Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Let me file that under fuck it.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Tick tock motherfuckers!

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

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

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

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

We still have time to mess this up!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

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

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / My Schaden…It Is Freuded*

My Schaden…It Is Freuded*

by | 102 Comments

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This made me smile in every corner of my shriveled, vicious heart:

An Arizona-based federal judge has ordered sanctions against the legal team assembled by gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (R) and another plaintiff in a failed lawsuit against winning opponent Katie Hobbs (D) and other defendants from two Arizona county government boards.

The attorneys being sanctioned are not directly named in Thursday’s order, but according to the court docket, Harvard Law School Prof. Alan Dershowitz is Lake’s lead attorney in the matter. Also on her legal team are co-lead attorneys Andrew D. Parker, Jesse Hersch Kibort, and Joseph Alan Pull of Minneapolis. Further listed as a member of her legal team is attorney Kurt B. Olsen of Washington, D.C.

My Schaden…It Is Freuded*

It is my fervent wish that the martyr of Martha’s Vineyard lose his license over this. He won’t, I know, and probably shouldn’t (he didn’t make off with client funds, after all), but a boy can dream.

Oh, and yeah: #ETTD.

Yet more open thread, especially for those jackals, among whom I proudly count myself, who revel in the confusion of our enemies.

*With apologies to every lover of the beautiful language of Heine and Goethe.

Image: William Hogarth, Hudibras and the Lawyer, 1726.

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  1. 1.

    Calouste

    Apparently Nazye is no longer buying Parler. You wonder if he would be even too toxic for them (narrator: publicly maybe, privately certainly not), or that he made a commitment to the shitgibbon the other day to invest in Pravda Social instead.

  2. 2.

    ian

    This does make me laugh. The Derp is strong in that one.

    A good link for anyone who wants another laugh – Chotiner does another New Yorker interview, this time on Morton Klein, the head of Zionists of America who hosted Trump in Las Vegas a few weeks back

    Edit- Zionist Organization of America, not Zionists of America

  3. 3.

    bbleh

    Indeed things have not been going very well for Team MAGA in the courts recently.

    Or in elections.

    Oh, or in the internal proceedings of the Republican Party.

    I await with bated breath the flood of speculative MSM “news” — headlines with question-marks, “analyses” that are no more than opinion pieces, pre-written narratives sprinkled with cherry-picked factoids — that will hammer home the Republicans-On-The-Ropes message.  I’m sure it’s coming any day now … any day …

  4. 4.

    Anne Laurie

    @Calouste: Apparently Nazye is no longer buying Parler.

    My suspicion is that the people who now own Parler don’t want the scrutiny — not least from the conservatorship which is liable to be in charge of Ye’s affairs soon — regarding how and who backed Parler’s establishment in the first place.

    Also, by the time such a sale could be accomplished, there’s a fair chance Ye won’t have the money to buy Parler, at its own valuation.

  5. 5.

    Jinchi

    Jesus, has Dershowitz ever taken a client who wasn’t a complete a**hole. They’re like a magnet for the guy.

  6. 6.

    Princess

    Well, in the sense that Lake (or someone) paid him to give legal advice he knew was trash, he made off with clients’ funds.

  7. 7.

    Burnspbesq

    ICYMI, the Eleventh Circuit has vacated the district court order appointing a special master to review the docs taken from Mar-a-Lago pursuant to the search warrant, and remanded the entire unholy mess with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The opinion, by a panel including two Trump appointees, is simple, clear, and brutal.

    Link to opinion:

    https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202213005.pdf

  8. 8.

    JoyceH

    Oh, and yeah: #ETTD.

    Seriously. It’s as if the guy is some insidious poison or contagion. Everyone who comes into his orbit is poisoned or infected; nothing for them and about them is ever the same.

  9. 9.

    JoyceH

    Meanwhile, “Ye” has been permanently suspended on Twitter! So someone is still manning the controls.

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    Oh no. Not you too, Tom Levenson. That happens to be a favourite among the many peeves that I keep as pets. Look, Schade means misfortune, and Freude means joy. So if you want to do that, you say that someone’s Schade brings you Freude.

    /pedant.

    ETA: All us jackals have shrivelled, vicious hearts when it comes to the confusion of Republicans.

  11. 11.

    Chetan Murthy

    Since it’s an open thread …. my god, the things that Kanye and Lone Skum and their feculent sycophants are getting up to …. holy moley.  My flabber is gasted.

