Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

This really is a full service blog.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

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

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Come on, man.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Please don’t feed the bears.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

In after Baud. Damn.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Trump is Missing His Evita

Trump is Missing His Evita

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Trump is Missing His Evita

Trump is Missing His Evita 1

While we’re waiting for Milton to obliterate Florida, here’s a distraction.

I just finished listening to the Eva Perón five-part series on the podcast The Rest is History, and what a wild ride it is.  The Peronist flavor of authoritarianism has a lot in common with the Trumpist flavor, though of course the circumstances in mid-1940s Argentian were different than the circumstances in the mid-2010s.  Still, Perón was a vain person who was the subject of a cult of personality, his speeches were mostly bluster, and his ideology seemed “populist” but infinitely malleable.  No matter how nonsensical and contradictory he was, his supporters clung to him, just like Trump.  (I’m going to stop here because I’m no expert in Argentinian history.)

The really crazy part was Eva’s role in the Perón administration (especially after her death, where she was the subject of attention akin to a God).  A radio soap opera star, she didn’t know anything about politics.  Her role was to be the softer side of Peronism via her charitable works, and to feed and support the cult of personality around her husband.  She may have worked behind the scenes to support suffrage (granted in 1947), but that’s not clear.  But the massive cult of personality that surrounded her clearly helped Perón win re-election, and if she hadn’t died of cancer, who knows what would have happened to Perón’s administration.  (He was overthown in a coup shortly after her death.)

The kind of adulation surrounding Evita certainly has no parallel in Melania Trump.  She’s kind of a sour presence behind the scenes, who’s trotted out every so often in pointless attempts to soften up Trump’s image and/or grift (someone paid her $237,500 to address the Log Cabin Republicans, for example).  Case in point is her recently released biography, which has a full-throated defense of abortion rights.  Perhaps I’m living in a bubble, but there seems to be little or no interest in the book, and everyone realizes that her views on abortion don’t mean shit, since she and Donald clearly would have divorced a long time ago if he hadn’t run for President.

I mean, lucky for us, but still interesting that Republicans just can’t seem to even put forward a token effort to appeal to women.

Reader Interactions

160Comments

  2. 2.

    The Audacity of Krope

    I mean, lucky for us, but still interesting that Republicans just can’t seem to even put forward a token effort to appeal to women.

    Right-thinking women know what’s right and no appeal ought to be necessary.

  3. 3.

    hells littlest angel

    Melania was also interviewed today on some Fox show. No word on how much she was paid to do it.

  4. 4.

    KatKapCC

    If she cares so much about abortion rights, someone should ask her how she feels about the people her husband put on SCOTUS who killed Roe v Wade. And maybe she can take all those speaking fees and donate them to an abortion fund.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    Perhaps I’m living in a bubble, but there seems to be little or no interest in the book, and everyone realizes that her views on abortion don’t mean shit,

    “I Really Don’t Care. Do U?”

  6. 6.

    Darkrose

    Somehow, I don’t think Melania will rate a Tony-winning musical. We already know how she did nothing for years. Oh what a circus, oh what a show.

  9. 9.

    Scout211

    I posted a few days ago her publisher’s demand for payment from CNN for an interview with Melania about her book.

    Nearly two months ago, CNN reached out to Melania Trump’s book publisher to request an interview with the former first lady ahead of her upcoming memoir. After several exchanges about a possible interview, the publisher sent an unusual demand last week: an interview would cost $250,000.

    In an email to CNN, Skyhorse Publishing sent a document labeled, “Confidentiality and Nondisclosure Agreement” that laid out strict terms for an interview and use of material from the book, titled “Melania,” due to publish on October 8. On top of that, the agreement stipulated that “CNN shall pay a licensing fee of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).”

    CNN did not sign the agreement.

    . . .

    Any CNN employee who would work on the interview would need to sign the NDA, the contract states, and each breach of the NDA would entitle Trump and/or her publisher “liquidated damages” of $100,000, according to the document.

    The NDA has signature lines for CNN, Lyons, president of Skyhorse Publishing, which is distributed by Simon & Schuster, and the former first lady’s agent Marc Beckman.

