Kendall C Acques and Glen Layton
The King is getting very angry. He doesn’t understand how his strategy of anti-Mueller tweets has begun to backfire since the love fest in Helsinki.
Two more just arrived!!
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Steven Fisher If you would shut the f... up and let them prove their is no collusion it would be over! Or what are you worried about?
Barry Kort On January 6th, 2017, two weeks before the inauguration, Trump was told that the Russians meddled in the election, under Putin's direction. He acknowledged knowing that in a tweet that same night.
Then, knowing that, he spent the next 18 months as President 1) denying, dismissing, distorting, or covering up that story, 2) obstructing the investigation into it, calling it a "witch hunt," and 3) routinely and vociferously asserting "no collusion."
Those three acts, taken together, amount to collusion. That's the irony. The repeated assertion of "no collusion" is itself an act of collusion.
Barry Kort It's not so much that Trump has given aid and comfort to Putin, as that he has given harm and discomfort to Americans.
Steven Fisher Barry Kort there is a lot we will never know about this, but Putin does have something on him!
Barry Kort I suspect Trump is beholden and indebted to Putin, both for financing his real estate ventures and for helping him get elected.
Barry Kort Here is my carefully crafted analysis of Melania's remarkable gambit to lead a rebellion against her wayward husband.
Here is why I now believe that Melania is openly rebelling against her wayward husband's misguided sentiments, policies, and practices.
After studying and evaluating all the evidence, I conclude the Zara jacket was a brilliant gambit that utterly blindsided Mr. Trump.
Let me carefully walk you through my analysis and reasoning since it's by no means obvious how to make sense of this.
This story was frankly a challenging one to parse. After researching it for the better part of a few days, I finally arrived at the best surviving hypothesis that remains consistent with the known facts.
So here, without further introduction, is my concise explanation of the Zara jacket, as I first posted it last week on the YouTube Comments on Stephen Colbert's Monologue.
Given that both Ivanka and Melania reportedly lobbied Mr. Trump to revoke his family separations policy, I doubted the sentiment expressed on the back of the Zara jacket was hers. Let me explain.
I can imagine Mr. Trump having said something like that to Ivanka or Melania on multiple occasions in the past. If so, Melania may have acquired (or borrowed) the Zara jacket to remind her husband of his heartlessness when she finally had an opportunity to take a direct action of her own in response to such a mocking question from him.
And here is the evidence for that: The night before, in Duluth, Mr. Trump repeated the phrase "We Don't Care" in a mocking call and response chant to his base.
It occurs to me that Melania intentionally wore that jacket because it quotes what Trump said at his Duluth rally the previous night. She threw his heartless words back at him and then personally and publicly acted to demonstrably repudiate his manifestly heartless sentiment.
Jesus famously said to one of his own disciples, "Get thee behind me, Satan." Melania was literally putting her husband's unbecoming remarks behind her, as she headed off to demonstrate her genuine concern and compassion. And note that she donned the jacket a second time as she returned to the White House. But she did not wear it in Texas, only in Washington DC.
When Melania met with some of the migrant teenage children in Texas, she expressly called them "kind" thereby refuting Trump's absurd and oft-repeated claim the Latino youth were illegally crossing the border to become MS 13.
That's the initial evidence upon which I rest my case.
I've laid out my own preferred working hypothesis at the outset. Now I await future evidence to affirm or falsify any or all of the numerous and varied alternative narratives on the airwaves.
And I'll give you dollars to donuts, the ridiculous narrative explanation DJT tweeted is the polar opposite of the ground truth.
Now on to my bottom line:
Melania brilliantly revealed and branded her husband's heartless demeanor. Moreover, there is nothing he can do about it. He can't fire her.
Moreover, she has beaten him at his own puerile and tiresome game of branding others.
When the dust has settled, I anticipate that Melania's remarkable gambit will be seen as an unanticipated and heroic turning point in the fortunes of her husband's manifestly heartless administration.
More details here:
Barry Kort But wait! There's more!
