Grift

When former child protégé the late Billy Preston, affectionately known as the fifth Beatle, released Nothing from Nothing (leaves nothing) in 1974, it instantly became my theme song. As I have gotten older, my sensitivity, as well as my passion for politics, has grown. As a result, Billy Preston’s composition...

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  • December 16, 2022

Ethics violations—involving the illegal acceptance of Saudi Arabian gifts ostensibly made from endangered species but later revealed to be cheap fakes—seem like the Trumpiest story ever. All that’s missing is a bone saw, a koi pond’s worth of meat sweats, and a Fiat-sized heap of pulverized Adderall. While norm-breaking and questionable ethical decisions were basically the...

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  • October 12, 2021

Donald J. Telharmonium: lots of rotating discs and not much of an effect, network or otherwise. With other elements of the Big Lie grift moving forward, Trump will unfortunately be back because of not underestimating “the power of stupid people in large groups” (George Carlin)…. on a network. The challenge is that wheels of justice do...

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  • May 25, 2021

Previous guy added a page to his website, one which mimics Twitter and Facebook in its appearance, because the grift needs to be fed. In a related story, Bloomberg reports that demand for butt implants rose during the pandemic. “Knowingly repeating a lie — an act of immorality — is...

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  • May 5, 2021

The Facebook Oversight Board sustained the ban on Trump — for now. Previous guy added a page to his website, one which mimics Twitter and Facebook in its appearance, because the grift needs to be fed. In a related story, Bloomberg reports that demand for butt implants rose during the pandemic....

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  • May 5, 2021

Fail: REALITY BITES: That didn’t take long. Reality TV star and political neophyte Caitlyn Jenner was about 24 hours into the rollout of her California gubernatorial campaign this weekend when she posted her first major campaign gaffe on social media. Jenner, expressing outrage about a San Francisco Chronicle story involving SF DA Chesa...

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  • April 27, 2021

People who recognized their based(sic) bigotry and hatred chose their orange ‘leader’ because ‘owning libs’ fit a general dickishness that conferred a gang-like belonging. Probably more striking are those women willing to identify with toxic masculinity and buy into the grift even after the 1/6 insurrection failed. The 21st Century’s Lost...

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  • April 22, 2021

Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has learned from the death of Bernie Madoff about Ponzi schemes, because QAnon surely couldn’t be a cult of personality or a grift used by criminals in charge. Because the previous guy still says “the best is yet to come”, having killed hundreds of thousands, we also know...

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  • April 19, 2021

I happen to believe that if you send money to Donald Trump you pretty much get what you deserve. If people still haven’t learned from Trump University, Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, Trump Magazine, Trump Airlines, Trump: The Game, and Trump: The Shitty Presidency, then they’ll never...

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  • April 3, 2021

Sometimes the New York Times gets it right: How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations During the 2020 campaign, Trump kept running short of cash. (Anything less than “all of it” is short of cash in his eyes.) So he died what unscrupulous advertisers often do: He rigged his donation...

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  • April 3, 2021

Remember that the Trump pardon will not protect Steve Bannon from NY prosecution on his multimillion-dollar border wall grift. Investigators employed by the state attorney general were deputized to work as prosecutors with the team led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D), whose investigation of Bannon began shortly after...

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  • March 28, 2021

Trump wants his fast food and his social media fix in his own private Bizarro-World. The Facebook Oversight Board could reinstate Trump’s privileges on the platform as early as May after conducting an independent review. Trump submitted an appeal directly to Facebook’s Oversight Board, which will rule whether he’s allowed back...

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  • March 22, 2021

Trump wants his fast food and his social media fix in his own private Bizarro-World. The Facebook Oversight Board could reinstate Trump’s privileges on the platform as early as May after conducting an independent review. Trump submitted an appeal directly to Facebook's Oversight Board, which will rule on whether he's allowed...

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  • March 22, 2021

Jason “Plan B in your Smoothie” Miller tried to pimp Trump’s anticipated social media platform. Unfortunately the major social media platforms are reconsidering their ban of Trump, which would determine whether Trump would try to create his own propaganda platform. “Qwitter or HicTok”? Keep grift alive. Jason Miller, a spokesman...

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  • March 22, 2021

Lost relevance continues with more of the same Trump delusions up-chucking soon, signaled by the latest Big Lie interview with Fox News, likely leading to more revisionism. Unfortunately Trump’s memoirs would be regurgitating the propaganda with little insight or reflection. His Secret Service detail would be useful witnesses as a 1/6...

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  • March 18, 2021

WaPo’s Greg Miller’s “main takeaway from ODNI report is that America’s enemies learned more from Russia-2016 about how to muck around in U.S. elections than the U.S. learned/did about how to stop it.” It didn’t stop Russia from trying to interfere again, although this time the Russians relied more on...