    It is specifically noted in the contract that the payment would be for an interview with a media company – CNN – as well as for licensing photos and excerpts from the book. Even if the contract was sent as an “internal miscommunication” it’s an unusual request from the publisher of such a high-profile individual.

    “It’s totally unprecedented. No former first lady has ever done that,” said Kate Anderson Brower, author of “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies.”

    Later, the publisher claimed it was a “mistake.”

    ETA:  Apparently she can be bought for a cool quarter million.

  10. 10.

    Chris

    My understanding is that Peronism mixed hardcore nationalist and some socially conservative politics with genuine economic populism, ending in something that looked not entirely unlike the New Deal coalition’s mix of Northern liberals and Southern conservatives. The comparison to Trumpism seems unfair.

    But to be honest, comparing anything to Trumpism seems unfair, unless it’s some form of fascism or other.

  13. 13.

    Darkrose

    I will say that this bit from “Oh What a Circus” fits Trump perfectly:

    Instead of government we had a stage
    Instead of ideas a prima donna’s rage
    Instead of help we were given a crowd
    She didn’t say much but she said it loud

  15. 15.

    Spanky

    I don’t think either one is missing the other. At. All.

    Unless you mean the that nutcase Laura Whatsername. She might be thinking of herself as Evita. If anyone can find her to ask, that is.

  18. 18.

    Chris

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    “Oh my GOOOOOOD!!! Trump THREATENED us!!! After all those meanie liberals said we were on his side, he THREATENED us!!! This is SO affirming!!! After all, if you’re getting flak from both sides…”

    – the New York Times, probably

  20. 20.

    Captain C

    @Chris:

    After all, if you’re getting flak from both sides…

    Alex, what is ‘something Pinch the Lesser would say while bombing an orphanage?’

  26. 26.

    Chris

    @Captain C:

    I know. I want to throttle whoever coined that phrase. It’s so fucking stupid. Wants so bad to sound like a badass military quote, while blatantly being something no military in its right mind would teach.

  29. 29.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @zhena gogolia: I went with him because he is the only good thing associated with any version of that musical.  I will not be taking any questions at this time.

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Parfigliano:

    She’s a former escort which is a rich person term for prostitute. 

    She’s a fucking WHORE who is also a racist, birther SHITSTAIN like her Kremlin-humping, traitorous, SHITSTAIN, fat, orange, fascist husband.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    @KatKapCC:

    If she cares so much about abortion rights, someone should ask her how she feels about the people her husband put on SCOTUS who killed Roe v Wade. And maybe she can take all those speaking fees and donate them to an abortion fund. 

    “I only care about whorish women married to rich, orange conmen.”

  39. 39.

    Bupalos

    If there was any kind of karmic justice in the world, Melania would be on the other end of “she should really smile more” rather than the people who tend to be.

    I mean, she really should smile more. And yes, there is absolutely no reason for her to be deploying anything other than that angry/disappointed bald eagle frown face she’s got going in this photo. I soooo want to tell her she should smile more.

  43. 43.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Hopefully someone interviewing her for her sure to be blockbuster memoir soon to be made into a movie coming to a theater near you, will ask where she’s been for the last 3 years or so.

    Get a load of this horseshit (via BBC):

    “I watched the chaos unfold: the gunfire, Donald instinctively reaching up to his head, and the immediate response of Secret Service agents shielding him,” Mrs Trump writes in her book.

    After “what felt like an eternity”, she said, she finally spoke to her husband.

    She said she was most worried for her son, who was also watching on television. “[E]ach time we saw Donald’s bloodied face, I had to remind myself that I had actually just spoken to him,” Mrs Trump said.

    She went on to describe Trump’s survival as “nothing short of a miracle”.

    So worried, she was positively riveted to the TV, and couldn’t possibly rush to his side as he miraculously BARELY SURVIVED that ear nick. Must have been his awesome genes, huh, Mel?

    Just another few weeks of interviews about the must read memoir… if the stars align and “her husband” loses… should be the end of her gaslighting and grifting.

  51. 51.

    JWR

    The new Woodward book, however useless it may turn out to be, contains some fun quotes, including this one from CNN:

    Woodward writes: “The Biden associate was candid with the vice president. Look, one of the biggest reasons that Biden calls me, the associate said, is I provide him a level of comfort to the point where he can swear freely about ‘what a fucking asshole Joe Manchin is.’”

