By PatD, a Trail Mix Contributor
He’s gone, but not forgotten. Shades of General Buck Turgidson in Dr. Strangelove for this week he’s haunting us by way of an indepth piece from the New Yorker article “Michael Flynn, General Chaos” and via Rachel.
Published on Feb 24, 2017
Rachel Maddow reports on a leaked DHS Intelligence report that finds that Donald Trump’s focus on countries in his Muslim ban is not a reliable way of targeting terrorists.
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loved the llustration/caricature of flynn above by bob staake for that new yorker piece which, in case you haven’t the time to read the whole thing, concludes this way: …..Schiff expressed concern to me about evidence preservation; the Administration had already shown its capacity for deceit. After all, he said, Trump had known “for weeks” that Flynn was lying. “The fact that they were O.K. with that tells you a lot about their comfort level misleading the public.” A former C.I.A. official raised similar concerns about how long Flynn was allowed to stay in his job. “We’ve now got a guy briefed on our most closely guarded secrets about a whole host of issues—including Russia—who has been canned,” the official said. “We don’t have something from the movies where you can put an eraser on someone’s head and it all goes away. We’ve got to rely on Mike Flynn to keep those secrets, just as we rely on others who’ve been given access to classified information when they leave those positions.” White House officials portrayed Flynn as having had his conversations with the Russian Ambassador on his own. But Schiff and others are doubtful. Schiff said he thought that it would be “extraordinary” if Flynn was “some kind of free agent, entering into discussions with the Russians about undermining President Obama’s sanctions against Russia for its interference in our elections to help elect Donald Trump.” (During a news conference last Thursday, Trump said that Flynn had done nothing wrong in his discussions with… Read more »
more on new yorker artistry. this time it was about barry blitt’s cover.
wapo: How the New Yorker’s new Putin/Trump cover came together like ‘a perfect storm’
THE FIRST New Yorker cover, featuring the iconically monocled character Eustace Tilley, landed on news stands 92 years ago this month.
Now, in a nod to both the anniversary and our modern geopolitical times, the magazine’s mascot has been transformed into “Eustace Vladimirovich Tilley,” who turns his glassy gaze toward a small, fluttering Donald Trump.
fascinating, as mr spock would say, back on that Russian contact thingy when drumpf used the phrase “if he didn’t do it” instead of “if he hadn’t done it”
[here’s whole sentence: “I didn’t direct him,” Trump said, “but I would have directed him if he didn’t do it.”].
to my ears he seems to be alluding to a strategy that was set, preplanned and ordered rather than Flynn on a flyer off on his own.
Patd
Flynn is a military man who totally interjected himself into politics in a very loud and brazen manner. That seldom turns out well. Just ask Burt.
DNC meeting for chair vote — Live online: C-SPAN
jace, doug macarthur was another (this time real life) general who learned a lesson when he “totally interjected himself into politics in a very loud and brazen manner”
Truman:
I fired him because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the President. That’s the answer to that. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the laws for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail. That’s why when a good one comes along like General [George] Marshall, why you’ve got to hang onto them, and I did….
Miller:
Mr. President, how can you explain a man like that?
Truman:
I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I have finally concluded… decided that there were times when he . . . well, I’m afraid when he wasn’t right in the head. And there never was anyone around to him to keep in line. He didn’t have anyone on his staff who wasn’t an ass kisser….
Patd,
not right in the head, a bunch of ass kissers, could just as well be describing Trump. OldHarry had a way with words.?
Craig,
Who’s the favorite at this time? Does it really make any difference who wins?
Gone but not un-rotten
jace, it’s a proxy fight between sanders (Ellison) and obama/clinton forces (Perez). Apparently too close to call. Does it matter? Doubtful.
craig, is there no hope for dr dean’s guy buttigieg?
And Howard dean with Pete
Craig,
Have not followed it all that closely, but don’t see anyone who is going to bring anything fresh and dynamic to the dnc. More worn out messengers with the same worn out message. Thinking that they learned nothing from the election.
ap:
A Republican congressman has called for a special prosecutor to investigate whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and was in touch with President Donald Trump’s team during the campaign.
Rep. Darrell Issa (EYE’-suh) of California says it would be improper for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to lead the investigation.
Issa made the comments Friday on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
Issa said: “You’re right that you cannot have somebody — a friend of mine, Jeff Sessions — who was on the campaign and who is an appointee. You’re going to need to use the special prosecutor’s statute and office.”
It’s unclear whether Issa would have any influence on Sessions. Issa supported Trump during the election, but barely held onto his own seat in November.
hate to ruin your Saturday but must see if he really said what ap says he said
if you want to save time, it’s about 7 minutes in when he says what ap said he said.
poor DNC, the new electronic voting system they were so excited about isn’t working, and now they are just passing out paper ballots. Looks like a complete mess.
Russians hacked that system?
PatD, Buttigieg dropped out just before voting started. First round ballot results coming shortly. Live on C-SPAN
ahh phooey, buttigieg withdrew. thanks I think, craig.
just prior to vote according to huffpo:
“After speaking non-stop with voters who have been kind enough to give us the most serious consideration, I now realize that it is time for this process to move on without me,” Buttigieg said, eliciting murmurs from the surprised audience. “It is time for this process to move towards a solution that we can all get on board with, and that means it’s time, for the party, that I step aside.”
