If You Thought Trump’s Tenure Couldn’t Get Any Nuttier…
[guest post by Dana]
Just going to leave this right here:
Sidney Powell, Mike Flynn's lawyer now working for Trump, says the election was rigged by "communist money" and a scheme devised by the late Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuala. pic.twitter.com/8XTnRHCzAM
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 19, 2020
Here’s Rudy Giuliani, who appears to have made the unfortunate miscalculation of dyeing his hair before a presser. I was so mesmerized by the dye running down the sides of his face that I missed what he was saying. When I actually did listen, I went back to cringing over the runny dye because at least that made sense:
And Trump from this morning:
Lawyers now on @newsmax, @OANN & maybe @FoxNews. An open and shut case of voter fraud. Massive numbers!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2020
Tell me all about the 12-dimensional chess he’s playing here.
–Dana
Hoo boy. That’s all I’ve got.
Dana (6995e0) — 11/19/2020 @ 11:18 amRudy and crew just held a lengthy presser carried only by Fox– and CSPAN.
It was a peculiar presser to say the least– especially as Rudy’s hair dye kept running dark sweat lines down the side of his face. But the crux of it was the accusation that American vote totals are tallied in other countries.
“Go figure.”
DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/19/2020 @ 11:26 amCollusion with a foreign country to rig an election is one of those conspiracies only nut jobs would latch onto.
beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 11/19/2020 @ 11:44 amYeah, BNP, best to get ahead of it. Trump just gave the same sort of conspiracy theory you’ve been calling idiotic, only instead of having all the evidence you didn’t find compelling, he has no evidence at all. The only way to continue supporting him is to mock the other side as nut jobs and leave it at that.
Dustin (4237e0) — 11/19/2020 @ 11:58 amTrump’s Russian masters taught him well: Leave only scorched behind you as you retreat.
nk (1d9030) — 11/19/2020 @ 12:01 pmscorched *earth*
nk (1d9030) — 11/19/2020 @ 12:02 pmThey aren’t even grasping at straws anymore, just their hallucinations of straws.
Nic (896fdf) — 11/19/2020 @ 12:06 pmBefore today, I only suspected that Ms. Powell was a complete Trump stooge and tool…
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 11/19/2020 @ 12:13 pmI admit I am starting to lose the thread of this conspiracy. We have software that miscounts the ballots, but we also have truckloads of fake ballots? So it’s a belt and suspenders approach? And was failing to install a Republican Senate a clever misdirection feint or did the conspirators just forget?
Victor (4959fb) — 11/19/2020 @ 12:18 pmTens of millions of Americans believe a terrible thing has been done to them, something that if it were real, would justify a civil war.
I guess Powell thinks it’s worth it, but that’s a blank check. Who knows what happens over the next couple of years with it.
Dustin (4237e0) — 11/19/2020 @ 12:19 pmBut the Flynn truthers have repeatedly assured me that Ms. Powell is the cream of the crop. Perish the thought they were wrong.
(Not That) Bill O'Reilly (6bb12a) — 11/19/2020 @ 12:39 pmYou must watch Rudytootie’s contribution to this farce.
I think they are saying some 3rd world dictators are bad, much worse than those 2nd world dictators that are good, while looking like a public access spoof of Idiocracy…Murika!!
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 11/19/2020 @ 12:47 pmYou completely dishonest hack.
On the one hand we have this detailed explanation of the evidence.
On the other we have nothing. 2 Days ago Rudy told a judge that they weren’t alleging fraud. Every time a Trump lawyer has had to speak in a venue that attaches consequences to lying they carefully don’t allege any of the nonsense in this press conference.
It’s crushing how little Trump and his supporters care about the USA.
Time123 (cd2ff4) — 11/19/2020 @ 12:54 pm2. DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/19/2020 @ 11:26 am
Even if that were so, and vote totals and subtotals altered, that vote tally would not be the only vote tally Giuliani and other Republicans had access to.