    The vice president laughed. “That might be the only reason that he still really is comfortable with me to a point,” Harris said, according to Woodward, “because he knows that I’m the only person around who knows how to properly pronounce the word motherfucker.”

    ETA is it muthafuckuh? ;)

  52. 52.

    Gary K

    Well, I am proudly wearing my “Ohio Voted” sticker after a visit to my county’s busy Board of Elections building. With no illusion that my H-W vote will prevail, I can nevertheless hope that I made the difference in electing Sherrod Brown. (And, yes, he’s totally forgiven for his recent ads that feature Trump signing the Interdict bill he sponsored.) On the way out I observed Trump-hatted Larry Dunning-Kruger and his crew trying to puzzle out which way to vote on Proposition 1 as they laboriously read the misleading language written by our AG. (Here “misleading” means “describing something as the opposite of what it really is.”)

  54. 54.

    Bupalos

    Melania! You’re doing so great girl! Life can literally never get better for you!!! So great!! So happy you’re so clearly happy!

  59. 59.

    TBone

    Not a surprise but still shocking that the Donold admin. stopped the FBI from fully investigating Kavanaugh.

    Inquiry by Sheldon Whitehouse found White House and FBI ‘misled’ about inquiry into supreme court nominee

    …

    “In 2018, I pledged to Christine Blasey Ford that I’d keep digging, for however long it took, and not give up or move on from Senate Republicans and the Trump White House’s shameful confirmation process for Justice Kavanaugh,” Whitehouse said.
    “This report shows that the supplemental background investigation was a sham, controlled by the Trump White House, to give political cover to Senate Republicans and put Justice Kavanaugh back on the political track to confirmation.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/08/trump-brett-kavanaugh-investigation-fbi

  61. 61.

    mrmoshpotato

    @KatKapCC: Are all sex workers Eastern European trash who marry pile of shit conmen who “think” the first non-white US President wasn’t born in the United States?

  64. 64.

    JWR

    @TBone: Boy, do I ever remember that bogus “investigation”, the 1 week investigation that lasted approximately 3-1/2 days, and would be noted in media story headlines as “FBI Investigates Kavanaugh, Finds Nothing Wrong”.

  67. 67.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    sex workers—unlike Melania—are engaged in an honorable profession.

    The bad thing about Melania is she’s an egotistical racist who is utterly callous to the suffering of others, not that she chose sleeping with a rich man as a way to make a living.

  68. 68.

    chopper

    The kind of adulation surrounding Evita certainly has no parallel in Melania Trump.

    except for a little while after trump was elected, among the white supremacist set. they went nuts over her. called her ’empress melania’. god, what a bunch of fuckin’ dorks

  69. 69.

    sdhays

    @JPL: His 10 year term will be up in the next Presidential term, so she doesn’t have to fire him to name someone better. Although I think we’ll have to wait until 2027. I doubt she’ll fire him outright.

  70. 70.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TBone:

    It was openly known then that the White House told the FBI they could only investigate a very limited amount of Kavanaugh’s background, which did not include the college sexual assault allegations.  Still, good to remind people that the crimes Kavanaugh was accused of were covered up.

  71. 71.

    JPL

    @sdhays: When trump fired Comey, I thought they were fair game.   Maybe somedoay, we should go back to previous norms, but not now.

  73. 73.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @mrmoshpotato: FFS. OK then… Hey now, sex workers, including prostitutes and whores—unlike Melania—are engaged in an honorable profession.

    Seriously, I’m not being flippant. I really have no patience for slut shaming both in general and in this particular case. Especially when there’s so much else to shame Melania about, i.e. as Frankensteinbeck said: “she’s an egotistical racist who is utterly callous to the suffering of others.” And murder trees, and the Rose Garden, and…

  75. 75.

    Jackie

    @KatKapCC:

    If she cares so much about abortion rights, someone should ask her how she feels about the people her husband put on SCOTUS who killed Roe v Wade. AND killed at least two women. And maybe she can take all those speaking fees and donate them to an abortion fund.

