September 9, 2020

"You meet a woman. In one second, you know whether or not it’s going to happen. It doesn’t take you 10 minutes and it doesn’t take you six weeks. It’s like, whoa. OK. You know? It takes somewhat less than a second."

Said Trump to Bob Woodward, using an analogy to explain how he felt about Kim Jong-Un, quoted in "Trump Attacked Generals as Weak and Too Focused on Allies, Woodward’s Book Says/The journalist Bob Woodward’s 'Rage,' which will be released next week, recounts tense conflicts between the president and his senior leaders" (NYT).

Any actual bombshells in Bob's new book? Well, we hear that according to his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, Trump said "My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals." And he "called the United States military 'suckers' for paying extensive costs to protect South Korea."

And former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said: "When I was basically directed to do something that I thought went beyond stupid to felony stupid, strategically jeopardizing our place in the world and everything else, that’s when I quit."

And Woodward talked to Trump and tried to get him to say something about race other than that a good economy is good for black people:
When Mr. Woodward pointed out that both he and Mr. Trump were “white, privileged,” and asked if Mr. Trump could see that they both have to “work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain, particularly, Black people feel in this country,” Mr. Trump replied, “No,” and added, “You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”
The NYT characterizes that as a failure to be "reflective."

96 comments:

RMc said...

Any actual bombshells in Bob's new book?

Well, the NYT, WaPo and CNN are screaming, so I'll guess "yes".

doctrev said...

Any actual bombshells in Bob's new book? Well, we hear that according to his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, Trump said "My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies."

I see the Truth in Advertising people got to the President. Outstanding.

Yancey Ward said...

That last part describing Trump's answer to the white privilege question is going to be the God's honest answer to the question for 95% of white people. Basically, you have 45% of white people who will agree with Woodward while not believing a word they are saying, and 5% of the true believers. The other 50% are like Trump in the belief, with fewer that have the courage to actually say it out loud the way Trump apparently did.

Yancey Ward said...

For me, it happens in a second, but it sometimes took me weeks to get to that second.

AlbertAnonymous said...

See, I find that last quote to be “dead on balls accurate”. I don’t recognize the BS “white privilege” your racist views want to paint me with. Woodward can feel whatever he wants, racist/privilege/whatever, but I refuse to play along with the little commie game of “white privilege”. Fuck off. Fuck right off!

Quayle said...

"he "called the United States military 'suckers' for paying extensive costs to protect South Korea."

When I lived in Seoul in the 80s, we were not suckers.

In the modern Korea of Samsung, LG, Hyundai, and Kia, you really have to ask whether we should be spending what we spend. It is a legitimate question.

wild chicken said...

Haha, what's not to love.

Strangely enough, he seems like a normal person.


YoungHegelian said...

My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies.

I think that this is a feeling that's fairly common in the enlisted & junior officer ranks right now. Feel free to set me straight if you have experience otherwise.

[Trump] called the United States military 'suckers' for paying extensive costs to protect South Korea.

I heard the exact same words out of the mouth of a retired Marine general in the mid 90s. He said that the South Koreans were a 1st world country with a 1st world economy. Let 'em pay their own way.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree with any of the sentiments above. I just don't think that they're particularly "controversial" in the broader military community.

Vance said...

Who cares about Woodward, when he did diddly squat to sting Obama for his spying on his political opponents. It's all good when a Democrat does it, says the man who brought down Nixon.

Now he's trying again. Yawn.

Sebastian said...

"tense conflicts between the president and his senior leaders"

His "leaders"? Anyway, good on Trump's to get into these tense conflicts, though I doubt he experienced them as tense.

"My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals."

True. But also, part of their job.

"And he "called the United States military 'suckers' for paying extensive costs to protect South Korea.""

Right. So what exactly are we getting for the money spent there, all these years after the war, and with SK now rich and capable?

"strategically jeopardizing our place in the world and everything else, that’s when I quit."

Hey, Jim, be specific: how has our "place"been jeopardized? any more jeopardized than it was due to the rise of China?

