#trump is bargaining which is often the most forgotten part

[bloodpen-to-paper]

When Juanaflippa died, she was the first. No one knew how to react. Charlie and Mariana expressed the rage, the denial, and it was a spectacle of roleplay followed up by a wacky trial made for laughs. At this point, the rest of the server were still getting used to their eggs, so only Charlie and Mariana felt that twinge of pain from losing an egg. But when you remember Juanaflippa, you remember an explosion. A marvel.

Next Trump died. Maxo made you feel heartbroken with the image of a grieving father wallowing in misery and self destruction. But it was all still early, and most people didn't even notice. Trump died from neglect. Dan never saw him after adoption day. The server didn't come together like they did Juanaflippa. It was all very quiet. To this day, not many people in the community could tell you anything about Maxo's kid. About how hard his father bargained for his life between the gods. About how he failed. Trump was a whisper in the wind that only his father and those who watched him could bother to hear.

Then Tilín. At this point, the server was becoming more accustomed to the eggs. They were becoming attached. When Tilín died, it was depressing in every sense of the word. Quackity was somber, he barely spoke a word when he heard what had happened. A grave was built for Tilín by others with a heavy heart. There was no spectacle, and this time most people were involved in some way. Luzu came on to meet Tilín, and had to deal with that grief of being told his child was dead, something so heavy on him that he shut down completely. In life and in death, Tilín was the embodiment of sadness.

Bobby. The first death since Tilín. The first death in a long time. Everything had changed for the server. The eggs are their babies, their world. Everyone gathered to grieve Bobby, because they're a community now unlike ever before. But its different this time, they aren't there to witness a marvel from a distance, or grieve in sympathy. Bobby was a celebration. Music and dancing and memories. Toasts and cheering his name until the final moment. And having a final clap in his name after. Bobby was life. Because they're all scared now, terrified for their children. But they know what to expect this time. They're ready. They knew not to watch Jaiden and Roier grieve from the sidelines, they knew not to turn their backs on the two, and they would be sad but by god would they be happy as well. The server celebrated Roier and Jaiden, celebrated Bobby, and accepted his death with his name being shouted into the sky.

[libertariantaoist]

Donald Trump has a problem – he’s virtually alone. It isn’t just that he strays  significantly from his own party’s orthodoxy on major foreign policy questions.  His conundrum is that even his own cabinet choices very often depart from the  Trumpist canon, a fact that may undermine his ability to actually implement  his foreign policy vision.

That vision, in my view, involves unpacking the post-WWII international order  and updating it to focus on what Trump believes is the twin dangers to US interests:  radical Islamic terrorism, as he puts it, and socioeconomic “carnage” on the  domestic front. In order to do that, such institutions as NATO – founded when  the old Soviet Union was America’s main adversary on the world stage  –  must  be retooled, or, if necessary, abandoned, in favor of new alliances and structures  designed to meet new threats. In Trump’s view, we are stuck in the past, fighting  yesterday’s wars while our allies drain our resources and our real enemies go  about their business undisturbed.

In terms of specifics, what this translates into is a rapprochement with Russia,  which will be recruited into a US-led “anti-terrorist” coalition designed, first  of all, to fight and destroy ISIS, and perhaps also to contain China short of  war.

In an interview  with the Times of London and the German newspaper Bild, Trump  indicated that he envisions a grand bargain with Vladimir Putin: an end to US  sanctions and our aggressive military stance in Europe in exchange for major  mutual cuts in our respective nuclear arsenals, perhaps coupled with a Russian  guarantee that their “near abroad” is safe from Moscow’s designs. Furthermore,  Russia would be transformed from an adversary into a partner in our endless  “war on terrorism,” with Trump essentially farming out much of the work involved  in subduing and eliminating the ISIS “Caliphate” to Putin and Syrian strongman  Bashar al-Assad. This would eliminate the need for US troops on the ground,  reducing our role to air support and perhaps the injection of Special Forces  to carry out limited tasks.

