Donny Deutsch delivers the mail!

MONDAY, MAY 20, 2019

We'll go one step farther:
On Friday night's Eleventh Hour, Donny Deutsch delivered the mail.

Deutsch has known Donald J. Trump for decades. He remains friendly with Michael Cohen.

As someone from outside the guild, he tends to be willing to ignore guild rules. For that reason, he spoke to Brian Williams in the manner highlighted below about the commander-in-chief:
WILLIAMS (5/17/19): Donny, I don't want to "end dark," but I'm going to have to. And that is to say that, when you are on Deadline: White House with Nicole Wallace at 4 in the afternoon, you are often one of the voices that reminds the table, and reminds the viewers beyond, exactly how bad things are in your view, and exactly how dark we've gotten.

But like the frog boiling experiment, it hasn't felt like that. It would feel like that if we took a vacation on the moon and came back. So the question, how dark are things right now to you?

DEUTSCH: Very, very dark. And I want to say this with no exaggeration. If you look throughout history and [if] you become a student of history and the worst of what humans have done throughout history, Trump is using that play book in every way you possibly can.

You start with creating an "Other." You get enough rich people to look the other way and that's how you get power.

And then what you do is obviously destroy the credibility of a press. You get a judicial system that is no longer independent. You start to blur separation of powers.

And we should be very frightened. It's not just saying, you know, "Oh, authoritarian tendencies." I believe this man is capable of horrific, horrific deeds. And I'm not saying specifically what that is, but let your imagination go.

And also, do not kid yourself. If he gets voted out of office, he will say it was fake. He will say the polls were rigged. He will tell his people to take to the streets.

People have to understand this is not a man who is playing with any boundaries on what a normal civilization and normal democracy has. And I use the word "sociopath," and I know you're not supposed to use psychological terms, but—and Michael Cohen who, you know, stood by his side for ten years, the last thing he said when he spoke to Congress was, "He will not go softly." So the Democrats better get this one right.

WILLIAMS: It is no longer darkness on the edge of town. It's come downtown and all around.

Donny Deutsch, the host of Saturday Night Politics, tomorrow evening, 8 PM Eastern time on this very network. Donny, thanks very much for coming on our broadcast.
Brian closed with a plug for an upcoming show. Donny called Trump a "sociopath" and seemed to say that he wouldn't go peacefully.

Is Donald J. Trump a sociopath? We aren't equipped to make that judgment. Neither, we'll guess, is Deutsch.

Beyond that, Trump hasn't engaged in "the worst of what humans have done throughout history," at least not at this point.

That said, Deutsch has known Trump for decades. In his assessment, Trump is capable of "horrific, horrific deeds."

We don't know the extent to which that assessment is true. That said, we see one flaw in Deutsch's logic:

As he finished, Deutsch seemed to suggest that there's some way the Democrats can somehow "get this one right." We're not sure why he would say that.

If Trump won't go peacefully after an election defeat, he also wouldn't go peacefully after an impeachment and removal. Imaginably, he could start a war to help his re-election chances. Could he imaginably start a war in an attempt to declare some type of martial law after an election defeat, or after removal from office?

We don't have the slightest idea. "Common sense" says that he wouldn't do something like that.

That said, we have no prior experience with a chief executive who seems to be this disordered—with a man our cable team would like to lock up as soon as he leaves office.

In a more rational world, a full discussion of this matter would be under way. But as Deutsch told Williams, our journalists have agreed to play by a rule in which "you're not supposed to use psychological terms," even if the man with the nuclear codes seems to possibly be psychologically or cognitively unwell.

Back in the 1990s, Brian Williams was involved in The Rise of Leadership Down. It was the era when NBC News and its cable arms were directed by General Electric CEO Jack Welch, an aggressive conservative who seemed to assemble a somewhat peculiar Nantucket-based news team.

The war against the woman Trump (barely managed to) "beat" started during that journalistically disordered era. There was a whole lot of "darkness" back then too, but the liberal world stared into air. Eventually, the craziness of people like Chris Matthews helped lead us down the road to our current state of affairs.

(If he hadn't called her "Nurse Ratched" and "Evita" so often, might she have beaten Trump in the electoral college, not just in the popular voter?)

Elsewhere, skillful analysts whose work we admire still want to know why we "obsessed so much" back in the day. That is to say, in real time, not a full twenty years later!

"Basic skill levels still seem to be down," we thoughtfully say to the analysts.

26 comments:

  1. "Donny called Trump a "sociopath" and seemed to say that he wouldn't go peacefully."

    Yeah? And how is it different from what every other establishment dembot has been saying for the last 2+ years?

    Yawn.

    The dembots hate peace and prosperity - what else is new?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. what else is new?

      Nothing. Conservatives are still the pieces of shit we always knew they were.

      Delete
    2. Brothers, sisters. Let's be fair. We are all pieces of shit.

