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You cannot shame the shameless.

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

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Their freedom requires your slavery.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

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

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

Ah, the different things are different argument.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Odds & Ends

Odds & Ends

by | 91 Comments

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I have been kind of out of it for a few days.  Do we all know that there are gaps in the MAL surveillance tapes that Trump turned over?  And that apparently Jack has subpoenaed the surveillance tapes directly from the company?  Jack Smith is very thorough.  Go Jack!

I hadn’t seen this clip from Garland, though I had seen other clips.

Short clip from one of the podcasts I listen to.   Funny, I always thought Norm Ornstein’s last name was spelled with an M.

This is a Happy Friday gift to whoever it is on Balloon Juice who keeps begging for them to dig up Ivana from the golf course because they are sure classified documents are buried there.

 

Interesting thread. Here’s the first tweet.

Some fun speculation:

Looking forward to the (other) Jack Smith’s Q & A tonight.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  1. 1.

    FelonyGovt

    The Calamaris testified? What about the Squids? (I’ll be here all week.)

  4. 4.

    bbleh

    Meanwhile, has anybody noticed the obvious tell in “MAL”?  I mean, were the writers working to rule before the strike or something?  Sheesh …

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    The Calamaris

    Who are these bitches who besmirch the good name of a delicious appetizer?

  13. 13.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @bbleh: That’s what happens when the prosecutor flexes his mussel. I’m just glad the whole coup attempt Floundered.

  28. 28.

    geg6

    Could also be related to Georgia.  Apparently, Fani Willis has given immunity to 8 of the fake electors there.  And speculation is she’s going for RICO.

    ETA:  Lindsey, Rudy and Eastman seem to be in deep shit.  Hope she buries them in it.

  32. 32.

    RaflW

    re: the missing sections of surveillance tape, I know the rageful don goes with his gut and fails to think things through, but in the 21st century did anyone on his team think a Nixonian deletion was gonna work? C’mon.

  34. 34.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Does anyone have any theories yet on why Tucker was fired?

    Yeah, I know, we’re supposed to believe, or pretend to believe, the story Fox planted. The host of the White Supremacist Power Hour never said anything racist ever except that one time in that email in 2021, and nobody read that email until a few days ago, and they’re really shocked at what he said so that’s why he was fired.

    A lot of the media seems to have dropped interest and just gone with that absurd story line.

    But it makes me wonder what was behind it? Honestly, I wouldn’t have cared. I accepted the earlier story line that it was because he called someone in upper management a poopyhead. But the fact that they’re working so hard to get disinformation out there has me curious now.

    Was something really, REALLY bad about to come out from Abby Grossberg and she agreed to drop what she was going to say in exchange for something, and allow this story to stay out there?

  38. 38.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @RaflW: Worked (as far as we know publicly) for the Secret Service text messages. I’d be a little surprised if that’s true and some intelligence agency didn’t hoover them up, but of course if so that would be classified. Or, if it was Russian intelligence, in a file under Putin’s pillow.

  41. 41.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @WaterGirl: ​

    I learned a new scummy thing this year about Republicans. They provide a lawyer “for you”, won’t cost you a nickel, but the lawyer is actually working for TFG and against your interests. Happened to Cassidy Hutchinson, and it happened to the fake electors, who never learned until very recently that Fani Willis had offered them immunity.

  45. 45.

    Scout211

    I didn’t know who “the Calamaris” were so I went fishing.

    CNN  has some info:

    Calamari Sr., the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Trump Organization, has primarily overseen security operations for Trump and his properties during his decadeslong career working for Trump. His son, Calamari Jr., is director of security for the Trump Organization.

     

    What the special counsel is investigating:

    CNN has previously reported the footage captured Walt Nauta, an aide close to the ex-president, Nauta and another Mar-a-Lago employee moving boxes containing documents out of a storage closet.

    The Calamaris are among several witnesses expected to testify in Smith’s investigation on Thursday, sources said. Prosecutors have previously brought in lower-level Trump employees for questioning about the surveillance footage, including how it may have been handled in response to the subpoena for it and if it could have been tampered with, two sources told CNN this week.

