Headline of the Day

Republicans Unveil Secret Midterm Weapon, It Is Hasan Piker’s Dinglesmackus

—Wonkette, on the decision by Republicans to post a thirst trap picture of Hasan Piker on the Jumbotron at their mid term convention.

I'll be honest here, I am posting this because they used the term, "Dinglesmackus," in the title, and it made me laugh.

That term is almost as epic asd the term, "Snollygoster." 

It turns out that the mid term convention that they held in Dallas may go into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest closet. 

If you follow American politics closely, you may remember two minutes ago, when the most important question for serious journalists to ask Democrats was “How old were you when you gay married Hasan Piker on a bed of rose petals while reading Jeremiah Wright sermons to each other sexually?” If you were Dana Bash or Kristen Welker or Jake Tapper or Axios or whoever, this was the most important issue, and the only question you had for Democrats, even Democrats who had nothing to do with the Twitch streamer named Hasan Piker, who had never heard of him.

They had no similar questions for Republicans about their actual associations and money-taking from actual Nazis and trillionaire antisemites, because Beltway journalists and New York Times reporters know the DC party invites dry up during fascist administrations if they stop licking fascist balls for one second.

This doesn’t happen to them during Democratic administrations because if there is one thing that is true about American politics it is that Democrats are desperate for the media to think they’re cool, while the media is desperate for Republicans to think they’re cool. Like so, the pattern of abuse perpetuates itself. Maybe some of these new crop of Team Fight Democrats can break the cycle.

But two minutes ago, or last night, at the sold-out Trump Republican Midterm Convention (many tickets still available), Republicans revealed their secret weapon for the midterms, which changed everything, and it was a thirst trap of Hasan Piker’s willysmacker on the Jumbotron:

Y’all.

[image or embed]

— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 8:14 PM

………

So this is hilarious, and Christ, Republicans are so weird and unable to hide their bizarre psychosexual issues for even one fucking second. As you can see in the Piker livestream clip, this all happened during a scare montage about tHe rAdiCAl LeFt, and it was all communism! and China! and trans kids playing teeball! and then suddenly on the screen there was Hasan Piker in his underpants in a selfie he posted on Instagram.

This was supposed to prove … something? But what it really showed was that a really big part of what Republicans hate about Hasan Piker, what really grinds their gears, what they hate about Abdul El-Sayed, what they hate about Zohran Mamdani, Jon Ossoff, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is that they are hot and Republicans really really really really really really really want to fuck them. And that makes Republicans seethe with rage and jealousy, and it makes them hate themselves even more than they usually do, which is a lot.

 These are very weird people.

Signed Into Law

The Hawaii bill which would strip corporations of the power to make corporate donations is now law.

I do expect that the Supreme Court will overrule this, probably in a shadow docket decision, before the ink on the Governor's signature is dry, but it is a good thing. 

On Thursday, Gov. Josh Green formally enacted Senate Bill 2471, now Act 11, which establishes new restrictions on political spending by corporations and other “artificial persons” established under Hawaii law.

The measure has received widespread national attention as the first major state-level challenge to the unchecked spending by Super PACs ushered in by the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision, which established corporate spending on political advertisements as protected free speech.

“The foundation of our democracy is that political power belongs to the people,” said state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who co-introduced the measure. “Corporations and other artificial entities exist because the state grants them legal privileges, including limited liability and lucrative tax benefits that individuals cannot claim. Act 011 clarifies that those privileges do not include the power to spend corporate money to influence our elections.”

The new law will almost certainly be challenged in court as a direct violation of the Supreme Court ruling but supporters contend it will withstand judicial scrutiny because its scope is limited to the terms set forth by the Hawaii State Constitution regarding the powers granted by the state to the entities it creates and their limitations.

In essence, Act 011 clarifies that artificial entities created under state law possess only those powers necessary or convenient to carry out their lawful business or organizational purposes. The law specifies that those powers do not include spending money or contributing anything of value to influence elections or ballot measures.

