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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

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There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

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Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

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It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Cole is on a roll !

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rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / GOP Venality Open Thread: A Mutually Satisfactory Bust-Out

GOP Venality Open Thread: A Mutually Satisfactory Bust-Out

by Anne Laurie|  March 9, 20245:43 pm| 178 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel

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BREAKING: RNC votes to install Donald Trump's handpicked chair as the former president asserts control over the party. https://t.co/ZaYax4OBE0

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 8, 2024

A “bust out” is a fraud tactic, commonly used in the organized crime world, wherein a business’ assets and lines of credit are exploited and exhausted to the point of insolvency. – Wikipedia

It seems, to my dyspeptic mind, as though Ronna Romney McDaniel’s ouster is being presented by Our Failed Major Media as a brutish assault upon an innocent, unwilling RNC. But from everything I’ve read, the RNC has been leaking money up & down, from the dustiest local offices in underpopulated red states to the plush lobbying hives in DC — sometimes because accurate bookkeeping is a thing *nerds* do, sometimes in homage to the proud tradition of the original Gilded Age banana republicans: Anything not nailed down is mine, and anything I can pry loose is not nailed down.

Lara Trump’s lavish beagle rescue ‘fundraising’ galas at Mar-A-Lago arguably fall closer to carelessness than peculation, but anyone working with her in the new, improved RNC fundraising efforts will… know where the sympathies of the people signing their paychecks actually lie. Money will (continue to) disappear; donors will, eventually, stop throwing good dollars after bad; Trump will continue to spiral into raging incoherence on the campaign trail…

So, at some point in the not-distant future — either just before or just after November 6, I’m guessing — it will be announced that there is no more money in the RNC coffers. Every penny, gone! Every asset, mortgaged and/or impounded!

The Republican National Committee as constituted will be officially dissolved, and a replacement either entirely Trump-free or blatantly Trump-centric will be announced. The collapse of a once-proud (or at least once solvent) institution will be blamed on Lara Trump, who will be summarily read out of the Trump business organization (with or without her husband, depending on whether Jarvanka can be lured or bribed back into the fold). Eventually, some low-level Allen Weisselberg analog will be sentenced. And the Permanent GOP Establishment will attempt to soldier blithely on…

Breaking: the piggy bank for TFG legal funds. https://t.co/j3GyziL5JR

— KAMALA NATION (@KamalaNation) March 8, 2024


This is going to end in a financial disaster.

To be fair, RNC was mismanaged even before Lara Trump showed up. https://t.co/ZX5Ys3RDiD pic.twitter.com/9h0f3R5r0z

— Oliver Darko (@oliver_drk) March 9, 2024

The RNC announces Lara Trump is the new co-Chair of the Republican Party: “God does not call the qualified” pic.twitter.com/lrSbXXpRTf

— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) March 8, 2024

congrats to all the down ballot republican campaign treasurers who wont have to deal with all the paperwork from RNC donations this cycle https://t.co/9CDT3qIaCD

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) March 8, 2024

One of those "close allies" is his daughter-in-law. It's just very odd how these tweets are framed b/c I guarantee you, if a son or daughter in law of a Biden, Obama, or Clinton was named co-chair of the DNC, I promise you, the media would point it out. https://t.co/sdeAkLgGXH

— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) March 8, 2024

Lara Trump will be the best RNC Chair the Democrats have ever had.

— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) March 9, 2024

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison supports Lara Trump’s plan to use RNC funds to pay Trump’s legal fees: Go Lara go! Just spend it all! pic.twitter.com/Py6Uoyd5j5

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) March 8, 2024

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Reader Interactions

178Comments

  1. 1.

    Chris Johnson

    March 9, 2024 at 5:45 pm

    This is just wild. What the actual hell.

    We’re gonna have to set up soup kitchens for these crazy fuckers.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 5:47 pm

    These are the people who want to manage your tax dollars.

  3. 3.

    Mike in NC

    March 9, 2024 at 5:54 pm

    So the RNC spent $70K on floral arrangements and a quarter of a million bucks on limousines. Proof that they’re the party of fiscal responsibility.

  4. 4.

    pat

    March 9, 2024 at 5:57 pm

    Is that the actual thing?  $70,000 for FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS?  WTF

     

    Missed it by that much… and yes I forgot about the limos.

     

    And Office Supplies!!!  Almost $300,000.  That’s a lot of pencils.

  5. 5.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    March 9, 2024 at 6:01 pm

    @Mike in NC: Not to mention a million bucks for “management consulting”. Think anyone did any actual “consulting” to get those checks? Yeah, me neither.

  6. 6.

    dmsilev

    March 9, 2024 at 6:02 pm

    Wonder whether she and Eric will attempt to run their own personal grift and cut Daddy out of some of the loot that he believes is his by right. I hope so; that’d be hilarious to watch.

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    March 9, 2024 at 6:05 pm

    @Mike in NC: Of all the silliness of the RNC’s management and budgeting, that’s the one which actually seems reasonable. They run a lot of banquets and similar events for their marks donors, and if each event has a bunch of tables, with a centerpiece floral arrangement on each one, the total bill is going to add up fast.

  8. 8.

    Stuart Frasier

    March 9, 2024 at 6:07 pm

    @pat: In fairness, “office supplies” is probably the cocaine budget.

  9. 9.

    Kristine

    March 9, 2024 at 6:07 pm

    Just sitting here shaking my head.

    They’re going to run out of money months before the election. I mean, you love to see it, but they actually voted for it.

  10. 10.

    Roberto el oso

    March 9, 2024 at 6:07 pm

    How long before down-ballot candidates start grumbling when all the money disappears?

  11. 11.

    laura

    March 9, 2024 at 6:07 pm

    Wouldn’t be me setting up that soup kitchen, but I’m a Salty and Petty bitch. I’ll be sitting here, pointing and laughing and laughing and gasping for breath from all the laughing.

  12. 12.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    March 9, 2024 at 6:08 pm

    @pat: Meidas Touch has been following a story where Sarah Huckabee Sanders appears to have used taxpayer $$ to send her buddies on an expensive trip to Paris, then disguise it with backdated invoices for $20000 “podiums”. From a company, needless to say, which is not in the podium business.

    Call me suspicious but I suspect the $300K worth of “office supplies” is some similar scam.

    The Trump crime family is expert at this kind of grift. I think there will be an attempt to have semi-plausible line items which, after 5 minutes digging, turn out to all be devoted to Orange Hitler’s legal fees.

  13. 13.

    Another Scott

    March 9, 2024 at 6:09 pm

    “We Must Close the Floral Arrangements Gap!!11”

    [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  14. 14.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 6:14 pm

    The Republican National Committee as constituted will be officially dissolved, and a replacement either entirely Trump-free or blatantly Trump-centric will be announced.

    Mudging from some of the state parties, I’m going with both.

  15. 15.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    March 9, 2024 at 6:15 pm

    @Chris Johnson:

    We’re gonna have to set up soup kitchens for these crazy fuckers.

