It screws with your mind when you realize you're not only fighting the virus but your own country's leadership that is telling you your common sense perceptions of unfolding events are wrong.

In January 1945, as the Red Army encroached from the eastern front, and the Western Allies encroached from the west, and cities were firebombed, Goebbels still reassured Germans that if they dug enough trenches and fought hard enough the war was still winnable.

Twitter when he actually argued it should be legal for a man his age to have sex with a young teenager. Anybody remember that?

First he denied it.
Then he said he kept his underwear on.
Then he said there was nothing wrong with it, and that it should be legal.
Then Twitter users asked him if he was drunk-tweeting.
Then he said he was just speaking hypothetically.

He was the former head of the Russia desk at MI6.

Tangentially related, one of the clearest explanations I've ever encountered of the perplexing relationship between the United Kingdom and Putin's Russia is to be found in From Russia With Blood by Heidi Blake. It's an extraordinary, almost thrilling, look at why Britain tended to conceal or treat lightly assassinations by Putin on British soil (until it could no longer be reasonably ignored), but it gets heavily into the politics. I think in a sense it's related to why May and Johnson might "turn a blind eye to allegations about Trump."

the Ukraine (truncated) transcript, where Trump tells Zelensky to get in touch with Barr. Barr distanced himself assiduously but it was suspicious. There are probably some parts of this story I'm forgetting. Barr went nation-shopping to find something--perhaps dirt on Hunter Biden/Burisma. Those two are very much connected so it wouldn't be surprising if an investigation into Giuliani implicated Barr.

There have been numerous incidents, one in particular: a person or persons impersonating the Secret Service who could produce no credentials when asked. Also, some early preparation for VP Pence. Sounds like he might be arriving early, although it's hard to tell from the police traffic exactly what the situation is.

https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/17430

J. J. Gittes, Chinatown

he drastically curtailed public appearances and let Speer and Himmler take over as the public face of Nazi-ism. Trump doesn't know any better. The whole Trump Thing is riding on him alone, and he's under intense pressure.

Now, Dr. Bandy Lee says Trump won't "break down". But I hope she's wrong.

If I were advising Biden, I'd coach him to talk past Trump and directly to the audience, and to speak of Trump in the third person unless the debate rules specified otherwise. Almost like he's speaking about the coronavirus.

I think Trump is bluffing about wanting four debates. I'll be surprised if he does two.

if your ideas could be reduced to a series of ads, some of it might sink in.

About a month ago Howard Stern directly addressed the Deplorables in his audience (and they are there) when he told them that Trump despises them, and that if they were to go to Mar-A-Lago they wouldn't see anyone who looks like them. Then he told them that he hopes they drink bleach and die.

I'd leave that last part out, but essentially let them know that Trump hates their guts and would be embarrassed to be seen with them in public.

From the NYT:



https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/us/politics/bolton-book-trump-impeached.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20200617&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta®i_id=50692058&segment_id=31156&user_id=023573c5d55e5cc08299abdc2913a988