And everything would be exposed within hours.
Remember the Democratic Iowa caucuses this year?
Sammy Finkelman (bc65ac) — 11/19/2020 @ 1:15 pm(Not That) Bill O’Reilly (6bb12a) — 11/19/2020 @ 12:39 pm
She is.
The cream of the crop of lying lawyers.
Sammy Finkelman (bc65ac) — 11/19/2020 @ 1:17 pmTim Miller has a great piece on that shambolic, craptastic press conference involving Giuliani, Powell and Ellis. Worth a full read.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 11/19/2020 @ 1:27 pmExcept there was evidence in 2016 of a conspiracy between Trump people and Putin people to help Trump win. This covered, more than once.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 11/19/2020 @ 1:30 pmThere is no evidence of the conspiracy that Giuliani-Powell-Ellis allege. It’s as plausible as that DNC server hiding out somewhere in Ukraine.
By the way, Hugo Chavez (who set up the voting system in the US, or is a hacker, or something something communism or something) has been dead for 7 and a half years.
Carry on.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 11/19/2020 @ 1:34 pm“By the way, Hugo Chavez (who set up the voting system in the US, or is a hacker, or something something communism or something) has been dead for 7 and a half years.”
Another victim of Killary Clinton.
Davethulhu (6e0d47) — 11/19/2020 @ 1:44 pmThe whole Hugo Chavez thing just blew my mind.
Dana (6995e0) — 11/19/2020 @ 3:08 pmI’ve added the clip of Rudy G and his runny dye job. The whole thing is just surreal.
Dana (6995e0) — 11/19/2020 @ 3:16 pmI wonder if Trump and his team have bets on the stupidest thing they can say that their gullible fans will buy hook, line, and sinker. “Come on, even these guys will see the ruse if we blame a dead guy, right?”
johnnyagreeable (c49787) — 11/19/2020 @ 3:23 pmAnd to add on to my 22, “…no, we can top it, we have Rudy go out and leak hair dye. It happened once on an episode of Frasier with Martin dying his hair and ruining Niles’s seat. It was hilarious!”
johnnyagreeable (c49787) — 11/19/2020 @ 3:29 pmTrump lawyer Jenna Ellis:
You know the acronym IANAL? I feel like all of the “lawyers” involved with Trump should be compelled by law to identify themselves with IANAL way every time they speak in public. Maybe IANARL (I Am Not A *Real* Lawyer)…
Dana (6995e0) — 11/19/2020 @ 3:35 pmAnd here’s the election coverage from Trump’s preferred news outlet. No, silly, not Fox News. They’re leftist Fake News! I’m talking about Trump’s Pravda, the brain-genius-Louie-Gohmert-amplifying, oft-endorsed-and-retweeted-by-Trump OANN. These clowns make Russia Today look like Radio Free Europe, and the President of the United States is telling America that this is the news we should trust.
I used to make fun of friends who called Bush a war criminal and said Obama hated America (different friends obviously). I warned them that crying wolf was a thing. Well, here we are. The president is actively trying to undermine our democracy, and words have lost their power to shock. Trump’s objective anti-Americanism has become little more than a foil for BnP’s trolling false equivalences.
lurker (d8c5bc) — 11/19/2020 @ 3:46 pmApproximately half of all Republicans believe Trump rightfully won the election.
lurker (d8c5bc) — 11/19/2020 @ 4:01 pmHere’s Rudy Giuliani, who appears to have made the unfortunate miscalculation of dyeing his hair before a presser. I found the dripping dye so unnerving and so bizarrely captivating, that I missed what he was saying.
Wasn’t it though– in HDTV no less… almost as unnerving as this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IrE6FMpai8
At least Lou Dobbs makes sure his colors don’t run.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/19/2020 @ 4:09 pmMaybe this is a kind of PTSD from 9/11 finally surfacing w/Rudy.
