Hail Zlatan!

What a great story. The pride of Sweden at 35 years of age has scored 15 times for Manchester United in his first season in the Premier League. Without Ibrahimović where would United be? (Wayne Rooney has scored two goals in the league. *Ouch*.)  Ibrahimović is only two goals off the three-way league leaders Harry Kane of Spurs, Romelu Lukaku of Everton, and Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal. Kun Aguero, despite enforced inactivity, leads God's Team with 11 and is eighth in the league.

Plucking Ibrahimović from PSG, especially at age 35, also qualifies as an unvarnished coup for Jose Mourinho. Mou coached Ibrahimović in 2008-09 at Inter Milan.

Ibrahimović also has one of the most interesting faces in world soccer,

a cross between the Anonymous mask, 

and Jack Nicholson's Joker.

And at 6'5", and with all of those goals, he's impossible to miss. Impossible to mark, too, apparently.

We did not continue to break records in February :(  "Only" 9,292 pageviews. "Only" 332 per day. Tremendous month. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Very disappointed in health today.

"Trump says he's adjusting to the 'surreal' experience of being president"-Politico

Feel ya.

The fate of the world teeters,
On the Great Banana Republic,
And its Strongman tweeter.

"It is true, it’s not fake."

"We’ve been on the road with these guys [from "La-La Land"] for so long, and that was so gracious, and so generous of them."
                     Barry Jenkins

“...even in my dreams this could not be true. But to hell with dreams! I’m done with it, because this is true."
       "Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins.

"It was surreal."

"Moonlight” actor André Holland.

The vote was rigged

"I'm still not sure this is real."

"Moonlight" producer Adele Romanski.

America Does Not Work Anymore

"We ... have two sets of ballots - Brian will have one complete set and I'll have another. The envelopes are kept locked up in an undisclosed location.

"On the day of the show, we'll get the ballots and Brian and I will go to the theater on two separate roads. He'll go one route and I'll go another route. We do that to ensure that in case anything happens to one, (the other) will be there on time and delivering what's needed with the full set.

"We also have security -- LAPD -- with us at all times. They're securing not us, but what's in the briefcase that we're holding in our hands. That's very clear to us!

"So we do have security measures up until we're at the theatre and delivering that envelope to the presenter, just seconds before they walk on stage.

"We'll be in two different locations. Brian will be on stage right, and I'll be on stage left."

"We sincerely apologize to 'Moonlight,' 'La La Land,' Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture," said a statement from PricewaterhouseCoopers, issued early Monday through the Academy. "The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope...We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred."

LaLaLand

*

Did it just turn to Daylight Savings Time?

*UPDATE: No. Apologize for any inconvenience.

The wine connoisseur enjoys his wine fully, even intimately -- swirls it in a glass to release its aroma, smells it and appreciates it subtleties – it involves all the senses. From the very first sight it attracts with its appearance – the shape and colour of the bottle, the colour and texture of the fizz. Then comes touch. You touch the bottle, the cork, then the glass, then swirl. The aroma mesmerizes your senses. It evolves from the first whiff to the first and then the second nose. It then invites your lips to reach out to kiss the glass. Don’t you see the likeness to foreplay? http://www.thewineclub.in/user_blog/1418/Sex-It-Up-With-Wine

Yes. Good. Thank you. Now,

I hate wine. I hate champagne. Wine discolors your teeth. Both feel like they're melting my teeth. Both give you bad breath. With either, you have to drink too much to get a proper buzz and if that's all there is and you happened to get drunk on the shit, God help you the next morning. Ever had a champagne hangover?

And I hate wine connoisseurs like that twee bitch.

"Women Who Drink More Have Better Sex"-Drinksfeed

That is conclusive on the matter. Case solv-ed.

"Straight women have fewest orgasms"-BBC

Another excellent headline from health!

There's an "orgasm gap." I'm serious, Pilgrim, look at it in the Beeb right there. Said orgasm gap can be narrowed, perhaps closed, by various maneuvers such as

"oral sex and manual stimulation."

 http://www.bbc.com/news/health-39077293

 "The swing doors swung open, and there one stood under the vast dome, as if one were a thought in the huge bald forehead which is so splendidly encircled by a band of famous names." 

-Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One's Own (1929)

The Reading Room was used by a large number of famous figures, including notably Sun Yat-sen, Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, Friedrich Hayek, Bram Stoker, Mahatma Gandhi, Rudyard Kipling, George Orwell, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, Vladimir Lenin (using the name Jacob Richter[1]), Virginia Woolf, Arthur Rimbaud, Mohammad Ali Jinnah,[3] H. G. Wells[4] and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum_Reading_Room

"...[T]he round Reading Room was a marvelous place...I regret its passing almost every day of my life."
-Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, Preface to the 2012 Edition, xxvii.

So unlike the Brits to change anything. As someone said of Churchill so it may be said of the British generally: "He wasn't wrong often but when he was, well, my God." What were they thinking.

Hottsie Tottsie beat Stokey Wokey four nil. Kafka's next story is The Stoker, which I read the first couple of pages of when I couldn't read anymore about cockroaches at breakfast. A guy, a ship stoker, buggers a 16 year old boy, if I gather correctly where the story is going and I think I do. 

A little Kafka goes a long way! Maybe once my breakfast settles I can finish without taking breaks. On this break, let me ask: Kafka, you were really FUCKED UP, weren't you? Is there a point to this story? A moral, as it were? Like, "See, if you do this you'll turn into a cockroach, so don't do it." Maybe you'll make it in the remaining 17 pages butIthinknot. You just were going to write a short story about a man transformed overnight into a cockroach and his life thereafter. Sounded like a good idea to you. Alright.

Inn-teresing! Compelling, vivid, truly vivid, description of life as a cockroach. Could not read as I broke my fast! 

Got through A Message from the Emperor! One page. It was pretty good. Can't-do kind of guy, Kafka, I gather? My impression from A Message from the Emperor. Now, The Metamorphosis, 49 pages. Ooh. Nose to the grindstone.

Inn-terestimg man, Kafka, no?

-Venus of Furs, "foundation of masochism"--"enormous influence" on Kafka. Masochism is where you get whipped, right? Sadism, you're the whipper, masochism, you're the whippee?

-Czech, Jewish, middle class. Lawyer. That explains the masochism. But gave up the Law for a career at the "Workmen's Accident Insurance Administration." Retired at the "Workmen's Accident Insurance Administration." Wrote at night. By day, "Workmen's Accident Insurance Administration."

-Engaged to same woman dos. Then engaged to another woman. Once. Kafka's father said no to marriage.

-Got involved with a third woman. Her father said no to marriage. Maybe he should have gone to mothers.

-Died of TB. Last words, "Kill me, or you are a murderer."

Okay, Kafka, let's go, don't know how long this is going to last! but we begin.

Whaddya think about a little Kafka this morning? Wanna turn into a bug?

Hey

16-2: White Hot Miami 113 Indiana 95

-30-

Oh, puh-leeze. Who is that red-head? Is she from Sex and the City? May Archer did not look like that. First, she was blonde, okay, not strawberry blonde. Second, she didn't look at her husband that way with suspicious eyes, she had an "innocent" face and did not betray her suspicions with her eyes as that actress is doing like

Yes! Like the Evil Queen in Snow White

Oh yeah! May got wet, oh yeah!

And Ellen Olenska did not have her hair pulled back like that. It was wild like she was. May would have had her hair pulled back, not sexy curls and ringlets falling all over the place. Ellen would have had that. I don't have a mental image of Newland Archer.

Well, I'll be...

Miss Wharton did not follow Cormac down the trash chute. I kept at it in fits and starts and finished it in a hurried flourish, to fit the book's hurried finish, this afternoon.

Well, I'll be...It was pretty darned good! Did not end in stereotyped fashion as it had begun and as I feared it would continue. Ended completely surprisingly, realistically surprisingly, like A Farewell to Arms, the ending did not feel stiltedly surprising.

The society of "Old New York," preposterously so-called even then, in the book's setting, in the 1870's, is taken as scrupulously authentic as drawn by Miss Wharton, as only it could be by one as Miss Wharton, born a Jones, of the family that gave rise to the saying, "Keeping up with the Joneses," not drawn purely from "imagination" as Nabokov said English aristocratic society was by Dickens in Bleak House--"What did he know of English aristocratic society?"--Nabokov the Russian apparently knowing English society, but how authentic an imagination Dickens had of Old English aristocracy at least as imagined by Old New York, as Lady Dedlock could have stepped right into The Age of Innocence and stepped out of it realistically as Madame Olenska did not as preposterously as she did in Bleak House but what did Dickens know of Old New York anyway.

