Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We still have time to mess this up!

Everybody saw this coming.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Not all heroes wear capes.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Let’s finish the job.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

It’s a doggy dog world.

Republicans in disarray!

Let there be snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Another Repub Russian Asset Heard From

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Another Repub Russian Asset Heard From

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If you put Rohrabacher in a novel, the character would be edited out as ‘too extreme’…

Dirty birds of a feather. I’d forgotten the Rohrabachers switched coasts when he finally got too fragrant to keep his seat in California…

The GOP Death Cult is the political equivalent of a mycorrhizal network — an extremely toxic version. Ninety percent underground, and invisible until the deathcaps pop up.

Reader Interactions

71Comments

  1. 1.

    Alison Rose

    What a terrific political party. Just lovely. Great group of folks.

    I presume Adam will have this in tonight’s update, and I kinda thought this had already happened, and also the other countries have been like “well uh we’re busy or whatever” but even so:

    Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed on Aug. 8 that U.S. President Joe Biden “has given the green light” to allow and support the training of Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets.

    “Denmark and the Netherlands are taking the lead on training,” Singh said, adding that she “doesn’t have any further updates at this time when it comes to specific pilots being trained.”

    Politico reported on Aug. 4 that the first group of Ukrainian pilots that will participate in F-16 training have been identified, citing unnamed U.S. sources. Eight Ukrainian pilots fluent in English are ready to begin training on the fighter jets as soon as formal training plans are drawn up by European allies and approved by the United States.

    Additionally, 20 more pilots with minimal English skills are available to start language instruction in the U.K. within the month. A total of 32 Ukrainian pilots have been named to possibly take part in the training program, yet English language competency remains a significant obstacle.

    I feel bad for these folks, having to learn to fly a fucking F-16 AND learn our dumb language at the same time? But if any people could kick ass at both, it’s Ukrainians.

  3. 3.

    MisterDancer

    The Confederacy wishes they’d had the kind of foreign backing Russians give to the modern GOP.

  4. 4.

    Suzanne

    Good Lord. I’m still shocked by sleaze. I shouldn’t be.

    I am, however, jealous that these shitty people are probably rich.

  6. 6.

    Chief Oshkosh

    I just don’t understand why people decide to be so, so fucking shitty. MAYBE they got rich from this, but I think it’s more than that. And hell, why is this Carmony person even allowed around a campaign?

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    Glad that we know that RFK Jr is nothing but a plant.

     

    Bought and paid for.

    That we can see it from a mile away đŸ€Ź

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    @Alison Rose: Want to scream? The American religious right is basically anti-anti-Putin because he hates Teh Gheyz.

    From First Things (so steel your stomach):
    THEOPOLITICS OF UKRAINE

    Whatever the proportions of cynicism and sincerity may be, the Russian spokesmen are saying something that should be obvious to us all: Westernization means secularization. Indeed, the war seems to have accelerated the Westernization of Ukraine, suggesting that, if the goal was to prevent Westernization, Putin’s recourse to military means may have backfired. A recent piece in Time reports: “In a war that is widely regarded as a fight between liberal democracy and authoritarianism, many Ukrainians see the move towards greater equality and inclusivity as part and parcel of its shifting orientation towards Europe and the West.”

    According to some reports, support for gay marriage in Ukraine has doubled since the Russian invasion; a bill to legalize same-sex partnerships by constitutional amendment is before the Ukrainian parliament. A push to change attitudes about transgenderism is also afoot. According to NBC, a “riotous” Instagram account known as LGBTQ Military, which features “pole-dancing, cross-dressing and fierce makeup” and publicizes stories of gay and non-binary Ukrainian soldiers, has become a symbol of Ukrainian patriotism.

    The American right would sacrifice Ukraine to invasion because they want to engage in culture war shit.

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    @Suzanne: Russian TV propaganda is all about this.

    The whole strategy of “we’re trying to protect the children” that you hear in FL also lay behind the 2013 “anti-gay-propaganda” law in Russia, which in turn was modeled on some US evangelical initiatives. It’s all mixed up together.

