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Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Bark louder, little dog.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

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

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: GOP Death Cult Spiral

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: GOP Death Cult Spiral

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This is not, per se, evidence that the NSA ‘spied’ on Tucker Carlson. But it is, to the cynical eye, highly suspicious that Tucker Carlson would preemptively throw a major public tantrum claiming the NSA was spying on him, just because he happened to contact a few people associated with the Kremlin about doing an interview with Vladimir Putin, a leader for whom Carlson has the highest respect, unlike some American presidents…

… It is unclear why Carlson, or his source, would think this outreach could be the basis for NSA surveillance or a motive to have his show canceled.

Journalists routinely reach out to world leaders — including the leaders of countries that are not allied with the U.S. — to request interviews. And it’s not unusual to first reach out through unofficial intermediaries rather than through the leaders’ official press offices….

On Wednesday, Carlson told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business that only his executive producer knew about the communications in question and that he didn’t mention it to anybody else, including his wife.

But, of course, the recipients of Carlson’s texts and emails also knew about their content. And we don’t know how widely they shared this information…

Meanwhile, TFG’s staunchest defender is… not, apparently, doing so well:

This country certainly dodged a bullet, last November…

Reader Interactions

50Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    That whiteboard is fractally crazy. Zooming in, I note for instance that Don Jr. is about two levels further out from Daddy than Dinesh D’Souza.

  3. 3.

    HumboldtBlue

    Some asshole has my cat on alert after more fireworks explode in the neighborhood. It’s not as bad as it’s been in past years but this will happen all summer.

  4. 4.

    Mike S

    Remember when Glenn Beck slowly melted down and got so crazy that even FOX News noticed they had a crazy uncle problem? Tucker blew by that but was still behind the party because they’re all crazy uncles. I’m not even sure Mr Pillow’s white board will register on their insanity meter.

    We’re totally fucked.

  5. 5.

    lgerard

    Hopefully someone at the Smithsonian is making note of artifacts like that whiteboard for the Crazy Shit That Happened When trump Was President exhibit in 2070

  6. 6.

    Danielx

    Every time I think: okay, this latest example of heinous fuckery and malevolent stupidity has hit rock bottom.

    And every time I discover my imagination is too limited. Honestly, it’s enough to make me want to come up with a better description than “these fuckin’ people, they’re making bank from promoting hate”…

  8. 8.

    Ruckus

    @Danielx:

    They aren’t promoting hate.

    They are heating up the hate caldron hot enough to melt steel.

    vlad is the plant manager.

  11. 11.

    Martin

    I think as a general rule, if you’re trying to set up an interview with someone that the NSA basically exists to spy on, then you can safely assume that your side of the conversation is going to get recorded as well.

  12. 12.

    Danielx

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Count your blessings – I got water damage so there are all these fans and dehumidifiers and shit cranking away 24/7 and it sounds like an F18 on low idle. Boris who fancies himself as alpha cat hasn’t come downstairs in two days because he’s too chickenshit about the noise. I just caught his nemesis Kiara sleeping in his kitty bed. Her kitty bed is right beside his, so I know she was doing it just to fuck with him.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    I know this is a silly thing to bring up, but I’ve noticed that Tucker Carlson’s speaking voice is really irritating. It’s a nasal whine that makes him sound like an angry, obnoxious version of Maxwell Smart. It always makes me want to stop listening, just as much as what he’s saying. I’d always thought that for TV you needed a pleasant voice, or at least one that didn’t put people off.

  14. 14.

    Ruckus

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Just got back from the store and the girl behind the counter asked me how I had so much calm and patience. And it’s because I feel like this girl. The world is coming to a boiling point. I can’t stop it but I can be like her and not give a damn, because one person can’t change it. And  calmness is an advantage. Not giving a fuck might be also. And at least my ticker is far less likely to explode.

  15. 15.

    Ruckus

    @Amir Khalid:

    Because of the stupid shit he says, a crappy voice is OK. We aren’t going to hate him any more and those that like him (how the fuck that’s even possible I’ll never know) will like that he annoys everyone to the left of Hitler.

