August 24, 2019

I'm getting pretty bored with material like this.



Look at that! It screams: I've got nothing new to say but it feels so important to say it all over again.

Anyway, I didn't read it. The Presidency of Donald Trump Never Gets Any Less Absurd. What I feel is the The Disbelief in the Presidency of Donald Trump Never Gets Any Less Absurd.

I wasn't a Trump fan at the point when he got elected. But he got elected, and I adapted. He became the President. He is the President. Yes, it is absurd, but life is absurd. You can't spend your life pacing about frantically and insisting on telling every passerby that life is absurd. But columns must be written.

I'll bet there's something in there about "I am the chosen one." But doesn't Andrew Sullivan think he is the chosen one — the one chosen to write columns about the unrelenting absurdity of Donald Trump?

Oh, now, I must do a page search to see if I win my bet with myself. And, yes, I do:
In just a few minutes this week, standing next to a noisy helicopter, in what now passes as the only form of press conference that still exists in this White House, he said a series of things that were absurd. He touted a new medicine to cope with veterans’ suicides; he answered a question about loopholes in gun background checks by talking about loopholes in immigration law; he said without irony that in America, “we have great mental illness”; he said that American Jews who vote Democrat are “disloyal to Israel,” as if dual loyalty were an expectation and not an anti-Semitic slur; he said — while looking heavenward — that he is “the chosen one” to tackle trade with China; he said “I have many people from Denmark who live in the United States”; he claimed his predecessor changed the rules on family separation in immigration when his own administration did it; he said (for the umpteenth time) that his term of office might last another 14 years; he threatened to release ISIS fighters in Germany and France to punish those allies; and he said he is “very seriously” considering an executive order to change the Constitution.

If you can begin even to engage this bizarre, dangerous, deranged, and ignorant stream of consciousness, and try to discern some kind of logic or pattern, your brain will break....
So we're all broken?

222 comments:

1 – 200 of 222   Newer›   Newest»
Fernandinande said...

Interviewer Trump?

Vercotti: Trump (takes a drink) I was terrified of him. Everyone was terrified of Trump. I've seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Trump. Even Dinsdale was frightened of Trump.

Interviewer: What did he do?

Vercotti: He used sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and satire.

narciso said...

lol, Sullivan's act is amusing up to a point, it used to be only the huntress could drive him to this level of derangement

Left Bank of the Charles said...

But aren’t you for boring?

Jupiter said...

"So we're all broken?"

Well, Andrew Sullivan certainly doesn't work very well.

AlbertAnonymous said...

Take any kind of serious look at the “news” reports fawning all over Obama constantly and those same sources shitting all over Trump on a daily basis and it will tell you all you need to know about the “news.”

BUMBLE BEE said...

Paid by the word...MEH

Jeff Brokaw said...

Welcome to the club!

The media mostly produces boring virtue-signaling garbage for lazy people who like to be told what to think and who never EVER challenge themselves.

Consuming it with any regularity is probably bad for you.

Darrell said...

Andrew Sullivan had more gravitas when he was doing Two Twinks/One Cup videos.

Bob Boyd said...

That Trump, he's a rascal alright.

Ann Althouse said...

"But aren’t you for boring?"

My phrase "I'm for boring" does not mean I'm for things that are boring. It means I want a candidate who is boring — who's just competent, hard-working, ethical, and dedicated to American values and so forth. I don't want to read boring commentary or do boring things in my life. I want my life freed up to do interesting things. I don't want politicians to be providing the entertainment. Sullivan might agree with all that, by the way. Trump is too exciting and interesting, and that's not really what belongs in the position of President.

Paul Zrimsek said...

Anyone who remembers Palingate can tell you that the subject of absurdity is one to which Sullivan brings a certain level of personal expertise.

J. Farmer said...

Andrew Sullivan is a smart and incisive writer. But he has always had a tendency towards histrionic overreaction to the days' headlines. His recent posts The Limits of My Conservatism and The Democratic Candidates Are in a Bubble on Immigration are good examples of Sullivan at some of his best.

Francisco D said...

I have been bored with (anti-Trump) material like for quite some time.

What are these deranged people going to do when Trump leaves office?

Two-eyed Jack said...

I resent most the continued misstatements of fact in the news, the deliberate construction of Trumps words to match some absurd dystopian fantasy and the endless repetition of these examples of the Horror that besets the Nation. Not one person can be found who understands a President who sixty-some-odd citizens voted for, who might be able to explain to the journalists and to their viewers and readers what is real, what is hyperbole, what is ordinary mangled syntax and what is hilarious joking.

chickelit said...

From the article (emphasis added): The only thing more absurd is canceling a planned state visit to Denmark at the last moment in response to the prime minister pointing out the bleeding obvious, and adding the insult “nasty” to yet another independent woman for good measure.

What do British English users mean when the use "bleeding" vs. "bloody"? Is "bleeding" just a more polite form of "bloody"? Are both meanings the opposite sanguine? How strange.

rhhardin said...

Althouse is bored with stuff written for women, rather than asking why women fall for it. It's a way of not falling for it that doesn't want to learn the general rule. "Women fall for stuff like this."

Appeals to the short-circuit to feelings, is why.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Andrew- take your corrupt deep state money-whore leftists and shove them all.

narciso said...

oh really:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/hong-kongs-pro-beijing-camp-softened-its-tone-after-trump-links-trade-talks-with-chinas-handling-of-hong-kong_3048205.html

Once written, twice... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Once written, twice... said...


Ann, you are such a phony. Ann, you are going to wake up on August 24, 2019 and expect everyone to go along with your newest personal fiction that you have always been a neutral observer of Trump? No one is going to believe that. You have spent almost four years blogging uncritically of Trump.

Ken B said...

Sullivan provide evidence for all his claims? Like the “executive order” claim. I want to know precisely what Sullivan is saying Trump said. But to anti Trumpers there is never a need to fill in those steps.

Like Ann, I have never been a big fan of DJT, and did not support him last time (3rd party). But so many anti Trumpers annoy and disgust and worry me.

Michael K said...

Even the NY Times "1619 project" is falling apart with fake research. Trump triumphant !

Among charges leveled by Olmstead and Rhode were accusations Baptist concocted numbers out of thin air and that Baptist fabricated research to fit his narrative. At a public event at Dartmouth University in 2016, Olmstead decried Baptist’s work as “hocus pocus” while he waved an imaginary wand in the air.

In an email to The College Fix, Rhode said he preferred “more open discussion and debate about important issues.”

“What bothered me was when Ed Baptist dropped out of public debates about his work (methods and findings),” Rhode said.


Maybe the "slavery built everything" school is closing shop.

Once written, twice... said...

Ann, you have spent the last several years blogging how much of a genius he is and how you find him to be so funny. Only morons think that.

