The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    jollyroger's picture

    Abu Shiksa is dead! Long live Goyische Kopf!

    By jollyroger on Tue, 05/16/2017 - 7:58pm |

    Knowing, as we do, that Jimmy Carter's Secret Service nickname was "Deacon" is not without elucidative contribution to our understanding of the man, nor are "Lancer" and "Rawhide" utterly incomprehensible as "reductios" for JFK and Reagan.

     

    With this in mind, we may be forgiven, I think, for drawing unflattering inferences vis-a-vis the esteem in which President Trump is presently held in the Holy Land from the recent memo circulating out of Shin Bet HQ.

     

    SHEMA YISRAEL: NOTE CHANGE TRUMP NN!!  OLD: "ABU SHIKSA" NEW: GOYISCHE KOPF

     

    (Functional translation: Listen up!  Trump nickname changed from "Father of the Hottie" to "Brain Damaged Gentile")

     

    People familiar with the details of the change who required anonymity before commenting pointed, not surprisingly, to the astonishing defense offered to rebut blame in the recent Blabbergate scandal. viz, "Not his fault, he didn't pay attention to the briefing."

    ​

    ​

    http://www.nbcnews.com/card/mcmaster-president-wasnt-even-aware-where-information-came-n760206

    Comments

    "Hey, I may be a dumb goy, but these crafty yids went for my okie-doke about the embassy.  Who's laughing now?" was said to be Trump's rather irritated comment.

     

    He appears to be referencing the reported unhappiness that he made promises during the campaign which he has not fulfilled

    "During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump promised repeatedly to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem"

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/world/middleeast/emirati-prince-trump...®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article

     


    by jollyroger on Tue, 05/16/2017 - 8:23pm

    I'm going to miss Abu Shiksa.

    On the brain damage, this guy is better armed to practice psychology without a license in this case than we are; was an interesting read:

    I wrote ‘The Art of the Deal’ with Trump. His self-sabotage is rooted in his past.The president's behavior, explained.@ WaPo May 16.


    by artappraiser on Tue, 05/16/2017 - 10:25pm

    I sorta fear that somewhere in the string theory permanent present, that poor little child is still hanging from a High School wall by his tighty-whiteys...If only deep in the fevered recesses of his traumatized potemkin self.

     

    TRUMP, TRUMP, RHYMES WITH CHUMP, WEDGE HIS WHITIES IN A LUMP...


    by jollyroger on Thu, 05/18/2017 - 2:12pm

    Confirmed with more detail by Glenn Thrush & Maggie Haberman May 16 @ the Times. Yes, more than a few on his staff realize now that he is quite simply, incompetent. And much more willing to talk about it. This excerpt is the worst part, but it is all through the article:

    [....] There is a growing sense

    (in the White House)

    Mr. Trump seems unwilling or unable to do the things necessary to keep himself out of trouble and that the presidency has done little to tame a shoot-from-the-hip-into-his-own-foot style that characterized his campaign.

    Some of Mr. Trump’s senior advisers fear leaving him alone in meetings with foreign leaders out of concern he might speak out of turn. General McMaster, in particular, has tried to insert caveats or gentle corrections into conversations when he believes the president is straying off topic or onto boggy diplomatic ground.

    This has, at times, chafed the president, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation. Mr. Trump, who still openly laments having to dismiss Mr. Flynn, has complained that General McMaster talks too much in meetings, and the president has referred to him as “a pain,” according to one of the officials.

    In private, three administration officials conceded that they could not publicly articulate their most compelling — and honest — defense of the president for divulging classified intelligence to the Russians: that Mr. Trump, a hasty and indifferent reader of his briefing materials, simply did not possess the interest or the knowledge of the granular details of intelligence gathering to leak specific sources and methods of intelligence gathering that would harm American allies.

    Mr. McMaster all but said that publicly from the briefing room lectern.

    “The president wasn’t even aware where this information came from,” Mr. McMaster said. “He wasn’t briefed on the source or method of the information either.”

