Metaphors, more iii

July 17th, 2018 by Charles Cameron

.@HardballChris says we have a man sitting in the White House singing Moscow's song, sounding as much like Vladimir Putin as Simon sounds like Garfunkel. https://t.co/2eDgNnva0j

— Hardball (@hardball) July 19, 2018

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WotR: THE SHELL GAME: FUELING A FUTURE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

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Will Hurd, Trump Is Being Manipulated by Putin. What Should We Do?

By playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands, the leader of the free world actively participated in a Russian disinformation campaign that legitimized Russian denial and weakened the credibility of the United States to both our friends and foes abroad.

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Nicolle Wallace Bursts Out Laughing as Jonathan Swan Talks WH Confusion: ‘No One Really Knows Anything’

Axios’ Jonathan Swan broke down how things are, um, movin’ right along in the White House at the end of this very chaotic week, but the way he described it was just too much for Nicolle Wallace.

Wallace brought up how Dan Coats sounded “unshackled” yesterday and asked, “What is the collective feeling among the White House staff about the fact that Donald Trump’s own appointees, who head arguably the most important government agencies… are no longer pretending that Donald Trump isn’t ridiculous?”

Swan noted how some officials are still “pretty buttoned up,” citing DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen, before telling Wallace the following:

“We’re finding more and more often that when we talk to people who work in the White House or at a senior level in the administration is we’ll ask them why did Trump do this thing, whatever it might be… In the early days of the administration, you could expect an answer that rationalizes, tells your game theory and whatever. Now they’re just like [makes an ‘I dunno’ noise].”

Wallace burst out laughing and Swan made the noise a few more times before saying, “They’ve stopped bothering trying to explain him.”

Game theory, see?

But you can hear that laugh, and Swan’s noise, at Mediaite, though I can’t find a way to bring the video here — if I could, I’d have a marbelous DoubleQuote with Andrea Mitchell‘s interview with Dan Coats and the interruption by a White House tweet:

A DoubleLaugh!

Snap!

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Posted in Charles Cameron, donald trump, Doublequotes, game theory, metaphor, summit, Uncategorized, vladimir putin | 4 comments

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  1. Charles Cameron:

    July 23rd, 2018 at 9:13 am


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    If you’re Putin, you’ve got to be sitting here going, Is there some game being played on me? Because this is all too easy ..
    taking it on the chin ..
    It’s neck-and-neck between Russia and China, and close behind them are North Korea and Iran ..
    ‘The Clock Is Running Out on Mr. Trump’: Michael Avenatti Says Only Putin Knows More of the President’s Secrets than Michael Cohen ..
    .
    Trump Is Being Manipulated by Putin. What Should We Do?

    Lawmakers must keep the American people informed of the current danger, writes a Republican congressman from Texas.
    By Will Hurd
    Mr. Hurd, a former C.I.A. officer, is a congressman from the 23rd District of Texas.
    .
    [ .. ]
    .
    By playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands, the leader of the free world actively participated in a Russian disinformation campaign that legitimized Russian denial and weakened the credibility of the United States to both our friends and foes abroad.
    .

  2. Charles Cameron:

    July 24th, 2018 at 11:51 am

    He’s very clearly sending smoke sign asls to Donald Trump ..
    “katch and kill”
    “let;s game this out ..
    I do think there’s a win-win for the market
    let’s play the “free bird” .. ??
    are reporters suopposed to play those games?
    avenatti “what’s his short clause on base behind jesus” ???
    this is a game we have been sicked into
    .

    .
    The Moral Equivalent of War, by William James
    The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party. — ourob!
    .
    null

    Trump can’t win at foreign policy the way he wins at golf
    .
    Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and one of Trump’s closest informal advisers, outlined the challenge in an interview Tuesday: “A major problem for Trump is that he’s a golfer; he doesn’t play a team sport. The rest of the team has to know .?.?. what play you’re calling. In golf, it’s just between you and the ball. I think that’s a major weakness. .?.?. The world is far too complicated for one person to control everything.”
    .
    Gingrich is right: Trump, the solo golfer, won’t succeed unless he plays with the other members of his foursome. On his own, he won’t make the cut.