Where's "All the News that's fit to print"?

"Truth" on either side of the masthead (Only 50% truth on the right. Think that's coincidence wink-wink.)--I think this is a statement by the Times.

Their ads are specifically targeted to torture me.

And...?

This is a workmanlike review of Putin's disinformation and espionage efforts Trump_Putin. The authors are "Evan Osnos, David Remnick, Joshua Yaffa and" (sic) and what is beyond, or beneath, workmanlike are the absent connections that are bracketed and which were written by the undersigned in real time as be read the article.

Just as Putin no longer fills prison camps with countless "enemies of the people," as Stalin did..." [THE PRECISE LANGUAGE TRUMP USES TO DESCRIBE JOURNALISTS]
...
"...[Putin's] propagandists have taken their cue from foreign forms: magazine shows, shout-fests, game shows, and reality shows. [REALITY SHOWS!]

Very Fluffy of You, Wiks

Teams managed
2001–2002	Fiorentina
2002–2004	Lazio
2004–2008	Internazionale
2009–2013	Manchester City
2013–2014	Galatasaray
2014–2016	Internazionale
Honours  Italy FIFA World Cup Italy 1990
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Roberto Mancini (Italian pronunciation: [roˈbɛrto manˈtʃiːni]; born 27 November 1964) is an Italian footballmanager and former player, who last managed Internazionale.

"Magician Found Dead Inside Hollywood's Iconic Magic Castle"
-HuffPost

Pretty good one for not being health.

The Foxy Foxes and McPaper play a fugue today:

Why women tend to orgasm less — and how to fix it-Fox

Study: Men who exercise strenuously have lower libidos-USA Today

What's going on in health headlines today. Nuggets of gold yesterday.

Can You Feel the Heat?

Miami roasted the "Hawks" tonight 108-90 in Hotlanta. They led by as many as 26 in the 4th quarter. The "Heaters" are 15-2 in their last 17. OriginalThemeSong

Feb 26

Manchester City-Manchester United

                -Postponed-

Know why? "Fixture clash." The "Bucs" have to fulfill their Capital One Cup committment to play Southampton. The second leg of the Manchester Derby postponed for a bullshit match in a third-rate competition. T hey're having a bitch of a time trying to reschedule it, too. The Premier League season MUST END May 12 or something. It cannot be extended. The clubs explored that possibility. No! Why? The league said it would cheapen the integrity of the league schedule. Having the Derby postponed for a Cap1 match doesn't cheapen it.

Mourinho is going nuts. He has complained about the crowded fixtures down the stretch. They're going to have to play it on a weekday afternoon, say a Tuesday at 3 pm, coming off a Saturday or Sunday match going into a Thursday night UCL match and then a Saturday or Sunday league match. Can you imagine?

Can you imagine this in the U.S.? You don't have to imagine. The  "'Heidi' Game," 1968. "Jets" at "Raiders." Game went long. Past 7 pm when NBC was scheduled to broadcast the movie "Heidi." They did:

The television audience saw Smith return Turner's kickoff out of the end zone to the Oakland 22-yard line with 1:01 remaining. Burbank BOC played the closing football theme and gave the word cue, to...outraged shock... and the connection was irretrievably broken...the eastern half of the nation instead saw a little girl on a Swiss mountain and was unaware that Oakland was in the course of scoring two touchdowns to win the game.[38]
...
NBC's CIrcle-7 exchange...blew a fuse 26 times in an hour.
...
By the time the game ended at 7:07, thousands of viewers were calling the network to complain about missing the end of the football game. Others called newspapers, television stations, even the New York City Police Department, both to seek the final score, and simply to vent.
...
In an attempt to inform the audience of the game's outcome, NBC scrolled the following across the bottom of the screen: SPORTS BULLETIN: RAIDERS DEFEAT JETS 43-32. It did so during a scene in the film just as Heidi's paralyzed cousin Clara was taking her first, slow steps. According to sportswriter Jack Clary, "The football fans were indignant when they saw what they had missed. The Heidi audience was peeved at having an ambulatory football score intrude on one of the story's more touching moments. Short of pre-empting Heidi for a skin flick, NBC could not have managed to alienate more viewers that evening."

