If polls determined who gets to be President, Hillary Clinton would be President. She had the clear lead in the polls. But under the Constitution, the presidency goes to the person who wins in the Electoral College, and there isn't another go-'round for that until 2020. So the only alternative is impeachment, which requires the House to vote based on "high crimes and misdemeanors," not whatever's in the current polls, which we know were egregiously wrong in 2016.
But what made me want to blog this is the first line of the column, "By any metric, Trump is in trouble," which is followed by:
A poll out from The Post and ABC on Friday shows that 60 percent of voters disapprove of the job he’s doing as president, a new low. But that’s just one poll; the polling average at statistician Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight shows Trump with a mere 53.4 percent disapproval rating, which is better than its 56.8 percent peak last December.So there's an obvious "metric" — the famous Nate Silver metric — by which Trump is doing better than last December, but "By any metric, Trump is in trouble"?! Who is McArdle writing for these days? [THAT IS: Who is her intended audience? I know who her employer is.]
But a presidency is not in good shape when the best spin on the new poll is “It’s an outlier! Only 53 percent of the country thinks the president is terrible.” The poll is especially ugly for Republicans with midterms looming in two months.No. 53 percent didn't say "the president is terrible." They said "disapprove" when asked whether they approve of disapprove. And they might disapprove of other options too, such as impeachment or even (if it could be magically possible) Hillary for President. Has McArdle compared the congressional approval poll average? I'm seeing 19.0 approve and 71.2 disapprove. I suspect that a lot of us don't like much of anything, but we've got to have something.
McArdle continues:
FiveThirtyEight’s forecast for the midterms puts the likelihood of Democrats taking the House at more than 70 percent. Their chances of taking the Senate are lower, but Republicans are hardly a lock despite a very favorable map for them. And if Democrats manage to eke out a majority in both houses of Congress, here is the poll’s really bad news for Trump: Half the country wants him impeached....Voting for a Democrat instead of a Republican doesn't mean you want the drama of impeachment. But maybe the 2018 election can take the clear form that it's a referendum on impeachment. Would that help the Democrats? To me, it makes them seem too chaotic (which is the main thing that disturbs me about Trump).
McArdle recognizes that the Senate needs a supermajority vote to remove Trump, but her by-any-metric logic includes the way "these things have a way of taking on unexpected momentum." I think it's the opposite. No President has been removed by impeachment. This is a thing that has a way of losing momentum.
After the midterms, we'll be heading into the next presidential election. Is the first-year of run-up to that election going to be consumed with impeachment weirdness or can we have the straight-up political fight in which specific anti-Trump candidates stand up and say why they would do a better, more upright job of being President?
I saw how Democrats in Wisconsin squandered their anti-Walker fervor using the recall method in the middle of Scott Walker's first time, lost that, and then stumbled into the next regular election, and lost that too. It was partly the weirdness of the unusual procedure and partly the failure to develop a strong candidate to defeat Walker. Their anti-Walker fervor did not do what they felt in their hearts it just had to do. I scoff at that stupid drama. Let the Democrats put up a great candidate, like they didn't do in 2016.
More McArdle:
It’s all too easy to imagine a similar scenario for Democrats intent on impeaching Trump as they come up short looking for Republicans to help them make it across the finish line. But it’s not entirely impossible to picture a few Republicans going along....We've gone from "by any metric" to "it's not entirely impossible." Come on! Were we not supposed to read this far into the column? WaPo is all headlines and first lines these days. Get your hit, and maybe you can face another day with Trump as President.
But even if Republicans hold the party line, what Trump faces in this scenario is bad enough: a public trial that he can’t avoid by firing the investigators, nor distract from with more Twitter blasts. One senses that public humiliation, especially at the hands of an establishment that has always looked down on him, is the thing that Trump fears most. Though far from certain, that humiliation is growing more likely.Trump gets his energy from the deplorables — the humble people. The elite's going big on humiliating him will release tremendous energy, energy that Trump knows how to use. But government isn't entertainment, so I'd rather not see this grand drama play out. But these people who are hankering for it... I don't think they're picturing the fight and its repercussions.
To say "By any metric, Trump is in trouble" is to flaunt your lack of imagination.
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239 पैकी 1 – 200 नवीन› नवीनतम»McArdle loses her mind when it comes to Trump. She actually posted that he would cause nuclear war.
I don't know what it is about Trump as president, but he brings out the insanity in those who make their money in political circles.
(also, I'm old enough to remember when Democrat voters had visions of winning the house so they could impeach Bush.)
This looking at polls to find Trump's support numbers is kind of silly when the 2016 election showed how wrong the polls can be.
Nate Silver's numbers come from aggregating other polls and adjusting for calculated historical biases. So Nate Silver's numbers aren't an outlier, they are an estimation of the "real" number.
Wiki on the movement to impeach George W Bush.
We have elections every 4 years and nobody can hold the office more than 8. That should be enough, people. Stop being crazy.
requires the House to vote based on "high crimes and misdemeanors
which are defined as: majority vote in the house
Half the country wants him impeached....
*IF* Trump is impeached (a majority vote in house)
i predict that:
A) Trump will NOT be removed (34 senators vote no)
B) EVERY FUTURE President with a opposition house will be impeached
C) impeachment will become to mean NOTHING
Whatever happened to "high crimes and misdemeanors"? Just what, exactly, would be the charge, Megan? Good grief.
One group of elites that doesn't want to impeach Trump is the Democratic House Leadership. They don't want chaos either.
Hey you can't impeach the Prez, he hasn't even started construction on the "CAMPS" yet!
Trump is always in trouble. He's like the Mir space station, and that lasted 20 years.
"Trump is Not the Modern Goldwater" - Megan McArdle, 10/25/16
"Campaign coverage at this point has the feeling of a party that has gone on too long, but which still has an hour left on the official clock. Some reporters are gamely trying to keep in the spirit of things, but others are ostentatiously looking at their watches and starting conversations about the shape of a future Clinton presidency, or getting an early jump on the campaign autopsies.
"An autopsy of the Trump campaign seems singularly pointless. To a first approximation, he has no campaign. The more interesting question is: What happens to the Republican Party in the wake of Trump?
"With just a few weeks to go before the election, we are at the apex of uncertainty on this point, and therefore, the peak of dark foreboding about Republican civil war and the interregnum of the white nationalist masses. The depression is understandable; professional conservatives saw a reasonably good chance of Republican control of the presidency and Congress, and then Trump rolled in and handed the presidency and perhaps the Senate to the Democrats. It is the most spectacular own-goal in recent U.S. political history, at least since the nomination of Goldwater in 1964 gave Lyndon Baines Johnson the massive majorities he needed to jam through the Great Society programs."
if we're going to look at Polls,
How about the Poll that says only %40 of americans think we'd be better off with hillary?
"By any metric, Trump is in trouble."
Other than that metric that, you know, actually measures the existence of an impeachable offense.
"By any metric, Hillary will win in 2016 in a landslide"
What happened when Clinton was impeached for an actual crime? His poll numbers soared.
I voted for Trump and will do so again. I disapprove of him, but I really, really disapprove of those who would impeach him based on such evidence currently available.
"Who is McArdle writing for these days?"
The p****-hatters, antifa, far left and the LLR Chucks and the rest of the true believers.
As surely as night follows day.
