Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I really should read my own blog.

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

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

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

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

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

Let’s finish the job.

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

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

We still have time to mess this up!

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

You are here: Home / Artists In Our Midst / May FSM Have Mercy On His Soul…

May FSM Have Mercy On His Soul…

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…Because I sure won’t.

Sheldon Adelson is dead.

My reaction to the news:

May FSM Have Mercy On His Soul...

No f**king nil nisi here. His major competition for most destructive asshole (not holding political office) of our time is Rupert Murdoch, with whom he kept common cause.

When (apocryphally) the eulogist at Louis B. Meyer’s funeral asked  “does anyone have anything good to say about the deceased,” the silence was only broken when someone replied, “he’s dead.”

So it is with Adelson.

Also: this is a reminder that democracy needs confiscatory estate taxes. Bad enough that Adelson fucked with our politics so thoroughly and for so long. Why should his heirs to the ultimate generation have the same power?

So: a spit-on-his-grave open thread.

Image: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril (poster), 1904.

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    Adelson has already returned to the Hell which spawned him.

    And yes to confiscatory taxes.  We are not safe when the gazillionaires just buy the government.

    Money drives out free speech, too.

  3. 3.

    mali muso

    Heard the news on the radio while driving to work. Broke out in a spontaneous cheer!
    I’m not sure if I’m proud of the person I have become over the past four years, but it is what it is.

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    @mali muso:   My sister and I spontaneously high fived when we heard Scalia had kicked.  No words necessary.

    Others whose deaths will bring us peace and no small joy:

    Newt Gingrich

    Rupert Murdoch

    Rush Limbaugh

    Mitch McConnell

    and so many of their ilk, but why ruin a delicious cup of hot coffee thinking about any of them now.

    Bye Felecia Sheldon.  May demons fuck you over as hard as you wrought evil during your time on Earth.

  7. 7.

    sab

    I used to live in Las Vegas a couple of decades ago. The only thing Adelson ever did that was civic minded was a cancer clinic, because his father had died of cancer. Other than that, nothing, with all that money.

    Surprisingly (in light of his recent behavior)  Steve Wynn was quite generous. He just didn’t want any publicity for it because that would encourage others to ask.

  8. 8.

    West of the Rockies

    And Trumpmandias went to the desert today to shamble about and look at his wall.  “Look upon my wall, ye mighty, and piss.”

    Is any enterprising outfit selling tickets yet to miss on Adelson’s grave?

  10. 10.

    NYCMT

    How many other litvaks achieved his power to fuck up countries?

    This is where I say the traditional formula: “Baruch dayan ha-emes.” = “Blessed is He who judges ”
    Man, what a useful phrase.

  12. 12.

    lowtechcyclist

    His major competition for most destructive asshole (not holding political office) of our time is Rupert Murdoch, with whom he kept common cause.

    Was Adelson really more destructive than the Koch brothers?  I’d have figured them for being next after Murdoch.  And then there’s the Mercer family.

  19. 19.

    Ohio Mom

    Elizabelle:
    Trump’s not on your list?

    It’s true that in a few days, he’ll be out of office, and that his world is already collapsing, but I will still whoop and holler when his time comes.

    And I’ll think of my uncle, now gone over twenty years, who always despised him.

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    @Ohio Mom:   I think of trump as little as possible. (A) don’t want that fucker living in my head and (B) he is dangerous but also shabby and pathetic.

    I want trump in a world of legal proceedings and bankruptcy (again!) before he goes.  A prison sentence, that he can serve confined to home — no golf; no travel — would be OK if he cannot be jailed with the other criminals.

  22. 22.

    patrick II

    @Elizabelle:

    And yes to confiscatory taxes. We are not safe when the gazillionaires just buy the government.

    And particularly inheritance tax. Money compounds. Some young people today will inherit billions, with only a top-line 36% tax. If you are 30 and inherit 20 billion after your 36% tax, at 7% return (standard low expected ROI), at forty you have 40 billion, at 50 you have 80 billion, at 60 you will have 160 billion, and at 70 320 billion.
    and the next generation starts with 74% of 320 billion, and the process continues.
    That cannot happen. Society will break down first.
    There are many reasons, but compounding is an important factor in why capitalism is not a stable system, but one that needs to be managed rather than more and more money in fewer hands. And unstable capitalism means unstable politics as owners become more politically powerful and more desperate to keep up an ever-widening divide. Money needs to be taxed and reinvested in people and long-term projects that capitalism will not itself buy into.

