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I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own

You are here: Home / Archives for I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own

Monday Morning Open Thread: Building the Grift Waaaahl

by Anne Laurie|  May 13, 20194:58 am| 223 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Grifters Gonna Grift, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own

who didn't see this coming?

A group raised over $20 million to ‘build the wall.’ Now its supporters want answers. https://t.co/FJ6wf3ar10

— Cake or Death (@Johngcole) May 12, 2019


 

… The now-famous border wall GoFundMe was conceived by Purple Heart recipient Brian Kolfage, who wrote at the time he was upset by “too many illegals . . . taking advantage of the United States taxpayers,” and the “political games from both parties” when it came to border security. Kolfage, a triple amputee, pressed onward despite falling short of his $1 billion goal — launching a nonprofit to build portions of the wall on private land for a “fraction of what it costs the government.”

While the majority of donors continue to believe in Kolfage’s efforts, the nonprofit’s clandestine operations and assurances of progress are insufficient for others. Some have taken to social media, seeking photos, videos — anything — for evidence they aren’t being misled…

Reporting on the apparent lack of progress on the private wall, published early Friday by the Daily Beast, drew criticism from Kolfage. The veteran called out the story’s author, Will Sommer, who indicated he’s repeatedly asked Kolfage for proof they were close to a groundbreaking.

“Omg this is PERFECT timing by the liberal rag news site. They are about to look more stupid than @hillaryclinton on election night 2016!” Kolfage wrote. “I guaranteed we would build the wall . . . and I’ll leave it at that!”

Kolfage did not respond to an email and message from The Washington Post requesting comment Friday. While the nonprofit has floated various groundbreaking dates in the past, it’s not exactly clear when, or if, construction will begin…

This might be excused as a classic example of a well-intentioned amateur getting involved with something beyond his capacity to execute, except… Kolfage’s prior record is less than reassuring. Per NYMag:

… As the Daily Beast reports, Kolfage “was a prolific operator of hoax pages on Facebook, and money he raised in the past to help veterans’ programs in hospitals never actually went to those hospitals.” The vet, who lost three of his limbs in a rocket attack in Iraq in 2004, founded sites including FreedomDaily, which ran headlines like “Obnoxious Black People Lose Their Minds When Victoria Secret Models Say This 1 Word On Live Video.” The site was shuttered after it was sued for misidentifying a Michigan resident as the driver of the car that killed a protestor in the Charlottesville riot.

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Monday Morning Open Thread: Building the <del>Grift</del> WaaaahlPost + Comments (223)

Lalalalalalalala I Can’t Hear You

by Cheryl Rofer|  May 5, 20192:10 pm| 43 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Foreign Affairs, Hail to the Hairpiece, All Too Normal, Assholes, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own

Donald Trump has long believed that he could eliminate nuclear weapons from the world. He is the greatest negotiator ever, and he doesn’t understand why those wimpy diplomats can’t just heave a hearty “Fuck You” across the conference table and walk out, which would induce the other party to come around.

The administration’s approach to foreign policy is driven by Trump’s ignorance and greed, but with an inertial component of conventional policy development by the permanent government employees who remain at lower levels, and a layering of political appointees with their own agendas, some of which dovetail with Trump’s, some of which are more or less conventional foreign policy, and some that are quite idiosyncratic.

Trump’s impulsiveness and desire to be the center of attention lead to statements of policy unexpected by other components of the government. “They were informed by tweet” is a statement that often appears in news stories. After an initial surprise, the impulsive statements may be modified or suppressed, but some work their way into official policy.

Conventional foreign policy analysis is still useful in looking at other countries. North Korea’s response to Trump, for example, is pretty much what you would expect. Russia isn’t too far off, although the relationship between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, whatever it may be, can be a confounding factor. But in order to understand America’s actions today, we have to look at Trump’s motivations.