Darrell said...

Once written, twice shit on the sidewalk... said...

Something.

Pay no attention.

chickelit said...

The "1619 Project" has been around since at least 1989 when Chuck D. sang about it in "Fight The Power." I suspect that next year it will still be around to attempt to eclipse the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower's landing -- that seminal event in "white privilege."

Beasts of England said...

Maybe the press could ask Trump which aspect of the presidency he finds most enchanting. Oh, wait - that was a question put to Obama. Never mind...

cronus titan said...

So . . . Althouse was for boring before she voted against it. That's consistent. She is often for cruel nuetrality before being against it.

rhhardin said...

Rather than being bored by it, guys are amused by it. The way guys are amused by women when women are being politically "serious."

LordSomber said...

Sullivan seems to have an endless supply of knickers of which he can twist.

rhhardin said...

The 1492 project is what contaminated it all. We were all peaceful indians before that.

rhhardin said...

The 1066 project started the acting-white phenomenon.

rhhardin said...

The 476 project gave us gay abandon as a political system

Ken B said...

About Sullivan's “dual loyalty” swipe. This is crap. The smear against Jews is that they put loyalty to Israel ahead of loyalty to the US. But everyone accepts it’s fine to have lesser loyalties. No one ever sees any problem with Irish Americans who have a loyalty to Ireland, as a secondary loyalty. And it is clear Trump is talking about such a secondary loyalty.

narciso said...

I remember Farrakhan's back up band, their songs had hooks to it, the attendant irony of black muslim supporters, complaining against slavery, is a little arch,

rhhardin said...

Caesar fought the Gauls trying to wipe out homosexuals.

Not sure how the date projects do BC.

Otto said...

Once written... . You are the moron if you think Ann thinks Trump is a genius. Read her post. She thinks it is absurd the Trump got elected, but she is dealing with it( she is tough not like her snowflake fellow progressives).
She thinks we "deplorables" are absurd, and she knows because she was a professor. Such elitism.
Issues, issues, issues.

gspencer said...

How about 33AD Project? The one that gives hope to us all.

narciso said...

no the huns were misunderstood, we did something to aggravate them into looting rome

buwaya said...

Propaganda works through the capacity of the machine, rate of fire and velocity.

The details of what is being flung dont matter, anything will do for ammunition.

Gunner said...

It's pretty absurd that someone who looks like Andy is bagging on Trump's appearance.

Otto said...

She is for boring, my arse. Ann ever the propagandist trying to steer her readership away from Trump and towards Biden. Power, power, power.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Trump is clumsy. Normal people accecpt clumsy over perfectly pressed pants and soaring rhetoric to nowhere. While so many D's acquire massive wealth. Bernie, who used to rail against millionaires and billionaires - has changed his tune to only include billionaires.

buwaya said...

You could have a 1492 project.
Well, actually there has been one.
In the US now Columbus is a bad word.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The massive hate-fest on the left gave birth to Antifa.
Andrew wants an invitation.

Once written, twice... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Once written, twice... said...

Otto, Ann has been writing uncritically about Trump since he started his meteoric rise in the Republican party. In contrast, she did write critically of President Obama. Her blog is a record of that. She can't just pretend it doesn't exist.

buwaya said...

You cannot have boring politics when you have a rather fundamental conflict going on.

Boredom happens when someone has won.

Francisco Franco was very, very boring. In 1970.

doctrev said...

Andrew Sullivan may still have lingering fascination with the Catholic Church and Sarah Palin's uterus: I don't know and don't really care. American nationalists don't need a British homosexual to translate the conservative movement for American intellectuals, and the intellectuals shouldn't need it either. Trump's nationalism is very simple: the same charlatans who guffaw that Trump doesn't have the authority to order corporations to stop trading with China are usually the same ones who have no idea why the American economy is doing so much better than the Chinese one, or the ones surprised when Trump declares tariffs against China and makes them stick. The people who flopped their hands around saying that Hitler was "craaazyyyyy" were usually the same ones watching German tanks rolling down their streets. I can't help but imagine Naziism would have been more popular on the right and left if they had dragged those same intellectuals out to be executed in the streets.

Bob Boyd said...

I find Trump to be very funny and he does have an undeniable genius of sorts. He has baffled and stymied and stumped the entire professional political class of both parties and the media.

I guess I'm a moron.

Bob Boyd said...

The media, which spent 8 years trying to outdo one another in praising the elegance and beauty of the emperor's non-existent new clothes, is now telling us Trump is absurd?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Well, yes, it is insane that Donald Trump is POTUS. The most improbable and, yes, absurd political event of my lifetime.

And it’s the best thing that could have happened to America in 2016. What does that say about his predecessors and his opposition?

buwaya said...

Trump isn't clumsy.
He is very very good at getting value for money.
His campaign was deft, precise, lean, superbly organized.
There was no waste in it.

He has always faced a massive opposition. He has declared war against some of the worlds most powerful interests. And as I said in 2015, should he get into the presidency, in Washington every mans hand will be against him. And so it has come to pass.

He is a magnificent swordsman up against an enormous monster. The battle is still undecided.

Hagar said...

AA is wrong.
This is not "politics," but war, and war leaders need to be colorful and larger than life.

Michael K said...

Ann has been writing uncritically about Trump since he started his meteoric rise

Whereas, you prefer TDS and "1619 projects." I'm sure you would be happier having all your pathology encouraged over at TPM or The Nation.

stevew said...

Super boring. There is nothing absurd about the Trump presidency. It is unique, as are they all, but not absurd.

Click bait.

Michael K said...

Trump in 2020 is Churchill in 1940. Every man's hand was against him then. The King preferred Halifax. The Tories hated Churchill as a turncoat and he was considered a cad by all the best people.

minnesota farm guy said...

@Buwaya Well put at 10:44.

FrankiM said...

“Ann ever the propagandist trying to steer her readership away from Trump and towards Biden.”

Way too late.

tim maguire said...

If you can begin even to engage this bizarre, dangerous, deranged blah blah blah...

No, I can’t begin to engage. I tried, I failed, I gave up. I stopped worrying about Trump’s words and started focussing on his actions. And I found them to be surprisingly good, with results I once dared not hope for.

You might want to try it. If you care about getting it right, that is. If you want to be one of the beautiful people, then keep twisting yourself into knots over his words. All the cool kids are doing it.

tcrosse said...

The Tories hated Churchill as a turncoat and he was considered a cad by all the best people.

Sort of like Boris (whose Churchill book I am now reading, available you-know-where)

Bay Area Guy said...

Buckley once explained - if you owe the bank $1,000, you're in trouble; but if you owe the bank $1 Million, the bank's in trouble.

The moral/political equivalent for Andrew Sullivan types is this:

If you think calmly Trump is crazy, you might be right.

