There is no cohesive political core around Trump. And his newly-minted campaign manager, per other advisers, tends to tell Trump his poll numbers are higher than ever. https://t.co/gO2QxE6buO
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 28, 2018
His political team is actually the most cohesive it has been since the start. It is just this politics team doesn’t talk to you or leak. You only get leaks from those outside the team. https://t.co/xrrT8kilSN
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) April 28, 2018
I say this with respect, sir – you have no idea who we are talking to. https://t.co/LP8tySJn0b
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 28, 2018
TBH, there is “no cohesive political core” to Trump, either. Apparently crow-mobbing the Clintons just isn’t as much fun any more (now that they’re getting actual pushback) so the Media Villagers have decided to try poking the Trump Regents to see if they’ll bite. Fun read, if you’re a cynic, or a Democrat:
President Trump is privately rejecting the growing consensus among Republican leaders that they may lose the House and possibly the Senate in November, leaving party officials and the president’s advisers nervous that he does not grasp the gravity of the threat they face in the midterm elections.
Congressional and party leaders and even some Trump aides are concerned that the president’s boundless self-assurance about politics will cause him to ignore or undermine their midterm strategy. In battleground states like Arizona, Florida and Nevada, Mr. Trump’s proclivity to be a loose cannon could endanger the Republican incumbents and challengers who are already facing ferocious Democratic headwinds.
Republicans in Washington and Trump aides have largely given up assuming the president will ever stick to a teleprompter, but they have joined together to impress upon him just how bruising this November could be for Republicans — and how high the stakes are for Mr. Trump personally, given that a Democratic-controlled Congress could pursue aggressive investigations and even impeachment.…
The disconnect between the president — a political novice whose confidence in his instincts was grandly rewarded in 2016 — and more traditional party leaders demonstrates the depth of the Republicans’ challenges in what is likely to be a punishing campaign year.
Mr. Trump is as impulsive as ever, fixated on personal loyalty, cultivating a winner’s image and privately prodding Republican candidates to demonstrate their affection for him — while complaining bitterly when he campaigns for those who lose. His preoccupation with the ongoing Russia investigation adds to the unpredictability, spurring Mr. Trump to fume aloud in ways that divide the G.O.P. and raising the prospect of legal confrontations amid the campaign. And despite projecting confidence, he polls nearly all those who enter the Oval Office about how they view the climate of the midterms.
According to advisers, the president plans to hold a fund-raiser a week in the months to come and hopes to schedule regular rallies with candidates starting this summer. But there is not yet any coordinated effort about where to deploy Mr. Trump, and there are divisions within his ever-fractious circle of advisers about how to approach the elections.
Among his close associates, a debate is raging about whether to focus on House races that could earn the president chits with Republican lawmakers who might ultimately vote on impeachment, or to dig in to defend the party’s tenuous Senate majority…Congressional leaders have left little doubt in private that they see Mr. Trump as a political millstone for many of the party’s candidates. In recent weeks, Mr. McConnell has confided to associates that Republicans may lose the Senate because of the anti-Trump energy on the left.
And at Mr. Ryan’s retreat, a Republican pollster, Kristen Soltis Anderson, identified Mr. Trump as a major source of the party’s woes, according to multiple attendees. Ms. Anderson noted that his job approval was markedly weaker than past presidents, including President Barack Obama in the months before Democrats lost 63 House seats in the 2010 elections…
Despite the lingering disputes with congressional Republicans, White House officials say the president is eager to return to the campaign trail.
Although some Republicans in competitive states may not want to appear with Mr. Trump — Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, for example, has told associates he is unlikely to campaign with the president — there is no lack of lawmakers eager for his help…
They’re already setting up a fallback excuse: If (when, please Murphy) their guys get drowned in a blue wave this November, they’ll claim it was all the fault of that RINO traitor Donald J. Trump. Meanwhile, I look forward to more Repubs in Disarray!!! headlines…
… What has stunned Republican veterans outside the White House is how, even 15 months into his presidency, Mr. Trump still lacks any unified political organization…
This vacuum has, as is often the case with this White House, triggered fierce internecine scrapping among those vying for Mr. Trump’s ear.
The president’s announcement that Brad Parscale, his 2016 digital guru, would manage his 2020 re-election campaign caught many of his most senior advisers by surprise, according to multiple Republicans. And the hasty decision immediately raised suspicions it was part of a power play by Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, to isolate Corey Lewandowski, the president’s 2016 campaign manager and occasional adviser…
Mr. Parscale has also irritated some Trump officials by attempting to take over the political portfolio, with his scheduling of meetings to devise an as-yet-unformed midterm strategy getting back to other factions.