  20. 20.

    dmsilev

    Today’s moment of levity, in the intersection of Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Apparently back in January Smith and his team subpoena’d Twitter for information related to Trump’s account there. Twitter, being Musk at this point, refused, and a court slapped them down including a fine. What sort of fine, you might ask? Well….

    he company argued that it should not have to hand over the records until that issue was resolved. Howell sided with the government, finding Twitter in contempt Feb. 7 for failing to comply with the search warrant. She gave Twitter until 5 p.m. to produce the records, with sanctions of $50,000 per day, to double every day that Twitter did not comply. Twitter produced the records three days later.

    As anyone who has heard the old legend about grains of wheat on a chessboard knows, doubling every day very quickly gets into hilariously high numbers. It’s just too bad that it only took three days for someone to beat this through Musk’s thick skull.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    @Suzanne:

    He is their White Supremacist Daddy.

    He hates who they hate

    And, he has the power of the State to carry out his hatred of those people đŸ€ŹđŸ€Ź

  22. 22.

    Jay

    @Alison Rose:

    English is the language of aviation. Globally.

    Some military aviation can get by with their native language and a smattering of english, but anything going “international” has to have functional aviation english, as it is globally, the common language.

  24. 24.

    dmsilev

    @Suzanne: The Russian military has put out a lot of propaganda about let’s call it “traditional gender”. All those recruitment videos of muscular men doing muscular things, and so on. Must really frost them that they’re getting their asses kicked by a bunch of woke “sissies”.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    Not only dirty, dirty politics, but dirty, dirty homes.  Mr. and Mrs. Dana Tyrone Rohrabacher (she originally Rhonda Carmony, hard on for GOP politics, inspired by Ronald Reagan, etc. etc.)

    No paywall.  The late and much missed OC Weekly, from December 2013.  Dana Rohrabacher is Dirty.

    When Congressman Dana Tyrone Rohrabacher moved into a four-bedroom, four-bathroom, million-dollar Costa Mesa rental home on April Fool’s Day 2010, the immaculate, 6,300-square-foot property could have been featured in a glossy real-estate magazine. Built in 1948, the two-story, Orange Avenue home had been updated in recent years for comfort and style. The carpeting was new, appliances worked and walls were spotless. Thriving flowers, plants and grass adorned the idyllic back yard less than 4 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

    But it’s now understandable why Orange County’s senior, career politician secretly changed the locks and refused to allow homeowner Robert Polyniak inside for annual inspections. When he moved out in August 2012, Rohrabacher left behind a shockingly horrific pigsty, a dump worse than a college fraternity house of unhygienic slobs unfamiliar with the most basic tools of cleaning.

    ….

    Massive black stains and muck covered the carpet throughout the home. Sticky grime encased damaged, rusted appliances. Denied water, once-thriving outside plants and grass dried up and died. Blinds were cracked. Black dirt ruined the appearance of once-sparkling tile floors. Walls inexplicably contained odd holes, nail polish, wax and some smelly substance that may have been feces.

    Every toilet seat in the house was broken. The ceilings showed smoke damage. Light switches had been cracked. Clumps of hair and remnants of what may have been balloons or some other rubbery material clogged sinks. Cracks scarred doors. Thick, solidified grease rendered the air-suction vent above the kitchen stove useless. Bathroom towel bars were missing, and vanities suffered water damage.

    A second-floor suite used by Dana’s wife, Rhonda, as her bedroom contained a huge, mysterious, lubricant-like stain—something you might expect on the floor of a Hollywood sex club—that had seeped through thick carpet and padding to tarnish a hardwood floor. The dishwasher wasn’t functioning. A wooden chair in the back yard had been crushed, and phone lines were strangely severed. An overflowing tub cracked a ceiling with water damage.

    And then there were maggots.  Will spare you that paragraph.

    Further, Rohrabacher’s lawyer harassed the landlord for the return of the security deposit.  Dozens of letters. Over 50 of them.  (Security deposit was $6,700; damages to home exceeded $25,000.)

    Mr. and Mrs. Rohrabacher are the parents of triplets, born in 2004.

  27. 27.

    West of the Rockies

    Truly, the Republican party has become a cult, a cult every bit as culty as the Manson Family or Waco (Whacko).

