I’m sorry – I hadn’t intended to post again until I could muster a response worthy of your incredibly touching and uplifting and wise and meaningful comments in response to my last post. I will get to that, I promise — just as soon as I can see that thread again without jiggling lenses of gratitude tears forming in my eyes and obscuring my vision!
But in the interim, I cannot let this pass unremarked.
What in the wide world of gilt-edged fuckery is THIS shitshow outside the Manhattan courtroom today? Where by-definition member of the ruling class Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick is standing in front of a scrum of fellow plutocrats and power players mewling about Donald Fucking Trump being judicially martyred for opposing “the ruling class?”
Are you fucking KIDDING me? Who slipped sufficient amounts of hallucinogens into these fat cat bastards’ VOSS waters to make them think the leering orange turd below and on the left is a credible tribune for the common man and plausible victim of elite persecution?
I’m afraid to turn on my TV lest I find Kanye West leading a seminar on effective interfaith communications and his ex-wife touting the benefits of hiding one’s light under a bushel.
To quote Pride and Prejudice’s Lady Catherine de Bourgh — as portrayed with hissing perfection by Dame Judy Dench — “It is not to be borne!”
Open thread.
Trump’s NY Criminal Trial, Day 20: Jury Instruction Discussion at 2:15 Eastern
Scamp Dog
Glad your command of invective is still up to par! I love the “gilt-edged fuckery” line!
geg6
I thought I read earlier that the peanut gallery for the circus peanut was a bunch of B listers. Of course, Patrick being the spokespeanut doesn’t count out it all being B listers.
LAO
Here’s hoping they received a proper NY greeting.
Scout211
Whoa! Your wit and wisdom defies all cancer treatments and gives us a remarkable gift today, Betty!
I am truly impressed and very grateful to read your words and admire how they slice the fake “regular folks” (Like Donald J Trump) into verbal pieces with your words.
That the “ruling class” now replaces the “deep state” as a smear against government and Democrats in particular is a bellwether for us to pay attention to. As we all know here, it means that when Trump gets back in the White House he will expect nothing less than to be in the ruling class of one.
ETA: clarity
JaySinWA
I’m sure there are a number of terms for this kind of performance, but they escape me.
It’s sort of projection of future intentions
ETA there’s a slip up in the middle (“They shutdown the ruling class”) that telegraphs the disingenuousness.
JaySinWA
Something with raspberries?
J. Arthur Crank
Christ, what an asshole!
Raoul Paste
@Scout211: I think you’ve hit on it. The ruling class is the new mysterious boogie man. My Maga neighbor will be parroting this phrase before the week is out.
There will be more brazen shameless performances like this as the oligarchs try to take over. Wow.
zhena gogolia
@J. Arthur Crank: We need the bunny in galoshes!
I guess it’s a slightly different quote, but also appropriate.
Kay
The last time Donald Trump spoke to the ruling class he asked them for a billion dollars and in return he would gut environmental regulations. Is that what they don’t like?
Mike R
Gilt age indeed, one ca n only wonder what these peckerheads have in store for the undercass if the shitgibbon is elected
JPL
@Kay: They bowed before the orange nazi. They are opening their wallets in response.
JaySinWA
@Raoul Paste: It seems to be both a denial that they are part of the ruling class and fear that they either have lost or are losing that status.
JPL
Betty, I am so pleased that you highlighted this and I appreciate your snarky comments.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
J. Arthur Crank
@zhena gogolia: The judges will allow that substitution.
central texas
So Dan is exploring the corners of the envelope? Normally we find him tucked into vicious, racist, cruelty; but now we find he at home in the utterly stupid corner as well. Given my residence, I can’t help but wonder whether I helped pay for this waste of oxygen to travel to NYC to kiss his master’s ass.
It should be recalled that the standards for members of the Texas governing elites are pretty low. Our AG spent the better part of a decade under indictment and never had to darken the doorsteps of the courtroom until they figured out a way to change the fraud into 3rd degree littering and let him off with half and hour of community “service”.
Any way the fine folks of NYC could arrange to keep him for a few years?
