Games, politics, and game metaphors

February 22nd, 2018 by Charles Cameron

[ by Charles Cameron — continued from Playing politics and other games, &c ]

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I’ve been collecting gams and game metaphors applied to politics in Playing politics and other games, &c, but with additional examples surnning to 20 plus comments, and that particular post vanishing below a sea of more recent posts, it’s time to start afresh — hence this post.

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That’s hard to beat, but there are a couple of phrrases I’ve caught in passing..

MTP: “folks have been playing games with their words on this.” ie their attitudes to Trump firing Muellerl

John McLaughlin: “To assure the public there have been no games being played here..”

Chyron on MSNBC: “Blame game?”

New White House security clearance policy could put ‘bull’s eye’ on Kushner

“Alex van der Zwaan wasn’t on anyone’s Bingo card” — Rachel Maddow, 20 Feb 2018

Ari Melber m.06, ouroboros:

“If your bodyguard needs a bodyguard, things are getting heavy; if your lawyer needs a lawyer, things are going down.”

“Starting with that cat-and-mouse game.”

“A rapid set of dominos falling” Chris Hayes, All in, m.16 “A sort of domino effect, Gates tips onto Manafort, Manafor tips onto Trump.”

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It’s almost like a chess board, Mueller has a knight, Flynn .. they’re getting very close to check mate.” m.22

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‘Mueller is playing chess — Trump is playing Donkey Kong’:

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller has filed another indictment against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, listing multiple charges of tax and bank fraud. The editors of The Masthead, The Atlantic’s premium membership program, dove deep into the workings of Manafort’s impact on U.S. politics in their special corruption issue.

Posted in Charles Cameron, games, metaphor, sports, Uncategorized | 18 comments

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  1. Charles Cameron:

    February 24th, 2018 at 9:06 pm

    And here’s the most complex game metaphor yet, from Nick Akerman on All In with Chris Hayes:

    I mean, it`s almost like a chess board. Right now, Mueller has got a knight. He`s got, Flynn. He`s got three pawns. He`s got Papadopoulos, he`s got the Dutch lawyer and he`s got, Rick Gates. He`s also knocked out one of his castles in the sense of the whole argument about the Russian investigation being a hoax. And in the meantime, the queen who is Manafort is being closed in from all sides and faces almost certain jail time. What we have is we`re getting very close to checkmate. And that`s why you see all of this crazy activity from Donald Tump where he`s tweeting all kinds of irrational statements.

  2. Charles Cameron:

    February 28th, 2018 at 6:13 pm

    Games, sports, play:
    .
    “The Chinese played him like a fiddle.” This one has been used several times, mainly of Donald Trump, though the instance I noted was (I think) about Jr.
    .
    “It’s not like a video game, it’s not like a training” — on MSNBC, discusing being under live fire.
    .
    ‘Donald Trump and the NRA have met their match’: Nicolle Wallace explains ‘savvy’ students have changed gun control debate:

    This looks like something bigger, and these activists, these are television and Twitter savvy warriors, these student activists fighting for common sense gun reforms, I think Donald Trump and the NRA have met their match. Am I watching too much TV?

    Final version, “scrums”: MSNBC, Ari Melber, transcript:

    Again, don`t under estimate Donald Trump. That was fascinating audio. You could hear that was push and pull, senator. You have been in those things. We call them scrums sometimes.

    Notable forms:
    .
    David Shipler, quoted in McMaster Gives a Belated Russian Lesson:

    A Russian friend explained vranyo this way: ‘You know I’m lying, and I know that you know, and you know that I know that you know, but I go ahead with a straight face, and you nod seriously and take notes.’

    There’s a delicious verbal spiral in there..
    .
    Misc:
    .
    “How far is this from normal?” — to loosely accompany the other MSNBC bit about the distance between the headline and reality — and “close to perfect, but far from normal” (Key West ad)
    .
    “This new day is nothing like yesterday, the trails are covered.. ” to go with the snow ad materials, not yet complete.

  3. Charles Cameron:

    February 28th, 2018 at 6:30 pm

    Full “domino effect” quote from Hardball transcript, 19 Feb 2018:

    Let`s talk about Rick Gates.
    .
    And the degree of – I`m not usually on the side of Trump, but I just
    wonder about overaggressiveness here. Could Mueller be up to basically
    using Rick Gates to pressure Manafort with a long prison sentence on
    something that has nothing to do with this past election in 2016, but just
    something they can squeeze him with, and then they will get Manafort and
    squeeze him to get to Trump?
    .
    Is that overaggressive prosecution to do this kind of domino effect?

