Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

He really is that stupid.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

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

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

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

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Vulgar GOP Speculation Open Thread: Gaetz Cawthorned!

Vulgar GOP Speculation Open Thread: Gaetz Cawthorned!

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I’m not betting on Gaetz actually getting ousted — he’s too shameless / vicious to go without the threat of genuine legal jeopardy, and (so far) he’s got the support of Gym Jordan, per NBC:

… Jordan also said he would not support efforts to oust Gaetz from the Republican Conference, a possibility that has been floated by House members who are angry that the Florida lawmaker worked to remove McCarthy from the speaker post.

“I don’t think that’s warranted,” Jordan said. “We’ve got a four-seat majority, Matt’s a talented member of Congress.” Jordan added, “I disagree with what he did … but he’s a great member of our committee … I think we gotta come together.” …

Good luck with that, Gym!

Of course, part of the problem is that half the GOP members probably have almost-as-embarrassing skeletons in their own closets. But any dissension between Republicans, IMO, is good news for the rest of us!

And, of course, no telling how many more ugly stories are due for release…

Backstory, in case you suppressed the memories:

Reader Interactions

183Comments

  3. 3.

    hells littlest angel

    [Gaetz has] got the support of Gym Jordan

     

    It doesn’t get much more on fucking brand than that. Dr. Richard Strauss says hello.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Gaetzgate.

    Maybe they’ll agree to expel him and then award him the speakership as a consolation prize.
    //

  5. 5.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    On a Wednesday night stop by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” former White House aide and “Enough” author Cassidy Hutchinson went into great detail about former president Donald Trump’s food tantrums

     

    Hutchinson revealed that they would sometimes happen “once or twice a week, sometimes more.”

    “There would sometimes be a week or so lull, but then there’d be a bad news story,” she said. “But it wasn’t just launching the food and the plates and the porcelain at the wall. It was also sometimes just flipping the tablecloth.”

  6. 6.

    MattF

    They deserve to end up like the final scene in the last episode of Seinfeld: locked up together in a jail cell in Podunk. And, sure, give them all free ED meds mixed into their energy drinks.

  7. 7.

    hells littlest angel

    @Stephen:Trump discussing nuclear sub secrets with a foreign  national

     

    I take solace in imagining the discussion: “And it’s very big, very powerful. They’re saying it’s record-breaking, like no one has ever seen before. And it’s big. So powerful. Hey, where are you going?”

  8. 8.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Stephen: It does sound bad, but this is from Cheryl Rofer so I’m going to wait and see:

    But if the guy he spilled those secrets to told all these people, then the nuclear scuttlebut network would have heard about it, and I don’t recall anything like that.

  10. 10.

    Rebel’s Dad

    The chickens are finally coming home to roost for Fivehead.

    Maybe if he’d choked a few of them instead of hoeing around, he wouldn’t be in this situation.

  11. 11.

    Captain C

    Re: that pic of Gaetz and Failson #1, you just know all the coke dealers in the area were able to take the rest of the week off.

  12. 12.

    prostratedragon

    Wanna see Barbara McQuade laugh? Ask her what happens if Rudy Giuliani can’t find a lawyer to take his GA case, as Joy Reid did. It was startling.

  13. 13.

    Scout211

    Nah, they won’t expel him . . .yet. My guess is that this is all public shaming to attempt to knock him off of his self-styled pedestal and force him back in line and under the control of leadership.

    Will it work? I doubt it.  But I don’t mind watching the spectacle of the GOP House members trying to get control over him.  

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Sidney slapped.

    A state judge rejected Trump-aligned lawyer Sidney Powell’s request to dismiss her Georgia charges over accusations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s (D) office committed prosecutorial misconduct. Source

    That (D) oughtn’t be there at all, more especially as Powell is not followed by (R). It’s another example of journalistic malpractice.

  18. 18.

    Redshift

    @hueyplong:

    If the Dems don’t want the “blame” for a Gaetz ouster, I’ll gladly take credit for it.

    Yeah, I think it would be quite a briar patch situation: “Oh, don’t you dare try to blame us for that! We would really hate that!”