But his ascension marks only the newest power center in Mr. Trump’s political orbit: There is his White House staff, his vice president, the Republican National Committee, his family, his campaign alumni, his super PAC, his congressional allies, his conservative media friends and now his re-election team…
Tough talk, from a guy who’s at best a catspaw for Russian interference, if not an actual foreign agent…
In my data his numbers are higher than they have been in 12+ months. The republican base is solid. We have doubled Democrat support from earlier in the year and independents are seeing the change they wanted. He is winning again just like I predicted in the 16 election. https://t.co/xrrT8kilSN
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) April 28, 2018
I appreciate the confirmation that you’ve told him his numbers are the best they’ve ever been. https://t.co/isKF6IP3Po
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 28, 2018
Not sure which would be more entertaining: Corey Lewandowski challenging Parscale to a fist fight, or Parscale challenging Haberman to a public debate.
Wise words:
Never saw stuff Ike this from Obama people. Why? Mostly bc Obama wasn’t a sociopath who set his staff against each other & thus creating multiple factions leaking like crazy to screw over other members of their own team https://t.co/6SmbE2KV4y
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) April 28, 2018
When it comes to Trump and the people around him, the crazy is baked in. I seem to remember that Jason Miller is still one of Trump’s prime-time cable news defenders…
Custody litigation between two ex-Trump staffers involves allegation that NASA faked the moon landing. https://t.co/6ZRyGBtt5o pic.twitter.com/oTYFufYU86
— Slate (@Slate) April 27, 2018
(Bonus point: It is alleged that Miller picked up this non-factoid from someone involved in the Ted Cruz campaign… )
germy
The way the villagers circled their wagons around huckabee when she was “attacked”… maybe she’s the leaker?
germy
I did not know that.
lollipopguild
Trump is Captain Chaos.
Nelle
Could T’s confidence be based on his confidence that Russia has the 2018 election taken care of? Reminds me of the dead-on certainty when, in 2000, Florida was called for Gore. Whoever was speaking for the Bush campaign said, in a flat, assured tone, “That’s not right.” Not even any fakery of “Let’s make sure all the votes are counted before such declarations.” It was the voice of someone who knows the fix is in.
So this election can’t be close enough to steal. It’s got to be overwhelming.
JPL
Why oh why is everyone in an uproar over a comedian when the president continues to offend. His own son met with a spy, shouldn’t that receive some coverage.
joel hanes
The actual nut graf :
the president plans to hold a fund-raiser a week in the months to come
Having convinced himself that he’s consolidated his position by firing everyone close to him who sought to gainsay him in even the smallest thing, and having intimidated most of the rest of his party, the grifter-in-chief openly plans to use the office for direct personal enrichment.
Remember the huge donations for his inauguration, and the dearth of accounting ?
More than $1 million missing, IIRC.
link to USAToday story
He watched Palin and Huckabee and RON PAUL and Herman Cain work their Presidential campaigns as a grift, and learned.
Brachiator
It don’t matter. The cray cray works for Trump. And it clearly makes his supporters happy.
Trump always runs off the rails. That the GOP leadership does not realize this is an endless loop of the same old bullshit.
“Holy shit, Trump won’t stick to the program! Oh, wait, he didn’t stick to the program yesterday, either.”
And all this does is give the Democrats some extra room to move. They should be kicking the shit out of the Republicans over their failures to fix health care and their abomination of a tax cut.
Corner Stone
@germy:
Because they can’t defend the on point criticism of how they fail to deal with SHS lies everyday. This whole faux outrage bullshit makes me want to nominate VDE to Supreme Marshall Justice Eagle for life so he can handle it.
Major Major Major Major
@germy: they’ve gone from one to two.
Jeff
One can only hope his hubris invites nemesis in November.
Amir Khalid
@germy:
Given Parscale’s habit of exaggerating Trump’s support in the polls to appease Trump, I suspect that this might be not precisely true.
Yutsano
@Nelle: Paper trails. Everywhere. Every voting booth. A physical tally to count in case of shenanigans.
You know, the things we should have already.
Mnemosyne
@Nelle:
That is my worry. The one thing that makes me feel better is the thought that the Russians might find it harder to mess with non-cooperating blue states like California or New York, unlike states like Wisconsin and Michigan that did a lot of the voter suppression legwork and then left the keys in the ignition with the engine running.
Corner Stone
With the several attempts we now know of to create a “backchannel” between Trump WH and Russia, it’s hard for me to believe they stopped trying. IMO they’ve got something we don’t know about yet and are cooking the books for 2018. It’s not only Trump’s narcissism that is pushing his belief in 2018.
