Updated – I’m still pretty shocked I was wrong about this. A delay of even one more day probably would have killed all chance. It’s still hard to believe they didnt just find someone else. Here is the original post, which can still get shoved back into being more correct than it is right now
As I predicted the Kavanaugh Hearing was a complete disaster for Republicans. For starters, they pulled the plug on the much vaunted “Having a woman ask terrible questions for them” tactic when the relative reasonableness of the questioning worked fine for accuser, Dr Ford, and was never going to clear Kavanaugh.
So that was a 2-fer on predictions. It was a disaster and they couldn’t stick to their plan. Fair enough, no plan survives contact with the Enemy. The real measure of any strategic situation is how you handle a setback. The GOP just couldn’t.
Trump’s Gettysburg
Between a laugher of an insincere speech from Lindsey Graham, who seized control of the hearing (in a way that may not have been in order) by shouting like a man in the depths of an Ether Binge. It was a Trump-loving Social Suicide of sorts. He had good reason to panic. The Caveman was unfreezing right in front of the nation and the world on TV. He was becoming self aware and paranoid (revenge from the Clintons?).
The Q & A with Democratic Senators showed Kavanaugh was an anger driven egomaniac whose attitude was right in line with a would-be rapist became impossible. Graham called an audible with an outburst worthy of the Young and the Restless over the mistreatment of Kavanaugh over a woman they all claimed to believe to a degree.
UPDATE – Kavanaugh seems to have plain ol’ lied about having no connection to Yale and was, in fact, a ‘legacy’ enrollment. Also- Yale’s pretty much disowned him.
With questions about hedonism and drunkenness it at times sounded like an intervention. Certainly when Kavanaugh made a series of baffling statements about his drinking.
Attacking people who asked any question he disliked, he really sounded like a drunk in denial. Ranting he only drinks beer was a constant refrain as he challenged and abused the Democrats like an angry idiot with no sense of appropriateness. Imagine a guy this angry with a few (dozen) in him?
The preposterous calendar he should have burned shows his poor judgement. The easy to interpret slang for any former 80s teen shows Caveman Kavanaugh drank til he puked all the time and boasted to himself about sex.
Some sleazy quotes that makes you wonder if the Yearbook committee had any kind of adult supervision, paints a cave painting of a gross, pornographic obsessed alcoholic Kavanaugh sort of Rape-Walking his way through high school puking all the time from extreme drunkenness….from beer though!
Swearing he was sure he absolutely remembers everything no one could actually adhere to – that he’d never forgotten anything while drinking- was sort of a laugher as was Kavanaugh’s Drunk Uncle moments of shouting about how much he likes beer. I wouldn’t have faulted him for simply saying “No one who has ever drank can say they remember everything just due to pure human memory. My first beer was forty years ago.”
While that wouldn’t have been great, but it would have been true and relatable. More relatable than the priestly image of studious dignity Kavanaugh presented of himself when he was introduced by Trump as the nominee weeks ago. It woukd also have been far more believable than the ‘heavy drinker with a weak stomach who puts ketchup on spaghetti’ line he tried to tell Senator Whitehouse, who didnt bite and questioned Kavanaugh’s quoting him out of context or completely fictionally and then returned to drinking related questions.
He saved exceptionally high levels of disrespect for female Senators like Feinstein and Senator Amy Klobuchar. The Klobuchar exchange was so ugly that Caveman Kavanaugh apologized after one of the many breaks.
The idea Kavanaugh might be a rapist was left hanging in the air but now it had company. New questions about state of mind, whether a man who cries and screams over little basketball in front of the senate and the nation on live TV, has the intellect or attitude for the Supreme Court Bench.
His list of crazy grievances were a channeling of Trumpist Insanity that makes you wonder if arrogant Kavanaugh’s privileged world view isn’t too narrow-minded and intolerant to sit in judgement of anyone.
At the end of all things, after a nationally painful elevator pitch to a hapless Jeff Flake by two impassioned sexual assault victims just bought too much to the surface for Flake not to make me a prophet yet again by helping the Democrats punch in a running Touchdown in the form of a week’s delay for a FBI investigation (which the White House already seems to be trying to sabotage).
The vote to approve the Caveman for Supreme Court seemed a done deal until Flake’s moment of clarity bought the nation some time for the downfall to be complete and the flaming wreck of a man that is Kavanaugh to simply crash and explode behind a hill offscreen. It was as dramatic a moment as any we’ve seen under this whacked out administration.
It doesn’t matter how narrow the Investigation is, the punked polaroid pictures of a drunken Kavanaugh from all ages of his life have started to surface and a lot of them look very real. Then there’s the other accusers that the FBI apparently won’t talk to, who will be on TV telling their story.
On the employment front- while still on the DC Bench for the moment, he probably isn’t allowed on campus while Harvard mulls over whether they will let him continue to work there. So there’s something of a validation there. I’m pretty sure the DC Circuit job is an extremely endangered species in future Right Wing Satellite Radio host Brett Kavanaugh’s life.
UPDATE – One Job Lost Already
Slammed by Yale as Unfit, now our Unfrozen Cro-Mag buddy has also been FIRED from Harvard! Outcry form students was part of it. Technically he quit (while hugely in debt BTW). No one was going to take part 2 of his class and be subjected to even academic Judgement from serial drunk anger addict. There’s people looking for money back and credits for being subjected to the guy in the first place and they might get it. Presumably he’s gone for lack of integrity/ being a drunk/ being a danger to students. The DC Bench job will be gone in less than 12 months. I doubt hes ever allowed to see another case. Maybe he keeps his law license, but disbarment for a short period of time is looking likely. OR- he might still get jammed onto the SCOTUS bench, but it would be temporary. Captain Caveman will have about 6 weeks of safety before calls to impeach
Was this Hearing Trump’s Pickett’s Charge?
Historians might just call the stalled Kavanaugh Nomination the High WaterMark of this rebellion.
The Trumpian waters may have crested. For a moment a Rubber Stamp Justice on the Court seemed a sure thing, but then it exploded and now is a zombie at best. Kavanaugh will be surely fail to make the cut after any investigation. If the investigation looks terrible it’s likely Flake’s conscience comes back into play. After all, there are other terrible conservative judges who aren’t drunken assholes who would just get the gig.
I think the stipulations put on the Kavanaugh vote have doomed him, justifiably so, to not get on the Supreme Court. It may be remembered as the Picketts Charge of Trump’s Presidency. As I said, a high watermark that will not be reached again.
Like Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, Trump likely remains dangerous, but Historians may well point to the failure of this nomination, now i would say assured, as the moment things started going against him. He’s not winning anymore and he may mor be able to Un-Lose. Lee never really menaced the North with an invasion again. You could also analogize it to Stalingrad too I suppose as Trump is something of a Nazi.
I would be great if Saturday Night Live, returning tonight, brings back Horatio Sans as Drunk Uncle/ Kavanaugh for tonight’s 275th season premiere of SNL
UPDATE – well i was wrong on SNL but Matt Damon CRUSHED it as a raging, “water” swilling, ‘Bad Will Hunting’
Bob Woodward really dropped a potentially administration ending book on us today in the form of his inside history of the Trump Administration so far, “Fear.”
Here’s what the book tells us- President Trump is a serial liar who may not even know what reality is. He dwells in a state of criminal semi-insanity akin to End-Times Nixon.
Dim and distant, Trump’s allowed to amuse himself (in his very few work hours) on a few fictional policies that everyone tells him are great. He also manages to advance a couple of actual narrow-minded assertions (calling them ‘ideas’ seems wrong) here and there just because his “Governing by whacked out Tweet at 4 AM” style is so overwhelming there’s no way to contain him.
How crazy is ‘the president’ right now? Well he’s already tried to order another world leader whacked (Assad of Syria). That’s right, the president ordered a Mob Style “Hit” on Assad in a wild call to Defense Secretary Mattis. After telling Trump he was all over it Mattis simply hung up and ignored him. Stunningly this pays off as Trump never follows up or seems to have recalled what he ordered. So its Ad-hoc governing at its very worst right now.
If Woodward’s to be believed, and lets face it he SHOULD be, killing Assad and invading Syria would be the second time Trump’s ordered a country invaded and nothing has happened. (I’m assuming we’ve all heard of the half assed Dark Ages Warlord strategy that led to an ignored order to invade Venezuela).
Then there’s the knee -slapper about how back in January Trump’s lawyers pantomimed Trump’s clueless rage filled performance in a mock Robert Mueller interview for, of all people; the actual ROBERT MUELLER! This was their strategy? Sketch Improv couldn’t come up with anything more bizarre! Great crisis management there!
Other goodies in the book include just what “The Best People”; the Trump Cabinet; think of their boss. “Moron” was, unsurprisingly, in the mix. So was “Fucking Idiot” of course, and a bunch of references to pre-middle school behavior and intellect. And of course he regrets saying racism was evil in one of his many flubbed reactions to Charlottsville’s violent White Supremacist Riot last year.
