You guys, Trump and Giuliani’s shit-grenades of corruption keep exploding in Republicans’ faces, and it’s so gross. Where to begin?
Well, remember the two Florida clowns, Giuliani associates Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, who were arrested at the airport before they could flee to Vienna? They had lunch with Giuliani at the Trump Hotel in DC just before they made a break for it.
It certainly appears they were acting as cut-outs to funnel Russian money to Trump PACs and Republican Party candidates, including GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy, FL Governor Ron DeSantis, US Senator from Florida Rick Scott and others.
And it’s been alleged that the Giuliani-adjacent goons lobbied former GOP Rep. Pete Sessions to have the US ambassador to Ukraine fired. Jeebus doesn’t love us enough to smite Trump with Giuliani and that Rusher thing, does He?
And isn’t Maddow on a book tour? She better get her ass back to 30 Rock, stat.
Open thread!
Yarrow
McCarthy, DeSantis and Scott aren’t the only ones. Devin Nunes might be feeling a bit nervous. Hey, where’s Reince Priebus, former chair of the RNC, these days anyway? And Paul Ryan who chaired the Republican convention might be feeling a bit uncomfortable as well.
Yarrow
Oh, hey…
Remember when Murdoch met with McConnell in McConnell’s office and immediately after a whole bunch of Fox Twitter accounts shut down, including the Fox News Twitter account?
Miss Bianca
@Yarrow: Rupert Murdoch is another one I’d like to see in front of a truth and reconciliation panel. That fucking guy.
Leto
She has been doing her show from on the road. The LA studio looked better than her NYC studio.
The Republican Party was already compromised by the Russians, but they followed the dumbest conman ever and of course it blew up in their faces. Of course he has filled 187 federal judgeships with the absolute worst fucking nominations…
Zelma
I posted this on a previous thread but it seems appropriate here.
just saw a story that the woman who denied Biden’s request to take down the lying Facebook ads is a long time Republican campaign worker. Also that Zuckerberg got big Russian investment money in 2009. And that Guilliani’s pals gave money to other Republican pols.
So we have a political party and an economic elite who are in hock to our primary adversary and the foreign corrupting influence has reached unparalleled heights. We have truly become a “banana republic,” in the most traditional sense of the term. Because, after all, the original “banana republics” were countries where foreign economic interests corrupted the political and economic elites who then cheerfully pocketed the money and sold out the people.
How far the mighty USA has fallen,
hells littlest angel
Philip and Elizabeth JenningsDonald and Melania Trump are just the tip of the iceberg.And Rachel Maddow is doing her tour, but also doing her show from the tour locations.
MattF
Hey, Igor just wanted to visit his mamaleh in Frankfurt. What’s wrong with that?
Yarrow
I see they’re making their loyalties obvious over on the other side of the pond as well:
Farage is a Member of the European Parliament, not the British Parliament, fyi.
Sebastian
I want this to take down Scott and DeSantis.
hells littlest angel
@Miss Bianca: That’s not what I’d like to see him in front of.
Leto
@Yarrow: Remember how Bill met with AG Lynch on some runway and it was the absolute end of the fucking world? (Narrator: no it wasn’t)
Yarrow
@Zelma: The RNC laundered Russian money. It’ll come out eventually. They’re all corrupt. Traitors, all.
Mike in DC
The nail in the coffin might be a NYC/NYS felony indictment of Trump. If it happens in the middle of the impeachment inquiry it would have an explosive effect on the political calculation of the parties.
Leto
Hey, want some more rage? Remember how they ripped out forever FLOTUS’ veggie garden?
WereBear
I love a good after-lunch airport bust! The stuff that dreams are made of.
mrmoshpotato
“Alexa! Do all the crimes, then have lunch with Ghouliani before trying to flee the country!”
Sweet baby Jeebus! The writers have gone mad.
Leto
@Zelma: @Zelma:
Don’t forget that Zucks met with Dotard, approximately two- three weeks ago, at the WH and then FB quietly changed it’s policy to allow politicians to knowingly lie in their ads. They’re all up to their eyes in Russian money.
Yarrow
@Leto:
When did this happen? As of a year ago, at least, it was still in existence.
dmsilev
@Leto: I guess we should be grateful it wasn’t a putting green or driving range.
NotMax
Giuliani & Associates, an LCC.
Limited Credibility Corporation.
Steeplejack
It’s funny because most of MSNBC’s prime-time hosts have been out most of this week. Second-stringers all the way, except for Lawrence O’Donnell at 10:00, who I used to think was the most slacker-ish of them. Always mysteriously out on Fridays in the summer. ?
“Looks like a slow news week. Guess we can take a few days off.” Oops.
mrmoshpotato
@WereBear:
Very specific tastes you have there. ?
SFAW
You libtards, going on and on about process crimes.
There’s NO smoking howitzer!! At least, not a 420. Maybe a 155 or twelve, and a few hundred 105s, BUT THAT’S ALL!
Zinsky
Too funny, Betty! You are the best – “shit grenades of corruption“ – I love it. Yes, it appears the lisping, slimy little turd Giuliani is about to exit stage left to Sing Sing. Trump sure hires the best, don’t he? All that’s left to play out is for Trump to flee the White House in a white Bronco driven by Jared with the cops in pursuit in a low-speed chase.
You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas…
Mike in NC
Well of course they had to have lunch at one of Trump’s shitty restaurants. Does anybody think they had a choice? The corruption is that petty.
