People that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows -- US Politics September 2020

https://assassinbug.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/nixon_1960.jpg?w=584

i guess nixon was always his own punishment, in some ways

“It’s funny, the relationships I have, the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them,” he told Woodward. “You know? Explain that to me someday, okay?”

Good lord, this idiot. I can explain this to him; he's a sucker for flattery, most especially flattery regarding his amazing toughness, his prowess as a penetrating thinker, and his abilities as a creative and decisive leader. Among leaders of the G-7, only Macron has grasped that to work effectively around Trump's ego, he must cast aside his self-esteem and flatter him shamelessly. Putin, Erdogan, Modi, and Prince bin Salman grasped this at once and play with Trump's ego like a cat batting around a trapped mouse.

his implication seems to be 'game recognize game' which is equally fucked up!

omg 'alice in wonderland'

There is an epic amount of finger-pointing going on at the White House right now about who's to blame for a group of grown adults in serious positions in government - and in one case the president - talking to Woodward.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 9, 2020

lol they are freaking out a bit

and maggie haberman is here to tell us about it oh joy

“You know? Explain that to me someday, okay?”

he really does have no self-awareness huh

I think it's arguable, rather, that his awareness is limited solely to himself. It's just a wafer-thin level of awareness.

"game recognizes game" is exactly what Putin, etc. flatter him into thinking, while the reality is "predator recognizes prey". he is such a small time crook and con man compared to those guys.

Pres Trump's announcement on judicial appointments delayed until 330pm/ET, says WH.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) September 9, 2020

ha wonder why

A senior Department of Homeland Security official alleges that he was told to stop providing intelligence analysis on the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 election, in part because it “made the President look bad,” an instruction he believed would jeopardize national security.

The official, Brian Murphy, who until recently was in charge of intelligence and analysis at DHS, said in a whistleblower complaint that on two occasions he was told to stand down on reporting about the Russian threat.

On July 8, Murphy said, acting Homeland Security secretary Chad Wolf told him that an “intelligence notification” regarding Russian disinformation efforts should be “held” because it was unflattering to Trump, who has long derided Russian interference as a “hoax” that was concocted by his opponents to delegitimize his victory in 2016.

It’s not clear who would have seen the notification, but DHS’s intelligence reports are routinely shared with the FBI, other federal law enforcement agencies and state and local governments.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senior-dhs-official-alleges-in-whistleblower-complaint-that-he-was-told-to-stop-providing-intelligence-analysis-on-threat-of-russian-interference/2020/09/09/9d0661c4-f2b6-11ea-b796-2dd09962649c_story.html

wow, shocking news, very surprising

come on 2020, give me everything you got, i'm barely sweating

you know, i expected better from *checks notes* chad wolf?

agog at the brazen chutzpah of it all

haha, just read this detail in a metastory about the woodward book:

"The book is based in part on 18 on-the-record interviews Woodward conducted with the president between December and July."

a lot of fingerpointing at the white house, trying to figure out how this possibly could have happened *checks notes* chad wolf? *checks notes again* EIGHTEEN TIMES in a 7-month period

woodward was very nice to him to be fair

i probably haven't even had a friend over to my house 18 times in a 7-month period! not lately, at least, that's for sure. the maintenance people at the white house must have been like "hey, what up Bob" every time he showed up

"hey Bob, how's that heated pool upgrade you were talking about the 9th time you were here to talk to trump, a couple months ago? and did your kid get into Williams?"

more amazing to me is that he did this TWICE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear:_Trump_in_the_White_House

he's probably in the white house right now, just quietly taking notes

i know this is beyond all kinds of fucked up...but in the abstract I just love this. it’s so perfect it’s going to make me cry

In early August 2018, Trump called Woodward about the book after the text had already been finalized. Trump told Woodward: "You know I'm very open to you. I think you've always been fair", as both of them expressed sentiments that they should have had an interview before the book was written. Trump initially claimed that no one had informed him that Woodward wanted to interview him, attributing this to his aides being "afraid" to talk to him or "busy"; but later in the call, Trump acknowledged that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham "did quickly mention" that Woodward wanted to conduct an interview. Woodward informs Trump that the book is "a tough look at the world and your administration and you", but will be "factual" and "accurate". Trump thus concludes that the book will be "negative", "bad" and "very inaccurate", because "accurate is that nobody's ever done a better job than I'm doing as president".[10]

Haha, is that why he gave so many interviews for the second book?

I love that they weren't even able to get a full victory lap out of the Nobel nom this morning before this broke. At least last week they were able to show the Pelosi tape at a presser before the Atlantic story came out and took over.

like how do you keep this pace up for four years and at the home stretch just blow it out so hard and shit the bed *this* spectacularly? and then half of the voting pop.’s (which includes so many people I’ve known and trusted implicitly for decades) response is simply: FUCK YES BROTHER TURN IT UP

some people like their beds shitty

Place thumb over butthole and let four years worth of pressure build, I guess?