So there you have it. About started the second American Revolution, it did. England? Keep Calm and Carry On. Americans do not do calm.

Ah.

Posts 

Entry	Pageviews
In Memory of Teacher Bian Zhongyun, Murdered by He... Aug 5, 2008	1

Eight and one-half years ago. That was all there was for me 8 1/2 years ago. I had little interest in any other topic. Ahh.

"For me, there's been a few strange decisions in 16-17: Brexit, Trump, Ranieri..."
Smart man, Jurgen Klopp, smart man.

Hey Wiks: Roberto is still not Leicester manager. Fyi.

A little out over their skis

Teams managed
2001–2002	Fiorentina
2002–2004	Lazio
2004–2008	Internazionale
2009–2013	Manchester City
2013–2014	Galatasaray
2014–2016	Internazionale
2017–	Leicester City

Roberto Mancini (Italian pronunciation: [roˈbɛrto manˈtʃiːni]; born 27 November 1964) is an Italian footballmanager and former player, who is currently the manager of English Premier League club Leicester City.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Mancini

Inspired choice by Lester, truly an inspired choice. There's just one problem. It hasn't happened yet. Wiks, WTF?

• Has there ever been a six-month stretch where more broadcast luminaries retired or significantly reduced their workload?  Question_of_the_day

No.

"Chiropractor Invents 'Lipstick' That Glues Women's Vaginas Shut During Their Periods"-YourTango

Struggle there, real Struggle there.

"Science Just Confirmed Every Straight Woman’s Struggle When Having Sex"-Elite Daily

I would like to know about this for a project I am working on.

"Study: Long-Term Stress Might Make You Fat"-CBS

Tremendous headlines today in health.

"Sleeping for 9+ Hours May Be Early Sign of Dementia"-Medpagetoday

"Men who overdo it in the gym 'risk ruining sex lives'"-Irish Independent

got it

Leicester Sack Ranieri; "Heat" Stand Pat

Claudio Ranieri has been replaced 298 days after winning the EPL title and being named world manager if the year.

Pat Riley after contemplating blowing up the team at 11-30 worked no deadline deals on his roster after a 14-2 resurgence.

Wise moves both. Claudio is one of the nicest men in soccer; so, so sorry this had to happen to him but this had to happen to him. Leicester is one point from having Huddersfield Town as a regular fixture.

Pat is not one of the nicest men in basketball but he is one of the shrewdest. You don't blow up this team.

The FBI has an on-going investigation into contacts between the Trumpets and Russia during the 2016 campaign. So, 11/8 happens and the unwitting tool of the Russian Federation becomes the de facto president of the United States. Trumpets (now in the White House) recently asked the FBI to refute the media reports of the contacts to say that there was NO CONTACT.  The FBI refused. One,
because there had been contacts. Two, because it is violation of procedure for the White House even to ask.

"...a clear sense that something had been cracked."

For nearly six years Manchester City have been waiting for a European classic here at the Etihad Stadium...Well here it was, one of the best games in any competition at any point in the last few years.

It was the best game played here since Sergio Aguero’s 94th minute title-decider against Queens Park Rangers, nearly five years ago.

At the final whistle the City players and fans celebrated with a mixture of exhaustion, relief and a clear sense that something had been cracked. This was not a perfect performance, it was deeply flawed and if details had gone differently City would be waking up in crisis on Wednesday morning. But this felt like the overdue emotional connection between club and competition, first hinted at in the rout of Barcelona here in the group stage in November.
AGUEROOOO!


Manchester City-Monaco was an instant classic. There were goals flying in from all angles, there was controversy, and it was just pure fun. 

http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/gallery/manchester-city-vs-monaco-champions-league-recap-score-analysis-takeaways-022117

Champions League: Dazzling attacking highlights wild Man City win

DazzlingCity

The City manager vowed to maintain his commitment to attack at Stade Louis II on 15 March after a breathless first leg against the French league leaders, who twice led and missed a penalty before conceding three goals in 11 minutes late in the game. Even the Monaco coach, Leonardo Jardim, said he enjoyed the spectacle, if not the final result.

"We attack in small spaces and defend huge spaces behind, that’s why the people contracted me to come here,” Guardiola said. “It is special for football when two teams play like that."
...

