Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / 2024 Primaries / Low Characters, Low Stakes Open Thread: Update on the Grifter Primaries

Low Characters, Low Stakes Open Thread: Update on the Grifter Primaries

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Translation: Sources currently promoting one or both of these candidates try to bait Our Very Serious Horse-Race Media into breathlessly speculating on which camp first contacted the other. The NYPost gave them a mercy quote, because that kind of earned media is their jam.
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My personal favorite 2024 primary chewtoy, not having the best week:


Verdict from a professional:

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No Ethics Labels!

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Cue the healing crystals!


Low Characters, Low Stakes Open Thread: Update on the Grifter Primaries
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And, descending to levels where the grift is so obvious it’s barely veiled…

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  2. 2.

    danielx

    Grifters gonna grift.

    Aside from those who are in it strictly for the bucks, it never ceases to amaze me every four years. How so many self-deluded people start gazing in the mirror and seeing presidential timber or just a chance to get some ego gratification a year before the general election – it’s a wonder, if only they didn’t sometimes cause major damage cough*Ralph Nader*cough.

  4. 4.

    Captain C

    Losing to a write in campaign wasn’t embarrassing enough, he wants to be embarrassed in more states

    Maybe he has a public humiliation fetish?

  5. 5.

    Mike in Pasadena

    1. Al: if nobody has said this lately, thank you. I can’t troll X/Twitter or read all the news without you.
  8. 8.

    Shalimar

    Fun fact: Dennis Kucinich’s extremely tall, extremely young, extremely hot redhead wife is 46 years old now.  It has been a long time since anyone paid attention to Dennis Kucinich.

  9. 9.

    piratedan

    seeing some of the leftier than thou voices in social media calling Nancy Smash to task for stating her doubts that the folks coordinating the Palestinian protests are completely home-gown and genuine.

    I mean all we have is the same dubious methodology being manifested that we witnessed how many times before?  I’m sure that there are some people that have very valid concerns about how the Biden Administration is handling it, but I also suspect that there are some shady chaos actors also at work.

    Especially when I note how organized all it seems with only Dem politicians being questioned and no one ever bothers to ask what the GOP would do.  No accountability for who the Palestinians have chosen to represent them and yet the same lack of reciprocity of acknowledgement that roughly half of the citizens of Israel are also wanting to not only end the conflict but kick Netanyahu’s ass to the curb.

    While Ms. Pelosi isn’t perfect, I sure will extend the courtesy of her knowing what the fuck she’s talking about than not.

  10. 10.

    sab

    @piratedan: “No accountability for who the Palestinians have chosen to represent them…”

    Are you seriously suggesting that the Palestinians chose Hamas?

  11. 11.

    Chetan Murthy

    @piratedan: Hamas is getting missiles and rockets from Iran; Russian journalists propagandists were getting tours (with camera crews) of extensive Hamas tunnel networks back in October.  Hamas leaders visited Russia in Octobre (ostensibly to discuss releasing hostages, yeah right).  The idea that Hamas isn’t coordinating witih Russia is absurd: Iran is a Russian *ally* FFS.

  12. 12.

    piratedan

    @sab: what I am saying is that Hamas is using the Palestinians, in a similar fashion as Netanyahu is using Israelis.  They profess to speak for the whole, which we know is not true.  Yet with the bad actors on each side, how do we get to the table to reach a peace that has untrustworthy folks with their own interests wanting to continue the conflict.

  13. 13.

    Citizen Alan

    To be fair, I think Teddy Roosevelt would have stomped Wilson if it had been one-on-one and America would have been better for it. Taft was really the 3P candidate in that race.

  16. 16.

    sab

    @piratedan: Hamas is doing what Hamas is doing. I am saying it is a huge stretch to say that Palestinians chose Hamas as their government. On the other hand, unlike the Palestinians, Israelis did have a number of free and fair elections, and for twenty years they have chosen Bibi Netanyahu.

  18. 18.