Mary G
OMG, ya take part of a day offline because you’re afraid of seeing pictures of dead Kurdish children, then get stressed because you don’t know what’s happening, and find out that a could hundred Infrastructure Weeks have happened! Wow!
Good Dog, I miss Obama so. His entire years didn’t have one hundredth the drama of today.
different-church-lady
OMG this.
SFAW
@Steeplejack:
“Looks like
a slow news week. Guess we can take a few days offI picked the wrong Infrastructure Week to quit watching the news.”— Lloyd “Burn Them!” Bridges
Spanky
@Leto: I’m undecided whether President Warren should turn the bulldozer over to Hillary or to Michelle to rip that shit right out of the ground.
Gelfling 545
@Leto: Don’t know who’s going to use it. I doubt Trump plays now. Maybe if they invented tennis carts to haul him around the court &I believe the prenup forbids Melania from sweating.
Yarrow
Just a regular reminder that it was Giuliani’s company that cleaned up the American Media Inc. building in Florida where the 2001 anthrax attacks took place. Link.
That building housed all sorts of secrets. What was Rudy able to walk away with? What has he known since then? Who did he give/sell it to? Also, who was the “real estate investor” that bought the building on the cheap and leased it to Rudy’s company? This shit goes back a long way.
Leto
@dmsilev: @Yarrow: Mea culpa! I’ve seen people talking about it being ripped out without checking it myself. We can still ask who paid for it though. ?
HumboldtBlue
Holy Helen of Troy, but the USC women’s 4×400 relay team just pulled off a miracle in the NCAA Final!
SFAW
@Zinsky:
Like father, like son?
Mary G
@Leto: @Yarrow: Didn’t the state dinner they just have use vegetables from the WH garden? Too much to read to Google right now.
MattF
Apparently there was a cover story– that all the money going here and there was all part of legitimate LNG business dealings. But the Justice Department didn’t buy it. And IMO, Giuliani is in big trouble. I wonder if he’ll be Prisoner #911.
dmsilev
Washignton Post:
Also, Alexandra Petri continues to crank out one gem after another:
Martin
McCarthy knows how the money flows. He was always fine with the SuperPACs/NRA taking Russian money, it was the direct money he was speaking to.
Obama warned us, and was called a liar.
Yarrow
@Mary G: Yeah, I think they still use the garden and you can tour it. The “ripping it out of the ground” is not true as far as I can tell. Melania doesn’t do events in it like Michelle did, but that’s hardly a surprise.
Aleta
Kinda cold of “nothing-to-see-here” “just-schmoozing-clients-over-lunch”
Giuliani not to arrange a private ride home for them. Too risky et trop chère for a simple unpaid country lawyer with so much on his mind, I suppose.
Spanky
Per CNN:
Leto
@Spanky: Porque los dos? The pictures of them, driving it together, laughing their asses off, should be on our money from here on out.
@Gelfling 545: There’s the White Whale playing tennis, looking absolutely svelte at 439, whose picture I won’t link. Everyone can thank me later.
dmsilev
@Spanky: How long until he denies knowing Rudy? Next week sometime?
Leto
@Mary G:
Will the shaming never end… /s
MattF
@dmsilev: Given the Trump Time Machine, it probably already happened.
Mnemosyne
@Sebastian:
I’d love to see the corrupt asshole governor of Georgia taken down, too.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: Killary conspired with the Russians to lose her own election, you snowflake pajama boys!
Martin
@Spanky: I think it’s safe to say that Trump will eventually claim to have never met another human being in his life.
AliceBlue
@Mnemosyne: I was going to say “you and me both” but it’s you, me and a whole lot of other people.
TS (the original)
I do not understand the different branches of US law enforcement – so could someone explain to me why
the Attorney general is in trump’s pocket & refuses to see anything corrupt in the administration but
U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan seems to be the good guys/gals and carries many investigations that do not support trump
Are they not working for the AG? Are they a different organisation? Why is the work done in NY & not other states?
Cacti
Is Rudy being set up as the patsy for all of this?
I’m starting to wonder.
Yarrow
lamh36
Oh and…
Chile, if they had arrested Guiliana at Dulles too!!
different-church-lady
@Martin:
ALL OF HUMANITY: “We wish!“
Cheryl Rofer
Welp
I see lamh beat me. What a story.
Tony Jay
+++++++++++BREXIT NEWS++++++++++++BREXIT NEWS++++++++++
“I AM BIG, IT’S THE POLITICS THAT GOT SMALL”
Or
“I LOVE THE SMELL OF FACEPALM IN THE MORNING”
Just when those of a naïve bent were thinking that the UK Conservative Party couldn’t sink any lower into the Brexit mire, lo and ecce fucking homo, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his Cabinet of malleable failurenauts have found another few inches of stagnant ooze to wriggle their snouts beneath, dragging the whole country with them as they splosh around in the Westminster mudhole mewling in panic.