    We’re gonna let them starve.

  16. 16.

    gene108

    March 9, 2024 at 6:15 pm

    I want to point and laugh, but nothing seems to have the ability to permanently sink the Republican Party. Like an 80’s slasher movie villain, they keep coming back.

  17. 17.

    scav

    March 9, 2024 at 6:16 pm

    Maybe the limos are their GOTV effort?

  18. 18.

    West of the Rockies

    March 9, 2024 at 6:17 pm

    Without exaggeration, what is the best this news could mean for Democrats?  I’d guess cash-poor down-ticket Republicans nationwide, and (eventually) a burned-out and disillusioned Republican base.

    Any thoughts?

  19. 19.

    Another Scott

    March 9, 2024 at 6:17 pm

    Qualified, Squalified.  That money is TIFG’s and everyone knows it.  Cut out the middleman and hand it over.

    🤪

    They really are a cult…

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  20. 20.

    Starfish

    March 9, 2024 at 6:17 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: The lectern controversy has been going on for months and months. If it wasn’t for that pesky blogger and his FOIA requests!

  21. 21.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    @Starfish:

    We need a blogger ethics panel.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    @dmsilev: Is she the one who sings?  (Badly)

  23. 23.

    Starfish

    March 9, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    We’re gonna let them starve pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

  24. 24.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    @pat: And Office Supplies!!!  Almost $300,000.  That’s a lot of pencils.

    Now, now.  You can’t, after all, expect them to use all that post-1950 technology stuff.

  25. 25.

    West of the Rockies

    March 9, 2024 at 6:19 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Keep in mind (TBF), office supplies could mean copiers and computers, too.

  26. 26.

    bbleh

    March 9, 2024 at 6:20 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Hey hey, let’s be FAIR here!  If you add in the “media booking consultants” it’s almost a million-two!

    How many people TOTAL you think that $1.2M went to?  As many as half a dozen?  That’d be less than $200K a person, basically couch-cushion money for a serious Republican Party grifter…

  27. 27.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 6:20 pm

    @Roberto el oso: How long before down-ballot candidates start grumbling when all the money disappears?

    Stolen by Dark Brandon, of course….

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 6:20 pm

    @wjca: What is mudging?  Or was that supposed to be judging?

  29. 29.

    bbleh

    March 9, 2024 at 6:22 pm

    @West of the Rockies: yeah, because who would expect a national political party committee to already have things like computers and copiers?

    Of course this IS Republicans, so maybe they left with Ronna.

  30. 30.

    Ohio Mom

    March 9, 2024 at 6:23 pm

    @West of the Rockies: I’m not expecting the base to ever catch on — they will hear some nutty story on Fox explaining how it is all somebody else’s fault — but what are say, the heads of the state Republican parties thinking? Or the big donors? They must have some inkling as they get steamrollered.

    Oh well, not my monkey, not my circus.

  31. 31.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 6:23 pm

    @WaterGirl: What is mudging?  Or was that supposed to be judging?

    Typos R us!

    (Self editing, not so much.)

  32. 32.

    bbleh

    March 9, 2024 at 6:24 pm

    @Chris Johnson: @comrade scotts agenda of rage: @Starfish:

    We’re gonna let them starve.

    And as they do, we’re going to lecture them severely on their lack of moral character.

  33. 33.

    Jackie

    March 9, 2024 at 6:24 pm

    @Roberto el oso: They’re already grumbling and trying to get their supporters to donate directly to their campaigns.

    After the GE is over and so many GQPers have lost for various reasons, but partially because they were underfunded and broke, the term “The Election was Stolen” will have a whole new meaning. 🎻🎻🎻

  34. 34.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    March 9, 2024 at 6:26 pm

    The Republican party is a wholly owned subsidiary of TrumpCo. He owns them lock, stock and barrel. They will bend over and suck his ass on command and then slink away when he tells everyone that they sucked at sucking his ass. There are no men in that party, they all bend a knee to their king. Hell, they even dress like him! They conform while decrying conformity. They throw money into their human money pit thinking that it can be sated, not understanding that the Trump money pit is bottomless and in the end it will consume them too.

    The Republican party is dead, a zombie party has taken its place and it wants to destroy us all to feed itself.

  35. 35.

    Gretchen

    March 9, 2024 at 6:28 pm

    @pat: Jason Kander said that parties spend money on floral arrangements like when the spouse of a big donor dies or big fundraising dinners. He thought Lara criticizing that showed that she doesn’t know what organizations like the RNC do.

  36. 36.

    TBone

    March 9, 2024 at 6:28 pm

    Just discovered this important research and have nowhere else to put it.

    MIT Technology Review article on long Covid and long Lyme and why they’re so similar.  I’ve been waiting for this!

    https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/28/1087617/tackling-long-haul-diseases/

    “Long covid looks exactly, and I mean exactly, like chronic Lyme,” she says. “One is caused by bacteria, and one is caused by a virus. And I started to ask myself this question: Does it matter which road you took to Rome? Or does it only matter that you’re in Rome?”

    This is one of the most fundamental questions facing researchers who study infection-­mediated chronic illness. One school of thought—backed by increasing evidence in the case of long covid—holds that stubbornly persistent pathogens are driving symptoms in at least a portion of the patient population. According to another hypothesis, the immune system has successfully vanquished the infection but remains stuck in a faulty state. Determining the underlying cause of these conditions will be essential to developing the most effective treatments, whether in the form of immune-assisting drugs such as antibiotics and antivirals or immune-calming drugs such as biologic therapies and steroids.
    The MIT MAESTRO study
    “Mikki is really a leader about thinking about sex differences in immunology,” says Linda Griffith, director of MIT’s Center for Gynepathology Research (CGR) and the School of Engineering Professor of Teaching Innovation of Biological and Mechanical Engineering. “She is extremely fearless. She’s not going to go along with the crowd because she wants to be liked. And she’s not afraid of proposing something that may be a little out there.”

  37. 37.

    Jackie

    March 9, 2024 at 6:28 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Huckabee-Sanders is also being accused of using taxpayer funds to take her family to the Super Bowl.

    The GQP needs to change their name to The Grifter Party.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 6:29 pm

    The Dems never sent me flowers.

  39. 39.

    Anoniminous

    March 9, 2024 at 6:33 pm

    @Baud: ​
    Hilary never sent me an email.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 6:35 pm

    @Baud: I’ll pick a flower from my garden, put it in a vase, and think of you.

  41. 41.

    Tehanu

    March 9, 2024 at 6:38 pm

    FWIW, I think the greed and the grifting are more or less ordinary human petty vices.  It’s the shamelessness of it that is new — and nauseating.

  42. 42.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    March 9, 2024 at 6:40 pm

    No sane organization would put a member of the Trump family in charge unless they wanted to go bankrupt. Knowing how the GOP generally feels about money I’m going with cray cray.