It’s General Mattis who really skewers Trump, CBS puts it like this-
“Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reportedly told associates that Mr. Trump had the behavior and the understanding of “a fifth- or sixth-grader.” Current Chief of Staff John Kelly said in a meeting that Mr. Trump was an “idiot“.”
With a level of believability of Tillerson-ian proportions Kelly has denied he called the president an “Idiot”. Just another Trump Administration lie.
Kelly is a Quote Machine and should sing for a Punk Band! He also said; “He’s gone off the rails! We’re in Crazytown! I don’t even know why any of us are here! This is the worst job I’ve ever had!” (MY exclamation points, but like I’m wrong?)
Gary Cohn, a Cabinet level economic adviser (now gone on his own volition), saw a document on the president’s desk he simply judged too complex and inflammatory to allow Trump to see. He was probably right! Thinking on his feet he just grabbed it and tossed it “to protect the country” from the president’s reaction.
The book further tells us that one third of wife beater Rob Porter’s job was simply listening to a nonstop crazy rant all day. And then he had to try to de-fang the crazed unininformed ideas as “less then great.”
This is something we’ve also heard was a job Porter’s current punching bag Hope Hicks was stuck doing. The fact is listening to Trump on an angry destructive rant is also Ivanka and Kellyanne’s only real jobs. My guess is they just aren’t as good at getting yelled at and Trump’s an uncorked fire hydrant of Violent Stupidity they just can’t contain.
So now, according to what we glean from Woodward and (many) other sources, with the insulation stripped away by scandal and in Hicks case, apparently built up loathing, we’re all Trump’s Crazy Rant Beta Tester’s.
And the feelings are mutual. Trump openly disparages people in front of other staff. He apparently hates everyone around him and just verbally assaults people all day while tearing down their colleagues. Great for morale!
If the Trumpists are to be believed it’s all a pack of lies but Woodward sure captured Trump’s tone and spirit in the quotes and actions he details. I’m sure it’s mostly if not completely true.
An that’s maybe the craziest part of this book. No one credible doubts a word of it. Trumpist pawns point to the stock denials, but this books no hoax.
Its not even that different from what we heard in Fire and Fury months ago. In fact “What’s new?” might be the Trumpists best defense. They can point to years of reptilian behavior by their hero to back this one up.
The idea that Trump is a completely incompetent, erratic, rage-a-holic with no respect for his staff is not at all hard to believe. It would be the idea he ever showed courtesy or restraint that would actually be news at this point.
The President is way past 25th Amendment Territory if the book is even partly true. People grabbing things off the presidents desk because it would set him off? So that, by extension means if you want to light his fuse you can just put something on his desk to piss him off. There’s a term for this; it’s “Easily led.” or “Easily Manipulated”. That’s highly disturbing even if the presidents first instincts weren’t violent and criminal, which of course they are.
If you saw today’s Brett Kavanaugh SCOTUS Approval hearings you know this congress wont do anything about it. Kavanaugh just scowled most of the day as the Republicans upbraided Democrats for asking that one million pages of documents from just Kavanaugh’s time as W Bush White House Counsel alone be released to be reviewed and considered. No Such Luck. Look for Kavanaugh to be shoehorned in with Pence casting the 51st vote. That’s how the most Corrupt Least Transparent White House in History does things. Like a bunch of highly incompetent, extremely angry criminals.
So that’s where we’re at. The Corner of “Oh No!” and “What The Fuck?”
One thing Trump said is true- the world is laughing at us, especially our so called leaders.
Last nights special election in Ohio if not for the Green Party’s whacked out candidate, Joe Manchik. I watched video of the guy and it was like an Un-Funny Seth Rogen Bit. He definitely owns a dry herb vaporizer and is the most stoned person currently on earth if you’ve seen him try to express himself. Useless as a politician, but probably an unwitting pawn of Putin. I say unwitting because I think Putin’s too professional to let this flake know anything. I mean- look at the guy! He claims to speak 19 languages including Esperanto and Sheet Music! COME ON! If you voted for this guy its time to think over your views. Did you see him at all? He’s nuts.
In an official campaign skype conference with some sort of ‘media’ in a supposed bid to be a congressman? ThisHAS to be Putin Punk-ing us!
Unwitting Kremlin asset Joe Manchik
The Ohio 12th Congressional, ruby-red for all but 4 years since 1935, is too close to call a full day out. The Republican guy, Balderson, ran as a Trumpist and even said some stupid stuff about the character of people from a part of his own district. One of the most disturbing Trump rallies yet was even in play to help Balderson out but he couldn’t put it away. He currently has a lead about 1,700 votes over my fellow Irish American Democrat, Danny O’Connor.
Quick cultural note- Dont look for O’Connor to back off on a recount. When Irish people get angry or lose in a competition we feel slighted in; we fight back, hard. The pipes havent played for Danny Boy O’Connor yet. He may still prevail.
The Green Party- Sketchy Spoilers
Unqualified Green Party weirdo flake and dab enthusiast Commie Joe Manchik picked up 1,127 votes
In a race separated so the few votes siphoned off by the Green Party are probably gonna end up determining what happens, really hurting the Left again. It’s a consistent pattern since they gave us George W Bush, the loser of the actual election and started to make this dangerous stuff look normal. It’s not normal. The Green candidate proves that in this election more than ever.
We Can’t allow these flakey likely traitors play spoiler anymore. I’ve rescued one Green already. He’s happy with The Working Families Party and doesn’t miss sketchy Jill Stein’s weird ideas.
The Green Party’s been looking sketch for some time. I think they’re probably as bad for America as the NRA.
To those still voting Green I say- What The Hell? This party has lost its way long ago and is most likely a Left Wing arm of Putin’s campaign to divide America. Please, you need to just stop blowing up elections and getting half assed semi illegitimate presidents elected by splitting the Left
To all on the political Left I urge you- vote Democrat in 2018 and we’ll run these fascists out of out government and impeach Trump
As evidence I have only the entirety of everything Jill Stein says, seemingly purposely divisive. She’s only hanging out with what we can call a pretty much admitted Kremlin spy, Flynn , at the infamous dinner where Flynn led the standing ovation, in his general’s uniform, for Putin.
Jill Stein is possibly a Russian asset and a traitor. It’s hard for me to believe anything else, really
Oh and seriously, don’t donate any money to these clowns. It’s basically like giving it to Putin. Another alternative Left party with some better ideas, like the Social Democrats or the Working Families Party, which seem much more authentic, will fill the void. They also play much nicer and work with the actual Democrats, pulling the whole party in a progressive direction. The Greens just want to pull us apart.
We don’t need these sketchy maybe traitors stirring the pot anymore. Personally I agree with the German Film Look Who’s Back in the assertion that were Hitler to somehow come back he’d like the Green Party right off the bat.
Corrupt and inept EPA Commissioner Scott Pruitt is finally a former Cabinet Member. It only took 14 probes Federal Probes steadily bearing fruit to end him. Here’s the original post as written just hours before penultimate Trump Survivor Pruitt went down! (Or in this case, had his resignation accepted)
We’ve heard a new tale about Scott Pruitt’s outright bizarre behavior at the EPA every week, or occasionally, a couple of times a day. The hits have literally kept coming. There’s no less than 14 Federal Corruption probes right now per CNN.
Today he was FINALLY canned with no real reason given aside from the media being blamed for reporting all his antics. He was called an excellent guy and with no apology the adventures of Baron Pruitt von Munchausen in DC came to an end.
But we can STILL wonder if he’s crazy, especially since, in Trump’s world, stocked with exactly NO friends, people keep returning. Watch for Pruitt to join Shadow Secretary of State Hannity soon in Trump’s Shadow Cabinet of Un-Approvable Security Clearance-proof deplorables. Probably as Shadow Attorney General.
Pruitt’s Craziness
A Cone of Silence, Pruitt’s weird assertions about him and god, a bullet proof desk and a bunch of high living scandals. Throw in some naked old fashioned corruption, like trying to get his wife a franchise from Chik-fil-a. Today it was crazy half baked idea to give him Jeff Sessions job as the nations Attorney General. It all adds up to non stop crazy!
Maybe we should stop and ask ourselves- are these the actions of a sane person? With a crazily bloated security staff and some petty love of driving around with the sirens on blowing lights in a too big motorcade like a Stalin Era Commissar? Going out to the best places every night to dine then retiring to sleep on a used Trump Hotel mattress in a plush but near free crash pad in DC he gets right from a lobbyist?
You dont have to be a rocket scientist to point at the moon and you dont need a psych degree to say Pruitt does a bunch of really crazy things!
I’m wondering if Pruitt maybe is just mentally ill. How is it now being discussed on CNN? It’s time for one of the people on the panels discussing him to include some kind of clinical psychiatrist. OCD maybe explains some. Schizophrenia maybe some more. I dont know.
Of course I’m not a doctor; but you dont have to be a rocket scientist to point at the moon and you dont need a psych degree to say Pruitt does a bunch of really crazy things! The proof is all over the place.
Think about the things we know are true alone. Even then, its too crazy! As far as speculation? I think he’s using that Cone of Silence to ‘talk to god’ because he thinks god’s talking back! And he possibly hears other voices too.