Act 011 applies to a range of entities organized or authorized to do business under Hawaii law, including corporations, nonprofit corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, and certain associations. It also authorizes the attorney general and the director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to impose penalties or bring enforcement actions for violations.

Hopefully, this scares the hell out of the Snollygoster Six on the Supreme Court.

More is coming. 

Trump Lied? Pshaw!

I am not at all surprised that the snollygoster of snollygosters Donald Trump lied when he claimed that a former President told him privately that they approved the war.

After Donald Trump claimed twice on Monday that he had spoken to a former US president who told him that he approved of his attack on Iran, all four living former presidents denied having spoken with Trump about Iran in statements from aides to CNN and other outlets.

Donald Trump is to honesty what Ebola is to French kissing. 

The World Has Become Marginally More Fact Based

The headline says it all, "Erich von Däniken, Who Claimed Aliens Visited Earth, Dies at 90. 

One less snollygoster peddling pablum to the world. 

Only 10 at a Time

Someone managed to get the number of robotaxis that Tesla is operating in Austin, and simultaneously operating vehicles could be counted without taking off your shoes.

Yep,fewer than 10 cars at a time. 

If Elon Musk is to be believed, millions of driverless Tesla Robotaxis are set to conquer the streets of America by next year.

Right now, however, his tiny fleet would be stretched thin covering a couple city blocks.

With Tesla remaining tight-lipped about how many self-driving cabs it has in operation, Texas A&M engineering student Ethan McKanna tells Electrek that he’s created an online tracker that keeps tabs on the automaker’s service in Austin, Texas by reverse-engineering its ride-hailing app. It shows that just 32 different Tesla Model Ys are currently operating as part of the Robotaxi network — and worse yet, most of the cars don’t even operate concurrently: the data suggests that fewer than ten robotaxis are giving rides at the same time.

This to me seems to be an indication that there are a small number people who are constantly monitoring the vehicles, and so they cannot scale at the rate that the Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy™ is claiming.

Elon Musk is a snollygoster.

It's All Humbug

Snollygoster Chuck Schumer has been using a fictitious family to justify his milquetoast politics.

They are Joe and Eileen Bailey, and they do not exist.

I would say something, but I could be writing from now until the heat death of the universe, and I could not do any better than John Oliver:

This is insane.

Apparently, Chuck Schumer has based his entire political strategy on an entirely fictional Long Island couple named Joe and Eileen Bailey. pic.twitter.com/9NoQZMY2sZ

— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) August 11, 2025

If I would fault John Oliver about anything, it is that while he alludes to it, he does not make it clear enough that the Baileys are an excuse to say racist crap and to pander to big business.

This is not just a septuagenarian making up stories like your (also somewhat racist) grandpa, this is a calculated decision that Charles Schumer made to allow him to pander to racists.

This is Sistah Souljah lite done by what is arguably the most ineffectual Democratic leader of the US Senate in history.

Charles Ellis Schumer, would you please go now? 

Ecch (Tweet) of the Day

"So in an effort to highlight his claim that Kamala Harris never worked at McDonald’s, Trump pretended to work at a closed McDonald’s where he served pretend orders to supporters pretending to be customers" https://t.co/KykzMAZz9F

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) October 21, 2024

What, you mean that Trump is a snollygoster?

Well knock me over with the out of control 116,851 ton MV Dali.

Dissing the Cult of the Founder

It's time to acknowledge that Sam Altman is a fraud (snollygoster?) who is running a con that has allowed him to raise billions of dollars.

Large language model "Artificial Intelligence" in general, and OpenAI in particular have nothing of value to deliver at their current state, and likely will never have anything to deliver, because they are bullsh%$ generators that have no understanding at all:

OpenAI announced this week that it has raised $6.6 billion in new funding and that the company is now valued at $157 billion overall. This is quite a feat for an organization that reportedly burns through $7 billion a year—far more cash than it brings in—but it makes sense when you realize that OpenAI’s primary product isn’t technology. It’s stories.

