September 22, 2019

WaPo's groping for bad news about Trump stumbles into the double vinc.

This is the top headline at WaPo right now, and I don't think it's even news. At best, it's a clumsy sketch for an opinion column:



I say it's not news because what is it saying just happened? The call, which we heard about days ago, is just evidence, lying there. The action verb is "points," but it's not as though the thing we already knew stood up and extended an index finger directing us to the complete abstraction of Trump's assessment of his own powers. And it's not as though WaPo just learned that Trump has this particular belief about himself. It doesn't even know that he does. It's just that the call suggests that Trump has this belief. The top news story of the day, according to The Washington Post, is a guess about what a piece of evidence might mean about how things look from the inside of the President's head.

But what points to a newspaper that has lost its bearings is the utter badness of writing "convinced" and then "invincibility."

The double vinc! 

52 comments:

Kevin said...

The top news story of the day, according to The Washington Post, is a guess about what a piece of evidence might mean about how things look from the inside of the President's head.

Not just today. For the last three years.

tim maguire said...

Such is inevitable when one, as with The Washington Post or The New York Times, makes one’s living by catering to the conceits of people determined to live in a fantasy world where presidents are judged by the tone of their tweets and all actions can be interpreted through whichever filter is most useful to the current purpose.

Kevin said...

The Ukraine call points to something terrible about the Democratic front-runner, for which there is ample evidence.

Let’s go with the speculative Trump is terrible thing...

tim in vermont said...

The WaPo has decided that Biden is their best hope to defeat Trump so they have thrown reason to the wind and just set the guns to blazing to protect him.

Remember when the job of a serious newspaper was to provide the electorate with the information needed to make a decision on their vote. WaPo thinks that it’s their job to decide who should be president and to generate the propaganda to make that happen. It’s pretty sad. I blame the scalp they took with Watergate.

Breezy said...

Trump does appear to be invincible relative to the press and their so-called bombshells ... It’s not just in his head.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

The main stream media didn't ask the obvious follow up question, "Mr. Biden how is it possible you didn't discuss your son's contract with China?" because the media purposely suppresses news that is bad for Democrats.

tds said...

there's an urban dictionary entry for 'vinc'

Darrell said...

The Constitution gives Trump such powers.
Too bad WaPo doesn't accept the Constitution when an R is in office.

Darrell said...

Both Bidens should be rotting away in an Ukrainian prison. Give Uncle "Corn Popper" Joe a chain and he'll be all right.

Bleachbitandhammer said...

Democracy dies in darkness!

Bleachbitandhammer said...

Whistleblowers!!! Get you left wing nazi whistleblowers!

tim in vermont said...

Yes, he’s convinced he evinces invincibility. One more ‘vinc’ and I think they could have turned the corner on that headline.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I'm going to say it again, when Chuck Schumer told Rachel Madow:

"Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you."

Her follow-up question should have been along the lines of, "That's a pretty shocking statement Senator, are you stating that United States intelligence agencies interfere in domestic politics? That would be both illegal and extremely frightening."

David Begley said...

Fake News just has to keep the narrative going.

Quaestor said...

Both vincs have the same Latin source: vincere to conquer.

Is that significant?

Temujin said...

I cannot let go of the feeling that the entire staff of reporters, researchers, and editors at most media outlets now looks like this:

Man/Boy with degree in social engineering

Or this: Mattress Girl with degree in social engineering

And I find that I can't take them- any of them- seriously. That's a problem, and I don't think I'm alone on this.

Quaestor said...

ORANGE MAN INVINCIBLE.

Ryan said...

They cry wolf every day. I have tuned out.

Hagar said...

I wonder if this phone call partially was about the new Ukrainian government worrying about getting involved in American internal politics, which they do not know and do not understand, and being damned whatever they do about Americans accused of crimes in their country (Manafort, Biden Jr., etc., and so forth), and Trump just told them that it was their country, use their best judgment, and his administration would not move to punish them whichever way they went?

Absolutely the right thing to say, but the subject, mentioned or not, was Biden.

Mike Sylwester said...

Democracy Dies in Darkness!

Meade said...

I am Orange Man hear me tweet
Oh yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom from Ukraine
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong
(Strong)
I am invincible
(Invincible)
I am Orange Man

Guimo said...

