Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

This fight is for everything.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Books are my comfort food!

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

The lights are all blinking red.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute / Go read a book you illiterate son of a bitch

Go read a book you illiterate son of a bitch

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This article about Bannon’s pseudo-intellectual nonsense that everyone’s been talking about is epic! This isn’t even the highlight:

Bannon, described by one associate as “the most well-read person in Washington,” is known for recommending books to colleagues and friends, according to multiple people who have worked alongside him. He is a voracious reader who devours works of history and political theory “in like an hour,” said a former associate whom Bannon urged to read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. “He’s like the Rain Man of nationalism.”

THIS is the highlight. I knew Taleb could bring the word soup but this is next level:

“They look like the incarnation of ‘antifragile’ people,” Taleb said of the new administration. “The definition of ‘antifragile’ is having more upside than downside. For example, Obama had little upside because everyone thought he was brilliant and would solve the world’s problems, so when he didn’t it was disappointing. Trump has little downside because he’s already been so heavily criticized. He’s heavily vaccinated because of his checkered history. People have to understand: Trump did not run to be archbishop of Canterbury.”

And this this idiot who pals around with Peter Thiel is a deep thinker too:

Moldbug’s dense, discursive musings on history—“What’s so bad about the Nazis?” he asks in one 2008 post that condemns the Holocaust but questions the moral superiority of the Allies—include a belief in the utility of spreading misinformation that now looks like a template for Trump’s approach to truth. “To believe in nonsense is an unforgeable [sic] demonstration of loyalty. It serves as a political uniform. And if you have a uniform, you have an army,” he writes in a May 2008 post.

In one January 2008 post, titled “How I stopped believing in democracy,” he decries the “Georgetownist worldview” of elites like the late diplomat George Kennan. Moldbug’s writings, coming amid the failure of the U.S. state-building project in Iraq, are hard to parse clearly and are open to multiple interpretations, but the author seems aware that his views are provocative.

There was too much nonsense for me absorb the first time through so I’m going to be rereading it.

Reader Interactions

209Comments

  4. 4.

    NobodySpecial

    I hope the authors don’t kiss their mothers with those mouths, the open sores can spread STD’s.

  5. 5.

    Schlemazel

    I am already simmering near homicidal rage, why would I want to raise the temperature by reading this sort of shit?

  7. 7.

    Ridnik Chrome

    That famous quote about Newt Gingrich (“a stupid person’s idea of a smart person”) describes pretty much everyone the Republicans are currently trying to pass off as intellectuals.

  9. 9.

    oatler.

    I prefer Mandy Patinkin’s retort in the show Dead Like Me:

    “Bacchus has drowned many more sailors than Neptune.”
    “Who’s Bacchus?”
    “He’s the Greek god of why don’t you read a fucking book.”

  11. 11.

    Spanky

    Moldbug’s writings, coming amid the failure of the U.S. state-building project in Iraq, are hard to parse clearly and are open to multiple interpretations, but the author seems aware that his views are provocative.

    This is awesome! And for some reason it makes me think of Barbara Billingsley: “Excuse me, Stewardess, I speak gibberish.”
    (Slightly revised, of course.)

  12. 12.

    Major Major Major Major

    Moldbug’s dense, discursive musings on history—“What’s so bad about the Nazis?” he asks in one 2008 post that condemns the Holocaust but questions the moral superiority of the Allies

    Who knew they palled around with lefty bloggers?

  13. 13.

    stinger

    I’m going to be rereading it.

    Good lord, why? It’s Christmas. Read A Christmas Carol. Read Olive, the Other Reindeer. Read Middlemarch or Team of Rivals or The Guns of August or The Murder of Roger Ackroyd or The Audacity of Hope or The Diary of Anne Frank or the Diary of Samuel Pepys or a hundred thousand other works from which you will benefit in some way. Read any of these other works any day of the year rather than reading that crap.

  14. 14.

    Ridnik Chrome

    There was too much nonsense for me absorb the first time through so I’m going to be rereading it.

    That’s really taking one for the team, Doug.

  15. 15.

    Major Major Major Major

    I knew it was a Doug! post because it ended thusly:

    There was too much nonsense for me absorb the first time through so I’m going to be rereading it.

    For somebody who hates beltway gossip and gossip-mongers you sure read a lot of them.

  19. 19.

    germy

    from the Vanity Fair article:

    Bannon believed the Russia collusion case was meritless, but he blamed Kushner for taking meetings during the campaign that gave the appearance the Trump team sought Putin’s help. “He’s taking meetings with Russians to get additional stuff. This tells you everything about Jared,” Bannon told me. “They were looking for the picture of Hillary Clinton taking the bag of cash from Putin. That’s his maturity level.”

  21. 21.

    Yarrow

    Is this the article that quotes Bannon as saying he’s disappointed with Trump and is considering running for President in 2020? Or is that some other Bannon article? I can’t even absorb that. He’s so off-putting. He’s disgusting. I know he’d get the usual 27% but who else would vote for him?

  22. 22.

    kindness

    Bannon’s masters only really care about money and power. They share a view of themselves as pure that (in)famous leaders from our past had. A purity which allows them to transcend traditional ‘norms’ without impuning their own purity. This kind of person isn’t one you could debate points with. You can’t convince them of anything they already don’t believe and trying to do so makes you ‘unclean’ in their eyes. Just like the 3rd Reicht had no moral qualms with murdering millions it felt were undesireables. That those that have the most to lose don’t see the possible outcomes of how this works out I can’t really understand, no matter how pure they think they are. The big ones….the Mercers, the Kochs and the big money people. Don’t they know this isn’t going to end like they think it will (hat tip Luke S)? The French….maybe they weren’t so wrong about how they carried out their revolution. I never thought that before POTUS 45. Now…….