    Two comments from Daily Kos, Threw in a line and Moby Dick came back:

    Trump has to be both Moby Dick AND Ahab. It will take a surpassing good actor to play both roles. I suggest Robert DeNiro.

    and:

    They cast a line and caught Moby Dick….
    .
    should be they cast a line and caught the Lernaean Hydra.

    A Fisherman’s tall tale in any case!
    .
    Commenting on: 6 Important Details From Fusion GPS’ Secret House Testimony:

    Here’s the full text of the Schiff-Simpson Dialectic On Watersports [emphasis added]:
    .
    Schiff: The kompromat which has become so much a focus of any discussion of the dossier, are there any of the facts related to that, the salacious video that were not a part of the dossier or other like allegations that came to your attention?
    .
    Simpson: No. I mean, you know, we were asked about other allegations by reporters that didn’t come from us, and I am not – we were asked about earlier stories of earlier trips and whether other things had happened, and similar things. Actually not similar things, more sort of less colorful. But anyway, girls. And, you know, we didn’t – I mean to be clear, we never set out to investigate whether Donald Trump or anyone else was engaged in sexual activity for the sort of practical reason that I just didn’t think it was a useful subject to investigate. I investigate business stuff and financial crime and corruption and those kind of things. That’s my gig. So people came to us with stories that we never pursued. And we were recently asked by some reporter did you write a memo in 2015 about – I had no idea what they were talking about. You know, we threw a line in the water and Moby Dick came back, and we didn’t know what to do with it at first. So anyway.

    “That’s the point of the spear’ Rep Charlie Crist on banning AR-15
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    Form of interest: Paul Manafort’s Fate Is Sealed:

    Manafort behaves as if he believes everything will eventually fall in his favor, that problems will inevitably resolve themselves.

    Plenty of ouroboric materials in there..
    .
    And here we have a case of miniaturization, as with Matrioshka dolls:

    A commenter on the above wrote:

    recursive Putin — nightmare

    indeed!
    .
    And for another (I think) ouroboric reference:
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    Review: Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb — down with the ‘Intellectual Idiots’:

    Skin in the game comes with conflict of interest. What I hope this book will do is show that the former is more important than the latter. There is no problem if people have a conflict of interest if it is congruous with downside risk for themselves.

  4. Charles Cameron:

    February 28th, 2018 at 6:49 pm

    Trump on the qualities he’d look for in teachers doing concealed carry in schools:

    I want highly trained people that have a natural talent, like hitting a baseball, or hitting a golf ball, or putting. How come some people always make the four-footer and some people under pressure can’t even take their club back, right? They can’t even take their club back.

    See the recursive tweet below re the need for two such teachers!
    .
    Sen Nunes on MSNBC: “The Little Engiine that Couldn’t Hat Trick” — “The Little Engiine that Couldn’t” is, I think, American enough — but “hat trick” is pure Cricket, surely?
    .
    Blake Hounshell: “Who would cheat for a game they didn’t want to win?”
    .
    Chris Matthews: “We’re talking about spy games.”
    .
    Kelly and Kushner stuck at an impasse after Trump’s punt on clearance. — punt — American Football, or Rugby?
    .
    And for a fine ouroboros, Michael Steel, ex-Chair RNC, inredulous on MSNBC:

    We’re going to pass a law to enforce the law?

    Here’s another, with recursion in the tweeter’s comment:

    There’s enough recursion there to call for a third teacher, to watch the second, wouldn’t you agree? Indeed, Cheryl Rofer responded most aptly:

    Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

    And this gets richer:

    More:
    .
    “Sessions is the President’s punching bag” — MTP
    .
    “President bucks his base” — re gun control.
    .
    YMCA ad: “How do we get back to ‘us’?” — for the “distances” collection
    .
    The inimitable Sarah Kendzior, re-upped from Sept 2016:

    Some have accused the media of fabricating a “horse race,” but this is an erroneous assumption.

    “I think the President really did throw a curve ball” — at his meeting re gun reform.

