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It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Trump Crime Cartel / The Funniest Thing About All of This

The Funniest Thing About All of This

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So according to rumors, Trump is getting nailed with about 30 counts stemming from the criminal conspiracy to cover up hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen MacDougal. And what is cracking me up the most is that he didn’t have to do it. At all.

The people who voted for him watched him shit on a gold star family, spew racist crap from the moment he announced, and all the other vile bullshit he did, and they were fucking A-OK with it. The “christians” who polished his knob for five years, holding prayer vigils, etc., none of those fucking phonies gave two shits about him banging a porn star while married. They’re all fucking stupid and frauds and all they care about is “winning” and being told they are better than everyone else.

The Funniest Thing About All of This 1

Fer fuck’s sake, his scumbag supporters were wearing “Grab Me By the Pussy” shirts at rallies.

The Funniest Thing About All of This

They had proud “deplorable” stickers on their pick-em up trucks right next to the Punisher sticker and Confederate Flag. And Karen and Stormy are both white, so the racists didn’t give a fuck.

He literally didn’t have to do it.

Reader Interactions

261Comments

  1. 1.

    Alison Rose

    Yes, but see John…you know this because you have a functioning brain.

    And thus you see the problem re: TFG.

    Also, those women who wore the shirts, like…I’m in no place to looks-shame but JFC really? How anyone could look at that man and see even an iota of attractiveness is beyond me.

  3. 3.

    Van Buren

    Well, actually, because he’s a gentleman who wanted to spare Melania’s feelings from those tawdry accusations, he HAD to keep them quiet.

    I think I heard that as an explanation somewhere along the line.

  4. 4.

    Tom Levenson

    It wasn’t fear if losing supporters that motivated him. He was terrified of the review Stormy could give on his performance.

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    @Van Buren:  Speaking of that, Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker’s satirist:

    Melania Trump Seen Wearing “I Don’t Care” Jacket

    PALM BEACH (The Borowitz Report)—Melania Trump, who made headlines in 2018 by wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?,” was spotted wearing the garment again Thursday evening.

    Mrs. Trump, who was seen in the controversial jacket while taking a stroll around the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, offered no explanation for donning it other than that she “was really in the mood to wear it tonight.”

  9. 9.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I hope tfg takes the whole damn party down with him. The whole bunch of cowards who couldn’t stand up to a corrupt white nationalist bully.

  10. 10.

    smith

    @Alison Rose: The point those women failed to comprehend is that since they would consent to being groped by Trump it would be no big deal.  Consensual groping is pretty unremarkable — it’s a common part of foreplay.

    The women Trump actually groped didn’t consent.  Non-consensual groping is sexual assault.

  13. 13.

    Gvg

    It’s hard to say. Logically, not all supporters have the same tolerance. He would have lost some support and look how close his win was. Of course, the odd thing was he didn’t seem to expect to win that first time so maybe there was some other reason. Also, the longer people support a leader, the more their own pride gets involved and the harder they defend him. They are really defending their tribe now more than him.

    the ones with that shirt are the ones who like to offend people. Oppositional defiant disorder or something. They aren’t the whole voting block. I think our so called extreme progressives have some of that, just not so vulgar at this time. I bet they enjoyed getting photographed.

    he barely won and never broke 50% so he was always on shaky ground, always.

  15. 15.

    Alison Rose

    @smith: Of course. But they also barely believe sexual assault exists.

    They’re the kind of women who would immediately jump to the defense of any (white) man accused of assault, because they’re permanently stuck in High School Cool Girl™ mode and want the boys to think they’re fun. Pathetic. And some of them are raising sons who will grow up to assault people because their own damn mothers told them it’s fine to do so.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    That woman in the second photo looks like Lauren Boebert will in a few years.

    Same look of reduced intelligence, and delight in being spitefully outrageous.

  17. 17.

    sdhays

    @Gvg: Yeah, this might have interfered with Comey’s October surprise. A few thousand votes here and there in the upper Midwest and Trump never holds office.

  18. 18.

    scav

    But HOW could those morally superior sexual assault volunteers wear those tee-shirts where innocent children might read them?!!?

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    I really hope the 2016 election, and Russian (and any other) interference gets a close look.

    We haven’t seen any shoes drop on that, have we?  Has a less redacted Mueller Report ever been released?

    It’s not ancient history, and there was probably some criming.

  20. 20.

    Jackie

    @Tom Levenson: Bahahahaaa!

    Nailed it! I’m pretty positive once Melania had her “💰ace in the hole” aka Banner💰, she put as many locks on her private bedroom as possible.

  22. 22.

    Roger Moore

    I think you’re wrong about this, John. It did matter. Yeah, the vast majority of Trump voters knew what they were getting and were fine with it, but there were still people who were holding their noses while they voted for him. Given how razor-thin his victory was, he couldn’t afford to alienate the minority of nose holders, and this was the kind of thing that might well have alienated them. That’s doubly true because the threat was coming right after the Access Hollywood tape, and it might have been enough to turn the media against him. I don’t know for sure it was necessary for him to win, but it’s not implausible to think it was.

  23. 23.

    JPL

    Daily Show tweet said trump finally won a majority of the votes.    My hope is that Willis indicts soon.   At some point McCarthy is gonna look silly attacking every attorney

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    @smith:

    More importantly, it wasn’t incidental that it was non-consensual.  Trump cares most of all about power, and forcing himself on women is one of the ways he demonstrates his power.  He wouldn’t care about sex with some nobody who asked for it.  It has to be non-consensual or with someone he can brag about later for it to be a turn-on.

