Scaramucci, Scaramucci, can you do the Drumfdango?

[librarianjojo]

In 20 years, someone will win a lot of money on a Final Jeopardy for remembering this little blip on the WH radar. I wish them well. 

[GrumpyGran]

What the everlovin' fuck? I take 8 hours off(NOT kidding) to go buy a car and this happens? I promise to back-read all of your entries tomorrow after PT but OMG, what a take down!  The most epic 11 days in history! I've heard of train wrecks that were less dramatic than this.

And, seriously DO NOT go shopping for a car on the last day of the month unless you have weapons and provisions. They kept bringing water and I thought "Where's the bread?"

But it's a pretty car. Maybe our dreams are coming true this week.  

[infooverload]

What the everlovin' fuck? I take 8 hours off(NOT kidding) to go buy a car and this happens? I promise to back-read all of your entries tomorrow after PT but OMG, what a take down!  The most epic 11 days in history! I've heard of train wrecks that were less dramatic than this.
And, seriously DO NOT go shopping for a car on the last day of the month unless you have weapons and provisions. They kept bringing water and I thought "Where's the bread?"
But it's a pretty car. Maybe our dreams are coming true this week.  

When I bought my car I took my 4 year old who wanted to explore everything and showed up close to closing. They were so damn motivated to get us out of there they were practically throwing stuff at us.

[GreyhoundFan]

I love Dana Milbank: "As the Good Book says: What the &@%$# happened to the Mooch?"

Spoiler

“Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like its (sic) heaven on earth.”

— Mark Twain, as told to Anthony Scaramucci.

It was a fall of biblical proportions.

Huge! Like, bigger than Jericho falling to Joshua.

“I said we were brothers,” Scaramucci, the newly named White House communications director, said last week of his rivalry with Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff. “That’s because we’re rough on each other. Some brothers are like Cain and Abel.”

Scaramucci’s retelling of Genesis had a twist: It was a murder-suicide. Priebus’s Abel was indeed slain by Scaramucci’s Cain; the chief was ousted Friday. But Cain met the same fate Monday afternoon; his buffoonery, self-aggrandizement and foul mouth caused him to be sacked after just 10 days on the job. He wasn’t officially supposed to start until Aug. 15, so his tenure, technically, was minus 16 days.

Much too soon, The Mooch is gone. As the Good Book says: What the &@%$#? Those &@%$# can go &@%$# themselves with a &@%$#.

Never was a man more devoted to a cause than the Mooch was to the Donald. He sold his business. He gave up his political beliefs. He apparently gave up his wife. He definitely surrendered his reputation and his dignity. All for President Trump, who thanked him by saying, “You’re fired.” Only hours after tweeting to the world: “No WH chaos!”

The Mooch’s tenure was such a whirlwind that it’s tempting to describe them as Ten Days That Changed the World. But the Mooch didn’t really change anything. He just made everything wildly entertaining.

As word leaked on July 21 that Scaramucci had been given the communications job, press secretary Sean Spicer quit. Scaramucci immediately gave a televised news conference, blowing a kiss to the cameras and planting many kisses on the “wonderful human being” who is Trump.

Two days later, he was on CNN, boasting to Jake Tapper about a secret source and saying, “I won’t tell you who.” When Tapper didn’t take the bait or ask who it was, Scaramucci blurted out: “How about it was the president, Jake? . . . He called me from Air Force One.”

So devoted was the Mooch to his patron that he tried, with all the subtlety of the Soviets, to airbrush his previous criticism of Trump — whom he’d called a “hack” and a “bully” — and Trump’s beliefs. “Full transparency,” the Mooch tweeted. “I’m deleting old tweets.” And so, in the name of transparency, he tried to erase a past in which he thought well of Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, gun control, abortion rights, Islam and climate-change science.

But the Mooch let stand one of his best tweets: his false claim that Mark Twain had uttered the “dance like no one is watching” quotation, which actually had its origins in 1980s pop music. The parodies poured in:

Na na na na na na na nana Na na na na nana Gettin jiggy wit it — Nelson Mandela.

Love. Love will keep us together. Think of me, babe, whenever. — Jesus Christ.

Bailamos! Let the rhythm take you over. — Christopher Columbus.

Nothing’s gonna stop us, nothing’s gonna stop us now. —Ernest Hemingway.

Then there were the photos: The Mooch giving a thumb’s up on Air Force One (en route to Youngstown, Ohio, where Trump would muse about his place on Mount Rushmore), and the Mooch with thumbs in his belt loops, facing off against Priebus in the Oval Office.

Wednesday night brought a tweet suggesting that Priebus was responsible for “the leak of my financial info which is a felony.” Turns out the financial information was public record.

Thursday, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reported on a phone call in which Scaramucci said top Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon was trying to “[expletive] his own [expletive],” that Priebus was a [expletive] paranoid schizophrenic” who was trying to “[expletive]-block” rivals. He said he wanted to [expletive] kill all the leakers, who, he said, are “going to have to go [expletive] themselves.”

On Friday, the New York Post reported that Scaramucci’s second wife, in late-stage pregnancy, had filed for a divorce in early July. The report suggested her husband’s involvement with Trump had something to do with it. She gave birth to a boy on Monday, but it took Scaramucci four days to meet his son.

Can the Mooch pick himself up after this fall? I believe he is Abel. As Mark Twain once said:

I see a little silhouetto of a man

Scaramooch, Scaramooch, will you do the fandango?

