The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Lincoln Project going for the throat when the enemy is down

    Via the loquacious Steve Schmidt:

    .@ProjectLincoln We are hearing from many sources within the Trump campaign about the fear and panic in the ranks. Staffers are scared. Some are terrified. They know the walls are crumbling. Some like Miller and Meadows are irredeemable and will face history’s brutal judgement.

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 3, 2020

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    More Steve waxing florid:

    Titanic hit the iceberg at 1140 pm. There was a slight shudder. Most passengers were undisturbed. 2 hours and 40 minutes later she was 14,000 feet deep in the North Atlantic. The lethal event was barely noticed. The consequences played out in spasms of fear and chaos. That is

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 3, 2020

    The Trump campaign tonight. It is imploding under the staggering weight of its’ lying and corruption. The staffers are enraged about the recklessness of their leadership. It’s all going down. You can feel it. This is the week that finished the Trump presidency. The end is near

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 3, 2020

    More Steve in replies

    Reach out. We will protect you. Join us. https://t.co/PmUVQVlVvB

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 3, 2020

    Let me assure you of my profound indifference to the opinion of complicit cowards who have abdicated every conceivable previously stated principle in the name of Trump. They are shameful. https://t.co/QlDXXYAV9t

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 3, 2020

    No one cares about the campaign and WH staffers. They were recklessly exposed. The indifference is incredible. https://t.co/PmUVQVlVvB

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 3, 2020


    Some illegal immigrants worse than others 

    Pink shirts? Who'd a-thunk.

     


    But Twitter today has been doing it different, see  #ProudBoys (led,I have an inkling, by Geo. Takei?). Anyhow, I find it very GenZ, like when they bought up all the tickets for the Tulsa rally.



    Steve did good, knows his target:


    Baiting Meadows (I am reminded of Tokyo Rose! laugh)


    He's testing - when the time comes to pluck out his eyes, will he be ready?



    Sounds like they are salivating to me.


    "Inside The Lincoln Project's War Room," The New Yorker, Oct. 5:


    Rick Wilson @ The Daily Beast, Oct. 5 "The ‘Fuck Your Feelings’ Crowd Wants a Pity Party for Trump"

     


    now this doesn't sound good:


    Okay Donald, lets see you play three rounds of golf before you talk about what infection you might not get.


    Your dare begs the question:With who? Not that some wouldn't, not suggesting that. Just wondering who would be thinking along the lines of "feeling lucky punks".


    Team Covid!





    Steve Schmidt "first dance" with Trump:

    You’ve never beaten me at anything. This is our first dance. @realDonaldTrump. Did you like #covita. @ProjectLincoln. @TheRickWilson @stuartpstevens @reedgalen. We are so much better at this than your team of crooks, wife beaters, degenerates,weirdos and losers. You are losing 1 https://t.co/w1E9ZvRaYc

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 7, 2020

    You are already beating him Steve. Whatever is left inside his melon you are taking up all the space. https://t.co/bjHic8TIK2

    — Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) October 8, 2020

    Thanks Mooch ! https://t.co/r1QDOVf7yu

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 8, 2020

    earlier:

    From our friends @MeidasTouch @realDonaldTrump @lincoln. Donald, the people are laughing at you. You think you look like a leader? You are an OOMPA LOOMPA https://t.co/egUrdZurdg

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 7, 2020

     


    Looking for Donald's stutter


    yeah, they play rough, it's the real old fashioned definition of gaslighting just like in the Bergman/Boyer movie


    Heh, evergreen tweet, used when they need a break?



    note they set up #WheresJared, already has lotsa tweets


    on a tear, lol


    Some of Steve's latest riffs:


    Yet who are these Project Lincoln guys...


    Oh they are using thug tactics, no doubt about that to me. It's just fascinating to be able to watch what they do out in the open now. This political campaign business is rough stuff, not for the clutching pearls type. Wish it weren't so.; is what it is. Myself, I would never want to be part of it.



    ^^^ Important aside, note the debate question on screen: How will you address civil unrest in South Carolina?

    Don't tell me that protests right now aren't counter-productive! I'm sorry, they just are! Campaign pros are probably hearing it from focus groups allover the country, including people afraid of the violence the election might bring. Keep reminding them over and over by protesting aggressively in suburbs and making sure videos of such things get plenty of play on Facebook. Getting attention, right, getting people to think about maybe they should vote for that Republican. Dems certainly don't seem to be able to handle it, the protests are mainly against Dems!