  27. 27.

    Redshift

    @scav: Ooh, ooh, I know! Because they don’t actually care at all about protecting children, they just want to be able to accuse people who oppose them of not caring about kids.

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Is it too soon for me to tell all the cynics that they can kiss my lily-white ass?  After all, this could just proof of how much Garland and Smith suck….

  29. 29.

    EarthWindFire

    @Van Buren: I’ve heard that explanation from people who turn around and whine that Bill Clinton was never indicted. (Criminal vs civil law, how does that work?) Funny how they never consider that Bill might not have wanted to embarrass his wife. Tis a mystery I tell you. //

  32. 32.

    topclimber

    @Tom Levenson: I have never been clear whether he paid not only for the coverup, but also for the sex.

    Fundie fems would forgive the former (he wanted to protect poor Melania’s feelings). But paying for it sort of negates the fantasy that women were eager to have him grab them. LOSER!!!

  33. 33.

    Sister Golden Bear

    One nice side-effect of Anger Yam’s indictment is that trans people get a day’s break from Republicans talking about how they want to eradicate us. Though I’m sure they’ll be back to it tomorrow. Because the grand jury was made up of trans people, doncha know.

  36. 36.

    Redshift

    I missed the earlier celebration threads, but just wanted to report that since we have no cake in the house and I’m not much of a baker, I am having a spot of gin.

  38. 38.

    piratedan

    for me…. it’s not that he was banging a porn star while he was on the campaign trail with a wife and youngster at home… It’s a free country and if an agreement is made between two consenting adults… whatevs… it’s the fact that after the fact, when he sought to cover his prodigious arse regarding the affair, that he used campaign dollars to pay her off.  Then he lied about paying her off…. and the fact that he was so cash poor that the only “ready cash” he had available was his campaign stash… the crime perfectly encapsulated the entire Trump experience… Trumps personal gratification and desires need to be met, so he commits adultery, with a porn star… defrauding his “moral high ground” supporters.  With the added bonus of him being a shitty business man, so he has to steal from his own campaign, violating federal law by implicating his own charity and getting his bagman in the slammer, who he gleefully underbussed to cover his own ass.

  39. 39.

    Delk

    I’m actually more offended with the fit of the shirt and the horrible lettering job. Congratulations lady, he didn’t grab whatever the arrow is pointing to but you certainly grabbed internet ‘fame’.

  40. 40.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Kyle Rittenhouse @ThisIsKyleR 3h
    Pray for President Trump

    chris evans @notcapnamerica 8m
    I pray that they make him put his spray tan, dentures, wig, girdle, and high heels in separate bins to go through the metal detectors.

  43. 43.

    JPL

    @Omnes Omnibus: Now I hope that Fani Willis indicts.   I want McCarthy to be screaming from the rooftops that they are all after trump.   The other reason is I want those that attacked poll workers to spend time in Fulton Cty jails.

  46. 46.

    Dan B

    Unlike NYC the “Chistian / God fearing” state leg of Missouri has defunded all public libraries, budget $0.

  47. 47.

    zhena gogolia

    I can’t believe the one time I had to be away from my computer for 5 hours, it happened then!!!

  48. 48.

    mali muso

    I also missed the celebration threads earlier but have caught up by toasting this beautiful day with a Manhattan. Don’t have any bubbly on hand so that seemed an appropriate choice. May this be the first pebble in an oncoming avalanche.

  49. 49.

    dmsilev

    @JPL:

    At some point McCarthy is gonna look silly attacking every attorney

    Its ok, he’s very good at looking silly in the name of defending TFG.

  50. 50.

    Alison Rose

    @Suzanne: I laughed so hard I snorted.

    Also…remember when he insisted on stage at the debate that he actually has a huge schlong? Thing is…people who do don’t usually feel the need to talk about it.

  51. 51.

    kalakal

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I pray that they make him put his spray tan, dentures, wig, girdle, and high heels in separate bins to go through the metal detectors.

    My vote goes for a couple of very high powered fans moving at random near where he’s seated. Watching that bizarre growth on his head making a bid for freedom at intervals will help keep the audience hooked

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    After all, this could just proof of how much Garland and Smith suck….

    How’d you get a sneak peak at tomorrow afternoons’ MSNBC scripts?

  53. 53.

    JaySinWA

    @kalakal: I’ll save some enthusiasm for arraignment day when we know how serious the charges are. Today is a good start though.

    Then I look forward to the other indictments to come. Baby steps.

  54. 54.

    kalakal

    @JPL:

    The other reason is I want those that attacked poll workers to spend time in Fulton Cty jails.

    This. Let there be consequences

  55. 55.

    sdhays

    @topclimber: I have never been clear whether he paid not only for the coverup, but also for the sex.

    IIRC, Stormy slept with him with the hope he would put her on Celebrity Apprentice.

  56. 56.

    Redshift

    @topclimber:

    I have never been clear whether he paid not only for the coverup, but also for the sex.

    As I understand it, he didn’t pay, he got together with her on the promise that he could put her on his TV show (which of course, he didn’t try to do.)

  58. 58.

    PsiFighter37

    I hope the good people of my city show up and give that fuckwad the Bronx cheer he deserves when he shows up to get booked.

  59. 59.

    Another Scott

    @piratedan: As I understand it, it would have been charged with federal crimes if he had used his own money, because he was running for office and the payment was to keep information out of the public eye that would affect the campaign.

    It was a campaign contribution and exceeded the limits, and he didn’t report it.

    PublicIntegriity.org:

    Why do government watchdogs allege these payments violated campaign finance laws?

