Elitists Need An "Excuse" To Slam Trump? How About Just Watching This A-Hole In Action - Like On FOX Yesterday

"I'll call Fox and Friends any time and sound off! I'm da Prez!"

One of the ongoing concerns of media and culture analysts (e.g.  David Frum in 'Trumpocracy - The Corruption of the American Republic') is that the thing occupying the White House will have its behavior "normalized" and become more and more accepted. One of the first putative signs of this would be a steady diminution of outrage, people no longer willing or able to call this degenerate on anything - or even use epithets to describe him.  That is a point many suspect we're rapidly reaching.

It doesn't help either to have Rightist, Trump ass- lickers like the WSJ's William McGurn ('The Elitists' Trump Excuse', yesterday, p. A 11) insisting it's all liberal and media "elitist" huff and puff because we disdain "Trump's brand of vituperation".  In other words, we attack the Trump Thing because of its constant attacks on the values, virtues and norms that  "democracy requires to survive."

Thus, like Jim Comey, we declare this maggot is "morally unfit" for the Oval Office. In fact, many of us go beyond Comey and declare this loathsome loser and con man is mentally unfit to hold office of any kind, even dog catcher in Podunk, Arkansas.  As 'Exhibit A' you need look no further than the 31 minute insane rant Dotard unleashed yesterday morning on Fox and Friends, e.g.

Missed 'Fox & Friends'? Here's what Trump said on Cohen, Ronny ...

But hell, don't just take my word, watch it and make up your own mind.  At the end of it you tell me if you really, truly believe this type of unhinged behavior is presidential in any measure, or that it doesn't degrade the office as well as the person holding it - not to mention the country. Think before you answer! Can you really visualize a President Obama calling in to MSNBC's "Morning Joe"  to deliver such an extended rant, or a JFK or FDR?    Let me back up, visualize any other president calling in an extended TV rant when he's supposed to be doing the work of the country?   (As one former FBI agent put it on 'All In', "That's the time he's supposed to be going over the nation's security issues in the Presidential Daily Briefs!")

If you can imagine another president - even Gee Dumbya Bush-  doing the same, then you inhabit a different universe from the one I'm in.

To put a perspective on it, even the illustrious Steve Doocy - main anchor of the FOX trio - and most famous for burning his hands while trying to roast marshmallows, actually trying to cut the Dotard off after 28 minutes, saying "Mr. President, we know you have a MILLION things to do...."    Well, evidently not.

But the blowhard imbecile kept on ranting for another 3 minutes before the station had to pull the plug on the fool, with the Fox trio saying "Adios".

But why be surprised? We knew from this time last year the piece of waste occupying the office hates to work, he'd rather loaf, watch TV, tweet and rant.  Recall 'the Donald' has never really worked at a real job outside of owning his family branding business (who could order anyone to do his bidding) and being a NY real estate weasel who used bankruptcy (of multiple casinos) to make more $$$.  Hell, five days into his presidency he  even bawled that the job had  turned out to be too much for him to deal with. Too many details, too much stuff to master for an extensive government bureaucracy.  Hence, his penchant for becoming a cable TV and tweet addict. See e.g.

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/donald-trump-stunned-to-learn-presidency-is-an-actual-j-1792215349

Excerpt:

“Being president is harder than Donald Trump thought,” begins the article, neatly capturing the blithe, criminal ignorance that characterizes both Trump himself and the many dozens of millions of morons who thought he should be the leader of the free world. Yes, being the president is a harder job than Donald Trump would expect, because Donald Trump had never previously held an actual job, because actually, spending your inheritance on a succession of failed cons is not an actual job."

 But hey, if the job is too much maybe he ought to resign. It beats wasting time tweeting, watching TV for nine hours a day, and ranting like a nut railing about UFO "invasions" on talk radio.  Or as one MSNBC guest put it on 'All In' last night: "The rant reminded me of my Uncle Willy who calls in to sports radio and unloads his bile every other day."

Anyway, McGurn asks in his op-ed piece:

"So which is more damaging to the American body politic - the schoolyard taunts and threats of Trump, or the anti-Trump opportunism of 'polite' society?"

But given the opposition  of "polite society" - i.e. that which upholds and values norms, decency and decorum-  is the only edifice standing against normalizing Trump, that's an easy call.  As David Frum has put it in his book, the longer Trump remains in office the greater  the corruption of our democracy. This is  because his behavior becomes more and more accepted, as outrage is lessened ("too much to be outraged over")- until daily rants on FOX ("Trump TV") become a way of governing. This we cannot allow, whether McGurn and his ilk like it or not.

McGurn's other complaints - as if  we "elites"  are trying to impose fascism on the Trumpies,  are all red herrings. Examples:

- "Good liberals once found the idea of spying on American citizens without just cause unconscionable... But when the target becomes a former Trump campaign associated, it becomes OK."

Hold strain there, Willy.  Carter Page was ID'd  as a suspected foreign (Russian-linked) agent long before U.S. FISA warrants were issued to monitor him. This was by way of foreign intercepts of his assorted meetings with Russian FSB, GRU etc. agents.  For the U.S. then not to do anything would have made our own intel agencies appear slack and incompetent.