Thunderbolt and lightning — very very frightening me

Galileo, (Galileo), Galileo, (Galileo), Galileo Figaro

 

[GrumpyGran]

32 minutes ago, infooverload said:

 

When I bought my car I took my 4 year old who wanted to explore everything and showed up close to closing. They were so damn motivated to get us out of there they were practically throwing stuff at us.

 

I should have borrowed your 4 year old to help put an end to the hostage situation I was in.

19 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I love Dana Milbank: "As the Good Book says: What the &@%$# happened to the Mooch?"

  Reveal hidden contents

“Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like its (sic) heaven on earth.”

— Mark Twain, as told to Anthony Scaramucci.

It was a fall of biblical proportions.

Huge! Like, bigger than Jericho falling to Joshua.

“I said we were brothers,” Scaramucci, the newly named White House communications director, said last week of his rivalry with Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff. “That’s because we’re rough on each other. Some brothers are like Cain and Abel.”

Scaramucci’s retelling of Genesis had a twist: It was a murder-suicide. Priebus’s Abel was indeed slain by Scaramucci’s Cain; the chief was ousted Friday. But Cain met the same fate Monday afternoon; his buffoonery, self-aggrandizement and foul mouth caused him to be sacked after just 10 days on the job. He wasn’t officially supposed to start until Aug. 15, so his tenure, technically, was minus 16 days.

Much too soon, The Mooch is gone. As the Good Book says: What the &@%$#? Those &@%$# can go &@%$# themselves with a &@%$#.

Never was a man more devoted to a cause than the Mooch was to the Donald. He sold his business. He gave up his political beliefs. He apparently gave up his wife. He definitely surrendered his reputation and his dignity. All for President Trump, who thanked him by saying, “You’re fired.” Only hours after tweeting to the world: “No WH chaos!”

The Mooch’s tenure was such a whirlwind that it’s tempting to describe them as Ten Days That Changed the World. But the Mooch didn’t really change anything. He just made everything wildly entertaining.

As word leaked on July 21 that Scaramucci had been given the communications job, press secretary Sean Spicer quit. Scaramucci immediately gave a televised news conference, blowing a kiss to the cameras and planting many kisses on the “wonderful human being” who is Trump.

Two days later, he was on CNN, boasting to Jake Tapper about a secret source and saying, “I won’t tell you who.” When Tapper didn’t take the bait or ask who it was, Scaramucci blurted out: “How about it was the president, Jake? . . . He called me from Air Force One.”

So devoted was the Mooch to his patron that he tried, with all the subtlety of the Soviets, to airbrush his previous criticism of Trump — whom he’d called a “hack” and a “bully” — and Trump’s beliefs. “Full transparency,” the Mooch tweeted. “I’m deleting old tweets.” And so, in the name of transparency, he tried to erase a past in which he thought well of Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, gun control, abortion rights, Islam and climate-change science.

But the Mooch let stand one of his best tweets: his false claim that Mark Twain had uttered the “dance like no one is watching” quotation, which actually had its origins in 1980s pop music. The parodies poured in:

Na na na na na na na nana Na na na na nana Gettin jiggy wit it — Nelson Mandela.

Love. Love will keep us together. Think of me, babe, whenever. — Jesus Christ.

Bailamos! Let the rhythm take you over. — Christopher Columbus.

Nothing’s gonna stop us, nothing’s gonna stop us now. —Ernest Hemingway.

Then there were the photos: The Mooch giving a thumb’s up on Air Force One (en route to Youngstown, Ohio, where Trump would muse about his place on Mount Rushmore), and the Mooch with thumbs in his belt loops, facing off against Priebus in the Oval Office.

Wednesday night brought a tweet suggesting that Priebus was responsible for “the leak of my financial info which is a felony.” Turns out the financial information was public record.

Thursday, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reported on a phone call in which Scaramucci said top Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon was trying to “[expletive] his own [expletive],” that Priebus was a [expletive] paranoid schizophrenic” who was trying to “[expletive]-block” rivals. He said he wanted to [expletive] kill all the leakers, who, he said, are “going to have to go [expletive] themselves.”

On Friday, the New York Post reported that Scaramucci’s second wife, in late-stage pregnancy, had filed for a divorce in early July. The report suggested her husband’s involvement with Trump had something to do with it. She gave birth to a boy on Monday, but it took Scaramucci four days to meet his son.

Can the Mooch pick himself up after this fall? I believe he is Abel. As Mark Twain once said:

I see a little silhouetto of a man

Scaramooch, Scaramooch, will you do the fandango?

Thunderbolt and lightning — very very frightening me

Galileo, (Galileo), Galileo, (Galileo), Galileo Figaro

 

Well, he gets the Batty for Best Comedic Performance in a Limited Series.

[JMarie]

So I'm watching Hannity again... really must stop.  

First up is another complaint about bad Republicans who didn't vote the "right" way on the Obamacare repeal.  McCain joined the "obstructionist Democrats," you know.  The "lazy people in D. C." need to serve their constituents and pass Trump's agenda.

Some blathering about North Korea and their missile.  It's Bill Clinton's fault, because he made a deal with the Koreans in 1994, but the mainstream media won't tell you that.

A special council will be appointed to investigate Hillary, Comey, and Loretta Lynch.  The mainstream media won't tell you about this, either.  Another mention of Hillary's uranium deal with Russia (he mentions the uranium deal a lot!).

Something about James Clapper and the 4th Amendment.  John Solomon (executive VP of The Hill, some kind of "news source") and Monica Crowley (plagiarist/former Cabinet nominee) offered nothing important.

Sebastian Gorka (deputy assistant to the President) says that Trump is a results-oriented president, and will not allow the American people to be in danger.

