TWGB: It's the Great Bumpkin, Charlie Brown!

 

Trump apparently can't stop touching his nose and mouth and has fucked up his make-up, but clearly he is being some kind of nightmare squash for Halloween. It's a nice touch that his campaign decided he should be wearing a reflective work vest in case he goes wandering off.

So, yes, the actual response of his campaign to the furor of Puerto Rico being called a floating garbage island and his lately referring to the whole country as a garbage can is to play dress-up as a sanitation worker and literally be seen in a garbage truck labelled "Trump/Vance". 

I’m sorry, everyone else saw him straight up miss the door handle and nearly fall over, right? pic.twitter.com/Au2mmulLcD

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) October 30, 2024

In addition to looking absurd and infirm, this working-class drag stuff really has to stop. I mean, we just recently watched him trying to serve McDonald's while smelling like a flame-boiled Whopper, and this, too, stinks. (Of course, they are trying to make it about the thing Biden never did say, because they want to be martyrs thrown to lions except, we all know who bites.) 

Giuliani and the Boomerang

 

The Bullshit Artist formerly Known as "America's Mayor", who lied about the 2020 election and had to admit that he didn't have any proof whatsoever that the election was stolen, has been ordered to start turning his various valuable personal belongings into receivership to satisfy a judgment against him for defaming two election workers who were endangered by his lies and had actually not done anything wrong. 

Some people believe in karma. I don't know if I do--but I do believe if you throw shit around, don't be surprised if a stiff wind blows it right back in your face. You shouldn't be surprised if what you put out there comes back to you.

This man used to have a good reputation (I don't know to what degree he earned it, but he did). Then he decided to use up everything he was for Trump. And now he can lose everything he had. 

There's an example in there.

This Was "America's Mayor", Once

 

Watch "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani call Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis a "ho," and the Christian audience at the ReAwaken America tour go wild for it last night. pic.twitter.com/yy68oan7lg

— Stephanie Mencimer (@smencimer) June 8, 2024

He's not half racist and misogynistic, is he? It reminds me that he went out of his way to defame, and continued to defame, two Black, female election workers, also in Georgia.  But because my government name ends in the same vowel as his, let me help him with the pronunciation of Ms. Willis' name:

And she isn't a "ho"--but an adult female who can socialize with another adult person. Are we going to sit here in 2024 and pretend a professional adult woman is not allowed to have adult relationships? That "dating" is some form of harlotry?

Is this the Middle Ages?  I do not want to hear sexual slurs about anyone under the sun from this sleazeball. 

Rudy Giuliani Has Been Served

 

I've been meaning to get to writing something on Giuliani this week, about how he's lost money, his radio show, his mind over Trump...but damn it, the story of an 80 year old man taunting the law whilst service-dodging and getting served at his birthday party is really just on a different level. I could add more about how he isn't helping himself by continuing to spread 2020 election lies and continuing to defame Ms. Moss and Ms. Freeman,

But that image above--it's perfect. Why do more?

I Love the Smell of Discovery in the Morning

 

Comer’s new talking point is that the reason his impeachment investigation is stalled is because there’s *too much evidence* 😆 pic.twitter.com/MOi09SmVka

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2024

It smells like burning whatever Comer's fucked-up old "evidence" is. And yes, I am saying "fucked up old evidence. " And Comer should know by now, it doesn't actually go anywhere. If there was too much evidence, why haven't we seen an orderly, not-debunked, probative trail of information that connects the dots from Hunter Biden doing....aw Jesus, any damn thing....and his dad somehow benefitting and quid pro quoing the fuck out of it? 

Hunter Biden, despite being depicted as unqualified for various positions he's worked in by Republicans as if he's a nepo-baby, is a lawyer. He's a good lawyer with really good lawyers. He's suing Fox News for defaming him over exactly the bullshit that the House GOP has being trying to impeach his father over. And I say "Bravo!" because here's the fun thing--Fox News seems to do the same thing for Trump the National Enquirer did--bury negative shit about Trump, and fluff absolute bullshit to denigrate his opponents. That's what happened with their Dominion and Smartmatic voter fraud lies--and until the Biden story became obvious toxic waste, that's what they were peddling to an audience well-conditioned (by them!) to believe in Democrat fuckery and excuse any obvious GOP lies. 

How shitty, busted and past its sell-by date is the Biden impeachment story? Um, Rudy Giuliani, who needs an intervention and seems to have no one in his life who is considerate enough to make it happen, is making it very clear SOMEONE should just "lean on" Zelenskyy again.  