Anonymous At Work
Isn’t Dan Patrick involved in the Texas AG Paxton impeachment, where Texas Lege-members who said things that offended Paxton, Patrick, and Abbott were viciously attacked from within their own party?
hells littlest angel
By “ruling class” I’m pretty sure Patrick means Black Lives Matter protesters.
Good luck, BC, and don’t give up.
bk
@geg6: Joe Piscopo was there! He wishes he was a B-lister
LAO
@JaySinWA: I was hoping for something a little sharper but sure a good old Bronx cheer to drown out the stupidity would be ok too.
Westyny
So glad to read your spirited invective, Betty! 🙏❤️
Almost Retired
How does Melania make her cape-thing stick out like that? There can’t be a wind machine or Trump’s “hair” would be disturbed. And what ghastly decor. Even Louis XIV would say “sacre bleu, how tacky.”
Bupalos
It’s that funny-not-funny moment where authoritarian populism has gained just enough strength to be a huge part of the thing it ostensibly is railing against.
What they’ve still got on their side is that this is all going down in NYC. And that apparently people have memory-holed Trump as ruling class Nepo-Baby.
Hoodie
I’m convinced that the content of what these asshats say is increasingly irrelevant. The main point is to make utterances that sound outraged and the chuckleheads will instinctively react irrespective of whether actual, understandable words come out. They already know what they believe. Patrick might as well have been speaking in tongues.
piratedan
they better find a new rubber band, this one broke and the mask dropped off.
yo Dan, there’s this thingy you may have read about, called a Constitution, there’s nary a word in there about a ruling class, much less anything else like that among the lines of your professed Party Icon, a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Old School
@bk:
Joe Piscopo was a B-lister once. Once.
Miss Bianca
My God, these people really are delusional. First Donald had delusions of adequacy when it came to penetrating the Manhattan social register crowd. But how in the world, after being elected to POTUS, he ends up having such delusions of working-class street cred that he thinks he can claim NOT to be a member of the “ruling class” he and his minions are meeping about simply beggars belief.
JaySinWA
@LAO: I did say “something with” not necessarily limited to.
Tempted to suggest a raspberry tort (sic). I was going to suggest a verbal tort, not violence, but apparently that has a weird legal interpretation.
Chief Oshkosh
Where’s a random nut-puncher when you need him? C’mon, NYC, get with the fucking program!
Captain C
@Hoodie:
FTF
ETA: Though I would definitely include the FTFNYT in the world of chuckleheads.
CarolPW
@Almost Retired: I read an article on that long ago, and it was fishing line attached to the lion.
satby
How is this not a form of witness or juror intimidation? They admit they’re there to evade the gag order on tfg’s behalf. Asking others to speak on his behalf as a way to violate the gag order was included.
danielx
@Anonymous At Work:
That would be the Ken Paxton whom TFG is considering for Attorney General. Yes, that guy.
Also: yet another reason to appreciate Betty C’s writing.
Hoodie
@satby: Could be viewed that way, but they’ll simply claim they’re protected by the Speech and Debate clause. That may be one reason why they’re using congress members and senators.
japa21
@Hoodie: I believe the Speech and Debate Clause is only in place for things actually said in Congress. But, I could be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time.
karen marie
@satby: Trump doesn’t ask his pals to violate the gag order. They know what he wants and they do it. Their loyalty will be rewarded by time in his presence, or the promise of it, as long as they continue to carry his water.
Given how many people he’s thrown under the bus, you wouldn’t think there would be that many volunteers. I hope Trump picks Dan Patrick to be his VP and destroys any hope he has for a long political life.
scav
@Hoodie: Or perhaps they’re all running for president (at some point) and thus immune from any and all restraints, checks or consequences, ever and forever, amen!
Martin
I think there’s a misread here because we think of ‘ruling class’ as referring to the economy, but they think of it referring to culture – always have. Trump has no meaningful influence on culture, other than to identity his followers as assholes. Insert the usual coastal Hollywood elite shoving drag transgender climate change feminism down our throats.
JaySinWA
@japa21: Not wrong:
If they take speech outside of either House, they are subject to consequences.
Tony Jay
Why have you posted a picture of North America’s least-feared Mafia pledges glaring at the albino cult-leader from Omega Man? Looks like Colonic-Con has finally found a city dumb enough to host it again after the disaster of 2012’s Sandusky Shitfest.