"a good economy is good for black people"

It is, isn't it?

“You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”

Thanks, Donald.

"The NYT characterizes that as a failure to be "reflective.""

They misunderestimate him, still.

Mike Sylwester said...

The Black's privilege is that they cannot be arrested without their express consent.

YoungHegelian said...

“You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”

Folks outside the liberal bubble just don't understand how the recitation of the "systemic racism" catechism sounds so counter to the experience of the great mass of the American population, blacks included. For example, that racism is not an act of evil will, in other words, a moral failing of an individual.

I've heard it out of the mouths of my NYT reading friends & when I ask them about its assumptions it turns to a deer in headlights conversation.

Arashi said...

Could we just stop with anything written by ol' Bob Woodward as somehow definitive about anything? Ever since he and Bernstien took out Richard Nixon, he has spent the rest of his career trying to take down one Republican President after another. If he had been as relentless going after what is perceived as Democrat corruption and malfeasance as he has about Republican, it might be worth a look. But his single mindedness points at obsession, not journalism.

So I guess we know how the rest of the days till the elction will proceed, yes? One unfounded accuation after another, hoping against hope that one will stick and take down Orange Man Bad. No discussion of actual policy and result, no discussion of why the Democrats are supporting open insurrection, etc. Just 24/7 of OMB and yelling and shouting and stomping of feet, burning of buildings, looting and other assorted mayhem and violence.

Nichevo said...

With every word I like President Trump better and better, and his opponents less and less. Mattis, eh? Felony stupid, eh? That was the Kurds, right? How's that working out for all, eh? Somebody tell that dirty Scandi who nominated PDT for the Nobel Peace Prize that he's felony stupid.

mikee said...

So Trump believes in first impressions. How horrible! Condemn him!

So Trump wants military leaders to understand that their job is protection of the US and its economy. How horrible! Condemn him!

So Trump wants allies to shoulder the burden of their defense, rather than palming the cost off on us. How horrible! Condemn him!

So Trump wants his Secretary of Defense to be subordinate to the President. How horrible! Condemn him!

Trump does not agree with critical race theory huckster victimology. How horrible! Condemn him!

I, for one, prefer Trump to Obama, and Trump to Biden/Harris. How horrible! Condemn him!

The left is gonna have to up its objects of outrage to gain any traction with the real world.

Doug said...

I characterize the NYT as "garbage".

Yancey Ward said...

Of course, there is the other side of it where the woman knew in 1 second, usually communicated with "That seat is taken" or "As if!"

Nichevo said...

And "You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you."

If he drank, he could have my beer.

Anonymous said...

More a failure to take responsibility for something he didn’t have any control over. Where do I go to be baptized for the sin of being White and having earned everything I have?

mockturtle said...

Norwegian Wood?

Kevin said...

There are going to be daily attacks by the media to control the narrative through the election.

It doesn’t have to be true, just “newsworthy” enough to keep Trump’s deeds and remarks off the front page.

Freeman Hunt said...

I knew I was going to marry my husband the moment I met him. He knew the same.

Lurker21 said...


A dirty secret about politicians is if they rise high enough they can get so sick of politics and politicians and the usual bullshit that the company of monarchs and tyrants can be welcome to them. Whatever you think of the British monarchy, dealing with the queen is probably much less irritating than putting up with Tony Blair or some other prime minister. Kim Jong-Un is a stretch, though.

About the Kool Aid: MSN is headlining, "Trump said he feels no responsibility to understand 'the pain' Black Americans experience." That wasn't what he said. He's saying that he doesn't feel he's been in a cave of White privilege that he has had to work or fight his way out of. Wealthy liberals love to overdramatize their odyssey from complacent privilege to woke compassion and think it entitles them to rule over less evolved people.

White guilt gives talking heads a seat at the table, but the narrative has become such a cliche that politicians can be uneasy with it. Flacks can tell us how FDR or JFK learned compassion for the poor and downtrodden because of their own troubles, but I suspect Kennedy or Roosevelt would have felt very uncomfortable preening and posing and prattling about how they found their way out of the cave of privilege.