McGurn again:

"James Clapper revised procedures to make it easier to unmask Americans  in intelligence reports, and share the information, making leaks all but inevitable. The illegal leak of Mike Flynn's name in connection with a phone conversation with Russia's ambassador was one result."

C'mon, Willy, pull your head out of your fat ass.  Going after Flynn was perfectly justified given he was wheeling and dealing with the Russkies, via phone calls, and  after Obama had imposed sanctions, and even before the Trump cabal had assumed office.  Besides, Flynn's calls were again picked up via foreign intel intercepts which were forwarded to the CIA, NSA etc. For our intel agencies to do nothing while foreign agencies monitored Flynn, Carter Page and others would have been irresponsible.

McGurn ends by writing:

"The point to the double standard isn't in any way to justify Mr. Trump's more boorish displays. It is, however, to say that the standard ought to work both ways."

But by resorting to false analogy McGurn is indeed justifying Trump's more boorish ways.  He's saying in effect we have no right to cast "stones' of opprobrium at this mental and moral misfit because we've allowed greater "sins"  of omission and commission to go unanswered. Seeming to forget or dismiss the fact that Bill Clinton was impeached based on illegal wiretaps made by then Columbia, MD resident and Pentagon flunky, Linda Tripp - when MD law expressly  made recording phone calls a felony without notifying the other person on the line (in this case one Monica Lewinsky).   Ken Starr, then special prosecutor, used those illegal phone recordings to go after Clinton - with the Reepos jumping on the illegal wiretap bandwagon to hang him out to dry.

So don't hand me any BS about "double standards".  Trump, by not only flouting standards but breaking laws as well (e.g. obstruction of justice) merits at least impeachment, and probably indictment as well.


See also:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/26/opinions/trump-fox-news-interview-dantonio-intl/index.html

And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/78895/trumps-latest-meltdown

Excerpt:

"The NY Times' reporting, however, captured a president in mental and emotional free fall, such as, "Even the Fox hosts seemed concerned as the president railed at length about the 'fake news' media. 'I’m not your doctor, Mr. President, but I would recommend you watch less of them,' one of the hosts, Brian Kilmeade, told him.""

Skewering Another Right Wing Conspiracy Ideation: "The Dems DID It!"

Kimberly Strassel: Is helping to pump the idiotic "theory" that the Dems, Hillary, Loretta Lynch and others ginned up the Steele dossier to "dig up dirt on Trump" and upend his nutso (p)residency. Now we know she - like her Reich cohort - are playing with 52 cards short of a full deck.

As the screws tighten on the Trump-Russia associations and the Mueller probe into undermining of the 2016 election by the same Russkies, it was expected the Right would at some point go batshit nuts and try to contest the facts.   That time appears to be now, as across the Reich fake news spectrum (Breitbart, FOX, Drudge Report etc.) they are peddling the nonsense conspiracy that Dems and the Left are the REAL culprits in a "Russiagate"  scenario - to take down Trump!

Writing in yesterday's WSJ, we read this codswallop from Kimberly Strassel (p. A13, 'Who Paid for the Trump Dossier?'):

"Here's a thought: What if it was the Democratic National Committee or Hillary Clinton's campaign (who did not sign letters asserting the hiring of Fusion GPS)?  What if that money flowed from some  political entity on the left, to a private law firm, to Fusion, to a British spook, and then to Russian sources?....What if they specifically made up claims to dupe Mr. Steele, to trick him into writing his dossier?"

Nice try, but you rival Alex Jones (with his Sandy Hook false flag bunkum) and Michael Flynn's  pizzagate conspiracy - with this abysmal dreck. Basically, lazily grabbing at any possible "event" and coincidence to attempt to parlay some combination into a conspiracy.

For example, 90 percent of this bull pockey got started when some right wing nitwit  (Michael Weiss) found a video or image of Russkie lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, e.g.

Sitting at a hearing (from June 14, 2014) behind then Ambassador Michael McFaul. Weiss - who we can designate as "Dolt Zero", yapped in a "Eureka!"- style tweet:

"Hey, look what I found. Veselnitskaya sitting behind @McFaul at a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Russia, June 14, 2014"

As if it was some huge discovery of a nefarious link, as opposed to simple seating coincidence. But this is the nature of egregious conspiracy ideation (can't really dignify it with 'theory'): it grabs isolated events and imagery and tries to stitch these disparate spots into a coherent whole - using all manner of irrational backflips, non sequiturs and hasty conclusions to arrive at some half-cocked rubbish. We've seen it before with Mike Flynn's 'Pizzagate' refuse.

Sure enough, as with all mind virus infections, Weiss' garbage was then picked up by Gateway Pundit - which we shall designate "Dolt Zero + 1".    These morons handle a website often known for inaccurate information.   Once again, following the playbook of conspiracy ideationists - notorious for jumping to conclusions with zero substantiation - the image was presented as evidence of a connection between Veselnitskaya and the Obama administration. (Based on the fictitious claim Veselnitskaya was "sitting with" McFaul, despite the fact she was doing no such thing. She was seated BEHIND him. BEHIND him is NOT seated with him.  If I attend a concert with wifey and our rabid right wing congress critter Doug Lamborn is seated behind us, that doesn't mean we are "seated with" him!  Doh!)

