the trump gang

mooch

clovis would get my write-in vote

Mooch for sure, god that was a great week

http://cdn.cnsnews.com/capture-carterpage.jpg

Epshteyn

https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/uploader/image/2016/09/15/epshteyn.jpg

https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/59972a9648c6ee2c1bfe9d7c/master/pass/steve-bannon-jokes-looks-like.jpg

I'm really amused at the prospect of Carter Page winding up in a history book one day

mooch def the most entertaining week of this shitshow

i still can't get over that kobach's initials are KKK

THE MOOCH, because it was like a crescendo of batshittery, an out of nowhere hot shit bro rom-com that get cancelled before it could even air

The Mooch is the only one I can bring myself to vote for ironically

Honourary mention goes to Tiffany who just wants no part in this shit

https://b0f646cfbd7462424f7a-f9758a43fb7c33cc8adda0fd36101899.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/s/1/1488825243/harpercollins_us_frontbookcovers_298W/3822.jpg

Sean Spicer come on

You’re every nation’s refugee
Don’t leave us with our sanity

voted carter page bc what's goin on with that guy who knows

After some appearance he made on CNN about a year ago, one ilxor — Hurting? — said he was “by far the most suspicious sweming person” he had ever seen on live television. Otm.

*seeming

I voted HRM because he let me down. I didn’t know any of these other dweebs even existed, not really, but that guy’s book has been on my amazon wish list for years (nobody bothers to buy me books anymore, it’s kind of sad)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Missed this. Even in the context of an ever-more-accelerated news cycle, I can't remember anyone flaming out more spectacularly than Scaramucci. After his first press conference, I posted something about his superficial skill in handling the press, and that--after Spicer--things would settle down a bit. About seven minutes later he was in The New Yorker talking about self-fellatio, and two minutes after that he was out the door.

choom gang it ain't

Mooch is such a boring answer, but clearly it is the mooch

I guess it doesn’t help that so many of the other choices are deeply unlikeable

George Papadopolous might just be the guy who kicked off the process that ends with Trump's downfall, so in deep appreciation of his strategic boneheadedness, he won my vote. Thanks a million, GP!

mucci gang mucci gang mucci gang mucci gang

anyway, i voted for Page

You have already voted for THE MOOCH and cannot vote again.

You have already voted for THE MOOCH and cannot vote again.

voted Felix Sater as double-threat in categories Most Criminal and "people president claims he wouldn't recognize if he was sitting in this room"

https://i.imgur.com/6wCDZNQ.jpg

god, this part from the new yorker entry that accompanied that photo:

A recent photo, taken by Jonathan Ernst, for Reuters, of a group of Trump staffers on the move, makes plain the ensemble’s “Jersey Shore”-style entertainment value—riveting and headache-inducing at once. Corey Lewandowski, a Trump confidant who was briefly banished after physically assaulting a female reporter—and following a public altercation with Hope Hicks, the only remaining enigma in the West Wing—stands just right of center, both of his pointer fingers sprung, the right one aimed just beyond the lens. He wears a stupid smirk, and his wrinkled brow casts shadows over his eyes. Behind him, mid-swagger, in Marian blue and dark shades, is the former “Apprentice” contestant Omarosa Manigault, the baldest reminder, in case we needed it, of the President’s orientation vis-à-vis public service, mass entertainment, and the meaning of relevant experience. Manigault told the world in November that the Trump team was “keeping a list” of those who opposed Trump. (A few months later, the reporter April Ryan, a former friend, said that Manigault told her that the Administration was keeping dossiers on journalists.) Toward the rear of the pack is Sebastian Gorka, whose apparent ties to a historically Nazi-sympathizing group once seemed sure to sink him. Rob Porter, Trump’s all-but-anonymous staff secretary—it’s this poor guy’s job to present important paperwork to the world’s most famous non-reader—trails the bunch, blank-faced and mercifully out of focus.

written back in august, long before the rob porter news came to light. it really is an iconic image. even the seemingly innocent person in the photo turns out to be a monster

can we get an id on the barely visible driver in the photo? i'm assuming she runs a secret prison or something

the half-wit avengers

to me Huckabee Sanders epitomizes them the best... Spicer if he hadn't been shitcanned

just the blatant contorting lying

every time I see Gorka in that photo it makes me think of the video for Eye Of The Tiger with Survivor strutting around town pretending to be a tuff-guy street gang, and their plump speccy keyboard player is really not pulling it off

You have already voted for THE MOOCH and cannot vote again.

The Mooch is on David Axelrod's podcast this week

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

loved how all-caps made mooch's victory seem preordained back in November

OK who else voted McMaster

forgot when explaining my Felix Sater vote that he also went to jail for stabbing someone in the face with the stem of a martini glass TERRIFIC

Mooch is like the “let’s just do it, we’ll be legends” guy who somehow climbed the ranks and became press secretary (or whatever he was for) for 10 days

Mooch is like the "cool" guy from an '80s teen comedy who everyone now views as a total asshole.