If you are fanatically obsessed 24/7 with every tweet, hand gesture, atonal speech of Presidenr Trump, and consistently fret about lurking Russian conspiratorial plans, well, then you are fucking crazy.

Roughcoat said...

Sullivan is repulsive in several ways, on several levels. He is neither smart nor incisive. He is, to be sure, a competent wordsmith, a decent stylist. But, on the whole, he's a dope.

tim maguire said...

Blogger Once written, twice... said...Otto, Ann has been writing uncritically about Trump since he started his meteoric rise in the Republican party. In contrast, she did write critically of President Obama.

The press was embarrassingly pro-Obama. Criticizing the press in the age of Obama meant criticizing Obama. The press is embarrassingly anti-Trump. Criticizing the press in the age of Trump means defending Trump.

Roughcoat said...

Trump is not clumsy; he is, in fact, quite nimble and agile. He reminds me of a character in the Dune universe. Put in that universe, he'd be the master of a planet, a controller of the spice: the spice would flow at his behest, under his direction.

RMc said...

"The Presidency of Donald Trump Never Gets Any Less Absurd." What I feel is the "The Disbelief in the Presidency of Donald Trump Never Gets Any Less Absurd."

The more stuff like this I see, the more I not only want Trump to be re-elected, but for him to be President Forever. (Like the way I wanted Reagan to be President Forever, and for the same reasons.)

Bay Area Guy said...

Wasn't Sullivan obsessed with Sarah Palin's uterus for a while?

narciso said...

but he is house caladan, and he's competing against the other members of the landsraad,

Roughcoat said...

narciso:

Yes, although I think you mean House Atreides. Caladan was its home planet before they displaced to Arrakis.

Otto said...

Once.... Read her posts carefully. Note she never says anything about his policies. She talks about his personality and yes she does not have TDS like her fellow progressives but rest assured she wants him out of office. Note she says things like trump is weird. Just in this post alone she thinks absurd that Trump is absurd!. She is a clever propagandist.

Roughcoat said...

And House Atreides ultimately triumphed over the Landsraad, and House Corino as well.

Thus, Trump.

narciso said...

well who they represent, who would be padishah, (perhaps china) harkonnen, (perhaps Russia) or you could flip them around,

Drago said...

The same lefties and LLR-lefties who are threatening Trump voters with what will happen to them once the dems/LLR-dems regain power are the same people who are desperately trying to disarm us.

Sebastian said...

@Althouse: "Yes, it is absurd"

Why? He beat a bunch of establishment GOPers who would have lost. He then beat Hill, who was and would have been horrible. The GOP losing and Hill winning would have been far more "absurd."

"he answered a question about loopholes in gun background checks by talking about loopholes in immigration law:

Not absurd: excellent redirection. Politicians do this all the time, no?

"he said without irony that in America, “we have great mental illness”"

Not absurd: his meaning is obvious to anyone who takes him seriously but not literally.

"he said that American Jews who vote Democrat are “disloyal to Israel,” as if dual loyalty were an expectation"

Indelicate, but not absurd: he wasn't expressing the old anti-semitic canard, and his point about Dem antisemitism and the conundrum of Jewish Jews was obvious to anyone who takes him seriously but not literally.

"that he is “the chosen one” to tackle trade with China"

Not absurd: anyone without TDS can hear the obvious hyperbole, and, besides immigration, confronting China is his major task as president.

"he claimed his predecessor changed the rules on family separation in immigration when his own administration did it"

But the main objection by the left was to practices carried over from O, which at the time were not or only gently criticized. Trump is right to attack the double standard..

"he said (for the umpteenth time) that his term of office might last another 14 years"

Wait, what?

"he said he is “very seriously” considering an executive order to change the Constitution"

LOL. He should just do it without announcing it, sort of like granting amnesty without congressional authorization.

Roughcoat said...

narciso:

Heh! That's fun. I'll give it some thought. Immediately there comes to mind some resemblance, at least in personality and style, between Putin and Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

The Guild would have to be some multinational corporation, or group thereof.

Bay Area Guy said...

I do like the idea of "Project 24,000 BC" when Neanderthal cavemen roamed the countryside oppressing animals, struggling to figure out the concept of "fire" and sexually harassing their breeding concubines"

Life was rough back then.

Skeptical Voter said...

Narcissistics jerk offs are gonna jerk. Some things never change. You rarely saw stuff like this back in the day when some of us were suffering under President Obama. Stoicism means you suck it up.

OTOH one of my golf partners observed that I never said anything good about Obama during his 8 years in office. That is true, but it is also true that I never said anything about Obama. As with all things, this too shall pass. The progs ought to consider that.

Seeing Red said...

I want my life freed up to do interesting things.

RME.

Drago said...

Otto: "Once.... Read her posts carefully. Note she never says anything about his policies."

Otto, just stop.

The leftists like Once and FrankIngaM and LLR Chuck know perfectly well what the truth is that you reference.

They dont care.

You cannot reason with these lunatics. They want power and control and Althouse's refusal to fall in line like a good unthinking marxist foot soldier automaton has marked her for the same treatment as the deplorables...just a bit after the deplorables are dealt with.

rcocean said...

What's absurd is Sullivan claims Trump is lying and misleading people, and then lies and misleads people about what Trump says. Sullivan's nasty and rude about Trump, then claims Trump is "Uncivil" and "tearing the country apart".

Yes, its the 1,243rd rendition of "Orange man bad" - YAWN. Its obvious his critics have no consistency. Their only Consistent point is that Trump is ALWAYS wrong. ALWAYS. If he lets his press secretary deal with the press - he's hiding. If he talks to the press a lot, well that's "absurd" and "authoritarian" because he does it in front of a Helicopter. Figure that out! But then it's Andrew "Trig's Baby" "I go bareback riding" Sullivan.

Bay Area Guy said...

Have we established who will be the weakest Dem opponent for Trump in 2020?

I think it's crazy old Bernie Sanders from the white state of Vermont.

So, if that's true, we need to continue bleeding out Gaffe-Master Biden, and then return out bows and arrows to Senator Paleface, to give Bernie some breathing room.

I presume Kammy is already toast.

Go Bernie! Free men, free soil, free stuff!

Earnest Prole said...

Look on the bright side, Andrew: only five and a half more years to go.

narciso said...

Sullivan has been known to pine for the Palestinian, who would return his concern, with a sharp stone, the state of mandated disarmament that makes acid attacks and mass stabbings over in airship one, appeals to him,

Seeing Red said...

he said (for the umpteenth time) that his term of office might last another 14 years"

Wait, what?

"he said he is “very seriously” considering an executive order to change the Constitution"



Bwaaaaaaaa. Something to keep them on their toes.

Josephbleau said...