    Fixed for additional clarity. TCFG is responsible for the death of those women. And more than likely many more.😡

  79. 79.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jackie:

    Fixed for additional clarity. TCFG is responsible for the death of those women. And more than likely many more.😡

    If you include COVID deaths…

  80. 80.

    KatKapCC

    @mrmoshpotato: So you admit there are reasons to loathe her that have nothing to do with whatever she may have chosen to do with her body. I have friends who have done sex work to put themselves through college, to support their families. When you scream about WHORES who SUCK LOTS OF DICK as though it’s an objectively horrible and condemnable thing, you are including anyone who has ever chosen to do it. Which makes you sound like a regressive, conservative, nosey ass jerk.

    There are a thousand reasons to dump on Melania that don’t include being a fucking prude scold.

  81. 81.

    Jackie

    @TBone: I think it was hugely hinted at the time by a few Dem Senators on the Select Committee that TCFG meddled in/ran interference in Kavanaugh’s “investigation.”

  83. 83.

    Tony G

    I always thought of Melania as a department store mannequin controlled by a crudely designed “AI” module.  She does not pass a Turing Test.

  84. 84.

    ArchTeryx

    @mrmoshpotato: Just get Karl Urban on the case. The Brits use c**t like we use “bastard.” It can even be a term of endearment – though I would not ever use ANY term of endearment for ANYTHING Trump

    The word “fanny” on the other hand…

  86. 86.

    JWR

    @eemom: Yep. The last Woodward books I read were All The Presidents Men, The Final days, The Brotherhood and Veil. Since then, meh!

  88. 88.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Vile murdering pig Randall Terry is outraged at both TCFFG/PAB and his moll for not toeing the extreme ideological line of “Operation Rescue.”

  90. 90.

    mrmoshpotato

    @danielx:

    She strikes me as a survivor. Whatever happens to SFB, it’s not gonna affect her or her lifestyle. 

    That implies the prenup from the pussy grabber leaves her with a single dollar.

    Doubtful.

  94. 94.

    Citizen Alan

    @KatKapCC:  Personally, I think it’s a bit different when the “sex worker” in question is all but treated as a Madonna by the same MAGA scum who insist Kamala Harris got where is today through her ability to give blow jobs and who think that every single woman who gets an abortion is a slut who should have kept her legs closed. It’s not about slut-shaming where Melania is concerned. It’s about exposing the naked hypocrisy of pious rightwing Christian hypocrites who blithely make excuses for worshiping a rapist who married a gold-digging prostitute, one who visibly loathes her husband and is obviously just waiting for him to die.

  97. 97.

    Jeffro

    @Citizen Alan: seconded

    Also, (and OT), the photos/commentary of folks “hurricane generators” on Twitter/X are absolutely hysterical.  The ones that combine “hurricane generators” with “Jewish space lasers” are…

    …out of this world LOLOLOL

  98. 98.

    Jackie

    O/T GRRRR!

    “Senator Mitt Romney, the retiring Republican from Utah and onetime standard-bearer of a party that has shifted under his feet, said Tuesday that he would not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in the election because it might hamper a critical role he could play in helping to rebuild the G.O.P. down the line,” the New York Times reports.

    Said Romney: “I’ve made it very clear that I don’t want Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States.”

    But, he added later: “I want to continue to have a voice in the Republican Party following this election. I think there’s a good chance that the Republican Party is going to need to be rebuilt or reoriented.”

    I hope all the Republicans who’ve openly and loudly endorsed Harris, shun Romney down the road when they’re trying to rebuild their former GOP party. They don’t need his spineless support.

    Let Romney be a Man Without a Party!😡😡😡

  99. 99.

    Bupalos

    I’ve finally tipped to thinking Kamala gunna win.

    She’s doing the little things, she’s working, she’s disciplined, she’s talented, she’s grinding out the extra yard play after play. She’s missing some opportunities because it’s nose to the grindstone, but it looks like enough.

    I think lazy ass Trump went big and his strategy was something that in campaign terms should be called “deep air war,” in collusion with Bibi and Putin for October “surprises,” and creating a feeling of instability that should benefit the out party. But I think what we’re seeing is what it is, and Harris is handling it. It’s challenging, but not really a surprise. And Kamala is just pounding out an extra yard here and and extra 3 yards there, crossing T’s and dotting i’s. …and is going to score.

