"Avenattism"

    Avenattism is spreading in the Democratic Party https://t.co/XeEJF35ujR

    — Blake Hounshell (powered by blockchain) (@blakehounshell) October 10, 2018

    to which NYTimes reporter pleads

    Stop making that a word please https://t.co/Ipk1AtRaWO

    — Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) October 10, 2018

    Comments

    I am with Glenn on this one.
    It sounds like a heresy squashed by early church Fathers.


    ooh sounds really pissed:


    Big words for a party that just ate another shit sandwich.


    Here is the full context of what Holder said

    “No, no,” Holder says. “When they go low, we kick 'em. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about."

    Several minutes later, Holder clarifies that he’s not advocating anything illicit.

    "When I say we, you know, ‘We kick ‘em,’ I don’t mean we do anything inappropriate. We don’t do anything illegal,” Holder said. “But we got to be tough, and we have to fight for the very things that [civil rights leaders] John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Whitney Young – you know, all those folks gave to us.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/10/eric-holder-when-they-go-low-we-kick-them-thats-what-this-new-democratic-party-is-about/?utm_term=.1a760155a5bc

    Several news outlets leave out the fact that he was not talking about physical violence.

    MSM plays the clip and force candidates like Stacey Abrams to dismiss the comment. 

     

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/hyperbolic-moment-stacey-abrams-declines-to-endorse-eric-holders-controversial-kick-em-comment/2018/10/14/744d0426-cfc8-11e8-b2d2-f397227b43f0_story.html?utm_term=.24c0fe4d6fa0

    By playing only the snippet, MSM gives an opening to Trump.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-blasts-eric-holder-over-kick-em-comment-disgusting-statement


    Damage detector Matt Stoller, Harvard product.

    Stoller determined in a 5000+ word piece in the Atlantic, "How Post-Watergate Liberals Killed Their Populist Soul".....weeks before the 2016 elections.

    Forget that 50 years of liberal failings being summarized as "suicide" and being written a couple weeks before an election, but, how can any serious person talk about American politics during that period without once mentioning "racism" or "racist"? Stoller does it. Harvard pedigree, white male, never held a responsible position in the government or any Party position. He writes stuff. Criticizes people with real jobs, accountable and historic responsibilities.

    Does Toller mention racism ever, anywhere? Well yes.

    Stoller mentioned "racism" in lauding Ron Paul, in 2011,

    Stoller: " (Paul) is also the only prominent politician, let alone Presidential candidate, saying that the drug war has racist origins". No links provided, perhaps because what Paul said was his usual bs.

    Ron Paul's great racism recognition moment according to Matt Stoller, is from the 1980's  link, Ron Paul:

    "...you know there’s a pretty good case made that this same concept was built in with racism as well. We do know that opium was used by the Chinese and the Chinese were not welcomed in this country,” Paul said. “We do know that the blacks at times use heroin, opium and the laws have been used against them. There have been times that it has been recognized that the Latin Americans use marijuana and the laws have been written against them. But lo and behold the drug that inebriates most of the members of Congress has not been touched because they’re up there drinking alcohol.”

    Chinese, Chinese, blacks, Latin Americans and members of Congress. 1980's. No guarantee Paul was not "inebriated" like "most members of Congress" when he said this gem.

    A great moment in calling out racism in America? Yes, according to Stoller.


    It’s amazing. Trump began his campaign with birtherism. The Republicans on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. They allow states to”legally” purge voters. Heitkamp is losing because the white guys on the Supreme Court (along with Supreme Court Kanye) allows Native American vote  purging. The Republican candidate for Governor of Georgia is attempting to purge minority votes. The Republicans in Manhattan invite the leader of the Proud Boys to speak because he fits into the definition of a Conservative. Multiple studies tell us that “social anxiety” (racism) was more important than economics in support for Trump. If you mention these truths on a blog, you are alienating white voters. The “real” problem ,you see, is Liberals. Republican Proud Boys kick the crap out of three guys. Why do Liberals keep angering Republicans?

     

     


    When Melania wore the Do you care jacket, she was given white women’s privilege. The jacket had to be a statement that she cared about the children. Turns out she was blasting the Leftist press. The jacket was all, about her. The whole family is scum. Voters know they are scum. If people are still supporting Trump, they are actively importing scum.

    There are many white and black Democrats who would benefit from the tax cuts that favor the wealthy, but they are willing to forgoe the cut to benefit the middle class. If you are willing to overlook kidnapping children to get a tax cut, you are scum.


    There is no member of the Trump family who has any redeemable attributes. For each one it's all about themselves. It's been said, Trump supporters believe Trump's atrocious behavior is how they think a rich white man is entitled to act. And, "he says what they've been thinkin'."

    That tens of millions of voters think the flim flam man is their messiah is a jaw dropper. 

    That they have fallen in love with the demagoguery when the nation is not in any economic straits makes one wonder what they'll want and who they'll support if, as seems likely, the next GOP generated tax cut, deficit exploding deregulation stoked downturn is worse than the one in 2008.


    I am not a fan of Michael Avenatti. He and Trump are no different, they both thrive in "The Spectacle", they love The Spectacle and The Spectacle will make him rich and notorious just like Trump. But Avenatti isn't helping anything, he isn't helping Democrats, he isn't helping America. The sooner Democrats push him to the curb the better off we will all be. 