  23. 23.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Fuuuuck. Politico. Still an abject sewer of Villager crap, just without the immediate sources like the scumsucking scumbags Allen and VandeHei, who have moved on to create new abject sewers of Villager crap..

  26. 26.

    magurakurin

    @Waldo: dude is seriously near death with his alcoholism, in my opinion. He has the same look in his eyes that my father had about a year before he died. And about the same age, too. Bannon is not long for this world. I will lay odds on that.

  28. 28.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @kindness: This is why I say “Wipe them out. All of them”. If you strip them of all their wealth and put them to work cleaning public restrooms, that might be a kinder solution than putting the lot of them up against the wall.

    Actually, better. They’ll be miserable.

  33. 33.

    germy

    @Ruviana:

    Lining up his presidential run?

    After what happened last election, anything’s possible.
    Democrats bickering over Kirsten’s treatment of Al, bickering over Kamala’s decisions, and someone like Stein jumping in, or better yet wilmer… and then it’s Hail To The Steve.

  34. 34.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    Apparently even Pimp C hated the instrumental, having to be forced into recording his verse and not even bothering to leave Houston for the video shoot (RIP Chad Butler).

    Still nowhere near Jay-Z’s Top 20 (maybe rounding out his Top 40, if you’re being extra charitable).

  37. 37.

    Yarrow

    @germy: Dunno. I’d rather talk about the article that shows his shady past of not living where he says he lived and destroying property:

    The Opechee house was left in disrepair, according to an email between the landlord and Bannon and interviews with the landlord.

    Padlocks had been placed on interior doors — or the doors had been removed altogether. A hot tub was destroyed.

    “[E]ntire Jacuzzi bathtub seems to have been covered in acid,” the landlord wrote in the February 2015 email to Bannon.

    “I’m out of town,” Bannon replied. “is there any way u can talk with Diane and sort things out ???”

    The damage was estimated at more than $14,000, according to an accounting by the landlords, who kept the $9,800 security deposit from Bannon and Clohesy.

    The Diane referenced in his third ex-wife, so he’s one ahead of Trump. Why was there acid in the tub? What was he doing?

  38. 38.

    low-tech cyclist

    “To believe in nonsense is an unforgeable [sic] demonstration of loyalty. It serves as a political uniform. And if you have a uniform, you have an army,” he writes in a May 2008 post.

    I believe Orwell’s word for this was duckspeak.

  39. 39.

    magurakurin

    @Schlemazel: thanks, but it was a long time ago now. He was a long suffering man, it was something of a release for everyone. It is a brutal way to go, alcoholism. long and brutal. A lot of my sobriety is due to wanting to avoid the suffering he went through.

    but I still hope Bannon’s suffering is a thousand times worse. fuck that asshole.

  40. 40.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    Haven’t read much Nassim Taleb, but I’ve seen his name circulated across the stoicsphere and bandied about by and with its worst hacks (Tim Ferriss, Robert Greene, Ryan fucking Holiday). His douchery here does not disappoint.

    @FlipYrWhig: Real name is Curtis Yarvin, FWIW.

    @Villago Delenda Est: It’s at least improved measurably since those two left. Though Shafer & Lowry are at least as bad as those two at their worst.

  41. 41.

    laura

    @Yarrow:
    Why was there acid in the tub? What was he doing?
    Jeezus, he was cooking meth/disposing of an inconvenient body -as one does.

  42. 42.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Schlemazel: Exactly. I don’t read such nonsense so I’ll skip this one as well. Bannon is not an impressive figure in any form or fashion. No way a Black man who looked and acted like he does would receive so many accolades and positive attention from the mainstream media and politicians. He single handedly turned over a safe Senate seat to Democrats in Alabama.

  43. 43.

    Leto

    Speaking of illiterate son of a bitches: Ex-Trump adviser Carter Page accused academics who twice failed his PhD of bias

    Andrusz said he had expected it would be “easy” to pass Page, a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas). He said it actually took “days and days” to wade through Page’s work. Page “knew next to nothing” about social science and seemed “unfamiliar with basic concepts like Marxism or state capitalism,” the professor said.

    The viva, held at University College, London, went badly. “Page seemed to think that if he talked enough, people would think he was well-informed. In fact it was the reverse,” Andrusz said. He added that Page was “dumbfounded” when the examiners told him he had failed.

    …..

    The professor – who taught at Middlesex and Birmingham universities – said during his three decades as a lecturer he failed just one PhD student twice: Page.

  44. 44.

    Schlemazel

    @magurakurin:
    My dad made it to 82 and alcoholism was a constant in his life. I don’t know if he was less drunk but he never was as bad as Bannon looks but there wa a constant toll.

  45. 45.

    Starfish

    Why do they refer to Moldbug by his nom de plume? His true name is Curtis Yarvin. He was smart enough to not associate his real name with what he was writing.