Oh yay, Eric Trump wasn't doing anything so he swung by Hannity's studio.  It's 10:32 and Hannity FINALLY mentioned Scaramucci (didn't talk about the Mooch, just mentioned his name, once).  ET (tee-hee) thinks his dad has an "incredible Cabinet."  The mainstream media only wants to focus on Russia, and not how the country's 4 trillion dollars richer since Trump took office (really?  I'm not any richer).  It's awful that the Republican party won't support Trump, and the Democrats want Trump to fail.  Russia is a "nonsense story," and that's sad, because the mainstream media is in a race to the bottom.

Next up is Mike Huckabee (AKA Sarah's dad).  Healthcare isn't Constitutionally required, so it should be sent back to the states.  The Republican Party has lost its identity, Hannity argues, and Huckabee thinks we need to trade the troublesome current Republican senators and congresspeople for some new Republicans.  He did not, however, mention his little girl and how great she's doing now that she's on TV every single day.

Larry Elder (conservative radio guy) and Gregg Jarrett (Fox News guy) are talking again about the Clinton/Comey/Lynch investigation, and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's Pakistani IT guy, 

Closing commentary by Diamond and Silk.  I wasn't aware of them -- apparently they're two sassy Trump lovin' ladies.  Here's their Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/DiamondandSilk

So, no attempt to gloss over the travesty that was today.  No alternative facts, no nothing.  Following Hannity was a rerun of Tucker Carlson's show that aired earlier.  Scaramucci was the lead story for Carlson, but a nothing burger for Hannity.  At least Carlson wasn't afraid to talk about Scaramucci, even if he usually looks confused about what he's discussing.

[GreyhoundFan]

25 minutes ago, JMarie said:

The mainstream media only wants to focus on Russia, and not how the country's Drumpf family is 4 trillion dollars richer since Trump took office (really?  I'm not any richer).

Fixed it for you.

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, JMarie said:

A special council will be appointed to investigate Hillary, Comey, and Loretta Lynch.

I read that as Loretta Lynn the first time, and was totally baffled as to what in the hell she had to do with any of this. It did make Bohemian Rhapsody finally stop playing in my head though. Now, Loretta is singing Coal Miner's Daughter in my head, which does tie back to Trump in a bizarre six degrees of Kevin Bacon way that has me a wee bit spooked. 

Thank you for watching Hannity. You are made of much stronger stuff than I am.

What fresh hell awaits us tomorrow? 

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

For anyone who suceeded in loosing their earworm, disregard the video under the spoiler. All the rest of y'all, enjoy!

Spoiler

 

 

[JMarie]

7 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

I read that as Loretta Lynn the first time, and was totally baffled as to what in the hell she had to do with any of this. It did make Bohemian Rhapsody finally stop playing in my head though. Now, Loretta is singing Coal Miner's Daughter in my head, which does tie back to Trump in a bizarre six degrees of Kevin Bacon way that has me a wee bit spooked. 

Thank you for watching Hannity. You are made of much stronger stuff than I am.

What fresh hell awaits us tomorrow? 

This is what he'll be talking about.  This is what he's ALWAYS talking about.  The Five Forces Against Trump.  Sometimes he's so passionate, he looks like he might cry in frustration over the stupidity of People Who Just Don't Get It.

 

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/05/16/hannity-left-wing-media-destroy-donald-trump-presidency-collusion-russia-clinton

Quote

In his Opening Monologue, Sean Hannity called out the five powerful forces that have aligned to undermine Donald Trump's presidency.

Hannity said the five groups were the "destroy-Trump propaganda media," the Democrats, the deep-state establishment within the bureaucracy, establishment Republicans and "NeverTrump-ers."

He said the same media that colluded with Hillary Clinton has been on a mission to "slander" Trump.

^^^^ This is from May.  Just about every day (of the episodes I suffered through), he's mentioned at least one of the forces.  Anything to avoid talking about actual news.

[GreyhoundFan]

An email prankster (the same one who hit others) got "The Mooch" yesterday as well: "A final indignity: Scaramucci got punked by an email prankster posing as Priebus"

Spoiler

How zany was Anthony Scaramucci's 10-day turn as White House communications director? His feud with Reince Priebus escalated to Shakespearean proportions — then turned out to involve an email prankster posing as President Trump's ousted chief of staff.

On top of everything else, Scaramucci got punked.

CNN's Jake Tapper reported Monday night on a heated email exchange that occurred on Saturday, the day after Trump replaced Priebus with John F. Kelly and three days after a bizarre episode in which Scaramucci on Twitter appeared to accuse Priebus of leaking a document that is actually a public record. Here's an excerpt of Tapper's report:

Masquerading as Priebus, the prankster emailed Scaramucci's official account using a mail.com account on Saturday, the day after Priebus' resignation was announced.

“I had promised myself I would leave my hands mud free,” wrote the fake Priebus, “but after reading your tweet today which stated how; 'soon we will learn who in the media who has class, and who hasn't', has pushed me to this. That tweet was breathtakingly hypocritical, even for you. At no stage have you acted in a way that's even remotely classy, yet you believe that's the standard by which everyone should behave towards you? General Kelly will do a fine job. I'll even admit he will do a better job than me. But the way in which that transition has come about has been diabolical. And hurtful. I don't expect a reply.”

The very real Scaramucci responded: “You know what you did. We all do. Even today. But rest assured we were prepared. A Man would apologize.”

Fake Priebus wrote back: “I can't believe you are questioning my ethics! The so called 'Mooch', who can't even manage his first week in the White House without leaving upset in his wake. I have nothing to apologize for.”