    Bit wait, there's more! It may be the straw  that breaks the camel's back. He is screaming at them that they are all incompetents (even Jared!)


    by artappraiser on Wed, 05/17/2017 - 3:26am

    I wish when the "competence" metric is invoked, it could be clear that there is "competence" as in "Any competent carpenter could frame that window in half an hour" and "competence" as in "OrientedX3" (person, place, and time...)

    I'm going to lobby for "delusional" as our settled descriptor.  "Psychotic" may be closer to the truth, embracing as it does disruptions of perception, processing, and self control.


    by jollyroger on Wed, 05/17/2017 - 3:06pm

    No argument from me. Especially as if one goes overboard towards the truth of psychosis (being exacerbated by the situation the normally deluded put himself him, i.e., the presidency), it could get counterproductive. And I do really like Douhat and Brooks whole child thing on that front because then you have the "it's not really his fault, he just needs to be protected from himself."

    Comes to mind sometimes old simplistic theories are the best: extreme, extreme example of The Peter Principle. If it were written today, Peter could just say "you know, like Trump."


    by artappraiser on Thu, 05/18/2017 - 9:26am

    I have never been sure that Trump would "go quietly" were impeachment ever actually to ripen into removal (a heavy lift).  

     

    Roger Stone, even now, has a screed afoot pre=emptively rebutting the alzheimer's 25th amendment move (which means they know damn well that it's true...) and there is Trump's private security (lemme see....might there be a close supporter, maybe the brother of a cabinet secretary, who can muster up 10,000 "security contractors" in a quick hurry...?) (ed note: you can almost hear the song..."Keep on flowing, Mississippi moon won't you keep on shining on meeee")


    by jollyroger on Thu, 05/18/2017 - 2:02pm

    Ross Douhat (!) calls today for the use of 25th amendment to remove him!

    He cites David Brooks' agreement with him that the president basically thinks and acts like a child. And then argues that a child cannot committ high crimes and misdemeanors. And then argues to his side of the aisle, you don't believe "squishy NYT conservatives" David and me, just look at what his own aides are saying:

    [....] Read the things that these people, members of his inner circle, his personally selected appointees, say daily through anonymous quotations to the press. (And I assure you they say worse off the record.) They have no respect for him, indeed they seem to palpate with contempt for him, and to regard their mission as equivalent to being stewards for a syphilitic emperor.

    It is not squishy New York Times conservatives who regard the president as a child, an intellectual void, a hopeless case, a threat to national security; it is people who are self-selected loyalists, who supported him in the campaign, who daily go to work for him. And all this, in the fourth month of his administration.

    This will not get better. It could easily get worse. And as hard and controversial as a 25th Amendment remedy would be, there are ways in which Trump’s removal today should be less painful for conservatives than abandoning him in the campaign would have been — since Hillary Clinton will not be retroactively elected if Trump is removed, nor will Neil Gorsuch be unseated. Any cost to Republicans will be counted in internal divisions and future primary challenges, not in immediate policy defeats [.....]

    I am sort of inclined to agree, after reading a lot of recent stuff, because: it's starting to look like going to be hard to prove criminal intent?


    by artappraiser on Wed, 05/17/2017 - 3:38am

    How can it not be over after these leaks from his own people implying he is incompetent, put out so that all the world can read them? They are basically crying out that it happens, and quickly, so enemies don't take advantage.


    by artappraiser on Wed, 05/17/2017 - 3:49am

    Politico reporters publishing at midnight suggesting White House staff leakers are almost crying out for help:

    White House on edge: 'We are kind of helpless'

    Recent scandals have left White House staff feeling besieged.

    By and

    05/17/17 12:01 AM EDT


    by artappraiser on Wed, 05/17/2017 - 10:09am

    It has been a longstanding source of shame to me that I cannot successfully rehabilitate myself from Morning Joe.  

    That being the case, I can report that the new formulation they have hit upon is "He can't remember what the story was yesterday".

     

    I think this is the necessary next step--curiously, (or perhaps understandably...) the Repugnants seem more comfortable with purposeful dishonesty than simple dementia.


    by jollyroger on Wed, 05/17/2017 - 3:01pm

    I learned to my chagrin that there is jurisprudence immunizing a sitting president from indictment, albeit not tested at the Supreme Ct level, so the specific intent element of the crime of obstruction is less relevant.  

