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NastyRiffraff

NastyRiffraff's Journal
NastyRiffraff's Journal
December 5, 2019

KHiver switching to Biden

I'm still grieving, but this election is too important to sit on the sidelines. I really like Klobichar, but I want to win, so I'll be volunteering for Joe. I think he'll be training his successor, so I hope he'll pick Kamala as his VP.

I hate what the media, the Right, and some on the Left have done to Kamala. It had all the hallmarks of a coordinated, planned campaign. It was sudden, and brutal.

I don't want to sound like sour grapes; I like Joe; always have. But I hate what happened to Kamala.


July 3, 2019

Does Iowa still matter?

or New Hampshire? I know a win in one of both of the 2 early states can mean a boost for a candidate, but in the long run, do they matter, since subsequent primaries and caucuses are very different demographics.

June 15, 2019

Saving face How Donald Trump silenced the people who could expose his business failures

How did Donald Trump, a self-serving promoter who lost billions of dollars for his investors, convince the world that he is a financial genius? It wasn’t just by fabricating tales of his success. It was also by bullying and silencing people who could have stopped those deceits — particularly reporters and Wall Street analysts — forcing all but a very few into a conspiracy of silence.

These tactics, which form a core element of his politics, were something I saw him hone firsthand in the 1980s and 1990s as Trump’s company was imploding.
(snip)
Even while he was suffering tremendous financial setbacks — and precisely because he was suffering those setbacks — these efforts show Trump in the desperate act of spinning a mythology about himself (rich) that would sweep aside the facts (broke). And he did it by imperiling the livelihood of his doubters, silencing them and inducing a chilling effect both in the press and among the very people who are supposed to protect investors from terrible gambles like Trump’s businesses. If this self-promotion scheme had failed, Trump would never have become a reality-TV-starring symbol of business acumen. He would have skulked off into anonymity or ignominy, just another failed real estate developer and speculator.
(snip)
His brand survived all that, and even thrived, because he wasn’t just concocting tales of his greatness; he was also forcing others to repeat them, or at least not to contradict them. It was a strategy that more recently has paid off handsomely against onetime opponents like Sen. Lindsey Graham. Nobody can succeed on this scale simply by lying. Trump’s greatest and most cynical skill, honed during the 1980s and 1990s, was learning how to win by silencing truth-tellers and suppressing the truth when it matters most.
(Emphasis mine)
Washington Post


It's long, but well worth the read.
May 29, 2019

She knocked it out of the park tonight!

And into the next zip code. It took me awhile to settle on a candidate, but every time I see Kamala she validates that decision. She's excellent at the town hall format; she engages with the individuals asking questions and with the audience. She'll make a great president, and I can't wait for the debates.

Speaking of debates, if she's the nominee, she'll reduce Trump into a blubbering, enraged idiot. It will be a thing of beauty!

April 18, 2019

Why Trump has denied Russian interference

Trump has insisted, again and again, that not only was there "no collusion," but there was no Russian interference in the election. Clearly, he thought any hint of interference would diminish his "victory."

Now, of course, he's crowing because the Mueller report supposedly "exonerates" him. But that report says something quite different. From the Washington Post:

The special counsel’s report on possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russians to interfere in the 2016 election is extremely detailed with only modest redactions — painting a far less flattering picture for Trump than the attorney general has offered and revealing new details about interactions between Russians and Trump associates. Mueller’s team wrote that though their investigation “did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” that assertion was informed by the fact that coordination requires more than two parties “taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other’s actions or interests.”

And Mueller made abundantly clear: Russia wanted to help the Trump campaign, and the Trump campaign was willing to take it.

“Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” Mueller’s team wrote.
Washington Post

I haven't yet read the report, but it looks like Mueller's conclusions were a lot more nuanced, and much less exculpatory, than Barr's stunt today acting as Trump's personal attorney indicated.

"Russia wanted to help the Trump campaign, and the Trump campaign was willing to take it." There we have it.
April 15, 2019

Some good news about Notre Dame Cathedral.

A French firefighter official told reporters the main structure of the cathedral has been saved and the two iconic main towers are intact and have been saved as well.
ABC News


The headline seems misleading, it's live updates on the fire.
January 21, 2019

Trump has no public events on Monday

It seems he won't be taking part in any MLK celebrations.

January 1, 2019

I didn't know there was a Pearl Harbor conspiracy theory

But here it is, and as expected, breathtakingly stupid, so stupid that the wrong year is a minor mistake in contrast:

https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock/status/1079201136828207105

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