  12. 12.

    frosty

    @Burnspbesq: I am most definitely not a lawyer, I’m an engineer/planner and this may be the first court ruling I’ve ever read. Even I can see the smackdown. Wow! I have to agree with the OP, my schaden is freuded as well!

    ETA Oops, Amir, I stand corrected. Plaintiff’s Schade brings me Freude.

  15. 15.

    piratedan

    with the wheels of the justice system grinding at last after dealing with the pawns and fodder that were sent to storm the Capital, I hope that the J6 Committee can issue findings that result in the indictment of the RW Conspiracy that appears to very much have existed.

    Here’s to hoping that the evidence obtained exposes the likes of certain members of Congress, certain media entities and talking heads, certain elements of the 45 Administration that assisted, if not colluded in the process and even certain members of the SCOTUS and their immediate families.

    Here’s hoping that Garland has the stones and faith in his own staff and the system itself to follow thru.

     

    Would be kind of fun to watch McCarthy reach for the Speaker’s seat only to be indicted for Conspiracy against the US government and removed from office.

  18. 18.

    JWR

    @JoyceH: Was just gonna comment about that. Local CBS TV News just said the suspension occurred about an hour ago. Hmm, I wonder if Elmo’s Racism Gene has kicked itself back into gear?

    ETA, I know, has it ever been out of gear is the real question.

  19. 19.

    Chetan Murthy

    @JWR: I suspect it was some vestigial Self Preservation Gene.  I mean, Kanye literally endorsed Hitler today.

  21. 21.

    frosty

    @piratedan: Here’s to hoping that the evidence obtained exposes the likes of certain members of Congress …

    Please please please let one of them be Scott Perry who was my rep (ptui) until we got redistricted for a useless R from Lancaster County. I canvassed against Perry to no avail, of course.

  24. 24.

    Jackie

    This is horrible, but not completely surprising:

    “A protester who celebrated Iran’s defeat in the World Cup this week was killed by Iranian security forces, according to a human rights organization.

    Iran Human Rights said Mehran Samak, 27, was shot in the head on Tuesday night in the Iranian city Bandar Anzali as he was celebrating his country’s loss against the U.S. soccer team in Qatar earlier that day.”

    https://thehill.com/homenews/3757940-rights-group-protester-celebrating-world-cup-defeat-killed-by-iranian-security-forces/

  25. 25.

    TriassicSands

    *With apologies to every lover of the beautiful language of Heine and Goethe.

    Well, I would hope so. I was deeply saddened to see that beautiful word used and abused with such disrespect. But, your apology is accepted.

    See #10 Amid for more correct, but still unnecessary usage. I’d recommend saying “Meine schadenfreude ist unendlich.” Which is how I will feel if TFG is ever convicted and does time in the slammer.

    To get an idea of the beauty of the word schadenfreude, compare it to the rough English equivalent — “epicaricacy.” Yuck!

  26. 26.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @JoyceH:

    Meanwhile, “Ye” has been permanently suspended on Twitter! So someone is still manning the controls.

    Nah, all it means is that Musk is pissed at Ye-gods for saying the quiet part out loud.

  31. 31.

    scav

    @JWR: Remorse at getting extra victim juice to fuel a run of Truth Social posts about his macho a macho standing up to that woke liberal enforcer Elon Musk?  Yeah, that’s it.

     

    GSD things are getting confusing.  And I don’t think I missed an episode.

     

    ETA: @Baud: My gast is so exercised it is no longer flabby.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    I for one think it’s great hat Kanye is trying to make fascism uncool for white people by associating it with a black spokesman.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    The attorneys being sanctioned are not directly named in Thursday’s order, but according to the court docket, Harvard Law School Prof. Alan Dershowitz is Lake’s lead attorney in the matter. Also on her legal team are co-lead attorneys Andrew D. Parker, Jesse Hersch Kibort, and Joseph Alan Pull of Minneapolis. Further listed as a member of her legal team is attorney Kurt B. Olsen of Washington, D.C.

    I don’t understand how these people became right wing cranks who believe foolish conspiracy theories. Even if they don’t believe, you would think they would understand that their clients didn’t have a case worth pursuing. Is stupid legal advice close to malpractice?

  34. 34.

    Tehanu

    @Chetan Murthy: ​
    Since it’s an open thread …. my god, the things that Kanye and Lone Skum and their feculent sycophants are getting up to …. holy moley. My flabber is gasted.

    Yeah, I’ve noticed that too, how can anyone avoid it? And Lone Skum’s tweets vary from puerile middle-school taunts and talkback to out-and-out Nazi.

