One comforting thought in this chaos and infamy is that there doesn't seem to be a guiding thread running through it. It is just a whole, amorphous GOP crowd randomly pushing a host of non-prioritized issues which are horizontally aligned like the keys of a piano being played by an untutored, ungifted child. It merely generates smoke and…
One comforting thought in this chaos and infamy is that there doesn't seem to be a guiding thread running through it. It is just a whole, amorphous GOP crowd randomly pushing a host of non-prioritized issues which are horizontally aligned like the keys of a piano being played by an untutored, ungifted child. It merely generates smoke and mirrors that just exist for its own sake as a partially opaque screen seeking to "mask" Trump and his gang's lack of direction, incompetence, greed, criminal negligence and evident psychological problems...and eventually to bluff the people into not rejecting them if they get the chance. Their very apparent lack of coordination, their constant unpreparedness for pushback on their infantile attemps to create a "counter-reality", their problems in staying focused on priorities, their inability to relate to "real" people and their constant search for the next tangent taking them away from the "here and now" lead me to conclude that there is not a real, practical plan to take over the country despite the wishes of the people to be expressed on Nov 3rd. They are just not capable of getting it sufficiently together. They think that bluster and, as would say the French, "les coups d'épée dans l'eau" (useless gestures with no effect) can replace strategic thought, careful planning, coalition building, garnering of ressources, dedicated team spirit, courage and quasi demonic desire for total power (AS OPPOSED TO MONEY)....... and amassed, trained, willing fighting men that are necessary for a successful coup. They are Disney's cartoon version of the plot as played out in Jack the Pirate movies (without wanting to insult in particular Johnny Depp).
In all of this confusion, the only one that would probably like to "go all the way" is Barr.....but he is alone and despairing, I think, of any structured and collective help on such a project; they are all going their own way. He should heed the Judgement on withholding evidence that a NY Judge has just ordered all Manhattan prosecutors to read as well as the words of Maureen O'Connor.......and look out for his "rear end" as no one else is covering it.!
ABC's Pennsylvannia Town Hall meeting has shown that Trump is running out of script, his prompter is on the blink and he's no longer sure which camera to look into. His reaction to ordinary peoples questions using tired old, irrelevant and debunked lines shows that he has lost his feeling for the exploitation of the "TV moment"and has no mental "flexibility" left to react spontaneously in an intelligent fashion to new circumstances. His old power to dominate the scene in a tele-reality spectacle has deserted him; he has lost the plot and done it in public for all to see.....once again!
For all of trump's bluster and incompetence, you don't worry about his behind-the-scenes operators who have been manifesting deep research into the ever unfolding exploitations of legal loopholes and outright defiance of laws? And the Russian "active measures" campaign to sow chaos?
Russia's objective is chaos, not a well planned, orderly take over of power which by happenstance might mistakenly leave a powerful competitor state. Putin needs to be able to tell the Russian people that nobody is better off than they are..all are poor or worse! The other elements pushed by Koch etc's money are looking now, i think, to save the bases in the States and Senate as much as possible in the wake of an impending Trump disaster that they have never been able to control. Trump is not their man and and he has never really been in control of himself either. They must now see that he is not the one that is going to achieve their oligarchic goals...and must be replaced.
They own the GOP. It is their people and their money funding it. They truly own the McConnell etc in the Senate as they provide the money and same in Congress and States. They are just afraid of Trump and his rabid dog supporters ruining their well funded re-election efforts...and he can and does!
Interesting that you use the word "own". I doubt any of the legislators to whom this applies would ever admit to that, though I believe you are correct. In fact, if they actually thought about being "owned" I think it might bother them. That word, in all its meaning, would make me sit up and think very hard about my motivations. McConnell and his cronies be damned in their arrogance and smugness. They don't realize how small they are in their little "owned" cages.
I think that the money men make it very clear to the politicians that their are chattel. Primary challenges are quickly organized to deal with those who might discover a moral compass.
Not really as Koch etc are in for the long term. If the election result produces your scenario you have deadlock and more of the existing chatic half-rule by presidential fiat. This is good and bad for them. Chaos is bad for business but his destruction of the fed gov suits them well enough for now. They would concentrate on massive spending to reverse the situ at mid-term and find a "way" to engineer a replacement of Trump by Pence. They would also contine to attack thru the States..limiting voting and spending on public services etc at that level. Only if the Dems achieve a veto resistant majority can this change and they can impeach the whole gang and do what they will...including overturning Citizens United and bring back the fairness doctrine to the media.
"His old power to dominate the scene in a tele-reality spectacle has deserted him; he has lost the plot and done it in public for all to see....."