I suppose it was inevitable. After years of coasting by on a carefully curated personae as every disinterested viewer’s harmless, wordy posh-boy politician off the telly, Mrs Johnson’s least well-adjusted child made the classic mistake of confusing class privilege with genuine talent and took that last, fateful step into the limelight as a solo performer, topping the bill with his own brand of Trump/Mosley spoken-word folk/pomp fusion in front of a bitterly divided audience. The bulk of the Media’s stable of critics absolutely love his work (so challenging, so avant-garde, so deliciously transgressive and retro-chic) and he can always rely on his dedicated following of loyal groupies to pack out the front two rows as long as he throws them a familiar catchphrase or two in between the American influenced scat-flows. But it’s an international business these days, and the most important foreign markets for British performers are uniformly turned-off by his half-baked mishmash of Latin epigrams and 1970s nationalist stereotypes. A wiser man would sense the mood of the crowd and try something new, but that’s the problem with being at best a tribute act and at worst a gaudy pastiche, isn’t it? You can’t change without losing more fans than you gain. So, he soldiers on, squatting and grinding and either blowing kisses or swearing at the increasingly frequent hecklers, his greasy carapace steaming up under the klieg lights and sloughing off in meaty chunks to expose the withered white flesh beneath. At this point dropping the curtain would be a genuine mercy, which is exactly why the guys and girls backstage are just standing around in the wings arguing about who goes on next. Sooner rather than later the act will be over, and the judges’ scoreboards will come out from under the table bearing their inevitable verdict. Don’t call us, Flobalob, we’ll call you.
But it’s taking soooooooooooo long.
God! That analogy dragged. Anyway, that’s what it’s like, sort of.
Where are we really, then?
While you people were enjoying the satisfying clumpity-clump sound of shoes dropping from on high like someone blew up the displays at the Imelda Marcos Memorial Museum, over on this side of the Atlantic the entirety of last week was taken up with the British Government being brutally, publicly, humiliatingly pantsed by the E.U. as its fake ‘negotiating strategy’ (very advanced, but oh so secret, for reasons, that are also secret) was exposed as being about as serious and credible as a Tom Cruise marriage. Despite years of the E.U. making it crystal clear in 28 languages and 132 sub-dialects that any negotiated withdrawal agreement would have to include a solution to the HUGE problem of establishing a functional customs and trade border between an independent UK and the EU member state of Ireland without packing a shitload of Semtex around the Good Friday Agreement (which brought peace to Northern Ireland back in the 1990s), we found out that the proposed ‘deal’ coming out of Number 10 was the policy equivalent of doubling the amount of Semtex, plugging in all of the wires and handing over the detonator to a bunch of God-bothering suicide-bombers.
Hyperbole? Nope. In place of the ‘backstop’ (a compromise idea put forward by Theresa May’s negotiating team that would prevent the erection of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the EU by keeping Northern Ireland within the EU Customs Union for goods and services until such a time as a more permanent solution could be decided upon – i.e. probably never) the Johnson Regime genuinely suggested that everyone could easily get around the whole “International Treaty ruling out any physical infrastructure on the border” problem by agreeing there could be some kind of “system of customs checks away from the border”, somewhere, maybe ten miles away, maybe at traders’ premises, or other “designated locations”, while simultaneously ensuring that there’d be no explosion in cross-border smuggling because “goods would be under customs supervision as they crossed the border”. Oh, and to make it all wonderfully democratic and satisfy the snowflake PC lobby that care about things like “legitimacy” the whole deal would have to be approved now and every four years by the Northern Irish devolved government at Stormont…. which hasn’t met in years and whose authority has devolved (in every sense of the word) to the grey skies and hellfire political wing of Loyalist terrorism – i.e. The Democratic Unionist Party, thus giving a rolling veto over the deal to a minority political Party that opposed the Good Friday Agreement, wants a No-Deal Brexit, and would prefer no ties at all to the E.U. or the Republic of Ireland.
In response to the obvious questions (How exactly would this work? Who would carry these checks out? (not the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who ran, not walked, to the nearest microphone to say they weren’t sticking their collective genitals in that particular grinder) How is this any different from having customs checks at the border? Why would anyone trust the DUP with possession of a lump of rock, never mind a veto over the whole border issue? What’s to stop dissident terror groups from targeting the “designated locations” for bombings as they have before? Are you on Meth, Crack, or those bath-salt things you can get in Florida?) the UK Government did what it always does when its nonsense gets a public mauling, stuck its fingers in its ears and dashed to the ever credulous BBC to bemoan how very unreasonable the demmed ferriners were being and how this just proved that all the chaos of a No Deal Brexit would be entirely Europe’s fault.
If Downing Street’s intention had ever been to seek a deal that both sides could live with this would have been a monumental diplomatic error, but, of course, that theory was never anything more than a sop to the Media and its hopeless search for a strong, capable Conservative Mummy or Daddy to lord it over the family estate and spare us all from fair rates of progressive taxation. We know this because Johnson and his cohorts said so, over and over again, back during the Tory Party Leadership campaign, and it’s been the foundation of every statement they’ve given since he crowd-surfed into the Number 10 hotseat upon dense fumes of Brextremist fulmination. “We are leaving the E.U. on the 31st October”, “Do or Die”, “Deal or No Deal” are as much this Government’s raison d’etre as “Keep Flobalob in Power” and “Protect the Rich”. His Rump Government is wholly geared towards electorally out-performing Nigel Farage’s foreign-backed PR stunt (known officially as the Brexit Party) among the kind of radicalised voter that truly believes the only things keeping Britain prostrate under the jackboot of European tyranny are collaborationist ‘Remoaner’ MPs, Political Correctness and the homosexualist race-traitor propagandists of Cultural-Marxism they like to refer to as the ‘Brussels Broadcasting Corporation’. You know? Gobshites. When that’s the Base you’re appealing to you don’t have to marshal facts or accommodate reality, just be loud, crass and openly obstructionist. Congratulations, Flobalob, you’re their kind of guy.
