Re: May You All Enjoy Your End Times!
 

Not to downplay the threat of nuclear war or anything, but Trump is a coward who does not seem to be particularly interested in going to war with anyone, or rather anyone who might punch back. He is more likely to get us into conflicts by letting the military escalate over time, as they have in the Middle East and Africa.

This is an excellent way of understanding what he is up to, with Norea Korea (which is really more of a pro-wrestling relationship with Kim personally, who makes an excellent villain) and more generally.

Re: May You All Enjoy Your End Times!
 

2. They’re a perfectly matched... match.

Foreign policy has always been about pretending things, about pretexts, and face saving cover-up narratives. About avoidance of zero sum scenarios risking unacceptable mutually assured damage. This is just a Vince McMahon version of it, no?

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

The Bannon Trump war is highly entertaining for someone who loathes both. May the knives of both strike true.

Somehow or another, I'm sure it'll end up fucking over something I hold dear, though.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Hot take: Manafort's suit isn't a legal argument, but an effort to prompt Trump to fire Rosenstein and Mueller.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

The book excerpts are pretty entertaining, but the best part is how both the Trump and Bannon camps are pretty much acting like it's all true.

I bet that book sells more copies than What Happened, and hopefully Trump won't start a war to distract from it, but keeps on claiming he's responsible for aircraft safety or that he invented the question mark.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I hate being caught between equally compelling analogies. "Digging the hole deeper"? Or, "Falling into an obvious trap"?

Either way, moronic: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump...ry?id=52134956

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

So much of Trump's statement about Bannon is obviously projection. “Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well.” Um, yup.

I would like to see a Trump supporter read this and explain it away.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I think it's pretty clear by now that analysis and critical thinking are not really part of the day-to-day when it comes to Trump supporters.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Most interesting thing I've read about Trump today is John Judis's suggestion that part of the reason he seems ill-informed, listens so little, and talks so much is that he has a hearing problem and is too vain to deal with it by getting a hearing aid. Makes a lot of sense.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Both my father and father-in-law are under the impression that they can hear when they can't really. Neither is remotely like Trump in terms of information retention, attempt to listen, though both like to talk. They both also read. A lot. The "barely literate narcissist" theory makes much more sense.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Barely literate narcissist with dementia.

Although I wouldn't be surprised about learning that any particular part of his body doesn't function.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Why not both?

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

My experience with older folks with trouble hearing is that they develop a lot of compensating tools, whether it is reading more text or trying to lip read or having people repeat themselves. It may be the hearing issue exacerbates the other issues, but those issues are what's at the root of his problems.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

We need the equivalent book on Republicans in Congress. They may be better at hiding their dementia, but it's there.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I've observed it creates a bit of paranoia, not inconsistent with Trump's behavior.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

There is more than a bit with Trump.

Sloppy Steve is haunting him.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Seems to me like Steve Bannon is being written off too quickly. He has a constituency in what is now the Republican Party, and if he can keep his pulpit at Breitbart he is going to stay in the game.

It's a little odd to me that Trump has been so stung by what he said to Wolff, because what a lot of other people said was a lot worse. Maybe Bannon's real sin for The Donald was in thinking of himself as a potential successor to Trump -- talking about a possible run for the Presidency himself. The Donald cares more about being alpha than anything else. But it seems highly possible that other people around the Donald are getting him riled up about Bannon to put a shiv in a rival.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

This is a lover's quarrel. They will make up. They hate too many people in common to ever really part.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

The Mercers want him out at Breitbart. http://www.townandcountrymag.com/soc...-steve-bannon/

BTW, sartorially, the Disheveled Donald, with his tie between his knees and his nuts, and his off the rack pleated-pants suit collection, has little gravitas to coin "Sloppy Steve." These two would both fit well in Monty Capuletti's "Regular Guy" Fashion Show.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Well put. Also, Jeet Heer is usually right, as here:

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Which came first, the xenophobia or the xenophobe?

I'm not sure this is really an intellectual achievement. He's pretty much chased the xenophobic positions that polled best. I can't think of anything he's written that comes across as thoughtful, or any discussion he's participated in that I found challenging or subtle.