  43. 43.

    scav

    March 9, 2024 at 6:40 pm

    Even the down-ticket, not officially-Trump-managed GooPer budgets might need to include a bigger allowance for legal fees.  They’re beginning to sue each other for victory. Republicans in Georgia put candidates through purity tests. Now they’re facing fines

  44. 44.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 9, 2024 at 6:41 pm

    either just before or just after November 6, I’m guessing

    Trump is not that subtle and he is desperate.  He’s going to suck the RNC dry, divert absolutely every penny Lara has authority over, straight to his legal fines.  This is going to be a train wreck to watch, even more so because establishment Republicans don’t want to spend the money this way, but what can they do?  Repudiate their presidential nominee?  Let him go bankrupt?

  45. 45.

    Ken

    March 9, 2024 at 6:42 pm

    Wasn’t the floral business traditionally one of the organized crime fronts in New York City? Or am I thinking of Edgar G. Robinson in Brother Orchid, and/or Milton Berle’s “Louie the Lilac” character on Batman?

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 6:42 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Sucks to be them.

  47. 47.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    March 9, 2024 at 6:43 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: ​
     

    The billionaires weaponized the stooopid and now have to pay the price both figuratively and literally.

  48. 48.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 9, 2024 at 6:43 pm

    @laura:

    Wouldn’t be me setting up that soup kitchen

    I wonder where we can source some canned veg that’s guaranteed to be infected with botulinum …..

  49. 49.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 9, 2024 at 6:43 pm

    Lara’s Theme 2.0 = “Send In The Clowns”

  50. 50.

    glc

    March 9, 2024 at 6:45 pm

    @TBone: Interesting, article, thanks.

  51. 51.

    Shalimar

    March 9, 2024 at 6:47 pm

    “Well, I’ve got no life

    It’s always constant strife

    No speech tonight so he doesn’t sundown

    but I will not frown

    Really, don’t fuck clowns”

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    March 9, 2024 at 6:49 pm

     

    I follow the family on TikTok.
    NylaB is simply adorable 🥰
    The way she literally squealed when seeing all the Princess dresses 🤗🤗🤗

    I wish all little girls could have their Disney Princess moment.

    https://twitter.com/_Norah__D_/status/1766541758383489085?t=BkvNth6dFWnbVoKlF_OEyg&s=19

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    March 9, 2024 at 6:50 pm

    Let the

     

    ROBBING THEM BLIND

    Phase

     

    Commence

  54. 54.

    karen marie

    March 9, 2024 at 6:51 pm

    @pat:   My guess is that’s where they’re hiding the bulk purchase of Trump family members’ books.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 6:51 pm

    I’ll looking forward to seeing how many Trump sneakers the RNC purchases.

  56. 56.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 9, 2024 at 6:51 pm

    I admit that even I have trouble believing Trump would just plain raid the RNC for his legal funds.  It is so short-sighted and system-wrecking, breaking norms that exist for a very good reason.  It’s telling the entire Republican election, including his own, to go fuck itself in favor of his personal finances.  That’s exactly the kind of man he is and how he has a record of operating, though.

  57. 57.

    karen marie

    March 9, 2024 at 6:52 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I had forgotten about that.  Has there been any progress in tracking down the actual podium Sanders claims was bought?

    @Starfish:  Okay, now I’ve read the February 8, 2024 update.  How could it possibly take this long to investigate the purchase of a podium?

  58. 58.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 9, 2024 at 6:52 pm

    @WaterGirl: you can send him dead flowers every morning
    Send him dead flowers by the mail
    Send him dead flowers to his inauguration
    And he won’t forget to put roses on your grave

  59. 59.

    Roberto el oso

    March 9, 2024 at 6:56 pm

    @Baud: I’m sure it will be required footwear before they even set foot in the hall.

  60. 60.

    RaflW

    March 9, 2024 at 6:56 pm

    To the extent that Trump hoovers up RNC cash and leaves House & Senate races vulnerable, I’m gonna laugh and laugh. This crime syndicate is who Mitch McConnell is endorsing. The destruction Lindsey Graham easily foresaw is here. Oh well!

  61. 61.

    brantl

    March 9, 2024 at 6:59 pm

    @Chris Johnson: Let them starve themselves. These Darwin Award winners need to be allowed to lemming off the cliffs.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 6:59 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: That’s lovely, did you write that? :-)

  63. 63.

    Anoniminous

    March 9, 2024 at 7:00 pm

    @TBone: ​
     
    SARS-CoV-2 virus and Borrelia burgdorferi have been shown to signal other members of their species. Some of these signals affect reproduction and one of those affects is the pathogen can signal other members to go dormant and ‘wait their turn’ to reproduce. The result is temporal persistence of the associated disease.

  64. 64.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    March 9, 2024 at 7:01 pm

    @RaflW: Yeah the silver lining is Mitch, Lindsay and all the others watching in misery as the party goes broke. They could a stopped it but decided “to let the legal system” rid them of the problem instead. They chose…poorly.

  65. 65.

    MazeDancer

    March 9, 2024 at 7:02 pm

    Katie Britt fesses up –

    Tristan Snell:

    UPDATE — Katie Britt’s spokesperson ADMITS her sex trafficking story was about Karla Jacinto Romero

    Happened in Mexico 2004-2008. Nothing to do with Mr. Biden.

  66. 66.

    rikyrah

    March 9, 2024 at 7:03 pm

     

    Father going viral for going Barbie shopping with his daughter.

     

    No…you can’t have “bottle girl”😂😂😂

     

    https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTL8mJrwn/

  67. 67.

    Jackie

    March 9, 2024 at 7:10 pm

    Sorry, another Katie Britt article – this from an Alabama opinion columnist. He thinks her career is toast.

    ….Come on in, America. Meet your future, and see just how normal it looks.

    None of this Tommy Tuberville stuff, with the casual racism or the flip-flopping or the hopeless ignorance about the three branches of government.

    This was Katie Britt, Alabama’s Great Slight Hope. This was Katie freakin’ Britt, the second coming of Dick Shelby, who could keep his dignity, and hold on to most of himself while maintaining his conservative values, bringing home pork by the barrelful and appeasing the red meat Republican crowd and the Business Council of Alabama to boot.

    Katie freakin’ Britt, the one they said was different. The one they said could show this whole country that young, educated GOP women were still a thing. They said she could demonstrate that Republicans could still be civil and dignified and respected, that they didn’t have to be performative clowns in MAGA hats, like Marjorie Taylor Greene.

    Katie Britt was the answer.

    All eyes were on her Thursday night as she stepped onto a vast stage from that unnaturally empty kitchen to respond to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. The country was watching as she began to read her predictable script, to audition for the role of her lifetime.

    America was looking for proof of normalcy.

    And it got “The Three Faces of Eve.”

    All she had to do was read her script on a teleprompter, catch the bouquet, take her bow and take her place as a politician to be both respected and reckoned with.