  46. 46.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    …strip them of all their wealth and put them to work cleaning public restrooms…

    I’ve been saying this for years. As solutions go, it has the advantage of making such folks useful while avoiding excessive bloodshed. Although I would not be averse to parading certain individuals through the streets in dunce caps and/or placing them in stocks and allowing the public to pelt them with rotten vegetables.

  49. 49.

    schrodingers_cat

    Taleb is an intellectual fraud. Respected only because he is made of money. When you worship money over all else Taleb, Ryan and the current occupant of the WH is what you get.

  50. 50.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Yarrow:

    The Diane referenced in his third ex-wife

    It’s quite impressive that unattractive, morally grotesque men like Limbaugh, Trump and Bannon can find multiple women who will walk down the aisle and pledge undying love to them. These men are nothing but yuck on so many levels.

  51. 51.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    This is why I say “Wipe them out. All of them”. If you strip them of all their wealth and put them to work cleaning public restrooms, that might be a kinder solution than putting the lot of them up against the wall.

    Actually, better. They’ll be miserable.

    I like this. If, to quote Groucho from Duck Soup, “we line them up against a wall and ‘pop’ goes the weasel,” they can pretend they’re dying heroically, and more significantly, so can their followers. There’s nothing heroic about cleaning toilets, somebody’s got to do it, and it’s their highest and best use anyway.

  52. 52.

    magurakurin

    @Schlemazel: it’s a hard life. I bet Bannon is at the point where he’s drinking gin by the case. That video of him in Saudi Arabia was shocking. Total DTs. Probably had trouble getting the large quantities he needs on a daily basis.

  54. 54.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Leto:

    “Page seemed to think that if he talked enough, people would think he was well-informed.

    This seems to be the way of thinking for such Rightwing luminaries as Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney (remember his first debate against President Obama when he gish galloped like crazy?), and Trump (who repeats the same phrases/words over and over during his speeches). I’m sure there are very bright Rightwingers out there but you have to look hard to find them. They’ve been overshadowed by the nutcases.

  55. 55.

    Steeplejack

    Haven’t read the comments yet, but I got triggered into rant mode immediately.

    In any profile of anybody, “well read” or “most well read” is a flashing yellow light: “Bullshit ahead!” Nobody in The New York Review of Books talks about how Joan Didion is “well read”; they just start talking about whatever book she’s currently reading of reviewing. “Well read” is assumed.

    And the nail in the coffin is Sun-Tzu’s Art of War. Christ, at this point assistant district managers at Dunder Mifflin are reading that at “management retreats.” For someone to throw it out as proof of Bannon’s big brain or edgy, out-of-the-box thinking is laughable.

  57. 57.

    germy

    @Patricia Kayden:

    It’s quite impressive that unattractive, morally grotesque men like Limbaugh, Trump and Bannon can find multiple women who will walk down the aisle and pledge undying love to them. These men are nothing but yuck on so many levels.

    Even Hitler had a girlfriend. The relationship didn’t end well, though…

  58. 58.

    Leto

    @Major Major Major Major: Trying to compete against the Chinese gold farmers that early WoW had, that is honestly some funny shit to think about. It also shows how well he understand business concepts.

    I’m sure Bannon imagined himself as Vizzini right up ’till the end:

    You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.” But only slightly less well known is this: “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!”

    [laughs maniacally, then falls over dead]

  60. 60.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Yarrow:

    Is this the article that quotes Bannon as saying he’s disappointed with Trump and is considering running for President in 2020?

    Bannon is considering running for what? No fricking way! There isn’t enough laughter in the universe to respond to such an assertion. He really needs to get off the drugs and put down the alcohol.

  64. 64.

    Teddys Person

    @Leto: Yikes! When I defended my dissertation, my adviser assured me he wouldn’t let me go to the defense unless my work would pass. The best comment I got from one of my committee members was that it made him laugh (in a good way).

  65. 65.

    germy

    As poll after poll shows that Republican face an increasingly forbidding electoral environment heading into 2018, President Trump’s advisers are doing what they can to warn their boss – whose historic unpopularity is driving the Democratic momentum.

    Several reports published Thursday evening paint a picture of a Trump administration scrambling to prepare for what may be a year of Republican carnage.

    House Speaker Paul Ryan has warned that more GOP lawmakers will retire instead of facing tough challenges next year. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said privately that, despite what once seemed to be a favorable map for Republicans, the GOP is in danger of losing the upper chamber in a wave election.

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/advisers-warn-trump-about-prospect-of-democratic-wave.html

  67. 67.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    Christ on a trampoline, it’s only 9 AM Denver time and I need a bourbon after reading just those excerpts. Gag. Unfortunately I have to be productive at work today so no raiding the firm liquor closet (yes, we have one) for aforementioned booze…

  69. 69.

    Doug R

    @Patricia Kayden:

    He single handedly turned over a safe Senate seat to Democrats in Alabama.

    Once again Bannon gets too much credit. Losing the Senate seat took a coordinated effort.
    We could give the AA voters in Alabama credit for a change, but that doesn’t fit Bannon’s worldview.

  71. 71.

    Yarrow

    @laura:

    Jeezus, he was cooking meth/disposing of an inconvenient body -as one does.

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

    @Patricia Kayden: The first wife I can maybe understand because he was younger and maybe not so disgusting. It did not end well. They had two daughters and he refused to pay for the good private school because there were too many Jews there. No idea about the other wives. He says one of his daughters went to West Point but I haven’t seen any independent verification of that. I get the impression they avoid him, but I don’t know. He doesn’t seem to talk about them much.