Megan McCardle. Just another Democrat
If it's pure theater -- and it's not -- but do the thought experiment -- it's pure theater:
Who's the protagonist? Who's King Lear? Who has your heart?
Once you launch this into high drama... a normal member of the audience bonds with Trump. By normal, I mean, somebody who watches it as drama, a nonpolitico.
Who is McArdle writing for these days?
Who indeed.
It looks like we've reached the stage where the various outlets of Pravda are now requiring their once-decent writers to regularly publicly humiliate themselves in order to prove their loyalty to the Party.
Our Professor (rhetorically) asks:Who is McArdle writing for these days?
And (of Course!) the answer is: Fake News*
Fake News* remember the olden days? When it wasn't Super Obvious the Washington Post was fake news?
After Trump has left politics, someone should make a little book of all the thousands of anti-Trump headlines in the Washington Post.
Anyone who still believes what they read at FiveThirtyEight.com is not a serious person.
Trump has been in trouble from Day One - with the press.
Let the Democrats put up a great candidate, like they didn't do in 2016.
That's their problem...they don't have one. That's why they are so obsessed with impeachment (Which would merely create President Pence..which would be a bigger nightmare for the Democrats), that's why they always rely on fear and the emotionalism of a large segment of the voting public.
Who is their great candidate?
Hillary again? (she seems determined to try)
Biden?
Warren?
Booker?
Harris?
Sanders?
The party is busy rejecting the sane (Feinstein) in favor of the insane or irresponsible.
Ann is right: the political repercussions from an impeachment fight and impeachment would be great, something akin to Civil War level.
An autopsy of the Trump campaign seems singularly pointless. To a first approximation, he has no campaign. The more interesting question is: What happens to the Republican Party in the wake of
Trump?"
That is precisely the tone and content of what LLR Chuck was writing prior to the election.
And now he and his fellow boosters of dems/lefties believe thet must remove Trump by any means necessary in order to put the dems back into power and return us to the trajectory towards a lefty social welfare state with the dems in permanent stranglehold control of govt and the culture.
When the entire Obama Police State, with British MI6 help, cannot railroad a playboy who has never run for anything before into a fake charge of being a secret Russian agent, then there is a popular revolt going that has taken the high ground. And apparently he has taken the CIA's Coms too. Those darn super spy computers just won't turn back on.
Who's King Lear?
Did anyone else read King Lear and think the fool was an alternate personality of Lear?
Perhaps we just schedule regular impeachment hearings every two years into a President's term.
Four years is too long to live with the will of the voters.
I am Laslo.
Megan is really good when she sticks to economics.
Maybe she should look at how those "measures" are doing.
I disapprove of Trump's marital record. Parts of it are enviable, but none of it is admirable. Trump's metric of success was undoubtedly hedonistic rather than moralistic, but even by this measure, he was not such a success. He paid all that money for Stormy Daniels' silence and did not get it. Charley Sheen negotiated much better deals with the porn stars in his orbit. Granted he got wholesale rates, but he seems to have nailed much better looking pornstars for a much cheaper rate. Some of this troubles me as Trump negotiates new trade deals.
The last quoted paragraph is interesting.
Trump can't avoid the public trial that the media insist on having; but he has already weathered the most important public trial and won the Presidency.
I've seen no evidence Trump fears public humiliation. I've seen the exact opposite, not just in how he turns it around, but how the media can't handle being humiliated. And yeah, the humiliation of the press, such as Although pointing out the silliness of McArdle, is growing.
Ace of AoS believes these formerly "conservative" writers are writing to obtain jobs in the ever shrinking market dominated by media companies like NYT, WaPo, and Disney.
Life in America after November 8, 2016 is full of noise, outrage and uncertainty. And that’s uncertainty as in “we’ve never been here before”. Meanwhile, people go to work, earn a salary or grow a business, kids grow up and get married etc etc.
The noise, panic and outrage are just baked in. And now that its fall folks can watch a football game if they want meaningful noise, panic and outrage.
Go Devils!
If McMegan didn't write stuff like this, she'd end up on the Dershowitz Diet.
Democratic Party Progressivism is a cancer and Trump is the chemotherapy, and chemo isn’t an easy treatment.
McCardl leaves out the giant detail. In Wisconsin, the democrats used power and corruption to try and topple a duly elected governor.
PS and at this point impeachment would just be more of the same.
McArdle isn't that impressive, is she?
The real question is this, by what metric can the corruptocrats install Hillary Clinton and re-install their John Brennan - money grubbing power structure?
Meh. I believe McArdle is making the unremarkable point that Trump is now more likely than not to face impeachment, compared with, say, a month ago. That represents significant peril for Trump, since he may overreact and do something that would justify Senate Republicans signing on to the removal effort. But impeachment also represents significant peril for Democrats, since (as Bill Clinton showed) impeachment during economic prosperity can turn the nation toward the President. We shall see.
Thanks for reading that column and extracting the relevant bits. As much as I normally like McArdle, I could tell that was going to be a doozy of irrelevancies and implications that poll numbers mean squat about impeachment.
I liked Arnold Kling's observation (posted yesterday) that another way to describe the current divide in America is "[p]eople who believe that they are morally superior vs. those of us who will not acknowledge our moral inferiority". It definitely applies here.
I’m disappointed in McArdle’s extreme case of TDS. I guess she got infected by the echo chamber at the Washington Post.
She used to write from a more libertarian viewpoint.
Most people don’t think Trump has the same norms on politeness that the overall US now has, that Borat takes advantage of. Trump is bigger than life, causes commotion, and does an amazing job of playing the press.
I’m amazed Trump is doing such a great job of being President. I believe most voters feel this way. Americans have a streak of practical, as Lincoln kept Grant, a drinker, we are keeping Trump. They both fight.
The Walker recall analogy is great. Who is the leading Dem now? Harris? Booker? Nurse Rathched?
And impeach Trump for what? Tweeting?
Nate Silver needs to go away. He’s the guy who totally blew the 2016 race. Wasn’t he the guy who kept shifting his odds during Election Day? He’s no better than those frauds predicting that we are going to burn up from global warming. Some day.
I predict that Nebraska beats the Akron Zips today. But I’m not calling the spread.
Reading Megan McArdle is an interesting study on the affect those around you have on your opinions. I started reading her blog when she was working as and administrative assistant (IIRC) in a construction trailer on the WTC clean up site after 9/11. She was around a lot of blue collar workers. She had an Ivy education, but there was an awful lot of 'reality' in her opinions -- whether that was from her contact with 'real people' or from the sight of that massive whole in the ground (or was unrelated to either) is speculation. Then, she got her gigs with the Economist and the Atlantic, moved to Washington, D.C., and, eventually, her current position at the Washington Post.
Now, she's immersed in a sea of people who have similar educations to hers and do similar work (writing, policy, public affairs, etc.). Her writing has more ivy and less reality. Megan probably never hears a good word about Trump on the street or at work. Like all her peers who THOUGHT they knew what the country was thinking in late October 2016, they only knew what was being thought in their highly homogeneous enclaves. Unlike most of her peers, McArdle makes semi-frequent excursions into foreign territory. She could use another trip.
But, even if she had a contrary opinion, could she afford to express it? In D.C., Republicans working in the Trump Administration -- educated at Harvard or one of the other 'name schools' -- are shunned. Imagine living there and expressing the wrong opinion in the Post! She'd have to move.
The NY Time Poll tells us Hillary has an 85% chance of winning. So - you know. Polls. Let them be your guiding light.
