 10.

    terben

    I’m opposed to the death penalty, but there are only two crimes that I would countenance an exception for, and one is profiteering during a crisis.

  11. 11.

    wjs

    I believe it was that noted public intellectual Britney Spears who told us that we needed to seize the means of production.

    I really hope we break the cycle and throw at least five or six hundred people who have worked and are working for Trump in prison after they have been given fair trials. We can’t let any of this go down the memory hole.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    Are we all Bokononists now?

    Jared Kushner is demanding his tenants keep paying rent

    Must admit to some surprise he’s not raising it.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    Yuck. Sinuses been cycling between rubbernecking speed and overdrive for most of the day. Something outside bloomed.

  17. 17.

    Mai naem mobile

    I brought this up in an earlier thread and I am going to repeat it. I find it unbelievable that Elaine Chao was not aware of the COVID19 situation in China. I know she is Taiwanese American but her family continues to run a huge shipping company in China. I find it unfathomable that nobody in the extended family had a conversation about COVID19 from Dec till February. She’s Trumpovs freaking Sec of Tranportation and Mitch McConnells wife. I am not saying she’s directly responsible but there is at least negligence here. Taiwan took measures during this crisis. She never mentioned to Mitch McConnell that there is some crazy  infectious respiratory   disease in China? I would bet some money that the two are profiting off COVID19 bigly.  Before anybody suggests it, I am not saying in some xenophobic manner. She still has a.big  family business  that has connections to China(there is something named after  the family at Harvard Business School so we are not talking mom and pop business.) Her family still donates money to Mitch’s campaigns so it doesn’t appear that they’re estranged.  Connect the dots.

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mary G:

    Baby goats jumping is one of my go-to self-soothing Internet searches.

    Especially the ones in sweaters or pajamas.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @wjs:

    I really hope we break the cycle and throw at least five or six hundred people who have worked and are working for Trump in prison after they have been given fair trials.

    Can we use Trump’s own definition of “fair”?

  23. 23.

    cain

    @wjs:

    I think the voting public should make it very clear to the Democratic party that it is on their heads if they do not deliver justice. These folks won’t do anything even if we give them the mandate. For some reason they still cater to republican voters or former trump voters, I have no idea what is going on. It’s like they are in an abusive relationship.

  28. 28.

    Aussie Sheila

    If there is one commitment Biden should be held to, it is a promise that there will be a Commission of Inquiry into this cluster. No ‘looking forward not backward’ on this. In fact this should be a key platform promise, made at the Convention in June. The Inquiry should be forensic, and prosecutions should ensue for any of those who failed to carry out their designated duties from when this outbreak was first brought to the attention of relevant officials.

     

    This is less for the satisfaction of revenge after the fact, than a signal that incompetent management will be held accountable notwithstanding the nature of the administration. For tRump, if he loses, he will be pursued legally I am guessing by a number of state AGs. If he wins, I doubt that there will be a functional State in the US a year later. My view is at this point, it is a fifty fifty proposition.

  29. 29.

    terry chay

    @cain: Where do you get this crap? Voters gave Obama and the Democratic a mandate that was only a single year (failure to seat Al Franken) and in that time they passed the stimulus and the ACA, the latter without a single Republican vote and over filibuster. Then voters took it away and they haven’t had a mandate.

    When a politician is given a large mandate they have shown that they act accordingly. What you don’t seem to understand is the last times the Democratic Party has a sustainable mandate was after the Great Depression and again in 1960-1964. In the former we got the New Deal and in the latter Medicare, the Civil Rights act and other Great Society projects.

    Just because the Republicans do not have a mandate but act like they do is not without repercussions. They haven’t won a popular vote since 2004, not won a majority since 1988, and faced the largest blue wave since Watergate in 2018. Voters have punished them hard for acting against their wishes. The only “Democrats” on the left acting without mandate is the Bernie supporters and I put that in quotes because I suspect they are not really Democrats. (And voersnseemed to have punishes that segment pretty hard during the primary of 2020.)

  31. 31.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Aussie Sheila:

     

    from when this outbreak was first brought to the attention of relevant officials.

    You are being generous. Start the inquisition from 24 hours, latest, after China got a clue and started their lockdown.

  32. 32.

    terben

    @NotMax: You have reminded me of the story in Cat’s Cradle concerning Julian and Phillip Castle and the plague that tore through San Lorenzo.

    “Oh, yes. Anyway, one sleepless night I stayed up with Father while he worked. It was all we could do to find a live patient to treat. In bed after bed after bed we found dead people.
    “And Father started giggling,” Castle continued.
    “He couldn’t stop. He walked out into the night with his flashlight. He was still giggling. He was mak­ing the flashlight beam dance over all the dead people stacked outside. He put his hand on my head, and do you know what that marvelous man said to me?” asked Castle.
    “Nope.”
    “‘Son,’ my father said to me, ‘someday this will all be yours.’”

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax: Not — *ahem* — kidding at all. The intertubes have binders full of baby goats in PJs.

     

    And I don’t know why the link won’t copy, but just google YouTube baby goats pajamas — you won’t be sorry.

  39. 39.

    Chyron HR

    @cain:

    “We’re gonna keep letting Republicans win until Democrats stop being responsible for the GOP’s crimes!”

    Why, it’s just asinine enough to work!

  40. 40.

    Geminid

    @cain: I don’t see Democrats “catering” to Republicans and former Trump voters, and I don’t think they should. But we have real chances to flip 12 Republican Senate seats- ME, NC, SC, 2GA, IA, KY, TX, KS, MT, CO, AZ- and I doubt very much any Democratic candidate is going to say or imply, “if you are a former Trump voter or a Republican I don’t want your vote.”

  41. 41.

    Nora

    Wasn’t there a New Testament parable about a debtor who threw himself on the mercy of his creditor and got his debts forgiven and then went after one of his debtors, refusing that person mercy? If I recall correctly, things didn’t go well for that guy in that story.

     

    People pretend to be Christians but don’t pay any attention to what Jesus said.

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