Friday, November 30, 2018
The Tweets
Not those tweets - those other tweets. There's always a tweet.
Brian Krassenstein, The Hill Reporter:
Brian Krassenstein, The Hill Reporter:
Credico has deleted that Twitter account, and now says he was just mad and wanted to fuck with Trump and Stone.
OK, fellas, but y'know what? This is not a fucking game. Assholes.
Today's Tweet(s)
Remember the date. 29-NOV-2018
For me, yesterday was roughly the equivalent of the day I was sitting in my mom's kitchen watching the hearings on a really old portable B&W TV, as Alexander Butterfield told the Senate Watergate Committee about Nixon recording conversations in the Oval office.
— ᑕᕼᑌᑎK (@chunkled) November 29, 2018
Or, as Joyce Vance put it:
I took this picture this morning after I finished reading the Cohen information & plea agreement because I wanted to make sure I could always remember the moment when it became clear Mueller was preparing to lay down a royal flush. pic.twitter.com/wA5JSKfhxk— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) November 30, 2018
We'll see what we see. There are several good-sized fish on their way to the cannery right now, but this ain't over until we get the big fish in the boat.
Stay frosty, kids. This is possibly the most dangerous of times.
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Today's Tweet
Adapt - Improvise - Overcome
The cat who has adapted to the fact that his owner is deaf and that sign language is a better way to ask for food 🐱 #pets #smartanimals 🐈 pic.twitter.com/KnsKKB9wv2— Chris van Blerk (@Christophe77) November 28, 2018
It's The Lying, Stupid
Last night, Ol' Doc Maddow did some out-loud worrying about 45*'s constant lying, saying she didn't know how to keep reporting on it without contributing to a level of Trump Fatigue that pushes us all towards a state of political catalepsy.
Here's Lee McIntyre, a Research Fellow at The Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University, in Newsweek, explaining the difference between Lies and Post Truth:
When a politician gets caught in a lie, there’s usually a bit of sweat, perhaps some shame and the expectation of consequences.
Not for Trump. After many commentators pointed out to him that the stock exchange was in fact closed for several days after 9/11, he merely shrugged it off, never bothering to acknowledge—let alone correct—his error.
Why would he do this?
The point of a lie is to convince someone that a falsehood is true. But the point of post-truth is domination. In my analysis, post-truth is an assertion of power.
As journalist Masha Gessen and others have argued, when Trump lies he does so not to get someone to accept what he’s saying as true, but to show that he is powerful enough to say it.
He has asserted, “I’m the President and you’re not,” as if such high political office comes with the prerogative of creating his own reality. This would explain why Trump doesn’t seem to care much if there is videotape or other evidence that contradicts him. When you’re the boss, what does that matter?
So, a coupla things:
Luckily, we still have a few people who can help us understand these things.
Here's Lee McIntyre, a Research Fellow at The Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University, in Newsweek, explaining the difference between Lies and Post Truth:
When a politician gets caught in a lie, there’s usually a bit of sweat, perhaps some shame and the expectation of consequences.
Not for Trump. After many commentators pointed out to him that the stock exchange was in fact closed for several days after 9/11, he merely shrugged it off, never bothering to acknowledge—let alone correct—his error.
Why would he do this?
The point of a lie is to convince someone that a falsehood is true. But the point of post-truth is domination. In my analysis, post-truth is an assertion of power.
As journalist Masha Gessen and others have argued, when Trump lies he does so not to get someone to accept what he’s saying as true, but to show that he is powerful enough to say it.
He has asserted, “I’m the President and you’re not,” as if such high political office comes with the prerogative of creating his own reality. This would explain why Trump doesn’t seem to care much if there is videotape or other evidence that contradicts him. When you’re the boss, what does that matter?
So, a coupla things:
- Don't ever stop pointing out Cult45's lies. It must always be news when anybody in a position of power tries to bullshit us.
- Take McIntyre's thesis to heart. Never forget - it's about power. Identify it, and call it out for what it is.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Super Nerds
Scientists have (again) landed a spacecraft on the proverbial dime.
Starting from a planet which is traveling 67,000 miles per hour and rotating at 1500 feet per second, shooting at a planet which is traveling thru space at 54,000 miles per hour and rotating at 800 feet per second - and is 40 million miles away.
40,000,000 miles.
Right on the button.