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @prostratedragon: I’ve only listened a couple of times, but I find all the Sisters In Law (McQuade, Joyce Vance, Kimberly Atkins and to some extent Jill Wine-banks) much looser on their podcast than on TV. JWB is a bit looser in general

  21. 21.

    satby

    For your amusement, Driftglass channels DougJ:

    In this Chicago deli customers know what to expect: the best damn Reuben in town, challah french toast for the early risers, and no reporter from any media outlet anywhere ever dropping in to ask Democrats’ opinions on any subject.

  23. 23.

    MattF

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: On the bird site it’s pretty specific:

    …an excited Trump — ‘leaning’ toward as if to be discreet — then told Pratt two pieces of information about U.S. subs: the supposed exact number of nuclear warheads they routinely carry, & exactly how close they supposedly can get to a Russian submarine w/o being detected

  24. 24.

    Nukular Biskits

    Yesterday, MS Governor Tate Reeves proudly bragged on Twitter, “I’m voting for Donald Trump in 2024.”

    Today, he hasn’t had a word to say about Trump blabbing nuke sub secrets.

  30. 30.

    MagdaInBlack

    Gaetz bs  story about viagra and energy drinks sounds like a letter to Playboy or Hustler about things that never actually happened.

  34. 34.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @MagdaInBlack: I just wanted to sound cool, man.

    @eclare: I will say this, I wonder how popular he would have been without Mollie?

    I tend to think of that shit as honesty in powder form. I wonder how many unflattering comments he let slide while partying.

  35. 35.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Stephen: Pratt and Trump ought to be sharing a cell at Guantanamo. I hear DeSantis would be all for that, given his Gitmo experience.

  37. 37.

    piratedan

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I think that’s entirely based on how extensive that informal network is; to use an example that rolls thru all of our informal networks that identifies noteworthy scuttlebutt.  I’m simply unsure on how much intersection there is between Aussie millionaires in Trump’s orbit and members of the nuclear power community there is….

  39. 39.

    Roger Moore

    They can say whatever they want, but people who want to support Gaetz can ignore it because it’s just he said she said.  The thing that really did Cawthorn in was the videos, especially the gay sex videos, which he couldn’t dismiss easily.  Nothing is going to happen to Gaetz until they can produce something similarly embarrassing with the plausible promise of more to come.

  40. 40.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Roger Moore: Honestly, the stuff that got Cawthorne thrown out was some of the most likeable and real shit I’ve seen out of any Republican in my adult life.

  42. 42.

    skerry

    Looking at the pic of Gaetz and Jr, I didn’t realize until now that the combination of ED meds and energy drinks makes your forehead grow.

  45. 45.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @skerry: Looking at the pic of Gaetz and Jr, I didn’t realize until now that the combination of ED meds and energy drinks makes your forehead grow.

    No, that’s not it at all.  He’s just a dick in a suit.

  46. 46.

    Mike in NC

    In a better world Matt Gaetz would be picked to be Fat Bastard’s running mate, but they’re both Florida residents

    There’s probably a video out there of Gaetz and Trump Jr snorting coke off some hooker’s ass.

  47. 47.

    smith

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: TFG may very well have had authoritative documents back in his office to jog his memory. For that matter, we already know he’s shown classified maps and battle documents to random people — who’s to say he didn’t have the nuclear sub ones right there in his pocket?

  48. 48.

    bbleh

    They are so wrapped around the axle that I haven’t seen a thing about Hunter Biden in DAYS.

    The implosion was inevitable and desirable, but neither it nor the damage they cause is anywhere near over, and that 45-day clock keeps ticking ..

    (And to hear Gym Jordan trying to sound like a Pillar Of The Institution is 😂 )

  49. 49.

    cain

    Oh sure .. before all that shit was just ‘locker room talk’s when Trump says shit .. now not so much eh ?

    GOP voters are gonna be very confused. If this civil war became prolonged.. Fox viewers are gonna know a lot of shit about random stuff on TV.

  50. 50.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @smith: Electors would then be forced to choose if they prefer Trump as President or Gaetz as Veep. I don’t envy them this task.

  55. 55.

    Roger Moore

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation:

    I won’t argue the point, but whether it was likeable and real or not, it was revenge porn.  Someone who had access to Cawthorn’s personal stuff released it to punish him for doing something they didn’t like.  Whoever released that stuff should be sued into penury and thrown in prison for good measure.