    Watchdogs say the payment was meant to influence the 2016 presidential election, and Trump’s campaign committee violated the law by failing to report the expenditure as a campaign expense.

    In addition, since Cohen initially said he paid Daniels out of his personal funds, a complaint from nonpartisan government reform organization Common Cause said the money should have been reported as an in-kind contribution to the campaign, in which case it would have been illegally large. (Individuals may give a political candidate no more than $2,700 per election.)

    Giuliani on Wednesday said Trump reimbursed Cohen.

    “The repayments took place over a period of time, probably in 2017, probably all paid back by the end of 2017,” Giuliani told the Washington Post. “That and probably a few other situations that might have been considered campaign expenses.”

    Trump can legally contribute unlimited amounts to his own campaign, but the money must be disclosed on campaign finance reports.

    Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy and external affairs for Common Cause and a lawyer who once worked at the FEC, said Giuliani’s comments constitute “a bald-faced admission.”

    “This was a potential knowing and willful violation of campaign finance laws,” he said, pointing especially to Giuliani’s comment about the news of the Trump-Daniels situation potentially breaking days before the presidential election on Nov. 8, 2016.

    The election campaign laws are too lax in the USA, but when they are violated they are still felonies.

    Corrections welcome.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  60. 60.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: this failed lawyer, and somehow very successful tweeter person

    Will Stancil @whstancil. 3h
    What an utter humiliation for Garland though

    @sdhays:

    IIRC, Stormy slept with him with the hope he would put her on Celebrity Apprentice.

    If I ever knew that, I’d forgotten. I can’t remember where I (re)learned it just the other day. Apparently, she would not have been the first porn star to meet those “celebrity” qualifications

  61. 61.

    zhena gogolia

    Well, I was out to dinner and had a glass of wine, but I didn’t know about the news so it didn’t count.

  62. 62.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Such welcome new to wake up to this morning! & so many different threads to celebrate in!

    The charges does have the feel of nailing Capone tray evasion, but I’ll take it!

  63. 63.

    Jess

    @smith: Remember how astounded Bill O’Reilly (I think it was him, a few years back) was when he finally figured out that consent was the only issue for those lib perverts? That anything was okay as long as everyone was a consenting party?

  69. 69.

    piratedan

    @Another Scott: ty for the correction, it still qualifies as the quintessential Trump crime imho as it embodies his own selfishness, hypocrisy, disdain for norms and financial chicanery.

  70. 70.

    Suzanne

    @Alison Rose:

    remember when he insisted on stage at the debate that he actually has a huge schlong? 

    Yes, unfortunately I do.
    #SoFuckenGross
    #ThrewUpInMyMouth

  74. 74.

    MisterForkbeard

    I’m just gonna note that I’m on a road trip and only just got the news, so… we stopped at a diner and ordered pie.

    Banana Cream, yo.

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    Another nice thing today:  Damar Hamlin (of the Buffalo Bills; revived on the field this season) visited Joe Biden in the Oval Office today.  They were both looking sharp.

  77. 77.

    Tony G

    Trump has been cheating and breaking the law all of his adult life.  It’s just a reflex with him.  I hope his ass ends up in prison.

  78. 78.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mai Naem mobile: I hope tfg takes the whole damn party down with him. The whole bunch of cowards who couldn’t stand up to a corrupt white nationalist bully.

    Well, we are talking about a shitpile of corrupt white nationalist bullies.  Fellow traveler to them.

  79. 79.

    Tom Q.

    @Jess: I think it was Limbaugh, actually.  But, yeah, I had the same reaction: he seemed stunned to realize that people thought most any kind of sex that was consensual was okay; like, that was a foreign concept to him.

  80. 80.

    Hob

    @Elizabelle: Well, if you want to see a very non-celebratory and downbeat take on this from someone on our side, mosey over to Emptywheel and read any more of co-host “bmaz”‘s comments on the indictment post. That guy has had a wee bit of an anger management issue for some time, but today he’s going off epically about how this is a total bullshit political indictment and how anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot. He may have offered an actual legal argument about this at some point (which I wouldn’t have been able to evaluate anyway) but right now he’s just spewing contempt; has no love for Trump, just hates the commenters more and is 10000% convinced this will go nowhere.

  82. 82.

    Redshift

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    The charges does have the feel of nailing Capone tray evasion, but I’ll take it!

    An important point I always keep in mind is that a prior record is part of the sentencing guidelines (one of the reasons a lot of the J6 assholes got fairly short sentences.) So a “minor” felony conviction could be quite significant if he’s convicted on other charges later.

    Also, it’s important not to focus on the tawdry details, which aren’t actually part of the crime being charged. The (expected) indictment is for falsifying business records, and it was done in an effort to influence an election (by preventing voters from finding out about the incident.)

  83. 83.

    Ihop

    I like to believe that the whole reason he lied about the affairs with stormy Daniels and Karen MacDougal was that it would have triggered a clause in his pre-nup with Melania.

    Even though he fucking did all of it. Coward.

  84. 84.

    Anoniminous

    This is only the first of his legal problems and I want to see that goddamn toad spend every dime he has on legal fees.

  86. 86.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    One indictment, two indictment, three indictment
    ahahah!

    four indictment, five indictment, six indictment
    ahahah!

    ~ Count von Count

  87. 87.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Roger Moore:

    it might have been enough to turn the media against him. 

    You mean the assholes who masturbated to every deplorable thing the orange shitstain said and did?  Doubtful.

  88. 88.

    mrmoshpotato

    @oatler:

    I’d like to see the NYT publish this one. 