Actual Scaramucci responded: “Read Shakespeare. Particularly Othello. You are right there. My family is fine by the way and will thrive. I know what you did. No more replies from me.”

The same prankster also fooled homeland security adviser Tom Bossert, Eric Trump and Jon Huntsman Jr., the president's nominee to serve as ambassador to Russia, by posing as other officials.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN that “we take all cyber-related issues very seriously and are looking into these incidents further.”

Tapper reported that “the prankster appears motivated by mischief, not anything more malignant, so the severity of these White House pranks should not be overstated.” But it is hard to overstate the irony of Scaramucci's hoodwinking.

He swept into the White House on a mission to plug leaks — like anonymously sourced reports that he and Priebus don't get along — yet his brief tenure was defined by spilling information into the public domain on Twitter and TV, in a raving phone call to a New Yorker reporter and, finally, in an email to Priebus's digital decoy.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

[GreyhoundFan]

"The only communications director booted faster than Scaramucci had been outed for Nazi ties"

Spoiler

Anthony Scaramucci may occupy a few lines in future political history books with his remarkably short tenure, but it is not even the shortest as White House communications director. Forced out 10 days after he started, his brief stint was marked by a public battle with former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus — only to have John F. Kelly, the new chief of staff, orchestrate his removal, according to two people knowledgeable about the decision.

But John O. Koehler, who was the chief communicator for President Ronald Reagan in March 1987, had an even shorter tenure of less than one week.

Koehler arrived at the White House with a glittering communications resume. He retired from the Associated Press in 1985 as an assistant general manager and took a job with the U.S. Information Agency, the now-defunct State Department arm used to promote U.S. diplomatic efforts among foreign audiences.

The German-born Koehler took over in the waning years of the Cold War with personal and professional animosity toward the Soviet Union. He translated for the U.S. Army during World War II as a teenager before the Soviets closed in on his hometown of Dresden, the eastern German city that sat in the Red Army’s southern approach to Berlin. He then served as an Army officer in the 1950s.

He told the Associated Press on Feb. 18 that he accepted the job during a 15-minute meeting with Reagan, adding that ”I am going to be as low key as I can.”

But like Scaramucci, whose appointment triggered the resignation of press secretary Sean Spicer, the controversy surrounding Koehler’s appointment began even before his first day in the West Wing.

Soon after Koehler’s hiring announcement, NBC News reported that he had been a member of a Nazi youth group when he was 10.

Koehler said he disclosed his participation in Jungvolk, the Hitler Youth program used to indoctrinate young boys with Nazi ideology through outdoor activities, when he went through the security clearance process, The Washington Post reported Feb. 20, 1987 — eight days before he was scheduled to take over the position.

The voluntary involvement of German youth was later compulsory in 1939, and some were pressed into full military service. Koehler called it “the Boy Scouts run by the Nazi party,” and said he spent about six months in the program.

Koehler sought to play down his involvement after news of the disclosure was circulated in the media, apparently catching the White House off guard.

“If you lived in Germany at that time and were of a certain age, you had something to do with the party. Do you really begin to think at that age?” Koehler told The Post.

“Having been a newspaperman in this country for more than 30 years, I think this is a black day in journalism,” Koehler said.

The next day, on Feb. 21, The Post reported that Reagan said he had confidence in Koehler despite public grievances between first lady Nancy Reagan and the president’s chief of staff, Donald Regan. Sources said Mrs. Reagan, who was a friend of Koehler, pushed for his appointment.

Regan was frustrated by the “rushed appointment” of Koehler and said that Koehler’s involvement in the German youth group may have been scrutinized with a slower process. He blamed Nancy Reagan for the media firestorm.

The episode further angered Republicans, who expected the White House to outflank critics in the Iran-contra scandal and ended up bogged down in West Wing staff controversies.

Officials cited Regan’s comment about the first lady, made at a senior staff meeting, as a remark that angered Reagan and hastened Regan’s departure, The Post reported.

Koehler had few allies outside the Oval Office. The new chief of staff, Howard Baker Jr., asked Koehler to resign on March 7, 1987. A White House official said Baker told Koehler that he is “reorganizing” the staff.

Less than a week had passed since his first day on March 1.

In Reagan’s letter accepting Koehler’s resignation, the president wished Koehler and his wife, Dorothy, godspeed and good health.

“I admired the enthusiasm with which you plunged into the job, and your loyalty to me. Your selflessness was demonstrated again by your gracious recognition that Howard Baker must have every opportunity,” the president said.

Koehler, who died in 2012, wrote in response: “I have believed totally in your goals for the United States and for the world from the first day we met in the early 70s. Thus, I welcomed the privilege to serve you albeit briefly.”

“I recognize and endorse the importance that Senator Baker must have his own team with whom he will feel comfortable to carry out your program so vital for the American people,” he added.

A little more than 30 years later, Scaramucci pulled a page from his micro-tenured predecessor to offer a strikingly similar remark over his quick exit.

“Mr. Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John F. Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team,” incoming White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday.

So "The Mooch" doesn't have the "honor" of having the shortest tenure in the communications office.

[GreyhoundFan]

I love snarky Alexandra Petri: "Am I my Mooch’s keeper?"

Spoiler

Scaramucci had at one point described [his relationship to Reince Priebus] as that of “brothers.” Later, he clarified that they were like Cain and Abel, two biblical brothers whose tumultuous relationship ended in tragedy. Cain murdered Abel before he was punished by God and condemned to a life of wandering.
— The Washington Post

Anthony Scaramucci has been cast out.

