Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Everybody saw this coming.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

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

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

The revolution will be supervised.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Night Open Thread: Trump’s Biggest Fan (& Vice Versa)

Late Night Open Thread: Trump’s Biggest Fan (& Vice Versa)

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Gary Kasparov, *not* a fan:

… Even after the Trump years, when sometimes you weren’t sure if you were watching Fox News or Russia Today, it’s still a shock to hear American commentators of influence recite talking points straight out of the Kremlin’s playbook. Carlson did his best to twist them into MAGA-friendly soundbites, but it’s an impossible task. If there’s anything Putin wants for America, it’s for it never to be great again…

If the rule of international law is to matter at all, Putin’s mafia gang should be sanctioned into oblivion until every inch of Ukrainian territory is returned. Kick his oligarchs and their families out of their posh properties in the free world, where they enjoy luxuries that few Russians can dream of—like freedom of speech. Seize their looted assets, treat them like the criminals they are. All this leverage is available, but the will to use it has been absent.

This makes Carlson’s blather about being too tough on Putin even more laughable. Putin is a hostile actor, an enemy who has repeatedly attacked American interests abroad and in the homeland. Russian hackers and disinformation campaigns target everything from racial strife to vaccine effectiveness to US elections. Why would a flag-wrapped nationalist like Tucker Carlson take Putin’s side? Because Putin took Trump’s? Because he’s admiring of Putin’s authoritarian powers?

Or perhaps it’s that Trumpists, much like Putin, don’t see democracy as anything but trouble despite their claims of being freedom-loving patriots. Praising a dictator is to praise dictatorship, and what could be more un-American than that?

In Putin’s case, it really was about economic anxiety…

Speaking of Trump / Putin fanbois — remember this guy?

As far as I know, this is a parody…

Reader Interactions

33Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    something I sometimes wonder: Does Glenn Greenwald exist outside of the twittererverse these days?

  2. 2.

    Roger Moore

    I think the Centrism Fan Account idea of Greenwald is wrong.  He isn’t doing this stuff for the money or the views.  He’s a committed White supremacist and has been for his whole career.  He’s doing this stuff because he’s a true believer.

  3. 3.

    The Dangerman

    Since the last thread may go dead, I’m gonna continue a discussion from the end of it regarding what happens if neither candidate gets a majority in the Electoral College. My understanding is the House votes by state for one of the candidates that received the Top 3 of the EC votes. Pelosi doesn’t get a say whether or not to hold a vote as Speaker (as well she shouldn’t since jamming up that vote would make her President).

    Could easily be wrong and hope I am (which is why I hope someone smarter than me knows the answer; my limited research on 1876 doesn’t say how the Speaker operated during that CF).

  4. 4.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, when he rage-quit his Intercept gig, which was paying him $500,000 a year, he said he was ‘already making more than that’ through Substack.

    Since GG was one of the Very Important Thought Leaders that Substack paid, for the advertising rights, this might well have been true even if you *don’t* believe those slurs about his governmental support…

  5. 5.

    Captain C

    @Roger Moore:

    He’s doing this stuff because he’s a true believer.

    Although I’m sure he’s not complaining about the coin which allows him to live in a nice gated neighborhood.

    Also, if Putin was actually driving a cab for a living, it was only for the short time between when he ‘left’ the KGB and when he became Anatoly Sobchak’s fixer in Leningrad.

  6. 6.

    Kent

    Russia has a smaller GDP than Texas.   It also has a smaller GDP than Canada.

    What do they actually produce that the rest of the world wants other than oil and gas, grain, and cheap weapons?    What is the Russian Apple or Samsung?  What is the Russian Toyota, Ford, or Tesla?

    After the fall of the Soviet Union they could have become the Canada of Europe.   Instead they decided to rob the place blind and leave an aging alcoholic wreckage behind while the oligarchy parked the wealth of Russia in Maltese banks and London real estate.

    Other than the fact that they have nukes, which is a pretty big fact, I’m not sure why we are so terrified about the place.  Meddling in Ukraine is going to bleed their economy not stimulate it.  We learned that lesson in Vietnam and Iraq.

  7. 7.

