Remember last week when the Senate GOP caucus decided to celebrate July 4 in Moscow?
Kinda weird call.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 13, 2018
Never forget: Whatever the label disclaimers, Trump is the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is Trump. His goals are their goals, their goals are his goals — and none of them have anything to do with ‘patriotism’ or their fellow Americans.
Every time you read about some new insanity from this White House, be sure to give a fair share of credit to @SpeakerRyan and @SenateMajLdr for enabling all of it.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) March 15, 2018
Remember, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan refused to sign on to a bipartisan statement denouncing the meddling of a foreign adversary in our democratic processes
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) July 13, 2018
On the same day Russian hackers are indicted, @DevinNunes comes to the aid of those who attacked our country and our elections. I can think of no greater betrayal of American values. https://t.co/l7cGX4Qaf5
— Andrew Janz (@JanzforCongress) July 13, 2018
Remember. The 'Freedom Caucus' is the most aggressively anti-rule-of-law group in the country. Led by Jim Jordan and his pal Mark Meadows. https://t.co/PzmiVgoDuc via @TPM
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 14, 2018
McCarthyism, but with McCarthy trying to keep everyone from exposing him & his fellow foreign agents.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 12, 2018
What is actually on display here is House GOP members demonstrating that they cannot even conceive of the possibility someone could place duty and institutional integrity over base political and personal interests. The concept is too foreign to them to comprehend. https://t.co/oTAmmgfAPr
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) July 12, 2018
Don’t dismiss the possibility the House Repub leadership was part of the collusion https://t.co/Kzqb7EGkAt
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 12, 2018
Either way, they are now.
— Peter A. Shulman ?? (@pashulman) July 12, 2018
reminder: Paul Ryan’s PAC ran 2016 attack that quoted emails stolen by Russians. this was when everyone knew Russians had stolen the documents. Ryan’s group insisted on including
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) July 13, 2018
Today, Trump spent his day overseas flaying allied democratic leaders and checking off items on Putin’s to-do list. His allies in Congress spent their day frantically excoriating the US’s lead spy hunter. I think the Russia scandal is far worse than we even now imagine.
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) July 13, 2018
My hunch is Trump's "little gift for Putin" with be a yard sculpture made from the spines of GOP politicians. https://t.co/PlVrYnYZoL
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) July 11, 2018
“The Republican Party has proved remarkably malleable ideologically.” https://t.co/9Zk2No2gZu
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 13, 2018
After Republicans in DC passed the #GOPTaxScam for the rich:
?? The Koch Family gave Paul Ryan $500,000.00.
?? Sheldon Adelson handed the GOP $30,000,000.00.
?? A House Republican sitting Member bought a multi-million dollar yacht.
Republican “leaders” sure are #BetterOffNow.
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) July 12, 2018
(Sidebar: Adelson says he wants to build a casino in North Korea… )
.@speechboy71 in @GlobeOpinion: We’re past the point of wondering whether America can survive a Trump presidency: The real question is whether we can survive Republican control of Washington. https://t.co/6dDPZsxhLi
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) July 13, 2018
Jay
“Goddamn the hackers. Goddamn the journalists who laundered the pilfered material. Goddamn any of them who treated Roger Stone as a source, or as a cute prankster, instead of the nasty vandal he’s always been. Goddamn the pundits who chortled over the pilfered material. Goddamn the politicians who profited from the hacking. Goddamn the politicians who minimized the hacking. Goddamn the politicians who still stonewall about the hacking. Goddamn the “activists” who ranted about “McCarthyism” when anybody pointed out that the 2016 presidential election had been poisoned from afar. Goddamn them all as traitors, if not to the American nation, then to everything that ever made that nation worth the bother. ”
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22143324/russia-indictments-robert-mueller-collusion-donald-trump/
some guy
Let’s not hear any talk of “moving on” from the nxt Dem admin
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
I’ve asked before, but are there any foreign analyses on the GOP and where the fit on a political spectrum?
Too many people still don’t seem to grasp that the GOP isn’t even the same party it was 20-30 years ago; that there is little ideological difference, IMO, between them and the United Russia Party.
Cheryl Rofer
Excellent article by David Rothkopf, longtime foreign policy expert.
Jay
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Check out the Political Spectrum site.