North Korea has again launched some missiles. They are not ICBMs that could reach the United States. Trump tweeted that he is willing to wait it out, although it was earlier reported that he was angry about the launch. And Trump’s tweet says that “Anything in this very interesting world is possible,” which may be a threat.

Trump wants big wins, and he seems to be holding out for a total surrender of all of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program before removing any sanctions at all. North Korea is operating on a more normal timeline, in which small moves on each side gradually build confidence toward a goal. North Korea has made some token moves, and they feel that it is time for the United States to do the same.

Reliable rumor has it that teams at the State Department and the national laboratories are on call to bring North Korea’s nuclear weapons back when Kim gives the word. Trump and his administration really believe that this will happen.

In Trump’s mind, waiting is easy. The two summits with Kim gave him lavish photo-ops and the ability to say that he is negotiating. He has put his deal on the table. It is up to Kim to accept it.

In Trump’s business life, he probably could walk away from a deal that was going bad after he proclaimed success. The people working for him tied up the loose ends, and he never noticed. He just went on to another deal. Next after North Korea could be a grand arms control deal with Russia and China. He would certainly get a Nobel Prize for that.

The greatest negotiator, with the greatest mind – he’s said that he could master the details of arms control in an hour or so – doesn’t need advisors. He has now gutted much of the advisory structure surrounding the President. The State Department has been cut back. Ambassadors are absent in many countries. The cabinet is composed of people who don’t know what they are doing, many of them in acting positions. His closest advisors in the White House are his children and toadies. Anyone who has disagreed with him has been removed.

So now he can run international relations as he has always believed they should be run. There has been an unfortunate distraction from the Special Counsel and Congress, but now that the Mueller report is out and tied up by Attorney General Bill Barr, that problem has been solved, as Trump and Vladimir Putin argeed.

For Trump, the central consideration is his being able to preen as a great negotiator and claim that he is making important agreements. This week’s North Korean missile test, therefore, is unimportant. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is already playing it down, although the South Koreans, who are within the missiles’ ranges, are not so happy.

Trump’s strategy of ignoring facts that inconveniently undermine his narratives has worked for him as a real estate developer and television personality. Those interactions were managed by his underlings and are likely to disappear if one ignores them. International issues don’t go away. Kim continues to build up his nuclear arsenal and, further, expects continuing negotiations, including reciprocal actions. The missile test is a reminder of that. If Trump continues to ignore Kim’s inconvenient actions, Kim has more.

When and how will Trump react? It appears that he has never been in this kind of situation before, so it’s impossible to predict. So far, “Lalalalalalala I can’t hear you” is working for him.

 

Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner.

Lalalalalalalala I Can’t Hear YouPost + Comments (43)

Paging Mr. Baron…Paging Mr. Miller…Norwegian Anti-Fraud Squad On Line One

by Tom Levenson|  March 1, 201910:50 pm| 54 Comments

This post is in: An Unexamined Scandal, Hail to the Hairpiece, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own, Not Normal

Mr. Baron and Mr. Miller, you may recall, have a close relationship with the cheetoh-faced, ferret-heedit shitgibbon.

We don’t know the name of anyone who may have displaced Miller and Baron in the Orange One’s heart, but he is clearly keeping busy:

A total of 329 candidates — 217 individuals and 112 organizations — are being considered for this year’s prize, which will be announced in October…

But a wrinkle in this time-honored process — the peace prize was first awarded in 1901 — emerged on Tuesday, when the committee announced that it had uncovered what appeared to be a forged nomination of President Trump for the prize. The matter has been referred to the Oslo police for investigation.

Mr. Baron or whatever the alias now may be is, it seems, a recidivist:

…the forgery appears to have occurred twice: Olav Njolstad, the secretary of the five-member committee, said it appeared that a forged nomination of Mr. Trump for the prize was also submitted last year — and was also referred to the police. (The earlier forgery was not disclosed to the public at the time.)

What kind of person is at once so disdainfully fraudulent and so hilariously inept at his con?  Who could it be?