Lying, not “laying,” there.

narciso said...

Twitter
https://mobile.twitter.com/nspector4/status/1175626274212986881

Danno said...

"The top news story of the day, according to The Washington Post, is a guess about what a piece of evidence might mean about how things look from the inside of the President's head."

That is backwards. With Trump living in their heads, they can not think straight. On some days, you would think Trump is running a rodeo in there, the TDS being so extreme.

narciso said...

Costa and rucker, guaranteed to get it wrong

narciso said...

Entirely:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/09/schiff_shafts_biden.html

Birkel said...

It sure is nice of Ukrainians to only involve non-Democrat's in their corruptions.

narciso said...

Well no greg craig and podesta and lanny davis were in their basket.

narciso said...

And adam schiff and doug schoen, quelle surprise.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Vinc Foster is not who he wants to end up like

LA_Bob said...

Vinces of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your Ease!

Meade said...

From the linked-to article:

“As president, he just overwhelms us,” lamented Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a former 2020 presidential candidate. “I mean, you’ve got kids in cages — we’re trying to deal with that. We’ve got the continued mass shootings, and he won’t help us with that. And then you’ve got the urgency of this [oversight]. So, I mean, it’s really just kind of, where do you prioritize your resources and your time?”

Prompts another Helen Reddy song (I Don't Know How to Love Him) parody:

We don't know how to lose Trump
What to do to remove Trump
We’ve been whelmed, yes overwhelmed
In these long three years, think to ourselves
We’re like, where’s our hope and change?
We’re so deranged

n.n said...

Deep Plumber has forced WaPo to grope in the darkness to escape Water Closet, but they are stuck in a persistent muck of their own deposition.

Ann Althouse said...

I was picturing Pavorotti singing "vincerò! vincerò, vincerò!"

Ann Althouse said...

"Lying, not “laying,” there."

You are right. And I've changed it.

But I've got to say that much as I know the lie/lay distinction, in that particular locution, "lay" sounds so colloquially right that I didn't like changing it. I tried to justify on an egg metaphor, but it wasn't possible. I'd like to think it's like using "ain't" sometimes, but I'm too timid to commit to deliberate misuse.

Bleachbitandhammer said...

House corruptocrats starting impeachment!

Ken B said...

Vinci, vidi, vinci.

Michael K said...

I'd like to think it's like using "ain't" sometimes, but I'm too timid to commit to deliberate misuse.

I've been reading these period novels in which period English is carefully used. The writer chooses grammar from the novels of the period, usually late 18th or early 19th century. "Ain't " and such phrases as "I was" where we would use "I were," are routine usage.

narciso said...

This story isnt even one parsec close to the truth:

https://mobile.twitter.com/beyondreasdoubt/status/1175567763017994242

Yancey Ward said...

I think we are in a position to figure out what was in that conversation. I will just guess that Trump told Zelensky that while it was very interesting the information they, the Ukranians, might hold, it couldn't be part of any cooperation with or by the Administration, and that Zelensky should just go to Giuliani directly, or it is possible that Zelensky was directed to main Justice (the most likely thing for a high level discussion), but that it was pointedly said that even if Zelensky did so, nothing would be granted or even promised.

People think Trump and his staff are stupid, so they are quite willing believe Trump would offer a quid pro quo, but all the evidence we have seen (see the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 for evidence of how the Trump people handle such offers of dirt) shows us that Trump has good legal representation, and they go into a meeting sure to not do criminal acts like offer something of value for the information.

As for the aid that was released- that was frozen because of Poroshenko's policies versus the eastern breakaway states. Zelensky promised to cool down the tensions on that war front, and, as a result, got the aid released. This was all properly done, and almost certainly was carried out on the recommendations from the State Department- both the freeze and the release. The key change has been Zelensky's election, platform, and initial actions on taking office with regards to the civil conflict in the country.

Eventually, the Ukranians are going to realize that is better for the Russian majority states to leave and political join Russia- it will be a long negotiation, though. Zelensky, I think, realizes this, and it is why he won the election so easily.

narciso said...

The chocolate king, did respond to the green men, despite the administration providing almost nothing in the way of weapons.

tim in vermont said...