    And then…

    And then she started to talk. And by the third paragraph of her prepared speechit was clear she was no longer auditioning for the role of vice president, or for the role of respected politician, or the role of likable mom or genuine human.

    She was Faye Dunaway in “Mommie Dearest” shrieking “No wire hangers!”

    She wasn’t trying out for VP. She was trying out for the cold open of “Saturday Night Live.” As the punchline and the punching bag.

    Katie Britt was supposed to be the smart one, the reasonable one, the regular one.

    She was supposed to be the one who would make Alabamians proud — or less embarrassed than they too often are.
    Unfortunately, she will be remembered another way.
    As a joke.

    Which is too bad. Because she seems to come off pretty well when she only pretends to be herself.

    https://www.al.com/news/2024/03/archibald-how-katie-britt-alabamas-so-called-reasonable-senator-lost-herself-and-a-whole-lot-more.html

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 7:10 pm

    @MazeDancer: Does she say the words “I lied”?

  69. 69.

    bbleh

    March 9, 2024 at 7:12 pm

    @MazeDancer: But it’s the sort of thing he WOULD have done, because that’s what Democrats DO!

    At this point, talking to the MAGAts is like chanting religious code-words.  It’s evocative, like poetry.  Dems = Open Border = brown people = crime and laziness and disease.  Allude to it with any phrase or image and the whole tape replays in their overheated brains.  The truth or falsity, or connection to real events, is utterly irrelevant.

    It’s a cult.

  70. 70.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 9, 2024 at 7:12 pm

    @TBone: wow, that was an interesting read!  Thank you so much!

  71. 71.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 7:14 pm

    @Jackie:

    The one they said could show this whole country that young, educated GOP women were still a thing.

     

    Why would that be important to them the way they’re going?

  72. 72.

    HumboldtBlue

    March 9, 2024 at 7:14 pm

    Trump is going to steal every fucking penny given to the RNC, and he’s already started.

    “I’m very humbly asking if you could chip in 5, 10, or even 25 dollars. I know that times could be tough, and they’re tough…”

  73. 73.

    frosty

    March 9, 2024 at 7:16 pm

    @TBone: That was a good article – it’s nice to see some real research is starting up. It would have been better two years ago, but that’s the way it works.

    It’s also nice to see she’s focusing on women. I have a friend who’s on disability and who was let go from her job because of Long COVID. I scour Anne Laurie’s updates to try to find something to help her out. I sent her the link.

  74. 74.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 7:16 pm

    @Jackie: Oh my god, were they auditioning her to be Sarah Palin to Trump’s McCain?????

  75. 75.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 7:17 pm

    Has Goku posted recently?

  76. 76.

    HumboldtBlue

    March 9, 2024 at 7:17 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Hahahahahaha, you need to get someone with clothes on..

  77. 77.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 7:17 pm

    @Baud: Trying to keep the Republican women Republican?

  78. 78.

    Ironcity

    March 9, 2024 at 7:18 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Sound okay to me.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 7:19 pm

    @Baud: Within the last week, I think.

  80. 80.

    Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 7:19 pm

    @Baud:

    last I saw, a couple of days ago.

  81. 81.

    rikyrah

    March 9, 2024 at 7:21 pm

     

    This is adorable 🥰
    She sounds like a real nail tech😂😂

    https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTL8mu3QA/

  82. 82.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 7:21 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    @Jay:

    Thanks.

  83. 83.

    rikyrah

    March 9, 2024 at 7:21 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    He is going to ROB👏🏾 THEM 👏🏾 BLIND 👏🏾

  84. 84.

    Captain C

    March 9, 2024 at 7:21 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Repudiate their presidential nominee?  Let him go bankrupt?

    If they were smart, they’d do both.  Of course, we both understand the problem with this statement, as does pretty much everyone else reading this.

  85. 85.

    Mel

    March 9, 2024 at 7:25 pm

    @TBone: You and me, both!

  86. 86.

    Sanjeevs

    March 9, 2024 at 7:26 pm

    Does it matter if the RNC is broke?

    Putin’s life depends on Trump being elected. The GOP will get the full backing of his cash, troll farms and spooks.

  87. 87.

    HumboldtBlue

    March 9, 2024 at 7:26 pm

    Hey guys? Guys? I just want to remind you that Trump IS AN AMAZING ATHLETE!!!

    “Trump is a great athlete… I’m not sure if I should say this but just a few weeks ago, President Trump put to shame two professional golfers”

  88. 88.

    RaflW

    March 9, 2024 at 7:26 pm

    Oh, and the difference in GOTV texting and voter fie maintenance tells a remarkable story. Democrats have lots of room to kick ass on turnout.

  89. 89.

    VFX Lurker

    March 9, 2024 at 7:28 pm

    @rikyrah: He is going to ROB👏🏾 THEM 👏🏾 BLIND 👏🏾

    Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch. I’ll be the one in the window going “YES…HA HA HA…YES!“

  90. 90.

    Mai Naem mobile

    March 9, 2024 at 7:28 pm

    Midnight 11/6/2024 Lara, Eric, Donald, Jr, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Melania, Barron, Ivanka and Jared are going to be at the RNC HQ and take everything that’s not nailed down hard to the ground.

  91. 91.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 7:29 pm

    @Sanjeevs:

    It helps, but it’s not the fat lady singing.

  92. 92.

    Jackie

    March 9, 2024 at 7:29 pm

    @Jackie: Sorry about the formatting; the edit feature went wonky on me, then timed me out.🤦🏼‍♀️

  93. 93.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    March 9, 2024 at 7:31 pm

    @Baud: The Dems never sent me flowers.

    Barbra Streisand Neil Diamond – You Don’t Bring Me Flowers

  94. 94.

    RaflW

    March 9, 2024 at 7:31 pm

    @Ohio Mom: Many of  the heads of state Republican parties are glassy-eyed MAGA zealots who I doubt can even hold a spread sheet up the right way, much less understand it.

    Just picture the daily chaos in the 45 Whitehouse. That’s how I imagine a couple dozen state GOP offices look (only much, much shabbier).

  95. 95.

    HumboldtBlue

    March 9, 2024 at 7:31 pm

    We’ve known for a long time there is no bottom with the GOP but fuck, Trump is such a disgusting fucking person one imagines there must be a bottom at some point, right?

    Trump mocks Biden’s stutter.

    Compare that with Joe Biden being a fantastic human being!

    “I’m just a regular kid, and in a short amount of time, Joe Biden made me more confident about something that’s bothered me my whole life. Joe Biden cared.” – Brayden Harrington

  96. 96.

    Quaker in a Basement

    March 9, 2024 at 7:32 pm

    and a replacement either entirely Trump-free or blatantly Trump-centric will be announced

    Or both.

  97. 97.