  5. AnaBeth:

    March 2nd, 2018 at 8:48 am

    Trump on the qualities he would look for! Oh my heavens, he thinks the people with guns should be the people who have the time and money to hone a “natural talent” like GOLF! That got a laugh out of me. Which of his advisers thought the aftermath of a school shooting was an appropriate time for plug about his golf ability?
    .
    But I apologize, that was off-topic. The sport/game language is very interesting. Some potential consequences:
    ~An “us-them” mentality being reinforced by team imagery
    ~A lack of gravity in people’s opinions of the topics at hand
    ~A false comfort from any phrasing that allows one to perceive oneself as the “winner” of a political exchange without having done anything at all
    ~A spirit of competition, rather than one of actual development or improvement
    .
    Potentially, also, using the language of sports and games might make the political realm more accessible or interesting to those who are familiar with the terms but are unfamiliar with politics. This could be either very positive, or used to manipulate the views of those who aren’t really paying close attention.
    .
    What struck you about the connection?

  6. Charles Cameron:

    March 3rd, 2018 at 4:25 am

    Chris Matthews, Hardball 2 March 2018:

    I want to ask you about this chaotic situation in the White House. It’s like fun house mirrors that normally distort you. When Trump looks in the mirror, he looks normal. The distortion is the reality.

    Trump’s Chaos Theory for the Oval Office Is Taking Its Toll

    In private conversations, the president vacillates between sounding regretful that Mr. Kushner is taking arrows and annoyed that he is another problem to deal with.

    If he’s questioned, Trump will get the same legal advice as Aunt Goldie. But will he take it?

    Trump might well take the bait, should Mueller dangle the prospect of a one-on-one, winner-takes-all war of words.

    Chris Matthews, Hardball, March 2 2018:

    I imagine everybody who does business in the United States and the Middle East — we have a hand in there — would have a baseball card on Jared Kushner — a little baseball card that tells them everything they need to know about Kushner. What’s on the card? What do they have to work with? How can they perhaps manipulate him, knowing what they know about him? One w=thing without a doubt that’s on that card is 666 Fifth Avenue.

    John Kelly Jokes (?) That Working for Donald Trump Must Be a Punishment from God

    Kelly has responded to previous rumors of his impending departure by issuing halfhearted, self-loathing denials in which he insists that he is “not frustrated” and is, in fact, quite happy with the life decisions he’s made up to this point. Now, though, as rumors persist that he is locked in a “death match” power struggle with Jared and Ivanka—whose familial relationship with the president means they’re not losing any death matches anytime soon—those types of claims are going to get much tougher to countenance.

    Trump was angry and ‘unglued’ when he started a trade war, officials say

    Trump, the two officials said, was angry and gunning for a fight, and he chose a trade war, spurred on by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, the White House director for trade — and against longstanding advice from his economic chair Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

    Demoralized West Wing stokes fears over Trump’s capacity to handle a crisis:

    But there is something different about this week’s spasm of sudden policy lurches, graceless personal insults, oozing scandal news, and ceaseless West Wing knife fights.

    ‘Pure madness’: Dark days inside the White House as Trump shocks and rages

    The situation seems to be grating as well on White House chief of staff John F. Kelly, who had been on the ropes over his handling of domestic-abuse allegations against former staff secretary Rob Porter but who now appears on firmer footing.

    The Memo: White House reels after week of upheaval

    The Trump administration is scrambling to keep its footing after being hit by several gut punches over the past week.

    Destroying Jared Kushner: a five-part play

    Act I: The knee-capping
    Act II: The humiliation
    Act III: The Godfather turns
    Act IV: The plot
    Act V: Tortured Trump

  7. Charles Cameron:

    March 3rd, 2018 at 3:11 pm

    I think your “spirit of competition, rather than one of actual development or improvement” is really the key here, AnaBeth. Reminds me of my time wih Howard Rheingold, and his emphasis on collaboration:
    .

    .
    The key thinker here is Nobelist Elinor Ostrom.

  8. Charles Cameron:

    March 4th, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    High seas shell game: How a North Korean shipping ruse makes a mockery of sanctions

    At least four ships of different flags showed up in August and September to dump North Korean anthracite onto a pile near the harbor’s southern tip, maritime records show. Then, six other ships arrived to pick up coal from the same spot and deliver it to foreign markets. Between the voyages, the harbor was witness to a kind of magic trick: Illicit North Korean coal was transformed into Russian coal, which can be legally sold anywhere.