Jay
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6rNgCnY1lPg
IT Crowd send up of The Book of Faces, from 2008.
The Midnight Lurker
Guys… would one of you Juicers please explain to an old man what Putin’s next move is, because it seems like he has painted himself and Donnie into a tight corner.
Jay
@The Midnight Lurker:
Blow up US Trade by bailing on NAFTA and simply ignoring WTO rules.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@The Midnight Lurker:
What Jay said, but Putin is ultimately a moron. He’s painted Russia itself into a corner by allowing it to be an authoritarian state that has an economy smaller than fucking Italy’s. What happens after he dies? Putin hasn’t apparently thought of that. He’s an evil piece of shit who deserves to die.
sukabi
@The Midnight Lurker: just guessing, but I think Putin cuts Trump loose in the next several months, he doesn’t need him any more. He’ll call due Drumpf and family’s debts and let Drumpf flail and tear shit down while he’s trying to fight his legal troubles.
Baud
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
And assuming that we successfully take back the government in 2021, he’s in for a world of hurt.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@sukabi:
I’d love for this to be true.
The Midnight Lurker
I was watching Kathleen Rice questioning DHS officials and it’s pretty clear that they have no intention of doing anything to stop further Russian election meddling. Two of the DHS officials flatly refused to admit the Russians had even tried to interfere. Pretty scary stuff.
Yarrow
As I’ve been saying, they’re all guilty. All traitors.
This sort of comment is very frustrating. It shows a complete lack of imagination. It also shows how unwilling our media has been to cover this giant scandal, this treason, in the manner it should be covered. It’s not like it’s all hidden. A lot of the information is out there and open source. Regular people can find it. They don’t need “access” to do the work. Our media has let down the country by failing to do their jobs.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Here’s a fisheye Milky Way pic to brighten up your evening.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
WRT to my comment at 3, being a layperson to poltical science, I was reading the Wikipedia article on the term, Party of Power:
Doesn’t this sound a lot like the modern GOP? Am I missing some nuanced detail that negates this? Because why isn’t anybody talking about this?
MomSense
@The Midnight Lurker:
Very scary stuff. This is what wakes me up at 3am.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Wow. That’s unique. I don’t think I’ve seen a night sky shot like that.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Baud:
I hope this will come to pass. It has to. GOTV.
MisterForkbeard
I think it’s been clear that they HAVE no ideology. Maybe “help the rich” and “fuck the browns and the ladies”. And we can’t forget “screw over liberals or at least piss them off.”
That’s literally it. That’s been consistent for at least 40 years in our national politics, and Democrats have been saying it the whole time. And it’s been easily provable, because Republicans constantly betray their other ‘principles’ in service of helping the rich, screwing non-whites or vagina-Americans, or just doing something incredibly dumb that rightly makes liberals aghast but has no other purpose.
Brachiator
@The Midnight Lurker:
Nobody knows but Putin, and he ain’t saying.
One thing, though. I can’t imagine that Putin will ever cut Trump loose. Trump is far too useful, and a good chunk of the country and media simply will not believe that Trump is Putin’s poodle. This gives Putin a tremendous advantage.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’ve shot a couple like that, but that one turned out pretty good. Good location except for the truckers(I went there again last night).
lollipopguild
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Once Putin is gone the world watches as his pals fight over who gets to control the nukes.
MisterForkbeard
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I think the problem here is that Putin ultimately doesn’t care what happens to Russia after he dies.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The number of stars is breathtaking.
lollipopguild
@Baud: “It’s full of stars.”
Yarrow
@The Midnight Lurker: He’s screwed. Trump didn’t think he’d be elected and Putin is the dog that caught the car. Putin doesn’t have a lot of moves and the oligarchs are going to be very unhappy with him if they continue to be sanctioned and have their money options cut off.
Reminder that China is enjoying all this very much. If we think they aren’t also involved we’re being really stupid. China is happy to partner with Russia to destroy our power, especially if Russia gets to take all the blame.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Except to the east(Santa Barbara and LA) there’s really no light pollution.
jimmiraybob
Not so weird if they’re negotiating a retirement luxury villa on the Black Sea.
MomSense
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Beautiful!
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Brachiator:
I wonder if Putin ever considered that putting such a buffoon in control of the most powerful nation on Earth could ever blowback on him (and everyone else on the planet)? Could Putin ever be scared enough by Trump and what would that even look like.