    Princess

    March 9, 2024 at 7:34 pm

    So… it’s normal for the presidential nominee to have his or her chosen person run the DNc or RNC once nominated. I remember this usually happening after the convention though. None the less, this whole sitch is wild. It makes me wonder what on earth a lot of them are thinking. Sure, Trump could win. But you look at the economy, Trump’s physical and mental weakness, unity among the Dems etc and it’s not the most likely outcome. Yet they’re lining up to enable him driving them all off a cliff. Either they’re delusional or they know something we don’t know. Even with my love for conspiracy theories, I’m betting the former.

  98. 98.

    Hoodie

    March 9, 2024 at 7:34 pm

    @WaterGirl: That seems to have been the entire point of the Britt response.  I think they’re worried about hemorrhaging female GOP voters (including some evangelical women) in places like GA and NC because of Dobbs and IVF.   The stuff about the border and sex trafficking was an attempt to scare them, too.  That’s turned out to be a complete lie.

  99. 99.

    Tony Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 7:36 pm

    Simple question.

    Can a political party compete in a national election while diverting the vast bulk of its electoral funding into paying off the skyrocketing legal bills of its leader?

    If Yes, how?

    If No, how very badly can they lose?

    I know I keep on saying the Tories are a dead cert to lose the next election over here, but at least they’ll have a lot of money on hand to waste on mitigating the damage through cut-throat campaigning.

      The GOP will be going into November’s election without even that to rely on.

      How badly can they lose?  

  100. 100.

    RaflW

    March 9, 2024 at 7:36 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: “Republicans don’t want to spend the money this way, but what can they do?”

    Hot Tub Time Machine back to Feb 9, 2021. Convict Trump for the J6 insurrection.

    It’s their only hope.

    Oh, wait. First they have to get the liberals in Hollywood to hand over the tub. Which ain’t gonna happen.

  101. 101.

    Ken

    March 9, 2024 at 7:38 pm

    @Mai Naem mobile: You really think they’re going to wait that long?

  102. 102.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 9, 2024 at 7:39 pm

    @RaflW:

    Many of  the heads of state Republican parties are glassy-eyed MAGA zealots who I doubt can even hold a spread sheet up the right way, much less understand it.

    Feel like I must put in a plug for a This American Life episode: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/820/believe-in-me

    It is *absolutely hilarious*.  A friend to whom I recommended it replied (after watching) with: “That was hysterical. What an odd collection of small, obsessed & weirdly biggotted people. Politics is a mind disease.”

    And it gives all sorts of evidentiary basis to your comment

    ETA: Even the title of the episode is a screamer: “It Wouldn’t Be Make-Believe If You’d Believe In Me”

    ETA2: And just FTR, I also know NPR are Nice Polite Republicans.  So for me to recommend something outta their shop, well, it’s gotta be good.

  103. 103.

    TBone

    March 9, 2024 at 7:39 pm

    @glc: 👍

  104. 104.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 9, 2024 at 7:40 pm

    @Tony Jay: Unfortunately, they’ll have superpac money galore.

  105. 105.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 7:40 pm

    @Tony Jay:

    Realistically, they can probably lose 55-45. I don’t see how we do better than that absent some truly seismic event.

  106. 106.

    Hoodie

    March 9, 2024 at 7:41 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: Some mythology put forth about the Kim dynasty in North Korea:
    Kim Jong-un’s father Kim Jong-il claimed he invented the hamburger, calling it “double bread with meat”, with grand dreams that it would become a new national dish as he unsuccessfully introduced it to the nation’s universities.
    Kim’s official biography stated he never needed to use a toilet because his body was so well calibrated he didn’t urinate or defecate.
    Shortly before his death in 2011, Kim Jong-il’s signature grey military styling was being celebrated by the world’s top fashion designers, according to state media, who quoted an unnamed French designer saying “Kim Jong-il mode, which is now spreading expeditiously worldwide, is something unprecedented in the world’s history”.
    Kim Jong-un is just as amazing as his father, according to North Korea state media which revealed he was a gifted sailor as a youth – who also learned to drive at the age of three. The younger Kim is also a celebrated musical composer and artist, who is celebrated around the world.

  107. 107.

    rikyrah

    March 9, 2024 at 7:41 pm

    Some have a Prayer Room.

    This baby has a Prayer Box🤗

     

    https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTL8m3Cxm/

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    March 9, 2024 at 7:41 pm

    @Sanjeevs: I’m reminded that GA Gov Brian Kemp has created his own political organization independent of the GQP (from Feb 23, 2023):

    Gov. Brian Kemp took his most significant step yet to break from the Georgia GOP and bolster his own growing political network, telling high-dollar donors that the 2022 midterm was a sign “we can no longer rely on the traditional party infrastructure to win in the future.”

    His remarks came Wednesday at an Atlanta luncheon for the Georgians First Leadership Committee, a fundraising vehicle created by a Kemp-backed law that can tap unlimited contributions. Through his committee and campaign, he raised $71 million for his reelection bid.

    Smart GQPers will follow his lead and break with TIFG’s organization.

    Yeah, it’s bad for the national party to have overt grifters inside running things, and TiFG’s people might end up destroying it as an effective national body.

    But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to still fight them every single day, because the MotU will still find a way to try to win everywhere they can.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 7:42 pm

    @Tony Jay:

    Maybe 5 States and 6 Electoral votes.

    They still have a Supreme Court, most of the media, gerrymanders and voter suppression in their pocket.

  110. 110.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 7:44 pm

    @rikyrah: He is going to ROB👏🏾 THEM 👏🏾 BLIND 👏🏾

    Also DEAF 👌 and DUMB 👌

  111. 111.

    Hoodie

    March 9, 2024 at 7:44 pm

    @Another Scott: Kemp seems to be smarter than most of them.

  112. 112.

    Josie

    March 9, 2024 at 7:45 pm

    @frosty: ​
     This is very timely, since President Biden in his speech announced a new study led by Dr. Jill that would research women’s health.

  113. 113.

    TBone

    March 9, 2024 at 7:46 pm

    @TBone:

    It wasn’t until 1993 that federal law required studies to include women and minorities. This, coupled with other sex- and gender-based medical biases, means that many female-dominated diseases remain under-researched. “So much of this research is being done on males, male mice—male, male, male,” Tal says. “And I’m like, no.”

    Really fascinating article!

    https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/28/1087617/tackling-long-haul-diseases/

  114. 114.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 9, 2024 at 7:47 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: ​
     

    Call me suspicious but I suspect the $300K worth of “office supplies” is some similar scam.

    Quite possibly, but so what? There have to be a lot of scams on that level to make a difference in a >$100M budget.

    Most of the lines on that table were small potatoes; I’d like to see where the real money went.

  115. 115.

    Tony Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 7:47 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    So, that begs the question, can PACS with competing aims work together effectively enough in an election environment to do the work of a political party without seeing their money hoovered up by the amoral conman who owns said party?

    I haz me doots.

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 7:48 pm

    @Jackie: Fixed.

