Well it was only 10 minutes and delivered without emotion, but we finally heard directly from Robert Mueller. The full video is at the end of the post.
It’s hard to sum up how he really feels, he did provide some cover for Barr and say he wasn’t going to speak to congress. Here’s what went down
Mueller walked on and said he wasn’t taking questions and hoped to never speak in public about this again.
Then he basically disgorged his opinion of his legal mandate and goals. He cleared up who he was responsible to (mostly the Acting Deputy Attorney General) and what his mandate was. He stressed he could ONLY investigate. In other words – Mueller’s opinion of his mandate could be summed up as – He had investigative authority, but no legal teeth. The president is un-Indictable, at least by him, merely because he’s president and that’s all there is to that.
So after again thanking his team Mueller sort of underscored what he thought was the most important things in his report. It would seem to have a disregard for the present circumstance. At best it could be called forward looking.
We’re Under Attack
He stressed that there was a coordinated and elaborate attack on our 2016 Election by Russia. Both the Kremlin and some kind of private entities were involved. Wikileaks was used to launder the information and get the Russians some deniability.
He said it was done with the aim of ‘influencing” opinions and ‘to damage a candidate.’ That candidate can only have been Hillary Clinton. He didn’t speak her name, but really, who else could it have been? He repeated the interference was ‘extensive’. It seems pretty clear we saw Putin’s hand here.
Then he went to his report and specified Volume 1, which is about the Russian efforts and whether Trump coordinated with them. It was inconclusive as to direct conspiracy, but maybe not because he didn’t think Trump had tried something. He would refer to the limits of his mandate, that you can’t charge a sitting president, was the governing philosophy of why no charges were filed.
Then he specified Volume 2, which dealt with Presidential Obstruction and obstruction of the Investigation. Again he referred to his mandate and said there was no Indicting the president under seal either. So Mueller’s view is hands were tied.
With confidence he said in so many words “It’s UnConstitutional” for the Special Counsel to Indict a sitting president. He alluded to Justice Department policy as the reason that he could do nothing about Obstruction as far as charges and Indictments. He again alluded to his limited mandate as the big reason there was no charging Trump.
More than anything else he spoke of how very limited his legal mandate really was.
Over and over Mueller deferred to his mandate about not being able to Indict rather than cleared the president. He said plainly he had ‘no confidence’ the president had NOT committed a crime.
Mueller made it very clear he could not clear the president. This is about the strongest thing he could say under his interpretation of his mandate. He seemed to be saying that anyone else would be looking at getting arrested over this and confirming the broken nature of our Justice System. He seemed more concerned about the coming election than anything President Trump may have done to this point, despite saying he was prosecutable outside of Office.
It seems Mueller really wanted us to be aware he NEVER had authority to indict the president. He stated policy and law as to why HE COULD NOT INDICT OR CHARGE THE PRESIDENT, NO MATTER WHAT HE FOUND.
One curious thing he said was that since there was no method to try the president legally while he was in office he had decided he simply couldn’t charge him based on that. The decision notably was NOT because he didn’t think Trump was guilty. In fact, he seemed to be saying he thought the law shielded the president from the consequences of illegal behavior more than anything else aside from the deep concern over the next election.
He then again thanked his staff and categorized his staff and investigation were ethical and professional.
He repeated that he wasn’t taking questions.
Mueller- He’s Not a Player; He’s The Official
In essence Mueller didn’t so much punt to congress. That’s because PLAYERS punt. Mueller has cast himself (or felt locked to the role) more as the referee or some other official. So like an NFL official what he did was turn on his mic, address the crowd, explain the penalty and handed the ball to congress.
Could you say that when he hands the congress the ball on Impeachment it’s on the GOP’s own 20 yard line. Mueller’s message between the lines seems to be “You’ll easily score a field goal if not a touchdown if you pursue these charges I laid out because if he wasn’t president he’d be a criminal. He may just leave the White House for the Big House.”
Mueller may be right on about the biggest issue now that all is said and done being keeping the next election clean of Russian (and all other) interference.
I don’t feel like I’m alone viewing William Barr as a 2nd tier Lucas Movie Villain. He’s dishonest, dishonorable and belongs in a museum.
Today’s partisan hearing was a reflection of our bi-polar government. As senators coddled or cudgeled Barr based on party affiliation you gotta think the momentum is with the Democrats.
Sure, it’s the Senate where the GOP is in control, but this is certainly yet another cut in into the Orange flesh of the liar at 1600’s Administration.