All that said, and despite all the bluster and bullshit, as far as I can game it out we’re pretty definitely steering towards the off-ramp signed ‘Remain’. That might sound absurdly hopeful given the determination of the Governing Party to walk right up to the edge of a No-Deal exit, but I really can’t see any other medium-term result that can come from this week’s blackly hilarious horror-show. Johnson and his bulb-headed Consigliere Dominic ‘bipedal MDMA’ Cummings looked at the precarious position Theresa May’s dismal reign had left the Tories in and wagered absolutely everything on positioning themselves as the only national Party truly dedicated to giving Britain the good, hard, unlubricated Brexit about 30% of the electorate thinks it wants, while being such colossal twatting boors about it that the Opposition would have no choice but to agree to an early General Election just to shut them the hell up, thus triggering a campaign in which the Tories could side-line the Brexit Party by co-opting its one policy and so monopolise the Leave vote, while also banking on the Liberal-Democrats splitting the Remain voting majority by going after Labour in key marginal constituencies with weaponised anti-Semitism smears and accusations of not being pure enough in their opposition to Brexit.
That plan was, to be uncharacteristically polite, as shit as a tramp’s undies after a week of eating leftover cheese from the insides of discarded burger wrappers. I’d call them fucking idiots, but that would be unfair to a lot of the fucking idiots I know, who would at least have considered the possibility that having a long track record of deceit and betrayal to your name might – just might – give the people you’re hoping to manipulate pause when offered a gift-wrapped booby-trap. Why would Labour ever agree to an early Election when Cummings was on record in the weeks before Parliament returned from Summer recess boasting about the ‘One Cool Trick’ he had that would allow them to force a No-Deal Brexit by tricking Parliament into dissolving itself for an October Election then exploiting loopholes in the constitution to change the date to November? Granted, the mainstream Media proved humiliatingly willing to blue-pill itself so that it could cover the debate in Parliament as a knife-edge cliff-hanger and bombard the Opposition with Government talking-points about them being scared of talking their case to the Public, but given the rabid anti-Labour bias of owners and management that’s to be expected and hardly the calibre of ‘win’ they were after. Without an early Election or Vote of No Confidence Johnson’s Government remains stuck where it is, in a minority, unable to pass legislation and staring down the barrel of a No-Deal Brexit that they would have to take responsibility for.
In addition, let’s not forget what Parliament – did – manage to do before the Prorogation Fuck-Up, namely pass the Benn Act, which completely ties the Government’s hands where No-Deal is concerned. For all the bluster about “respecting the law but still leaving on October 31st” the Act is clear. If Johnson doesn’t have a withdrawal deal agreed with the E.U. by October 19th then he HAS to request an extension to January 31st and HAS accept any alternate extension period the E.U. suggests however long it might be, or authority to do so devolves to Parliament itself. Bracketed between the Opposition’s refusal to give his minority Government an Election and the obdurate legal barrier of the Benn Act, Johnson has been reduced to slamming himself around like Morten Harket in the classic video for ‘Take On Me’ hoping that something, anything, gives. But it won’t. Just yesterday the Scottish courts refused to make an immediate ruling that Johnson should be forced to adhere to the terms of the Benn Act because (and it’s best if you imagine this being said in the voice of Maggie Smith in full malicious Grande Dame mode) the case had already put into the public realm the Prime Minister’s legally binding promises to obey not just the letter but the spirit of the law, and so the Court deemed it unnecessary to interfere before the 19th of October, leaving zero doubt that, a) whatever he says to Parliament and Press Johnson has unofficially surrendered on the No-Deal front, b) if he tries to weasel out of his obligations as PM the Courts will come down on him with furious vengeance and stamp him into paste, and c) if it comes down to it the Court has the authority to make the request for an extension on his behalf using the power of nobile officium, which is Latin for “How y’like thissun oop yeh hoop, y’wee Sassenach gomril?”.
What we’re seeing now, in the Phony War period between Johnson’s last defeat and his next one, is the post-mortem spasming of a deceased Government. It’s always worth remembering that since he was appointed Prime Minister by the membership of the Tory Party Johnson hasn’t won a single vote. Not one. He’s lost every court case brought against him and has been forced to back down every time he makes a definitive statement about what his Government will do about Brexit. His links to shadowy hedge-funds betting billions on tanking the British economy are out in the open, and he’s facing genuine criminal charges from the London Authority if he doesn’t give them convincing answers about his relationship with an American ‘entrepreneur’ and recipient of tens of thousands of pounds in shady grants when he was Mayor. If it wasn’t for the incestuous relationship between the Tory Party and the Media, especially the BBC, we’d be reading story after story mocking the neutered failure in Number 10, columns chin-stroking over which Minister or senior Backbench MP is going to jump ship next, and enjoying hastily put-together News Specials charting how it all went wrong for Johnson, the Tories, and Brexit itself. Instead we’re treated to the supposedly unbiased political editor of the BBC (Laura “Just call me Halbermann” Kuenssberg) acting as a fully paid-up spokesperson for the Government by feeding inflammatory anti-EU ‘leaks’ from “an unnamed/anonymous Government source” (Cummings, obviously) into the public sphere without any pushback or accountability. The usual rags on the Right are plunging into full-blown nativist psychosis with their attacks on “Traitors!”, “Saboteurs!”, “Unelected Judges!” and all of the other Enemies of The People standing between Johnson and the sunlit uplands of post-Brexit freedom, but that’s what they’re there for. Meanwhile The FTF Manchester Guardian is being dragged kicking and screaming into the “Vote Labour” camp by the low-principled arrogance and political ineptitude of their favoured Liberal-Democrats, but they’re still clinging on for dear life to the hope that some bolt from the blue will rescue them from having to admit that their cynical campaign to smear Corbyn as a Brexit-loving anti-Semite has been a bust.