The spread of the mind virus then leapt again to "Dolt ZERO + 2" in the guise of the guttersnipes known as the "Sludge ....errrr..... Drudge Report".  WikiLeaks - which is now a pathetic shadow of what it once was when it released the Bradley Manning files (in 2011) then became the next victim (or accomplice) on Wednesday , further spreading this nonsense, re-tweeting the image with this:

Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at hearing on Russia left of Obama's @McFaul eight days after @donaldjtrumpjr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMJkgSPSb0o …

 This fantasy conspiracy then jumped the shark - infecting  the usual stable of half-assed, right wing media personalities (e.g. Hannity, Limburger etc.) who then regurgitated this offal.

They suggested that Veselnitskaya was "hanging out" with Obama administration officials just days after the meeting with Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort.   And VOILA! We have the perfect false equivalence: "How can you media types howl about the Trump Jr., Manafort, Kusher meeting with the Russians when Dems were doing it too!"

Of course this is total horse shit. The proximate seating position of a Russkie lawyer to an Obama official (McFaul) can only be contorted into being "seated with" by a brain devoid of critical thinking and prone to making mountains out of ant hills. But let's not be too surprised as this is the noxious frequent tactic used by the pro-Trump media to try to discredit reporting from credible news outlets  It's a tactic we've come to expect from the Trump media mobocracy when faced with political peril. So they try to upend the latest political firestorm facing the Trump administration.  (Never mind much of the firestorm is created by Trump and his own hirelings, e.g. "Mooch")

Let's not forget there's another piece of this conspiracy "theory" which evidently originated with Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump's outside legal counsel. He said the Russian attorney was linked to Fusion GPS, a DC-based opposition research firm known for commissioning the Steele dossier. This is also clearly what has Kimberly Strassel's dander up. Veselnitskaya was representing Prevezon — a Cyprus company owned by a Russian national that is accused in the US of laundering money — at the same time Fusion GPS was doing work for a law firm that did work for Prevezon, according to the Washington Post.   Again, all this really shows is that Fusion was an "equal opportunity" business - happy to work with anyone who'd pay real money.  It doesn't prove that there is some nefarious connection or conspiracy, i.e. to slime Trump. (Hell, he doesn't need any help on that score!)

Corallo insisted  Fusion “was retained by Democratic operatives to develop opposition research on the president.” But what he and his cohort ignore is the fact that Fusion GPS was initially hired in October 2015 by unnamed Republican clients in order to develop opposition research on Trump to be used during the GOP primary.  These Republicans were part of the old (e.g. pro-Jeb Bush) order who respected norms and traditions. They detested the fact that a two bit Queens real estate weasel and lowlife like Trump could possibly become President. So they wanted "oppo" research on him. That is the hard fact.  Once Trump won the nomination, the research was continued by Democrats. That proves nothing more than Fusion GPS is a firm that is happy to be employed by either side.  If you want, call them a bipartisan oppo research outfit. But don't call them conspirators.

None of this proves a conspiracy or even near conspiracy other than in the deranged brains of the out of  control Rightist nuts.  Hence, Strassel's claim of Fusion as "the oppo research outfit behind the infamous and discredited Trump dossier ginned up by a former British spook" is false. In fact, all the evidence suggests that the dossier was completed by Steele ca. 2015 or while Fusion was still cooperating with the Republicans on the oppo.  Also, all these conspiracy nabobs on the right appear to forget that before going underground, the material gathered in memos was considered so explosive that Steele turned it over to contacts he had in the FBI last summer. This was without informing the opposition research group for which he'd initially begun his project.  If  Christopher Steele was indeed working with the Dems or Reeps why would he not inform them?

Christopher Steele, as I've written before, is no clown or stooge or even a "spook" likely to be fooled as Kimberly Strassel claims.  According to one Financial Times account (Feb. 16) , Steele was the "UK intelligence expert on Russia".  It is, therefore, highly unlikely he'd be 'fooled" by any kind of false intel or disinformation as Strsassel seems to believe.  James Nixey, the head of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program, informed the AP that sections of the dossier document created by Steele "read exactly as reports from the secret services".

Let's also reference the other case being made about Veselnitskaya having ties to Democrats which has the Right's  pseudo conspiracy mavens questioning why she got a visa to be in the country on June 9, 2016, i.e.  for the meeting with the Trump campaign.  The true fact is Veselnitskaya was initially refused entry to the United States when she applied for a visa for herself and her children for the end of 2015. According to court files, she said she was granted a temporary “parole letter” allowing her into the country to assist her client Katsyv, who was facing a trial in the U.S. linked to his alleged part in the $230 million fraud uncovered by Magnitsky.  She applied in the Southern District of New York for that temporary access to be extended beyond Jan. 6, 2016, when it was due to expire. Court transcripts show that prosecutors were reluctant to give Veselnitskaya a blank check to remain in the U.S. while the case stalled. Then subsequently, a NY judge ordered an extension, with the expectation that trial would start soon.

Again, nothing mysterious, nothing nefarious - other than in the febrile brains of the Right's idiot conspiracy allies of Alex Jones.  Again,  none of this matters a whit because ultimately Donald Jr. was happy to have a meeting with someone who told him they represented the Russian government and had dirt to share about Hillary Clinton.