I'm pretty sure he just admitted that the "no mask" message early on was a govt directive to suppress demand for PPE so that the govt could stockpile.

This Should Be "A Big Deal":

We just added Woodward revelations to Timeline

One item:

Feb. 7: Trump tells Woodward he knows of airborne risks and covid is worse than worst flus

Feb 10-Mar 2, 2020: Trump holds five #MAGA rallies each attracting thousands of people in confined spaceshttps://t.co/62MAaRVL13

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) September 9, 2020

Norwegian Parliament Member Tybring-Gjedde Attended Loyola University Chicago on a Water Polo Scholarship, Nominated Trump for Nobel Prize

how many times will the phrase "taken out of context" be used this week, over/under?

In response to Trump knowing of the coronavirus threat earlier and downplaying the severity of the virus publicly, Romney replied: “It doesn’t sound ideal to me"

Now that's leadership!

here's 1 'context' quote: Sen. Thom Tillis, a vulnerable Republican who is up for reelection, said he wants to see "the full context" of Trump's comments before fully weighing in. But he added: "When you're in a crisis situation, you have to inform people for their public health but you also don't want to create hysteria."

Graham added: "I don’t think he needs to go on TV and screaming we’re all going to die.”

a thing he does daily whenever a protest occurs or a policeman is held accountable

"I’d argued since day one that we put this in proper perspective: I have not been in favor of these overall shutdowns, have been devastating to the economy, devastating to people's health in other ways," said Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told me, when asked about Trump's comments to Woodward.

Johnson added: "It’s been a difficult thing to manage, and I’ve tried not to be critical of any government officials having to make really tough decisions with imperfect information, that includes governors and the President. So I understand what he's saying. I don't think it's an illegitimate point to make."

get fucked, bronco

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the administration's top infectious disease expert, is quoted telling others Trump's leadership was "rudderless" and that his "attention span is like a minus number."

AHAHAHAHAHA

"When you're in a crisis situation, you have to inform people for their public health but you also don't want to create hysteria."

Hence the long wait after "Pyromania."

guilty lols

why did trump agree to talk to woodward lol

and let himself be recorded!

"they don't have that technology yet, to permanently record the sounds of things I say"

the thing about this recording -- and take a knee, because it's important for all of you to grasp this -- is that the entire administration was clearly being dishonest with the american people about the pandemic. and this was not just trump. at the beginning of the pandemic, fauci advised people not to wear masks, later saying it was to preserve critical ppe. like, what the fuck? he should have said 1.) masks work but 2.) we need them for healthcare workers right now. but instead he played down the effectiveness.

yea I'm not really happy about that

take a knee, because it's important for all of you to grasp this

new board description

trump is a baroque and flamboyant liar and asshole, but there is a general problem with government officials being dishonest with the public. and it's severe. that's why people don't trust campaign promises -- often candidate signal to special interests that they won't really carry out the populist proposals they are running on.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/08/finance-202-publicly-biden-is-tough-wall-street-privately-his-camp-is-offering-reassurance/

so yeah -- trump is, as usual, just repeating what people around him were saying, which is that it's the president's job to "prevent panic" or "manage" the public rather than level with them like adults.

I truly do believe many healthcare workers didn't think masks would help significantly and worried about a run on PPEs because there were people stockpiling PPE-type masks that weren't doctors. it was a legitimate concern.

BUT...I agree with whatever public figure scientist it was that said we could have easily drawn a distinction between PPEs and cloth masks rather than telling them not to buy them at all, but warning that the benefits of the mask against COVID weren't proven so nobody wore masks with a false sense of security, like it made them invincible.

lots of health officials have egg on their face after that one. the difference between them and Trump = they have largely admitted this and owned up to it, and expressed regrets.

IDGAF about Fauci but IIRC his public statements in March were masks don't help you much (which seemed aimed at trying to keep people from wearing a mask and thinking they're immune now), they do help you not spread it if you're sick and saving PPE.

i mean, whatever. they were controlling what information the public received based on concerns about how they'd react. and in the end it just caused confusion--no one knew what to believe.

it was obvious to everyone masks were at least partially effective in preventing the transmission of an airborn virus.

Fauci said he didn't because he said he was going off of what was known at the time, which was that there were reported PPE shortages. not 100% thrilled with that, but it isn't as if he was the only person. the Surgeon General made the most pronounced anti-mask statement, and even the WHO was the last one to the finish line.

doesn't change that once the guidance was changed, these same officials never waffled on them again, whereas Trump outright refused to embrace pro-mask messaging or wear them himself.

(which seemed aimed at trying to keep people from wearing a mask and thinking they're immune now)

again the better call would be to just explain the whole situation -- that masks protect you to a degree, but what they really do well is protect others. instead they try to get ahead of it, thinking this will be a better way to manage the public's behavior.