Biden the liar says he never talked to his son about Burisma.

In December, 2015, as Joe Biden prepared to return to Ukraine, his aides braced for renewed scrutiny of Hunter’s relationship with Burisma. Amos Hochstein, the Obama Administration’s special envoy for energy policy, raised the matter with Biden, but did not go so far as to recommend that Hunter leave the board. As Hunter recalled, his father discussed Burisma with him just once: “Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do.’ ”. - New Yorker

gadfly said...

Tom Nichols writes in The Atlantic:

And while Giuliani did Trump no favors with his incoherent ranting on CNN, he did manage to hammer away at the idea that Biden, and not Trump, tried to shake down the Ukrainians while he was vice president.
The problem for Giuliani, the Republicans, and the president himself, however, is that Biden and his actions are now irrelevant to the offenses committed by Trump. The accusations against Joe Biden are false, as we know from multiple fact checks and from the Ukrainians themselves . . . . But even to argue over this fable about Biden is to miss the point, because it changes nothing about Trump’s attempts to enmesh Biden in a foreign investigation for Trump’s own purposes.

There is no spin, no deflection, no alternative theory of the case that can get around the central fact that President Trump reportedly attempted to use his office for his own gain, and that he put the foreign policy and the national security of the United States at risk while doing so. He ignored his duty as the commander in chief by intentionally trying to place an American citizen in jeopardy with a foreign government. He abandoned his obligations to the Constitution by elevating his own interests over the national interest. By comparison, Watergate was a complicated judgment call.


"Double vinc" has nothing to do with Trump's lying problem any more than Wapo's headline. Trump admits: " "The conversation I had was . . . largely corruption – all of the corruption taking place – it was largely the fact that we don't want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine."

At the same time, with his reelection campaign in full swing, he refuses to lawfully permit full release the whistle-blower complaint to congress.

tim in vermont said...

"President Trump *reportedly* attempted to use his office for his own gain,”

Ha ha ha!

“Tell Vladmir to go easy on me and I can be more flexible after the election....” - Barack H Obama

I paraphrase.

Static Ping said...

I was worried that after years of fake news, there might - might - be a real story in there somewhere and when it happened I would have become so accustomed to be lied to on a regular basis that I would not believe it without overwhelming proof.

I have reached this point.

This is not a desirable result, but yet here we are. I consider the mainstream media in the United States with the same contempt that I would consider Pravda. Pat yourselves on the backs, boys. You earned it. You girls also earned it.

Drago said...

The Poor Man's LLR ***** gadfly: "Tom Nichols writes in The Atlantic......."

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

tim in vermont said...

At the time, the nation’s prosecutor general had just been fired, under pressure from the United States, and a permanent replacement had not been named.

A few months later, Yuri Lutsenko, widely regarded as a hero in the West for spending two years in prison after fighting Russian aggression in his country, was named prosecutor general and invited to meet new U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

Lutsenko told me he was stunned when the ambassador “gave me a list of people whom we should not prosecute.” The list included a founder of the AntAC group and two members of Parliament who vocally supported the group’s anti-corruption reform agenda, according to a source directly familiar with the meeting.

It turns out the group that Ukrainian law enforcement was probing was co-funded by the Obama administration and liberal mega-donor George Soros. And it was collaborating with the FBI agents investigating then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s business activities with pro-Russian figures in Ukraine.
- The Hill

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/435906-us-embassy-pressed-ukraine-to-drop-probe-of-george-soros-group-during-2016

This just gets deeper and deeper. Like they say, when you are drawing fire, you are over the target.

Read the whole thing.

narciso said...

do you have to be crazy to teach at the war college, john schindler was the other one,

Seeing Red said...

As president, he just overwhelms us,” lamented Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)

I can’t do my job because I’m overwhelmed?

Bunk.

Mark said...

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney continues to beclown himself.

narciso said...

This is peak vox
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2019/9/22/20878702/donald-trump-ukraine-whistleblower-joe-hunter-biden-military-aid-corruption

narciso said...

Proof there was no suspension of aid:

https://www.ukrinform.net/amp/rubric-defense/2783565-us-secretary-of-defense-and-ukrainian-defense-minister-have-productive-phone-call.html