Well…Trump, recall, was the man who put his lens-shattering mug in fake Time Man of the Year covers, so there’s form here.

I’d file this one under “Point and Mock”…but then I remember that the entire GOP stands in thrall to this pathetic, hollow, terrified tosser.  And then I weep for the Republic, and worry, desperately, for my son.

(Also too:  I would so love an appendix to the Mueller Report dealing with all this.)

Image: Jacob Willemsz de Wet, Allegory of Peace triumphant over War, 1650

Paging Mr. Baron…Paging Mr. Miller…Norwegian Anti-Fraud Squad On Line OnePost + Comments (54)

Political Twitter’s Read of the Day: “Inside the Chaotic Early Days of Trump’s Foreign Policy”

by Anne Laurie|  March 1, 20193:38 pm| 165 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Foreign Affairs, Grifters Gonna Grift, Hail to the Hairpiece, Republican Venality, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own

I've had to re-read this, on what Donald Trump Jr.'s "associates" proposed to shocked NSC staffers on Venezuela during the Flynn era, three times.

…what? https://t.co/Yf4aXP67OS pic.twitter.com/8fm0aZ7BYv

— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) March 1, 2019

Just in time for the weekend, so the ForPol professionals can get down to some serious drinking. I’m sure other front-pagers will have much to say about this, but here’s my quick take: Murphy the Trickster God is *not* a subtle scripter!

NSC career staffers say they became objects of suspicion "because of language they used, such as saying “undocumented immigrants” instead of “illegals.”' https://t.co/Yf4aXP67OS

— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) March 1, 2019

The day after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, White House national security adviser Susan Rice gathered her staff for a pep talk…

Rice said the NSC staffers should give Trump a chance, that he and his team deserved the benefit of the doubt. Their duty was to the country, she reminded them, and they should do whatever it took to help America — and Trump — succeed.

What Rice didn’t — couldn’t — tell these government employees was that the dawn of the Trump administration would be a time of extraordinary personal and professional torment for them; that they’d be asked to make ethically, and legally, dubious decisions while ignoring facts and evidence on basic issues to fit the president’s whims; that they would be vilified as “Obama holdovers” and treated like an enemy within, to the point where some of their lives were threatened; that they’d grow so paranoid they would seek “safe spaces” to speak to each other, use encrypted apps to talk to their mothers, and go on documentation sprees to protect themselves and inform history; that at least one career staffer would cry on the way home from work every night; and that another would call Trump a “dumpster fire” in a farewell message…

Now, two years into Trump’s tenure, current and former U.S. officials say they are worried about the long-term damage his administration is still doing to the way such critical decisions are made — with dangerous consequences that are not always easy to perceive. They worry Trump’s presidency has poisoned the relationship between career government staffers and political appointees, threatening the ability of a future president to make decisions based on nonpartisan expertise. Some were relieved after Trump’s first national security adviser, Mike Flynn, was fired; he’s still due for sentencing after getting caught up in the federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. And they were heartened that Trump’s second national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, einstituted traditional processes during his year at the helm, even if Trump disliked them. But because Trump’s current national security adviser, John Bolton, has largely scuttled those procedures, the fears have resurfaced over the past year…

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Political Twitter’s Read of the Day: “Inside the Chaotic Early Days of Trump’s Foreign Policy”Post + Comments (165)

Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: The Oval Office Occupant Is (Further) Decompensating

by Anne Laurie|  January 3, 20193:55 am| 60 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Open Threads, Repubs in Disarray!, All Too Normal, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own

everyone asking if this is real: YES, YES IT IS https://t.co/V03cVDqdKN

— shauna (@goldengateblond) January 2, 2019

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAD A POSTER OF HIMSELF ON THE CABINET TABLE AND PRAISED RUSSIA FOR INVADING AFGHANISTAN. (We have a serious problem, people!)