  117. 117.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 7:48 pm

    @RaflW: Just picture the daily chaos in the 45 Whitehouse. That’s how I imagine a couple dozen state GOP offices look (only much, much shabbier).

    You have to understand.  They don’t have all those Deep State gnomes to keep things functioning.

  118. 118.

    MazeDancer

    March 9, 2024 at 7:51 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Alas, no.

  119. 119.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 7:51 pm

    @Princess: Either they’re delusional or they know something we don’t know. Even with my love for conspiracy theories, I’m betting the former.

    Definitely, they “know” something we don’t know — they’re utterly certain of that.  It just happens to diverge significantly from objective reality.

  120. 120.

    RaflW

    March 9, 2024 at 7:52 pm

    @Baud: The Republican paradox is that they need more women voters — until they can nuke the female franchise.

  121. 121.

    Geminid

    March 9, 2024 at 7:52 pm

    @Tony Jay: The financial picture this year is like a mirror image of the one in 2020. In March of 2020 Trump’s campaign was flush with money while Biden’s campaign was running on a shoe string, and it never achieved financial parity until Labor Day. They had to play catch-up.

    Now Biden’s campaign is well funded and well managed, and it’s the Republicans who are floundering. Trump has not succeeded in destroying this country, but he’s doing a damned good job destroying the Republican Party.

  122. 122.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 7:53 pm

    @MazeDancer: “oops, you’ve got me there”, she said in her feathery, little girl voice.

  123. 123.

    Tony Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 7:55 pm

    @Baud:

    Does ‘Installing a multiply-indicted peanut brain who will steal all of its money as its leader’ qualify as seismic?

    Seriously. Normies are just starting to remember what happens every fourth November and there’s nothing about Stench the GOP can spin positively.

    Has America ever contemplated an election like this before? The GOP have worked hard to turn the whole thing into a reality TV popularity contest. Fine. Have you seen the absolute state of their candidate?

    I’m pretty serious when I say the Democratic Party better stock up on the antacids, because you guys could genuinely get sick of all the winning.

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    March 9, 2024 at 7:55 pm

    The rich Republican zillionaires will shrug and give a crazy amount of money to individual candidates.  Senate races, House races, statehouse and state senate races.

    They will more than make up for the money Trump and company will burn.

  125. 125.

    moonbat

    March 9, 2024 at 7:56 pm

    It’s a lovely Catch-22 he’s created for himself. TFG NEEDs the money to pay his legal bills and civil fines but there are criminal cases lurking out there too and to get out of those he’s counting on winning the presidency and wielding his best friend the Presidential Pardon. But to do that he’s got to WIN the presidency which become exponentially more difficult the more he steals campaign funds to pay his legal bills. He’s going to be crazier than a shithouse rat by Nov. 7.

  126. 126.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 7:58 pm

    @Tony Jay:

    I no longer underestimate the importance many people place on putting us in our place. That will always keep things tighter than they should be.

  127. 127.

    Tony Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 7:58 pm

    @Jay:

    They stole ‘em, but stripped of defences, can they keep them?

    Side-bet. Give it five years Post-Trump, are the oligarchs trying to split the Democrats into two parties because the GOP is deader than DVDs?

  128. 128.

    Starfish

    March 9, 2024 at 7:58 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: He robbed the fundraising for his inauguration balls, and no one held him accountable for that so…

  129. 129.

    piratedan

    March 9, 2024 at 7:59 pm

    @Tony Jay: I’d like to say its complicated but I’m not sure that it is.  There’s the Big Dog and when he eats, he eats all he wants and since the big dog has the owners balls in the grip of his jaws, I suspect that the owner will find it in their best interest to feed the big dog everything he needs.

    Sure there’s myriad dark money funding to be had, but that involves peeps in place to move the money around where it may be needed.  The Big Dog just put control of those peeps in his backyard.  There may be some peeps highly connected enough to stave off starvation (Cruz, Scott) but not everyone is capable of surviving on their own unless they beat the shrubbery locally.

    In certain states this allows a “moment of opportunity” to make some serious inroads in places like Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina and even…. Texas.  Depending upon how hard the Dems hammer the GOP on their asinine positions regarding women, gender, health, economics, Immigration, guns… y’know every damn thing and cut thru the media obfuscation with concise accurate information (well, you never know, DJT and the GOP are attempting to cross an entire countryside of rakes) this could be historic.

    will it be?  I consider it 65/35 that it will be because neither DJT nor the GOP in general can help but out themselves and their odious positions.

  130. 130.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 9, 2024 at 7:59 pm

    @Tony Jay: Dunno, but I’ll also note that the G(r)OPer GOTV operation has for many years been …. *churches*.

  131. 131.

    Sally

    March 9, 2024 at 8:01 pm

    @wjca: I rather liked mudging. Evocative of what’s going on.

  132. 132.

    RaflW

    March 9, 2024 at 8:03 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: This American Life is a very different animal than the credulous, strange news coverage from Mara Liasson or Asma Khalid.

    I’ll check it out!

  133. 133.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 9, 2024 at 8:04 pm

    @RaflW: I described it to my friend thus:

    It is *absolutely hilarious*.  About the implosion of the Michigan G(r)OP.  Just amazing stuff.  From the two Arab-American G(r)OP vice-chairs who find out just how racist the entire MI G(r)OP really is, to the cray-cray conspiracy theories coming from stalwart longtime G(r)OP operatives and consultants, to the battle being waged between “the grassroots” and “the deep pockets that used to run the party”.  All just amazing stuff.

    I mean, parts I just *guffawed*.  And of course, it couldn’t happen to nicer guys.

  134. 134.

    Starfish

    March 9, 2024 at 8:05 pm

    @WaterGirl: Yes. Apparently, the billionaires who have sat on their hands and not given Trump any money really like her, and that is important if Trump wants to raise money that he can steal from his campaign. They want a normal person, and she was their normal person until this.

  135. 135.

    Tony Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 8:09 pm

    @Geminid:

    That’s what I see. This isn’t a normal election. They may be off the table for a while. There’s only one actual national political party running an actual national election campaign. The other one is a bust-out shell with a pyramid scheme squatting in it.

    @Baud:

    I respect you for maintaining a firm grip on the central pole of limited expectation, not easy when traditionally pantless and distracted by your own third-party campaign.

    However, the Party of Stench are busy dripping vegetable oil down that pole and stealing all the nuts and bolts keeping this merry-go-round from spinning into chaos. I don’t think history really provides many guides to how badly they could turn off all but the smoke-brained 27%. And what happens then?

  136. 136.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 9, 2024 at 8:12 pm

    @Another Scott: ​
     

    Smart GQPers will follow [Gov. Kemp’s] lead and break with TIFG’s organization.

    “Smart GQPers” isn’t quite an oxymoron, but it’s pretty damned close. Also, few GQP pols are in a position anymore where they can create anything independent of the Trump cult like Kemp did. I think Kemp will be a one-off.

  137. 137.