Melania has been systematically signaling her opposition to and rejection of her wayward husband's sentiments, policies, and practices for at least the past three years. By my estimation, I count at least a dozen such subtle (yet unmistakable) messages in an increasingly clear and emergent pattern. Most of them were far enough below radar that few people took much notice of them at the time. The Zara jacket gambit was enough above radar to draw me to begin undertaking a comprehensive review of them.
Just as Trump boorishly tries to undermine his adversaries on a tiresome daily basis, Melania has been exclusively targeting her own husband at the average rate of one subtle message roughly every three months.
On the question of whether or not she adores him, the evidence for that systematically and consistently goes the other way. Again, it's subtle but telling. For example, on Twitter, Melania has the @FLOTUS account. Her account has but six others that she follows. Take a look at the first two of the other Twitter accounts she follows.
Barry Kort Here's another example. There are two kinds of smiles: 1) a forced smile and 2) a Duchenne smile. Here is a rare shot of Melania displaying a Duchenne smile.
Barry Kort I won't belabor them here, but there is a string such of under-the-radar shots of Melania barely tolerating her husband's presence while demonstrating her preference and admiration for the sentiments and company of those whom her husband routinely disparages.
This is a little bit like the children's fable of the Emperor's New Clothes. But Melania is not playing the role of the child who brashly blurts out the observation of the Emperor's nakedness. Instead, she is winking the message in a way that maximizes the public's gradual (but inevitable) awareness of what she has known about him for more than a decade.
If the shenanigans in the White House are seen as a shreklisch soap opera, Melania has the better brand of soap. Inside the inner circle of the White House, Melania has taken the leadership role in slaying the dragon in the Oval Office.
Kendall C Acques Sorry. I disagree. She is not a poor damsel in distress that is stuck there. She can leave any time she wants.
You attribute this depth and sly brilliance to a prostitute that sticks with an abhorrent piece of filth for the money.
Barry Kort Actually, she can't divorce him while he's in office. (Even Brett Kavanaugh will argue that point.)
Everyone who is in Trump's inner circle is in distress. But Melania has more experience with him than most of the other characters in this shreklisch soap opera.
And she has the better brand of soap.
Kendall C Acques She can divorce him. This is still America. And she could have divorced him while he was running. The world is watching and she would have the majority of the world on her side if she did leave him.
No mercy. She is complicit which makes her as repugnant as he is.
Barry Kort She can file the papers, but the process will stall until he is out of office. Look at how long his previous divorces lasted.
She actually has more power over him in her role as First Lady.
First of all, she's protected from him. He can't abuse her in the White House, as she is surrounded by staff and Secret Service personnel.
And in her role as First Lady, she can signal her disapproval of his sentiments, policies, and practices in ways that the astute general public will apprehend while leaving her husband in the dark.
Kendall C Acques Every minute she stays with him signals her approval and complicity to everything he represents.
Stop offending women by implying that she is stuck.
Barry Kort Nope. Pay attention to the data, not to your preconceived notions.
This is not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of forensic science.
But if you like to engage in fantasies of the imagination, I'll meet you on that rung of the ladder with this alternative flight of fancy:
This drama is like a variation on Harry Potter, where it's up to Luna Lovegood to slay the Grand Dragon in the Oval Office.
Glenn Strachan Barry Kort I love your forensic analysis and I've now read it all. Every bit of it. I actually agree with quite a bit of it. I am surprised you did not talk about her absence from the public view in May. However, it is best not to be so dismissive and present a haughty attitude towards alternative views since you do know by now two people can see things 17 different ways. Kendall C Acques was simply saying how she sees it, as a woman, and as a thinking person capable of her own forensic analysis. I am just suggesting that you could be kinder to alternative views. I live in DC and we hear things that often get reported in the news and some that do not. For instance, Melania's parents live in Potomac, MD near the school where Barron attends. In May and even to this day, it is suggested that she escapes and stays with her parents. So something is holding her back as she continues to remain with Trump. I believe it is her prenup which may include a clause about Barron. She may, in the end, be staying for him alone and doing many of the things you are stating.