Case in point: Last week, CEO Sam Altman published an online manifesto titled “The Intelligence Age.” In it, he declares that the AI revolution is on the verge of unleashing boundless prosperity and radically improving human life. “We’ll soon be able to work with AI that helps us accomplish much more than we ever could without AI,” he writes. Altman expects that his technology will fix the climate, help humankind establish space colonies, and discover all of physics. He predicts that we may have an all-powerful superintelligence “in a few thousand days.” All we have to do is feed his technology enough energy, enough data, and enough chips.

Maybe someday Altman’s ideas about AI will prove out, but for now, his approach is textbook Silicon Valley mythmaking. In these narratives, humankind is forever on the cusp of a technological breakthrough that will transform society for the better. The hard technical problems have basically been solved—all that’s left now are the details, which will surely be worked out through market competition and old-fashioned entrepreneurship. Spend billions now; make trillions later! This was the story of the dot-com boom in the 1990s, and of nanotechnology in the 2000s. It was the story of cryptocurrency and robotics in the 2010s. The technologies never quite work out like the Altmans of the world promise, but the stories keep regulators and regular people sidelined while the entrepreneurs, engineers, and investors build empires. (The Atlantic recently entered a corporate partnership with OpenAI.)

As an aside here, the fact that The Atlantic has partnered with OpenAI is not a surprise.  Enthusiastic support of bad ideas is core branding for them. 

Despite the rhetoric, Altman’s products currently feel less like a glimpse of the future and more like the mundane, buggy present. ChatGPT and DALL-E were cutting-edge technology in 2022. People tried the chatbot and image generator for the first time and were astonished. Altman and his ilk spent the following year speaking in stage whispers about the awesome technological force that had just been unleashed upon the world. Prominent AI figures were among the thousands of people who signed an open letter in March 2023 to urge a six-month pause in the development of large language models ( LLMs) so that humanity would have time to address the social consequences of the impending revolution. Those six months came and went. OpenAI and its competitors have released other models since then, and although tech wonks have dug into their purported advancements, for most people, the technology appears to have plateaued. GPT-4 now looks less like the precursor to an all-powerful superintelligence and more like … well, any other chatbot.

I call it a slightly improved ELIZA program, but basically it's the same thing. 

Short version:  A parrot has speech, but it does not have language, and LLMs are much the same.

………

In Altman’s rendering, this moment in time is just a waypoint, “the doorstep of the next leap in prosperity.” He still argues that the deep-learning technique that powers ChatGPT will effectively be able to solve any problem, at any scale, so long as it has enough energy, enough computational power, and enough data. Many computer scientists are skeptical of this claim, maintaining that multiple significant scientific breakthroughs stand between us and artificial general intelligence. But Altman projects confidence that his company has it all well in hand, that science fiction will soon become reality. He may need $7 trillion or so to realize his ultimate vision—not to mention unproven fusion-energy technology—but that’s peanuts when compared with all the advances he is promising.

There’s just one tiny problem, though: Altman is no physicist. He is a serial entrepreneur, and quite clearly a talented one. He is one of Silicon Valley’s most revered talent scouts. If you look at Altman’s breakthrough successes, they all pretty much revolve around connecting early start-ups with piles of investor cash, not any particular technical innovation.

Actually, if you look at Altman's career, he's not even a particularly good rainmaker.  He created a failed social network (Loopt) whose "Special Sauce" was that it would spy on you even more intensely than Facebook,  he was fired from YCombinator for not showing up to work and personally trading in companies that they backed, etc.

He's just a bunco artist.

He Who Hesitates is Lost

Hello FBI you may also want to look into why this fire chief was driving a lambo around Chelsea last week https://t.co/9FZ4XDhHb0 pic.twitter.com/EWBbR5dZq7

— Huge Ma (@turbovax) September 16, 2024

Hmmm...

