Donald J. Trump with his bathrobe on!

FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2017

Remembering Vincent The Chin:
Last night, David Gergen made a bit of a point on CNN.

Don Lemon threw to him out of a break. Gergen noted a downside to the focus on the Donald J. Trump [HEART] Putin-and-Russia stuff:
LEMON (3/9/17) FBI Director James Comey meeting with lawmakers today as the House and Senate intelligence committees ramp up their investigations of Russia's meddling in the election.

Back with me, David Gergen, Kirsten Powers, Alex Burns, and Jack Kingston. We're in the middle of a conversation before the break. David, you wanted to weigh in on what?

GERGEN: Of course we need to be covering this story if the FBI has got major investigations underway—and there's something very fishy underneath all of this, we all know that. At the same time, Jack Kingston has a point, but I disagree with, on where he came out with it.

And that is, while we're doing this so much, the administration is enjoying the fact that we're distracted from covering this health care bill. And they're jamming it through in the middle of the night. Nobody knows what's in it. Nobody knows how much it's going to cost. And nobody really understands what it's going to do to Americans who so desperately need health insurance. And that's a major, major story. It's hard to cover in the midst of all this other stuff, but we have to do both.
"There's something very fishy underneath all of this" Donald-and-Vladimir stuff, Gergen said. "We all know that."

Given Gergen's insider status, we were glad to see him say that. That said, we agree with his assessment of that possible downside.

We've especially thought about this with respect to Trump's tweets last weekend. Discussion of those wiretap tweets has eaten enormous time and space. That time and space is being taken away from discussion of the health care bill and the new executive order.

As we've seen the health care bill moving along under cover of wiretap tweets, we've begun to think about the late Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, who we didn't personally know.

According to the leading authority, Gigante was "a New York mobster in the American Mafia who was boss of the Genovese crime family from 1981 to 2005." That same authority describes the gambit for which he may have been best known:
With the arrest and conviction of [John] Gotti and various Gambino family members in 1992, Gigante was officially recognized as the most powerful crime boss in the United States. For the better part of 30 years, Gigante feigned insanity in an effort to throw law enforcement off his trail. Dubbed "The Oddfather" and "The Enigma in the Bathrobe" by the press, Gigante often wandered the streets of Greenwich Village in his bathrobe and slippers, mumbling incoherently to himself, in what Gigante later admitted was an elaborate act to avoid prosecution.
We don't know to what extent that foolishness actually happened. But by the middle of this week, the apparent craziness of Trump's recent tweeting had us thinking about Gigante's feigned incoherent mumbling, in his bathrobe, out in the streets.

Is it even dimly possible that Trump is playing a form of chess? That he chose to take the crazy route last weekend, not that he really went crazy?

In some ways, it doesn't much matter. The mainstream and liberal worlds have almost completely lost the ability to stage a national discussion. The discourse has splintered apart into tribal strains. We're very much living in Babel.

That said, Trump's tweets last Saturday morning stole a lot of focus. Was he really raging on the moors? Could his incoherent tweeting really have been a game?

Where's the justice: Decades earlier, Bob Dylan mumbled incoherently in Greenwich Village too. They gave him a Nobel Prize!

20 comments:

  1. "Is it even dimly possible that Trump is playing a form of chess? That he chose to take the crazy route last weekend, not that he really went crazy?"

    He threw out an allegation without troubling about its literal truth, knowing the conversation would lead to related literal truths about government corruption. It might be a personality trait of trusting his own strategic instinct over caution or it might be a decision made with the knowledge that it's the only tactic available considering the opposition party, the press, is doing the same thing. A belief the exact truths can be worked out later but detonating a counter narrative was required now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "literal truth"

      as opposed to alternate facts truth

      You guys will say anything at this point won't you?

      Delete
    2. "Obama wiretapped me" is not a literal truth but at the same time can be a more explosive way of saying "the Obama administration sought warrants to politically undermine my campaign."

      Delete
    3. 8:07 your two quotes can not be connected in the way you suggest.

      - "Obama wiretapped me" would be very improper, a felony and one of the largest scandals in US history.

      - "the Obama administration sought warrants to politically undermine my campaign." Requesting a warrant is neither a felony, scandal, nor even improper, regardless of the unsupported motive "to politically undermine my campaign."

      Beyond that fallacy, it turns out there is no indication Obama was involved in any of this. At best there are sketchy reports that the FBI, NOT Obama or his administration, requested FISA warrants to investigate money transfers between Trump and Russia:

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/03/05/trumps-evidence-for-obama-wiretap-claims-relies-on-sketchy-anonymously-sourced-reports/?utm_term=.9a55b3c35f69

      Delete
    4. Now we're skeptical about "sketchy anonymously sourced reports"?

      Delete
    5. Whether you are skeptical or not about the reports of the FBI requesting warrants to investigate money transfers between Trump and Russia is irrelevant. If accurate, the reports indicate no wrongdoing on the part of Obama or his administration, and indeed suggests wrongdoing on the part of Trump.

      Delete
    6. Trump's opponents will fail to find their pony in the manure heap. When they do he will be insufferable about it.

      Delete
    7. How will we be able to tell he is being more insufferable?

      Delete
    8. How many times has he proven you wrong when you thought he couldn't be more insufferable?

      Delete
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  2. Somerby forgot to mention that Gigante's act didn't work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I doubt that the Trump campaign was wiretapped at all. If they had been, I think more definite evidence would have come out by now.

    However, if it does turn out that anyone in the Trump campaign was wiretapped by anyone in the Obama Administration, I think the public will pretty much see this as confirmation of Trump's accusation, as well as refutation of Obama's denial.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Agree that distractions like Trump’s bs about wire-tapping is masterful misdirection, but it’s been going on a lot and rarely reported in the msm, if ever.

    The Howler and others do so, but it doesn’t happen nearly enough. Gurgle mentions it because he is, as The Howler notes, an insider. On what side is anyone’s guess.

    I suppose the game was over when profits overwhelmed the need for an informed electorate. Or health care for that matter.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "There's something very fishy underneath all of this" Donald-and-Vladimir stuff, Gergen said. "We all know that."

    "Could his incoherent tweeting really have been a game?"

    You've been in this business for years, and you're just now figuring this out!

    ReplyDelete
  6. "He said his name was Columbus
    I just said, “Good luck” "

    ReplyDelete
  7. We have had a week of silence from President Cra Cra since his tweets which may have served to imperial his Presidency more than anything else.
    Bob seems to entertain the notion that Trump is doing something here of visionary brilliance, this serves only to remind up of how far gone Bob is. These years of committing to his job in an flagrantly ridiculous fashion (I'm only going to review one side of the media, the more dubious and powerful side gets a pass!) seems to have pushed him fully round the bend.
    Rachel Maddow, who has chosen to cover these times as if She were NOT a personal friend of our likely treasonous Pesident ("O"Reilly gets a pass!) is winning deserved kudos for being on the case.
    Bob is pretty much reduced to playing with his poo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I doubt that the Trump campaign was wiretapped at all. If they had been, I think more definite evidence would have come out by now. Comrade DinC

      Translation: Of course pervert pussygrabber is a pathological lying traitorous bastard, but hey, who cares?


      Delete
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