    They’ll just use it as an excuse to scream about Hillary’s emails again.

  93. 93.

    Redshift

    @Hob: Given that he doesn’t know anything more about the evidence, that’s just another bullshit opinion. Since Bragg is generally considered fairly cautious, it’s entirely possible that he has new evidence that the feds didn’t when Cohen was indicted.

  96. 96.

    David Anderson

    @Hob: yeah, I am really curious as to how he would have led an investigation into all of this.  He is very sure that everyone else is fucking things up in obvious to him ways but never quite offers a good way to do things.

  97. 97.

    Subsole

     

     

    @Roger Moore: Absolutely NOTHING would have turned the media against Trump.

    He was their ticket to punishing that uppity Arkansas hillbilly who overstepped his place all those years ago.

    They would have fellated Satan’s thrice-barbed cock on national teevee to kill Hillary’s chances. He could have raped their childre, and the good folks at CNN and the FTFNYT would have offered him seconds.

  102. 102.

    Shalimar

    @Tony G: The lifetime of crimes is why i just don’t get why anyone idolizes him.  He was admitting in interviews in the late ’70s to paying off mob figures to get his buildings constructed.  This pattern of public admissions for hundreds of crimes in books and interviews has continued every single year since then.   He should have spent the last 40 years in prison, and instead this is the first time he has ever been charged with a crime.

  103. 103.

    CaseyL

    There are apparently 34 counts of falsifying business records in the indictment.

    It’s doubtful – possible but doubtful – they all relate to Stormy Daniels.

    I don’t think it’s the Trump Organization case (inflating and then deflating property values), unless Bragg found some evidence connecting Trump personally to that.  I’m thinking not, since the Trump Organization matter is being handled by Trish James, on the state level.

    I guess we’ll find out next Tuesday, at the arraignment.

  104. 104.

    Subsole

    @Anoniminous:

    I want him to spend the GOP’s dime on it.

    All that cash he hoovers up milking the rubes? Less money to the rest of that rotten cesspool of a party

     

    And dare I hope he lashes out at the GOP for failing to protect him?

    Dare I hope he goes…the Full Perot???

    That…that would be…sooooo nice.

  106. 106.

    dmsilev

    @CaseyL:

    next Tuesday, at the arraignment.

    Mark your calendars! WaPo:

    Trump is expected to turn himself in and appear in court on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m., said a person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been publicly announced.

  107. 107.

    Trivia Man

    And now Ron “whatever nickname he has now” Desantis is pledging he will not cooperate in extradition. Eyeroll

    TFG WANTS the spectacle – he will proudly walk in and play the martyr. Gotta get that photo op. (As long as he can have his hair and makeup done first. And no handcuffs.)

  108. 108.

    Chetan Murthy

    @David Anderson: Over at Emptywheel they continue to believe that the clock (as in “# of months between Watergate and Nixon’s resignation”) resets every time any noteworthy event happens in the TFG cases.  So the fact that we’re now enter YEAR EIGHT since he started criming in the 2016 election runup, doesn’t count.

    I used to read emptywheel.  But I gave it up, b/c all I got from them was “oh, Garland knows what he’s doing, just you wait!”  and “Wait LONGER!”  The expiration of the statute of limitations on TFG’s 2016 election crimes did nothing to change their storyline.  Useless.

  109. 109.

    coin operated

    And what is cracking me up the most is that he didn’t have to do it. At all.

    *nods head in complete agreement

  110. 110.

    Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Rachel Maddow already found a unique way to Debbie Downer this–she warned us these proceedings could turn out to be very protracted and boring.  Frankly, I hope they do bore her–it would reduce the chances that she’ll spend the first twenty minutes of her Monday night shows on the kind of wild speculation she usually indulges in when a legal proceeding interests her.

  111. 111.

    Another Scott

    @Subsole:

    Yup. TFG was their meal ticket, and they all knew it.

    VanityFair.com (from May 2021):

    Two days later, MAGA fanatics invaded the United States Capitol. They ransacked the halls of government, disrupted the Electoral College count, and endangered hundreds of congresspeople, journalists, and staff. Five people died. As the melee unfolded, the nation watched in horror. Jones, who pleaded for the 25th Amendment while making a video of Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace, was one of more than 4,006,000 watching MSNBC that day. Another 2,988,000 were tuned in to Fox News. CNN clobbered them both, with 5,221,000 viewers, making January 6 the most-watched day in the network’s 40-year history.

    Even combined, those numbers pale in comparison to a megawatt special on one of the broadcast networks, like, say, Oprah interviewing Harry and Meghan, which netted a whopping 17.1 million American viewers. (Never mind the 95 million who watched the O.J. Simpson chase back in 1994.) But in cable news terms, the ratings were gangbusters. If this was peak cable news, you could call January 6, as dark and awful as it was, the peak of the peak. As the veteran producer put it, “You may never see those numbers again.”

    In the days and weeks after President Biden’s inauguration, without endless provocations from the man who occupied such a vast swath of our attention for the better part of five years, news consumption started to feel more and more, what’s the word—healthy? Liberated? Sane? It’s not as if there was suddenly a shortage of major news, not least of all a pandemic that continued to kill thousands of Americans every week. But as the normalcy of the Biden administration sank in, the average person’s media diet began to feel further and further away from the nonstop tweets, the constant controversies, the soul-sucking turmoil.

    Bit by bit, the Trump gold rush slowed to a trickle, and people began to break their cable news addictions. There were, after all, plenty of other things to watch. Another industry veteran recalled a conversation he’d just had with a friend who said it used to be that “after work, they would come home and put on Rachel Maddow or put on CNN because they had to get caught up on whatever crazy thing had happened that day. Now they come home and decide what to stream.” (By the last week of March, Jones was spending an evening tweeting live video commentary of Zack Snyder’s Justice League.)

