The Commentariat -- December 2, 2019

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Because He's a Disgusting, Misogynistic Bully. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at Lisa Page after the former FBI attorney insisted in a new interview that she did not break the law during her work on the bureau's high-profile probe into Hillary Clinton's emails. 'When Lisa Page, the lover of Peter Strzok, talks about being "crushed", and how innocent she is, ask her to read Peter's "Insurance Policy" text, to her, just in case Hillary loses,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Also, why were the lovers text messages scrubbed after he left Mueller. Where are they Lisa?'"

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump's 2020 campaign announced Monday it will no longer allow reporters from Bloomberg News to obtain credentials to cover Trump campaign events.... Campaign manager Brad Parscale described the decision to ban Bloomberg reporters as a reaction to Bloomberg News' announcement that it would no longer do investigative journalism on Democratic 2020 candidates, following the entry of the media outlet's owner, Mike Bloomberg, into the presidential race."

CBS News: "60 Minutes ... found that over 300 video ads [for Donald Trump] were taken down by Google and YouTube, mostly over the summer, for violating company policy. But the archive doesn't detail what policy was violated.

Simon Shuster of Time: "Speaking to reporters from Time and three of Europe's leading publications, [Ukraine] President [Volodymyr Zelensky] explained that, despite getting caught up in the impeachment inquiry now unfolding in Washington, D.C., Ukraine still needs the support of the United States. Otherwise his country does not stand much of a chance, Zelensky said, in its effort to get back the territory Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, starting with the Crimean Peninsula. Nor can Ukraine rely on steady financial support from abroad if ... Donald Trump and his allies continue to signal to the world that Ukraine is corrupt, Zelensky said.... During the interview in his office in Kyiv, the comedian-turned-president denied, as he has done in the past, that he and Trump ever discussed a decision to withhold American aid to Ukraine for nearly two months in the context of a quid pro quo involving political favors.... But he also pushed back on Trump's recent claims about corruption in Ukraine, and questioned the fairness of Trump's decision to freeze American aid. 'If you're our strategic partner, then you can't go blocking anything for us,' he said. 'I think that's just about fairness. It's not about a quid pro quo.'" ~~~

Look, I never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo. That's not my thing. I don't want us to look like beggars. But you have to understand: We're at war. If you're our strategic partner, then you can't go blocking anything for us. I think that's just about fairness. It's not about a quid pro quo. It just goes without saying. -- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a media interview

Lie. Breaking News: The President of Ukraine has just again announced that President Trump has done nothing wrong with respect to Ukraine and our interactions or calls. If the Radical Left Democrats were sane, which they are not, it would be case over! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet on Monday morning