"We are going to fly to Monaco to score as many goals as possible. We are not going to defend [this] result. We now know each other better. We will adjust some things, they will adjust some things but we have to score goals. If we don’t score a goal in Monaco we will be eliminated.”
...
“I want to go to Monaco.”

"I_want_to_go_to_Monaco"

Manchester City 5 Monaco 3: City stun manic visitors in showstopping eight goal thriller

More of this, please, when the two meet again on March 15 and with Guardiola predicting that his team will find keeping a clean sheet impossible in the second leg, one can only assume that it will end in another furious exchange of gloriously irresponsible football.
...
This was deluxe Champions League football...

More_of_this_please

CITY FOREVER!

A blue moon dominates the night sky over England's Second City tonight. Manchester City overcame 2-1 and 3-2 deficits at the Etihad Stadium before pulling away for a 5-3 win over Monaco in the first leg of a round-of-16 tie in the Uefa Champions League. Raheem Sterling opened the scoring, but the heavens opened on poor Monaco after the break: BOOM! the forgotten Sergio Aguero in the 58th minute, BOOM! Kun again in the 71st, BOOM! John Stones six minutes later, BOOM! Leroy Sane in the 82nd. 4-1 in the second half deluge.

If God is not a City fan why is His sky sky-blue?

"Testosterone Gel Shows No Benefit for Older Men's Memories "-U.S News&World Report

true. when i was on it every time i went out of town i forgot i was married.

"Marlborough, Hudson, Northborough working to become dementia-friendly communities"-Telegraph

HI

46.1%

         This is the final struggle.
         Trump unites the human race.
         Death to America.

So that the spirit be pulled from its prison.

The State oppresses and the law cheats.

Arise, ye wretched of the earth!

Because of proximity and because of NAFTA 80% of Mexico's foreign trade is with the United States. They were drawn in, we drew them in, and now De Facto means to re-write NAFTA. So what do you think Mexico's thinking and doing? It's a big-ass world out there.

Adios America, hola world? Mexico pivots away from U.S.

Mexico's president, Enrique Pena Nieto, recently announced a new push for trade deals with countries in Latin America, Asia and Europe.
"Mexico will become closer to Argentina and Brazil...to deepen and expand trade opportunities," Pena Nieta said on Jan. 23.

Pena Nieto went on to note that Mexico would pursue agreements with Chile, Peru and Colombia, as well as Asian countries that were a part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal Trump killed.
Already, investment and interest in Mexico is starting to come from across the oceans.

Chinese auto company JAC Motors and Mexico's Giant Motors announced earlier in February they will invest $212 million in an existing car plant in Hidalgo, Mexico, to build SUVs.
Chinese telecommunications company Huawei has already been expanding its presence in Mexico.
...
Europe wants in too. Volkswagen's biggest factory outside Europe is in Puebla. Audi also opened a new plant in Puebla in September, and BMW recently announced plans for a future plant in Mexico.

So, to whatever extent NAFTA benefits the U.S. the U.S. will lose those benefits with a Mexican pivot. Our loss will be China's and Europe's and Latin America's gain. And if De Facto's position is that NAFTA is a net-negative for the U.S. then it follows that he ought to be jacking his small dick with his short stumpy fingers in glee at this Mexican pivot, this is addition by subtraction for the U.S. Doubly so. U.S. net losses will now be China's and Europe's and Latin America's. it follows that China and Europe and Latin America, who are all too eager to fill the vacuum left by the U.S., are chumps and that De Facto is the only one who is right. 

Vitaly Churkin, Russian Ambassador to UN, Dies Suddenly at His Desk

American Ambassador Samantha Powers embarrasses herself and her country at Churkin in 2014.

Faces of Porn

Damn jpegs didn't arrive in my gmail inbox till 11:00 and 11:01 pm, three hours after I sent them from my phone. Got 'em now, though. Okay. The genre of porn denominated "homemade" is a fecund, truly fecund, font of another genre, "funny" porn. In this first motion picture, the actors...participants...introduce themselves to pageviewers:

I'm sure they got on well but I didn't stay past the introductions.

In our second Feature Presentation the on-screen lovers depict themselves in this unusual aspect:

The heroine of this production manifestly is smiling broadly at her counterpart's apparent struggles. (It is difficult to see how the act could be consummated in this aspect, but hey! they're the pros.)

Or, he could be going to the bathroom number two.