It’s just hard to grasp this is the same guy who managed NYC that terrible day as bodies and buildings literally fell around him.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/19/2020 @ 4:14 pm“Come on, even these guys will see the ruse if we blame a dead guy, right?”
Josef Mifsud: alive, or dead?
beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 11/19/2020 @ 4:30 pmWas there some sort of press conference claiming that a Mif-guy was doing something?
Or are you just trying to divert attention? It would be shocking, SHOCKING!!, if you were. Totally out of character.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 11/19/2020 @ 4:46 pmWas there some sort of press conference claiming that a Mif-guy was doing something?
I dunno, but there was a three year investigation based on it.
beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 11/19/2020 @ 4:53 pmSo, I just noticed that the official Twitter feed for the GOP tweeted this video clip too:
Pretty sure that tells us exactly what the mindset of the Republican Party is these days, and that’s not a compliment…
Dana (6995e0) — 11/19/2020 @ 5:16 pmThere have been 29 lawsuits so far by the crew today, maybe you want to familiarize yourself with them.
You should also probably familiarize yourself with all the convictions from that thing you seem to be trying to divert attention to, so if you’re trying to make a point, you are doing a very poor job.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 11/19/2020 @ 5:28 pmYou should also probably familiarize yourself with all the convictions from that thing you seem to be trying to divert attention to
What convictions, and how many within the first three weeks after the election? These things take time, mi amigo.
beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 11/19/2020 @ 5:41 pmI am taking such a sadistic pleasure watching Trump and his worms desperately wriggling on their hooks hook that I surprise myself. I did not know that I was that mean. Why didn’t anybody tell me?
nk (1d9030) — 11/19/2020 @ 6:12 pmWhen Trump’s GOP-endorsed latest conspiracy theory about the stolen election is too deranged for Tucker Carlson… I can only assume the next move is to double down.
If you’re someone who still can’t bring yourself to condemn this conscience-free thug’s attempt to undermine our democracy, you really should ask yourself: what’s the price you wouldn’t pay to beat the libs?
lurker (d8c5bc) — 11/19/2020 @ 6:51 pmAll y’all notice that a tweet by Christopher Krebs is on that same Twitter page that lurker linked? The very same Twitter page! If that’s not proof of the International Globalist Left Wing Deep State Venezuela Fake News Biased Social Media Conspiracy to steal the election, I don’t know what is.
nk (1d9030) — 11/19/2020 @ 6:59 pmThey’re not blaming a dead guy. (except for commissioning the alleged software)
They’re claiming that election miscounting software was written for and used by Hugo Chavez, and the company that wrote it still has it, and that Nancy Pelosi (and/or some other Democrat) has an interest in that company and got that company and its malign software to be used by many jurisdictions run by Democratic election officials, but Texas was too alert to fall for it.
The whole thing is nonsense on stilts (I mean the Dominion vote software is not the only source people have for the election returns) but it is not that obviously false.
Here’s some of what a Wall Street Journal editorial said about these allegations:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/rage-against-the-voting-machine-11605656036
Sammy Finkelman (bc65ac) — 11/19/2020 @ 7:09 pmIf these voting mach<ine company allegations sound abut familiar, it's because they are:
From that WSJ editorial . In the George W. Bush years, the conspiratorial left focused on Diebold, a maker of electronic voting machines. It would be a mistake for anyone on the right to go down a similar dead end, especially if Georgia’s paper ballots give the same result as the computers.
Sammy Finkelman (bc65ac) — 11/19/2020 @ 7:16 pmAlso BTW, Dominion is Diebold of the democratic “changing votes to republican” conspiracies of the olden days of a decade ago. It’s just 2 rebranding’s and an acquisition removed.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 11/19/2020 @ 8:32 pmIf there ever was a thing that was not greater than the sum of its parts, it has been the Trump team, now and in the past four years. Dross and slag all down the line.
nk (1d9030) — 11/19/2020 @ 8:44 pmI really can’t come up with anything to say about this sorry post-election spectacle by the Trump campaign. These videos do all the explaining that is necessary to describe this cultish, hypernarcissistic presidency. This is worse than the crackpot leftists who peddled the Diebold conspiracy. Granted, the 20th Amendment shortened the presidential lame duck period to January 20 from March 4, which I’m indeed grateful for. But this is the first time that I’ve felt that a Jan 20 inauguration is way too long of a wait.