Reince Priebus’s blood cries out from the soil.

And also, and perhaps more pressingly, the blood of Steve Bannon’s ego cries out from the soil.

And now the curse of President Trump has fallen upon Scaramucci, and he has been made a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. He is of no further use to Jared nor unto Ivanka, and so his iniquities cry out against him, and his loyalty is regarded not at all. And also the general, John Kelly, did not like his deeds, not one bit, and John Kelly has big braids on his shoulders and his burnt offerings to the homeland have received Trump’s favor.

So he has been cursed forth from Trump’s presence and he must wander the earth and lament until the end of his days.

He was escorted from the White House grounds, crying piteously to his maker, “Do not cast me out! For I have sold my business and destroyed my relationships, and if I must be hidden from your face, I must surely die.”

“Ye must go forth,” said Trump, “for I found your comments inappropriate and wish John Kelly to start with a clean slate and a team of his own choosing.”

“How can these things be?” Scaramucci inquired, though definitely not in those exact words, but of course I cannot print the exact words. “This cannot come to pass, for surely what I said, though vivid, was no worse than what thou thyself didst say, o Lord, and I seek only to do thy will and to slay all those who would oppose thee.”

But Trump did cast him out and did curse him, thusly, saying that when he tills the soil of Wall Street it shall no longer yield to him its strength, and his own home shall know him not, nor shall his son know him, (though some of this may be upon his head, as he responded (according to Page 6) to news of the baby’s birth by texting “Congratulations! I will pray for our son” and surprisingly this was not received with gladness.)

And so he cried out to Trump and said “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the White House, and I shall be hidden from your face, I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may slay me.”

And Trump said to him, “Not so! I shall put upon thee a mark, the best mark, a mark that shall increase thy value sevenfold, the mark of Trump, and you shall bear it all your days, that none shall slay thee, but equally none shall hire thee.”

And Scaramucci went forth from the presence of the Trump and unto the land of Nod, north of Washington, and thence to New York City, where he had learned to speak in his curious way, but all there were strange to him and regarded him not, and Sean Spicer did he see in his wanderings there, and likewise numerous others did he behold who bore likewise the mark of Trump, which did render them unfit for any office and did make them outcast in the eyes of men.

And he did wander up and down the earth and those who cast eyes upon him did despise him, in spite of his excellent sunglasses and his high energy and his wavy hair and his fluid command of gesture, for upon his forehead he bore the mark of Trump. Whenever he tried to till the soil of Wall Street or of Hollywood, the seeds turned into salt, and the soil spat them forth and received them not.

He wondered at the thing that had come to pass. He had not advocated the alt-right, as Bannon had. Yet Bannon sat yet at the right hand of Trump.

(Ah, to sit there! To bask even for a moment in his reflected glory! To let Trump’s face shine upon him like a peach-tinted sunlamp and to hear, “You are my beloved Mooch, with whom I am well pleased.”)

Out here was only chaos. Everywhere where Trump was not was chaos, darkness, banishment.

And Kelly sat there, too, upon Trump’s other hand, wielding his flaming sword.

Scaramucci’s sin had been merely in ignorance. He had simply not known that you were not supposed to telephone a writer for the New Yorker out of the blue to say unto him vulgar and anatomically specific things on the record and make threats unto him to get him to reveal his sources and rave unto him about the FBI and accuse the whole White House staff of betrayal and paranoia and self-aggrandizement. This was a simple rookie mistake, which anyone might make, and he was a young man yet. Where was his forgiveness? He had not even taken a meeting with the Russians yet.

Yet Trump had cast him out. Even in the swamp Trump could not abide his presence.

Did Trump not see? All the world was a swamp where Donald Trump was not, with his shining tie and his golden tri-radiant nimbus, or whatever that was upon his head.

Trump had created his world in seven days and in only three he had destroyed it, utterly. He had banished from his presence the one man on earth for whom the thought of having no interactions with Donald Trump in the course of a given day was a horrible curse and not an undreamed-of happiness. The one man for whom Hell was the absence of Trump, he had doomed unto Hell. He had cast Mooch into the outer darkness to wander for the rest of his days. Unless there is another shake-up, of course.

"...peach tinted sunlamp..." I'm giggling like a schoolgirl.

[GreyhoundFan]

"‘Goodbye, Mooch’: Late-night comedians bid farewell to Anthony Scaramucci"

Spoiler

“The Mooch” was a character — and a name — made for late-night comedy.

In the days after Anthony Scaramucci’s appointment as White House communications director, late-night hosts introduced their mobster-like imitations of the fast-talking, brash New Yorker. They came up with a slew of puns, comparisons and words that rhymed with “mooch.”

Stephen Colbert said he looked like a “lawyer whose ad is above the urinal.” Seth Meyers called him the “human embodiment of a double-parked BMW.”

“I could go on and on … you know what, let’s! He definitely calls waitresses, ‘Sweetheart,'” Meyers said last week on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”

Indeed, late-night hosts could have gone on with the quips much longer. But their one-liners had a short shelf life. On Monday, after only 10 days with Scaramucci in the White House, President Trump fired him at the urging of new White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.

So naturally, late-night hosts were in mourning. Sort of.

‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’

“I come to you tonight as a broken man,” Stephen Colbert said on CBS’s “Late Show.” “Because just this afternoon I was shocked by this breaking nooch.”

The show staff had just finished creating a cartoon version of Scaramucci, Colbert said. (It was unclear if he was joking or not).