After finishing his business our hero gets in proper position for the action scene and then, to evince his prowess, fashions a shoulder shimmy cum one-two punch as he delivers his partner to ecstasies previously unknown.

Left shoulder dipped.

Left shoulder forward.

YEAH! Left shoulder forward, forearm as if about to deliver a shot to her solar plexus...which he may be doing!

One-two! with the right fist.

Our Feature Presentation ends without "hard" evidence of the scene being performed to the expectations of director or audience, nor with any spillage of bodily essence, in the patois, the "money shot," but there is a beguiling behind-the-scenes look at our starlet apres-film:

Cinematographic symmetry with the male lead's right-left combo earlier.

Ah! the Arts.

Coming Up Next! As soon as the jpegs load in gmail.

Okay. It is 9:30 bells and I have already taken my sleeping pill. I sent the screenshots an hour and a half ago. I'm going to make one last check of gmail and if the screenshots of funny porn aren't in, it's gonna have to wait till manana. This happens from time to time. It is inexplicable to me. Une momento por favor...

Nope, nothin'. Nothing in Inbox, Spam or Trash. They'll come in! But they're going by snail mail apparently. Damn. I think you'll like. Oh well, until tomorrow. Arrivederci for now.

The undersigned worker arose from his afore-described slumber prematurely this morning, at 1:30 a.m. bells, occasioned by the soft, periodic chirping of an unidentified device of the electronic persuasion in distress. Could not identify the instrument of my torment. Thought it was the previously-blogged smoke detector. Approached it charily. It did not respond. Thereafter stood in every room of his abode-in-the-sky until the thing went off again trying to locate it. Without success. GOT DRESSED AND WENT OUTSIDE where he encountered his elderly English night owl neighbor in night gown. "Did you hear...?" No. Went back inside. Chirp, chirp, chirp. Now from the front door the undersigned was able to sonar-identify the room it was in and was soon master of the case. The bedroom. The nightstand right next to the undersigned's head which had just been there not long, but too long, before. The old cell phone. Which the undersigned uses as an alarm clock. Low on batteries. Case solv-ed.

Ye workers from your slumbers

Arise

What an awesome sports photograph. Tremendous work by the photographer to get a dramatically-lit shot of Manchester United's players and manager, crisply focused in the foreground against a foggy, misty, gray, out-of-focus background at Ewood Park in Blackburn. The contrast of United's bright, blood-red jerseys and Jose Mourinho's all-black, jet black against the neutral background is fantastic.Tremendous work.

I wonder where De Facto will take his first foreign trip.

"A nonmilitary declaration of war between Europe and the U.S."

This is a very dangerous time, ladies and gentlemen. Europe and America are vulnerable, Europe, more so than since 1945, America more so than at any time in her history. The incumbent U.S. administration is in "disarray" organizationally and in policy. The de facto U.S. president has made many statements about Europe and Russia that are destabilizing to the former and encouraging to the latter. There is danger of an enemy, North Korea, Iran perhaps, ISIS, China perhaps, taking advantage of this unique vulnerability and surprise-attacking the Western alliance: South Korea, Japan, Europe, America, in the South China Sea.

And there is danger that with "an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation" in the White House, the security forces of the United States--the military, the CIA (who he doesn't believe), FBI, NSA--could get to the point of acting, of staging a coup d'etat, to save the country from a de facto foreign takeover where the Constitution and 46.1% of the people failed.

 Steven Erlanger of The New York Times writes from the Munich security conference TrumpEurope:

• "They came from all over — diplomats and generals, policy experts and security officials — seeking clues to President Trump’s ideas and intentions."
• "...[T]hey were deeply disturbed by Mr. Trump’s difficulty finding a pliant national security adviser to replace Michael T. Flynn,...by Mr. Trump’s long and rambling news conference on Thursday, [and by his] Saturday...campaign-style rally where he suggested, wrongly, that something terrible had happened in Sweden. 'People were not reassured,' said Daniela Schwarzer, the director of the German Council on Foreign Relations. “'They think that Trump is erratic and incalculable.'"

[That he is, and those three instances, so closely packed together, show that Trump knows that he is in over his head and that when he is in over his head he makes a panicked retreat to his comfort zone, the campaign. To me, that Florida campaign rally is the most psychologically telling. Imagine: He has been president for one month (!), there is no possible need for campaigning and he takes off to hold a campaign rally, replete with signs and zombie followers. It was an escape. He needed the affirmation of his zombies when he could not provide self-affirmation.