    Investigators also have previously asked about a text message from Nauta to Calamari Sr. and subsequent conversations about the surveillance footage, according to two of the sources. The Justice Department questioned Nauta months ago about the handling of the boxes, and he told the FBI about being directed by Trump, CNN previously reported.

  48. 48.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    We’ve netted a lot of great comments! I mean, despite just trolling, we managed to lure in a number of people into the pun fest!

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: When they have a whole bunch of reasons, it begins to feel like “my dog ate my homework” and “my grandma died” and “the bus was late” etc.  which all together = bullshit.

    So we are in total agreement that they have not stated the real reason.

    My person theory is that Dominion required the firing of Tucker, but part of the agreement was also that the fact that that was part of the agreement had to be kept confidential.

    Discovery would have KILLED Fox deader than a doornail, so I think the big payout and firing Tucker was the deal for settling

  50. 50.

    CaseyL

    The Calimaris, IIRC, were the frog-headed members of the Rebel’s Alliance in Star Wars, who became a meme for yelling “It’s a trap!” which was counter-memed at some point into “It’s a Tarp!”

    But the ones who testified regarding classified documents are obviously a disfavored branch of the galactic Calimari family: Imperial p(r)awns, according to family spokesfish, though their opinions may be dismissed as mere cuttlefish scuttlebutt.

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:  I find myself caring less and less about the “real” reason for TC’s firing.  I note, though, that Grossberg worked at Fox for quite a while, and didn’t think anything disgusting was going on until it affected her personally (as is typical for the Right).  So, if I had to come up with a theory, it would be that something really awful happened to her, directly to her, that she blames Fox or Carlson or both for.

  59. 59.

    Geminid

    @Scout211: I believe Dr. Silverman described Calamari Sr. as one of Trump’s “hitters.” I think that meant a bodyguard ready to muscle people.

    Or should that be “mussel” people?

  62. 62.

    Scout211

    This article in Insider Is a profile of Calamari, Sr.

    Oh my.  Just look at his photos.  He could be an extra in The Godfather. Scroll to the end and there are more fish puns via Twitter. LOL 

    He was a former college football player but was injured.  

    A knee injury put an end to that and Calamari found himself working in security. At the 1981 US Open, a pair of hecklers interrupted the game between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. He decisively handled it.

    “I took one guy immediately right down,” he told Bloomberg. Then he tackled another heckler: “I ran right at him, I picked him up, I slammed him to the ground, I carried him down.”

    Trump and his wife at the time, Ivana, were impressed, he told Bloomberg. Trump instructed Barbara Res, who led building construction at the Trump Organization, to hire him as a security guard. Calamari worked security for the building of Trump Tower, and then continued working as a security guard for the building when it was finished.

    Trump later hired him as his personal bodyguard, and he’s risen the ranks ever since.

    . . .

    At his properties, Trump runs extensive surveillance far beyond the security operations of normal golf clubs and hotels, according to BuzzFeed News. At his Mar-a-Lago estate, he reportedly had a switchboard that allowed him to eavesdrop on calls made from any room’s telephone.

    For years, Calamari ran the company’s surveillance programs at Trump Organization properties, according to BuzzFeed News.

    In 2011, his son, Matthew Calamari Jr. joined the Trump Organization. He became the company’s “Director of Surveillance” in May 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. In April 2017, he was promoted to become the company’s Director of Security. Sources who worked for the Trump Organization told BuzzFeed News that Calamari, Jr. picked up the surveillance gig from his father.

  71. 71.

    UncleEbeneezer

    From yesterday:

    NEW: special Counsel Jack Smith is now investigating the Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament. From the NYT’s latest:

  72. 72.

    Fake Irishman

    Is anyone concerned that the special counsel is merely on a fishing expedition, or has he got a whale of a case?

  83. 83.

    cmorenc

    Will Trump wiggle off the hook somehow, using a bad-bass move?  I am mahi afraid he could, even if it smelts to high heaven.

  84. 84.

    lowtechcyclist

    @prostratedragon:

    It all started innocently enough …

    …on Tuesday. I was sitting in my office on that drizzly afternoon listening to the monotonous staccato of rain on my desktop and reading my name on the glass of my office door. “regnaD kciN”.

  89. 89.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Fani Willis has given immunity to 8

    So many Fippers

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