The US military and national security bureaucracy is implacably opposed to  this: that is the source of the CIA’s open hostility to Trump, and the rather  crude effort to tie him and his campaign to the Kremlin. Both parties oppose  détente – never mind an alliance – with Russia, for any reason whatsoever, although  the Trumpian wing of the GOP is moving toward the President on this issue.

Thus we had the  spectacle of Marco Rubio demanding that Rex Tillerson condemn Putin as a  “war criminal,” which the would-be Secretary of State pointedly refused to do.  However, in response to relentless hammering, Tillerson agreed  that the US should have reacted to the Russian reacquisition of Crimea with  “a proportional show of force,” arming the Ukrainian coup leaders with “defensive”  weapons and otherwise “standing up” to the Russian “menace.” Trump, on the other  hand, has denied that Ukraine is a vital US interest, and seems  likely to reduce if not eliminate US support for Kiev, which was involved  in an active  effort to deny him the presidency.

The newly-confirmed Secretary of Defense, James “Mad Dog” Mattis, is even worse.  Pressed during the hearings to separate himself from Trump, he readily complied:

“Since Yalta, we have a long list of times we’ve tried to  engage positively with Russia. We have a relatively short list of successes  in that regard. And I think right now, the most important thing is that we recognize  the reality of what we deal with, with Mr. Putin, and we recognize that he is  trying to break the North Atlantic alliance, and that we take the steps, the  integrated steps, diplomatic, economic and military and the alliance steps,  the working with our allies, to defend ourselves where we must.”

The invocation of Yalta underscores just how sclerotic the national security  bureaucracy has become: they’re still living in the cold war era. And you’ll  note that Mattis never enumerates the “long list” of attempts to come to terms  with Russia, although one could recall Ronald Reagan’s historic agreement with  Mikhail Gorbachev that partially denuclearized Europe and essentially ended  the cold war – which is what Trump hopes to achieve or even surpass.

If Mattis thinks there are “a decreasing number of areas” where US and Russian  interests align, then he has the complete opposite view of his boss, who clearly  thinks it would be “nice if we could get along with Russia” and considers a  good relationship with Putin an “asset.”

Another problem is Mike Pompeo, Trump’s pick for CIA director, who averred  during his confirmation hearings that Russia is “threatening Europe” and is  “doing nothing” to eliminate ISIS as a factor in the Middle East. I guess all  those bombing  raids on radical Islamist fighters are just more fake news.

However, it’s hard to say that Pompeo and the others disagree with Trump’s  fundamental deviation from post-WWII US policy, which is that the cold war legacy  of seeing Russia as the principal threat is outdated. As the BBC reported,  “when asked what was the greatest security threat  to the US, [Pompeo] cited terrorism foremost and lumped Russia in behind North  Korea and China.” This view, however, is still a far cry from what appears to  be Trump’s position, which is that Russia is a potential ally that needs to  be integrated into the international order.

Senator Ron Wyden is currently holding up Pompeo’s  nomination, on the rather  weird grounds that the CIA appointee may want to use information gathered  by the Russians against Americans. Yes, that’s how far the anti-Russian hysteria  has penetrated into the consciousness of the Democratic “resistance.” One wonders  if Sen. Wyden objects to the Russians’ attempt to warn  us about the Tsarnaev brothers.

Speaking of anti-Russian hysterics, Pompeo also  pledged that he would take pains to support members of the intelligence community  who “were afraid there would be political retribution” for the spooks’ brazen  efforts to undermine Trump’s presidency, and promised to “have their backs at  every single moment. You have my word on that.”

I find this rather hard to believe: will Trump  really stand passively by while the “intelligence community” launches  a witch-hunt to delegitimize him as a “Russian puppet,” as Hillary Clinton  put it?

Trump’s inaugural address was a fiery challenge  to the Establishment – even as they stood around him, he lambasted them for  enriching themselves at the expense of the “forgotten man” and vowed to take  on the Powers That Be. Yet those same powers are amply represented in his own  cabinet choices – especially Mattis, who represents the old guard in the Pentagon.

I think the divide between Trump and his cabinet  is a bit overstated, but that doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant. While the President  is no doubt a willful man, there’s always the danger that he’ll allow himself  to be diverted from his own agenda. He’s pledged to take so much on in so short  a time that even someone with so much energy is bound to get bogged down by  relentless opposition from every quarter.