[Now combine "erratic and incalculable" to ignorant and truth-averse, add in the "quality" of his advisers, the vacancies in under positions, and imagine the Russians introduce "little green men" into the Baltic states. He doesn't believe the CIA, he believes Putin. "It could be anybody, the Russians, the Chinese, some 400-pound guy on a bed somewhere." Imagine a surprise attack, a la 12/7/41 or 9/11/01. And imagine his response. Mother-fucker'd nuke Mexico! DANGEROUS times Ells and Gees, DANGEROUS times.]

• "Senator John McCain, a conference regular...said that the administration was “in disarray," and added: 'The president, I think, makes statements and on other occasions contradicts himself. So we’ve learned to watch what the president does as opposed to what he says.'”
• "But Ms. Schwarzer said...'What he says also changes reality,' she said. 'If you put NATO or the European Union into doubt, it changes their credibility and damages them.'”

[It does damage their "credibility," as a willful deterrent, as a united body; it makes them feel vulnerable, and to be vulnerable--to Russian interference in their elections, to a military strike in the Baltics--but reality is not changed by words alone. Deeds have to follow. Trump has also reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO, to Japan, to U.S. China policy, and against Russian military intervention. He has said, as John McCain said, many things, some of them contradictory. It is best to wait on deeds.]

• "Europeans were 'chilled' when Robert S. Harward, a retired vice admiral, turned down an offer to replace Mr. Flynn because he would not be given autonomy over his staff...'Our allies don’t know who is their interlocutor and what phone number to call'"...
• "Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German ambassador to Washington who runs the conference, asked if Mr. Trump would 'continue a tradition of half of century of being supportive of the project of European integration, or is he going to continue to advocate E.U. member countries to follow the Brexit example? If he did that, it would amount to a kind of nonmilitary declaration of war. It would mean conflict between Europe and the United States. Is that what the U.S. wants? Is that how he wishes to make America great again?'”

• "On Monday, Mr. Pence will meet in Brussels with officials from the European Union and NATO to try to reassure them about the new administration’s commitment to Europe. 'But they have to hear this directly from Trump because of everything he has said about Russia and Germany,' Mr. Burns said, citing a joint interview with the German newspaper Bild and the Times of London, in which Mr. Trump compared Mr. Putin and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and said he was not sure he would trust either of them."
• "...the Cold War was won not just by weapons but by propaganda and soft power. And on German television, Trump is a joke for everybody. We’re concerned also about American prestige.”-Artis Pabriks, a former Latvian foreign and defense minister and now a member of the European Parliament.

Hey! Enjoy President's Day tomorrow.

So, from 1641 paid disseminators of official declarations have been blowing Trump.

I was just looking up the the history of the word "news" (to see if EVERY fucking thing a public official says MUST BE DISSEMINATED) and I came across the image above. The Wikipedia caption is,

"Woodcut by Tommaso Garzoni depicting a town crier with a TRUMPet."

I added the caps, that's my emphasis added, do you get why?

46.1%

"More and more of our fellow citizens [in U.S. and Europe] seem to be flirting with authoritarianism and romanticising it as our moral equivalent”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/18/john-mccain-savages-donald-trump-administration-inability-separate-truth-from-lies

"The president, I think, makes statements [and] on other occasions contradicts himself. So we’ve learned to watch what the president does as opposed to what he says."

Very smart man, John McCain, very smart man.

Like...Blackbirds speak.

Blackbirds have spoken.

Like the first morning.

Morning has broken.

Let us dance, black-eyed lady.

For certeyn, olde dotard, by your leave
You shall have queynte right enough at eve
...
What eyleth yow to grucche thus and grone?
Is it for ye wolde have my queynte allone?
Wy, taak it al! lo, have it every deel!
Peter! I shrewe yow, but ye love it weel;

...
As a life-long conservative who has plenty of battle scars from very real skirmishes with the liberally-biased and truth-challenged news media, Trump’s attacks on them are, for me, by far the most conflicting and ultimately demoralizing element of his presidency. Normally, the enemy of your enemy is your friend, but I see Trump as being the very unworthy beneficiary of the righteous suffering of others. [WHOSE righteous suffering? The Foxes? To whom are you referring "life-long conservative"? "Suffering"? Are you a professional victim?]
...
...I have seen Trump masterfully manipulate conservatives who have been trained for decades to rightfully distrust the news media and use that sentiment for his own selfish purposes, all at the long-term cost of their own cause. [He manipulated the CONSERVATIVES. I see.]
...
I have great personal disdain for the mainstream news media. I think they have allowed journalism and our culture’s value of the truth to die in an evil exchange for their own fame and fortune...[Oh, you bitter, paranoid, twee shit.]