What gets me is the arrogance; that he could play God and overrule the will of hundreds of millions and put billions at risk.
Mnemosyne
@MisterForkbeard:
I think their ideology is white supremacy. They had multiple chances in the past to increase their reach by appealing to Latinos or Asian-Americans or other non-white voters, and they backed away from all of them.
They would rather destroy our country than share it on an equal basis with non-whites. They prefer to ally themselves with a hostile foreign power than risk non-whites becoming truly equal. That’s what makes white supremacy theie ideology.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
China has always enjoyed a good round of, “Let’s you and him fight.”
debbie
@Baud:
It is awesome. Google photos of globular clusters and you’ll see just how insignificant we all are.
Here’s one.
Jay
“Reminder that China is enjoying all this very much. If we think they aren’t also involved we’re being really stupid. China is happy to partner with Russia to destroy our power, especially if Russia gets to take all the blame.”
China doesn’t need to be involved at all. A longstanding Chinese Foreign Policy is to stand on the sidelines while two Countries fight, then “exploit” them both when they have stopped fighting and are both weakened.
MagdaInBlack
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Ahhhh…lovely.
I’ve seen it like that, camping in northern Saskatchewan…(no fish-eye ? ) …stunning and awe inspiring. Thank you
Ruckus
@The Midnight Lurker:
I answered you five threads down at comment 86. Can’t link or seemingly copy paste on the phone.
The reality is that Vlad has few options to be who he wants to be, the dictator of the world.
MagdaInBlack
@MisterForkbeard:
None of these guys doing this care what happens when they’re gone.
MisterForkbeard
@Mnemosyne: I think “White Supremacy” is a good summation. You’re right. Maybe “White Male Supremacy”, with a side of Cleek’s Law. Pissing off liberals is still very much a driving force in their actions.
piratedan
@Mnemosyne: ding ding ding, the only America that they supposedly believe in is one where straight white males remain in power indefinitely.
everything else is lip service to keep the remainder subservient to their needs.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Where do you think Gowdy got Blumenthal’s doctored emails from for his special committee investigatioN?
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Trump is a danger only because the GOP leadership protect him. Trump is otherwise incompetent and cannot threaten Putin.
This has pretty much been part of the job description of world leaders since the coming of advanced civilization.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Southpaw’s a lawyer, not a journalist. And he’s been very good on these issues.
Kathleen
@Jay:
I’m curious about who the “reporter” is.
El Caganer
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Maybe Putin had more faith in our system than was warranted. He might actually have believed all that “checks ‘n balances” shit.
Mary G
Besides white supremacy, sexism is rampant on the right and not that much better on the left, except for Juicers, of course:
Baud
@Mary G:
#MeToo has scared them obviously.
Adam L Silverman
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: What you want is Seymour Martin Lipset’s populism and then monism.
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/levitsky/files/lipset_1959.pdf
Baud
@Kathleen: It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
The Midnight Lurker
@Ruckus: Yikes! I’m only at 48. Thanks, though. I’ll read it.
The Midnight Lurker
@Mnemosyne: I think you’re right. I live in blood red Texas and if you can get a Republican roped off from the herd, they will freely admit Russian hacking, Global Warming, etc. But when it comes to this master race concept, they’re either for it or they shut up, which means they’re probably for it. Sad.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Brachiator:
I disagree. Or at least, it doesn’t have to be that way. World leaders are only human and are certainly not gods in the sense that they know the outcomes of all of their decisions/actions. I get the sense that Putin did what he did just to further his own aims without any regard for what consequences his actions would have on millions of other people. He just didn’t give a shit.
I’ve felt that other leaders, such as Obama, at least cared about how their decisions would affect others, right or wrong. That he cared.
Brachiator
@Mary G:
I figured it was bad, but did not realize just how bad it was.
Kathleen
@Cheryl Rofer: Thank you for linking to that powerful piece. I tweeted it.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Of course. They’re all involved. It’s why they do things that people can’t seem to understand. When you look at it through the lens that the Republican leadership and a lot of the lower ranking GOP are all involved and they’re protecting themselves their actions make a lot more sense.