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  • March 17, 2021

Can’t afford to keep Trump off their channel. Trump will be back as they say, with a vengeance and a renewed grift. YouTube CEO says Donald Trump suspension isn’t permanent because of “grace period” https://t.co/WkdRZjmyc2 — Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) March 5, 2021 In remarks to the Atlantic Council, YouTube CEO...

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  • March 5, 2021

Insurrection part Deux may be coming, but it’s a distraction from an emerging Raw Story report about Russian mobsters and Trump that includes money laundering in Kazakhstan. This doesn’t even touch the tax fraud prosecution. Thank jeebus CPAC is over and that concentrated hate and stupidity is over for another year. Even...

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  • March 1, 2021

The anticipated Trump 2024 grift begins as he also gets closer to real prosecution in New York. Remember that “the biggest story today should be the fact that every House Republican just voted against $1,400 stimulus checks, funding to reopen schools, and unemployment benefits, legislation that 76% of Americans support.”...

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  • February 27, 2021

Old Pharaoh Trump’s going to spew more nonsense this weekend, including the Big Lie. Trump will make his first public major public appearance to grift for the next pyramid scheme. CPAC 2021 is set for Feb. 25-28 in Orlando, Florida, where the lineup of far-right speakers will include former President Donald Trump as well...

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  • February 23, 2021

I know many don’t read Bruni’s column in the NYT, often for good reason, but sometimes it is worthwhile. Some here didn’t appreciate my comments on the Lincoln Project for varying reasons such as “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, I replied I don’t believe that crap. I...

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  • February 17, 2021

If you had any doubt that the Trump presidency was just an elaborate four-year grift, this story should dispel your quaint Pollyannish notions. Because their brains are the functional equivalent of an ‘80s-era Texas Instruments calculator that has not yet learned how to spell “boobs,” the world’s daffiest fucks (aka Trump’s most ardent...

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  • February 7, 2021

Perhaps Trump will defend himself rather than have the Federalist Society fire up the bullpen for some strange version of a constitutional law expert. Butch Bowers, Deborah Barbier, Josh Howard, Greg Harris, and Johnny Gasser, five of former President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team attorneys have exited, as “Trump wanted them...

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  • January 31, 2021

There’s that old adage about evil people doing evil things and good people standing by and doing nothing. It’s a powerful reminder that we all have to remain diligent in order to preserve the wispy bonds of comity and goodwill that hold our fragile republic together.   There might also be a...

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  • January 28, 2021

Trump may have only toyed with the idea of a third party until he realized how much money he needed to grift up front from people who would need to stay out of prison. Gaslight is indeed political vaporware. Wow, it really is shocking that the people who incited an...

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  • January 25, 2021

The Big Lie must be thoroughly erased. This delusion is unfortunately the trope deployed as a grand commodity for a national grift that could last until 2024. In the more immediate instance, actions still have consequences, even if Trump implies that he will give pardons in the case of the insurrections....

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  • January 18, 2021

As Admiral Akbar sez: “It’s a Trap”. This stunt will fail but the Trumpian GOP base will want to give them thirty coins at least. Disingenuity writ as largess in order to grift for donors. A growing number of Republican senators — led by Ted Cruz — announced today they...

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  • January 2, 2021

Apparently, Sen. Marco Rubio is sitting in his office planning a strategy around selling prayer cloths. Judging from his recent spate of religiosity on his Twitter feed, do not be surprised to see Rubio wearing sandals, draped in a mantle with tassels.  His time might be better spent sewing protective...

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  • December 21, 2020

Retiring Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman has had it with the conspiracy theories and misinformers. He says he is going after them. Congressman Denver Riggleman will take them on. x x YouTube Video See full episodes here. It is refreshing to see a Republican, albeit retiring, comes clean to describe the...

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  • December 19, 2020

Trump will leave quietly, as Michael Cohen has suggested, likely to Mar-a-Lago early and not return. He will remain noisy throughout, whining about the theft of an election even as he tried to steal it using ridiculous degrees of lawfare, losing with a score of 1-60. Meanwhile, a month of temper-tantrums, as...

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  • December 17, 2020

There will be plenty of memorials to the Trump reign, but the most significant one will be the betrayal of democracy. It raises the matter of Washington Monument sized piles of information stolen from the US government. But maybe he’ll be remembered for promising some of his advisors that “he will refuse...

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  • December 16, 2020

There’s an agitated Trump up late tweeting more conspiracy nonsense as the Electoral College has voted and the sedition attempt has failed with the so-called longshot of a Congressional maneuver on 6 January the last gasp available. What remains is grift and unhingery. x It’s 1:15 am, Eastern Time. https://t.co/mAbK0tsIhO— Reed Galen...

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  • December 16, 2020

Philip Bump has the goods: it is nearly impossible for the fraud claimed by Trumpists to have occurred in 2020. No evidence has emerged to support an already conspiracy-ridden and ignorance-addled group of crypto-fascists bent on creating a dictatorship for a game-show demagogue. Yet they are even grifting money from...

