Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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

Infrastructure week. at last.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Let there be snark.

In my day, never was longer.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

The willow is too close to the house.

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

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

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

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

Peak wingnut was a lie.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

You are here: Home / Economics / Grifters Gonna Grift / GOP Grifters After Dark Open Thread: MAGAAaaah!

GOP Grifters After Dark Open Thread: MAGAAaaah!

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Corey Lewandowski really sh*t the bed when he badly misjudged what the trophy wife of an Idaho development baron might consider foreplay. (It’s never a positive when the Daily Mail gives an American political figure a big write-up). Best practices required that he go under the radar for a while. And, since he’d managed to dirty up Kristi Noem while he was at it, the Trump Party apparently decided to highlight another female ‘rising star / potential 2024 VP candidate’ to lead the rebranding. But ol’ Corey still has a wife and kids to support, and he doesn’t have family money or high-dollar social connections to pad his fall, so…

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  2. 2.

    Starboard Tack

    The difference between Dems and Reps is that, while there is corruption among Dems, it’s retail. With Reps, it’s wholesale.

  4. 4.

    Another Scott

    Yup. They’re all convinced that each one of them is the 2nd Coming and due. And given that every accusation is a confession, lots of them probably want to be in office to gum up the works so they aren’t sent to prison for their past actions…

    In other news, about that California pipeline spill, Phys.org:

    US news outlets reported that a ship’s anchor could have been responsible for dragging the pipeline along the seabed and splitting it open.

    But Coast Guard officials investigating the incident said Friday the rupture might not be new, and could have happened as long as a year ago.

    Captain Jason Neubauer said multiple ships’ anchors may have contributed to the displacement of the pipe, and it was not initially clear when the leak began.

    Underwater video of the damaged pipeline shows “marine growth” around the 13-inch crack that is leaking oil—something that would not have appeared overnight.

    This discovery “has refocused the … timeframe of our investigation to at least several months to a year ago,” Neubauer said.

    A routine inspection by pipeline owner Amplify Energy which took place last October showed no damage, he said.

    “We’re going to be looking at every vessel movement over that pipeline and every close encroachment over the past year,” Neubauer said.

    That will include examining satellite images, radio broadcasts and vessel traffic patterns.

    The nearby container ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are among the world’s busiest.

    A pandemic-sparked logjam has left dozens of huge vessels at a time anchored at sea while they await a berth.

    Captains ordered to wait outside the port are given specific places to set anchor, but investigators will look to see if any anchors have been dropped in the wrong place.

    They will also look to see if a storm that tore through the area in January could have moved any of the ships.

    Martyn Willsher, the chief executive of Amplify Energy, said this week that underwater observations revealed that 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) of the pipeline were not where they should be.

    “The pipeline has essentially been pulled like a bowstring,” he told a press conference on Tuesday.

    “At its widest point it is 105 feet away from where it was,” he said, adding the break in the pipeline was at the apex of this bend.

    Willsher refused to speculate on the cause of that displacement and whether a ship’s anchor could be responsible, but said: “It is a 16-inch steel pipeline that’s a half inch thick and covered in an inch of concrete.

    “For it to be moved 105 feet is not common.”

    Officials involved in the clean up originally said well over 100,000 gallons of crude could have been spilled.

    But on Thursday they said the actual amount could have been around 25,000 gallons.

    (Emphasis added.)

    I’m shocked, shocked that inspection by the pipeline owner didn’t find any damage…  [eta] To be clear, maybe all the damage happened after the last inspection (a year ago).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  6. 6.

    bbleh

    The modern Republican Party is designed to fail. For the credulous anger junkie yahoos in the rank and file, it’s a drug habit that constantly requires a bigger and bigger fix until they OD, and for the sociopathic functionaries who supply the junkies, it’s a Ponzi scheme, where the only way to win is to knife the other guy before he does you (and before the desperate junkies tear you apart).

    I don’t see how every day isn’t saturated with fear and loathing. It really makes your skin crawl …

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    Allen ‘crazy even by the standards of the Texas GOP’ West has COVID. But don’t worry. Per his Twitter feed,

    2/ Col. West will be available through virtual means to do events until his family's health issue is rectified. He is already taking Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin protocols. The West family thanks y'all for your prayers. "God's blessings and Texas First!"— Allen West (@AllenWest) October 9, 2021

    Sending, as usual, ThoughtsAndPrayers.

  12. 12.

    Starboard Tack

    @phdesmond:

    My fav.

    And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”

    But on the other side it didn’t say nothing.

    That side was made for you and me.

  13. 13.

    Redshift

    @dmsilev:

    He is already taking Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin protocols.

    I guess we’re about to find out if he’s one of the pure grifters who are vaccinated themselves while sacrificing their followers on the anti-vax altar like all the Fox types, or if he’s a true believer like all the small-time Limbaugh wannabes who really are unvaccinated and firmly believe the grifters above them are too.

    I’m not sure which way I’d bet…

  16. 16.