    Note they say the source is "From Joe Biden".


    This carefully crafted bit of theatre comes across to me like an old horror movie where the undead walks in slow motion in pursuit of a screaming girl who is hauling ass through the foggy woods yet cannot get away. He's coming. He is inevitable. But, is he real?  Who cares.  He aint Trump and he aint Bernie.


    hah. Hope for their sake the target audience doesn't see it like that.

    Myself, I always read a bit of snark or tongue-in-cheek into the cool-dude-Joe pix like the one driving the convertible, almost like a self-deprecatory joke: Grandpa can still role play Obama if you want him to


    hah, at The Villages in FL today, this is fabulous, don't know who paid for it, Reed Galen of Lincoln Project just retweeted it:


    new Black Biden-Harris ad 

    (*Not* Lincoln!)


    This just popped up on an unrelated search, look how he has has a deep instinct about how he won basically running against folks like that

    People don’t remember the chaos, hatred & discord that we all went through during the 8 years of Obama/Biden. St. Louis, Oakland, Baltimore, and so many other places, were a complete & total disaster. I wouldn’t be in the beautiful White House if it weren’t for Sleepy Joe, etc.

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2020

    In a way it's very strange how a Queens born and bred guy who liked to play king of Manhattan gets the whole anti-urban sentiment of many swings.

    Meanwhile radical youth are protesting against some of those in the ad as agents of the fascist police state and basically ignoring him.

    I certainly wouldn't use this ad in non-urban areas. Cause lately the message to anti-urban swings about their rule is:everybody living under these folks is miserably unhappy with them, and it's coming from the left, from protesters.


    and oh look Mitch is playing a similar fiddle right now. (tho kinda hard to buy Chuck Schumer as an angry flaming leftie--he's definitely an urbane northeasterner, but it's clear he's suburban too.)


    George Conway retweeted (Bess is a screenwriter)



    George Conway retweets about xenophobic divisiveness causing trouble for a spouse of a politician:

     


    Lots of Lincoln Project attempts at direct gaslighting of  the Drumpf today:

    and they retweeted this from The Fly for good measure:


    just added:





    Wow, he honed his comic skills on Henny Youngman, how quaint. "ancient suburban women, will you love me?"


     Do you remember the olden days like I do when politicians asked people for the favor of their vote at the end of a debate or speech?

    He really is the first PoMo president. The "reality" TV show thing. I fear no going back from what he has done in that department, probably worldwide.

    (I remember that in 1980, I actually feared Reagan would do that because he was an actor. But turns out he knew how to play the role of a politician without ever breaking character. One solid narrative all the way through, one version of reality...)


    I notice they are always trying a new hashtag, see if it will catch (I think Trump even complained about them doing that if I am remembering correctly?)


    Use them all


    well I think this time they are beat by Meidas Touch, looking like they are going to have a real big hit with 

    #TrumpGraveDancer


    Killer Mike, eh? That's cold... but good.



    Yeah, kinda sux to be bailed out by self-absorbed disaffected right wing shitslungers. I mean, what role did these guys play over the last 15 years? I'm glad theyr not going the Mitt Romney route, and truly grateful for the work & success, but still, the irony's not lost. And the feeling that Dems still can't really stand up for ourselves, except 2008 when we had a once-in-a--lifetime hope-and-change candidate/message with a huge ground game that's now disappeared.




    Courting General Kelly:







    They are doing like a machine gun today:

    Maybe that is partly timing choice, as a Sunday is when people do things like surfing the internet on politics?


    Yeah every couple hours with the Trump gaslighting:







    (there is a Spanish version of the above for Floridians)

     


    I'd like to think the one I did for Trump inspired this, bit it's too obvious.