Just days earlier, Colbert welcomed Scaramucci to his post, singing a rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody” (“Scaramouche, Scaramouche, can you do the fandango?”).

But on Monday, Colbert night switched to the more somber part of Queen’s song, changing the lyrics to “Mama, I just got canned … barely got to the White House, said some dumb stuff now I’m out … Mama, my job had just begun, and now I’ve gone and thrown it all away.”

“Now I guess it’s time to say goodbye,” Colbert said. “We hardly knewcci.”

He joked that it was time for him to get rid of all of his mooch memorabilia — his “moochandise.”

“Ten days,” Colbert said in reference to Scaramucci’s brief tenure, “That’s not even a whole pay period! His going away party can serve what’s left of his welcome cake.”

Colbert staged a going-away party for the exiting communications director, complete with repurposed decorations from a welcome party. The word “Congratulations” on balloons was changed to the word “Congratulater.”

“He said he was gonna fire everybody,” Colbert said, “And I gotta admit, he delivered.”

...

‘The Daily Show’

On Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,”  Trevor Noah also took a sarcastically melancholy approach to bidding the Trump-like New Yorker farewell, featuring an “in memoriam” tribute similar to those broadcast at the Academy Awards.

“The guy got fired before the job began!” Noah said, in reference to the fact that Scaramucci’s communications job was not supposed to start until Aug. 15.

“It’s like the song of the summer,” Noah said. “Scaramucci came into our lives, made everyone obsessed with him for like a week, and then left us with nothing but memories and a bunch of weird moves.” He showed a video clip of Scaramucci blowing a kiss during a news conference last week.

Noah discussed the decision to replace Reince Priebus with Kelly, a retired Marine general, comparing it to Trump sending himself to boarding school to get disciplined.

“Why do they keep bringing in new people as if we don’t all know what the real problem is?” Noah said. “It’s like Donald Trump is a tornado and the White House keeps hiring new maids” to clean up the mess, he said.

...

‘Late Night With Seth Meyers’

On “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” the host noted that Scaramucci’s tenure was as long as his last name. He joked that Trump has fired so many members of his White House staff that “at this point getting fired is part of orientation.”

He talked about how Priebus was ousted shortly after Scaramucci’s public, vicious feud with Priebus.

“Scaramucci got Priebus fired, and then he got fired two days later,” Meyers said. “That’s like telling someone ‘See you in hell’ and then literally showing up in hell the next day.”

‘The Tonight Show’

Jimmy Fallon, in recounting the news of the day, he added a make-believe twist: “This was a little awkward. When Scaramucci called an Uber to pick him up at the White House, Sean Spicer was driving. Imagine the odds of that happening.”

Spicer, of course, resigned as the White House press secretary on the day of Scaramucci’s hiring.

Fallon also mentioned the news last week that Scaramucci missed the birth of his son last week, when he was in West Virginia with Trump. Scaramucci reportedly sent his wife a text reading, “Congratulations, I’ll pray for our child.”

“Trump was like, you don’t text your wife after she has your baby,” Fallon quipped. “You tweet her.”

A lawyer representing Scaramucci’s wife told the New York Times Sunday the reports about the text message were false.

‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’

Jimmy Kimmel, meanwhile, joked he landed the first “exclusive interview” with Scaramucci after his firing which, of course, wasn’t true. The fake audio played was almost entirely bleeped out due to profanity — spoofing Scaramucci’s vulgar rants in a New Yorker interview.

With all the shake-ups in the White House, Kimmel said, it’s only a matter of time before Trump replaced Ivanka Trump, his daughter and a White House adviser, with his other daughter, Tiffany.

Then, Kimmel summed up the night: “How did we lose the Mooch already?”

The videos embedded in the article are quite funny.

[GreyhoundFan]

The opening of Stephen Colbert's show last night was funny -- Another day, another nameplate:

 

[Cartmann99]

I was hoping that Scaramucci would be around long enough for SNL to do a sketch about how much money the FCC had collected in fines from broadcast networks attempting to air his comments without a delay. You know he would have completely lost it on live television at some point. 

 

 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I love snarky Alexandra Petri: "Am I my Mooch’s keeper?"

  Hide contents

Scaramucci had at one point described [his relationship to Reince Priebus] as that of “brothers.” Later, he clarified that they were like Cain and Abel, two biblical brothers whose tumultuous relationship ended in tragedy. Cain murdered Abel before he was punished by God and condemned to a life of wandering.
— The Washington Post

Anthony Scaramucci has been cast out.

Reince Priebus’s blood cries out from the soil.

And also, and perhaps more pressingly, the blood of Steve Bannon’s ego cries out from the soil.

And now the curse of President Trump has fallen upon Scaramucci, and he has been made a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. He is of no further use to Jared nor unto Ivanka, and so his iniquities cry out against him, and his loyalty is regarded not at all. And also the general, John Kelly, did not like his deeds, not one bit, and John Kelly has big braids on his shoulders and his burnt offerings to the homeland have received Trump’s favor.

So he has been cursed forth from Trump’s presence and he must wander the earth and lament until the end of his days.

He was escorted from the White House grounds, crying piteously to his maker, “Do not cast me out! For I have sold my business and destroyed my relationships, and if I must be hidden from your face, I must surely die.”

“Ye must go forth,” said Trump, “for I found your comments inappropriate and wish John Kelly to start with a clean slate and a team of his own choosing.”

“How can these things be?” Scaramucci inquired, though definitely not in those exact words, but of course I cannot print the exact words. “This cannot come to pass, for surely what I said, though vivid, was no worse than what thou thyself didst say, o Lord, and I seek only to do thy will and to slay all those who would oppose thee.”