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    @MattF: I wouldn’t be at all surprised if at least some of the reporting is wrong. (I haven’t read the story or the tweets.)

    Nuclear warheads are limited by treaties that we still honor.

    Wikipedia:

    In US service Trident II can be loaded with up to eight Mk-5 RVs with 475-kt W88 warheads, up to fourteen Mk-4A RVs with 90-kt W76-1 warheads, and up to fourteen Mk-4A RVs with 5–7-kt W76-2 warheads. In practice, each missile on average carries four warheads due to the warhead limitations placed by the New START treaty.[40]

    The “how close” stuff may be right or may be wrong, dunno.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  58. 58.

    JoyceH

    @Roger Moore: but apparently Gaetz had videos too, that he showed to people on the house floor, bragging about how he’d done this one and that one. They’ve known all along what a sleaze he is

  59. 59.

    Betty

    What a dilemma for Republicans. An Ethics Committee Report on Gaetz which allegedly addresses campaign finance problems due to come out while the Santos case is heating up since his Campaign Finance Manager has pleaded guilty. They can’t afford to lose two members so it looks like they are stuck with these two.

  61. 61.

    bbleh

    @hueyplong: Nukular Biskits: no aspersions meant, but he has also a Jack-Nicholson-like wicked thing going on — the sharp features, the eyebrows, etc.

    I’ll give him this — he can talk and handle static and not miss a beat.  The news conference before the “debate” on the MTV was a little surprising

    But omg what a sleaze.  Ladies and gentlemen, your Party of Family Values.

  62. 62.

    Brachiator

    @Stephen:

    This sounds bad – Trump discussing nuclear sub secrets with a foreign  national, who then told others.

    As far as his base is concerned, Trump can do no wrong. And the Pope envies Trump’s infallibility.

  64. 64.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Roger Moore: When you put it that way, it was even less of a reason to have him removed. And fully agreed on the consequences deserved by the person whonreleased those videos

    ETA: The likeable and real assessment almost applied to the whole Reoublican caucus when he was talking coke orgies, right up until they responded the way they did. But why would I ever believe Republican politicians would engage in such pure, wholesome, community engaging activities?

  65. 65.

    Lyrebird

    @Nukular Biskits: Yeah the various folks I know near that wee little shipyard on the Gulf Coast might not be very happy right now.  I never ever ever discuss politics with them, since I am an evil Yankee bluestocking, but I wonder.

  66. 66.

    glc

    @Roger Moore: That and his co-conspirator offering Roger Stone $250,000 for a presidential pardon and eventually pleading guilty, but then we all have friends like that.

  67. 67.

    smith

    @bbleh: I’ll give him this — he can talk and handle static and not miss a beat.

    Sociopaths are pretty hard to ruffle.

  68. 68.

    Nukular Biskits

    @bbleh:

    One more thing:  I seriously do not get how any woman could think the man attractive, or at least on the scale that Gaetz has been bragging.

    It takes all kinds to make the world go ’round and most of us aren’t Playboy/Playgirl cover material. I got it. But without even knowing Gaetz’s (alleged) history, even as a heterosexual guy, I’m thinking “ICK!”

  70. 70.

    Brachiator

    @bbleh:

    (And to hear Gym Jordan trying to sound like a Pillar Of The Institution is )

    Whenever I see the name Gym Jordan, I think of a pair of old workout shoes.

  72. 72.

    Shalimar

    Jeffries might want to talk to Scalise or Emmers and see if they can provide support in exchange for something like Ukraine aid being brought up for a vote.  Scalise does not have enough votes against Jordan without help, and Emmers or someone else would be a good compromise candidate.  Anyone but Jim Jordan.

  73. 73.

    smith

    @glc: Stone was offering them for only $250,000? Rudy was asking $2 mil! Maybe you could get them wholesale if you knew where to look.

  78. 78.

    smith

    @JoyceH: Naive as I am, it only occurred to me today that a slimeball with a predilection for teenagers is well advised to go for the underage sex workers instead of random high school girls. That way you can be assured she won’t testify against you.

  80. 80.

    glc

    @smith: Well, that might be why he wound up pleading guilty. Apparently it wasn’t enough.  I was never deeply involved in that market, focused more on getting my car through inspection. Which was tricky enough, but I’m good for the next two years.