Platonailedit
@some guy:
Are you willing to politically support dems bigly and more importantly y, do it consistently ntly? It is going to take a few cycles of clear and continuous dem majorities to clean up the shit from the current traitorous regime.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: It’s still a failure of imagination if he can say it’s worse than we now imagine. The scope of this has been clear for a long time.
gene108
I ended up playing some Facebook games in the past. In order to get anywhere you need to add other gamers as friends.
I haven’t unfriended anybody (I am not sure, if anyone has unfriended me, I am not on Facebook much).
Anyway, I pop on a couple of times a week and I get posts from ex-gamer. I knew he was a right-winger, but his posts give me little hope that there will ever be the kind of condemnation of Trump and Russia’s involvement in our elections that Watergate engendered.
I was born in ‘74, missed Watergate. My teachers in school all remembered it, and the feeling I got from them was that was bad and let’s not do it again.
This guy writes about Strzok as a traitor, believes Trump is heading this country in the right direction, and finally we have a President tough enough to get NATO to pay up. Basically, he has internalized all the right-wih talking points, and nothing will budge him. I doubt he is alone.
What I despair about is Trump has developed such a cult of personality that nothing will shake the support of 40% of population. I think part of this is expectation setting. Trump set expectations low. Other than a tax cut, law and order, deporting immigrants, and building a wall on the southern border, he didn’t promise a whole lot. So far he’s got 3/4 done on the list, and the wall he will just blame Congress and his supporters will agree with him.
I remember 15 years ago, many conservatives thought Bush, Jr was the greatest President in American history; he was riding high from the early success of the Iraq invasion. But he set the expectations high. The troops would be home by Christmas, they’d greet us as liberators, etc. Along with campaigning on restoring “honor and integrity to the White House”, and that his tax cuts would supercharge the economy, etc. He and his crew were supposed to be the serious adults back in charge, who always wore a suit and tie to work, and will set things right.
So when Iraq turned into a clusterfuck, Katrina showed rank incompetence, etc., voters realized they had been had by bumbling and arrogant people.
I just don’t see anything that would disillusion people on Trump, because expectations of what he will do as President are so low.
I hope I am wrong.
Mary G
Adam, you are always good about quoting both men and women, which I appreciate.
Mr Stagger Lee
I hope that both Mssrs McConnell and Ryan had agreed to be cremated and ashes scattered when they achieve room temperature. because any grave they rest in will have have a unbearable stench of urine.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@gene108:
At every turn, you counter these people and counter them. You question their patriotism and turn the tables on them.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@gene108:
Also, we outnumber that 40%. We just need to outvote them.
Bill E Pilgrim
It’s funny how few people realize where the word “perks” comes from, which is actually “perqs”, and short for perquisites.
The Midnight Lurker
@gene108: I wish you were wrong too. I lived through Watergate. I was twenty miles away when Kennedy got shot in Dallas. Hell, I remember Sputnik 1. I have never seen anything like this. I have completely rational Republican friends, good decent people from all walks of life, some of whom I love dearly. In any other situation, they can openly discuss differing viewpoints, examine evidence, and use logic. When it comes to Trump, it’s like a Jekyll and Hyde situation. They go completely ape shit, and start screaming “Deep State”, “Witch Hunt”, etc. I’ve got a best friend who came down with early onset Alzheimers. Great guy. Life of the party. Everybody’s best friend. If you say “Hillary” or “Obama” he starts screaming. I’m sick about it.
Jay
@gene108:
10% of Treason Tribble Трамп’s Deadenders are old white rich and upper middle class men and women. A bunch of them are going to die in the next decade.
30% of Treason Tribble Трамп’s Deadenders are white supremacist trailer trash. Treason Tribble Трамп’s policies on everything from trade to opioids, is gonna kill a lot of them off.
Red State Farmer suicides are gonna be a big deal in the FTMSM next year.
They are down to 28% of the Electorate now,
The Ancient Randonneur
@Kathleen:
According to @RVAwonk it’s Lee Stranahan.
https://mobile.twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1017938682563776512
sukabi
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: and I hope Mueller gets them — all of them first. There is no limit to the damage Drumpf and fellow traitors will do to the country in trying to protect themselves from criminal prosecution.
Millard Filmore
@gene108:
This is because a man who made a career of investigating Russian espionage found that the amount of Russian espionage in the Trump operation was HAIR ON FIRE disturbing?