Stuart, you are spot on. He hasn't been able to communicate his thoughts "in a straight line" for years now but his inability to communicate clearly is accelerating rapidly. I don't generally wish anyone ill but I am looking forward to the day when he goes "on tilt" live and on camera.
Why is that thought “comforting”? To me it’s terrifying that the world is being run by a man without a plan who spouts anything he needs to say to respond to a perceived “attack”. My 2 year old granddaughter has a better attention span that the President.
Comforting because it could otherwise get very much worse and persist well into the future if they had what it takes to structure a real coup. Short term chaos is easier to deal with than the long term horror of a truly dictatorial regime. We will come through this early next year and having a time limit is, i find, somewhat comforting and tells us that action now will pay off relatively quickly.
Watching his press conference and Biden's yesterday, and the highlight reel of his Tuesday "ambush" by reality, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens on September 29.
Stuart, I think you are correct as far as this election is concerned, but I think you are ignoring the long strategy of the Republican party: changing the judiciary. The Federalist Society has been engaged for more than 40 years in mentoring conservative jurists and getting them elected to the bench. In this administration, more than 200 such justices have been appointed. This will be Mitch McConnell's legacy.
I'm perfectly aware of it but am not hearing much about how the democrats will counter this strategy. If nobody opposes them, they would be wrong not to try to impose their ideas. Don't you agree?
Since I find many of their ideas to be anti-democratic, I do think they are wrong; however, people of the opposite view need to get on the stick. From another blog, "The American Constitution Society, founded in 2001, was explicitly started as a liberal analogue to the Federalist Society." I have no idea how well they are doing. I probably should find out.
That would be very interesting! But i'm afraid that complacency, decency and God knows what might have kept them silent and slowed them to snail pace. Best of intentions don't hack it in this Trumpian world.
Stuart, what does this mean: “He should heed the Judgement on withholding evidence that a NY Judge has just ordered all Manhattan prosecutors to read”?
I was thinking of the refusal to comply with subpoenas, the refusal to supply Trump's tax returns, the blocking of documents requested by Congress committees, the misrepresentation of the Mueller Report and the list goes on. Hiding evidence of crimes that would ensure conviction as opposed to preventing acquital as in today's case.
One comforting thought in this chaos and infamy is that there doesn't seem to be a guiding thread running through it. It is just a whole, amorphous GOP crowd randomly pushing a host of non-prioritized issues which are horizontally aligned like the keys of a piano being played by an untutored, ungifted child. It merely generates smoke and mirrors that just exist for its own sake as a partially opaque screen seeking to "mask" Trump and his gang's lack of direction, incompetence, greed, criminal negligence and evident psychological problems...and eventually to bluff the people into not rejecting them if they get the chance. Their very apparent lack of coordination, their constant unpreparedness for pushback on their infantile attemps to create a "counter-reality", their problems in staying focused on priorities, their inability to relate to "real" people and their constant search for the next tangent taking them away from the "here and now" lead me to conclude that there is not a real, practical plan to take over the country despite the wishes of the people to be expressed on Nov 3rd. They are just not capable of getting it sufficiently together. They think that bluster and, as would say the French, "les coups d'épée dans l'eau" (useless gestures with no effect) can replace strategic thought, careful planning, coalition building, garnering of ressources, dedicated team spirit, courage and quasi demonic desire for total power (AS OPPOSED TO MONEY)....... and amassed, trained, willing fighting men that are necessary for a successful coup. They are Disney's cartoon version of the plot as played out in Jack the Pirate movies (without wanting to insult in particular Johnny Depp).
In all of this confusion, the only one that would probably like to "go all the way" is Barr.....but he is alone and despairing, I think, of any structured and collective help on such a project; they are all going their own way. He should heed the Judgement on withholding evidence that a NY Judge has just ordered all Manhattan prosecutors to read as well as the words of Maureen O'Connor.......and look out for his "rear end" as no one else is covering it.!
ABC's Pennsylvannia Town Hall meeting has shown that Trump is running out of script, his prompter is on the blink and he's no longer sure which camera to look into. His reaction to ordinary peoples questions using tired old, irrelevant and debunked lines shows that he has lost his feeling for the exploitation of the "TV moment"and has no mental "flexibility" left to react spontaneously in an intelligent fashion to new circumstances. His old power to dominate the scene in a tele-reality spectacle has deserted him; he has lost the plot and done it in public for all to see.....once again!
For all of trump's bluster and incompetence, you don't worry about his behind-the-scenes operators who have been manifesting deep research into the ever unfolding exploitations of legal loopholes and outright defiance of laws? And the Russian "active measures" campaign to sow chaos?