  26. 26.

    BR

    Shouldn’t there be more alarm generally that dump is speaking like a mob boss this morning and effectively blaming what he is stoking on those who are trying to stop him? I mean, if nothing it should spur the senate to act.

  29. 29.

    Wapiti

    @patrick II: I remember watching Downton Abbey, where the family periodically runs into a problem pay the estate tax. The hard reality* was that they were mostly wasters, using money some ancestor had accumulated. They weren’t capable of improving on what they had been given. So it is with many of the children of the rich.

    * eta: is it ever correct to use “reality” when discussing a fictional portrayal? It remains that they were mostly wasters.

  31. 31.

    Ian

    I’m looking for the link, but was Adelson the guy who convinced us to move the US embassy in Israel so he could build a beach resort?

    LINK

  32. 32.

    cain

    @lee:

    His wife is a loon – she will continue the grand tradition of throwing good money at these morons.

    They all need to be careful because of Woke Deep State.

  33. 33.

    mali muso

    @Elizabelle: I concur with that list. I sometimes wish I was still a believing Xtian and not an atheist, because the concept of hell is pretty appealing right about now.

  34. 34.

    CaseyL

    @BR: Nothing will spur the Senate to act while McConnell is Majority Leader.  Nothing.

    McConnell didn’t take part in the insurrection directly, but only because he has preferred to use other methods to destroy democracy. And he’s used them quite effectively.

  37. 37.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @lowtechcyclist: I feel like the Mercer family really is responsible for QAnon taking off so much. They actually worked at targeting crazy conspiracy theorists using Facebook data, bringing them together, and escalating their crazy. They deserve to burn in Hell for eternity.

  38. 38.

    matt the semi-reasonable

    I wonder if the Republicans will embrace anti-Semitism more now that he’s no longer their sugar daddy.

  39. 39.

    Just One More Canuck

    @RobertB: didn’t Bette Davis say that about Joan Crawford?

    And to (possibly) quote Mark Twain, “I refused to attend his funeral. But I wrote a very nice letter explaining that I approved of it.”

  40. 40.

    PJ

    @Wapiti: One of the primary characteristics of the aristocracy is that they do not work – that is for the lower orders.  Their job is to rule.

  41. 41.

    cain

    @matt the semi-reasonable:

    Adelson had no problem funding anti-Semitism. He’s given money directly to Trump who is probably mildly anti-Semite. But the GOP encourages anti-Semitism since it’s all about killing the Jews so that their shitty end of the world prophecy can start.

    The man has done more for anti-Semitism than anyone other than the Mercers.

  44. 44.

    Ken

    @Wapiti: is it ever correct to use “reality” when discussing a fictional portrayal?

    “Verisimilitude” might be what you mean.  But I have no trouble with your use of “reality”; the fiction is accurately capturing part of reality (and perhaps simplifying it to make the point more obvious).

  45. 45.

    BruceFromOhio

    His major competition for most destructive asshole (not holding political office) of our time is Rupert Murdoch, with whom he kept common cause.

    The Mercers and the Kochs have made (and continue to make) major efforts to win MDA status.

  47. 47.

    Andrew

    @West of the Rockies:   You’ll have to buy a ticket to Israel to pay proper respects to his grave; that’s where he wants to be buried.  Good news: you’ll have plenty of time to load up on the plane to Tel Aviv.

  48. 48.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Kaitlan Collins @kaitlancollins· 31m
    Sen. Lindsey Graham, who last week said he and President Trump had a “hell of a journey” but it was time to “count me out” because “enough was enough,” is flying to Texas on Air Force One today, per the pool.

  49. 49.

    laura

    I echo the sentiment that we need confiscatory tax rates to wring the idle capital out of the soft palms of the excessively rich to put to use for the social good – a broadly defined social good. And that includes a repeal of the current estate tax. A billionaire is nothing more than evidence of societal failure and misuse of the law.

  50. 50.

    Kathleen

    @CaseyL: I think he got a heads up from some donors that overturning an election was not a good look and yes the Fascist Fest is not over but taking a hiatus to retool the story line and hire new cast.