    Redshift

    @Starboard Tack: I’m also fond of:

    In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
    By the relief office, I’d seen my people.
    As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
    Is this land made for you and me? 

  19. 19.

    wombat probability cloud

    Oy vey. Who in their right mind names a kid Trashelle? Or am I missing something?

  20. 20.

    Jerzy Russian

    @dmsilev:    If I understand correctly, there is at least an admission that COVID is real and not a liberal hoax of some sort.  Progress, I suppose.

     

    Thoughts and prayers for those unfortunate parasites and worms in his gut.

  26. 26.

    JoyceH

    @Redshift: A later tweet reported that a chest X-ray showed pneumonia and he would probably be admitted to the hospital, so my guess would be – unvaccinated.

  27. 27.

    jl

    I’ve never thought using brags about being a serial knife murderer as a pick-up line. I’ll give it a try.

  28. 28.

    Starboard Tack

    How did Lewandowski not understand that the Dumpster doesn’t pay what he doesn’t have to?

  30. 30.

    jl

    @JoyceH: I saw a tweet someplace (Josh Marshall?) that West had to put out a tweet saying he was unvaccinated, but that he respected freedom of choice and his wife was vaccinated.

    Apparently his wingnut followers decided now that West’s sick, it’s a good time to freak out that he might be vaccinated. For some reason that I cannot figure out.

  35. 35.

    Chetan Murthy

    @JoyceH:

    Am I a bad person?

    No.  Those bastards are *the enemy*.  For us to live, they must die: they have made that clear.  So let them die.

  36. 36.

    MagdaInBlack

    Rawstory tells me that the Georgia nutbag, MTG, is feuding with Lin Wood. I’ve made popcorn for this one.

  37. 37.

    jl

    @Starboard Tack: IIRC Ben Carson claimed he did because of anger management issues, which he overcome through strength of character and help from God.

    Lewandowski did it just to watch them die. Which, I guess, is a better line when you’re introducing yourself to someone? Maybe? Maybe not.

    Well actually, I think he was stalking Odom. So, I guess bragging about slashing people fits better with that pick-up approach.

  38. 38.

    Anoniminous

    @dmsilev: ​
    Because shitting out your intestinal wall linings will do just marvy things for viral infection of endothelium cells in heart and blood vessels.

    Hope the moron dies to leave the world just that infinitesimally smarter.

  41. 41.

    Chetan Murthy

    @JoyceH: I did the math just now.  I started isolating Mar 2020, and aside from 1.5mo (Jun, half of Jul) I’ve been doing it continuously up to today. That’s 500+ days.

    They need to hurry up and die already.

  47. 47.

    Mel

     

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Aren’t they also working themselves into a lather because they think that “contaminated”  vaccinated people “shed” something terrifying (the virus? microchops? pixie dust? common sense?) onto the “pure blood” anti-vaxxers?

    I didn’t pay much attention at the time to exactly what the covidiots think is supposedly being shed, as I was too gobsmacked and horrified by the eugenics dogwhistles that they’re trying to weave in to the whole batshit crazy anti-vax narrative.

    I had to have surgery a few weeks ago, and the nurses were phenomenal. I don’t know how they keep on going in the face of all the abuse they receive from wingnuts and the overwhelming grief and stress of the pandemic.

  49. 49.

    Morzer

    @Starboard Tack: It’s an open question as to whether Trump is able to pay, at this point. He’s got a portfolio of money-sink properties for which he overpaid, low liquidity and a big ol’ bundle of loans coming due very, very soon.  We now know that even his griftotel lost 70 million bucks, rather than being profitable to the tune of 150 million.  Deutsche Bank has booted the people who were handling his account. Where does the big fat loser go to get his next tranche of loans?

  52. 52.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Morzer:

    Where does the big fat loser go to get his next tranche of loans?

    Vladi will never allow him to go bankrupt.  He’s too valuable an asset, and going bankrupt would decimate his appeal to the mouthbreathing base.

  53. 53.

    El-Man

    MAGA Again?
    Funny, I always thought that to do something again, you have to have done it before…

  56. 56.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Starboard Tack: Honestly, I don’t think that’s going be a problem for them.  Look at all the revelations of TFG’s business history.  As long as the government doesn’t do shit about it, it doesn’t affect him.  All that’s needed is a mere wisp of plausible deniability, and his base accepts it.

    So that’s what they’ll provide: a tissue-thin veil of a story for how it isn’t just a blatant payoff.  And voila, back in business.

    As I read someplace: Merrick Garland thinks he’s being neutral; what he’s really doing, is being complicit.

  57. 57.

    Morzer

    @Chetan Murthy: The Democrats will keep fooling themselves that neutrality is what the country wants and needs right up to the point when the GOP seizes power and the fascist firing squads start the “clean-up operation”.

  58. 58.

    opiejeanne

    @Major Major Major Major: I have a necklace of vaseline glass, aka uranium glass, from the 1940s, IIRC. The yellow crystal beads are faceted, and it glows under black light. It’s been worn only once each by my daughters, to Hallowe’en parties where the lighting included black light.