When i tuned in it was Ernst, who gently asked about what the Russians may be up to, that friendly question from a Republican drew an evasive answer. It made him all the more unsympathetic when he was then rightly bashed by Blumenthal. Then he was coddled by Blackburn, bashed by Booker and so it went. Hirono was by far the heashest and rightly called Barr a liar.
When elaborating conspiracy theories and accepting praise from the right of course Barr looked like a victim. It was when the Democrats put the screws to him his spineless nature came right out.
Whenever questioned by a Democrat Barr’s voice was always a bit more affected if you ask me, with his regionalisms coming out. A “liars tell”?
On the topic of Foreign Adversaries who attacked our election Barr rarely seemed fully read in (this is the Attorney General mind you) and seemed to lack the competence to understand what happened or whats going on now.
Barr wasn’t good holding forth in the face of Corey Booker at all. The presidential hopeful questioned Barr’s honesty and barr had a hard time pitching any justifications. Bookers questions were damaging to the Attorney General, who SHOULD resign, but getting Barr to answer anything was always like nailing jello to a wall.
Tarheel GOP hater Tom Tillis shifted back into love-fest mode. The GOP senators had two points. It was a really gig investigation and the he, Barr, was totally justified to change (or at least obscure) its conclusions. Tillis offered a stiff defense of the way Barr has behaved as AG. He went with a numbers approach to make it as boring and obscure s possible because Math, in and of itself, really has no relation to whether something is a crime or not.
The GOP refrain was this is just a sour grapes second stab at the reputation of poor president Trump, king of victimhood.
Senator Kamala Harris asked Barr if he’d had anyone asking him to launch punitive investigations. Barr just couldn’t answer. He was more disrespectful to Harris than others. I’m not sure if it because shes running for president, a woman of color or both.
Barr chaffed a bit when he delivered up stock denials on methodology questions about his offices approach. He wouldn’t say much about what they do and less about what people think they do.
Barr tried to punt to Mueller but Harris had none of it. The next move by Barr was to try to shift responsibility to Rosenstein.
Barr didn’t distinguish himself in his knowledge of his own departments methods at all.
Mike Crapo of Idaho from the GOP side was a little less affectionate to Barr, but by no means beat him up.
Barr never raised himself to a Star Trek or Bond Villain level like his boss often does.
Any sympathy bought by Barr was immediately destroyed by the chummy conversation with Senator from Hell Ted Cruz; where Barr suddenly had full commend of methods ad could relate them in detail. Maybe its just that he sounds smart compared to Cruz?
Looking me like some sort of Texas whorehouse owner than any kind of a politician from this century Cruz was that guy we’ve all grown to hate. He still managed to stump Barr by mistake once.
Their conversation was a paranoid and unamerican trip down Kremlin Misinformation lane. I walked away wondering who pulls Cruz’s strings
Ending Round 1 Pat Leahy, Democrat of Vermont went back to questions of more relevance. Like one focused on Barr’s motives in releasing his strange 4 page letter last month. He also expressed concern and asked Barr to commit not to interfere to not interfere in any ongoing investigations. Barr was evasive and took 3 lame swipes at an answer. Leahy wasn’t too thrilled with him. It’s also not clear if Barr actually agreed NOT to interfere based on his own bizarre view of his role and powers.
Instead of just adjourning the Lindsay Graham opted for what amounted to a “Lightning Round” where it was a roulette wheel of Senators and questions
Barr was unsettled by some of this enough to start trying to dispel the idea that there were any “Underlying crimes”. He wasn’t making a lot of sense.
Then Dick Durbin of Illinois had some seriously unsettling questions about how Barr is mishandling the Trump Inaugural committee, which is mired in a multi million dollar scandal that’s looking criminal.
Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island essentially laced right in. The Democrat was slightly pre-heated and was frustrated with the way Barr was evading. He was more able to box in and nail down Barr. His line of questioning was about foreign money and Grand Jury material being suppressed. Barr came off confused. A terrible look for the Attorney General of the United States.
Klobuchar grilled Barr on whether the Mueller Report reviewed Trumps taxes, Barr claimed ignorance.
Quoting pages and passages Klobuchar tried to get some accountability from Barr. You cant get blood from a stone though, and he inartfully dodged any substantial answer.
In a final semi bombshell Klobuchar asked if the presidents conduct was consistent with his Oath of Office. Barr said it was his call that everything was cool.
Lightning Round continued with Blumenthal. He had specific questions in specific conversations that may haunt Barr later.