Bill Arnold
I’m shallow, laughed at this (The Onion): Russian Lawyer Admits To Repeatedly Informing Kremlin Of Trump Campaign’s Ineptitude
On a more serious note, would appreciate an up-to-date reading by Cheryl (and perhaps Adam) on NK & the Iran deal. (Missed a few days of news reporting on opaque negotiations, and various interested parties have been busy working narratives, particularly in the press, clearly trying to influence key people.)
For example, Pompeo says U.S. is with Israel in fight against Iran
germy
Interesting: Out of curiosity, I checked back at Michelle Wolf’s wikipedia page, and someone corrected it. She worked at a Wall Street job, not strip clubs. This morning someone changed her wikipedia to say she’d worked at strip clubs.
But yes, of course it’s impossible screenshots of Joy Reid’s old blog were altered…
Chyron HR
@Amir Khalid:
Oh, I’m sure Trump’s managed to find a second Democratic supporter somewhere.
HeleninEire
Just saw a picture of Michelle Wolf. I had no idea who she was until, like yesterday. She’s a black woman? Well that explains it all.
Bored.
schrodingers_cat
Brad Parscale (sp?) person looks like he belongs to a cult. When did a neck beard become the go to look for men?
Brachiator
@germy:
Interesting. She mentioned that she worked for a brokerage firm during her set; even crafted a joke around it.
Even had she worked strip clubs, how would this be a negative given how Trump has lived his life?
MattF
Trump chooses advisors who tell him what he wants to hear. That’s what ‘advisor’ means, right?
germy
@Brachiator: This morning, wikipedia listed two strip clubs. One of them was “Scores” and I can’t remember the other one. But when I followed the citations they quoted articles about her employment at Bear Stearns. She never worked at those strip clubs. The page has been corrected now. But I assume there’ll be more bullshit forthcoming.
lowtechcyclist
Remember how they used to dis Obama, claiming that he was just reading off the teleprompter? Now they wish their President could master that skill.
Brachiator
@HeleninEire:
She’s not black. From a Slate story.
JPL
@Brachiator: Well that explains it. She’s a woman.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
Damned if I know. I’ve got a full beard, but I shave my neck (takes 45 seconds, maybe) because beards that go down the neck look like crap.
Major Major Major Major
@Bill Arnold:
This actually makes me laugh. He thinks it’s just a minor point whether the US reneges on a different denuclearization deal while in denuclearization talks. God.
schrodingers_cat
@lowtechcyclist: It makes one look like an escaped convict or a member of a religious cult.
Ladyraxterinok
OT – who will be new House chaplain? Jim Bakker? Paula White? Rodney Howard Brown (preacher who led laying on hands on Trump)? Why not Michelle Bachmann (does chaplain need to be ordained? probably can’t be a woman – male headship, you know)?
aimai
@Brachiator: I thought she as black, too.
Bill Arnold
@Major Major Major Major:
One alternative is that he know better, and “covertly”/overtly is working to torpedo both the existing Iran multi-party agreement and a potential NK/SK/US deal. Since Trump really wants the later, Pompeo (and who else?) has to tread carefully, but he does not appear to be very good at it. There are other alternatives, less likely IMO. Hoping that Cheryl has been tracking all these pieces (narrative building/propagation, barely visible behind the scenes activity) and has some intuitions.
HeleninEire
@Brachiator: My bad. So sorry.
Stuart Frasier
@germy:
In fairness, being a stripper is more honorable than working on Wall Street.
germy
@Ladyraxterinok: Satan?
germy
@Stuart Frasier: Most likely, but the fact that it was… untrue is what caught my attention.
SFAW
@Nelle:
Someone with a big enough megaphone should be shouting, weekly, “How do we know that President Shitgibbon is NOT actively working with Putin and the Russians to hack the midterms for the Rethuglicans’ benefit?”
A few benefits:
1) As LBJ said, “Make him deny it.”
2) Done often enough, it will drive Shitgibbon to even greater depths of “oratorical” insanity, which will help juice the Dems’ numbers even more, thus making it even harder for Shitgibbon to get away with it (if he’s actually doing anything, directly or indirectly, with Vladi.)
3) Make Ryan and McConnell deny it, too. Every fucking day. Just because
ETA: As a freebie, someone should through Nunes into the mix of “acticely seeking Russian help to fuck the midterms” crowd, and keep asking him about it, that fucking traitor
Brachiator
@HeleninEire:
No big deal. Apparently, she gets this often. I got no idea what her ethnic background might be. I got a chance to see a video of her at the Correspondents Dinner, and she was just killing it.