    If Democratic politicians suddenly became racist, homophobic, anti-science, and evangelical, I’d bolt… I guess I’d just stop engaging at all in politics, since there’s no rational alternative to the DNC.  I’d just worry about my own little tribe.

    No explanation addresses the Republican party anymore other than cult.

  29. 29.

    gene108

    I don’t think there’s any rooting out Republican corruption. They’re voters do not care what Republican officials do, as long as they don’t obviously side with Democrats on anything.

    I honestly think right wing media’s efforts to sell the Iraq War and prop Bush, Jr. up (fight them over there, so we don’t fight them over here) has gotten us to where Republican voters just go with what right wing media feeds them and ignores actual corruption

    Plus, President Obama’s black, which really pissed them off.

  31. 31.

    Suzanne

    @dmsilev: It’s incredibly craven for the American right wing. I get why Russian propagandists craft the messages that they do, obviously there’s a lot of homophobia and bigotry there of which to take advantage.

    It’s just extra-cynical and repulsive for Americans to co-sign this shit.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    @Suzanne:  Looking for how the lawsuits were resolved.

    Anyone remember?

    The guy was re-elected a few times; he lost in 2018.

  33. 33.

    trollhattan

    Long read (sorry) but Westlands Water District is the irrigation contractor you should save a sliver of Republican hatred for.

    The contract sought would have provided the district with permanent access to over one million acre-feet of water for agricultural purposes.
    By Alanna Madden, Courthouse News Service

    A California appeals court Monday ruled against a major U.S. agricultural water supplier seeking to secure permanent access to federally controlled water in California.

    The order handed down from Associate Justice Rosendo Peña Jr. affirms a 2021 judgment from the Superior Court of Fresno, which dismissed Westlands Water District’s attempt to validate a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, primarily due to missing information regarding Westlands’ financial obligations.

    The ruling, however, doesn’t necessarily end the contract the district already entered into with the federal government in June 2020.

    The contract, facilitated by former Westlands lobbyist and former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, sought to provide the district with permanent access to over one million acre-feet of water for agricultural purposes under the Water Infrastructure Improvement for the Nation Act — an Obama-era law that provided a chance for water contractors to convert existing water service contracts with the bureau to repayment contracts.

    As explained by Peña’s order, the conversion to repayment contracts is contingent upon the repayment of all outstanding project construction cost obligations in a lump sum or in equal installments no later than three years after the contracts’ effective date. One advantage of this conversion, Peña writes, is that once capital costs are repaid, contractors are no longer subject to certain acreage limitations and associated pricing provisions of federal reclamation law.

    But when Westlands submitted various drafts of its contract with the bureau for validation in 2019 and 2021, it repeatedly failed to disclose approximately how much it owed the federal agency.

    Peña wrote that during Westlands’ motion for validation hearing in December 2019, there was meager evidence of estimates ranging from $200 million to $362 million.

    To be enforceable under law, the contract must be validated by a state court.

    “Given the circumstances, we agree the contract presented for validation was missing an essential term and therefore uncertain, i.e., not sufficiently definite to be binding and enforceable,” wrote Peña, later adding that regardless of whether Westlands’ president was authorized to execute its contract two months later, “the fact remains that the earlier contract Westlands sought to validate was materially deficient.”

    “Even assuming the draft somehow reflected an understanding that the repayment amount would be determined and agreed upon at a later date, the December 2019 motion was properly denied,” the judge wrote.

    When Westland renewed its motion for validation in September 2019, it provided two versions of an exhibit pertaining to its financial obligations, ultimately claiming to have paid the bureau $209,436,667 in June 2020.

    “We are unable to reconcile this figure with the calculations in either version of exhibit D,” wrote Peña.

    Overall, the judge’s order does nothing to end Westgate’s contract with the bureau that was finalized in 2020. The ruling merely maintains the non-obligatory nature of the unenforceable contract.

    Westlands’ water derives from the Central Valley Project, a federal network of waterways, dams, pumping stations and hydropower plants that delivers water to Southern California from the northern part of the state. According to Peña’s order, the project irrigates the region’s agricultural hubs, generates electricity at several power plants and provides water for about 30 million state residents.