Lie. The Ukrainian president came out and said very strongly that President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. That should be case over. -- Donald Trump in remarks to reporters on Monday morning ~~~

~~~ Trump Misquotes Zelensky (Of Course). Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "Nowhere in the interview did Mr. Zelensky say that his American counterpart did 'nothing wrong.' In fact, he criticized Mr. Trump's comments about corruption in Ukraine and his decision to suspend military aid to Kyiv. Though he said there had been no discussion of a quid pro quo in their conversations, Mr. Zelensky questioned the United States' decision to freeze the aid, which he said was a matter of 'fairness.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

"Trump Is the Founders' Worst Nightmare." Bob Bauer in a New York Times op-ed: "The founders feared the demagogue, who figures prominently in the Federalist Papers as the politician who, possessing 'perverted ambition,' pursues relentless self-aggrandizement 'by the confusions of their country.' The last of the papers, Federalist No. 85, linked demagogy to its threat to the constitution.... This 'despotism' is achieved through systematic lying to the public, vilification of the opposition and, as James Fenimore Cooper wrote in an essay on demagogues, a claimed right to disregard 'the Constitution and the laws' in pursuing what the demagogue judges to be the 'interests of the people.'... And yet ... the very behaviors that necessitate impeachment supply the means for the demagogue to escape it. As the self-proclaimed embodiment of the American popular will, the demagogue portrays impeachment deliberations as necessarily a threat to democracy.... As we have seen with Mr. Trump, the demagogue can bully his party into being an instrument of his will, silencing or driving out dissenters.... When this is all over..., the lesson will be that, in the politics of the time, a demagogue who gets into the Oval Office is hard to get out." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's ironic, isn't it, that demagoguery is the apotheosis of political oratory at the same time it is the instrument of political catastrophe?

White House Plans to Whine about Everything. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The White House on Sunday informed the House Judiciary Committee it will not participate in Wednesday's impeachment inquiry hearing but did not rule out taking part in future hearings. 'We cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the President a fair process through additional hearings," White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). 'More importantly, an invitation to an academic discussion with law professors does not begin to provide the President with any semblance of a fair process,' Cipollone wrote." The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Times report includes the full whiney letter. The Hill has the letter here.

GOP Plans to Whine about Everything. Mike DeBonis & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "As the impeachment inquiry into President Trump moves to the House Judiciary Committee, Republicans signaled Sunday that they will mount an aggressive campaign to delegitimize the process, accusing Democrats of rushing the proceedings as the White House debates whether to participate at all. Speaking on 'Fox News Sunday,' Rep. Douglas A. Collins (Ga.), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, indicated that the GOP would continue its all-out effort to attack the Democratic-led impeachment process. But he declined to say whether Republicans would take advantage of the complete range of opportunities they will have to make their case against Trump's removal. The remarks from Collins and other Republicans on Sunday reflected a conflict inside the GOP over the extent to which Trump and his congressional defenders ought to participate in a process they have spent more than two months attacking as unfair and corrupt." ~~~

~~~ So yesterday we learned via the Hill (linked yesterday below) that "Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) demanding that he expand the panel beyond the four constitutional law scholars from whom the committee plans to hear.... The letter did not clarify which witnesses the Republicans would seek to call." ~~~

     ~~~ Now, today we learn from Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.), the top GOP member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is the most important witness Republicans want to question in the upcoming phase of the impeachment inquiry." Mrs. McC: Right. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "A week after claiming that he didn't know whether Russia or Ukraine was responsible for hacking the DNC server during the 2016 election, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) left Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd astounded when he accused the former president of Ukraine of working for Hillary Clinton's campaign.... '... the fact that Russia was so aggressive does not exclude the fact that [Ukraine] President Poroshenko actively worked for Secretary Clinton,' [Kennedy said]. 'Actively worked for Secretary Clinton?! My goodness, wait a minute, Senator Kennedy,' Todd shot back. 'You now have the president of Ukraine saying he worked for the Democratic nominee for president. C'mon. You realize the only other person selling this argument outside the United States is this man, Vladimir Putin!'... Todd further pushed back on Kennedy's assertion, asking him if he believed that Ukrainian officials criticizing Trump during the election over his endorsement of Russia's annexation of Crimea was equivalent to Russia's hacking." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I checked out the most incendiary story from a reputable news organization about the Clinton-Ukraine connection -- the now-infamous January 2017 Politico article by Ken Vogel & David Stern -- and the closest the reporters get to claiming Poroshenko "actively" worked for Clinton is to cite an unnamed political operative who speculated that "... Poroshenko was probably aware of and could have stopped [a Ukrainian government investigation into corruption in the previous administration of Viktor Yanukovych, which had turned up off-the-books payments to Paul Manafort,] if he wanted to." So yeah, actively working for Clinton. ~~~

     ~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) said Sunday that both Russia and Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election, despite the intelligence community's assessment that only Russia did so. comments mark Kennedy's latest attempt to shift the focus away from the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia worked to help elect President Trump, following a Fox News Channel interview last week from which he later backtracked.... Despite Kennedy's claim, there is no evidence that the Ukrainian government engaged in a large-scale effort to aid Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016."