But I suspect she will be bombarded with attacks, including racist and sexist digs.
germy
The power of the presidency!
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Corner Stone: What would be a good strategy for dealing with Sanders’ lies? They keep trying to treat her as if everything was ordinary. That’s not getting them any information. Or is information not the goal of the press briefing?
SFAW
@germy:
a/k/a Franklin Graham?
Roger Moore
@Yutsano:
It doesn’t help as much if they fuck with the voting rolls.
Origuy
Looking at the edit history of Michelle Wolf’s Wikipedia page, there have been about 400 edits in the last 24 hours. Mostly obvious vandalism and someone reversing said vandalism. A few hours ago, her page was protected.
Stuart Frasier
@Brachiator:
It must be the hair texture. That said, my sister has the same complexion, curls, and hair color as Michelle Wolf, and we’re very, very white people from Dublin.
Shell
No doubt will serve a double purpose; scraping up every nickel he can while having his ego stroked.
Frankensteinbeck
@Nelle:
I doubt it. I remember Rove’s freakout that it was impossible Obama won Ohio. Political people convince themselves of things. Republicans in particular are good at declaring, and believing, they are a shoo in when they’re actually behind, but it’s common period.
Corner Stone
@germy: “Not today, Satan!”
SFAW
@germy:
No doubt it will be even-more-preposterous lies from the Liar-in-Chief.
“Tester killed Nicole and Ron”
“Tester blew up the Hindenburg”
“Tester gave the
GermansJapanese sekrit info to get them to bomb Pearl Harbor.”“Tester murdered Jesus”
“Tester killed all the dinosaurs.”
germy
@Origuy:
About an hour ago, her comedy influence was listed as “Charles Manson”.
JPL
So it’s Sunday and two more cell phone companies are merging. This time it’s T-mobile and Sprint. Yeah competition!
Also this
https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/the-justice-department-deleted-language-about-press-freedom?utm_term=.qxW0w7YPa&bftwnews#.bmKOy2Aa3
Thanks Rosenstein.
Corner Stone
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Well, there’s a boycott. They could en masse not show up. Then there’s a filibuster. Ask a question and then the next one ask the same question if it’s not answered or the answer is a lie. Or they could just tell her she’s lying. Leave her stammering by calling her a liar and not offering any cloudy context or information to it. “Sarah, that’s a lie and you know it. Stop lying to the American people.”
Now, we know the WHCA are all camera whores who spend 45 seconds working up to asking their question. And their collective pity party freakout tells us they don’t give a shit they are being lied to and cynically used. By their own consent. But if they did want to do the work, there are a few tactics they could employ.
B.B.A.
@JPL: Has either of those companies done anything to annoy Il Douche? No? Then it’s all good.
germy
So I guess next year… “Ladies and Gentlemen, Rich Little!”
Roger Moore
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
It gets them one piece of information: what Trump’s people want them to think. That’s actually an interesting thing to know, but it isn’t worth the attention the WH press briefings get. What I’m really worried about is that too many people in the WH press corps have given up on the idea that there’s an objective truth out there and actually care as much about Trump’s bullshit as they do about independently verifiable facts.
lollipopguild
@Frankensteinbeck: You bring back such warm memories of M Kelly’s walk back to the “Election Guys” in the back who told Kelly that Obama had won Ohio and was going to be reelected. Gee what ever happened to Turdblossom?
Major Major Major Major
@lollipopguild: watched it live. Such a fond memory.
Roger Moore
@SFAW:
Tester knows what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.
Tester knows was the second gunman on the grassy knoll.
Zinsky
I’m retiring this week, so I intend to split my time between charity work and seeing that every goddamn Republican running for political office goes down in flames in 2018!
lollipopguild
@germy: “Unify the room and the country around journalism” Rolling around on the floor laughing my ass off.
germy
@lollipopguild: I know, right? She’s as clueless as her audience.
mozzerb
@germy: The whole point of Wikipedia is that anyone at all can edit pages unless their mods take active steps to protect them.
It’s possible that someone managed to hack more than one major archive site to alter what they’d recorded years ago, but it would be a lot of effort to make a fairly (not massively) prominent TV journalist look mildly (not massively) bad. Not good to go down the rabbit hole on this one.
Baud
@Zinsky: Congrats!
eclare
@Zinsky: Congratulations! and thank you!
MattF
@SFAW: Of course Trump would like to see Tester resign– and he’s giving the RW media a clear ‘go ahead’ signal. But I don’t see it working.