  81. 81.

    eclare

    @JoyceH:

    Yay!  Assuming normal flight times, hopefully you can have a relaxing day before the flight.  Tip:  call the front desk and ask for a late checkout.  They will give it to you, they can’t clean hundreds of rooms at 11 am at once.

  83. 83.

    Nukular Biskits

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Even back in my “wild and woolly days” (which really weren’t very wild or even woolly), I never did get into the bragging about sexual exploits thing.

    A lot of guys I knew bragged about their conquests.  I kept my damned mouth shut (but that was more because I was never really a “player” in the first place).

    Guys who bragged about how many girls they bedded were trying to convince themselves, IMHO, more than everyone else.

  85. 85.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, … Science.org:

    Two years ago, a team of scientists published a finding that rocked the world of archaeology: Human footprints found in New Mexico’s White Sands National Park were between 23,000 and 21,000 years old. That was during the height of the Last Ice Age and at least 5000 years before most archaeologists thought people arrived in the Americas. The paper drew praise but also skepticism, particularly around its radiocarbon dating method. Now, the White Sands team says new work with two additional dating techniques confirms the great antiquity of the footprints.

    If they’re right, “it resets the playing field of what’s possible” in terms of how archaeologists understand the peopling of the Americas, says Loren Davis, an archaeologist at Oregon State University. Archaeologists will have to reconsider the routes people may have taken into the continent and where to look for traces of its earliest inhabitants. But Davis and other skeptics still want more evidence for this extraordinary claim.

    When the footprints were made, a lake existed in what is now the desert of White Sands. People and animals walking along the water’s edge imprinted thousands of tracks in the mud, and over time those prints were buried, but not erased. In the team’s first paper, the researchers radiocarbon dated seeds from a grassy aquatic plant called Ruppia cirrhosa, which were embedded in layers of earth between the footprints. But since R. cirrhosa grew in the lake, it would have absorbed carbon-14 from the water, which may have contained carbon dissolved out of nearby sediments that were thousands of years older than the plant itself, Davis says. That could have skewed the initial radiocarbon dating and made the seeds—and the footprints—appear older than they actually were.

    Debate swirled around the dates in part because the implications are big. The earliest widely accepted dates for human presence in the Americas are around 16,000 years old. In recent years, archaeologists looking for early inhabitants have focused on the Pacific coast, as land routes through Canada were blocked by glaciers during the last Ice Age. But if people were in New Mexico by 21,000 years ago, they may have made the journey before those ice sheets formed.

    […]

    I’m no expert, but the standard model that (as I understand it) had people crossing the land bridge just after the ice age and then being everywhere in the Americas in a relatively short period of time never made any sense to me.

    “But it would only take 2.5 years to walk from Anchorage to Tierra Del Fuego averaging 10 miles a day!! Sure, but why would you do that unless you knew it was there, and had a reason to, and had all the necessary resources with you??

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  86. 86.

    Ken

    @Betty: They can’t afford to lose two members

    I thought they had a slightly larger margin. Up above Jordan is quoted saying “We’ve got a four-seat majority”.  I was trying to figure out who besides Gaetz and Santos might leave — unfortunately it doesn’t look like McCarthy is going to rage-quit.

  88. 88.

    MagdaInBlack

    @WaterGirl: I suppose you’re right, when I consider all the truly icky men with women on their arms.

    But still, ick ick ick ick ick.

  89. 89.

    Roger Moore

    @JoyceH:

    The question isn’t whether Gaetz has videos; it’s whether anyone who want to hurt him has those videos.  From the reporting I’ve seen, he showed people videos on his phone.  There’s no indication he sent those videos to anyone, so it’s quite likely nobody else has them.

    Also, while we’re at it, somebody should post a link to Alexandra Petri’s outstanding column on this topic.  Since nobody else seems to have done it, I volunteer.  It shows her sense of humor, but she’s direct and earnest in saying Gaetz’s behavior is not OK rather than making fun of people who act like that as she usually would.  I thought it was a sufficiently outstanding column that I saved a link, and I’m kind of sad Gaetz has given me a chance to share it.

  90. 90.