— Kelly Magsamen (@kellymagsamen) January 3, 2019

Edith Wilson stepped up after her husband’s stroke, and Nancy Reagan did her best to harry Reagan’s advisors into covering for his decline into Alzheimer’s. But even if Melania cared, can we pretend she has any actual influence over her anchor-husband?

Normalization means seeing the POTUS ramble incoherently on important policy matters, watching the grifter he put in charge of the Department of Justice give a cringeworthy performance during the morning’s televised “dear leader” session, and yet being completely unsurprised.

— Dan Nexon (@dhnexon) January 2, 2019

Acting AG Whitaker kisses up to Trump for staying in DC over holidays: "Sir, Mr President, I will start by highlighting the fact you stayed in DC over the holidays, giving up Christmas w/your family, New Year's w/your family… you have demonstrated your dedication to delivering" pic.twitter.com/9Lo2pMocgN

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2019

This Trump press conference is like one of those viral videos where the kid in the back seat just got out of the dentist.

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) January 2, 2019

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Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: The Oval Office Occupant Is (Further) DecompensatingPost + Comments (60)

Terrifying Read: “‘Nothing on this page is real’”

by Anne Laurie|  November 19, 20188:31 pm| 143 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Fools! Overton Window!, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own, Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

A journo-nerd note about the @elisaslow story everyone is rightly praising:

There’s no nut graph, no summation of “what it all means,” and the story is all the better for it.

It makes readers’ minds turn, without telling them to.

https://t.co/RaKwZkMvYd

— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) November 19, 2018

It is, in truth, one heckuva story. Neither of the main characters have anything but the best of intentions, and yet… Kudos to the Washington Post for demonstrating “How lies become truth in online America“:

NORTH WATERBORO, Maine — The only light in the house came from the glow of three computer monitors, and Christopher Blair, 46, sat down at a keyboard and started to type. His wife had left for work and his children were on their way to school, but waiting online was his other community, an unreality where nothing was exactly as it seemed. He logged onto his website and began to invent his first news story of the day…

He had launched his new website on Facebook during the 2016 presidential campaign as a practical joke among friends — a political satire site started by Blair and a few other liberal bloggers who wanted to make fun of what they considered to be extremist ideas spreading throughout the far right. In the last two years on his page, America’s Last Line of Defense, Blair had made up stories about California instituting sharia, former president Bill Clinton becoming a serial killer, undocumented immigrants defacing Mount Rushmore, and former president Barack Obama dodging the Vietnam draft when he was 9. “Share if you’re outraged!” his posts often read, and thousands of people on Facebook had clicked “like” and then “share,” most of whom did not recognize his posts as satire. Instead, Blair’s page had become one of the most popular on Facebook among Trump-supporting conservatives over 55.

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Terrifying Read: “‘Nothing on this page is real’”Post + Comments (143)

Russiagate Open Thread: Preview for This Week’s Doc Dump(s)

by Anne Laurie|  November 18, 201810:44 pm| 58 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Dolt 45, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Russiagate, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own, Let A Thousand Watergates Bloom

Follow the timeline…

Trump says he's written answers to Mueller questions, isn't 'agitated' by probehttps://t.co/EunErb2w93

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 16, 2018

It took a long time to draw all those pictures and the crayons kept breaking.

— M Nadal (@mcmnadal) November 18, 2018

This is false. A team of his lawyers are writing them. https://t.co/6zbRbAz8ck

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 16, 2018

At one level, this seems ridiculous.

At another, I bet this is how he got through Wharton. https://t.co/ZlxnIfnMS3

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 17, 2018

Today:

Trump claims he, not his lawyers, is answering Mueller's Qs about collusion, but adds he's not answering questions about obstruction b/c "there was no obstruction of justice…I think they probably agree w/me"

Trump says he doesn't plan to cooperate w/Mueller beyond his answers. pic.twitter.com/7PT8GIUuWz

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 18, 2018

A few thoughts on this, assuming all the facts in this story are accurate (as they are based on comments from the president's lawyers, that is not a given): https://t.co/WbodAH1da8

— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) November 18, 2018

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