Gunner said...

Why do these Republican Presidents keep talking to these libtard journalists? Bush did it too. I really don't get how they think they will benefit.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Please, please, please, make the next few weeks about "white privilege/guilt", MSM! These fools quite literally can't help themselves.

TreeJoe said...

Always interesting to see what articles the Times allows comments on. Why not this one?

Trump is taking positions democrats/liberals have literally claimed to want for DECADES. A few that come to mind:

1. Stop acting as world police and having foreign bases everywhere with unequal contribution by the U.S. on defense spending (I.e. "We spend 6x what every other nation spends combined! Too much!")

2. Our soldiers shouldn't be in harms way for oil and unclear middle eastern interests

3. Our generals just want war and to feed money to defense contractors. End the endless wars!

...

Trump's admin has delivered a foreign policy and global military praised craved by democrats publicly for decades.

Applause? Accolades?

No, disdain.

You can always smell an opportunist vs. a principled person by their ability to praise their perceived opponents.

doctrev said...

Sebastian said...

True. But also, part of their job.

My personal thought, that I suspect Donald Trump shares, goes as follows. "You want to -maintain- alliances? Quit and join the goddamned State Department. Or, if you're actually competent, I'll talk to Lighthizer and we'll get you on the trade team. Countries with a future, like our allies in Asia and the Middle East, care about money and building sustainable trade for the future. Countries that know the EU will collapse in ruins are going to virtue signal all the way down."

Given Donald Trump's complete contempt for both his generals and his diplomats, however, one might be surprised at his diplomatic successes in just about every non-European country. They shouldn't be. Ignoring the bureaucratic elite makes success far more likely, not less.

Lydia said...

Any actual bombshells in Bob's new book?

How about this -- "Woodward book: Trump says he knew coronavirus was ‘deadly’ and worse than the flu while intentionally misleading Americans"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-woodward-rage-book-trump/2020/09/09/0368fe3c-efd2-11ea-b4bc-3a2098fc73d4_story.html

Kate said...

This is all what I expect and want from PDT. The concerning part is Mattis. He used an inflammatory noun as a weasel adjective to say he disagreed with his duly-elected CiC's order.

rcocean said...

Funny how we got rid of Mattis in Jan 2019, and absolutely nothing bad has gone down. I guess he wasn't keeping much that "insanely stupid" from happening after all. I think woodward's book also states that Mattis went to the National Cathedral to pray for the USA, because Trump was in charge when CV-19 hit. And Trump has done an excellent job. I'm beginning to believe the real emotional idiot isn't Trump - its General Mattis.

As for Coats, he's been covering up the Russia/trump collusion soft coup and protecting people at the CIA/NSA/FBI. He wasn't on Trump's side, he was on Mueller's.

Retail Lawyer said...

And this is supposed to hurt Trump?

rcocean said...

YOu have to understand why all this is coming out NOW. Its so the MSM can pretend its news, and then Chris Wallace can ask about it during the debate. How much you wanna bet that wallace asks about the now trashed Goldberg garbage story or this current woodward crap. "Mr. Trump, you told Bob Woodward you had to downplay the virus against all scientific fact. Mr. President, why did you lie to the American people?

BTW, how fucking old is woodward? why do we have all these old dinosaurs dominating the D party and the D media/

Drago said...

My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies.

YoungHegelian: "I think that this is a feeling that's fairly common in the enlisted & junior officer ranks right now. Feel free to set me straight if you have experience otherwise."

I'll tell you one of the most amazing things about Trump: He sounds more like every Junior/mid-level officer and most senior enlisted than any other President I've ever heard.

And that's why the troops love him. He's that one guy, at the top, who gets you and what you are thinking and then the guy has the guts to actually say those things out loud.

Trump will get an even greater percentage of the active and retired military vote than he did in 2016.

Michael K said...

Expect one such "bombshell" a week until the election. It used to be referred to as throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks.