Amazing to look at 1492 and 1620. The Pilgrims landed 128 years after Columbus did. 128 years ago we had closed the western frontier and were preparing for the Spanish war. At the time of the Pilgrims, people had friends who were alive when Columbus lived.

rcocean said...

Personally, I'm for entertaining Presidents. And I"m even more for Presidents who are "Not boring" and rock the boat. Because "the Boat" needs to "rocked" and turned around before we crash on the rocks. I'm sure the comfortable Bourgeois just want a smooth ride to oblivion. Or imagine their "saved for me" lifeboat will float them to safety. But I'd rather not sink and take that chance.

Sebastian said...

"It means I want a candidate who is boring — who's just competent, hard-working, ethical, and dedicated to American values and so forth."

"Competent, hard-working, ethical" is so nice, but mostly beside the point: the choice in politics is about what sort of direction, what sort of policies, what sort of team you want. And of course, recalling the old Althouse theorem that people don't believe what they profess to believe, no one thinks Althouse actually believes this: after all, she once voted for O, the least competent, the least hard-working candidate in recent times.

"dedicated to American values": you mean, like, preserving our borders and our sovereignty, abiding by the written Constitution, favoring equal justice under law, respecting the free exercise of religion and the ownership of guns, valuing the country as a nation, not believing that America is evil and always inherently racist, that sort of thing? If so, the choice is easy. Again, of course, this so-called dedication is both too malleable and too fuzzy: the choice is for a direction, a set of policies, and a team. But I understand that this sort of fuzzy dedication to moderation gives self-regarding moderate voters endless opportunities to rationalize their vote. "But, but, so-and-so is pragmatic!" "So-and-so is dedicated to American values!"

rcocean said...

Can you imagine if TRump had been defeated? We'd have a Kagan run SCOTUS with a 6-3 liberal majority. All the crazy 9th circuit rulings would be the law of the land. We'd have open borders, no immigration laws, Amnesty, Medicare for all, no tax cut, globalism up the wazoo, no 2nd amendment rights, and probably a $2 trillion deficit. Not to mention a "Carbon Tax" and "reparations".

narciso said...

one might say, the Spanish had overextended themselves as far as the Phillipines, and of course the Armada, whereas the UK after a period of consolidation, was venturing forth,

Michael K said...

His campaign was deft, precise, lean, superbly organized.?

The only error was his kids firing Lewandowski and hiring Manafort who was useless and became a liability for a while.

I'll bet Manafort is sorry he ever heard of Trump.

readering said...

AA saying everything is boring while everything gets crazier is getting tiresome.

LA_Bob said...

"Look on the bright side, Andrew: only five and a half more years to go."

That's certainly what I'm hoping for.

rcocean said...

Trump wouldn't be so "exciting" if the D and R establishment, not to mention the MSM, had simply treated him as POTUS. And afforded him the respect and deference we owe EVERY President.

Instead we get 92% negative coverage. And constant Establishment obstruction and weird "Chimp outs" over Putin meetings, Charlottsville and El paso. Not to mention the absurd Muller-Russia-Trump crap that went on for YEARS! NEVER have we gotten a respectful dialogue about Trade, Immigration, or Globalism. NEVER.

Bay Area Guy said...

I think we need to focus our attention on Pocohontas again. She presents a heap big problem to Bernie Sanders' presidential nomination aspirations.

She is from Massachusetts - which is interesting because once Democrat losers Michael Dukakis and John Kerry were Governor & Lt. Governor there. Maybe, that's why the Red Sox sucked all those years.

Liz Warren = Michael Dulakis + a uterus.


rcocean said...

NPR spent five minutes this AM, talking about "OMG Shoe prices will GO up" - not ONCE did they talk about the US Shoe Industry and why tariff's might be a good idea. Not ONCE did they give reasons for Trump putting Tariffs on Chinese goods or why it might be in the USA's best interest. Instead, it was 100 percent, "Orange Man Bad". He'll make baby shoes more expensive. "Babies. Think of it Mandrake, Babies without Shoes! If that isn't your communist conspiracy what is?"

rcocean said...

Its too bad we don't have term limits on columnists. Then we'd have lost Andy sullivan after the "Trig's Baby" fiasco.

Drago said...

readering: "AA saying everything is boring while everything gets crazier is getting tiresome"

lefty/LLR-lefty definition of "crazier": Every hoax/coup tactic the left/LLR-left puts out there is failing

Drago said...

We are literally discussing an article by an insane writer who claimed Sarah Palin did not birth her own child and demanded to see her medical records.

Sullivan is the original "birther".

John henry said...

Rough coat,

Not Dune. PDJT is The Mule from Asimov's Foundation series.

John Henry

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

what-- the 2-Minute Hate is getting old?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate

Otto said...

This is what Ann wrote - I wasn't a Trump fan at the point when he got elected. But he got elected, and I adapted. He became the President. He is the President. Yes, it is absurd, but life is absurd. "
Did she say i agree with his policies? No
Did she say she will vote for him?No
Did she say that he being president is absurd? Yes
Do you really thing she thinks life is absurd?No

Clever propagandist.



buwaya said...

Spain had some good use out of the Philippines through the end of the seventeenth century, as it was a not too costly point of pressure vs their opponents of the day, the Dutch and Portuguese. It's no accident that old Manila is a considerable fortress.

The galleon trade, in spite of its hardships, was a considerable source of revenue, as it was no worse a trade route than the westbound Portuguese/Dutch Far Eastern trade.

But in the next century Spain's Asiatic colony became a white elephant, and there were repeated attempts to get rid of it. By that time the principal lobby to keep it was the Spanish Church. So the state tried to run the place as cheaply as possible.

Its an interesting parallel with France and Canada, where it was the Church that kept several monarchs from dumping what they also saw as a white elephant.

Bay Area Guy said...

In 1884, the Republicans ran against "Rum, Romanism & Rebellion!"

In 2020, the Repubs should run against the Russian, Racism & Recession hoaxes"

Eleanor said...

I just skip every article from a publication with "New York" or some variant in it posted here. Being born and raised in Boston, I have a natural aversion to anything associated with New York. Without links to the NYT, the New Yorker, and New York Magazine to slog through, this blog is a fun read.

hombre said...

Literally, but not seriously. Seriously, but not literally. Sullivan and the other leftmediaswine have had plenty of time to get this. They are either partisan whores or looney tunes.

We get it. The “choose truth over facts” crowd “can’t handle the [Trump] truth.” LOL.

Birkel said...

Althouse: "You can't spend your life pacing about frantically and insisting on telling every passerby that life is absurd."

Leftists: Hold my beer and watch this!

Josephbleau said...