    Chetan Murthy

    @sab: More like 25 years, and actually even longer.  Israel was building settlements on stolen land under Barak at the same time that supposedly Barak was negotiating that “generous” deal with Arafat.  I don’t know about under Rabin, but certainly under every government since, Israel has stolen Palestinian land: every government.  It’s a constant of Israeli policy, and if we’re going to call Israeli a democracy, then it’s one that all Israelis share responsibility for.

  21. 21.

    David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch

     Trump eyes Rep. Elise Stefanik as a potential VP pick

    NBC News
    Jan 17, 2024 —

    They’re gonna fall for the same trick every week.

  23. 23.

    Captain C

    @piratedan: Doing the results in my head, so may be off by a few, but adding the Roosevelt + Taft votes in each state (which likely would not have been exactly the result but is a good starting point), and giving Taft’s 8 electoral votes to Roosevelt, if my calculations are correct, roughly 267 electoral votes that went to Wilson would have gone to Roosevelt, for a result of 363-168.  There were a number of large states where Wilson won with barely a third of the vote and the Taft-Roosevelt combination was over 50%.

    Eugene Debs got a good amount of votes too, exceeding 10% in several states; I can’t imagine the removal of Taft from the race would have changed the votes or enthusiasm of all but a few of his voters.

    Even if you just use states where Taft+Roosevelt is over 50%, you get 190 electoral votes flipped, which adding the 8 votes for Taft to Roosevelt’s total gives a 286-245 win to TR.  I have no idea how many Taft voters would have gone to Wilson instead of Roosevelt (or just not shown up), but I can’t imagine the number is very large.  Also, in several states under this scenario, the combined total of votes for TR+Taft is less than 50% but still 8-10ish percent above Wilson’s.

    In sum, you would appear to be correct.  Probably about the result also; it’s interesting to wonder what would happen regarding World War I with Roosevelt as U.S. President in 1914

    ETA:  OK, this was actually a response to @Citizen Alan: at the next comment from yours.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    …he’s 81 years old, didn’t show up, and still kicked my ass.

    -Colbert

    LOL!

    Drop out, Dean.  Keep a shred of respect.

  26. 26.

    Geminid

    @sab: Israelis have in fact chosen Netanyahu in most of the elections this century, but not always and ofyen just barely.

    The Israeli goverbment before this one did not include Likud or Netanyahu. It took power in June of 2021 with Naftali Bennett as PM. It dissolved itself and called a new election in June 2022 after failing to win a critical vote, and functioned as a caretaker government through that December with Yair Lapid as PM.

    The last Israeli election, on November 1, 2022, showed an almost equally divided electorate, similar to the four elections before it. But two opposition parties failed to meet the 3.25% threshold entitling them to 4 Knesset Members. Instead they were blanked, 6% of the opposition vote stranded, and Netanyahu’s 4-party coalition ended up with a 64-56 majority in the Knesset.

  27. 27.

    sab

    @Geminid: I know that Israelis haven’t been wholehearted in their support of Bibi. Same for us in America  with Trump.

    Gazan palestinians never had a choice of government. So saying Hamas is their chosen government is nonsense. I hated the Trump and Bush governments, and yet accept thst “we” as Americans chose them. The same is not true for Palestinians, and to pretend that they chose Hamas and are somehow responsible for its choices is obscene.

  28. 28.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Geminid: There’s the issue of Netanyahu, who clearly wants to ethnically cleanse Palestine.  But that’s not the only issue.  Is there any Israeli government since 1967, under which Israel was *not* progressively building settlements?  I have read that under Barak, and ever since, that has been the case (progressively  building settlements), but I can’t find anything written about what happened under Rabin, and the many governments since 1967 up to Rabin.

    B/c if settlements are a constant of Israeli policy, then you can’t blame that on Netanyahu: it’s *Israel* that must be blamed: *Israel* and *Israelis*.  And it is the theft of Palestinian land, that is the big problem here.

  29. 29.