    This seems a lot more perceptive — closely observed, accurate, informative — than most metaphors, interesting also because it’s negative wrt politics, though positive wrt the sport. wondering what happens to a cricketer who enters politics — Imran Khan.
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    Trump: I got to do something about this Trump.
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    there are not two guys recapping x-day night bible study..
    Two Corinthians walked into a bar

    Sean Spicer describes President Trump as a ‘unicorn riding a unicorn’ and other bizarre excerpts from his new memoir
    .
    He is a Unicorn, riding a unicorn over a rainbow. His verbal bluntness involves risks that few candidate would dare take. His ability to pivot from a seemingly career-ending moment to a furious assault on his opponents is a talent few politicians can muster

    ‘I’m not going to be a punching bag anymore’: Inside Michael Cohen’s break with Trump
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    The result is open warfare between attorney and former client. Cohen has chosen to morph from Trump’s pugnacious defender to a truth-teller without regard for any possible political or legal ramifications for the president, according to Lanny Davis, one of Cohen’s attorneys.

    `he got his black belt in streetfighting defending bill clinton ..
    this particular administration has become a hospice where reputations go to die ..
    i got a lawyer to keep what’s in my safe safe ..
    a debate that happened in 2016 over which people are Rorschaching ..
    you’ve got half of america who follow thedonald trump playbook ..
    in specials .. this would be the ball game ..
    we dropped the ball, and now we have to ..
    rollercoaster, and we need good, reliable people to make sure we get off the rollercoaster on time ..
    this is a short term relief for a self-inflicted wound ..
    that’s not anyone’s first rodeo ..
    .
    Rachel Maddow, quaintly, right at the beginning:


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    I thought today was going to be kind of a sleepy newsday at last .. but then all h-e-double hockeysticks broke out

    Carl Ford Jr:

    The analysts at I.N.R. are a curmudgeonlike group who delight in being different and getting to the body of something and not caring what other people think.

    Love it — compare Jami Miscik:

    To truly nurture creativity, you have to cherish your contrarians and give them opportunities to run free. Leaders in the analytic community must avoid trying to make everyone meet a preconceived notion of the intelligence community’s equivalent of the “man in the gray flannel suit.”

    Hola!
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    it would add a flavor of bipartisan spiciness .. Nicolle Wallace
    MTP: SPy Games — inside the real-life spy drama made for Hollywood ..
    i don’t mean to play games here, but ..
    i know that’s more of an inside game than [lost in overwritten notes]
    queen for a day
    Im obsessed by your obsession with my obsession ..
    he weighs in on a republican primary, katy bar the door ..
    the President wants credit for waking the animal spirits of ..
    [vodka with horseradish, Ari] i’m interested in this vodka for passover..
    the gracious goodness of their hearts .. fiduciary ..
    Hardball: thins is going to be something of an indictmentpalooza..
    chris matthews.. who’s the monkey on the string and who’s the organ grinder?
    these two men are caught in a .. death match
    Avenatti often describes his media omnipresence as integral to his long game ..
    as someone who would go to the mat for him ..
    pro wrestling term for fake setup (ke-fe??) ..we’re seeing this bare-knuckle brawl between two lawyers ..
    .
    California Today: With ‘Blindspotting,’ Oakland’s Film Scene Takes Center Stage

    “The thread that connects them is a sense of place,” said Eric Arnold, a journalist who has written extensively about Bay Area artists, including on the blog Oakulture. To have three films in the cultural firmament at once, he added, is “a game changer” for Oakland’s film scene. (There is already Oscar and other awards chatter in Hollywood around all three movies.)

    Emily Jane Fox on Cohen: he wants to smack back if he’s smacked ..

  3. Charles Cameron:

    July 31st, 2018 at 8:13 am

    This is a small one:

    Trump: ‘I would have no problem doing a shutdown’
    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/30/trump-government-shutdown-2018-749760
    President Donald Trump doubled down Monday on his claim that he would shut down the government this fall if the funding he wants for border security is not approved by Congress.
    .
    I imagine doubling don is a betting / cards / racing term?

  4. Grurray:

    July 31st, 2018 at 5:11 pm

    It’s a blackjack bet, reserved for certain scenarios such as when you hold an ace and a smaller card. This is termed a ‘soft hand’, as opposed to a ‘hard hand’. The soft hand is soft because your cards sum up to a total that allows you to be dealt another card with no possibility of going bust. This is why you can double down on such a hand. When you double, you’re only allowed one additional card. If that one additional card could bust you then you would proceed more cautiously. Since with your soft hand that card can’t bust you, you’re now free to increase your bet with no worry of ruin. Things can only get better.
    That is, as long as some other important constraints in relation to the dealer’s cards are also satisfied, of course, which place the odds suitably in your favor.
    .
    The worst hands to be dealt are the hands that are so hard they’re called ‘stiff hands’. Your two cards total 12 through 16, and the odds are least favorable. Anyone doubling on this type of hand is either doomed to lose or is cheating.