Donald the Grifter

Donald Trump's campaign has alerted Senate Republicans that he won't have much money to spend fending off attacks from Hillary Clinton over the next couple months.

The notice came when Paul Manafort, Trump's senior advisor, met with a group of Senate Republican chiefs of staff for lunch last week, sources familiar with the meeting told the Washington Examiner. The admission suggests that Trump will be far more dependent on the GOP brass for money than he has led voters to believe, but it's consistent with his reliance on the Republican National Committee to provide a ground game in battleground states.

Trump's M.O. in his business dealings has been to start a project rolling, then bring in outside investors, cash out, and stick them with the bill.

Most of the money he's put into the campaign has been structured as loans. The donors will fund his campaign, Trump will get his money back and his donors will end up with nothing.

But, since they're all wealthy Republicans, fuck them if they're that stupid.

For You Haters of Classical Music

The 1712 Overture:

Blood-Drenched David Brooks Implies His Hands are Clean

First, go read this piece by David Brooks about how Trumpism is the "governing cancer" of our time.

I'll wait.

MA from BOS

Maybe It Will All Come to an End this Year, After All.

Today, Memorial Day 2016, the Chicago Cubs are the best team in baseball: 34 wins, 14 losses, for a W/L percentage of 70.8%.

Still plenty of time for them to choke, I guess.

Memorial Day

The late Andy Rooney (Sgt, US Army: Bronze Star, Air medal):

I've written a fair number of pieces on Memorial Day, some rants, some not.

War is a bloody, messy business. The powers that be, in every nation, do their best to hide that fact.

Today, we honor the memory of the men and, increasingly, women, who died in the service of our country. Amidst the various profanities of the day, three-day sales and the like, take a moment to remember them.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

Tu-144:

Back in the days of SSTs.

One Greedy Psychopath Endorses Another

A member of the Future Felons of America, Martin "Pharma Bro" Shkreki, has endorsed Donald Trump.

Martin Shkreli, the 33-year-old former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, said on Twitter Thursday that he would vote for the presumptive Republican nominee in his likely general election matchup. ... Shkreli, who is currently awaiting trial for securities fraud, said later that “all you people who don't like trump are jealous, stupid and poor! don't make me laugh!”

The funny thing is that, after somebody punked the little asswipe on Twitter, he then pulled a Very Donald Move: Threatened to sue.

I am so looking forward to reading the account of his eventual sentencing hearing.

Tool Selection; Election Edition

The Donald and Hillary are absolute tools. As opposed to either one of them, it would seem that in the general election, if the other party had nominated a reasonable candidate that would appeal to independents and disaffected voters fo the other party, that they would win in a walk.[1]

Of course, enough of the base voters of each party being morons, that's not what happened.

"Vote for Me, Because You Hate My Opponent More."

Clinton is amoral and somewhat venal, Trump is amoral, venal to his core and a conspiracy-freak lunatic.

Where can I enter the lottery for a chance at the ticket on one of the off-world colony ships?
______________________________
[1] Not Ted Cruz.

What Passes for a "Weapons Cache" in the UK These Days

A sharpening steel, a pair of scissors, a table knife and tweezers? That's a fearsome cache of weapons, all right.

This comment is accurate, but wrong. Load up a couple of Chunnel trains with soldiers armed with Kar98s and they'll take the place in a week. Which will put an end to the Brexit noise.