Acknowledging the horrible evil of Slaver since the beginning of time, Regarding the 1619 project, an economist would be committing professional suicide to claim that cotton and tobacco horticulture and slave labor gangs on building projects created the wealth of the US. For better or worse, Slaves did not industrialize New England, the Mid Atlantic, or Pittsburg. Agricultural revenue did not facilitate currency like western gold and silver did. Steel in quantity was made with Pennsylvania coal and Michigan Iron. If the thesis is true then the South would have won the War of Southern Independence.

Achilles said...

Francisco D said...
I have been bored with (anti-Trump) material like for quite some time.

What are these deranged people going to do when Trump leaves office?


Green New Deal.

Open Borders.

Higher taxes.

Selling out to China.

Stupid wars.

rcocean said...

"Its an interesting parallel with France and Canada, where it was the Church that kept several monarchs from dumping what they also saw as a white elephant."

Yes, the poor Philippines. Four hundred years in Convent, and then 40 years of Hollywood. And then there's the old Mexican Cliche: "Poor Mexico - so far from God, so close to the USA".

rehajm said...

They went all in and it didn't work. Burned all the journalism bridges behind them as they went. So now what can they do?

Achilles said...

readering said...
AA saying everything is boring while everything gets crazier is getting tiresome.

This person believes Trump is a a Russian asset.

This person believes Justice Kavanaugh is a gang rapist since high school.

Despite 3% growth, record low unemployment, highest wage growth in decades, criminal justice reform, and a solid start to end several stupid obamabushclintonbush wars readering thinks things are terrible.

Because she is not in power and can’t persecute the racist bigot hater white people she hates.

We all know who is crazier.

narciso said...

well not phillipines but other areas have been contested,


http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~borao/2Profesores/Paper%20Macao%20Overview.pdf

Sam L. said...

I ignore the New York media. Saves me time, saves me stomach acid.

dreams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
vanderleun said...

Sullivan has never reacted well to the cocktail of anti-AIDS drugs he's been mainlining for decades.

Gunner said...

Sullivans main thing during the "Trig is really Sarah's grandson" debacle was saying either he was Bristols kid or Sarah was a bad mother for flying when pregnant. So either way, he wins and she is a bad person.

hombre said...

Blogger Once written, twice... said...
“Otto, Ann has been writing uncritically about Trump since he started his meteoric rise in the Republican party. In contrast, she did write critically of President Obama.”

Perhaps that is because Trump amuses her and Obama disappointed her. Or perhaps it is because the bias and mendacity of the press are of concern to her. It is absurd to suggest that she approves of Trump.

William said...

Trump is anti-Semitic and Tlaib is not. It takes some industrial strength nuance to sell that horseshit, but that's what the press is saying....I think Trump is running against the bias and sanctimony of the press as much or perhaps more than the Democratic Party. I'd like to see him take it out at one of these pressers and piss all over them. I know they'd write about the weak and hesitant stream, but the gesture would ensure my love and affection for the man even if he only managed to piss on a few of them......What's the original sin of Benin and Dahomey?

Vet66 said...

No pussy footing around our POTUS holds people accountable for their absurd reliance on ad hominem attacks and willingness to sell their souls for their losing narrative. Europeans are awash in middle eastern immigrants unwilling to assimilate as they raise a generation of ISIS wannabes using their neighborhoods as breeding grounds for rape and mayhem on their targeted country.

Trump calls the hand of China, Afghanistan, whining Europe criticizing the U.S. as they fail to pay their fair share of keeping Putin and the Middle East grandees hiding behind the crazy Mullahs of Iran to poke a stick in the eye of the U.S.once again at the G7. Meanwhile, the global warming Hollywood elites scamper around in flimsy bathing suits on yachts after flying on private jets into some gold coast resort in the Med playing peek-a-boob with the paparazzi flying commercial to praise the frolicking sybarites.

Makes POTUS Trump sound like the adult on the world stage of hypocrites.

chuck said...

Add "I think I'll kill myself" to the title, it will cure your boredom.

Jim at said...

Maybe Excitable Andy can regale us with his theories about Trump's uterus.

Not an oldster. said...

Sometimes we get stronger in our broken parts, ann. Don't you bunnies read?

Bilwick said...

"Surreal"? You mean like the economics of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren?

narciso said...

How about that?

https://mobile.twitter.com/GrayConnolly/status/1165076830698631174

n.n said...

The absurd is hunting witches, judging warlocks, and holding human sacrificial rites for social progress.

Bruce Hayden said...

“But aren’t you for boring?”

A lot of people are for boring, because it is predictable. Bureaucrats love boring. ChiComs love boring. Etc. It let them plan and respond better. And that is part of why non boring can be good. Esp if done strategically, as seems to be the case with Trump.

stever said...

Most people who criticize Trump either supported HRC, and/or voted for her. Your opinion means nothing as a result. You're not very smart.

Hagar said...

..I think Trump is running against the bias and sanctimony of the press as much or perhaps more than the Democratic Party.

The parties have both fractured into multiple intra-party warring factions and no person(s) of significance leading either Party. So, yes indeed; it is The Donald against The Press.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

“Yes, it is absurd, but life is absurd.”

I agree that life is absurd.

However, saying Trump’s presidency is absurd is another matter.

Trump becoming POTUS is no more absurd that Obama’s rise to POTUS. Obama had absolutely no executive experience, hadn’t even completed his first term in the U.S. Senate, and demonstrated in all 8 years that he hadn’t learned anything since college.

Trump is playing a big and much-needed negotiation game with communist China. It is geopolitical and economic 3D chess. The communist Chinese are drunk on the looting bonanza they’ve enjoyed for almost 25 years, and are broadcasting loud and clear that they don’t want Trump to win a second term. The American people should seriously consider that in November 2020. For all his faults, Trump is the right person at the right time to take on communist China. 98% of all the commentators you see on TV have absolutely no idea what they are talking about when it comes to the economic implications of global trade.

Paco Wové said...

the NY Times "1619 project"

Here's an interesting snippet from Wikipedia (WARNING: It's Wikipedia!) (emphases added):

The first 19 or so Africans to reach the English colonies arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, brought by English privateers who had seized them from a captured Portuguese slave ship.[14][15][16] Slaves were usually baptized in Africa before embarking. As English custom then considered baptized Christians exempt from slavery, colonists treated these Africans as indentured servants, and they joined about 1,000 English indentured servants already in the colony. The Africans were freed after a prescribed period and given the use of land and supplies by their former masters. The historian Ira Berlin noted that what he called the "charter generation" in the colonies was sometimes made up of mixed-race men (Atlantic Creoles) who were indentured servants, and whose ancestry was African and Iberian. They were descendants of African women and Portuguese or Spanish men who worked in African ports as traders or facilitators in the slave trade. For example, Anthony Johnson arrived in Virginia in 1621 from Angola as an indentured servant; he became free and a property owner, eventually buying and owning slaves himself. The transformation of the social status of Africans, from indentured servitude to slaves in a racial caste which they could not leave or escape, happened gradually.