Barry Kort Melania's absence during some medical procedures demonstrated that the media (if not the public) is paying close attention to her activities and appearances.
By the way, there is another datum to consider. After the Access Hollywood tape came out, Trump and his defenders dismissed it as "locker room talk." Melania was later asked about it and she called it "boy talk." Now superficially that sounds like a synonym for "locker room talk" but is it? Melania characterized her husband's behavior as juvenile, an assessment that became a recurring cartoon meme in the trope of "Baby Trump."
See also what the late Charles Krauthammer said about Trump.
Barry Kort "Kendall C Acques was simply saying how she sees it, as a woman, and as a thinking person capable of her own forensic analysis." ~Glenn Strachan
Fair enough. Let Kendall present her own carefully crafted forensic analysis, supported by evidence, analysis, and reasoning in conformity with and adherence to the protocols of the scientific method.
Consider that a month ago, my unexamined and preconceived notion was that Melania was little more than ornamental eye candy on Mr. Trump's arm.
And then I looked at the evidence and drew a conclusion that I would never have guessed at the outset of my research.
Forming hypotheses is easy. Examining them with rigorous hypothesis testing and critical thinking is another matter.
One of my neighbors is a lawyer. I sent the above forensic analysis to him and he responded, "I find your logic unassailable."
Let others form their alternate hypothesis and then examine and defend it with unassailable logic.
Randi Cohen Allison I have to say, this ‘line in the sand’ stuff amongst ourselves will be what fucks us in midterms- frankly, as I’m reading through the thread, I’m hearing my trumper friends cheering! What matters here anyway?
Barry Kort It might be helpful to recall what the great Zen poet, Seng-Ts'an, once wrote:
If you want to get the plain truth,
Be not concerned with right and wrong.
The conflict between right and wrong
Is the sickness of the mind.
Greg Layton Barry Kort I think you mistake reading entrails for "forensic analysis." Nothing you've presented is any more rigorous than the Youtube videos that pretend to tease meaning out of Qanon posts on 8chan. I belong to several anti-Trump groups, but I haven't quite figured out what it is about his one that invites people to make pretensions about their credentials.
Those of us comfortable with polysyllabic words aren't so easily impressed.
Barry Kort I gather you have no evidence, analysis, or reasoning to present to demonstrate your acuity in hypothesis testing or critical thinking.
Greg Layton Barry Kort Look. If you're lonely, join a senior center. I'm sure that the folks there would like to hear you wax poetic about Melania Trump's smiles. We're not here for your ego.
Barry Kort I could care less about my ego. What I care about is whether the American public has enough critical thinking skills to save the Republic.
Socrates warned about what happens in a Democracy when the voting public is ill-informed, misinformed, disinformed and incapable of sorting fact from fiction.
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Greg Layton Barry Kort As I've read the thread, I haven't seen the topic of critical thinking addressed at all. Certainly, the diction you've chosen has not been intended to educate your audience. A lot can be inferred from tone. You appeared to be primarily interested in putting on a show.
Barry Kort I regret you feel so uneducated. Perhaps you can find more satisfactory pedagogical sources elsewhere.
Greg Layton Barry Kort I regret that you feel this is about comparing people's education. In my advanced study of communication, I've found clarity to be much more useful.
Greg Layton Barry Kort You know, audience was a concept that even my freshman composition students could grasp.
Barry Kort How do you feel about propounding haphazard theories of mind of strangers whom you've never met, never broken bread with?
Barry Kort I mean to say that the practice of propounding haphazard theories of mind – cavalier assertions about someone else's beliefs, desires, intentions, feelings, perspectives, or states of knowledge – is both disingenuous and unethical.
It's an obnoxious practice that I find unbecoming and reprehensible – a practice to be discouraged and deprecated in a civil community.
Greg Layton Barry Kort You mean that you don't like it when people make inferences based on your tone and diction? See? I saved you some keystrokes.
