Some of us consider Paul Ryan to be a far-right reactionary. From here it’s kind of hard to tell those two categories apart. Although I’m aware they squabble in the House.
I’ll grant you that mostly what Paul Ryan seems to do is run the Paul Ryan simulation convincingly enough to acquire votes. Or am I confusing him with Ted Cruz? As I said, hard to tell them apart…
Here, this’ll be fun:
“Bob Woodward: Some Reporters Are Becoming ‘Emotionally Unhinged’ Covering Trump.” Washington Free Beacon, 03/09/18
“Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein decry media’s ‘smugness’ and ‘self-righteousness’ toward Trump.” Washington Examiner, 12/31/17
“Woodward: Reporters ‘binge drinking the anti-Trump Kool-Aid.’” Washington Examiner, 05/19/17
“Storm Clouds Form: Bob Woodward Compares Hillary Scandal to Watergate.” National Review, 01/20/16
Bob Woodward: Bush didn’t lie about WMDs; Obama’s Iraq withdrawal was unwise. Fox News, 05/24/15
I could go on, but I won’t. My point: all these stories showed up in right-leaning outlets and were approvingly disseminated by like-minded media, bloggers, etc.
So…and I’m just spitballing here…it seems to me that Bob Woodward’s journalistic integrity and opinions were respected, until they weren’t.
Carry on.
Depends on your point of reference I suppose. Ryan sees the structure of government as a tool for accomplishing his goals, i.e. mostly terrible fiscal policy with a side of socially regressive measures against women and minorities. Trump mostly lets Ryan handle that stuff because he has neither the interest nor the expertise to do anything through the legislative process. So for Ryan Trump is just a useful rubber stamp for the Republican agenda (which is bad enough).
The alt-right/Bannon/Miller faction see the normal legislative process along with its checks and balances as a personal insult and prefer to let Trump rule as a fascist dictator.
There’s even been some mainstream media speculation that Woodward was just putting on a show of questioning the Russia investigation in order to win the trust of White House insiders while he was gathering material for this book.
That tactic is much older than Putin.
Yes. Namely, that Mattis is just as poisonous as Trump.
Oh, I guess that’s actually out. Oops.
Something to consider. It is a well known fact in Washington and among Republican insiders that Trump is incompetent and a child. They have chosen to protect the child and not the nation.
What is that from?
I am sure Putin didn’t invent it, but the video is about a report from the Rand Institute about Russia (for the first part). And then another person applying what was gleaned from that report to American politics.
And of course the Protocols were themselves a bad-faith forgery by Russian, not to mention being plagiarised in large part from an earlier French anti-clerical work. Putin and his American proteges are drawing on a rich history.
It’s also interesting that Sartre notes that the core of fascist antisemitism was the middle class. Then as now, it’s about the slightly privileged fighting to hold onto their position.
there is always a tweet from Nostradumbass. Always.
Slide this one in the list:
Did anyone really think that White House sources would own up to things they said?
I’m inclined to side with Woodward. He has a distinguished reputation as a journalist, and I think he wants to maintain it. If he claims something was said by Trump or around Trump, I’m very certain he has solid evidence to back up that claim.
And I just did a legit spit take. Well played.
At least Rexxon neither confirmed nor denied his now-famous quote about Shitler.
Or, maybe they were happy to share dirt on the man-baby. It’s entirely conceivable to me that some WH employees knew they weren’t long for their job, and disliked Trump, so why not spill to Woodward, even if they knew they were being recorded. If they talked six months or a year ago, they’re probably gone by now. WH employees don’t last long, you know.
And, the competing factions thing sounds right.
If I recall correctly, the factions were and are:
The right-wing populists: bigots and anti-Semites and Xtianists like Bannon and Gorka and now Miller and Huckabee-Sanders.
The supposed adult supervision: GOP establishment people like Priebus and Tillerson and now Mnuchin and Kelly.
Ivanka and Jared: more socially liberal but hardline supporters of Likud and its religious fundie and ultra-nationalist allies in Israel and totally subservient to daddy’s whims.
carefully crafted by an attorney and a PR flack, no doubt.
I will be curious to read Woodward’s take to see what has changed in the months since Wolff’s book was published (or what details he believes Wolff got wrong).