    TV news is always about eyeballs. Always. Similarly with other news media outlets.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  112. 112.

    Subsole

    @Shalimar:

    There is a certain kind of mind that finds sleaze incredibly alluring, because it is such a foreign shore to them. Their nice, normal suburban life affords them the comfort to imagine a life more dangerous, and also shields them from enough of the harsh realities of such a life as to make it seem glamorous. Thrilling. Forbidden.

    It’s kind of like Walter Mitty, but more low-rent. And lame.

    Very, very lame.

    Because these assholes are lame, y’see.

    Just like the recently-indicted Pol Pork.

  113. 113.

    Trivia Man

    @Ihop: Great point. I wonder if Melania has renegotiated her prenup since then and it is no longer in play. If not, that would be extra spicy to see her leverage Stormy for even more of his hide.

  119. 119.

    Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride

    @Chetan Murthy: Statutes of limitation are tolled (i.e., suspended) during any time when it’s impossible or impracticable to bring charges.  As long as Trump was President, it was impossible for DOJ to prosecute, in its view, because of its own memo on the subject (and the lack of any contrary precedent), and just about any judge would probably have found it impracticable to tie up the sitting president in non-stop litigation.  So, for statute of limitations purposes,  the entire time from the beginning to the end of his term is probably suspended.

  122. 122.

    Ihop

    @sdhays: that’s it, it was just fucking business

    Neither  procreated or experienced pleasure from the…..

    Ick. Oh god…..

     

    Well, she definitely fucking didn’t

  124. 124.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betsy: What did flowers ever do to deserve comparison to that gold-digging birther bitch?

    That Eurotrash is on record saying she doesn’t believe the first non-white US president was born in the US.

  128. 128.

    kalakal

    @Tom Levenson:

    I’ve just remembered the wonderful performance review of Nicholas Soames, a sex pest Tory MP of similar dimensions to Trump. It could easily be TFGs review

    “Having sex with him was like having a wardrobe fall on top of you with the key sticking out” …

  133. 133.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Damn, I wanted to schadenfreude watch Fox when this went down. I don’t like to give her any ratings but I may have to DVR the first 15 mins of Maria Bartiromo tomorrow.

  134. 134.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: Many sources agree that the DOJ has given up on these cases.  And Garland’s silence, *eight years* (and >2yr since Biden took office) argues that, yeah, he ain’t gonna do *shit*.

  135. 135.

    different-church-lady

    Maybe he wasn’t trying to hush her up about the affair so much as the… quality of the affaring, shall we say?

  140. 140.

    Chetan Murthy

    @different-church-lady: The “grab ’em by the pussy” tape came out on 7 Oct 2016.  Cohen paid off Daniels in Oct 2016.  If you remember, even lots of GrOPers were shouting that the tape was damning; if he’d been exposed as having affairs at the same time, it’s possible some of the “hold their noses and vote for the R” voters might have just not bothered to vote.  Certainly it’s a plausible explanation for why TFG spent that kind of money.  And the timing makes it plausible that the two events were related.

  144. 144.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: Dude, it’s been EIGHT YEARS.  >SIX YEARS since the crimes around the inauguration.  And *nothing* has been done to hold him accountable.  Garland has had TWO YEARS of unfettered power to investigate and charge.

    We all know it takes time.  Tell it to the kids who get run into prison on drug charges with comparatively the speed of fucking light.  These were crimes committed before the eyes of the entire nation, and he’s getting away with them.

  145. 145.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Omnes Omnibus: so you’re not impressed by what “many sources” said in a blog post a year ago? what are you, some kind of Philadelphia lawyer?

    ETA: Garland has had TWO YEARS of unfettered power to investigate and charge.

    good lord

  147. 147.

    piratedan

    I guess this particular Dildo of Consequences must have been held up in a shipping container in the Port of Los Angeles has finally been delivered to DJ Trump, no word yet on its condition…..

  148. 148.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @kalakal: I’ve often thought Lindsey looks like he… didn’t get a good night’s sleep before his TV appearances

  150. 150.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: Omnes, you’re a *lawyer*, and I’m pretty fed up with *lawyers* who can’t seem to do fuck-all about the corruption that is destroying our country, so, y’know, until you all *nut up* and actually do your jobs, I take everything you say about the difficulty of these things with a giant hunk of salt.

    Or as McNulty said it: youtu.be/nAZZdL1qhk8?t=124

    None of you want to actually clean this up.

  151. 151.

    JoyceH

    I think it’s entirely plausible that Daniels going public before the election could very well have cost Trump the election – and they knew it. Consider that we now know that there were dozens if not scores of women who’d been on the receiving end of Trump’s boorish assaults. If Daniels had gone public so soon after Access Hollywood, she wouldn’t have been the last. It would have snowballed into a tawdry avalanche, and all but the most dedicated MAGAts would have been revolted. A lot of those people would not have voted for him.

  152. 152.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Redshift:

    he didn’t pay, he got together with her on the promise that he could put her on his TV show (which of course, he didn’t try to do.)

    Ah.  So he refused to pay the prostitute, which meant he had to pay her more so she wouldn’t talk, which he did with other people’s money.  How very Trump.

    @Tom Q.:

    he seemed stunned to realize that people thought most any kind of sex that was consensual was okay; like, that was a foreign concept to him.