    Marseille (Netflix) Season 2 episode 6:

    Manhunt (netflix) Season 1 Episode 4

    That last one’s a week one, but I wanted it for “pawn off” — rather than “a pawn in their game”, which I suppose might be either chess or pawnshop talk.
    .
    ‘Like a pinball machine’: Lawmakers struggle to negotiate with an erratic Trump

    “It’s totally not on a straight line,” Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) said of Trump’s negotiating style. “It’s zigzagging, something like a pinball machine. But he does move [the ball] down.”

    Fun.
    ,
    Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier

    Burrows, like Steele, had spent decades as a British intelligence officer. “This whole thing has been quite surreal,” he said. “We are being made into a political football, in U.S. terms, which we really regret. [ .. ]
    .
    “M.I.6 is second only perhaps to the U.S. in its ability to collect intelligence from Russia.” He added, “We’ve always coördinated closely with them because they did such a great job. We’re playing in the Yankee Stadium of espionage here. This isn’t Guatemala.”

    From the same Jane Mayer piece, here’s a quotable source for Moby Dick:

    Steele looked at the material and, according to people familiar with the matter, asked himself, “Oh, my God—what is this?” He called in Burrows, who was normally unflappable. Burrows realized that they had a problem. As Simpson later put it, “We threw out a line in the water, and Moby-Dick came back.”

  9. Charles Cameron:

    March 8th, 2018 at 3:54 am

    DoubleTweet:

    Of the Chinese as “bad actors”: “They’ve often gamed the system”
    .
    Katy Tur: “What you’re seeing there is a high wire act”
    .
    “dodgier that dodgerball.”
    .
    11th hour on special cases, Canada & Mexico: “then the conga-line begins” of all the other countries looking for exceptions..
    .
    Ouroboros:

    Putin praises Trump, says U.S. political system eating itself

    Neil Katyal re Bin Laden’s driver “It looks so bad. I mean basically, You’ve got Donald Trump acting like a two-bit criminal here. .. You know, I’m a defense lawyer, I love a challenge. I represented Bin Laden’s driver, and let me tell you, Bin Laden’s driver acted with far more integrity at every stage in the investigation than Donald Trump has, so far.”
    .
    Ari, on the Rachel Meadow show: “It suggests .. someone .. wants to be on the record in public tonight about this little memory-game, you know, we alll remember the time the President…”

    Trump’s meeting with the video game industry to talk gun violence could get ugly:

    Somehow, Democrats isolate the inherent evil of a gun almost as if it’s self-shooting, while denying our violent media has any influence on these under-21 shooters

    Wow, and the “millennials to snake people” app has an ouroboros for its logo:

    Spy games, MSNBC:

    Oh, ah, and Ben Wittes:

    This is wargames at the toy level, pure HG Wells. And dominos…

    .

  10. Charles Cameron:

    March 9th, 2018 at 5:09 am

    Trump Accepts North Korea’s Invitation to Discuss Its Nuclear Program:

    For Mr. Trump, a meeting with Mr. Kim, a leader he has threatened with “fire and fury” and has derided as “Little Rocket Man,” is a breathtaking gamble. No sitting American president has ever met a North Korean leader, and Mr. Trump himself has repeatedly vowed that he would not commit the error of his predecessors by being drawn into a protracted negotiation in which North Korea extracted concessions from the United States but held on to key elements of its nuclear program.

    “a breathtaking gamble”
    .
    Oh, and a MSNBC commentator:

    This is an all bets are off situation.

    I’ll leave these two to stand alone, since Trump’s decision to meet Kim Jong-Un came so entirely out of left field.

  11. Charles Cameron:

    March 9th, 2018 at 4:49 pm

    Stormy Daniels beat Trump at his own game

    The president who boasted of treating women like sex objects is being outplayed at his own tabloid-warfare game by a porn star. Maybe there’s justice in the world after all.

    beat Trump at his own game and his own tabloid-warfare game

    snooker — “Snooker gained its own identity in 1884 when officer Sir Neville Chamberlain, while stationed in Ooty, devised a set of rules that combined pyramid and life pool. The word “snooker” was a long used military term used to describe inexperienced or first-year personnel.” — Wikipedia
    .
    sucker — ??

    Discussing Smoot-Hawley and its repercussions:

    This tit-for-tat trade war depressed production, employment, and prices in many countries, including the United States.