    But while Westlands’ contract does not guarantee water during drought years, Peña wrote that the respondents of the appeal worried it would threaten environmental interests, particularly when it came to using precious water resources for agricultural uses that potentially harm native plants and wildlife.

    “Once again the courts have ruled that these schemes to lock in permanent deliveries of California’s most precious resource are dubious and illegal,” said John Buse, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Massive water diversions only benefit corporate agriculture and they put our drinking water and Bay-Delta wildlife at grave risk. The courts are right to stand up to corporate interests.”

    Another respondent in the appeal included the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, whose executive director Chris Shultz said that the denial is an opportunity for the government to abandon the controversial contract.

    “This decision means California won’t approve Westlands’ sweetheart deal with the Trump Administration,” said Shultz. “This is an opportunity for the Biden administration to rescind this and similar illegal Trump contracts, and begin to collect more than $400 million owed to the taxpayers for required fish and wildlife mitigation.”

    To summarize: WWD finagled having their chief lobbyist installed as Interior Secretary who then tried to GUARANTEE one million acre-feet of water–heavily subsidized federal water they pay dimes on the dollar for–annually. They’re still trying.

    Shasta Reservoir holds around 4.5 MAF when full, which only happens every few years, so WWD is demanding a quarter of that ginormous reservoir for them-them-them. They, by the way, resell a good deal of that nearly free water.

  36. 36.

    Bill Arnold

    @dmsilev:

    Today’s moment of levity, in the intersection of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

    Also, this might be related to D.J. Trumps reluctance to jump back onto the twitter platform, if Trump was told back in Jan 2023.
    (Credit for that twist to Bill Palmer/palmerreport)

  38. 38.

    gene108

    @Suzanne:

    It’s incredibly craven for the American right wing
.It’s just extra-cynical and repulsive for Americans to co-sign this shit.

    IIRC, many people on the right supported Apartheid South Africa in the 1980’s, ostensibly because the apartheid government was staunchly anti-communist, until support was no longer tenable given public opinion.

    They just love hateful discriminatory societies, as long as they’re in charge.

  39. 39.

    zhena gogolia

    @Alison Rose: Yeah, but I think that English is widely studied in elementary schools and high schools, so even if they’re not fluent, they’ve been “exposed,” as we say, so it isn’t as hard as it might be otherwise.

  41. 41.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @Elizabelle: I’d forgotten about that! Just 2 years to trash the place, and still live there. The kids would have been around 6 at the move-in, not old enough to cause that much havoc. Just gross.

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    @BeautifulPlumage:  I wondered if Rohrabacher invited/encouraged some vagrants/meth heads/criminals, whatever, to trash the house once he was out; help to cover whatever damage the family had left.

    Rhonda sued the landlord for return of the security deposit and double that in damages; trying to find out how that turned out.

    It would be Rohrabacher vs. Robert Polyniak.

    Appears to have been case number 30-2013-00668696-CL-BC-CJC.

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    Item from the LA Times at the time.

    It takes balls to do this to a landlord whose home has been vandalized to that extent.

    And now she is helping with RFK Jr.’s campaign.  Known by her deeds.

    The wife of U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) is suing her former landlord over a security deposit, according to Orange County Superior Court records.

    Rhonda Rohrabacher filed a breach-of-contract complaint Monday against Robert Polyniak for at least $20,100. The amount represents the original $6,700 deposit on the Eastside Costa Mesa home and a $13,400 penalty, said her attorney, Devin Lucas.

    The Rohrabachers signed a lease for the 2,200-square-foot, single-family home on Orange Avenue in February 2010. They have since moved to another Eastside home, which, according to property records, Dana Rohrabacher purchased in late 2012.

     

  47. 47.

    Adam L Silverman

    Dave Troy often lets his creative thinking get way out ahead of his critical thinking skills. So just make sure you have your critical thinking skills dialed all the way up when reading his stuff.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Alison Rose: Until/unless they can get a training site actually established, there’s really nothing new to cover. Unfortunately. I saw this reporting you’re quoting in a different news source last week,

  51. 51.

    Dan B

    @Suzanne:  It’s frightening that the religious right are going apeshit over LGBTQ people.  What have we done to them?  We don’t want to be around them.  We’d just like to be left alone.  But our mere existence drives them to a frenzy of hatred.  Part of it seems to be their literal belief in devils and demons as though we will fly through the air at any moment and snatch the souls of their children.