  42. 42.

    David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch

    @JoyceH: ​
      I know reports are focusing on the swastika post but really got banned for fat shamin Musk (link)

    Oddly, the fat guy is thin skinned.

  43. 43.

    David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch

    reading about Thursday’s State Dinner at the WH for France

    It’s cute seeing french bred Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Stephen Colbert attend, but of note is repulicans were attending (McCarthy, McCaul, Scalise, Thune) which they never did when a black guy was holding these events. It was so bad none of them accepted an invitation to attend a WH premiere of the 2012 film Lincoln which was about… [checks notes]… a republican.​

  44. 44.

    Freemark

    @frosty: Perry is still my Rep. Do you have Smucker? I really miss Todd Platts. But he was too decent a guy to make it through the Republican primaries anymore so he ‘retired’ and became a judge.

  46. 46.

    p.a.

    While it has been clear since  nomination day that Cannon is a FedSoc hack, she exposes herself as an idiot with an obviously crackpot decision that goes against the driving current of upper-crust  ‘conservatism’ to non-person tRump as fast as possible to protect the brand.  And this from someone insulated from tRump & co. with a lifetime position!

    Maybe a true believer??!!😱

  48. 48.

    JPL

    let the guessing game begin.

    from Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter

    Republican representative Ralph Norman (R-SC), who opposes electing McCarthy speaker, told right-wing media that those opposing McCarthy have a different candidate for the position. That candidate is not a House member, and Norman said: “It will be apparent in the coming weeks who that person will be. I will tell you, it will be interesting.”

  49. 49.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @piratedan: “At last” suggests that the wheels of justice are only now starting to grind.  But they’ve been grinding all along.  Much of this stuff was set in motion in Spring of 2021, shortly after Garland/Monaco took over, it just takes time to get to this part of the process.

  52. 52.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Saw a headline at LGM saying “bye, bye, Dearie”, which seemed to me a bit unfair to Judge Dearie. I got the impression he acted with integrity and good faith while fulfilling the demands of a position that should have never been created in the first place. I wonder what happens now with the work he’s already done on the documents.

  53. 53.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @JPL: Is this the cack-brained scheme to put in TFG as Speaker, then impeach Biden and Harris so that he becomes acting President? Wouldn’t put it past them to try.

  56. 56.

    Barbara

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: ​Dearie is likely the least surprised person on the planet at this ruling. He had already canceled the next hearing before the ruling came out. His work is now summed up as ‘never mind.”

  59. 59.

    LiminalOwl

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Wow, gorgeous.  I remember seeing at last one before, but they still amaze me. And that “Nightscape Images” is something I’ll save to recommend to clients; I looked at your photos and felt tension draining out of my body. Thank you.

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: I don’t think Trump could get the votes of 218 Republican Reps. He’s too toxic, lazy and fickle.

    The prospect of an outsider is intriguing, and I’m curious as to who Norman is talking about. But if I had to bet money even up, I’d put it on the proposition of someone from within the caucus. If McCarthy can’t get the votes, Scalise probably can.

    There is also the possibility that Don Bacon (R-NE) suggested- a more moderate Republican elected with support from Democratic members. But that’s only a theoretical possibility. The Democratic caucus looks very cohesive, and it’s not in their interests to take temporary advantage of Republican disarray. January, 2025 is not that far away, and this Republican majority is a dead duck walking, I think.

  61. 61.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Watching Mornin Joe and one the biggest idiots from FTFNYT is shocked to discover Emmanuel Macron can speak english

    the stoopid,  it burns

    🤕

  62. 62.

    pluky

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:  For crying out loud, he’s an ENArch! I’d bet he has at least two modern European languages in addition to French at his command.

    One of my HS friend’s mother was a Dutch national who went to Hotel School. She had to have basic command of FOUR languages to graduate.

  63. 63.

    oatler

    He was in Logick a great Critick,
    Profoundly skill’d in Analytick.
    He could distinguish, and divide
    A hair ’twixt South and South-west side

  65. 65.

    cmorenc

    Dershowitz, in working for Lake, probably imagines himself as like Samuel Adams defending British soldiers in court who were accused of massacring civilians in 1770, instead of helping a delusional authoritarian insurrectionist overturn a fair election.

  71. 71.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    @LiminalOwl: Richard of Nightscape images is a good fellow, even though his Milky Way is backwards, he drives on the wrong side of the road and talks funny.  The interesting thing about the shots he showed is that mine had a shot from Joshua Tree(the windmill) and a shot from the Trona Pinnacles, there were two other photographers each with shots from JT(a couple with an old rusty truck, that is about 100 yards from the windmill) and a pano at Trona.