Poor Megan. She was once a pretty level headed DC resident.
The current insane blathering is ignoring what are genuine accomplishments in trade negotiations, economic performance and foreign policy.
Now, Trump is going to cancel a pay rase of the bureaucrats that are attacking him.
The North Korea thing may have derailed because the Norks read the NY Times and think Trump will be impeached and they will no longer have to deal with him. They are looking forward to getting Hillary back.
Pence, unfortunately, is not as strong as Trump and got flipped on the RFRA in Indiana. They know he can be intimidated.
Who is McArdle writing for these days? WaPo? I didn't know that.
I read her from Jane Galt days and followed her through several organizations. She started to get too political and when she's political she's rediculous. I basically stopped reading her when she went to Greece and write a column about the immigration crisis. Just one long "We've got to do SOMETHING!1!" Screed.
I'd check in from time to time. She's was crazy anti-Trump but that didn't bother me because I was too. Then she wrote her "Trump is going to kill all of us in a nuclear war" and I just rolled my eyes and walked away.
I even kind of forgot about her. No one talks about her anymore.
Trump gets his energy from the deplorables — the spiteful people.
Now, she's immersed in a sea of people who have similar educations to hers and do similar work
Good observation. I have read her columns for years, as well and see the change.
Nurse Ratched. Elizabeth Warren.
Blogger Inga...Allie Oop said...
Trump gets his energy from the deplorables — the spiteful people.
Why the midterms are going to surprise the left.
McArdle is often interesting as a pundit but this is another example of what so many of them are just terrible at: the non-policy areas within politics. People, personalities, polls, likelihoods of this or that happening, yada yada yada. It’s all so boring and trite.
They get paid to have opinions, so we are supposed to take their opinions seriously. Nope.
None of them knew WTF they were talking about in 2016; where is the evidence they’ve gained credibility since? Yet they keep talking.
I think Stormy Daniels is an outlier. That other Playboy chick was much better looking. And as long as Trump didn't get HIV, I would say he wins over Charlie Sheen in the Prostitute Wars.
isnt she flaunting more than just a lack of imagination ?
Trump gets his energy from the deplorables — the spiteful people.
Yeah...we're the ones smacking people in the heads with bicycle locks at a peaceful protest, rioting on college campuses at speeches, throwing people out of restaurant's and businesses, desperately trying to impeach a president for the crime of defeating our candidate, stealing hats with political slogans, keying cars, inciting violence and playing got you politics with every statement and photo op.
“Once you launch this into high drama... a normal member of the audience bonds with Trump. By normal, I mean, somebody who watches it as drama, a nonpolitico.”
Not accurate. A normal member of the audience wonders how the hell did this guy get to be President anyway?
"It’s all too easy to imagine a similar scenario for Democrats intent on impeaching Trump as they come up short looking for Republicans to help them make it across the finish line."
the finish line?
Removal of Trump would not be a finish line.
Hmm...
Trump just gave Congress notification on a NAFTA within 90 days.
That means the debate should be happening around the mid-terms.
Trump is in a win win position with Canada on negotiating a new deal. The Chinese dumping through Canada will be stopped.
Trump is seen as putting America first with the outcome of these deals.
And Trump as doing a win win deal with Mexico, that both the exiting and incoming Mexican Presidents like.
The GOP may keep the house.
And impeachment is looking more and more as a political lose, and Democratic over reach,
McArdle was predicting that Trump would lead the GOP to historic losses in 2016. She doesn’t know anything. In fact no one knows anything. It could be the GOP will suffer historic losses— the Dems certainly did in 1994 and 2010– but the Dems will be real fools if they waste the next two years trying to impeach a president with a booming economy behind him.
I disapprove of Trump, but I voted for him and plan to vote for him again.
McArdle had her pussy grabbed.
The chaos surrounding Trump seems to be mainly on stage, and he is an experienced show producer. Behind the backdrop, his administration seems to be steadily moving right along.
The commentariat also make the the mistake of assuming that Trump cares about the thingsthey care about, which he obviously does not.
All of these talking heads and print commentators are all lying on their base premise. How can you tell? Every single one refuses to name a crime, high or otherwise. Not a single action taken by President Trump is out of the ordinary. The President of the United States is right, as he usually is. Nothing but fake news.
Need an example?
The President is constantly mocked when questioned about Russian hacking the DNC emails, and he says its hard to tell. Russia, maybe others. Hilarity ensues on all the bobbing head panels.
Now we know that that every single email going through the bathroom server, was also copied by... China.
No I am not tired of winning yet.
It's amazing she actually believes the polls. Maybe she should take a trip, cross the country, and stop at the rural communities that have an entirely different opinion than what skewed polls create. She might be surprised. Then again, if she's as truly infected with the bug of Communism, it will only make her more determined to continue the narrative.
The more polls themselves become news the more they will become weaponized.
I now look at polls the same way that I view the scientific concensus on climate change. They both take incomplete and conflicting data, manipulate it in unknown ways, add a heavy dose of their own agendas, and feed it to us as truth.
The mistake that the electorate made was thinking that overall we are a nation of decent people and that no man such as Trump could ever get elected. We gave the deplorables way too much credit for being normal. We know better now. It wasn’t normal to do something like Trump to a country you supposedly love.
"Voting for a Democrat instead of a Republican doesn't mean you want the drama of impeachment."
Since the Dems promise such drama, and want such drama, and will do anything to produce such drama, voting Dem means voting for the drama of impeachment. What you claim to "want" has nothing to do with it. If you don't want drama, vote GOP.
"Would that help the Democrats? To me, it makes them seem too chaotic (which is the main thing that disturbs me about Trump)."
Yes, it is a referendum, because the vote will be interpreted as a referendum. If you are worried about more "chaos," vote GOP.
I know, of course, that a smart lawyer can come up with reasons for anything.
“All of these talking heads and print commentators are all lying on their base premise. How can you tell? Every single one refuses to name a crime, high or otherwise.”
Have you been living under a rock? Criminal Conspiracy and Obstruction of Justice along with various minor crimes. It’s been mentioned thousands of times already by the talking heads. Maybe you should expand your horizons.
The idea that Trump is some outsider longing to make it with the cool kids is about forty years out of date. They are all thinking of Nixon. Trump is a rule-breaker. He puts it all out front. He goes with his gut. He insults people daily, hourly. He loves a fight, and his first move is to always kick his opponent in the balls. You want to wrestle in the mud with him? Bring it on. You’ll get dirty, and Trump will like it.
You want to give him a stage where he is the center of attention and he insults you, gets to point out your failures and shortcomings with everyone watching, then impeach him. I think you’ll wish you hadn’t. He isn’t going to be humiliated— you are.
To say "By any metric, Trump is in trouble" is to flaunt your lack of imagination.
It is to expose the writer's wild imagination and wishful thinking.
"By any metric, Trump is in trouble,"
This is a daily story in the Washington Post for the last two years, ten times a day.
Once you launch this into high drama... a normal member of the audience bonds with Trump. By normal, I mean, somebody who watches it as drama, a nonpolitico.
Excellent analysis, Professor.
a normal member of the audience bonds with Trump.
Not to go all Godwin or anything, but this whole circus has given me some insight into how "fascism" ever happens. You have a group of elites accustomed to being in control, and a populist outsider leader like Trump who can go over their heads to his followers.