In general Barr spent a lot of time looking pretty damn bad. He was clueless on purpose to stonewall at times, but looking clueless just undermines the Justice Department he purports to run
Barrs most bizarre statement was putting words in Mueller’s mouth where he claimed Mueller was pretty much behind him and they barely disagree on anything. This seems ridiculous right off the bat. There’s a letter in the public record where Mueller outright questions the way Barr’s motives in mischarachterizing his report.
Lindsey Graham ended the session and promised to write a letter asking for any clarifications. GOP ass kissing was allowed in 5 second round of praise from some GOP member.
In a final petty gesture Barr described the angry letter from Mueller as ‘snitty’ and probably written by an underling. He held to the Republican line the presidents a victim in this. Forget about the idea that the president is a criminal, that’s his view of the system. That we have a designated criminal as a president,
We all knew that eventually proximity to Trump was going to cause Good Ol’ Gal Sarah Huckabee Sanders some problems. While I speculate one day the criminality she’s been part of will come back to haunt her I didn’t think she’d figure deeply into the Mueller Report, and she didn’t.
None the less, her talking out of both sides of her mouth was one of the first stories to ruminate through the headlines when the report, or what we’ve been allowed to see of it, dropped. Seems Sarah’s Christian values don’t include even the slightest guilt about lying unless there’s jail time involved.
And her lies werent to mitigate Trump’s insanity, she was burnishing it.
The Mueller Report showed her to be an Enabler rather than any of the authors of the Anonymous New York Times “White House Resistor” article, where the idea was to stick around at the expense to your own dignity just to keep Trump from blowing up the world.
When James Comey was fired for not dropping the Flynn Investigation Sarah had a series of May 2017 pressers (remember when we had pressers?) where she simply lied to the American People. Her repeated lie, which she’s since told some more lies about, was that her phone was ringing off the hook with grateful FBI Agents thanking her for Trump’s firing of Comey. I’m not sure why they thought she would want to hear it. I guess she took the (fictional) calls in between high 5-ing all the other FBI Agents she claimed stopped her to tell her how glad they were their boss had been fired amid a torrent of abusive comments about the Bureau itself.
When in front of Mueller Sarah actually told the truth. These were pure lies made up from whole cloth. Obviously she was parroting her boss.
Cries she be fired are now pretty universal. The Fox White House guy may even be on board with that one, he has to listen to the lies too, right? But this is how Trump likes it.
By the third week of April we’ve had 4 Pressers all year, in no regular order. This begs the question – what exactly does Sarah do these days?
Was it all just a dream? Did we just imagine the world was once a far more decent place where the guilty were caught and punished? Perhaps so but the dreams have darkened and the waking up consists of screaming in fear these days. How did we get here?
Apparently the flaws in our system have just been piling up in a quantum manner while our risk averse leaders have ignored problems or made them worse. Right now we’re dealing with the seemingly straight forward but actually completely inappropriate Barr Letter.
Whether Barr is allowed to draw conclusions or make decisions on prosecution in this matter is somewhat nebulous. It’s going to be the rest of Trump’s term to determine if any of the things that happened this weekend were legal. The Watergate and Whitewater Special PROSECUTORS had the latitude to draw conclusions and present sealed indictments right to the House Judiciary Committee. Why’s this time different?
Describing the piece of paper Barr gave the American people and the media as a letter is generous. The four page summary of Mueller’s work is more of a memo, but we’ll leave that alone.
It Was A Set Up
The media got played on this one. The Trump people know how to lie and they excelled on this occasion. Knowing that this day was coming they opted for the easiest con of all- Punk Us with a fake release of a non Mueller Report and let the media self-discredit.
The media went straight into Shiny Object mode like we’ve seen so many times and became hypnotized on the Memo/Letter as though it were a report. They had spent 2 years preparing for what seemed to be a timebomb of a story and the teams of pundits were sitting around with the most deadly thing of all; just a little bit of knowledge.
Rather than blast Attorney General Barr for making conclusions he possibly had no right to make they just reported on the letter like it was a bunch of conclusive facts. It’s almost like they set themselves up to fail. Why no one really started talking about the questionable nature of the letter/memo for a whole day is something we all need to wonder about.
The Mueller Report remains a mystery. We need to see it and soon. The American People paid for this report. Trusting it to Barr is UnAmerican.
No one has elected Barr into the Executive Branch, something Trump likes to point out about Mueller. He doesnt have the authority or the Integrity to be sole interpreter and Guardian of the Mueller Report.