Russia's objective is chaos, not a well planned, orderly take over of power which by happenstance might mistakenly leave a powerful competitor state. Putin needs to be able to tell the Russian people that nobody is better off than they are..all are poor or worse! The other elements pushed by Koch etc's money are looking now, i think, to save the bases in the States and Senate as much as possible in the wake of an impending Trump disaster that they have never been able to control. Trump is not their man and and he has never really been in control of himself either. They must now see that he is not the one that is going to achieve their oligarchic goals...and must be replaced.
So if the oligarchic forces are not supporting trump, then whom?
They own the GOP. It is their people and their money funding it. They truly own the McConnell etc in the Senate as they provide the money and same in Congress and States. They are just afraid of Trump and his rabid dog supporters ruining their well funded re-election efforts...and he can and does!
Interesting that you use the word "own". I doubt any of the legislators to whom this applies would ever admit to that, though I believe you are correct. In fact, if they actually thought about being "owned" I think it might bother them. That word, in all its meaning, would make me sit up and think very hard about my motivations. McConnell and his cronies be damned in their arrogance and smugness. They don't realize how small they are in their little "owned" cages.
I think that the money men make it very clear to the politicians that their are chattel. Primary challenges are quickly organized to deal with those who might discover a moral compass.
So if the house and senate went blue but Trump wins, the joke would be on them.
Not really as Koch etc are in for the long term. If the election result produces your scenario you have deadlock and more of the existing chatic half-rule by presidential fiat. This is good and bad for them. Chaos is bad for business but his destruction of the fed gov suits them well enough for now. They would concentrate on massive spending to reverse the situ at mid-term and find a "way" to engineer a replacement of Trump by Pence. They would also contine to attack thru the States..limiting voting and spending on public services etc at that level. Only if the Dems achieve a veto resistant majority can this change and they can impeach the whole gang and do what they will...including overturning Citizens United and bring back the fairness doctrine to the media.
"His old power to dominate the scene in a tele-reality spectacle has deserted him; he has lost the plot and done it in public for all to see....."
Stuart, you are spot on. He hasn't been able to communicate his thoughts "in a straight line" for years now but his inability to communicate clearly is accelerating rapidly. I don't generally wish anyone ill but I am looking forward to the day when he goes "on tilt" live and on camera.
Why is that thought “comforting”? To me it’s terrifying that the world is being run by a man without a plan who spouts anything he needs to say to respond to a perceived “attack”. My 2 year old granddaughter has a better attention span that the President.
Comforting because it could otherwise get very much worse and persist well into the future if they had what it takes to structure a real coup. Short term chaos is easier to deal with than the long term horror of a truly dictatorial regime. We will come through this early next year and having a time limit is, i find, somewhat comforting and tells us that action now will pay off relatively quickly.
Watching his press conference and Biden's yesterday, and the highlight reel of his Tuesday "ambush" by reality, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens on September 29.
Stuart, I think you are correct as far as this election is concerned, but I think you are ignoring the long strategy of the Republican party: changing the judiciary. The Federalist Society has been engaged for more than 40 years in mentoring conservative jurists and getting them elected to the bench. In this administration, more than 200 such justices have been appointed. This will be Mitch McConnell's legacy.
I'm perfectly aware of it but am not hearing much about how the democrats will counter this strategy. If nobody opposes them, they would be wrong not to try to impose their ideas. Don't you agree?
Since I find many of their ideas to be anti-democratic, I do think they are wrong; however, people of the opposite view need to get on the stick. From another blog, "The American Constitution Society, founded in 2001, was explicitly started as a liberal analogue to the Federalist Society." I have no idea how well they are doing. I probably should find out.
That would be very interesting! But i'm afraid that complacency, decency and God knows what might have kept them silent and slowed them to snail pace. Best of intentions don't hack it in this Trumpian world.
Spot on!
What a great image / metaphor for the horizontal amorphous gop. Thanks.
Stuart, what does this mean: “He should heed the Judgement on withholding evidence that a NY Judge has just ordered all Manhattan prosecutors to read”?
I was thinking of the refusal to comply with subpoenas, the refusal to supply Trump's tax returns, the blocking of documents requested by Congress committees, the misrepresentation of the Mueller Report and the list goes on. Hiding evidence of crimes that would ensure conviction as opposed to preventing acquital as in today's case.
Hey, Stuart. Looking for NY judge's latest order to Manhattan prosecutors that you mention. Link, please?
On Politico's front page "quick pops" this morning. It's about conspiring to get around Iran sanctions but of course applies to a lot more areas