Slowly and steadily, we’re getting there.
One thing’s for certain, over the next week and a bit it’s going to get very, very ugly out there. The walls are closing in on the Brexit Follies and, as we all know, cornered vermin will always bite. Johnson has called for an Emergency Session of Parliament on Saturday, 19th of October, which suspiciously coincides with the planned “Let’s Be Heard” anti-Brexit march through the streets of London which is expected to top a million and conclude with a gathering in Parliament Square. I don’t think that there’s any doubt that the far-Right hooligan groups who have adopted Flobalob as their Pepe the Frog are going to be out in force trying to spark violence for the cameras, all feeding into the atmosphere of stress and crisis Johnson and Cummings are trying to ferment and probably leading to a Police cordon around Westminster to keep the People away. Is he going to refuse to ask for an extension? Resign? Demand a vote on another Election or a No Deal v May’s Deal Referendum?
No one knows, and frankly it’s irrelevant. Johnson’s pantomime is nearly over, and the next acts are warming up. The only remaining entertainment value is in seeing how many of his own side jump up at the last second to bombard their failed starlet with rotten fruit and drive him from the stage, all of them hoping to ditch their blue rosettes, merge with the angry mob and ride-out the coming backlash against Brexit and all its enablers.
So, yeah, lots to look forward to. I mean, it’s not Impeachment, but it’s the best we’ve got.
In addition…
Prime Minister Flobalob is currently meeting with the Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at a luxury wedding venue an hour from my hometown of Liverpool. Clearly, he didn’t dare choose a location closer to Liverpool Airport out of fear that we’d give him the kind of reception he deserves for the contempt he’s shown the City over the course of his career. Prick.
And in the European Parliament “Nigel Farage and the Brexit party have voted against a European parliament resolution calling for stronger EU action to counter election meddling and Russian disinformation”. Because of course they fucking have. Patriots through and through, eh?
These fucking people….
Edited to add:
Jesus Christ on a Pedalo, our Media is clinically obsessed with the idea that all Tories are serious people capable of diplomatic miracles no matter how many times they get shown up as amateurish fantasists. They’re reporting that the meeting between Varadkar and Johnson went so incredibly well that they’ve already agreed on some kind of “pathway to a possible agreement” involving concessions on customs and everything is now going to be sweetness and roses and the deal is all but done. They never learn, because they don’t want to learn.
What appears to have happened is that Johnson has made a whole raft of promises and concessions to Varadkar that probably amount to throwing the DUP under the bus and leaving the whole of Northern Ireland within the E.U. customs union, leading Varadkar to announce that there could be the outline of a deal on the table for the E.U. to look at by next week if a lot of work is done and talks between each side’s negotiating teams go smoothly. It would have to be something like that, since the E.U. have made it clear what had to happen for them to change their opinion of the UK’s offer and resume negotiations. One thing the E.U. are not going to do is allow the UK to blame them for blowing shit up. They will be there, ready to negotiate, whenever the UK is ready to be serious about trying to find a deal as opposed to play-acting for a domestic audience.
Johnson himself isn’t talking, yet, and I’m not sure what he could say at this point that wouldn’t blow a massive, gaping hole in his alliance with the Brextremist wing of the Tories and the DUP. Yet again, when the going got tough he folded like the proverbial hooker punched in the gut by that fat guy in the alleyway. The Media are trying to spin it as a diplomatic masterstroke that will enable him to pull together a voting bloc of Tories, ex-Tories and Labour MPs from Leave-voting constituencies for his emergency sitting on the 19th, but that’s a very big lift based on very little information. And, the bit that the initial reporting sort of skated over, Varadkar was talking about a possible deal being ready for the end of the month, which doesn’t do a thing to change the Benn Act’s demand for a new extension request to be put in on the 19th. Are a majority of MPs going to give Johnson their backing without removing No Deal as an option? Unlikely doesn’t really cover it.
Almost certainly this is another one of Johnson and Cummings’ brilliant wheezes to take the pressure off in advance of the return of Parliament for his utterly pointless Queen’s Speech and the Benn Act deadline. He’ll promise anything to anyone to get a good headline, and it won’t matter a damn when it comes time for the backstabbing. This time next week things will almost certainly look a LOT different, and our Media will have learned sweet fuck all from the experience.
That’s it, back to your scheduled boggling at the collapse of Trumpworld.
Leto
@different-church-lady: Sing it from the rafters!
Yarrow
@lamh36: @Cheryl Rofer: If the screenwriters came up with this story it would be sent back as unbelievable.
Tony Jay
Hey Betty, I have a stupidly huge Brexit based vent in moderation.
I don’t think it was all the swearing, but you never know.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Yarrow posted this on the thread below.
Well, well, well. So much for “China won’t interfere in the domestic politics of the United States”, eh China? But then again, this isn’t the only time. Normally they outsource their interference in the US to American corporations, who fire their own employees for speaking out against the PRC
Sebastian
@Cacti:
Yes, don’t forget that Donnie has only few methods of operation. He denies and gaslights to make the thing go away or he creates an outrageous situation to change the topic (Ukraine Gas bribes and kickback story was immediately followed by Syria, Trump Tower Meeting story was immediately followed by Hollywood tape), or he blames it on someone else.
We have reached the throw Rudi under the bus phase because the story refuses to go away. Lucky for us Rudi will then blow up everything.
Yarrow
@Cacti: Maybe, but Rudy has been dirty a long, long time. See my above comment re: AMI.