    Freemark

    @Kent: Have to agree. Ukraine doesn’t even have the oil or gas, But it makes a useful enemy that isn’t overly dangerous.

  12. 12.

    West of the Rockies

    @Kent:

    I wonder how effective their Sputnik vaccine really is, too.  They sure produced it fast for a country with an aging, dubious  infrastructure.

  16. 16.

    trollhattan

    Folks had batted around the idea of copying the Texas abortion bounty law with a firearm bounty law. Buckle up.

    Pro-gun rights organizations reacted quickly to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal for California to pass a gun-control law modeled on Texas’ abortion ban, with one group promising a legal challenge. Over the weekend, Newsom said he wants the California Legislature to pass a law that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who makes or sells assault weapons or ghost guns after the Supreme Court allowed a Texas law applying the same tactic to abortions to remain in place. “SCOTUS is letting private citizens in Texas sue to stop abortion?!”

    Newsom tweeted on Saturday. “If that’s the precedent then we’ll let Californians sue those who put ghost guns and assault weapons on our streets.”

    The Firearms Policy Coalition, which advocates for gun rights, promised in a statement to fight the proposal. The group had filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court not to allow the Texas law to stand, arguing such a ruling would pave the way for a challenge to gun rights. That filing “predicted that tyrants like Gavin Newsom would use the Texas model against fundamental human rights including the freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms,” the group wrote in a statement.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article256557866.html#storylink=cpy

  17. 17.

    Tony Jay

        “fundamental human rights including the freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms”

    One of these things it not like the other.

    One of these things got pulled from an arse.

    I await with gleeful excitement the Firearms Policy Coalition’s nationwide campaign to put guns in the hands of every single black American. Because it’s their human right to tote iron too, yuh?

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    I wish we had a blog moratorium on Glenn Greenwald.  Why give that a-hole any oxygen?  Who cares what he says?  He is just there to mislead and provoke.  Enough.

  21. 21.

    Ruckus

    @West of the Rockies:

    The Russian population is less than half of ours and they have a over twice the Covid death rate. If it weren’t for all that natural gas and oil they have they wouldn’t be half the country they are. And a lot of their customers are rapidly embracing electric cars, solar and wind power. It isn’t going to get better for them.

  22. 22.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Elizabelle: Perhaps some people are still in shock at how he went all the way to a defender of White Supremacists, insurrectionists and rightwing propaganda but I’m with you. I try not to read his tweets.

  24. 24.

    Cermet

    Funny, the evangelical religious loons would be the first group putting Greenwald into prison for his homosexual lifestyle but he lick’s their butts trying to gain their favor and the rest of the rightwing – who also hate his ‘kind’ but they’d rather have him executed.

  26. 26.

    Gvg

    @Kent: I don’t think we learned that lesson, although the facts say we should have. Russia doesn’t have our ethics. They will strip Ukraine bare, especially if they think their hold is tenuous. And I don’t think they have the introspection ability to learn how futile it is.

    We haven’t really had a public reckoning about Afghanistan like we did after Vietnam. Just a political smear that seems to have already died down.

  27. 27.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Patricia Kayden: Same sentiment here.  I guess Greenwald has enough followers out there that someone needs to be refuting his bullshit, but it doesn’t have to be us.  I’m all for forgetting that he exists.

  30. 30.

    Chris Johnson

    I just want to say how the fuck did they find a box that big for Putin to stand on? TFG is not the shortest guy around. That’s a weird-ass picture.

  32. 32.

    J R in WV

    @Anne Laurie: ​

    Well, when he [Glam Greenwald] rage-quit his Intercept gig, which was paying him $500,000 a year, he said he was ‘already making more than that’ through Substack.

    Since GG was one of the Very Important Thought Leaders that Substack paid, for the advertising rights, this might well have been true even if you *don’t* believe those slurs about his governmental support…

    Glem also participated (probably as a funding producer) in the production of gay porn videos, which probably paid off pretty well. I have only seen bits of credit rolls with his name, so I can’t speak to the actual production qualities of that work. Every little bit of $$$ counts, tho!!! Glem apparently has no (or at least few) boundaries when it comes to making some money!

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