    Torrey

    March 9, 2024 at 8:13 pm

    This may seem like a minor point, but why would AL refer to the “Big Dog Ranch Rescue” as a beagle rescue? It doesn’t seem to specialize in beagles; beagles don’t eve seem to be the most noticeable or featured of their dogs; and as someone who works with an actual beagle rescue, I’d kind of like to not have beagle rescue work gratuitously associated with that family.

    Harrumph!

  138. 138.

    zhena gogolia

    March 9, 2024 at 8:15 pm

    @Tony Jay: I hope you’re right.

  139. 139.

    Baud

    March 9, 2024 at 8:16 pm

    @Tony Jay:

    My grip on my pole has always been a source of pride for me.

  140. 140.

    Tony Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 8:18 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Agent ‘Ever So Sore’ is in there and on it. Give him another six months and they won’t be a problem. Even the most Rapturesure Godhuffer will be burning down their megachurch and nodding along to Dawkins when he’s done with them.

    Being in a Party with Stench is one thing, but our guy with the God Problem, he’s another level of cool-killer entirely.

  141. 141.

    bbleh

    March 9, 2024 at 8:18 pm

    @WaterGirl: they will, in line with the general decentralization of the Republican Party into a kind of oligopoly of moneyed interests, and that means a lot of down-ballot Republicans won’t have to worry much (not least because they probably wouldn’t have got much help from the RNC anyway).  I’m still assuming we’ll lose the Senate, although I remain optimistic we’ll capture the House and it’ll be at worst a wash at the state-house level.

    But the good news is, they WON’T all be pulling in the same direction, which is necessary for a minority party to win big.  They’ll all still pull for lower taxes, cutting business regulation, fewer rights for women and non-Whites and non-citizens and LGBTQ folk and all the rest, but they won’t all be using the same words or the same message, nor will they hew as closely to the Trumpian line.  If they see an advantage for “their” candidate in going their own way here or there, they will (à la Kemp).  And that weakens them overall.

    “Democrats fall in love; Republicans fall in line.”  But this time, it really seems like the opposite is true!  And there are more of us than there are of them!

  142. 142.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 8:26 pm

    @Tony Jay: Give it five years Post-Trump, are the oligarchs trying to split the Democrats into two parties because the GOP is deader than DVDs floppy discs?

    Just a friendly amendment.  After all, lots of folks still have equipment than can, and does, play DVDs…

  143. 143.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 9, 2024 at 8:26 pm

    @Tony Jay: I assume you mean TFG by “Agent Ever So Sore” ?  I gotta say, I don’t think they care that he’s a living demonstration of everything un-Christian.  Hell, the men, they think he’s great, and wanna be just like him!  No, what they care about, is that he hurts the people they want hurt, and isn’t shy about saying so.  That’s *all* they care about.  And that won’t change, unless he loses in November, and maybe not even then.

    @bbleh: Idunno.   For many many years there’s been great coordination across all G(r)OPer messaging from all sources.  It ain’t called The Wingnut Wurlitzer for nuthin’.  I expect there won’t be much disarray.

  144. 144.

    Jackie

    March 9, 2024 at 8:27 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Trump mocks Biden’s stutter.

    Ironically, Biden will just shrug it off; he’s dealt with assholes his entire life.

    We, OTOH, can shame TIFG for being a bratty child, but since he has no shame, it won’t bother him either. I’ll NEVER forget nor forgive TIFG for mocking a disabled reporter when he was first running in ‘16. I honestly thought his supporters would turn against him at that point…

  145. 145.

    Tony Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 8:27 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    So do I. I want you guys to still be around as a suitable bolt-hole when the Starmerpartei’s Purity Patrols come looking for unapologetic lefties to sacrifice on the subterranean altars of Bliar the Many Toothed. A nice landslide for Joe the Geriatric GOPsmasher would keep that option open.

    @Baud:

    Which is why the Boy Scouts Association of America remains firm in its support of your campaign.

  146. 146.

    Chetan Murthy

    March 9, 2024 at 8:29 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: I remember that!  I saw the vid of it, and …. yeah, all the feels.

  147. 147.

    Jackie

    March 9, 2024 at 8:31 pm

    @WaterGirl: Thank YOU!

  148. 148.

    Tony Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 8:32 pm

    @wjca:

    I am Tony Jay and I approve this edit.

    @Chetan Murthy:

    No, no, no, I meant our local addled troll with the hunger for pie and attention. If anyone could convince 20 million rivet-seamed Godfondlers to pack it all in and join an atheist commune just to get away from him, he’s the guy.

  149. 149.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 8:35 pm

    @Tony Jay: Side-bet. Give it five years Post-Trump, are the oligarchs trying to split the Democrats into two parties because the GOP is deader than DVDs?

    And Baud will be in place and ready to step up!

  150. 150.

    Miss Bianca

    March 9, 2024 at 8:35 pm

    @Hoodie:

    Kemp seems to be smarter than most of them.

    That’s why I fear him. *He’s* going to be the 2028 GOP nominee, I’m calling it now.

  151. 151.

    Jeffro

    March 9, 2024 at 8:35 pm

    This thread and all the very awesome possibilities that lie ahead for the RNC…it just takes the breath away and brings a smile to my face.

    I love the thought of trump trying to shake down Kemp and other RNC-avoiding governors, the Kochs and other RNC-avoiding billionaires, etc etc.  Let word about THAT get out.  Let them fight each other ALL YEAR LONG

  152. 152.

    Brit in Chicago

    March 9, 2024 at 8:37 pm

    @TBone: ““Long covid looks exactly, and I mean exactly, like chronic Lyme,” ”

    As one who has had both, I can also say that Long Covid is also very like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, aka Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. (I did eventually recover from CFS but still have Long Covid, aka Post-Covid Syndrome but finally, well over eighteen months in there are the first signs of a significant upturn. It coincides with my getting Covid again, either because the Paxlovid used to treat Covid helped with the Long Covid or because the Covid rebooted my immune system.)

  153. 153.

    Tony Jay

    March 9, 2024 at 8:50 pm

    @wjca:

    Ever since he was awakened from his pantless sleep beneath the Grassy Knoll by the sacrifice of Ruler’s Blood, this has been his endgame.

  154. 154.

    Gvg

    March 9, 2024 at 8:51 pm

    @Tony Jay: candidates raise their own money mainly. Some get extra from the national or a state committee. Some of the states are not bankrupt. Used to be none of them were, it’s more of a problem lately and that is separate from Trump. It means they are losing donors. In fact to me it looked like the NRA going bankrupt was when that started. There are also superpacs. Which I wish were still illegal but the Supreme Court allowed and that IMO is when normal people started to lose respect for them. But not all politicians are equal in gathering money. It used to be they all understood you couldn’t do anything if you didn’t have as many as possible in your party elected. Republicans don’t seem to get that and Trump definitely doesn’t realize. If he got elected but Dems got enough Senate and house seats, they could render him powerless. I don’t think we will get quite enough to be safe, but we could get a lot. If majority in both, we are all a lot safer.