Was this a "nothing burger' because nothing came of it? Maybe, but that's irrelevant.  The point is legally the intent was there to dig up dirt using a high profile Russian lawyer, irrespective of it not succeeding. Just because a wife hires a hitman to whack her hubby and he doesn't succeed doesn't let her off the hook. 

While the Right media has tried desperately to shift the Russia spotlight to the DNC, Hillary and Loretta Lynch - the incontestable fact is that it has always been Trump in up to his eyeballs with the Russkies - including to save his no good, bankruptcy- filing ass.  As noted in The New Republic (Aug./Sept. p. 29):

"A review of the public record reveals a clear and disturbing pattern: Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia. Over the past three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, or even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money .....Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics....It's entirely possible that Trump was never more than a convenient patsy for Russian oligarchs and mobsters."

Of course, this very background helps explain why Trump is hyper paranoid now about Bob Mueller digging into his money trail, including leading right through his family finances. This is why, indeed, he's already telegraphed his guilt - first in firing James Comey, then in his recent obsession with Bob Mueller's probe - even warning Mueller not to veer into his "family finances" which would be taken as "crossing a red line".  Why? What's so all-fired important about them? What has Trump got to hide? Why has Trump released no recent tax returns?   All of this bespeaks a guy loaded with guilt and committed to obstruction of justice.

Thus, Strassel's blabber that:

"If Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Democrats and the media really want answers about Russian meddling, this (dossier)  is a far deeper well than the scant case against Trump"

Is pure horse hockey.  Those more in the know than Strassel -  concerning the integrity of sources and what the intel really shows -  acknowledge that what Steele compiled is very likely true, at least in part.  In addition to which the whole shtick fits the modus operandi ("Kompromat") of videoing any one who comes to Moscow and stays at a hotel- perhaps to engage in illicit sexual activities with Russkie "honey pots".  Kimberly may revolt at the thought of Russian whores jubilantly pissing all over her master, but there it is. Trump (and his loopy defenders) then may have more to worry about than where Bob Mueller is going. They better worry that if Trump signs the recently passed "sanctions" legislation Putin will go ahead and release the piss video.

The most laughable aspect of this whole farce? The Reich wingers trying to claim that Veselnitskaya was brought on by Democrats because there's no proof that she wasn't.  Wow. Great argumentum ad ignorantium.

Methinks we need to send all of these conspiracy hustlers and hucksters  back to  courses in logic 101 along with critical thinking 100. 

Why Trumpist Populism Will Bring His Government Crashing Down

Trump erupts in yet another mental meltdown....about a bug that maybe climbed onto his suitcoat.

 No sentient citizen could avoid the meltdown spectacle visible in the Trump White House yesterday, with his communications director (Anthony Scaramucci) in an off-hand 'interview'  with a New Yorker reporter even challenging Steve Bannon to perform a near biologically impossible act of self-fellatio.  But this was merely the most visible sign of an Executive in utter disarray and a state of civil war.  ("A White House at war with itself" to use Margaret Brennan's apt description on CBS this a.m.) Make no mistake, also, it will get worse, because we have a band of incompetents and derelict ignoramuses sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

As I will show in this post, much of the malignant political cancer that's metastasized the past six months can be attributed to a perverse brand of populism Trump still resorts to - as when he unleashed unseemly political rhetoric at a Boy Scouts' Jamboree some days ago. But first things first.

It was amusing yesterday to read the insufferable Dan Henninger (WSJ, 'The Post Obama Democrats,  p. A13) gloating about Trump's aberrant 2016 win, e.g. "many political sophisticates wondered how Trump would get 620 votes far less 62 million after the McCain slander and the access Hollywood tape'".  And also rubbing rotten eggs in the Democrats' faces over it, "How in God's name did we lose an election to him?"

Now, in retrospect we know the answer, especially to the last. It has to do with the toxic populism that Trump interjected into his campaign - often with the assistance of Russian-created and circulated fake news on social media. But the real explanation can be found in a section of Julian Baggini's book 'The Edge of Reason'  dealing with populism.   The section of note occurs under 'threats to pluralsim' in Baggini's chapter entitled 'Political Reason'.  It ought to be mandatory reading for every thinking American. While not specifically addressing Trump it does peg his rise and acceptance by 62 million idiots perfectly, nailing the brainless foundation of runaway, uncritical populism.

He writes, in terms of introducing the threat (p. 219):

"In social science, populism is almost always understood as entailing a malign kind of simplification in which the virtuous and the wicked are neatly divided between 'us' and 'them'."

We observed this directly in the spectacle of Trump's campaign rallies, in particular when assorted protesters and the media were called out as the "them" and those gathered in their red Trump baseball caps were the "us".  As time went on the memes unleashed also led many racists, KKK'ers, Aryan Nation followers and others to believe they were also part of this malignant  "us".  So, no surprise we beheld images like that below accompanying Trump's campaign appearances and eventual ascension:


Baggini goes on:

"The editors of a recent academic book on populism define it as pitting a virtuous and homogenous people against a set of elites and dangerous 'others' who were depicted as depriving the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice. Hence this populism invites us to assume that populism inevitably results in simplistic fallacies."


Again, we beheld this during Trump's campaign and soon after he was sworn in, January 20th. We heard over and over that the press and media were  "the enemies of the people" and the judiciary that issued stays against his Muslim ban were effective traitors and "so-called judges". Then there were the "dangerous others"  Trump targeted repeatedly and multiple  referenced inflammatory statements made by Trump throughout the presidential race corroborate how he singled out Muslims and the Islamic faith as a broad national security threat. He didn't stop there but went after immigrants as well.