    Reed Galen retweeted, I suspect so very proud that they got a serious rise out of  the Jvanka subsidiary of Trumpco:

    Must admit that when I saw their picture of the billboards, I thought it wasn't their best project as no one is going to Times Square anymore so Jvanka probably won't give a damn. Shows what I know, would not make a good political insider


    Steve Schmidt sounds pleased as punch with the billboards, added a twitter rant related to the prospect of long-term messaging of the same type being "joyful work." Sounds more like fatwa and jihad to me wink:

    When the IG report comes out and we know the full details about who is responsible for the inhumanity and evil of caging children and separating them ( permanently) from their parents we are going to plaster their names, images and stories on those electronic billboards. 1/ https://t.co/rztc99YX7I

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 22, 2020

    We will run media campaigns in their hometowns where their families will be shamed by their ignominy. We will include any new employers and target their clients. I’ve spent most of the last decade counseling CEO clients in crisis situations for some of the biggest companies 2/

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 22, 2020

    In the world. They have low pain tolerance. @PRWeekUS . The PR firms, ad agencies, Trade associations, Tech companies, Media companies and TV networks are going to have to think long and hard about the reputational damage they are willing to sustain by hiring the liars, crooks, 3

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 22, 2020

    racial arsonists, quacks and implementers of immoral policies into their ranks. @ProjectLincoln. The season of shame, reckoning and accountability will soon begin for Trump and his rancid collaborators. Excising the worst of them from public life will be joyful work.

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 22, 2020

    More seriously, I note that Schmidt is definitely threatening a major cancel culture war. It's "get some morals or lose your career." Trying to be objective and fair I would question "and whose morals might those be?" The old GOP term "the moral majority" comes to mind...

    He does do the role play of hell-and-damnation preacher quite well, even though it's always somewhat tongue-in-cheek with him, with something like the children story,  I suspect very little.


    The Lincoln Project’s legal response to the frivolous threat of a lawsuit from Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s lawyer.

    This will not be the last they hear from us. pic.twitter.com/GNnFsnsCer

    — The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 24, 2020

    The fact the First Family is spending any time, any of their attention, on a billboard in Times Square just illustrates how their priorities are completely out-of-touch with what’s happening in real America.@ProjectLincoln #Jarvanka #BillboardForJavanka pic.twitter.com/tFzY4OsHmO

    — Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) October 24, 2020

    Ivanka and Jared threatened to sue Lincoln Project if they didn’t take down their Times Square billboards.

    So Rick Wilson made them his Twitter bio picture.

    Hahahha. That’s some quality trolling. pic.twitter.com/lM1bwYLyIg

    — The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) October 24, 2020

    WOWSER, rough stuff now, blatant gaslighting of Trump, targeted directly at him, in new 1-minute ad:

     



    George Conway to Rudy:

    and on Fox News agitprop


    Edit to add, more ridicule on topic:





    clearly they are hot on being able to win Georgia Senate, they keep picking away:

    I’m for people who aren’t insider trading racists that won’t look at their opponents. #gasen https://t.co/hPY6z3LZ0j

    — Reed Galen (@reedgalen) October 29, 2020

    .@ossoff watch the destruction of crook @sendavidperdue . https://t.co/AReTXudPGB

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) October 29, 2020


    turd mentality:




    Reed Galen retweeted:

    and then posted his own version:




     I have, I came to find out as they gained prominence, despised the Lincoln Project since well before its actual creation as a successful money making political career machine. My opinion is based on the cynical careerist positioning  of everyone associated with it that I know anything about and upon their craven politics. Sometimes the enemies of my enemy are no-good pricks with actual long term agendas that I am strongly against. You seem to not only welcome their help but admire them individually as well. You are welcome, of course, to correct my view, or alternately to simply ignore it. 


    I am going to ignore it except to say: democracy works through coalitions of the moment in order to gain a majority will on something and purism is a real killer of it. And over the years I've noticed you'd rather have the peacenik party be purist losers forever. I've never seen you express support for any presidential candidate that ever won office. You're willing to sit and wait for a millennium in order to keep your minority principles. The courts are the branch of government we have to protect minority interests like yours as you are sitting and waiting and the rest try to make democratic sausage.


    I acknowledged them as the enemy of my enemy and have declared from the beginning that I would vote for Biden as a vote against Trump, so I hope that satisfies the political expediency you recommend. I strongly supported Obama in his first run which earned me in inclusion your set of "Obama bots" at the time. 

     And over the years I've noticed you'd rather have the peacenik party be purist losers forever. 