     

    By custom and common law, the witness intimidation and jury tampering that Trump performs as a mere appetizer to his loathsome Egg McMuffin breakfast all would cheerfully underwrite article one of the bill of particulars re:Impeachment.

     


    by jollyroger on Thu, 05/18/2017 - 1:56pm

    I love the interpretation of the Constitutional intent as to impeachment in this op-ed today @ NYT. Solves all the issues I have and I totally buy it. Unfortunately most people involved won't.

    Impeachment’s Political Heart

    By GREG WEINER

    The framers cared about a president’s potential abuses over his past crimes and misdemeanors.

    Made me think right away about the Clinton impeachment, too. It is precisely what bothered me the most about it, those supposed crimes regarding past supposed sexual harassment and lying about it had nothing to do with Clinton's execution of his job as president.. (Far from it, he performed his job more than ably while spending a lot of time defending himself.) Even if he had been 100% stone cold guilty of the accusations, there was nothing to conflict with the execution of his duties.


    by artappraiser on Fri, 05/19/2017 - 2:26am

    Evidently the WH Lawyers are reported to be researching Impeachment...(wonder if someone is hacking their Google feed)


    by jollyroger on Fri, 05/19/2017 - 10:51pm

    Douhat's call to remove Trump as incompetent is starting to get buzz:

    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/333797-conservative-columnist-trump-should-be-removed-under-25th-amendment


    by artappraiser on Wed, 05/17/2017 - 10:27am

    Applying the 25th amendment sets a dangerous precedent, imo, and they shouldn't use it lightly. Nor is it clear how deep this goes; Pence may be complicit. Let's start with a special prosecutor.


    by Michael Wolraich on Wed, 05/17/2017 - 11:06am

    WRT to the choice between the terrible swift sword (XXVth) and the deliberative process (Impeachment), I am put in mind of a joke from awhile ago:

     

    On the deck of a stricken cruise ship, three passengers hear the "ABANDON SHIP".  One, (a doctor), cries out "Save the children!", to which the second (a lawyer) responds "Fuck the children!".

     

    "Do you think we have time?" asks the third (wait for it....a priest)


    by jollyroger on Wed, 05/17/2017 - 2:56pm

    I know this about myself: I am a relativist pragmatist and I am truly not comfortable with sticking to rigid moral codes.

    My rational mind realizes that trying to exercise the 25th amendment would no doubt end up just as much of a complex mess or more so as the other route. So I am going: okay, do it your way.

    But I really do think it is far more practically and pragmatically dangerous to ignore that we have a White House right now that is broadcasting to the world that no one is in control here, this guy is incapable, we are losing it, than that laws may have been broken by leaders. I was more horrified to learn later that at the time of Watergate that Nixon was in a paranoid state and asking Kissinger to pray with him than anything else about Watergate. Is it really worth proving that not even a Pence is above the law by finding him complicit in some minor way if we have a major terrorist attack while the White House is in chaos mode, precisely because they are in chaos mode? Or a general meltdown of the world while we are waiting for "justice"?

    i am really uncomfortable with the prosecutorial mindset of pursuing "no man is above the law" when politics is involved, as we all make adjustments to our moral codes all the time in this situation.  We all know people get away with breaking law in all kinds of ways all the time. Guess Jean Valjean's story just hit me too hard as a kid and never left.  I fear prosecutors as much as I fear most criminals. I do not find their method of pursuing truth and justice and rationality always rational or just. The point to stay on: what will help all of us, what will make things better for a majority? The common good thing.


    by artappraiser on Thu, 05/18/2017 - 9:51am

    It is surely beyond ironic to see high level county chairs and such of the  Trotskyite Hippie Party  falling over themselves to applaud Bobby Threesticks (as he was known when he ran the San Fran US Attorney office.)

     

    ETA except for that nuclear armageddon thing, I have urged a resolution at my local THP chapter proposing that the THP platform will best be advanced by preventing the more efficacious fascist Pence from replacing the increasingly demented buffoon now in office.


    by jollyroger on Thu, 05/18/2017 - 1:49pm