Over the past few weeks, I have been following the developments in the corruption investigations of the administration of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

It's been a slow drip, drip, drip, and I have been saving links for a future post where I run down what is actually happening.

Well, I now have 22 links that I am still going  through, and it's f%$#ing exhausting.

OK, I have 23 links now, because Eric Adams has been indicted.

I f%$#ed up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

No details on the indictment yet, but it appears to be related to (at least) campaign finance shenanigans.  I'm not surprised.  I have been describing Hizzoner as a delusional and sanctimonious snollygoster for some time.  After all, he has literally suggested that it is God's will that he is Mayor.  

Unless you are Jake or Elwood Blues, such an assertion is an indication of some sort of personality disorder.

What's more, it appears that the almost all of entire senior cadres in New York City's first responders are corrupt, the above mentioned fire chief being an example.

Of course, the fire chief could have bought the Lamborgini in the non-illegal way, by massively abusing overtime. but it is still as corrupt as f%$#.

Normally, I'm not inclined to prejudge someone simply on the basis of a warrant or an indictment,* but it's pretty clear that Eric Adams has been corrupt, even if it turns out not to be technically criminal.

I'm going to enjoy following this, but right now I have to do a deep dive on 23 24 25 articles that I have been sitting on.

^*OK, you got me. In fact I am extremely inclined to prejudge people when they are this f%$#ing guilty. This is Max Bialystock levels of guilt.

This Reeks of Desperation

Definitely a Fendi scarf Hell, it just plain reeks.

It appears that Hizonner, New York Mayor Eric Adams, snollygoster extraordinaire, just participated on a police raid on a robbery ring, donning a bullet proof vest and generally cosplaying that he was still a cop.

He knows that he is about as popular as hemorrhoids, so he engaged in this stunt in an attempt to bolster his poll numbers and further demonize immigrants:

A day after Mayor Eric Adams repeated his message that the migrant crisis would destroy New York City, he seemed intent on proving his point.

Mr. Adams, a former police captain, put on a bulletproof vest with a Fendi scarf tucked underneath it on Monday and accompanied an early-morning police raid in the Bronx, tied to a major robbery ring where many of the participants were believed to be recent migrants.

It needs to be noted here that a Fendi scarf starts at $490.00 goes as high as $1,905.00. (Props to the reporter who added this comment.  It provides useful context.)

If he were doing anything remotely serious here, he would not be wearing something like that.  If he takes a call, he could be out a very expensive article of clothing.

Police officials called it the “largest robbery pattern plaguing the city,” with a group of thieves on mopeds or scooters snatching cellphones and purses in at least 62 incidents, most involving female victims.

The police said the thieves were “migrants who have recently arrived in the United States,” and who “predominantly live in the migrant shelter system.”

Mr. Adams’s participation, promoted by the Police Department’s social media account, amplified the notion that the surge of migrants was wreaking havoc on the city. But critics, including immigration advocates, called the raid a political gimmick and said it was a troubling escalation of Mr. Adams’s xenophobic rhetoric toward migrants over the last year.

Anyone want to place bets that in the next few weeks, we will discover that the ring was not as big as announced, and most of the people were not migrants from shelters?

I'd be willing to offer 2:1 odds that this is all humbug.

Corruption Among the Elites

Tina Tchen, the CEO of Time's Up, a charity formed to defend women from sexual abuse and harassment has been forced to resign after it was revealed that she was colluding with Andrew Cuomo to conceal his abusive behavior towards women who worked with him.  (She also served as, "Chief of Staff to First Lady Michelle Obama; and Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls.")

It's a level of hypocrisy that would be embarrassing for any woman in the political sphere who is not firmly a part of the Talibaptist right, but even more so for the head of an organization dedicated to supporting victims of sexual harassment.

Additionally, her entire legal career has been centered around addressing issues of sexual discrimination in the workplace, so her entire professional life has been revealed as a lie.