This is not the way a sane person, even a corrupt sane person, acts. It’s too off the wall (to use a clinical term).
Trump’s Rudolf Hess.
Wonder who will distinguish themselves now that Pruitt’s out of there? Ryan Zeinke is a walking human meltdown, maybe he rides that horse of his into some trouble next. Outside Betsy DeVos and Pence-y no one is more hated (well, maybe Elaine Chow for giving comfort to turtle boy mcconnell)
We’ve all seen enough by now to know that President Trump has an unhealthy fixation on the movie “Patton”. There’s plenty of articles by right wing people comparing Trump to Patton favorably and some of the more religious among them are buying in to Patton’s own belief in re-incarnation and, of course, imagining that it’s Trump. Trump himself seems to embrace Patton. He certainly mentions him regularly.
All I can say about the re-incarnation thing is- Patton saw himself only re-incarnated as a soldier and would have stayed in Vietnam every moment he could. He didn’t have to serve in the military, he was dyslexic, but he overcame it just so he could fight. So lets just forget about Trump being Patton reincarnated. Its preposterous.
The thing is Trump has a dangerous infatuation that will shape our futures. He is , in fact, president.
In Trump’s personal style dealing with the media and at his rallies we’ve seen him channel the angry, eccentric World War II generals profane and detailed threats, put downs and boasting as some of the main aspects of his public persona.
The big problems with this are that Donald Trump is not like George Patton at all and that the movie glosses over certain flaws while making others appear as virtues.
Even worse, certain coincidences I believe Trump regards as similarities between himself and Patton as portrayed in the movie are now re-enforcing his delusional belief that he is very much like George Patton. Both are meltdown prone and scream at staff and abuse subordinates, both talk their way into huge avoidable problems. But thats as far as the real similarities really go. These men, and the staff’s they yelled at, couldn’t be more different.
Trump’s surrounded by Yes Men and traitors who can’t event get a security clearance. Patton’s guys were crack combat officers. So Trump’s never getting back competent answers or a person with enough integrity to stand up against a bad idea. Patton was rooted in reality far more than Trump and if his fuel guy told him there was no fuel he’d scream a little, but he didn’t crucify the guy. Or scapegoat them. He understood there was simply no fuel. That’s a major difference.
This is a hard break with Trump’s uncontested bile and anger when he is actually told things he doesnt want to hear. Trump lives in his own reality, Patton was merely a romantic. There’s also the fact Trump would simply try to steal or blackmail someone into giving him what he wants. This wasn’t an option for Patton, who was more honorable than that anyway.
Of necessity, Patton’s guys were colonels and West Point grads who could absorb a military tantrum. Patton wasn’t spared bad news. SO there’s another major difference.
Another thing we all know about the president is he is a grandiose liar. He’s racked up several thousand outright falsehoods in just over a year in office and the tally keeps growing. In fact if you look at the numbers he’s lying more often than ever now. As far as Patton goes, Trump’s lying to himself. We already know Trump fancies himself smarter than a general, he told us so himself. It needs to be noted that Patton was not known to be a liar.
Here’s how a man mistakes a dramatic movie for reality; Trump is very simply ignorant of History and has very little actual knowledge about the actual Patton. In fact the only piece of information I’m absolutely sure Trump is aware of would be the Conspiracy Theories regarding Patton’s death (not in the movie). So to him this movie is 100% accurate and real. We know he never bothered reading up on it, come on!
Fantastic scenes where the salty general jumps out a window and cuts loose with his personal pistols against a couple of german bombers wrecking up his base are pure Hollywood but I’m sure this hasn’t occurred to Trump. He probably thinks Patton was an action hero AND a commanding officer.
The biggest thing my hypothesis has going for it is if you momentarily embrace it, it explains pretty much everything and holds up to scrutiny from numerous angles. Of course its not perfect, but indulge me and then draw your own conclusion— BECAUSE COMMENTS ARE ENABLED!! Please weigh in if you feel so inclined!
Patton- The Embellished Bio-Pic
Patton was pure Oscar Gold seldom paralleled. Winner of Academy Awards for Best Actor (George C Scott) Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Francis Ford Coppola) and Best Original Score (Jerry Goldsmith of Star Trek fame!).
The movie ‘Patton’ is a masterpiece of film making that starts with a very strong Francis Ford Coppola screenplay advised by none other than Patton contemporary and equal- General Omar Bradley himself. An inspired George C Scott gave a brilliant, authentic and career defining performance then blew off accepting his Best Actor Oscar to go to a hockey game, how cool is that? Throw in one of the best movie scores outside Star Wars to move it along from the great Jerry Goldsmith of Star Trek fame. The director was Franklin J Shaffner , fresh off “Planet of the Apes” success.
Why This Movie Is A Dangerous Influence on Trump
Trump’s fascination with Patton is a problem for a bunch of reasons. For one thing George Patton, despite his success, is a TERRIBLE role model for a politician or president. Brash and outspoken, his role in the war was minimized because of his personal antics.
While the movie makes much of this, the scenes where Patton goes on tirades around his staff and peers over the consequences of so many ill considered actions (sound familiar?) are captivating. George C Scott plays him as a figure who NEEDS to create obstacles for himself by self sabotaging because fate always turns the tables and suddenly the sabotage ends up benefiting him. Were Patton to have never stirred the pot he wouldn’t have had such great luck. Trump, as we have seen, loves to self sabotage. This could be part of why.
The obvious problem is Francis Ford Coppola is NOT writing reality and we may all be let down when fate DOESN’T turn the tables and everyone ends up screwed because of one of Trump’s crazy actions or tweets,etc. The poorly considered Korea Summit would be an example of self sabotage and then waiting for miracle. In reality the South Koreans really want some kind of peace talks so the idea keeps lurching forward while Trump vacillates.
The real Patton was apparently had no political ambitions, which makes sense since despite a rough charm he had no diplomatic skill or real personal charisma. He needed the shock and awe of non stop profanity to drive home a point to fighting men in time of war though. The moment he spoke to anyone else he was always and only ever inappropriate. While this was (barely) forgivable for a mid 20th century war time general, it’s just awful for a 21st century president! Yet we have only seen Trump speak for longer and longer making one dangerous uninformed statement after the next while salting in hardcore racism with the boasting, threats and pure bullshit.
Patton was so awful a human being technical adviser General Omar Bradley quit the movie when he saw the script portrayed him and Patton as close friends. Bradley, its should be noted, was famously a nice guy. This means Patton was probably despicable, so he has that in common with Trump. Bradley seems to have regarded him as exactly the re-incarnated Dark Ages Warlord Patton fancied himself to be in his poetry. Being a horrible dick may be the only thing Trump and Patton truly have in common, but Patton of course had certain redeeming traits.
In his own time Patton was seen as an eccentric throwback. Basically he was little too crazy and liked war a little too much. He was the kind of soldier who needed to be sealed in case marked “Only Open in Case of War”. He chaffed at his bosses and generally was a pain in their asses.
Despite fighting the nazis like a boss, he seemed to go soft on them after the war. Unlike Trump he hated the Russians, but he probably would have conspired with them just to get World War 3, which he gets sacked for advocating for (along with the soft on ex-nazi’s thing). When Patton dies he was in a heap of trouble and had no command again.
The root of Trump’s many misconceptions is due to viewing the movie in a very simple manner. Its unlikely Trump ever took a single film class. The fact is Film Appreciation 101 might save the planet were Trump forced to take the course. If he had he would have realized the Ironic Duality of the plot.
Simply put the movie is all about introducing the open question of “Is Patton all that is Great and Gallant in the Military? Or is he all that is Wrong and Perverse about War and War Making?” The movie seems to suggest he is both at the same time.
The characters from the movie line up in Trump World roughly like this- Trump of course is Patton. Egotistical British General Montgomery , equally delusional and insane to only a slightly lesser degree, is ‘Crooked Hillary’. Patton’s very first aide in the movie who dies is BOTH original campaign managers AND Chris Christie (aside from the actual sorrow Patton felt,Trump we know is a stranger to empathy). Cod, his final aide is Kellyanne Conway and racist Steve Bannon. Omar Bradley and the US military are Paul Ryan and the Republicans. The German Military is Mueller and the FBI.
The movie opens with a ‘Patton Rally’. With a huge flag behind him he lays down tough, gruff and profanity laced violent rhetoric in clear terms. Everything is black and white, which is just fine because they’re preparing for war. It’s really freaky when you see the scene superimposed on a 21st century political rally.
The movie provides a composite of Patton’s actual speeches delivered brilliantly, using George Scott’s incredible speaking voice to draw us in as he gives it to his troops in a loud and dirty fashion. It’s very much a political looking arena and the first of many Academy Award Moments defying the viewer to look away.
When Patton begins to speak he’s commanding and profane. He tells his men their better than anyone their opponents, who are subhuman creeps. He boasts about their training and weapons and says they’re destined to win. He speaks of violence and glory. Again, perfect for a wartime general, TERRIBLE for a president, but of course its not very different from what Trump says at his rallys.