Further from Julian Baggini (ibid.):

"Populist discourse undermines all the key underpinnings of political pluralism. Populists would agree that 'we should believe what is most rational to believe'.  But they do not appreciate the difference between this and 'We should believe what it seems to us is most rational to believe'.

The reason for this is that populism rejects the idea that what appears as plain truth to the ordinary person in the street can be anything other than what it is. What seems true is true, and only obfuscating, dissembling elites could pretend otherwise."

And therein we have the basis for fake news and fake reality. Thus, Michael Flynn's ludicrous "pizzagate" conspiracy theory about Hillary running a child sex slave ring out of a D.C. pizzeria SEEMED to be true to the brain dead Trumpies, and so it was.  In like manner, Trump's insane claim that he really won the popular vote (if all those 3-5 m illegals hadn't voted) SEEMED true, so it was. Similarly, Trump's unhinged claim that Obama wiretapped him SEEMED true to the Trumpie populist zombies so probably was. And meanwhile, only 45% of Trump voters believed Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting with Russians about information that might be harmful to Hillary Clinton...even though Trump Jr. admitted it and we have the emails to prove it.

Baggini again:

"In a similar way, populism distorts the idea that rationality ought to lead to convergence of belief.  When combined with the fact that some do not agree about what is rational, they take that not as evidence that certainty is possible, but that the dissenters are not rational. When it is believed that what is  most rational is self evident, there is no cause for self doubt when others take a different view."

And further (p. 220):

"The logic of populism is therefore toxic to political pluralism, because it denies the possibility of meaningful disagreement about issues of major political significance. Populism is diametrically opposed to pluralism. It promotes a single set of values instead of plurality, offers simple solutions instead of complex compromises..."

Again, this is what we've seen issue from Trump's toxic populism: Build a giant wall and it will solve our immigration problems, at least from Mexico. Cancel NAFTA and other trade deals and that will bring American jobs back. Blabber about "king coal" and that will bring coal miners' jobs back despite coal is a falling fraction of the energy market.

One of Baggini's  most trenchant observations is that toxic populism is at root a "shift from real politics" - which entails complicated aspects of policy negotiations and compromises - to "political consumerism".  He defines the latter as "giving people what they want without the mediation of experts".

By "experts" he means political experts, or those who respect governmental norms, traditions and history.  These turned out to be exactly the lot that Trump railed against in his campaign and vowed to overturn, the so-called "elites".   And so he commenced a Vulgarian's campaign to destroy all recognized norms and sow chaos - even in his own White House. Hence the frequently heard comment that he loves it when his staff are at each other's throats. As is the case now with Scaramucci unloading on Reince Priebus yelping: 'Reince is a F****** paranoid schizophrenic" and also calling out Bannon, e.g. "I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock."

Is this any way to run a White House? According to Trump's "bible" -  based on endless conflict and "winning" -  it is. (Trump also taught his kids from the time they were pouchlings to win at any cost.) Trouble is it doesn't get you very far in actual governance and actually sows the seeds of your administration's destruction.

The problem is that this deliberate sowing of internecine warfare and chaos prevents democratic governance. Ditto with spectacles like Trump befouling a Boy Scout Jamboree with his own twisted political rhetoric (for which the Boy Scouts of America has had to apologize) and now going after his own AG Sessions via daily public shaming.  Even eliciting the following  words from  WSJ conservative columnist Karl Rove (p. A13), that it shows:

"just how vindictive, shortsighted and impulsive Mr. Trump can be."

And also how blatantly stupid, because Trump doesn't even need to fire Sessions to rid himself of Bob Mueller, he can get Rod Rosenstein to do it.  The real reason Trump is going after Sessions is personal pique, an unabated anger at his recusing himself from the Russiagate probe. This is every bit the attribute of a toxic populist - a guy with not only mental issues but manhood ones as well. I mean, as with Comey, he is too cowardly to even face Jeff Beauregard mano a mano to tell him why he's pissed.

Charles Blow, in yesterday's NY Times also had this to add about Trump:


"this man’s vindictiveness and mendacity are undergirded by the unequaled power of the American president, and as such he has graduated on the scale of power from toddler to budding tyrant. This threat Trump poses — to our morals, ethics, norms and collective sense of propriety — may be without equal from a domestic source"

Which brings us to the very real threat toxic populism poses to a pluralistic democracy, especially when that populism is being driven by a psychotic  populist halfwit with Trump's hair trigger temper and astounding sense of grievance.  Because of this he's driven to direct his rage at assorted ephemeral  targets, sowing utter chaos and confusion and in effect ushering in an era of "anti-politics" - insofar as political sense, judgments and norms ate undermined.  In this guise, because he finally represents neither the electorate nor his party, he becomes a threat to the Republic at large.

At root, as numerous commentators  (e.g. David Frum, Rick Wilson, Max Boot, Charles Blow et al) have already pointed out, the roots of destruction inhere in how this administration ('guided' by Trump's brand of populism) have exploded all historically respected norms. Even LBJ, who had a hand in cooperating with the Kennedy assassination, knew he had to keep his colorful language largely off the public radar once he became president. Hence, he let loose in private not to a news magazine reporter. - as Charlie Pierce noted last night on MSNBC's 'All In'.