    I don’t much do predictions. But I think she’s going to put this over the goal line. Trump just can’t work like she’s willing to work, even with his ass on the line he doesn’t care like she cares. She’s going to win and it’s going to be a specifically female kind of win. Work twice as hard and be twice as good. No shortcuts. Nothing given.

  100. 100.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Citizen Alan: Yeah, there’s the definitely the hypocrisy factor, but maybe, just maybe, we should be directing our ire about that hypocrisy at those doing the hypocrisy. Just calling Melania a whore as an insult ain’t doing that, it’s slut shaming. One that’s has a long misogynistic history against a variety of other women, including Harris.

    It’s not slut shaming to point out the hypocrisy that, by all evidence, Melania was a prostitute escort, yet the cultists treat her like the Virgin Madonna, especially when they’re quick to call other women sluts and whores.

  102. 102.

    Barbara

    @Bupalos: ​If that was the strategy they didn’t account for the possibility of two catastrophic hurricanes dominating the news cycle.

  104. 104.

    Trivia Man

    I saw a third hand account of MAGA getting irate – “If he can’t control his woman, why should we elect him?” Good. Fight.

  105. 105.

    Bupalos

    @Villago Delenda Est: I’d normally object to this, but the reality is the reality. Liz Cheney is acting like a dumb dude who’s masculine ego has been injured. Mittens is acting like a graphing calculator that accidentally drank sodium pentathol.

    “I want Trump to lose, but I’m not going to say that out loud because I want to have a role in the Republican party…”

    I mean, Liz handed it over to rage and revenge. Mitt handed it over to….??? ????     ? ?

  106. 106.

    Jackie

    @Villago Delenda Est: Several Republican men who’ve openly endorsed Harris have the cajones Mitt only dreams of.

    Seriously, I truly hope he finds himself rebuffed and ignored by his party. He’s pitiful.

    I still remember how TCFG publicly humiliated Mitts by allowing him to think he was going to be part of TCFG’s Administration, only to figuratively jerk his chair away as he was sitting down.

  107. 107.

    Bupalos

    @Barbara: The hurricanes will hurt Harris. That isn’t a qualification but a lucky addition for Trump to the instability he’s trying to buy in to internationally.

    Trump got lucky there, though you’ll be able to get lucky this way for the next 40 years at least.

    But I think it won’t decide the thing. Harris makes her own luck. She’s a grinder, with solid talent beside. She’ll have to get better to win in 2028 but I think she’s going to bring 2024 home. I’m really surprised how good she is and how quickly she gets better. I’m really surprised there isn’t more focus on this exceptional person. We still talk all day every day about boring loser Trump.

    With half an eye towards how this could open old wounds… She’s worlds better than Biden at this phase. And Biden would almost certainly lose this. It wouldn’t be close.

  108. 108.

    BruceFromOhio

    I mean, lucky for us, but still interesting that Republicans just can’t seem to even put forward a token effort to appeal to women.

    Why bother? They’ve made it clear they don’t fucking care.

  109. 109.

    Quiltingfool

    @Sister Golden Bear: I think Melanie wanted to get the hell out of Slovenia and she figured her best play was to use her looks to get a rich old guy to marry her.

    She worked hard for the money, screwing Trump.  Yuck.  But maybe doing that was better than staying in Slovenia.

    Frankly, I think she could’ve done better than Trump.  Sometimes I wonder if she is his handler (espionage stuff, not the other meaning, get you mind outta the gutter, lol!)

  111. 111.

    BR

    Did anyone see Harris on Stern? How was it for that audience? I saw her on The View — and clips of her on the Call Her Daddy podcast and 60 minutes (which was meh because of those questions).

  112. 112.

    Lyrebird

    @Captain C: ​
     

    “If you’re taking flak from both sides, you need to fire whoever was in charge of SEAD.”

    I admit that I think we have way too many rotating tags already, but this is excellent. You, sir, win the Internets today!

  114. 114.