    "He and Trump are no different"??? really?

    Avenatti was worth his weight in gold dismantling Trump's lawyer relations,
    seeing as Mueller couldn't play a public PR role and no one else was holding off the
    "Collusion? there was no Collusion" full-court GOP political-media press.
    Buh-Bye, Michael Cohen - when it first seemed that Stormy would either get trounced or ignored.

    Dems have traditionally been awful on talk shows, giving away the field to the right
    even when they aren't packing the shows 3:1 with right-wing characters.
    Again, Avenatti was helpful balancing the onslaught.

    Avenatti was useful with PR for ICE's pulling kids from immigrants,
    and he arguably would have been useful in the Kavanaugh hearing
    except the GOP embaragoed most anyone that could testify negatively - 
    Blasey Ford being largely the only exception, and they brought in a sawblade
    to cut her down in the after-report, even though Blasey Ford did fine on the stand.

    If you find Avenatti representing some cause or side of things he shouldn't be,
    let me know. But so far he seems to be lined up with the forces of good.
    Is it essential that Democrats have to clutch pearls and self-destruct if anyone
    raises their head up to high, appears to be forceful and/or effective?
    I liked Kamala Harris, but even with her examination, she couldn't manage to
    get the ball over the line - you could kind of tell she had Kavanaugh dead to rights,
    but she wouldn't effing slam it through, until finally her time was up.
    Who fought them taking off the prosecutor once it came out Kavanaugh had July 1
    in his calendar that matched the party we were looking for? We rolled over.


    I don't think they are different, sure Avenatti is fun to watch and is obviously smarter than Trump, but he isn't in this for some benevolent "he's saving the world from Trump" reason, he is in this for the money and fame. Hell, he even talks about running for President! What? Maybe he can be President of Twitter, cause otherwise, nope!

    I know lots of twitterati love Avenatti, and it's because he is a master of The Spectacle. He's so good at it! He can almost out Trump, Trump, not quite, but almost. But nothing you can write will ever change my mind that Avenatti is not going to help Democrats in the long or short term. We cannot beat Trump by being Trump, we have to quit playing his game. Just like Joshua said," Greetings Professor Falken, a strange game, the only winning move is not to play". Avenatti is not good for Democrats and he isn't good for America, all he is doing is furthering our headlong rush to a bottom that appears to have no end. 


    Wow, and Gore is ust like Bush and Hillary's just like Trump...
    Seriously, just accept the party can use different types of personalities without demonizing the ones you don't like.
    We already lost Franken in our mad dash to be pure, and he was perhaps the best Senate interrogator we had (along with Alan Grayson in the House, though he was quite abrasive but useful).


    The whole thing with Stormy Daniels is a side show and Avenatti is a clown. I haven't paid much attention to it because I don't care about side shows and I'm  not interested in clowns.


    Well, honestly I didn't write any of what you wrote above, so I'm not sure I should respond but I only said Avenatti is like Trump (he is), no need to blow it beyond that.  Unless this is some last word thing, if that's it just let me know and I'll bid you adieu.


    I don't understand how "Avenatti is like Trump".

    Avenatti is calm and articulate, he doesn't talk over people and interrupt, he doesn't insult women and minorities, he's a skilled lawyer, he's thorough, he's a self-made man with a track record of real trial successes, he does what he says he's going to do, he doesn't blatantly lie continuously, he doesn't change what he said he said even when filmed, he has no problem putting someone else (his clients) first in front of the camera or wait his turn at a roundtable, he comes across as mainly polite, I don't see him excessively bragging, I don't see him talking about his personal life or making disgusting comments about his daughters, I don't see him surrounding himself with criminals and sycophants.

    And as a lawyer, he comes across as much more professional and truthful and ethical than Cohen, Giuliani, Dershowitz and Trump's other lawyers.

    So I simply don't get the contention. Saying he'll fight back against Trump doesn't make him "just like Trump" - it's 1 piece, 1 strategy. And he notes that people like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and eb Bush just took Trump's insults and came away bruised and humiliated, so it's not even a solid working strategy to stay passive and "play nice".

    Regarding "The Spectacle", Avanatti has a client who was wronged by the President, and he's simply done his job - combatting the lies that Cohen & Trump were telling, forcing evidence seizure, and other tactics directly related to his client. That he went on TV is simply part of a PR element to defending a client *WHO'S BEING ATTACKED IN THE MEDIA*. Most of the Democrats are very poor at handling PR, as Elizabeth Warren and Eric Holder just showed this week. (Hillary's timing to respond to "abuse of power" was probably poor as well - but Avenatti's approach wouldn't have been to just shut up - it would have been to tenaciously blow the issue open so they had to listen to the answer - 2 horny people in an office is not by itself "abuse of power" even if one is the President, and it's far from the abusive 1-sided relationships that #MeToo was founded to expose.

    The problem here is not Avenatti's - it's the relationship between the lazy corrupt media organizations and these political powers. Talking reasonable gets you nowhere, swallowed up in the mush - re-watch "Network".

