I am really not sure which I love more.
This: (more of the same at the twitter link)
My Dearest Vladimir
How's your war going in Ukraine? Did I misunderstand? Wasn't it supposed to last 3 days. It's been over 6 months
I'm miserable. Karl Rove says I'm guilty of espionage. Ingraham abandons me. Chris Christie says I was wrong. Ronna has stopped paying my lawyers pic.twitter.com/7hNVyFfMdP
— Tomi T Ahonen Is The Rat In The Hat (@tomiahonen) August 30, 2022
Or this from Emptywheel: (much more at emptywheel)

In the far-away land of Mar-A-Lago
sits a once-vaunted leader, now brought very low.
His voice, once ubiquitous, lordly, and loud
has become but a whimper, no longer so proud.
The cameras have vanished, the crowds have all shrunk,
as he scrambles for donors, this fallen-down punk.And then come his lawyers, with news of a guest,
A visit un-looked for, unwelcome, unblessed.“That Bratt-I-Am, that Bratt-I-Am,
I do not like that Bratt-I-Am.”“You must return those stolen docs.
You must return them, yes, every box.”“I do not have a box of docs,
and they are mine, you lying fox.”But then they came and then they found
docs aplenty, all around . . .One doc, two docs
red docs, blue docs
Docs TOPSECRET/SCI
Docs with pictures from on high
Docs with covers, docs with stamps,
Docs in files marked “terror camps”
Docs from spies and docs from techs
Docs ’bout planes on navy decks
Docs on armies, docs on friends
Docs on missiles, docs on end!
Pretty sure it was Ozark who linked to emptywheel, but the other one was a link from yesterday and I have no idea who posted that one.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Media now reporting that Biden will speak at 8:00 EDT. Does that affect your Zoom call?
Percysowner
Just on MSNBC Newt Gingrich is being called to testify before the Jan 6 committee. I know I haven’t been good enough to actually see old Newt perp walked for sedition, but a girl can dream.
Steeplejack
Kaite Phang, subbing for Ari Melber, just said that the January 6 committee has announced that they want to talk to Newt Gingrich.
Baud
@Percysowner:
@Steeplejack:
I haven’t heard his name in a while.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: Any idea why?
Ben Cisco
@Percysowner: PLEASE?
I’ve been…well…I haven’t been HORRIBLE…
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
Apparently information has surfaced showing that he was dicking around with TFG before and after January 6.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
As I understood WG, the zoom call will run 45 minutes (7:15-8:00 pm), ending just in time for the POTUS speech.
zhena gogolia
the hill
Urza
@Percysowner: How exactly was he involved? I mean the whole 90s was practically seditious for him, but more recently I can’t recall him actually being named as playing a part
Edit: I see Zhena Gogolia got it.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Gingrich last seen on Twitter (within the last week) sitting in the car while Callista limped into Starbucks to pick up their order.
gene108
Stupid Joe Biden’s motorcade is going through Philly RIGHT NOW and traffic’s stopped in the direction I’m going.
His speech better rock, he has no idea how much time I’m forced to sit in traffic!
I just want to get home.
I’m also low on gas!!!
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Okay. My vague memory was that the Zoom call was going to start at 7:45.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: The zoom is at 7:15 and it will last 45 minutes.
So no conflict. I guess the zoom is the warm-up act for President Biden? :-)
Martin
@zhena gogolia: Gingrich was advising Trump on advertising which promoted the big lie and asked voters to pressure state legislatures to decertify.
That could be interpreted as an effort to interfere in a federal election which is a felony – 5 years.
Cameron
Newt Gingrich, the pride of Hummelstown, PA? Wow. Kinda like Christopher Lee rising again in one of those Hammer Films.
Cameron
@gene108: Maybe you could ask him for a lift.
WaterGirl
Maybe they should just do a cattle call and have every Republican show up to talk with the committee?
gene108
@gene108:
Per news, Joe’s plane just landed. I’m going to be stuck for awhile…damn it…
gene108
@Cameron:
He owes me an hour of my life, I’m not getting back…harrumph…
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Steeplejack: Well, dicking around was his favorite pastime, so I guess le plus ça change…
Baud
@gene108:
Good! Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you!
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Okay, I looked it up (includes photos).
Baud
@Steeplejack:
If she had had cancer, he would have driven off and left her there.
Elizabelle
@gene108: Hey. Count your blessings. We used to get stuck in traffic for … Dan Quayle. Who now turns out to be a Republican high water mark. Who saw that coming??
Baud
@Elizabelle:
DAN QUAYLE SAVED AMERICA!!!
dmsilev
@Steeplejack:
Not very west-coast friendly, sadly. I’ll have to miss the live broadcast; some errands to run right after leaving work.
Steeplejack
This might be the evening for a couple of gin-and-tonics to accompany the political spectacle. Underreported supply-chain issue has been the dearth of Schweppes and Fever Tree tonic, and yesterday I found a scrawny six-pack of Schweppes (in 7½-ounce cans—weird size) at Harris Teeter.