Sidney Blumenthal, writing in The Denver Post ('What would Lincoln think of Trump?, July 23, p. 1D) notes Lincoln believed there was an even greater danger to this Republic than rampaging mobs, warning against "the emergence of a man driven to power by a fierce desire for celebrity and fame who 'thirsts and burns for distinction'. A demagogue who 'scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious'  and 'believing nothing is left in the way of building up would set boldly to the task of tearing down."

Thus an individual who "tears down institutions and excites the mobocratic spirit, subverting the right to free expression and with it, our national freedom."

This is Trump in a nutshell and hence the fruit of his populism: destruction.

The dark aspect of Trumpist populism - which will ultimately cause his administration to crash and burn- is that the only time he enjoys being president is when he's shattering some norm or governance or of American life, or watching others exact cruelty on one another.   In this respect, he's "like the Roman coliseum emperor who just wants to see the lions eat the Christians" in the words of MSNBC's Joy Reid.  But this is not governance, it's practiced atrocity guided by a nihilistic mindset.

Baggini again:

"The populist mode of politics is in essence, an anti-politics. This insidiously undermines the very foundations of a democratic, pluralist state, replacing  any sense of the need for reasoned dialogue, compromise and accommodation with a simplistic idea that the government's role is to reflect the clear, unified will of the people."

Thus, the singling out of Muslims, immigrants, transgender people and others for opprobrium - in terms of walls, travel bans or ostracism for military service - is taken to reflect the "unified will of the people". However, as we know, it is not all the people but the insane, unhinged, unread and fake news oriented Trump populist base.  Barely 40 percent of the actual electorate.

And the most clarifying observation yet in terms of the current Trump clusterfuck:

"The major problem with this is that if you are elected on the basis that all major ills originate from outside 'the people' (e.g. your people), there is simply no way you can govern.  At best you have a short term disaster and a return to traditional parties to clean up the mess. At worst, you create an ongoing situation in which governance becomes impossible."

It is this last to which we are fast approaching under Trumpist populism and the unstable, lawless, mindless Trump.

Watch for this populist circus to fall apart very soon. After it does, let's hope the American citizen and voter manages to rise above political consumerism the next time around - as opposed to being suckered by another classless, big -mouthed weasel and charlatan. Or in Sidney Blumenthal's words: "it will require the people to be united with each other -  intelligent and attached to the government and laws - to successfully frustrate his designs."

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/richard-eskow/74222/the-mooch-the-donald-and-the-goldmanization-of-government

 

Excerpt:

"While the press was writing about about The Mooch’s theatrics, less attention was being paid to the ongoing Goldmanization of Trump’s administration – a trend that poses a serious risk to the American people, and potentially to the global economy."

Trump Unravels At Presser- Shows Again He's Unfit To Lead

"Look, I could blow up that Russian ship thirty miles away and everyone would think it's great! Never mind it'd start a nuclear war!"

"Let’s not mumble or whisper about the central issue facing our country: What is this democratic nation to do when the man serving as president of the United States plainly has no business being president of the United States? The Michael Flynn fiasco was the entirely predictable product of the indiscipline, deceit, incompetence and moral indifference that characterize Donald Trump’s approach to leadership. "  E.J. Dionne, The Washington Post, 'Admit It: Trump Is Unfit To Serve'

"Today was a turning point. Today was historically bad, not just for President Trump but also for the office of the presidency. Look, it's obvious to the nation the emperor has no clothes. Our boy president has surrounded himself by a team that tells him his coat is beautiful - but he's not wearing one. Let's recognize the heartbreak in this ...that we might be faced with a President who is not up to the task of the office he ran for and what do we do with that?" Fmr. Rep. David Jolly (R-FLA)

"President Trump’s mental state is like a train that long ago left freewheeling and iconoclastic, has raced through indulgent, chaotic and unnerving, and is now careening past unhinged, unmoored and unglued." - David Brooks, NY Times today

The fool and presidential pretender Trump tried to hold a press conference yesterday, but from start to finish it was the classical clusterfuck and showed again why this lunatic shouldn't be in charge of a dog kennel - far less running a country.  Donald J. Trump showed again he's totally detached from reality to the point he can't even discern how certain acts could trigger a nuclear war and even unable to tell that his electoral vote win was not the "biggest since Reagan".  When questioners tried to correct the wacky claim he merely fobbed them off with baldersdash, e.g. "that's what I was told".

Told? How about doing your own research first, asshole? But, of course, this doofus doesn't read, at least not genuine newspapers. So when he spews out BS to the press corps like: "The public doesn't believe you people any more." we have a first inkling on why he is so clueless. He only reads the nutso fake news on Breitbart.com or the tweets from his pal Limburger, who actually told him his fiasco yesterday was "the best press conference ever".  If Trump actually read a real paper as opposed to a bogus website (like Alex Jones' 'Infowars') he might have known he was talking shit when he claimed the largest electoral vote win "since Reagan".