    [I will say Stormy's description of Trump's penis was gratuitous and unhelpful and one kind of shaming that cuts against being progressive, but this is more her schtick and profession, & not Avenatti's - and of course it's why half the people will buy her book]


    Lost the defamation suit, but at least brought it - and will appeal. So every time Trump antagonizes a Blasey-Ford, he at least has to think about it. Meanwhile, the NDA case continues (and Trump's previous lawyer Cohen's blabbing to Mueller like a high schooler after first date).
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/15/stormy-daniels-lawsuit-d...


    thanks for those links, tmac, very interesting meme.


    Spectacle warning:


    High drama! Because the real race is on Entertainment Tonight, I'm sure. The Kanye vs.Taylor Swift story has been going on since he dissed her win at the 2009 MTV awards. Tribal war for real, with all kind of people switching sides, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, all that stuff...the one thing Trump is good at, always liked wrestling and beauty pageants...not to mention glorious military parades, but that's another thing


    Fox has already played the Kanye meme up big time. The point is not to try to win black votes, as they don't watch Fox. The point is to show the base and swings and moderates how Trump is not a racism stoker but cares about keeping everyone happy as much as he can, a party and a president for all, not divisive.


    How would you suggest countering Trump’s use of West as a prop?


    I prefer to analyze and deconstruct political activities rather than prescribe them.  In my ideal world, there wouldn't be any. Edit to add: we should start by outlawing high school pep rallies, which aim to teach artificial partisanship and tribalism for no good reason really, to the benefit of football programs. Deconstructing political activity, including that of participants like you, is the main reason I read and post news here.


    No good reason? Gentlemen may prefer Hanes, but high school boys prefer pom-pom girls.
    How you gonna keep 'em down on the track team once they've seen...


    Art, now I am sure you are a commie subversive trying to destroy the God given right for young women to shake their booty and men to enjoy their freedom of expression.

    You guys can't fool me, I've been around the block some. You say it's all about harmless aesthetic girl watching just so that you can hide your warmongering testosterone interest in watching alpha dog contests.


    p.s. kinda nice though, how this brings us back to the topic of the thread: "Avenattism".


    Every dog has his day. Atavistic response vs Avenattistic...


    so on the big Kanye shew, a quick check on the twitter feed, I like this one by this Harvard prof I follow (self-described Harvard prof. TED speaker. Author of The Rise. Guest editor of the "Vision & Justice" issue of Aperture. Light-seeker.):

    and then I can't help it but I like Maggie:

     


    There are all sorts of ways some men use to feel like men and it has nothing to do with a hat. Some men send pictures of their cock to feel like men or masturbate in front of them. Some grab them in the pussy. I'm sure Kanye felt like a real man when he went on stage and berated a women for winning a VMA award he decided she didn't deserve. He didn't need a MAGA hat to manly do that. He was real ballsy without it.


    Kanye has issues

    Perhaps opioids 

    http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/kanye-tells-radio-host-hospitalized-opioid-addiction-article-1.3952201

    Kanye grabbed the mic from Taylor Swift

     President Obama said Kanye was a jackass

    Jackasses were offended by the comparison 

    Kanye likes porn

    Now Kanye meets with Trump

    MAGA

     


    Made me think: What's good enough for a president afflicted with narcissistic personality disorder should be good enough for Kanye?

    Hey I know everyone is like “Kanye is mentally ill this is so sad” but did you ever think maybe he’s just an asshole and f that guy?

    — Ed Boo-mila (@gin_and_tacos) October 12, 2018

    (Not just another comic, the commenter is self-described as Political Science prof. Writer @thenation@thebafflermag @deadspin@jacobinmag etc. Podcast: Mass for Shut-ins https://tinyurl.com/yctxpz8r )


    a "jackass":


    Clarity about the current state of brand marketing:

    Kanye West, Donald Trump, and the Reign of Human Clickbait by Max Read @ NYMag.com, Oct. 12:

    [....] Maybe it suffices to say: Kanye seems unwell. Kanye the human being, who needs to string together coherent thoughts and maintain relationships with other human beings, seems unwell, at any rate. Kanye the celebrity? Kanye the brand? Kanye the guy who needs people to buy his clothing, albums, and concert tickets? That Kanye is doing great. That Kanye is the center of attention, at a moment when it’s never been more difficult to become the center of attention.

    Really, if the summit was “successful,” it was successful along a single vector: It drew everyone’s attention to Kanye and Trump. The spectacle made me think of the observation by the psychiatrist Allen Frances — an author of the DSM-IV — that no matter Trump’s obvious emotional instability, he can’t be considered mentally ill because he “does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder.” He has “been richly rewarded, rather than punished, for his grandiosity, self-absorption and lack of empathy.” The behaviors that, in a different person, might lead to a diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder were the very behaviors that ultimately helped place Trump in the White House.

    The same dynamic seems to hold true with Kanye. In May, when he went on an erratic, multi-week stint of binge-tweeting about Trump, Twitter users were unsure about whether it was a masterful piece of performance art or a classic hypomanic episode. Ultimately, it seemed not to matter. The effect was the same: Everyone was paying attention just as he was releasing a string of new albums. West calling bipolar disorder his “superpower” was divisive — was he glamorizing bipolar disorder? Trivializing it? — but you could see why, in the narrow context of celebrity and the attention economy, he’d imagine it that way. West, like Trump, lives in a world where the qualities that might lead someone to be diagnosed with a mental illness — including, but not limited to, grandiosity, unpredictability, and self-aggrandizement — are the same qualities required if he hopes to stand out in a crowded media marketplace [....]