Trump holds out immigrants and muslims as an enemy and dehumanizes them almost s much as Patton dehumanized the Nazis extolling his troops to kill. Unlike Patton, there’s no hope. Patton is sure their going to win and win big. Maybe it wont be easy or fun, but it’s going to happen. Trump follows one false gloomy statement with another.
There are some traits both the Man in the Movie and Trump share. Then there’s a lot of fluke-ish coincidences where they seem to resemble each other but dont hold up.
One similarity between Trump and Movie Patton would be the portrayal of Patton as very much Bipolar, which is one of the dominant parts of Trump’s Borderline Personality Disorder. So what I’m saying is both were crazy. Patton, and Trump, also had certain traits of sociopaths and worse.
Patton was probably ‘Manic Depressive’ in terms of that time. Both were spotty students at prestigious schools (though Patton was afflicted with dyslexia, an actual learning disability he overcame, showing some discipline and personal character). Both are only functional when attacking. Both are insulated from their mistakes by great personal wealth. The bottom line is; “Both were crazy and self destructive”
Anti-Patton Cartoon from “Patton” (1970)
Both loved media coverage of and yet bristled at the scrutiny that invites. Both earned the distinction of “Suspected Huge Fan of the Nazis” from the media in their time.
Neither one feels that it’s fair to have their own words used against them, no matter how hypocritical.
Near the end of the movie Patton’s being questioned by the press as to why he won’t remove former Nazi’s from key positions. He answers with his own “Very Fine People” gaff- analogizing the nazis to the Republican and Democratic Parties in the United States. It was such a stupid thing to say you don’t actually feel that bad he let himself get set up. In fact it seemed like he knew they were setting him up and went with a defiant response out of pure bile. It destroys his post War career.
Neither guy can simply shut up for any length of time. While Trump uses tweets Patton would simply act in an outrageous manner (sound familiar?) til the press couldn’t look away.
Both seem to flirt with the idea of War for War’s sake (the Patton character admits this repeatedly). The recent whimsical attitude in meeting with North Korea in different capacities without any preparation fits well with the Patton in the movie, but it sure isn’t reflective of the real life guy.
“Fire and fury,” is a total Patton line. It’s not from the movie, but it would fit. Threatening people is one of Trump’s favorite things. Patton boasted all the time too. The difference of course is it’s APPROPRIATE for general to be boastful and threatening.
And Appropriateness is an area where Trump is really in need of improvement. Whacked out tweets, not putting his hand on his heart during the National Anthem, disparaging numerous Gold Star Families and worse are all in a days work for the offender in chief. Bolstered by his delusion he’s Patton or Patton-like at least, Trump is likely to continue and increase the boasts and threats.
A particularly dangerous sequence in the movie revolves around the German Siege of Bastogne. Loaded up with fuel and ammo and ready to kick the Nazi’s asses the weather intercedes and slows sops his relief attempt.
Angry and scream-y, Patton decides its time for some help from God and a little theater to motivate the troops. He summons the Division Chaplain and makes and demands a prayer good enough for god to intercede and stop the storm. The chaplain points out hes asking him to pray for a battle and therefore death on massive scale and it’s sort of messed up. Patton has no problem with the hypocrisy. Then he goes on a rant worthy of a Spartan king or a particularly extreme Roman general about how they’re going to be sustaining the attack no matter what. Patton admits to his aide he’s sort of acting. Its another Academy Award moment in the film.
A truly inspirational prayer, for those who care about such things, was written. The weather cleared fairly quickly thereafter and the Patton’s army set off on a historic campaign.
Of course what we all know today about Patton’s Weather Prayer is that a warm front moved in and the snow simply stopped. That doesn’t blunt the forceful nature of the scene where Patton excoriates a regimental chaplain, telling him to write a prayer “good enough” for God to bother listening. Its very much like Trump’s contempt for the Pope and religion in general. The “Two Corinthians” Fiasco shows Trump has no religious knowledge or convictions but has no problem with rank hypocrisy and is therefore a bit less moral than Patton.
This sequence of the movie is meant to show Patton’s Hubris and psychopathy in pursuit of battle and it’s a very dangerous thing to take it literally as surely Trump does. We can blame the Evangelical communities blind loyalty and excuse make-ing for Trump for this delusion gaining strength.
Another thing Trump and ‘Movie Patton’ have in common would be a total lack of understanding of whats called “Psychological Warfare”. In the film Patton is apparently baffled as to the importance of his mission leading up to D-Day- to be a weapon of mass distraction . Patton’s use as a decoy convinced Hitler to disregard an Actual Invasion and hold off forces that may well have turned the tide of the War itself , to await a Fictional Invasion that was never going to happen. It was key to pulling of the Allied Invasion of France.
Now consider Trump calling the Generals and the former president stupid repeatedly for broadcasting some details of their plan to destroy ISIS. He simply doesn’t understand the idea that you can cloud your opponents judgement to the point you can predict or even control his actions.
It’s too subtle for the movie character or Trump to grasp.
Both Trump and Patton have a deep disdain of giving out any government healthcare. Patton orders his hospital units not to admit Combat Fatigue (PTSD), which he considers cowardice.
This was so insane even to 1940’s medical personnel they simply ignore him. That of course boomerangs on Patton in his version of a “Hot Mic on the Bus” moment. Of course I am talking of the scene where Patton slaps a ‘cowardly’ soldier in a Field Hospital, disgusting everyone and showing his troops how little he cares about them despite the bravado.
In the heat of battle Patton visits a field hospital. At first he’s compassionate and deeply moved. Then he tirns hateful and insane. The General loses control of himself publicly and betrays his own bi-polar nature and complete lack of empathy during a brutal, sort of violent, screaming meltdown culminating with him repeatedly slapping a ‘cowardly’ soldier.
Lack of sleep and stress are surely in the mix when the real Patton freaked out like a true bi-polar. The sequence shows the dark side of Patton’s insanity. I dont think Trump will see it that way. His cruel approach to medicare and the Obamacare reforms shows he has no compassion, something the cinematic Patton develops. Trump surely wont (because Francis Ford Coppola is not writing reality).
Real life Patton slapped more than one soldier more than one time til they actually had to discipline him and remove him from command. It was just like the self inflicted wound we see Trump give himself all the time. Unlike Patton, he just never gets a humbling comeuppance where he returns slightly improved from time to time. Trump just keep making the same mistakes over and over.
Patton is benched and used as a decoy until after the D-Day Invasion, the battle he had waited all his life to fight in. He faces it like a pitcher caught doctoring a baseball and forced to miss a playoff start. In other words, with only a minimal thought of anyone else. Again Patton shows his view of war and command to be from the Dark Ages or perhaps early Renaissance at its most compassionate.
In his finest moments of triumph after receiving a new army to command, when prosecuting the war Patton is shown as petty and dismissive of his soldiers well-being and simply thinks of his Army as a whole. To Patton, when people get killed it’s like the Army itself is just trimming it’s fingernails. In other words; it’s a natural ongoing function of war. With Trump we can see the chaos in his personal staff and cabinet, burning people like Michael Cohen as needed.
Just as important as winning were the laurels and press adulation that came with it. When holding the spotlight Patton is grandiose in his actions while his words are always petty. Demonizing and denigrating his personal rivals, boasting of his the strength of his army. Its much like Trump with the exception of the part it’s actually appropriate for a general to have that attitude in time of war. Trump appropriating the George C Scott version of Patton in a political mode ISN’T appropriate at all, it worked well enough to get him ‘elected’ (we think). A crass and abusive screed of insults and violent rhetoric are the hallmark of every Trump Rally ever
Patton and Trump have contempt for the abilities (and probably even the racial abstraction) of the Russians, despite Trump’s open admiration for Putin. Patton moves himself firmly onto the hot seat in the early postwar moments by repeatedly insulting people, specifically members of the Russian military, the US President and that which would become NATO. Sound familiar ?
The movie closes with the disgraced Patton reflecting in how the Romans would celebrate a victory with a triumphant parade through Rome itself and a warning that all Glory is Fleeting. Cadet Bone Spurs insistence on a Bigly Military Parade is right in line with this.
Disturbing Conclusions and Thoughts-
We already have had our national policy shaped by this movie. As the documentary “All The President’s Movies” tells us, Nixon ordered major bombing offenses against Vietnam twice after watching the movie. And we all know that Trump loves Nixon so if he finds out that watch out!
It’s my theory that Trump see’s the story of Patton as that of an American who couldn’t lose cause he was an American and that he was an exceptional person who prospered BECAUSE he broke all rules and civility rather than IN SPITE OF THIS. I believe he sees his kooky Cabinet of Billionaire Ass kissers as equivalent to Patton’s highly trained and battle proven staff officers. This dangerous delusion was how Trump found a way to cast crazy ex-General Flynn in the role of Omar Bradley. Comparing Flynn to Bradley is so far from the truth it would be laughable of it weren’t absolute reality.
Based on his overtly displayed misunderstanding of the movie Trump shows he is dangerously militarily primitive and most comfortable with methods and ideas more commonly associated with the Nazi Germans than 20th century Americans.