      Delete
  2. ...incidentally, dear Bob, how come people like Susan Sarandon, Pamela Anderson and Roger Waters are so much better at criticizing the establishment zombie media than you are, with your typical shit: "one dembot said 'blah'. Is it true? We don't know - we report, you decide."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Somerby says: "Beyond that, Trump hasn't engaged in "the worst of what humans have done throughout history," at least not at this point."

    Trump has put families and children, separated from their parents, in cages. He has installed human beings in camps for political purposes. Who did that? Hitler, among others.

    That makes Trump a piece of shit, akin to the worst in history. If he can do that, he can do whatever else his expediency requires.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "(If he hadn't called her "Nurse Ratched" and "Evita" so often, might she have beaten Trump in the electoral college, not just in the popular voter?)"

    Somerby has a lot of nerve blaming Hillary's defeat on Chris Matthews when he, himself, couldn't muster any enthusiasm for the Democratic nominee, running against TRUMP! Now Somerby wants to call Trump disordered and sociopathic, as if he saw those qualities in 2016 and did everything he could to defeat Trump. Somerby was too busy agonizing over Gore's defeat to get behind our own nominee.

    You cannot call someone a sociopath as a diagnostic term without having a trained professional personally examine that person. It is against medical ethics to do so. And the press then cannot call that person a sociopath without actual evidence, which is impossible to acquire given that Trump will not submit to medical examination (of any kind).

    For all we know, Trump is having mini-strokes and has blood sugar so high he cannot think straight and is in imminent danger of collapsing as we speak (or as he speaks). It may be why there is so much TV time built into his schedule. He is unfit to travel and unfit to govern physically, not just psychiatrically. But the public cannot be told because he has corrupted the physician who is supposed to evaluate such things and report to the people. But Somerby just wants to call Trump disordered -- he doesn't care if Trump might be suffering from end-stage syphilis or dementia or maybe has macular degeneration which prevents him from seeing well enough to walk without holding hands or from reading documents. Any of that is possible.

    Hillary lost because the Republicans manipulated outcomes, aided by Russians and Comey (who was a Republican being pressured by other Republicans). Chris Matthews is just a guy on TV saying things that Somerby, an old guy himself, loves to rant against, much as Trump rants at his TV and then tweets about it afterward. Somerby would do a lot more good if he discussed actual issues here, instead of pretending that Matthews' hatred of Hillary was any different than Somerby's own dislike of her.

    Maybe all human beings create an "other" in order to define their own identities. It doesn't mean there are not bad people in the world whose actions need to be opposed. There are still other people out there who cannot be permitted to gain office. They are other because they are not us, but they are bad because they do bad shit. And we oppose them because that badness, not because of the otherness.

    An example. Women define themselves by not being men, and vice versa. Boys and girls discover they are Other to each other very early (before age 3) and they emphasize distinctions between the sexes to enhance their own maleness or femaleness. Does that mean they cannot live together and don't want to be partners, romantic and otherwise? Of course not. Other doesn't mean untouchable. But Somerby thinks we hate Trump voters and Trump himself because they have been made "The Other." He is wrong. It is because they are awful human beings who transgress on everything we value as liberals that we dislike them and want them to either change or be removed from power.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "lost because the Republicans manipulated outcomes, aided by Russians and Comey."


      Plus she was horrible and ran a horrible campaign that didn't focus on the issues that mattered. She made a lot of mistakes. And she had a record of death and destruction in foriegn policy. Plus she cackled like a witch and a lot of people thought she was a stone cold bitch. Plus, she was a. legacy. There is no chance in hell she would have even been in that position if she had not married into it.

      Don't forget how bad she was as a candidate.

      Delete
  5. "Brian closed with a plug for an upcoming show."

    That's awful! Let's severely chastise him or stone him or something.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beyond that, Trump hasn't engaged in "the worst of what humans have done throughout history," at least not at this point.

    Tell that to the thousands of dead in Puerto Rico. And the other places waiting for disaster relief being blocked by Der Trumpenfuhrer because he has a personal hardon for Puerto Rico daring to have people die just to embarrass him.

    The House overwhelmingly passed a $19.1 billion bill Friday to provide federal aid to communities and military installations hit hard by natural disasters, ignoring President Trump’s opposition to the package over its assistance for Puerto Rico.

    The man is a fucking monster.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Beyond that, Trump hasn't engaged in "the worst of what humans have done throughout history," at least not at this point."

    He grabbed Ivana by the hair and forcibly raped her because he thought she wasn't sufficiently empathetic about his scalp surgery. This is what happens when you anger a narcissist.

    He fired McCabe right before his planned retirement so that he wouldn't receive his pension.

    He tried to withhold funds for disaster recovery after the Paradise fire because California opposed his immigration plans by permitting sanctuary cities. This is money to help people rebuild their homes and communities.

    He is not only cruel but vindictive and petty. He remembers slights for years and misuses his power to hurt people.

    If Trump were placed in the historical context of those other humans in history, he would do the worst he could. He lacks restraint. It is only the people around him who are currently keeping him in check.