  17. 17.

    steve g

    @Martin: Yes, I don’t understand why that isn’t completely obvious to Carlson. If you are speaking to “US Based Kremlin Intermediates,” what do you expect? That no one would notice?

  20. 20.

    The Pale Scot

    @Amir Khalid:

    Amir, every babbler on American TV sounds like nails across a chalkboard. Besides Faux consciously using audio techniques to keep its viewers in a state of conscious agitation, ALL U.S. newslike product uses this method. It’s the only way to prevent people from going to sleep between the obnoxious screaming that are the commercials. Which is why I put my last standard TV on the curb and have never missed it

  23. 23.

    JoyceH

    @Amir Khalid: ​
     

    I’d always thought that for TV you needed a pleasant voice, or at least one that didn’t put people off.

    Um… you HAVE heard Jeanine Pirro, haven’t you?

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Martin:

    I think as a general rule, if you’re trying to set up an interview with someone that the NSA basically exists to spy on, then you can safely assume that your side of the conversation is going to get recorded as well. 

    Have you considered emailing Fucker with this news from a burner account? :)

  30. 30.

    Gin & Tonic

    That goatse treatment of the whiteboard is priceless.

    if you don’t know what I’m talking about, count yourself lucky and don’t ask.

  31. 31.

    piratedan

    For me, I find the overarching hubris to be the most galling thing…. like yeah, We KNOW that Russia has been one of our main political opponents since the 1940s and now, just because Rupert Baby has gone all in on the Fascism and because they claim to be a news organization;  that their communications would somehow be sacrosanct and above suspicion…

    It’s like hey “buddy”, anytime you approach foreign leadership about any goddamn thing, someone is going to monitor what is said, it’s how things are done and the idea that you should be treated “differently” just shows how out of touch you are… You just helped stage an aborted coup attempt, if this wasn’t America, your family would be wondering what happened to you eight months ago as your body was peacefully decomposing in a landfill somewhere.

    At time like this, I wish Vladdy found them no longer of any use so the multitude of them could die falling off of balconies and slipping in bathrooms.

  32. 32.

    Mary G

    On July 5, Boris Johnson’s latest baby mama/wife announced that a charity run by some trust funder (link to their statement in The Sun tabloid) plan to relocate 13 elephants from what sounds like a pretty nice zoo in the UK to Kenya to “rewild” them. They claimed they were working with the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to do it safely.

    Two days later the Kenya Wildlife Service said whoa, hold up there:

    https://t.co/qZRhFvh1vg pic.twitter.com/XI8602tNIb
    — Ministry of Tourism & Wildlife-Kenya (@Min_TourismKE) July 7, 2021

    Nobody had contacted them, and they do not like the idea, as this would be both difficult and expensive.

    There is nothing on Sheldrick Wildlife Trust‘s web site about this, and I’ve followed them for years and feel confident that they would hate this idea with the heat of a thousand suns. It takes 20 people to rescue a baby elephant who’s been orphaned, and they raise them for years before they are ready to go out in the wild (they take all their elephants out into the bush every day, and allow the older ones to decide not to come back).

    Tony, I am so sorry that you have to live where these wankers have power. I hope I am wrong, but the trust fundie’s foundation owns the land where the elephants live now, and the eight acres would make a lovely luxury housing project, so I suspect shenanigans.

  33. 33.

    Tony Jay

    Good morning, world!

    Just stumbled down the stairs to begin the day and even before I reached the living room I knew that the BBC’s Naga Manchetty was interviewing a Labour Party bod about something.

    The contempt in the voice, the constant interruptions and rapid-fire “You’ve already said that. You’d already made that point.” interjections. The insistence that Labour goes on the record stating how great this Government ‘successes’ have been. And always, over and over again, the demand that they detail exactly how they intend to pay for this policy they’re not in any position to bring in without bankrupting every single working family.