I liken Trump to Chairman Mao during the Cultural  Revolution. Convinced that the “bourgeoisie” had infiltrated and taken over  the Chinese Communist Party, Mao reached over the heads of the Party and appealed  directly to the masses. In a famous wall poster tacked up in Beijing’s Tiannanmen  Square, Mao directed his followers to “Bombard  the Headquarters!” – that is, the headquarters of the Communist Party, where  the “capitalist-roaders” were ensconced.

Trump is attempting the same gambit, using the  twenty-first century equivalent of the wall poster – his Twitter account. With  every political faction in Washington arrayed against him – from the neocons  on the right to the left-wing of the Democratic party – Trump must depend on  his own resources, and those of his inner circle, to upend the Establishment  and chart a new course for American foreign policy.

Will he be able to do it? I don’t know, but  what I do know is this: he is aiming for nothing less than a fundamental shift  in the course our foreign policy has taken since 1945. The ship of state is  a vast and unwieldy vehicle, one that isn’t turned around in a day – but I,  unlike all too many of my anti-interventionist friends and colleagues, give  him credit for trying.

A big part of the problem is that the Trump  administration is having major problems filling the thousands of jobs in the  national security bureaucracy. The reason is because his revolutionary ideas  are abhorred and opposed by the “foreign policy community,” which has a vested  interest in maintaining the status quo. Another problem is that many of the  anti-interventionist and “realist” scholars and think-tankers who supposedly  want to scale down the Empire and bring America home have a personal distaste  for the President that overrides their alleged principles.

As Trump would say: Sad! I would say it’s disgraceful.  

[go-redgirl]

Trump Says Bannon ‘Lost His Mind’ After Leaving White House

By Alex Wayne and Jennifer Jacobs  

and

‎January‎ ‎03‎, ‎2018‎ ‎1‎:‎24‎ ‎PM Updated on ‎January‎ ‎03‎, ‎2018‎ ‎3‎:‎49‎ ‎PM    

President Donald Trump denounced his former top strategist, Steve Bannon, on Wednesday in a dramatic break from the man considered an architect of Trump’s populist campaign.

“When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” Trump said in a statement issued after the publication of excerpts of a new book in which Bannon criticizes the president and his family. “Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look.”

Bannon has lost the access to the president that he’s enjoyed since leaving the White House in August, one person familiar with the matter said.

Earlier on Wednesday, The Guardian published excerpts of a forthcoming book by author Michael Wolff in which Bannon predicts that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will “crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV” over the president’s son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016. Bannon also called Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with the lawyer, in which he expected to receive damaging information on Trump’s election opponent Hillary Clinton, “treasonous” and “unpatriotic,” according to the Guardian.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at a briefing that Trump was “furious, disgusted” by Bannon’s remarks about his son, calling the claims “outrageous” and “completely false.”

Bannon, reached by Bloomberg News, declined to comment on the remarks published by the Guardian. Two people close to him said he wasn’t bothered by the president’s statement. They asked not to be identified discussing Bannon’s reaction.

New York Magazine also published an article by Wolff on Wednesday, based on the book, that recounts a conversation between Bannon and former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes in which the two men debated whether Trump understood the importance of his election.

“‘Does he get it?’ asked Ailes suddenly, looking intently at Bannon. Did Trump get where history had put him?” Wolff wrote. “Bannon took a sip of water. ‘He gets it,’ he said, after hesitating for perhaps a beat too long. ‘Or he gets what he gets.”’

265-Word Statement

In his 265-word statement, Trump went on to indict Bannon for some of his activities at the White House and afterward. He blamed him for the loss of a Republican Senate seat in Alabama in a special election last month and accused him of leaking to news reporters while he served as the White House chief strategist.

“Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country,” Trump said. “Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base -- he’s only in it for himself.”

Statement from the President of the United States:

Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.

Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans.

Steve doesn’t represent my base—he’s only in it for himself.

Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.

We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.