HCI (92ea66) — 11/19/2020 @ 9:16 pmMitt Romney:
lurker (d8c5bc) — 11/19/2020 @ 9:38 pmTell me all about the 12-dimensional chess he’s playing here.
At least 9 of those dimensions are imaginary.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 11/19/2020 @ 10:19 pm“First as tragedy, then as farce.”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 11/19/2020 @ 10:22 pmI think the Trump people have a bet down: What truly crazy wacko nonsense will it take before the Senate Republicans say “¡No Mas!”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 11/19/2020 @ 10:28 pm@46 I think that moment is approaching soon.
norcal (a5428a) — 11/19/2020 @ 11:36 pmHopefully. I’d like to see what would happen if the House voted a new bill of impeachment.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 11/19/2020 @ 11:43 pm@48 Please no. Don’t give Trump any chances to play an even bigger martyr.
norcal (a5428a) — 11/19/2020 @ 11:58 pmvia Allahpundit (and Kevin Williamson):
Senior Trump Official To Reuters: Yes, We’re Going To Try To Get State Legislatures To Execute A Coup For Us
Read the whole thing.
Dave (1bb933) — 11/20/2020 @ 2:09 amTucker Carlson did not dismiss the what was said in the press conference. He said he wants to see the evidence as any reasonable person should. Those of you who just outright deny that this is possible because “orange man bad” need to wake up. Trumps attorney’s in the presser said that they would not try this in the court of public opinion, it would be tried in a court of law. As it should. However, I don’t think a court will overturn anything. What judge or group of judges would want to say that their opinion should make such a broad sweeping change. So in my mind this will come down to the states certifying the election results. I think in a few states enough evidence has been shown to at least question the results to investigate further. The Arizona governor has said he won’t certify until all legal challenges have been resolved. The two republican members of the election board in Wayne county Michigan initially did not want to certify but were threatened so they did certify and then later reversed course again. This vote should not have been certified as precincts in Detroit showed no registered voters! The American people deserve to know that their vote has not been tampered with.
ah-non-ee-mouse (690acb) — 11/20/2020 @ 2:59 am51. Step away from the Kool-Aid. They’re alleging fraud in their clown car pressers, then going into court and admitting, “nope, no fraud.” The reason they show zero evidence for their bizarre out-of-court assertions isn’t that they’re being strategic. They’re just counting on the same credulous dupes who think Trump University was legit and Hillary runs a child prostitution ring to buy this bottle of snake oil too. Don’t be a credulous dupe.
lurker (d8c5bc) — 11/20/2020 @ 3:35 amAs lurker mentioned earlier…
Mitt Romney tweeted this about Trump’s Michigan election theft scheme: “It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President.”
OK. Let’s please, please act like we really believe that.
These Senators are not powerless. They have enormous leverage with both McConnell and Trump. They can threaten to turn the Senate upside down and stop everything with just one or two more colleague’s on their side. The Senate is divided 53/47 and it’s going to be closer after January and that gives them even more influence.
They need to use that power… right now. This is getting serious.
noel (9fead1) — 11/20/2020 @ 4:10 amMany have been warning of Trump’s autocratic tendencies for years. Trump keeps proving them right but his supporters simply won’t see it. Or worse… maybe they do.
noel (9fead1) — 11/20/2020 @ 4:15 amThe election “in all the swing states should be overturned, and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump,” Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell said during an appearance Thursday evening on Fox News.
Trump campaign attorney says this? Wow wow wow.