SFAW
@Roger Moore:
If I were you, I’d watch my back. Those were two of the most closely-guarded sekrits that Comey/Tester might also have leaked, and as with a Ludlum novel, people seem to disappear under mysterious circumstances.
The Other Chuck
@SFAW:
Baiting him to peck out “NO COLLUSION!” on Twitter every single day doesn’t count?
No Drought No More
Alan Feuer of the NY Times writes in todays edition about an ongoing NYPD influence peddling scandal, and he does so in ripping good yarn style. Feuer has got a real knack for connecting the dots and telling the tale. The article’s accompanying chart, which explains who-is-who-and-how-they-connect, is a first rate piece of work, too.
The Times could do worse than assign Feuer to cover the ongoing treason of Donald Trump. He could connect the dots connect between the Russians that own and dictate to Trump, and the domestic traitors within the republican partythat continue to aid and abet him every step of the way. That is to say, among others, literally every republican member of congress.
Gelfling 545
@germy: Like Trump could ever keep anything to himself if he “knew” anything. And we already know that the concept of him having knowledge is ludicrous.
Villago Delenda Est
@Nelle: That was Darth Cheney’s vile apprentice, Mary Matalin.
Major Major Major Major
@Zinsky: woohoo! Good plan!
Major Major Major Major
@mozzerb:
Damn, I was just about to speculate that it was leet Russian haxorz doing it as a trial balloon for further archive.org hacking which the fairly high-caliber professionals at archive.org somehow didn’t notice.
Baud
@No Drought No More:
And has.
SFAW
@MattF:
I don’t either, but I’ve never lost money underestimating the intelligence of the “normal” RWNJ voter.
One (potential) upside: if anyone in the MSM had the stones to do it, he/she/they should keep asking Jethrene “The Preznit seems to be using his attacks on Senator Tester as a way of distracting people from yet another of his scandals. Which one is it this time? His collusion with Russia? Secretary Pruitt’s lying and corruption? His lying about Issue X (Note: whichever one that may be)? The apparent money laundering channel that Trump Properties served as? Or the fact that not only is he not a billionaire, but his actual net worth pegs him as barely a millionaire — and that’s only because of how he’s enriched himself by using the Office as a shakedown tool?”
Hilarity would ensue.
SFAW
@The Other Chuck:
That only covers 2016.
efgoldman
@lowtechcyclist:
Also they itch like a bastard.
Another Scott
@Roger Moore: “There are a lot of people who think…”
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
RedDirtGirl
@Corner Stone: I would pay to see that happen!
Librarian
Jason Miller, the balloon with a goatee drawn on it.
justawriter
@germy: I remember Rich Little doing Reagan and responding to the question, When does a fetus become a human being? Little: “When they vote Republican.”
HAL
I’m sure this has already been posted, but the source of media outrage really is this truth:
Mnemosyne
@Librarian:
With all of this “incel” stuff going around, one can’t help but wonder just how awful those guys must be if even an asshole like Jason Miller can successfully seduce and impregnate his co-worker while his own wife is pregnant.
Baud
@HAL: Probably my favorite quote from that routine.
@Mnemosyne: Not getting laid doesn’t make someone awful. Hating women because of it makes someone awful.
trollhattan
@Librarian:
Perfect description, and one it seems applies to a LOT of Republican wingnut welfare harvesters because he looks straight out of Central Casting.
Brachiator
@germy:
That’s just stupid. Manson was a songwriter.
ET
Enough time has passed since tRump has taken over the White House, that I am truly puzzled why Republican politicians and campaign types think he gives a rat’s ass about controlling either/both houses of Congress. Quite literally nothing he has done or said has supported that.
He only cares about himself. Ever. His agenda is himself. He doesn’t care about a team trying to push through agenda items, campaign platform points, or long held wishes of GOP true believers because doing so takes the focus off him.
Add to that is his utter inability to keep his yap shut, stay on message, give speeches that have coherent structure, etc and this is what you get. This is the GOP’s fault and they have to live with the monster they created. If they end up in the political wilderness for a few years they have no one to blame but themselves.
Smiling Mortician
@Zinsky: Congratulations! And thank you!
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
Pshaw, he killed in LA!
JPL
@Baud: Has MSM mentioned that statement? My guess would be no.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Actually, he didn’t kill anybody at the Tate residence or the La Bianca residence.
zhena gogolia
@JPL:
From what I can tell, they’re giving the impression that she spent 20 minutes on Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
This piece by Molly Roberts in WaPo is right on.
Shana
@Zinsky: So, just taking it easy? Really though, congrats.
Ella in New Mexico
Sombody, please:
IFF Ms. Maggie Haberman.