    I see this as a problem in the world today. Braggadocio taking the place of quality. Yes Trump's braggadocio, grandiosity, and narcissism were keys to his success both on the Apprentice and in politics. But what he produced is trash in both. And enough people are entranced by trash to make The Apprentice a successful tv show and to give an ignorant incompetent man the presidency.

    Kanye produces albums in the most musically simplistic genre of music. One might claim it's more chanted poetry than music but from what I've heard of rap it doesn't seem like it will go down as deeply insightful poetry. Even in this genre of music Kanye isn't considered one of the best. He sells his albums on the shock value of his personality, his braggadocio and grandiosity.  David Crosby tweeted about Kanye in 2015, “He can’t write, sing, or play at all. He is an egomaniac, he is dumb as a post, he creates nothing." This is what a large amount of people are choosing musically today over quality.

    I don't understand how lies and bragging can be more appealing to almost half the voters than knowledge and experience. I don't understand why the quality of music has deteriorated so quickly over the last few decades to produce a wealthy famous musician so lacking in musical ability as Kanye.


    I posted it because it sounded right to me. And then I mostly agree with you. So things make sense out of the nonsense. BUT THEN, as often happens, tonight Trump just goes overboard and really just does seem mentally ill. Where he not only gets into totally irrational stream of consciousness babbling but actively counters his own goals of adoration: Trump calls on blacks to “honor” him with their votes, then praises Confederate general Robert E. Lee, @Gabriel_Pogrund reports from Union stronghold Ohio.  More detail about his story here. A smart narcissist and/or a smart con artist, would not make these kind of mistakes and go off on crazy flights. I.E. if they don't have enough knowledge to manipulate properly using a certain subject, they will limit themselves to the areas where they sound savvy, not stupid. He just sounds manic sometimes, and this story tonight by Rogers and Haberman @ NYTimes reviews how manic his last week really was. So I often vacillate between thinking he is a wise manipulative and that he is mentally ill.

    Edit to add: There was one point last week or the week before where he seemed to actually be honest about himself when talking about Kavanaugh's drinking--a press conference standing at a podium outside, cabinet guys behind him-- and he went on and on about never drinking and then a very rare moment of self-deprecation he said something like "can you imagine how much more crazy I would be if I drank?"

    It's like this: yes, he just has a personality disorder. But lately, it seems really really out of control, like something's going super wack. He does seem to have very manic periods.


    But for Trump, he has to force the contradiction - it's not humiliating enough if blacks love him w/o accepting Robert E Lee and David Duke in the crap bargain. He must show absolute dominion. 


    is that not also classic stuff of the psychiatrist's couch along the lines of "prove you still love me, daddy, even when I'm really really really nasty?"


    Let's leave the Ivanka relationship outof it, shall we...


    here's a good retort to the current commander-in-chief's babbling of faux history:

     


    Finally, I just ran across this interesting tweet exchange between Maggie Haberman and Daniel Dale about the Robert E. Lee/Ulysses S. Grant story. Dale, a Canadian reporter, has been live tweeting all of Trump's rallies for quite some time, along the lines of "so you don't have to watch them." So like Maggie, he's used to trying to figure out what's really going on:

    Which would just make it more same old same old narcissism....equating himself with Lincoln....

     


    This is over-complicated - the one I"d always heard was "The other generals came to Lincoln complaining that Grant was too fond of whiskey. In view of Grant's success, Lincoln responded, "I suggest you find out what brand he drinks".  How this turned into a retarded White House conversation in 2018, I've no idea. We live in challenged times.


    I'm not surprised that snowflake bluebellies don't get what Trump is saying about Marse Robert or US Grant. We should be able to remember and even admire great military minds even if the Lost Cause they led was tragically flawed. Sons and daughters of the South have to live with the taint of slavery just as Northern democrats must live with their history as the party of slavery. Some opportunists use this history for race-baiting and other low-road divisive tactics. The commies among us thrive on destroying and distorting history but even statues of Lincoln didn't escape the mob frenzy of the purge. The PC postmodern resistance may not get what Trump was saying about them in his comment about US Grant but his supporters don't seem to suffer from the confusion that the retarded Left often displays.

    I'm not surprised the republican shit heads believe everything Trump spouts when he gets into his diarrhea of the mouth mode. Right wing assholes don't read and are used to being lied to. They eat what ever shit is fed to them.


    What the fuck, dude, are you on angel dust? Trump said quote, "People are finally recognizing Grant as a great general". Like only since 150 years "finally". I mean, Trump takes a shit and thinks he created toilet bowls. What Trump the egomaniac is saying in his code is that he didn't know this story but now that he does and is ruining it with his shitty smug delivery for a crowd who no doubt has heard it a bejillion times, "people are finally recognizing this or that".

    So are you going to teach me about growing up in the South now? Well just fuck off. I can tell you one thing, is that Southerners never needed a Northerner coming along speaking lickspittle ass-licking platitudes in their name, and you or Trump aren't gonna be the first.