Just try to tell me that this is not a coup attempt.
noel (9fead1) — 11/20/2020 @ 5:18 amif mr. unsuccessful presidential candidate donald trump, whose teddy bears were all anatomically correct, does not know what makes men with small penises tick, nobody does, mr. noel
and their wives, too, that goes without saying
nk (1d9030) — 11/20/2020 @ 5:26 amYou don’t need to read the article, the link says it all: https://www.thedailybeast.com/hair-stylists-say-rudy-giulianis-tv-disaster-should-be-a-lesson-to-us-all
nk (1d9030) — 11/20/2020 @ 5:54 amThis may not end well. But if this were close like it was in the 2000 election, it almost certainly would end badly. Donald Trump has brought us to the brink of losing this democracy. I know it’s hard to believe, even for me, but here we are.
Remember… Trump is always “projecting”. When he claims that the election is being stolen, you had better believe him.
noel (9fead1) — 11/20/2020 @ 6:03 amThey wrap themselves in the flag.
Yet my friends who support Trump tolerate his praising dictators, insulting prisoners of war and the military, calling for the arrest of his opponents, attempting to delay the election and now, trying to overturn the clear results of this election.
They are outraged if someone burns the flag. But they have excused all of these attempts to destroy what it stands for.
noel (9fead1) — 11/20/2020 @ 6:21 amWell … God has arranged term limits for him, even if he does not respect the ones in the Constitution and laws.
But here’s the deal: Is this America First? A soon-to-be-ex-President who really loves America can hope for the best but should plan for the worst. Let’s say that the Tooth Fairy does in fact come down, takes Trump’s dentures, and leaves the Presidency under his pillow for him. What would it have hurt to have had Biden ready for the transition in case she hadn’t?
nk (1d9030) — 11/20/2020 @ 6:24 amWhat is your view of the assertion that America has contributed only two original art forms to the world, comic books and jazz? I was a fan of both half a lifetime before I had heard the saying.
nk (1d9030) — 11/20/2020 @ 6:30 amGiuliani’s manscara and hair dye running down his cheek reminded of Pence’s debate fly. God is, once again, showing off his sense of humor.
noel (9fead1) — 11/20/2020 @ 6:44 amI know that this is the third time I’m saying it, but Pence’s debate fly worries me. It could mean that he is the anointed of Beelzebub (which translates literally as Lord Of The Flies) and that in the end he will be President. But Trump will need to be “disqualified” in some way first, so that’s something, anyway.
nk (1d9030) — 11/20/2020 @ 6:49 amI had to write about this attempted coup in progress.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 11/20/2020 @ 7:14 amhttp://www.theforvm *dot* org/interregnum-and-coup-attempt
Of course he’s playing 12-dimensional chess. The first rule of the game is that you can make up new rules as you go along.
John B Boddie (d795fd) — 11/20/2020 @ 7:16 amWhere is the predicate or probable cause or reasonable suspicion for widespread fraud or “rigging”, beer? Where’s the evidence? You made the charge, you back it up.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 11/20/2020 @ 7:23 amWhen Brennan walked intelligence of this “sweeping and systemic” cyber-invasion of our election over to Obama, he had a source high up in the Kremlin who was privy to Putin and his operation. Where’s the equivalent here?
Another Trump-appointed judge says ix-nay on the oo-cay
If you’re keeping score at home, the Trump legal team’s record in election-related cases is 1-32.
Dave (1bb933) — 11/20/2020 @ 7:24 amThe first rule of the game is that you can make up new rules as you go along.
That’s called Calvinball.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 11/20/2020 @ 7:27 amI wonder what Judge Sullivan thought of Ms. Powell’s performance art yesterday.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 11/20/2020 @ 7:30 amTrump summoned Michigan’s GOP legislators to the WH today in furtherance of his conspiracy to “overturn” the will of the voters.