Seriously, that chick gets tossed from side to side so often I can never remember if I’m supposed to like her or hate her.
Frankensteinbeck
@ET:
They care about themselves, and have no choice but to try and manage him. You are right that he does not care two shits about them and is unmanageable, but they have to try. I am hoping we will find that Trump was just the spark that lit this fire anyway, and it’s the GOP in general people are motivated against. The ACA repeal attempt infuriated a lot of voters, and the backlash was loud.
Corner Stone
@zhena gogolia: That was a good column.
Corner Stone
@Ella in New Mexico: I do not understand your confusion?
sdhays
@Roger Moore:
Umm…I don’t know how to break this to you, but Spanky already blew this one wide open during the 2016 campaign. He provided absolute proof that Ted Cruz’s father killed JFK. Or, rather, the absolute proof is with his crack investigative team in Hawaii that also has Obama’s Wakanda birth certificate and tapes of Jim Comey.
Mystery solved!
Villago Delenda Est
@Ella in New Mexico: Hate her. She was one of the vanguard of the “but her emails!” crowd.
B.B.A.
@Baud: Speaking as someone who can’t get laid, I think the reason is that we’re awful to begin with. At least I know I certainly am.
Frankensteinbeck
@sdhays:
If Obama were from Wakanda, it would make a lot of sense. I hope they keep trying to civilize is.
sdhays
@Frankensteinbeck: They’re going to need a bigger boat.
bystander
@Librarian: Balloony!
Is it time we demand that Michelle Wolf submit to a DNA test?
jl
@ET: The Congressional GOP knows that Trump is out-of-it and incapable, and wouldn’t give a shit even if he could do something about it. That is what I think from news of various anonymous leaks from GOPers in Congress, particular the guy who said that (paraphrase), if he is going to take us all down with him anyway, we should just impeach the MoFo right now.
Problem for the GOP is that they have to thread an incredibly small needle. Until the GOP primaries are over, they are hostage to the reliable GOP primary voting base which now consists almost entirely of deranged racist authoritarian Trumpsters. Then they have to swerve hard towards center to stand a chance in the general election. And there is a hard core of GOpers and crazy greedhead lobbyists who want another high income/corporate tax cut and another attempt to wipe out PPACA before the midterms.
So, this is a recipe for catastrophic Fail for them, and I hope for the sake of the country, that is exactly what happens in the midterms.
jl
Also, the way the Ryan handled the firing of the House chaplain, and threats Trump made against Tester, and the ridiculous reaction of the reactionaries to the horrible very unfair correspondents dinner show last night shows the big lie reactionaries and conservatives have been telling about right wing and authoritarian regimes and mindset for decades.
Just like in communist totalitarian regimes, in conservative authoritarian regimes, everything is political and what is political is determined by whatever threatens the power and prestige of the ruling class to do as they damn well please. And an important, indeed essential, part of what they damn well please to do is to lie their asses off and have a popular media that goes along. And once the ruling class declares something is political and therefore worthy of retribution, no means and ways are out of bounds. And they are sole judges of the political acceptability of every damn act, utterance and opinion in the country.
The Trumpsters and the reactionary rump GOP are very dangerous forces, We can only hope that their abject incompetence continues to abet their political destruction.
Bill Arnold
This is just too weirdly easy to mock, so I’m wondering what our new mustached national security advisor has up his sleeve, if anything.
John Bolton Says U.S. Is Considering ‘Libya Model’ for North Korea’s Disarmament (April 29, 2018)
(There’s video of that capture and beating and field execution if you search for it.)
John Bolton on push to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons (Fox News transcript 2018/04/29)
jl
@Bill Arnold: Yes, I heard that fool talking on the radio this morning and thought the same thing. ‘Libyan model’ sends the wrong message. I think chances of NK including getting rid of their nuclear stockpile in ‘denuclearization’ goes way down if the Trumspters keep talking that up.
Edit: Surely, NK leaders don’t think being knifed in the back of the pickup truck after being dragged out of hole in the ground is a nice way for it all to end up for them.
sdhays
@jl: If Congressional Republicans were to impeach Spanky before the election, or even proceed in that direction, they would split their party so badly that the Democrats might win a hundred seats or more (at least it opens up a Pandora’ Box which could lead such a split). They need the cover of a massive shellacking and Democrats driving the train to even have the opportunity to do the right thing. Democrats taking control of both Houses of Congress might create the necessary environment for throwing Spanky under the bus.
