US Politics January 2018: "You All Just Got A Lot Richer"

Maybe not the most important thing in the world but the excerpt above is really crappily written -- I suppose Wolff had to do it in a hurry, it reads like first draft and probably is

Well, now that collusion with Russia is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with Hillary Clinton and the FBI/Russia, the Fake News Media (Mainstream) and this phony new book are hitting out at every new front imaginable. They should try winning an election. Sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018

eephus that's what i was trying to say

I mean winning elections is a great thing to do tbh

they've been winning a bunch of them lately

"the FBI/Russia"

I don't even know how they are alleging Clinton colluded with the Russians. To what end?

Conspiracy counterpoint: Clinton worked with the Russians to *lose* the election just to make Trump look bad by letting him win so that he could lose at a later date ... OF HER CHOOSING!!!

translating from caligulan: Well, now that collusion with Marsha is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with Crooked Hillary and the FBI/Marsha, Fox News and Fire and Furyare hitting out at every new front imaginable. They should try conspiring with Russia. Sad??

https://www.advocate.com/politics/2018/1/03/mike-pence-swears-doug-jones-gay-son-looks

https://www.advocate.com/sites/advocate.com/files/2018/01/03/carson-jones-750x.jpg

is that Jones' son? Mmmmm...

and gay!

http://people.com/politics/doug-jones-gay-son-mike-pence-side-eye/

When someone releases a tell-all book which extensively demonstrates what a stupid POS you are, the wisest response is to make constant references to said book.

re tracer on wolff the writer: in general i'm not a fan of the "supposed to be" formulation -- the passive construction obscures who's doing the supposing, which sometimes matters quite a lot* -- but as a rhetorical device the repetition is good not bad imo, and once that starts the sentence construction is fine. "He was hired as, but… " four times in a row would have been stronger.

internet w/a cap-I is always terrible

*tho actually it's clear enough here

what pisses don don off most is jarvanka spilling coiffure secrets. i'm telling you there's a toupee tape coming

I'm still freaked out by this scalp-reduction surgery thing, it's so gross

As for his credibility being questioned, Wolff referenced his body of work and repeated that he stands by "absolutely everything" in the book: "My credibility is being questioned by a man who has less credibility than perhaps anyone who has ever walked on Earth at this point."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-wolff-stands-by-book-responds-trump-cease-desist-1071820

saucy!

Try to keep up, sleeve. Juicy is the new saucy.

:)

fwiw I was referring to Wolff's snappy comeback there, it's about goddamn time people started taking off the gloves

I don't even know how they are alleging Clinton colluded with the Russians. To what end?

Conspiracy counterpoint: Clinton worked with the Russians to *lose* the election just to make Trump look bad by letting him win so that he could lose at a later date ... OF HER CHOOSING!!!

The Trump narrative (or at least the narrative that someone has thought up for Trump) is that the Russia stuff in the Steele dossier was paid for / directed by Democrats and that Steele's sources were all reporting back to the Kremlin, so any information he collated was given with Russian-government sign-off. Clinton knew this and accepted the help anyway in order to damage Trump. The culmination of the plot was giving the dossier to the NSA, etc, who would take action, publicising / affirming the conspiracy in the days prior to the election - which obviously didn't happen. The softer version is that collating the dossier in the first place constituted illegal assistance from foreign sources.

To counter that, there has been a lot of weight placed on the claim that Steele's sources weren't paid and that the official investigation into Trump was triggered by the Australian diplomat who spoke to Papadopoulos, rather than the Steele folder.

The narrative doesn't hold any weight but Marcy Wheeler has some good stuff on how some of the moral / legal grey areas / overenthusiasm on the part of Steele's benefactors blunted the effectiveness of the dossier prior to the election.

the manchild who cried "wolff"

ShariVari, that's perhaps an overly-nuanced explication of Trump's prepubescent 'no, YOU'RE the puppet!' retorts.

ahem ahem epub format

mark it was more "Bannon... sent him to the Internet to learn about and to try to draft the EO"

you can't learn about an EO you haven't drafted yet, but even if you could that's a terrible sentence

it is, tho to be honest i'd put this on the sub editor (if any): it's the kind of thing everyone ends up writing in a hurry

Rings true

It's being written as Bannon/Trump feud but in reality Trump aides used the last few pieces quoting Bannon to force Trump to do what he always refused to, which is strongly stand up to Bannon https://t.co/6o415ZMJBp

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 5, 2018

Trump has not changed at all, despite insistence otherwise - he's the same person now he's been for years. But he's in a new and stressful situation. https://t.co/1Fo6TFO7Wq

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 5, 2018

Thinking about he's all bluster but hates real confrontation/firings, etc. etc. At some point over the last couple of days it also has to have vaguely sunk in that a favored tactic -- threaten a lawsuit and someone goes away -- didn't work at all, and more to the point, didn't work even when he was the President of the US.