Given her background, the White House Position, major fundraiser for the Obama Campaign, and Ivy League education, I am not surprised at the revelation that she is, after all, just another grasping snollygoster.

This toxic combination was an identifying characteristic of people who thrived in the Obama administration.

The chief executive of Time’s Up, the prominent anti-harassment charity, resigned on Thursday, the latest fallout in a crisis that threatens the organization’s survival.

For weeks, the group has been in upheaval over what some survivors of sexual abuse have called a fundamental betrayal: Its leaders appear to have allied more closely with former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who faces sexual harassment allegations from 11 women, than with the first accusers to come forward.

Tina Tchen, who had led the group since 2019, said in a statement that her “position at the helm of Time’s Up has become a painful and divisive focal point.”

 By, "Dainful and divisive focal point," she means that she has been revealed to be a complete hypocrite, and that she was forced out.

………

Founded in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, backed by influential women including Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, Time’s Up has been in what its own vice chair recently called an “existential crisis” over its mission. The board chair, Roberta Kaplan, also resigned over the Cuomo matter. Powerful backers like Shonda Rhimes have tried to rally support and reboot. Staff members have complained about lack of direction, and outside critics have questioned whether the organization has strayed from its founding motives.

………

The departure of Ms. Tchen — who served as Michelle Obama’s chief of staff in the White House — raises as many questions for Time’s Up as it resolves. She was a proponent of the organization’s initial, bold mission: for female power players to use their connections for good. In her departing statement, Ms. Tchen endorsed that approach again. “We cannot just shout on the outside for change without helping companies, government leaders and policymakers find the solutions to do better,” she said.

It hasn't strayed from its founding motives.  It was about protecting, "Female power players," who, "Use their connections for good," people like ……… well ……… Tina Tchen, not lower level interns,  staff, or members of the security detail  for the powerful, and vengeful, governor of New York.

………

But when dealing with Mr. Cuomo’s office — and in other instances [WHAT OTHER INSTANCES?  I WANT TO KNOW!] — that strategy proved compromising. Ms. Kaplan and Ms. Tchen provided feedback on an unpublished opinion column that smeared Mr. Cuomo’s first accuser, Lindsay Boylan. Ms. Kaplan, a lawyer, also consulted with a top Cuomo aide about how strong a stand Time’s Up should take on the allegations, The Times recently reported. And Ms. Tchen told colleagues to “stand down” from releasing a statement in support of Ms. Boylan, according to text messages obtained by The Washington Post.

This is why the hypocrite wing of the Democratic Party loses elections:  It is painfully obvious that when it gets down to brass tacks, they talk the talk, but they will NEVER walk the walk.

 

Today in Language

Another reminder that the word ‘ultracrepidarian’ (19th century) describes someone who loves holding forth on matters they know absolutely nothing about.

— Susie Dent 💙 (@susie_dent) March 8, 2021

As my reader(s) have no doubt noticed, I rather like to use the archaic word, "Snollygoster," to refer to dishonest people, particularly politicians. 

I find the word wondrously evocative, and believe that it should enter general use again.

Well, I must thank Susie Dent for informing me about another wonderful word that has fallen out of use, "Ultracrepidarian," which means someone who ……… Hell, it means almost every pundit on the planet earth with NY Times pundit Tom Friedman being the apogee (or perhaps nadir) of the form.

Number 17 on a List of Words Upper Management Should Never Use

Razzmatazz

Seriously, just don't.

People might think that you are a Snollygoster.

Just Call Me Nostra Dumbass

In late 2003, I observed that the Mirriam Webster Dictionary was dropping the word "Snollygoster" from its dictionary, and that this must not stand: (PDF)

To Revive a Word

The word “snollygoster” has been dropped from the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Harry Truman was among the last public figures to use this word in public, and I mean to use the word, meaning “a shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician”, as often as I can.

