Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

In after Baud. Damn.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

The revolution will be supervised.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

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

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Republicans do not pay their debts.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Democrats are back in array!

We’re not going back!

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 | 178 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

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…


Reader Interactions

178Comments

  1. 1.

    Chris Johnson

    This is just wild. What the actual hell.

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

  3. 3.

    Mike in NC

    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

    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.

  6. 6.

    dmsilev

    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

    @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.

  9. 9.

    Kristine

    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

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

  11. 11.

    laura

    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

    @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

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

    [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  14. 14.

    wjca

    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.

  16. 16.

    gene108

    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.

  18. 18.

    West of the Rockies

    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

    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.

  24. 24.

    wjca

    @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.

  26. 26.

    bbleh

    @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…

  29. 29.

    bbleh

    @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

    @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.

  33. 33.

    Jackie

    @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

    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

    @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

    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.”

  41. 41.

    Tehanu

    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?

    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.

  44. 44.

    Frankensteinbeck

    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

    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?

  48. 48.

    Chetan Murthy

    @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 …..

  51. 51.

    Shalimar

    “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”

  54. 54.

    karen marie

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

  56. 56.

    Frankensteinbeck

    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

    @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

    @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

  60. 60.

    RaflW

    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!

  63. 63.

    Anoniminous

    @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?

    @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

    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.

  67. 67.

    Jackie

    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

  69. 69.

    bbleh

    @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.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    @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?

  73. 73.

    frosty

    @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.

  84. 84.

    Captain C

    @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.

  86. 86.

    Sanjeevs

    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

    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

    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.

  90. 90.

    Mai Naem mobile

    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.

  94. 94.

    RaflW

    @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).

  96. 96.

    Quaker in a Basement

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

    Or both.

  97. 97.

    Princess

    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

    @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

    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

    @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.

  102. 102.

    Chetan Murthy

    @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.

  105. 105.

    Baud

    @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

    @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.

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    @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

    @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.

  112. 112.

    Josie

    @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.

  114. 114.

    lowtechcyclist

    @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

    @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.

  117. 117.

    wjca

    @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.

  119. 119.

    wjca

    @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.

  121. 121.

    Geminid

    @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.

  123. 123.

    Tony Jay

    @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

    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

    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

    @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

    @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?

  129. 129.

    piratedan

    @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.

  132. 132.

    RaflW

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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

    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!

  140. 140.

    Tony Jay

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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.

  148. 148.

    Tony Jay

    @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

    @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

    @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

    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

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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.

  159. 159.

    Jackie

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

  161. 161.

    bbleh

    @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

    @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.

  164. 164.

    TS

    @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.

  166. 166.

    wjca

    @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.

  170. 170.

    RevRick

    @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.

  172. 172.

    prostratedragon

    @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

    @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.)

  175. 175.

    trnc

    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.

  177. 177.

    Geminid

    @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.

Comments are closed.