    ETA: I had forgotten James Thurber's tale of how a drunk Grant surrendered to Lee at Appamatox.

    Grant wasn't forgotten as a great general, but he was remembered too as presiding over the most corrupt presidency in American history until... Donald Trump. The difference being Grant wasn't considered corrupt himself, just drunk and unimaginative.

    While briefly googling the barrel of whiskey quote, I ran across this book review that may make the case that Grant was less of a loser president than believed, that he was harnessing out-of-control powerful factions with some skill. The description's quite interesting - I'm not of the mind at the moment and don't have enough historical reference to judge. Still, it's nice to read athe bit of serious history w/o it being dumbed way down for a Trump speech or Twitter fight. So here's for athe longer read:

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/02/pour-one-out-for-ulysses-s...


    I don't know where or if you grew up but I grew up in Michigan although I was born down yonder. People with advanced TDS don't seem to understand much of reality today no less what Trump is saying. Moving on, did you see the CNN report that creepy Joe Biden is leading the pack of dem demented 2020 hopefuls. Commie Bernie is in second place with the Indian impersonator lagging behind. This is going to be extremely entertaining and fun watching the Hegemon toy with these losers.

    Polls for the presidential primary taken before the mid term elections are about nothing more than name recognition. It's amazing how republican shit heads who have gone through numerous election cycles haven't realized that. But then right wing assholes are incredibly stupid. Even Trump knows how stupid his base is, "I love the poorly educated."


    Trump speaks like a fucking moron, änd then the weasel dick will reverse himself or just deny if anyone challenges him or lie like hell, so understanding "what Trump is saying" is like trying to catch a greased pig, and I don't have to catch the pig to know he's a nasty piece of work. I understand Trump repeats himself like an NLP monkey salesman should, and he does his fingers like "follow the bouncing ball" saw all the people with brains of 4-year-olds who didn't progress past romper room can follow "what Trump is saying". I'm still waiting for what he'll say in that Mueller interview he promised in June 2017 - 16 months ago he's been running from the inevitable, the 1-man perjury show vs. the very methodical special counsel. BTW, that "reality" contains numerous convictions, however much you want to explain those away. How many charges prosecuted against "crooked Hillary"? zilch you say? well,, having your personal lawyer for years plead guilty to all sorts of nasty shit doesn't exactly testify to your hiring "the best people". nor does your campaign manager admitting to massive fraud. Nor does your security advisor pleading guilty (which, um, is more of a problem than unclassified emails on a seemiingly unpenetrated home server). And if 3 of Trump's closest people got busted for fraud, and then the NY Times finds Trump illegally funneled payments through a 3rd party to both underreport building value and cheat his tenants at the same time, who am I going to believe, him (and you)? or the newspaper with the documents?

    Now, my opinion on Robert E Lee is that he was an excellent general (the confederates were at a distinct disadvantage for 4 years but still held on), and *not* a traitor. We ridicule say Burma for not letting the Rohinga vote & go independent, insist on the importance of Quebec or Catalonia being able to vote, supported the disintegration of Yugoslavia, agree that the Brits have a right to leave the European Union however stupid and self-damaging that might be, don't dispute the splitting of India into 3 (now 4) countries, agree that North Vietnam had no right to attack the South (same with North Korea vs South), and actively worked for the dismantling of the Soviet Union. I don't find anything morally compelling in telling a region of a country that they cannot secede, that that union must be preserved at all costs. That's a historical brain fart, an untenable position in today's moral frameworks, perversely stupid to keep repeating in 2018, and if it weren't balanced by a much worse untenable position, Lincoln would have gone down in history as a tyrant. His blockade based on the idea that an island in a harbor of a region that's seceded will still remain the Federal government's forever is as doubtful as Gibraltar and Guantanamo and Kaliningrad, et al. Algeria fought a war of independence against the colonial French in 1961, with 1 million killed (mostly French) - by what regards do we think a unified France was more important than anything else, including France's African colonies (legally a part of France, not just a colony or territory)?

    But the other untenable position was the South as committing massive crimes against humanity, and howevermuch the North benefitted economically, the South was the 2nd story man - the North was just helping fence the goods. [ok, a better, more horrific but precise analogy would be kidnapper/jailer/torturer combined with someone who sold the captives' jewelry and belongs or resold the fruit of their work - basically characters out of "Saw"]


    [Deleted fir trolling - write something real - PP]


    Sorry, PP I didn't realise you were so delicate that a little humorous advice and My Generation poetry would shatter your unreality. Perhaps living among the CESM's has made you weak and vulnerable. You can delete this comment also and I won't use the humor you requested anymore.

    *That* was humor? You & Jerry Rubin diverged quite a while back, didn't you.


    When you need to do something simple, like ask your neighbor to mow your lawn next week because you will be out of town for a while, do you repeat the same formulas you repeat here every time before you say something or fail to say something?
    The ratio of signal to noise is so low, that I often think you must be a skillful parodist, hell bent on destroying those you ostensibly support.
    Bravo.


    Got a new name for ya: Peter Polemic. Clue: anti-polemic polemic does not cure polemic but actually amps it up orders of magnitude. You should thank Peracles for the nuance in his replies to break the self-demeaning nature of your debate.