    Anne Laurie

    @Citizen Alan: To be fair, I think Teddy Roosevelt would have stomped Wilson if it had been one-on-one and America would have been better for it.

    I’m not a good person — I’ll admit the image of Teedy literally curb-stomping Wilson warmed my cold heart.

    (Yes, TR was hardly an avatar of virtue, racial or otherwise.  But I’ve had a soft spot for him going back to my childhood visits to his Manhattan birthplace, where his role in the invention of the ‘Teddy bear’ was prominently displayed.)

  30. 30.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    MegKinnardAP via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    @AndrewYang– who campaigned frequently in SC in 2020 – says Phillips “would be a much more formidable” Democratic nominee than Biden.

    Reminder: Andrew Yang thought Andrew Yang would be a formidable candidate.

    So I don’t think Yang has particularly good insight into who would make a formidable candidate.

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    @Chetan Murthy: Many Americans are concerned with questions like, “who is  to blame” for this situation. This is in contrast to many of the Arab countries in the area who are more concerned with how matters can be settled peacefully going forward. They know there is plenty of blame to be assigned including to tbemselves. This may be why so many Americans have concluded that the Two State solution is dead, while people closer to tbe problem insist that a Two State resolution to the problem is the only viable one.

    As foe settlements prior to the Netanyahu era, that is not hard to research. You would find that right after the 1967 war, Israel established settlements in the Jordan Valley intended to create a security frontier along the Jordan River. Larger communities like Ariel were also built across the Green Line, adjacent to Jerusalem.

    The latter area was designated “Area A” under the Oslo Accords, and was to be “swapped” with Israeli territory under the proposed agreement. That could be more problematical now; when there were rumors a few years ago that this transfer might happen, Israeli Arabs living in this area to be swapped demonstrated against the exchange.

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: An interesting “scoop” by Axios reporter Barak Ravid: representatives from Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Gulf Arab states met secretly in Riyadh recently. The purpose was to coordinate a strategy for “the day after” this war that included a plan to “revitalize” the Palestinian Authority.

    Ravid also reported some on the meeting yesterday in Paris between CIA Director William Burns, his Egyptian and Israeli counterparts, and Qatar’s Prime Minister. They discussed a proposal for a two month ceasefire that would include the release by Hamas of its hostages in exchange for a larger number “security prisoners” held by Israel. The meeting has been described as “productive” but a ceasefire is still not close.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    @piratedan:

    She didn’t just “state her doubts”. Here’s what she said:

    When pressed on whether she believed some of the demonstrators were “Russian plants,” Ms. Pelosi said: “Seeds or plants. I think some financing should be investigated. And I want to ask the F.B.I. to investigate that.”

    Because the FBI “investigating” protestors in the US has always gone so well, right?
    I have no idea why Democrats won’t just take the questions on head on and defend the policy. All avoiding doing that does is make it appear they’re ashamed of it and can’t defend it. They have a US policy in Gaza. They’re acting on it. Defend it. If people don’t like the current US policy in Gaza (and a lot of people don’t) avoiding addressing it and not defending it isn’t going to help with that.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    There are two separate issues – Israel’s actions and the US response to Israel’s actions. Democrats are in the White House so they are responsible for the US response to Israel’s actions. Attempting this switcheroo to try to make it instead be a discussion of the protestors response to Israel’s actions and US policy is a dodge. It’s not responsive. It’s also not going to work.  Does Pelosi believe that the US is responding effectively and sufficiently to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza? If she does why doesn’t she say so instead of focusing on the critics?

  35. 35.

    Kay

    @piratedan:

     with only Dem politicians being questioned and no one ever bothers to ask what the GOP would do.

    Do you really think offering some alternative hypothetical about what a GOP President would do is going to be persuasive? What about just defending the policy?
    Even if you do believe offering an alternative hypothetical about what a GOP President would do is persuasive to voters (I don’t but you might) why would it ever be the protestors job to offer that? Wouldn’t that be the candidates job?
    If Pelosi is mad that the protestors don’t include opposing the hypothetical Trump policy in Gaza (they won’t ) maybe she could lay that out herself -“if you think we’re bad on this, wait until you see the other guy”.