Military deaths are way up under Trump I truly think he’s relaxed rules of engagement and demanded more missions in general. If you doubt it just consider the Green Berets lost in Niger. We still can’t get a reason that makes sense about why they were even on that doomed mission.
Patton is a terrible role model for even most soldiers as he was always succeeding at he expense of higher all around casualties. He declined peaceful solutions whenever possible. He was always one mistake from disaster but circumstance connived him a series of unlikely wins. As a role model for a president Patton is a disaster.
Like Trump, Patton’s glory should never eclipse the incompetence of his enemies. It requires some historical perspective to understand. Patton was set loose in western Europe with a veteran army and ample supplies. Even more decisive the Germans are mandated by Hitler ONLY to plan against Patton in an area where they expect the Invasion that never comes in Calais. Rather than ever accepting that they must fight Patton they become intimidated and willfully ignorant of the reality due to Hitler’s rapid mental decline from seriously insane to non functional maniac between about 1942 and early 1944. Patton directly benefits. Nothing analogous this is in play for Trump, His current foe, Mueller, is self-created but much more competent than Trump and no amount of freaking out is going to save Trump from that
Looking back at the 2016 campaign think of this as being roughly the same as Hillary not going to states she considered ‘safe’, like the vaunted Democratic “Blue Wall” of reliably Democratic states , each of which she then lost by less than an under-attended baseball game worth of people. We know Trump appreciates this misstep because its one of his favorite riffs to go on from the now “Trump 2020” rallies that are a veritable torchlight parade for the guy. “Kill Them All! Build That Wall!” however, is a lot less civilized than the behavior we see from people about to go to an actual war. Its belicose shit talking that serves just to help these cultists pay homage top their hero and are probably damaging the fabric of America.
Unlike Trump, Patton didn’t have a staff of soothsayers and guru’s off Fox News, Patton’s guys were highly competent top notch merit promoted staff officers with great expertise. Trumps rag tag group of advisers is anything BUT top notch or Highly Competent. They also have more turnover than Patton, which is amazing.
Another unavoidable conclusion from the movie is that current 21st century Americans are actually LESS civilized than Americans of the mid 20th century, 75 years ago, or at the very least the Americans of 1970 when the film is made. Being at war since 9-11 surely is somewhat to blame for this. This suggests that assertions about a cult of ignorance and a desire to literally turn back the clock to early post world war 2, before the integration of the military, by the Trumpists are very much real and accurate.
The movie ends before the freakish and controversial death of Patton in a car accident. The truth is the driver probably just messed up and plain old crashed. Patton lingered for a few days and was buried with his troops. Its long been imagined and even said that the General was killed by the CIA’s predecessor the OSS. This is sonething I’m sure Trump believes Patton was assassinated. I mean, there’s the whole issue where he’s afraid someone is going to poison him to back it up.
Mark Zuckerberg’s simulacra spoke to congress today. It was tasked with explaining how 80 million Facebook users data was misappropriated and weaponized to help elect Trump and other disturbing ends via use of Military Predictive Software on civilians. Aside from making everyone misty about Tom from MySpace he essentially came off like a prototype for Star Trek’s Mr Data.
Oh yeah and we might have seen the birth and documentation of some new form or War Crime against all of us with Facebook used as a carrier for nematode-like data-mining. Metamorphizing when activated by someone who wants to know what their Jedi name would be (or any number of other stupid quiz topics) it finds and weaponizes every little thing that Palantir wants to know.
One thing that came up in an ominous way, and something Zuckerberg lied about not knowing about, was a Tech Data Company using the Tolkien term Palantir as its name. So who the Fuck are these Palantir Technologies people?
Saruman using his Palantir in movie Fellowship of the Ring
Something of a “Cambridge Analytica” in its own right the company name is from the Lord of the Rings. The Palantir are several magical bowling bowl sized stone orbs that allow the holders to speak from distance provided they have the Right and the Will to use the them. If you’re not that worthy or willful you can be twisted and changed by using it to contact someone who has more power than you. In the books it’s the downfall of a one time good guy when he uses one to try to deal with the ultimate bad guy, Sauron. After a couple of conversations with Sauron the good guy, Saruman, is broken and becomes an agent of Evil. So they basically named themselves after a malignant form of communication that undermines ones individuality. So at least false advertising not a claim we can put against them, right?
That Zuckerberg was unaware of Palantir is sort of hard to believe considering it was the property of Pay-Pal Co-Founder, Facebook investor and Trump-Lovin’ MAGA Hat owner, Peter Thiel (Billionaire!). Now that I have some idea what they’re all about I would have denied it too.
Peter Thiel
Founded in 2004 seems they start out selling their services to the US Military to predict terrorist and insurgent behavior. Apparently they had enough success at this that by 2013 they manage to sell these same services to the Los Angeles Police Department to predict crime.
In a moment of true perception the The Guardian published an article that compared them to the Powerful but Flawed Pre-Crime Computers from the Philip K Dick science fiction tale “Minority Report”. The writer referenced the movie several times. Truth is the people from Palantir look good when they can identify crime hot spots, but they start playing god by unscrupulously re-selling the data to the highest bidder, or it seems, to any bidder.
A company so secretive that in 2013 they had no office, just something in Palo Alto called a SCIF. Consider it a situation room for aspiring Bond Villains as the Palantir people start to dive deeper and deeper into murky corners of our data footprints that speak to its algorithms.
It’s time to consider that people have been killed or thrown in jail by data and predictions from the Palantir people. Maybe they all deserved it. Certainly the jailed individuals had their day in court but the point is Palantir isn’t involved in small stakes operations. They will take money to make predictions that will then have a direct effect on things like where Military or Police resources get allocated. Thats a big deal.
So next Palantir is using methods gleaned from the occupation of Iraq and in West Coast US Law Enforcement to predict and shape behavior with a bunch of innocuous looking quizzes that you or your friends might be tempted to take on Facebook.
Trojan Horse doesnt begin to cover it (and has a tech connotation all its own anyway) but through a series of deceptive underhanded moves enabled by the allegedly naive Facebook people they decide they have enough to determine the outcome of an election. In it purely for the money they probably broke a bunch of laws in spirit as well as substance.
This being a mercantilist society the Palantir people did what the machine gun people did. They looked for new markets for their military product. Dressed up as the same sort of lucky break that improved all video games the moment the Cold War ends and frees tech minds from military tasks the Palantir people cynically dove in to any platform they could exploit.
Zuckerberg (or his Replicant)
So they turned to Facebook. Facebook was focused on all the wrong threats, like denial of service attacks and to their credit it seems theyve never fallen victim to one of consequence. Rather than a fake profile Trolling approach the Palantir people simply break in and take everything they want by exploiting ambiguities in the Facebook user agreement and vulnerabilities in the Facebook code. Since they were throwing Russian money at Zuckerberg with a snowshovel, possibly through shell corporations, he didn’t think too hard or look too deeply at what the Palantir people were doing. Now, if we’re to believe Mr Data, he’s sorry he was so naive.
Had Palantir acquired the information with binoculars through a window looking at your desk no cop would take “But the drapes were open” as an excuse for fraud and being a Peeping Tom. Thats the Gray Area in a nutshell. Since theres no Internet Law Enforcement Agency they just went ahead and did it. It’s probably going to end up being something illegal in the future, once our lawmakers learn to use smartphones!
Will they be stopped? If they are it wont be soon, and theres already lots of damage. The Palantir peoples model may not be perfect, theres a lot yet to be found out about them, but they had enough insight to be part of the 10 for 10 in Toss Up states record Trump had on election night.
The micro-targeting and emotional manipulation they unleashed on Facebook users may have been enough to change things. If it changed eve one state it made Trump President.
The people from Palantir are not unlike Saruman, the once good Wizard who abuses the eponymous magic Palantir in Lord of the Rings. They were able to put on a pleasing voice and seduce people into clicking away their data (and that of their friends). At the end of the final book Saruman meets his end at the hands of one of his henchmen after nearly destroying the once pristine homeland of the Hobbits, which he turned into a Middle Earth version of the Warsaw Ghetto.
The Real World Palantir Corporation may just be done in by congress for wrecking America and it’s still to be determined the level of damage they have done and what the Fuck they are up to now.
Is Trump the least popular president ever? A simple”No” doesn’t cover it anymore. Now we can only respond; “Depends how you measure it.”
Underwater Yet Still Sinking
Trump started out below 50% on day one, back at the “Biggest Inauguration in History” where the protest marches outdrew his swearing in by a HUGE margin. In fact the one year anniversary protest marches against trump also did better so far as turnout as any Trump event of any kind yet.
The fact is Trump has only flirted with 50% briefly and distantly. Trump trashes the people who are opposed or turned off by him just like he trashed the girl who would didn’t fuck him in High School. In other words- Suddenly its something you never wanted and no one would ever want? 2 minutes ago you thought she was hot.
This would probably be easier to accept if were more spectacular. Lets face it people NOT doing something can be hard to put a compelling picture up of. So the TV news doesn’t do cover it like they might if they had some juicy video.