    For people who don’t value consent, some other standard must rule what is acceptable.  I remember thinking how he really gave the game away there.  Conservatives think consent is just a meaningless buzzword.

  153. 153.

    Jess

    @Tom Q.: Ah yes–it probably was Limbaugh. It seemed like he had only just figured out that “consent” was the key term. Like so many men of his ilk (including TFG), it seems the concept had never crossed his mind in any serious way. It’s like it never occurred to him that people could enjoy sex as mutually respectful equals, with no winners vs. losers dynamic.

  155. 155.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Tell it to the kids who get run into prison on drug charges with comparatively the speed of fucking light.

    It is much, much easier for the cops and DA to railroad some kid who can’t afford a high caliber legal team into jail, yes.  It’s disgusting that it’s that way, and that cops deliberately abuse that huge flaw in our system.

  157. 157.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Chetan Murthy: ​
      That, of course, is your prerogative. But on a day when Trump is getting indicted for shit he did several years ago, it seems a little foolish. YMMV.

  159. 159.

    Citizen Alan

    @Alison Rose: I was thunderstruck when my RWNJ sister was completely on Kavanaugh’s side over the sexual assault allegations because she has two sons and was irrationally afraid that one of them might someday face false rape accusations. I noted at the time that she had a daughter who was about to enter her Junior year of college who was far, far more likely to be date-raped on campus than for either of her sons to be falsely accused of anything, but it seemed to just go over her head.

  165. 165.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Ksmiami:

    biggest hiring error along with retaining Jerome Powell

    Why is keeping Powell an error? I suppose one criticism of him might be not acting soon enough to not have to jack up interest rates so high over a short span, but he wasn’t alone in thinking inflation was “transitory”. Even Yellen and Krugman believed so and later admitted they had been wrong

  166. 166.

    NotMax

    Holy moly, step away from the computer for most of the day only to return and find we’ve reached Lexcon 1.

  167. 167.

    SFAW

    @Chetan Murthy: ​

    You just don’t effing get it. The NY indictment(s), along with the efforts of Fani Willis (and company) show that the “eeyores” (as certain commenters call them) are completely worng about Garland, because if the state/local DAs/AGs can do it, then Garland will do it, any day now, and you just don’t understand how complex things are, and something something reasons something, and every T must be dotted and every I crossed.
    Or something like that.

    On a more serious note, I remain hopeful that Merrick Garland will actually do something about the role of the elected January 6 co-conspirators (for lack of a better term), but it does try one’s patience, waiting for him to “build his case” or whatever it is he’s doing. [“Hey, SFAW, what about those 37,000 convictions of the foot soldiers? Huh? Huh?” Yeah, whatever.]

    Although I am hopeful — for real — that Jack Smith will actually do something tangible about the bigger fish.

  168. 168.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jess: What really chapped me about it is that I literally have been falsely accused of rape! In 1991, I was arrested and detained for about 5 hours because the dumbass sheriff’s deputy was responding to an alleged rape at the hotel which was next door to the hotel I was staying in. Five fucking hours despite the fact that I was attending a high school band director’s convention during my student teaching semester and had my supervising teacher sharing the hotel room with me! I attribute that incident as being the start of my becoming an ultraliberal who believes ACAB.

  170. 170.

    different-church-lady

    @SFAW: This is in no way a defense of Garland, but it’s kinda good this comes from NY state instead of the Feds. It would be completely spun as “BIDEN PROSECUTES POLITICAL OPPONENT”.

  172. 172.

    different-church-lady

    @Subsole: Good god, for a fraction of a second I found myself thinking, “Then Trump’s presidency was worth it!”

  175. 175.

    SFAW

    @different-church-lady: ​
     
    I don’t disagree that the RWMF’s would/will play it that way. But if Garland were mitigating his efforts because of that likelihood, well ….
    Please note the use of the subjunctive rather than the indicative. I hope the Anti-Eeyore Brigade also understands the difference.

  176. 176.

    different-church-lady

    @NotMax: ​
      I’ve got a sort-of gin collins thingy going. I got out of work too late to grab a bottle of bubbly before all the packies closed.

    For dinner I’ve got some tater tots smothered in shredded Mexican cheese blend from Trader Joe’s and SHUT UP HATURZ!!!

  178. 178.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @different-church-lady:

    This is in no way a defense of Garland, but it’s kinda good this comes from NY state instead of the Feds. It would be completely spun as “BIDEN PROSECUTES POLITICAL OPPONENT”

    I agree. Not that that stopped Trump from clumsily trying to tie it to Biden recently. When I first read it, I was like, what does a local DA and grand jury have to do with the POTUS? Oh right, the DA’s a Dem, that’s all it takes

  182. 182.

    Subsole

    @different-church-lady:

    @SFAW:

     

    Folks, there is actual factual video of the Fox Folks getting the news.

     

    I am experiencing a high that drugs cannot even begin to touch.

     

    Decades. Actual decades.

    Actually, a quarter of a century.

    25 long years these miserable people have been tormenting us. They browbeat us into their little imperial program while we were grieving 9/11 and just kept on going, day after day, for 25 years, without cease or shame or anything remotely human. They sold us out to our enemies while telling us they were the only true patriots. They beat the weak while calling themselves Christian. They called themselves freethinkers while falling for every brain rotted cult huckster on the planet.

    Everything they ever called us, they were. And worse.

    I am so god damned happy to see them miserable. I hope they cry ’til they puke.

  184. 184.

    SFAW

    @Subsole: ​
     

    I am so god damned happy to see them miserable. I hope they cry ’til they puke.