Predictably,  Trump dismissed claims that he owed his election victory to Moscow’s interference on Thursday, insisting “Russia is fake news.”  Hmmmm....so are the intelligence gathering services of this nation 'fake' too?  Are your PDBs? Oh wait, Trump doesn't even read them - he used to have Flynn do that and then reduce them to baby gruel for him to digest. So, from this, one must conclude he regards all the intel reports - including those which could warn of a terror attack - as "fake" too.

"Dump", who has been rocked by the resignation of his national security adviser and dogged by months of speculation about his links to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, repeatedly denied reports he or associates on his presidential campaign had had contact with Russian intelligence operatives in advance of the November election, calling the reports “fake news”.

         

Trump conducts the press conference like a one-man circus which is basically what it was. It's no wonder when Europeans see this clown in action they are worried, very worried.

  "Russia is a ruse ... Russia is a ruse,” Dump said, echoing an earlier assertion that the story was an attempt by Democrats to justify Hillary Clinton’s election loss.  He then blabbered sounding like a drunk who'd had twelve Blatz beers and just left a Milwaukee tavern:

“I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven’t made a phone call to Russia in years. Don’t speak to people from Russia. Not that I wouldn’t. I just have nobody to speak to. I spoke to [Russian president Vladimir] Putin twice. He called me on the election. I told you this. And he called me on the inauguration, a few days ago.”

I mean you cannot make this stuff up. This is for real, and the most pathetic aspect is that his millions of Reich wing fake news groupies suck it up like catnip or MJ edibles. They actually read his presser as a takedown of the pointy -headed "elite" media, as opposed to a one man demonstration of serious psychopathy that would have an ordinary bloke in a straight jacket.

Both The New York Times and CNN published reports on Tuesday asserting that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and at least three other Trump associates (including Carter Page)  had had what CNN called “constant contact” with Russian operatives before the election. Then Barack Obama sanctioned Russia in December for what he described as its efforts to tamper with the presidential election, activity that intelligence agencies have concluded sought to tip the election in Trump’s favor. Barely a day or two later Trump thanked Putin for "being smart" in not exacting retribution. Well, uh no. Because Flynn told him all would be a-ok and the Trump bunch would even kill the sanctions once in power.

Make no mistake this stuff will come out, it's the other shoe ready to drop, and our European allies also have all the transcripts and recorded conversations - no matter if Jeff Sessions tries to kill the case. Or...use the daft bollocks that Flynn "never intended to mislead". Oh yes he did, it was part of the package. And Dump was even dumb enough in one instant of his press mess to admit he'd have told Flynn to discuss it!  Sayeth the Ringmaster:

“I would have directed him to do it if he wasn’t doing it, because that’s his job.”

To set the scene again, for those who may have missed it, scrutiny of Trump’s Russia ties intensified after it emerged last week, via numerous leaks from intelligence sources, that former national security adviser Michael Flynn had discussed Obama’s sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak on the day they were announced. Former acting attorney general Sally Yates advised the White House in late January that Flynn may have broken the law by negotiating with a country in a diplomatic dispute with the US. Trump was not yet president when Flynn spoke to Kislyak and Flynn was not yet national security adviser.

Thursday’s "press conference" – let's be clear- was more a one man circus with Trump the Ringmaster. If you viewed it at all through the lens of reality and history it was literally a fucking farce. A comical takeoff on a real press conference (such as JFK used to hold, see e.g.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twL2wzOf1c4

Or maybe even a Poe.   There was no coherence or order to this fiasco, and even in answering certain questions Trump often attacked the questioner - such as one Jewish reporter concerned about 48 attacks on Jews in the past month and the rise of anti-Semitism..  Lacking any logical coherence, Trump took frequent detours to provide fatuous commentary on:  his relations with his press, his own popularity, the quality of the questions being asked (not good!) and his "election victory" At one point he did provide new details on Flynn’s ouster, stating clearly for the first time that Flynn had been fired for failing to fully brief Vice-president Mike Pence on his conversations with Kislyak. (Transl. Flynn lied about the fact he discussed sanctions lifting with Kislyak).

Acting AG Sally Yates also advised the Trump White House that Flynn may have violated the Logan Act, which pertains to the dealings of US citizens with foreign countries. Trump said on Thursday that his White House counsel, Donald McGahn, had advised him that Flynn had not likely broken the law.  But European intel agencies' own communications interceptions will show that he did, make book on it. My Swiss friend Rolf, a former Spezialdienst, certainly is. In his words, "Trump and Flynn are both in the Europeans' sights and no matter what your DOJ investigations do - or don't - their connections will  ultimately be exposed. I give Trump five more months in office."

Wow! That would be great. But on the downside, it would mean having the Evangelical zealot Mike Pence in as Prez. But hey, at least he appears sane and able to walk and think at the same time without putting his foot in his mouth.

Back to the presser.  Dump went on to babble in his campaign "stream of consciousness" mode:

"You can talk all you want about Russia, which is all a fake-news fabricated deal. I saw a couple people who were supposedly involved. It’s all fake news. The press should be ashamed of themselves, and the people who gave the information should be ashamed of themselves. It’s a joke.”

Yeah, it is a joke when you and your hired thugs have their balls snared in a nut cutter. Ask Tricky Dick Nixon. He also tried to displace the blame to the "leakers" but that strategy didn't work so well. It actually helped bring him down. Ask Mark Feldt, aka "Deep Throat".