The only poll that really has decades of history is Gallup. It may be flawed to a
In most ways our least popular ever president, Harry Truman.
degree, but it seemed to be about accurate on election day when votes were cast. FACT-Hillary got a lot more votes but lost due to our Arcane systems fatal Republican President Making Flaw known as The Electoral College.
The fact is- Gallup AND the Real Clear Politics Poll of Polls NEVER show the president at 50% or higher in popularity.
The Lowest For The Longest
If Trump’s NOT the lowest for the longest just give it time. Until now it was Harry S Truman holding the All Time Lowest Presidential Approval ratings.
Here’s some overview how that happened;
The beginning of Truman’s presidency is one of the worst days in presidential history as Franklin Delano Roosevelt has to die to cause it. Deep into a world war Americans were unfamiliar with their not so eloquent president. He made either President Bush seem very charismatic.
In Truman’s case dropping the atomic bombs on Japan starts him out looking like a brutal killer or a total wimp. Irony of ironies. Half America resents the dropping of the bombs, the other half think he should have dropped more. So his first decision just divides everyone.
For Truman dropping the Bomb and following FDR are just too much to absorb for most.
Politics and use of military force in Korea further divided the public on Truman. The Korean War was a problem simply because we couldn’t will it to an end in a few weeks. Its also a questionable war. Truman feuded with the Theater Commander MacArthur and MacArthur took it public. Plus we’re starting to come to terms with the Segregation issue at home.
Harry Truman never caught a break publicity wise.
If you dislike Trump the Bad News is despite this Truman keeps getting elected. The Good News? Trump will almost definitely NOT be able to replicate the level of personal engagement Truman gutted out in the extensive Whistle Stop Tour to get re-elected. It showed poise, control and determination. Truman just had more character than Trump.
Look at the gargantuan effort Truman put in-
The approximate route of Truman’s 1948 Whistle Stop Tour.
Truman gets by mostly on shoe leather, one of his re-election tours featured him doing whats been called whistle-stop tour. Basically he took a train to as many small towns as possible and formed a bond with enough average people to get around the bad polls and win. I don’t know if a Tweet or a series of tweets has the same effect.
The Numbers Now
Trump is sickening everyone by already campaigning for 2020 but he probably has to. The real question is how much of that is based on his craziness and need for approval? Like Hitler he seems to need to really kill it at a good rally to buoy his spirits
14 months in Trump is about 5% below what he had on Inauguration Day. 14 months below 50% has happened but below 46%? And constantly ‘bottoming out’ with dips into 30s?
It’s not as bad as ‘The Last Days of Bush” yet, but soon he will absolutely be the president who had the lowest approval for the longest time.
Real Clear Politics Aggregate Poll as of March 11, 2018
The Very Worst?
Again, Truman or George W Bush own the all time low approval, with low 20’s as the nation waited out the end of their careers. Viewed as term-limited lame ducks who pointlessly started wars of choice they were loathed at the end. That’s the big difference. They had been president for awhile and just wore out their welcome.
Trump’s White House Home Invasion is only 2 months into year 2.
How Could it Get Worse?
A war would probably be enough to drop Trump to very lowest ever, say in the mid teens approval wise sespite the apparent ‘staying power’ in the 30% range.
If the level of prosperity drops off or there’s trouble for any prolonged time with the Stock Market Trump’s number will tumble.
An irresponsibly done tax cut that was widely criticized only bought Trump a few weeks in the mid forties in approval.
The Mueller Probe could send Trump’s approval plummeting but not like screwing the pooch with a war or if he gets his Wall built.
The 30% core followers are members of Cult 45 and will not change their minds no matter how much proof Mueller comes up with. This may not be enough to save Trump from Impeachment and Jail, only another hacked election seems capable of stopping that.
Is This Historic Yet?
Yes. It’s too low for too long.
Trump definitely could rescue Harry Truman from “Least Popular President Ever”.
The slightest shifts in the situation in America or on the Korean Peninsula (or any number of other places) could devastate his approval ratings in mere hours.
By devastate we mean dip to say the mid to high twenties. And something like 70% disapproval. And it could go on for two or three years.
It’s not clear how he can govern at all with the increasing strain of NEVER having so much of America approve of him.
W Says Thanks
Already no longer the dumbest president ever, George W Bush must be relieved.
Trump’s approval rating is routinely in striking distance of the W Bush All Time Low of 31.9%. He Will Beat it sooner or later. Ditto for Trump’s proximity to Bush’s all time high DISAPPROVAL of 64.8% that same week in September 2008.
The big difference is George W Bush’s big fall comes as a lame duck playing out the string. Trump is only 14 months in.
When He’s Up it Temporary, when He’s Down it Stays
Probably the constant idiocy and fascist-like talk and tweets prevent trump from rising to 50% approval.
The problem is that the failure is now baked in. Trump looks foolish regularly. His ‘outreach’ to the other side politically is always a line in the sand. He can’t work towards a consensus. He has that 30% and if he does everything right and keeps quiet for a few days he sometimes rises close to 40 but that’s a hard ceiling.
With a lot more people disinterested in politics than in the past the disengagement of about 10% of everyone helps Trump a bit too.
Low to mid 30’s are probably going to be a fact of life for this president, for however long he lasts.
And just for score keeping – the most popular ever president is George H W Bush right after the Gulf War starts. Off the top of my head i think he makes it over 80% approval. He failed to be re-elected. So that makes his the hugest drop-off ever.
UPDATE- This Post remains LIVE and updates are done in real time as needed.
Like everyone else I’ve just had it with lying White Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the (at best) semi-weekly assault on civility and reality that are her White House Press Conferences.
The Terrible Reason She’s Out There in the First Place
I admit it, I feel like Trump sends her out there for a bunch of reasons all of which are best summed up by just calling her “really hard to take”.
It’s become something of a part time job trying to essentially Liv-Blog her outrages. I have to constantly keep updating this post due to Sarah’s steady pattern of Reaching A New Low every few days.
These last few months its been a tough guess as to whether Sanders or Brad Pitt showers less! Forget soap dodging, that’s long in the past. Her hair is often matted down and greasy. She just looks unwashed! It may be petty, but like Trump’s orange body paint, it’s a choice and therefore fair game.
Sarah storms to the podium on whatever day sounding just like the overprotective wife of a violent alcoholic. Trump’s not mean and stupid, we just don’t know him the way she does! He’s not ignorant, he’s resolute. And he’s not a liar! He’s just an optimist and its offensive to her we don’t see it that way.
As winter slowly gave way to spring calls for Sarah to resign start to get discussed on cable news. Never knowing many facts, bluster and uncivil behavior were grinding on the media and the public.
In the wake the protracted, completely uninformed and briskly angry Stormy Daniels disaster the drumbeat for Sarah to resign was steady and driving. To be clear I mean specifically the Stormy Daniels disaster where Sarah seems to have just knowingly and repeatedly lied. She seemed completely out of the loop (or more likely part of the lie-crafting) and of course was openly angry at legitimate questions as to whether she was just, you know, lying.
And then quickly thereafter later the ghoulish Public Relations disaster of refusing to apologize for staffers gleefully but prematurely dancing on John McCain’s grave happens (there was never a real apology).
This time rather than out of the loop or “In On It” SHS seemed to be part of an Uncoordinated Refusal of Common Decency. She she focused on the fact the meeting details were leaked. So total fail for her there. The Hits keep comin’. Again people said it was past time for Sarah to go. She now they were adding that she has no integrity. It’s a fair assessment.
All that was just foreshadowing of how petty and stupid the response from the White House was when McCain DID actually pass in August. The death of McCain came as Pressers at the White House became a seriously endangered species.
Unifying speeches by Obama and George W Bush really cast the Dear Leader in a bad light. Ucomfortable and angry there was a long period where there were no press conferences at all.
But no one’s resigning or getting fired anymore in Trump World, at least not without a major series of scandals like Scott Pruitt. There’s been so much turnover SHS is needed just for a thin veneer of continuity. So Sarah will probably be out there for the duration of the administration. Shes just okay with lying and simply hates the press so shes good with it.
In the last days of July Huckabee-Sanders finally really lost the room addresing the White House Press Corps. At issue? She refused to push back on her boss Trump’s repeatedly calling the media “The Enemy of the People”, a leftover term from Stalinist times.
It would seem this was just a bridge too far for what was already a terrible relationship. Reporters, now openly disdainful, have galvanized against her. If she refuses a question or dodges and refuses to follow up the next reporter she called on mostly took up the cut off lines of questioning.
After Trump, I really dont see things looking so great for Sarah. Who would want her repp-ing their company or brand? She could maybe read Bible Verses for people who are in jail and deserve to hear it in her voice.