Woodward is still living on the credit he got from Mark Felt dictation during the last coup attempt. Woodward did that dishonest story about the dying Bill Casey, which everyone knows was fiction.

This week's bullshit.

Rory said...

Ironically, it's people like Woodward who have old-fashioned privilege privilege who aren't reflective about racial privilege.

Drago said...

Arashi: "Ever since he and Bernstien took out Richard Nixon, he has spent the rest of his career trying to take down one Republican President after another."

Woodward and Bernstein did not take out Nixon.

W. Mark Felt took out Nixon in revenge against Nixon for not naming Felt the next FBI director. Woodward and Bernstein were simply tools used by Felt and a few others to complete the task.

Just think about. Had Nixon nominated Felt, Felt would have let it all slide in precisely the same way Mueller and Comey and their minions let all the democraticals shenanigans slide even as they decided to play Coup Masters to take out Trump.

Nixon would never have had to resign.

The More You Know.....

etbass said...

I wish Trump were 60 and could run for 6 terms. He might help this country make some real progress back to normalcy.

Marcus Bressler said...

Claiming White privilege is more ego-driven than guilt. It's a LOOK AT ME assertion. How WOKE I am.

THEOLDMAN

It takes me more than a second to size up a woman and find that I am attracted to her. Men are visual and I need to take more of a sweeping glance.

buwaya said...

Trump is entirely correct in re women.

I'm not so sure about Kim Jong Un. The problem there is that it turns out that the poor slob was unable to survive his snake-pit.

Skeptical Voter said...

A common phrase in field grade officers and below is "Perfumed Princes In The Pentagon". That's reflective of their view that there a lot of political poseurs in the ranking officer corps in the Swamp.

I doubt that those same field grade officers and below would object to changing that phrase to "Perfumed Political Pussies In The Pentagon".

AS for white privilege and all that codswallop---Trump looks at what he has done==at least in a material sense--for the black community--and contrasts that in his mind with what Obama, Biden and a host of other politicians both Democrat and Republican have said for the black community. Doing is one thing Donnie understands; saying without doing doesn't count for much in his world. Woodward can drink all the Koolaid he wants.

stevew said...

"asked if Mr. Trump could see that they both have to “work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain, particularly, Black people feel in this country,”"

He answered "no", which to me means he is capable of understanding the anger and the pain Black people feel without having to accept the charge and guilt of White Privilege.

As for Mattis and the generals: with the significant reduction of America's participation in wars and international conflicts, the negotiation of peace agreements, and the relaxing of tensions on the Korean peninsula, it would appear Trump had the right strategy.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Mr. Trump replied, “No,” and added, “You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”

That, right there, is sufficient reason to vote for Trump

JAORE said...

"The NYT characterizes that as a failure to be "reflective."

Well, since they expect you to reflect their worldview,there is a germ of truth there.

Bay Area Guy said...

Deep throat meets Deep State!

Jupiter said...

“You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”

Emphasis in the original?

Leland said...

I read Snodgrass' book on Mattis and Tillerson's presentation about "the need for allies" to Trump. Snodgrass was a speechwriter for Mattis and very sympathetic to his boss. What I got of the book is that Mattis and Tillerson went in with an attitude that Trump was too stupid to understand the complexity of foreign relations. Trump's response was exactly reflective of their attitude to him. I was surprised that these supposedly brilliant men didn't see how patronizing their presentation would be to someone who wrote the book "The Art of the Deal". Deals are what you make to gain Allies, and Trump ran on a platform in 2016 that the US has been giving more in the deals than we were getting back.

As time has advanced; I haven't seen where Mattis' concerns have born out. To the extent, globalization leaders such as Merkel may be cold to Trump; he's simply worked around them. Trump's right that Merkel has made Germany weak to Russian influence. And Trump made a gamble on bringing the UK out of the EU and globalization, and Trump won that bet. Mattis may be a great battlefield General, but he's no match for Trump in leading international relations. Said another way, Mattis missed his chance to make Trump an ally.

tim maguire said...