  51. 51.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Bob @trebuchet_guy 26m
    Replying to @joshtpm
    Don’t lose the significance of this latest flip flop of Graham. He’s a thermometer. He reports the temperature. He assumed even the base would be horrified by 1/6. He’s been hearing from them since then. Reporting in SC says they *love* what happened and want more.

  53. 53.

    Nicole

    All that money and effort spent on trying to hang on to as much of his own money as he could, and look where it got him.  Room temperature, just like all of us will be some day.

    I cannot understand the rot in someone’s soul that makes them a person like Adelson.  Angry Black Lady posted some months ago that it takes so much more energy to be a dick than it does to be kind, and she’s right.

  55. 55.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I still don’t get the angst about Trump after Inauguration Day. Just honor the Iranian extradition request as to Trump and Pompeo in the interest of resolving several areas of dispute.

    It would be a really good deal for both sides.

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Sen. Lindsey Graham, who last week said he and President Trump had a “hell of a journey” but it was time to “count me out” because “enough was enough,” is flying to Texas on Air Force One today, per the pool.

    Proper little Vicar of Bray, ain’t he?

  57. 57.

    kindness

    Aldeson’s wife is still alive so there probably won’t be a legal fight over his will……having said that the best thing that could happen to such an evil person is that lawyers fight over his estate for the next 10 years.

  59. 59.

    Central Planning

    Since this is OT: My wife qualifies to get the vaccine now because she’s a teacher. I do (free/volunteer) IT support for her school, and the school says I could get the vaccine through them as well because support staff are on the list of those who can get the vaccine now.

    Since I’m not an official employee, I’m not sure I really do qualify. I certainly don’t want to do anything illegal or prevent a truly qualified person from getting one. I have heard that vaccine distribution is slow and people aren’t going to get them, so it almost makes sense to sign up. I’m cool with waiting, since I do my day job in my basement. Thoughts?

  61. 61.

    germy

    NEW YORK (AP) — New York state expanded eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine again to allow anyone over age 65 to get it, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday.

    Cuomo said the state’s following new federal guidance, which now means more than one out of three New Yorkers are eligible to get vaccinated.

    The federal government will also no longer hold back required second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, a move expected to practically double supply.

  62. 62.

    Nicole

    @Central Planning: If the school offers it to you, take it.  It’s not like you’re bribing them or anything.

    I have a friend (also an educator) who is getting it this weekend.  She feels bad about being put in front of lots of seniors who still don’t have it, but the company she works for (tutoring on-set kids) wants to be able to send her out to actual sets again, and you know, every single person vaccinated is a step closer to herd immunity.  So I’m celebrating my friend getting the shot, and if you can get it, I’ll celebrate that, too.

  63. 63.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @kindness:

    having said that the best thing that could happen to such an evil person is that lawyers fight over his estate for the next 10 years.

    quick check of Wiki says Miriam was Shelley’s second wife, and he had three kids with his first, and since Miriam’s a damn loon, I’d say the odds of lawsuits are good.

  64. 64.

    Mike in NC

    Didn’t the filthy bastard recently buy what was once the US Consulate in Tel Aviv? Good riddance. May Trump and Limbaugh and Murdoch follow shortly.

  65. 65.

    JPL

    @SiubhanDuinne: FYI   Fulton Cty has vaccines for those over 65, and I received the first Pfizer vaccine today.    It was truly the first time that I didn’t even feel it.  Nada..    You can do this as soon as Gwinnett starts distributing.

  67. 67.

    Phylllis

    When (apocryphally) the eulogist at Louis B. Meyer’s funeral asked  “does anyone have anything good to say about the deceased,” the silence was only broken when someone replied, “he’s dead.”

    I believe Meyer’s was also the funeral where someone remarked on the size of the crowd and the response was “Give the people what they want.”

  68. 68.

    JPL

    @Central Planning: GA has availability for anyone over 65.    Yesterday someone on CNN said they just need to open it up for everyone, since younger people can spread it.   They are less likely to land in the hospital, but they can infect someone else who does.

    If you can receive it, do.

  70. 70.

    Peale

    @SiubhanDuinne: I don’t know why we still eat up these “come to Jesus moments” from them.  They will never have a come to Jesus moment. They just lie. So expect another bunch of coup attempts even after Trump leaves office.