    I tend to forget that “tit-for-tat” is a game theoretic construct, and hhave probably missed dozens of instances of its usage.
    .
    On North Korea, Trump gambles from a position of weakness

  12. Charles Cameron:

    March 10th, 2018 at 2:32 am

    Quite a haul from today’s dialysis session:
    .

    Nicolle Wallace: “When we come back, Donald Trump rolls the dice on “little rocket-man..

    Juan Zarate: “A diplomatic choregraphy, that would have put various steps in place..”
    Nicolle Wallace: “You talk about choreography as though that’s in Donald Trump’s skill-set..”

    Evelyn Farkus:

    The last visit with Presidential optics was Dennis Rodnab

    Donald Trump, orouboric:

    Rocket-man is on a suicide mission for himself.

    What Will Trump Give Up for Peace with North Korea?

    Finally, everyone should be aware that this dramatic act of diplomacy by these two unusual leaders, who love flair and drama, may also take us closer to war.

    Ambassador Chris Hill:

    [President Moon]”says the same thing to different people, he doesn’t put any spin on his ball.

    Lindsey Graham levels existential threat against North Korea if Kim plays Trump:

    Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday that he hoped for peace on the Korean peninsula but warned Kim Jong Un that “it will be the end” of him and his regime if he tried to take advantage of President Trump.
    .
    The worst possible thing you can do is meet with President Trump in person and try to play him,” the senator said. “If you do that, it will be the end of you — and your regime.

    Will The Real Donald Trump Please Stand Up:

    Now I’ll be the first to confess that I was filled with trepidation when Donald Trump got the nomination in 2016; brash, at times crass and apparently possessed of that “ready, FIRE, aim” mentality that seemed to blow up in his face often enough.

    MSNBC to Air ‘This Happened,’ A Look Back at Gary Hart Scandal

    The documentary, slated to air at 10 p.m. eastern on Friday, explores how discovery and coverage of the candidate’s extramarital affair changed the rules of reporting and made the private lives of public figures fair game for the press.

    Amb. Bill Richardson:

    We need a game-changer, a Hail Mary pass on the peninsula.

    .

  13. Charles Cameron:

    March 10th, 2018 at 3:06 pm

    Trump Makes A Mess Of North Korea Talks Hours After Announcing Them

    In a span of less than 24 hours, the White House announced at least three different positions on the meeting — the most recent of which involved walking back the walk-back it issued earlier in the day.

    walking back the walk-back
    .
    I covered steel 26 years ago. Trump’s solution didn’t work then and won’t now.

    President Trump, playing the charlatan, is telling steelworkers he’ll protect their jobs with his 25?percent tariff, made official Thursday, on all imports but those from Canada and Mexico. “We’re going to have a lot of great jobs coming back into our country,” Trump promised.

    playing the charlatan
    .
    Myself at Zenpundit, How the hell can Un trump Trump

    China, Japan and Russia, India, and obviously South Korea, are all actors with significant interesta in any US – North-Korean diplomacy — giving us a seven-node tug-of-war for our planners to map — and Donald Trump to intuitively grok.

    a seven-node tug-of-war for our planners to map

  14. Charles Cameron:

    March 13th, 2018 at 3:08 am

    On Hardball, 12 March 2018, Rep Joaquin Castro:

    He (Devin Nunes) basically decided at some point to make his politicaL career a sacrifice fly for the President of the United States, that he was basically going to be a blocker and tackler for the White House. And the result you can see today.

    Chris Matthews:

    Sacrifice fly — a great metaphor, so the President can walk home..

    Chris Matthews:

    He looks like a guy who, as was just said by the Congressman, that he looks like a guy who is just going to hit up a nice sacrifice fly out there, way out by center field, so that the runner can come in from third. Without teaching baseball to everybody, it’s a simple matter: the guy seems to be working for Trump.

    That’s a neat, extended sports metaphor.

  15. Charles Cameron:

    March 13th, 2018 at 10:48 pm

    Kyle Cheney reports on “sources familiar” with Trey Gowdy’s thinking on Russian interference in favor of Clinton vs Trump:

    In a two person race, wishing one candidate will lose is the same as hoping the other candidate prevails.