Congress needs to act now to release the Mueller Report, more or less in full, in the next 30 days.
Russian Spy and NRA Activist Maria Butina is definitely lying about not being a Kremlin Asset. The Government’s story isn’t seamless yet, but give them time. Her ‘boyfriend’ is now under Indictment for fraud and surely aware, as we are, that shes been trying to cooperate against him from day one. It just keeps getting weirder.
Heres three very good, very brief reasons to Rightfully Believe she’s a Spy;
1– She’s Got Too Much Money
She had access to too much money to be just some Russian with a student visa. Why’s she running around with around 300 grand? Where’d the money she used to influence the NRA come from?
2- That Preposterous Fake Boyfriend
That 56 year old ‘boyfriend’ is plain old unbelievable. Fraudster Paul Allen Erickson owns only a 23-year-old non classic car. As far as political tricksters go he was even less successful than Roger Stone. He’s broke and always has been. He lied, cheated and stole for money and seems to have never worked. She started dating this con man troll when she was like 23? About the age of his car now? Sure. Why’d he give her 20 Grand? As I just noted, pimpin’ wasn’t easy for Erickson in the first place! I think that the Operation was always looking to self finance to advance its goals. Im sure she charged up her credit cards through the roof with fraudulent intent too. It’d be the least of her problems too, actually.
3- We’ve Heard this Before (From Putin)
Her story is Putin’s story. Both have said that if she were a spy she’s ‘the worst spy ever.’ Okay. Granted. I believe you’re the worst spy ever. And you know what, that’s not a denial, either. It’s actually in the running for the name of this article. How is getting caught proof you’re innocent?
The Government didn’t have every single duck in a row and may have been wrong believing Butina was trading in sex, but in light of her relationship with Erickson? He’s in no way appealing to someone in their mid 20s. He looks terrible even among people his own age. He’s a con man and looks like one.
Butina works for or was spun off by the Kremlin. Shes got some kind of loyalty and connection to Putin. It makes more sense than ‘she’s the greatest sweet talker of all time and was a wheel in the NRA by 27.’
It would be nice if anyone on CNN had noted she was saying the same thing Putin says. They have reported Putin’s comments on this. I guess eventually they’ll put 2 and 2 together and say it, but you heard it here first.
Any discussion about the imprisoned American has to start with the acknowledgment that he’s about the ONLY thing that Trump and the Kremlin outright disagree about. That alone makes him important and remarkable.
On the surface Michigander Paul Whelan is a guy who is something of a Russophile. Not a crime. At first described as a ‘retired Marine” and “Missing Wedding Guest” the details that have emerged since would point to more ‘disgraced Ex-Marine who maybe even thought he was living in a Tom Clancy novel.’
Weeks after the United States arrested Maria Butina the Russians grabbed up Whelan, allegedly in Moscow to attend a wedding. He disappears in the very last days of December 2018. Then things just got weird fast.
Whelan the Marine
The 30,000 foot view would say that Whelan was a mixed bag as a Marine, but he had never figured on full-time military career when he joined. Maybe he was okay with weekend warrior and a trip to the sandbox once or twice, but Whelan’s original intent was to be a reservist when he joins in 1994.
Never the less for a few months on two occasions (in 04 and 06) he was sent to Iraq where he apparently continued his Military Operations Speciality- as a paper pushing clerk. It’s nothing to laugh at, the Marines need an office staff too. He was sent to a horrible place and it definitely sucked. But he doesn’t seem to be a particularly dangerous guy even in pictures from before he was kicked out of the Corps. Why his time in Iraq was described as ‘a few months’ is hard to say. It was notably not termed “two tours”.
So while he was okay and made Staff Sergeant, in 2004, he really was more Staff than Sergeant. Then comes the downfall.
Court Martial
As a white-collar criminal Whelan outright sucks and gets caught, badly. Rather than come to an arrangement with his creditors he just starts lying about what happened and maybe stirs the pot with a few desperate financial moves. Marines aren’t supposed to do that kind of thing. It probably started around 2006 based on when his actions caught up with him.
It seems he was scheming to get a credit card under false identity or had used someone else’s card without permission. It’s hard to tell. Whether or not the fact he was already on the Russian Government controlled version of Facebook figured in to the conviction is unclear. He was stone cold busted on the fraud charges. There may have been no reason to look further.
It may just be possible he misused his access to USMC personnel files to obtain the questionable social security numbers he was playing around trying to get credit with. It begs the question;”What else did he do before he got caught for this scheme?” Like maybe something the Russians were hanging over him?