    Shalimar

    @MagdaInBlack: Viagra and energy drinks together sounds like a massive heart attack risk.  I cannot imagine being that stupid.  There is no prize for sex endurance that makes the death risk worth it.

  91. 91.

    Ken

    @smith: Stone was offering them for only $250,000? Rudy was asking $2 mil!

    Maybe Stone was forging the signature. Rudy, foolishly going to TFG, had to give him his cut.

  92. 92.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Shalimar:

    Viagra and energy drinks together sounds like a massive heart attack risk. I cannot imagine being that stupid. There is no prize for sex endurance that makes the death risk worth it.

    Yeah, but you’re forgetting the “OWNING TEH STEWPIT LIBTARDS! HYUCK!HYUCK!HYUCK!” factor.

  93. 93.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: When I hear the name Gym Jordan, I think of boys being sexually assaulted.

    I would definitely have included some context with that comment.

  94. 94.

    dmsilev

    @Shalimar: Steve Scalise is the guy who accurately described himself as being ‘David Duke without the baggage’, so uh I’d rather not see any Dem votes for him. Not unless it came with an awful lot of substantial and enforceable concessions.

  95. 95.

    Citizen Alan

    @glc: I genuinely don’t think Gaetz has ever had sex without either paying for it or forcing it on someone.

  97. 97.

    Lyrebird

    @Nukular Biskits: Nope, but friends of our family have worked for Bath IW, Electric Boat, and Chevron.  Different friends, not all the same person, natch!  All now either retired or left to do grad school etc.

    When I heard you had your recent boat ride to Fla, I was reminiscing though!  And thank you for the pecan beer recommendation, I’ve gotta try that.

     

    PS: the folks I met who live near HII are truly wonderful people, but again we NEVER ever ever talked politics.  Very carefully avoided.

  99. 99.

    hueyplong

    @dmsilev: I’ll take Scalise over Jordan, nauseous as it makes me to say that. Scalise has cancer, right?

    On the topic, Ron Filipkowski is saying that Trump has decided against trying for speaker.

    With luck, Putin will soon declare a lack of interest as well.

  100. 100.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Lyrebird:

    I’ve been there for 36 years this past August, having ridden almost every Aegis class cruiser and destroyer built there at least once and a few built at BIW.

    And thank you for the pecan beer recommendation, I’ve gotta try that.

    You’re welcome.  Just had one myself!

  101. 101.

    smith

    @hueyplong: On the topic, Ron Filipkowski is saying that Trump has decided against trying for speaker.

    In some ways, I’m a little disappointed. TFG as Speaker would be an unimaginable shitshow, far beyond what we’re seeing now, and when the government inevitably shut down just before Thanksgiving it would have been easy to convince the normies that TFG was to blame.

  102. 102.

    Jay

    @Another Scott:

    a bunch of the current theories is coastal skirting in boats.

    Unfortunately, proof of that is underwater.

    It wasn’t a “land bridge”, but instead a coastal marine environment that you could skirt along, eating as you went, until eventually, you got below the ice fields.

    The X̱aayda traded and raided into Siberia and as far south as South America in their canoes into the 1800’s.

    We are now discovering “clam beds”. Rock walls on beaches out to the low tide zone.  They contain 90% more shellfish and crabs than an “unfarmed” beach, have a greater diversity, and trap finfish inside at low tide, (sole, halibut, rockfish, etc).

    The saying here is that at low tide, the table is set.

  103. 103.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Lyrebird:

    One more thing:

    My office is filled with anti-Biden, pro-Trump types.  I typically avoid any discussions involving politics (and religion) in the office.  Now that I’m management and, of course, an old grumpy bastard, I’ve had to play that card on occasion, reminding members of my own team that we’re not paid to pontificate about politics.  I’ve also reminded employees of other contractors that I’ll be more than happy to discuss their inability to refrain from creating a hostile workplace with their own management.  That usually tamps things down.

  104. 104.

    Roger Moore

    @Another Scott:

    “But it would only take 2.5 years to walk from Anchorage to Tierra Del Fuego averaging 10 miles a day!! Sure, but why would you do that unless you knew it was there, and had a reason to, and had all the necessary resources with you??