But Trump did cast him out and did curse him, thusly, saying that when he tills the soil of Wall Street it shall no longer yield to him its strength, and his own home shall know him not, nor shall his son know him, (though some of this may be upon his head, as he responded (according to Page 6) to news of the baby’s birth by texting “Congratulations! I will pray for our son” and surprisingly this was not received with gladness.)

And so he cried out to Trump and said “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the White House, and I shall be hidden from your face, I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may slay me.”

And Trump said to him, “Not so! I shall put upon thee a mark, the best mark, a mark that shall increase thy value sevenfold, the mark of Trump, and you shall bear it all your days, that none shall slay thee, but equally none shall hire thee.”

And Scaramucci went forth from the presence of the Trump and unto the land of Nod, north of Washington, and thence to New York City, where he had learned to speak in his curious way, but all there were strange to him and regarded him not, and Sean Spicer did he see in his wanderings there, and likewise numerous others did he behold who bore likewise the mark of Trump, which did render them unfit for any office and did make them outcast in the eyes of men.

And he did wander up and down the earth and those who cast eyes upon him did despise him, in spite of his excellent sunglasses and his high energy and his wavy hair and his fluid command of gesture, for upon his forehead he bore the mark of Trump. Whenever he tried to till the soil of Wall Street or of Hollywood, the seeds turned into salt, and the soil spat them forth and received them not.

He wondered at the thing that had come to pass. He had not advocated the alt-right, as Bannon had. Yet Bannon sat yet at the right hand of Trump.

(Ah, to sit there! To bask even for a moment in his reflected glory! To let Trump’s face shine upon him like a peach-tinted sunlamp and to hear, “You are my beloved Mooch, with whom I am well pleased.”)

Out here was only chaos. Everywhere where Trump was not was chaos, darkness, banishment.

And Kelly sat there, too, upon Trump’s other hand, wielding his flaming sword.

Scaramucci’s sin had been merely in ignorance. He had simply not known that you were not supposed to telephone a writer for the New Yorker out of the blue to say unto him vulgar and anatomically specific things on the record and make threats unto him to get him to reveal his sources and rave unto him about the FBI and accuse the whole White House staff of betrayal and paranoia and self-aggrandizement. This was a simple rookie mistake, which anyone might make, and he was a young man yet. Where was his forgiveness? He had not even taken a meeting with the Russians yet.

Yet Trump had cast him out. Even in the swamp Trump could not abide his presence.

Did Trump not see? All the world was a swamp where Donald Trump was not, with his shining tie and his golden tri-radiant nimbus, or whatever that was upon his head.

Trump had created his world in seven days and in only three he had destroyed it, utterly. He had banished from his presence the one man on earth for whom the thought of having no interactions with Donald Trump in the course of a given day was a horrible curse and not an undreamed-of happiness. The one man for whom Hell was the absence of Trump, he had doomed unto Hell. He had cast Mooch into the outer darkness to wander for the rest of his days. Unless there is another shake-up, of course.

"...peach tinted sunlamp..." I'm giggling like a schoolgirl.

Pure genius! Loved it!

[GrumpyGran]

I just feel like we'll never see his true potential, his strong points. We'll never really get to know him and his lovely family.  We won't get to watch as he guides the White House and it's stellar staff to win after win as they continue to hit home run after home run with Trump's shining agenda.

And I was particularly looking forward to watching as he learned to mangle the English language, spew out half-sentences, lie about what he did the day before, claim dementia regarding his entire previous career, all while using spectacular expletives.

I feel like someone stole my covfefe and ate it.  

[47of74]

I just saw this John Oliver takedown of The Mooch;

 

And yes, the Mooch sounds like a cow STD.

[GreyhoundFan]

@47of74 -- John Oliver's piece on Alex Jones is superb as well. I knew it would be a great show, since they had been off for a few weeks. It's not like they are short on material...

[GreyhoundFan]

This is a great article. It has way too many tweets and videos to quote, but it's a good read: "‘The moment when it really started to feel insane’: An oral history of the Scaramucci era"

[JMarie]

Yay, there's a video by Mario Cantone!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/opinion/mario-cantone-mooch-scaramucci.html?src=me

They probably did smell like canned corn....

[GrumpyGran]

12 minutes ago, JMarie said:

Yay, there's a video by Mario Cantone!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/opinion/mario-cantone-mooch-scaramucci.html?src=me

They probably did smell like canned corn....

I feel so bad or him.  He should sue Trump. Loss of income.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Why The Mooch Lost His Cool"

Spoiler

I received a call Monday night from Roger Stone, the infamous political prankster and Donald Trump confidant. He wanted to talk about Anthony Scaramucci, whose 10-day tenure as White House communications director had just ended in ignominy.

Stone said that Scaramucci reminded him of “a suicide bomber,” then switched centuries for his next metaphor. “The administration is like the French Revolution,” Stone said. “You never know who will be beheaded next.”

But Stone didn’t believe that Scaramucci would stay far from the president for long. “As you know, none of us are ever really gone. He still has the president’s cellphone, the president’s private number. Just because he’s not in the White House, no one should think his influence has gone.”

When I spoke to Scaramucci on Tuesday afternoon, the financier was more interested in justifying his recent past.

From the beginning of his time in the Trump White House, way back on July 20, critics said that Scaramucci was too similar to Trump, too eager to be on TV, to last. Scaramucci was keenly aware of that particular liability. It explains why his opening news conference was so filled with compliments for the president. He knew there was only one person watching whose opinion of him mattered. 