    Oh and quit defending Trump as your figurehead. You know he's not. To continue doing so you're acting like a beta juvvie gang member. Just because he riles those you dislike . A pact with devil and a childish one to boot And you got more smarts than that. Be your own man, quit hiding behind him if you want to be taken seriously.


    On the other hand, running across this snarky tweet made me think that maybe you just love having a president representing our country that speaks with 3rd-grade level hyperbole

    Wait ‘til he hears about Jesus https://t.co/G3C0iZ4t79

    — Virginia Montanez (@JanePitt) October 14, 2018

    You obviously love to play with hyperbole yourself. The point though: yours rates at a slightly higher grade level! Not much but something. How come you bow to and defend an idiot as an alpha? Certainly no other world leaders do.


    It's great to see you admit that my polemic is not the same as your linktavist propagandising. I investigated these Proud Boys the snowflakes are so inflamed and fearful of and they seem to be a needed fraternal male bonding response to some of the extreme damage done to the male species by PC denigration and leftist attempts to neuter masculinity. They're a bit too Greek for me but are open to all races and even gays plus they are street fighters needed to confront the Soros mini-mobs spreading hate and violence today. I don't hide behind anyone and like Popeye 'I yam what I yam', Evil is a too subjective religious term for a commie to use to describe Trump. I prefer proud and hegemonic leading a populist revolution against the globalist threat.

    Also of the things I have heard from Kanye (admittedly I have not paid attention to all of it) it sounds remarkably similar to the tendency of a certain kind of lost male to fall for Ayn Randian type stuff, and the target age group for that kind of stuff is 15-30 according to a sociologist in this article.  Age 15-30 males also happen to be a most-chased-after demographic in entertainment:

    Why Young Men of Color Are Joining White-Supremacist Groups

    Patriot Prayer’s leader is half-Japanese. Black and brown faces march with the Proud Boys. Is the future of hate multicultural?

    By Arun Gupta @ DailyBeast.com, 09.04.18 4:54 AM ET

    [....] David Neiwert, author of Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, says, “The ranks of people of color who show up to these right-wing events are totally dominated by males.” He says the alt-right targets white males between the ages of 15 and 30 with a message of male resentment, which ends up attracting black, Latino, and Asian men as well.

    Neiwert says many young men of color in the far-right grew up on conservative traditions common in minority communities. Their journey to the far-right has been enabled by the ease of recruitment in the internet age and the endorsement of extremism by Trump.

    Entry points to the far-right include male-dominated video-game culture, the anti-feminist gamergate, troll havens on 4chan and 8chan, and the conspiracism that flourishes on websites like Infowars. Libertarianism is another gateway.

    “A lot of these young guys,” Neiwert says, “especially from the software world, who are being sucked into white nationalism, start out being worked up about Ayn Rand in high school.” [....]

    Yes I know Kanye doesn't read books, so the thought of him knowing about Ayn Rand philosophy is ridiculous, but cynical me is thinking maybe he intuits what the tastes are of the demographic he thinks he's speaking for. Same way Trump intuits what the fans want (and gets it wrong sometimes.)


    I felt like Trump was taking advantage of a severely mentally ill man. It made me sick. Mr. West seemed manic and unstable and not there, it was unconscionable that he was subjected to being a part of Trumps spectacle. 


    Michelle Obama responds to Holder's comment:

     


    Holder didn't have much intelligent to say for 8 years, and when he could have been an advocate for Black Lives Matters, was rather useless. Where was mister tough guy then?

    Don't see what this soundbite was supposed to accomplish. Guess there's a sale on macho talk somewhere. Meanwhile, despite all the talk and organizing on Kavanaugh, we still lost. Where was Holder last week? Kicking his heels somewhere?


    Holder was the defender of death squads so his attitude displayed by these comments is unsuprising. Avenatti OTOH is a fresh faced porn lawyer and the perfect pick to lead the snowflake resistance in the 2020 election. This wise choice will create the target rich environment that I and others will need to produce the gonzo humor you demanded of me earlier.

    Republican shit heads want to make Avenatti the face of the democrats when he is at most a bit player. Lying like that is a typical repugnaut strategy. You can find trolls and other right wing assholes spreading these lies on sites all around the internet.


    Are you implying that PP is a shit head? An Avenetti/Cortez ticket in 2020 could be the dream team the snoflake resistance has been waiting for. Nationalizing the porn industry would be a great progressive party plank along with Medicare for all to treat the STDs that would spread through the administrative state's bureaucracy.

    Amazing that republican shit heads can't even tell the difference between their piece of shit brothers and democrats. Kanye comes to the oval office and these right wing brain dead assholes think blacks like Trump. 


    Avenatti is just a bit player. Maybe someday. He's not in the porn biz - that's Trump/Cohen's side of the street - he just represented a porn industry client who was misused bt the president.


    You know, Peter, the Times reported Trump stole hundreds of millions in tax money along with his family - lying all the while about being a "self-made man", whil his Saudi buddy hacked up a US reporter with a bone cutter in Turkey as he went to get papers for his wedding (in our country we throw rice). I think Stormy showing her twat for willing customers pales in comparison, and again, Avenatti's defending her from shakedown artists like Trump and Cohen, not pimping her out. Did you know some of Trump's police fans tried to have Stormy arrested on a fake charge at a club, only to have Avenatti prove it was pre-planned and the alleged violation never happened? These are the kind of scum who occupy the White House and Kasbaa, not an ordinary "gentlemen's club" (which areis perfectly legal, by the way - whether you or I like them or not.)


