I just started listening to Pod Save America the other day - and am a weirdo completionist - so started at the beginning, right after the election. They were interviewing Obamaās ethics czar, who was going out of his mind describing how insanely unethical Trumpās financial arrangements were. Hearing someone encountering it so freshly, I was like, holy shit, thatās so many layers deep at this pointā¦
True enough, and it would take a certain amount of coordination among the white supremacy groups and the WH that would soon become obvious. But I donāt think it has to be ātrump supports white supremacistsā itās more āwhite supremacists supports trumpā which actually gives him a viable way to repudiate them (in the weakest of terms) and still gain their support, since theyāll know that he HAD to say something publicly about the violence.
But I still do wonder about it being a distraction on some level. After all, him having white supremacist support isnāt likely to get him impeached, while the Russia scandal can get him impeached.
It could be a good sign or a very bad sign if his distraction stories now have to be this heinous and obviously distasteful. A good sign if it means that the risks to his presidency and interests are so great that the risk/reward proposition allows for the use of a distraction story this controversial. A bad sign if he knows something we donāt about how this will all shake out, and who is expected to come out on top in this ideological conflictā¦
Weāll probably never know what goes on behind powerās front stage, but whether intentional or not, such flareups do distract. I keep thinking about the staunchly wingnut federal judges trump has been appointing.
Otoh, Trump clearly is a racist bigot himself, soā¦
Trump knows he canāt afford to alienate racist elements on the right to get re-elected, and he doesnāt want to alienate them, since he himself is a racist and a bigot. Hence the refusal to use clear language to condemn the murders. His political reasoning here is completely transparent, as heās spent his entire political career cultivating hate on the reactionary right. Although Trump eventually condemned the attack after receiving a large amount of negative press, his reversal is part of a broader trend Trump is known for, in which he initially signals to racists in his support base that he approves of their actions, thereby devaluing any later reversal as merely the product of political pressure, rather than principled opposition. The damage, of course, has alredy been done. Far-right fascists and racists know that the president supports their behavior when he goes out of his way to provide them cover.
Birds of a feather.
Fun Spencer fact: āSpencerās ties to Russia, which he has called the āsole white power in the world,ā go deeper. He was married until October to Russian writer and self-proclaimed āKremlin troll leaderā Nina Kouprianova, whose writing under the pen name Nina Byzantina regularly aligns with Kremlin talking points.ā
Hmmmm. Is Putin via FSB or other means supporting US White Supremacists? Nahhhh. Too easy right?
FSBā¦ FÄs-Bā¦ Facebook?!?
FSB Federal Security Service (KGB) They do seem to enjoy Facebook I hear.
I know I need to label things as jokes. Itās just that sometimes it hurts my soul.
Are you absolutely sure about that?
In which the POTUS paraphrases HYDRA:
I think he just yelled for that bright Apple Computer Things guy to join his Manufacturing Council.
I think youāre ascribing Nth-dimensional chess moves to a group of morons who canāt even complete a connect-the-dots picture. Even if this was a coordinated move to take attention off of the Russia investigation, though, still managed to fuck it up, because nobodyās buying his denouncements. So now he has two problems: Russian collusion allegations and allegations that heās in bed with neo-Nazis and the Klan.
He we go again.
WTF
More obstruction.
The response from the rest of the world:
Meanwhile, this is what Obama tweeted about Charlottesville;
Itās now reportedly the most ālikedā tweet in Twitterās history.
President Donald Trumpās lawyer, Jay Sekulow, told The New Yorker this week that the presidentās legal team would consider it out of bounds for special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate a business deal Trump pursued in Georgia six years ago with a Kazhak oligarch who has direct links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It would be totally out of bounds if you looked at money that went into account number 123456789 on October 17, 2011 and into the subsequent sale of two condos to Kazhak on October 19, 2011.
It would be inappropriate for him to use the password ābestrealtoreverā to access that account online.
It would be beyond the pale for him to read the attached signed confession.
Honestly, how stupid are these people?
Itās like a glass of lemonade in the Sahara
You donāt really want an answer to that question, do you?