Mattis quit because Trump wanted to pull out of Afghanistan. When I heard he was leaving, my first reaction was, "Oh crap. Another adult getting out." Then I heard why he was quitting and I thought, "good riddance."

Joe Smith said...

Super unforced error giving the cocksucker Woodward access...really dumb.

If Trump wins there needs to be a bloodbath in the administration. I'd start by firing every single non-protected (non-union) democrat.

Then I'd ask for the resignation of every single person left and make them state a strong case for why they should be re-hired.

iowan2 said...

Gender does not exist. Gender is a social construct.

VS

Follow the Science, white privilege is real.

chuck said...

"Trump says he knew coronavirus was ‘deadly’ and worse than the flu while intentionally misleading Americans"

Seriously? In what way did he mislead Americans, does the Post say?

Mary Beth said...

I think the NYT fails to be reflective. Public self-flagellation isn't a substitute for honest reflection.

iowan2 said...

I cant wait for Woodward to sit down with Biden for 10 hours before the election. He's not campaigning, he has the time.

Michael said...

It's a failure to be "reflective" of the editorial positions of the New York Times. What they want is someone who will reflect (like a mirror) Progressive doctrine. People who think for themselves are not reflective.

Michael K said...

W. Mark Felt took out Nixon in revenge against Nixon for not naming Felt the next FBI director. Woodward and Bernstein were simply tools used by Felt and a few others to complete the task.

Yup. It was even briefly (very briefly) in the newspapers.

And now we come to the major point. For Felt to have been able to guide and control the young reporters’ investigation, he needed to know a great deal of what the White House had done, going back quite far. He could not possibly have known all this simply through his personal investigations. His knowledge covered too many people, too many operations, and too much money in too many places simply to have been the product of one of his side hobbies. The only way Felt could have the knowledge he did was if the FBI had been systematically spying on the White House, on the Committee to Re-elect the President and on all of the other elements involved in Watergate. Felt was not simply feeding information to Woodward and Bernstein; he was using the intelligence product emanating from a section of the FBI to shape The Washington Post’s coverage.

Chick said...

That's what I like about President Trump, he will spar with anyone and everyone whether for practice or for performance.

Readering said...

AA out of touch if does not see bombshell in his Covid admissions.

boatbuilder said...

I wonder whether if I were black I would have more respect for a white politician who says “No, I don’t buy the BS—I’m trying to make things better by getting jobs and money into the black community “ than the white politician who tries to blow woke smoke up my ass. I know what I would think, but I am not black, so I can only speculate .

roesch/voltaire said...

This was the key quote for me: Mattis is quoted as calling Trump "dangerous" and "unfit" to be commander in chief. Woodward writes that Coats "continued to harbor the secret belief, one that had grown rather than lessened, although unsupported by intelligence proof, that Putin had something on Trump." Woodward continues, writing that Coats felt, "How else to explain the president's behavior? Coats could see no other explanation."

Narayanan said...

Skeptical Voter said...
A common phrase in field grade officers and below is "Perfumed Princes In The Pentagon". That's reflective of their view that there a lot of political poseurs in the ranking officer corps in the Swamp.
----------============
Q: U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman qualify as PPP
- or they were aspirants?

Narayanan said...

Michael K said...
W. Mark Felt took out Nixon in revenge against Nixon for not naming Felt the next FBI director. Woodward and Bernstein were simply tools used by Felt and a few others to complete the task.

Yup. It was even briefly (very briefly) in the newspapers.
---------============
does that mean D spying on R WhiteHouse/R candidate using FBI etc is almost routine tradition?

Leora said...

Never could figure out why I should feel guilt for slavery that occurred when my ancestors were being chased by Cossacks in Eastern Europe.

I do have sympathy for young black men who have to work hard at being accepted in business contexts. It was a mistake to do away with suits for businessmen and professionals.

Narayanan said...