  36. 36.

    Brachiator

    Sources close to Donald Trump reached out to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about serving as the presidential candidate’s running mate, per a new report by the New York Post.

    This is like a crazy parody of a unity ticket.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    Tom Cotton is a hysterical, warmongering piece of shit, as usual. Here he is using the deadly drone strike in Jordan to attack Biden:

    “He left our troops as sitting ducks, and now three are dead and dozens wounded, sadly as I’ve predicted would happen for months,” said Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas. “The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East. Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander in chief.”

    The beady-eyed fascist couldn’t even wait until the blood was hosed off the pavement before making political hay. What a contemptible cockwaffle.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Republicans

    1. Held up officer nominations for nearly a year.
    2. Continue to stall supplemental funding for foreign military assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

    They are bad actors’ best allies.

  39. 39.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay: ​
     

    Does Pelosi believe that the US is responding effectively and sufficiently to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza? If she does why doesn’t she say so instead of focusing on the critics?

    That’s a big ‘if.’ Maybe she doesn’t. What should she be saying then?

  40. 40.

    Geminid

    Some more reporting by Barak Ravid, this time from the Israeli news site Walla. Ravid writes about President Biden’s January 19 phone call with PM Netanyahu, that it:

       …indicates a growing concern about the continuation of the war in Gaza and the President’s desire to see this war wrapped up as long as posdible before the November, 2024 election. One of Biden’s advisors in the White House fears losing votes from young voters, who increasingly oppose the president’s policies regarding the war in Gaza. An American source close to the White House said that Biden cannot afford to let the war in Gaza and the hogh number of Palestinians killed each day continue to lead the news agenda as the presidential election approaches.

    Here Ravid is not reporting on the substance of the phone call but rather its political context. I expect Biden pressed Netanyahu on Qatari plan for a two-month ceasefire. That is where Biden and his team are focusing their efforts. Israel’s European allies and its Arab allies also want this badly, and most importantly, people in Gaza desparately need a cessefire.

    Israel needs one too, not least because they could get some more or all of Hamas’s hostages released. And in 8 weeks, the various parties could hammer out a more durable end to this one war.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    Here Ravid is not reporting on the substance of the phone call

     
    Yeah, I was confused at first. No way Biden says all that to Netanyahu.

  44. 44.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I did not help by extending the quote box beyond the actual Walla excerpt. I took care of that with an edit.

    This was interesting analysis to see on an Israeli site, but not surprising because Israelis pay a lot of attention to this sphere of American politics, especially right now.

  45. 45.

    lowtechcyclist

    @lowtechcyclist:

    My WAG is that there are more than a few Dem politicians trying to figure out how to deal with this dilemma.  You want Biden to be re-elected, you believe that Trump back in the White House would be a disaster for America and the world, but at the same time, you look at the devastation that Israel is wreaking on Gaza and its people and think we should be more forceful in opposing what Israel is doing, how do you thread this needle?

    I don’t think it makes sense for Dems to oppose anti-Israel protests in general, but I think it is important to remind those who would withhold their votes to ‘punish’ the Biden Administration for its policy re Gaza that a Trump administration would back Israel to the hilt with no reservations, because so much of his core support is from evangelicals who care more about the Rapture than what happens to actual flesh-and-blood people.

    If they think Biden’s ineffective in putting the brakes on Israel, it’s worth reminding them that Trump would tell Israel to hit the gas pedal as hard as it likes.

  46. 46.

    Joey Maloney

    @Chetan Murthy: There’s the issue of Netanyahu, who clearly wants to ethnically cleanse Palestine.

    The only thing Bibi clearly wants is to keep his ass out of prison. If he saw a path to that outcome that included selling Tel Aviv to Mohammed bin Salman, I’d be learning Arabic tomorrow.