  53. 53.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Alison Rose: Nope, not really. Unfortunately. This is what frustrates me with this stuff. If we’d started setting this up in 2022 when they first asked, even if we weren’t going to green light the transfer of the planes till now, the Ukrainians would be ready for them now.

  54. 54.

    Chris Johnson

    @Elizabelle: I bet they had Russians.

    Russian mobsters, terrorizing Rohrabacher and keeping him in his place. I don’t see why he and his wife would have any particular interest in acting like a Hell’s Angel, surely he’d want to live posh and fancy. But he got paid by Putin, and Putin owned him, and one thing that might happen is Putin’s boys might come calling and live in his house.

    Do he and Rhonda LOOK like they get off on being secret monsters? It just seems more likely that they feel the full weight of the Russian mob. One effective way to make that understood is to have a bunch of mobsters move in and trash his house.

    He can buy as many new houses as he wants but he will never get away from the mobsters this side of the grave


  55. 55.

    Maxim

    @BeautifulPlumage: Most of that damage would not be caused by kids, nor by garden-variety neglect (excepting the poor unwatered plants). The first thing that came to my mind was that they’d been hosting a bunch of wild, drunken parties

    ETA: or what Chris Johnson says. I had assumed Russian guests, in fact, but not an unwelcome mob.

  56. 56.

    Chris Johnson

    @Maxim: Mobsters there to make Dana feel the weight of his committments could well do all that much damage, not just for lulz, but to apply psychological pressure.

    Why do you think so many Republicans did not push back on the Russian mobsters? One thing about McConnell, I think history will show he went along with the Russians as long as he thought they had geopolitical power, but once it was revealed they just had the Russian mob, I think he straight up broke ties with them. He is still only out for himself, but I don’t think the Russian mob can scare him. It scares all the rest of them.

  57. 57.

    Elizabelle

    @Chris Johnson:

    @Maxim:   What’s interesting is the story just dropped off the radar.  Why?

    I hope some enterprising reporter is following up with the homeowner, Robert Polyniak.  Who is still living, it appears.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    Rhonda’s got a twitter account.  FYI.  I can’t see it, but maybe some of you could.

    Rhonda Rohrabacher (@InformedPatriot) / Twitter


    Twitter
    https://twitter.com â€ș InformedPatriot

    Decentralized techie/web developer/data geek/homeschool mom 2 triplets. Lifelong activist dedicated to empowering people to further the cause of liberty.

  61. 61.

    Roger Moore

    @Chris Johnson:

    He is still only out for himself, but I don’t think the Russian mob can scare him.

    Not too surprising, given his wife’s family connections.  I don’t think the Russian mob wants to get on the bad side of the Chinese.

  63. 63.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Alison Rose: If they’re going to be trained by NATO, then –

    As a general principle, [NATO] requires fluency in one of [the two official languages of NATO (French and English)] and a working knowledge of the other.

    Presumably the non-English speakers will get a crash course in English sufficient to understand their trainers. Then when they finally join The Club all they’ll have to worry about is le français (sacrĂ© Dieu!).

  65. 65.

    Bupalos

    Hey!! What do you have against mycorrhizals man? I gots me a 5 lb bag of chanterelles right here that are pretty pissed.

  67. 67.

    Ken

    @dmsilev:  The Russian military has put out a lot of propaganda about let’s call it “traditional gender”. All those recruitment videos of muscular men doing muscular things, and so on.

    Oh sure, you type “Russian military men” into google and that’s the sort of videos you get.

    Now try it with Safe Search off, and tell me about traditional gender.

  69. 69.

    sab

    @Elizabelle: If you can’t use guns it is amazing how creative people can be murdering.

    If they can use guns it is just teenagers committing murders they regret five or ten minutes later. Two or more live totally wasted.

  71. 71.

    misterpuff

    @SpaceUnit: Hell of a time for a Hollywood writers’ strike.

     
    I expect several of the writers (when not on the picket line) are brushing up their spec script for the True Crime Drama: American Carnage: The Fall of ShitForBrains.

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