    Jackie

    @Bupalos: Hard disagree. The word is getting out by REPUBLICAN governors and congress members that TCFG is a lying dog about FEMA’s response in Georgia and the Carolinas, and they are openly and strongly thanking Biden and FEMA for their immediate assistance and rebutting TCFG/Vance’s false accusations.

    It took a few days, but even Faux News is beginning to fact check him.

  115. 115.

    JWR

    @TBone: Not speaking of Christopher Wray, though maybe we should start, here he is again, from your Guardian link:

    In one case, a former classmate of Kavanaugh at Yale named Max Stier sought to come forward to report that he had once witnessed Kavanaugh with his pants down at a drunken party, and that his friends pushed the future justice’s penis into the hands of a female student.

    The alleged incident was separate from others that became public during the investigation but bore similarities to the allegations made by Ramirez. Stier notified the Senate and the FBI about his account, according to media reports, but the matter was never investigated by the FBI.

    The FBI director, Christopher Wray, was even personally notified by Senator Chris Coons of Delaware about Stier’s account but he was never contacted.

    Yeah, Wray is another one Biden should’ve bounced when he had the chance, along with Louis DeJoy.

  117. 117.

    JiveTurkin

    @Bupalos: I don’t see the hurricane helping Trump in any way.  He’s making shit up right and left, which is fine for his base, but for everyone else they have to deal with the real world.  And most people are starting to realize he’s spewing bullshit with regards to FEMA.  Because this is one case where a lot of people are actually starting to pay attention to the facts.

  119. 119.

    Marleedog

    @Bupalos:

    Describe the face Melania is making there. 

    She simply has copied the scowl from the PAB. It is quite obvious in other photos of her.

  120. 120.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Princess:

    Slovenia is a gorgeous country, liberal, economically-prosperous, and full of nice people. No wonder Melania wanted to leave. 

    And why would this be?

  121. 121.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @Bupalos: wow, you really are the biggest goddamn fucking dick who comes rolling through the jackalverse on the regular. you just can’t stop harping on your goddamn unprovable pet theory.

    biden didn’t really start his campaign, despite what you and kay kvetching about the debate. the official kickoff was planned for the convention. the media (and people like you) kicked up the shitstorm over his cognitive decline conveniently obfuscating the far more precipitous drop off of derp 45’s faculties.

    you know how we know? because unlike scooby coup, as feeble as you say joltin’ joe is, he can still speak coherent english. the difference between the two is the weight of the entire media establishment and press, aided by putzes like you, came down on biden like a ton of bricks while donny nappleseed skated through, shielded by one-sided coverage.

  122. 122.

    Captain C

    @Quiltingfool: Por que no los dos?  I mean, she gets out of Slovenia, and the nice grey man who takes care of her ever-increasing secret bank account gives her the occasional instructions, but mostly listens sympathetically.  Occasionally she has a thumb drive or suchlike for him (the grey man).

  125. 125.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Marleedog: Trying to copy her shitstain husband’s bitchass scowl?  Oh no, she’s like that herself!

    And the Kremlin’s orange bitch would look better if his fat, orange, fascist face showed his dentures more!

    Smile you son of a bitch of Vladimir Putin!

  126. 126.

    TS

    Just imagine the political media is democratic partners were never seen campaigning – we would never hear the end of it. The misogyny is deep within this pair – it consumes them.

  128. 128.

    BR

    @BR: ​

    I’m watching the clips of Harris on Howard Stern and she’s so good — this is like 4 of 4 for her of slam dunk interviews in like 3 days.

  130. 130.

    Chris

    @Jackie:

    Genuinely mental that Romney just admitted out loud to the entire nation that he’s rooting for Trump to fail so he can take his throne, that he in fact intends to betray Trump if only by not voting for him, and yet he somehow thinks he can do that and still retain the credibility he needs among Trump supporters for them to give him that throne.

    There are very few things that still shock me about the Republican Party, but just how many of its politicians don’t understand anything about their own party and their own voter base is one of them.

  131. 131.

    columbusqueen

    @Quiltingfool: That’s why I tend to regard Melania in a negative light. She could have found another rich guy who acted like an actual human being. Instead she went for the bottom of the barrel, not just fucking Donald but birthing a child by him. Disgusting.