  73. 73.

    Peale

    @Nicole: I agree. Just take it when you can get it. You have to trust that they know what they are doing by making it available for you. You aren’t stealing it. The fewer people who we have to track down later the better.

  74. 74.

    narya

    @Central Planning: Similar situation here. I made sure that folks at my workplace who are public-facing weren’t being elbowed out by me, and then figured anything I can do to get us to immmunity is still a contribution. I would have happily given my spot to a grocery store worker (for example) but it doesn’t work that way. In other words, me refusing wouldn’t do any good to anyone–someone “more deserving” wasn’t going to get it in my stead–while my taking it is a contribution to the overall goal of getting enough folks vaccinated. Absolutely not the ideal rollout, but I also didn’t feel like I was doing harm or cutting in line in any fixable way.

  75. 75.

    JPL

    @laura: So he’s still fluffing.   What a surprise.    When Sykes called his a fluff er, I made the mistake and looked it up.   Unless you want a lot of lewd ads, I wouldn’t

  77. 77.

    hueyplong

    This interminable series is taking for-fucking-ever to bump off the Lindsey Graham character.

    The audience has just about had enough, even the ones rooting for the Lannisters.

  83. 83.

    Luciamia

    Had he been going downhill for awhile? Seems every photo I’ve ever seen has him in a wheelchair.

  88. 88.

    cmorenc

    @patrick II:

    And particularly inheritance tax. Money compounds. Some young people today will inherit billions, with only a top-line 36% tax. If you are 30 and inherit 20 billion after your 36% tax, at 7% return (standard low expected ROI), at forty you have 40 billion, at 50 you have 80 billion, at 60 you will have 160 billion, and at 70 320 billion.

    Actually, if Sheldon Adelson left his entire estate to his wife, there would be no estate taxation because of the unlimited marital exclusion.  Of course, to the extent he split some of it off in his will to his children, that portion would be taxed, but only after the 11.4 million nonspousal exclusion of gifts has been exhausted.  And even better, if Adelson had not used those exclusions during his life, he can pass them down to his wife, who can add his 11.4 million exclusion to hers, for a total of 22.8 million (to the extent the wife had not used her exclusions already).   And that hardly exhausts the various ways a wealthy person can use other exclusions besides the general 11.4 million exclusion to shelter part of their estate’s transfer to family members.  Bottom line is that unfathomably large sums by ordinary mortal standards can be passed down before the 36% top-bracket estate tax kicks in against the inherited assets.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    @Central Planning: In a more normal world, they would be prioritizing better.

    Unless you are literally pushing someone else out of line, or jumping the line, I say take the vaccine as soon as you can.  Which appears to be now.

  90. 90.

    Ruckus

    @Elizabelle:

    The men mentioned up thread have caused so much disaster, just to be able to say they are rich that pissing on their graves seems such a little payback for their crimes against humanity that it’s laughable. The only penalty I can think of is to fix the concept that money makes right. Because that’s what this entire fucking mess is about, conservative bullshit that the wealthy must have all the power in our democracy, or any government actually.

  94. 94.

    AWOL

    O Lord, Schumer. Doing a press conference on security failure on the streets of Manhattan and not even having your security team secure the scene??? Are you in reality of what we are really facing?

  95. 95.

    Mo Salad

    @Tom Levenson: Since LFC has drawn Manchester United away for the 4th round of the FA Cup, the phrase “competitive draw” is hereby banned for the next month.

     

    Thank you.

  97. 97.

    Central Planning

    Thanks everyone for the feedback. You’ve pretty much confirmed my thoughts. I appreciate it! My wife said the scheduling is like a month out, so getting in line now seems to make sense. My group (whatever it might be) may even be able to get the vaccine by then.

  98. 98.

    AWOL

    @Geoduck: Interrupted by  a ranting woman four feet in front of him. Sounded like she was disturbed. He could just as easily been shot at. I don’t think he’s processed the new reality, which really is not that new.

  99. 99.

    Kelly

    @Central Planning: Get it while you can. The prioritized lists are a good idea, mostly botched in practice. In Oregon around 20% to 25% of the shots they planned to administer by now have actually found their way to someones arm.

  100. 100.