J R in WV
@Miss Bianca:
A Truth and Reconciliation Panel? Fuck no, a firing squad!!! After the grand jury, the petit jury, etc. Due process, THEN the firing squad.
Uncle Omar
I’d like to know which one of the HillaryHating FBI drones in NYC alerted Rudy to the indictments so that he could tell the boys to get out of town right after lunch.
different-church-lady
@Yarrow: “Okay, how about if we do a kind of mash up where we got Tammany Hall and Watergate and From Russia With Love all kind of munged together, only we get the guy who does Homer Simpson’s voice to be the president…”
PJ
@Cheryl Rofer: What cracks me up is that Giuliani volunteers all this info.
TaMara (HFG)
@Miss Bianca: Hey! Why you picking on poor emus? ? Now ostriches, they are evil killers. (Just saw your other comment in previous post). We had emus in a petting zoo all the time – with a good handler, mind you – but they were very sweet. I’ve been enamored ever since. ?
different-church-lady
@J R in WV: And then lunch.
Yarrow
LOLOLOLOL. Ya think?
different-church-lady
SNL is gonna be LIT this week.
TaMara (HFG)
@Tony Jay: I freed it, but damn, that might need a front page. LOL
Yarrow
This seems like a minor news item given the news of the day, but it’s all related:
different-church-lady
@Tony Jay: Did you have a question?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Cheryl Rofer:
Do you think Ghoulini will try to defend himself at trial?
Ghoulini: “I refuse to consent to this kangaroo court! I’m the hero! You hear me!? So what if I was helping coordinate Russian dirty money to Republican congressional campaigns? The Demonrats are evil socialists who will destroy this country! There is no such thing as treason against those traitors! God acquits me
Yutsano
@Tony Jay: It’s FYWP. It doesn’t need reasons for moderation. It just does.
Also: have you seen the TLDR channel on YouTube? Bunch of British lads relaying the news of Brexit. REALLY like Bercow.
sdhays
@Yarrow: He’s America’s Mayor, Pete’s Sake! Can’t he coordinate an entire traitorous conspiracy in peace without being HARASSED by “law enforcement”??
Fucking FBI deep-state suicide bombers.
Gin & Tonic
@Cheryl Rofer: Dmytro Firtash lives in Vienna.
And I didn’t see Ms Cracker mention this in talking about Pete Sessions, but his father, former FBI Director is counsel to Semion Mogilevich, the top man (other than Vladimir Vladimirovich, of course) in the Russian mob.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: Excellent as usual. It’s going to be very difficult to find some kind of offer that will be acceptable to both the EU and Parliament. That’s the issue. Johnson can say what he wants but what he does is what matters.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Tony Jay: Thanks. I print these enlightening screeds for my smelly, hellish bus ride home through the madness of the Mission District, where they do double duty making the time pass more quickly and making me cackle loudly with glee, thus appearing to be the kind of crazy lady other riders avoid. Gets me a seat every time.
So, that makes Brexit worth it, right?
Roger Moore
@Spanky:
Politicians pose for pictures with random supporters all the time, so this is at least superficially plausible.
rikyrah
Bus, Rudy…….
BUS ????????
Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) Tweeted:
“I don’t know them, I don’t know what they do…you’ll have to ask @RudyGiuliani,” @realDonaldTrump says about donors to America First (and Rudy associates) arrested today. https://t.co/H0VQnI8F7V https://twitter.com/AndrewFeinberg/status/1182394473604624384?s=17
NotMax
Hmm. Who is notorious in Vienna (with links to both Manafort and Ukraine)?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Gin & Tonic:
What the fuck happened? When did all of this begin? It seems like every single Republican operative of the last 30 years is in bed with the Russians and this all of a sudden coming out now. And I do mean now. Within the last 2-3 weeks it seems the revelations have been happening at light speed and it’s all beginning to come out, as opposed to the slow drip-drip of the last 2-3 years
Roger Moore
@Tony Jay:
SO! MUCH! WIN!
Yarrow
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: A long time ago. See my comment about AMI above. Rudy’s had access to a lot of secrets for a long time.
Miss Bianca
@Cacti: You and me both. This is crazy-making.
Mary G
I’m heartened by these arrests, because it means there are still real lawyers and FBI agents in our government doing their jobs, and Barr hasn’t accumulated enough corruption in the DOJ to shut this down. You know he tried.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: So hilarious. Trump’s doing what Trump always does–pretend he wasn’t involved, throw everyone under the bus and somehow wriggle out of it. Except this time he’s not going to get to do the last part. We haven’t even got to the bits where he’s really implicated.
Mary G
@Tony Jay: Free Tony’s post!
Gin & Tonic
@TS (the original): I am not a lawyer (Lord know we have plenty of those here), but Federal law enforcement is divided up by “Districts” which cover Federal crimes committed in their geographic area. So if a Federal crime is committed in NYC, it’s the job of the Southern District of NY (State) to prosecute it. They do report to the AG, but I believe they have a pretty substantial degree of independence in determining what is prosecutable and how to go about it.
Martin
@Cacti: Oh god no! This shit has been going on for ages. Problem was we kept electing people that weren’t down with it and couldn’t be counted on to get government to clear the path.
The sheer volume of money laundering going on is staggering. So much so that I don’t think governments have the stones to actually stop it, it would be so ruinous to the financial sector.
rikyrah
There is always a picture ???
Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) Tweeted:
Nobody knows those guys. ?♀️ https://t.co/9KzfJAA0W5 https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1182398361674141696?s=17
rikyrah
Elaina Plott (@elainaplott) Tweeted:
Scoop: Rudy Giuliani was also planning to head to Vienna tonight–one day after Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were trying to do the same with one-way tickets. https://t.co/e4lJr6V3Z5 https://twitter.com/elainaplott/status/1182414112866885635?s=17
Gin & Tonic
I’m hoping for the scene with Rudy doing his best Ray Liotta impression: “Fuck me? Fuck me? No, fuck *you*!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Does Lindsey still want Rudi to come and testify under oath before Harris, Klobuchar, Hirono and Whitehouse?
Juju
@dmsilev: I believe that Guiliani just got Trump coffee from time to time.
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
“Pajama boys”?
jl
BC’s totally off base and unfair and unbalanced towards Giuliani. When you are blowing the lid off a global anti-Trump treasonous coup plot and world historic biggest corruption Biden scandal in the history of the multiverse, and half a dozen countries come after you, you are going to go through a rough patch.
Checking that it’s half a dozen: Australia, China, Italy, UK, Ukraine, Romania, and a country to be named later. Yep, half a dozen. Even more.
J R in WV
@Tony Jay:
Swearing? No, no, it was merely choice adverbs and adjectives in a well reasoned opinion piece about a small matter of political choice in an otherwise well-run nation next to the European Union. Or sumat loike that.
Roger Moore
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
What’s happening now is that major media is finally paying attention to the stuff that people in the know have been talking about for years. It’s only a revelation to people who weren’t paying attention- which is, admittedly, most people.
Yarrow
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Go read this thread for more info:
These two are the really scary tweets:
Martin
@rikyrah: Did Rudes also have a one-way ticket?
Miss Bianca
@TaMara (HFG): Oh, my. I thought it was all the big dinosaur birds who were capable of flat-out murder.
ETA: Well, maybe not Big Bird.
J R in WV
@different-church-lady:
Or cocktails and brunchy snacks. Like caviar and avocado toast… and French 75s.
Martin
@rikyrah: I’m going to go out on a very small limb and say that those two goombahs have had their mug shot taken before.
Aleta
There’s more to life than a little money.
(Pre 9/11 through 9/11) Giuliani as mayor contracted for ineffective radios for FDNY, pre-9/11
(I don’t know background or accuracy of this story, but (as shown) it’s based on interviews.)
Another Scott
@Leto: Donnie and Moscow Mitch have appointed a lot of judges, but all is not lost.
Brookings.
Law360:
Emphasis added.
Plus, as the Brookings link points out, lots of Democratic judges have been delaying taking Senior status, so the next Democratic president will have an opportunity to nominate younger folks for those seats as well.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tony Jay
@TaMara (HFG):
Thanks, kind lady.
J R in WV
@Miss Bianca:
We used to drive through a small “ranch” in SE AZ on the way to OUR small ranch, and they had an emu in the fenced yard around their house. It would trot over to the edge of the fenced yard right by the “road” and eyeball people in passing vehicles with an eye the size of a softball, only mean and hungry!!!
It was so obviously a dinosaur it made my skin squirm and crawl every time we went by. Thank Dawg the emu and gone, and the house is disintegrating under the force of the Sonoran Desert weather.
Do Not Want an Emu, Not at all~!!!~
mrmoshpotato
@Leto:
In his tennis onesie. Wait, that’s not a onesie!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SFAW: an Obamacare ad from 2013 or so featured a young hipster in his pajamas going through the website looking for a plan. It became a peculiar obsession of the right. At some point in the transition IIRC Sebastian Gorka declared in the would-be stentorian tone of the Dragon Of Budapest: “The era of the pajama boy is over”, which Chris Hayes did a pretty funny impression of when Gorka was in turn shit-canned, which is not on the internet that I can find.
Tony Jay
@different-church-lady:
Tides. That tide thing. I know I’m supposed to remember the explanation but gosh darn it how do they work?
It’s something to do with whales, right?
PPCLI
@Roger Moore: Except that random supporters don’t donate $325,000 to a PAC supporting you. That kind of dough usually gets more than a photo-op and a handshake.
Yarrow
Oh, hey. Here’s a picture of Pence with the two guys arrested today. Whaddya know!
Aleta
Post, just now (free to read)
Tony Jay
@Yutsano:
I’ve heard of it, but family YouTube time is restricted to my six year old monopolising the TV to watch people playing Minecraft and other colourful, noisy, incredibly annoying things.
John the Bear-Cow will be missed. Guy’s got a side to him, but he’s really stepped up in the face of Brexit.
“I call on Mister Peter Booooooooonnnnnnnnne.”
“The Ayes have it. The Ayes have it. Unlock the fucking doors!”
Aleta
@Aleta: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/at-least-four-national-security-officials-raised-alarms-about-ukraine-policy-before-and-after-trump-call-with-ukrainian-president/2019/10/10/ffe0c88a-eb6d-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html
jl
@Aleta: That is my understanding too. The fact itself is probably not a real knock against Giuliani, since up to 9/11 it was common problem. But I read a profile of Giuliani recently that said the real problem is that he lied about it afterward and blamed the fire and police departments.
Took a look and can’t find it now, but I think I recall it correctly. Someone please let me know if I misremember.
Tony Jay
@Yarrow:
He wants to be Prime Minister. He wants to use people. He wants to get away with it.
Everything else is negotiable.
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Long past the point where normal people need a glossary, outline, and capsule history, to follow Trumpster nomenclature.
Tony Jay
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
You’re a lunatic. And lovely, and quite welcome.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: It may come down to “he wants to get away with it” as the walls close in.
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Thanks. Apparently I am, yet again, not aware of all Internet traditions.
