Mueller Investigation pt5

[W.D.Clinger]

No kidding. Those guys had brains. Who is at the top of the Republican intellectual pile now?

That question is ambiguous.

Taking "intellectual" as the key word led to these answers:

George Will is still a thoughtful commentator, but of course, he is no longer a Republican.

David Brooks is also pretty good and still a Republican, far as I know, but he's hardly influential in the new GOP.

David Frum
Rick Wilson
David Brooks
Tom Nichols
James Kirchick

You missed the most one interesting based on this. Max Boot because he's realized that Buckley and Goldwater were the poison tree that modern "libertarian" conservatism is based on.

And also this lovely response:

Doctor Sebastian Gorka. Doctor Gorka is a Doctor, as he'll be the first to tell you.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...a-he-gets-his-way-only-in-conservative-media/

We get different answers by emphasizing "at the top of the Republican...pile now?"

My serious answer: Steven Miller is today's Hedley Lamarr.

Gorka never had Taggart's influence. I'm not sure Rudy Giuliani does either.

 

[CapelDodger]

@Stacko

William Barr’s Son-in-Law Just Landed a Job Advising Trump on “Legal Issues”

This "administration" is incestuous beyond the telling of it. Thinking of which, has anything happened yet re Cohen's father-in-law? Perhaps Trump's saving that retribution until after Cohen testifies. Which is soon, is it not? I'm kinda losing track of what's going on, and the Democratic House is still just building up to full operating speed. It's going to be one sweaty summer in the Swamp this year, mark my words.

 

[CapelDodger]

The issue of American independence took 30-odd years and a war to finally resolve. Chess games are not won with just the first move but a series of calculated moves over time. Trump is not going to be gone in the next week or so. The GOP are not going to suddenly get a change of heart. It just doesn't work like that.

Indeed. It happens gradually. And then very suddenly ...

It's 21 months until November 2020. And three months since the GOP holding the Senate in very favourable circumstances had to be proclaimed as a triumph. The mid-terms were, of course, a frickin' disaster. The economy's peaked at the worst possible time. It's almost like nobody in the GOP is even trying anymore. Fatalism has set in amongst the leadership, without a doubt. Their careers are behind them and they're cashing out like bandits. But are there Young Turks, people who'd like to think they have careers ahead of them, prepared to line the old guard up against the Wall, (the Trump Wall, a beautiful wall, the Trump Wall, people are calling it the Trump Wall) and get full-on 2nd Amendment on their asses?


I do hope so.

 

[CapelDodger]

Is McCabe trying to get Rosenstein fired? Because this is how you get Rosenstein fired.

No it isn't. It's innoculation, not infection.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Indeed. It happens gradually. And then very suddenly ...

It's 21 months until November 2020. And three months since the GOP holding the Senate in very favourable circumstances had to be proclaimed as a triumph. The mid-terms were, of course, a frickin' disaster. The economy's peaked at the worst possible time. It's almost like nobody in the GOP is even trying anymore. Fatalism has set in amongst the leadership, without a doubt. Their careers are behind them and they're cashing out like bandits. But are there Young Turks, people who'd like to think they have careers ahead of them, prepared to line the old guard up against the Wall, (the Trump Wall, a beautiful wall, the Trump Wall, people are calling it the Trump Wall) and get full-on 2nd Amendment on their asses?


I do hope so.

I suspect it is at that stage in a chess game where the end result is becoming both clear and inevitable but the requisite end-game moves are yet to be played. Unless there are major goofs made by one opponent, it will be checkmate one way or another.

To labour the chess analogy, Donny has demonstrated he doesn't know how the game is played let alone how it is won. He has been losing major pieces at regular intervals through stupid moves at the beginning. Donny would dearly love to "pigeon" the game - ignore the rules, scatter the pieces, **** all over the board and strut around claiming victory. Meanwhile his opponents have been ignoring the ranting and playing to a plan. And they are winning, although it's mostly because Donny is hell-bent on losing.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

I suspect it is at that stage in a chess game where the end result is becoming both clear and inevitable but the requisite end-game moves are yet to be played. Unless there are major goofs made by one opponent, it will be checkmate one way or another.

To labour the chess analogy, Donny has demonstrated he doesn't know how the game is played let alone how it is won. He has been losing major pieces at regular intervals through stupid moves at the beginning. Donny would dearly love to "pigeon" the game - ignore the rules, scatter the pieces, **** all over the board and strut around claiming victory. Meanwhile his opponents have been ignoring the ranting and playing to a plan. And they are winning, although it's mostly because Donny is hell-bent on losing.

To (hopefully) continue and belabor the chess analogy, the majority of games end in resignation.

 

[Andy_Ross]

I suspect it is at that stage in a chess game where the end result is becoming both clear and inevitable but the requisite end-game moves are yet to be played. Unless there are major goofs made by one opponent, it will be checkmate one way or another.

To labour the chess analogy, Donny has demonstrated he doesn't know how the game is played let alone how it is won. He has been losing major pieces at regular intervals through stupid moves at the beginning. Donny would dearly love to "pigeon" the game - ignore the rules, scatter the pieces, **** all over the board and strut around claiming victory. Meanwhile his opponents have been ignoring the ranting and playing to a plan. And they are winning, although it's mostly because Donny is hell-bent on losing.