    And how could I have missed the nuclear football:

    The nuclear football (also known as the atomic football, the President’s emergency satchel, the Presidential Emergency Satchel, the button, the black box, or just the football) is a briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the President of the United States to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed command centers, such as the White House Situation Room. It functions as a mobile hub in the strategic defense system of the United States. It is held by an aide-de-camp.

    null

    **
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    MSNBC, re the electoral prospects after the Conor Lamb win for the Mid_Terms: “This is still Spring Training”
    .
    **
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    Phil Elliott (TIME) on 11th Hour 3/14 re Hope Hicks and Keith Schiller:

    They were also very useful fto WHite House staff. The preesident really wouldn’t listen to everyone, but if they could have Hope hicks say something in a meeting, the president would pay attention; if there was an inclination that the president was going perhaps off the rails, they could maybe have Keith perhaps suggest nimbly, gently, and the president would see that. They were really the bumpers, they were like, if you’re going bowling, they’re the things that kep you out of the gutter. They’re both gone now.

    Then this:

    RUSSIAN OFFICIAL SAYS U.S., U.K. DEVELOPED ‘NOVICHOK’ POISON USED IN SERGEI SKRIPAL ATTACK:

    Deputy Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia may reciprocate the sanctions and told Reuters that “Washington is playing with fire,” while threatening an expansion of an American “blacklist.”

    playing with fire
    .
    11th hour:
    .
    Brian Williams refuting a suggestion from Bill Kristol that perhaps, maybe, Jeff Sessions firing McCabe was a means to save the Mueller probe:

    Knowing my friend Bill, he’s not a paid spokesman of Sessions, Lord knows, but that cooler heads might have thought this was a reverse bank shot of taking a bullet for better things to happen in the country? No, that’s totally unethical..

    a reverse bank shot
    .
    Same program, Jon Meacham re Stormy Daniels case, what the President has done because to him, “this is paintball, this is all paintball”..

  16. Charles Cameron:

    March 18th, 2018 at 11:26 pm

    From ‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’– meet the data war whistleblower on Christopher Wylie and Cambridge Analytica:

    Because the past few months have been like watching a tornado gathering force. And when Wylie turns the full force of his attention to something – his strategic brain, his attention to detail, his ability to plan 12 moves ahead – it is sometimes slightly terrifying to behold.

    From Netflix series, Wild, Wild Country, s1 ep 3, about Antelope / Rajneeshpuram — Sunny, of Rajneesh Press Relations:

    If you’re going to come at us with the big artillery, we’re going to play your game. And that was unsettling to a lot of us, but it was also — brought a sense of security in some bizarre way”

    to play your game.

    David Frohnmayer made his first appearance in this play

    in this play
    .
    What Hope Hicks Knows

    According to dozens of interviews conducted, over five weeks, with more than 30 current and former senior White House officials, what Hicks “went through,” to borrow the words of the president, wasn’t really about her at all. She was something more like a pawn in a campaign to upend the White House from afar.

    If a pawn, then a pawn which has reached the eighth rank and been promoted to queen early in the game — as if before it started.

    The report prompted Hicks and Porter to break up, but the feeling around Washington was that the saga was the product of some political spycraft. “This had been planned and choreographed and coordinated and known long in advance by a group of people who were trying to play political games,” a source with direct knowledge of the events said, “knowing that this would be part of a larger story related to security clearances and John Kelly and others, seeking to sow chaos and dissension. They saw this as a useful catalyst, which it turned out to be.”

    to play political games

    For as long as he’d been in politics, Lewandowski had been defined by two qualities: his ruthless pursuit of an enemy’s destruction and always having an enemy. This was true even when it was small ball; in New Hampshire, he once fucked over a local official by claiming that his fantasy-football league, with a grand prize of $200, was an illegal gambling ring. By the time Lewandowski was done, the official had lost his job and was the subject of a criminal probe.

    it was small ball —
    .
    Wiki:

    mall ball may refer to:

    Small ball (baseball) — see also sacrifice fly
    Small ball (basketball)

    The story about Porter and Hicks became the story about Porter and the women who said he abused them. That became a story about the White House covering up Porter’s secrets, which became a story about Hicks and Kelly, which became a story about Hicks and Trump, which became a story about security clearance and Jared and Ivanka, which became a story about Kelly again. Eventually, it was just a story about who populates our anarchic new government and whether or not we can trust them.

    not a sports ref, but a fine example of a catenary of links.
    .
    What Went Wrong in the Stormy Daniels Case

    More than that, the President’s lawyers seem not to have considered what Clifford’s next move would be: challenging the arbitration. They had, in effect, engineered something of a win-win situation for her. Practically speaking, in order for Trump to hold Clifford to the agreement, he has to fight her in court — a process he began Friday — and come out and admit to the deal publicly.

    a win-win situation

    Ari Melber, The Beat, 19 March:C

    onsider how Trump methodically and insistently keeps moving the pieces on the board.