The Marine Court-Martial regarded his deeds as Larceny, which is just a fancy way to call someone a thief. It looks like they decided Whelan had made some moral compromises. Most likely he cheated a credit card company out of some money and possibly also ruined someone else’s financial reputation to make his own life easier.
Whatever he was doing demoting him was seen as simply too lenient. So he was tossed out of the Marines despite the fact we were in the middle of 2 wars. Not much of recommendation.
Just weeks into 2008 he gets cashiered out of the USMC, essentially for lying, trying to steal and lacking financial ethics. Sound like anyone we know?
At that moment he joined the ranks of other disgraced Marines like Oliver North.
After the Marines
Too compromised to stay in the service but still saddled with a bunch of debt would make this guy a decent low risk gamble for the Russians, who seem to be skilled at guiding people down an appealing treasonous path. Maybe he unwittingly gets compromised somehow. Not exactly a classic cold war sleeper agent but this is a new Cold War with new rules.
Pure conjecture could be that maybe his debt problems were from gambling and his bookie turned out to be Russian mob? Or could he just be a sex tourist that just doesn’t want to say why they were there?
Whelan was living in his native Michigan and was employed as a security adviser by auto parts giant BorgWarner. Responsibilities might include something like assessing whether anyone was slacking or stealing from the Mega Conglomerate.
Was he already with the BorgWarner Corporation while a Marine? Wouldn’t corporate security seem a bad fit for a confirmed white-collar criminal? Is something up with BorgWarner? Just hiring a guy with a shabby rep for a job that requires some integrity is a head scratcher.
In social media he had a 10 plus year presence on a Russia-specific (so Kremlin controlled) version of a Facebook type service. A strange and naive move for someone who had already gotten in trouble for things involving identity theft. His motives are hard to figure.
Even 13 years ago the idea that you would let the Russians data mine your social media (not that they didn’t get into Facebook itself) is plain old bad judgement and probably bolstered the case against him at his Court-Martial if it came up.
One way or another he ends up an Ex-Marine, unheard of in the culture of the Corps where the motto goes “Once a Marine Always a Marine.” It must’ve been humbling. At this point he’s ripe for the picking in the eyes of the FSB. The Russian Intel service is well known to be an avid recruiter of compromised or desperate people.
While he was no Paul Manafort when it comes to embezzlement his own problems loomed just as large in his life.
An American in Prison
While his family says he went to Russia to attend a wedding the truth is he could also simply have been a sex tourist. It’s not like this doesn’t ever happen, its prevalent enough. We already know Whelan had terrible judgment, so why wouldn’t this be a possibility? While we’re on it; we all know it’s rumored Trump himself supposedly engaged in Sex Tourism when he went to Moscow in 2013. We also know that’s what’s allegedly on the so-called Pee-Tape (if it exists).
For some reason or another the Russians decided it was time to grab Whelan and throw espionage charges that could land him in a Russian Prison for 20 years at him. It could have been for leverage against the US, and his life story won’t help him.
While the Russians have said he’s a spy the administration has denied that. The US position on the case is that Whelan’s a nobody who should be freed.
The Ambassador Himself?!
It’s hard to say whether its simple ineptitude or a sign of true concern by the administration that the Ambassador Huntsman himself was sent to check on this ‘average person’. I’m not sure that sending our most senior person to check on Whelan did anything to minimize his profile or the Kremlin charges. This would seem to be “deputy ambassador” turf. Whether the actual ambassador is the right move or not is hard to say.
We’ve seen the Trump people mishandle and manhandle protocol over and over. Trump himself is always inappropriate. Remember him shoving the president of Montenegro out of the way like a dick in a photo-op? Two years into the Trump chaos its sometimes hard to recall how things went when we had a professional president rather than General Bone Spurs.
The Russians operate on a petty but persistent level. Sending Huntsman himself to the jail to see the guy seems a huge win. They orchestrated an out of the ordinary response and will use it t back up their story. It may have been better to play small ball on this one.
On the surface at this moment it seems it was a possible escalation and error in protocol to send the actual ambassador. Surely if this whole thing is no big deal, why send our number one guy?
Is Whelan s Spy?
While Whelan might be doing some underhanded things it seems unlikely he’s a US asset. His military career is less remarkable than most and his discharge was for trying to commit fraud. Just discrediting and it probably means no AMERICAN intel agency would hire him, at least not openly. He’s a documented liar.