For one thing, violent pushback from leftist street thugs has a long history. Then something terrible happens, or something phony like the Reichstag fire.
Just spitballing. But I'm starting to understand more about the 1920s than I did before. Always two sides, eh? Yet we are supposed to look back and condemn it all, unequivocally.
Government is entertainment. Government is always political. Our Constitution is there to try and keep it from getting out of control. It doesn't always work though.
This post-of-an-article crystalizes why I have pulled away from the internet of late.
Everything on the internet now comes back to Trump.
And everything written and said about Trump is a hybrid of WWI trench warfare and Tom-and-Jerry cartoons.
The dynamic doesn't change, and the reasons do not change: when the machine guns aren't killing enough people then out comes the poison gas, occasionally blowing back on those who launched the shells.
To belabor the analogy: one needs a gas mask to make it through the latest barrage. And the next click will bring the same.
And if a veritable Treaty of Versailles were to be socially signed, World War II will already be in the making.
Here at Althouse even the posts that are not about Trump inevitably become about Trump in the comments.
I imagine that if the whimsy of, say, the Gatsby Project were to be posted today that the line "The prolonged and tumultuous argument that ended by herding us into that room eludes me, though I have a sharp physical memory that, in the course of it, my underwear kept climbing like a damp snake around my legs and intermittent beads of sweat raced cool across my back" would be Trumpized within ten comments: Trump is the damp snake, most likely.
Because Trump is obviously "Sometimes a shadow moved against a dressing-room blind above, (giving) way to another shadow, an indefinite procession of shadows, that rouged and powdered in an invisible glass." Of course he is.
For awhile I thought Althouse was starting to go through the motions -- not as much daily skew for one to try to place thoughts upon -- but came to the conclusion that I was most likely the one just going through the motions when reading.
Here are a few lines from the Gatsby Project: can you read them now without already knowing how they would be applied to Trump in the comments?
"No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart."
"Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart."
Maybe I'm being cranky. But then try this line:
"The door that I pushed open, on the advice of an elevator boy, was marked 'The Swastika Holding Company,' and at first there didn’t seem to be any one inside."
I am Laslo.
I am personally ambivalent about the prospect of impeachment.
Of course, the very notion of it, in the absence of actual grounds, is absurd. A successful outcome would enrage us deplorables, who have been sitting back, except when we had a chance to go to a Trump rally.
But it will clearly and undeniably demonstrate to the Althouses of the world that the Dems will do anything to prevail, including creating "chaos," perhaps convincing them that such bastards need to be resisted, thereby shifting the balance of power away from the Dems.
A successful impeachment would also produce President Pence, who cannot win a race, but could make way for Nikki Haley. Haley/Cotton could tap into Trumpist rage while still giving the Althouse middle a reason to vote GOP.
Funny how 'polls' in which no Trump supporter would participate conducted by media that no Trump supporter would watch are taken seriously.
@ Inga...Allie Oop
Please elaborate on your distinction between "the electorate" and "the deplorables".
And how do propose to prevent this "mistake" from being repeated in the future?
I'd love to hear it.
Irish became white? As an easily sunburned member of that group I respond, wut?
Althouse, you are of course at your best when you are exposing careless and sloppy writing.
But when you suggest that politics is not entertainment, I respectfully question your judgment, in particular as it relates to TrumpWorld. Because in truth, Trump is all about entertainment, and not policy.
Anytime you want a sober, non-entertainment policy debate, let’s have it. From health care, to immigration, to trade protectionism.
Good to hear from you, Laslo
Have you been living under a rock? Criminal Conspiracy and Obstruction of Justice along with various minor crimes. It’s been mentioned thousands of times already by the talking heads. Maybe you should expand your horizons.
Great we have a player.
Lets pick just one for clarity. Criminal conspiracy. This is a great start by naming a crime. Now all you need to due is link the President to it. Dont forget that Mueller is not charged to investigate that crime, (or any crime). In fact there are NO crimes in the document that created the special counsel. You do know all the indictments of Russians have been passed onto the DOJ's counter intel division, that have no prosecuters. Hence no CRIMINAL prosecutions. Because the Mueller operation is nothing but a counter intel operation. NOT criminal.
I'd say thanks for playing, but you haven't even identified the game yet, let alone participate in the game.
Great comment by Laslo.
I only wish that Megan McArdle would read this post and the comments. Maybe Linda Greenhouse will call her up and clue her in.
By any metric, Trump is in trouble
Isn't the growth of the Gross Domestic Product a metric?
My favorite metric is the number of conservative justices in the federal judiciary.
Maybe a little perspective would be helpful. 60 years ago this month the end of the world was predicted. Again. Betty Friedan "The Coming Ice Age". Yes, that Betty Friedan. I wonder what she thinks of global warming. All this talk of impeachment is just kids' stuff.
https://harpers.org/archive/1958/09/the-coming-ice-age/
The First World War was in fact a huge laboratory of military tactics, operations, logistics and technology. The experiments were very bloody, but everyone really was trying different things at a furious rate, as fast as entire countries and economies could be made to go anyway.
The American Cold Civil War is the same.
"One senses that public humiliation, especially at the hands of an establishment that has always looked down on him, is the thing that Trump fears most."
Yes. Truly insightful.
It is clear from everything President Trump has said and done that he is truly in terror that the elites in the media and the party establishments will scold him yet again. He will feel humiliated and slink away to curl up in a corner and die under the withering fire of their derision.
One screen, two movies, indeed.
Also glad to see you back Laslo.
A normal member of the audience wonders how the hell did this guy get to be President anyway?
Normal people understood it within hours of it happening.
It’s the abnormal people who still can’t figure it out.
Truth Dies in Darkness!
Here’s the heart of Trump’s program and his appeal, from Matthew Continnetti: government that privileges American citizens through tight labor markets, border security, trade reciprocity, and entitlements.
Now, that isn’t my program, but I understand its appeal to many Americans. Dick Gephart campaigned on this stuff but had nowhere near Trump’s charisma, and US workers hadn’t seen jobs disappear to automation and cheap offshore labor.
I think you add it all up, and Trump has to hope he gets impeached. He is going to kill the Democratic Party.
Wager we’re about to see a PATCO moment for the Never Trumpers in January. Where like Reagan He’ll fire all the federal workforce, hand them Hard Hats, and when unable to find a job after giving them a free ride for a year, hand them a broom and a rifle, saying “if you’re going to do nothing, don’t do it here. For those that their people love, they’ll be given a chance to build all institutions back better as one unified government in a building the size of the Pentagon, which will probably still be too big.. Most of the work will be given to the States. Who needs a Justice department or federal law when every crime is committed somewhere, have the locality deal with it, including writing and voting for that law, start over with Gen-next kids creating both law and regulations and If the Sates want to save costs by cooperating use interstate compacts. Ditto federal laws and regulation ‘Seems we’re working up to a Dirty Harry moment. “Go Ahead, Make my day”. Enjoy the freedom the great people of America that you’ve been given back, you deserve it and more. If you don’t like how this is turning out, you’ll have an opportunity to re-elect your congress folk every year. Term limits on people, laws and regulations are glorious things.
Good to have Laslo back with his always-incisive comments.
Obstruction of justice for firing a guy who said he wasn't under investigation? Nice try.