    @kalakal: Thanks.

  73. 73.

    JPL

    @Geminid: Assuming Herschel loses, he’d be available.   Press conferences would be amazing.  Herschel would only be available if Lindsay is by his side.

  75. 75.

    Geminid

    @JPL: Whoever Republicans pick, he could well be their last Speaker this decade. I look for them to drop 20 seats at least in 2024.

  76. 76.

    Ken

    @Anne Laurie: the conservatorship which is liable to be in charge of Ye’s affairs soon

    Wouldn’t it be delightful if one of the side effects of Ye’s dinner is Trump’s offspring calling their lawyers and saying “Tell me more about conservatorship.”

  77. 77.

    Nora

    @cmorenc: Not to be pedantic, but that was JOHN Adams who defended the British soldiers.  He was a lawyer, and I don’t believe his cousin, Samuel, was.

  79. 79.

    Ken

    @JPL: I have seen speculation it’ll be a previous Republican speaker like Boehner, Ryan, or Gingrich. Not Hastert, for obvious reasons.

  83. 83.

    JPL

    @Ken: It would give Gingrich another chance to hook up with another aide.   Gingrich would be okay for the maggots.

  84. 84.

    davecb

    @Brachiator: The legal advice some gave the plaintiffs might have been “it won’t fly, and I resign” (;-)) Because it’s privileged, we won’t know unless they say something in their defense.
    One might hope for screams of “not me, your honor!”​​​

  85. 85.

    Geminid

    @Ken: I think Paul Ryan would steer clear of this cranky caucus. He stepped away in 2018 to avoid the coming train wreck, and it is still not over.

    I never thought Ryan retired from politics permanently, but he’s better off staying out of Republican politics until the  2028 cycle.

  86. 86.

    MisterDancer

    @JPL:  Gingrich would be okay for the maggots.

    Agreed. He basically made much of this whole shitstorm possible by breaking norms left and right in the House. He still gets media to this day.

    He would, in fact, be something of a headache for us, er they voted his slimy ass in.

  90. 90.

    Ken

    @evodevo: The Republicans don’t need any Democratic votes to elect a Speaker, provided they all pull together and agree on one candidate, placing the good of their party above personal ambitions, petty rivalry, lack of impulse control, and psychiatric disorders.

    So yes, the Republicans will need some Democratic votes to elect anyone other than McCarthy, and possibly even to elect him.

  92. 92.

    Geminid

    @Ken: No reason for Democrats to help Republicans out in this instance. They’ll come up with someone eventually, hopefully after a period of discreditable backbiting and backstabbing.

  95. 95.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @pluky: “One of my HS friend’s mother was a Dutch national who … had to have basic command of FOUR languages to graduate.”

    My HS math teacher – who became, in no particular order, my intellectual father-figure, Dutch uncle, worthy chess opponent, best of friends and partner in thoughtcrime** – graduated HS in Rotterdam fluent in English, French and German and picked up Danish and Swedish before emigrating here. Added to the koine Greek and Hebrew in the seminary he attended. (He was in fact an ordained minister teaching geometry and trig to support his family while waiting for a congregation before he decided he liked math and statistics more than religion.)

    ** And (just FTR) whose presence on this planet (like my parents’) I’ve missed just about every day of the last 22 years… :^(

  96. 96.

    Ken

    @Geminid: I agree, though if we get a couple months into the process and the Republicans still can’t agree on a speaker, I can readily imagine people will start to insist Democrats need to vote for one of the candidates that’s not acceptable to all the Republicans. Because only Democrats have agency.

    Though if that happens, I still think the Democrats should choose the members that will cause the most trouble for the speaker-elect and Republican unity:  “I, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, am pleased to cast this vote for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker.”

  97. 97.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @James E Powell: Sam, also known as the fun Adams, was among other things a Brewer.

    Milwaukee wouldn’t even be founded until 43 years after his death – and the team, 124 years after that. Wonder what position he played… ;^p

  98. 98.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @JPL: This makes perfect sense, since ‘sNewt is a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person is like – and there are so many stupid people in the House GQP caucus…​

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @Ken: Republicans will more likely elect a Speaker the first day or soon after. If McCarthy can’t get the votes, I expect Scalise will.

  101. 101.

    VOR

    FFS, of course Macron speaks English. I know I’ve seen video of him speaking in English previously. That should not be news.

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