Michael Birnbaum & David Stern of the Washington Post: "By the end of this month, more than 500 Ukrainian prosecutors will be out of their jobs as part of sweeping professional reviews under Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Among the prosecutors heading for the exit: a key Kyiv contact for Rudolph W. Giuliani. The prosecutor purge is just one of several corruption-busting efforts set in motion by Zelensky. But it puts into sharp relief Zelensky's twin challenges -- trying to balance his clean-government promises at home with his needs to keep President Trump from turning against him.... Trump's views of Ukraine -- and his demands to investigate the Biden family -- were largely shaped by Giuliani.... The theories and opinions that were passed to Giuliani came from some of the very officials whom Ukrainian activists claim are prime corruption culprits in their own system.... Zelensky's new prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka..., also has started to audit how previous investigations were pursued against the owner of Burisma, the natural gas company that employed former vice president Joe Biden's son Hunter. But anti-corruption activists say the audit is unlikely to produce any information that would lead to evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Biden, since no evidence has emerged." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, at the U.S. DOJ. Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "The Justice Department is in another election-season jam -- faced with politically loaded decisions over how aggressively to investigate ... Donald Trump and his allies in the heat of the 2020 campaign. Legal experts see signs that DOJ is laying the groundwork for a potential criminal probe into whether the president and his top advisers broke federal laws by withholding a White House meeting and nearly $400 million dollars in foreign aid from Ukraine unless the country's new leaders agreed to investigate Trump's political rivals. In Washington, the FBI has already contacted an attorney for the whistleblower who first revealed the scheme. In New York, federal prosecutors are expanding a probe into Rudy Giuliani.... But the ghosts of 2016 linger. DOJ and FBI leaders are still weathering bipartisan scorn for their handling of dual election-year probes into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server and the Trump campaign's Russia connections. Any moves to examine Trump as 2020 heats up will receive similar scrutiny -- as will any choice not to examine Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm taking this report with a pillar of salt. For instance, there's this: "It all adds up to a tumultuous year ahead for Attorney General William Barr, who has struggled to maintain the department's historical reputation for independence while serving a president who openly castigates federal law enforcement for leading a 'coup' to unseat him." The only thing Bill Barr struggles over is getting his belt buckle to close. He doesn't give a rat's ass about "the department's historical reputation for independence."

Molly Jong-Fast of the Daily Beast has interviewed Lisa Page, the former FBI lawyer whom Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked & belittled as a deep-state conspirator against him. Page was willing to talk to Jong-Fast because, "'Honestly, his demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel's back,' she says. The president called out her name as he acted out an orgasm in front of thousands of people at a Minneapolis rally on Oct. 11, 2019."

Deborah Solomon of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Monday that he would reinstate tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina, accusing the two countries of artificially weakening their currencies and hurting American farmers. Mr. Trump, in a message on Twitter, said the currency manipulation by Brazil and Argentina was hurting American farmers. 'Therefore, effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel & Aluminum that is shipped into the U.S. from those countries.'... The Trump administration initially exempted Brazil and Argentina from the president's sweeping metal tariffs in 2018, after the United States said it had reached trade deals with those countries." The AP story is here.

Dave Philipps, et al., of the New York Times: "Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher's case pits a Pentagon hierarchy committed to enforcing longstanding rules of combat against a commander in chief with no military experience but a finely honed sense of grievance against authority.... While [Trump] boasts of supporting the military, he has come to distrust the generals and admirals who run it. Rather than accept information from his own government, he responds to television reports that grab his interest. Warned against crossing lines, he bulldozes past precedent and norms. As a result, the president finds himself more removed than ever from a disenchanted military command, adding the armed forces to the institutions under his authority that he has feuded with, along with the intelligence community, law enforcement agencies and diplomatic corps.... Mr. Trump has long sought to identify himself with the toughest of soldiers and loves boasting of battlefield exploits to the point that he made up details of an account of a 'whimpering' Islamic State leader killed in October." Mrs. McC: If you have access to the NYT, this story is worth reading. The details of Gallagher's alleged actions are sickening.