You mean Trump plays chess like Richie

 

[Stacko]

It's not clear to me that he counts as a conservative any more. Does he still identify as a conservative or has he more or less renounced conservatism (rather than just the libertarian leaning conservatism)?

He refers to himself as a confused conservative. Here's a solid interview where he discusses his current journey.

 

[CapelDodger]

I suspect it is at that stage in a chess game where the end result is becoming both clear and inevitable but the requisite end-game moves are yet to be played.

It's not like a chess-game. It's not even like Shogi. Games like that teach certain tactical and strategic principles, but your pieces don't get together after work over drinks and criticise your choices for Bishop and Rook. (Never attack the Prince : attack the Prince's bad servants, who are the cause of your misery. If only the good Prince knew of their perfidy he would bring them low ...)

Unless there are major goofs made by one opponent, it will be checkmate one way or another.

Checkmate ends a game, which is an atrificial construct. There is no end in politics, and all of human life is politics.

To labour the chess analogy, Donny has demonstrated he doesn't know how the game is played ...

Of course, one should acknowledge that Trump's life is not a human one. He's too damaged for that, for whatever reason. Be it congenital or the result of early-life experience, Trump is a singular being, not a social being. He has never, in his entire life, experienced a moment of intimacy that didn't result in trauma.

Trump never experienced school politics : his allowance and his father's connections provided a cocoon in which he could snuggle and imagine himself a real stand-out guy. In reality, of course, he was being ripped-off by people who ridiculed him off-stage.

Trump never experienced office politics : he worked for Daddie and did what Daddie told him, without resenting the way his father talked down to him because Trump was blind to the fact his father was even doing it. Trump is emotionally deaf, dumb and blind. At best, all the social development of a 2-year old child.

The closest Trump came to the US political world before birthirism was through his Daddie's involvement in stuff Donnie was completely ignorant of, because why would anybody clue this moron in on anything? A sore disappointment to his father, but sometimes it goes that way. And Giuiliani, of course, but that guy's marbles have rolled, lets face it.

 

[JoeMorgue]

The issue of American independence took 30-odd years and a war to finally resolve. Chess games are not won with just the first move but a series of calculated moves over time. Trump is not going to be gone in the next week or so. The GOP are not going to suddenly get a change of heart. It just doesn't work like that.

Indeed. It happens gradually. And then very suddenly ...

It's 21 months until November 2020. And three months since the GOP holding the Senate in very favourable circumstances had to be proclaimed as a triumph. The mid-terms were, of course, a frickin' disaster. The economy's peaked at the worst possible time. It's almost like nobody in the GOP is even trying anymore. Fatalism has set in amongst the leadership, without a doubt. Their careers are behind them and they're cashing out like bandits. But are there Young Turks, people who'd like to think they have careers ahead of them, prepared to line the old guard up against the Wall, (the Trump Wall, a beautiful wall, the Trump Wall, people are calling it the Trump Wall) and get full-on 2nd Amendment on their asses?


I do hope so.

I sincerely, with zero snark or ulterior-ness of any kind, hope you both are correct.

I will fully admit I've grown a bit kneejerk cynical on an emotional level regarding the ease at which Trump will be dealt with.

But if you believe nothing else, please believe I've never wanted to be wrong about something more in my life.

 

[Norman Alexander]

It's not like a chess-game. It's not even like Shogi. Games like that teach certain tactical and strategic principles, but your pieces don't get together after work over drinks and criticise your choices for Bishop and Rook. (Never attack the Prince : attack the Prince's bad servants, who are the cause of your misery. If only the good Prince knew of their perfidy he would bring them low ...)
Checkmate ends a game, which is an atrificial construct. There is no end in politics, and all of human life is politics.

Readily agreed. One of the purposes of analogy is to simplify the situation to make it comprehensible in easily understood terms. In doing so, accuracy and total relevance does get lost.

Of course, one should acknowledge that Trump's life is not a human one. He's too damaged for that, for whatever reason. Be it congenital or the result of early-life experience, Trump is a singular being, not a social being. He has never, in his entire life, experienced a moment of intimacy that didn't result in trauma.

Trump never experienced school politics : his allowance and his father's connections provided a cocoon in which he could snuggle and imagine himself a real stand-out guy. In reality, of course, he was being ripped-off by people who ridiculed him off-stage.

Trump never experienced office politics : he worked for Daddie and did what Daddie told him, without resenting the way his father talked down to him because Trump was blind to the fact his father was even doing it. Trump is emotionally deaf, dumb and blind. At best, all the social development of a 2-year old child.

The closest Trump came to the US political world before birthirism was through his Daddie's involvement in stuff Donnie was completely ignorant of, because why would anybody clue this moron in on anything? A sore disappointment to his father, but sometimes it goes that way. And Giuiliani, of course, but that guy's marbles have rolled, lets face it.