But even in the most generous (delusional?) scenario where Democrats defend 100% of their Senate seats and pick up seats in Mississippi, Tennessee, Nevada, Texas, and two in Arizona, I still don’t see enough patriotic Republican Senators in that caucus willing to vote for conviction. Maybe we could get to 60 votes, but not 67. I hope they’re given the chance to prove me wrong.
jl
@sdhays: I agree. That anonymous GOPer was all talk, just scared and upset, and spouting BS. Some of them would like to do something to try to separate themselves from the toxicity, but I don’t see it happening unless a total wipeout is staring them in the face. Even if they lose control of both chambers, the prospect of keeping enough seats to preserve the gains from their tax cut heist and Trump administration demolition job on regulations and enforcement, and to stay good with the money boys would keep them from doing anything.
I just mentioned it to show that many of the Congressional GOPers understand what a mess they are in, even if they can’t do anything about it.
stinger
@Zinsky: So happy for you, and so jealous! I have 6 months to Medicare, 18 months to “full” Social Security, and I’m not sure can stand one more month. Anyway, your plans sound really fine.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mnemosyne: @Corner Stone:
So what’s the plan if this happens in November? Refusal to except the results as legitimate?
Bill Arnold
@jl:
I suppose it’s possible that that is Bolton’s overt, direct intent and he doesn’t care if people like us notice, and is counting on nobody in D.J. Trump’s morning “PDB” (Fox and Friends) telling him, or anyone else in the administration telling him either. But I would expect people like Mattis and a few others to be keeping a watch over (warmonger) Bolton and countering any particularly egregious moves, which this would be if intentional.
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
I’m pretty sure the reason these guys can’t get laid is because they’re awful people. That’s why they blame everyone except themselves for their shortcomings.
Mnemosyne
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
I should probably be clear: if we work our asses off now, we can prevent them from winning. The kind of hard-to-trace shenanigans that the Russians like to pull only work in a close election, and even then, they don’t always work.
The way we prevent this from happening is by making sure all of our folks are able to vote (have the right ID, verify NOW that they are on the rolls, etc) and working for our candidates.
I honestly believe that the only way the Republicans will be able to hold onto the House is if we get lazy and complacent between now and November.
jl
@Bill Arnold: It’s almost like a taunt. If Trumpsters go full steam ahead with pulling out of Iran nuke deal while hinting about regime change, then we’ll know they just want to make things worse while they look for a pretext to commit an enormous crime and blunder while not paying the price of an electoral catastrophe at home. I think even Bolton understands that.
Mattis knows that wars and war scares are not good politically, if the public is not on board. And if the war goes horrifically (which would be the case with both NK and Iran) then risk of quick domestic political blowback increases greatly.So, I’m sure there will be a battle behind the scenes. I think Mattis and Dunford are smarter and more disciplined than Botlon, which may do some good.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Some of these guys appear to have problems, perhaps psychological or developmental, that make it extremely difficult to have functional social relationships. This does not, by itself, make them “awful persons.”
There is some irony in the fact that they use social media and the Internets to reinforce their negative traits instead of overcoming them in a healthy way.
John Revolta
@JPL:
So there’s that.
J R in WV
@efgoldman:
I have about 100,000 skin tags, many on my neck. So I haven’t shaved since, well, not long after my facial hair began growing. I have trimmed around the edges for job interviews and the like, and then for a week or so, yes, things itch some.
After things grow in some, the itching goes away. It can be hot in the summer, so I trim it closer when things heat up some, but not close enough to itch. Fortunately, here in WV beards are more common than some places. Though really, I’ve never been uncomfortable having a beard in NYC, for example.
ETA: Of course I shaved in boot camp, but not long after I graduated the CNO, following historic examples, allowed neat beards in the Navy, so that’s the last time I shaved completely, not long after boot camp.
Suzanne
@Brachiator: Plenty of people with psychological or developmental issues that make relationships challenging go on to have positive interactions with people, and even romantic relationships. Some don’t. The self-identified incels are terrible people because they indulge their sense of entitlement and resentment rather than attempt to rectify whatever issues they may have.
Honestly, at this point, the Feds should be investigating them the way they do al-Qaeda.
Brachiator
@jl:
Mattis has been going around warning Iran that we will strongly support our 51st state, Israel. From Business Insider.
This is a little disconcerting since Mattis has defended the current Iran deal. Still, it feels as though Trump is ready to go Full Warmonger now that he has his foreign policy and national security team in place.