TWGB: It Should Cost Him More

 

The news that the jury in Trump defamation trial of E. Jean Carroll came back fairly swiftly with a verdict in the amount of $83 million gave me a sense of deja vu--it hadn't taken that long for a jury to decide the first defamation case in Ms. Carroll's favor, either. Now, our scandal-ridden former president owes her nearly $90 million. His not-especially good lawyer, Alina Habba, says they will appeal.

I don't think they should. I think they are the most unappealing bunch imaginable. 

Maybe delay has been a key strategy of Trump's with respect to his legal woes during an exceptionally legally contentious life, but this is wearing thin and is bound to have diminishing returns. Can he put up the bond for the amount of his judgments? Is he as liquid as he said he was (considering he's got the likely 9-figure judgment in his NY civil trial coming up)? And isn't he just bringing more and more attention to his miserable behavior?

As I've long covered here, his behavior doesn't diminish him in the eyes of the true MAGA believer. They can dismiss that Trump is a life-long sex pest because the real problem they have is with someone pointing it out. Take Elise Stefaniak or Nancy Mace--they don't care. And maybe TrumpWorld doesn't bat an eyelash that Trump's defenders include Matt Schlapp and Rudy Giuliani*--both under scrutiny for sexual misconduct. 

The Price of Lying

 

Rudy Giuliani has been court-ordered to pay $148 million to Ruby Freeman and Wandreya Moss in their defamation case against him. He was the only witness on his behalf and there are two important points to make:

He lied about them and admitted it. 

He provided no proof of any kind that backed up the stories he spread about them, and actually withheld requested discovery documentation. 

These women were threatened and their lives were severely disrupted by the lies Giuliani told. A quick perusal of rightwing social media features a lot of "whataboutism": "But what about what these women did?" Because they don't get the point:

The women didn't do anything. They were counting ballots--of course you move them. They want to believe Giuliani's lies and so, the lie persists for them. THAT's what's worth $148 million. Once their reputations were destroyed by a lie, there is no getting things back to how they were before. 

Because Giuliani is reprehensible, he wants to claim he was shafted by the court: 

Giuliani was unrepentant after the ruling, telling reporters outside the courthouse, “The absurdity of the number underscores the absurdity of the entire proceeding,” and adding falsely that “I have not been allowed to offer one single piece of evidence in defense, of which I have a lot.”

Of course, that's untrue: he was sanctioned for NOT TURNING OVER anything. He always had shit. And if he felt like the court was not letting him be "heard" he could turn his troves of information over to the media. Which he has had plenty of time to do.  And can't. Nothing's stopping him but the lack of information that supports him in any way.

Sometimes It's Better to Remain Silent

 

Rudy chickened out of testifying. Rudy claimed he was going to prove Ruby Freeman & Shaye Moss stole the GA election. He put on no defense. Here is Rudy when trial started:

“When I testify, you will get the whole story & it will be definitively clear that what I said was true.” pic.twitter.com/semCA8sKrs

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 14, 2023

Rudy Giuliani certainly promised that he was going to tell the whole story and prove he was right; on Monday he was still reiterating the exact same lies that he had no basis for. But at some point, he realized he was completely unsympathetic and needed to shut his damn mouth. Probably when the election workers he defamed explained how he ruined their lives over a lie. Definitely when his lawyers hammered home to him his fat mouth was screwing himself. He was already in thin ice with the court for not turning over information and being a no-show last week. (About the latter, sadly, my first thought was someone needs to do a wellness check...the man is not healthy and it shows.)

So, he did what his sometime boss, Donald Trump, did himself on Monday--he kept his mouth shut. The plaintiffs had been through enough and Giuliani's bank accounts were going to be going through more than enough.

TWGB: He's Flaunting It

 

Trump last night: “Thank you very much for being here. They wanted to use the place … this place is packed. We don’t let people use Mar-a-Lago very much because, as you know, we hold very important documents here.” pic.twitter.com/jyIlDVrZN0

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 2, 2023

Ha, ha. He implies there are still very secret documents kept at Mar-a-Lago. This is so funny to me. So funny I think we need another search warrant.  Because this man is not learning anything from his various brushes with the law yet: like, does it apply to him? He's in well enough trouble over keeping documents at Mar-A-Lago, regardless of his pet Judge Cannon's attempts to delay his trial. We know he had advice of counsel he'd be screwed if he still had documents, but then sort of ignored that. 