  72. 72.

    Leto

    @Patricia Kayden: It’s not just limited to them, but can basically be ascribed to the entire conservative movement for the past 40 years. What was once something to just grift the rubes is now party orthodox.

  75. 75.

    Leto

    @Teddys Person: I remember the prep work that my wife and her advisor did for her dissertation defense. Also hearing some of the stories from my other friends about their dissertation defense… yikes indeed!

    @germy: While I think that’s good, I hope none of us let up on the gas and continue to do absolutely everything we can to elect as many Dems into office as we can. We still have a long ways to go until Nov 2018!

  76. 76.

    Yarrow

    @germy:

    And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said privately that, despite what once seemed to be a favorable map for Republicans, the GOP is in danger of losing the upper chamber in a wave election.

    Please, please, please. Anything to make that smug turtle miserable is good for me. I’ll also take him being led away in handcuffs and going to prison. Perp Walks and Jumpsuits! Sounds like one of those names organizers give to fundraiser parties.

  77. 77.

    MattF

    @Leto: My story is that after my thesis defense, my advisor asked me ‘Where did you learn all that stuff?” And no, he was not joking.

  78. 78.

    Kathleen

    @germy: I’ve been wondering the same thing. Then I immediately jump to it’s all about the normalization of Fascist and racist people and their ideas.

  82. 82.

    Judge Crater

    Taleb is as wacky as Bannon. He’s really just a run of the mill, Wall St. quant who has developed a cult of “Black Swan” believers who suck up his trite aphorisms and statistical masturbation. He loves Trump, Cernovich, Scaramucchi, and Mafia stereotypes, like Fat Tony. His “Skin in the Game” paradigm is laughable.

  84. 84.

    MattF

    @Teddys Person: He was alluding specifically to the way I shut down an aggressive questioner. But yes, he read most of it– except for one section where I gave a lengthy proof of a trivial result.

  86. 86.

    Kathleen

    @Villago Delenda Est: But we’d never have clean restrooms. I’d settle for them dying of terminal illness and begging on street corners. Bonus if the’re drowning in their pee, poop and puke.

  88. 88.

    Barbara

    So his thesis is, basically, that you should vote for the most awful candidate because he has the most upside. “Vote for the idiot! You might be shocked and appalled but you will never be disappointed!”

  91. 91.

    The Moar You Know

    I know he’d get the usual 27% but who else would vote for him?

    @Yarrow: He wouldn’t even get that. Not even close. A lot of our dimwit populace love his ideas but, let’s face it, looks count when you’re running for public office and especially President. Had Trump looked like Romney he’d have gotten 60+ percent of the popular vote, because that’s just how shallow and vicious Americans are.

    In Bannon’s case, I’ll take the gift of American vapidity. He’s physically hideous enough to be unelectable anywhere in this nation.

  92. 92.

    laura

    @Steeplejack: I’d never seen him live before last night, and that song was just one of many, many excellent new stuffs. I’m so moved -I truly wish I could send everyone I’ve known and hope to know to see it. It’s like Hamiltonitis without the Hamilton.

  96. 96.

    tobie

    Doug!–the WV pol whose campaign video you posted the day-before-yesterday ends up having voted for Trump. I spotted his explanation for this last night on Kos. He’s got an OpEd in the Hill today spouting the usual garbage about how HRC and the Democratic Party scorned working folks and didn’t think about jobs for them. Was going to throw him some bucks but now will just make a contribution to the DCCC.

  97. 97.

    Shalimar

    Sure, reading Sun Tzu makes you well read. Let me know when Bannon starts recommending Sun Tzu’s lesser known work, How To Draw The Male Nude.

  100. 100.

    The Moar You Know

    A life-lesson I’ve learned is that you should avoid relationships with anyone who keeps their bottle of gin under the kitchen sink.

    @MattF: You’re goddamn right about that. If you gotta get your drink on at 7am, put that shit out on the kitchen counter and at least we all know where we stand.

  101. 101.

    catclub

    @Yarrow:

    He says one of his daughters went to West Point but I haven’t seen any independent verification of that.

    This reminds me of saying “I went to MIT… and also visited Harvard the same day.”

  103. 103.

    Judge Crater

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): No idea, except Twitter, et all, have debased social norms and reasonable give-and-take. Peripheral figures like Goldbug and Cernovich can get audiences of anti-social, no-nothings who are looking for things to believe in. Also, including Taleb, these “new paradigm” thinkers have all kinds of grievances with establishment norms. They want to overthrow current institutions and establish their own authoritarian rule.

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Agree about The Wealth of Nations. Once you get past the 18th-century punctuation and get into the flow of the 18th-century rhetoric, it’s very direct and down to earth. And it still explains a shit-ton about what we’re going through today.

    Free versions available from Project Gutenberg.

    This is reminding me that I’ve always wanted to go on and read The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which some say is even better.

  105. 105.

    Yarrow

    @tobie: His district was very red, right? Not really a surprise he voted for Trump. May make him relate to his constituents better: “I voted for Trump just like you. He let us down!”

    The stuff about Hillary and the Dems scorning “working folks” is maddening but not new. I’m not going to support the guy financially but will say that if a D wins a very R district that’s generally a good thing. May not vote always as we want but better than an R who will always vote against what D’s want.

    Any info on whether the guy was an Obama voter who voted for Trump or has he always been an R voter?