  155. 155.

    Jackie

    March 9, 2024 at 8:52 pm

    @Miss Bianca: I’m with you. Had TIFG decided NOT to run this year, Kemp would have. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares with the MAGA base. TIFG doesn’t like Kemp at all. But, I’m willing to bet the majority of Never Trumpers will flock to him.

  156. 156.

    Gvg

    March 9, 2024 at 8:57 pm

    @WaterGirl: some of the traditional donors have not been donating like the Koch’s. There are brand new loonies that have come out of the woodwork for Trump, but some of them oddly seem to have new financial issues themselves…like the my pillow guy.

  157. 157.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 9:00 pm

    @Jackie: Had TIFG decided NOT to run this year, Kemp would have. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares with the MAGA base. TIFG doesn’t like Kemp at all. But, I’m willing to bet the majority of Never Trumpers will flock to him.

    The Never Trumpers will.  But for the same reason, the cult mostly won’t.

    If TIFG is dead, so he can’t rant constantly about Kemp’s disloyalty, that will help some.  But I expect that most of the cult will go all in on someone, anyone (except Haley), else for the primary.  And then sit out the general in disgust a tantrum if they don’t get their way.

  158. 158.

    Jackie

    March 9, 2024 at 9:06 pm

    @Gvg: The Trump CURSE.

  159. 159.

    Jackie

    March 9, 2024 at 9:12 pm

    @wjca: I picture a dueling banjos battle between Pudd’n Boots, (MAGA supporters,) vs Youngkin, vs Kemp (establishment GQP).

  160. 160.

    The Lodger

    March 9, 2024 at 9:18 pm

    @West of the Rockies: it could also mean a Dick Uhlein kickback.

  161. 161.

    bbleh

    March 9, 2024 at 9:25 pm

    @Tony Jay:  A nice landslide for Joe the Geriatric GOPsmasher would keep that option open.

    Crashing through the wall of the North Portico, always a little taller than you expect and elegantly dressed, comes Geriatricon! Scourge of Malarkey and Destroyer of the Orange Menace and its teeming horde of grifters!  “c’MON, man!” his challenge thunders, and they backpedal frantically, trampling their Freedom Caucus cheerleaders in a desperate scramble to salvage what little dignity remains to them.  “MINE!” says Geriatricon, scooping up the 6-month funding bill and several million dollars in just 2 hours. “And more will come!” He flashes a winning grin and then turns and strides forcefully yet elegantly back to the White House, leaving his foes meeping about “civility” in the midst of ruin.

  162. 162.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 9:26 pm

    @Jackie: I think DeSantis has pretty well trashed his brand.  And, even if he hasn’t, even the MAGAts find him as repulsive as the rest of us do.  They’ll find some successor god-king to rally around.  It just won’t be him.

  163. 163.

    bbleh

    March 9, 2024 at 9:27 pm

    @wjca: @Jackie: ETTD.  They just don’t seem to have got the memo yet.

  164. 164.

    TS

    March 9, 2024 at 10:03 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Trump mocks Biden’s stutter.

    He’s got nothing except personal attacks – similar to his disciples, all they want to do is attack anyone who isn’t part of the clan.

  165. 165.

    Parfigliano

    March 9, 2024 at 10:08 pm

    @piratedan: NM’s US Congressional delegation is all DEM same for all statewide offices and the state Senate and House.

  166. 166.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 10:40 pm

    @Parfigliano: NM’s US Congressional delegation is all DEM same for all statewide offices and the state Senate and House.

    Maybe he’s envisioning supermajorities in the legislature.  Then again, maybe he thinks Texas vibes come over your eastern border, rather than Denver vibes from the north.

  167. 167.

    RevRick

    March 9, 2024 at 10:41 pm

    @Baud: You’re not dead.

  168. 168.

    wjca

    March 9, 2024 at 10:51 pm

    @RevRick:

    @Baud: You’re not dead.

    Do you have a link to substantiate this assertion?

  169. 169.

    RevRick

    March 9, 2024 at 10:52 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: Hookers and blow

  170. 170.

    RevRick

    March 9, 2024 at 10:59 pm

    @WaterGirl: There’s only so much that that money can accomplish. In today’s electoral environment, the fate of individual candidates is often tied to the Presidential campaign or attitudes toward the President. It’s hard to swim upstream when elections increasingly are national.

  171. 171.

    RaflW

    March 9, 2024 at 11:14 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: Man, these vice chairs are just as stupid as all the other Republicans. Wild.

  172. 172.

    prostratedragon

    March 9, 2024 at 11:50 pm

    @Hoodie:  Why, just last week I was enthralled by a concert that featured one of Kim’s works.

     

     

    Oh, wait a minute … that was Beethoven.

  173. 173.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 10, 2024 at 1:08 am

    @Jay:

    @Tony Jay: Maybe 5 States and 6 Electoral votes.​

    Sorry, but you just flunked US Electoral Arithmetic.

    Each state has a minimum of 3 electoral votes (one for each member of Congress) so if the Thuglicans lose 5 states more than they would have under normal circumstances, that translates to a swing of at least 15 electoral votes. (In fact, probably more: Of the 6 states plus DC with 3 EVs each, three are near-locks for Biden [DC, DE, VT], so the 5th state to switch from Democrat to Republican would almost certainly represent a shift of at least 4 EVs.)

  174. 174.

    Tony Jay

    March 10, 2024 at 4:30 am

    @bbleh:

    Make this happen.

  175. 175.

    trnc

    March 10, 2024 at 9:30 am

    Re: Lara’s claim that repubs just want to pay DT’s legal fees – there’s literally a gofundme for that, so she’s obviously full of shit ( I know, shocker, right?). I guess some high rollers might want to donate to his legal fund through the RNC to avoid paying the gofundme fee, but it sounds like the RNC “unpublished fees” are somewhat higher.

    To wit, anyone donating to the RNC is a moron.

  176. 176.

    trnc

    March 10, 2024 at 9:48 am

    Did anyone cover this yet?

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-ordered-to-pay-382000-in-legal-fees-for-failed-steele-dossier-lawsuit/ar-BB1jvLNj

    Bwa ha ha ha ha ha …

  177. 177.

    Geminid

    March 10, 2024 at 9:48 am

    @wjca: Also, Kemp has kept his opposition to Trump implicit and not explicit. When Trump pressed Kemp to subvert Georgia’s Presidential vote, Kemp did not hold a press conference about it. He just quietly stuck the knife in and then went about his business like nothing had happened.

    Similarly, when the MAGA folks took over the state”s party apparatus, Kemp didn’t raise a fuss; he worked around them. I’ve noticed that Kemp never says anything bad about Trump; he just doesn’t says anything very good about the former guy.

  178. 178.

    WaterGirl

    March 10, 2024 at 12:15 pm

    @Brit in Chicago: Whatever the reason, glad you are turning a corner!

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