At the Treason Summit she’s at Trumps side in a few too many pictures to think that wont add to her already very possible and bigly dangerous legal problems. She’s just around a few too many times when a few too many weird lies got birthed. I think she’s got Mueller Issues in the not too distant future to be honest. So maybe she wont have any problems except just being a Federal Prisoner for furthering a plot against the United States. Why am I so sure her husband will PASS om conjugal visits (theres no way he will be allowed to bring cialis to jail!). Other Milestones – Faux Outrage, Denigrating the Media, a dash of Fascism and Outright Lies
The June 14, 2018 presser was a new low. After using the Bible as a justification to separate children from their parents at the southern border she went low and personal. She denigrated one reporter, CNN’s Jim Acosta, saying; “I realize it’s hard for you to understand…..even short sentences.” This drew some grumbling from the press and someone replied “That’s a cheap shot Sarah” Of course it was. So now personal insults have started to creep in to the ever more rare and ever shorter pressers.
Sarah really made some news in mid June Sarah when she was asked to leave a Virginia eatery called called “The Red Hen”. It was because the staff and management wanted to use their First Amendment Rights to refuse to serve her on the grounds she’s a hateful lying bigot. Who could argue? Sarah did!
In a particularly delusional tweet where she bashed the small business on her government twitter (in itself questionable) and claimed “she tries to treat all with respect”. Yeah, right. Tell that to CNN’s Jim Acosta whose intelligence she derided rather than answer a question about Trumps insane and cruel policies on the US Southern Border!
Then we finally had a reporter lose their composure and demand Sanders answer a question about the incarceration of children separated from their parents by ICE over alleged immigration violations. Rather than respond Huckabee-Sanders simply accused the reporter of simply wanting more TV time and again refused to address the thrice asked question.
Of late the pressers are shorter and more infrequent than ever. In fact “We’re really tight in time” is the first thing Sarah Huckabee Sanders says when she finishes her scathing and untrue opening remarks (on the days she actually goes out there).
The presser we were graced with on August 15 was nothing more than hot garbage. Sarah announced they were revoking some peoples security clearances in what amounted to an Enemies List. The authoritarian nature of the decree was sort of overshadowed by the level of incompetence with which it was executed. Most of the people on the list didn’t have clearances to take away in the first place. She just looked stupid trying to defend that one.
When scolding down from her high horse she’s never shy about adding several pejoratives to any statement she might have a high “Insult IQ” and an inexhaustible reservoir of bile and faux disgust. “I think the question’s offensive” she often slurs in her Old Confederacy accent. This sounds even worse when she shifts blame to former President Obama for obvious reasons.
Sean Spicer at least had some shame. Not Huckabee- Sanders. Lying, gaslighting, moving the goal posts and good old Nazi “Them-ism” are favorite tactics.
Does anyone really think her brisk angry nature, her lack of civility and the ease with which she insults reporters aren’t the very reason she was given this job? Let’s be honest the SHS Presser is an assault on all senses.
Sometimes there’s a ‘Special Guest’ who totally doesn’t need to be there. Usually a deputy cabinet minister. On especially truthless days we get a letter written by a child who admires the president and whose ”going to meet the president”. No pictures ever emerge and no one seems to want to ask why these admiring children sound just like Trump himself. So her opening act is bullshit followed by pure lies.
As of early October when there was a presser it was openly combative with the rancor coming FROM the podium.
The flaming wreck of the Kavanaugh nomination led to a contentious presser just days after the president had savaged Kavanaugh sexul assault accuser in a way that was evocative of a caveman. Sarah Didn’t back down or show any mercy either. Could she finally have bottomed out?
typical SHS outfit that just enhances every bad thing
A Failure to Communicate
The pressers, when they do happen, are an open firehose of lies, gaslighting, scapegoating and verbal abuse.
No reason is ever given for why the Presser is always at least 15 minutes late (I think they got it from Mein Kampf) or why the Press Secretary is always “very pressed for time” when the press conference is her actual job.
Many pressers involve completely off topic special guests introduced by Sarah along with a mention of the fact there’s very little time. Of course this is an artificial deadline just to create chaos and complicate the job of the press.
If any given Presser features someone like a Mnuchin they will jump right in to a very abstract but lengthy story of some sort of prosperity scheme, usually enabled through taking things away from the poorest most vulnerable Americans. This is like watching the trailer for a movie that never should have been made. In other words, it lowers expectations.
Then Sarah herself re-takes the stage. Its difficult not just to go after her in the way her boss Trump goes after women, because someone that crass could have a field day. She would deserve it for enabling Trump. I don’t need to go there. Instead I’ll stick with the things she controls that make her horrible. Like lying.
You could easily see SHS in this exact outfit
Most days Sarah comes to the White House Press Room podium dressed like a villainess from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. There’s no telling which dysfunctional planet she’ll be dressed like on any given day but certainly we’ve seen Klingon and Romulan inspired outfits. Sometimes she likes a short leather skirt and Go-Go boots with off the shoulder flowing black garments inspired by ancient Greece, which is ironic as the Ancient Greeks had a democracy.
Other times she’s dressed like the Quaker Oats guy’s daughter or something. Another recurring look is something along the lines of Glen Close from Guardians of the Galaxy.
We all know Sara is right-handed based on her completely asymmetric eyebrow tweezing. She looks like 2 different people depending when she turns profile one way or the other. This probably helps keep people’s expectations low as she verbally assaults the White House Press Corpse, belaboring a point like an angry grammar school
principal scolding the wild kids in the lunchroom. “Fake News” and “Enemy of the State” are terms we’ve all heard her use again and again.
So at the end of the day if Trump is held legally accountable for all his dickish acts and criminality; will Sarah Huckabee Sanders end up in jail too? It’s not impossible.
With Hope Hicks appearing sort of prison-bound and now long gone from the White House Communications office, what SHS says is more on HER that ever before. While Hope Hicks had her job she simply sat off to the side, phone in hand, glaring at Spicer and later Huckabee Sanders as they dealt with the press. Seemed like Hope Hicks was in very much in charge. Until we hear different it’s a safe bet that the job of ginning up that days lies is Sanders gig now. Sure it still all comes from Trump, but he has some very real problems of his own.
September 2018 started a whole new chapter in the Trump White House Implosion. In rapid succession esteemed journalist Robert Woodward dropped his book “Fear : Trump in the White House” on us. It was a blow by blow of the administrations criminal ineptitude and chronic dysfunction. Sarah swatted this down as lies by a journalist who was a known democratic operator. A total lie. Before the dust had settled the Mind Blowing Anonymous New York Times Op Ed from INSIDE the White House senior staff more or less confirmed everything Woodward had said. In something of a failed bid for revenge Sarah used her official White House Press Secretary Twitter account to try to harass the paper by printing the Times office number and urging people to call. And they did. To THANK the paper for exposing the corruption. She wasn’t getting that Trumpian reaction she could once count on.
It seems critics are her current audience. The Trumpists are still there loving her bullshit, but there’s a lot less of them. The majority of people are critical and sarcastic in their remarks and assessments of the SHS and her constant lies.
What kind of problems could SHS have? For starters she’s kind of slandered the 19 accusers who claim Trump sexually assaulted them. Yup, she said the words “They’re all lying.” She may have furthered some lies about Stormy Daniels aka Stephanie Clifford a few times in the couple of weeks.
And then there’s stuff much closer to Treason. Like when she knowingly deceives the American people on behalf of Trump.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders accepts a tax payer paid salary to deliver lies on behalf of a criminal. possibly treasonous president. I for one hope when all this shakes out and people get tossed in jail we get to see SHS showing off the newest Trump fashion jewelry – HANDCUFFS.
We all know Trump is lying. Can anyone doubt Huckabee-Sanders knows that too? How hard could it be to convict her right now of furthering a criminal enterprise? And how much deeper is the hole she’s digging herself into going to be now that she’s that much more responsible for what she says?
I really hope she spends a few years in jail.
Lock her up.
Then at least in October she had to pretend to like Kanye and we got this classic pic –
Like all the posts about awful Trump-ists this post on Sarah is very much alive and is needing so much updating it *may require me hive off a new post on her continuing outrages
Celebrating his recent Total Victory in The War on Christmas, General Bone Spurs has ordered the nations military to parade around saluting him.
So far the parade sounds like a bad mashup of a Nazi Documentary meets HMS Pinafore in an avoidable AMTRAK style train wreck. Who needs crazy social experiments like Meals on Wheels when life can simply take on somewhat more phony dignity? Certainly feels like the part of Animal Farm where daily, coordinated displays of pride are substituted for things like food and time off to me.
So Comrade Napoleon-I mean Trump, will waste a ton of tax payer cash to stroke his ego and finally (in his mind) put to rest questions about him being a fuckin coward too scared to fight in Nam.
Look at the man and ask yourself “Did he handle losing his hair well? Better than say, someone I would actually trust with my money? Or my kids?” The answers no. I’m not sure I could so much as rent an apartment from a person with a hair helmet who chose to go out covered in orange body paint. Trump is a man so vain he couldn’t stand the thought of people NOT thinking he spent most of his time lying around in the sun while simultaneously pretending to be a work-a-holic with little time for pleasure. Yes America, you voted in a complete asshole. Probably. Unless it was Putin, who knows? Now he needs to see all his toys at once.