Bannon backed former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore over Trump’s preferred candidate, incumbent Senator Luther Strange, in a primary election for the Alabama seat. Moore lost to Democrat Doug Jones in the special election after several women accused him of sexual misconduct while they were teenagers.

Trump Jr. also declined to comment, but re-tweeted a Bloomberg News reporter’s tweet about the outcome of the Alabama election with the comment: “Thanks Steve. Keep up the great work.”

“Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was,” Trump said. “It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.”

In addition to Wolff’s book, titled “Fire and Fury: Inside Trump’s White House,” Bannon was the subject of a best-selling book published last year by Bloomberg Businessweek writer Joshua Green, “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency.”

Green’s book has been optioned by Blumhouse Television, which has hired screenwriter Christopher Wilkinson to turn the biography into a two-part, four-hour drama.

Trump complimented Bannon when he left the White House in August, saying he “would be a tough and smart new voice at” his website, Breitbart News. “Maybe even better than before. Fake News needs the competition!”

And Bannon boasted at a private luncheon in Hong Kong in September that he spoke with Trump by phone every two to three days, according to two people who attended.

After Trump issued his statement on Bannon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign staff tweeted a GIF image of the Kentucky Republican sitting at his desk, grinning. Bannon, a populist and nationalist who considers much of the Republican establishment corrupt, has said Senate Republicans should replace McConnell and has sought to recruit people to run against McConnell’s favored candidates in Republican primaries, including in Alabama.

Jennifer Jacobs     

@JenniferJJacobsMore stories by Jennifer Jacobs

[theatredirectors]

Tyler Mercer

Hometown?

Los Angeles, CA.

Where are you now?

Brooklyn, NY. 

What's your current project?

I’m currently directing the world premiere of Solstice Party!, written on commission for my company Live Source Theatre Group by playwright Susan Soon He Stanton. The play is about a group of friends who gather upstate to celebrate the summer solstice, but the situation turns sinister pretty fast. Secrets are revealed, betrayals are committed, and no one is safe. We commissioned this play to explore design’s dialogue with a magical realistic story told in a “woodsy” setting, and we ended up with more than we bargained for! We’ve billed the piece as a “Jonestown parable for the Trump era”, but at its core it’s really a deep, deep investigation of failure and the human spirit – of love and the loss of yourself to others.

Why and how did you get into theatre?

I wouldn’t be able to say except that my mother has home video recordings of me directing my sister in a backyard production of Phantom of the Opera. She got squeamish halfway through the rehearsal process, and I made her sign a contract. Smash-cut to now and I’m still directing and producing!

What is your directing dream project?

I can confidently say that anything we do at Live Source is a dream project. Because of our mission, we’re committed to seeing projects through from commissioning to premiere. So it’s a big undertaking, and one that we don’t embark upon lightly. We only pursue our craziest, dreamiest ideas. And we’re always working on several things at the same time, including a new, multi-authored adaptation of William Faulkner’s masterpiece novel AS I LAY DYING, as well as an adaptation of the forgotten Frank Sinatra film SUDDENLY which explores a particularly American culture of gun violence. These pieces will premiere over the coming years, but I trust that such an eclectic roster of exciting new works will always be in the pipeline for as long as Live Source is around!

What kind of theatre excites you?

The theatre that most excites me is filled with visual, kinesthetically-charged, visceral storytelling. I have a background in film as well as theatre, and very often I’m trying to reconcile the two on stage. How do we jump between perspectives and angles? How do we immerse the viewer in the visuals of the world? It’s sort of perfect when it comes to directing design-based work. Our projects always serve the audience a full course meal of theatre every night.

What do you want to change about theatre today?

When I started Live Source in 2011 with Chris Dieman, the goal was to explore a new format for theatre-making with an unrelenting commitment to visual storytelling through design. Many companies exist to serve directors, playwrights, or actors … and we always wanted to do something different. Everything we do, from our new work development to our programming, is meant to challenge the field as it relates to design, and hopefully offers a new model of collaboration to designers, playwrights, and actors alike.

What is your opinion on getting a directing MFA?