Impeach him and get Pense who hires a new AG who appoints a new SP to root into the unrooted into Clinton mess. The fucking Chinese were reading her every email!! China China China. Oh, my. We need the records of the Clinton Foundation. We need to indict and turn a few insiders. Huma, look out.
I am afraid there are more than a few Democrats calling for Trump's head believe that if he is impeached then Hillary becomes president. Ask a few.
This post-of-an-article crystalizes why I have pulled away from the internet of late.
Everything on the internet now comes back to Trump.
Laslo, I think this is true of Althouse. There are other blogs. One I read daily has been about a trip to Italy. and a few other topics, like the Catholic Church's troubles. One Trump post in a week.
At another, we have been discussing Healthcare and Taiwan.
It doesn't have to be all about Trump.
If you still don’t know how Trump got elected, perhaps you should solve that mystery before commenting further.
Especially before predicting how the political process is destined to play out.
Politics is not policy.
Or any other narrow thing, or narrow because narrowly defined.
Politics has a vast reach, and is inseparable from human existence as a whole.
What is the politics in the Iliad? It is about a number of political arguments after all. But it involves everything.
Inga- I would like you to re-read what you are writing about your fellow human beings, your fellow Americans, and evaluate whether that sounds like a healthy attititude toward people who disagree with you, or if it sounds dehumanizing. And if it sound dehumanizing, what kind of political movements have used that kind of rhetoric in the recent past?
Blogger Amadeus 48 said...
The idea that Trump is some outsider longing to make it with the cool kids is about forty years out of date. They are all thinking of Nixon.
Very good observation. Nixon's weakness was, A. he was poor and B, he craved approval.
Pat Buchanan's book, "Nixon's White House Wars" is good and the fact that, once elected, he shut out his old staff and hired a bunch of PR guys like Haldeman, explains some of his mistakes.
Trump is rich and enjoys combat. He actually put $60 million of his own money into the campaign.
It would take a Shakespeare to do justice to Trump.
And to the complex response to him.
And to the drama, and comedy.
And perhaps, ultimately, the tragedy.
Birches,
I think the clear and unambiguous obstruction was, “I hope you can see your way clear” to not pursuing Flynn.
If you hate Trump, that will suffice. An expression of hope is tantamount to an order. You see?! He ordered him not to pursue Flynn’s egregious violation of the Whosis Act, on which we are instant experts, much like the Emoluments Claus.
Michael K@9:10AM/
"The North Korea thing may have derailed..."
EXACTLY.
The petty McCain family made John McCain's death all about Trump.
How sad.
By any metric, Megan McArdle is full of shit when it comes to Trump and she always has been. Thank you for confirming this.
What's more interesting than mass delusion.
What I used to like about McArdle was her signature tendency to dissect conventional wisdom and be the spoilsport on various items of partisan fantasy. She seems to have completely suspended that where Trump is concerned.
The nuclear war thing was a good example. Candidate Trump asks, roughly, Why shouldn’t we use them, since we have them? If you hate him, that’s proof that he doesn’t understand what the experts and all decent people do: Nuclear war would be A Very Bad Thing. What an ignoramus! What a sociopath!
If you’re willing to entertain any alternative to the worst possible interpretation, he was doing what he does: Forcing people to examine premises they’ve perhaps taken for granted for so long, they forget to think about them anymore.
Personally I wouldn’t want any nuclear advisers who didn’t have some damned cogent answers off the cuff. But to McArdle, it’s appalling to even ask.
I think the observations above about the 1920s was pretty good.
It was Carol and, while I think any analogy between Trump and Hitler is just going all Inga, there are some parallels that are troubling.
Germany in 1923 was nothing like the US in 2018. But, the Democrats might try to crash the economy to get back at Trump. They are that crazy.
Could they do it ? I don't know. I do think the "Silicon Valley" tech companies could be vulnerable.
Powerline has discontinued the Facebook connection to their comments. There might be more of that.
I have not used Google for searches for most of the year.
These behemoths are vulnerable because they don't make anything necessary.
There's lots of addiction, like gaming, but that is also vulnerable to swings in sentiment. These are all fads.
Nobody lives and dies by Google expect the employees.
I thought the last adaptation of Gatsby was terrible, except for the conceit that carroway was writing this as a journal
" Inga...Allie Oop said...
The mistake that the electorate made was thinking that overall we are a nation of decent people and that no man such as Trump could ever get elected. We gave the deplorables way too much credit for being normal. We know better now."
Analysis from the America Was Never Ever Ever Great (AWNEEG) crowd:
The working class in toxic
The middle class sucks
The upper class is rich
No one is left but the felons and transvestites with the moral purity and courage necessary to make America great for the first time ever. (MAGFTFTE). And there aren't enough of them. We're doomed. (SMOD)
Except the employees
but it's fun to parrot "obstruction of justice" = even when you cannot name what that is.
PS Great post, Althouse.
Just a few classic lines garnered:
"a lot of us don't like much of anything, but we've got to have something."
"WaPo is all headlines and first lines these days. Get your hit, and maybe you can face another day with Trump as President."
"Their anti-Walker fervor did not do what they felt in their hearts it just had to do. I scoff at that stupid drama."
Robert Redford wasn't my idea of Gatsby either, I guess waterston was a possible carroway.
I wish we could have a president like Washington, that is, one with dignity and class, who commanded near universal respect. But, sadly, we live in a far different world these days where so many of our institutions are corrupted by the power-obsessed left that you need a fighter like Trump to oppose the left's insanity.
Polls? I don't got no steenking polls! Nobody's polled me, and I'd lie to them if any did. And I'd bet that I'd have plenty of company.
I've always been skeptical about the disapproval statistics in polls.
It doesn't say which way the disapproval is.
50% of that disapproval, could be disapproving because he is too conservative.
While the other 50% could disapprove because he is too liberal.
Example: 300 people disapprove of the deportation policy. 150 think he is deporting too many people, while the other 150 think he is deporting too few. But when an opponent waves that poll about, and say he should change the immigration policy there is no way to be sure which way it should go based on the poll.
At some point in the decline into decadence of any system, it becomes clear even to the elite that they are suffering from a loss of virtue. Its usually the broader population that percieves this earlier. When the elite is demoralized, in the sense of perceiving their own loss of moral authority, they become vulnerable to overthrow.
You see this quite often in Chinese history especially. The palace, with its cabals of eunuchs and court women, is all-powerful, hidden behind hierarchy, complex processes and ceremonies. A season later they flee, disguised as peasants, quite often southwards to defend a rump empire. An army of peasants then shows up led by some talented cabal of upstarts. Then you have a new dynasty, or a civil war.
One does not have to choose a particular historical moment to analogize, all of it works.
Impeachment is not really about finding and proving a crime; it's a political process -- one that a popular President can survive when an unpopular President would not survive. So McCardell is saying (or at least she has me thinking): Don't sweat the small stuff, like whether or not the President can or has obstructed justice or whether the President colluded with Russia; keep your eye on the ball: is Trump popular enough to survive an impeachment attack.
The people running the US establishment dont believe their own propaganda.
They are not convinced of their own virtue. Its well-understood, in their own circles, that they are corrupt in every way. You get a taste of this self-loathing constantly in the MSM and academia, disguised as a dislike of "whites", or the country itself.
In ethnic politics also there is a profound understanding of their own moral weakness. Corruption is endemic and universal in those circles, to such a degree that many defend it openly.
rhhardin said...
"McArdle had her pussy grabbed."