Also, it appears that little Jared Kushner is still in place as an “expert adviser.”
brettvk
@Shell: It’s not like Trump is doing anything else productive. If he’s going to call in more to Fox & Friends and keep up with his weekly golf outings and add a weekly fundraiser, he won’t have much time to do anything else – might keep some of the damage down.
jl
@Brachiator: I’ll leave it to national security poster ALS to decipher Mattis’ actions and statements. I am ambivalent on his strategic judgment. Otherwise he would not have been so late to recognize wisdom of staying with the Iran deal.
But, in the meantime, I guess, would you rather have Mattis sending the warnings and calibrating strategic signaling, or Trump or Bolton?
Brachiator
@jl:
How about none of the above? Especially since I have no confidence at all in Trump’s ability or judgment.
japa21
Don’t think anybody posted Penzey’s latest. I am including the special offer only because of what they are doing with it.
So how has it gone?
This was posted 7 hours ago.
And finally, for those who ordered the Soul Box, there is this:
Brachiator
@Suzanne:
I would like to see some kind of law enforcement investigation and psychiatric intervention.
Brachiator
@jl:
I meant to add my post to you that I entirely understand the greater confidence that you have in Mattis over Bolton.
Viva BrisVegas
@jl:
Does anybody really believe that NK will simply give up it’s nukes?
It’s taken a couple of generations to deliver them and the cost of the nuclear program has been astronomical to them.
Is Kim really going to give them up for some “guarantees” from Trump and allow NK to become the first country in history to give up its nuclear deterrent? The nukes are the guarantee of his personal security and that of his dynasty.
The purpose of these talks with Trump is to extract maximum benefit to NK without giving up a single nuke.
As soon as the talks start Kim will talk about everything except nukes. If the conversation eventually comes around to nukes, he will then only talk about American nukes stationed in SK.
What Trump gives away in the meantime will depend on how gullible are Trump and his minions.
Eventually the talks will come to a close and Kim will still have his nukes and Trump may have some vague promises of future good behaviour.
Trump will return to DC like Chamberlain after Munich waving his piece of paper.
jl
@Viva BrisVegas: I admit my questions was somewhat rhetorical, from professed perspective of Trumpster officials.
Personally, I think complete NK denuclearization isn’t what NK is talking about, and not in the cards for foreseeable future. Just a question of what minimum capability they think is a credible deterrent.
Brachiator
@Viva BrisVegas:
There are not any American nukes stationed in South Korea.
Bill Arnold
Yes. Something like:
– Formal peace treaty ending the Korean War.
– Reduced US troop levels in SK (Win! US Saves Money Bigly! (savings would be significant))
– No more testing of long-range missiles or devices, at all. Inspections/sensor networks tight enough to verify this. Both the DPRK and the US don’t have clear knowledge of how reliable the DPRK deterrent is due to insufficient missile testing and limited device testing. This is good. Uncertain reliability of deterrence is sufficient, and less dangerous. (Plus the whole “are we sure there isn’t a DPRK tunnel deep under Seoul, that can be used to reliably deliver a counterstrike?” class of deterrence scenarios.)
– No sales or gifts of nuclear tech by the DPRK, period. Inspections of ships and perhaps airplanes on demand. In return, real international commerce starts happening, factories are built in DPRK to exploit cheap labor (cough), etc.
– Maybe one or more additional sweeteners on each side.
I suppose full denuclearization is possible, but negotiating a sufficient inspections regime would be … difficult. Iran was easier; at least it’s not a Stalinist police state.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
Charles Manson was also a musician, and he auditioned for a place in The Monkees.
Viva BrisVegas
@Brachiator:
I stand corrected. They were removed in 1991.
I’ll amend that to “American nukes threatening NK”.
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
Now there’s a creepy “what if” to contemplate.
Here we come,
Walking down the street,
We get horrified looks from
Everyone we meet!
Hey, hey we’re The Mansons…
Procopius
I don’t want to make too much of the comparison, but if you know history you might remember that Hitler’s top advisers and generals were terrified that he was going to precipitate war. Of course, in the end he did, but for years his tactics were successful. He kept getting what he wanted even though they were absolutely sure the Allies would never allow it. Currently there’s a cabal in the administration* that seems to think they can bully Russia with impunity, that Russia is still as weak and needy as they were in the ’90s.
Bill Arnold
@Procopius:
Names? (Seriously; just trying to better understand the dynamics. I’m assuming you’re correct and that there is a cabal of size > 0. )
No One You Know
@japa21: The Spouse and I marched down to Penzey’s to kick in on Ozark, and on the other deal.
They’re extending the redemption date on rainchecks, they won’t expire in May. My local dealer said they might have a microshipment of Soul by next week. All good!
Also emailed Bill Penzey to cheer him on, let him know his positions are a part of what makes Penzey’s great.