Should I start editing the rest of your remarks? I'll start with your saying you "could care less" when you meant that you "couldn't care less."
Barry Kort Tone of voice is in the head of the reader. If you want to hear my actual tone of voice, I'd suggest going to audio chat.
Greg Layton Barry Kort I suggest you take a high school English class is if you don't know what "tone" in writing is.
Greg Layton Barry Kort I wonder what you'd make of Mark Twain without the ability to interpret tone.
Barry Kort "Tone can be formal, informal, serious, comic, sarcastic, sad, or cheerful, or it may be any other existing attitude."
Do you not perceive that my attitude is one of serious scholarship, no more no less?
Greg Layton Barry Kort Tone is an attitude toward the audience and the subject. Your tone has been consistently condescending.
Greg Layton Barry Kort And, no, I have not detected any serious scholarship in your unsupported musings today.
Greg Layton Barry Kort And that's exactly as I've intended. I've seen you attend to bully folks all day, but I decided that you should interact with someone who A) knows the words you picked up in SAT test prep, and B) remains unimpressed.
Barry Kort Then you admit it was your intent to present yourself as a boorish and obnoxious person? If so, you've succeeded admirably.
Barry Kort You've communicated to me that you are a boorish and obnoxious person, but you have not communicated to me anything more constructive than that.
My intent is not to advance opposition to DJT. My intent is to understand him so as to devise ethical best practices for addressing the nigh intractable problem he presents to the future of the Republic.
Barry Kort I take exception to your characterization of my response to Kendall.
She entered a thread that presented a somewhat technical forensic analysis. I expected her to meet me on that level with an alternative forensic analysis of her own construction.
I was disappointed that her alternative working hypothesis was not supported by evidence, analysis, and reasoning in accordance with the protocols of the scientific method.
Greg Layton Barry Kort There was no technical forensic analysis in this thread. There was some good old fashioned reading of entrails, but nothing scientific. You can label it whatever you want, but people should be advised to weigh the evidence for themselves.
Barry Kort How do you account for the fact that others, with credentials in journalism, psychology, and law came to the opposite conclusion as the one you just stated?
Greg Layton Barry Kort Please point me to the folks with credentials in journalism, psychology, or law who have made any assessment of this thread.
Barry Kort Well, here is a verbatim conversation with a correspondent who is a recently retired professor of journalism.
Me: Most of the chaos is on the social networks regarding Trump's shenanigans.
Her: Yep. I am on my last nerve with Trump.
Me: I hardly ever write that much on political events, but boy howdy, did I go to town on this one. ... It's been a long time since I wrote up a technical analysis of a puzzling set of facts to construct a plausible hypothesis.
Her: Good exercise.
Me: I had fun with it. And a few people were impressed that I had an exegesis that, while surprising, actually fit the facts and made sense.
Her: Excellent. You can now qualify to teach telling fact from fiction.
Me: Heh. As if that subject is learnable by the vast majority of our species, Homo Schleppians.
Her: Truth
Me: But maybe I can learn something about why it's so unlearnable.
Is the pedagogy ineffective, or am I planting seeds on infertile soil?
Her: The latter.
Me: That's what I fear.
Greg Layton Barry Kort You said that folks with credentials in psychology, journalism, and law made an assessment of this thread.
Barry Kort Not in this thread. I reposted here a copy of my analysis that I had previously presented in a dozen other venues.
Greg Layton Barry Kort Yeah. I don't need second hand summaries of other conversation you've had. I'm moving on this time.
Greg Layton Barry Kort I'm not even sure what we're disagreeing with. I generally resist when people are claiming that their analysis is more rigorous than it actually is, but I don't care to get into a pointless back and forth. Have a good evening.
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David Wilson What never ends is his ability to consume perfectly good oxygen, perhaps depriving a thimble full of algea living in a nearby pond a chance at life. Sad.
Danny Goodman Yanking the Ukraine plank from the GOP convention platform was the lighted billboard that pre-45 was pwned.