    That’s actually pretty Christian of you. Compared to me, that is. I want to see them cry/puke until they croak from dehydration. Or stroke out. Or commit seppuku. [Just kidding about that last one; that would require that they had some semblance of honor.]

  185. 185.

    NotMax

    Well, one thing’s for sure. Tuesday’s election in Wisconsin will receive short shrift, if it is even mentioned at all by the TV talking heads.

    “Sorry, Kornacki, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. Hope you brought along a good book for the fifty-nine minutes and thirty seconds each hour we won’t be giving you camera time.”

  188. 188.

    frosty

    @piratedan: I love that “dildo of consequences”. I sent it to a scatological friend of mine (Tucson raised) who said it was “the precursor to the buttplug of justice”
    This concludes my contribution to BJ After Dark.​

  190. 190.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @SFAW:

    Oh yeah, how could I forget about those (((Soros bucks)))?

    How do I get my hands on those? /s

  192. 192.

    SFAW

    @NotMax: ​
     
    Fair enough. Was Hunter carrying it in Loomcoin on his laptop?

    Oops, sorry, Loomcoin is the LGM preferred currency.

  196. 196.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There has been reporting for well over a year, that the SoL for TFG’s 2015 and 2016 crimes has lapsed, and at the same time, *no* action to charge him for those crimes.  And it’s been reported all over — you can google “trump federal statute of limitations” and you’ll get a bunch of older articles (along with newer articles about Bragg, state charges, the how the SoL there is tolled).

    My point is that Garland is *acting as if* the federal SoL has expired.  I mean, sure/sure/sure IT TAKES A CENTURY TO PROSECUTE A PRESIDENT WHAT DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND YOU PEASANT?!?1?11?  But back on Planet Earth, after TWO YEARS, and supposedly Mueller’s folks leaving behind a massive book of evidence, nothing has happened with these old charges.  Instead, supposedly Garland has gone after the new charges Jan6-and-after.  And then people (like the ones at emptywheel) can trundle out the “it’s only been two years, it takes TIIIIIME” argument.

    But hey,  maybe it’ll all get fixed.  Maybe they’ll charge TFG for firing Comey, for all the obstruction-of-justice acts he took.  Maybe.

    I ain’t holdin’ my breath.  I lived thru Fitzmas and Mueller time.  Enough with the bullshit.

  197. 197.

    prostratedragon

    @SFAW:  Garland signs off on cases the US Attorneys or Special Counsel hand him. He doesn’t go out and make cases on his own, as I understand it.

  198. 198.

    Subsole

    @SFAW:

    I mean, what REALLY burns my ass about it all is they’re sitting here talking all this noise about how this is political overreach and 1984 and tyrants and Obama Jew Muslim Immigrant Transgender arglebarglebullshit, and I’m thinking

    “Dude, we’ve seen your texts from the Dominion case. I wonder what you’re texting now?”

    Like, these people really are just…not evil, nothing so solid or grandiose.

    Wicked. Just wicked people. And they have preyed on so many people who were simply weak. I’ve lost family to these fuckers. I want to watch them squirm.

     

    Edit: I hope Raven doesn’t mind me borrowing his phrase, but “Xin loy, motherfuckers.”

  199. 199.

    frosty

    @different-church-lady: Loaded tater tots! It’s my go to appetizer when out at Happy Hour (Shhh don’t tell my doc who wants me to cut down on the carbs … and probably the drinks too,)

    ETA: No snow here on the Mason-Dixon Line. My kid is disappoint, but I didn’t even take the shovel out of the garage. My lower back is happy.

  200. 200.

    Alison Rose

    @Chetan Murthy: Okay, I’m actually curious to know this: What do you think is the reason Garland hasn’t brought charges against him yet? I’m not asking because I’m confused, I just want to hear what you think it is.

  202. 202.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m talking about *Garland*.  *Garland* is the one who took an *oath* to defend our Republic.  He’s *responsible* for prosecuting the *traitors* who tried to depose our government.  And he’s doing fuck-all.

  206. 206.

    Burnspbesq

    @schrodingers_cat:

    The world is not paying attention.

    of course not. The IPL starts tomorrow. For the next two months, Modi can do whatever he damn well pleases, and Vijay S. Public won’t notice a thing.

  207. 207.

    frosty

    @different-church-lady: ​ Lightly burdened will do too.

    OT: I can’t figure out why one reply shows up at Visual and the next as Text. The Text ones have an extra line that I have to go back and delete. I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!! FYWP!!!

    ETA: And now the edit is Visual. Arggh!

  210. 210.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Chetan Murthy: You obviously missed my point.  You were complaining about the time it is taking to prosecute Trump and saying it has taken years.  And yet the events that led to today’s indictment took place years ago as well.  You also are ignoring…  Aw fuck it, you don’t care.  The line to kiss my ass starts to the left.

  213. 213.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @caring & sensitive:

    Let’s not forget that Garland appointed Jack Smith who appears to be proceeding quire expeditiously

    and in spite of what some people seem deeply invested in believing , it’s not like Smith walked into an empty office with a bunch of blank legal pads and empty file folders

  219. 219.

    different-church-lady

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: ​
      Nothing annoys me more than when there’s only one person in front of you to kiss Omnes’ ass, but then you still have to wait forever because everyone else is kissing it through the app.

  222. 222.

    Ithink

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): oMG haven’t seen you around here in forever fellow college-age blog dweller! How have you, the job and life been in general lately (or the last few years, if it’s not much to mention at all)? :D

  224. 224.

    Subsole

    @Burnspbesq:

     

     

    @schrodingers_cat:

    The world? Or just America?