Trump Administration Proposes to Assault Helpless Elderly People. NPR. "The Trump administration wants to reduce the 'burden' on nursing home operators by relaxing rules governing the facilities. Critics see troubling implications for the care of millions of residents." This is a transcript of an interview of NPR's Ina Jaffe by NPR host Scott Simon.

Adios, Mofo. John Bowden of the Hill: "Rick Perry concluded his final day as President Trump's Energy secretary on Sunday, thanking his family and the American people in a tweet for allowing him to serve at the agency." (Headline context.)

Presidential Race 2020

Natasha Korecki of Politico: "Amid fundraising struggles and a repeated inability to qualify for the debate stage, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock announced Monday morning he is suspending his campaign for president. The Democrat attempted to sell himself as the moderate voice needed to beat Donald Trump, given that he demonstrated the ability to win in a red state. But Bullock ultimately was unable to break through...." The Washington Post story is here.

Candidate You Didn't Know Was in the Race Quits. Ursula Perano of Axios: "Joe Sestak announced Sunday evening that he is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, leaving the total number of Democrats left in the field at 17.... Sestak was one of the last Democrats to join the race, clocking in as the 25th candidate as of June. Like many of his competitors, he struggled to gain name recognition within the crowded field, leaving him at 0% in most polls. He also failed to qualify for any Democratic debates."

Andrew Chung of Reuters: "A legal fight over a New York City handgun ordinance that could give the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority a chance to expand gun rights goes before the nine justices on Monday in one of the most closely watched cases of their current term." The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak, is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Maine. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Living in New Hampshire as I do, it would be wrong to call Mainers stupid. But.... (Yeah, okay, there are lots of very smart Down Easters. Still....)

Way Beyond

Iran. Farnaz Fassihi & Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Iran is experiencing its deadliest political unrest since the Islamic Revolution 40 years ago, with at least 180 people killed -- and possibly hundreds more -- as angry protests have been smothered in a government crackdown of unbridled force. It began two weeks ago with an abrupt increase of at least 50 percent in gasoline prices. Within 72 hours, outraged demonstrators in cities large and small were calling for an end to the Islamic Republic's government and the downfall of its leaders. In many places, security forces responded by opening fire on unarmed protesters, largely unemployed or low-income young men between the ages of 19 and 26, according to witness accounts and videos.... Altogether, from 180 to 450 people, and possibly more, were killed in four days of intense violence after the gasoline price increase was announced on Nov. 15, with at least 2,000 wounded and 7,000 detained...."

Mexico. CBS News: "Several individuals connected with a family massacre in northern Mexico were detained in an early Sunday operation. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's office confirmed to CBS News that three suspects were captured Sunday in a joint operation by the Prosecutor General, the National Guard and the National Center for Intelligence. Nine U.S. citizens -- three women and six children -- were murdered November 4. The victims were members of the LeBaron family who were part of a group of fundamentalist Mormons who migrated to Mexico after polygamy was outlawed in the U.S. in the 1800s. The operation, carried out in collaboration with the FBI, follows an earlier arrest last month, according to officials. Four people are now in custody in connection with the attack." A Washington Post story is here.

U.K. Peter Walker & Frances Perraudin of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson has been accused of twisting the facts of the London Bridge terror attack in a 'distasteful' attempt to turn it into an election issue, as he tried to blame Labour for the release of the terrorist who stabbed two people to death. Despite one of the victims families pleading for their son's death not to be used as an excuse for kneejerk political reaction, Johnson claimed that 'a lefty government' was responsible for Usman Khan being freed. The family of Jack Merritt called for the murder of 'our beautiful, talented boy' to not be exploited for political gain, as police named the second victim as Saskia Jones, a prisoner rehabilitation volunteer."