Anyway. You know how you can tell someone is a malodorous cockdrip with all the ethical scaffolding of a Tory Minister? They do and say things so blatantly disreputable that only a malodorous cockdrip with all the ethical scaffolding of a Tory Minister would do them. And you know how you can that tell a group of people are malodorous cockdrips with all the ethical scaffolding of a cabinet full of Tory Ministers? They do and say things so blatantly disreputable that only malodorous cockdrips with all the ethical scaffolding of a cabinet full of Tory Ministers would do them, on behalf of Donald fucking Trump.
They never surprise.
You know how you can tell that someone
Nukular Biskits
Texans had multiple opportunities to shitcan Patrick … yet they continued to reelect him and refused to convict him in his impeachment trial.
If it wasn’t for MS being too close to TX and the fact I have friends there, I’d pray for an asteroid to hit TX.
Baud
@Martin:
Correct. I welcome being part of the ruling class. I hope we rule for a good long time.
Redshift
@Martin:
I think that’s overthinking it. All that may be true, but I don’t think this statement has anything to do with culture. Here it’s being used to say that if the law is allowed to charge Dear Leader, the rule of law must be illegitimate. The easiest way to cover that to the cult is to claim that “someone” is controlling the courts, so all of this isn’t a real legal process.
E.
@Martin: I agree. The “ruling class” to these dweebs are the people who make rules, you know, like you can’t speed around the marina in your boat and you can’t park in handicap zones. And now while all the billionaires were out creating jobs and stuff and rescuing the economy, these rulers and their ruling class went and grabbed the President!
Redshift
@JaySinWA: Plus Patrick isn’t a senator or a congressperson, so it doesn’t apply in any case.
Josie
This is the first time I have been accused of being in the ruling class. I have to say it doesn’t feel like I’m ruling anything. I am praying to FSM, however, that these poor non-ruling class peasants get everything that is rightfully coming to them.
JPL
@Martin: They should really enjoy “The Apprentice” the new movie then. Maybe even give it a standing ovation. 🤣🤣🤣
Harrison Wesley
Totally off-topic, but I perked up at the mention of Dame Dench in a way that I wouldn’t for these invertebrates no matter what they were doing. She has a book out that looks like a lot of fun:
https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Man-Who-Pays-Rent/dp/1250325773/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&coliid=I1TVUVX3F8S7E1&colid=1KUQEVYCMAVMP&qid=&sr=
trollhattan
Righteous, Betty!
Self-reflection would doom all these asshats, which is why it will never, ever be attempted. Okay, will grant “I wonder how I can become richer than that fucker? What will it take?”
Lily
That scrawny cluster of turkeys standing there with their red ties on. DT and Sgt. Barnes in their heads, “I Am Reality” is playing.
That’s what I see.
x0x00
Harrison Wesley
@danielx: Yes, and he’ll be replaced as TX AG by Trump lawyer Robert Costello, so that the Lone Star State will finally be ruled by Abbott and Costello as Jesus intended.
trollhattan
Somebody took notice of Trump’s Adolf-adjacent video.
Lynn Dee
I’m going to go with Donald Trump as “a credible tribune for the common man” — for the win!
BAM!
Lily
What a photo that is. Belongs in a museum exhibit about the Guilded Plague.
Martin
@Redshift: I don’t think conservatives do anything that isn’t about culture.
Even in this case it’s just the usual who the law binds and who the law protects, and look at these fucking liberals who are trying to hold everyone equally accountable and ruining the country. If they were in charge you could count on the ‘right people’ never being behind a defense table.
Betsy
@Scamp Dog: “jiggling lenses of gratitude tears”.
Betty C is one of the best writers I’ve ever been lucky enough to read!
The enjoyment we get from her work, which comes so fast and furious it hardly seems to be work for her … She is masterful — or as Jane A. perhaps would have put it, mistress of her craft!
It helps that I agree with her on damn near everything!!!
prostratedragon
One wouldn’t have thought it possible, but each of those courthouse assemblages looks more riduculous than its predecessor.
P.S.: Thanks for the reminder of what I call “Velazquez Wept.”