So 1619 doesn't appear be much of an anniversary at all. I guess they had to grab at something that could be used to fire up the black voting base.

Narayanan said...

@Buwaya : you give example of Spain, France, Church, White Elephants.

What about Britain, no? Church? Colonies, not White Elephant? + Breakaway

Fen said...

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM: what-- the 2-Minute Hate is getting old?

Worse, the 2 Minute Hate is having a permanent psychological effect on them.

They created a fantasy world where Donald Trump put all the gays in ovens, and now they have (fake) images that haunt their souls and keep them agitated all day and awake all night.

If they turn feral, we may have to put them down.

Fen said...

Althouse: He is the President. Yes, it is absurd, but life is absurd.

Yup. On election night the wife went to bed early. I think she wanted to avoid a Mopey Fen when the 94% Inevitable Hillary happened.

Next morning I taped a piece of paper with "President Donald Trump" on it over the bathroom mirror. Half-awake, she stumbled to the sink and shrieked :) All week long, we would come back to the paper taped to the mirror and study it, like we were trying to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics.

I didn't accept the victory for days. It was absurd. I kept expecting the Left would find a way to disqual the election and I didn't want to jinx it.

JAORE said...

Francisco Franco was very, very boring. In 1970.

And in late breaking news he is STILL dead.

Fen said...

Bay Area Guy: I do like the idea of "Project 24,000 BC" when Neanderthal cavemen roamed the countryside oppressing animals, struggling to figure out the concept of "fire" and sexually harassing their breeding concubines" Life was rough back then.

I hear you. I used to joke about tearing down the Jefferson Memorial because he did not include Animal Rights in the Declaration of Independence. But now it's tempting fate, the Left has gone mad.

Lazarus said...

New York seems to specialize in stuff like this. You can find anti-Trump articles every day in the New Yorker and every week in the New Republic, but the really long and impassioned pieces end up in New York -- and yes, the writer always thinks they are saying something new.

Narayanan said...

I look at Trump and see Hank Rearden without input from Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastian D'anconia.

Trump said he has read The Fountainhead. As good student he remembers "the words for the time when he needs them."

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

William @ 1:03

"Trump is anti-Semitic and Tlaib is not. It takes some industrial strength nuance to sell that horseshit",..

this.

SDaly said...

Althouse wants someone "who's just competent, hard-working, ethical, and dedicated to American values."???

How many racist, white supremecist dog whistles can she fit in one sentence?

Narayanan said...

Or Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar : a more recent sci-fi universe. Authored by Lois Bujold..

Her father was a professor of Welding Engineering at Ohio State and an old Cal Tech man (Ph.D.'s in physics and electrical engineering, magna cum laude, 1944)

chickelit said...

From the article:
His physical appearance is absurd: the fake orange tan, with the white circles around the eyes, the massive, hair-sprayed and dyed pompadour. How many people in public life look anything like that? His endless lies and contradictions are absurd. And his psychological disorder — the narcissism that guards against any hint of his own absurdity — is getting obviously worse. And it was always going to get worse.

In my opinion, the publication of that invective invites and justifies every bit of ad hominem ever flung at Sullivan, including the "power glutes" stuff. Well done, Andrew -- you now own deserve it.

buwaya said...

Narayanan,

I suggest a deep dive into the history of the European colonies - which was most of the world, by @1910.

Look for similarities and differences in events, in social and political structures, in economies, in demographics, and their place in mother-country politics.

These are fascinating stories, and many are very obscure. For many there are few good sources in English - the history of the Dutch East Indies for instance.

You may end up with a very different understanding of everything.

SDaly said...

Paco Wove -

They have to use 1619, because the real date of the foundations of what we consider slavery was when a black farmer went to court in Virginia for a ruling that his indentured servants were actually bound to him for their lives, not just a term of years.

Even Snopes has to grudgingly admit that as truth.

The first legal slave owner in American history was a black tobacco farmer named Anthony Johnson.

Possibly true. The wording of the statement is important. Anthony Johnson was not the first slave owner in American history, but he was, according to historians, among the first to have his lifetime ownership of a servant legally sanctioned by a court.

Narayanan said...

Grand Beagle Fen said
Next morning I taped a piece of paper with "President Donald Trump" on it over the bathroom mirror.

That reminds me of Dominique who has taped to the mirror "fire the bitch" cable by her husband.

gadfly said...

Adaptation to crazy people is not a personal sanity requirement and may actually send you to the edge while defending The Donald. I think I prefer to say bad things about our president because he is and always has been a crook.

Why is it necessary to adapt to sick people in power? I simply do not understand that, unless the Trump Groupers are important to your blog.

Drago said...

gadfly: "Adaptation to crazy people is not a personal sanity requirement and may actually send you to the edge while defending The Donald. I think I prefer to say bad things about our president because he is and always has been a crook."

LOL

gadfly is the most incompetent Poor Man's LLR Chuck ever! And that's sayin' something!

Drago said...

Again, its an absolute inexplicable mystery why gadfly's little experiment in blogging at his own site failed so spectacularly.

An absolute mystery.

The good news for gadfly is he is free to accuse non-criminals of being criminals as a way of explaining away not only his failure but also the success of others.

Drago said...

If only there had been a Special Prosecutor assigned to look into Trump's activities with unlimited resources of the federal govt and hundreds of personnel assigned working together from the FBI and DOJ and populated by haters of Trump along with State Prosecutors in states that despise Trump using corrupt means to gain access to Everything Trump, including breaking lawyer-client privilege!!

If only we'd had that they surely would have uncovered the mountain of criminal activity that Trump MUST have been engaging in.

Alas.

We'll just chalk it up to a missed opportunity for the Left........

Jim at said...

Adaptation to crazy people is not a personal sanity requirement and may actually send you to the edge while defending The Donald

Does it ever occur to you that some of us defend Trump - not because we particularly want to - but because you people are batshit insane with your criticisms?

Bay Area Guy said...

"If only there had been a Special Prosecutor assigned to look into Trump's activities with unlimited resources of the federal govt and hundreds of ...."

Just stop it. Now. We know Russia rigged the 2016 election for Trump. That's the only possible way he won. The New York Tines TOLD me Hillary was gonna win, dammit. They. told. me!

We may need a Special Prosecutor to investigate how Trump prevented the Special Prosecutor from indicting Trump.

Ronald J. Ward said...

I made the statement many times prior to the election that we had two profoundly flawed candidates and that the only logical conclusion that could come from that was the deliverance of a profoundly flawed president.

No one ever argued that and it was accepted as an unfortunate reality.

Now we have the argument that "he's our president" somehow disqualifies his flawed character and interests which I can give a certain amount of credence to in spirit, meaning, I suppose at best, he's what we have so give the man a chance?