News Lede

CNN: "The weather has already caused a plane to slip off a runway while it was landing at Buffalo Niagara International Airport Sunday.... It also led to a 25-vehicle pile up on Interstate 68 in Garrett County, Maryland, about 20 miles from the state's border with West Virginia.... A day earlier in Chamberlain, South Dakota, nine people were killed when a plane crashed during blizzard-like conditions.... On Sunday evening, nearly 6,500 flights were delayed within, into or out of the United States and more than 800 had been canceled, according to FlightAware.com. Travel impacts are expected to last through Monday, the weather service said."

Comments

[MAG]

@Bea McCrab: Earlier today I read the NYT piece on Gallagher and what I still can't get through my head after reading the details of his actions that were reported by other Seals officers who were appalled by his behaviors...how in the world was it that he was even acquitted in the earlier trial? And here in the end, it came down to an argument over whether or not to take back his Trident pin?

There's a big gap in there.

[Marie Burns]

@MAG: At the trial, a key witness (originally, for the prosecution) -- a SEAL medic -- changed his previous statements & testified under questioning by the defense that he himself had suffocated the ISIS prisoner after Gallagher stabbed him. The medic said he did so to save the boy from probable torture by Iraqis. I presume that's what blew up the case. Still, the soldier/jurors could hardly acquit Gallagher of posing for a photo with the dead body because they had hard evidence.

[PD Pepe]

In Bob Bauer's NYT op-ed––"Trump is the Founder's Worst Nightmare" ––we see precisely what Marie sees as irony and asks:

" It's ironic, isn't it, that demagoguery is the apotheosis of political oratory at the same time it is the instrument of political catastrophe?"

And I wonder whether this has something to do with our lack of a female presidency in the sense that we still seem to be operating under the guise of "Father Knows Best"––the strong male–-akin to that religious figure known as "God." Hard to dissuade believers that they are being hoodwinked.

And we see in this trickle of insipid remarks –-the latest from John Kennedy––-the real fear of being exposed as the cowards that they try to convince us they aren't.

[Akhilleus]

Hegel, History, Trump, Ignorance, and Gavrilo Princip

Reading an article on Hegel this weekend, I was reminded of how his view of history aligns with Kant's directive for doing the right (ethical) thing, at every turn. Hegel believed that the spirit of an age or a country came from the collective acts of its people and that the most important element in moving along a historical timeline towards the best that could be achieved is self-awareness. This certainly doesn't obviate random acts that turn history upside down, but, according to Hegel, leaders whose actions derive purely from self interest (greed, self-aggrandizement, etc) are sure to bring destruction upon a nation.

And don't we know it?

But the reference to randomness got me thinking about certain acts that seem to come from out of the blue and which upset world events in ways no one could have predicted (well, almost no one*). Which brings us to Gavrilo Princip. On a late day in June in 1914, in Sarajevo, a Serbian nationalist (some would describe him as a terrorist--actually some of his co-conspirators referred to themselves as such), Gavrilo Princip, was sitting in a coffee shop on a side street. Suddenly, up drives a car with the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie.

Earlier in the day, Princip had a chance to kill the archduke but missed. His pals had chances too, but all failed. One guy tossed a sort of bomb at his car but blew up the people behind the archduke instead. So where's the randomness in all of this? This craziness sounds pretty planned out. And it was. What wasn't planned was that the Archduke's driver took a wrong turn and then stopped the car directly outside that coffee shop. Gavrilo must have spit out his java. Walking outside, he shot and killed both Sophie and her husband, Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Five years later almost 10 million people were dead. Millions more died in the world wide influenza pandemic the war helped to spread. Because of a wrong turn.

And ignorance.

Princip and company were pissed that the Habsburgs still ruled Serbia. But here's the problem. Franz Ferdinand was not their enemy. He might not have worn Serbian football jerseys on his day off, but he believed that continued domination of Serbia was not a good idea politically. Others did, but as the soon-to-be emperor, he could have overruled those guys. So in effect, not understanding this about the archduke, Princip may have killed the one man who believed in his cause. Not for the same reason, of course, but that wouldn't have mattered.