You bump into him in the food court and invite him over to your table to catch up and then have to apologize to your companions afterward

Mooch is Poochie

You bump into him in the food court and invite him over to your table to catch up and then have to apologize to your companions afterward

"Yeah, sorry about that, our kids do ballet together, he's a total dick."

I'm seeing sitcom potential a la Laverne and SHirley

its a bit unfair that this poll was taken before the Carter Page hat pic

https://www.rawstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/carter-page-800x430.jpg

Bono with the mumps

steven spielberg and robert plant's love child

finally put my finger on who bornstein reminds me of - yoram globus

https://img.discogs.com/u5MhXEbCtkYq_XrkbTPk2Vqu87Q=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/A-5210996-1471526724-7384.jpeg.jpg

which seems appropriate since the trump admin is like the cannon films of politics

poor michael caputo :(

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/god-damn-you-to-hell-michael-caputo-tells-senate-intelligence-in-russia-investigation-testimony

it's roger stone's time in the barrel

the kenyan soetero has ruined so many lives, so many lives

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5775859/Ex-Trump-campaign-adviser-Carter-Page-claims-FBI-surveillance-ruined-life.html

no way

https://medium.com/@ScottMStedman/energy-investment-group-claims-350m-capital-commitment-from-carter-page-after-2016-election-414fe7ce33e0

curious how the jarvanka marriage dynamic might change when her dad's a convicted felon, too

more than words

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/michael-cohen-lying-to-congress-plea-deal-devin-nunes.html

Trump gang vs Turnbull ACs Fite!

the acorn doesn't fall far from the treason

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/blue-state-genocide-is-acting-president

^ all that does is take good original reporting by various journalists and run it through a rhetorical filter that spits out phrases like "kibboshing the national testing plan his own buddies had come up with, apparently hoping for a blue state genocide".

But hey, if you go for that sort of thing, knock yourself out!

i'm not sure how i'd characterize this. i feel like, they weren't actively trying to kill blue staters but they liked the idea of "blaming" democratic governors.

these people don't believe they have a responsibility to govern, just to get elected. i was infuriated watching this for three years. now i feel contempt. i feel they did tremendous damage to our society at large, their zero sum thinking infecting even the way people behave with one another online, right and left. (i'm sorry but it's true, point-scoring is the only operative value on twitter and it was not as bad in the before-times).

"if someone else looks bad, that's all that matters! we're even. i cannot be held to any standards while other people—people on your side—can also be criticized." ----- this is the thought trump has hundreds of times per day and other people seem to be thinking this way too, increasingly.

that article about Kush isn't even a new wrinkle to the story, I thought Trump funneling resources to save lives away from governors who criticized him was well-known even before that

absolutely horrendous. i wish he was impeached for this sort of thing rather than nonsense with Ukraine that i don't care about.

punishing american citizens for political disagreements he has with their governor.👍

totally agreed and I think that's a good example of the Dem's failings - like yes the Ukraine thing was pretty clear cut and yes it is effectively treason but I do not think the majority of Americans care about that, not with all the various health & education & climate crises going on and the implicit suspicion that "that's what they all do anyway", hell if challenged I'd bet a lot of people don't actually know it's illegal to do what Trump did. putting all your chips on that and stuff like Russia is dumb. he lies to the American people every day, he's constantly self-dealing on the taxpayers dime, his incompetence is leading a thousand Americans to die each day as we head towards our fifth month of lockdown...that's the shit that matters to people

they make him seem more powerful than he is. (a RUSSIAN AGENT conspiring with FOREIGN POWERS to OVERTHROW DEMOCRACY). like, his authoritarian instincts are borne of the same impulse that motivates everything he does -- ignorance and spite. bannon's not there; it's not a grand reactionary project. he's a deeply disturbed and weak person who loves firing people so much that the government can't operate.

not to say he isn't opening the door to dark political forces. he certainly has done that, and continues to do so. but that is too abstract for a campaign message. and it's unnecessary in a situation where his stupidity and instinctive cruelty has plunged the nation into the worst shape it's ever been in.

the Ukraine thing was pretty clear cut and yes it is effectively treason but I do not think the majority of Americans care about that

I hear this sort of argument a lot and it seems a bit wrongheaded to me. Shouldn’t the Dems only put Trump’s feet to the fire for his corrupt and dangerous behavior regardless of whether the public is paying attention? Or should they only do these things for political benefit?