A Ghost To Most
@gene108: My working career started with Watergate, and ended with this shitshow. I spent the summer before entering the service watching the hearings, and was incensed at what went on.
This is an order of magnitude worse.
This is treason.
some guy
@Platonailedit:
knocked on doors, phone banked, donated the last 6 election cycles. don’t you worry bigly about me.
Jay
@gene108:
Canada’s also a target of Russian Active Measures.
Online and the real world, I actively call out SovCit’s on their Treason.
Lost aquaintences, and some work, ( walked out partway on a job, pointing out that I didn’t work for traitorous Nazi’s),
Havn’t lost any friends, because I never made friends with people who wern’t decent people.
Yarrow
The “these websites” she’s talking about are the fake news sites the Russians set up like the Seattle Post or the Milwaulkee Voice. Fake papers but they’d post real news. Link.
We desperately need some kind of national education about how propaganda, disinformation, and active measures work. I know it wouldn’t educate everyone and a lot would be left out but something would be better than nothing. We need to start that discussion.
Platonailedit
@some guy:
Then you should know all the better than to issue they better do it now ultimatums to next dem govt. It’s not going to be done in a two year cycle.
Doug R
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Took my daughter to the local Astronomy Club which has their public viewing every clear Friday night halfway up the road to the local ski hill. Last clear night was back in May, apparently. We saw Jupiter and a few moons, Saturn and a few moons, a nebula, remnants of a supernova, several double star combos, a galactic cluster with a million stars, Mars and a few galaxies including two in a gravitational dance and Andromeda.
Adam L Silverman
@Kathleen: Lee Stranahan. At the time at Breitbart now at Sputnik.
Beautifulplumage
@Adam L Silverman: Hey Adam, just want to thank you for your series in 2016 outlining so much of this. I feel like so many folks are finally seeing what you laid out back then.
Platonailedit
Just ‘suspended’? How about ‘blocked for illegal activities’?
Jay
@Yarrow:
#walkaway has been exposed as a MAGA astroturf, but it was quickly leveraged by Russian Active Measures.
6 months ago, I was trying to point out to a Canadian Blogger, what you could learn from social media, cookies etc online to point out how effective “social media hacks” could be.
Being old school, he didn’t believe me.
So, I doxxed his “anon” blog, ( not publically, just contacted him in real time, at home),
He was phreaked out, and in our phone conversation, I pointed out that The Book of Faces had 100,000,000 more data points to work with, algorythms out the wazoo and major computer farms to grind through data with.
I just had a smart phone.
His “tune” immediately changed.
Platonailedit
Of course, he did.
Mary G
This worries me, because she is not usually predicting catastrophes:
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Platonailedit: So, will this have any blowback on him? Why would he donate money to these people? The House Republicans are fundamentally anti-science loons. I thought Elon Musk at least cared about science. I never doubted he had a huge ego but I thought he at least cared about science.
Kay
I really enjoyed reading this:
It’s what bothers me too, I think. The emptiness. The..nothing.
Platonailedit
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Tax-cuts >>> Science
debbie
@Kay:
Trump is the first president to put himself before his country.
Platonailedit
@Kay:
He has him. Ultimate narcissist.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mary G:
If they’re worried about another 9/11, I doubt it will have the same “rally around the flag” effect this time, universe forbide. You can thank polarization for that.
The Midnight Lurker
@Beautifulplumage: Yeah, ditto for me. Silverman rocks!
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Platonailedit:
I’m just so disappointed. Between this and his trying to insert himself into the Thai rescue, he’s ruined whatever reputation he had before.
Elon Musk is apparently ok with supporting likely traitors.
Baud
This GOS piece is very good regrading proposed changes to the primary process.
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/14/1780172/-Inside-the-Democratic-Party-Major-changes-ahead-as-Unity-Reform-Commission-proposal-moves-forward
Kay
Ol smoky eye has gotta real nasty authoritarian impulse- bow down or you will be punished!
They literally get worse every day they’re in power- nastier, pettier, more mean-spirited. They’ll be demanding salutes here shortly. People should really go out of their way to tell them to fuck off.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We saw the Mr Rogers movie today. It was surprisingly topical.