I think I'll go ahead and trust scientists on this Climate Change stuff.
hat tip = @ScottLinnen
Statistical Sadness
Un-fun Fact:
In all of our history here in USAmerica Inc, there have been a total of just under 2,000 US Senators.
Black Senators = 10
Women Senators = 52
I'm thinking we should try a little harder to do a little better than that.
hat tip = @StevenTDavis
That Manafort Thing
I was thinking about this last night as the analysis and speculation grew rather frantic on MSNBC.
There's always the very real probability that 45* will do something enormously dickish as he tries to elude the headsman (duh), so Mueller has to make moves that ensure his investigation continues, and/or that his findings make their way out to us (also duh).
Anyway, the big uh-oh yesterday was the possibility that Manafort was playing the double agent, and that meant his "cooperation" was intended to get him inside the investigation so he could feed intel to Cult45, but he'd gotten a little too cute and now he's fucked cuz he's going straight to prison and what if that was part of his plan all along cuz if Mueller is hanging his whole hat on Manafort, what better way to blow it all up than showing that the star witness is so full of shit that he can't be trusted so the investigation starts to look like it really is a witch hunt and blah blah fucking blah.
emptywheel:
Now, it is true that Trump can pardon Manafort (though that probably won’t happen right away). That’s the only sane explanation for Manafort doing what he did, that he is still certain he’ll be pardoned. But many of these charges can still be charged in state court.
Just about the only explanation for Manafort’s actions are that — as I suggested — Trump was happy to have Manafort serve as a mole in Mueller’s investigation.
But Mueller’s team appears to have no doubt that Manafort was lying to them. That means they didn’t really need his testimony, at all. It also means they had no need to keep secrets — they could keep giving Manafort the impression that he was pulling a fast one over the prosecutors, all while reporting misleading information to Trump that he could use to fill out his open book test. Which increases the likelihood that Trump just submitted sworn answers to those questions full of lies.
And that “detailed sentencing submission … sett[ing] forth the nature of the defendant’s crimes and lies” that Mueller mentions in the report?
There’s your Mueller report, which will be provided in a form that Matt Whitaker won’t be able to suppress. (Reminder: Mueller included 38 pages of evidence along with Manafort’s plea agreement, which I argued showed how what Manafort and Trump did to Hillary was the same thing that Manafort had done to Yulia Tymoshenko.)
BTW - Manafort has always reminded me of those old Soviet guys in the 80s who were trying a little too hard not to look like those old Soviet guys in the 80s.
There's always the very real probability that 45* will do something enormously dickish as he tries to elude the headsman (duh), so Mueller has to make moves that ensure his investigation continues, and/or that his findings make their way out to us (also duh).
Anyway, the big uh-oh yesterday was the possibility that Manafort was playing the double agent, and that meant his "cooperation" was intended to get him inside the investigation so he could feed intel to Cult45, but he'd gotten a little too cute and now he's fucked cuz he's going straight to prison and what if that was part of his plan all along cuz if Mueller is hanging his whole hat on Manafort, what better way to blow it all up than showing that the star witness is so full of shit that he can't be trusted so the investigation starts to look like it really is a witch hunt and blah blah fucking blah.
emptywheel:
Now, it is true that Trump can pardon Manafort (though that probably won’t happen right away). That’s the only sane explanation for Manafort doing what he did, that he is still certain he’ll be pardoned. But many of these charges can still be charged in state court.
Just about the only explanation for Manafort’s actions are that — as I suggested — Trump was happy to have Manafort serve as a mole in Mueller’s investigation.
But Mueller’s team appears to have no doubt that Manafort was lying to them. That means they didn’t really need his testimony, at all. It also means they had no need to keep secrets — they could keep giving Manafort the impression that he was pulling a fast one over the prosecutors, all while reporting misleading information to Trump that he could use to fill out his open book test. Which increases the likelihood that Trump just submitted sworn answers to those questions full of lies.
And that “detailed sentencing submission … sett[ing] forth the nature of the defendant’s crimes and lies” that Mueller mentions in the report?
There’s your Mueller report, which will be provided in a form that Matt Whitaker won’t be able to suppress. (Reminder: Mueller included 38 pages of evidence along with Manafort’s plea agreement, which I argued showed how what Manafort and Trump did to Hillary was the same thing that Manafort had done to Yulia Tymoshenko.)
BTW - Manafort has always reminded me of those old Soviet guys in the 80s who were trying a little too hard not to look like those old Soviet guys in the 80s.
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