“The president thought I killed it,” Scaramucci told me the following day, still clearly hyped up by his experience in the White House briefing room.

“If you were 7 inches taller, I’d be worried,” Trump told Scaramucci, according to someone familiar with the conversation who asked not to be named quoting the president.

The euphoria wouldn’t last long. A Politico reporter alerted Scaramucci that Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker tweeted Wednesday night that Scaramucci was at dinner with the president, first lady Melania Trump, Fox News host Sean Hannity and former Fox News co-president Bill Shine.

...

Scaramucci was livid about the information being passed on to a reporter. For one thing, he said the guest list was incomplete. The tweets didn’t mention the presence of Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade, co-hosts of “Fox & Friends,” as well as White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and Vice President Mike Pence, who, he said, left before the sit-down dinner. For another, he knew that the full guest list also included Kimberly Guilfoyle, co-host of “The Five” on Fox News. Early the next morning, Olivia Nuzzi of New York Magazine confirmed that Guilfoyle was there.

...

Scaramucci realized that the inclusion of Guilfoyle would raise suspicion. He said he was aware that some associates and members of the media were gossiping about his friendship with the Fox host and feared this particular connection would only make matters worse. He said he took it as “an attack.”

Scaramucci strongly denies having a sexual relationship with Guilfoyle. Stone, a friend of Guilfoyle’s, explained that Scaramucci and Guilfoyle “are very close friends but nothing more.” He added, “He is way too short for Kimberly.” 

Through a Fox News spokesperson, Guilfoyle said she’s known Scaramucci for years through her work at Fox News and the two are “good friends.”

As soon as Scaramucci returned from Wednesday night’s dinner, he called Lizza and gave his now-infamous interview, published Thursday, in which he suggested that former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was a “paranoid schizophrenic” and that White House chief strategist Steve Bannon practiced auto-fellatio.

Scaramucci said he felt burned by the interview. “The Lizzas and Scaramuccis have been friends for over 50 years. My dad knew his dad from construction, and we were building a personal relationship. Most of what I said was humorous and joking. Legally, it may have been on the record, but the spirit of it was off. And he knew that.”

Still, Scaramucci told me, he has plans to take Lizza out for a beer. 

When I asked Lizza for his response, he wrote back: “I’ve only known Anthony in his capacity as a Trump surrogate and then White House communications director. We are not and have never been ‘old family friends,’ though I think our fathers knew each other, so maybe that’s what he’s talking about. (The Long Island Italian world in that generation is relatively small.) But again, that would not be a reason to suppress an explosive on-the-record interview.”

According to several sources close to the White House, the president was initially amused by the Lizza exchange but changed his opinion when he saw how much negative attention it was bringing. Scaramucci said he offered to resign before the weekend. The president told him that wouldn’t be necessary, but he instructed Scaramucci to “watch it” in the future, according to someone familiar with the conversation.

I spoke with Scaramucci on Saturday morning, and he sounded defeated. “I think I have strep,” he said. On top of everything else, the night before, The New York Post had broken the news of his impending divorce from his second wife, Deidre Ball.

That Scaramucci’s marriage was in trouble was hardly a secret. Long before Ball filed for divorce on July 6, Scaramucci was open with friends and associates about what he believed to be the sorry state of their union and how they were struggling through regular counseling sessions.

He just hated that his relationship was being discussed in public. A follow-up report from the Post said that Scaramucci didn’t attend the birth of their son last week. Instead, he sent Ball a short congratulatory text.

Scaramucci said this is an unfair characterization of events. He told me that Ball’s due date was Aug. 9, so when he boarded Air Force One to West Virginia last Monday to attend the president’s address at the National Scout Jamboree, he didn’t think he’d be in danger of missing the birth. As soon as she texted him that she was going into labor, he said, he looked into chartering a plane from West Virginia but discovered that there was a wide no fly-zone around Air Force One. He explained that he decided to wait to fly back to Washington with the president, then travel to New York from there.

As of Tuesday afternoon, he still hadn’t met his son. Scaramucci claimed that right after the birth Ball texted him her request for some space. When I asked about this text, Ball’s lawyer, Jill Stone, responded: “Any texts of that nature had nothing to do with the baby or seeing the baby.” (Jill Stone said she couldn’t comment on the rest of Scaramucci’s version of events.)

When I spoke to Scaramucci on Saturday, he didn’t have much to say about the collapse of his marriage. “It’s fine. I mean, what am I going to do?” He perked up when he started talking about the fantastic team he was going to bring into the White House’s communications shop and the big plans he was going to enact after a tumultuous first week.

But on Monday morning, Scaramucci knew he was cooked. Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, the new chief of staff, who insisted that all White House staff report to him, asked for his resignation. “It was a very polite conversation,” Scaramucci says.

Scaramucci then went to see Trump, who was unavailable. He ended up speaking with the president, his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, separately later in the day by telephone. All were gracious, he said. “The president told me he knows I have his back, but he has to try to tighten the ship.”

So what are you going to do next, I asked him.

“I am now going to go dark,” he said.

And then?

“Then I will reemerge.” He paused. “As me.”

 

[onekidanddone]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Stone said that Scaramucci reminded him of “a suicide bomber,” then switched centuries for his next metaphor. “The administration is like the French Revolution,” Stone said. “You never know who will be beheaded next.”

I thought Trump hires the best people.  The best! I also thought Stone was a hard core Trump train sycophant. His comparing this administration with the French Revolution is odd and creepy.  We all know how that ended for the king.