    Michael Avenatti:

    Good lawyers don’t play their entire hand on the first go-around – we’re not going to show our hand in the beginning weeks of any case. ..
    .
    My client should be permitted to tell her story. To the extent that Mr Cohen and President Trump have an alternative narrative, or a different version of the facts, theyshould come forward, they should tell their version of those facts, and we should let the American people decide, on who is shooting straight.

    Ari:

    the rare irony of a dirty trickster talking about using video to catch people, here is that Trump advisor, Nix, caught on video, talking about how to use video to catch other people..


    .
    Trump:

    The one that matters is me. I’m the only one that matters.

    Newly Emboldened, Trump Says What He Really Feels
    .
    “He’s bulking up”
    .
    Shannon Pettypiece:

    Or they will receive a subpoena. And then its going to have to be, walk down to the courthouse without your liars, your lawyers, and you’re testifying under oath.

    PJ O’Rourke:

    You can’t understand democracy without understanding the ffact that that fifty percent of the people are below average in intelligence. .. He’s one of them. .. The average person is much smarter than average, just ask ’em.

  17. Charles Cameron:

    March 21st, 2018 at 4:06 am

    Michael Avenatti with Ari Melber, 3/20/18:

    We dont want to go over the tips of our skis.

    and (The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell 03-20-18 – Avenatti and Melberat the 12 mark):

    Ari, I’m used to playing chess, ok, in my cases, and I’ve had the good fortune to go up against some really good chess players from around this country — really good chess players, I mean, lawyers at the top of their game, really good lawyers that are really good chess players, okay, and I like to count myself as a pretty good chess player. Right now we’re playing three-dimensional chess, and these guys are playing tic tac toe, quite honestly. 3/21/188 they’re not even playing tic tac toe that well.

    Ari Melber:

    I want you to give us your analysis from serving at
    the top of the legal game in the White House of this sparse, this sparse
    report from Sessions` lawyer.

    at the top of their / your game

    Ari:

    only a few Republicans seem to be stepping up to the plate

    Ari Melber, the Beat:

    The whole thing would be on camera, he said, not knowing he was on camera. This story is reverberating at a very fast pace

    ouroboros
    .
    Melber:

    Breaking news on the Russia probe. And it`s a weird one.
    Attorney general Jeff Sessions and the man he fired just six days ago
    Friday night, former de deputy to Jim Comey, Andrew McCabe, are now
    involved in something of a cat and mouse game according to history.

    cat and mouse game
    ,
    Trump cCongratulating Putin:

    HILIP RUCKER, MSNBC ANALYST: Well, it is just incredible reporting by my colleagues Carol Leonnig and others. But look, the President was told not to congratulate Putin on this election because it`s not a free election. It`s not a fair election as the video that you just played showed.
    ,
    MATTHEWS: This is like calling up guy after watching a wrestling match on
    television, a professional wrestling match, and saying congratulations on
    your victory.

    professional wrestling match

    **

    U.S., China Sharpen Trade Swords
    .
    **
    .
    Apparently it was Abe Lincoln who said — in a spot on example of the importance of ourboric situations:

    He who represents himself has a fool for a client

  18. Charles Cameron:

    March 22nd, 2018 at 10:35 pm

    Glorious ouroboros at the head of this article on Jordan B Peterson, Why Jordan B Peterson Appeals to Me (And I Am on the Left):
    .

    .
    Tanner Greer also has a Peterson piece out today: Jordan Peterson Saves the World
    .
    **
    .
    Uber’s Collision, Facebook’s Disgrace [ouroboros]

    It is the first time that a self-driving car, operating in fully autonomous mode, has killed a pedestrian.

    Dmitri:

    Let us pray with our legs.

    Chris Matthews, Hardball:

    If he can throw a curve-ball

    Rachel Maddow:

    I have a betting pool with my staff, where there’s no money at stake, it’s just tacos

    Chris Matthews:

    There is no condemnation for Trump and his endless mulligans.

    Trump rolls the dice on China trade