But at some point, we have to acknowledge the abject failure, incompetence, and intentional divisiveness that's unfolding before our eyes.

If this president were to travel the country lobbing hand grenades into maternity wards, there would be many that would stand firmly behind him while blaming democrats. I will not to be part of that faction.

doctrev said...

Your firm stance against baby murder would be commendable, if we didn't know that LLRs LOVE abortion and have done everything to lie to Americans about that fact. Which explains their decades-long abject failure to properly ban it.

chuck said...

> But at some point, we have to acknowledge the abject failure, incompetence, and intentional divisiveness that's unfolding before our eyes.

Absolutely. I'll never vote for another Democrat.

Beasts of England said...

’If this president were to travel the country lobbing hand grenades into maternity wards, there would be many that would stand firmly behind him while blaming democrats.’

Name one.

Ronald J. Ward said...

"Name one."

Tough question as it was hypothetical.

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters"
Donald J. Trump

Name one please.

It can't be done but his statement has merit.

Michael K said...

Adaptation to crazy people is not a personal sanity requirement and may actually send you to the edge while defending The Donald.

Trump is so lucky in his enemies. You would almost think there is something supernatural about the craziness of the left and the NeverTrumpers. It's just amazing.

Beasts of England said...

Clown nose on, clown nose off - right, Ronald?

narciso said...

somewhat like this character:


https://web.archive.org/web/20100928012349/http://www.baen.com/author_catalog.asp?author=panderson

narciso said...

the covers are a little risqué, like captain kirk, with a little more leeway,

Ronald J. Ward said...

"Clown nose on, clown nose off"

That's basically correct of those who knew full well what Trump was/is yet now genuflect to him in awe.

Paco Wové said...

Tough question as it was hypothetical."

Ok, how about an example of your presumably non-hypothetical "abject failure, incompetence, and intentional divisiveness" ?

I'll grant you "divisive". However I deny that Trump is any more divisive than any random Democrat running for President, or recently occupying that office.

I can regret that tendency, but I can't pretend it's the exclusive preserve of any one person or party.

Paco Wové said...

"yet now genuflect to him in awe"

Ok, that was worth an eye-roll.

Gk1 said...

I also lived in the Bay area during GW's presidency and can remember the non stop venom and derision over everything he said and did. What is different today is they are openly fantasizing about breaking away from the country and setting up their own unicorn farm. It doesn't help that in their guts they see Trump running away with it in 2020 and there isn't damn a thing they can do about it. Articles like this no longer provide any comfort like they once did.

Beasts of England said...

’That's basically correct of those who knew full well what Trump was/is yet now genuflect to him in awe.’

As your above statement is not a hypothetical, it should be easy for you to name an example to support your assertion.

Ronald J. Ward said...


"I'll grant you "divisive". However I deny that Trump is any more divisive than any random Democrat running for President, or recently occupying that office."

Those running for office and those who have recently occupied the office are not in office.

Ronald J. Ward said...


"yet now genuflect to him in awe"

"Ok, that was worth an eye-roll."

Yeah, I can give you that one.

buwaya said...

"I suppose at best, he's what we have so give the man a chance?"

Considering where you all stand, have you any choice?
You don't. The alternative is destruction through your institutional entropy.

You also fail to give him credit for surviving against the odds he has faced.
Your internal enemies have overwhelming power, and yet there he is, defying them still, fighting what amounts to a political guerrilla war against all your corrupted institutions.

Any man of honor should admire this performance.
It is machismo on a historic scale.

The Crack Emcee said...

"So we're all broken?"

An outlandish thought no Republican would dare entertain.

Evidence be damned.

narciso said...

they aren't sending good trolls, are they, could they tell though?

Paco Wové said...

"... office ... office ... office."

Irrelevant, as far as I'm concerned. I don't see why it bothers you so much – though obviously it does, just like Sullivan. "Teacher! He's not following the rules! He's not following the rules!" The democrats have gotten themselves a sweet position in America recently, wherein they and their media allies can say absolutely any bullshit they want about their opponents, and their opponents were either too powerless, cowed or hidebound by 'decorum' to respond. It was inevitably going to end in some kind of backlash, and here we are.

buwaya said...

As for divisiveness, you had it before Trump.
Indeed Trump is the result of it, not the cause.

Who in institutional-political America defended Brendan Eich?
Even his church (LDS) wouldn't. All were cowards, or bought.
They would not defend a man for making a legal political donation for an eminently conservative political purpose, supported, indeed solicited, by his church.

That showed me, for one, that the lot of them, the whole array, the Republican party, the "powerful" churches like the LDS, the Federalist Society, the conservative think tanks, were punky wood. I can tell you that the effect of this in tech circles was devastating - not the attack, but the failure to defend. At that point masses of useful people stayed out of politics out of fear.

All of that is still punky wood. There is just Trump. There is nothing but Trump. That is a condemnation of America, in which I have lost faith. You have one man, a great man, but no other. After him the deluge.

rcocean said...

A priest, a minister, and a rabbi want to see who’s best at his job. So they each go into the woods, find a bear, and attempt to convert it. Later they get together. The priest begins: “When I found the bear, I read to him from the Catechism and sprinkled him with holy water. Next week is his First Communion.”

“I found a bear by the stream,” says the minister, “and preached God’s holy word. The bear was so mesmerized that he let me baptize him.”

They both look down at the rabbi, who is lying on a gurney in a body cast. “Looking back,” he says, “maybe I shouldn’t have started with the circumcision.”

buwaya said...

The "rules" no longer exist.
You no longer have a political heritage, in the sense that everything that has gone before is irrelevant. You did not protect it from your enemies, so they have burned it all.

So where are you now? Invoking ghosts of what was?

Realism instructs us that every day, these days, is the start of a new year zero.

Mike said...

So you're not bored with the President talking like a delusional YouTube commenter on meth. But you are bored with people who are sick of it. Gothcya.

Ronald J. Ward said...

buwaya, same could be said for Stalin, Hitler, and even Putin if you want to look at accomplishments against all odds, among many others.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

it may be time to refer to POTUS as "The Trump"

or Donald, The Trump.

NOUN
-the suit having the rank above the others in a particular hand.
"the ace of trumps"
-a valuable resource that may be used, especially as a surprise, in order to gain an advantage.
"in this month General Haig decided to play his trump card: the tank"
-a helpful or admirable person.
"Spencer's doctor is a trump—I am like a new man"

buwaya said...

Quite. Napoleon and Caesar and Alexander and Bismarck are the usual examples, but there are many more. Historically all these are "great men". Persons who could, due to their individual gifts and the serendipity of the moment, change the course of things.
They are accidents in the stream of events that are, usually, an emergent result of collective choices and circumstances.