  106. 106.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @tobie: The idiot deserves no support at all. If he was stupid enough to be conned by Donald, he’s unfit for any public office. Fuck him. But Donald is doing that for us.

  108. 108.

    Yarrow

    CNN chyron says T signed the tax bill. I thought he was going to wait until January because of something something with Medicare? Guess not.

  111. 111.

    AnotherBruce

    It is nonsense, why would you want to subject yourself trying to figure it out? It will only make you stupid. As for Trump’s “upside”, he has none. He’s a moral vacuum that’s sucking himself and all the rest of us downward to hell.

  112. 112.

    tobie

    @Yarrow: I don’t know whether he voted for Obama. Here’s his thread on Kos.

    He did have the following to say about Democratic efforts to retrain coal workers for other jobs:

    retrain for what? Wendy’s? Walmart? Because that is all that is here right now. These men don’t have college educations. A large percentage of the older miners don’t have high school diplomas because they could make $80,000 at 16 years old. A few years ago there was an effort to retrain by the Obama administration…it flopped because now you had men with computer skills and no jobs. And who fed their families in the meantime? They made too much money to get assistance. WV absolutely needs to diversify it’s economy. Absolutely. But that is exactly why we need someone in Washington who can fight for these men and their families while we do so.

    $80 K for high school dropouts? Those days, if they ever were, are not coming back.

  113. 113.

    Schlemazel

    @catclub:
    When I worked for NASA, with a group that was VERY degree conscious I truthfully told them I had a degree in communications from Brown & Engineering from Northwestern. I may have failed to mention that was radio broadcasting from Brown Institute & Engineering Tech from Northwestern Electronics Institute.

  114. 114.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Breaking, of possible relevance:

    President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon and his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski have been asked to testify to House lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

    Both men were sent letters this week by the House Intelligence Committee asking them to testify in early January, according to an official familiar with the panel’s schedule.

    I found this just now when I was googling around trying to find out whether or not Bannon has met yet with Bobby Three Sticks and His Merry Men.

  116. 116.

    Schlemazel

    @Yarrow:
    I they actually enforce ‘paygo’ that means $25 billion cut from Medicare in 2018. That would be a death sentence for the GOP I believe

  117. 117.

    Steeplejack

    @Yarrow:

    I think there was something about if the president doesn’t veto a bill or sign it within 10 days (Sundays excepted) it becomes a law anyway. So maybe he just wanted to make sure he got the ceremonial Sharpie scribbling in.

  120. 120.

    Schlemazel

    @tobie:
    Back in the 70s the most senior guys working the line at the GM assembly line in Flint, MI could make $60k a year with OT. So, yeah, that world did exist. It was hard work & it was not all workers but at the time even a guy making half that could own a car, buy a house & send his kids to college.

  124. 124.

    germy

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Bloomberg Breaking!!! Bannon and Lewandowski asked to testify to House Intelligence in early January in the Russia probe. Neither has responded yet to the invite — which was not a subpoena.— Billy House (@HouseInSession) December 22, 2017

  127. 127.

    tobie

    @Schlemazel: Back in the 70s, just about everyone I knew got a guaranteed pension at work. I’d really like that back so I don’t have to work till I’m 75, but I’d be pretty skeptical if any candidate told me that s/he was going to do this within the first 100 days of his/her administration. My complaint isn’t that this pol wants to fight for the people in his district. More power to him for that. It’s that his explanation of his Presidential vote shows he didn’t bother to delve into policy details and seems to have based his decision on CNN and FOX headlines. Yes, he’s in a deep red district. I get it.

  128. 128.

    germy

    Look at another admin member caught in a lie. (interviewer had the tape)

    @Nieuwsuur to new US ambassador: "You mentioned [..] that there are no go-zones in the Netherlands and that cars and politicians are set on fire."Pete Hoekstra: "I didn't say that. That's actually an incorrect statement [..] fake news."Hmm, let's have a look at the footage ? pic.twitter.com/vlstN9vhSK— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) December 21, 2017

  130. 130.

    germy

    @tobie:

    Back in the 70s, just about everyone I knew got a guaranteed pension at work

    and back in the ’70s, the want ads were full of “No Experience Necessary – Will Train” job openings.

  131. 131.

    Leto

    @Schlemazel: I’d also ask what was the state/local government doing to help diversify the economy/help their citizens, but it all comes back to “IT’S OBAMAS FAULT!” Consistent, consistent drumbeat.

  134. 134.

    Yarrow

    @debbie: My comment was based what others had linked regarding timing of the signing. There was quite a bit of discussion about the timing because of its affects on Medicare. You don’t have to be rude about it.

  135. 135.

    tobie

    @germy: The 1970s sound so good…the time when you could use things like tax policy to force employers to reinvest in their workers rather than to pad their shareholders’ investment portfolios.

  137. 137.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    People have to understand: Trump did not run to be archbishop of Canterbury.”

    So that literally excuses all of his flaws? Wow, Kay is right. Standards have been lowered. Where the fuck did these people come from?

  139. 139.

    FlipYrWhig

    @tobie: What will the people who go to Washington to fight for these men… do? Let’s stipulate that job retraining is bad because it’s, I dunno, elitist or something. What does fighting for jobs for desperate West Virginians look like? I have a feeling that it isn’t direct hiring WPA-style either, because that’s “government work,” which people seem to find humiliating. IIRC they sneered at the notion of making solar panels and wind turbines too because that’s Euro-homo or something. So… what is it?