Feel free to chime in at any time, MAGA patriots, if you start to get uneasy about anything your Dear Leader is doing here…
Dave (1bb933) — 11/20/2020 @ 7:31 amYou look at dictators throughout history. I believe that most of them have a touch (or more) of crazy in them. Looking at Trump and his “legal” team, it’s easy to see they have a few screws loose. But that doesn’t mean that they cannot pull it off. I refer you back… to history.
noel (9fead1) — 11/20/2020 @ 7:51 amHere’s the thing, Mr. noel. They were all less than half Trump’s age when they rose to power. Octavian less than one-fourth. And the greatest of all was killed by a mosquito at age thirty-three.
nk (1d9030) — 11/20/2020 @ 7:56 amNo, all this orange turd is doing is peeing on America the way those Russian hookers peed on him. And Putin’s hips involuntarily twitch in ecstasy as he moans “Yes, yes, Donnie, now you’re doing it”.
nk (1d9030) — 11/20/2020 @ 8:01 amPowerlineblog uncovers a significant glitch in the Trump case. Really:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/11/do-trumps-lawyers-know-what-they-are-doing.php
Appalled (1a17de) — 11/20/2020 @ 8:06 amThe narcissism and extreme confidence is a magnate for many. I believe that he will be studied for decades because of this devotion.
He may or may not have many years left but I am just hoping we can get to January 20th without a Constitutional crisis. Actually, don’t we already have one?
noel (9fead1) — 11/20/2020 @ 8:08 amOops. Slip up there. Magnet, I mean. Not magnate.
noel (9fead1) — 11/20/2020 @ 8:10 am‘And what we are seeing now, in the twilight of Trump’s kookery, is the merger of QAnon, the Republican Party, and the large part of the conservative movement that earns its bread by peddling miracle veggie pills to gullible elderly people on the radio. When I first starting writing about QAnon, some conservatives scoffed that it wasn’t a significant phenomenon, that it had no real influence on the Republican Party or conservative politics. That is obviously untrue. Rather than ask whether conspiracy kookery is relevant to Republican politics at this moment, it would be better to ask if there is anything else to Republican politics at this moment. And maybe there is, but not much.
This raises some uncomfortable questions for conservatives. One of those questions is: How long are we going to keep pretending that this madness isn’t madness? Another is: How long will we continue to pretend that what’s being broadcast by Fox News and talk radio is political commentary rather than the most shameful, irresponsible, and unpatriotic kind of sycophantic for-profit propaganda? A third is: What exactly is the benefit — for our ideas, and for the country — of making common cause with these lunatics and hucksters?’
Shorter: Reaganomics.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/20/2020 @ 8:16 amSpeaking of lawyers who are chock full o’ nuts, QAnon wacko Lin Wood failed miserably in a Georgia courtroom yesterday. There’s so much sh*t being flung at the Wall of Democracy, it’s hard to keep track.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 11/20/2020 @ 8:45 amBoiling the frog of democracy, one degree at a time:
Conversations underway about inviting Pennsylvania lawmakers to the White House
Dave (1bb933) — 11/20/2020 @ 8:49 amIt would be awesome if someone manages to slip a recording device into one of these meetings and walks out with smoking-gun evidence of what the coup plotters are really trying to do.
Dave (1bb933) — 11/20/2020 @ 9:21 amMs. Powell is Q.
There’s no room for this quackery in my party.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 11/20/2020 @ 9:42 amSo, Trump attacked Romney again, calling the last actual GOP candidate a “RINO.” Where did the Senate put its balls?
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 11/20/2020 @ 10:11 amThere’s no room for sparkly animal prints in my closet. That’s a big red flag for me.
Radegunda (a847d6) — 11/20/2020 @ 1:28 pmMorrissey brought up a good point…
In other words, the only way to take electoral votes from Biden and give them to Trump is for Trump to win the popular vote, and the only way Trump can win the popular vote is to disenfranchise at least 157,000 Biden votes. The likelihood of anything like this happening is minuscule, but it doesn’t mean Trump isn’t still attempting a coup.
Paul Montagu (77c694) — 11/20/2020 @ 2:06 pm