Sorry, that first “only” shouldn’t be there

well, yeah. that's why such a narrowly focused impeachment hearing was a mistake.

democratic leadership was still playing by the rules and expectations of the watergate era. they thought that if they went with a really broad impeachment (including other obvious things like emoluments clause, tax fraud, the pee tape (jk)), the focus of their charges would be lost and they'd open themselves up to attacks and distractions on multiple fronts. instead, they thought that if they focused on a clearly impeachment-worthy offense (the Ukraine shit), the elephant would be too large to ignore, the dominos would start falling, and they could convince a handful of senators - the susan fucking collins and ben sasse's of the chamber - to join them out of shame. rong!

how do i know what they were thinking, you may ask?

https://i.imgur.com/wYzefFz.jpg

you're right. it made sense to me at the time, too, i guess. but i still felt unsatisfied because the offense, while impeachable, didn't get to the core of why trump is an unacceptable president and person.

then again, i am one of the people who was criticized for making too much of trump's "vulgarity." i do think it matters that we have a lifelong con artist and abuser in the white house who doesn't even try to pretend he is anything else.

xp

the sad fact is that no matter what they went with, they would have failed. there's a reason the GOP has a rather bad reputation right now. they are 52 fucking pieces of shit who should be mocked wherever they go until they die, imo. when they actually did what everyone expected them to do - cowardly refused to acknowledge trump's wrongdoing, and deciding to side with a wannabe fascist rather than accept political defeat for their party - it was painful to behold, but we all knew it was coming. i remember making annoying remarks about that consistently, for weeks before the impeachment, saying that it felt odd that we all kind of knew what would happen, like we (We) analyze and debate the shit out of stuff before it actually happens, gaming out the most likely outcomes. and in that process, we begin to cope emotionally (sorry this is some bullshit) with how it will feel for, say, the GOP to side with a fascist against all evidence. by the time the event (failed impeachment) actually occurs, we've already role played the response a dozen times. i STILL think that's intensely weird!

but from that set of circumstances, the fact that everyone expected impeachment to fail, no matter what charges were brought, i think people still divide up into the same sets of camps as they did before impeachment:

- it was bad to do impeachment because it was never going to succeed (counter: it's still important to bring the charges and establish very publicly that at least one political party recognized how wrong all of this was and tried to use the appropriate constitutional mechanisms to remove him from office. that also meant that the 52 fucking pieces of shit who should be mocked wherever they go until they die, imo, had to go on the record in their support for the obviously dangerous president.)

- it was right to bring narrow charges (we saw how that one played out, but maybe that's the best out of a set of bad options)

- they should have brought many different charges, knowing that this would be their only real chance to do it before the election. (counter: i think this is defensible and i do wish that so many other things would have been included in the impeachment charges. and maybe it would have worked, who knows. but i think that in the same way that the hunter biden/ukraine bullshit emerged as a response to the trump/ukraine impeachment charge, there would be equally dubious and distracting counter-responses to any other extra thread to the trump impeachment proceedings. it just seems like a fucking mess)

anyway, long story short, it makes sense to criticize the people who carried out impeachment (i did a bunch, from my couch). but they had a shit sandwich to work with. the true villain here is the dipshit president

I agree with all that but I do think bringing up all the blatant self-dealing and corruption within the Trump org was probably the right thing to do

anyway if the Dems have any leverage right now it's that said bad reputation seems like it's going to directly lead to the GOP getting annihilated in 2020 and if the Dems are willing to play by the GOP's rules then they might get wiped off the map. Tim Kaine alluded to that the other day, I think that's exactly the approach they need to take right now

i don't feel great about the fact that i still remember who all the people are who are in this poll.

goddamn, some of these names are a real blast from the past too. Scott Pruitt! that napping-ass motherfucker! Tom Price! did he ever pay his country back for all those private jet flights?

lol @ napping-ass motherfucker

what an overwhelmingly weird motherfucker

WOW!!! Don Jr. is beyond a mess today. Is this booze or drugs? He can’t even make his mouth work. pic.twitter.com/nMw73L1eYu

— Mystery Solvent (@MysterySolvent) December 13, 2020

i haven't heard him speak that much. he sounds (superficially; tone of voice; cadence) like ted cruz

his sinuses are so rammed with coke that his vowels are squeezed to half-width

That’s just barroom drunk right there. Still incredibly funny. Hope he keeps spiraling.

he always sounds like he's about to cry.

He sounds like he's actively trying to sound more like his dad.

the way he says "nothing shady at all" definitely sounds like his dad

my immediate thought was oh he's straight aping his dad now, it's a v weird contrivance

Don Jr's puppetmaster put his hand up further than usual today

The way he says "tied to China".

He sounds like a bad imitation of James Austin Johnson's Trump impression.

Is there a German word for 'recognizing and having a microscopic glimmer of empathy for the fact that a broken person is the product of abuse but still being all like fuck that shitty walking garbage pile who's chosen to shit their damage all over other people rather than doing a single thing to fix themselves'?

well, there is such a thing as Trümpferhaufenmitleidenschaftsschadenfreude...

It looks to me like a bad imitation of the Bad Lip Reading videos that were popular during the 2016 campaign. The voice doesn't match the lip motions.

Does he have somewhere to stay tonight? Poor guy.. maybe he can crash in Randy Quaid's double-wide.

Appears to be quarantining in a Motel 6.

If what he says is true, I don't see how the Electoral College in good conscience can vote for Hunter Biden.