    I think that is a willful misreading of positions I have taken. It is ridiculous to think that I want ideas that are important to me to meet with defeat. I have argued that our government should be much,much less militaristic. There is no peace party that I or one percent of our country could identify by name for me to support and then relish in their defeat. I have supported peace activists who almost universally work to change the Democratic Party in order to accomplish their goal to whatever extent possible. They/I do not wish to lose but rather wish to win in a party that will find other means than militarism and brutal sanctions, which are a method of war, as their  method of international politics.  I believe that The Lincoln Project moves the Democratic Party in the wrong direction. I do not want them to be influential in the Democratic Party.

    Edit to add: It is accepted form here at dag, almost always respected, to note when you edit to add.


    Good for you then. I really don't want to debate about it, there's so much more interesting things going on than deconstructing the decades-ago opinions of individual Lincoln Project participants. What they do in the future is what interests me.

    Sorry you feel I broke Dagblog etiquette rules which were operative back when there were a lot more people participating here. I've gotten used to this basically being a private space for a few people where only a few bother to participate. Certainly even the owner has abdicated from any participation during this election, yet he maintains it and to my knowledge hasn't asked anyone using it to leave.

    And to reiterate what I've said to you many many times in the past, I don't find extensive debate with the same people over and over useful or entertaining. I find it a detriment to my mental health when I am tempted to do it. I am happy to read other people's contrary opinons but I don't find extensive debate useful at all. You are gonna have to find another partner


    p.s. I really really really have no use for arguing old times and old stances when radical change like this is happening every minute.


    I gave up ETAs years ago.


    So, you really don't want to debate about it because there's so much more interesting things going on than deconstructing the decades-ago opinions of individual Lincoln Project participants. What they did in the past doesn't matter. What things they may contribute to in the future is what interests you. Well, what they may do in the future interests me too.  Where we differ is that you see no reason to judge their past and think it might hint at their future actions. I gotta admit I can see the [good?] effects of that way of thinking as, for example, I see Shrub Bush being rehabilitated in the public eye.  Despite the horrible things he did we can just be more comfortable if we think of his new approval as a great cultural advance towards bipartisan intelligent governance and social harmony, his reinvention as something acceptable by cunningly displaying him in human form, even as something admirable. Just think about it, if this trend  continues then in just a few short years we can welcome Trump back into polite society and look to him for sage advice! Maybe even give him prime time on Shows like Rachel Maddow's as a paid commentator if he needs the cash.  I mean if he changes we can and yeah, people change, sometimes. 

     Oh yeah, all of the above is just opinion which you say you are happy to read.   


    I read it. 

    And yeah, I'm more into like this kinda thing 

    General amnesty for social media activity 2015-2021

    — Wesley Yang (@wesyang) November 7, 2020

    Rather than re-litigating 2003 (not to mention1968) like you seem to like to do, not to mention grudges grudges grudges.

    Here's my philosophy: the only constant is change. And Tempus Fugit, times a wastin.  Memento mori, he's coming for you, not just "them". Nobody ever said on his deathbed: damn I wish I had punched that neo-con in the nose in 2003. And anti-zealotry, dislike the Inspector Javert character, I really have no interest in hunting individuals to the ends of the earth.

    It's 2020, Lulu, and a pandemic is stalking all human beings.


    Well well well, we're finally on the same side. Will wonders never cease. But as much as i see it as you do Arta is probably correct to, that Biden needed them to win, and to be the attack dog so he didn't have to. It would have conflicted with his fantasy of unity and bipartisan cooperation with republicans. Honestly though, the republican senate is the best thing that could have happened for Biden. He can blame them for stopping him from doing things he never really wanted to do in the first place. And he can blame them for passing republican legislation the left hates but Biden actually wants.


    Reed Galen says straight out that The Lincoln Project will not use its skills against Dems in the "not-too-distant future":


    Uh oh, food fight with Geraldo:

    Wasn’t your name Gerry Rivers at Columbia? https://t.co/bf6yCJIl1q

    — Reed Galen (@reedgalen) November 9, 2020

    And Steve Schmidt can't let go, he doesn't want the grifters to get one thin dime more:

    There has been a tradition that the outgoing President flies home on Air Force One. It is a courtesy. A courtesy Trump and his disgraceful family have not earned. They have ripped the taxpayers off for four years. They should go home on their own dime.

    — Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) November 9, 2020