The parade could be even sillier than I’ve so far imagined. For instance, 500 tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue followed by 500 more Missiles all grinding the asphalt into a bunch of hellish slabs for our brave soldiers to stumble through while presumably Seig Heil-ing King Shit (who we already know will set up the reviewing stand in front of his stupid DC hotel).
Trump’s own petulance and lack of any sensitivity towards people will have to be planned around to avoid embarrassng gaffes. Some of the many many problems are easy to foresee. Top of my head? Ok, what of the gay and trans-gendered troops forced march around in this stupid step show? Will our bigot president allow it? Imagine his seething anger if he catches sight of anything that displeases him. He could easily explode in anger if-
there’s a large contingent of female Marines.
Or maybe a couple of transgendered Army Doctors.
Or should he spot one of the Gold Star Families he so despises.
Or if it rains.
Or if there’s a protest (there will be a protest).
Or worse.
And lets not forget that Trump will, as always, be grinding several axes when the parade goes down. Will he attack NFL players? Or be brooding over election results (it IS in November). Will he make a speech where he directly says that the Democrats are murderers and treasonous again? Rest assured the Divider-In-Chief will find a way to embarrass the military and all of the citizens with any brains.
We have a long, shameful path to walk before this proposed nightmare in November. With any luck someone at the Pentagon will remember its the 100th Anniversary of the End of World War I and provide some cover for this naked celebration of Trump. A tasteful WWI commemoration is a great way out of this mess. Sadly it would end up as a celebration of a Segregated Military and probably a full throated call to militarism in the hands of these jackasses.
Well we’re about 36 hours out from a crazy lie fest in front of most of both houses of Congress. I’m sure it’s going to be a perversion of what we’re used to. Trump has no decency or civility. Perhaps the roughly one third of you who somehow dig him want to admire his hair helmet? For the 60% of us who are sickened by him? There’s good reason NOT to watch.
For starters Trump’s horrible speech will surely be written at least in part by awful Steven Miller, at the moment his most prominent adviser. Miller’s xenophobic and outright nazi-like rants have already played horribly on TV. Trump will drop this turd of divisive rhetoric like an underdeveloped old skool rapper who only THINKS he can rhyme. How can I be sure? Well for one thing Trump’s latest petulant rant was against sometime rapper and full time billionaire Jay-Z. Seriously.
So what can we do? One thing would be to just not watch him live for now. Low Ratings will make him crazy and lets face it, you wont miss much. Here’s just a few reasons-
Its not like you can believe him or he’s going to come through with the alleged outreach to the other side. As usual he will simply make take it or leave it offers that wont remain valid for even the blink of an eye.
It’s pretty safe to say he’s got nothing but broad strokes to offer
The Miller authored speech will just be a re-iteration of Mein Kampf.
In the wake of whats shaping up into a Monday Morning Massacre of Nixonian proportions its probably important to ignore as much of what Trump says or believes as possible.
You will definitely be upset by one of his many falsehoods. Best to wait for the fact checking
He wont suddenly develop the ability to make concessions or create compromise. We’ve seen how he tries to “make deals”. He outlines a brutal and UnAmerican Solution that he wont compromise on. In the end we’ll be worse off just for having him possess the veto power over any legislation, bipartisan or otherwise; that may emerge from Congress.
Very few of his ideas come to any sort of Fruition
Most likely stays mostly on script in front of an audience that has even a few people who aren’t rabid fans. He’s too emotionally fragile to do more than read and split
When he reads off the teleprompter he doesn’t even try and its a monotone blur of syllables and mistakes
He will take forever to get to the podium, blowing one handshake after another, snubbing people and maybe pausing to fight verbally with almost anyone.
He could easily go on a long frightening screed regarding nuclear war
Trump will simply insult world leaders
No one in this White House ever bothers to reference the Constitution, some of his assertions will be impossible or simple nonsense.
He could easily just helicopter back to address every grievance he has from the last two years
It will be very dark in tone
It will have several sketchily implied racist aspects that will be as ambiguous as they are divisive
His language usage and diction are so bad the text of the speech will need to be released before we know what that fuck he even means anyway
He will talk in stark frightening terms to try to intimidate all who oppose any of his scatterbrained ideas
You already know he will make veiled calls for violence against at the very least congressional democrats
Afterward there will be hourly clarifications as the White House scrambles to try to make Trump’s nonsense line up with his other crazy rants.
We already know it will be the worst State of the Union in memory and will present the American future in a less hopeful light than even say FDR 8 weeks after Pearl Harbor!
So spare yourself. Work on that netflix cue or clear off some space on the DVR because there’s just NO POSITIVES to watching the Dear Leader Live.
{This post remains LIVE and will be updated as needed}
Life under Trump is pretty stark and frightening. He tries hard to keep us fixated on him
and seems to love tormenting the American People. There seems no end to his despicable actions and harsh words.
The one light in the black? You can harvest some of the BEST EVER UNUSED Punk Band Names from his crazy rantings!
Throw in the always jaw dropping headlines Trump’s serial bad behavior and crush on Putin always generate and there’s band names enough for Oprah to have a giveaway! Take one and make some seriously punk music!
Of note the music they’d perform would be called Russian Meddle Music.
Heres some examples of bands I WOULD pay to see if anyone had the initiative to form them-
Fire and Fury (I even buy the t shirt no matter how this band sounds)
Little Rocket Man
House Not Hole
Bannon Cried
Sloppy Steve
Violence On All Sides
Very Fine People
Extreme Vetting
(The) Bad Hombres (thank you readers!)
The Steele Dossier (another t-shirt buy)
Mexico Will Pay For It
Deep State
Beautiful Wall
Enemy of the People
The Fake News
Ten Feet Higher
The Crooked Media
The Liberal Press
The Kysliaks
KISS-liak
Fancy Bear
This American Carnage (maybe a bit like Bad Religion?)
Crooked Hillary (ok sounds more metal)
Lyin’ Ted
Gorilla Channel (ok while this ended up not being something he ever said but damn I would see them!)
Very Stable Genius (synth punk a la skinny puppy or maybe like Janes Addiction?)
Guccifer
Bleeding From A Facelift
Rex-T
Psycho Joe
Divided Crime Scene
Pizzagate
Little Marco
What You Signed Up For
They All Have AIDS
No Collusion
The 25th Amendment
Troll Farm
The Emoluments Clause
Big Water
Executive Time
Bigly
The list will grow until president shitheel is out of office! Updates will be added when I hear something sufficiently Punk.
Updates
Meeting of the Secret Society
Russian Witch Hunt
The Great Sleuth
Translator Project (Kremlin Code name for Hacking US Election)
The biggest story right now isn’t the speculation Trump is suffering from a cognitive disorder (he is) or that he will BLOW OFF HIS MEDICAL EXAM next week (he so will) but that at his behest the Justice Department has, according to CNN just a few minutes ago, has launched a Criminal Investigation (so maybe at some point even raiding?) the Clinton Foundation. Its a Dictators move and Sessions will, I suppose, have that added to the list of charges he’s confronted with at a future American Nuremburg Trial. For whatever reason the Little Rock location was mentioned conspicuously. Probably just a personal slight.
This frightening move puts him squarely in the corner of other autocrats from Hitler to Idi Amin.
It seem that Money for Access is the purported focus of the probe. It probably turns up nothing. If it does catch even the smallest irregularity trust me SCROTUS trump will let us know. Over and over.
This is much bigger than the indisputable fact that Trump’s got dementia or worse or that he’s Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein rolled up into one.
Separated at birth?
Irrelevant Jeff Sessions has had a banner couple of days. Yesterday he moved to take away the PTSD medicine for every veteran in about 14 states and today he’s attacking a charity.
Why? Because our corrupt presidents charity never remitted and was just a way to enrich himself at the cost of Cancer kids. So of course he’s just sure that the Clinton Foundation is a front as well.
John Adams, who could at least admit he was bald.
Its EASY to believe the president would pass a polygragh regarding his belief that the Clinton Foundation is corrupt. He can look in the mirror and see corruption right there.
So freak out that he’s crazy, I am, but take note that today Trump began persecuting his political enemies with the apparatus of the state.
Liberty has not been so greatly endangered since the Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798 passed by John Fuckin Adams.
Next most disturbing development of the day (its just about 11 am) would be certified (By Paul Ryan
Dana Rohrabacher works for the Russians
and Steve Scalise) Putin Puppet Dana Rohrabacher in the following segment screaming over poor Ana Cabrera that the entire Mueller Probe is directed by CNN and the media. Freedom was nice while we had it I guess.
Meals on Wheels when life can simply take on somewhat more phony dignity? Certainly feels like the part of Animal Farm where daily, coordinated displays of pride are substituted for things like food and time off to me.
Well we’re about 36 hours out from a crazy lie fest in front of most of both houses of Congress. I’m sure it’s going to be a perversion of what we’re used to. Trump has no decency or civility. Perhaps the roughly one third of you who somehow dig him want to admire his hair helmet? For the 60% of us who are sickened by him? There’s good reason NOT to watch.
him possess the veto power over any legislation, bipartisan or otherwise; that may emerge from Congress.