kind of amazing that a man whose only actual talent is drawing media attention to himself is now at a point where he's getting covered and scrutinized more than any person in history and it's directly leading to his undoing and the permanent tarnishing of his legacy

would make a better Black Mirror episode than screaming keychains or w/e

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Well, now that collusion with Russia is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with Hillary Clinton and the FBI/Russia, the Fake News Media (Mainstream) and this phony new book are hitting out at every new front imaginable. They should try winning an election. Sad!
9:32 AM - Jan 5, 2018
18,845 18,845 Replies 9,850 9,850 Retweets 39,871 39,871 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy
― Newb Sybok (Doctor Casino), Friday, January 5, 2018 9:35 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark

assuming the semi-coherent ones are being written by scavino

I assume that most of the ones that don't read like he just mashed his palm on the keypad and hit 'send' are either dictated or ghostwritten.

it's directly leading to his undoing

is it though

bannon wants to be his werner herzog is my guess still

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O18ql2iX2Fk

Even if Trump's undoing only occurs on the cellular level, I'll take it.

It would be rad if the stress reduced him to a burbling, protoplasmic mass by the end of his term.

the tommy to sloppy steve's greg sestero / tom bissell

assume that most of the ones that don't read like he just mashed his palm on the keypad and hit 'send' are either dictated or ghostwritten.

― Bobby Buttrock (Old Lunch), Friday, January 5, 2018 3:57 PM (fifty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

trump's insane capitalization method is also a tell

The Trump narrative (or at least the narrative that someone has thought up for Trump) is that the Russia stuff in the Steele dossier was paid for / directed by Democrats and that Steele's sources were all reporting back to the Kremlin, so any information he collated was given with Russian-government sign-off. Clinton knew this and accepted the help anyway in order to damage Trump. The culmination of the plot was giving the dossier to the NSA, etc, who would take action, publicising / affirming the conspiracy in the days prior to the election - which obviously didn't happen. The softer version is that collating the dossier in the first place constituted illegal assistance from foreign sources.

There's also an angle where the dossier was apparently being used as evidence for the FISA warrant on Carter Page, which is blended into Trump's "They were TAPPING me!" / omg the unmasking

This article is another in the you-think-you-know-but-you-have-no-idea genre, but it's worth it for just how much time this guy spent documenting one-to-one relationships between Fox & Friends programming and Trump tweets.

After comparing the president’s tweets with Fox's coverage every day since October, I can tell you that the Fox-Trump feedback loop is happening far more often than you think. There is no strategy to Trump’s Twitter feed; he is not trying to distract the media. He is being distracted. He darts with quark-like speed from topic to topic in his tweets because that’s how cable news works.

Here’s what’s also shocking: A man with unparalleled access to the world’s most powerful information-gathering machine, with an intelligence budget estimated at $73 billion last year, prefers to rely on conservative cable news hosts to understand current events.

I might use the word 'alarming' in place of 'shocking'. I don't think anyone is shocked by that fact anymore.

terrifying comes to mind

we have met the enemy, and he has a TV head

I had no idea this existed but of course it exists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaIGAMzKH8A

somewhat stunned by the reach of the Wolff book. saw tons of my art school friends (otherwise completely disengaged from following politics every day, never read books like this, wouldn't be aware of them, don't read the nyt or wapo or anything but twitter) have already bought the book and are posting excerpts on instagram. man, wolff made out like a bandit with this one, good for him. i hope i get my copy before monday.

So this happened last night...

Wow, this extract from Wolff’s book is a shocking insight into Trump’s mind: pic.twitter.com/1ZecclggSa

— the gorilla channel thing is a joke (@pixelatedboat) January 5, 2018

...and now it's come to this.

THE WHITE HOUSE STAFF MADE A MAKESHIFT GORILLA CHANNEL FOR TRUMP TO WATCH AS MUCH AS 17 TIMES A DAY.#GorillaChannel pic.twitter.com/8BU4Ch9oiD

— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) January 5, 2018

lmao

The Mercer Family recently dumped the leaker known as Sloppy Steve Bannon. Smart!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018

There is no strategy to Trump’s Twitter feed; he is not trying to distract the media. He is being distracted.

A smart person would create distractions. Trump is not a smart person. Most people analyzing Trump are smart people, so it's hard for them to put themselves in the mindframe of a dolt. Also hard to believe that someone as """"successful"""" as Trump is really and truly dumb. "He sure knows how to play the media!" "Well you have to give him credit for creating and selling his brand". Right cause Duck Dynasty dudes are savvy postmodern media/biz whizzes.

Trump clearly has severe cognitive issues that make him dangerously incapable of functioning as president, so if the past's anything to go by Republicans will soon be calling for him to be put on Mount Rushmore

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) January 5, 2018

haha garland even fucked up the information in the fake excerpt