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
All of this. But also, every time I see that picture of the Trump “family” I feel so sorry for that sad, isolated little boy sitting on the stuffed lion. He looks so forlorn and unloved by the narcissists on the other side of the room.
cain
lol – he’s literally the ruling class. If I didn’t know better he’s leading into some antisemitic globalist bullshit – a secret cabal of “ruling class” -like he doesn’t not help rule Texas with the GOP party. Lawd.
Bmaccnm
@Almost Retired:
This picture fascinates me. I believe her cape sticks out from a piece of fish line at the left side hem. There’s a little divot in the hemline that looks like an area of increased tension. You can trace that line to the space behind the lion’s head- almost to young Master Barron’s unshown right hand. I think young Master Barron is pulling his mama’s expensive silk capey-dress-thing to create the visual drama.
Might be some weird family dynamics there, I dunno.
alquitti
You go girl. Stay pissed and stay alive, we need you.
Sure Lurkalot
@Martin:
He may not have lived in Hollywood but Trump does fancy himself a television star. As in, “when you’re a star, they let you do it.”
Just another milieu he wanted to be accepted by. But don’t dare call Manhattan movers and shakers and Hollywood celebrities “the elite”, you obviously don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.
Scout211
“Ruling class” members Melania and Donald attended young Barron’s graduation. Here are some pics published by Reuters
There are some articles and videos too, but all of the them seem to lead off with some cheesy phrase like “rises above” and “walks tall” or one just declared, “towers above” everyone. At the Reuters link, the second pic with him accepting his diploma gives some idea just how tall he is compared to the faculty member handing the diploma to him.
catclub
I would say that he and his followers believe his lies. And one lie was ‘I am going to Washington to clean up the swamp.” never mind that he hired swamp creatures for all the jobs. QAnon also ran those lies that only Trump could really clean up the swamp.
Mai Naem mobile
@Bmaccnm: i think it’s just a big high thread count sateen fitted sheet. Maybe left over from one of the Trump golf course resorts. The elastic in the sheet would hang like that and a big sheet would pouf out like that.
prostratedragon
Let’s see, we already have @Lynn Dee:
“The Syndic of Topridge Grifters”, a photorealistic group portrait which is the third illustration down in this deep dive on Clarence Thomas.
Maybe these guys could be rendered as scupltures, as an artist in Amsterdam has done with “The Night Watch”. They could have faces like Robot Maria (Metropolis) underneath her human costume.
Redshift
@catclub:
That one wasn’t a lie, it was just that all of the media assumed he meant what that expression normally means, cleaning up corruption (and then being bemused that he clearly had no intention of doing that.) What he meant by “the swamp,” from the first utterance, was “anyone who tells me I can’t do whatever I want.”
CaseyL
Nothing these walking vomit bags say has any meaning outside the moment itself, and even then only to elicit a response.
“Ruling class” simply means anyone blocking them from doing whatever they want in any given moment and, by extension, whoever is keeping their donors and/or idolators from doing whatever they want.
SiubhanDuinne
@Bmaccnm:
For more years than I can remember, this picture has both mesmerised and repelled me in equal measure. Like a multi-car crash on the freeway where every vehicle is a Rolls, Benz, X-style Jag, or triple stretch limo, and oncoming traffic in both directions is backed up for two miles. (I keep wishing and hoping that young Barron will turn out okay, but it’s too soon to know. I don’t have a lot of optimism.)
zhena gogolia
@alquitti: You said it.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Your ability to point out the stupid shits and the stupid shit they say and do is a joy to read, Betty. The only fucking “ruling class” is them and what they want to do to this country and the people they hate. Republicans are traitors to our nation and in thrall to fascism in an attempt to overthrow order. Voting for a Republican is voting to destroy freedom in our country.
Christian Republicans don’t want to govern, they want to rule over all. Their allegiance is to themselves, not our nation.
Bill Arnold
@danielx:
I heard that Stephen Miller is also on Trump’s short list for AG.
Ken Paxton led a lawsuit to void the 2020 elections in other States. (Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.)
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Almost Retired: Melania looks like she was Photoshopped into the image, and badly done.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
That’s what I thought, too. It looks like a fan is blowing her cape and hair in that shot.