    There was some concern expressed when I bought it, whether it was safe to wear. The jury is still out, and right now I wonder where it’s stashed, because I don’t remember the last time I saw it.

  59. 59.

    opiejeanne

    @Mel: They’re trying to blame the vaccinated for giving them Covid-19. They think the vaccine makes us shed live virus or something, maybe not that coherent. In saying his wife is vaccinated, he’s signaling that she gave it to him, which may be the case since she’s got it too but it’s more likely that he gave it to her.

    They also seem to think that the vaccinated will all drop dead within the next 1-3 years.

    I read recently that most of the anti-vaccine BS is coming from Putin’s troll farms, just to sow chaos here and elsewhere in the West.

  60. 60.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Morzer:

    Where does the big fat loser go to get his next tranche of loans? 

    Fake his own death, but, OOPS!, the life insurance company long ago told the orange shitstain to go take a long walk off a short pier?

  62. 62.

    Cermet

    @Morzer: Easy, putin’s people – both putin and rump know he will be running and since the fix is, buying his ass will be SOP. putin will, once again, own the president select of the u.s.

  63. 63.

    Cermet

    @opiejeanne: Get a cheap Geiger counter – it will both help you locate it and put to rest any issues of its radioactivity (likely rather low – do look up how to read the thing if you get one.)

  66. 66.

    oatler

    If we hadn’t responded to that Thoroughly Impolite Dustup in1861 the Confederacy might have obliterated itself.

  67. 67.

    lowtechcyclist

    @opiejeanne: ​
     

    I read recently that most of the anti-vaccine BS is coming from Putin’s troll farms, just to sow chaos here and elsewhere in the West.

    That may well be so, but I think the imprimatur given by Fox News, GOP politicians, right-wing talk radio and other ‘real’ media, etc. makes a huge difference in terms of how many people buy into it.

    Andrew Sullivan was looking in all the wrong places for that treasonous fifth column.

  68. 68.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Morzer: ​
     

    The Democrats will keep fooling themselves that neutrality is what the country wants and needs right up to the point when the GOP seizes power and the fascist firing squads start the “clean-up operation”.

    They should be calling the GQP out for what it is. They are Covid traitors, climate traitors, and January 6th traitors to democracy.

    These are not people we can work with to solve our national problems. They have taken the side that these aren’t even problems, and they oppose any efforts to address them. That’s what needs to be said. If any GQP congresspersons disagree, let them prove it with their votes.

  70. 70.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Shalimar: ​  I can’t believe UR taking this seriously. Personally, I don’t care who wins, I root for kaos and disaster. As Thaddeus Stevens would say, what is fun without surprise.
    Actually, that’s not true, I root for the team with the hottest cheerleaders.​​

  71. 71.

    Geminid

    @Morzer: Putin never got the sanctions relief he wanted out of trump, but his investments in trump as a chaos agent have paid off. The trump organization can probably stagger along for another few years without collapsing entirely. The real estate market is hot now, so trump can convert properties like the “trump W(h)inery” near Charlottesville, Virginia into cash to keep the rest of his shabby empire afloat. The trump hotel in D.C. is already on the market.

    The legend of “sucessful businessman” served trump well in his first run, but at least among his hard core of supporters he is much more than that now. And he’ll probably be able to maintain that front for three more years anyway.

    Meanwhile, trump is monetizing his hold on the Republican party. Mar-a-Loco has become a shitty kind of political Lourdes, where primary candidates tithe to the overlord for fundraising banquets. This may not be enough to win an endorsement, but it may be a prerequisite. Federal Election Commission reports will reveal some but not all of this grift.

    Even without the impulse of his egotism, “economic insecurity” may compel trump to run again. Jimmy Carter and the elder Bush had good lives to go on to. Not so trump. His position is analogous to that of a player in a winner-take-all game of Hearts, who has collected so many spades that he must “shoot the Moon.”

  72. 72.

    NorthLeft12

    If he hasn’t started or even completed a tell all book yet, I would be willing to bet Lewandowski will now.

    That book might be the sleaziest and most self serving piece of garbage ever published, but he would probably receive some serious coin for it.

  78. 78.

    J R in WV

    @opiejeanne:

    I have a necklace of vaseline glass, aka uranium glass, from the 1940s, IIRC. The yellow crystal beads are faceted, and it glows under black light. It’s been worn only once each by my daughters, to Hallowe’en parties where the lighting included black light.

    There was some concern expressed when I bought it, whether it was safe to wear.

    If one wears the necklace once in a great while, no harm done. If you wear it all the time, that would be bad. I collect mineral specimens, some of which are radioactive to varying degrees. So I paid attention to these issues from the beginning.

    To rare parties with black light, almost certainly less exposure than that received flying across the country at altitude. Which flight crews are exposed to every day. I wouldn’t worry about it, but I would try to find it.

    I am not a doctor/radiologist, just an amateur rockhound, but I have read articles about this subject. We have decorative antique dishes that glow, and we don’t use them for food at all. Just showing off in the cabinet, where we don’t ever go.

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