Well, of course, any form of higher education is an individual choice. Though for me, there are many years of growth and expansion ahead for Live Source that I wouldn’t put on hold. More importantly, I think it’s important to consider the weight that arts MFA programs place on the field. While instructive to many, they also add barriers of entry to the field. I urge producers and Artistic Directors who want to commit themselves to true diversity – social, economic, racial, and so on – to question the importance they place on these programs and understand they may only be available to a select few. I’d rather know: who is the best artist? Maybe it’s the person who has honed their skills over years of study at an academic institution. But perhaps it’s also not.

Who are your theatrical heroes?

This is a big hodge-podge of people. Firstly, I’d have to say that The Wooster Group’s Vieux Carré under the direction of Liz LeCompte was a game-changer for me. It opened my eyes to a kind of theatre that could follow a text energetically and kinesthetically through design. It brought new life and meaning to something like Tennessee Williams which we’re used to discussing with an academic, dramaturgical approach. Then in a completely different way, I’d have to say that Kate Whoriskey really taught me about high-stakes directing and getting the most drama out of actors. After that – I can’t keep track. I’m inspired by Mark Morris’ perfect eye for stage picture, by David Lynch’s unrelenting exploration of the unknown, by Ivo Van Hove’s ability to have me crying my eyes out in the last row of the theater.

Any advice for directors just starting out?

I’m always inspired by the ingenuity of the designers I work with, who for the most part are freelance artists – as are many early-career directors. The designers I work with hustle to be better artists and to get better work. They’re always seeing shows, reading reviews, engaging in dialogue, talking to the artists they admire, taking coffee dates, putting their work and ideas out there, asking to collaborate … and it all pays off. I encourage any director who sees a future for themselves in the theatre to honor these traits, and their relationships with other artists.

Plugs!

Live Source Theatre Group: www.live-source.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/livesourcegroup

Twitter & Instagram: @livesourcegroup

[puppylove24680]

#its about the grief cycle#juanaflippa is anger/denial#tilin is depression#trump is bargaining which is often the most forgotten part#bobby is acceptance#their deaths all meant something different#now we wait and see what happens next

When Juanaflippa died, she was the first. No one knew how to react. Charlie and Mariana expressed the rage, the denial, and it was a spectacle of roleplay followed up by a wacky trial made for laughs. At this point, the rest of the server were still getting used to their eggs, so only Charlie and Mariana felt that twinge of pain from losing an egg. But when you remember Juanaflippa, you remember an explosion. A marvel.

Next Trump died. Maxo made you feel heartbroken with the image of a grieving father wallowing in misery and self destruction. But it was all still early, and most people didn't even notice. Trump died from neglect. Dan never saw him after adoption day. The server didn't come together like they did Juanaflippa. It was all very quiet. To this day, not many people in the community could tell you anything about Maxo's kid. About how hard his father bargained for his life between the gods. About how he failed. Trump was a whisper in the wind that only his father and those who watched him could bother to hear.

Then Tilín. At this point, the server was becoming more accustomed to the eggs. They were becoming attached. When Tilín died, it was depressing in every sense of the word. Quackity was somber, he barely spoke a word when he heard what had happened. A grave was built for Tilín by others with a heavy heart. There was no spectacle, and this time most people were involved in some way. Luzu came on to meet Tilín, and had to deal with that grief of being told his child was dead, something so heavy on him that he shut down completely. In life and in death, Tilín was the embodiment of sadness.

Bobby. The first death since Tilín. The first death in a long time. Everything had changed for the server. The eggs are their babies, their world. Everyone gathered to grieve Bobby, because they're a community now unlike ever before. But its different this time, they aren't there to witness a marvel from a distance, or grieve in sympathy. Bobby was a celebration. Music and dancing and memories. Toasts and cheering his name until the final moment. And having a final clap in his name after. Bobby was life. Because they're all scared now, terrified for their children. But they know what to expect this time. They're ready. They knew not to watch Jaiden and Roier grieve from the sidelines, they knew not to turn their backs on the two, and they would be sad but by god would they be happy as well. The server celebrated Roier and Jaiden, celebrated Bobby, and accepted his death with his name being shouted into the sky.