All that being said, there are indeed times when Trump’s analysis of the news media is EFFECTIVELY true. [Trump's "analysis" of the media? That it produces "fake news? Honestly don't know.] Ironically, I can’t think of a better example of this than their treatment of Trump himself.

Can we please not forget that NONE of which we are currently facing [sic] ever comes close to happening if the news media hadn’t done at least the following things:

•Pretended for years that Trump was a real billionaire (and thus an important person) simply because he was a good character to use in their stories. [Is he NOT a "real billionaire"? If not, I missed that memo. Or you are missing facts? I give you the benefit of the doubt. So what is he, upper-middle class?]

•Sucked up so much to Barack Obama for eight years [I think they were pretty gentle on Obama] and personally portrayed two very fine Republican opponents as monsters, [Portrayed McCain and Romney as "monsters"?  I think they were tough on the Mittster. I honestly don't remember the 2008 coverage of McCain. But "monsters"?  NO!] so that they lost all credibility for [sic] when it really mattered.

•Allowed Trump’s absurd presidential candidacy to take off unrestricted because he was good for ratings during a slow news period in the summer of 2015.

•Gave Trump over two billion dollars in free air time during the primaries because he was good for ratings [True] and because they figured he couldn’t win the nomination and if he did, that would still be cool because it would ensure a Hillary Clinton victory. [Ditto true.]

•Grossly overhyped the letter by FBI Director James Comey eleven days before the election because they thought the conclusion had already been decided and they wanted to squeeze out some more drama all the way up until the end (and boy did they get it!). ["Grossly overhyped"?]

What is most interesting to me about this “war” between Trump and the news media is that they both need each other so very badly. Without the media to kick around, Trump would have to focus his ire on Democrats, which would be difficult both because they are in the minority, and in reality he is one of them. [A Democrat? No.] Similarly, the news media on the one hand is horrified by Trump, but on the other they love him because he provides the two of the elements they carve [sic! Dude, take remedial writing. Or hire a fucking editor. Three "sics" and you're out.] most: easy content and big audiences. [I believe that is true. Consider how Trump always refers to the New York Times as "the failing New York Times." The charge sucks the Times in and they believe they give a conclusive reply with "Umm, actually Trump, our subscriptions and revenues are up HAHAHAH." They are up SINCE NOVEMBER 8. So, Trump HAS been good for the NYT's bottom line.]

In a sense, Trump is like a dirt-bag drug dealer giving the news media their fix or a rich boyfriend who abuses his partner. They despise him for what he is doing, but they simply can’t quit him. [Where did an enlightened pageviewership numbering about 300 read the identical analogy just this morning? Oh, right.]
...
...One of the reasons that Trump is so positive that the media is dumb and corrupt is that he is amazed at what they have allowed him to get away with through the years. [Oh. That is bullshit. So, Trump knows his life is a lie, knows that the media have abetted him, and is not "really" at war with the media, that's all a front, he "really" likes the media: Mental illness is a BIG problem in the U.S.] The fact that they have now helped him become President of the United States, all while pretending to oppose him [No. The media that "opposed" Trump {Let's take "the percentage of newspapers who didn't endorse him" as a rough, synonym to work with.} did so sincerely because they thought his election would mean the end of America as we know it.] (I'm still convinced much of the news media was conflicted because they knew how awesome his presidency would be for them personally) [I'm convinced you are a moron who gets a few things correct as occur randomly in empty space.] has probably solidified in his mind forever that he is right about the media. [That the media are "dumb and corrupt"? Honestly am not sure.]

Okay,  that has been "John Ziegler" and I have no idea who that is. http://www.mediaite.com/online/ironically-the-medias-previously-soft-treatment-of-trump-is-the-best-evidence-his-latest-charge-is-correct/