    Remember that one of his first questions upon taking office was "why can't we use nuclear weapons?"

    ReplyDelete
  8. Trump is supposedly awful because he tries to "destroy the credibility of the press"

    I would say that the press itself does that by airing segments like the one featured here. This seems to me like Falwell's video gone mainstream. Instead of selling a video, advertisers are bringing it to you for "free". Instead of talking about the people the President has killed (the awful things he's done) we are told about the awful things he is "capable" of and what he "might" do if he is defeated or get his deplorable supporters to do. By gosh, there will be riots in the streets if he loses.

    You mean like the ones BLM created? Or the ones from the 1960s?

    You mean that going in to this Trump did not know that he was only going to serve for 8 years? And that he might not get a second term?

    Or you mean he is afraid of going to prison if he is not President because of the American tradition of jailing ex-Presidents?

    A funny thing about our "group fictions" is that they are not just fictions about the things that HAVE happened, they are stories about what MIGHT happen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, good catch, The Clinton Chronicles.

      Except that those were, of course, "unsubstantiated accusations", and these are "legitimate concerns".

      Goebbels would be proud.

      Delete
    2. we are told about the awful things he is "capable" of and what he "might" do if he is defeated or get his deplorable supporters to do.

      Yeah, dipshit, you probably aren't one of the "tough" guys Donald J Chickenshit, Acting President, is counting on.

      By the way, asshole, Falwell's little malicious unholy video did indeed go "mainstream" and Falwell, that unholy malignance never paid a price and has now left his slithering spawn to continue his dirty deeds and fuck up our daily lives for your team. You must be so proud of your guys.

      The discovery of the carcass of Jerry Falwell on the floor of an obscure office in Virginia has almost zero significance, except perhaps for two categories of the species labeled “credulous idiot.” The first such category consists of those who expected Falwell (and themselves) to be bodily raptured out of the biosphere and assumed into the heavens, leaving pilotless planes and driverless trucks and taxis to crash with their innocent victims as collateral damage. This group is so stupid and uncultured that it may perhaps be forgiven. It is so far “left behind” that almost its only pleasure is to gloat at the idea of others being abandoned in the same condition.

      The second such category is of slightly more importance, because it consists of the editors, producers, publicists, and a host of other media riffraff who allowed Falwell to prove, almost every week, that there is no vileness that cannot be freely uttered by a man whose name is prefaced with the word Reverend.

      By Christopher Hitchens
      May 16, 2007•12:46 PM


      Delete
  9. One step at a time: first we need to defeat the sociopath in question in 2020. That's not a given at all. I think the democrats need to leverage the insanity that's happening in AL and MO to their advantage.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Another great post at incomparable Clusterfuck Nation, for my dembot friends. Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ha ha. Trump's mad at his boyfriend (Fox News), because his boyfriend is making eyes at another guy (Pete Buttigieg).
    Once you realize Trump has the maturity of a 13-year old girl, his whining and hissy-fits make sense.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Were the people who voted for Trump paying attention to Chris Matthews in the 90's? (I admit I wasn't myself)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No one is paying attention to Chris Matthews. And never will.

      It's just Bob coming up with exceedingly lame excuses for the collapse and fall of his globalist zombie cult. Acting like a true zombie: anything, any bullshit, but the real cause: economics.

      Delete
    2. "economics"
      The Right-wing cheering along Trump handing the US Treasury to his cronies on Wall Street, is the tell.
      Meanwhile, won't someone do something about these uppity women wanting equal treatment under the law.

      Delete
    3. Were the people who voted for Trump paying attention to Chris Matthews in the 90's?

      Not so much. But those New York and, especially, D.C. based mainstream media figures who were most important in disseminating various national political narratives certainly were, along with a timid majority of congressional Democrats.

      Delete
    4. Timid? In what way?

      Delete
    5. Timid, as in unwilling to un-apologetically advocate for liberal/left positions on policy issues ("safe, legal, and rare" -that straight from the Democratic White House), as in unwilling to un-apologetically advocate for the liberal/left side in public controversies, as in unwilling to call out the media as corporate owned (i.e. as necessarily right leaning in matters fiscal, military, environmental, electoral, accepted economic theory), and as in unwilling to effectively respond in kind to the GOP "Talk like Newt" rhetoric of the era LINK.

      Delete
    6. Also, not enough arm waving.

      Delete
  13. just to remind everyone here what a complete and total horse's ass David in Cal is.

    ******
    David in Cal March 23, 2019 at 10:07 PM

    This is the new Democratic talking point, but it won't last long. First of all, just about nobody opposes releasing the Mueller Report - not even Trump.
    *****


    Trump directs former White House counsel McGahn to defy subpoena, not appear before Congress

    President Donald Trump said last month that his administration is "fighting all the subpoenas" issued by House Democrats seeking testimony related to Mueller's report.

    That is all.

    ReplyDelete
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