The Midnight Lurker
Buddy of mine has a Tesla. Damn retracting door handle pinched my hand hard. So in the far flung future, when some astronaut comes across Musk’s Tesla in space, his first words upon contact will probably be, “Owww! Shit! Who would build such a thing?!”
Baud
@Kay: So the made CNN leave the proverbial restaurant.
Kay
@Platonailedit:
The people who post here about narcissism have helped me to understand what’s going on. I knew the word but I had this vague idea it was “self centered” or “conceited” – it’s much, much worse than that. The hollowness is awful. He sounds like a car alarm now to me when he speaks- like loud noise at regular intervals.
Kay
@Baud:
They did.
Baud
@Kay:
I just read a Reddit thread about Trump’s narcissism.
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/8yvx49/us_president_donald_trump_boasted_before_the/e2e8o3j
Kay
@Baud:
Boy is that ever true of him. Everything that happens is either about him or due to him or was predicted or inspired by him. I saw they were lying about Trump predicting Brexit yesterday. “Blah BLAT blah BLAT” Someone punch the button on the key. The car alarm is going off again.
God it must be fucking crazymaking dealing with them. The constant lying. I could not do it day after day. I would be screaming at people. Working there means you’re a really bad person, Baud. Normally bad people could not do it :)
Yarrow
@Beautifulplumage: @The Midnight Lurker: Me three. Adam, your posts have been great in helping us understand what has been and is still going on. Thank you.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: You’re welcome.
Redshift
I was listening to Preet Bharara’s interview with Garry Kasparov (from December 2016, but re-“broadcast” on his podcast recently.) I definitely recommend it. One of the things he says is that Putin does not care at all what happens after him. He’s in this entirely for himself, not for any historical legacy.
Gin & Tonic
I’ve mentioned that my son is in a Master’s program in foreign relations. In March he and some of his classmates traveled to Moscow to meet with student counterparts from MGIMO, Russia’s top foreign-affairs grad school. Today he was contrasting their months of preparation to the literally zero preparation on the part of his orangeness. There has, apparently, been not a single meeting of the NSC principals to discuss the forthcoming “summit.” Foreign relations and diplomacy are not about photo ops and four-hour meetings, they’re about careful understanding and thorough preparation.
Adam L Silverman
@Beautifulplumage: Thank you for the kind words. You are quite welcome.
debbie
@Redshift:
Trump’s soul mate.
Platonailedit
Kay
Well, that’s certainly comforting coming from the person who blatantly lied about whether or not they were seizing small children.
So glad she’s not at all concerned that the country that handed her boss the election will save his congressional majority.
Sleep tight, Americans! The low quality, utterly dishonest and unethical Trump hires have it handled! They say so!
Mary G
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I am more worried about Trump using a terrorist attack to curtail civil liberties the same way Bush got the Patriot Act. Putin is certainly capable of conning a few young Muslims into trying something stupid.
Platonailedit
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay:
a reporter asking a question during a (say it with me now Sadie) press conference is disrespectful. ETA: They all fell all over themselves to assuage her (fake) hurt feelings. Twice.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: That sounds about right.The issue is, as indicated in the tweet she’s responding to, is that the DNI Coates has stated there’s a lot of signal that the Russians are continuing to probe and attack – that it is ongoing. At the same time the Cyber coordinator at the NSC is gone, Nielsen is saying she’s not aware of any ongoing Russian attempts to interfere in the midterms, which is directly contradicted by Coates, no one has been given specific instructions to actually combat anything – either defensively or offensively. Part of the problem here is because the President cannot admit, even privately, let alone to himself, what the Russians have been doing and are still doing, it makes it difficult for the Director of the NSA or the Chief of Cyber Ops at DHS etc to respond. Given what needs to be done and the level of seniority it needs to be directed at, there is only so much that can be done under Unless Otherwise Directed (UNODIR).
Here’s what she was responding to.
debbie
@Platonailedit:
It wasn’t painful; it was maddening.
Eric S.
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Elon, like all billionaires, is a sociopath.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Platonailedit: I thought he grabbed May’s hand to steady himself as they walked down five stone steps
Kay
@Platonailedit:
I genuinely think he has balance issues. He has trouble walking. There’s this odd effort- like he’s concentrating on remaining upright. The hand holding thing is a death grip.