Funny you would say that. I was thinking that she has grown a pair. And Jeff Bezos has a firm grip on them.
True about McArdle and Bezos.
Follow the money is always a good rule.
Megan McArdle is slowly being assimilated by D.C. She used to be what Ms. Althouse is today, but coming from the other side of the political dividing line. This is what happens when you start out independent, but then move in succession to The Atlantic, Bloomberg, and then WaPo. The exact same thing has happened to Tyler Cowen, though he has maintained his own independent site outside his op-ed work in the major media.
However, I will defend Ms. McArdle's essay to some extent (I can only read the excerpts Ms. Althouse put in the post): it is possible to envision the Senate Republicans going along with impeachment- they also marinate in the culture that is Washington D.C. that pulls everyone living there to the left. So, the idea isn't really completely unbelievable.
In any case, I don't think the Democrats will impeach Trump on the evidence we know today, and if they do, I don't think the Republicans really are stupid enough to convict him in the Senate. Bill Clinton was caught red-handed committing perjury and lying repeatedly about the matter until it was proven with DNA test, and yet not even all the Republicans in the Senate would vote to convict him. To impeach Trump will require him being proven convincingly to have done something far more serious than we know of today. If they impeach him over the Trump Tower meeting or obstruction because he fired James Comey, the blowback will be serious, and could turn very violent quite rapidly. This is why I think saner heads will prevail even if the Democrats win both the House and Senate this November.
All in all, a great job by Ms. Althouse in this post.
It's apophasis, Ann. It's pure rhetoric... I will not tell you how bad the prior president was...
"Trump is always in trouble. He's like the Mir space station, and that lasted 20 years.".
I was thinking Hyman Roth in Godfather, Part Two
He was dying of the same heart attack for 30 years. When Michael Corleone realized it, he had him assassinated.
I hope the Secret Service is on their toes. When impeachment doesn't work out, things may get dangerous.
Blogger Molly said...
Impeachment is not really about finding and proving a crime; it's a political process -- one that a popular President can survive when an unpopular President would not survive. So McCardell is saying (or at least she has me thinking): Don't sweat the small stuff, like whether or not the President can or has obstructed justice or whether the President colluded with Russia; keep your eye on the ball: is Trump popular enough to survive an impeachment attack.
Well, you’re not wrong.
Just remember; the fact that impeachment is basically the only Constitutional remedy for Presidents, and the fact that impeachment is an essentially an essentially political process, can be both the blessing and curse of someone like Trump. Because It’s likely that Trump, as President, can’t be indicted for tax evasion or bank fraud or campaign finance violations. Like his attorney has been.
So Trump gets to escape a federal indictment. But he has to deal with impeachment.
Trump is like Ben Kenobi. If you strike him down, President Pence(Luke) will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
Chuck, you are wrong. Trump is about policy, and is using entertainment as a distraction to gain the advantage. If you haven't figured this out yet, start watching.
Canada is about to see a 25% tariff on vehicles exported to the US. They thought it was entertainment. They believed the nonsense written in the august Washington Post and New York Times. They believe their bureaucrat connections in Washington.They thought they could strong arm Trump, they could ignore him, they could play like they were equals. We are close to losing access to the US market, and the US auto industry will be hiring lots of people.
And likely the Canadian government will fall. At least two provinces are sending delegations with pick axes and rope to deal with the incompetents in Ottawa.
A win-win from Trump's perspective.
And Kavanaugh will get his seat, more lower level judges as well. The economy is ticking along at 4.2% growth. He is shaking the foundations of black support for Democrats, rewriting the coalitions. He is moving the Democrats to the extreme left.
If you were smart, which is questionable, you would recognize that he learned from a political genius, Bill Clinton. He has been the most consequential president since Reagan, and was able to do it because the Republicans were vigorously prosecuting sexual picadillos, all the while Clinton was stealing their best ideas.
The people running around with their hair on fire right now are not the smart ones.
The Republicans in the Senate know what he is doing, and the Congress is catching on. Chuck Schumer knows he is facing a steam roller.
You just watch. Democrats won't be watching CNN or MSNBC, nor reading the NYT and Washington Post after November, joining the Republicans.
> Good observation. I have read her columns for years, as well and see the change.
There is something about DC, it exists in a different reality. Paul Mirengoff at Power Line would be another example of its bizarre effects on its inhabitants.
"To me, it makes them seem too chaotic (which is the main thing that disturbs me about Trump)."
How much of the chaos is factually Trump vs. the nonstop depiction of Trump as chaotic? I'm more disturbed by the establishment's over the top reaction to Trump than Trump himself.
Donald J Trump has been one of if not the most law abiding president in my lifetime. That is a fact.
Yancey Ward admits: it is possible to envision the Senate Republicans going along with impeachment- they also marinate in the culture that is Washington D.C. that pulls everyone living there to the left.
Possible but highly improbable since that move would likely incur the wrath of their constituents.
After you have convinced people that you fervently believe your cause to be more important than telling the truth, you’ve lost the power to convince them of anything else. – Megan McArdle
Possible but highly improbable since that move would likely incur the wrath of their constituents.
Since when have Republican Senators ever cared about incurring the wrath of their constituents?
Meghan McCain being Classless as usual. Attacking Trump at the funeral.
Guess she can't tell her Father's funeral from The View.
it is possible to envision the Senate Republicans going along with impeachment- they also marinate in the culture that is Washington D.C. that pulls everyone living there to the left. So, the idea isn't really completely unbelievable.
I agree with this but Derek Kite's analysis is also right on.
The DC crowd is corrupt from top to bottom. The Mandarin class from Ivy League schools has been incompetent for 50 years.
They are physical cowards since none have military experience, guys like Cotton will dominate them.
Before Vietnam, there were lots of war veterans in Washington. Some were Democrats like Jack Reed but more are phonies like Blumenthal who faked his military record and Kerry.
If the "Blue Wave" happens, which I kind of doubt, there might be an attempt to impeach Trump but the rage that will create would scare the sane lefties, such as they are.
The ANTIFA fascists will riot but some day the cops are going to get tired of the bullshit from their superiors.
Polls can be manipulated and in any case don't measure intensity or knowledge.
How many Low information morons get Polled?
The only poll that counts comes on election day.
Funeral Watch - Bush II comes off as the classiest guy in the Crowd.
To bad he was such a globalist, open borders boob.
I wonder why Bill and Hillary weren't invited. No one has talked about that.
People disapprove of Trump? As compared to What? As compared to some Platonic Ideal of President, or as compared to the available alternatives?
Oh, I got it wrong. Bill is there. He just didn't speak.
Bush is singing and swaying to the music again.
Funny.
I wonder why Bill and Hillary weren't invited. No one has talked about that.
They were at Aretha's.
Getting back to Gatsby I haven't seen the 1949 version with Alan Ladd, so I don't know how faithful it is the book.
We have five priests over the coffin. Three women, one uncertain and one black guy.
Very funny, since McCain had ZERO religion.
Casket now being carried out. Military Pallbearers are suitably diverse.
I was hoping Trump would crash the funeral but no such luck.
"I suspect that a lot of us don't like much of anything, but we've got to have something."
--
Just a reminder that one of the songs in the campaign rally rotation at both rallies I worked at works as for Hildebeast, both political parties and Trump:
I saw her today at the reception
In her glass was a bleeding man
She was practiced at the art of deception
Well I could tell by her blood-stained hands
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need
Blogger Inga...Allie Oop said...