    The Pale Scot

    @Elizabelle:

     A prison sentence, that he can serve confined to home

    That home being in a central Florida trailer park, with neighbors constantly coming to his door asking if he can spare a cigarette

  102. 102.

    catclub

    @LevelB: The nicest thing I can say is: some folks you miss, others not so much.

     

    Some people are like a slinky. Not much use, but they put a smile on your face when you watch them fall down a staircase.

  104. 104.

    VOR

    @dmsilev:  They simultaneously approve of the actions taken by a group of brave patriots and claim it was actually a false flag operation by Antifa.

  106. 106.

    burnspbesq

    Apparently there are no spawn of Adelson. He adopted his first wife’s children by her prior marriage. Couldn’t find any info on whether he adopted his current wife’s children by her prior marriage.

    I imagine his estate plan contains every “well, it might work” scam ever invented by the more extreme members of the estate planning bar (South Dakota dynasty trust, anyone?). Tough to argue for deep valuation discounts on publicly traded stock.

  107. 107.

    burnspbesq

    Well, he finally found a foolproof way to beat the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act rap (there is substantial evidence that he bribed his way into Macau—to the point where Sands once disclosed it in a SEC filing).

  108. 108.

    Brachiator

    I heard the news this morning about Adelson. I shed no tears and felt some relief that he will no longer be able to influence politics.  I even google searched to see what was up with Charles Koch.

    Also: this is a reminder that democracy needs confiscatory estate taxes. Bad enough that Adelson fucked with our politics so thoroughly and for so long. Why should his heirs to the ultimate generation have the same power?

    Sorry, I disagree here.  I don’t believe in pre-crime. This is not inevitable or even historically likely.

  109. 109.

    Sojourner44

    “I’ve never committed murder, but I confess that there have been obituaries I’ve read with pleasure.”

    Oscar Wilde

  110. 110.

    The Moar You Know

    @Central Planning:  get it with your wife and I’ll tell you why:   The vaccine prevents illness.  WE DO NOT KNOW if it prevents infection.  Your wife WILL get infected.  If she brings that home and you’re not vaccinated, and that will happen, you’re going to get sick.  My wife and I are in the same boat, she too is a teacher, and I have no way to get the shot at the same time she does… so we are making arrangements for me to live in the backyard in a tent for a few months.  Because she will get exposed and likely on her first day back.  Get the shot.

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    @WaterGirl:

    Unless you are literally pushing someone else out of line, or jumping the line, I say take the vaccine as soon as you can. Which appears to be now.

    I am totally with you on this.  I also think that there are a number of ways in which vaccinations could be prioritized. There was a recent article in the LA Times I think about how the pandemic has devastated Hispanic communities in Los Angeles County, in part because many of these people are lower income and make up a large share of essential workers who are exposed to the virus.  We know these communities down to the zip code level. In my mind all the residents here should be high on the vaccine priority list.

    And I would send health care folks into the communities to offer vaccines, not make people go to a hospital or specially set aside area, like Disneyland.

  112. 112.

    cmorenc

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I assume you learned all this when doing your own estate planning

    I wish :=)  Actually, the post by the commenter I was responding to (patrick II) is what provoked my curiosity to briefly research how much of e.g. a $1 billion fortune could be excluded by exemptions, before estate taxation kicked in.  My wife and I personally are quite comfortable financially, but nevertheless when we had our wills done with our children and grandchildren in mind, we were not (and still aren’t) anywhere near the level where we needed to be concerned about exposure to estate taxation.

  113. 113.

    J R in WV

    @Central Planning:

    I have heard that vaccine distribution is slow and people aren’t going to get them, so it almost makes sense to sign up. I’m cool with waiting, since I do my day job in my basement. Thoughts?

    Go get vaccinated the very instant anyone offers a shot to you!

    That’s my take on this plague. Don’t hesitate a second! The more immune people in the population, the more the plague slows down. And don’t forget to insist on an appointment for the second dose!!

  115. 115.

    Zinsky

    Amen Tom!  Well said and well written and illustrated.  Adelson was one of the most hideous of the GOP oligarchs who created this toxic stew we are all simmering in now.  Adelson made his fortune on others gambling addictions.  A very low-life way to get rich and one the Jewish faith reviles.  No hypocrisy there.  Good riddance – Sheol is a little more full.

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