  133. 133.

    scav

    @Jackie: Sure Mittens.  Spell it out again how the ruined shell of a party (and your personal position at the head of the shambles) is more important to you than the nation. Underline it and Highlight it in neon pink Hi-Liter.

  134. 134.

    frog

    @JPL:

    The Director of the FBI is still there.   When Harris wins, I hope she sacks him first.

    Adam did a few posts about this at the time. The subjects that the FBI was allowed to investigate, along with the range of dates they had to stay between, was dictated by the White House.

  135. 135.

    Jackie

    @columbusqueen: YES! But one slightly different thought: She could have had her choices, but, like Putin… she knew an easy mark when she saw him. Barron was a purposefully added insurance clause.

  137. 137.

    Chris

    @Princess:

    @Quiltingfool: Slovenia is a gorgeous country, liberal, economically-prosperous, and full of nice people. No wonder Melania wanted to leave.

    LMAO.

    This reminds me of a story from John Rogers’ blog about the original run of Leverage.  They had an episode that was supposed to take place in a stereotypical East European corrupt hellhole, the kind you’d see on classic Mission: Impossible.  All that was left was to choose the hellhole…  This led to an afternoon of increasingly frustrating googling, at the end of which they were forced to conclude that Eastern Europe in the 2010s is mostly a very nice place, pretty much like Western Europe only cheaper, old stereotypes be damned.

    They ended up setting the story in Ukraine, but purely for practical reasons: Kyiv, it turns out, was the East European city that most resembled Portland, where the show was being filmed.  And the corrupt police chief who was originally supposed to have a much bigger role was scaled back to just being given a few scenes as a comparatively low-key dirty cop, the kind you might run into anywhere.

  141. 141.

    Darkrose

    @Chris: When I think of Leverage and Kyiv, all I can think of is:

    Hardison: “The Cakemaker of Kyiv could kick all our asses. This? Is the Butcher.”

    …and then Eliot takes him out with a lemon.

  142. 142.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @KatKapCC: both excellent ideas. Put that money into an abortion fund, and invite her to speak against her husband’s Supreme Court picks. In case anyone listens to her opinion; I guess she has a following.

    on another note, re melania being a call girl. At a take back the night march decades ago, one of the feminist speakers referred to marriage as legal prostitution.

    This was back before laws were passed to clarify the existence of rape, in some marriages. Before then, it couldn’t be considered rape, because the husband had rights. For so much of history, and I hope not very many people, marriage did seem to have this transactional exchange. Oh dear, what a dark subject.

    Melania is not my favorite person, I really don’t care.

  143. 143.

    wjca

    @KatKapCC:  I have friends who have done sex work to put themselves through college, to support their families. When you scream about WHORES who SUCK LOTS OF DICK as though it’s an objectively horrible and condemnable thing, you are including anyone who has ever chosen to do it.

    One is put in mind of the quote, when Marilyn Monroe was asked how she became a famous actress.  “I spent a lot of time on my knees.”  (Spoiler alert: she wasn’t praying. Except, perhaps, that it be over.)  The “casting couch” was a Hollywood staple during most of the last century.

  144. 144.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Sister Golden Bear: I’d like prostitution to be legalized.
    Aside from the moral hypocrisy, the fact that there’s a market for it, and that it’s one of the oldest professions, and sometimes women have needed to work somehow,

    it would take a lot of pressure off the massage therapy profession.

  145. 145.

    wjca

    @Bupalos: The hurricanes will hurt Harris.

    How do you figure?  North Carolina remains a coin flip. The difference now looks to be how many people in blue Ashville take time from putting their lives back togethe to voter vs how many in the red countryside do.

    Florida only matters if it flips D; and in that case we’re in landslide territory anyway. It’s not like it’s a state she was likely to win pre-hurricane.  Or part of one of the more probable barely-over-270 combinations.

    Yes, there are other states with hurricane damage.  But with the possible exception of Georgia, none of them were ever likely wins for her.

  146. 146.

    Citizen Alan

    @Bupalos: if i could speak one sentence to mitt romney, it would be to tell him to his face that I think george romney would be absolutely humiliated by the pathetic excuse for a man his son grew up to be.

  147. 147.