So whose spy is he? A couple of possibilities come to mind but he was most in bed with the Russians.
Could the FSB have compromised him? Or perhaps convinced him he was a very important guy? It would seem more likely than any of our intel agencies using him. Maybe he’s helping the Russian mob steal automatic transmission clutch plates or other materials associated with auto manufacturing. Or maybe he took money to stop investigating theft from BorgWarner.
Cashed Up Agent of Fortune for someone like Turkey or a compromised and dishonest American who the Russians were able to manipulate seems closer to truth than CIA operative. For one thing we probably would never hire a liar who has shifting financial morality to be much more than a pawn
It’s hard to imagine that “Thrown out of the USMC for lying and stealing” was the ‘cover story’ to create a spy. He had too much baggage to be much more than a clerk and he couldn’t be trusted to be a that, so how could he end up a spy?
Slamming him as a thief and kicking him out of the military for being a criminal hardly sounds like the way they would dress up someone recruited out of the Marines for intel work. Why question his honor? Why not just have his records be murky? Whelan would probably have been charged with fighting or something that didn’t involve dishonesty if it were a cover story. At the end of the day our operatives can’t be so despicable we ourselves can’t trust them at all ourselves.
The Charges
In light of what the Russians say happened they may have set Whelan up. The arrest documents we got today indicate he was ‘arrested in his hotel room five minutes after accepting a flash drive’, and that flashdrive had some classified Russian stuff on it.
This could mean anything really. There’s a lot of reasons to accept a flashdrive. The Russians may have convinced him the info was valuable and he could do some kind of freelance intel operation.
Looking Ahead
Well this is just going too good for the Russians for them to let him go anytime soon. They’ve dragged our Ambassador to their jail in just days. They may decide this is fun and hold this guy til Butina is released or for 20 years.
While the original post on the evils of Sarah Huckabee Sanders is comprehensive; the way the national discourse has fallen off the table recently with a spate of violent attacks coming from the political right. The recent horrific Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre was front and center for a singularly bad day for America’s tas peyer paid designated liar, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
SHS sat most of the month out, but the October 29th presser was the first in 26 days as the Trump Administration continues to do business in closed rooms with locked doors in the dead of night.
Always evasive of soap and direct answers, Sarah Huckabee Sanders has probably reached felony level complicity in the Trump Criminal Enterprise.
Mostly we see her now when things are incredibly bad and White House comments are long overdue. For some reason this has no impact on the angry indignance with which Sarah goes about her infrequent pressers.
Shame is never gonna set in to these horrible pressers or the woman who runs them with Goebbels-like dissonance. We can stop expecting the administration to start to learn or to start leading. This is it folks. We have the most corrupt and incompetent Administration this side of Ancient Rome.
As always the presser started 25 minutes late, much like Mein Kampf recommends.
Looming over the October 29th presser was a spate of recent hate crimes most people who don’t watch Fox News more or less blame the president for inspiring.
The atmosphere was first charged by the 14 (and counting) devices mailed out by a Florida Trumpist nicknamed the #MAGABomber by Twitter based on his targets. Driving around in his home/ bomb factory / vanifesto he had managed to empty out the CNN building and credibly attempt to kill former presidents Clinton and Obama among many others.
just one window of #MAGABOMBER’s Anti-Left, Pro Trump ‘Vanifesto’
All the people and institutions targeted, like california rep Maxine Waters, CNN and Right Wing Whipping Boy George Soros, were frequent Trump targets.
Next an old school Nazi Anti Semite shot up a Pittsburgh synagogue and killed eleven innocent worshippers and wounded many others. The shooter made some social media posts that showed he was moved to action in part by the presidents xenophobic obsession and repeated rants regarding a group of immigrants apparently following the harvest north Trump’s classified as a Democratic Party Funded Immigrant Caravan designed to swing the midterm election. They’re currently about a thousand miles from the US Southern border. More on the so called caravan later.
In a macabre twist, a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor was among those killed. Thats where the United States is at just about 500 days into President Trump’s inept and criminal administration.
It was another new low for angry Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The Trumpire Strikes Out
On to today’s Ministry of Information Dance of Dishonesty!
Sarah outright lied and claimed the president had won the popular vote with 63 million votes when he in fact lost by over 3 million votes. Shades of Spicer in the shrubs on that one!
It didn’t get much better. One positive, she managed to stop herself in the middle of starting to pick her nose. After that you could tell something was stuck in her simuses and adding to her overt irritation.