So, over the past few years, I have engaged in a lonely effort to revive the word on this blog, and now the Merriam Webster Dictionary has brought the word back:

………

And as recently as Tuesday morning, Merriam-Webster staff noted they had re-added the word “snollygoster” to the dictionary. It means “a shrewd and unprincipled person, especially an unprincipled politician.”

It even found use during the contentious Brexit campaign.

I won't claim to be responsible for this, I think that the various machinations of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have had more influence on this development, but I am feeling remarkably smug about this development.

How Utterly Appropriate

I just learned today that in Norway, the word "Texas: is slang for insanity, mayhem, and chaos:

Y’all already all know that Texas is known for its slang. The state is home to a slew of Southern colloquialisms as well as totally unique sayings you won’t hear anywhere else.

But did you know that the word “Texas” is in itself a slang word?

According to Texas Monthly, Norwegians have long used the word “Texas” in lieu of the word “crazy.”

Think that last statement is hogwash?

Just look at this headline from a Norwegian sports website, VG Sporten:



………

To explain the language phenomenon, Texas Monthly cited a Tumblr which claimed that Norwegian slang word has a lot to do with its association to the wild west and Western shoot-em-up movies. Another web travelogue we found on the internet explained it this way:  “In Norwegian, ‘texas’ means mayhem and chaos, as in cowboys punching each other and breaking chairs over each other’s heads.”

In a Reddit string entitled “Norwegians on Texas,” one Reddit user wrote that when he uses the expression “Det var helt Texas,” he pictures a  “cowboy crashing a party and shooting two revolvers into the air.”

It’s certainly not the most current of cultural references and can certainly lead to negative connotations, but it might be worth noting that the idiom is a largely old one. Some speculate that the idiom has been in use since at least the 1970s.

Considering my failed attempt to raise the term Snollygoster in the public consciousness, maybe it is time for me to start using "Totally Texas" for batsh%$ insane.

Word of the Day

Manufactroversy: A portmanteau of, "manufactured controversy," typically referring to an effort to create the impression of uncertainty when the facts are unequivocal. Examples are things like the lethality/addictive characteristics of tobacco, the anti-global warming fraudsters, and the anti-vaccine crowd.

It's a wonderful word, almost as sublime as the word, "Snollygoster."

Where His Campaign Was, There Is Nothing But a Greasy Stain…

It's Newt again. His fundraisers just bailed from his campaign:

Newt Gingrich's top two fundraising advisers resigned on Tuesday, and officials said the Republican candidate's hobbling presidential campaign carried more than $1 million in debt.
FILE - In this June 16, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans. Gingrich's top two fundraising advisers resigned on Tuesday, and officials said the Republican candidate's hobbling presidential campaign carried more than $1 million in debt.

FILE - In this June 16, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential hopeful, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans. Gingrich's top two fundraising advisers resigned Tuesday, June 21, 2011, and officials said the Republican candidate's hobbling presidential campaign carried more than $1 million in debt. The departures were the latest blow for the former House speaker who watched 16 top advisers abandon his campaign en masse earlier in June.

The departures of fundraising director Jody Thomas and fundraising consultant Mary Heitman were the latest blow for the former House speaker who watched 16 top advisers abandon his campaign en masse earlier this month, partly because of what people familiar with the campaign spending described as a dire financial situation.

These people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the campaign's inner workings, said the former Georgia lawmaker racked up massive travel bills but money had only trickled in since he got into the race earlier this spring.

This is incredible.  The

I think that this is getting so pathetic that he might stop getting invitations to the Sunday political talk shows.

This would be a good thing. I hate listening to that self-important fatuous snollygoster moral pygmy on the TV present himself as some sort of intellectual giant.

Lame Even By Republican Standards

One of Freddie Thompson's former campaign staff is calling for a, "boycott of all shows and products affiliated with martial arts thespian Chuck Norris because of his endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee."

The lamitude^* of this snollygoster^†, "Darrel Ng, a former traveling press secretary for Thompson" just boggles the mind.

^*I know that lamitude is not not a real word.
^†But "snollygoster" is a real word.