    I think a more realistic approach is that it would only take people 1000 years to go from one end of the continent to the other if they moved only 10 or 20 miles a year.  That’s fast enough the archeological record would look like people appeared everywhere all at once, but it’s slow enough to be realistic.  The whole New World was full of animals that didn’t know how dangerous humans were, and it was almost devoid of communicable diseases dangerous to humans.  That’s ideal conditions for humans to thrive.  If you assume the population would double every couple of generations, i.e. if every couple had three children who grew to adulthood and had kids of their own, an initial group of a few hundred people could completely fill the continent in 1000 years.

  105. 105.

    Shalimar

    @dmsilev: I despise Scalise, which is why I mention compromise candidates if it is possible.  But if it is Scalise or Jordan and you believe Scalise will at least keep his bargains when he makes them, then that isn’t even a close choice.  You jump at the chance to help Scalise.  In addition to everything else, Scalise is pro-Ukraine and Jordan is very anti-Ukraine.  That matters a lot right now.

  106. 106.

    Lyrebird

    @Nukular Biskits: Aegis class cruiser

    Lame fact that you might apprciate: I’ve driven (or ridden) past the cruiser in the cornfields for most of my life!

     

    I might have briefly been part of some software development for coordinating different info streams for those kinds of boats, but my role was miniscule, and I don’t know what the prime contractor did ultimately.

  107. 107.

    Geminid

     

     

    @dmsilev: I don’t think Democratic House leadership will trade votes for any concessions, even on Ukraine aid. They’ll make Republicans elect their own Speaker, if they can.

    Anyway, I suspect Democrats have a Petition to Discharge ready for Ukraine funding. Rep. Gallego was talking about this back in January.

  112. 112.

    Jeffro

    @Another Scott: awesome piece!

    The history of human migrations around the globe, whether by foot, outrigger canoe, or…?…is surely more strange and amazing than we can guess.

    (but it’s SO much fun to think about!)

  113. 113.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Lyrebird:

    Ah, yes. CSEDS. Been there many a time.

    That area has grown quite a bit since I started in 1987.

    Then you know of Martin’s Liquors.  My manager used to drive up from Dahlgren, VA, back in his earlier days to support testing at CSEDS and, on his way back home, stop at Martin’s to fill his trunk with Yuengling (at the time, not available in VA).  He said that was Moorestown’s only redeeming feature. LOL!

  114. 114.

    MattF

    OT. TPM reports that ‘prosecutors’ (from DOJ, presumably) have solved that last big remaining mystery about George Santos: where did that half-million dollars come from? Entirely imaginary, apparently.

  116. 116.

    raven

    @Shalimar: ” I wouldn’t ever go out to hurt anybody deliberately,” Butkus once replied tongue-in-cheek when asked about his on-field reputation. “Unless it was, you know, important … like a league game or something.”

  118. 118.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @smith: I heard today house rules say a Speaker under indictment would need to step down. Trump couldn’t get the job if he wanted it.

  121. 121.

    bbleh

    @dmsilev: @hueyplong: @smith: @Shalimar: @Geminid: ignoring all the horrible practical realities, it’s a fascinating situation.  On the Republican side the choice appears to be between transgressing the rule that Thou Shalt Not Work With Democrats or failing entirely, and on the Democratic side the choice is among a few pretty loathsome alternatives or continued chaos (which is also bad).

    I hope the story is right about TIFG — I’d guess it is because HE wouldn’t want it — because he IS a candidate they could all rally behind, and he would be an utter catastrophe.  They wouldn’t even have to burn the Reichstag; they could just let it crumble.
    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation:  and re the rule, yes, but (1) they can change the rules and (2) TIFG has made transgression a central part of his brand, so waddaya gonna do about it, huh?!?

  122. 122.

    Ken

    @MattF: Cautious reporting, there.

    Prosecutors did not identify the “National Party Committee” that ran the program, which Santos ultimately qualified for.

    Could have been the Democrats, could have been the Greens, could even have been the Working Families Party.