Trump had thrown out some horrible tweets about people who were MAGABomber targets to start the day and made then some off the cuff, stupid, uninformed statements and hard to swallow denials getting into his helicopter. So the clouds were well seeded.
Hemmed in by insensitive statements by her boss that sort of blamed the victims at the synagogue; Sarah didn’t bother to do much more than deny reality and say false things when confronted. No one was buying.
The idea the president felt the Synagogue lacked a Good Guy With A Gun and was asking for it hung in the air after Trump made off-hand observations that were first darkly un-American and second sort of dissed the victims with the implication they were reckless not having an armed guard and therefore sort of played a hand in their own deaths.
The shooter for the record, was super well armed. More well armed than my character in ‘Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Ghostlands‘ avatar. He had 2 pistols and an AK-47. He wounded 3 cops in a gunfight while massacring 11 American citizens and then held SWAT at bay for some time. So the idea an armed guard or anything short of a machine gun nest could have stopped the guy is laughable and plain old sick.
In her chrome-a-key green sure to be parodied dress Sarah sounded like the ambassador from a hostile and rude Star Trek race. The only solution for Gun Violence was hardening schools and places of worship. It’s just asking for it in Trump’s world if you do anything without armed security (or go around not packing heat).
On the #MAGABomber topic she just lied and pretended the idea that he supported Trump was a media fantasy despite the social media posts and threats going back months the MAGABomber had verifiably made.
Humility was in short supply when asked if she is simply lying or out of the loop and a back and forth with CNN’s pundits was answered with rudeness and dismissive comments as always.
Justifying Illegal Dictator Moves and Spreading Fear
The president has been lying and spreading fear with repeated assertions the migrants from Central America were ISIS concealing terrorists in the ranks. This is what motivated the Synagogue shooter, who kind of liked Trump, he just thought he was too muted in his anti-semitism.
This invited questions about Trump suspending or plain violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which pretty much forbids the president from using Federal Troops to enforce Domestic Policies within the United States. Sanders was simply evasive and made some false claims about the act not applying. To be clear to suspend Posse Comitatus the “caravan” as the right has dubbed it, has to be classified an Invading Force.
Maybe enough racist governors let him deploy their National Guard Units, but it’s really unclear what Trump would want the military to even do, open fire? As far as deploying the Army? Seems to be specifically prohibited. It would probably be met with great resistance by any officer forced to command such an expedition.
It’s an issue that should go away as soon as the midterms end. Trump really likes talking about this and the Fox News Feedback Loop makes sure he keeps seeing it though, so who knows?
And at the 23 minute mark Sarah declared she was out of time and stormed off.
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.
UPDATED – Thought by her Kremlin masters to be just unattractive enough to not be seen as a honeypot we have 29 year old soviet style FSB semi-sleeper Russian Agent Maria Butina. She’s been at the peripheral of the right wings worst ideas, notably the NRA and it’s constant push for expanded gun rights and a no Background checks.
A Ridiculous Fake Persona
Posing in some accounts as a grad student writing a thesis in whatever she was sort of a eyepiece for the Kremlin as it looked for Americans who were inclined towards or already on a treasonous path. So of COURSE groups like Evangelicals, CPAC and the NRA caught her attention and were passed up the FSB food chain where Putin and his guys can work them over into useful Quislings or worse.
How powerful a spy is she? Well we cant be sure but she had a powerful Spymaster controlling her, one Alexander Torshin. Consider him an FSB Oligarch in the service of Putin. Torshin garnered hapless congressman Dana Rohrbacher as a pal and even punked John Bolton into going to Russia to encourage a (fictional) gun rights movement for a fistful of dubious cash Bolton all too naively took. (The idea Russia would let its citizens own guns is outright ridiculous as its a complete autocracy that has long been killing journalists. Like they would want those journalists to be able to shoot back? Come now!)
The “Foreign Policy Expert” comes off like a complete idiot in the video, and the fake russian group left up until late summer 2018, so you can see it HERE – its a real LOL actually
So no two ways about it, Butina is a big deal. She could pick winners and losers via dirty tricks, she could funnel money and information. Was she was a full blown spy? It seems that way.
Maria Butina and Rick Santorum
It was most likely either her or Torshin who bagged over or arranged some kind of crypto-currency exchange of 30 MILLION DOLLARS to the NRA, much earmarked for Pro-Trump (and virulently Anti-Hillary) ads. She was somewhat ubiquitous in attending Right Wing Functions like Gun Shows and CPAC. An image search brings back dozens of pictures of her gun totting and bible thumping with the dumbest of them.