Have you been living under a rock? Criminal Conspiracy and Obstruction of Justice along with various minor crimes. It’s been mentioned thousands of times already by the talking heads.
--
Of course they have...
As the perfesser said, it is Kabuki. It is all clickbait. Media's approval rating is about like that of Congress, mid-teens. They are fighting for the last lifeboat on the Titanic, and it's listing 15 degrees. They've gotta out-shout each other for Inga's attention. The talking points never rose above the level of golden showers in Moscow, and America, (sadly), has enough Inga's to make profit of it.
They were at Aretha's.
Just a couple seats away from Farrakhan.
Coffin being carried down the steps. Very slowly.
For obvious reasons.
Cindy McCain looking very grief stricken - again.
For a glimpse at what might be the pillow talk chez McArdle/Suderman:
Peter
🍸Suderman
Verified account @petersuderman
Aug 28
Nope, nothing to see here, just the president casually threatening federal retaliation against Google for search results he doesn't like, because it's Tuesday.
5 replies 6 retweets 13 likes
Peter
🍸Suderman
Verified account @petersuderman
Aug 28
Trump's threats against the press (and now tech) are common enough that it's easy to shrug them off. Even if nothing comes of them, the fact that senior White House advisers end up considering them illustrates the potential for real policy consequences.
7 replies 28 retweets 47 likes
Show this thread
Peter
🍸Suderman
Verified account @petersuderman
Aug 28
It may be tempting to dismiss Trump's pre-dawn tweets as nothing more than the restless ramblings of a tech-illiterate old man. But they also serve as a form of guidance from the president of the United States.
6 replies 12 retweets 12 likes
Show this thread
Peter
🍸Suderman
Verified account @petersuderman
Aug 28
Trump's threat to regulate Google search results is yet another narcissistic attack on the idea of press freedom:
rcocean:
Meghan McCain being Classless as usual. Attacking Trump at the funeral.
Guess she can't tell her Father's funeral from The View.
In fairness to Meghan, it's what her father would've wanted.
Finally, the coffin is in the hearse.
And the great man is driven away.
Hopefully, this will be the last we hear of John McCain.
I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine (Chardonnay) in her hand
I knew she was gonna meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you might find
You get what you need
But I went down to the demonstration
To get your fair share of abuse
Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse"
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you just might find
You get what you need
Of course, it won't be.
You can sure, we'll get another McCain running for Arz. Senate.
Assuming one is not given the seat.
Megan is really good when she sticks to economics.
Sorry, but that hasn’t been true for me for a while.
"In fairness to Meghan, it's what her father would've wanted."
Great point!
The whole thing was 2.5 hours. I was bored after 15 minutes.
CNN now highlighting Meghan McCain. "Delivers emotional Tribute to her father".
That's Enough. Adios.
Why is it people keep thinking President Trump is going to respond like politician? The President does not respond to political stimuli. Yet my intellectual better, McArdle is either an idiot, because she hasn't figured this out, or, lacks the ability to actually reason through what is going on. Most likely, this is the latest talking point sent out and she is just following orders.
Still waiting for exactly what crimes President Trump is being investigated for, last I heard the President is not a subject of any criminal investigation.
As far as impeachment, yes it is 100% political. That is by design, The only way to remove a functioning President is political, so political checks come into play. ie, the voters, voting out of office those elected that have violated their oath of office.
Breezy observes: "Whatever happened to 'high crimes and misdemeanors'? Just what, exactly, would be the charge, Megan? Good grief."
The constitution does not define "high crimes and misdemeanors." As such, it means whatever the House and Senate say it means. If Trump were to be impeached and removed from office because of bad breath or boorish behavior, there'd almost certainly be no judicial relief. It's politics all the way down.
Folks are monkeying up the thread with McCain and a phonetically identical Meghan.
Thanks for the chuckle, Inga. Your post reminds me of this:
https://www.yourprops.com/-We-Are-The-People-Palantine-original-movie-costume-Taxi-Driver-1976-YP26168.html
“Analysis from the America Was Never Ever Ever Great (AWNEEG) crowd:”
Is it even possible to be more wrong? What “crowd” is this? It was Trump who claimed America was not great and only he alone would make it so. MAGA, whose mantra is this yours or mine?
“The working class in toxic”
Wrong. We ARE the working class.
“The middle class sucks”
Wrong. We ARE the middle class.
“The upper class is rich”
Wrong. The “upper class” are everyday people who are honorable, decent Americans who reject the politics of spite.
“No one is left but the felons and transvestites with the moral purity and courage necessary to make America great for the first time ever. (MAGFTFTE). And there aren't enough of them. We're doomed. (SMOD)”
America was always Great, it didn’t take Trump to make it great, in fact he’s done the opposite. Lastly, who do you think we are? Some amorphous group that aren’t Americans? You people don’t seem to understand your fellow Americans, who reject the politics of spite, hatefulness, bigotry. We are the Americans who long for honor in our leaders, people who think honor is still a good thing.
Walter and Inga are doing a duo act.
Good work. You'll need some new material after November,.
"All of these talking heads and print commentators are all lying on their base premise. How can you tell? Every single one refuses to name a crime, high or otherwise. Not a single action taken by President Trump is out of the ordinary. The President of the United States is right, as he usually is. Nothing but fake news. "
Iowan, I actually asked that question at a public forum by a Demmicrate candidate for Congress (he lost in the primary, BTW).
This is what he gave me as his reason he would vote for impeachment:
"Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/2017/05/15/530c172a-3960-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html
Trump's numbers are no worse than Obama's at this point in their Presidencies. And in some metrics, they're better.
Scream at the sky, leftist fools. It's all you've got.
If it's pure theater -- and it's not
Why isn't it pure theater? Meuller was chosen because his background in Boston demonstrated he'd have no qualms about making shit up to frame innocents then letting them rot in jail. Seems like a job requirement for a Trump posse. There's a 100% probability the Trump investigation will peak at the exact moment in time political strategists believe will inflict the most damage to Republicans in the election. The probability we Mueller investigation doesn't lay all their cards on the table before election day- 0%.
The 'evidence' will be weak sauce- not a smoking gun. Definitely not the Russians but some other 'Tumped' up charge we're supposed to gullibly accept.
If it works we'll get the same every time a Republican wins. Every time.
Michael K said...
Walter and Inga are doing a duo act.
Good work. You'll need some new material after November,.
--
Sorry for the distraction, Doc. Carry on with the heavy lifting.
So, Obama spied, Clinton colluded, the DNC denied democracy, and the press covered it up. Water Closet, as far as we know, was a DNC-run clearing house for classified information. We know that Clinton colluded with China on more than one occasion. We know that the DNC colluded with the post-coup government in Kiev, British agents, and anti-Putin factions in Russia to manufacture cause that would justify Obama's spying on Americans and Republicans.
We gave the deplorables way too much credit for being normal. We know better now.
Once again, your stupidity is exceeded only by your fucking arrogance.
Trump's numbers are no worse than Obama's at this point in their Presidencies. And in some metrics, they're better.
It's necessary to adjust the numbers for an unprecedented effort by diversity rackets and journolists to paint him Cis-White, White, White European, and generally #TooManyLabels.
A pretty good analysis of Trump and what is going on.