So, do I think he's still that stupid? Well, yeah. As the comedian Ron White has established, "You can't fix stupid." He's happily stupid this far in his life, what good would smartening up do him? 

Does he think he has all kinds of rights and privileges other people don't? Huh--well he got told this week he doesn't have immunity against civil trials over 1/6 because what in the world does pretending your election was stolen have to do with being president? He also got told, and not for the first time, that presidents aren't kings and hell yeah, he is liable for shit he's done. 

But why would that stick if it doesn't help him any?

TWGB: Their Fingers Were Crossed

 

I daresay this is what I had at the time thought to be the case: VP Mike Pence had been thinking of just bailing on the electoral count on 1/6 because he didn't know if he had the stones to do the right thing. 

Or to hear (mostly) him put it:

According to sources, one of Pence's notes obtained by Smith's team shows that, days before Pence was set to preside over Congress certifying the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, he momentarily decided that he would skip the proceedings altogether, writing in the note that there were "too many questions" and it would otherwise be "too hurtful to my friend." But he ultimately concluded he had a duty to show up.

Speaking with Smith's team, Pence insisted his loyalty to President Trump at the time never faltered -- "My only higher loyalty was to God and the Constitution," sources described Pence as telling them.

The part I really like there is "notes". It's in writing. That's like "no takesies-backsies." But the thing where Pence sees doing his constitutional duty as being too hurtful to his friend just kills me. I have made jokes here and there about Mike Pence's Nancy Reagan eyes in Trump's direction and talk of his "broad shoulders"--and the admiration was so wild The Daily Show did a riff on it:

 

 

That Mike Pence considered this their friendship and didn't know it was a one-way street seems improbable. Or I guess, to put it the Trump way: "Sad!" I know, he let his better angels (in the form of former VP Dan Quayle and his own son) persuade him to do the right thing. Eventually. But it seems like a last resort for which he had to know there would be no reconciling with Trump. I think he will be a star witness. I guess his fingers were crossed. 

TWGB: TrumpWorld is Definitely Not OK

 

You know, all I wanted to do last night was post a little bit about Rudy Giuliani fixing to sue President Biden, but I fell asleep at the computer because it got so deep in the weeds, and as of today, there was more to the story:

Look, I think it's great that Rudy Giuliani found lawyers to take this case even though he is being sued by some of his other lawyers for not getting paid and can't seem to keep a Georgia-based counselor to save his behind. He's getting sued by Hunter Biden, of course, and by a former employee alleging sexual assault and harassment which is a case involving details that are profoundly stomach-churning. But these guys believe enough in Rudy Giuliani to pursue a case where his allegations are that Joe Biden's crack about Giuliani being a Russian pawn spreading disinfo cost him his reputation and millions of dollars of business--

In a way actually being a source of Russian disinfo, making wild pronouncements about a stolen election with shoe polish running down his face, putting on a presser at a landscaping service, farting COVID into the face of his stolen election co-counsel, losing his license to practice because of his shoddy ethics and being so frequently intoxicated that it's part of the investigation into the attempt of the Trump Team to steal the 2020 election are not the ACTUAL THINGS that screwed Giuliani's reputation? 

Guiliani and the TrumpWorld Rabbit Hole

 

You know, the Mother Jones piece on Giuliani being the subject of a whistleblower investigation regarding whether he either knowingly or unwittingly became a laundromat for Russian disinformation against Joe Biden really takes me back to exactly when any rational person would have thought this was happening in 2019, when the first impeachment was going on. If you think about TrumpWorld a lot, and I do, you really only find yourself going "Dmitry Firtash or Pavel Fuchs?" 

See, the difference between a Trump fan rabbit hole and a Trump scholar rabbit hole is knowing where the rabbits actually are, having seen the rabbits. The Trump fan rabbit hole is where one just keeps digging. To be a little less circumspect in the discourse, Lev Parnas remembers, and he would know: Giuliani would listen to anyone who would say something bad about Biden, even if it was false. We've known for years now that Giuliani was trying to dig up/create a false impression for Trump's 2020 re-election. He didn't care who it came from.

You know, just like the 2016 Trump campaign didn't care where Wikileaks got their DNC hack stuff from. All fun and games until it becomes a national security issue:

TWGB: Here's to the Losers

 

Once upon a time, in a far-off land called TrumpWorld, a would-be king promised there would be "so much winning" that people would get bored of winning.  I still don't know what that means, and I've studied it like it was my job. It sounds like something a conman would say. But lately--there has not been a lot of winning. One term, two impeachments, three marriages, four indictments, five deferments, six bankruptcies  (six point drop after missing the first GOP primary 2024 debate), seven trials, probably going on eight (Arizona? Michigan?) or even nine. 