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  • December 15, 2020

The latest GOP logical fallacy is how not finding fraud is proof that there is fraud.  Remember that one of the 17 AGs supporting the Texas AG’s attempt to get a pardon, South Dakota AG Jason Ravnsborg hit and killed a man in his car, left the scene, and told police the...

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  • December 10, 2020

Donald Trump is the grift that keeps on grifting. And he has 42 more days to embarrass our country and everyone in it. And, damn, is he ever obliging. He’s almost completely given up on governing so he can focus 100 percent on keeping the job he has no interest in...

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  • December 9, 2020

Can enraging Georgia voters about a lost election actually spur GOP turnout in Georgia. The Trumpist cognitive dissonance is strong with them, much like Trump’s claim that he couldn’t possibly have lost because he got more votes than in 2016. x I think a lot of people are overestimating the...

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  • December 7, 2020

Biden has enough electors. Now all Trump has to do besides trying to compel GOP governors to overturn their elections is bribe some “faithless electors”. …the hidden mechanics of electing a U.S. president have drawn new scrutiny this year as President Donald Trump continues to deny Biden’s victory and pursues...

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  • December 6, 2020

“It has all gone too far,” Trump continues to raise money off a highly confused grift, and still remains unindicted. x Edison County must be where Trump has been keeping his secret healthcare plan.And his tax returns.And his dignity. https://t.co/sXbbKt7o0x— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) November 30, 2020 x New: Trump has...

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  • December 2, 2020

The post-presidential Trumpian revisionist history continues because the grift continues, portending an attempt to attach itself to other pseudo-grievances that have persisted because of cultural and regional divisions. Trump will fundraise off a 2024 reelection myth the instant he concedes(sic), with the goal of establishing some permanent media presence. Check-out this...

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  • November 16, 2020

A Trump win now has the odds of pitching a TV reality show remaking The Odd Couple with Jeffrey Toobin and Jon Meacham. Pastor Jeffress acknowledges that rubber meets the road and that Trump could have been Nero. One of President Donald Trump’s top evangelical backers has accepted that Joe Biden...

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  • November 12, 2020

Trump sells off his private helicopter after losing the election, so perhaps he’s cash-short, even as he’s running another grift, claiming he’d run again in 2024. However, there’s other shenanigans possible in the remaining 70 days, including a small-scale international military action that in itself could cause a continuing problem...

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  • November 11, 2020

Trump has always been a loser, but is reaching the end even as he’s trying to keep the grift going. Remember that he began campaigning for 2020 right after his inauguration. This is no different. He simply hasn’t reached the “sale by” date. The path to the bunker has 72 days...

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  • November 10, 2020

Angry baby strikes again, ignoring the rules to exact revenge on those who did their duty. Mark Esper will probably not be the last firing, but for today this will divert attention from Trump signaling that he will run again in 2024 to continue the grift. Not unlike other cabinet...

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  • November 9, 2020

If 70 million voted for Trump, the GOP expects that number or more will rise up to nullify the 2020 election and overthrow the government. Just remember that Kimberly Guilfoyle Humiliated the Trump Campaign by Offering a Lap Dance to the Highest Donor. Expect more stunts that won’t finance what they...

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  • November 9, 2020

Ronna Romney McDaniel’s plan to combine the RNC with the Trump campaign has backfired spectacularly. The money goes where Trump wants it to go, which is why millions were spent running ads in DC because Trump was tired of seeing ads attacking him.  In the final weeks of the election, and...

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  • October 23, 2020

This evening at 7pm ET there will be another of the usual airport hangar events to pack Trumpists and spread contagion. We’ll see how long he lasts, considering his planned 30 minute speech on Saturday lasted 18 minutes. x This is the line for the Trump Rally in Sanford, FL....

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  • October 12, 2020

Over the weekend, Americans were bombarded by press accounts with what we already know, Donald Trump is a liar, a tax cheat, and a possible felon. In case you think that is hyperbole—Mr. Trump, ask Al Capone. My theory is that Donald Trump released his tax information so debate moderator...

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  • September 28, 2020

Trump's in Ohio today, trying distract us from knowing that the Manhattan DA has grounds to prosecute Trump and his business on these grounds: -Scheme to Defraud -Falsification of Business Records -Insurance Fraud -Criminal Tax Fraud x Q: Who do you think poisoned Alexey Navalny in Russia? TRUMP: Uhhhh … we'll...

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  • September 21, 2020

Details from Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s upcoming Melania Trump tell-all, Melania and Me, are leaking out like whatever that viscous nightmare fluid under Don Jr.’s eye was the other night. Seriously, what the fuck was that? Writing for Vanity Fair, Emily Jane Fox dishes some of the details. Spoiler alert: These people are...

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  • August 28, 2020

Remember when Donald Trump tried to convince us he’d be uncorruptible because he was financing his own campaign? Hoo-boy, that was a good one. I didn’t believe him, of course, but apparently some walnut-brained yokels with conspicuously more animal carcasses on their walls than diplomas did. And here we are....

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  • August 26, 2020