  124. 124.

    rikyrah

    This voicemail 🤗🤗🤗

     

    https://www.tiktok.com/@jarrondevereaux/video/7285834611991661866?_r=1&u_code=e82b9bh2c5m637&preview_pb=0&sharer_language=en&_d=e82b7kdec7hfjk&share_item_id=7285834611991661866&source=h5_m&timestamp=1696554002&user_id=7234204503757685803&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAA_rvLf2WkDbKxufBL_grIQJLu80317v-US3JGoy_PyCxnSvHyARgjHa-FqpEGdbZK&social_share_type=0&utm_source=copy&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=android&share_iid=7281555779604498219&share_link_id=980e9f3b-fce7-47cb-af27-11012f120f3c&share_app_id=1233&ugbiz_name=MAIN&ug_btm=b2001

  125. 125.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @hueyplong: I suppose if he has the votes for the job, he has votes for the rule change. Granted, I don’t think he has any of that.

  128. 128.

    wjca

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  It does sound bad, but this is from Cheryl Rofer so I’m going to wait and see:

    But if the guy he spilled those secrets to told all these people, then the nuclear scuttlebut network would have heard about it, and I don’t recall anything like that.

    Given that they were hearing it from a known reflexive liar, why would any foreign intelligence organization believe it for an instant?  Absent one of those lovely classified documents, of course.

    “We aren’t worried that President Trump might reveal secrets.  Even making the heroic assumption that he could remember one (since secrets are unlikely to have his name featured in the text), no serious spy would give his words any credence anyway.”  —  proposed statement from the administration in response to these reports.

  129. 129.

    Suzanne

    @Shalimar:

    There is no prize for sex endurance that makes the death risk worth it. 

    Is there anyone else who thinks about going all night and is like, “That sounds terrible, I’ve got stuff to do”?
    Just me?
    Awesome.

  130. 130.

    Geminid

    @raven: Brooks Robinson’s passing was big news in Baltimare and DC,  probably not as much nationwide as is Dick Butkus’s. But I figured you would know. and was just getting it out there.

    Robinson started playing in the majors in 1955, 10 years before Butkus played his first NFL game, and retired in 1977, 3 years after Butkus did. I don’t think Robinson had to contend with pain like Butkus did; he just slowed down..

  134. 134.

    Shalimar

    @Suzanne: I apologize in advance to everyone for this, but if you’re counting hours and don’t know whether she even had any orgasms, you’re not good at sex.  I suspect Matt Gaetz is really bad at sex.

  135. 135.

    Noskilz

    I don’t know if it will make Gaetz leave, but a good cawthorning will definitely be a very bad time for him which seems like a win no matter what.

  138. 138.

    wjca

    @Another Scott: “But it would only take 2.5 years to walk from Anchorage to Tierra Del Fuego averaging 10 miles a day!! Sure, but why would you do that unless you knew it was there, and had a reason to, and had all the necessary resources with you??

    The first necessary resource being a map.  Unless you don’t mind getting stuck on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, or walking all the way around Baja because you were simply following the coast.

  142. 142.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: Not the “I’ve got stuff to do!” part, but yeah, I heard “going all night” and I’m thinking hell no.  Even if he had a bunch of partners so he could go all night, wouldn’t he be sore?  Maybe with the right drugs, it’s fine?

  147. 147.

    hueyplong

    @WaterGirl: That notice says dismissal is without prejudice, which means Trump could refile tomorrow.  Expect Cohen to move for sanctions and to make the dismissal to be with prejudice.

    Right after Trump filed the suit, Cohen noticed Trump’s depo.  All that has happened since is Trump dodging that depo.

    Pure bad faith.

  148. 148.

    WaterGirl

    How do you “pause” a case?  Does he have to drop it and then file again?

    edit: I see that you answered my question at the same time I was composing it!

  149. 149.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: @hueyplong:  Leaving two questions in my mind.  Can Cohen now recover his legal fees from Trump?  And, did Trump tell his lawyers to do this, or did he not pay their most recent bill?

  151. 151.

    WaterGirl

    @hueyplong:Is “noticed Trump’s depo” a legal term?

    As in, Cohen filed some notice that Trump would have to be deposed – and didn’t a judge set a certain number of hours that Trump would be deposed? – so Trump wouldn’t submit to a deposition?

    Is that what that phrase means?

  153. 153.

    WaterGirl

    @Ken: Surely this whole thing was malicious bullshit on Trump’s part.  Too cute by half; I hope he comes to regret it and has to pay Cohen’s legal fees.