That said, it takes a certain courage to hold to these positions despite all evidence to the contrary, and I think his recognition that one can consistently espouse total bullshit is, indeed, something of an earth-shattering right-wing epiphany.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I dare all of you to look up Sloppy Steve in the Urban Dictionary.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Santorumesque

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I think the point is not that Bannon is a great mind, but that he has successfully articulated a strain of conservatism that has a real resonance with a lot of conservatives, if not people who identify more with the Republican Party. What's impressive is not the thought behind it, but the effectiveness.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Yes, I'd agree with that. It's also a very difficult strain of conservatism to attack because it's response to evidence or to convincing counterargument is along the lines of "Cuck!", "Snowflake!" or "(((@#$%^&)))"

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

It's a strain of conservatism with very little cross-over appeal to anyone else, but useful among the types of people most likely to vote in Republican primaries.

Meanwhile, this is right on. Trump is really, really weak, and is only going to get weaker, and this will make him more and more upset.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

This is very well done.

TM

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

The biggest problem in that whole book for Trump is the section where Ivanka makes fun of his hair. Wolff is intentionally trolling him with that. Hits him absolutely everywhere it hurts. Absolutely brilliant. He must be in a rage.

TM

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Not surprising that Trump's lawyers are trying to figure out how to keep Mueller from interviewing him. The man is incapable of telling the truth, and so many Republicans said lying under oath justified impeaching Bill Clinton.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Makes sense to keep him as far away from Mueller as possible, but I think it's more from an admission perspective. Stupidity combined with him being convinced he can't be guilty of anything (let alone collusion) leads to big trouble.

Disagree on your last point. Republicans don't give a fuck what they did in the past. They are past even justifying distinctions at this point.

TM

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

TM's right. Republicans have shown themselves to be unprincipled hacks. But they are great about having ready a claim of Whataboutism for you every time you point it out.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

My last point was not that they really care, but that it puts them in a more awkward position.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I didn't care to watch the Miller-Tapper thing that seized Twitter's attention yesterday, but I did see a particularly interesting tweet about it, to the effect that Republicans who used to go on shows like Tapper's would make at least some effort to appeal to reasonable people who might be watching, but that Miller obviously does not care about anyone's opinion except Trump's. It's kinda the opposite of hackery -- he doesn't care at all about making a good impression of voters. Bonus points for honesty.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Sweet Jesus. WTF?

The very appearance of this story is highly counterproductive.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

All we have to do is figure out how much of a bloody nose an autocrat will accept without blooding us back and thus causing a cycle of escalation that could well result in nuclear war. What are you worried about? The president is a genius.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

A mentally stable genius!

Good Lord do I hate Trump.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Bannon booted from Breitbart. Wouldn't the world seem like a magical place if Bannon somehow took down himself and Trump at the same time? Hahahaha!!! JK. We're gonna have Trump forever. But a guy can dream, right? Just a little dream??? A little sliver of light penetrating the eternal veil of darkness and despair?

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

A little sliver of light? I've got a little sliver of light.

Friday night, I attended a benefit concert for Scott Mcaughey, front man of the Young Fresh Fellows and the Minus 5, touring member of R.E.M., and participant in many other musical endeavors. Scott suffered a stroke while touring with Alejandro Escovido back in November. Almost 5 hours of music to help fund medical and rehab costs, from local Portland acts to folks like Justin Townes Earle, M. Ward, and Patterson Hood from the Drive-by Truckers (helped by various Decemberists). James Mercer played a mini-set of Shins greatest hits, then brought out Peter Buck (on mandolin) and Mike Mills to play R.E.M.'s "You are the Everything." Then a full band set of R.E.M. songs with Mills on lead vocals.

Awesome set by Filthy Friends, and Scott was actually able to play bass. Check them out if you haven't; Scott, Peter Buck, and Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney. Finally, smoking set from Alejandro Escovido and the Burn Something Beautiful.

A little sliver of light, indeed.