Next scene, Verdun, the Somme, death, destruction, and the entire world shaken to its core. Kingdoms re-jiggered, countries destroyed, others jammed together helter-skelter after the war and the stage set for not just WWII, but everything that came after that, including 9/11.

All because an historical nobody was sitting in a coffee shop with a loaded gun just as a driver made a wrong turn.

Okay, that's a bit simplistic, but it offers a way of thinking about how small things can have enormous effects.

Now let's take an ignorant person who isn't a nobody sitting in a coffee shop. Let's take an ignorant, pissed off asshole and let him run a country. And not just any country, the US of A. And let that guy's ignorance, incredible lack of self-awareness, greed, antipathy to doing anything except what will benefit him be the springboard into the future.

Hegel predicted destruction for nations with a leader like that. And Princip demonstrated how small acts can cause untold misery for hundreds of millions. Now take that leader and let him loose upon the world hundreds of acts, big and small, that drag the entire world down a path of ignorance and hatred, scams, schemes, and stupidity.

And that's where we are now.

Elections matter. Putin knows this. That's why he fixed the last one and will try to fix the next one.

*At least regarding WWI, one Otto von Bismarck opined, in 1888, that "One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans". Good call, Otto.

[carlyle]

From Sidney Blumenthal's [ All the powers of earth ].
Thaddeus Stevens in 1856 described James Buchanan as;
"A bloated mass of political putridity." Wow! Who does that bring to mind?

[Marie Burns]

@Akhilleus: But Trump didn't come out of the blue. Millions of people voted for him in a coordinated, concerted effort to make this country more white, more Christian, more inward-looking, more cruel & selfish. There was plenty of damning information out there about Trump, and his voters were good with it. Yes, they were aided & abetted by duplicitous Republicans from McConnell on down to some hideous precinct poll worker claiming, "That don't look like the right signature." And more than half the nation's voters aren't as bad as the immoral minority.

I agree that "the spirit of an age or a country came from the collective acts of its people." That's how we got Trump. No, we (that is, the "we" who voted for Trump) are not better than that.

[Akhilleus]

Marie,

I know Trump didn't come out of the blue. And I wasn't even saying that Princip's ideas came out of thin air either. I probably didn't do a good enough job of parsing the phenomena. The only bit of randomness that came along with the Archduke's assassination was the wrong turn. Clearly Trump was abetted by traitors who saw a chance to line their pockets/screw liberals/cement their power with no consequence for themselves. Nothing random about that. That shit is a wingnut lead pipe cinch.

My primary goal was to point out that if a (somewhat) small potato hit job* could turn the world so upside down, what might we expect from the machinations of a thoroughly intentional con man and traitor who wasn't some schmoe sitting, head in hands, in a coffee shop because he thought he had missed his chance to shoot a guy in the head (or neck, as the case turned out). Trump, even if--and when--he misses his chance, can rely on the head-bobbing obeisance of an entire political party at his disposal to 1. cover up his mistakes, 2. go along with his treason, and 3. throw their bodies on the barricades if his treason and ignorance threaten to upend his fat ass.

*And, of course, I understand that that hit job triggered the dominoes that had been set in a precarious position for decades before 1914. Every major head of state in Europe from the 1880's on (see the Bismarck quote in a previous comment) expected war. What they didn't expect (but should have) was the kind of Total War Europe experienced during the Napoleonic Wars.

But after that, silly them, there was no going back to the Metternich-Tallyrand type of cagey, wiggly (but often successful) diplomacy. Perhaps this is why Fatty appoints deep-pocketed, inexperienced naifs and grasping, narcissistic neophytes to positions of great moment.

I mean, c'mon. Can you picture chuckle-fuck Gordon Sundland as a modern day Talleyrand?