The losers for August 30th include Pete Navarro, who can't claim executive privilege that Trump didn't claim for him and will go to trial in a whole minute for contempt. He seems to have thought Trump won in 2020, (or alleged to), but the sign held up behind him reminds us Trump most certainly did not. And any rational person would realize that, by the utter lack of Trump in the White House right now. Navarro tried to wrest the sign away from the protester and was advised he was on camera and you know. 

Loser. 

TWGB: The Fourth Indictment is Here and It's Beautiful

 

I feel like the other indictments against former president Trump are all really special in their way, of course. I mean, it's not really just four is it? There's Manhattan, and the Florida documents one, and the DC 1/6 one, but can't we sort of count the superseding indictment to the Florida one as a sort of other....

Nah. No need to. The Georgia indictment is the unlucky number four for Trump, the one he bragged he needed to clinch the 2024 election. It's not just charges against Trump, but includes 18 others and mentions other unindicted co-conspirators, and displays the lengths that the Trump 2020 campaign were willing to go to in order to try to steal the election. 

And it is beautiful. The truth:

Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other Defendants charged in this Indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. That conspiracy contained common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states.

He lost, and he and his associates tried to overturn the election in Georgia and in other states. In my state, as a matter of fact. And I'm still mad about it. They engaged in lying about the election results--particularly members of the elite strike farce, Giuliani, Ellis, and the Kraken. They lied about election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman and caused them to be harassed. With horrible results for these innocent election workers. 

TWGB: Some Indictments for Those Incitements

 

The waiting for Trump's indictment over the attempted overturn of the 2020 presidential election is over, and I encourage everyone (even Ron DeSantis if he still hasn't!) to go ahead and read the indictment. It's not long, and it is pretty thorough in laying out the case that despite no evidence of voter fraud, Trump spread that lie and attempted to overturn the election by means of litigation alleging fraud, encouraging state legislatures and slates of alternate electors to act on the alleged fraud, to halt the lawful proceedings of Congress on 1/6 and to encourage Trump's faithful to wreak havoc on the day. 

Trump lost. There was no proof of voter fraud that would have changed the result of the election. And no, Trump's belief is completely irrelevant, because whether he chose to believe he won or not, he was informed on various occasions that his theories of fraud ("conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership") were bogus, as outlined in pages 6 through 8.

If Trump persisted in his belief, he was delusional, and we should not excuse people on the basis of being delusional--nor should we continue to entertain whether they are fit to lead a country if they are. 

It's also irrelevant whether he understood the law well enough to know exactly what he was violating--ignorance of the law has been determined to be no excuse long before this. 

Flailing in the Scandal Mines

 

I just wanted to highlight this slightly missed major story from the halls of Congress that commenter Dan Kleiner pointed out--Jamie Raskin entered into the record a document that everyone should have already known about from the first impeachment with respects to Joe Biden and Burisma, which was: the supposed bribery is very heavily denied. The response of Jim Comer about this is "yeah, but our very respected tipster Rudy Giuliani never mentioned anything about that." That doesn't feel really probative to me, you guys. I mean, I might be tempted to do foolish things but having my whole investigation rest on the word of Four Seasons Total landscaping guy is a stretch. 

For what it's worth, Rudy Giuliani is about as fallen a human as humans ever get. He defamed election workers, He's liable to get disbarred in DC. He's under a civil lawsuit for some eye-wateringly disgusting sexist shit. I would not, myself, trust the word of perpetually drunken and disheveled former America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani if it came to the goddamn rain without checking out a window. He's a joke, but here's the kind of joke he is:

This man wants to tell everyone they are dumb as hell if they don't think the little baggie of cocaine is Hunter's. Again, like no one else in the world uses cocaine, when My God! They sure do. And also so what if it was his? An addict relapses, news at eleven. It's just a story about a tragedy of how using has a grip on a human's life, it isn't a failure of the Biden Administration. 

TWGB: A Few Offerings

 

I'm trying to clear my tabs, so I'll make this march--you know what I think is funny? There was no standing order to declassify documents. I'm not sure who among you may have believed it (color me a skeptic!) but we now have confirmation that appears to have been bullshit. But wasn't there just a little corner of your brain thinking "But what if he told the truth about something for once?"

Nah. Didn't think so.

