Trump's America

[yovargas]

This Forbes article touches on the same subject, and is shorter, more clear imo, and talks about America specifically.

Hmm, I found the Vox article more convincing, in part because it uses more fact and research to ground its arguments, and because the rhetoric is less aggressively biased. (And it does talk about the US in the 2nd half of the article.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Right now I'm feeling less John le Carre and more Tom Clancy.

Or maybe Jack Higgins.



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[Frelga]

I still go with LeCarre.

Yonatan Zunger made a series of posts dealing with the facts and allegations surrounding former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Absolutely confirmed out of this is Flynn's work as a Turkish agent (he's admitted this and filed the forms), his covert meetings with the Russian ambassador (wiretap evidence, his resignation), and his receipt of payments from the Russian government. Highly likely is the Turkish kidnapping meeting (testimony of Woolsey). Arguable in court is that the Russian payments make him an unregistered Russian agent as well as a Turkish one. Reported but not yet confirmed are the contents of the Mayflower Meetings and that Flynn has turned state's evidence. If the latter is true, then the former may soon be explained in great detail to investigators.

Just let this sink in for a moment. We already know for sure that a retired three-star Army general, who served for three weeks as National Security Advisor before being forced to resign, was a paid agent of at least one, and probably two, other governments, engaging in negotiations which range from the "somewhat illegal" (hacking, campaign collusion) to the "holy s#!t illegal" (kidnapping). And the fact that it's even a possibility that he flip can only mean that the investigators have even bigger fish in their sights.

The post here links to both a Medium post that arranges this information in more detail, and the Twitter thread that links to underlying sources.

If people's reaction to this is that this is all too surreal to be real, that's because this level of scandal is unprecedented in the US history. In Russia, of course, it's business as usual. People who follow Russian news sources are discussing with a rather chilling seriousness the probability of Putin assassinating Manafort.

And very occasionally the thought occurs to me that in a parallel universe we are now discussing whether helping students pay for college education is a reasonable idea.

[River]

Frelga, rumor has it Manafort's going to flip. If that's the case, he's probably been offered protection. I can't imagine he doesn't know he's turned into a loose end. The Trump Administration is already trying to sell the idea that his role in the campaign was very minor. Of little consequence. Never mind how he was called the campaign manager...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I still go with LeCarre.

I often do. (I'm currently rereading Tinker, Tailor and the whole Karla trilogy).

Frelga, rumor has it Manafort's going to flip.

Where are you hearing that, River? I've not heard that, but it would be potentially devastating (like impeachment devastating).

[River]

A CNN analyst. Politico picked it up.

It is not fact. But given the way the Trump crowd is drawing away from him, my guess is the Feds are closing in.

I got so used to manufactured scandals and tempests in teapots I almost can't believe that this could be a real thing going on.

[Frelga]

NPR: Paul Manafort To Testify On Russia As House Intel Committee Drama Continues

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... -continues

I haven't read this particular article but from other sources it sounds like Manafort's testimony is for realz. The rumor is that Flynn is to testify, as Zunger mentions. Which THEN becomes really interesting.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson on why he is continuing to block Trump's revised travel ban as still violating the first amendment ban on religious discrimination: "The Court will not crawl into a corner, pull the shutters closed, and pretend it has not seen what it has."

[Turumarth]

Hurray for Judge Derrick Watson! But I wonder what will happen to this (and other rulings) when Judge Gorsuch or someone else like him who passes judgement without compassion gets confirmed to the Supreme Court.

[Alatar]

Best Caption Ever.

Trump.jpg (43.54 KiB) Viewed 7036 times

[Frelga]

I also saw that with the CNN chyron saying "Bannon accepts diminished White House role".

[River]

So, on NPR this morning they had a conservative and a liberal economic policy wonk on to discuss the tax "plan" (both wonks described it as more of a wishlist than an actual proposal). It started out with sniping and derailing and then the host, in his very NPR host-ish way, dragged them back to the topic. Consensus, from two men who clearly didn't want to agree on anything, is that the plan will blow up the deficit and is doomed to die in Congress. Apparently, while Trump's top economic advisors have great business credentials, none of them actually know how taxes work (this was from the conservative wonk).