    Citizen Alan

    @Quiltingfool: When you put it that way, I am inclined to think that the most honorable and admirable thing she’s ever done was being willing to fuck donald trump?If that’s what it took to get herself and her parents out of eastern europe and into the US. It was degrading work, but I suppose it beats a forced march through the desert for weeks, followed by swimming across the rio grande.

  148. 148.

    wjca

    @Gloria DryGarden: it would take a lot of pressure off the massage therapy profession.

    Legalizing prostitution would also put a lot of pimps out of business.  Which has to be counted a plus.

  149. 149.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @catclub: wouldn’t that be more than the profits from book sales?

    either she wants to be paid, and doesn’t care about getting free publicity by giving an interview, or the publishers want to recoup their costs. Just making guesses.

    I need to go look up Milton find out what is changing

  150. 150.

    Bupalos

    @Quiltingfool:But maybe doing that was better than staying in Slovenia

    First: NO!!!

    Second: I guess you’ve probably never been to Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania etc. Because that just sounds like you probably haven’t

    Whatever made Melania do what she did is Melania-specific, not Slovenia specific.

  151. 151.

    Bupalos

    @Jackie: I don’t think that matters much. Trump benefits when people’s lives get worse and when things seem unstable and frightening. Our folks over on this side stand and wait for climate change disasters to convince folks that government action is needed and that we should cooperate  on this and on a bunch of other true things. But climate destabilization isn’t going to do that. Overall it’s going to make people poorer, more desperate, angrier, more cynical, and stupider.

    It is probably true that Trump fumbled it by being a little too hamfisted. But the hardship of these hurricanes will generally make the ground easier for him and his post-truth right-wing authoritarian heirs, not harder.

  152. 152.

    Bupalos

    @strange visitor (from another planet): OK. Disagree.

    If people think Biden is capable of this level of campaign at this point, that’s not something I can disprove of course and I’m not really interested. But you get extra internet points for being ridiculously escalatory about the whole thing.

  153. 153.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @Bupalos:  yeah, no. you just can’t stop beating that dead horse, can you?

    my problem was with how the scenario was handled, how all of the media whiners and you whingers hadda do everything over the table, within earshot of the enemy, affording them all the ammunition they needed to elide over derp furor’s precipitous decline.

    but escalatory? dude, maybe stop digging up your favorite corpse to fuck on a regular basis? maybe stop fucking it?

    and nah. if you buy the polls, kamala started her campaign, she was up, kamala was down, kamala is tied. biden was up, biden was down, biden hadn’t really started to campaign, he was down…

    but you have no fucking clue what could’ve or would’ve happened or where the race would be had horse floggers like yourselves not relentlessly banged the drums over biden’s head to drop out instead of (as the thin white duke and others have said) focused your ire on the incomprehensible babble coming from the incompetent fascist to biden’s right.

    …and yet you KEEP bringing it up like you’re goddamn carnac the magnificent and you’ve got special knowledge of the multiverse.

    fuck that shit

    eta- and now, of course, they’re saying kamala is mentally unfit. so they’ve got one fucking derogatory trick to degrade and defame and you helped them play it.

  155. 155.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    only a fucking moron who can’t figure out that a good chunk of jackals didn’t care for the methods used to drive the president from the race or that the president WAS driven from the race would say my take and tone was beyond ridiculous… because you don’t fucking GET it why you bringing it up over and over and OVER again is fucking tedious and tenditious.

    it’s not a question as to whether YOU think kamala is a better candidate and that shivving biden in the back was the bee’s knees, it’s a question of “can you fucking drop it and shut the fuck up?”

    but carnac, the answer to that question is obviously, “fuck NO!”

  156. 156.

    Eural Joiner

    @mistermix.bsky.social

    Sorry to wake up and see I missed this thread – but great to see another fan of Tom and Dom’s work! I even got my wife hooked on episode 5 and the insane story of the epic journey her remains took for decades after her death. A very engaging, insightful, and fun podcast :)

  157. 157.

    Kosh III

    Silly me.  I thought one did interviews on CNN, Johnny Carson Show or wherever for the free publcity, not to rip off the interviewer.

  160. 160.

    Ken_L

    (I’m going to stop here because I’m no expert in Argentinian history.)

    You’re new to the internet?

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