  47. 47.

    Geminid

    I see that Democratic Rep. Ruppersburger of Matyland is retiring. That makes Reps Maryland Democrats must replace. John Sarbanes is also retiring and David Trone is running for Senate.

  49. 49.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @NotMax:

    Dude, love ya, but the ongoing disrespect for AL’s late night posts is getting tiresome. She puts in the work. A lot of it. For free. Those who aren’t interested can scroll on by.

  50. 50.

    Tony G

    I’m actually surprised that Saint Bernie is not running for president again this year.  I guess he got tired of it.

  51. 51.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Tony G:

    I think St. Bernie actually likes Biden. Apparently Joe, as is his wont, was kind to him when he joined the Senate. Plus (my theory), Joe has the proper anatomy. I do not think St. B liked losing elections to someone with girl cooties.

  52. 52.

    evodevo

    @sab: ​
      Well, yes they did, but it was many years ago, and Hamas, of course, has not allowed any actual elections since then. They have used the usual Mafia tactics to stay in power and discourage opposition. That alone would be a problem, but now they go and bring down the wrath of IDF on the civilian population (something they knew would happen), who have become unwilling martyrs to the extremist “cause”. I have no idea what they were thinking (Iran said go for it – We want to start a regional war?), and no idea how to solve the problem, but it’s certainly not being solved at present…

  53. 53.

    kindness

    Why is it that all these Wunderkinds of the Billionaire Tech Boys think they should be the Masters of the Universe?  In the end we see it really all boils down to they hate Democrats and they hate the Democratic party so much they’d rather see Trump win.  Which is really odd since they all pose as if they are Democrats.

  55. 55.

    Matt McIrvin

    @kindness: I see these guys as GenXers about my age who absorbed a lot of the same science-fiction and futurist material I did as a kid and teenager, only they’re extremely, extremely rich and have the idea that they can actually do the stuff they dreamed about.

    An idea that came up over and over was “government people don’t know what they’re doing, your teachers don’t know what they’re doing, even scientists might not know what they’re doing, but engineers and computer programmers are the smartest people in the world and can solve any problem. We only lack the WILL.”

  56. 56.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Princess: The problem with violent dictatorial regimes is that they tend to create their own popular constituencies, which would give them a kind of legitimacy even if you could hold a free and fair opinion poll. Maybe it doesn’t last forever but the idea that they’re necessarily hated by the people is invalid.

  58. 58.

    artem1s

    Dennis Kucinich, 77, is trying to mount a comeback for an OH congressional seat.

    F**k F**k F**kity F**k F**k F**k!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!9/11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not this asshole again. Why isn’t he running for a seat in Oregon where he’s been living since the last time OH kicked his ass to the curb, you ask? Because he’d rather spend the next 6 months trashing Biden and Obama for not bending the knee to him when he held ACA hostage. And he’s been on a revenge tour when the Party dumped him after the state lost 2 districts due to the 2000 census. This guy is an asshole who has a pack of ignorant green party poser lefties at his beck and call who he can grift off of and get them to quit their jobs and stage protests at all the other Dems running for office in Ohio. It’s going to be non-stop pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli astroturfing shenanigans. He’ll stick around just long enough to sandbag the Dem party endorsed candidate and then get curb stomped by Max Miller (former aide to TIFG). So that’s one OH congressional district that isn’t going to flip to blue. F**cking carbetbagging asshole.​​

  59. 59.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: Yes, and I find that the former is generally true for the people who look at the problem from a distance and have little stake in the matter. Nations that have dealt with this problem for decades take a different view, and are trying to lay the foundation for a real solution.

  61. 61.

    RaflW

    Dean Phillips has missed a bunch of House votes recently. If he f*cks up a critical moment, now that the GOP margin is so tiny over there, he’ll need a full open-spit roasting.

    I live a few miles from his district. I’m so sick of his self-absorbed, whiny b.s.

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