Also, last week, again on NPR, I listened to an absolutely hilarious interview with Ken Buck, one of Colorado's GOP House members and a member of the Freedom Caucus. It was hilarious because the interviewer was trying to get him to say how he really felt about the Trump Administration and the wall in particular and Buck was just as clearly side-stepping and trying just as hard to say find positive things to say. I'm not sure if it was classiness, party loyalty, or fear of campaign ads, but he was trying so hard to not say "I think building an actual physical wall on the border is a dumb and expensive plan and I won't support it" even when that's what he clearly meant and the interviewer was trying so hard to pin him down because he knew what Buck meant that it was just plain comical. It sort of illuminated the issues Trump is facing regarding legislative goals.

[Frelga]

In the meantime - there's always in the meantime these days

On Wednesday morning, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency unveiled an office called VOICE (Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement) dedicated to “the needs of crime victims and their families who have been impacted by crimes committed by removable criminal aliens.”

Why victims of crimes committed by immigrants require a special office, especially given that as a group, immigrants commit fewer crimes, is... well, actually perfectly clear to anyone who is familiar with the history of the middle third of the twentieth century.

The only bright spot is that people have been calling that office to report UFO sightings.

We Asked ICE About the Prank Calls to Their Anti-Immigrant Hotline and They Kind of Lost Their $#!+

[yovargas]

On Wednesday morning, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency unveiled an office called VOICE (Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement) dedicated to “the needs of crime victims and their families who have been impacted by crimes committed by removable criminal aliens.”

OH FOR F**KS SAKES

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Why victims of crimes committed by immigrants require a special office, especially given that as a group, immigrants commit fewer crimes, is... well, actually perfectly clear to anyone who is familiar with the history of the middle third of the twentieth century.

Just to clarify what I assume Frelga is referring to, during WWII the Nazis had an "Institute for Research on the Jewish Question" which kept files on "crimes committed by Jews."

[Frelga]

Yep. And the publication of photographs of Jewish criminals, of course made to look as unflatteringly Jewish as possible. They are lifting the playbook word by word.

[Turumarth]

It's horrible. This kind of "Office" is formed with the specific purpose of creating hate. That way they try to make the unthinkable thinkable.
Trump will fail, however. The question is how long it will take for him to fail and how extensive and long lasting the damage will be. Trump can destroy the whole world if he makes exactly the wrong mistakes. And he seems to be edging incredibly close to that while North Korea has just in the last couple of hours or so again attempted to launch another missile test in the direction of Japan.

These days I am pretty scared living where I live. Check a map and you'll see that Kagoshima Japan is closer to Seoul Korea than it is to Tokyo. Both North Korea and the US are being lead by infantile narcissists, it seems. One of them seems like he'd sooner see the whole world incinerated than have a world in which he loses power. The other thinks a gigantic conflagration in the middle of one of the most densely populated regions on earth might be unfortunate, but seemingly acceptable because the hundreds of thousands of lives lost would (mostly) not be American.

But part of the fearful ignorance of Americans (and I am an American) is that they don't seem to understand that self-preservation is at the top of the list for North Korea. They want their ICBM capability just for deterrence. They love their propaganda about striking the US, but left to themselves I really think that there is no chance at all they would ever initiate a first strike against the US because they are aware of the fact that would very quickly spell the end of their regime, period. The only thing that could change that is if they become convinced that the US is about to conduct a "regime change" on them. And there has been no shortage of belligerent-sounding words and bellegerent-looking actions from the US over the years and especially now. The US administration talks about the "end of strategic patience". But ever since North Korea got nukes patience has become the ONLY option.

[yovargas]

You live in Japan? May I ask how people there have reacted to Trump's presidency?

[Turumarth]

My wife (Japanese), hates Trump. But she's heard everything that I've told her about him. Other people, well, there have been a couple of television specials here in Japan explaining the shady character of many of Trump's business dealings over the years. All the people I have talked to about him seem to regard Trump in a very negative light. If they understand English, they can hear for themselves that Trump's words are literally disgusting from the point of view of Japanese culture. It is never ever OK for people here to brag about anything, for example. Or to be publicly insulting to people. On the other hand, if you know something about the imaginative life of Japan (as many do through anime and manga) you might know or guess that it actually expresses much of what in Japan people can never do. So, Trump can also be for some people a kind of fantasy character that people would secretly like to be like. One friend of mine actually said it to me, "I wish I could be like Trump." I was shocked. But I've been here long enough to know what was meant. There is a desire within a lot of people here to be free, for once, of the constraints of Japanese etiquette. To be able to say aloud whatever crazy thought enters your mind at any given moment would be a nearly fatal pleasure here (and it was literally fatal in Japan's past.) So, Trump is an object of both disgust and admiration, perhaps.

[Primula Baggins]

Fascinating, Turumarth.