Trump is behaving for all the world like some two-bit mafia thug out of a third-rate Godfather movie. The attitude, the words, the mannerisms, the disdain for the law... That's the world he was raised in by his father, and he thinks that's how the whole world works. Your opinion is the only one that matters, and you buy people to do your bidding and get your way, or failing that, heavily threaten them. It's a ridiculous cartoon caricature come to life who now can't escape the movie they have put themselves in.

 

[Delphic Oracle]

But for Trump, his cronies, and his base this is spun as traitorous actions. An attempted administrative coup. He doesn't care if that looks credible. It's just the excuse he needs to get Rosenstein out of the way. Further if the 25th were to be invoked or Trump loses in 2020 this is another thing priming his base and fellow Republicans that this is just another illegal coup attempt via 25th amendment or vote rigging to prevent the rightfully elected POTUS from office.

And now he can say that Rosenstein has always been against Trump, wanted to wear a wire and invoke the 25th amendment and this is the guy who oversaw the Mueller investigation. All this feeds into Trump's narratives.

I still can't wrap my head around how a legal avenue specifically created for removing the executive can be referred to as "illegal" or a "coup."

 

[JoeMorgue]

I still can't wrap my head around how a legal avenue specifically created for removing the executive can be referred to as "illegal" or a "coup".

Even Nixon just tried to sell it as "It's not illegal because the President is doing it" instead of "It's illegal for you to point it out because the President is doing it."

 

[Fast Eddie B]

Not sure if this is the right place for it, but apparently Roger Stone posted a picture of the judge overseeing his case in DC. Not noteworthy in and of itself. The fact that the picture had crosshairs on it might be of interest to the judge.

This was just reported on Rachel Maddow’s show. Is Stone playing 3D chess, or is there something seriously wrong with him. If the judge doesn’t revoke his bail, I’ll be very surprised.

Edited to add:

Found the image:

The crosshairs are less obvious and prominent than I had imagined, but a very poor choice regardless.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Not sure if this is the right place for it, but apparently Roger Stone posted a picture of the judge overseeing his case in DC. Not noteworthy in and of itself. The fact that the picture had crosshairs on it might be of interest to the judge.

It's weirdly formatted picture. The "crosshairs" are like behind her head and (to me at least) looks like the cut-off part of a logo or something similar since it's next to a couple of words that get cut off.

 

[BobTheCoward]

Hmm, the person who knows everything about it in detail from reading the actual documents and OIG reports and on and on and on mischaracterized something?

And the basis for your opinion is?

Government emails showing up places they don't belong is not exceptional. Every time two government employees exchange info directly about their work on gmail we have government emails being backed up on private computers. Human operators suck at computer security.

 

[CapelDodger]

Readily agreed. One of the purposes of analogy is to simplify the situation to make it comprehensible in easily understood terms. In doing so, accuracy and total relevance does get lost.

The venerable board-game Risk taught me a lot more than Chess. It made me who I was before D&D ground off the last rough spots.

Trump is behaving for all the world like some two-bit mafia thug out of a third-rate Godfather movie.

I think he's acting like a comedy wrestling star, who appeal to infantile types exactly like Trump. Arrested developers - and Trump is so getting arrested before this affair is all over. There, I've said it.

 

[CapelDodger]

I still can't wrap my head around how a legal avenue specifically created for removing the executive can be referred to as "illegal" or a "coup."

There's that, and the fact that McCabe's report of hearing that cabinet members were discussing the option (McCabe was not a cabinet member, of course) has resulted in him being presented as party to a conspiracy by cabinet members (amongst whom McCabe did not number) to replace an incompetent Presdent by Constitutional means.

The Big Dog can, according to the Big Dog hisself, expertly explain how that works. Or he could tell us how Trump gets there, which is an even greater challenge.

 

[Stacko]

Not sure if this is the right place for it, but apparently Roger Stone posted a picture of the judge overseeing his case in DC. Not noteworthy in and of itself. The fact that the picture had crosshairs on it might be of interest to the judge.

This was just reported on Rachel Maddow’s show. Is Stone playing 3D chess, or is there something seriously wrong with him. If the judge doesn’t revoke his bail, I’ll be very surprised.

Edited to add:

Found the image:

[qimg]https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/amy-berman-jackson-roger-stone-judge-instagram.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=300&strip=all[/qimg]

The crosshairs are less obvious and prominent than I had imagined, but a very poor choice regardless.

First prior use of the image I find is at "cosmiconvergence dot org," which is a site filled with anti-Semitic New World Order conspiracies (with a side of Mayan calendar end-times crazy).​

He's clearly in a good place right now.

 

[Lurch]

The venerable board-game Risk taught me a lot more than Chess. It made me who I was before D&D ground off the last rough spots.

I think he's acting like a comedy wrestling star, who appeal to infantile types exactly like Trump. Arrested developers - and Trump is so getting arrested before this affair is all over. There, I've said it.

Right from the first of Trump's rallies, I instantly saw the pro wrestling elements in the whole shtick, with him and his stadia full of doting, deluded deplorables. A sickening display of doltish dullards, coarse cretins, fearful fundamentalists and hateful hypocrites.