    PP. you should know by now that the Times is a fake news rag and that legal tax avoidance is not illegal tax evasion and you can't steal money you already possessTrump had already made a fortune before Fred died and he made another larger fortune from the inheritance he and his siblings recieved. Stormy recieved shakedown cash from Trump via Cohen and Avenattti is a bottom feeder trying to profit from helping her escape the legal non disclosure agreement. Whatever happened in Turkey and whomever is responsible the friendship between the US and the KSA has been damaged and that may be the the intent of this crime.

    It's not legal to grossly undervalue assets for tax avoidance, and this was not money he "already possessed" - it was money he was inheriting from his father and at the time would have had to legally pay high gift taxes on this. However you excuse scofflaws, they're scifflaws. This was not a tax shelter - it was well-documented tax cheating through unallowed methods, including running purchases through a shell company to artificially and illegally inflate particular costs to increase tax writeoffs. Attacking the NY Times won't help your argument - the paperwork's available despite their best efforts at hiding it.


    more old timey polemic against the NYT just like in the daze of Judith Miller. YAWN. You're only hurting yourself by closing your eyes on that front, making yourself powerless with pertinent lack of knowledge.


    The point of the screed is to make Trump the victim. That's it.
    If this engagement was about knowledge, it would not require viewing the same Glenn Beck lecture over and over again. It will never get any better.


    To be clear, this was illegal, and if it had been discovered & documented earlier, there would have been criminal cases & Trump almost certainly would have gone to jail. As it is, there's a very good chance of multiple actions to recover owed taxes plus penalties, which does not have the same statute of limitations as criminal charges.


    I didn't realize you were an expert tax evasion lawyer who moonlights as a judge and jury on cases that have never been to court. The IRS weren't all on vacation when these legal tax avoidance plans were implimented and the money was Fred's.You want to believe the opinions and claims from the Times about these transactions but they are just speculation and spin that even I a tax non expert could easily see through.

    You seem to be implying that the IRS is omniscient and has infinite resources. 

    Trump is the victim again because he should have been charged decades earlier if these charges are true. The charge is absurd because it is based upon the premise that there are people who actively evade paying taxes by hiding their actual wealth from the IRS.

    And nobody could do that. No matter how hard they tried.

    Right?


    The Time's story was a hit piece, partisan yellow journalism aimed at influencing the election. It doesn't matter that it will be proven to be fake news and it joins a long list of phony smears that are useful as talking points for the failing snowflake resistance. PP's rant provides a perfect example of how true believers depend on this type of trash. It's here today and gone tomorrow much like Bob Woodward's contribution to the smear campaign. Woodward did a book signing at Georgetown a few days ago and a huge mob of 30 students were interested enough to show up. FYI the IRS has an $11 billion budget and 10,000 employees so they are up to the task of auditing the Trump family businesses.

    I am sure you will follow up your assertions regarding the NYT reporting with some kind of evidence.

    As for the IRS enforcement capacity, your team has been degrading it lately. It has already been decreasing sharply since 2010 according to this report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

    As seven former IRS commissioners from both Republican and Democratic administrations have written: “Over the last fifty years, none of us has ever witnessed anything like what has happened to the IRS appropriations over the last five years and the impact these appropriations reductions are having on our tax system.

    (several paragraphs later):

    But IRS enforcement must be strengthened, as well, which will pose a dual challenge.  First, budget cuts have disproportionately targeted funding for enforcement, and the IRS’s capability to perform this function adequately must be restored.  Second, the new tax law’s design will invite taxpayers, particularly affluent ones and corporations with means to hire high-priced accountants and lawyers, to re-characterize their financial affairs strictly for tax purposes, aggressively pushing against the boundaries of the new law.  IRS enforcement must be able to identify those who step over the boundaries.

    "Re-characterizing financial affairs" is what the report is reporting.


    I'm not a liberal so I won't cut and run, divert the conservation or use whataboutism if and when I am proven wrong. I'll leave any followup to the tax law experts who have already exposed the holes and spin in the Times' hit piece. Wealthy liberals and conservatives all use the best available tax accountants and lawyers to insure they pay only what they owe under tax law. They all push the legal boundaries of those laws and are penalized when they cross the line. This was displayed recently when the hedge fund led by one of Trump's big supporters was ordered to pay billions in back taxes in a ruling on one of these boundary issues. The IRS has been used as a political tool to harass and intimidate for political reasons so a little wing clipping and deep state purging was needed to redirect them back to their legal mandate.

    I'm not a conservative so I don't lie and obfuscate. Cutting and running is your favorite tactic here. When ever one of your more outlandish statements here are proven wrong you drop out of the conversation. 


    Where have I been proven wrong?


    You will be comforted to know that New York State is looking into the allegations:


    The Tax Department is reviewing the allegations in the [Times] article and is vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation,” said James Gazzale, a spokesman for the New York Department of Taxation and Finance.