    Followed by “And next up, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak” with giddy, grinning expressions, an ocean size shift in tone to swooning, friendly obsequiousness and not a single impertinent demand that the man in charge of the nation’s finances justify any of his colossal waste of resources.

    “Chancellor, the football, would you like to take a few moments to pretend you give a shit and hug England’s sporting success to your breast like you’re going to have it right then and there on the floor?”

    The BBC is broken as a National broadcaster. It’s Russia Today with different branding. A proper Opposition might take that on board and act according but since we haven’t got one of those either….

    Happy Times!!!

  34. 34.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Tony Jay: Damn, just damn.  Tony, even when you’re not talking about Sir Flobalob, you wield that wit with rapier-like precision.  Next-to-last para is a work of art.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    @Tony Jay:

    And always, over and over again, the demand that they detail exactly how they intend to pay for this policy

    Cut BBC subsidies?

  39. 39.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    Ha! Oh the look on their faces if he’d said that. Your eventual campaign is going to be a blast, and I for one am here for it.

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    Holy siesta, Batman. Descended into somnolence around 2-ish in the afternoon, slept straight through until 10 at night. Would have been longer still except was awakened by the phone ringing.

    I’ll take a stretch such as that – greedily – whenever it comes.

  41. 41.

    sab

    @NotMax: I feel the same. Dozed off last night at about 6:30 pm and just woke up about half an hour ago at 5:30 am. Wow. Of course I slept through dinner (which I was supposed to cook, so spouse will be grumpy today) but still wow.

  42. 42.

    Gvg

    Can Tucker be so delusional about his own importance that he really thinks Putin would actually grant him an interview? Does he think his audience wants to see an interview with Putin? I find even the story about why he was contacting Russians to be kind of unbelievable. I have my doubts about this story but can’t imagine what really is truth. I think it must be worse but there are too many possibilities. Oh and he really is stupid. Nasty, but it is the stupidity that I can’t get.

  43. 43.

    NotMax

    @Gvg

    Tucky’s inflated sense of self-importance and status cannot conceive that if it occurred at all, the Russians’ communications were under surveillance.

    Not at its core unlike the organizers of local Miss Milkweed (or whatever) festivals who were dead certain it was a coveted target for planeloads of A-rabs.

  44. 44.

    sab

    Goldfish dog (Ponyo) woke me up at 5 am because she needed to go out, but then she decided scratching her fleas was more important, so I am back in bed wide awake, and she is back in bed asleep, never having been out. Grr from both of us.

  46. 46.

    sab

    @Gvg: His audience admires Putin. I am hopeful that Amir finds his voice annoying and whining. I do too, but I am biased. Hopefully, suburban housewives will find him annoyingly whiny also.

  47. 47.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @piratedan: [I]f this wasn’t America, your family would be wondering what happened to you eight months ago as your body was peacefully decomposing in a landfill somewhere.

    This. All of this.

    But of course, I’m a “ghoul” and piratedan is a “beloved commenter”…

  48. 48.

    piratedan

    @Uncle Cosmo: since when have I ever been a “beloved commenter”?

    afaik, I’m just a jackal who has unusual taste when it comes to science fiction, popular music and anime who has been rubbed raw in my political sensibilities like everyone else here.  Perhaps that emotional pain and damage that they’ve inflicted on our nation has caused me to stray out of the lane of sanity and led to my wanting to return that pain in retribution, that’s understandable but I’ve noted that my restraint for their behavior is getting shorter and shorter.  Like a good many people here, I want to start seeing those who performed evil acts and deeds in public get their day in court and those that sponsored them, assisted them logistically and financially also get the same.

  50. 50.

    J R in WV

    @Martin:

    I think as a general rule, if you’re trying to set up an interview with someone that the NSA basically exists to spy on, then you can safely assume that your side of the conversation is going to get recorded as well.

    This, if Tucker was calling and emailing with people in CA or MS or AL, the NSA can’t touch him.

    If he’s communicating with foreign enemies, leaders of political institutions committing crimes against Americans, he should know he’s being intercepted by multiple agencies of the US government, purposed to track enemies of our nation.

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