    I freely admit a lot of India is simply opaque to me. I kind of get Modi. He’s a Putinist, essentially. He is a hyperreactionary who wants to drag the world back into some pre-Enlightenment nightmare made darker by the dim lights of a perverted science (to borrow a phrase). The BJP, from what I gather is…odd. Like, an Indian version of Francoist Spain.

    What I don’t get is how it fell apart so quickly.

  237. 237.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Welp, woke up to thirty-some-odd indictments and four bigfoots. (Hey, I’m seven hours ahead of New York time and the indictments came in after midnight my time; what can you do?) I may try to take a picture of what the Greek newspapers look like today covering this, though they may be disappointing because the news was probably too late for them to go to press with it.

  238. 238.

    Brachiator

    He literally didn’t have to do it.

    Yeah, he had to do it, because he wanted to.

    The only thing that restrains Trump is possibly fear of being labeled a loser

    ETA. I heard a news story about the grand jury not meeting again until April and missed the indictment news and early reactions.

    I wonder, will Trump’s mug shot include some Secret Service agents?

  239. 239.

    sab

    @Subsole: I googled Mammoth Mountain snow and that’s what came up. They were bragging about how much snow. 695 inches is 57 feet, so they must have had more later according to Sister Golden Bear’s numbers.

  240. 240.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Time to reactivate Alcatraz.   Will rename it after him – Alcatrash

  242. 242.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Going by the ranting from the Right on Twitter (“Trump is Tupac now”) I think this  might be a big deal with the MAGA hats.  Sort of like in their crazy world view Trump is only cool as long as he is getting away with it.

  243. 243.

    Brachiator

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Sort of like in their crazy world view Trump is only cool as long as he is getting away with it.

    For all their blabbering about being moral Christians, a lot of the MAGA crowd loved Trump because he seemed to be living their fantasy of being so rich and powerful that he could get away with anything, including abusing people.

     

  245. 245.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Nah – it’s a New York case, so we’re looking at a literal example of getting sent up the river (the expression came from sending convicts up the Hudson from New York to Sing Sing Prison).

    (And yeah, people like Trump don’t generally do hard time, but if he whips up a lynch mob AGAIN in an attempt to intimidate the DA and the court? I suspect that may play a role in sentencing.)

  246. 246.

    J R in WV

    I’m glad you guys are able to  celebrate the indictment!

    But I’m personally sad because I’m in the hospital waiting for my chest tube to be removed after my surgeon punctured my left lung during a “simple” procedure to install a chemo port, last Tuesday!

    Receiving excellent care since the event, but a lot of pain involved in placing the chest tube, painful spasms in my diaphragm, literally stabbed in my chest in the recovery room by a V. attractive surgical resident to install the chest tube.

    BUT still happy to see Trump in court soon!

    ETA now hoping to see Fani Williams get her indictments of Trump and his scummy minions in GA.

  251. 251.

    raven

    Probably Not The Best Time To Give Up Your AR-15,’ Tucker Carlson Tells Viewers
    After a guest on his show warned that Donald Trump’s indictment marked a “civil war era” in the United States, Fox News host Tucker Carlson remarked that Americans should hold on to their assault rifles.

    Carlson’s guest, right-wing activist Ned Ryun, also warned that America was headed for a “one-party state and authoritarian government” and urged Republicans to take up a policy of “mutually assured destruction” against Democrats, whom he accused of “launching nukes at us.”

    “Probably not the best time to give up your AR-15, and I think most people know that,” Carlson commented after Ryun’s spiel.

  254. 254.

    SFAW

    @prostratedragon: ​
     

    Garland signs off on cases the US Attorneys or Special Counsel hand him. He doesn’t go out and make cases on his own, as I understand it.

    Yes, and …? He runs the DOJ, he might have the power/authority to “suggest” to his US Attorneys that they devote more resources to a particular area, and “move things along.” I am hopeful that his minions are trying to “roll up the entire operation” (as the cop shows say), but the seemingly-endless wait for that to happen can get a little frustrating, although I don’t actually spend many brain cycles on it. [No, I don’t need to read “you just don’t understand THESE THINGS TAKE TIME” again, in case you were so inclined.]

    As far as the Special Counsel, you’ll recall that I wrote “Although I am hopeful — for real — that Jack Smith will actually do something tangible about the bigger fish.”

  256. 256.

    schrodingers_cat

    @J R in WV: Chemoport? I didn’t know you were sick. Keeping my paws crossed for you and wishing you a speedy recovery

    If you need suggestions on recipes that work while getting chemo, you can contact me via my bloggy email.

  257. 257.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @J R in WV:

    Wow! So a hole in one? Just trying to make you smile a bit… :)

    Serious stuff and please take care of yourself!! My best wishes to you for a good outcome.

  258. 258.

    Anyway

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Asking if Indian media and public have raised the alarm. I understand your point about the rest of the world paying attention – was curious about how these issues are reported and received in the country.

    Guess I was thinking of the protests in Israel.

  259. 259.

    Chris Johnson

    @Omnes Omnibus: No, he really doesn’t care. He’s hammering talking points of some sort like he’s got a paycheck and is paid by the post. Nothing you say matters.

  260. 260.

    LauraInNC

    @topclimber: ​
     

    I think he was meant to “pay for it” by getting her onto his stupid reality show, but as usual he promised but never paid up.

  261. 261.

    Comrade Misfit

    I see that Miss Lindsey rushed out to polish Trump’s turds.

    As for Tuvkyo Rose and his ilk, he should remember that the people on his side are not the only Americans with guns and the ability to use them.

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