Makes sense as she can’t stand him anyway. She just loves his money.
billcinsd
Whether Trump is convicted or not, the answer to Paxton’s statement remains the same. The ruling elite will likely sue you into penury or to your persona; breaking point. Just like before the trial.
Lynn Dee
@prostratedragon: Rendering them as sculptures would be hilarious, especially a la The Night Watch sculptures you linked to, where they were each on their own base and, bizarrely, facing every which way. How perfect would that be for the Trumps? (“Stop looking at me!”)
billcinsd
@JaySinWA: I’d go with EAIAC — every accusation is a confession
slakko
Betty, great post but for one thing. If the local municipality in Norway where they take VOSS water from had any idea these GOP jackholes were drinking it they’d see what they could do to stop it. It’s expensive water, but it’s socialist water too.
BretH
“gilt-edged fuckery” and “malodorous cockdrips” in the same post. My day is complete – and it’s 8am here in Sydney.
Geminid
@Bill Arnold: Former Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli probably thinks he’s gonna be Trump’s next Attorney General. Trump’s hypothetical second administration is more than fully staffed already
catclub
It was slave holding Democrats that Lincoln coined the phrase ‘rule or ruin’ for. Same people now.
KM in NS
OMG! What a creepy picture!
now… off to read the comments.
OMG! Creepy!
Gloria DryGarden
Miss Betty, your job, your appropriate best (and worthy) response to all the kind words and care and energy being sent, is to receive it. Absorb it. Steep in it. Wrap it around you like a beautiful shawl on a cool night. Let the sweetness absorb into your body, into your interstitial fluids, into body systems that need help to do their jobs better. Into your immune system. Let it activate healing powers.
For all we know, letting in this much care and appreciation, really letting it in, may be an important life lesson, or opportunity.
Some people find that hard, or scary, but you can include it in the bravery you are already accessing. You endeared yourself to a big group of people, who’ve stepped up in reply to your very difficult devastating health news. It’s a good gift, an amazing gift, to get to receive that.
and thanks for your sharp biting words about these assholes in nyc.
ETA I know I’m a complete stranger; in my days as a body worker, I’ve given similar speeches to complete strangers who were only clients for a session or two. Forgive me if this has trespassed into your inner space. I mean what I’ve said. I will now step back into normal stranger distance.
bjacques
“Now, there’s a portrait only Charles Addams could draw.”
Lily
Damn that ruling class, inflicting the rule of law on us simple commoners. Now they’ve gagged our leader, trying to disappear him for bravely speaking up to threaten the witnesses and the judge’s family !
Jackie
@karen marie:
Anyone TIFG thinks isn’t loyal enough has to worry about retribution – he’s repeated that threat almost daily. He’ll go after anyone – Dem or “RINO” – who earns his wrath.
karen marie
@Jackie: I have to disagree with “hostages.” “Hostages” implies involuntariness. The people who show up for him do it voluntarily.
“We can and do choose, and we are responsible for our actions.”
Starfish
Betty, I did not see your other thread until John posted it again. I am so sorry about your diagnosis!
Did you see that Kanye and Milo Y had a falling out because Milo did not approve of something involving Kanye and porn?
I failed at telling you to “think healing thoughts” because I told you to “think of Kanye and Milo” which is kinda the opposite of “healing thoughts.”
Starfish
@karen marie: Or if they are getting paid. Remember Diamond and Silk. Diamond died of heart disease at age 51.
Gloria DryGarden
@KM in NS: creepy, indeed. Melania, if that’s her, looks like she’s about 14. Must be before she got the cat eyes
StringOnAStick
That photo has always had an uncanny valley vibe. She looks unhappy and is losing like a runway model cosplaying as a superhero, the kid looks stunned into submission, and tRump looks like an absolute cringing dweeb; I still can’t understand why he wanted this photo out there, he looks so dorkish.
Jackie
@karen marie: I’d put voluntarily in quotes. I think there was “volunteering under demands” from someone who suggested “if you’re loyal to me, prove it.”
karen marie
@Jackie: They’re adults, it’s a choice. I see no point in giving any of them cover for their bad choice by putting it in quotation marks.
2liberal
wikipedia says he is 6’7″
Helena Montana
I am so happy to see you venting outrage here, and I hope you find it therapeutic. Your edge is perfectly honed, as always.