    IMHO this is part of why the Republican “cut taxes, and then cut taxes some more” thing resonates: because no matter how stupid it is, it at least sounds like it’s a thing the government can do that gives people money without turning into “welfare.” What is the thing right-thinking Democrats in skeptical-to-hostile territory like West Virginia want the government to do that turns into jobs and money?

  140. 140.

    mike in dc

    @Steeplejack:
    On that note, starting today and ending on January 2nd or 3rd when Congress returns from recess, is the “Mueller firing window”. Mueller met with Trump’s attorneys this week(today or yesterday), so by this evening Trump will know that he’s likely not going to be cleared any time soon, and that most likely Mueller will want to interview him early next year. The news about McGahn researching the Logan Act, and McCabe affirming Comey’s account, is doubly bad for him, as it strengthens the public case for obstruction. I’d put the odds of him firing Mueller at about 1 in 3 right now.

  142. 142.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    How I stopped believing in democracy,” he decries the “Georgetownist worldview” of elites like the late diplomat George Kennan. Moldbug’s writings, coming amid the failure of the U.S. state-building project in Iraq, are hard to parse clearly and are open to multiple interpretations, but the author seems aware that his views are provocative.

    Yeah and autocracy has always worked out so well in the past. Not like hippy dippy demoagugecracy!

    Face facts Moldbug; there will never be a benevolent dictator that you pine so hard for. There will never be a God-Emporer of Mankind to protect us and not abuse us. It certainly won’t be you.

  143. 143.

    Teddys Person

    @germy: and this has been your daily dose of some random snowflake CEO agreeing to take a government job and getting huffy when he’s held accountable

  146. 146.

    Damned at Random

    I may be dumber than the average bear, but if I read a book “in like an hour”, I’m not getting much out of said book.

  147. 147.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Yarrow:

    Wingers, I’ve noticed, use the term “frog-marched.”. I hope they see the frog march of the whole battalion of their beloved Trump toads.

  148. 148.

    Schlemazel

    @tobie:
    There was a golden era, started by FDR, it really took off after the war. Good job, employment security, benefits including retirement. It all went to hell with the oil embargo and then the rise of the MBA.

  150. 150.

    tobie

    @FlipYrWhig: Good questions. If public works projects and retraining are out of the question, I’m don’t know what one can do to generate jobs in certain regions.

  153. 153.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Yarrow:

    That would be delightful–squash Lump’s tax victory crowing and ruin his Christmas. Just a hunch, but I don’t think it’s in the cards.

  155. 155.

    Chyron HR

    @tobie:

    “Retrain for what? Wendy’s? Walmart? Because the glorious white working master race won’t do menial jobs fit only for filthy, subhuman identity politicians!”

    Well, it looks like Our Revolution has a new poster boy.

  156. 156.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    I was away from the news much of the last couple of days… can I assume Trump did not get the promise of a Mueller hall pass some were saying he anticipated? There was no suggestion that Trump would be cleared?

  157. 157.

    Corner Stone

    @Damned at Random:

    but if I read a book “in like an hour”, I’m not getting much out of said book.

    Then it’s obvious that you need to up your game! Because I always learn something new by reading a ripping good Encyclopedia Brown mystery.

  158. 158.

    Leto

    @Yarrow: Considering how every Friday news dump has gone since Inauguration Day, I’m sure we can count on something happening today.

  160. 160.

    Corner Stone

    I didn’t watch the bill signing, but I think Pence is overseas? So Trump had the camera all to himself right before he went to Mar A Lago. So after all that ball washing done by Pence, he doesn’t even get a photo op out of it?

  161. 161.

    Corner Stone

    @Shalimar:

    Sure, reading Sun Tzu makes you well read. Let me know when Bannon starts recommending Sun Tzu’s lesser known work, How To Draw The Male Nude.

    “Oh, Steve! Draw me like on of your French girls.”

  162. 162.

    FlipYrWhig

    @tobie: I feel like there’s a lack of imagination all around in this discussion. Like, does maintaining playgrounds and parks count as something a displaced lunchbucket West Virginian would be happy to do? If not, why not?

    This guy, a Democrat, seems to be imagining that the two choices are “the plant” and “the store.” There are more jobs than making things and selling things. But I have a strong feeling that the public sector, to his mind, and to the minds of his friends and neighbors, registers as wasted tax money and busy-work. I don’t know why someone else making a profit from what you do is so important to avoiding stigma, humiliation, and emasculation, but it sure seems like a lot of white people genuinely believe that.

  163. 163.

    Yarrow

    @Schlemazel:

    It all went to hell with the oil embargo and then the rise of the MBA.

    I blame the MBA for a lot. Not much added value, a lot of money going into rich people’s pockets.

    @Teddys Person: I’m aware. Trump is toast. Mueller’s just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. The t’s are for treason.

    @debbie: Your sarcasm was not clear and looked personally aimed at me.

  166. 166.

    J R in WV

    @Another Scott:

    In other news, Drum points us to research indicating that atomic weapons testing in the 1950s probably killed 500,000 Americans.

    Good to know, especially while Donnie is itching to teach “little rocket man” a “lesson”… :-/

    Here’s the best representation of the world’s nuclear weapons work since 1945 that I’ve found!