Here's something--Giuliani sat down voluntarily with DOJ for a proffer. The man at the center of Trump's fateful push to overturn the election, the fraud regarding "the steal" and the fake electors. I guess he kind of stretches the definition of "reliable witness" in some ways, but he really seems to be in some real difficulty--and could be what you might call motivated? All I know is, he's not the only one. Mike Roman has a bit to do with that ill-fated enterprise as well.

And you know what else? Jack Smith is still investigating the documents probe--which I guess shouldn't shock anyone. After all, we don't really know why he had some of these docs and it might be helpful to understand who he was showing them to.  Another non-shock? Trump and his allies could be facing another few dozen or so indictments for various things.

I think he might also be charged for mishandling docs in New Jersey.  That's not subject to "loose cannons".

Is it "hot accountability summer" yet?

TWGB: The Quality of Mercy is Priced at $2 Million

 

So, lawsuit against Giuliani just got really graphic, and if you want to read the whole thing, I recommend having a sick bag or bucket handy because the parts where he emotionally and physically abuses a female employee is nasty and I wish my read on him didn't feel validated. She says she has texts and emails and even recordings of his abusiveness and more.

But the part I notice is the claim that she can validate that Giuliani was asking $2 million for pardons, because this wasn't new. It's just amazing we have validation now. Also, it appears that as early as 2019, Trump was scared enough of Dark Brandon that he was going to have a plan for losing, but claiming the election was stolen anyway. 

Wow: In *Feb. 2019*, Giuliani had "voter fraud" claim planned if Donald Trump lost the election, according to the complaint.

"Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy that Trump’s team would claim that there was 'voter fraud' and that Trump had actually won the election." pic.twitter.com/qU0pDJUwIK

— Frank G. Runyeon (@frankrunyeon) May 15, 2023

And if that doesn't remind me of anything?   

Yeah. We knew. It was always about fuckery. Undermining democracy. Damaging what makes our democracy effective and unique. 

Fox News is in Deep Shit

 

So, let me preface this with the obvious caveat: I am not a lawyer, and I don't have the gall to play one on the blog. But when I say it looks to me like Fox News is pretty fucked based on all the news I've been reading today--I mean, I don't think you actually have to be a lawyer to recognize their position is basically in deep shit. Today, their lawyers got told off for withholding information because they wanted to screw about regarding whether Rupert Murdoch was considered an executive at Fox News or just Fox Corp. or whatever. 

That was pretty dumb. And then there were the tapes: a Fox News producer recorded conversations where Trump campaign officials and Elite Strike Farce lawyers alike admitted they didn't really have a basis for what they were doing. They were just cynically pretending there was election fraud because they didn't want the election to be over for whatever (maybe monetary, maybe not) reasons. MSNBC got hold of these recordings, and yeah, this is very problematic for Fox--and for Trump. I can see it being of interest not just in this Dominion case and maybe the Smartmatic case, but also of interest in Trump's Georgia case and of interest to Jack Smith's investigation, because it connects Fox News lying about the election with January 6.

Good For Hunter Biden

 

I think that Hunter Biden taking an aggressive stance with the GOP scumbags who want to smear his name all over the place in an effort to bring down his father is the right move. The question shouldn't be "Is the laptop real?" but how was it obtained, should you trust what's on it, and why does it matter? 

That the emails originate from Hunter Biden's email account may be demonstrable--but why do we have them? This follows the pattern of the DNC/Podesta hack and leak operation, where even innocuous emails take on a sinister tone because they were supposed to be private. They reveal only a piece of the story, with a lot of the context stripped out. It's easy for a narrative to be created using them that is wholly fake--even if it has a genuine document at the center of it--as miniscule as the grain of sand in the center of a pearl.

But just like the theft of Ashley Biden's diary--the laptop appears to be illicitly and improperly obtained, and reflects the business of a private person, not associated with President Biden's campaign or presidency. Just a member of his family. When the GOP crows about investigations into Hunter Biden's laptop, it really seems like they want to spread revenge porn, not because Hunter Biden's personal business however grubby effects the President, but because they dearly would like it to. 

I thought the Benghazi investigations were naked political ratfuckery--and they were. But at least an inquiry into an act of terror and how it was handled was at least relevant to government matters. When we consider the source of the laptop (sketchy) and the people who promote the investigation (Giuliani?) we have to back up and ask is there anything at all besides politics, here?

The Republicans will not relent unless made to relent. They don't admit the truth unless forced to. And if the threat of push back and lawsuits is not enough--then let them be investigated, revealed as liars, and sued into oblivion. 

Fair is fair.