  154. 154.

    hueyplong

    @WaterGirl: Sorry. “Noticed depo” is shorthand for Cohen sent Trump a notice to sit down and answer questions under oath, the questions being posed by Cohen’s attorney. I would have loved to be that questioner and would have felt like a failure if I didn’t cause him to come across the table at me.

  157. 157.

    hueyplong

    Continuing, the judge ordered him to sit for a 9 hour deposition and Trump just this week sought to put it off yet again because of the NY trial. Then Trump fled the trial, blowing his excuse not to be deposed next week.

    Hence his b.s. “pause” of his case.

    To lawyers, this shit is laughably transparent.

  158. 158.

    JoyceH

    Saw a thing from the Guardian on Twitter saying that the IRS has put a lien on Giuliani’s Palm Beach condo, he owes over a half a million in back taxes.

  159. 159.

    hueyplong

    If you think about it, in recent times the word “pause” has nearly always been used mendaciously.

  162. 162.

    WaterGirl

    @JoyceH: I saw a tweet that pointed out that for his piddly bak takes, which he has already paid (!) Hunter Biden is being charged with a felony.

    And for Rudy’s $500,000 they put a lien on his condo.

    Sounds fair to me. //

  163. 163.

    hueyplong

    @JoyceH: Rudy would have been remembered less negativity if he had offed himself after the humiliation of that Sasha Baron Cohen scene.

    One day I’ll feel guilty for thinking that. That day isn’t today.

  164. 164.

    Ken

    @hueyplong: Thanks. And I’m glad to see that judges are noticing that Trump is being less than truthful about the amount of time he’s spending huddled with his lawyers preparing his cases.

  165. 165.

    smith

    One of the presenters on Meidas Touch (I think it was Popok) predicted TFG would drop the suit against Cohen because his deposition would be nothing but taking the 5th all day, which in a civil case is considered prejudicial.

  166. 166.

    Splitting Image

    @hueyplong:

    @JoyceH: Rudy would have been remembered less negativity if he had offed himself after the humiliation of that Sasha Baron Cohen scene.

    Or after the time he claimed on TV that there were no terrorist attacks in the U.S. under George W. Bush. Or indeed after terrorists hit the city’s response headquarters because Giuliani put it in their intended target.

    He’s had plenty of chances to preserve his reputation.

  168. 168.

    scav

    I’ll admit I had missed how entirely a shit week or so Rudy G has been experiencing.
    It’s simply raining shoes! Hallelujah!

  171. 171.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Lyrebird: Some of my code may have run on the cruiser in the cornfields.

    I was working at the Aegis plant, writing some of the Aegis code and I understand that after it left our shop, it would be tested there.

    Actually that was a weird development process. Technically we were writing a spec. So we’d do algorithm development, then write up what the software did in spec language, then somebody would turn that into code again and then it would go into the cornfields.

  173. 173.

    Quinerly

    @raven:

    Thanks for this. I usually associate Koko Taylor with the song. Saw her twice, including at the Sparta (ILLINOIS) Blues Fest around 1999. Miss that little  festival.

    And some trivia…Sparta’s claim to fame is it was where In the Heat of the Night was filmed. Sparta is very proud of that.

    “Sidney Poitier insisted that the movie be filmed in the North because of an incident in which he and Harry Belafonte were almost killed by Ku Klux Klansmen during a visit to Mississippi. That’s why Sparta, IL, was chosen for location filming.”

  174. 174.

    prostratedragon

    @Nukular Biskits:  Kind of like Queen Liz meeting Liz Truss and deciding now’s as good a time as any. But contrary to events in UK, the Bears actually won, and impressively.

  175. 175.

    columbusqueen

    @Nukular Biskits: I’m with you there, but compared to his fellow conservative men I suppose he looks better. I just know that all of them remind me how much more attractive liberal men are across the board, including Joe.

  179. 179.

    Paul in KY

    @Another Scott: People made it to the Americas approx 40,000 years ago. That’s when the megafauna began to disappear & you can bet good money it was people killing them off.

  180. 180.

    Paul in KY

    @Jay: Good point. These first inhabitants also followed the great animal herds and predated on them. Via setting fires or stampeding them over cliffs, etc.

  181. 181.

    Paul in KY

    @raven: He got Illinois a Rose Bowl! That shows how great he was. UI will not win a Rose Bowl for another 100 years.

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