UPDATE- Butina seems to have legitimately had a 5 grand a month contract with the Outdoor Channel. Why? It’s pretty hard to say but it was reported as verified on the July 25 Rachel Maddow Show. I’m pretty sure the NRA figures in to this too. So the Spy is doing better than her fake boyfriend.
She got caught up in some ‘gun totter on the streets’ interviews the NRA put together for the internet. More bizarrely, she was suddenly a press corps member whose strange question about US – Russian Sanctions to Trump at an NRA Friendly right wing forum on July 11, 2015 scared the shit out of Steve Bannon (per Fire & Fury and other sources). Butina came off like a spy to Bannon, proving that even bigots can have moments of clarity.
The NRA- Ready-made Traitors
With then NRA president Wayne LaPierre
If your goal is dividing America and taking it apart the NRA is a great place to start. YOu don’t need to be genius to figure this one out. Former NRA President Wayne Lapierre was an endless fountain of UnAmerican comments.
Disdain for law enforcement, constant sympathy for armed Open Carry lunatics and introducing Conspiracy Theories at the moment any Gun Massacre occurs are the methods of the NRA. They are right out of the old Soviet Playbook that Russian Intelligence works off of. Its EASY to make a case the NRA is a Russian Front Organization.
Not Hiding in plain sight
The NRA is such a treasonous, unAmerican Organization that you don’t need to be all that smart to see it ripe for sowing sedition in it’s rhetoric. As far back as the early 90’s the NRA had called US Federal Agents acting on a duly sworn warrant “Jackbooted Thugs”, a statement that so pissed off former president George HW Bush he uttered a few profanities while quitting and then condemning the organization.
While I’m no fan, Bannon allegedly was smart enough and savvy enough to immediately be struck by Butina’s question and stunned enough to think it over and judge it more than a bit strange. Bannon, for all his bile, racism and bad ideas policy-wise, was perhaps the most intelligent Trumpist and he was totally right on this one.
Butina was a plant and the question was written by the Kremlin. Why Trump, who hates the media, indulged her for a question also seemed weird to Bannon (and he was right to think that). So we’re not talking subtlety here. Borderline Brazen is a better term.
Butina had claimed some strange privileges in the past. Like saying she had a Diplomatic Passport and could spirit people in and out of Russia in a boasting session to an FBI Agent. So like I said, this wasn’t all that subtle. So maybe the full blown spy wasn’t given the best training? Nevertheless she was effective.
UPDATE- in the July 18 installment of CNN with Don Lemon, Juliette Kayem said theres some indications the NRA actually sponsored Butina’s student visa, meaning she’s a planned plant and the NRA is an ongoing treasonous enterprise.
Butina in Custody
Now sitting in jail and unlikely to get out barring some kind of spy exchange, Big Butina is probably going to clam up and wait for her government to go ahead and catch someone worthy of exchanging for her (unlikely).
She has no chance of getting bail. She will rot in jail until some kind of trial, which will probably be the End of the NRA and maybe her sugar daddy congressman buddy, Dana Rohrbacher, a guy fellow GOP Rep Kevin McCarthy has described as “taking money right from Putin”
UPDATE- Butina now seems to be willing to make a deal with the US Government. It’s described as ‘Unheard Of”. In an unheard of move Mara Butina is ‘cooperating’ with US Government Investigators. Its crazy,, but then again, so’s everything else about her story. Keep your “Punked Filter” on as always when dealing with the Kremlin and its minions. She may be trying to pull something on her own behalf or be continuing her mission from jail It’s hard to say.
Butina’s charges aren’t sealed. This makes her somewhat unique among Mueller Probe Catches. She will be a valuable window for the general public to see some of the machinations of the Mueller Probe, which to this point looks effective and inexorable.
Butina was certainly sizing up options for the Kremlin. The indictment against her includes statements to known FSB sources as damning as “I await further orders.” She wasn’t selling stuff on consignment to Pottery Barn, so you don’t have to be genius to know what that meant.
Final thought – Maybe Jessica Chastain for the movie? Jessica’s much prettier, but on the other hand, she’s familiar with spy roles.
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 many thousands outright falsehoods in just about 2 years 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 don’t really want some kind of peace deal but the idea keeps lurching forward while Trump ignores reality. Patton was stubborn but nowhere near ignorant, he could reverse course if needed.
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.
intelligent Trumpist and he was totally right on this one.