Some on the Right compare him to Ronald Reagan, since everyone on the Right loves Ronald Reagan. But he’s unlike anything we’ve seen before, for the simple reason that he’s up against something we’ve never seen before: a liberalism that’s given up on the American Dream of a mobile and classless society. And that was the paradox of the 2016 election, one in which a revolutionary capitalist defeated the liberal candidate of a counter-revolutionary and aristocratic New Class.
Like all aristocrats, the New Class defends its privileges as the consequence of fixed and unchangeable laws of nature. We’d love to do something for you poor slobs, they tell us, except nothing can be done. If you’ve fallen behind, it’s because we’ve moved to an information economy with premium wages for high-skilled workers, and regrettably you’re dumb and low-skilled.
Worth reading the whole thing. Right on the money.
We gave the deplorables way too much credit for being normal. We know better now.
Colorful clumps of cells that may or may not be profitable, and that can be deemed unworthy and subject to summary abortion. There is precedent.
Walter could read that article with some benefit. But you won't.
If you’ve fallen behind, it’s because we’ve moved to an information economy with premium wages for high-skilled workers
That's the attitude of anti-nativists who seek to replace native blacks, browns, whites, etc. through immigration reform. This cause, more than any other, except, perhaps selective-child, exposed the deplorable nature of left of center and far right ideology.
Walter: Doc Mike has low self esteme so he has to frame people together as a virtue signal to his fellow trumpsters. It's a more bitter, less effective version of Drago's schlock.
What she's huffing on about:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/09/more-mueller-madness-8.php
Trump's demise is always around the corner, according to the corporate media meme-makers. The outrage fatigue has yet to take hold.
What is your issue today, exactly MK?
Or are you in one of your reckless/reflexive troll! moby! accusational moods?
I read your link and agree with it...though there's not all that much "new material", tbh.
I don't have the patience to delve through WP comments, but are any oldtime McCardle readers there trying an intervention yet?
Post Modernism is at heart the destruction of norms and truth.
So if we no longer require norms or truth, WHY NOT a President Trump?
The Academy DESERVES a President Trump as their Nemesis. They created them out of their hubris.
Nothing to see here lets go golfing yet again.
This article makes me sad.
I have a high regard to Ms. McArdle and have followed her from website to website for a decade or more.
And while I congratulate her on her fiscal windfall, she has jumped into a place where I will not follow.
Ms. McArdle, by herself, is not worth the cost in money and self respect I would have to pay to read the WaPo.
Further, it seems that being in the echo chamber has had a deleterious effect on her critical thinking.
I never saw the WaPo and McArdle as being a good fit.
"by any metric"
Like, GDP growth over 4%, low unemployment, strong judges getting appointed, EU proposing zero tariffs, deal with Mexico that even the AFL-CIO likes, mullahs pressured, NK pressured, higher ed kangaroo courts changed, Brennan/Strzok/Ohr/Simpson collusion with foreigners Steele, Downer, and Russian informants exposed?
By any metric, Trump remains the duly elected President of the United States, the most powerful republic the world has ever known.
So, there's that.
Inga: "Is it even possible to be more wrong? What “crowd” is this?"
LOL
Written just one week after Giv Cuomo explicitly stated, in a pre-written speech' that America was never great...in top of decades of lefty activists and academics who view Americas founding itself as a crime against humanity which is why they want to "fundamentally transform" America into something far far far away from the founders intent.
On the culture front this has also been obvious for decades with the latest side-splitter being the lefties removal of the American flag placement on the moon by Neil Armstrong.
The actor playing the role actually argued that landing on the moon was a shared moment, not am American monent.
In Ingas defense, history began anew 15 minutes ago so she remembers none of this.
Blogger Howard said...
Walter: Doc Mike has low self esteme so he has to frame people together as a virtue signal to his fellow trumpsters. It's a more bitter, less effective version of Drago's schlock.
Howard, the lefties have a lot of trouble finding links that support your theory of history.
You and walter and Inga make a great team. History began yesterday.
Two-thirds of the Senate seems pretty close to impossible - absent an actual crime.
Let's just put the country out of its misery, finish the coup, and put Hillary in charge--with such geniuses as Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez as her Brain Trust. Then we can go full Venezuela!
Hilarious. Dems cave over threat of lost vacation time:
With McConnell Cancelling the August Recess, Senate Democrats Surrender on 7 Judicial Appointments, Agree to Another 8 Next Week
Either confirm these judges or you won't be going home to campaign to save your seats.
ACE of Spades
http://minx.cc:1080/?post=376831
Blogger Laslo Spatula said...
"This post-of-an-article crystalizes why I have pulled away from the internet of late...
It shows exactly why your talents are needed more than ever.
“On the culture front this has also been obvious for decades with the latest side-splitter being the lefties removal of the American flag placement on the moon by Neil Armstrong.”
The sons of Neil Armstrong are defending Damien Chazelle's docudrama about the moon landing after conservative pundits decried the film's failure to show the moment the American flag was planted on the lunar surface.
In a joint statement on Friday, Rick and Mark Armstrong, along with "First Man" author James Hansen, denied that Chazelle's film was "anti-American in the slightest." "Quite the opposite," they said
"This story is human and it is universal. Of course, it celebrates an America achievement. It also celebrates an achievement 'for all mankind,'" said the Armstrongs and Mr Hansen.
"The filmmakers chose to focus on Neil looking back at the earth, his walk to Little West Crater, his unique, personal experience of completing this journey, a journey that has seen so many incredible highs and devastating lows.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/01/neil-armstrongs-sons-defend-moon-landing-film-against-flag-critics/
Hahaha, Drago got his orders from right wing pundits to be outraged over the Neil Armstrong movie and he dutifully complied as a good propagandist does.
From Fox, since you folks probably don’t like my first link.
“The Armstrong sons and Hansen released a joint statement Friday, saying that director Damien Chazelle's film is "quite the opposite" of being "anti-American."
They added that most of the comments against the film have been "made largely by people who haven't seen the movie."
"This story is human and it is universal. Of course, it celebrates an America achievement. It also celebrates an achievement 'for all mankind,'" the statement said.”
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/09/01/neil-armstrongs-sons-defend-first-man-film-from-claims-that-its-anti-american.html
Oh but don’t let me rain on your outrage parade Drago.
"This story is human and it is universal. Of course, it celebrates an America achievement. It also celebrates an achievement 'for all mankind,'" the statement said.”
There must be a reason for not including the American flag. What was it?
Inga, thats not a denial, thats an opinion acknowledging a conscious choice of message.acknowledging
I.e., they made it clear they meant to do that.
They say "human, universal". It is of course.
It is also American, particular.
A moment of, also, tribal glory.
After all, this was the effort of a particular nation, not all of them.
But they left out the tribe.
That was a choice of message, done for reasons.
Quite different from the messaging and actions of the day.
The "Time" magazine cover and all other media.
Which makes it a curious choice.
It is perfectly reasonable to object to that decision. And to suspect a subtext.
I do too suspect a subtext.
Oh, wait a second,, I thought it was excluded entirely. So did Inga but she didn't care:
First Man,” a Neil Armstrong biopic starring Ryan Gosling, was slammed by Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio for not including a scene where the astronaut plants a flag on the moon. That led Armstrong’s sons, Rick and Mark, to put out a statement defending the film. They noted that there are several shots of the American flag on the moon, but the filmmakers “chose to focus on Neil looking back at the Earth.”
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