Steeplejack
@dmsilev:
I thought (maybe wrongly) that it was originally scheduled for 9:00 ET, which is a bit more PT-friendly.
Baud
@dmsilev: The West Coast is pretty solid on democracy.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m always surprised to hear Newt Gingrich is still alive.
Layer8Problem
@Baud: Limping? Leg injury? Boot? I’m surprised Mr. Romance didn’t just push her out at a stop light and drive away.
dmsilev
@Steeplejack: Yeah, that’s the more typical scheduling. Wonder why this one was pushed forward an hour. Oh well; I’ll read about it and probably watch it on YouTube later this evening.
Steeplejack
@Layer8Problem:
C’mon, man! You’ve got to at least drive her out into the country to dump her, if not all the way to that farm upstate.
Benw
That Seuss pastiche is SubartDiane level masterful!
Carlo Graziani
Can I just say, Dr Seuss was one of the greatest poets who ever wrote in the English language, and every one of his works justifies itself as a story, as imagery, and as verbal music. I’m very sorry, but as much as I subscribe to the sentiment, Emptywheel’s Seuss mixtape up there doesn’t capture the master’s spirit for me. Call me Mr Grinch.
WereBear
@Steeplejack: As pointed out in the thread, she knew who he was. And she got a Vatican ambassadorship out of the deal, I understand.
Poptartacus
All these sorry muthafuckers need a nice slap upside the head.
Sure Lurkalot
@Baud: some of the replies to the tweet, you have a gmta there.
She knew who he was when she married him.
She knew who he was when she committed adultery with him.
She’s lucky it’s just a foot injury – if it was cancer, he woulda left her at the Starbucks
Mike in NC
Newt Gingrich will look smashing in orange coveralls.
MagdaInBlack
@Steeplejack: Oh well, she picked him. Her choice
Eta: also too comment #39 above. And Werebear.
Cameron
@WereBear: Which, of course, was a political masterstroke, given the Vatican’s easy-going views on divorce.
lollipopguild
@Poptartacus: “I am poptartacus!” No! I am poptarttacus! NO! I am poptarttacus!”
Carlo Graziani
Although, given that Newt and Dr Seuss are both in this thread, here’s a bit of 1994 Internet humor (before Sir Tim ruined it all with his newfangled http stuff): Two versions of “How The Gingrich Stole Congress”. The first one is pretty good, the second one actually channels Theodore Geisel, in my opinion.
Cameron
@Mike in NC: Perfect – he and the Donald working together for the American people, keeping our roads free of trash…..
Gin & Tonic
Today was the traditional first day of school in Ukraine, for those children lucky enough to have a school to go back to. This Twitter thread shows some of the others, after six months of russian attacks. https://twitter.com/novinaach/status/1565235712731004928?s=21&t=SPYIXI3V2rqdXTAdV2L8KQ
You don’t have to understand Ukrainian.
Carlo Graziani
@Gin & Tonic: What cities are those?
And what kinds of alternative arrangements are there?
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@Baud:
And as the old joke asks : “Good luck? Bad luck? How do I know?”
Roger Moore
@Sure Lurkalot:
Just remember: if someone will cheat with you, they’ll cheat on you.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Baud: Meh, he’s no Jack Kennedy
Roger Moore
@Carlo Graziani:
I’ll have you know those of us who were truly in the know were surfing the web in 1994 using the latest version of NCSA Mosaic.
Gin & Tonic
@Carlo Graziani: All over. Kramatorsk, Lysychansk, Bakhmut, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv. The last one is Kharkiv.
A lot of families aren’t there, so there’s some combination of moving kids around and some on-line. Obviously there are now capacity issues where the IDP’s have gone: Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil.
Carlo Graziani
@Roger Moore: Let me mourn the passing of USENET using minor historical inaccuracies for rhetorical purposes, man.
Carlo Graziani
@Gin & Tonic: Impossible to know what it must be like. I’m sorry.
dm
The pod-bros just mentioned that TFG’s lawyers (responding to the Justice Department’s Special Master response) said that the Special Master will have to have a Top Secret clearance.
So, I guess the “I declassified them” didn’t stick to the wall (of course they haven’t claimed he did so in any court filing, anyway).
OzarkHillbilly
T’was I today. Glad I was able to accomplish it between fits of laughter.
WaterGirl
@Benw: I know! I thought for sure that SD would be kicking herself for writing one.
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Back when he was Speaker, he often spoke approvingly of the efficiencies of the Chinese government. Then he left office under a cloud, and a number of people unkindly noted that in China, he would have been shot and his family billed for the bullet.
Not really going anywhere with this, it just seemed funny at the time
There go two miscreants
@Ken: It would be funny now if it happened that way, frankly. I’d laugh.
kalakal
@Carlo Graziani: Heh. Since I was a Cixen back in the 80s I’ve always felt this web business is flash in the pan