    It is a time lapse animation of a map of the world, showing every nuclear detonation humans have carried out – with both audio, and colored flashes for the different nations doing nuclear testing. I highly recommend watching the whole thing, it is a work of art! The first 15 years or so are a little slow, but then things really get to popping. All over the place. It’s a wonder newly born creatures aren’t like from the Black Lagoon!

    If someone showed this to Trump, he would immediately jump to the conclusion that these devices aren’t dangerous at all, look how many have gone off without causing severe problems. The difference of course is that the vast majority (2053:2) of these detonations were intended to not cause damage and clouds of fallout, rather than to burn cities and create huge contamination downwind.

    His map doesn’t include the DPRK – North Korea explosions that have been done more recently.

  168. 168.

    Cacti

    @germy:

    Even Hitler had a girlfriend. The relationship didn’t end well, though…

    Reminds me of an internet Valentine I saw for single people on Valentine’s Day:

    “Even Hitler had a girlfriend. You are literally less desirable than Hitler.”

  169. 169.

    Teddys Person

    @Yarrow: Can I have some of your optimism? I wish I believed that Dolt45 is toast. The f#cker is f#cking teflon, and it pisses me off.

  172. 172.

    Cacti

    @Schlemazel:

    There was a golden era, started by FDR, it really took off after the war. Good job, employment security, benefits including retirement.

    There was a golden era for white men.

  173. 173.

    Duane

    @Villago Delenda Est: I don’t want them cleaning public toilets. They might gain the feeling of self-respect or satisfaction for doing something worthwhile. I want them broken, crushed, and turned to dust.

  174. 174.

    Steeplejack

    @Teddys Person:

    Pete Hoekstra was a Republican congressman from 1993 to 2011. Rose to be a big shot—chairman or ranking member of the Intelligence Committee for a while.

    Also the genesis of a memorable Balloon Juice lexicon entry:

    Hoekstroika: A ridiculous statement that greatly minimizes the suffering of one group of people while wildly escalating the suffering of another group of people, when no such comparison exists. Usually for partisan political point scoring. Origin: a “twitter” from Rep. Peter Hoekstra comparing the violent repression of peaceful demonstrators in Iran with Republicans in Congress:

    Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.

  175. 175.

    Yarrow

    @Teddys Person: He’s not teflon. His own lawyer, McGahn, just showed he’s not taking the fall for the obstruction of justice charge by saying he told Trump about Flynn way back early in the year. Trump has nowhere to hide. His money won’t save him because it will be frozen, if not by Mueller then certainly by Schneiderman. He’s toast. What they’re working out now is timing.

  178. 178.

    Yarrow

    I’ve always found Cenk Uygur really off-putting and I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t watch him enough to figure it out. Just felt repulsed when I did see some of his stuff. Maybe this explains it.

    “Young Turks” creator and host Cenk Uygur made multiple graphic and disparaging remarks about women in his early days as a blogger, including saying that women were genetically “flawed” because they don’t want to have sex often enough.

    He deleted it a long time ago and has apologized for it. But I didn’t know this about him:

    Uygur said he wrote the posts while he was still a conservative, before he underwent a political transformation into a liberal. His news organization, The Young Turks, now offers left-leaning stories and commentary.

    Former conservative. Disparaging blog posts about women. What a shocker he didn’t support Hillary.

    Also, too.

    Another post from 2004 described a road trip with Uygur and David Koller, now senior vice president of operations at the Young Turks. The post was written in the style of a diary entry. At one point, “Dave” described chatting up some underage teenage girls he called “whores in training.”

    “In one small Pennsylvania town we stopped for gas, and while Cenk filled up I went to talk to these three girls who were walking down the road nearby. Turns out they were three teenage girls, whores in training, literally looking for boys to pick them up,” he wrote. “They were around 14-16 and in a few more years will be pretty damn good looking.”

    Gross.

  179. 179.

    VeniceRiley

    @FlipYrWhig:

    FlipYrWhig
    says:

    December 22, 2017 at 12:06 pm

    @tobie: What will the people who go to Washington to fight for these men… do? Let’s stipulate that job retraining is bad because it’s, I dunno, elitist or something. What does fighting for jobs for desperate West Virginians look like? I have a feeling that it isn’t direct hiring WPA-style either, because that’s “government work,” which people seem to find humiliating. IIRC they sneered at the notion of making solar panels and wind turbines too because that’s Euro-homo or something. So… what is it?

    IMHO this is part of why the Republican “cut taxes, and then cut taxes some more” thing resonates: because no matter how stupid it is, it at least sounds like it’s a thing the government can do that gives people money without turning into “welfare.” What is the thing right-thinking Democrats in skeptical-to-hostile territory like West Virginia want the government to do that turns into jobs and money?

    They want the government to subsidize the coal industry at a level that allows them to keep their jobs and guarantees the same level of employment into the foreseeable future for their sons. They want to mine coal for a living. It’s corporate welfare they want. The reason they’d rather have that over direct help, retraining, or outright cash assistance is then they can pretend they aren’t getting a handout. It’s a matter of pride. If Trump redirected some of the subsidies the oil industry gets to the coal industry, they’d cheer.

  182. 182.

    trollhattan

    Trump certainly attracts a cabal of losers! into his orbit. Consider Carter Page.

    When former Trump 2016 foreign policy advisor Carter Page’s Ph.D. thesis was twice rejected by a London academic committee, he accused them of being biased against his favorable views of Russia, said The Guardian on Friday.