I wish that doctor who did the official physical hadn’t have been a godammned nut. There’s something physically wrong with Donald Trump. The doctor wouldn’t have mattered with Bush or Obama- they were both really fit, so of course they gave him high grades. Neither of them needed a doctor. Trump needed a real physical.
The Midnight Lurker
@Mary G: THAT is my fear as well. Can a sitting President suspend elections in response to a terrorist attack? My other fear is that Putin monkeys with the election BUT for the Dems in an obvious way. Then Trump and the Republicans could claim that the elections were hacked and the results are invalid.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: Heffernan is spot on. He has never had a pet. He has no actual friends – as in people that care about and for him and he for them and who want to spend time with him just because he’s him and who he wants to spend time with just because they are them. His current wife, like his previous two, and his children are just objects to be manipulated and utilized, not subjects to be interacted with. Other than playing golf and eating fast food and doing his rallies there doesn’t seem to be anything he actually enjoys doing.
Adam L Silverman
@The Midnight Lurker: Thank you too for the kind words. And you are also quite welcome.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I know, I agree. The Smoky Eye controversy was bullshit. I still cannot bear how patronizing she is. She’s a freaking nepotism hire who lies all the time. How dare she lecture them like they’re toddlers. She has no particular talent of any kind. If her dad hadn’t have been a celebrity GOP grifter none of us would know her name.
Platonailedit
@Kay:
The scum is mentally, physically and culturally is unfit for any post, let alone the presidency. The thug has diminished the office of the US presidency forever. The typical turd’s touch.
Platonailedit
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Jesu fucking christ. Fucking toadies.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: You’re welcome three!
Kay
@Adam L Silverman:
Isn’t it great? It’s true he doesn’t care about Russia either. Or Scotland. Or West Virginia. he has no recognizable code or culture of ANY kind. He’s not “urban” or “rural” or a “redneck” or a “hillbilly” – he’s not anything.
EBT
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I don’t think he cares. Remember the billion dollar dacha he built on the east coast of Russia? Dude is a Bond villian. The only thing on the planet that could hurt him is if someone capped his daughter.
Platonailedit
LOL. Glad that racist pos was kicked out.
Bill Arnold
@Mary G:
If you want genuine paranoia (set to eleven), figure that Trump and Putin will be discussing the finalization of plans for a false-flag (sort of – Russia or a trusted competent proxy would do it) cyberattack on the US focused on the continental grids (East/West/Texas) and communications, so that the POTUS can decree a state of emergency, control news propagation, herd enemies without power or communications (or military weapons) into FEMA camps (long grid outages would mean literal starvation otherwise), etc. Win-Win – Putin gets to destroy the US, and POTUS DJT gets to stay in power as a Fascist dictator, savior of Great-Again America. Not that DJT believes in Win-Win, but hey. In this scenario I’m rooting for them screwing up (the utility companies are increasingly paranoid) and bringing down just the Texas grid. (Apologies to any Texans reading; that’s just dark humor.)
Or some variation. I’m pretty worried, actually, TBH; this crew/administration(/GOP) is desperate, and more concerned with personal power than with general American interests, and and many of them seem OK with accepting any “help” offered. Maybe it’s just the summer heat. But I expect even odds of some sort of move to keep/consolidate power. There are a bunch of transparently obvious scenarios. (e.g. a little war.)
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: Apparently.
NotMax
@Platonailedit
According to at least one outlet with professional royal watchers, the kept her waiting thing is not so.
As to other blatant (not to mention downright rude) breach of protocol, yes. Same place, different link.
As Dolt 45 and his cabal likely have no memory or idea of Nixon’s laughed off the stage experiment with fussy, baroque uniforms for White House guards, expect Dolt 45 to come up with some similar “genius plan” for a copycat changing of the guard here.
The Midnight Lurker
@Bill Arnold: Hey. I’m a Texan.
Gvg
@gene108: I don’t know if they are simply low, or just projection. Trump keeping quiet about things prior candidates usually mentioned a lot, enabled many people too make up their own idea of what he would do. Now he is doing things, and a lot are going to be disappointed. Maybe they aren’t going to really learn to be smart, but they should lose interest when he doesn’t deliver all the many things they each imagined he would. I think these morons can fall under the spell of some other pied piper. What we need is for all of them not to fall for the same one, to fall for many competing pipers.