SFAW
@jl:
You BETTER not be talking about me!
NotMax
@jl
Don’t think it is humanly possible to misremember Rudy lying.
:)
SFAW
@NotMax:
Shaft?
Tony Jay
@Yarrow:
I am so looking forward to voting that shambling fraud out of power. It will give me potent joy.
Tony Jay
Off to bed. Tomorrow will be an unbearable shitshow.
Luckily I can drink at weekends. Get in!
mrmoshpotato
@Cacti:
How long until Dump denies he even ran for President?
SFAW
@Tony Jay:
Is this a Bryn Terfel thread, and I missed it?
Miss Bianca
@SFAW:
Wouldn’t that be “Schaft”, darlink?
SFAW
@Tony Jay:
Ma nishtanah halailah hazeh mikol haleilot?
SFAW
@Miss Bianca:
Damn! Hoist on my own petard!
ETA: Just to beat Steve in the WTFHI to the punch: “opinions differ” re: whether it’s “hoist” or “hoisted,” and “on” or “by” my own petard.
And just to piss off Steve even more: Go Cards!
jc
So what if Trump and Barr simply block anyone and everyone who could rat out the King from testifying or anything else? That’s basically what’s already happening — how can Trump ever be brought to justice if no one will speak or be permitted to speak? That’s the lesson the Republicans have taken from this fiasco: “omerta,” no squealers.
That’s basically Manafort’s game, he knows where all the bodies are buried, but he ain’t spilling. He’s probably got something fatal on Trump so he’s guaranteed a get-out-of-jail card.
mrmoshpotato
@Tony Jay: Thanks for the update. How’s Jacob Rees-Mogg doing? Crapping his 18th-century pants?
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Kate McKinnon in her Ghoiliani costume for 90 minutes straight!
TS (the original)
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks – still seems weird to me that most of the investigations of trump and associates emanate from NY
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: https://youtu.be/398HJb0_PFg
Skip to 1:55.
NotMax
@TS (the original)
He and his business are headquartered in NY. If you’re gonna follow the money, go to where the money is.
Sloane Ranger
Just heard the Irish PM being interviewed. He sounded very excited and upbeat. Johnson must have offered to throw in the kitchen sink.
Hoping this is a genuine breakthrough but the cynical part of me is wondering if this is some sort of con job by Johnson to try to get a Parliamentary majority to not have to send the letter on the basis a deal is just around the corner, then sabotage the negotiations.
If it is, I think the House of Commons won’t fall for it though.
If Johnson has made significant concessions, his name will be mud with the right, which will lead to even more interesting Parliamentary debates.
mrmoshpotato
@Tony Jay:
Oh? For the UK too? ?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Yarrow:
Interesting. Ghoulini has a lot of leverage potentially. And he’s totally losing it mentally.
@Yarrow:
Very scary.
@Roger Moore:
Thanks! It does seem a lot media figures have “woken” up
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
Thanks? I mean, I like Sam Bee, but listening to that lying fascist …
Cameron
@jc: I thought the Republicans believed in Gohmerta, the Code of Stupidity.
SFAW
@Yarrow:
I wish I knew how to say “Tick tock, motherfucker” in Putonghua/Mandarin.
SFAW
@Cameron:
Bless you, child.
SiubhanDuinne
@Leto:
Who breaks ground, even ceremonially, wearing fucking stilettos? Sorry, Melania, but that just looks clueless and stupid.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
RuPaul?
:)
Like me, you’re old enough to remember the picture which was supposed to demonstrate Nixon was just another everyman guy – walking along the water’s edge at the beach in suit, tie and wing tips.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
I guess I should have known this, but I had no idea (until just now, when your comment prompted me to read hisWikipedia page) that Rudy G was the son of a petty mobster.
Sab
@Leto: Shouldn’t they have to wait on WhiteHouse construction projects when the election is only a year away?
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: I didn’t say you had to watch the whole clip. I was just letting you know where it was from. No need to subject yourself to Hungarian Nazi trash beyond his dumbass “pajama boy” part.
mrmoshpotato
@Cameron: Bravo!
mrmoshpotato
@SiubhanDuinne:
Strip clubs need ground broken too!
jl
@SFAW: I don’t know what you mean by that. If you have mastered Trumpster code talk, then I admire and congratulate you on your bravery and diligence.
If Trumpsters want to run their campaign with some secret semi-English dialect only their fanatical base understands, I say fine, go right ahead.
Mike in NC
@SiubhanDuinne: She wears those to every natural disaster site she visits. Tres chic!
Sebastian
@rikyrah:
It’s Coffee Boy Time!
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
I am indeed. And that looked equally clueless and stupid.
Dan B
@TaMara (HFG): I vote for Front Page for the folks who don’t have time to read through 57 comments.
Miss Bianca
@SFAW:
One might even say, “Schafted.”
To quote Robert Benchley: “Much laughter was heard at this little remark of mine. However, I noticed I was the only one laughing.”
SFAW
@jl:
I was taking offense at the possibility of being called “normal.”
SFAW
@Miss Bianca:
Benchley was a pissah. We had a copy of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or David Copperfield” when I was growing up. Sad to say, I did not read it cover to cover, but I read a fair amount of it.
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
I started where you suggested. Ten seconds of that fascist motherfucker was more than enough.
SFAW
@Miss Bianca:
No, one might not.
Kosh III
@Steeplejack:
But I’d take Steve Kornacki over Chris Matthews any time. Matthews talks way too much and practically tells his guests what answer he wants to hear.