The assorted displays of dissociative reality disorder included in turn:

• Slamming the “dishonest” media for putting out what he called fake news and doing a “disservice” to the American people
• Claiming he has achieved more in his first four weeks in office than any previous US president, adding: “We’re just getting started”
• Denying that his ban on travelers from Muslim-majority countries had been poorly executed, insisting: “We had a bad court”
• Arguing that he “inherited a mess”, both domestically and abroad
• Informed he was wrong to claim he had the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan. He replied: “I was given that information”
• Asking black journalist April Ryan if she would set up a meeting for him with the Congressional Black Caucus to discuss his inner-city agenda: “Are they friends of yours?”

He also insisted (as if living in a parallel universe)  that there has been “incredible progress” over the past four weeks, clearly unable to discern the difference between utter chaos - which the sane populace sees- and actual achievement.  This was reinforced even further when he had the chutzpah to insist he did better than his predecessor - who actually inherited REAL crises - including the credit meltdown.

But Dump had the audacity to bark: “To be honest, I inherited a mess. It’s a mess. At home and abroad, a mess."

But to quote Steven Colbert last night: "No, you inherited a billion, we elected a mess.:

What did the boy President really inherit?  A 4.8 percent unemployment rate,  a stable economy for the most part, and 20 million people with health care that were without it 7 years ago. But of course, Trump wants to kill that health care - scuttling the ACA with the  GOP. A serious move given one of the only two bills he's actually signed into law was the one yesterday permitting coal companies to dump coal waste into streams. What are all his  millions of voters on the ACA going to do when they get kidney, pancreatic, abdominal, colon and testicular cancers from drinking that effluent?

And then the topper:

"I don’t think there’s ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we have done.”

What has he actually done? Let's do a reality check. His calls to the leaders of Taiwan, Australia and Mexico have resulted in more controversy than success. Indeed, his call with Malcom Turnbull of Australia ended with Trump slamming the phone down - not an auspicious sign.  As for his "executive orders" - most have been little more than symbolic statements, e.g. "we stood up for the men and women of law enforcement directing federal agencies to ensure they are protected from crimes of violence."

Yeah, well, those federal agencies are bound to do that anyway. Then there is the wall on the southern border, there's no funding from congress and no plan to get Mexico to pay for it - not that they ever would.. After all, Mexico's President Enrique Nieto is sane, playing with a full deck - unlike Dump.

Yeppers, Dump has indeed been unique in "accomplishment" if you use the gauge of disorder, incompetence and governing disarray. A combination that has brought this nation to the  brink of ruin and its lowest reputation in 30 years. (At least since the Iran Contra conspiracy) .

Here's the real kick in the face for this "boy President": Vice Admiral Robert Harward, who he'd tapped to replace Flynn, flat turned him down hours after the circus he called a press conference. Confidential friends related that Harwood told them he: "doesn't want to eat a shit sandwich". Evidently he was livid about not being able to organize the NSC the way he wanted (including dumping Bannon) .

It is also very conceivable he had no inclination to be part of this administration after watching the Trump implosion yesterday. Add on not being able to organize the National Security Council to his liking and confronting a "policy by Twitter" dynamic and you know all you need to regarding Harward's nay decision..   As the NY Times has noted:

"Council staff members get up in the morning, read Trump's Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them. Most are kept in the dark about what Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls"

As also reported, the NSC staff evidently became so frustrated they even debated "feeding suggested Twitter posts to the President so the Council's staff would have greater influence".

Are you kidding me? As I noted before, Twitter is a cartoon medium, a child's chat medium,  and is absolutely not designed for serious policy proposals or decisions.  This is because the medium is so truncated and terse it doesn't allow for such proper explication. One can, of course, do multiple tweets, but given each such blurtation is really a cartoon mini-medium itself  (complete with Trump's cartoon visage attached) there is still the danger the entire message can be misconstrued because it is not given as a coherent whole. That is, as a complete formal statement we expect to emanate from grown ups wearing big boy pants, not Pampers.

So why would  members of the NSC even imagine reducing themselves to "pampers" level communiques  to instill  the gravity of PDB issues to President Pampers?   I already wrote before that Trump needed to seal away and dispose of his Twitter account. That was when he might still have justified it as a "president elect".  The reason is very simple and ought to require little explanation: once one becomes  President - assuming one isn't pretending - then a certain level of decorum is expected which includes one's choice of communications. . This simply can't be achieved by tweets, unless one is willing to be viewed as an unreconstructed adolescent.

Trump's inability to do that, just like his inability to conduct a proper press conference like a mature adult, is the biggest reason he will never be able to get serious players in his cabinet - only yes men, assholes, and fools.

Any sane citizen watching the spectacle that unfolded yesterday ought to have deep remorse not only for the nation but for its future direction - and its reputation globally - given how the disgusting turd in office has desecrated it.  The tragedy is that perspective doesn't apply to all, as David Brooks pointed out in his column today:

"Everything about Trump that appalls 65 percent of America strengthens him with the other 35 percent, and he can ride that group for a while. "

This means the nation is polarized by perception of reality, a very dangerous situation indeed. We shall, at some point, have to all come together and see the need for Trump's removal...or face the real prospect of another civil war.

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/marjorie-cohn/71254/the-toxic-policies-of-president-agent-orange