    Ah, so you're saying that the deep state conspiracy that's happening on the federal level has extended that liberal coup to deep state actors on the state level as well.


    Woodstock happened here. I leave it to experts to explain what happened next.


    Still waiting for that evidence that the report is false.
    Arguing on the basis of authority only works if one actually says who that authority is.


    I gave you my opinion and we will both have to wait for the lack of evidence that it is an accurate report. It's a bit difficult for me to keep up with multiple comment thread attacks and demands but I'll remember you when any new news about this bogus report are published.


    Till that day, then.

    But this does make your previously stated certainty less than a thing.



    You are a spin-meister, so you "seeing through" spin just means you twisted it back 270 or whatever. (off-topic: there's some new bizarre high-spun pitch that's become big in baseball - can google it)

    The Times doesn't put easy-to-debunk spin on a major exposé on the front page.

    The IRS agents at the time could have easily missed that a shell company was inflating costs & passing them on to tenants. Certainly the City of New York wouldn't have been thrilled, and no, the "everybody does it" excuse runs out of steam at some point - the legal system is not just a free pass to excuse people with good lawyers - some people *do* go to jail.


    My fastball, high and inside, works just fine to get your attention when you crowd the plate. I don't need the spinning curve to get you to swing and miss and strike out. The failing NYT doesn't care if their yellow journalism is debunked its purpose is to keep the TDS mobs inflamed and believing that they can still win the game. Freddie's dead so even if he did, which I doubt, shaft the Man it's too late to visit the sins of the father on the son.

    I think you're running Sanford & Sons instead, or maybe even Room 222.
    Come back, Peter - Mr. Kotter can still save you - look what he did for Travolta.


    Where has the Times report been debunked?
    You keep claiming it has but do not provide evidence to support the claim.


    I dunno what-ism to call it, but Michael Tackett reporting for the NYTimes from Kentucky, is pointing out the memes Biden is trying out:

    He’s ‘Trashing American Values’: Biden Doesn’t Hold Back on Trump

    • In an interview in rural Kentucky, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. tested themes for a possible 2020 campaign to unseat President Trump.
    • Mr. Biden is one of the few national Democrats thought to be able to connect with the white rural voters who have abandoned the party.

    4h ago


    and then from on the right, there's a report on the way beyond Avenattism, even beyond Trump thing:

    Scott Wagner, the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor, threatened to “stomp all over” his opponent’s face.

    4h ago


    this struck me as one problem here is that there's a lot of fundamental differences in people's definitions of "go low" and "go high" and "civility" in politics:

    Some people are really into that wearing a coat and tie in the White House kind of thing. Others think along the lines of sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me...and vicey versa on the name calling....ETC.


    Sticks and stones won't break my bones, but a bone cutter will make quick work of them.
    Yes, that's where we've gotten to when "words just come out wrong".
    Just say "it was an accident, something didn't go as planned" so we can all move along.
    And put away that damn skateboard - we've got adult work to do,
    like defending rapists and increasing arms sales and running the deficit to astronomical levels


    Apparently it's crunch time, so: surprise! No "Avenattism" here nor anything like it. Rather, this guy has clearly been instructed on which demographic he needs to court and he is (for today) trying his bestest:

    subbtle https://t.co/Ah33m5XSl8

    — Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) October 18, 2018

    This one boggles the mind. I don't know what you would call it. It's obviously a jaw-dropping attempt to sell Kavanaugh and the GOP to a community sympathetic to " Black Lives Matter":

    This isn’t an ad for a fringe candidate. It’s for an incumbent member of Congress. https://t.co/cBluJnVSWI

    — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 18, 2018

    No, they're not selling to a community sympathetic to BLM.  They're trying to sell a caricature of who white people think black people are; how they think and speak.  It's really too bizarrely awful to take seriously - especially when you consider the super PAC behind it is "Black Americans for the President's Agenda" based out of (this hurts) NC.

    I'm almost sorry I'm adding to anyone's knowledge of this absurd outfit.


    This is one major problem with "Avenattism" or Trumpism for that matter, or extreme fighter personalities of any kind, this is why I don't think it's a good thing: the hatred quotient is ramped for those that don't happen to like the personality. While it is usually a minority that reacts this way, the intensity of the anger affects the whole zeitgeist:

    Michael Avenatti Says Instagram User Wished 'Someone Puts a F**king Bullet' In His Head: https://t.co/oRQco8cq8r pic.twitter.com/5ItB53aBne

    — Law & Crime (@lawcrimenews) January 1, 2019

    I think this goes for all sides. It's not good for those of us (probably a majority) who dislike Trump intensely to have him as president in our face all the time, it's not good for our mental health. "In yo face" style is basically high blood pressure misery 24/7. A few rare people thrive on it and the rest around them suffer the consequences.

    Especially in such a position as president of the U.S. It's supposed to have a calming effect on the entire world. Leader doesn't mean screamer. Conversely, a body like the House of Representatives or a lower house in Parliament is created for the screamer types, to fight it out there. Not surprising that these are also the government entities that have the lowest approval ratings and the reason many people hate "politicians" (and "lawyers" for that matter)


    Still don't see Avenatti "screaming", and he's been awfully quiet of late.


    that would be the reactors to the technique, is what I meant.


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