These men are rocks in the stream. For good or for ill. Sometimes one will just delay what would have happened anyway, an Aetius, or a Gracchus. Trump, I think, is an Aetius, or a Gracchus.

FullMoon said...

So, so perfect..

I've got nothing new to say but it feels so important to say it all over again (using different words).

So you're not bored with the President talking like a delusional YouTube commenter on meth. But you are bored with people who are sick of it. Gothcya.


buwaya said...

Cato the elder was another "great man".
He made a pain of himself, a bore.
But in the end he had his way.

Richard said...

Blogger Ronald J. Ward said...
buwaya, same could be said for Stalin, Hitler, and even Putin if you want to look at accomplishments against all odds, among many others.

And once again, Godwin's Law is validated.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

new coins minted, his image with laurel'd coif,
with the inscription:

"In Excelsis, Trump"

Paco Wové said...

"once again, Godwin's Law is validated."

Yes. One day you're making jokes at the expense of your political opponents, the next day your killing them by the millions. And of course the Democrats and their allies never ever make jokes at the expense of their political opponents, or say stupid shit, nuh-uh. They are always the essence of sober, sage reflection.

narciso said...

Well more like marius, of the populares vs the optimates

Ronald J. Ward said...

Richard, Trump's lifelong history and even that of his family predates Goodman's law.

Paco Wové said...

"Sometimes one will just delay what would have happened anyway"

Ultimately, the important question is: what will others learn from Trump? And will it be enough? Being a born American (and thus a born optimist), I have to hold out hope.

narciso said...

In the kingdom of the blind:


https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-23/at-the-g7-trump-s-approval-rating-is-second-to-one

rcocean said...

In surgery for a heart attack, a middle-aged woman has a vision of God by her bedside. “Will I die?” she asks.

God says, “No. You have 30 more years to live.”

With 30 years to look forward to, she decides to make the best of it. Since she’s in the hospital, she gets breast implants, liposuction, a tummy tuck, hair transplants, and collagen injections in her lips. She looks great! The day she’s discharged, she exits the hospital with a swagger, crosses the street, and is immediately hit by an ambulance and killed. Up in heaven, she sees God. “You said I had 30 more years to live,” she complains.

“That’s true,” says God.

“So what happened?” she asks.

God shrugs. “I didn’t recognize you.”

buwaya said...

Marius, another "great man". Marius created the populares, effectively, and started the chain of events that led to their ultimate victory. He created the professional Roman army, that ultimately killed off the optimates and brought the downfall of the Republic.

I was a great fan of Colleen McCullough. Her Rome series is magnificent. Its one thing to read a history (and do that), another is to create a literary world, where the environment in which all these events happen, can be felt.

narciso said...

Point taken, one might say it was the obstinance of the optimates that made way for caesar, although catiline was the canary in thr coal mine

buwaya said...

Godwin, not Goodman.

Theodora, Justinians Empress, was a whore.
She too was a "great woman". It was an interesting time, when Byzantium had three "great men" at once - Justinian and Theodora, and Belisarius, a military genius.

This doesn't often happen.

The closest in recent times was when Prussia had, at once, Bismarck and Moltke.

narciso said...

Well as a departed friend pointed out, in procopius there was an ally of justinian that turned on him in the secret history, which resembles this nearly supernatural tableau of wolf and woodward

buwaya said...

Trump will have a lasting effect only if he manages to destroy a bunch of your institutions. But I don't see him doing that. His vision is not so long term, thus not apocalyptic.

What you need is someone who can take power, with the vision of Spengler.

FrankiM said...

“Why is it necessary to adapt to sick people in power? I simply do not understand that, unless the Trump Groupers are important to your blog.”

Desensitize each other regarding the bat shit craziness of the president. Tell yourselves everyone else is crazy for noticing the bat shittiness of Trump. Tell yourself it’s boring that millions of Americans still won’t accept the in your face craziness. That’s not only boring, it’s not normal.

narciso said...

Well he wants to restore, such as can be done, why the atreides example, but hes up against powerful within and without.

Richard said...

Blogger Ronald J. Ward said...
Richard, Trump's lifelong history and even that of his family predates Goodman's (sic) law.

???

buwaya said...

Procopius is extremely interesting. He was a "Palestinian" you know.
He was Belisarius' lawyer.

His "Secret History" was probably a form of posthumous revenge against Justinian and Theodora, meant to ruin their reputations. Its a curious parallel to the tone of criticism against Trump, in that it concentrates on character assassination while largely ignoring the substance of statecraft.

buwaya said...

The trouble with Procopian criticism is it ignores what matters.
Its entertaining, but even if accurate, it is trivial.
It ignores the general case, such as the well-being of the people, or regarding Justinian, his actual achievements in expanding the empire and improving its governance.

narciso said...

Well procopius painted justinian amd his consort in nearly demonic terms, now callemder night be a more comtemporaneous example

wildswan said...

To me, there's a vast word cloud from which main-slimes speak when they speak about Trump. I look to see if there's new word. If there is, then I check how it aligns with the lanes of thought in the lane cloud. For instance "China" is a new word. But it's in the same lane as NATO, France, Germany. This lane is essentially: Omigod, big country insulted, Trump mishandling everything, Council on Foreign Relations, grave faces at home sobbing and drinking single malt - that lane. Not one fact to chew on.

Now with Trump I look to see whose theme has been snatched from them and stuffed down their throat. For instance, I think Trump has the BDS movement strapped to the front of his charging China trade policy. In a week or two the left will realize it and scurry about saying "racist, racist." But by then Xi will have done something else. Then Trump will do something else for America and the NYT will say "racist, racist." Then we'll get to Brexit in October and we'll have insightful analysis by the NYT: "racist, racist." Then maybe we will buy Greenland and The Squad will say "racist, racist." Then it will be time for some illiterate feminist to wokely, allyly, comment on the Mayflower celebration: "racist, racist." And so on and so on through the 2020 election during which the Dem candidate will just clearly explain that "America does not need the present racist, racist electorate. There's a better electorate south of the border that will do whatever the Dems say. So if the deplorables don't start worshiping socialism and start giving up God and guns and pronouns and cars and air conditioning and hot water showers and furnaces - well, the Dems will just have to replace the deplorable patriots will a more pliable group."

Drago said...

FrankIngaM: "Desensitize each other regarding the bat shit craziness of the president."

Barack obama oversaw an operation to frame an American candidate, then President-Elect, then President as a Russian agent in order to execute a soft coup against a duly elected President.

Inga and the rest of the left/LLR-left liars have been scrambling ever since.

Drago said...

The Crack Emcee: "An outlandish thought no Republican would dare entertain.

Evidence be damned."

Stop projecting your dysfunction onto others. Deal with your own stuff.

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