Joe Smith said...
Super unforced error giving the cocksucker Woodward access...really dumb.
----------===========
song - hit me with your best shot - fire away Release year: 1980

i am thinking could be Trump is good judge of men - /hollow/ and /in full/

Narayanan said...

Skeptical Voter said...
...Doing is one thing Donnie understands; saying without doing doesn't count for much in his world. Woodward can drink all the Koolaid he wants...
-----------===========
wonder of wonders is that even then no doing is involved : Koolaid drinkers don't have to prepare it - they get it ready to drink.

Joanne Jacobs said...

I agree with boatbuilder. I suspect many blacks are tired of whites claiming to feel their pain and eager to see political leaders ease their pain by strengthening the economy so they have jobs and money. Blacks were gaining economically before Covid hit.

If Trump had claimed to be struggling with his white privilege (how about being born rich?) so he could feel blacks' pain, he'd have sounded like the world's biggest phony. He may be a narcissistic jerk, but he's not a phony.

I think Trump is vulnerable on his handling of Covid. (Why would he say he underplayed the danger to Woodward, unless he added "it was important not to create panic" or something like that???) But "white privilege" is a gold mine of votes for him.

Drago said...

Oted Historian Readering: "AA out of touch if does not see bombshell in his Covid admissions."

January lefties: OMG Trump is over reacting to create a crisis to divert attention from impeachment!!!!

September lefties: OMG Trump downplayed the ChiCom flu crisis in January while we criticized his every move!....and what was this impeachment thing anyway?....

Drago said...

Its really gotta hurt the moron dems that Fauci, just today, said Trump never said anything publicly that wasnt a part of what the entire team was saying privately.

And remember lefties, In Fauci We Trust, right?

Look, all we ask is that you idiot dems stick with your first set of lies for each hoax.

Drago said...

stevew: "As for Mattis and the generals: with the significant reduction of America's participation in wars and international conflicts, the negotiation of peace agreements, and the relaxing of tensions on the Korean peninsula, it would appear Trump had the right strategy."

Important note: not one of these general officers has led a victory in any of our many conflicts.

Not. One.

The Perma-War-But-Never-Actually-Win crew needs to be shown the door.

Every one of them.

Josephbleau said...

“I knew I was going to marry my husband the moment I met him. He knew the same.”

In many cases this is a form of survivors bias, as we tend to forget the ones we were hot on in one second but never married.

As for me I knew I would marry my ex wife in one second, I wish my heuristic worked better.

chickelit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chickelit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chickelit said...

When a talented white guy is flat out told in a job interview that "we'd love to hire you but we need to hire a woman or a minority," -- that is flat out racism and sexism. But assholes like Woodward are apparently OK with that, so fuck him and his kool-aid stand.

Earnest Prole said...

I define news as something I don't already know, and by that standard there's no news here.

iowan2 said...

Read the blurb on Woodwards Book, about Obama.

The Blurb said Obama was at odds with the military about getting troops out of the Middle East.

"At the core of Obama’s Wars is the unsettled division between the civilian leadership in the White House and the United States military as the president is thwarted in his efforts to craft an exit plan for the Afghanistan War."

So Obama thought the military generals idiots also. Obama will be out tomorrow, being a character witness for President Trump.

Big Mike said...

“You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”

Now I love that man ten times as much. I thought I was tapped out on political donations, but now I'm going to have dig deep.

Birkel said...

Mattis and Coats deserve a trial for Sedition.

bagoh20 said...

"The NYT characterizes that as a failure to be "reflective."

Oh man, that is rich. Does the NYT or anybody there give you the impression they ever thought seriously about the possibility they may be wrong about, well anything, but especially Trump? A man who completely confounded them by beating Hillary, then leading the best economy in decades, then actually accomplishing things internationally that have eluded all previous administrations, despite decades of rhetoric telling us how important and difficult they were. He did all those things by specifically ignoring the advice and warnings of those exact same people. The people at the NYT are so incapable of real introspection that they don't even see how ridiculous it is for them to remark on anybody's ability to reflect on their opinions. I just don't get why anybody reads these children. They have no insight at all, just feelings pretending to be analysis.

Drago said...

Birkel: "Mattis and Coats deserve a trial for Sedition."

I would venture a guess that establishment zero Coats was one of the 3 or 4 25th amendment-ers that Rosenstein was working on for Mueller.

bagoh20 said...

You know what would actually lead to a dramatic improvement in race relations, or at least the best improvement actually possible?

For minorities, especially Blacks, to vote for Trump in big numbers. That would get many of us in this boat rowing the same direction, and would let those drilling holes in the hull know they don't have the support they imagine they deserve for saying the right words, which they don't actually believe anyway. They are destroying minority lives under the facade of wokeness, and real people are feeling that and seeing that.

This is the only thing that will actually help, and it's within reach from what I'm hearing outside of the MSM, in other words, from real people.

DeepRunner said...

In a book timed to be released during election season, Biden peer Bob Woodward had the following gossip:
"Well, we hear that according to his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, Trump said "My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals."

Eh, I am curious what other Commanders-in-Chief thought about their generals. Assuming the quote is accurate, and in context, this will give the salivating MSM their scandal du jour. Within a week, it will be histoire, except on COVID News Network and MSNBC. The long, trudging slog to November continues.

Freeman Hunt said...

"In many cases this is a form of survivors bias, as we tend to forget the ones we were hot on in one second but never married."

This case was a little different. No matter how many I might have been hot on before, this was the only one where we discussed marriage and moved in together on the first date. He officially proposed three days later.

Gk1 said...

This is one of these stories the more I hear what Trump actually said they more I am all "Fucking-A Right!!!" Why on earth are we "protecting" Europe and South Korea when their economy's are more than able to do the job?

You'll never get the kids out of your basement unless you make them pay some nominal rent and clean up after themselves.

Bill R said...

The last book of Woodward's that I read was "The Brethren" about the internal politics on the Supreme Court. It was perfectly obvious how it worked. People who talked to Woodward and told him what he wanted to hear were lionized, people who didn't were slimed.

Woodward is chock full of shit. Simple as that.

Bill R said...

The last book of Woodward's that I read was "The Brethren" about the internal politics on the Supreme Court. It was perfectly obvious how it worked. People who talked to Woodward and told him what he wanted to hear were lionized, people who didn't were slimed.

Woodward is chock full of shit. Simple as that.

Birkel said...

Freeman Hunt,
When you were hot on tearing down monuments, and I was telling you that you were greasing the slippery slope, did you imagine the Mayor of DC wanting to remove the Washington Konument? The Lincoln Memorial? The Jefferson Memorial?

Because I said you were greasing those skids and you thought you had some control of that particular car.

Remember that?
Remember being wrong AF?

Big Mike said...

"My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals."

Lincoln had trouble with most of his generals, so Trump's in very good company.

Anonymous said...

My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies.

This is like some level 9 psych-ops maneuver or something. Trump seems to me to be largely anti-war, maybe even a pacifist.

I imagine his conflicts with Bolton and Mattis was Trump's unwillingness to go to war or to strategize about going to war. Trump doesn't want to prep for war. If war becomes necessary--say, assassinating some asshole with a drone strike--he doesn't spend a lot of doing war-game scenarios or thinking about all the possible tactics. Trump's like, "Fuck it, kill him and forget about it."

So the hawks hate him for his basic dovish policy sense, mixed in with a wild unpredictable streak and a willingness to kill terrorist assholes without running some game simulator at the Pentagon.

Anyway, rather than express an overt hostility to war (which might be perceived as weakness), Trump flips it around and calls his generals "pussies," getting in their head and making them so angry they quit.

He's a combative person who is (secretly?) hostile to war, and nominated for the Nobel peace prize for his impressive accomplishments in foreign policy.

“You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”

This is just an off-the-cuff remark that is completely honest. We all know that Trump doesn't feel that way. Does Woodward expect him to feel that way? Does he expect him to pretend? It's a remarkably clueless question. Is Woodward even a journalist anymore?

mockturtle said...