Although he lacked the name recognition of the top contenders, Buttigieg impressed party leaders with his compelling and open speaking style. He cast himself as an outsider whose experience as a red-state mayor made him uniquely qualified to lead Democrats in the Trump era.
Buttigieg also presented himself as an alternative to Ellison and Perez, whose contest is widely viewed as a proxy battle between supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Hillary Clinton.
“I didn’t love living through the 2016 primary the first time,” Buttigieg said in a CNN-sponsored debate on Wednesday night. “I don’t know why we as a party would want to live through it a second time.”
Two poor choices, but Ellison is the worst possible choice…so, they’ll probably go with Ellison. They are going for corporate money. They will continue to ignore regular Americans. The Dems are delusional. A coat of paint won’t fix what’s wrong.
SC chair Jamie Harrison dropped out and endorsed Perez. Lots of last-minute deal making going on, guessing Perez Clinton supporters have the edge on that front.
Why would anyone on Bernie’s team support Ellison?
Apparently no one gave the ballot system a trial run. Yet another great tv moment for the outgoing DNC team.
bid, why? because Bernie told them to. he and lizzie openly supported ellison
Perez one vote short of winning. Ellison one vote behind him.
If I thought that Perez would be the Clintonista’s waterboy, I would oppose him. I don’t and I don’t. He seems like a man who is strong enough to stand on his own two feet. He seems to be on the correct side on all the issues I care about.
I’ve met Rep Ellison. He’s a nice guy, a bright guy, a family man. He’s on the correct side on all the issues I care about.
I guess I can’t lose.
Tom Perez new DNC chair
Perez makes Ellison Deputy Chair
If Perez can’t stand up to the folks who put him in charge of the DNC, then we’ll have a mill stone around our necks on the way to victory in 2018. Perez has managerial experience, and that is something we lacked under debbie.
xr, a bit more to offer than just managerial experience.
tidbit from wiki [but worth reading the whole profile]:
Thomas Edward Perez (born October 7, 1961) is a Mexican White African-American politician, consumer advocate, and civil rights lawyer who is the current Chair of the Democratic National Committee. A member of the Democratic Party, Perez was the United States Secretary of Labor from 2013 to 2017. Prior to that he served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice.
Once more into the breach dear Democratic Party! Let’s hope this will bring about a new era that can restore sanity to our government and maybe encourage more young people to get involved and become leaders. Bigger hope still, that the new party leadership will step up to the plate and work their asses off to level the playing field in Congress! …Bowing head in silent prayer…
I’m also writing a post 🙂
Guessing the ages of a few of the Trail Mix hands I am sure that more than myself lived through the Nixon disaster. I am watching the All The Presidents Men again. I have the full Blue-Ray edition which includes more than the usual extras. Watching this movie still brings back memories of life in the military. We had no idea what would happen and if we would be called to keep order in the continental U.S.
Suit should be filed against insurance companies that issue policies that have so many loopholes as to be, essentially, worthless. Insurance companies should not prevent doctors from doing their jobs.
It wasn’t like this before Obamacare ruined healthcare for everyone.
I don’t think it can ever be fixed. Obama let the horse out of the barn.
I’m fortunate to able to afford full price for things that insurance refuses to cover at all.
The insurance companies are the “death panels.”
I sincerely hope all of the financial engineers in the insurance industry and their families get really sick and have to interact with people who have been impacted by their horrible policies. That’s the only way they would ever come into contact with the horrors they unleash by denying coverage. Oh, wait, the huddled masses have worthless policies, so they still won’t have to see their dirty-work. Maybe the witches should try to bind those weasels instead of Trump.
If all networks would broadcast the WH Correspondents’ Dinner, wouldn’t that just send Trumpco off? But that’s the appropriate place for what’s probably going to take place tomorrow night. I just ~love~ it when the 1%-ers whine. I fully expect the remote control to get a workout tomorrow night.
Thanks, Pat. Yes, Perez is a highly accomplished guy, especially for someone who cares about blue collar workers.
What concerns me most is the Chair’s ability to inspire, touch, move, and organize the ‘natural’ Dems, people living in households that make less than $500,000/year, who punished the party candidates in 2016, 2014, 2010, 2004, and 2000. Jack is right, most of the damage was done from Western PA, KY, & WV to NE, MO, & OK. Reorganizing and organizing in this part of the country is the key to the Dems’ future.
Ms Dallas,
The insurance companies were death panels before Obamacare. Before I grew into Medicare, I was ‘uninsurable’. That means no insurance company bean counter would allow me to buy a policy at any price. When my Cobra ended, I was lucky to go through a relatively healthy spell until I got Medicare coverage. Just luck.
The point is, that ‘uninsurable’ classification was an invention of insurance company death panels.
I love the idea of broadcasting the WH Correspondents Dinner. That would be a hoot. And, the deadbeat would be apoplectic.
While bannon’s 80 year historical cycles may seem similar to karl marx’s materialist dialectic, it also resembles the harmonic convergence, y2k, the thousand year reich, and the age of aquarius. It’s cheap claptrap dressed up to look like something actual. Batshit, whether it is john haggee’s ‘end times prophecy’ or bannon’s neo-pagan prophecy, is still shit from bats.
Xrepublican – when I was discharged from the military I went to work for a very large oil company. The health care plans were excellent. But, they would not cover the body parts damaged in the military. When I changed jobs, the same thing on that health care plan. And the next was the same. Which made for interesting exams. Got a problem, the doctor had to make sure it was not connected to the military disabilities first. Weird.