    Before he was an awkward, overly verbose figure on the national stage, Page was a “vague,” “verbose” Ph.D. candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. In 2008, he submitted a thesis on Russia’s transition to capitalism to Professor Gregory Andrusz and Dr. Peter Duncan ahead of an in-person interview called a viva.

    Andrusz told The Guardian that he thought it would be easy to pass Page — who is the only student the professor has ever failed twice in his decades-long academic career — but it actually took “days and days” for him to wade through Page’s vague, repetitive writing.

    Page’s work, Andrusz said, demonstrated that he knew “next to nothing” about social science and was “unfamiliar with basic concepts like Marxism or state capitalism.”

    Their failings are always somebody else’s fault. Always.

  184. 184.

    Major Major Major Major

    @trollhattan:

    “vague,” “verbose”[…] vague, repetitive writing[…] knew “next to nothing”

    If I sit down to clarify my thoughts by writing something, and it comes out like this, I can tell it’s time to go back to do more research.

    (Regular readers will know that I don’t apply this level of rigor to blog comments, however)

  187. 187.

    JoeyJoeJoe Junior Shabadoo

    @Yarrow: also, his approval ratings are shit. Polling indicates a bigger Dem wave year in 2018 than we’ve seen in decades, if things stay the way they are.

  188. 188.

    trollhattan

    @germy:
    I’m now officially in support of outsourcing our political reportage to the Dutch.

    “Here’s video of you saying the thing you just said you never said.”

  190. 190.

    Amir Khalid

    @Major Major Major Major:

    If I sit down to clarify my thoughts by writing something, and it comes out like this, I can tell it’s time to go back to do more research.

    Because you can assess yourself honestly. Such a skill is beyond the ken of one like Carter Page.

  192. 192.

    Brachiator

    @Ridnik Chrome:

    That famous quote about Newt Gingrich (“a stupid person’s idea of a smart person”) describes pretty much everyone the Republicans are currently trying to pass off as intellectuals.

    Great quotation! Thanks for bringing it up again. Describes Newt and his worshippers to a T.

    And Trump is a stupid person’s idea of a good president.

  193. 193.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @Yarrow: Also dating from that period: His denial of the Armenian genocide, which he hadn’t disavowed – in favor of an “agnostic” position – until last year, and only obliquely acknowledged since. (Which makes the program moniker so much worse).

    I actually watched The Young Turks back when CurrenTV was a thing, during Election 2012, and recall it being fairly good. It definitely seems to have lost its shit after the primaries – the last two people there much worth a shit were Ben Mankiewicz and Ryan Grim, and Uygur’s filtering abilities are just completely fucked to hell – now they employ Nomiki Konst, Jimmy Dore, and Michael Tracey (and only recently firing Jordan Chariton for sexual abuse allegations).

  196. 196.

    Brachiator

    @VeniceRiley:

    They want the government to subsidize the coal industry at a level that allows them to keep their jobs and guarantees the same level of employment into the foreseeable future for their sons. They want to mine coal for a living.

    A great summary of the situation. And a president who promises that these people will get their jobs back, or keep their current ones will usually win over any politician who offers retraining without the promise of a job, or assistance that’s less than the wages miners used to earn.

  197. 197.

    sukabi

    @germy:

    “He’s taking meetings with Russians to get additional stuff. This tells you everything about Jared,” Bannon told me. “They were looking for the picture of Hillary Clinton taking the bag of cash from Putin. That’s his maturity level.”

    The unsaid part is that Kushner and team literally took a bag(s) of Russian cash trying to secure dirt on Clinton …(and also to keep their personal ’empires’ afloat.)

  198. 198.

    Damned at Random

    @VeniceRiley:

    They want the government to subsidize the coal industry at a level that allows them to keep their jobs and guarantees the same level of employment into the foreseeable future for their sons. They want to mine coal for a living.

    As a coal miner’s granddaughter, I can’t imagine a worse way to make a living. It’s like going into your grave every day. If the methane doesn’t get you, the black lung will. American dream my ass. My folks gladly left the mines to work in a fucking open-hearth steel mill – and they had higher hopes for their kids. Not to mention the deadly labor actions necessary to get a living wage and minimal safety regulations from the mine owners. We really need to learn something from our own history.

    I read a book (in well over an hour) called “Making Sense of the Molly Maguires – can’t recommend it too highly- that explains how labor lost power to capital in the Central PA coal mines. Life was abysmal for workers in the early industrial revolution and any change came with bloodshed and suffering on a scale we no longer comprehend. In some Appalachian hollers, little has changed in 100 years of struggle. That isn’t anything to take pride in.

  206. 206.

    moops

    @Brachiator:

    Yup. They do not want the truth. No politician should bother giving it to them. Every campaign there should promise a restoration of their former coal mining glory. The GOP is never called out in their failure to deliver on that promise. Dems should just take the same oath and take the issue off the table entirely.

  207. 207.

    TerryC

    @Damned at Random: “I may be dumber than the average bear, but if I read a book “in like an hour”, I’m not getting much out of said book.”

    I am a freakishly fast reader by nature, and can read a 300 page novel in an hour and a half with test-winning comprehension. It’s a strange gift that a few people have. It was invaluable during standardized tests before they became computerized. I’ve averaged a novel or so a day since I was in elementary school.

    But Bannon, no. That’s bullshit.

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