“You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”

Per Big Mike: Now I love that man ten times as much. I thought I was tapped out on political donations, but now I'm going to have dig deep.

Trump is so refreshing! Most other politicians would by groveling.

n.n said...

When a talented white guy is flat out told in a job interview that "we'd love to hire you but we need to hire a woman or a minority," -- that is flat out racism and sexism.

Diversity... or diversity dogma that denies individual dignity, denies individual conscience, normalizes color quotas, color blocs, and affirmative discrimination, under the Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic, politically congruent quasi-religion practiced by Progressive Churches.

wendybar said...

AlbertAnonymous said...
See, I find that last quote to be “dead on balls accurate”. I don’t recognize the BS “white privilege” your racist views want to paint me with. Woodward can feel whatever he wants, racist/privilege/whatever, but I refuse to play along with the little commie game of “white privilege”. Fuck off. Fuck right off!

9/9/20, 3:02 PM

Hear!! Hear!! All these white liberals who have all the privilege telling the rest of us how privileged we are is hilarious to me. They can shove THEIR privilege where the sun doesn't shine.

Jamie said...

Three things:

1. Hey, Lydia is back! Welcome back, Lydia. Buckle up!

2. "How else to explain the president's behavior? Coats could see no other explanation." Oh - he could see no other explanation, hmm? Well then.

Funny, though, how Putin is a nonentity now, relative to a number of other world leaders. Funny how marginalized he has been... by Trump. Funny how American energy independence, strongly and actively supported by Trump and dismissed and discouraged by both Obama and Obama-very-lite Biden, renders Putin effectively impotent with regard to the US.

3. I didn't know I'd marry my husband (or the previous one, ahem) that quickly. But I darn sure knew in one second that I wouldn't marry a bunch of others. So I see the one-second impression as an initial negative screen.

MountainMan said...

I was traveling all day yesterday and just catching up on the activity here from yesterday. I recall that Obama purged the military of many generals and admirals that he considered disloyal. I thought it was about 150 but the total at one point was actually closer to 200:

Obama's Military Coup Purges 197 Officers in 5 Years

I would say the deck was stacked against Trump from the very beginning when it came to support from the generals and admirals at the top of the military. This may be another reason the Dems are hopeful of their support in the planned coup they have gamed.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

@MountainMan yep. That IMHO is one of Trump's bigger failings. He shoudl ahve been purging the military of all the politically correct hacks that Obama promoted.

Instead, he went around them. As Machiavelli said: Never do an enemy a small injury. But that's what Trump did here

Danno said...

MountainMan said..."I would say the deck was stacked against Trump from the very beginning when it came to support from the generals and admirals at the top of the military. This may be another reason the Dems are hopeful of their support in the planned coup they have gamed."

The people in the fighting units would frag these so-called leaders so fast they wouldn't know what hit them. All that would be loyal are the trannies and metrosexuals, which are hardly a fighting force.

Sam L. said...

Ahhhh, the NYT, which I despise, detest, and distrust.

PubliusFlavius said...

"That last part describing Trump's answer to the white privilege question is going to be the God's honest answer to the question for 95% of white people."

Aye, and it made chuckle as well.

Narayanan said...

Unknown said...
My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies.

This is like some level 9 psych-ops maneuver or something. Trump seems to me to be largely anti-war, maybe even a pacifist.

I imagine his conflicts with Bolton and Mattis was Trump's unwillingness to go to war or to strategize about going to war. Trump doesn't want to prep for war. If war becomes necessary--say, assassinating some asshole with a drone strike--he doesn't spend a lot of doing war-game scenarios or thinking about all the possible tactics. Trump's like, "Fuck it, kill him and forget about it."
-------------=================
Trump sees war as killing/execution of present danger posing actors.

FoggyBottom + PoliticalEstablishment have bought into "War is Diplomacy by Other Means" >>> leading to entangling alliances.

All American agree with Trump - he is quite George Washingtonian