The one for sure Trump voter I know has a racist streak but apparently he thinks all Washington are all equally to blame for his life not being as prosperous as he thinks it should be and he thought Trump would “shake things up”. What exactly he thought that would do or how it would work seems like underpants gnome theory. Some time ago I heard him say he was beginning to think Trump wasn’t that smart. He has a strong streak of the poor are to blame for being poor, is personally nice to all minorities he meets but not the ones he hasn’t met (Puerto Rico not recovered from hurricane is their fault) I am not sure he is typical but he wasn’t loyal to Trump that long, hasn’t really learned much, and the shake things up feeling seems pretty common. Trumps what have you got to lose got some votes but that can’t work for him again.
Platonailedit
@NotMax:
Never heard of that ‘news site’. Got better news orgs saying otherwise on both counts. So, no thanks.
Bill Arnold
@Yarrow:
YES!
I suggest starting with US press gullibility; there’s a big multiplier. Don’t know how to reach them en masse.
There are tools and resources available (quick searches will find them.) Also interesting is the academic research.
Oxford has an interesting Computational Propaganda Research Project (COMPROP); here’s a link to an analysis of the French election, which is probably a good example to examine to understand the (purported) innate resistance the French have to this stuff: Junk News and Bots during the French Presidential Election : What Are French Voters Sharing Over Twitter In Round Two ?. And there are other similar groups. Tech cannot be the whole solution, but it needs to be a part of it IMO.
Bill Arnold
@Platonailedit:
Does anyone have an archive of these accounts? (I seem to be missing one, or maybe it’s on another computer.)
EBT
@Bill Arnold: Texas is more than capable of pulling it’s own grid down, like every other summer.
sgrAstar
@Platonailedit: not excusing Musk at all, but for him $35k is pocket change. I think he’s trying to protect his companies. Ugh.
Bill Arnold
@The Midnight Lurker:
Sorry. I’m still amused (4-5 years after learning about it) that Texas has its own grid.
Texplainer: Why Does Texas Have Its Own Power Grid?
NotMax
@Platonailedit.
The newspaper has been published since 1900. It most certainly has had ups, downs, and long distance swims in fetid muck and mire. So for hard news, would regard it with a skeptical eye, especially due to its dalliance with UKIP in recent years. For coverage like that of, as mentioned, professional royal watchers, toes the line more consistently, as that’s a beat many Brits take veddy seriously.
The swings of newspapers an interesting topic. So old that remember when the New York Post was considered the leftiest of lefty metropolitan papers (although possibly eclipsed in that seat during the short-lived life of the NY newspaper PM during most of the 40s.
Platonailedit
@NotMax:
My eyes read ukip and immediately glazed over.
EBT
@Bill Arnold: It’s not the best grid either. It’s been subject to rolling brownouts for 25 years now.
KSinMA
@Kay: Wow, well said.
J R in WV
Adam,
I also appreciate you sharing your expertise and opinions with the jackals. You and Cheryl bring a welcome deep pool of knowledge in a wide variety of disciplines, for which most of us are grateful. As well as all the other front page posters, Tom, David, even J G Cole! Now I feel like I should make a list… you know who you are!
Hi John!
Thanks much everyone!
JR
sukabi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
The Queen is 20 years older than he is in her early 90s and was steadier on her feet as they walked across that lawn. She had to duck out of his way because he was listing as he walked.
Mnemosyne
@sukabi:
I’m still snickering about how all of the male pundits who were so convinced that “maybe it’s lies” was a fat joke all STFU in a hurry when a few thousand women told them that Maybelline has had that ad line for about 25 years now.
sukabi
@Mnemosyne: it wasn’t just the male pundits…a whole bunch of female pundits trying to make it about Sanders’ looks as well.
Platonailedit
@sukabi: Lie-Lac. LOL.
Mnemosyne
@sukabi:
I guess they all wear Lancôme? ?
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Testy Louder.
:)
prostratedragon
@Kay: The utter alienation from any form of grace, even simple or humble graces. So vacuous that when we think we are seeing him, what we really see is the distortion of what surrounds him that he causes.
alver
First time commenter here, coming to this late because of being off yesterday in the Wisconsin countryside for a wedding. Apologies in advance for any formatting screwups…
For a different take on Musk, from a contributor at D. Kos whom I respect: