Assorted Random Thoughts….(Thread that is Open)

by

by Ugh

The GoT finale was okay and overly-criticized.  

Uber IPO:  Ha ha (he says, as he needs to submit receipts for Ubers taken on his last work trip…).

I still haven't seen Avengers: Endgame.

I don't understand the group of lawyers (and others) who are dedicated to preserving/expanding/keeping the supremacy of the Executive/Presidential power.  This is necessary b/c why?

People need to use their turn signals more often and earlier.

What book should I read next?

The current spate of abortion bans are unconstitutional for the reasons expressed on Roe as well as under the 8th and 9th amendments.

Go GS Warriors.

OPEN THREAD!

1,110 thoughts on “Assorted Random Thoughts….(Thread that is Open)”

  1. What book?
    Well, all of them, but based on the first 75 pages, “The Second Creation: Fixing The American Constitution In The Founding Era” by Jonathan Gianapp, might be a good one for you.
    No puns, so far.
    Epigraph to Chapter Two, entitled “Language and Power”:
    “But I have often wondered that a convention of such wise men should spend four months making such an explicit thing. For …. it appears too much a like a fiddle with but few strings, but so fixed as that the ruling majority may play any tune they please upon it. William Manning, “The Key to Liberty” (1798)
    Uber IPO: Unter

  2. What book?
    Well, all of them, but based on the first 75 pages, “The Second Creation: Fixing The American Constitution In The Founding Era” by Jonathan Gianapp, might be a good one for you.
    No puns, so far.
    Epigraph to Chapter Two, entitled “Language and Power”:
    “But I have often wondered that a convention of such wise men should spend four months making such an explicit thing. For …. it appears too much a like a fiddle with but few strings, but so fixed as that the ruling majority may play any tune they please upon it. William Manning, “The Key to Liberty” (1798)
    Uber IPO: Unter

  3. Reminiscent of the Jonestown cult:
    http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/05/symbolism-so-subtle-that-its-painted-itself-purple-and-is-dancing-naked-on-a-harpsichord-while-singing-subtle-symbolism-is-here-again
    …. or the military.
    I spent three sweltering summers (but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now; I can do pretty nifty square corners on the bed clothes … for a former hippie) at a military academy in sultry, humid Indiana and on Sundays we, many, many hundreds of us, would pass in review on the parade field, but otherwise stand at attention or parade rest for several hours.
    Kids keeled over from the heat every few minutes, their sabers and fake carbines rattling as they went down.
    The secret is to flex your knees every few minutes.
    And don’t drink the refreshing vial of poison.
    Cults don’t tell you that.

  4. Reminiscent of the Jonestown cult:
    http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/05/symbolism-so-subtle-that-its-painted-itself-purple-and-is-dancing-naked-on-a-harpsichord-while-singing-subtle-symbolism-is-here-again
    …. or the military.
    I spent three sweltering summers (but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now; I can do pretty nifty square corners on the bed clothes … for a former hippie) at a military academy in sultry, humid Indiana and on Sundays we, many, many hundreds of us, would pass in review on the parade field, but otherwise stand at attention or parade rest for several hours.
    Kids keeled over from the heat every few minutes, their sabers and fake carbines rattling as they went down.
    The secret is to flex your knees every few minutes.
    And don’t drink the refreshing vial of poison.
    Cults don’t tell you that.

  11. What book should I read next?
    ‘Hyperion’ is turning out to be pretty good so far, for me.

  12. What book should I read next?
    ‘Hyperion’ is turning out to be pretty good so far, for me.

  15. No puns, so far.
    šŸ™‚
    because it makes the libs mad
    Well sure but this has been a longstanding project of the GOP (and some Dems) dating back decades, before the passing of cleek’s law. Why the party of “government can do no good” is in favor of a strong executive is…? I suppose they’re all authoritarians and think the authority will be used against someone other than themselves.

  16. No puns, so far.
    šŸ™‚
    because it makes the libs mad
    Well sure but this has been a longstanding project of the GOP (and some Dems) dating back decades, before the passing of cleek’s law. Why the party of “government can do no good” is in favor of a strong executive is…? I suppose they’re all authoritarians and think the authority will be used against someone other than themselves.

  17. This is necessary b/c why?
    Because, since the libs will never be in power again (in their sidpa bardo), there’s no reason to delay. So . . . why not?

  18. This is necessary b/c why?
    Because, since the libs will never be in power again (in their sidpa bardo), there’s no reason to delay. So . . . why not?

  19. Why the party of “government can do no good” is in favor of a strong executive is…?
    Because that was when the other party was mostly in charge of the government. Or at least the legislature. The problem wasn’t government controlling stuff so much as government controlling the wrong stuff. Combined with no prospect, that they could see then, of ever controlling the legislature themselves and enacting their own hobby-horse controls.
    Now, of course, they have had a taste of control. Incompetence meant that they didn’t actually accomplish much. But still, having lost total control hurt. So, like any self-respecting 3 year old, they are lashing out.

  20. Why the party of “government can do no good” is in favor of a strong executive is…?
    Because that was when the other party was mostly in charge of the government. Or at least the legislature. The problem wasn’t government controlling stuff so much as government controlling the wrong stuff. Combined with no prospect, that they could see then, of ever controlling the legislature themselves and enacting their own hobby-horse controls.
    Now, of course, they have had a taste of control. Incompetence meant that they didn’t actually accomplish much. But still, having lost total control hurt. So, like any self-respecting 3 year old, they are lashing out.

  21. Why the party of “government can do no good” is in favor of a strong executive is…?
    i believe the trick there is that “government” is defined in the footnotes as “when a lib says ‘no'”.

  22. Why the party of “government can do no good” is in favor of a strong executive is…?
    i believe the trick there is that “government” is defined in the footnotes as “when a lib says ‘no'”.

  23. Sticking with a couple of the lighter items:
    The GoT finale was okay and overly-criticized.
    Could it have been any other way?
    People need to use their turn signals more often and earlier.
    Yes, and people need to make left turns as though they were trying to approximate a right angle as closely as possible, rather than in sweeping arcs to make the turns with minimal slowing. If people made right turns the way they make left turns, they’d be jumping the curb, knocking down signs, and sideswiping the corners of buildings.

  24. Sticking with a couple of the lighter items:
    The GoT finale was okay and overly-criticized.
    Could it have been any other way?
    People need to use their turn signals more often and earlier.
    Yes, and people need to make left turns as though they were trying to approximate a right angle as closely as possible, rather than in sweeping arcs to make the turns with minimal slowing. If people made right turns the way they make left turns, they’d be jumping the curb, knocking down signs, and sideswiping the corners of buildings.

  25. i’d like it if i could find a way to stop people from realizing that yes, they really did want to go faster, the second i try to pass them.

  26. i’d like it if i could find a way to stop people from realizing that yes, they really did want to go faster, the second i try to pass them.

  29. I know we’ve done this before, but it was a while ago, and since I am caught in a vortex of reading maniacally and obsessively a) while I recover from my hip replacement amid all the boredom/discomfort that involves and b) to block out (as much as possible, as often as possible) external reality, I would very much value anybody’s recommendations for absorbing, preferably multi-volume series. The one that’s given me the most pleasure recently was the Vorkosigan Saga, recommended here by I forget whom. I also loved Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch stuff. I’ve bookmarked Doc Science’s few above – any other recommendations, fantasy, sci-fi or otherwise? Don’t assume they have to be new/current, I’ve only started reading like this again in the last 18 months, so have lots of catching up to do.

  30. I know we’ve done this before, but it was a while ago, and since I am caught in a vortex of reading maniacally and obsessively a) while I recover from my hip replacement amid all the boredom/discomfort that involves and b) to block out (as much as possible, as often as possible) external reality, I would very much value anybody’s recommendations for absorbing, preferably multi-volume series. The one that’s given me the most pleasure recently was the Vorkosigan Saga, recommended here by I forget whom. I also loved Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch stuff. I’ve bookmarked Doc Science’s few above – any other recommendations, fantasy, sci-fi or otherwise? Don’t assume they have to be new/current, I’ve only started reading like this again in the last 18 months, so have lots of catching up to do.

  31. I know we’ve done this before, but it was a while ago, and since I am caught in a vortex of reading maniacally and obsessively a) while I recover from my hip replacement amid all the boredom/discomfort that involves and b) to block out (as much as possible, as often as possible) external reality, I would very much value anybody’s recommendations for absorbing, preferably multi-volume series. The one that’s given me the most pleasure recently was the Vorkosigan Saga, recommended here by I forget whom. I also loved Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch stuff. I’ve bookmarked Doc Science’s few above – any other recommendations, fantasy, sci-fi or otherwise? Don’t assume they have to be new/current, I’ve only started reading like this again in the last 18 months, so have lots of catching up to do.

  32. I know we’ve done this before, but it was a while ago, and since I am caught in a vortex of reading maniacally and obsessively a) while I recover from my hip replacement amid all the boredom/discomfort that involves and b) to block out (as much as possible, as often as possible) external reality, I would very much value anybody’s recommendations for absorbing, preferably multi-volume series. The one that’s given me the most pleasure recently was the Vorkosigan Saga, recommended here by I forget whom. I also loved Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch stuff. I’ve bookmarked Doc Science’s few above – any other recommendations, fantasy, sci-fi or otherwise? Don’t assume they have to be new/current, I’ve only started reading like this again in the last 18 months, so have lots of catching up to do.

  33. This is necessary b/c why?
    Their guy is the executive.
    People need to use their turn signals more often and earlier.
    Why take all of the surprise out of life?
    šŸ™‚

  34. This is necessary b/c why?
    Their guy is the executive.
    People need to use their turn signals more often and earlier.
    Why take all of the surprise out of life?
    šŸ™‚

  35. The answers to your political questions are self-evident and depressing: The Right has a chance to undo a century of legislation and judicial decisions and is going for it.
    Your next book – that’s a toughie; there are so many good books.
    You like SF, right? I recommend a little-known but excellent Canadian poet and SF writer from the 80s,Phyllis Gotlieb, who wrote a series about bio-engineered sapient cats who join a Galactic organization and encounter astonishing aliens. The writing is deeply intelligent, compassionate, and often funny. The first book in the series is “A Judgment of Dragons,” the next “Emperor, Swords, Pentacles,” and finishes with “Kingdom of the Cats.”

  36. The answers to your political questions are self-evident and depressing: The Right has a chance to undo a century of legislation and judicial decisions and is going for it.
    Your next book – that’s a toughie; there are so many good books.
    You like SF, right? I recommend a little-known but excellent Canadian poet and SF writer from the 80s,Phyllis Gotlieb, who wrote a series about bio-engineered sapient cats who join a Galactic organization and encounter astonishing aliens. The writing is deeply intelligent, compassionate, and often funny. The first book in the series is “A Judgment of Dragons,” the next “Emperor, Swords, Pentacles,” and finishes with “Kingdom of the Cats.”

  37. i’d like it if i could find a way to stop people from realizing that yes, they really did want to go faster, the second i try to pass them.
    Yes!
    Also, passing the person in the right lane on the 2-lane interstate highway at the pace of one inch a minute on cruise control IS NOT OKAY!!!

  38. i’d like it if i could find a way to stop people from realizing that yes, they really did want to go faster, the second i try to pass them.
    Yes!
    Also, passing the person in the right lane on the 2-lane interstate highway at the pace of one inch a minute on cruise control IS NOT OKAY!!!

  41. People need to use their turn signals more often and earlier.
    In Texas, using a turn signal is telling other people too much about your personal business.
    If people made right turns the way they make left turns, they’d be jumping the curb, knocking down signs, and sideswiping the corners of buildings.
    And there are those people who make right turns as though they expect, at any moment, for something horrifying to jump out in front of them.

  42. People need to use their turn signals more often and earlier.
    In Texas, using a turn signal is telling other people too much about your personal business.
    If people made right turns the way they make left turns, they’d be jumping the curb, knocking down signs, and sideswiping the corners of buildings.
    And there are those people who make right turns as though they expect, at any moment, for something horrifying to jump out in front of them.

  45. GFTNC, try Lee and Miller’s Liaden universe series. As I recall, the first one (internal chronology, not order written) is Crystal Soldier. Although you can easily (perhaps even better) start with Local Custom, and treat the first 4 as back story.

  46. GFTNC, try Lee and Miller’s Liaden universe series. As I recall, the first one (internal chronology, not order written) is Crystal Soldier. Although you can easily (perhaps even better) start with Local Custom, and treat the first 4 as back story.

  49. If you’re looking to soak up a lot of time, read all of Weber’s Honor Harrington universe novels.

  50. If you’re looking to soak up a lot of time, read all of Weber’s Honor Harrington universe novels.

  51. Baen has a number of Weber’s and other author’s e-books for free if you want to test read before spending money.

  52. Baen has a number of Weber’s and other author’s e-books for free if you want to test read before spending money.

  55. GFTNC: Your mileage may vary but Edward St. Aubyns’ “Patrick Melrose” series of novels, now available in one volume provided crackling prose and sharp, wicked dialogue.

  56. GFTNC: Your mileage may vary but Edward St. Aubyns’ “Patrick Melrose” series of novels, now available in one volume provided crackling prose and sharp, wicked dialogue.

  57. People who merge into traffic as if they were the only traffic need to be both publicly shamed and have their license revoked.

  58. People who merge into traffic as if they were the only traffic need to be both publicly shamed and have their license revoked.

  59. TGFNC,
    Fiction isn’t the only thing out there in multi-volume format. Try Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson.
    Best wishes.

  60. TGFNC,
    Fiction isn’t the only thing out there in multi-volume format. Try Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson.
    Best wishes.

  61. I’ll second the Caro recommendation (and I hope he manages to finish the fifth volume).

  62. I’ll second the Caro recommendation (and I hope he manages to finish the fifth volume).

  65. People who come to a full stop in the merging entrance lane to the freeway must also be dealt with in some medieval ways as well.

  66. People who come to a full stop in the merging entrance lane to the freeway must also be dealt with in some medieval ways as well.

  67. TGFNC,
    I am a sucker for James Lee Burke. His early Dave Robicheaux stories are the best….
    best,
    bobby

  68. TGFNC,
    I am a sucker for James Lee Burke. His early Dave Robicheaux stories are the best….
    best,
    bobby

  69. Thanks all for the recommendations, I will check them out (had already downloaded a recommended starter for the Liaden universe). JDT: I’ve always heard that those Melrose novels are terrific, but (and I am sincerely very ashamed to admit this) I feel absolutely incapable at the moment of dealing with truly upsetting stuff in fiction. It’s been such an awful 18 months and counting, not to mention what’s happening in the world, that what I need at the moment is really escapism. And paradoxically, despite the fact that I seemed not to be able to read fiction for years but was more than happy with non-fiction, this too has completely reversed, so that lets out the Lyndon Johnson biography. Ah well, no doubt this too shall pass.

  70. Thanks all for the recommendations, I will check them out (had already downloaded a recommended starter for the Liaden universe). JDT: I’ve always heard that those Melrose novels are terrific, but (and I am sincerely very ashamed to admit this) I feel absolutely incapable at the moment of dealing with truly upsetting stuff in fiction. It’s been such an awful 18 months and counting, not to mention what’s happening in the world, that what I need at the moment is really escapism. And paradoxically, despite the fact that I seemed not to be able to read fiction for years but was more than happy with non-fiction, this too has completely reversed, so that lets out the Lyndon Johnson biography. Ah well, no doubt this too shall pass.

  71. Lincoln In The Bardo is a pretty good read.
    Agreed, and thank you. Read that recently, and thought it was excellent.
    My wife and I are grinding our way through everything that Laurie R King has ever written. Started with the Holmes and Russell books, now I’m into the Kate Martinelli stuff.
    Diverting page-turners, for discerning readers!

  72. Lincoln In The Bardo is a pretty good read.
    Agreed, and thank you. Read that recently, and thought it was excellent.
    My wife and I are grinding our way through everything that Laurie R King has ever written. Started with the Holmes and Russell books, now I’m into the Kate Martinelli stuff.
    Diverting page-turners, for discerning readers!

  73. GFTNC:
    I get it vis a vis the Melrose saga.
    Some suggestions: engaging stuff, a little dark but very satisfyingly off kilter and a little cracked written by very original, but now somewhat neglected voices:
    J.G Ballard’s dystopian but fascinating short stories and his autobiographical novel “Empire Of The Sun”. Roald Dahl’s short stories for adults are laugh-inducing weird. And I’ve recently rediscovered Shirley Jackson after 50 years (best known for “The Lottery” and “The Haunting of Hill House”), but specifically her novel “We Have Always Lived In the Castle” and her relatively unknown domestic autobiographical works: “Life Among The Savages” and “Raising Demons”, about raising her kids.
    The latter are like “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies”, but more like “Please Do Eat The Daisies”.
    Try Walker Percy’s first novel “The Moviegoer”.
    Please.

  74. GFTNC:
    I get it vis a vis the Melrose saga.
    Some suggestions: engaging stuff, a little dark but very satisfyingly off kilter and a little cracked written by very original, but now somewhat neglected voices:
    J.G Ballard’s dystopian but fascinating short stories and his autobiographical novel “Empire Of The Sun”. Roald Dahl’s short stories for adults are laugh-inducing weird. And I’ve recently rediscovered Shirley Jackson after 50 years (best known for “The Lottery” and “The Haunting of Hill House”), but specifically her novel “We Have Always Lived In the Castle” and her relatively unknown domestic autobiographical works: “Life Among The Savages” and “Raising Demons”, about raising her kids.
    The latter are like “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies”, but more like “Please Do Eat The Daisies”.
    Try Walker Percy’s first novel “The Moviegoer”.
    Please.

  75. What book to read? Mine: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43152550-the-eclipse-dancer
    “The storyline is simple in that it is easy to follow, yet intricate as layers unwind with a seamless, melodic flow. And, while the author excels at getting inside the heart and soul of her readers, the connection
    garnered by what remains unsaid is remarkable. The writing is descriptive and artistic, without being flowery or overdone, and leaving just enough room to incorporate snippets of oneā€™s own imagination. Some things are just not taught and Koerberā€™s writing is one of those thingsā€“she has a gift. ” Reader Views

  76. What book to read? Mine: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43152550-the-eclipse-dancer
    “The storyline is simple in that it is easy to follow, yet intricate as layers unwind with a seamless, melodic flow. And, while the author excels at getting inside the heart and soul of her readers, the connection
    garnered by what remains unsaid is remarkable. The writing is descriptive and artistic, without being flowery or overdone, and leaving just enough room to incorporate snippets of oneā€™s own imagination. Some things are just not taught and Koerberā€™s writing is one of those thingsā€“she has a gift. ” Reader Views

  77. People who come to a full stop in the merging entrance lane to the freeway must also be dealt with in some medieval ways as well.
    OMG.
    once a week, i’m sure i’m going to end up pulverized between one of them and the pile of cars pushed into me by an 18 wheeler.

  78. People who come to a full stop in the merging entrance lane to the freeway must also be dealt with in some medieval ways as well.
    OMG.
    once a week, i’m sure i’m going to end up pulverized between one of them and the pile of cars pushed into me by an 18 wheeler.

  79. If you’re looking for *series*, here’s the list of this year’s Hugo nominees (for this relatively new category):
    The Centenal Cycle, by Malka Older
    The Laundry Files, by Charles Stross
    Machineries of Empire, by Yoon Ha Lee
    The October Daye Series, by Seanan McGuire
    The Universe of Xuya, by Aliette de Bodard
    Wayfarers, by Becky Chambers
    These are all good, but The Centenal Cycle is specifically about “elections and how to undermine them”, and I found vol.1 too realistic a dystopia to get through easily.
    Last year’s nominees were:
    World of the Five Gods, by Lois McMaster Bujold (which won)
    InCryptid, by Seanan McGuire
    The Memoirs of Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan
    The Books of the Raksura, by Martha Wells
    The Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson
    The Divine Cities, by Robert Jackson Bennett
    Of those, The Memoirs of Lady Trent and The Divine Cities were my favorites, but I also loved Raksura and World of the Five Gods.

  80. If you’re looking for *series*, here’s the list of this year’s Hugo nominees (for this relatively new category):
    The Centenal Cycle, by Malka Older
    The Laundry Files, by Charles Stross
    Machineries of Empire, by Yoon Ha Lee
    The October Daye Series, by Seanan McGuire
    The Universe of Xuya, by Aliette de Bodard
    Wayfarers, by Becky Chambers
    These are all good, but The Centenal Cycle is specifically about “elections and how to undermine them”, and I found vol.1 too realistic a dystopia to get through easily.
    Last year’s nominees were:
    World of the Five Gods, by Lois McMaster Bujold (which won)
    InCryptid, by Seanan McGuire
    The Memoirs of Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan
    The Books of the Raksura, by Martha Wells
    The Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson
    The Divine Cities, by Robert Jackson Bennett
    Of those, The Memoirs of Lady Trent and The Divine Cities were my favorites, but I also loved Raksura and World of the Five Gods.

  81. I don’t understand the group of lawyers (and others) who are dedicated to preserving/expanding/keeping the supremacy of the Executive/Presidential power. This is necessary b/c why?
    Not sure if anyone has linked to this exquisite piece in The Washington Post. The accompanying video is wonderful as well.
    I guess that doesn’t really answer Ugh’s question. Why? Other than self-enrichment, I don’t know – and self-enrichment isn’t the only story. What I think is: they’re just horrible human beings.

  82. I don’t understand the group of lawyers (and others) who are dedicated to preserving/expanding/keeping the supremacy of the Executive/Presidential power. This is necessary b/c why?
    Not sure if anyone has linked to this exquisite piece in The Washington Post. The accompanying video is wonderful as well.
    I guess that doesn’t really answer Ugh’s question. Why? Other than self-enrichment, I don’t know – and self-enrichment isn’t the only story. What I think is: they’re just horrible human beings.

  83. they’re just horrible human beings.
    Well, if you define “horrible human beings” as simply lacking in empathy for anyone but “people like me”, sure. I think the thing is, they really, really liked the world where they and people like them were in charge and flourished. Changes from there, even when they have no obvious relation to reducing their political and economic control, were bad by definition. And so they want to roll them back.
    They’re not really bad people . . . as long as you are their kind of people. And they don’t (mostly) have anything in particular against everybody else — the Stephen Millers of the world notwithstanding. Those others just can’t be allowed to gain anything at the expense of “real people”™.

  84. they’re just horrible human beings.
    Well, if you define “horrible human beings” as simply lacking in empathy for anyone but “people like me”, sure. I think the thing is, they really, really liked the world where they and people like them were in charge and flourished. Changes from there, even when they have no obvious relation to reducing their political and economic control, were bad by definition. And so they want to roll them back.
    They’re not really bad people . . . as long as you are their kind of people. And they don’t (mostly) have anything in particular against everybody else — the Stephen Millers of the world notwithstanding. Those others just can’t be allowed to gain anything at the expense of “real people”™.

  85. ”Ā I think the thing is, they really, really liked the world where they and people like them were in charge and flourished”
    Isnt this the goal of everyone remotely interested in government? It is explicitly stated by women, people of color, etc.
    Everyone wants someone like them to be in charge under the presumption that it would enable them to flourish.
    Depends on how you define “someone like me” I suppose.

  86. ”Ā I think the thing is, they really, really liked the world where they and people like them were in charge and flourished”
    Isnt this the goal of everyone remotely interested in government? It is explicitly stated by women, people of color, etc.
    Everyone wants someone like them to be in charge under the presumption that it would enable them to flourish.
    Depends on how you define “someone like me” I suppose.

  87. The question is whether it includes the exclusion of everyone else as by definition illegitimate. On the extreme ends you’ll find that on both sides but in the US the real exteme left never had anything near complete control while the extreme right has significant influence and uses it at the explicit expense of others. We can talk again about this once we have a Maoist equivalent to the freedom caucus taking congressional control of the Dems. You’ll find that the average commenter here are not fond of those guys either.

  88. The question is whether it includes the exclusion of everyone else as by definition illegitimate. On the extreme ends you’ll find that on both sides but in the US the real exteme left never had anything near complete control while the extreme right has significant influence and uses it at the explicit expense of others. We can talk again about this once we have a Maoist equivalent to the freedom caucus taking congressional control of the Dems. You’ll find that the average commenter here are not fond of those guys either.

  89. I don’t understand the group of lawyers (and others) who are dedicated to preserving/expanding/keeping the supremacy of the Executive/Presidential power. This is necessary b/c why?
    perhaps they’re just Republicans who grew up knowing they had to be fans of BushCo’s ‘Unitary Executive’ claims in order to stay in the party’s good graces; they were taught to think that way, and now that’s the way they think.

  90. I don’t understand the group of lawyers (and others) who are dedicated to preserving/expanding/keeping the supremacy of the Executive/Presidential power. This is necessary b/c why?
    perhaps they’re just Republicans who grew up knowing they had to be fans of BushCo’s ‘Unitary Executive’ claims in order to stay in the party’s good graces; they were taught to think that way, and now that’s the way they think.

  93. Again, thanks to all and I will check out all recommendations with which I was not already familiar.
    Various unconnected thoughts:
    JDT: I know a fascinating old woman who was in the same Japanese camp in Shanghai with Ballard – FWIW she says Empire of the Sun is extremely inaccurate! I had this conversation with her years ago, I will have to check with her exactly what she means, if it matters. I read the Roald Dahl adult stories when I was a teenager, and remember their very particular quality with pleasure. Anybody who enjoyed them, and is not familiar with Saki (currently out of fashion) would be well advised to try to obtain a collection of his short stories, they are sly, macabre masterpieces, most famously Sredni Vashtar but there are many others.
    I quite enjoyed Lady Trent, and read Bujold’s Five Gods in a rush after finishing the Vorkosigan books and needing a fix, ditto the Sharing Knife books. I found both weak stuff compared to the Vorkosigan saga, although I thought the Five Gods series the better of the two. I think Bujold wandered into Conan Doyle/Holmes territory with Miles Vorkosigan, and is suffering the consequences: she created a character so charming and interesting and alive, that nothing else she creates can generate the same interest.
    I’ve enjoyed Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series, and have just finished the second of his Collapsing Empire Trilogy so now will have to wait for the third to be published. It’s very annoying, this is why I prefer to wait and read finished series!

  94. Again, thanks to all and I will check out all recommendations with which I was not already familiar.
    Various unconnected thoughts:
    JDT: I know a fascinating old woman who was in the same Japanese camp in Shanghai with Ballard – FWIW she says Empire of the Sun is extremely inaccurate! I had this conversation with her years ago, I will have to check with her exactly what she means, if it matters. I read the Roald Dahl adult stories when I was a teenager, and remember their very particular quality with pleasure. Anybody who enjoyed them, and is not familiar with Saki (currently out of fashion) would be well advised to try to obtain a collection of his short stories, they are sly, macabre masterpieces, most famously Sredni Vashtar but there are many others.
    I quite enjoyed Lady Trent, and read Bujold’s Five Gods in a rush after finishing the Vorkosigan books and needing a fix, ditto the Sharing Knife books. I found both weak stuff compared to the Vorkosigan saga, although I thought the Five Gods series the better of the two. I think Bujold wandered into Conan Doyle/Holmes territory with Miles Vorkosigan, and is suffering the consequences: she created a character so charming and interesting and alive, that nothing else she creates can generate the same interest.
    I’ve enjoyed Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series, and have just finished the second of his Collapsing Empire Trilogy so now will have to wait for the third to be published. It’s very annoying, this is why I prefer to wait and read finished series!

  95. sapient – i don’t know whether to love you or hate you for making me read that article. šŸ™‚
    From the article:
    A devout Catholic, Leo said he is driven by his faith and a literal interpretation of the Constitution. He also defended the practice of taking money from donors whose identities are not publicly disclosed, comparing his effort to shape the courts to those of abolitionists, suffragists and civil rights activists.
    No, no, no, no, no. Fnck YOU!
    Later, in response to written questions about the interlocking nonprofits, Leo described the network as ā€œan effective and highly successful judicial coalition thatā€™s organized just about the same as the Leftā€™s, except that their coalition is significantly bigger and better funded.ā€
    Don’t get high on your own supply dude!
    Leo told The Post he has employed techniques liberals used to derail the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court three decades ago.
    You mean highlighting his writing and record and discussing what it would mean if he were a Justice and then voting accordingly? The horror. If only Merrick Garland had received the Bork treatment…
    Read the whole thing, as they say, the dude is delusional and a cancer.

  96. sapient – i don’t know whether to love you or hate you for making me read that article. šŸ™‚
    From the article:
    A devout Catholic, Leo said he is driven by his faith and a literal interpretation of the Constitution. He also defended the practice of taking money from donors whose identities are not publicly disclosed, comparing his effort to shape the courts to those of abolitionists, suffragists and civil rights activists.
    No, no, no, no, no. Fnck YOU!
    Later, in response to written questions about the interlocking nonprofits, Leo described the network as ā€œan effective and highly successful judicial coalition thatā€™s organized just about the same as the Leftā€™s, except that their coalition is significantly bigger and better funded.ā€
    Don’t get high on your own supply dude!
    Leo told The Post he has employed techniques liberals used to derail the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court three decades ago.
    You mean highlighting his writing and record and discussing what it would mean if he were a Justice and then voting accordingly? The horror. If only Merrick Garland had received the Bork treatment…
    Read the whole thing, as they say, the dude is delusional and a cancer.

  99. GFNC: for series reading see Nathan Lowell…ā€Shareā€ series at least start out as YA but grew on me…ā€Ravenwoodā€ books interest in somewhat different direction

  100. GFNC: for series reading see Nathan Lowell…ā€Shareā€ series at least start out as YA but grew on me…ā€Ravenwoodā€ books interest in somewhat different direction

  101. Have you read Dorothy Dunnett, GFtNC ?
    That would certainly burn some time, and you would likely find it readable.
    Lymond or Niccolo – the literary Pepsi or Coke question.

  102. Have you read Dorothy Dunnett, GFtNC ?
    That would certainly burn some time, and you would likely find it readable.
    Lymond or Niccolo – the literary Pepsi or Coke question.

  103. “Empire of the Sun was extremely inaccurate…”
    It’s on my fiction shelf. šŸ˜‰

  104. “Empire of the Sun was extremely inaccurate…”
    It’s on my fiction shelf. šŸ˜‰

  105. Nigel: alas yes, many years ago. I only wish I had Lymond to do all over again (actually have re-read them several times). As for Niccolo, I enjoyed but thought she had tipped over into too much twisty complication. However, I was glad she had time to finish it, albeit somewhat hurriedly, and make the ancestral connection.
    JDT: I think she was trying to say that the way he portrayed the texture of life in the camp was misleading, but of course this is in a sense immaterial to anybody but other witnesses like her.

  106. Nigel: alas yes, many years ago. I only wish I had Lymond to do all over again (actually have re-read them several times). As for Niccolo, I enjoyed but thought she had tipped over into too much twisty complication. However, I was glad she had time to finish it, albeit somewhat hurriedly, and make the ancestral connection.
    JDT: I think she was trying to say that the way he portrayed the texture of life in the camp was misleading, but of course this is in a sense immaterial to anybody but other witnesses like her.

  109. Isnt this the goal of everyone remotely interested in government?
    First, there is a difference between trying to get a seat at the table, and trying to hold on to the seat you currently have at the expense of others.
    Second, no. The answer is no.
    they’re just horrible human beings.
    Well, if you define “horrible human beings” as simply lacking in empathy for anyone but “people like me”, sure.
    This was a curious exchange, to me.
    By some, maybe many, measures, “lacking in empathy for anyone but people like me” is kind of the horrible part of “horrible people”.
    You don’t actually have to intend harm for your thoughts and actions to cause harm. The inability to imagine the experience of others, the inability to recognize and take responsibility for the negative outcomes of your own actions, the inability to recognize the fundamental humanity of people who aren’t “like you” seems, to me, to be inseparable from what it is to be “horrible”.
    Everybody has prejudices, blind spots, inadequacies. Saints are thin on the ground. What is essential is our willingness to recognize and own them, and seek to overcome them.

  110. Isnt this the goal of everyone remotely interested in government?
    First, there is a difference between trying to get a seat at the table, and trying to hold on to the seat you currently have at the expense of others.
    Second, no. The answer is no.
    they’re just horrible human beings.
    Well, if you define “horrible human beings” as simply lacking in empathy for anyone but “people like me”, sure.
    This was a curious exchange, to me.
    By some, maybe many, measures, “lacking in empathy for anyone but people like me” is kind of the horrible part of “horrible people”.
    You don’t actually have to intend harm for your thoughts and actions to cause harm. The inability to imagine the experience of others, the inability to recognize and take responsibility for the negative outcomes of your own actions, the inability to recognize the fundamental humanity of people who aren’t “like you” seems, to me, to be inseparable from what it is to be “horrible”.
    Everybody has prejudices, blind spots, inadequacies. Saints are thin on the ground. What is essential is our willingness to recognize and own them, and seek to overcome them.

  111. And WTF is a “literal” interpretation of the Constitution?
    Same as a “literal” interpretation of the Bible.
    Reading the plain text and construing its meaning without regard for the historical, cultural, and linguistic context in which it was written, while assuming the motivations and intent of the author are the same as your own.

  112. And WTF is a “literal” interpretation of the Constitution?
    Same as a “literal” interpretation of the Bible.
    Reading the plain text and construing its meaning without regard for the historical, cultural, and linguistic context in which it was written, while assuming the motivations and intent of the author are the same as your own.

  113. I wasn’t too ripped up by the GoT finale, but I wasn’t super invested in the books. However, I thought the music was fantastic, especially the way they reinterpreted the main theme at the end of the episode showing the various Starks going on to whatever destiny they had.
    Here’s a great youtube video of a lower brass version of the GoT theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTDEVUlCClk
    From the notes
    ====
    A few New York City low brass players were joking around at a gig a year ago, talking about how much fun it would be fun to record an arrangement of some cool piece of music with an “extra low” low brass section. (Meaning: an extra special amount of bass trombone players, along with a tuba and a few tenor trombones.) An epic piece of music like the Game of Thrones theme would be perfect for this. The idea almost never got off the ground, due to the expected difficulties in putting something like this together. Two weeks ago, with the current Game of Thrones season coming to a close and the deadline approaching to release this track, they realized there was actually a 90 min timeslot on a random Tuesday afternoon when 6 contrabass trombone players were all going to be free at once. It was time to do it. Once you get Six Contra players in one place, you either run away fast- or join in. Seventeen other top orchestral and commercial NYC low brass players joined them, bringing the ensemble to 23 players, and this is the result. Enjoy the sound.
    =====

  114. I wasn’t too ripped up by the GoT finale, but I wasn’t super invested in the books. However, I thought the music was fantastic, especially the way they reinterpreted the main theme at the end of the episode showing the various Starks going on to whatever destiny they had.
    Here’s a great youtube video of a lower brass version of the GoT theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTDEVUlCClk
    From the notes
    ====
    A few New York City low brass players were joking around at a gig a year ago, talking about how much fun it would be fun to record an arrangement of some cool piece of music with an “extra low” low brass section. (Meaning: an extra special amount of bass trombone players, along with a tuba and a few tenor trombones.) An epic piece of music like the Game of Thrones theme would be perfect for this. The idea almost never got off the ground, due to the expected difficulties in putting something like this together. Two weeks ago, with the current Game of Thrones season coming to a close and the deadline approaching to release this track, they realized there was actually a 90 min timeslot on a random Tuesday afternoon when 6 contrabass trombone players were all going to be free at once. It was time to do it. Once you get Six Contra players in one place, you either run away fast- or join in. Seventeen other top orchestral and commercial NYC low brass players joined them, bringing the ensemble to 23 players, and this is the result. Enjoy the sound.
    =====

  115. while assuming the motivations and intent of the author are the same as your own
    the question is which is to be master ā€” that’s all.

  116. while assuming the motivations and intent of the author are the same as your own
    the question is which is to be master ā€” that’s all.

  117. russell, a lot of official saints were imo quite horrible people both personally and in what they triggered.
    Plus saints tend to assume that either other people are too (if given the chance) or have to be lorded over for failing.

  118. russell, a lot of official saints were imo quite horrible people both personally and in what they triggered.
    Plus saints tend to assume that either other people are too (if given the chance) or have to be lorded over for failing.

  119. I really like what Russel said upthread–as usual very much to the point
    I don’t know if we have always lacked people in government who put ego before principles of governance–but that sure seems characteristic of Republicans in office today.

  120. I really like what Russel said upthread–as usual very much to the point
    I don’t know if we have always lacked people in government who put ego before principles of governance–but that sure seems characteristic of Republicans in office today.

  123. a lot of official saints were imo quite horrible people both personally and in what they triggered.
    Good point, that. Noted.

  124. a lot of official saints were imo quite horrible people both personally and in what they triggered.
    Good point, that. Noted.

  125. I rather have the feeling (from the outside, not being Catholic or even Anglican) that “official saints” and real saints are two barely overlapping categories.

  126. I rather have the feeling (from the outside, not being Catholic or even Anglican) that “official saints” and real saints are two barely overlapping categories.

  129. People need to use their turn signals more often and earlier.
    Many years ago, when I went to work at Bell Labs in NJ, my aunt and uncle gave me an article from some NJ magazine titled How To Be a New Jersey Driver. As I remember, the section on turn signals included, “Turn signals give away your next move — never use them.”
    My favorite was advice on car maintenance: “Never repair your front bumper. Tailgating is a way of life in NJ, and a rumpled bumper sends the message ‘I’m not afraid to hit things’ to the driver ahead of you.”

  130. People need to use their turn signals more often and earlier.
    Many years ago, when I went to work at Bell Labs in NJ, my aunt and uncle gave me an article from some NJ magazine titled How To Be a New Jersey Driver. As I remember, the section on turn signals included, “Turn signals give away your next move — never use them.”
    My favorite was advice on car maintenance: “Never repair your front bumper. Tailgating is a way of life in NJ, and a rumpled bumper sends the message ‘I’m not afraid to hit things’ to the driver ahead of you.”

  133. Book: Hand and Jim by Scott Eyman. It’s the story of the 50 year friendship of Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart. Very well written so you might enjoy even if you don’t care about Hollywood or actors.
    TV: Fosse/Verdon, an 8 episode series about Bob and Gwen just about to end on FX. It’s based on the bio Fosse, which I’m reading concurrently. Some people may not be able to stomach Bob’s treatment of women, but Michelle Williams’ performance is worth the effort. I’ve only ever seen her in one other movie, but I think she might end up being one of the greats.

  134. Book: Hand and Jim by Scott Eyman. It’s the story of the 50 year friendship of Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart. Very well written so you might enjoy even if you don’t care about Hollywood or actors.
    TV: Fosse/Verdon, an 8 episode series about Bob and Gwen just about to end on FX. It’s based on the bio Fosse, which I’m reading concurrently. Some people may not be able to stomach Bob’s treatment of women, but Michelle Williams’ performance is worth the effort. I’ve only ever seen her in one other movie, but I think she might end up being one of the greats.

  137. As I remember, the section on turn signals included, “Turn signals give away your next move — never use them.”
    I live in NJ, and there is some validity to this. I personally use turn signals, but I know that some people take them as a reason to speed up to prevent you from changing lanes. I put mine on, and after the shortest time that could be considered remotely reasonable, I’m moving over, like it or not. I only piss off the a**holes who try not to let me move over, which is more than okay with me.
    I hate tailgaters, and I don’t do it.
    Here’s the one piece of, I don’t know, passive-aggressive (?) driving advice I would give and follow in NJ: When approaching a traffic circle, don’t make eye contact or give even the slightest hint that you might see the other cars in the circle. Scare them with apparent obliviousness into letting you in.

  138. As I remember, the section on turn signals included, “Turn signals give away your next move — never use them.”
    I live in NJ, and there is some validity to this. I personally use turn signals, but I know that some people take them as a reason to speed up to prevent you from changing lanes. I put mine on, and after the shortest time that could be considered remotely reasonable, I’m moving over, like it or not. I only piss off the a**holes who try not to let me move over, which is more than okay with me.
    I hate tailgaters, and I don’t do it.
    Here’s the one piece of, I don’t know, passive-aggressive (?) driving advice I would give and follow in NJ: When approaching a traffic circle, don’t make eye contact or give even the slightest hint that you might see the other cars in the circle. Scare them with apparent obliviousness into letting you in.

  139. “Drive offensively – let the other guy watch out for you!”
    (Who here remembers that old PSA?)

  140. “Drive offensively – let the other guy watch out for you!”
    (Who here remembers that old PSA?)

  141. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/lindsey-graham-trump-political-rectal-exam-hannity
    The rectal exam is necessary in order to confront and ascertain the malignant nature of the conservative p mind where it resides and from whence its governing practices are pulled and are metastasizing.
    The process will be complete when p, Graham and all of the their conservative ilk are fully disemboweled.
    This will be one instance in which the cure is worse, as in fatal, than the disease, but the disease ravaging the body politic is the modern, anti-modernity conservative movement and it will be cured and the patient will suck it up.

  142. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/lindsey-graham-trump-political-rectal-exam-hannity
    The rectal exam is necessary in order to confront and ascertain the malignant nature of the conservative p mind where it resides and from whence its governing practices are pulled and are metastasizing.
    The process will be complete when p, Graham and all of the their conservative ilk are fully disemboweled.
    This will be one instance in which the cure is worse, as in fatal, than the disease, but the disease ravaging the body politic is the modern, anti-modernity conservative movement and it will be cured and the patient will suck it up.

  143. The Secretary of the Treasury says that he is delaying the new $20 bill, featuring Harriet Tubman. Why? He claims that the Tubman change cannot happen next year because heā€™s too focused on trying to make the $10 and $50 bills harder to counterfeit.
    Of course. Because the $10 bill and the $50 bill are used so much more than the $20. So obviously that’s the place to focus. Riiiight….

  144. The Secretary of the Treasury says that he is delaying the new $20 bill, featuring Harriet Tubman. Why? He claims that the Tubman change cannot happen next year because heā€™s too focused on trying to make the $10 and $50 bills harder to counterfeit.
    Of course. Because the $10 bill and the $50 bill are used so much more than the $20. So obviously that’s the place to focus. Riiiight….

  145. Because p’s racism and passion to destroy all traces of the black President are not counterfeit.
    They are as solid as the three dollar ruble.
    During the 2016 coup campaign, the vermin racist lout called the Tubman decision by Obama “politically correct”.
    Which is republicanese for “Whad you say, boy? Jasper, hand me that bullwhip.”

  146. Because p’s racism and passion to destroy all traces of the black President are not counterfeit.
    They are as solid as the three dollar ruble.
    During the 2016 coup campaign, the vermin racist lout called the Tubman decision by Obama “politically correct”.
    Which is republicanese for “Whad you say, boy? Jasper, hand me that bullwhip.”

  147. But usually the figleaf isn’t quite so lacy. At least, however bogus, it isn’t (in most cases) quite so blatantly nonsense.

  148. But usually the figleaf isn’t quite so lacy. At least, however bogus, it isn’t (in most cases) quite so blatantly nonsense.

  149. p’s admission that everyone he hires are unqualified idiots and self-dealing bag men and those he retains are shameless, unqualified idiots and self-dealing bag women with the added bullet point on their resumes of being tireless butt lickers is getting uncomfortably close to my opinion that everyone he hires are unqualified idiots and self-dealing bag men and those he retains are shameless, unqualified idiots and self-dealing bag women with the added bullet point on their resumes of being tireless butt lickers:
    https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/05/trump-admits-he-hired-an-idiot/
    I should be impeached.

  150. p’s admission that everyone he hires are unqualified idiots and self-dealing bag men and those he retains are shameless, unqualified idiots and self-dealing bag women with the added bullet point on their resumes of being tireless butt lickers is getting uncomfortably close to my opinion that everyone he hires are unqualified idiots and self-dealing bag men and those he retains are shameless, unqualified idiots and self-dealing bag women with the added bullet point on their resumes of being tireless butt lickers:
    https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/05/trump-admits-he-hired-an-idiot/
    I should be impeached.

  151. I would like to encourage everyone to heave a rotting peach at any Trumpy GOPer.
    Impeach ’em all, I say.

  152. I would like to encourage everyone to heave a rotting peach at any Trumpy GOPer.
    Impeach ’em all, I say.

  155. Season 8 of GOT was an illogical train wreck. I am no fan of Martin, but as boring and tedious as his later volumes are, there is no way he would have written such mindnumbingly stupid crap. For example, scorpions in episode 4 that would not be out of place on a modern battlefield, vs scorpions in episode 5 which couldnā€™t hit anything. As has been typical of Benioff and Weiss for the past three seasons, people and distances and objects and their locations and capabilities were twisted and mutilated in order to make the plot go the way they wanted it to go so they could finish the series and do something else.

  156. Season 8 of GOT was an illogical train wreck. I am no fan of Martin, but as boring and tedious as his later volumes are, there is no way he would have written such mindnumbingly stupid crap. For example, scorpions in episode 4 that would not be out of place on a modern battlefield, vs scorpions in episode 5 which couldnā€™t hit anything. As has been typical of Benioff and Weiss for the past three seasons, people and distances and objects and their locations and capabilities were twisted and mutilated in order to make the plot go the way they wanted it to go so they could finish the series and do something else.

  157. Btw, on the larger subject, not objecting necessarily to GOTā€™s Darth Vader turn, but only to how it was done. This was almost as bad as the Star Wars prequels. In theory, someone could write a deeply engaging tragedy about how some amazingly gifted person took a turn towards the dark side, but in practice, Benioff and Weiss just redid Anakin Skywalker going bad because of adolescent angst. Okay, not quite that bad, but not good either.
    Martin will probably do a much better job if he finishes. Canā€™t believe I am praising him.
    Peter Jackson really screwed up the character of Denethor. Maybe Hollywood ( or Auckland) doesnā€™t know how to do tragic villains.

  158. Btw, on the larger subject, not objecting necessarily to GOTā€™s Darth Vader turn, but only to how it was done. This was almost as bad as the Star Wars prequels. In theory, someone could write a deeply engaging tragedy about how some amazingly gifted person took a turn towards the dark side, but in practice, Benioff and Weiss just redid Anakin Skywalker going bad because of adolescent angst. Okay, not quite that bad, but not good either.
    Martin will probably do a much better job if he finishes. Canā€™t believe I am praising him.
    Peter Jackson really screwed up the character of Denethor. Maybe Hollywood ( or Auckland) doesnā€™t know how to do tragic villains.

  163. I went back and watched “The Long Night” (aka Batter of Winterfell). Liked it a lot more than the first time.
    Benioff and Weiss just redid Anakin Skywalker going bad because of adolescent angst.
    They should have done the Scooby-Doo ending.

  164. I went back and watched “The Long Night” (aka Batter of Winterfell). Liked it a lot more than the first time.
    Benioff and Weiss just redid Anakin Skywalker going bad because of adolescent angst.
    They should have done the Scooby-Doo ending.

  165. These folks seem determined to push the Harding Administration into second place. But it’s the sheer incompetence of the corruption which staggers the imagination:

    President Trump has personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a border wall contract to a North Dakota construction firm whose top executive is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News, according to four administration officials.

    It’s like they can’t wrap their heads around the very idea of subtlety.

  166. These folks seem determined to push the Harding Administration into second place. But it’s the sheer incompetence of the corruption which staggers the imagination:

    President Trump has personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a border wall contract to a North Dakota construction firm whose top executive is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News, according to four administration officials.

    It’s like they can’t wrap their heads around the very idea of subtlety.

  167. ā€œThey should have done the Scooby-Doo ending.ā€
    I think they should have had a season introducing dozens of new characters, many of them boring as hell, and then gone on a multi- year sabbatical complaining about how hard it was to finish.

  168. ā€œThey should have done the Scooby-Doo ending.ā€
    I think they should have had a season introducing dozens of new characters, many of them boring as hell, and then gone on a multi- year sabbatical complaining about how hard it was to finish.

  169. Anyway, enough from me on GOT. I vent about that because politics makes me even angrier about crap that unfortunately actually matters.

  170. Anyway, enough from me on GOT. I vent about that because politics makes me even angrier about crap that unfortunately actually matters.

  171. With things going poorly here (I’m out of the hospital, but my wife is back in, and speak to me not of politics nowadays) I’ve been going back and revisiting escapist literature from the past.
    At the moment Dorothy Sayers’ series (1930s) of detective stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. Very uneven, though she writes well, but has slapped together what seems like Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse with a smattering of conspicuous learning on such matters as English bell-ringing, Oxford colleges, Scottish countryside, and a 1920s London advertising agency (she once worked in one).
    Best, IMHO, are the novels where she introduces Harriet Vane, the only character other than LPW himself that she actually cares about and tries to flesh out into a real person, probably not unlike herself. These culminate in Gaudy Night, but you shouldn’t read that without reading those that led up to it: Strong Poison and Have His Carcase. Other LPW novels are essentially stand-alone, however.
    For those unfamiliar with her, DS later gave up detective fiction later to translate Dante (supposedly a very good Inferno) and write a number of books of essays on Christianity, which go down well with the C.S. Lewis mob!

  172. With things going poorly here (I’m out of the hospital, but my wife is back in, and speak to me not of politics nowadays) I’ve been going back and revisiting escapist literature from the past.
    At the moment Dorothy Sayers’ series (1930s) of detective stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. Very uneven, though she writes well, but has slapped together what seems like Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse with a smattering of conspicuous learning on such matters as English bell-ringing, Oxford colleges, Scottish countryside, and a 1920s London advertising agency (she once worked in one).
    Best, IMHO, are the novels where she introduces Harriet Vane, the only character other than LPW himself that she actually cares about and tries to flesh out into a real person, probably not unlike herself. These culminate in Gaudy Night, but you shouldn’t read that without reading those that led up to it: Strong Poison and Have His Carcase. Other LPW novels are essentially stand-alone, however.
    For those unfamiliar with her, DS later gave up detective fiction later to translate Dante (supposedly a very good Inferno) and write a number of books of essays on Christianity, which go down well with the C.S. Lewis mob!

  173. In memory of the wonderful Judith Kerr, I shall re-read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which I last read aged ten.
    Sadly, I don’t still have that first edition…

  174. In memory of the wonderful Judith Kerr, I shall re-read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which I last read aged ten.
    Sadly, I don’t still have that first edition…

  175. If the US military presence overseas becomes entirely mercenary, what happens when (say) China comes along with a cheaper offer ?
    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/05/us-and-south-korea-gear-burden-sharing-talks/589999/
    Noting that heā€™d heard Cost Plus 50 was ā€œfake news,ā€ Moon, the National Assembly speaker and a member of the presidentā€™s party, nevertheless warned that if the Trump administration pressures South Korea to pay the full cost of U.S. troops stationed in the country, the Korean people might think, ā€œā€˜U.S. troops are just mercenaries hired by the Korean government and they are here just to make money,ā€™ā€ which could turn public opinion against the United States.
    Multiple South Korean officials whom I spoke with, in fact, expressed concern that Trumpā€™s transactional approach to the alliance could stoke anti-Americanism. Eighty percent of South Koreans had a favorable view of the United States as of 2018, one of the highest levels of favorability among countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center. Confidence in the U.S. president, however, has declined from a high of 88 percent under Barack Obama to 44 percent under Trump..

  176. If the US military presence overseas becomes entirely mercenary, what happens when (say) China comes along with a cheaper offer ?
    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/05/us-and-south-korea-gear-burden-sharing-talks/589999/
    Noting that heā€™d heard Cost Plus 50 was ā€œfake news,ā€ Moon, the National Assembly speaker and a member of the presidentā€™s party, nevertheless warned that if the Trump administration pressures South Korea to pay the full cost of U.S. troops stationed in the country, the Korean people might think, ā€œā€˜U.S. troops are just mercenaries hired by the Korean government and they are here just to make money,ā€™ā€ which could turn public opinion against the United States.
    Multiple South Korean officials whom I spoke with, in fact, expressed concern that Trumpā€™s transactional approach to the alliance could stoke anti-Americanism. Eighty percent of South Koreans had a favorable view of the United States as of 2018, one of the highest levels of favorability among countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center. Confidence in the U.S. president, however, has declined from a high of 88 percent under Barack Obama to 44 percent under Trump..

  177. Sorry to hear about your troubles, dr ngo. If you only read the Wimsey/Vane novels as far as Gaudy Night, you should definitely read the sequel to that, Busman’s Honeymoon, which is a more than worthy finale. And actually, someone called Jill Paton Walsh has continued the Wimsey/Vane series, and alone among such “sequels” by other writers, has actually done quite a good job.

  178. Sorry to hear about your troubles, dr ngo. If you only read the Wimsey/Vane novels as far as Gaudy Night, you should definitely read the sequel to that, Busman’s Honeymoon, which is a more than worthy finale. And actually, someone called Jill Paton Walsh has continued the Wimsey/Vane series, and alone among such “sequels” by other writers, has actually done quite a good job.

  181. And… Theresa May is out.
    It’s neck and neck on whether electing Trump or Brexit is the most destructive political result of 2016.

  182. And… Theresa May is out.
    It’s neck and neck on whether electing Trump or Brexit is the most destructive political result of 2016.

  183. Meanwhile, the corrupt crime family and Kudlow inner circle vermin will make millions on the market opening this morning as p gave them overnight, for the umpteenth time, a front-running taste of his market-whipsawing China trade talk tweets, trades placed in overseas markets, …. …. now a quick resolution, yesterday it was all bearish long term trade war from his fingers, the day before …… fuck these filth.
    Facef*cker Jim Cramer carries their polluted water.
    Don’t clean the cesspool of republican corruption. Goddamned kill it.
    Execute all republicans and conservatives.
    Execute all bullying nationalist right wing filth the world over, in every country.

  184. Meanwhile, the corrupt crime family and Kudlow inner circle vermin will make millions on the market opening this morning as p gave them overnight, for the umpteenth time, a front-running taste of his market-whipsawing China trade talk tweets, trades placed in overseas markets, …. …. now a quick resolution, yesterday it was all bearish long term trade war from his fingers, the day before …… fuck these filth.
    Facef*cker Jim Cramer carries their polluted water.
    Don’t clean the cesspool of republican corruption. Goddamned kill it.
    Execute all republicans and conservatives.
    Execute all bullying nationalist right wing filth the world over, in every country.

  187. It’s neck and neck on whether electing Trump or Brexit is the most destructive political result of 2016.
    For the individual countries (the US and UK; not the rest of the EU or the world), Trump has pretty clearly been faster out of the gate. But Brexit (especially its fans) is working hard to keep the final result in question. A no-deal Brexit will probably give it the edge — although Trump has time to keep at it.
    For the world as a whole, however, Trump looks to have an insurmountable lead. (Although for Putin, as the financier of both, which was the better investment is less certain.)

  188. It’s neck and neck on whether electing Trump or Brexit is the most destructive political result of 2016.
    For the individual countries (the US and UK; not the rest of the EU or the world), Trump has pretty clearly been faster out of the gate. But Brexit (especially its fans) is working hard to keep the final result in question. A no-deal Brexit will probably give it the edge — although Trump has time to keep at it.
    For the world as a whole, however, Trump looks to have an insurmountable lead. (Although for Putin, as the financier of both, which was the better investment is less certain.)

  191. From the perspective of the Democrats, I’d say you’re entirely correct. šŸ˜‰
    Just think if he hadn’t changed parties a few years back.

  192. From the perspective of the Democrats, I’d say you’re entirely correct. šŸ˜‰
    Just think if he hadn’t changed parties a few years back.

  193. i’d say there’s about a 0.0000001% chance he makes it through the first round of D primaries.
    and that’s only because all the other candidates would have been killed in an asteroid strike.

  194. i’d say there’s about a 0.0000001% chance he makes it through the first round of D primaries.
    and that’s only because all the other candidates would have been killed in an asteroid strike.

  197. “But because I’m going to be working for you, I’m not going to have time to go golfing, believe me. Believe me. Believe me, folks.”

    – Our Idiot In Chief
    thanks GOP. you’re the best.

  198. “But because I’m going to be working for you, I’m not going to have time to go golfing, believe me. Believe me. Believe me, folks.”

    – Our Idiot In Chief
    thanks GOP. you’re the best.

  199. “And… Theresa May is out….”
    Which essentially changes nothing with regard to Brexit.
    Soon we’ll have a new clown in charge, but the farce will roll on.

  200. “And… Theresa May is out….”
    Which essentially changes nothing with regard to Brexit.
    Soon we’ll have a new clown in charge, but the farce will roll on.

  205. Which essentially changes nothing with regard to Brexit.
    Soon we’ll have a new clown in charge, but the farce will roll on.
    Well, there is the potential (no idea how likely) change that the new PM will do what May never did and level with the country about what the real options are at this point (as seen from half way around the world):
    1) no-deal Brexit. Followed by severe recession.** Ending with an economy resembling Greece . . . except without even the EU backstop that the Greeks get.
    2) no-deal Brexit. Followed by severe recession.** Ending with England somehow rejoining the EU — albeit without all the special deals that it has now.
    3) no Brexit — perhaps thanks to a new referendum.
    All three followed by a massive political realignment. Details TBD.
    ** Almost as an aside, Scotland exits the UK. As does Northern Ireland, but more slowly and with a lot more violence.

  206. Which essentially changes nothing with regard to Brexit.
    Soon we’ll have a new clown in charge, but the farce will roll on.
    Well, there is the potential (no idea how likely) change that the new PM will do what May never did and level with the country about what the real options are at this point (as seen from half way around the world):
    1) no-deal Brexit. Followed by severe recession.** Ending with an economy resembling Greece . . . except without even the EU backstop that the Greeks get.
    2) no-deal Brexit. Followed by severe recession.** Ending with England somehow rejoining the EU — albeit without all the special deals that it has now.
    3) no Brexit — perhaps thanks to a new referendum.
    All three followed by a massive political realignment. Details TBD.
    ** Almost as an aside, Scotland exits the UK. As does Northern Ireland, but more slowly and with a lot more violence.

  207. I donā€™t think anything particularly positive will come from a change of Tory leader, particularly given the electorate.
    Parliament will remain hung, with an opposition led by a man seemingly determined only not to commit himself on the Brexit issue.
    And an insurgent party with no policy other than Brexit (an ill-defined Brexit at that), commanding around 30% of the electorate.
    And the likely next Tory leader someone entirely without principle (though itā€™s not impossible that might be an advantage in the current situation).

  208. I donā€™t think anything particularly positive will come from a change of Tory leader, particularly given the electorate.
    Parliament will remain hung, with an opposition led by a man seemingly determined only not to commit himself on the Brexit issue.
    And an insurgent party with no policy other than Brexit (an ill-defined Brexit at that), commanding around 30% of the electorate.
    And the likely next Tory leader someone entirely without principle (though itā€™s not impossible that might be an advantage in the current situation).

  209. Reputed patriot Robert Mueller wants to avoid answering Congressional questions in public. Allegedly, Mueller is not so much afraid of wilting like a delicate flower under the steely gaze of C-Span as he is afraid of letting himself be seen as “political”. Because taking sides on the question of whether He, Trump is entitled to be king is “political”, you see.
    What rot.
    My own theory is that Mueller thinks he would be unable to restrain himself from using naughty words like “jackass” and “lickspittle” when addressing Republican Congressmen in any public hearing.
    Alternatively, Mueller is just another Republican.
    –TP

  210. Reputed patriot Robert Mueller wants to avoid answering Congressional questions in public. Allegedly, Mueller is not so much afraid of wilting like a delicate flower under the steely gaze of C-Span as he is afraid of letting himself be seen as “political”. Because taking sides on the question of whether He, Trump is entitled to be king is “political”, you see.
    What rot.
    My own theory is that Mueller thinks he would be unable to restrain himself from using naughty words like “jackass” and “lickspittle” when addressing Republican Congressmen in any public hearing.
    Alternatively, Mueller is just another Republican.
    –TP

  211. Alternatively, Mueller is just another Republican.
    It’s a bit of a challenge to read Mueller’s report and still see Mueller as a Republican like, for example, Barr. I mean, how hard would it have been to write a whitewash report? But he didn’t.

  212. Alternatively, Mueller is just another Republican.
    It’s a bit of a challenge to read Mueller’s report and still see Mueller as a Republican like, for example, Barr. I mean, how hard would it have been to write a whitewash report? But he didn’t.

  213. All I have to say at this point is that I have never seen the likes of this mess.
    Maybe the Nixon years, and all of the Cointelpro shenanigans, were this bad. They were genuinely horrifying. But this is like all of that, re-done as farce.
    Calamity, for the lulz.

  214. All I have to say at this point is that I have never seen the likes of this mess.
    Maybe the Nixon years, and all of the Cointelpro shenanigans, were this bad. They were genuinely horrifying. But this is like all of that, re-done as farce.
    Calamity, for the lulz.

  215. How many voters have already read or will ever read the Mueller report?
    Let’s not be disingenuous or naive. Televised testimony has a chance to make a “political” impact way beyond a redacted report on an investigation whose scope and duration may have been limited by “political” considerations.
    Granted: Mueller is not a thoroughgoing flunky like Barr. But let’s not pretend that Mueller’s shyness is motivated by a desire to make He, Trump look bad.
    –TP

  216. How many voters have already read or will ever read the Mueller report?
    Let’s not be disingenuous or naive. Televised testimony has a chance to make a “political” impact way beyond a redacted report on an investigation whose scope and duration may have been limited by “political” considerations.
    Granted: Mueller is not a thoroughgoing flunky like Barr. But let’s not pretend that Mueller’s shyness is motivated by a desire to make He, Trump look bad.
    –TP

  217. One guess is that by having the Mueller hearing not televised GOPsters will have less opportunity for posturing (why bother, if no one in the target audience reads transcripts and there is no video?). So, the whole thing could proceed more smooothly and professionally.

  218. One guess is that by having the Mueller hearing not televised GOPsters will have less opportunity for posturing (why bother, if no one in the target audience reads transcripts and there is no video?). So, the whole thing could proceed more smooothly and professionally.

  219. Hartmut,
    I for one want GOPsters to have all possible opportunities to posture. The best way to expose a fool is to let him talk.
    It’s possible that the American public is stupid enough to listen to braying jackasses and think they’re making sense. But in that case we (and by “we” I pretty much mean “the world”) are already fucked.
    That a man often described as a tough US Marine, with a reputation as an “honorable” public servant, is too dainty to speak openly about Dear Leader’s complete and total “innocence” for fear of sullying his sparkling white shirt with “political” cooties … well, it’s like Ben Franklin said: “A Republic, as long as you don’t defend it politically.”
    –TP

  220. Hartmut,
    I for one want GOPsters to have all possible opportunities to posture. The best way to expose a fool is to let him talk.
    It’s possible that the American public is stupid enough to listen to braying jackasses and think they’re making sense. But in that case we (and by “we” I pretty much mean “the world”) are already fucked.
    That a man often described as a tough US Marine, with a reputation as an “honorable” public servant, is too dainty to speak openly about Dear Leader’s complete and total “innocence” for fear of sullying his sparkling white shirt with “political” cooties … well, it’s like Ben Franklin said: “A Republic, as long as you don’t defend it politically.”
    –TP

  221. this.
    Could be I’m just old and cynical at this point, but I’m having a hard time finding cracks in this analysis.
    I don’t know what happens next.

  222. this.
    Could be I’m just old and cynical at this point, but I’m having a hard time finding cracks in this analysis.
    I don’t know what happens next.

  223. I don’t know what happens next.
    I predict:
    There’s a slow crawl to impeachment. The House impeaches prior to the elections. Mitch McConnell’s Senate either doesn’t convict (or if there are votes, Mitch doesn’t bring it to the floor).
    Trump is reelected.
    Our democracy is done.
    The anti-Trump citizenry, being averse to violence, will go about their business just as most people in totalitarian regimes have done, sticking to their knitting and enjoying the occasional snark. That’s all folks! (That existential crisis that was going to move us all to arms? Not until we begin to watch our families starve.)

  224. I don’t know what happens next.
    I predict:
    There’s a slow crawl to impeachment. The House impeaches prior to the elections. Mitch McConnell’s Senate either doesn’t convict (or if there are votes, Mitch doesn’t bring it to the floor).
    Trump is reelected.
    Our democracy is done.
    The anti-Trump citizenry, being averse to violence, will go about their business just as most people in totalitarian regimes have done, sticking to their knitting and enjoying the occasional snark. That’s all folks! (That existential crisis that was going to move us all to arms? Not until we begin to watch our families starve.)

  225. By the way, it doesn’t matter how many people support “us”. That democracy thing is in the past.

  226. By the way, it doesn’t matter how many people support “us”. That democracy thing is in the past.

  227. Also, the Putin people? In the future, they’ll probably allow a “Democrat” to win now and then. A “Democrat”.
    That’s how this works, friends. And, no, as far as I know, I’m not schizophrenic or having hallucinations. This is what it is likely going to be. I don’t want to believe what I’m saying for so many reasons. But it is likely.

  228. Also, the Putin people? In the future, they’ll probably allow a “Democrat” to win now and then. A “Democrat”.
    That’s how this works, friends. And, no, as far as I know, I’m not schizophrenic or having hallucinations. This is what it is likely going to be. I don’t want to believe what I’m saying for so many reasons. But it is likely.

  229. Job cuts coming in “Trump country”
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-to-pull-out-of-rural-job-corps-program-laying-off-1100-federal-workers/2019/05/24/b93c5af4-7e5b-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html
    Surprise, surprise — Republican Congressmen are really upset at what this means to their districts. They’re not real happy that nothing has happened about the opoid crisis in their districts either.
    If everything Trump does is part of a plan, then the only apparent aim would seem to be to lose an impeachment fight. Why else work so hard to piss off guys whose votes you’ll need?
    Then again it’s probably just another piece of rank ineptitude.

  230. Job cuts coming in “Trump country”
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-to-pull-out-of-rural-job-corps-program-laying-off-1100-federal-workers/2019/05/24/b93c5af4-7e5b-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html
    Surprise, surprise — Republican Congressmen are really upset at what this means to their districts. They’re not real happy that nothing has happened about the opoid crisis in their districts either.
    If everything Trump does is part of a plan, then the only apparent aim would seem to be to lose an impeachment fight. Why else work so hard to piss off guys whose votes you’ll need?
    Then again it’s probably just another piece of rank ineptitude.

  235. If you saw the Marvel movies you need to see Endgame.
    Next book to read: ask at your local library for favorites and reading clubs who can suggest new titles and authors! Yay libraries!
    I’ve yet to meet a Republican who even realizes the 9th Amendment even exists.

  236. If you saw the Marvel movies you need to see Endgame.
    Next book to read: ask at your local library for favorites and reading clubs who can suggest new titles and authors! Yay libraries!
    I’ve yet to meet a Republican who even realizes the 9th Amendment even exists.

  237. So, Max Boot makes a strong argument against a strong central government.
    And I expect that Congress expects to be lied to. And even approves when it allows them to give the appearance of investigating something without having to do something about it.
    And if everybody spends the next 18 months investigating each other, maybe we can avoid some of the bad laws they would otherwise pass.

  238. So, Max Boot makes a strong argument against a strong central government.
    And I expect that Congress expects to be lied to. And even approves when it allows them to give the appearance of investigating something without having to do something about it.
    And if everybody spends the next 18 months investigating each other, maybe we can avoid some of the bad laws they would otherwise pass.

  239. The P.R. risks of giving people an open-ended invitation to comment about your organization.
    “On Friday, the United States Army asked Twitter users how the service impacted their lives, likely as part of a Memorial Day campaign.
    The sad responses are a poignant and timely reminder of the toll of war. Appropriate for the holiday, but probably not what the Army P.R. team intended.”
    Army Tweets ‘How Has Serving Impacted You?’ Gets Thousands of Responses About the Horrors of War: “My cousin committed suicide while on duty at the armory after coming home from a tour abroad.”

  240. The P.R. risks of giving people an open-ended invitation to comment about your organization.
    “On Friday, the United States Army asked Twitter users how the service impacted their lives, likely as part of a Memorial Day campaign.
    The sad responses are a poignant and timely reminder of the toll of war. Appropriate for the holiday, but probably not what the Army P.R. team intended.”
    Army Tweets ‘How Has Serving Impacted You?’ Gets Thousands of Responses About the Horrors of War: “My cousin committed suicide while on duty at the armory after coming home from a tour abroad.”

  245. I have a private list of my public enemies but each name is divulged once they are permanently crossed off the list.
    “maybe we can avoid some of the bad laws they would otherwise pass.”
    Rank conservative government corruption is the servant/handmaiden to libertarian ends, the latter of which is unchecked private corruption.

  246. I have a private list of my public enemies but each name is divulged once they are permanently crossed off the list.
    “maybe we can avoid some of the bad laws they would otherwise pass.”
    Rank conservative government corruption is the servant/handmaiden to libertarian ends, the latter of which is unchecked private corruption.

  253. Amen indeed. The “white working class” meme has always pissed me off.
    The implication that “working” and “white” are practically the same thing is how racism gets promoted by clueless talking heads. Those clowns have to spout crap like that to make a living, but Heaven forfend you should call it “working”. No, no: they might cop to being “white”, just like the MAGA yahoos, but they’d never identify with the likes of Marty, McKinney, or other people who work for a living.
    “White Working Class”, as a term of art in current politics, is a brand name like “Weapons of Mass Destruction”. It has been devised to conflate economic hardship with racial resentment, like “WMD” was designed to conflate chlorine gas with nukular bombs. Our non-working-class overlords have always known how to exploit brand names.
    –TP

  254. Amen indeed. The “white working class” meme has always pissed me off.
    The implication that “working” and “white” are practically the same thing is how racism gets promoted by clueless talking heads. Those clowns have to spout crap like that to make a living, but Heaven forfend you should call it “working”. No, no: they might cop to being “white”, just like the MAGA yahoos, but they’d never identify with the likes of Marty, McKinney, or other people who work for a living.
    “White Working Class”, as a term of art in current politics, is a brand name like “Weapons of Mass Destruction”. It has been devised to conflate economic hardship with racial resentment, like “WMD” was designed to conflate chlorine gas with nukular bombs. Our non-working-class overlords have always known how to exploit brand names.
    –TP

  255. GFTNC: I am in fact (re-)reading Busman’s Honeymoon at the moment, and while I am enjoying it, I don’t think it really ranks with Gaudy Night as a novel. Too much her version of “And they lived happily ever after.”
    Of the non-HV books about LPM, Murder Must Advertise and The Twelve Tailors stand out, in extremely different ways.

  256. GFTNC: I am in fact (re-)reading Busman’s Honeymoon at the moment, and while I am enjoying it, I don’t think it really ranks with Gaudy Night as a novel. Too much her version of “And they lived happily ever after.”
    Of the non-HV books about LPM, Murder Must Advertise and The Twelve Tailors stand out, in extremely different ways.

  257. GftNC, I find myself re-reading Hodgell’s God Stalk. (The good news: there’s several sequels.) It’s a rather different fantasy universe, with an approach to theology that I haven’t otherwise encountered.

  258. GftNC, I find myself re-reading Hodgell’s God Stalk. (The good news: there’s several sequels.) It’s a rather different fantasy universe, with an approach to theology that I haven’t otherwise encountered.

  259. dr ngo: I confess, I have a very decided weakness for “happily ever after”, particularly these days. It is true that Gaudy Night does high romance at a very impressive pitch, but I found Busman’s Honeymoon to be a very satisfying coda.
    wj: several sequels? I’m in! At least to try. Thanks.

  260. dr ngo: I confess, I have a very decided weakness for “happily ever after”, particularly these days. It is true that Gaudy Night does high romance at a very impressive pitch, but I found Busman’s Honeymoon to be a very satisfying coda.
    wj: several sequels? I’m in! At least to try. Thanks.

  263. Putin, moreover, did not plant a sleeper agent in a Harvard dormitory in 2002 and then have him study psychology and computer science, develop social networking algorithms, drop out in 2004, insinuate himself into Silicon Valley, and set up a private company that attains phenomenal profit by monetizing Americansā€™ love of oversharing and constant need to feel outraged.

    oof

  264. Putin, moreover, did not plant a sleeper agent in a Harvard dormitory in 2002 and then have him study psychology and computer science, develop social networking algorithms, drop out in 2004, insinuate himself into Silicon Valley, and set up a private company that attains phenomenal profit by monetizing Americansā€™ love of oversharing and constant need to feel outraged.

    oof

  265. To paraphrase the anti-American sentiments of a great historical figure, who like Ringo’s drums in “A Hard Day’s Night, loom large in our very own American legend:
    Why, it’s as if commotions of this sort, like snow-balls, gather strength as they roll, if there is no opposition in the way to divide and crumble them. I am mortified beyond expression that in the moment of our acknowledged independence we should by our conduct verify the predictions of our transatlantic foes, and render ourselves ridiculous and contemptible in the eyes of the entire world.
    Benjamin Franklin was accorded a back seat in the writing of the U.S. Constitution because his fellows believed he might try to sneak jokes into the thing, perhaps crowding out the less funny ghost-written punchlines that made it into the final draft.
    More constructively, he wrote a treatise on flatulence and our American capacity for emitting great clouds of human wind detectable from space.
    After p, by which I mean after the Second U.S. Civil War, school children will no longer study and memorize the particulars of U.S. Presidents, but rather they will recite the contributions of game show hosts and reality show contestants.
    Gary Busey will loom large in the American legend going forward.
    Corey Lewandowski predicts, with his customary malignant relish, political show trials of p’s enemies, perhaps even of Joe Biden, by the Spring of 2020.
    I predict Lewandowski will be dead by then.
    We can all have a larf over it.
    That quote about Zuckerburg in Donald’s FA article is dispiritingly accurate. A wise guy muses about the end of personal privacy in his dorm room over a can of Mountain Dew and bags of stale Cheetos and the world, instead of killing him, throws their riches at him, including their formerly non-monetized personal privacy.
    What Zuckerburg (and company) have wrought is basically a worldwide 24-hour a day panty-raid. And he sells tickets to it.
    I don’t invest in gun stocks or Facebook in the stock market. I admit to owning a tobacco stock for an intermediate-term trade but that’s only after I read that more conservatives than liberals smoke cigarettes and eventually, but unfortunately not before they have done their damage, suffer from lung cancer.
    Maybe the stocks of the gun manufacturers would be a more substantive investment.

  266. To paraphrase the anti-American sentiments of a great historical figure, who like Ringo’s drums in “A Hard Day’s Night, loom large in our very own American legend:
    Why, it’s as if commotions of this sort, like snow-balls, gather strength as they roll, if there is no opposition in the way to divide and crumble them. I am mortified beyond expression that in the moment of our acknowledged independence we should by our conduct verify the predictions of our transatlantic foes, and render ourselves ridiculous and contemptible in the eyes of the entire world.
    Benjamin Franklin was accorded a back seat in the writing of the U.S. Constitution because his fellows believed he might try to sneak jokes into the thing, perhaps crowding out the less funny ghost-written punchlines that made it into the final draft.
    More constructively, he wrote a treatise on flatulence and our American capacity for emitting great clouds of human wind detectable from space.
    After p, by which I mean after the Second U.S. Civil War, school children will no longer study and memorize the particulars of U.S. Presidents, but rather they will recite the contributions of game show hosts and reality show contestants.
    Gary Busey will loom large in the American legend going forward.
    Corey Lewandowski predicts, with his customary malignant relish, political show trials of p’s enemies, perhaps even of Joe Biden, by the Spring of 2020.
    I predict Lewandowski will be dead by then.
    We can all have a larf over it.
    That quote about Zuckerburg in Donald’s FA article is dispiritingly accurate. A wise guy muses about the end of personal privacy in his dorm room over a can of Mountain Dew and bags of stale Cheetos and the world, instead of killing him, throws their riches at him, including their formerly non-monetized personal privacy.
    What Zuckerburg (and company) have wrought is basically a worldwide 24-hour a day panty-raid. And he sells tickets to it.
    I don’t invest in gun stocks or Facebook in the stock market. I admit to owning a tobacco stock for an intermediate-term trade but that’s only after I read that more conservatives than liberals smoke cigarettes and eventually, but unfortunately not before they have done their damage, suffer from lung cancer.
    Maybe the stocks of the gun manufacturers would be a more substantive investment.

  267. The great historical figure who coughed up that paraphrased quote wasn’t Franklin, by the way.
    It was Jerry Lewis.

  268. The great historical figure who coughed up that paraphrased quote wasn’t Franklin, by the way.
    It was Jerry Lewis.

  269. Apparently, Kim Jong Un has signed on as a 2020 republican campaign operative on behalf of p.
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-north-korea-missiles-kim-biden-low-iq
    He’ll gather dirt on Biden, perhaps even lending the p campaign an anti-aircraft gun to shoot Biden with at an opportune time. That’s if Victor Orban can’t definitely make up Biden’s secret life as a Jew pulling the strings of the vast international Jewish conspiracy all these years.
    p knows nothing about this, and has never met Kim, despite all factual evidence to the contrary, so let’s not cast unfounded aspersions.
    See, what I love about America is we can just make up a bunch of shit and then carve our mugs in rock as seekers of Truth.

  270. Apparently, Kim Jong Un has signed on as a 2020 republican campaign operative on behalf of p.
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-north-korea-missiles-kim-biden-low-iq
    He’ll gather dirt on Biden, perhaps even lending the p campaign an anti-aircraft gun to shoot Biden with at an opportune time. That’s if Victor Orban can’t definitely make up Biden’s secret life as a Jew pulling the strings of the vast international Jewish conspiracy all these years.
    p knows nothing about this, and has never met Kim, despite all factual evidence to the contrary, so let’s not cast unfounded aspersions.
    See, what I love about America is we can just make up a bunch of shit and then carve our mugs in rock as seekers of Truth.

  271. Good article, Donald. Although the final section heading – “get over it” – is offensively glib.
    The current political and social situation is, exactly, a reflection who we – Americans – are.
    Is this who we want to be?

  272. Good article, Donald. Although the final section heading – “get over it” – is offensively glib.
    The current political and social situation is, exactly, a reflection who we – Americans – are.
    Is this who we want to be?

  273. Japan has now signed on as a foreign influencer against the Democratic Party, joining Russia, North Korea, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, the Ukraine, and terrorist organizations across the Muslim world in stealing American elections.
    And unlike nationalist American home-grown traitors, the tens of millions of them, the foreign influencers aren’t even bribed by p and the republican party with massive tax cuts and an increased ability to pollute the environment and discriminate against minorities in fuckfreedomland.
    All of the Democratic Party candidates need to make whoopy with the Chinese government, at the very least, and let Americans know that if p prevails in 2020, the last American Presidential election in this century, China will vaporize America with nuclear attacks.
    Fair’s fair in the fuck you world we have styled for ourselves.

  274. Japan has now signed on as a foreign influencer against the Democratic Party, joining Russia, North Korea, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, the Ukraine, and terrorist organizations across the Muslim world in stealing American elections.
    And unlike nationalist American home-grown traitors, the tens of millions of them, the foreign influencers aren’t even bribed by p and the republican party with massive tax cuts and an increased ability to pollute the environment and discriminate against minorities in fuckfreedomland.
    All of the Democratic Party candidates need to make whoopy with the Chinese government, at the very least, and let Americans know that if p prevails in 2020, the last American Presidential election in this century, China will vaporize America with nuclear attacks.
    Fair’s fair in the fuck you world we have styled for ourselves.

  277. My favorite thing in Donald’s article, in the twisted and perverse way that “favorite thing” has become a euphemism for “ok, this raises the bar for ‘bad'”, was Steve Bannon first saying that the Trump Tower meeting between Trump Jr, Manafort, Kushner, and the Russians was probably treason, and then saying they should have taken it to a Holiday Inn in Manchester NH.
    On the record.

  278. My favorite thing in Donald’s article, in the twisted and perverse way that “favorite thing” has become a euphemism for “ok, this raises the bar for ‘bad'”, was Steve Bannon first saying that the Trump Tower meeting between Trump Jr, Manafort, Kushner, and the Russians was probably treason, and then saying they should have taken it to a Holiday Inn in Manchester NH.
    On the record.

  279. Bannon came up with the idea of putting the horse in a hospital just to see what happens:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtfBcTvcilo
    That smack-dab metaphor is now, what two years old and the horse is now kicking the MRI machines to bits down in the labs so there will be nothing left to diagnose our collective political ills.
    The horse is now headed for the hospital morgue because there’s nothing like a horse loose in a hospital morgue to destroy all possibilities of finding accurate cause of America’s death in the autopsy.
    Assemble all of the magnificent brainpower among those who work in a hospital, the doctors, the nurses, the administrators, the inventors and operators of all of those diagnostic devices and they are no match for the eye-rolling, terror-stricken paranoid brain-stemmed intelligence of a horse ….
    …loose …
    in…
    a hospital.

  280. Bannon came up with the idea of putting the horse in a hospital just to see what happens:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtfBcTvcilo
    That smack-dab metaphor is now, what two years old and the horse is now kicking the MRI machines to bits down in the labs so there will be nothing left to diagnose our collective political ills.
    The horse is now headed for the hospital morgue because there’s nothing like a horse loose in a hospital morgue to destroy all possibilities of finding accurate cause of America’s death in the autopsy.
    Assemble all of the magnificent brainpower among those who work in a hospital, the doctors, the nurses, the administrators, the inventors and operators of all of those diagnostic devices and they are no match for the eye-rolling, terror-stricken paranoid brain-stemmed intelligence of a horse ….
    …loose …
    in…
    a hospital.

  285. Girl From The North Country, since you’re laid up and looking for series, I’d like fly in with a recommendation from out of left field: a four-album series by one-man-band Aviators, the Bleeding Sun universe. It starts off with near-future-milieu Building Better Worlds, with various point-of-view characters dealing with the challenges and opportunities of a near future getting weirder and often worse. The albums Stargazers and Dystopian Fiction push their stories along, with escalating expanses of time and escalating power levels, culminating in Godhunter, which is practically Moorcockian in its vast eeriness and very-long-delayed reckonings.
    This is what the title track of the final album sounds like. If you like the sound, you’ll like the rest; if not, probably not. Aviators puts all his stuff up on Youtube so it’s freely available. Since I liked it that much, I bought it from his Bandcamp page, but that wasn’t necessary. Also, there’s a serious labor-of-love wiki, available with a search for “bleeding sun universe” and wiki – it’s got lyrics and annotations.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoC8OBjs7Iw

  286. Girl From The North Country, since you’re laid up and looking for series, I’d like fly in with a recommendation from out of left field: a four-album series by one-man-band Aviators, the Bleeding Sun universe. It starts off with near-future-milieu Building Better Worlds, with various point-of-view characters dealing with the challenges and opportunities of a near future getting weirder and often worse. The albums Stargazers and Dystopian Fiction push their stories along, with escalating expanses of time and escalating power levels, culminating in Godhunter, which is practically Moorcockian in its vast eeriness and very-long-delayed reckonings.
    This is what the title track of the final album sounds like. If you like the sound, you’ll like the rest; if not, probably not. Aviators puts all his stuff up on Youtube so it’s freely available. Since I liked it that much, I bought it from his Bandcamp page, but that wasn’t necessary. Also, there’s a serious labor-of-love wiki, available with a search for “bleeding sun universe” and wiki – it’s got lyrics and annotations.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoC8OBjs7Iw

  287. Out of left field indeed, Bruce Baugh, I can’t ever remember a more unusual and original (as in thinking outside the box) recommendation. As a matter of fact I rather liked the way the track you linked sounded, but as it happens I am pretty sure this will not do the trick I need it to do at the moment. That’s because I need to block out reality and be completely absorbed for nice long stretches of time, and reading prose does that for me, while listening (even while reading lyrics) does not. However, I may well check out some more of this stuff in due course. Thank you.

  288. Out of left field indeed, Bruce Baugh, I can’t ever remember a more unusual and original (as in thinking outside the box) recommendation. As a matter of fact I rather liked the way the track you linked sounded, but as it happens I am pretty sure this will not do the trick I need it to do at the moment. That’s because I need to block out reality and be completely absorbed for nice long stretches of time, and reading prose does that for me, while listening (even while reading lyrics) does not. However, I may well check out some more of this stuff in due course. Thank you.

  291. Girl from the North Country: Oh, yeah, I know about needing inputs in a particular medium and method. Best wishes for recuperating!

  292. Girl from the North Country: Oh, yeah, I know about needing inputs in a particular medium and method. Best wishes for recuperating!

  293. …The Twelve Tailors…
    The Nine Tailors. Because “Nine tailors make a man…” – in the death knell the bell tolls three times three times to mark the death of a man (two times three for the death of a woman). Followed by once for each year of age.

  294. …The Twelve Tailors…
    The Nine Tailors. Because “Nine tailors make a man…” – in the death knell the bell tolls three times three times to mark the death of a man (two times three for the death of a woman). Followed by once for each year of age.

  295. Donald: I donā€™t agree with all of this, but overall I agree with what one might call its general sense.
    I’m curious: what part(s) does Donald not agree with?
    For my part, I don’t know whether I agree or disagree with young Stephen Kotkin’s sanguine faith in the “resilience” of American “institutions”.
    The SCOTUS is definitely an American institution. In one sense of the word, it is incredibly resilient, not to say entrenched. The Roberts Court will likely last beyond my lifetime. That it contains a pervert, a perjurer, and a receiver of stolen goods, and still gets obeyed, shows just how resilient it is. Let He, Trump appoint another Justice or two, though, and you’ll see “resilience” that would make a pyramid blush.
    The GOP used to be an American institution. For a century and a half, it was an admittedly regrettable but nevertheless distinguishable coherent participant in democratic governance. It has now become a solidly royalist coterie of He, Trump lickspittles who still call themselves “Republican” for some reason. The name, at least, is resilient.
    Wall Street is an American institution. It is, as always, operated by your tax-cut-deserving, CEO-salary-maximizing, GOP-funding betters. And don’t you forget it, White Working Class.
    Main Street(TM) used to be an American institution. It may possibly revive, since chain stores and franchise restaurants catering to millenial-and-younger refugees from The Heartland can spot the trend toward urbanization as well as anybody.
    And of course The Free Press is an American institution, standing ever ready to advise us to “Get Over It” so as not to be tweeted at by Dear Leader.
    All in all, resilience abounds all over the place, I suppose.
    –TP

  296. Donald: I donā€™t agree with all of this, but overall I agree with what one might call its general sense.
    I’m curious: what part(s) does Donald not agree with?
    For my part, I don’t know whether I agree or disagree with young Stephen Kotkin’s sanguine faith in the “resilience” of American “institutions”.
    The SCOTUS is definitely an American institution. In one sense of the word, it is incredibly resilient, not to say entrenched. The Roberts Court will likely last beyond my lifetime. That it contains a pervert, a perjurer, and a receiver of stolen goods, and still gets obeyed, shows just how resilient it is. Let He, Trump appoint another Justice or two, though, and you’ll see “resilience” that would make a pyramid blush.
    The GOP used to be an American institution. For a century and a half, it was an admittedly regrettable but nevertheless distinguishable coherent participant in democratic governance. It has now become a solidly royalist coterie of He, Trump lickspittles who still call themselves “Republican” for some reason. The name, at least, is resilient.
    Wall Street is an American institution. It is, as always, operated by your tax-cut-deserving, CEO-salary-maximizing, GOP-funding betters. And don’t you forget it, White Working Class.
    Main Street(TM) used to be an American institution. It may possibly revive, since chain stores and franchise restaurants catering to millenial-and-younger refugees from The Heartland can spot the trend toward urbanization as well as anybody.
    And of course The Free Press is an American institution, standing ever ready to advise us to “Get Over It” so as not to be tweeted at by Dear Leader.
    All in all, resilience abounds all over the place, I suppose.
    –TP

  297. Pro Bono: Of course _I_ knew it was The Nine [not Twelve] Tailors.
    I was just testing you.
    You passed. Everyone else failed. ;-}

  298. Pro Bono: Of course _I_ knew it was The Nine [not Twelve] Tailors.
    I was just testing you.
    You passed. Everyone else failed. ;-}

  299. ā€˜Many good things coming out of North Korea….ā€™
    I see Trump is picking up on Kimā€™s idea that criticism of the great leader is tantamount to treason.

  300. ā€˜Many good things coming out of North Korea….ā€™
    I see Trump is picking up on Kimā€™s idea that criticism of the great leader is tantamount to treason.

  301. “I see Trump is picking up on Kimā€™s idea that criticism of the great leader is tantamount to treason.”
    Give Trump more years in office, and it’ll be called LĆØse-majestĆ©.
    BTW, my response to a leader declaring himself “President For Life” is to immediately grant his wish by giving him two in the noggin. Might be relevant, someday.

  302. “I see Trump is picking up on Kimā€™s idea that criticism of the great leader is tantamount to treason.”
    Give Trump more years in office, and it’ll be called LĆØse-majestĆ©.
    BTW, my response to a leader declaring himself “President For Life” is to immediately grant his wish by giving him two in the noggin. Might be relevant, someday.

  305. “[I] smiled when [Kim Jong Un] called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual, & worse”
    Disgusting though we know he is, it’s still worth pointing out when Trump lowers the US by a few more steps, lest we get numb to it. Shame on anyone who voted for him.

  306. “[I] smiled when [Kim Jong Un] called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual, & worse”
    Disgusting though we know he is, it’s still worth pointing out when Trump lowers the US by a few more steps, lest we get numb to it. Shame on anyone who voted for him.

  307. Then there’s this, headlined Trump backs Kim Jong Un over Biden, Bolton and Japan. Well, if he believes Putin over our own intelligence people, why wouldn’t he believe Kim over them? And by now, it’s hardly eyebrow raising.

    President Trump on Monday denied that North Korea had fired any ballistic missiles or violated the United Nations Security Council resolutions, taking the word of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the assessments of his own national security adviser and his Japanese host. He praised the murderous dictator as a ā€œvery smart man.ā€

  308. Then there’s this, headlined Trump backs Kim Jong Un over Biden, Bolton and Japan. Well, if he believes Putin over our own intelligence people, why wouldn’t he believe Kim over them? And by now, it’s hardly eyebrow raising.

    President Trump on Monday denied that North Korea had fired any ballistic missiles or violated the United Nations Security Council resolutions, taking the word of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the assessments of his own national security adviser and his Japanese host. He praised the murderous dictator as a ā€œvery smart man.ā€

  309. Pro Bono: Shame on anyone who voted for him.
    Shame? What’s that??
    And anyway, the people who voted for Him could be excused as dupes of RWNJ and Putin/Wikileaks/Facebook/Fox propaganda. They are merely deplorable.
    People like Poutin’ Little Lindsey, Central Casting Mitt, and Yertl the SCOTUS thief Mitch, on the other hand, don’t have even that excuse. They’re straight-up despicable.
    But they promise the rubes good “(Republican) policies” and anti-abortion pro-corporation judges, so the deplorables will keep voting for the despicables so that Dear Leader can stay out of jail.
    Also, to piss of the libruls, of course.
    –TP

  310. Pro Bono: Shame on anyone who voted for him.
    Shame? What’s that??
    And anyway, the people who voted for Him could be excused as dupes of RWNJ and Putin/Wikileaks/Facebook/Fox propaganda. They are merely deplorable.
    People like Poutin’ Little Lindsey, Central Casting Mitt, and Yertl the SCOTUS thief Mitch, on the other hand, don’t have even that excuse. They’re straight-up despicable.
    But they promise the rubes good “(Republican) policies” and anti-abortion pro-corporation judges, so the deplorables will keep voting for the despicables so that Dear Leader can stay out of jail.
    Also, to piss of the libruls, of course.
    –TP

  311. I now believe in this great man:
    https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/direct-from-wingnut-bubble.html
    Tomorrow, it will be revealed that Rush Limbaugh’s anal cyst was actually Richard Nixon’s secret plan to end the Vietnam War folded into a tiny package and encapsulated in the former’s ample anal cavity for top secret delivery to Ho Chi Minh via tunnels underneath the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Vietnam in 1969.
    Meanwhile, cloth-eared beet Mike Pence predicts war and death coming soon everywhere in the world while addressing the cannon fodder who are gonna take it all for the gipper:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/27/mike-pence-predicts-war-everywhere-next-few-years/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.aa09d2383206
    He then pronounced himself unfit for military duty on account of the fact that if Lena Horne could be mistaken for a white woman, then he could don a dress and pumps and gain a seat on one of the Titanic’s lifeboats and call it reverse affirmative action.
    America’s coming Civil War II, unlike the solemn first go-round, will be equal parts savage killing and uproarious laughter.

  312. I now believe in this great man:
    https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/direct-from-wingnut-bubble.html
    Tomorrow, it will be revealed that Rush Limbaugh’s anal cyst was actually Richard Nixon’s secret plan to end the Vietnam War folded into a tiny package and encapsulated in the former’s ample anal cavity for top secret delivery to Ho Chi Minh via tunnels underneath the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Vietnam in 1969.
    Meanwhile, cloth-eared beet Mike Pence predicts war and death coming soon everywhere in the world while addressing the cannon fodder who are gonna take it all for the gipper:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/27/mike-pence-predicts-war-everywhere-next-few-years/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.aa09d2383206
    He then pronounced himself unfit for military duty on account of the fact that if Lena Horne could be mistaken for a white woman, then he could don a dress and pumps and gain a seat on one of the Titanic’s lifeboats and call it reverse affirmative action.
    America’s coming Civil War II, unlike the solemn first go-round, will be equal parts savage killing and uproarious laughter.

  313. i like how the Average Joe on the bench in that one painting is totally out of proportion with all the former Presidents. the guy would be 7′ tall and 350 pounds.

  314. i like how the Average Joe on the bench in that one painting is totally out of proportion with all the former Presidents. the guy would be 7′ tall and 350 pounds.

  315. I had an ObWi-related dream last night. Members of the commentariat here showed up at my office for whatever reason. The specific things I recall are russell and I trying to name every hit song by the Greg Kihn Band (are there more than 2?) and cleek having some kind of problem opening an Excel spread sheet. Other than that, just random dream stuff I can’t quite remember.

  316. I had an ObWi-related dream last night. Members of the commentariat here showed up at my office for whatever reason. The specific things I recall are russell and I trying to name every hit song by the Greg Kihn Band (are there more than 2?) and cleek having some kind of problem opening an Excel spread sheet. Other than that, just random dream stuff I can’t quite remember.

  317. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a27608847/trump-administration-climate-science-suppression/
    I had a nightmare last night that the EPA under p and republican murderers removed all restrictions on the use of Zyklon B and carbon monoxide, much maligned gases, but beloved by conservatives, to disinfect America following all future visits by liberal globalist George Soros and other suspects.
    The Administration signed a multi-lateral accord with the governments of Poland and Hungary to drone spray their countries’ more “cosmopolitan’ populations with these newly popular household gases.
    Mobile vans are being deployed to our southern border in which brown central American children, free of their mothers’ humanizing influence, will be asked to count to ten backwards.

  318. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a27608847/trump-administration-climate-science-suppression/
    I had a nightmare last night that the EPA under p and republican murderers removed all restrictions on the use of Zyklon B and carbon monoxide, much maligned gases, but beloved by conservatives, to disinfect America following all future visits by liberal globalist George Soros and other suspects.
    The Administration signed a multi-lateral accord with the governments of Poland and Hungary to drone spray their countries’ more “cosmopolitan’ populations with these newly popular household gases.
    Mobile vans are being deployed to our southern border in which brown central American children, free of their mothers’ humanizing influence, will be asked to count to ten backwards.

  323. https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/april-may-june-2019/the-misunderstood-brilliance-of-the-va/
    How do you privatize an institution no one wants privatized and placed in the hands of profit-seeking corporations to pay off those “people” for their campaign bribery of conservatives?
    How do you lock-in year after year large percentage increases in the defense budget to pay off those who bribe conservatives for defense contracts?
    You head up to West Point and promise eternal worldwide war to supply the maimed and butchered carcasses, ambulatory for the time being standing at attention on behalf of Christian murderer Pence, that will overwhelm the VA system, causing delays and breakdowns, while cutting their budget, and hasten its privatization.
    Pence and p, both dead men walking, receive millions from the death industry, who would like nothing more than to see our country’s military cemeteries placed in private hands, either to move the bodies of our soldiers to less valuable real estate and perhaps build gold courses and hotels, or to bury slaughtered soldiers two and three deep while charging exorbitant up-front burial costs to the grieving families while locking them into “subscription-model” long team fee structures to keep their loved ones’ remains buried there.
    Shareholder value, baby. Supply-side economics. Keep them bodies coming.
    American flag manufacturers give generously to conservative vermin politicians.
    Lotta caskets to be draped, the more the fucking better.
    A nation of ghouls.

  324. https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/april-may-june-2019/the-misunderstood-brilliance-of-the-va/
    How do you privatize an institution no one wants privatized and placed in the hands of profit-seeking corporations to pay off those “people” for their campaign bribery of conservatives?
    How do you lock-in year after year large percentage increases in the defense budget to pay off those who bribe conservatives for defense contracts?
    You head up to West Point and promise eternal worldwide war to supply the maimed and butchered carcasses, ambulatory for the time being standing at attention on behalf of Christian murderer Pence, that will overwhelm the VA system, causing delays and breakdowns, while cutting their budget, and hasten its privatization.
    Pence and p, both dead men walking, receive millions from the death industry, who would like nothing more than to see our country’s military cemeteries placed in private hands, either to move the bodies of our soldiers to less valuable real estate and perhaps build gold courses and hotels, or to bury slaughtered soldiers two and three deep while charging exorbitant up-front burial costs to the grieving families while locking them into “subscription-model” long team fee structures to keep their loved ones’ remains buried there.
    Shareholder value, baby. Supply-side economics. Keep them bodies coming.
    American flag manufacturers give generously to conservative vermin politicians.
    Lotta caskets to be draped, the more the fucking better.
    A nation of ghouls.

  325. Speaking of ghouls, and since this is an open thread. I mentioned Saki’s stories recently when JDT recommended Roald Dahl’s short stories for adults. It prompted me to order a volume of Saki’s short stories, since I lent my previous one to someone who never returned it (a frequent occurrence. I have had to replace Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas three times). Anyway, I mentioned his most famous short story, Sredni Vashtar, and have just re-read it in the newly arrived volume, where it is described in the preface as “one of the finest stories in the English language”. I am unable to confirm, not generally being an afficionado of short stories, but it is very good. Here it is, for anyone interested:
    https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~./rgs/sk-vashtar.html

  326. Speaking of ghouls, and since this is an open thread. I mentioned Saki’s stories recently when JDT recommended Roald Dahl’s short stories for adults. It prompted me to order a volume of Saki’s short stories, since I lent my previous one to someone who never returned it (a frequent occurrence. I have had to replace Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas three times). Anyway, I mentioned his most famous short story, Sredni Vashtar, and have just re-read it in the newly arrived volume, where it is described in the preface as “one of the finest stories in the English language”. I am unable to confirm, not generally being an afficionado of short stories, but it is very good. Here it is, for anyone interested:
    https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~./rgs/sk-vashtar.html

  331. I’ve always liked “The Open Window” and “The Secret Sin of Septimius Brope”. Not to mention “Cousin Teresa”.

  332. I’ve always liked “The Open Window” and “The Secret Sin of Septimius Brope”. Not to mention “Cousin Teresa”.

  337. I am unable to confirm, not generally being an afficionado of short stories, but it is very good.
    I think you can make a case that what Saki wrote weren’t really short stories. They were cameos. Enough difference in length to be a different genre.

  338. I am unable to confirm, not generally being an afficionado of short stories, but it is very good.
    I think you can make a case that what Saki wrote weren’t really short stories. They were cameos. Enough difference in length to be a different genre.

  343. They don’t write’em like that anymore, hsh.
    Are you talking about hsh’s dream, russell, or one of the Saki stories we have been distracting ourselves with?

  344. They don’t write’em like that anymore, hsh.
    Are you talking about hsh’s dream, russell, or one of the Saki stories we have been distracting ourselves with?

  347. From today’s Guardian, the headline: “Bannon described Trump Organization as ‘criminal enterprise’, Michael Wolff book claims
    Former White House adviser says financial investigations will take down president in sequel to Fire and Fury”
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/28/bannon-trump-organization-criminal-enterprise-comments-michael-wolff-book?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xOTA1Mjk=&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email
    Isn’t there a description, the source (and exact wording) of which I have forgotten, about rats criticising other rats?

  348. From today’s Guardian, the headline: “Bannon described Trump Organization as ‘criminal enterprise’, Michael Wolff book claims
    Former White House adviser says financial investigations will take down president in sequel to Fire and Fury”
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/28/bannon-trump-organization-criminal-enterprise-comments-michael-wolff-book?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xOTA1Mjk=&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email
    Isn’t there a description, the source (and exact wording) of which I have forgotten, about rats criticising other rats?

  349. speaking of running experiments…
    what corporations did with their tax cut: nothing that helped anyone else!
    just as predicted.
    Well, I was thinking more of experiments on previously untested ideas. Not so much on ideas which have already been tried multiple times, and never panned out.
    There’s a term for trying the same thing over and over, and (saying you are) expecting a different result. It isn’t “experiment.”

  350. speaking of running experiments…
    what corporations did with their tax cut: nothing that helped anyone else!
    just as predicted.
    Well, I was thinking more of experiments on previously untested ideas. Not so much on ideas which have already been tried multiple times, and never panned out.
    There’s a term for trying the same thing over and over, and (saying you are) expecting a different result. It isn’t “experiment.”

  351. “and I could see there were thousands of rats .. rats, Rats, RATS, thousands of them, millions of them …. if you would obey me.”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnBDx-FrylY
    It’s RATS all the way down:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzyeGBdQmCM
    “By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation” Edmond Burke
    “You learned the two greatest things in life, never rat on your friend and always keep your mouth shut.” Jimmy Conway to Henry Hill in “Goodfellas”
    “I wouldn’t mind the rat race, if the rats would lose once in awhile.” Tom Wilson
    “We all love the environment, but we have placed creatures above people. A rat is a rat.” Sonny Bono
    “I feel like rat shit” Cher, Rolling Stone Magazine 1973
    “It would be ugly to watch people poke sticks at a caged rat. It is uglier still to watch rats poking sticks at a caged person.” Anonymous
    “You dirty, double-crossing rat!” Jimmy Cagney
    “How now? A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!” Hamlet
    Just like what was set upon us in November 2016:
    https://tampanewsforce.com/cruise-ship-releases-thousands-of-herpes-infected-rats-into-tampa-bay/
    A self-help video: exterminating rats:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL0x5oBFC1w
    I’ve heard baking soda works too, if you believe in the humane method of solving the rat infestation, but can we afford to be humane at this late date with such inhumane rats?

  352. “and I could see there were thousands of rats .. rats, Rats, RATS, thousands of them, millions of them …. if you would obey me.”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnBDx-FrylY
    It’s RATS all the way down:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzyeGBdQmCM
    “By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation” Edmond Burke
    “You learned the two greatest things in life, never rat on your friend and always keep your mouth shut.” Jimmy Conway to Henry Hill in “Goodfellas”
    “I wouldn’t mind the rat race, if the rats would lose once in awhile.” Tom Wilson
    “We all love the environment, but we have placed creatures above people. A rat is a rat.” Sonny Bono
    “I feel like rat shit” Cher, Rolling Stone Magazine 1973
    “It would be ugly to watch people poke sticks at a caged rat. It is uglier still to watch rats poking sticks at a caged person.” Anonymous
    “You dirty, double-crossing rat!” Jimmy Cagney
    “How now? A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!” Hamlet
    Just like what was set upon us in November 2016:
    https://tampanewsforce.com/cruise-ship-releases-thousands-of-herpes-infected-rats-into-tampa-bay/
    A self-help video: exterminating rats:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL0x5oBFC1w
    I’ve heard baking soda works too, if you believe in the humane method of solving the rat infestation, but can we afford to be humane at this late date with such inhumane rats?

  353. Well, now we know:

    The foundations for legalizing abortion in America were laid during the early 20th-century birth-control movement. That movement developed alongside the American eugenics movement. And significantly, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger recognized the eugenic potential of her cause. She emphasized and embraced the notion that birth control ā€œopens the way to the eugenist.ā€

    I, for one, had not realized that birth control was equivalent to eugenics. Thank you, Justice Thomas, for the enlightenment. (One might note that, under Trump, more of Justice Thomas’ ex-clerks have been appointed to Federal judgeships than any other Supreme Court justice.)

  354. Well, now we know:

    The foundations for legalizing abortion in America were laid during the early 20th-century birth-control movement. That movement developed alongside the American eugenics movement. And significantly, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger recognized the eugenic potential of her cause. She emphasized and embraced the notion that birth control ā€œopens the way to the eugenist.ā€

    I, for one, had not realized that birth control was equivalent to eugenics. Thank you, Justice Thomas, for the enlightenment. (One might note that, under Trump, more of Justice Thomas’ ex-clerks have been appointed to Federal judgeships than any other Supreme Court justice.)

  357. Sanger was for birth control but against abortion. She embraced the eugenics movement as she felt that it gave her birth control efforts a scientific underspending. She was against forced sterilization except maybe in extreme situations.

  358. Sanger was for birth control but against abortion. She embraced the eugenics movement as she felt that it gave her birth control efforts a scientific underspending. She was against forced sterilization except maybe in extreme situations.

  363. re Thomas, the unoriginal Originalist, I can’t recommend enough (thus, this is the second time I’m recommending it in the last week here) Jonathan Gianapp’s “The Second Creation: Fixing the American Constitution in The Founding Era”.
    I’m halfway through now, rereading sections as I go, but I also have half a dozen books going simultaneously, but it recreates the debates over language used in the document that replaced the wholly inadequate and chaos-causing Articles of Confederation, and goes to the heart of the differences among those men in 1787, which live to this day, regarding a static, literal document set in the stone of time and a living document, fraught with ambiguity and subject to the ever-flowing and changing, Heraclitusean waters of time.
    It turns out that the very same men (elites all, not that there is anything wrong with that, ha ha, among dimwits) who just finished writing the Constitution convened the inaugural new Congress and immediately were flummoxed by their own hand regarding whether or not a Cabinet Officer could be removed from office for corruption and which, if any branch of government was tasked with that removal, the Executive and/or the Legislative.
    It’s as if they asked Ben Franklin, “What have we wrought?'” and Franklin answered, “Search me, and by the way, search in vain in the Constitution we just slaved over for what the fuck we should do.”
    The originalists of the time argued that nothing may be done and no one may be removed for gross corruption, either by the President who appointed the miscreants or the legislature because the language of the document did not address specifically and concretely the issue.
    James Madison, a Founder, argued the opposite against the original originalists (who at least had proximity in time to what they believed was their original originalism) but what’s a little anti-originalism from a Founder to a bunch of fucking Johnny-come-lately smirking assholes in 2019?
    If other cogent points emerge from the book, I’ll let you know.

  364. re Thomas, the unoriginal Originalist, I can’t recommend enough (thus, this is the second time I’m recommending it in the last week here) Jonathan Gianapp’s “The Second Creation: Fixing the American Constitution in The Founding Era”.
    I’m halfway through now, rereading sections as I go, but I also have half a dozen books going simultaneously, but it recreates the debates over language used in the document that replaced the wholly inadequate and chaos-causing Articles of Confederation, and goes to the heart of the differences among those men in 1787, which live to this day, regarding a static, literal document set in the stone of time and a living document, fraught with ambiguity and subject to the ever-flowing and changing, Heraclitusean waters of time.
    It turns out that the very same men (elites all, not that there is anything wrong with that, ha ha, among dimwits) who just finished writing the Constitution convened the inaugural new Congress and immediately were flummoxed by their own hand regarding whether or not a Cabinet Officer could be removed from office for corruption and which, if any branch of government was tasked with that removal, the Executive and/or the Legislative.
    It’s as if they asked Ben Franklin, “What have we wrought?'” and Franklin answered, “Search me, and by the way, search in vain in the Constitution we just slaved over for what the fuck we should do.”
    The originalists of the time argued that nothing may be done and no one may be removed for gross corruption, either by the President who appointed the miscreants or the legislature because the language of the document did not address specifically and concretely the issue.
    James Madison, a Founder, argued the opposite against the original originalists (who at least had proximity in time to what they believed was their original originalism) but what’s a little anti-originalism from a Founder to a bunch of fucking Johnny-come-lately smirking assholes in 2019?
    If other cogent points emerge from the book, I’ll let you know.

  365. Anti-abortion, anti-contraception, pro-disenfranchisement of minorities, pro-authoritarian strongmen: O brave new world, that has such people in it.

  366. Anti-abortion, anti-contraception, pro-disenfranchisement of minorities, pro-authoritarian strongmen: O brave new world, that has such people in it.

  367. In Justice Thomas’ defense, despite his stiff-necked confusion (true, abortion is not addressed in the Constitution, but neither is appendicitis, the infield fly rule, or for that matter, eugenics!), and without going back and determining what Margaret Sanger believed or did not believe, it is a fact that generally (almost universally) speaking, the white race, (white men who were accorded the voting franchise first, but natch everyone else only grudgingly accorded the same, if at all) looked with horror, regardless of political affiliation racist Democrats and racist Republicans alike, on the reproductive fecundity of shiftless black men and their loose women (I grew up with this shit, they breed like rabbits!), unless of course the black father, mother and children were property and could be sold for a profit, then by God, don’t you dare abort) and not content with them apples, (I can hear my Protestant paternal grandmother (she was otherwise a sweet lady, I loved her) holding her fork aloft at the dinner table like a laser powerpoint pointer on a demographic spreadsheet and saying “Mark my words. This keeps up, they are going to outnumber us!”) they said the same about the damned Irish Catholics, the Papist Italian Catholics, the Chinese, and the Mexicans, and the Jews, and now the Muslims, and you know what they still do, fearing “demographic irrelevancy” as we are lectured every fucking day by these pigfuckers (nearly all now exclusively conservatives since Strom Thurmond decided to have his cake and eat it too by knocking up his black mistress AND switching his racist allegiance to the Republican Party) who happen to share my race and my gender and they were happy, once all of these groups reached the age of majority, to deprive them of their birthrighted voting privileges, originally not permitted in the Constitution.
    They didn’t like them fetuses voting.
    So yeah, Thomas has a point of view registered and rooted in the annals of America’s racist original sin, but now that all women, regardless of the color their skins, can make an informed medical choice about abortion, or better, whether to use birth control methods to avoid pregnancy or for other legitimate medical reasons, including avoiding an unfortunate abortion, but Judge, if your government prohibits the use of birth control, the majority of the women in this country will lower their drawers and water the tree of liberty, and I will join them in a sympathetic leak and then burn this government to the ground, the Supreme Court included.
    Is Thomas telling us he would have prohibited Anita Hill from obtaining a spermacide? Or did he just want a blow job?
    Thomas is correct that abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution, but nevertheless in the real world in 1787, there were aborted fetuses.
    If any conservative onlookers here would like to wade in and call me a “baby killer”, feel free but I request that you travel to me physically and say it personally to my face so I can kick your non-fetal ass.

  368. In Justice Thomas’ defense, despite his stiff-necked confusion (true, abortion is not addressed in the Constitution, but neither is appendicitis, the infield fly rule, or for that matter, eugenics!), and without going back and determining what Margaret Sanger believed or did not believe, it is a fact that generally (almost universally) speaking, the white race, (white men who were accorded the voting franchise first, but natch everyone else only grudgingly accorded the same, if at all) looked with horror, regardless of political affiliation racist Democrats and racist Republicans alike, on the reproductive fecundity of shiftless black men and their loose women (I grew up with this shit, they breed like rabbits!), unless of course the black father, mother and children were property and could be sold for a profit, then by God, don’t you dare abort) and not content with them apples, (I can hear my Protestant paternal grandmother (she was otherwise a sweet lady, I loved her) holding her fork aloft at the dinner table like a laser powerpoint pointer on a demographic spreadsheet and saying “Mark my words. This keeps up, they are going to outnumber us!”) they said the same about the damned Irish Catholics, the Papist Italian Catholics, the Chinese, and the Mexicans, and the Jews, and now the Muslims, and you know what they still do, fearing “demographic irrelevancy” as we are lectured every fucking day by these pigfuckers (nearly all now exclusively conservatives since Strom Thurmond decided to have his cake and eat it too by knocking up his black mistress AND switching his racist allegiance to the Republican Party) who happen to share my race and my gender and they were happy, once all of these groups reached the age of majority, to deprive them of their birthrighted voting privileges, originally not permitted in the Constitution.
    They didn’t like them fetuses voting.
    So yeah, Thomas has a point of view registered and rooted in the annals of America’s racist original sin, but now that all women, regardless of the color their skins, can make an informed medical choice about abortion, or better, whether to use birth control methods to avoid pregnancy or for other legitimate medical reasons, including avoiding an unfortunate abortion, but Judge, if your government prohibits the use of birth control, the majority of the women in this country will lower their drawers and water the tree of liberty, and I will join them in a sympathetic leak and then burn this government to the ground, the Supreme Court included.
    Is Thomas telling us he would have prohibited Anita Hill from obtaining a spermacide? Or did he just want a blow job?
    Thomas is correct that abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution, but nevertheless in the real world in 1787, there were aborted fetuses.
    If any conservative onlookers here would like to wade in and call me a “baby killer”, feel free but I request that you travel to me physically and say it personally to my face so I can kick your non-fetal ass.

  369. Charles WT: “scientific underspending” (sic, I know).
    So she was a conservative republican after all?
    %-]

  370. Charles WT: “scientific underspending” (sic, I know).
    So she was a conservative republican after all?
    %-]

  375. “By the widely celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Last Callā€”the powerful, definitive, and timely account of how the rise of eugenics helped America close the immigration door to ā€œinferiorsā€ in the 1920s.
    “A forgotten, dark chapter of American history with implications for the current day,     The Guarded Gate tells the story of the scientists who argued that certain nationalities were inherently inferior, providing the intellectual justification for the harshest immigration law in American history. Brandished by the upper-class Bostonians and New Yorkersā€”many of them progressivesā€”who led the anti-immigration movement, the eugenic arguments helped keep hundreds of thousands of Jews, Italians, and other unwanted groups out of the US for more than 40 years.”
    The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America

  376. “By the widely celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Last Callā€”the powerful, definitive, and timely account of how the rise of eugenics helped America close the immigration door to ā€œinferiorsā€ in the 1920s.
    “A forgotten, dark chapter of American history with implications for the current day,     The Guarded Gate tells the story of the scientists who argued that certain nationalities were inherently inferior, providing the intellectual justification for the harshest immigration law in American history. Brandished by the upper-class Bostonians and New Yorkersā€”many of them progressivesā€”who led the anti-immigration movement, the eugenic arguments helped keep hundreds of thousands of Jews, Italians, and other unwanted groups out of the US for more than 40 years.”
    The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America

  377. Presumably, Justice Thomas will join me in demanding reparations for the death of all fetuses and birthed children conceived by the groups enumerated above who were denied admittance to hospitals, denied the service of white Christian midwives, forced into a state of penury by racist employment laws, kept in a state of malnutrition by enforced poverty, and generally fucked before and after birth throughout this country’s history.
    How many fetuses were aborted or new born black infants fed to the sharks on the Norwegian and Carnival Cruise slave ships prior to 1866?
    How come that wasn’t a Census question back then?
    Further, please join me in demanding that the government going forward purchase fetuses from women who might otherwise abort them and supplying those fetuses with adequate housing, health coverage, education thru college, clean air and water, protection from gun violence and a year’s supply of jelly beans swiped from Ronald Reagan’s Neshoba County candy jar.
    What, are we afraid of unintended consequences and perverse incentives and disincentives for fetuses too?

  378. Presumably, Justice Thomas will join me in demanding reparations for the death of all fetuses and birthed children conceived by the groups enumerated above who were denied admittance to hospitals, denied the service of white Christian midwives, forced into a state of penury by racist employment laws, kept in a state of malnutrition by enforced poverty, and generally fucked before and after birth throughout this country’s history.
    How many fetuses were aborted or new born black infants fed to the sharks on the Norwegian and Carnival Cruise slave ships prior to 1866?
    How come that wasn’t a Census question back then?
    Further, please join me in demanding that the government going forward purchase fetuses from women who might otherwise abort them and supplying those fetuses with adequate housing, health coverage, education thru college, clean air and water, protection from gun violence and a year’s supply of jelly beans swiped from Ronald Reagan’s Neshoba County candy jar.
    What, are we afraid of unintended consequences and perverse incentives and disincentives for fetuses too?

  379. I suppose CharlesWT is trying to make some point about something, rather than simply indulging in Sanger fetishism. I wish he’d make it explicitly.
    Maternity-ward immigrants have always been more numerous in the US than port-of-entry immigrants. This has allowed them to preen themselves as more deserving: if God favored them by creating them USians, He must have meant for them to “close the door” if they felt like it.
    But He forbade them “closing the door” to maternity-ward immigrants, even though they enter the country illiterate, dependent, and unproductive — just like (supposedly) port-of-entry immigrants. And most of them take longer to learn English and get a job, also.
    I’m just trying to plant, in the rocky soil between the ears of Clarence Thomas and his ilk, the idea that abortion is an anti-immigration measure. If that notion takes root, it would be interesting to see the fruits of it.
    –TP

  380. I suppose CharlesWT is trying to make some point about something, rather than simply indulging in Sanger fetishism. I wish he’d make it explicitly.
    Maternity-ward immigrants have always been more numerous in the US than port-of-entry immigrants. This has allowed them to preen themselves as more deserving: if God favored them by creating them USians, He must have meant for them to “close the door” if they felt like it.
    But He forbade them “closing the door” to maternity-ward immigrants, even though they enter the country illiterate, dependent, and unproductive — just like (supposedly) port-of-entry immigrants. And most of them take longer to learn English and get a job, also.
    I’m just trying to plant, in the rocky soil between the ears of Clarence Thomas and his ilk, the idea that abortion is an anti-immigration measure. If that notion takes root, it would be interesting to see the fruits of it.
    –TP

  381. Look on the bright side. Justice Thomas is unlikely to join his fellow conservatives in reviving anti-miscegenation laws. šŸ˜‰

  382. Look on the bright side. Justice Thomas is unlikely to join his fellow conservatives in reviving anti-miscegenation laws. šŸ˜‰

  385. Further, please join me in demanding that the government going forward purchase fetuses from women who might otherwise abort them and supplying those fetuses with adequate housing, health coverage, education thru college, clean air and water, protection from gun violence and a year’s supply of jelly beans swiped from Ronald Reagan’s Neshoba County candy jar.
    I agree with this other than the jelly beans, which must be stale by now.
    Justice Thomas is unlikely to join his fellow conservatives in reviving anti-miscegenation laws.
    Don’t give him that much credit.
    Thomas’ 20 page irrelevant, incoherent rant is just…I don’t know what. Apply its reasoning to the Founding Fathers who were slave owners…
    If a Dem wins the 2020 Presidential election he will retire during the lame-duck session and Trump will appoint and McConnell will confirm his replacement.

  386. Further, please join me in demanding that the government going forward purchase fetuses from women who might otherwise abort them and supplying those fetuses with adequate housing, health coverage, education thru college, clean air and water, protection from gun violence and a year’s supply of jelly beans swiped from Ronald Reagan’s Neshoba County candy jar.
    I agree with this other than the jelly beans, which must be stale by now.
    Justice Thomas is unlikely to join his fellow conservatives in reviving anti-miscegenation laws.
    Don’t give him that much credit.
    Thomas’ 20 page irrelevant, incoherent rant is just…I don’t know what. Apply its reasoning to the Founding Fathers who were slave owners…
    If a Dem wins the 2020 Presidential election he will retire during the lame-duck session and Trump will appoint and McConnell will confirm his replacement.

  387. Don’t give him that much credit.
    Well since such laws would invalidate his marriage, he’s likely to feel a bit constrained. When the negative impacts are personal, the enthusiasm tends to fall away. (And not just for Justice Thomas.)

  388. Don’t give him that much credit.
    Well since such laws would invalidate his marriage, he’s likely to feel a bit constrained. When the negative impacts are personal, the enthusiasm tends to fall away. (And not just for Justice Thomas.)

  391. Movie Quote of the Day: I think that I am familiar with the fact that you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you on the ass!

  392. Movie Quote of the Day: I think that I am familiar with the fact that you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you on the ass!

  393. Well since such laws would invalidate his marriage, he’s likely to feel a bit constrained.
    As I said, don’t give him that much credit….
    šŸ™‚

  394. Well since such laws would invalidate his marriage, he’s likely to feel a bit constrained.
    As I said, don’t give him that much credit….
    šŸ™‚

  395. As I said, don’t give him that much credit….
    Ah, but it’s you giving him too much credit. For intellectual consistency.

  396. As I said, don’t give him that much credit….
    Ah, but it’s you giving him too much credit. For intellectual consistency.

  399. The foundations for legalizing abortion in America were laid during the early 20th-century birth-control movement.
    Says Thomas, the ur-originalist.
    By traditional common law, abortion before quickening was not an issue. Quickening is somewhere around 15-20 weeks. The first actual legislation about abortion in the US is ca. early 19th C.
    Originalism is a fraud.
    If you simply consider abortion to be straight up wrong, you will get no objection from me. If that’s where your personal beliefs lead you, so be it.
    But I just don’t have a lot of patience with people who make shit up.

  400. The foundations for legalizing abortion in America were laid during the early 20th-century birth-control movement.
    Says Thomas, the ur-originalist.
    By traditional common law, abortion before quickening was not an issue. Quickening is somewhere around 15-20 weeks. The first actual legislation about abortion in the US is ca. early 19th C.
    Originalism is a fraud.
    If you simply consider abortion to be straight up wrong, you will get no objection from me. If that’s where your personal beliefs lead you, so be it.
    But I just don’t have a lot of patience with people who make shit up.

  409. “molecules of freedom”
    The US does have a natural gas problem. The additional LNG that can be exported after the expansion announced in the press release where this phrase was used is about the same as the amount flared off in North Dakota. In the last few months, the wellhead price for associated gas in the Permian Basin region has occasionally gone negative: the producers have to pay people to take it.
    It’s depressing to think that Gov. Perry, who clearly knew little about the DOE job when he took it, but has buckled down and learned a lot, may turn out to be the least incompetent of Trump’s Cabinet officials.

  410. “molecules of freedom”
    The US does have a natural gas problem. The additional LNG that can be exported after the expansion announced in the press release where this phrase was used is about the same as the amount flared off in North Dakota. In the last few months, the wellhead price for associated gas in the Permian Basin region has occasionally gone negative: the producers have to pay people to take it.
    It’s depressing to think that Gov. Perry, who clearly knew little about the DOE job when he took it, but has buckled down and learned a lot, may turn out to be the least incompetent of Trump’s Cabinet officials.

  413. President Trump on Thursday attacked Robert S. Mueller III as ā€œtotally conflictedā€ and ā€œa true never-Trumperā€ and claimed that the former special counsel would have brought charges against him if he had any evidence ā€” a characterization directly at odds with what Mueller said in a public statement Wednesday.

    President Trump appears to have an opportunity to do something good for the nation: he could direct the Department of Justice to reverse its policy against indicting a sitting President. Right, like that’s going to happen….
    Still, IMHO it would be a good thing if it did. Certainly the rationale for it (that the President is too busy, with tasks which are too important, to spend time dealing with a criminal charge) has been disproven over the past couple of years.

  414. President Trump on Thursday attacked Robert S. Mueller III as ā€œtotally conflictedā€ and ā€œa true never-Trumperā€ and claimed that the former special counsel would have brought charges against him if he had any evidence ā€” a characterization directly at odds with what Mueller said in a public statement Wednesday.

    President Trump appears to have an opportunity to do something good for the nation: he could direct the Department of Justice to reverse its policy against indicting a sitting President. Right, like that’s going to happen….
    Still, IMHO it would be a good thing if it did. Certainly the rationale for it (that the President is too busy, with tasks which are too important, to spend time dealing with a criminal charge) has been disproven over the past couple of years.

  417. well, duh.

    But after he died last summer, his estranged daughter discovered hard drives in her fatherā€™s home that revealed something else: Mr. Hofeller had played a crucial role in the Trump administrationā€™s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
    Files on those drives showed that he wrote a study in 2015 concluding that adding a citizenship question to the census would allow Republicans to draft even more extreme gerrymandered maps to stymie Democrats. And months after urging President Trumpā€™s transition team to tack the question onto the census, he wrote the key portion of a draft Justice Department letter claiming the question was needed to enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act ā€” the rationale the administration later used to justify its decision.
    …
    The disclosures represent the most explicit evidence to date that the Trump administration added the question to the 2020 census to advance Republican Party interests.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/us/census-citizenship-question-hofeller.html

  418. well, duh.

    But after he died last summer, his estranged daughter discovered hard drives in her fatherā€™s home that revealed something else: Mr. Hofeller had played a crucial role in the Trump administrationā€™s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
    Files on those drives showed that he wrote a study in 2015 concluding that adding a citizenship question to the census would allow Republicans to draft even more extreme gerrymandered maps to stymie Democrats. And months after urging President Trumpā€™s transition team to tack the question onto the census, he wrote the key portion of a draft Justice Department letter claiming the question was needed to enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act ā€” the rationale the administration later used to justify its decision.
    …
    The disclosures represent the most explicit evidence to date that the Trump administration added the question to the 2020 census to advance Republican Party interests.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/us/census-citizenship-question-hofeller.html

  419. “fraternization of opposites and all manner of morbid symptoms pertain.”
    Don’t they, though. The plot thickens daily.
    We can safely say that all manner of political and religious movements, left, right, and indifferent, throughout history, even those supported by Jews, eventually end up turning on and murdering Jews, including the Jewish supporters.
    It seems baked into the poisonous human cake and even then, some believe the poison cake so precious that they won’t bake it for the Others they hate, preferring to feed the Other pure poison without the trouble of cake.
    This, despite Rod Dreher’s insistent but highly remunerative, and hysterical business endeavor to portray Christianity as the worldwide victim.
    I can see where his movement is going to end up, too, as you can sense the dreadful momentum building once again, on the Right and the Left.
    I can condemn the open anti-Semitic hate directed by the worldwide conservative movement against George Soros, and still selectively disagree with Soros the individual regarding his views on globalism and economics.
    Just so, I can condemn and support the arrest by Israeli authorities of Netanyahu and his thugs for their individual conservative right wing corruption and utter demagogic hostility toward Palestine and Iran (as I condemn Iranian and Palestinian conservatism’s hatred of Jews and Israel) and support the Left in Israel and Israel’s right to exist.
    Tragically and ridiculously, the world, the stupid, malign non-Jewish world, could unite around the ultimate morbid symptom, which historically raises its monstrous head periodi(diot)cally, as if timed by an egg-timer, and tie Soros and Netanyahu together and burn them at the stake.
    One day, all of the Others will unite and destroy the others who have determined throughout history who always gets designated as the Other.

  420. “fraternization of opposites and all manner of morbid symptoms pertain.”
    Don’t they, though. The plot thickens daily.
    We can safely say that all manner of political and religious movements, left, right, and indifferent, throughout history, even those supported by Jews, eventually end up turning on and murdering Jews, including the Jewish supporters.
    It seems baked into the poisonous human cake and even then, some believe the poison cake so precious that they won’t bake it for the Others they hate, preferring to feed the Other pure poison without the trouble of cake.
    This, despite Rod Dreher’s insistent but highly remunerative, and hysterical business endeavor to portray Christianity as the worldwide victim.
    I can see where his movement is going to end up, too, as you can sense the dreadful momentum building once again, on the Right and the Left.
    I can condemn the open anti-Semitic hate directed by the worldwide conservative movement against George Soros, and still selectively disagree with Soros the individual regarding his views on globalism and economics.
    Just so, I can condemn and support the arrest by Israeli authorities of Netanyahu and his thugs for their individual conservative right wing corruption and utter demagogic hostility toward Palestine and Iran (as I condemn Iranian and Palestinian conservatism’s hatred of Jews and Israel) and support the Left in Israel and Israel’s right to exist.
    Tragically and ridiculously, the world, the stupid, malign non-Jewish world, could unite around the ultimate morbid symptom, which historically raises its monstrous head periodi(diot)cally, as if timed by an egg-timer, and tie Soros and Netanyahu together and burn them at the stake.
    One day, all of the Others will unite and destroy the others who have determined throughout history who always gets designated as the Other.

  423. Neglected to add that GFTNC’s link is a must-read.
    P, the malign filth, is planning to send the USS McCain into the South China Sea, without air support and other naval (bellybuttonless) backup to confront the Chinese, thus killing two birds with one stone, scuttling John McCain’s mark on America, just as p as scuttled everything Obama-related, and commencing a nuclear World War III, to confirm his 90-minute study of everything there is to know about nuclear weapons.
    Then the professional bankrupt hopes in the ensuing worldwide mayhem to do what the conservative movement hired him for, declare the U.S. Government bankrupt and every government function except the War Department and the SS fucks who protect his fat broke, golf-cheating ass from certain liquidation …. kaputnik, fini, over and out, shuttered, eternally gone for lunch.
    Unless the Others come to the rescue in time.

  424. Neglected to add that GFTNC’s link is a must-read.
    P, the malign filth, is planning to send the USS McCain into the South China Sea, without air support and other naval (bellybuttonless) backup to confront the Chinese, thus killing two birds with one stone, scuttling John McCain’s mark on America, just as p as scuttled everything Obama-related, and commencing a nuclear World War III, to confirm his 90-minute study of everything there is to know about nuclear weapons.
    Then the professional bankrupt hopes in the ensuing worldwide mayhem to do what the conservative movement hired him for, declare the U.S. Government bankrupt and every government function except the War Department and the SS fucks who protect his fat broke, golf-cheating ass from certain liquidation …. kaputnik, fini, over and out, shuttered, eternally gone for lunch.
    Unless the Others come to the rescue in time.

  425. JDT: I assume you’re referring to my New Statesman link about the current anti-semitism on the left, as opposed to my fun, but essentially frivolous, link showing George Galloway and Steve Bannon in bed together. Frivolous because to anyone who has been watching him carefully for a long time it has been clear that Galloway, despite being one of the most gifted and persuasive orators of this generation, is essentially a malignant piece of work…

  426. JDT: I assume you’re referring to my New Statesman link about the current anti-semitism on the left, as opposed to my fun, but essentially frivolous, link showing George Galloway and Steve Bannon in bed together. Frivolous because to anyone who has been watching him carefully for a long time it has been clear that Galloway, despite being one of the most gifted and persuasive orators of this generation, is essentially a malignant piece of work…

  431. ā€œThis, despite Rod Dreher’s insistent but highly remunerative, and hysterical business endeavor to portray Christianity as the worldwide victim.ā€
    Dreher gets hysterical about things in the US. I donā€™t think he is faking it. That is his personality. That sort of personality thrives on the internet.
    But in many parts of the world Christians are in fact subjected to murderous persecution.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48146305

  432. ā€œThis, despite Rod Dreher’s insistent but highly remunerative, and hysterical business endeavor to portray Christianity as the worldwide victim.ā€
    Dreher gets hysterical about things in the US. I donā€™t think he is faking it. That is his personality. That sort of personality thrives on the internet.
    But in many parts of the world Christians are in fact subjected to murderous persecution.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48146305

  433. I agree, Donald.
    Unfortunately, Christians unwillingly get to join the fray, and it should be condemned in righteous anger.
    My complaint is with Dreher’s mercenary use of those depredations to build his brand, especially regarding the issue of “religious freedom” in the U.S., while, natch, taking every opportunity to poke liberalism at large in the eye while keeping a straight (in the other meaning), innocent face.
    That said, he is a social conservative and not so much a dyed in the wool economic conservative, despite his constantly making hay of the word “Socialist”
    He’s building a personal monument of his Christian victimhood, especially his right to discriminate against the LGBT, not that some LGBT
    exhibitionists don’t cross into absurdity.
    History tells us where that leads.
    I don’t think he’s faking it either, anymore than an ice cream lover is faking it when he buys and cashes in on a Dairy Queen franchise.
    But it’s the sincere ones you’ve got to keep an eye on.
    And I’m sincere about that.
    Hysterical and thriving too.

  434. I agree, Donald.
    Unfortunately, Christians unwillingly get to join the fray, and it should be condemned in righteous anger.
    My complaint is with Dreher’s mercenary use of those depredations to build his brand, especially regarding the issue of “religious freedom” in the U.S., while, natch, taking every opportunity to poke liberalism at large in the eye while keeping a straight (in the other meaning), innocent face.
    That said, he is a social conservative and not so much a dyed in the wool economic conservative, despite his constantly making hay of the word “Socialist”
    He’s building a personal monument of his Christian victimhood, especially his right to discriminate against the LGBT, not that some LGBT
    exhibitionists don’t cross into absurdity.
    History tells us where that leads.
    I don’t think he’s faking it either, anymore than an ice cream lover is faking it when he buys and cashes in on a Dairy Queen franchise.
    But it’s the sincere ones you’ve got to keep an eye on.
    And I’m sincere about that.
    Hysterical and thriving too.

  435. Regarding GFTNC’s link, I have one quibble and that is his remarks down deep in the text that include Philip Roth, although I get the writer’s larger point.
    Roth, as an American Jew, possessed a subtlety about his life as a Jew and all that entails, including Israel, that many folks miss or gloss over, which can be illustrated by much of the American Jewish condemnation of his novel “Portnoy’s Complaint” and his early short stories.
    This, (from this: https://imagejournal.org/article/the-pleasures-of-obsolescence/
    “Philip Roth, Operation Shylock (1993)
    Philip Roth once summarized the range of his fatherā€™s dinner table conversation as ā€œfamily, family, family, Newark, Newark, Newark, Jew, Jew, Jew.ā€ He slyly added, ā€œSomewhat like mine.ā€ But there was always a fourth obsession for Roth: America, America, America. He considered himself before anything else an American writer. Indeed, the fact that the grandson of Galician immigrants, raised in Newarkā€™s Jewish enclave of Weequahic, was every bit as American as Thomas Wolfe or Sherwood Anderson was one of his great themes. Roth never doubted his status as a genuine American, but he thrived on contradiction, so he was fascinated and provoked by those who believed that a Jew would always be first and foremost a Jew, never entirely anything else. Such people included not just anti-Semites, but fellow Jews who rejected the possibility or the desirability of assimilation.
    Roth had profound things to say about a theme that has become central to our culture: identity. He didnā€™t want to be defined by his Jewishness, but he found at every turn Jews and Gentiles alike insisting that he had no choice. Rothā€™s half-century-long battle with the anti-assimilationists began after the furious response to his earliest short stories, which were seen as an airing of dirty laundry, and it provided material for some of his best books, including Operation Shylock.
    As the novel begins, Roth discovers that a man who bears a striking resemblance to him has been living under his name in Israel. Whatā€™s more, heā€™s been using Rothā€™s fame to advocate for what he calls ā€œDiasporism,ā€ a return of the Ashkenazi Jews in Israel to the European countries they fled after the Holocaust. Roth travels to Israel to seek him out. While there, he attends the trial of John Demjanjuk, the Ukrainian-American immigrant who was living as a retired autoworker in Cleveland when the Israelis put him on trial as the notorious concentration camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible, and he conducts a long interview with the Israeli novelist and Holocaust survivor Aharon Appelfeld. The book contains real reporting from the Demjanjuk trial, as well as real conversations between Roth and Appelfeld. This kind of mixing of documentary material into the novel has become commonplace in recent years, but it is rarely tied to such a madcap fictional plot. Roth loved playing with his own autobiography in his novels almost as much as he loved mocking as philistines anyone who read his novels autobiographically. This bookā€”which calls itself a ā€œconfessionā€ rather than a novelā€”goes farther down that hall of mirrors than anything else he wrote.”

  436. Regarding GFTNC’s link, I have one quibble and that is his remarks down deep in the text that include Philip Roth, although I get the writer’s larger point.
    Roth, as an American Jew, possessed a subtlety about his life as a Jew and all that entails, including Israel, that many folks miss or gloss over, which can be illustrated by much of the American Jewish condemnation of his novel “Portnoy’s Complaint” and his early short stories.
    This, (from this: https://imagejournal.org/article/the-pleasures-of-obsolescence/
    “Philip Roth, Operation Shylock (1993)
    Philip Roth once summarized the range of his fatherā€™s dinner table conversation as ā€œfamily, family, family, Newark, Newark, Newark, Jew, Jew, Jew.ā€ He slyly added, ā€œSomewhat like mine.ā€ But there was always a fourth obsession for Roth: America, America, America. He considered himself before anything else an American writer. Indeed, the fact that the grandson of Galician immigrants, raised in Newarkā€™s Jewish enclave of Weequahic, was every bit as American as Thomas Wolfe or Sherwood Anderson was one of his great themes. Roth never doubted his status as a genuine American, but he thrived on contradiction, so he was fascinated and provoked by those who believed that a Jew would always be first and foremost a Jew, never entirely anything else. Such people included not just anti-Semites, but fellow Jews who rejected the possibility or the desirability of assimilation.
    Roth had profound things to say about a theme that has become central to our culture: identity. He didnā€™t want to be defined by his Jewishness, but he found at every turn Jews and Gentiles alike insisting that he had no choice. Rothā€™s half-century-long battle with the anti-assimilationists began after the furious response to his earliest short stories, which were seen as an airing of dirty laundry, and it provided material for some of his best books, including Operation Shylock.
    As the novel begins, Roth discovers that a man who bears a striking resemblance to him has been living under his name in Israel. Whatā€™s more, heā€™s been using Rothā€™s fame to advocate for what he calls ā€œDiasporism,ā€ a return of the Ashkenazi Jews in Israel to the European countries they fled after the Holocaust. Roth travels to Israel to seek him out. While there, he attends the trial of John Demjanjuk, the Ukrainian-American immigrant who was living as a retired autoworker in Cleveland when the Israelis put him on trial as the notorious concentration camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible, and he conducts a long interview with the Israeli novelist and Holocaust survivor Aharon Appelfeld. The book contains real reporting from the Demjanjuk trial, as well as real conversations between Roth and Appelfeld. This kind of mixing of documentary material into the novel has become commonplace in recent years, but it is rarely tied to such a madcap fictional plot. Roth loved playing with his own autobiography in his novels almost as much as he loved mocking as philistines anyone who read his novels autobiographically. This bookā€”which calls itself a ā€œconfessionā€ rather than a novelā€”goes farther down that hall of mirrors than anything else he wrote.”

  437. I have mixed feelings about Dreher. But yes, his victimization routine can get ugly. He pulls back sometimes. Sometimes he is self critical, which is why I read him. His huge glaring flaw is that he acts like American bigotry and support for Trump is a reaction to leftist arrogance, as though bigotry in America hasnā€™t been a constant thing all along.
    Though in a different way I think the liberal hysteria in some quarters about Putin is equally ahistorical. The Russian interference in our politics is a tiny drop of spit in an ocean of homegrown American hatred, nonsense, and lies.
    On Israel, I donā€™t quite agree.
    ā€œI can condemn and support the arrest by Israeli authorities of Netanyahu and his thugs for their individual conservative right wing corruption and utter demagogic hostility toward Palestine and Iran (as I condemn Iranian and Palestinian conservatism’s hatred of Jews and Israel) and support the Left in Israel and Israel’s right to exist.ā€
    Most of Israel seems pretty rightwing these days. The ā€œ leftā€ candidate Gantz ran in part by bragging about what a great job he did bombing Gaza in 2014.
    https://www.thenation.com/article/israel-elections-benny-gantz-war-crimes-gaza-holocaust/
    Shmuel Rosner had a NYT column today about how far right Israel is. He of course is happy about it. The Left is politically irrelevant in Israel. Rosner is one of four NYT opinion writers who approved or excused Israel gunning down Palestinian protestors last yearā€” the others were Bret Stephens, Matti Friedman and Tom Friedman.
    I agree with trying to be nuanced and morally consistent, but one can condemn antisemitic hatred and terrorist attacks without expecting Palestinians to love a country whose ā€œright to existā€ is directly tied to their ethnic cleansing. Not that I expect anyone, Palestinian or Israeli, to trust either Hamas or the PA. And of course the US role has been at best feckless and at worst complicit.
    Israel seems to be what the US would be if most people had voted for Trump. Then the internal conflicts within the right would start to split them up without giving anyone any decent person to vote for.
    https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520234222/sacred-landscape#reviews

  438. I have mixed feelings about Dreher. But yes, his victimization routine can get ugly. He pulls back sometimes. Sometimes he is self critical, which is why I read him. His huge glaring flaw is that he acts like American bigotry and support for Trump is a reaction to leftist arrogance, as though bigotry in America hasnā€™t been a constant thing all along.
    Though in a different way I think the liberal hysteria in some quarters about Putin is equally ahistorical. The Russian interference in our politics is a tiny drop of spit in an ocean of homegrown American hatred, nonsense, and lies.
    On Israel, I donā€™t quite agree.
    ā€œI can condemn and support the arrest by Israeli authorities of Netanyahu and his thugs for their individual conservative right wing corruption and utter demagogic hostility toward Palestine and Iran (as I condemn Iranian and Palestinian conservatism’s hatred of Jews and Israel) and support the Left in Israel and Israel’s right to exist.ā€
    Most of Israel seems pretty rightwing these days. The ā€œ leftā€ candidate Gantz ran in part by bragging about what a great job he did bombing Gaza in 2014.
    https://www.thenation.com/article/israel-elections-benny-gantz-war-crimes-gaza-holocaust/
    Shmuel Rosner had a NYT column today about how far right Israel is. He of course is happy about it. The Left is politically irrelevant in Israel. Rosner is one of four NYT opinion writers who approved or excused Israel gunning down Palestinian protestors last yearā€” the others were Bret Stephens, Matti Friedman and Tom Friedman.
    I agree with trying to be nuanced and morally consistent, but one can condemn antisemitic hatred and terrorist attacks without expecting Palestinians to love a country whose ā€œright to existā€ is directly tied to their ethnic cleansing. Not that I expect anyone, Palestinian or Israeli, to trust either Hamas or the PA. And of course the US role has been at best feckless and at worst complicit.
    Israel seems to be what the US would be if most people had voted for Trump. Then the internal conflicts within the right would start to split them up without giving anyone any decent person to vote for.
    https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520234222/sacred-landscape#reviews

  443. But in many parts of the world Christians are in fact subjected to murderous persecution.
    The centuries long depredations visited on what used to be called “the 3rd world” by the manifestly and overtly (also white) Christian West bears no blame for this I’m sure.
    cf: We kill hundreds of thousands of arabs in Iraq and are SHOCKED!, SHOCKED! to discover retaliation against their Christian minority.
    I am simply gob-smacked. Will wonders never cease?

  444. But in many parts of the world Christians are in fact subjected to murderous persecution.
    The centuries long depredations visited on what used to be called “the 3rd world” by the manifestly and overtly (also white) Christian West bears no blame for this I’m sure.
    cf: We kill hundreds of thousands of arabs in Iraq and are SHOCKED!, SHOCKED! to discover retaliation against their Christian minority.
    I am simply gob-smacked. Will wonders never cease?

  445. ā€œThe centuries long depredations visited on what used to be called “the 3rd world” by the manifestly and overtly (also white) Christian West bears no blame for this I’m sure.ā€
    I was actually going to mention how the Iraq War led to much of what has been happening to Christians there. I was also going to mention that our support for Syrian rebels was equally disastrous, helping to drag the war out. And if the rebels had won both Alawites and Christians would have had to leave or else stay and possibly be exterminated..
    But I decided not to be my usual leftist self and keep things short.
    Western imperialism ( including its liberal interventionist variant) is not solely responsible for the persecution of Christians around the world, but yes, it has played a major role.

  446. ā€œThe centuries long depredations visited on what used to be called “the 3rd world” by the manifestly and overtly (also white) Christian West bears no blame for this I’m sure.ā€
    I was actually going to mention how the Iraq War led to much of what has been happening to Christians there. I was also going to mention that our support for Syrian rebels was equally disastrous, helping to drag the war out. And if the rebels had won both Alawites and Christians would have had to leave or else stay and possibly be exterminated..
    But I decided not to be my usual leftist self and keep things short.
    Western imperialism ( including its liberal interventionist variant) is not solely responsible for the persecution of Christians around the world, but yes, it has played a major role.

  447. Christians in Iran, for one, have been on the pointy end of the stick for at least a century – long before the US or the west in general had anything to do with anything.

  448. Christians in Iran, for one, have been on the pointy end of the stick for at least a century – long before the US or the west in general had anything to do with anything.

  449. Christians and other minorities in the Middle East are lucky from the standpoint that Islamic fractions spend so much time and energy hating on each other.

  450. Christians and other minorities in the Middle East are lucky from the standpoint that Islamic fractions spend so much time and energy hating on each other.

  451. It also helps some that Islam, at least officially, mandates respect for “people of the Book” — i.e. Jews and Christians
    Honored in the breech, in a lot of cases, but at least a talking point for some.

  452. It also helps some that Islam, at least officially, mandates respect for “people of the Book” — i.e. Jews and Christians
    Honored in the breech, in a lot of cases, but at least a talking point for some.

  459. with all due respect, balderdash.
    i’ll just note that “Iran”, which i specifically noted, gets one mention in that article.

  460. with all due respect, balderdash.
    i’ll just note that “Iran”, which i specifically noted, gets one mention in that article.

  463. I think the liberal hysteria in some quarters about Putin is equally ahistorical.
    My impression is that the “hysteria”, or concern, if you will, is not about history, or even Putin specifically, as it is the degree to his interference was welcomed, abetted, and embraced by the POTUS and his campaign.
    That actually should inspire concern, IMO.

  464. I think the liberal hysteria in some quarters about Putin is equally ahistorical.
    My impression is that the “hysteria”, or concern, if you will, is not about history, or even Putin specifically, as it is the degree to his interference was welcomed, abetted, and embraced by the POTUS and his campaign.
    That actually should inspire concern, IMO.

  465. I think the significant aspect of Russian interference would be the email thefts, which was significant because there was genuinely newsworthy material in there, however illegally obtained.
    The silly aspect comes from concern about Russian social media activity dividing our nation and spreading propaganda and so forth. That is a drop in the ocean.
    As for POTUS, he can be influenced by money or flattery from any direction, so yeah, that matters. For the most part, though, I think Trumpā€™s awfulness on policy has little to do with Putin.

  466. I think the significant aspect of Russian interference would be the email thefts, which was significant because there was genuinely newsworthy material in there, however illegally obtained.
    The silly aspect comes from concern about Russian social media activity dividing our nation and spreading propaganda and so forth. That is a drop in the ocean.
    As for POTUS, he can be influenced by money or flattery from any direction, so yeah, that matters. For the most part, though, I think Trumpā€™s awfulness on policy has little to do with Putin.

  467. For your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
    and “Christian” doesn’t appear in that one.
    “the west has never meddled in the ME” is something i never asserted.

  468. For your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
    and “Christian” doesn’t appear in that one.
    “the west has never meddled in the ME” is something i never asserted.

  469. The silly aspect comes from concern about Russian social media activity dividing our nation and spreading propaganda and so forth. That is a drop in the ocean.
    But is it really just a “drop in the ocean”? I’d be interested in seeing evidence on that. Or just on the general topic of how influence efforts on social media work, and to what effect. (It’s not a topic I feel like I understand. But then, I am a bit bemused at how well advertising in general seems to work.)

  470. The silly aspect comes from concern about Russian social media activity dividing our nation and spreading propaganda and so forth. That is a drop in the ocean.
    But is it really just a “drop in the ocean”? I’d be interested in seeing evidence on that. Or just on the general topic of how influence efforts on social media work, and to what effect. (It’s not a topic I feel like I understand. But then, I am a bit bemused at how well advertising in general seems to work.)

  471. The silly aspect comes from concern about Russian social media activity dividing our nation and spreading propaganda and so forth. That is a drop in the ocean.
    the concern is not silly.
    it is bit hypocritical, for those who actually know all the relevant US history, to be mad when other countries meddle in our elections, but i’d be shocked if even 20% of Americans know it. yes, they should know it, but they don’t.
    and futhermore, it’s never been true that two wrongs make a right.
    if it was bad for the US to meddle in other countries’ elections, it’s also bad when it happens to us.
    so, we should stop it. and we shouldn’t accept it when other countries do it to us.

  472. The silly aspect comes from concern about Russian social media activity dividing our nation and spreading propaganda and so forth. That is a drop in the ocean.
    the concern is not silly.
    it is bit hypocritical, for those who actually know all the relevant US history, to be mad when other countries meddle in our elections, but i’d be shocked if even 20% of Americans know it. yes, they should know it, but they don’t.
    and futhermore, it’s never been true that two wrongs make a right.
    if it was bad for the US to meddle in other countries’ elections, it’s also bad when it happens to us.
    so, we should stop it. and we shouldn’t accept it when other countries do it to us.

  473. editing…
    “it is bit hypocritical, for those who actually know all the relevant US history, to be mad when other countries meddle in our elections while not caring that the US did it also, … ”

  474. editing…
    “it is bit hypocritical, for those who actually know all the relevant US history, to be mad when other countries meddle in our elections while not caring that the US did it also, … ”

  477. Some on SCOTUS will have no problem dismissing this as completely irrelevant. I would not even exclude the possibility that claims will be made that evil intent and bad faith do not affect the question of legitimacy in any way (and that since in the abstract the question itself is not per se harmful, there’s no reason to consider it so in the specific context).

  478. Some on SCOTUS will have no problem dismissing this as completely irrelevant. I would not even exclude the possibility that claims will be made that evil intent and bad faith do not affect the question of legitimacy in any way (and that since in the abstract the question itself is not per se harmful, there’s no reason to consider it so in the specific context).

  479. WRT Russian interference, not all drops in all buckets are equal. I fully believe that the Russian troll farms had just enough of an effect in Wisconsin and in Florida to tip things that little bit more such that the GOP thumb on the scales there could save the day.
    Every little bit helps, said the old man as he pissed into the sea.

  480. WRT Russian interference, not all drops in all buckets are equal. I fully believe that the Russian troll farms had just enough of an effect in Wisconsin and in Florida to tip things that little bit more such that the GOP thumb on the scales there could save the day.
    Every little bit helps, said the old man as he pissed into the sea.

  481. My impression is that the “hysteria”, or concern, if you will, is not about history, or even Putin specifically, as it is the degree to his interference was welcomed, abetted, and embraced by the POTUS and his campaign.
    Exactly. That the Russians interfered, while very regrettable from the American POV (and strenuous steps would be taken in any rational country to avoid it happening again) could justly be regarded as sauce for the gander. The really important thing about the Russian interference is partly what russell says above, and even more, how it is being ignored and even tacitly welcomed by much of the GOP and of the Republican electorate.

  482. My impression is that the “hysteria”, or concern, if you will, is not about history, or even Putin specifically, as it is the degree to his interference was welcomed, abetted, and embraced by the POTUS and his campaign.
    Exactly. That the Russians interfered, while very regrettable from the American POV (and strenuous steps would be taken in any rational country to avoid it happening again) could justly be regarded as sauce for the gander. The really important thing about the Russian interference is partly what russell says above, and even more, how it is being ignored and even tacitly welcomed by much of the GOP and of the Republican electorate.

  483. I would, I think, draw a distinction between two different kinds of “interference”.
    One is, essentially, propaganda/advertising — even if falsifying the source. The other involves monkeying with voter lists, vote totals, etc. — that is, the mechanics of the election The former is irritating; the latter is a whole different level of unacceptable.

  484. I would, I think, draw a distinction between two different kinds of “interference”.
    One is, essentially, propaganda/advertising — even if falsifying the source. The other involves monkeying with voter lists, vote totals, etc. — that is, the mechanics of the election The former is irritating; the latter is a whole different level of unacceptable.

  489. “No country is as misunderstood as North Korea, and no modern tyrant has remained more mysterious than the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Now, celebrity ghostwriter Michael Malice pulls back the curtain to expose the life story of the “Incarnation of Love and Morality.” Taken directly from books spirited out of Pyongyang, DEAR READER is a carefully reconstructed first-person account of the man behind the mythology.”
    Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il

  490. “No country is as misunderstood as North Korea, and no modern tyrant has remained more mysterious than the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Now, celebrity ghostwriter Michael Malice pulls back the curtain to expose the life story of the “Incarnation of Love and Morality.” Taken directly from books spirited out of Pyongyang, DEAR READER is a carefully reconstructed first-person account of the man behind the mythology.”
    Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il

  491. wj – the line between those two things blur in the face of modern data collection and number crunching. If the Russians were to have access to a candidate’s canvasing database, they could mount a very targeted disinformation campaign aided by the metrics they get from social media data abusers like Cambridge Analytic.
    I believe that to be a highly probable scenario from the last election. No need to tamper with much official to get a very directed effect.

  492. wj – the line between those two things blur in the face of modern data collection and number crunching. If the Russians were to have access to a candidate’s canvasing database, they could mount a very targeted disinformation campaign aided by the metrics they get from social media data abusers like Cambridge Analytic.
    I believe that to be a highly probable scenario from the last election. No need to tamper with much official to get a very directed effect.

  493. wj: One is, essentially, propaganda/advertising — even if falsifying the source. The other involves monkeying with voter lists, vote totals, etc. — that is, the mechanics of the election. The former is irritating; the latter is a whole different level of unacceptable.
    I once chided Donald for conflating the changing of votes with the changing of ballots.
    Convincing (some) Americans to change their vote by means of surreptitious propaganda and disinformation is indeed different from surreptitiously changing the ballots on which they recorded their votes. But I would argue the former is more insidious, not less.
    The counterargument would be that whether people get convinced by propaganda, or disinformation, or rhetoric, or logic doesn’t matter. If you convince them, they are … well, convinced. If you change people’s mental picture of the universe into one where

    o Hillary is a crook but He, Trump isn’t;
    o a 6-week-old fetus has constitutional rights but a 6-year-old immigrant child doesn’t;
    o the “white working class” is getting ripped off by foreign workers and not by domestic billionaires;
    o fossil fuels are a renewable resource and money isn’t;
    o American “socialists” are dangerous but American collaborators of foreign kleptocrats are NOT;

    then you don’t need to hack into their balloting system. But I think that reinforces my point.
    –TP

  494. wj: One is, essentially, propaganda/advertising — even if falsifying the source. The other involves monkeying with voter lists, vote totals, etc. — that is, the mechanics of the election. The former is irritating; the latter is a whole different level of unacceptable.
    I once chided Donald for conflating the changing of votes with the changing of ballots.
    Convincing (some) Americans to change their vote by means of surreptitious propaganda and disinformation is indeed different from surreptitiously changing the ballots on which they recorded their votes. But I would argue the former is more insidious, not less.
    The counterargument would be that whether people get convinced by propaganda, or disinformation, or rhetoric, or logic doesn’t matter. If you convince them, they are … well, convinced. If you change people’s mental picture of the universe into one where

    o Hillary is a crook but He, Trump isn’t;
    o a 6-week-old fetus has constitutional rights but a 6-year-old immigrant child doesn’t;
    o the “white working class” is getting ripped off by foreign workers and not by domestic billionaires;
    o fossil fuels are a renewable resource and money isn’t;
    o American “socialists” are dangerous but American collaborators of foreign kleptocrats are NOT;

    then you don’t need to hack into their balloting system. But I think that reinforces my point.
    –TP

  495. Every little bit helps, said the old man as he pissed into the sea.
    Catalogued for future use.
    I’ll just leave this here
    “You’re fired!”

  496. Every little bit helps, said the old man as he pissed into the sea.
    Catalogued for future use.
    I’ll just leave this here
    “You’re fired!”

  499. itā€™s a little bit hypocritical
    Itā€™s pretty consistent, too.
    A demonstration of contempt for and subversion of democracy both overseas and at home.

  500. itā€™s a little bit hypocritical
    Itā€™s pretty consistent, too.
    A demonstration of contempt for and subversion of democracy both overseas and at home.

  501. The best quarrels are the internecine ones…
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-21/tory-grandee-patten-calls-johnson-mendacious-and-incompetent
    ā€œHeā€™s lied his way through life, heā€™s lied his way through politics, heā€™s a huckster with a degree of charm to which I am immune,ā€ Patten said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in London. ā€œAs well as being mendacious heā€™s incompetent.ā€…
    I think it’s reasonable to predict Patten won’t be voting for Johnson in the leadership election.

  502. The best quarrels are the internecine ones…
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-21/tory-grandee-patten-calls-johnson-mendacious-and-incompetent
    ā€œHeā€™s lied his way through life, heā€™s lied his way through politics, heā€™s a huckster with a degree of charm to which I am immune,ā€ Patten said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in London. ā€œAs well as being mendacious heā€™s incompetent.ā€…
    I think it’s reasonable to predict Patten won’t be voting for Johnson in the leadership election.

  505. What Tony P said @10.02 above.
    Persuasion by systematic, targeted falsehood is worse than ballot-tampering because once you can prove ballot-tampering it is, at least theoretically, clear-cut. But targeted disinformation? We are seeing in real time how neither the disinformed, nor the providers of the channels of disinformation, give the slightest of fucks. Facts are irrelevant, gut-feeling is all, and gut-feeling is infinitely manipulable.

  506. What Tony P said @10.02 above.
    Persuasion by systematic, targeted falsehood is worse than ballot-tampering because once you can prove ballot-tampering it is, at least theoretically, clear-cut. But targeted disinformation? We are seeing in real time how neither the disinformed, nor the providers of the channels of disinformation, give the slightest of fucks. Facts are irrelevant, gut-feeling is all, and gut-feeling is infinitely manipulable.

  509. The success of this Republican campaign, reflected in conservative media coverage, to protect Trump was best captured by Amashā€™s own constituent Cathy Garnaat, a Republican, who NBC reported was ā€œsurprised to hear there was anything negative in the Mueller report at all about President Trump.ā€
    ā€œI hadnā€™t heard that before,ā€ she told NBC after the Tuesday town hall. ā€œIā€™ve mainly listened to conservative news and I hadnā€™t heard anything negative about that report and President Trump has been exonerated.ā€
    That comment alone cements that Amash, in becoming the first and only Republican to call for impeachment, is fighting against an entire machine ā€” from the elected leaders to sympathetic media outlets.

    https://www.vox.com/2019/5/30/18646048/republican-protect-trump-mueller-report-amash

  510. The success of this Republican campaign, reflected in conservative media coverage, to protect Trump was best captured by Amashā€™s own constituent Cathy Garnaat, a Republican, who NBC reported was ā€œsurprised to hear there was anything negative in the Mueller report at all about President Trump.ā€
    ā€œI hadnā€™t heard that before,ā€ she told NBC after the Tuesday town hall. ā€œIā€™ve mainly listened to conservative news and I hadnā€™t heard anything negative about that report and President Trump has been exonerated.ā€
    That comment alone cements that Amash, in becoming the first and only Republican to call for impeachment, is fighting against an entire machine ā€” from the elected leaders to sympathetic media outlets.

    https://www.vox.com/2019/5/30/18646048/republican-protect-trump-mueller-report-amash

  511. R.I.P., Leon Redbone.
    such a loss.
    he’s been a favorite of mine for as long as i can remember (literally). i was 4 when his first record was released, and my dad played it constantly.
    he played at the Lenox Folk Fest in 76. and my dad took me. it’s the first concert i remember going to.
    i saw him a couple of times since and he was amazing.

  512. R.I.P., Leon Redbone.
    such a loss.
    he’s been a favorite of mine for as long as i can remember (literally). i was 4 when his first record was released, and my dad played it constantly.
    he played at the Lenox Folk Fest in 76. and my dad took me. it’s the first concert i remember going to.
    i saw him a couple of times since and he was amazing.

  513. Persuasion by systematic targeted falsehood is more effective than ballot-tampering, which is why on the ground republican ballot tampering must be designed to be unprovable, for the purposes of giving cover to right wing Supreme Court justices like John Roberts who exhibit, in theory only, strategic shame (in the matter of timing) in their efforts to subvert the democratic system, as opposed to their more ruthless brethren like the other four right wing justices who have no fucks left to give, even for their mothers.
    Facts are irrelevant, gut-feeling is all, and gut-feeling is infinitely manipulable.
    Them are the rules as dictated to us by the vermin conservative movement so the opposition on the Left must employ what fucks remain in their possession (or stow the fucks on the conscionable shelf until such time as possessing giveable fucks once again becomes a thing in an America once assholes have been vanquished), and apply those rules more vigorously, ruthlessly, and effectively to win elections, or in the still slightly (in my view) lower percentage case that measures other than elections become necessary, to destroy the conservative movement by other means and see it disappear into the dustbin.
    The shit we make up must be shittier and more convincing, now that facts and Truth are irrelevant, temporarily one can hope, than the shit the conservative movement manufactures and distributes via p’s and McConnell’s rotten mouths and mainlined 24-hours-a-day, 360 degree surround sound by the conservative lying, thieving media shit fan to their opioid-addled shithead constituents.
    Headline later today: P expresses admiration for Kim-Jong-un’s murderous methods; sez America could learn a thing or two about silencing its disloyal domestic enemies.
    Follow-up: Secretary of State Pompeo (flop sweat glistening), from an undisclosed location (farther up p’s fundament than Colonel Kurtz managed to row up the Nung River), says p is the man and pleads that he will do better in negotiations with North Korea, but supports Kim-Jonh-un’s measures too, adding “the losers he sent to negotiate last time just don’t know how to kiss toukus; maybe we’ll see the A team in future”)
    Larry Kudlow, is a separate development, piddled on the newspaper p puts down in the Oval Office for his butt kissers.
    P’s golf caddie quickly reviewed p’s score cards and announced p regularly shoots much, much better … so much better you wouldn’t believe, we’re talking negative numbers, less than zero, you’ve heard of the hole-in-zero, right … than the award-winning scores announced from his resorts, and then the caddie took a running start and dived headfirst into the alligator-infested water hazard on Mar-a-Lago’s 19th hole, where the disloyal go to swim.
    Leon Redbone’s alleged passing is fake news. He’s alive and well. Pass it around.
    As someone said here once: We can believe what we want to believe and have the opinions we wish to have.
    I don’t know why Leon Redbone’s loved ones and music business associates are lying about his health.
    Systematic, targeted falsehood and fuckless disinformation and cash are free speech protected by the First Amendment, and as George Carlin opined “Well, if it’s legal, what’s the problem?”
    Which is why we have the Second Amendment.
    To hunt the fuckless down.

  514. Persuasion by systematic targeted falsehood is more effective than ballot-tampering, which is why on the ground republican ballot tampering must be designed to be unprovable, for the purposes of giving cover to right wing Supreme Court justices like John Roberts who exhibit, in theory only, strategic shame (in the matter of timing) in their efforts to subvert the democratic system, as opposed to their more ruthless brethren like the other four right wing justices who have no fucks left to give, even for their mothers.
    Facts are irrelevant, gut-feeling is all, and gut-feeling is infinitely manipulable.
    Them are the rules as dictated to us by the vermin conservative movement so the opposition on the Left must employ what fucks remain in their possession (or stow the fucks on the conscionable shelf until such time as possessing giveable fucks once again becomes a thing in an America once assholes have been vanquished), and apply those rules more vigorously, ruthlessly, and effectively to win elections, or in the still slightly (in my view) lower percentage case that measures other than elections become necessary, to destroy the conservative movement by other means and see it disappear into the dustbin.
    The shit we make up must be shittier and more convincing, now that facts and Truth are irrelevant, temporarily one can hope, than the shit the conservative movement manufactures and distributes via p’s and McConnell’s rotten mouths and mainlined 24-hours-a-day, 360 degree surround sound by the conservative lying, thieving media shit fan to their opioid-addled shithead constituents.
    Headline later today: P expresses admiration for Kim-Jong-un’s murderous methods; sez America could learn a thing or two about silencing its disloyal domestic enemies.
    Follow-up: Secretary of State Pompeo (flop sweat glistening), from an undisclosed location (farther up p’s fundament than Colonel Kurtz managed to row up the Nung River), says p is the man and pleads that he will do better in negotiations with North Korea, but supports Kim-Jonh-un’s measures too, adding “the losers he sent to negotiate last time just don’t know how to kiss toukus; maybe we’ll see the A team in future”)
    Larry Kudlow, is a separate development, piddled on the newspaper p puts down in the Oval Office for his butt kissers.
    P’s golf caddie quickly reviewed p’s score cards and announced p regularly shoots much, much better … so much better you wouldn’t believe, we’re talking negative numbers, less than zero, you’ve heard of the hole-in-zero, right … than the award-winning scores announced from his resorts, and then the caddie took a running start and dived headfirst into the alligator-infested water hazard on Mar-a-Lago’s 19th hole, where the disloyal go to swim.
    Leon Redbone’s alleged passing is fake news. He’s alive and well. Pass it around.
    As someone said here once: We can believe what we want to believe and have the opinions we wish to have.
    I don’t know why Leon Redbone’s loved ones and music business associates are lying about his health.
    Systematic, targeted falsehood and fuckless disinformation and cash are free speech protected by the First Amendment, and as George Carlin opined “Well, if it’s legal, what’s the problem?”
    Which is why we have the Second Amendment.
    To hunt the fuckless down.

  515. “I hadn’t heard that before.”
    What Helen Keller exclaimed when Anne Sullivan spelled “water” in the former’s wet hand.

  516. “I hadn’t heard that before.”
    What Helen Keller exclaimed when Anne Sullivan spelled “water” in the former’s wet hand.

  517. “I hadn’t heard that before.”
    What Thomas Watson said to Alexander Graham Bell on the first telephone prototype.

  518. “I hadn’t heard that before.”
    What Thomas Watson said to Alexander Graham Bell on the first telephone prototype.

  519. “I hadn’t heard that before.”
    What Travis Bickle said to himself in the mirror after looking behind him and asking “You talkin to me?”

  520. “I hadn’t heard that before.”
    What Travis Bickle said to himself in the mirror after looking behind him and asking “You talkin to me?”

  521. Persuasion by systematic targeted falsehood is more effective than ballot-tampering
    Persuasion by systematic targeted falsehood is an industry, that extends well beyond politics.
    The fundamental, intractable problem is that any and all attempts to counter it are limited by people’s capacity for critical thought and their willingness to use their damned heads.
    It needs to be sufficiently important to people that they will make the effort. For a lot of people, that’s not the case.
    The success of the American republic relies on people giving a shit. Place your bets.

  522. Persuasion by systematic targeted falsehood is more effective than ballot-tampering
    Persuasion by systematic targeted falsehood is an industry, that extends well beyond politics.
    The fundamental, intractable problem is that any and all attempts to counter it are limited by people’s capacity for critical thought and their willingness to use their damned heads.
    It needs to be sufficiently important to people that they will make the effort. For a lot of people, that’s not the case.
    The success of the American republic relies on people giving a shit. Place your bets.

  523. From a delightful piece entitled Republicans are Expert at Hurting Their Own Voters

    ā€œUnless you stop asylum seekers, Iā€™m going to strangle American manufacturing and farming, cut off the supply of avocados, undermine my demand (made the very same day!) to immediately pass NAFTA 2.0 and deal another blow to the United States auto industry!ā€
    Thatā€™s essentially what President Trump did on Thursday in what is sure to go down as the most counterproductive move in the most counterproductive trade policy in U.S. history.

    Between the tariff wars trashing their markets, climate change trashing their planting schedules, and border-wall fanatics stonewalling disaster relief funding, reality may be starting to creep past Faux News in the breadbasket of America.

  524. From a delightful piece entitled Republicans are Expert at Hurting Their Own Voters

    ā€œUnless you stop asylum seekers, Iā€™m going to strangle American manufacturing and farming, cut off the supply of avocados, undermine my demand (made the very same day!) to immediately pass NAFTA 2.0 and deal another blow to the United States auto industry!ā€
    Thatā€™s essentially what President Trump did on Thursday in what is sure to go down as the most counterproductive move in the most counterproductive trade policy in U.S. history.

    Between the tariff wars trashing their markets, climate change trashing their planting schedules, and border-wall fanatics stonewalling disaster relief funding, reality may be starting to creep past Faux News in the breadbasket of America.

  525. Trump: “We’re going to keep increasing unemployment in Mexico until Mexicans stop illegally crossing the border.”

  526. Trump: “We’re going to keep increasing unemployment in Mexico until Mexicans stop illegally crossing the border.”

  527. GftNC: We are seeing in real time how neither the disinformed, nor the providers of the channels of disinformation, give the slightest of fucks.
    I have long thought that politicians who con people into voting for them are the political equivalents of the fellow who cheats on his pilot’s license exam. Sure, he gets official permission to fly the plane. But he will get himself killed … along with all the passengers, of course.
    –TP

  528. GftNC: We are seeing in real time how neither the disinformed, nor the providers of the channels of disinformation, give the slightest of fucks.
    I have long thought that politicians who con people into voting for them are the political equivalents of the fellow who cheats on his pilot’s license exam. Sure, he gets official permission to fly the plane. But he will get himself killed … along with all the passengers, of course.
    –TP

  529. The definitive answer to the one-sided only question as to why Jewish synagogues, driving while black, juvenile immigrants and their parents, and liberals at large are targeted in America for savage, murderous kidnapping and killing gun violence by the conservative right wing, and not one fuck-left-to-give anything is done about it:
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/laura-ingraham-paul-nehlen-white-nationalism
    FOXNews and their conservative vermin brethren put out hits on the Other at will and in broad daylight and the hits are carried out at will.
    They are a criminal clearing house for hatred and murder.
    Why can’t the same happen back at them?
    Those who have the least fucks to give will emerge the winner in the America that is now configured for ruthless pig-fuckery, and the wrong fuckless ones are winning.
    Give up all fucks.

  530. The definitive answer to the one-sided only question as to why Jewish synagogues, driving while black, juvenile immigrants and their parents, and liberals at large are targeted in America for savage, murderous kidnapping and killing gun violence by the conservative right wing, and not one fuck-left-to-give anything is done about it:
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/laura-ingraham-paul-nehlen-white-nationalism
    FOXNews and their conservative vermin brethren put out hits on the Other at will and in broad daylight and the hits are carried out at will.
    They are a criminal clearing house for hatred and murder.
    Why can’t the same happen back at them?
    Those who have the least fucks to give will emerge the winner in the America that is now configured for ruthless pig-fuckery, and the wrong fuckless ones are winning.
    Give up all fucks.

  531. I have a suggestion: there should be an “truth-mark” for written material, perhaps a ‘T’ in a circle.
    Any writer would be free to add the mark to their work or not – the suggestion respects the First Amendment.
    If the mark is there, the writer becomes liable to criminal prosecution if the work can be proved to be knowingly or recklessly false. It would be possible to avert prosecution by publishing a correction at least as prominent as the original, so long at that is done in time to avoid irreversible consequences.

  532. I have a suggestion: there should be an “truth-mark” for written material, perhaps a ‘T’ in a circle.
    Any writer would be free to add the mark to their work or not – the suggestion respects the First Amendment.
    If the mark is there, the writer becomes liable to criminal prosecution if the work can be proved to be knowingly or recklessly false. It would be possible to avert prosecution by publishing a correction at least as prominent as the original, so long at that is done in time to avoid irreversible consequences.

  535. Kind of late with book reviews, but I just read all the World of the Five Gods books by Bujold and loved them all, with one exception that I only liked, The Hallowed Hunt. Ingrey was hard to like. But I loved the first two Chalion books and the Penric and Desdemona novellas.
    This successfully washed the bad taste left by Martin, Weiss and Benioff (or whatever his name was ) out of my mouth. Kind of sick of grim dark. Especially grimdark done badly so the two shiwrunners can run off to further destroy another admittedly already destroyed series.

  536. Kind of late with book reviews, but I just read all the World of the Five Gods books by Bujold and loved them all, with one exception that I only liked, The Hallowed Hunt. Ingrey was hard to like. But I loved the first two Chalion books and the Penric and Desdemona novellas.
    This successfully washed the bad taste left by Martin, Weiss and Benioff (or whatever his name was ) out of my mouth. Kind of sick of grim dark. Especially grimdark done badly so the two shiwrunners can run off to further destroy another admittedly already destroyed series.

  537. “If the mark is there, the writer becomes liable to criminal prosecution if the work can be proved to be knowingly or recklessly false. It would be possible to avert prosecution by publishing a correction at least as prominent as the original, so long at that is done in time to avoid irreversible consequences.”
    I’m on board.
    But first we build out the increased prison space to house American liars, I’d say, by a factor of 100 times.
    Which of the five dentists, the four positive liars, or the one minority negative-reviewing liar, will go to jail for claiming or not claiming that XYC toothpaste is a dentist-approved dentifrice.
    Personally, I’d execute the advertising copywriter, his superiors, and colgate palmolive management for making that shit up in the first place.
    Outright lying is as American as the cherry pie baked with the cherries from the cherry tree George Washington and his knob-shiners (we cannot tell a lie, but no one said anything about writing it down) lied about cutting down.
    The word “Lie” is not in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
    If it was, the entire American enterprise, which has skated on a thin membrane of prevarication and outright bullshit for its entirety, would deflate and burn like Jack Nicholson in “The Witches of Eastwick”.
    But now that it has caught up with us in the personhood of the conservative movement and p, I say good riddance.
    And here I thought we could believe our own bullshit and somehow progress, while enjoying the skating, in spite of ourselves to something better.
    Send me $35 bucks and I’ll send YOU a manual on how to place tiny little ads in local newspapers from which you will make millions. Order now and I’ll sell you a set of Ginsu knives to cut up your used cans.
    Feathers and cherries:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADxFPQZAlJw
    Pop!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KfXa_-tU9s

  538. “If the mark is there, the writer becomes liable to criminal prosecution if the work can be proved to be knowingly or recklessly false. It would be possible to avert prosecution by publishing a correction at least as prominent as the original, so long at that is done in time to avoid irreversible consequences.”
    I’m on board.
    But first we build out the increased prison space to house American liars, I’d say, by a factor of 100 times.
    Which of the five dentists, the four positive liars, or the one minority negative-reviewing liar, will go to jail for claiming or not claiming that XYC toothpaste is a dentist-approved dentifrice.
    Personally, I’d execute the advertising copywriter, his superiors, and colgate palmolive management for making that shit up in the first place.
    Outright lying is as American as the cherry pie baked with the cherries from the cherry tree George Washington and his knob-shiners (we cannot tell a lie, but no one said anything about writing it down) lied about cutting down.
    The word “Lie” is not in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
    If it was, the entire American enterprise, which has skated on a thin membrane of prevarication and outright bullshit for its entirety, would deflate and burn like Jack Nicholson in “The Witches of Eastwick”.
    But now that it has caught up with us in the personhood of the conservative movement and p, I say good riddance.
    And here I thought we could believe our own bullshit and somehow progress, while enjoying the skating, in spite of ourselves to something better.
    Send me $35 bucks and I’ll send YOU a manual on how to place tiny little ads in local newspapers from which you will make millions. Order now and I’ll sell you a set of Ginsu knives to cut up your used cans.
    Feathers and cherries:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADxFPQZAlJw
    Pop!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KfXa_-tU9s

  539. We’re going to keep increasing unemployment in Mexico until Mexicans stop illegally crossing the border.
    Every time Trump tweets about new tariffs, the markets do a small nose-dive. Then all parties reach some rapprochement, or some time goes by, and they bounce back.
    Lather, rinse, and repeat.
    I’d like to see the stock trading patterns of Trump and his kids for the time periods around his tariff announcements.

  540. We’re going to keep increasing unemployment in Mexico until Mexicans stop illegally crossing the border.
    Every time Trump tweets about new tariffs, the markets do a small nose-dive. Then all parties reach some rapprochement, or some time goes by, and they bounce back.
    Lather, rinse, and repeat.
    I’d like to see the stock trading patterns of Trump and his kids for the time periods around his tariff announcements.

  541. It wouldn’t be surprising if the entire trade war grift (regardless of the merits of fixing by negotiation what problems exist) and every other kicked up cloud of fucking horseshit visible from space by p and the conservative movement have as their motivation the illegal theft of funds across the board.
    Just as it won’t be surprising when (and if) the p crime syndicate finally departs (feet first on gurneys to the morgue would be the preferred exit route) from our fucked government and we learn that massive amounts of funds (as in bankruptcy-inducing amounts) are missing from government accounts across the spectrum of government agencies.
    I’ve never witnessed such self-deluding pig shit in the world of stock market analysis, a field capable in the past of colossally full of shit self-delusion, with the end of course being stealing their clients’ money by hook or crook, as I’m seeing in the past few months.
    They can look into the cameras and justify any crap p does.
    See here, for example, just today, directly from the school of always wrong alcoholic and drug-addled always look on the bright side because otherwise you are not an American if you believe it it will appear prosperity gospel tax-hating vermin cocksucker Lawrence Kudlow.
    https://finance.yahoo.com/video/trump-shift-tone-stock-market-185607069.html
    It’s amazing how much shit can be gulped down and damage done to the Republic for which it bullshits by those swimming in the fucking tax cuts.
    They’ll say anything. And convince themselves to believe it.
    By the way, if I travel to Mexico, Mexicans should shoot me in the head and take my wallet as I cross the border.
    They’d be fully justified, as I am a fucking American.

  542. It wouldn’t be surprising if the entire trade war grift (regardless of the merits of fixing by negotiation what problems exist) and every other kicked up cloud of fucking horseshit visible from space by p and the conservative movement have as their motivation the illegal theft of funds across the board.
    Just as it won’t be surprising when (and if) the p crime syndicate finally departs (feet first on gurneys to the morgue would be the preferred exit route) from our fucked government and we learn that massive amounts of funds (as in bankruptcy-inducing amounts) are missing from government accounts across the spectrum of government agencies.
    I’ve never witnessed such self-deluding pig shit in the world of stock market analysis, a field capable in the past of colossally full of shit self-delusion, with the end of course being stealing their clients’ money by hook or crook, as I’m seeing in the past few months.
    They can look into the cameras and justify any crap p does.
    See here, for example, just today, directly from the school of always wrong alcoholic and drug-addled always look on the bright side because otherwise you are not an American if you believe it it will appear prosperity gospel tax-hating vermin cocksucker Lawrence Kudlow.
    https://finance.yahoo.com/video/trump-shift-tone-stock-market-185607069.html
    It’s amazing how much shit can be gulped down and damage done to the Republic for which it bullshits by those swimming in the fucking tax cuts.
    They’ll say anything. And convince themselves to believe it.
    By the way, if I travel to Mexico, Mexicans should shoot me in the head and take my wallet as I cross the border.
    They’d be fully justified, as I am a fucking American.

  545. I’d like to see the stock trading patterns of Trump and his kids for the time periods around his tariff announcements.
    Yes.
    It wouldn’t be surprising if the entire trade war grift (regardless of the merits of fixing by negotiation what problems exist) and every other kicked up cloud of fucking horseshit visible from space by p and the conservative movement have as their motivation the illegal theft of funds across the board.
    Just as it won’t be surprising when (and if) the p crime syndicate finally departs (feet first on gurneys to the morgue would be the preferred exit route) from our fucked government and we learn that massive amounts of funds (as in bankruptcy-inducing amounts) are missing from government accounts across the spectrum of government agencies.
    I’m convinced of this.

  546. I’d like to see the stock trading patterns of Trump and his kids for the time periods around his tariff announcements.
    Yes.
    It wouldn’t be surprising if the entire trade war grift (regardless of the merits of fixing by negotiation what problems exist) and every other kicked up cloud of fucking horseshit visible from space by p and the conservative movement have as their motivation the illegal theft of funds across the board.
    Just as it won’t be surprising when (and if) the p crime syndicate finally departs (feet first on gurneys to the morgue would be the preferred exit route) from our fucked government and we learn that massive amounts of funds (as in bankruptcy-inducing amounts) are missing from government accounts across the spectrum of government agencies.
    I’m convinced of this.

  547. ā€œBut is it really just a “drop in the ocean”? I’d be interested in seeing evidence on that. ā€
    How much did the Russians spend in 2016? What did we spend? There was some similar meddling by Democrats in the Alabama election. Did that matter?
    But I am thinking of much bigger sorts of long term lying and propagandizing going back decades. I would have to look up links, but thereā€™s been a concerted effort to portray government spending and social programs as inherently bad going back to the 70ā€™s. Thatā€™s all perfectly legal, but I am sure that has had orders of magnitude more effect than social media campaigns depicting Jesus and Satan armwrestling. Every example I have seen of Russian influence seemed trivial to me, except for the stolen emails.
    Or think of the oil companies and others spending God knows what to convince people global warming is uncertain. Now that topic is part of the freaking culture wars. That was no accident.
    Or think of rightwing talk radio going back decades. Think of Iraq. Or some of our other stupid wars.
    Then I see people talking about Russian social media influence causing divisions and sowing disinformation in our pristineand my eyes just start rolling. Itā€™s like Birchers blaming social unrest on Soviet influence. Well, there were commies in the civil rights movement.
    As for Russian meddling compared to ours, let me put it this way. I first read Chomsky back in the 80ā€™s. It was eye opening for me, all sorts of horrible things we did. But he was talking about assassinations, death squads, carpet bombing, and genocidal wars. If he had been talking about how we planted a few false stories in newspapers or stole some documents to embarrass a political candidate ( things I am sure we have done countless times), I would have yawned. We interfered in the Russian elections in 1996. We openly bragged about it. We interfere in Israeli elections and they interfere in ours. I would bet this happens with other countries too. This is trivial stuff. If we canā€™t survive social media campaigns from Russia, then we canā€™t survive them from anybody. But I think it is just another source of bull crap in our system and a minor one at that.

  548. ā€œBut is it really just a “drop in the ocean”? I’d be interested in seeing evidence on that. ā€
    How much did the Russians spend in 2016? What did we spend? There was some similar meddling by Democrats in the Alabama election. Did that matter?
    But I am thinking of much bigger sorts of long term lying and propagandizing going back decades. I would have to look up links, but thereā€™s been a concerted effort to portray government spending and social programs as inherently bad going back to the 70ā€™s. Thatā€™s all perfectly legal, but I am sure that has had orders of magnitude more effect than social media campaigns depicting Jesus and Satan armwrestling. Every example I have seen of Russian influence seemed trivial to me, except for the stolen emails.
    Or think of the oil companies and others spending God knows what to convince people global warming is uncertain. Now that topic is part of the freaking culture wars. That was no accident.
    Or think of rightwing talk radio going back decades. Think of Iraq. Or some of our other stupid wars.
    Then I see people talking about Russian social media influence causing divisions and sowing disinformation in our pristineand my eyes just start rolling. Itā€™s like Birchers blaming social unrest on Soviet influence. Well, there were commies in the civil rights movement.
    As for Russian meddling compared to ours, let me put it this way. I first read Chomsky back in the 80ā€™s. It was eye opening for me, all sorts of horrible things we did. But he was talking about assassinations, death squads, carpet bombing, and genocidal wars. If he had been talking about how we planted a few false stories in newspapers or stole some documents to embarrass a political candidate ( things I am sure we have done countless times), I would have yawned. We interfered in the Russian elections in 1996. We openly bragged about it. We interfere in Israeli elections and they interfere in ours. I would bet this happens with other countries too. This is trivial stuff. If we canā€™t survive social media campaigns from Russia, then we canā€™t survive them from anybody. But I think it is just another source of bull crap in our system and a minor one at that.

  549. I should also point out that interference in policy debates arguably matters more than Russian social media noise. Which corporations and countries supply the money that support the think tanks and their experts that we see arguing for or against various policies on television? (Personally I only watch television policy debates about the proper use of dragons in wartimeā€”I could not care less what the various a- holes say on PBS, NPR, Fox, CNN or MSNBC.)

  550. I should also point out that interference in policy debates arguably matters more than Russian social media noise. Which corporations and countries supply the money that support the think tanks and their experts that we see arguing for or against various policies on television? (Personally I only watch television policy debates about the proper use of dragons in wartimeā€”I could not care less what the various a- holes say on PBS, NPR, Fox, CNN or MSNBC.)

  551. The Powell memoā€” that is what I was thinking of.
    https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/
    I also remember seeing Milton Friedmanā€™s ā€œ Free to Chooseā€ on PBS in 1980. I didnā€™t know much about politics then, but it felt like people were really pushing hard the idea that government was bad in nearly every way and was inherently inefficient. I would say this sort of perfectly legal activity is vastly more influential on our politics than the Jesus vs Satan armwrestling or a handful of tiny demonstrations the Russians stirred up.
    What strikes me about people going on about the Russian social media threat is that it sounds like the most crazed form of whackyass conspiracy theory. In real life there is this huge social force that pushes for less government regulation, stirs up skepticism about the harm caused by tobacco or greenhouse gases, pushes for endless wars and more military spending. Itā€™s called ā€œ capitalismā€. For better or worse this is what democracy isā€” rich people spending a lot of money telling us that what is good for them is good for everyone. And even a crazed narcissist like Trump mostly ends up doing what these guys want, which is why the Republicans have stuck with him so far.
    But no, ā€œ there is a threat to our democracyā€ ( I hate that phrase ) because the Russians managed to inject some truly hamfisted bits of mostly asinine propaganda into social media. Thatā€™s our problem…evil foreigners.

  552. The Powell memoā€” that is what I was thinking of.
    https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/
    I also remember seeing Milton Friedmanā€™s ā€œ Free to Chooseā€ on PBS in 1980. I didnā€™t know much about politics then, but it felt like people were really pushing hard the idea that government was bad in nearly every way and was inherently inefficient. I would say this sort of perfectly legal activity is vastly more influential on our politics than the Jesus vs Satan armwrestling or a handful of tiny demonstrations the Russians stirred up.
    What strikes me about people going on about the Russian social media threat is that it sounds like the most crazed form of whackyass conspiracy theory. In real life there is this huge social force that pushes for less government regulation, stirs up skepticism about the harm caused by tobacco or greenhouse gases, pushes for endless wars and more military spending. Itā€™s called ā€œ capitalismā€. For better or worse this is what democracy isā€” rich people spending a lot of money telling us that what is good for them is good for everyone. And even a crazed narcissist like Trump mostly ends up doing what these guys want, which is why the Republicans have stuck with him so far.
    But no, ā€œ there is a threat to our democracyā€ ( I hate that phrase ) because the Russians managed to inject some truly hamfisted bits of mostly asinine propaganda into social media. Thatā€™s our problem…evil foreigners.

  553. Donald: If we canā€™t survive social media campaigns from Russia, then we canā€™t survive them from anybody.
    If you can’t survive a straw landing on your back, you’re no camel.
    Sure, America is full of home-grown pigfuckers. And yet “we” have “survived”. So of course “we” can “survive” the extra bit of piddling pigfuckery of Putin and his puppets, right?
    –TP

  554. Donald: If we canā€™t survive social media campaigns from Russia, then we canā€™t survive them from anybody.
    If you can’t survive a straw landing on your back, you’re no camel.
    Sure, America is full of home-grown pigfuckers. And yet “we” have “survived”. So of course “we” can “survive” the extra bit of piddling pigfuckery of Putin and his puppets, right?
    –TP

  555. Donald,
    There has always been a threat to our democracy. The point is the level of threat may well be enhanced these days.
    Those “huge social forces” have now barfed up a president who embodies their will in an era characterized by the kind of increasing ideological sorting not seen since the Antebellum days.
    This is made worse by an oppressive income stratification.
    The rich will do anything to keep their toys.
    The aid of a hostile foreign power to a political organization that gladly accepted it, either overtly or covertly is just icing on the cake.
    Hence my concern.

  556. Donald,
    There has always been a threat to our democracy. The point is the level of threat may well be enhanced these days.
    Those “huge social forces” have now barfed up a president who embodies their will in an era characterized by the kind of increasing ideological sorting not seen since the Antebellum days.
    This is made worse by an oppressive income stratification.
    The rich will do anything to keep their toys.
    The aid of a hostile foreign power to a political organization that gladly accepted it, either overtly or covertly is just icing on the cake.
    Hence my concern.

  557. It matters because the election was so close. And because Trump welcomed the assistance.
    The latest news here is that Trump has endorsed Boris Johnson. Which is good news for those of us who think BoJo as PM would be bad for the country.

  558. It matters because the election was so close. And because Trump welcomed the assistance.
    The latest news here is that Trump has endorsed Boris Johnson. Which is good news for those of us who think BoJo as PM would be bad for the country.

  559. Donald- you seem to be focusing on the ham-fisted nature of the propaganda being produced and comparing it to the shamelessness of the broad, culture-war propaganda of the pre-Internet days. As far as that goes, I agree with your assessment.
    I’m not despairing over memes. I’m despairing over the ways in which the feedback loops built into social media platforms and big data give interested parties much more *control* over the distribution of propaganda and ways to measure the effectiveness of that propaganda. Big Data is a brave new networked world. It’s not the Internet Research Agency or the Romanian troll farms that sank us, it’s Cambridge Analytica.

  560. Donald- you seem to be focusing on the ham-fisted nature of the propaganda being produced and comparing it to the shamelessness of the broad, culture-war propaganda of the pre-Internet days. As far as that goes, I agree with your assessment.
    I’m not despairing over memes. I’m despairing over the ways in which the feedback loops built into social media platforms and big data give interested parties much more *control* over the distribution of propaganda and ways to measure the effectiveness of that propaganda. Big Data is a brave new networked world. It’s not the Internet Research Agency or the Romanian troll farms that sank us, it’s Cambridge Analytica.

  561. What Nous said.
    And Donald, why do you keep ignoring the point some of us keep making about the issue being less Russia’s interference, and more the Trumpies’ and GOP’s enthusiastic (or in the latter’s case complacent) acceptance of same?

  562. What Nous said.
    And Donald, why do you keep ignoring the point some of us keep making about the issue being less Russia’s interference, and more the Trumpies’ and GOP’s enthusiastic (or in the latter’s case complacent) acceptance of same?

  563. As for Russian meddling compared to ours, let me put it this way.
    I don’t really give a crap about Putin.
    What’s unusual is the behavior of the POTUS, the principals of his campaign for that office, and his party. It deserves attention and concern.
    Or, what GFTNC said.

  564. As for Russian meddling compared to ours, let me put it this way.
    I don’t really give a crap about Putin.
    What’s unusual is the behavior of the POTUS, the principals of his campaign for that office, and his party. It deserves attention and concern.
    Or, what GFTNC said.

  565. I do give a crap about Putin.
    Putin and other dictators are on a roll, just as they were in the 1930’s. But we’re too cool and disinterested to give a shit. We’re all about same/same.
    I read this.
    We’re not up to it. Fascism (sorry, GftNC, but whatever it is, it’s close) is happening now, and we can’t deal with it in our own country. Democracy, and the notion of evolutionarily getting on with the promise of our country, it’s really not likely to happen. Gonna take a miracle.

  566. I do give a crap about Putin.
    Putin and other dictators are on a roll, just as they were in the 1930’s. But we’re too cool and disinterested to give a shit. We’re all about same/same.
    I read this.
    We’re not up to it. Fascism (sorry, GftNC, but whatever it is, it’s close) is happening now, and we can’t deal with it in our own country. Democracy, and the notion of evolutionarily getting on with the promise of our country, it’s really not likely to happen. Gonna take a miracle.

  571. “Contrary to the dissembling explanations from the corporate press, this movement did not emerge overnightā€•nor are its varied subgroups in any sense interchangeable with one another. As united by their opposition as they are divided by their goals, the members of the New Right are willfully suspicious of those in the mainstream who would seek to tell their story. Fortunately, author Michael Malice was there from the very inception, and in The New Right recounts their tale from the beginning.”
    The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics

  572. “Contrary to the dissembling explanations from the corporate press, this movement did not emerge overnightā€•nor are its varied subgroups in any sense interchangeable with one another. As united by their opposition as they are divided by their goals, the members of the New Right are willfully suspicious of those in the mainstream who would seek to tell their story. Fortunately, author Michael Malice was there from the very inception, and in The New Right recounts their tale from the beginning.”
    The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics

  573. the Russians managed to inject some truly hamfisted bits of mostly asinine propaganda into social media.
    and into the WH

  574. the Russians managed to inject some truly hamfisted bits of mostly asinine propaganda into social media.
    and into the WH

  575. I do give a crap about Putin.
    Let me re-phrase.
    Putin is a criminal. He runs his country, not like, but as a criminal enterprise. Further, he seeks to undermine peaceful relations between and within other nations to further the interests and influence of his own corrupt state.
    He is a menace to the world. He actually is a threat to democracy, here and elsewhere. And not an idle one.
    I give a crap about all of that.
    In a perfect world, or at least simply a better one, all of that would not pose a significant threat to us or the nations that rightly should be our friends and allies. We would not have a POTUS welcoming and embracing Putin’s efforts to interfere in our society. We would not have a propaganda organization posing as a news outlet aiding and abetting his efforts to sow dissent. We would not have “social media platforms” making money from all of that crap, while refusing to acknowledge any responsibility for the damage done.
    We would have an administration that made blindingly clear our support for NATO and for the kind of liberal democracy that has kept Europe and a lot of the rest of the world from engaging in stupid destructive wars.
    In the world as it should be, Putin would be a thug, the leader of a kleptocratic failed state. Not a non-entity exactly, but not a significant character or player. Someone whose influence could be contained and countered.
    We were sold out, for a hotel in Moscow. Among other things. Worse, we sold ourselves out.
    Putin per se, I don’t give a crap about. Maybe I should, Russia has suffered under his rule, but that isn’t my problem to solve.
    The sold out part is what is much more concerning to me.

  576. I do give a crap about Putin.
    Let me re-phrase.
    Putin is a criminal. He runs his country, not like, but as a criminal enterprise. Further, he seeks to undermine peaceful relations between and within other nations to further the interests and influence of his own corrupt state.
    He is a menace to the world. He actually is a threat to democracy, here and elsewhere. And not an idle one.
    I give a crap about all of that.
    In a perfect world, or at least simply a better one, all of that would not pose a significant threat to us or the nations that rightly should be our friends and allies. We would not have a POTUS welcoming and embracing Putin’s efforts to interfere in our society. We would not have a propaganda organization posing as a news outlet aiding and abetting his efforts to sow dissent. We would not have “social media platforms” making money from all of that crap, while refusing to acknowledge any responsibility for the damage done.
    We would have an administration that made blindingly clear our support for NATO and for the kind of liberal democracy that has kept Europe and a lot of the rest of the world from engaging in stupid destructive wars.
    In the world as it should be, Putin would be a thug, the leader of a kleptocratic failed state. Not a non-entity exactly, but not a significant character or player. Someone whose influence could be contained and countered.
    We were sold out, for a hotel in Moscow. Among other things. Worse, we sold ourselves out.
    Putin per se, I don’t give a crap about. Maybe I should, Russia has suffered under his rule, but that isn’t my problem to solve.
    The sold out part is what is much more concerning to me.

  577. Exactly what russell said @10.29, with this additional gloss: Putin was to some (probably great) extent behind the financing of a lot of the Brexit campaign, and while Bannon openly said that Brexit was their trial run for the Trump campaign, with (as we now know) substantial help from Cambridge Analytica, the UK has been left in its current insane position at least partly (and probably to a great extent) because of Putin’s desire to destabilise and destroy the EU, and then NATO. And while condemning the Trumpistas and the GOP for their cooperation with Russia, I do not in any way exempt Nigel Farage, Arron Banks or anybody else in the Brexit camp from the same.

  578. Exactly what russell said @10.29, with this additional gloss: Putin was to some (probably great) extent behind the financing of a lot of the Brexit campaign, and while Bannon openly said that Brexit was their trial run for the Trump campaign, with (as we now know) substantial help from Cambridge Analytica, the UK has been left in its current insane position at least partly (and probably to a great extent) because of Putin’s desire to destabilise and destroy the EU, and then NATO. And while condemning the Trumpistas and the GOP for their cooperation with Russia, I do not in any way exempt Nigel Farage, Arron Banks or anybody else in the Brexit camp from the same.

  581. Virginia Beach city government undergoes a routine reduction in force, just as student bodies across the country have experienced monthly reductions in class-size headcounts.
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/virginia-beach-city-government-shooting
    Unfortunately, families and friends of the murdered had to learn about the layoffs of their loved ones on the news.
    Conservative gun fuck vermin expressed relief that the civil servants would no longer be taking long lunches, nor would they be squirreling away sick leave and vacation time on the armed taxpayers’ tab.
    And the pension shortfall, well, this is one way to address it.
    The NRA, which is now a pro- and quasi-government paramilitary terrorist group in the United States, just as it has become under Putin’s KGB guidance in Russia .. that’s right … pro-Russian government … for example, to uphold the Russian Orthodox Church’s visceral hatred of the Russian LGBT population.
    Should there be a popular uprising in Russia against Putin’s crypto capitalist pigfuckery and human rights abuses in Russia by those to his Left, and who isn’t, the NRA will, against all of its bullshit anti-government principles, serve as a pro-Putin liquidation force against the rebels.
    That Russian violence will serve as a prototype for the so-called American paramilitary NRA, now solidly pro-government, to butcher and slaughter liberal patriots who are going to overrun Mar-a-Lago during p’s last days.

  582. Virginia Beach city government undergoes a routine reduction in force, just as student bodies across the country have experienced monthly reductions in class-size headcounts.
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/virginia-beach-city-government-shooting
    Unfortunately, families and friends of the murdered had to learn about the layoffs of their loved ones on the news.
    Conservative gun fuck vermin expressed relief that the civil servants would no longer be taking long lunches, nor would they be squirreling away sick leave and vacation time on the armed taxpayers’ tab.
    And the pension shortfall, well, this is one way to address it.
    The NRA, which is now a pro- and quasi-government paramilitary terrorist group in the United States, just as it has become under Putin’s KGB guidance in Russia .. that’s right … pro-Russian government … for example, to uphold the Russian Orthodox Church’s visceral hatred of the Russian LGBT population.
    Should there be a popular uprising in Russia against Putin’s crypto capitalist pigfuckery and human rights abuses in Russia by those to his Left, and who isn’t, the NRA will, against all of its bullshit anti-government principles, serve as a pro-Putin liquidation force against the rebels.
    That Russian violence will serve as a prototype for the so-called American paramilitary NRA, now solidly pro-government, to butcher and slaughter liberal patriots who are going to overrun Mar-a-Lago during p’s last days.

  583. Monday is National Impersonate Authority Day.
    p will lead a military parade and puppet show around the Washington Mall.
    Everyone else, try to act like you have power, influence, and leverage.
    Fake it. Wear a dumb hat. Seems to have worked for the assholes.
    I want to replace republican conservative election-stealing, gerrymandering schemes with hardened Liberal Democratic apartheid borders, with conservative tribes segregated into their very own walled-off Bantustans and if they attempt to govern me in any way outside their designated borders, then we go all Texas Ranger on their Comanche asses.

  584. Monday is National Impersonate Authority Day.
    p will lead a military parade and puppet show around the Washington Mall.
    Everyone else, try to act like you have power, influence, and leverage.
    Fake it. Wear a dumb hat. Seems to have worked for the assholes.
    I want to replace republican conservative election-stealing, gerrymandering schemes with hardened Liberal Democratic apartheid borders, with conservative tribes segregated into their very own walled-off Bantustans and if they attempt to govern me in any way outside their designated borders, then we go all Texas Ranger on their Comanche asses.

  585. This is just a tiny taste of what we will learn p and his criminal thugs and welfare queens have done to government:
    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/31/1861729/-Racist-Official-Who-Called-Michelle-Obama-An-Ape-Sentenced-To-Prison-For-FEMA-Fraud
    I’m warming up to reinstatement of the death penalty in all 50 states.
    But only because we don’t have the prison space for the entire millions of right wing racist conservative thieves who make up the conservative movement infrastructure and who are plundering government coffers as they deflectively point over there and croak “look, another nigger Jew fag!”

  586. This is just a tiny taste of what we will learn p and his criminal thugs and welfare queens have done to government:
    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/31/1861729/-Racist-Official-Who-Called-Michelle-Obama-An-Ape-Sentenced-To-Prison-For-FEMA-Fraud
    I’m warming up to reinstatement of the death penalty in all 50 states.
    But only because we don’t have the prison space for the entire millions of right wing racist conservative thieves who make up the conservative movement infrastructure and who are plundering government coffers as they deflectively point over there and croak “look, another nigger Jew fag!”

  589. Plus:

    On the eve of his state visit, President Trump touched on Britain’s sore spot ā€” its withdrawal from the E.U. ā€” with praise for Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.

    Putin’s boys are working hard to support each other. (And, thereby, him.) Too bad Trump is so unpopular in the UK that his endorsement is unlikely to be a plus for Brexit.

  590. Plus:

    On the eve of his state visit, President Trump touched on Britain’s sore spot ā€” its withdrawal from the E.U. ā€” with praise for Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.

    Putin’s boys are working hard to support each other. (And, thereby, him.) Too bad Trump is so unpopular in the UK that his endorsement is unlikely to be a plus for Brexit.

  591. ā€œSo of course “we” can “survive” the extra bit of piddling pigfuckery of Putin and his puppets, right?ā€
    Yes.
    Snark aside, the problem with America is America. But if you want to focus on evil foreigners, and I donā€™t, I think the almost exclusiive mainstream focus on Russia is bad faith hypocrisyā€” we need an evil enemy to justify our military industrial complex. If we get into a war with Iran, it wonā€™t be Russia that helped push us in that direction. It will be Israel and the Saudis.
    But even then I donā€™t agree with the subset of people on the far left who overstate that influence. Our ruling class works for itself first and foremost.
    ā€œAnd Donald, why do you keep ignoring the point some of us keep making about the issue being less Russia’s interference, and more the Trumpies’ and GOP’s enthusiastic (or in the latter’s case complacent) acceptance of same?ā€
    Because I think it is a comparatively trivial issue. If I believed in the death penalty, I would favor it for Trump for colluding with the Saudis. And again, Russian influence is just a drop in the bucket of horrendous influence stemming from people in our own culture.
    It wonā€™t happen, but I dream of the day when ā€œ rule of lawā€ meant something more than powerful people inside the Beltway treating each other with respect while colluding with genocidal monsters overseas. Fuck this political culture.
    Anyway, I am done ranting for this thread. I wonā€™t change minds and yā€™all wonā€™t change mine.

  592. ā€œSo of course “we” can “survive” the extra bit of piddling pigfuckery of Putin and his puppets, right?ā€
    Yes.
    Snark aside, the problem with America is America. But if you want to focus on evil foreigners, and I donā€™t, I think the almost exclusiive mainstream focus on Russia is bad faith hypocrisyā€” we need an evil enemy to justify our military industrial complex. If we get into a war with Iran, it wonā€™t be Russia that helped push us in that direction. It will be Israel and the Saudis.
    But even then I donā€™t agree with the subset of people on the far left who overstate that influence. Our ruling class works for itself first and foremost.
    ā€œAnd Donald, why do you keep ignoring the point some of us keep making about the issue being less Russia’s interference, and more the Trumpies’ and GOP’s enthusiastic (or in the latter’s case complacent) acceptance of same?ā€
    Because I think it is a comparatively trivial issue. If I believed in the death penalty, I would favor it for Trump for colluding with the Saudis. And again, Russian influence is just a drop in the bucket of horrendous influence stemming from people in our own culture.
    It wonā€™t happen, but I dream of the day when ā€œ rule of lawā€ meant something more than powerful people inside the Beltway treating each other with respect while colluding with genocidal monsters overseas. Fuck this political culture.
    Anyway, I am done ranting for this thread. I wonā€™t change minds and yā€™all wonā€™t change mine.

  593. I think the almost exclusiive mainstream focus on Russia is bad faith hypocrisyā€” we need an evil enemy to justify our military industrial complex.
    This would be more plausible if there was any suggestion of an industrial “solution” to the threat from Russia. But if anyone is advocating that, I’ve missed it.
    Now if you wanted to argue that this is what is driving our foreign policy with regard to China, you’d have a much better case. But Russia policy? Just not seeing it.

  594. I think the almost exclusiive mainstream focus on Russia is bad faith hypocrisyā€” we need an evil enemy to justify our military industrial complex.
    This would be more plausible if there was any suggestion of an industrial “solution” to the threat from Russia. But if anyone is advocating that, I’ve missed it.
    Now if you wanted to argue that this is what is driving our foreign policy with regard to China, you’d have a much better case. But Russia policy? Just not seeing it.

  595. I should say for the benefit of the Secret Service that for complicity in genocide I only favor life imprisonment for Presidents after a fair trial. The President should receive adequate representationā€” perhaps a public defender with an otherwise light work loadā€”and opportunities to appeal a guilty verdict, with a chance of pardon from Pence/ Biden which he would no doubt receive.

  596. I should say for the benefit of the Secret Service that for complicity in genocide I only favor life imprisonment for Presidents after a fair trial. The President should receive adequate representationā€” perhaps a public defender with an otherwise light work loadā€”and opportunities to appeal a guilty verdict, with a chance of pardon from Pence/ Biden which he would no doubt receive.

  597. I wonā€™t change minds and yā€™all wonā€™t change mine.
    could be. maybe even most likely.
    nonetheless, your company and point of view are appreciated.

  598. I wonā€™t change minds and yā€™all wonā€™t change mine.
    could be. maybe even most likely.
    nonetheless, your company and point of view are appreciated.

  599. Our ruling class works for itself first and foremost.
    True. George Bush and Barack Obama have more in common with each other than they have with most of the people that voted for them. Even Bush and Hillary Clinton.

  600. Our ruling class works for itself first and foremost.
    True. George Bush and Barack Obama have more in common with each other than they have with most of the people that voted for them. Even Bush and Hillary Clinton.

  601. George Bush and Barack Obama have more in common with each other than they have with most of the people that voted for them. Even Bush and Hillary Clinton.
    Well, wouldn’t that be true of anyone who got to be a candidate (let alone winning an election) for President? I mean, they got to the top, regardless of whether they started with a huge head start (Bush), or whether they started way further behind (Obama or Clinton). Either way, most people who start there don’t make it to the top in politics — or anything else. Even a silver spoon is far from a guarantee of that, see Bush, Jeb.
    Now if you want to look at where they started, that’s a whole different deal. Yes, a lot of Presidents got a head start. Others, however, did not — how far ahead, economically or socially, did Obama or Clinton, or Truman or Reagan start? Kennedy or Bush, yes; a lot of others, not so much.

  602. George Bush and Barack Obama have more in common with each other than they have with most of the people that voted for them. Even Bush and Hillary Clinton.
    Well, wouldn’t that be true of anyone who got to be a candidate (let alone winning an election) for President? I mean, they got to the top, regardless of whether they started with a huge head start (Bush), or whether they started way further behind (Obama or Clinton). Either way, most people who start there don’t make it to the top in politics — or anything else. Even a silver spoon is far from a guarantee of that, see Bush, Jeb.
    Now if you want to look at where they started, that’s a whole different deal. Yes, a lot of Presidents got a head start. Others, however, did not — how far ahead, economically or socially, did Obama or Clinton, or Truman or Reagan start? Kennedy or Bush, yes; a lot of others, not so much.

  605. russell:
    He is a menace to the world. He actually is a threat to democracy, here and elsewhere. And not an idle one.
    Yes, but:
    “the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”
    -Barack Obama
    With that comment in 2012, the misspelled “reset” button, the uranium deal etc., methinks the lack of seriousness re Putin (and even the concern of being sold out) can be pointed at more people than just the current POTUS.
    Just sayin’.

  606. russell:
    He is a menace to the world. He actually is a threat to democracy, here and elsewhere. And not an idle one.
    Yes, but:
    “the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”
    -Barack Obama
    With that comment in 2012, the misspelled “reset” button, the uranium deal etc., methinks the lack of seriousness re Putin (and even the concern of being sold out) can be pointed at more people than just the current POTUS.
    Just sayin’.

  609. the lack of seriousness re Putin … can be pointed at more people than just the current POTUS.
    We’re not really talking about the same thing.
    If you want to say that Obama as POTUS and Clinton as SecState were insufficiently wary of Putin, I think there is a case to be made. Same for W, who “looked into Putin’s soul”.
    In the case of Trump, we’re talking about corrupting financial entanglements.
    Arguably wrong policy, vs corrupt self-dealing.

  610. the lack of seriousness re Putin … can be pointed at more people than just the current POTUS.
    We’re not really talking about the same thing.
    If you want to say that Obama as POTUS and Clinton as SecState were insufficiently wary of Putin, I think there is a case to be made. Same for W, who “looked into Putin’s soul”.
    In the case of Trump, we’re talking about corrupting financial entanglements.
    Arguably wrong policy, vs corrupt self-dealing.

  611. the lack of seriousness re Putin (and even the concern of being sold out) can be pointed at more people than just the current POTUS.
    also: the GOP Congress, who replied to Obama’s warnings about Russian meddling with “Sssshhh! Not so loud! You’re gonna wreck it!”
    but yes, let’s criticize Obama

  612. the lack of seriousness re Putin (and even the concern of being sold out) can be pointed at more people than just the current POTUS.
    also: the GOP Congress, who replied to Obama’s warnings about Russian meddling with “Sssshhh! Not so loud! You’re gonna wreck it!”
    but yes, let’s criticize Obama

  613. I have my doubts about that Michael Malice book that CharlesWT linked to earlier, but Vegas Tenold, author of Everything You Love Will Burn: Inside the Rebirth of White Nationalism in America, has some pretty damning things to say about the Nationalist Edgelord Right’s courtship of Russia.
    “I think all the various Nazis and nationalists in America right now are sort of vying for the affection of Russia, and I think they believe thereā€™s a big pot of money there, and there might very well be, but I donā€™t think weā€™ve so far seen so much evidence of actual monetary aid. Theyā€™ve certainly helped eastern European parties. I know the Hungarian Jobbik party is pretty closely linked to Russians. Russia is the beacon of white nationalism in the world now. I think Matthew would very much like to get his hands on some delicious roubles. I donā€™t think thereā€™s been anything forthcoming.”
    Again, not collusion or coordination, but certainly an attempt to win some love. Useful idiots willing to play along in the hope that they will be dealt in later if they, like the NRA, prove useful enough.

  614. I have my doubts about that Michael Malice book that CharlesWT linked to earlier, but Vegas Tenold, author of Everything You Love Will Burn: Inside the Rebirth of White Nationalism in America, has some pretty damning things to say about the Nationalist Edgelord Right’s courtship of Russia.
    “I think all the various Nazis and nationalists in America right now are sort of vying for the affection of Russia, and I think they believe thereā€™s a big pot of money there, and there might very well be, but I donā€™t think weā€™ve so far seen so much evidence of actual monetary aid. Theyā€™ve certainly helped eastern European parties. I know the Hungarian Jobbik party is pretty closely linked to Russians. Russia is the beacon of white nationalism in the world now. I think Matthew would very much like to get his hands on some delicious roubles. I donā€™t think thereā€™s been anything forthcoming.”
    Again, not collusion or coordination, but certainly an attempt to win some love. Useful idiots willing to play along in the hope that they will be dealt in later if they, like the NRA, prove useful enough.

  615. And I seem to recall that Mueller established that the NRA, at least, did get money from the Russians. So those hoping to also get in on that funding have some reason for optimism.

  616. And I seem to recall that Mueller established that the NRA, at least, did get money from the Russians. So those hoping to also get in on that funding have some reason for optimism.

  617. Indeed. Though it remains to be seen if any of the foreign donations transmigrated into the NRA’s usual political-ads-disguised-as-PSA’s schtick.

  618. Indeed. Though it remains to be seen if any of the foreign donations transmigrated into the NRA’s usual political-ads-disguised-as-PSA’s schtick.

  619. Donald: Snark aside, the problem with America is America.
    Yes. And America (“we”, as I had it) includes Donalds as well as Martys — i.e. people who shrug their shoulders at American collaborators of foreign kleptocrats — as well as people like me.
    But if you want to focus on evil foreigners, and I donā€™t, …
    I’m at a loss how to make it clearer: my problem is with the American collaborators, not the foreign kleptocrats. It’s the American collaborators “we” can hold accountable; it’s the American collaborators “we” can influence.
    … I think the almost exclusiive mainstream focus on Russia is bad faith hypocrisyā€” we need an evil enemy to justify our military industrial complex. If we get into a war with Iran, it wonā€™t be Russia that helped push us in that direction. It will be Israel and the Saudis.
    And what do Putin, Netanyahu, and MBS have in common? The undying loyalty of He, Trump, that’s what. Which doesn’t bother snakes like Mitch McConnell and Bill Barr. Nor, when it comes to Putin, Donald.
    If Noam Chomsky were POTUS, he would surely tell Netanyahu and MBS to take a flying leap, and I would applaud him for it. If Chomsky echoed Donald’s attitude toward Putin, I would question his sanity — or at least his sincerity.
    But Noam Chomsky could never be POTUS, and one reason is that “we” can’t get our act together enough to slay the dragons immediately before us, so we can get to work taming the dragons Donald (and I) stand a chance of influencing.
    –TP

  620. Donald: Snark aside, the problem with America is America.
    Yes. And America (“we”, as I had it) includes Donalds as well as Martys — i.e. people who shrug their shoulders at American collaborators of foreign kleptocrats — as well as people like me.
    But if you want to focus on evil foreigners, and I donā€™t, …
    I’m at a loss how to make it clearer: my problem is with the American collaborators, not the foreign kleptocrats. It’s the American collaborators “we” can hold accountable; it’s the American collaborators “we” can influence.
    … I think the almost exclusiive mainstream focus on Russia is bad faith hypocrisyā€” we need an evil enemy to justify our military industrial complex. If we get into a war with Iran, it wonā€™t be Russia that helped push us in that direction. It will be Israel and the Saudis.
    And what do Putin, Netanyahu, and MBS have in common? The undying loyalty of He, Trump, that’s what. Which doesn’t bother snakes like Mitch McConnell and Bill Barr. Nor, when it comes to Putin, Donald.
    If Noam Chomsky were POTUS, he would surely tell Netanyahu and MBS to take a flying leap, and I would applaud him for it. If Chomsky echoed Donald’s attitude toward Putin, I would question his sanity — or at least his sincerity.
    But Noam Chomsky could never be POTUS, and one reason is that “we” can’t get our act together enough to slay the dragons immediately before us, so we can get to work taming the dragons Donald (and I) stand a chance of influencing.
    –TP

  621. As a preliminary to me writing something tonight, this link about Pinker
    https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/05/the-worlds-most-annoying-man
    Pinker is a student of Chomsky, and it is interesting that the same means get utilized for totally opposite points of view
    Of course, I would be remiss if I didnā€™t post a defense of Pinker thru attacking the author of the previous article
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/05/31/a-digusting-hit-piece-on-pinker-in-current-affairs/amp/

  622. As a preliminary to me writing something tonight, this link about Pinker
    https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/05/the-worlds-most-annoying-man
    Pinker is a student of Chomsky, and it is interesting that the same means get utilized for totally opposite points of view
    Of course, I would be remiss if I didnā€™t post a defense of Pinker thru attacking the author of the previous article
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/05/31/a-digusting-hit-piece-on-pinker-in-current-affairs/amp/

  623. I think we should not underestimate Putin in 2020. Last time the Russians concentrated on propaganda and only probed the defenses on election security. Mitch the Turtle has made clear recently (and not in private or as a gaffe) that he will block any attempt at strengthening those defenses or even just evaluating their potential weaknesses. To me that is an open and deliberate invitation to foreign tampering in favor of the GOP. And since I believe that the election will be very close again, it will not take that much to swing it. I would not be surprised, if there will be an all time record of losing the popular vote while still winning through the electoral college.
    SCOTUS will also get a few more opportunities to put five thumbs on the scale by greenlighting disenfranchisement and other shenanigans.

  624. I think we should not underestimate Putin in 2020. Last time the Russians concentrated on propaganda and only probed the defenses on election security. Mitch the Turtle has made clear recently (and not in private or as a gaffe) that he will block any attempt at strengthening those defenses or even just evaluating their potential weaknesses. To me that is an open and deliberate invitation to foreign tampering in favor of the GOP. And since I believe that the election will be very close again, it will not take that much to swing it. I would not be surprised, if there will be an all time record of losing the popular vote while still winning through the electoral college.
    SCOTUS will also get a few more opportunities to put five thumbs on the scale by greenlighting disenfranchisement and other shenanigans.

  625. I’m at a loss how to make it clearer: my problem is with the American collaborators, not the foreign kleptocrats. It’s the American collaborators “we” can hold accountable; it’s the American collaborators “we” can influence.
    This, and everything else Tony P said @10.48. Not to mention everything Hartmut says above.
    Donald, all respect to your decision not to engage in discussions where no-one’s opinion is likely to change. But speaking personally, I find it important to clarify my position properly, not least to myself. There will always be internal actors in a state who are motivated by greed, aggression, selfishness and bigotry. They will often make common cause with similar actors in other states. This is the human condition, and no doubt cannot be changed in its essentials, but they do not constitute “the state”. They must be fought, with the weapons available, and in democratic countries the most important of those weapons is still democracy. When internal actors break the law to collaborate with foreign powers in furtherance of their own interests, thus damaging the (already fragile) democracy, they must be fought with every weapon available, because in the end only reasonably functional democratic means can avert bloody civil war. Some (although perhaps not you) might think that bloody civil war is a necessary preliminary to re-shaping the state in ways they think desirable, but I am not among them, and these days I think nobody else on ObWi (pace JDT)really is either.

  626. I’m at a loss how to make it clearer: my problem is with the American collaborators, not the foreign kleptocrats. It’s the American collaborators “we” can hold accountable; it’s the American collaborators “we” can influence.
    This, and everything else Tony P said @10.48. Not to mention everything Hartmut says above.
    Donald, all respect to your decision not to engage in discussions where no-one’s opinion is likely to change. But speaking personally, I find it important to clarify my position properly, not least to myself. There will always be internal actors in a state who are motivated by greed, aggression, selfishness and bigotry. They will often make common cause with similar actors in other states. This is the human condition, and no doubt cannot be changed in its essentials, but they do not constitute “the state”. They must be fought, with the weapons available, and in democratic countries the most important of those weapons is still democracy. When internal actors break the law to collaborate with foreign powers in furtherance of their own interests, thus damaging the (already fragile) democracy, they must be fought with every weapon available, because in the end only reasonably functional democratic means can avert bloody civil war. Some (although perhaps not you) might think that bloody civil war is a necessary preliminary to re-shaping the state in ways they think desirable, but I am not among them, and these days I think nobody else on ObWi (pace JDT)really is either.

  627. They will often make common cause with similar actors in other states. This is the human condition, and no doubt cannot be changed in its essentials, but they do not constitute “the state”.
    Perhaps I should have made clear I meant:
    but they do not at least in a continuous way constitute “the state”

  628. They will often make common cause with similar actors in other states. This is the human condition, and no doubt cannot be changed in its essentials, but they do not constitute “the state”.
    Perhaps I should have made clear I meant:
    but they do not at least in a continuous way constitute “the state”

  629. Should have mentioned the UAE
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/middleeast/crown-prince-mohammed-bin-zayed.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
    I guess I will make the point about Russia a bit clearerā€”
    If people are so interested in dubious actors influencing our policy towards bad ends, they wouldnā€™t be focusing almost exclusively on Russia and Russiagate. And they also wouldnā€™t be focusing quite so much on Trump, who is a bizarre freakish figure, but whose actual horrible deeds are not that different from those of his,predecessors. Trump is a symptom. What is different about him is that he has no filter. Asked about supplying weapons to the Saudis, he openly says that for him it is about how much money we can make seeking the weapons. You arenā€™t supposed to say that. You are supposed to strike a poise and talk about national security and supporting our allies and stability and a lot of other bull crap. Children would still get blown up or starve to death, but Westerners could more effectively paper over the sheer nasty ugliness of so much of what we do. Trump is an embarrassment. He stripped the veil away. And a lot of people are focusing on the veil.
    Or take the biggest issue of allā€” global warming. Trump again acts like some sort of cartoon villain, but again he just more openly represents the far more intelligent ( and evil) folk who have over the years managed to make oneā€™s position on climate change a tribal marker in the culture wars. If you want to be a good conservative you mock concern over the issue that might ultimately be as significant as the prevention of nuclear war.
    But instead over the past few years we have people thinking that Russiagate and Russian influence campaigns are ā€œ a threat to our democracyā€ and the biggest thing we have to worry about. So Michelle Obama is friendly with Dubya and Gail Collins has these cutesy conversations with the racist climate change denying Bret Stephens.
    ā€œPinker is a student of Chomsky, and it is interesting that the same means get utilized for totally opposite points of viewā€
    Completely irrelevant. I mentioned Chomsky because decades back he introduced me and millions of others to the notion that Americans are awash in propaganda that covers up or papers over or distracts us from the ugliness of what our rulers do in our name. I mentioned him for that reason. His personal qualities donā€™t matter. People with widely varying personalities agree with his POV ( including Nathan Robinson) and there approximately a zillion of them writing about it online, though still, almost never in the mainstream press. Bret Stephens, though, gets hired by the NYT.

  630. Should have mentioned the UAE
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/middleeast/crown-prince-mohammed-bin-zayed.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
    I guess I will make the point about Russia a bit clearerā€”
    If people are so interested in dubious actors influencing our policy towards bad ends, they wouldnā€™t be focusing almost exclusively on Russia and Russiagate. And they also wouldnā€™t be focusing quite so much on Trump, who is a bizarre freakish figure, but whose actual horrible deeds are not that different from those of his,predecessors. Trump is a symptom. What is different about him is that he has no filter. Asked about supplying weapons to the Saudis, he openly says that for him it is about how much money we can make seeking the weapons. You arenā€™t supposed to say that. You are supposed to strike a poise and talk about national security and supporting our allies and stability and a lot of other bull crap. Children would still get blown up or starve to death, but Westerners could more effectively paper over the sheer nasty ugliness of so much of what we do. Trump is an embarrassment. He stripped the veil away. And a lot of people are focusing on the veil.
    Or take the biggest issue of allā€” global warming. Trump again acts like some sort of cartoon villain, but again he just more openly represents the far more intelligent ( and evil) folk who have over the years managed to make oneā€™s position on climate change a tribal marker in the culture wars. If you want to be a good conservative you mock concern over the issue that might ultimately be as significant as the prevention of nuclear war.
    But instead over the past few years we have people thinking that Russiagate and Russian influence campaigns are ā€œ a threat to our democracyā€ and the biggest thing we have to worry about. So Michelle Obama is friendly with Dubya and Gail Collins has these cutesy conversations with the racist climate change denying Bret Stephens.
    ā€œPinker is a student of Chomsky, and it is interesting that the same means get utilized for totally opposite points of viewā€
    Completely irrelevant. I mentioned Chomsky because decades back he introduced me and millions of others to the notion that Americans are awash in propaganda that covers up or papers over or distracts us from the ugliness of what our rulers do in our name. I mentioned him for that reason. His personal qualities donā€™t matter. People with widely varying personalities agree with his POV ( including Nathan Robinson) and there approximately a zillion of them writing about it online, though still, almost never in the mainstream press. Bret Stephens, though, gets hired by the NYT.

  631. Lots of typos above. Still intelligible or anyway if not I canā€™t blame the typos
    Anyway, I am staying offline for the remainder of the day.

  632. Lots of typos above. Still intelligible or anyway if not I canā€™t blame the typos
    Anyway, I am staying offline for the remainder of the day.

  635. Regarding the Russians:
    Part of the backdrop to all of this is the flood of money that came out of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Enormous, immensely valuable national holdings were privatized, where for ‘privatized’ please read ‘snatched by mobsters in a feeding frenzy of murder and self-dealing’.
    And all of that money wanted to go somewhere. Which brings us to the Trumps, and Deutsche Bank, and similar. And also brings us to, for example, Deripaska’s company investing $22M in Kentucky to build an aluminum plant. After McConnell and Paul voted to ease sanctions on Deripaska’s company.
    Quid pro quo, who knows. I’m not being sarcastic, I really don’t know. What is clear is that all of that cash has been used by murderous f*ing gangsters to purchase entree and access into Western financial and political institutions. I’m not talking about Hilary’s emails or Facebook ads, I’m talking about access to and influence over players at the highest levels, political, financial and otherwise. And they are not doing this to further liberal democratic values.
    Wave a few million or billion dollars around and suddenly you’re not such a bad guy, after all.

  636. Regarding the Russians:
    Part of the backdrop to all of this is the flood of money that came out of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Enormous, immensely valuable national holdings were privatized, where for ‘privatized’ please read ‘snatched by mobsters in a feeding frenzy of murder and self-dealing’.
    And all of that money wanted to go somewhere. Which brings us to the Trumps, and Deutsche Bank, and similar. And also brings us to, for example, Deripaska’s company investing $22M in Kentucky to build an aluminum plant. After McConnell and Paul voted to ease sanctions on Deripaska’s company.
    Quid pro quo, who knows. I’m not being sarcastic, I really don’t know. What is clear is that all of that cash has been used by murderous f*ing gangsters to purchase entree and access into Western financial and political institutions. I’m not talking about Hilary’s emails or Facebook ads, I’m talking about access to and influence over players at the highest levels, political, financial and otherwise. And they are not doing this to further liberal democratic values.
    Wave a few million or billion dollars around and suddenly you’re not such a bad guy, after all.

  637. And they also wouldnā€™t be focusing quite so much on Trump, who is a bizarre freakish figure, but whose actual horrible deeds are not that different from those of his, predecessors.
    So far he has presided over fewer deaths than his predecessors.
    What is different about him is that he has no filter.
    This will be the first time that a sitting president will be twitter bombing the opposition leading up to their primary and on to the general election.
    Trump is an embarrassment. He stripped the veil away. And a lot of people are focusing on the veil.
    And libertarians use to think that Joe Biden might be the vehicle to reducing the statue of the presidency. šŸ™‚

  638. And they also wouldnā€™t be focusing quite so much on Trump, who is a bizarre freakish figure, but whose actual horrible deeds are not that different from those of his, predecessors.
    So far he has presided over fewer deaths than his predecessors.
    What is different about him is that he has no filter.
    This will be the first time that a sitting president will be twitter bombing the opposition leading up to their primary and on to the general election.
    Trump is an embarrassment. He stripped the veil away. And a lot of people are focusing on the veil.
    And libertarians use to think that Joe Biden might be the vehicle to reducing the statue of the presidency. šŸ™‚

  639. Or take the biggest issue of allā€” global warming.
    I haven’t been aware of anyone arguing that Russia has been involved in our disputes over climate change. And that even though, as essentially a petro-state these days, they would appear to have an interest.
    Sometimes we manage to mess ourselves up unassisted. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore the cases where outside actors are getting involved. (Especially getting involved covertly. I have little problem with some foreigner who wants to give us his views on either our issues or our candidates.)

  640. Or take the biggest issue of allā€” global warming.
    I haven’t been aware of anyone arguing that Russia has been involved in our disputes over climate change. And that even though, as essentially a petro-state these days, they would appear to have an interest.
    Sometimes we manage to mess ourselves up unassisted. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore the cases where outside actors are getting involved. (Especially getting involved covertly. I have little problem with some foreigner who wants to give us his views on either our issues or our candidates.)

  641. For the first time, this morning I wondered if Trump could actually get reelected.
    I’ve put it at 50/50, plus or minus, since November 2016.
    If I took everyone who has a knee-jerk reaction to the word “socialism” – pro or con, MAGA-head or Bernie Bro – and put them in a room, then gave a dollar to each one of them who could provide a reasonably accurate definition for the word, and took a dollar from each one who could not, I would retire tomorrow.

  642. For the first time, this morning I wondered if Trump could actually get reelected.
    I’ve put it at 50/50, plus or minus, since November 2016.
    If I took everyone who has a knee-jerk reaction to the word “socialism” – pro or con, MAGA-head or Bernie Bro – and put them in a room, then gave a dollar to each one of them who could provide a reasonably accurate definition for the word, and took a dollar from each one who could not, I would retire tomorrow.

  643. Hickenlooper went into a Move On forum in Nor Cal and his Big Idea was “pragmatism” and an attack on the idea of big ideas. I voted for Hickenlooper back when I was a Coloradan. He’s a good guy. But he does not have a good sense of audience or enough personal charisma to work his way past that shortcoming.

  644. Hickenlooper went into a Move On forum in Nor Cal and his Big Idea was “pragmatism” and an attack on the idea of big ideas. I voted for Hickenlooper back when I was a Coloradan. He’s a good guy. But he does not have a good sense of audience or enough personal charisma to work his way past that shortcoming.

  645. He saw the booing as a plus for his campaign. Thst could be sense of audience, the question is how many Dem primary voters would be booing with them. However anyone defines it socialism wont win the
     is a tough sell in the general.

  646. He saw the booing as a plus for his campaign. Thst could be sense of audience, the question is how many Dem primary voters would be booing with them. However anyone defines it socialism wont win the
     is a tough sell in the general.

  647. i could see a lot of lefties booing Hickenlooper’s remarks simply because they give credence to the right’s recent manufactured freakouts over AOC and Sanders and other socialist™ bogeymen. “Oh noes! Socialism’s gonna eat your babies and steal your goodies!”
    the number of Democrats who actually want actual socialism is probably pretty small. the number of Dems who want something the right will call socialism is probably 100%.
    we’re kinda done letting the right smear us. want to call us “socialists” ? fine, call us socialists. make yourselves the arbiters of dword meanings. but beware, this is where Bellmore will step in and shriek about you doing violence to the language.

  648. i could see a lot of lefties booing Hickenlooper’s remarks simply because they give credence to the right’s recent manufactured freakouts over AOC and Sanders and other socialist™ bogeymen. “Oh noes! Socialism’s gonna eat your babies and steal your goodies!”
    the number of Democrats who actually want actual socialism is probably pretty small. the number of Dems who want something the right will call socialism is probably 100%.
    we’re kinda done letting the right smear us. want to call us “socialists” ? fine, call us socialists. make yourselves the arbiters of dword meanings. but beware, this is where Bellmore will step in and shriek about you doing violence to the language.

  651. That’s not a plus for his campaign. That’s clearer positioning and a momentary blip in the news cycle at the cost of a lot of good will. There are dozens of ways he could have appealed to moderates without alienating a sizable chunk of the primary vote in the process.
    Hickenlooper needs to make it through the primary before he can make it through the general. Trying to appeal to swing voters this early on in the process (especially when the voters he’s after are probably the same ones giving Biden and Beto their love in the polls) does not argue for his tactical sense.

  652. That’s not a plus for his campaign. That’s clearer positioning and a momentary blip in the news cycle at the cost of a lot of good will. There are dozens of ways he could have appealed to moderates without alienating a sizable chunk of the primary vote in the process.
    Hickenlooper needs to make it through the primary before he can make it through the general. Trying to appeal to swing voters this early on in the process (especially when the voters he’s after are probably the same ones giving Biden and Beto their love in the polls) does not argue for his tactical sense.

  653. I’d like to see Frank Luntz sell He, Trump and Yertl McConnell on the idea of branding America’s biggest retirement program “Socialist Security”. I mean, if you’ve managed to make “socialist” a dirty word, and your goal is to destroy “entitlements”, what could be a better way than that to fire up the MAGA base?
    Alternatively, I would not mind seeing one or two of the Democratic presidential candidates take up the “Socialist Security” branding either. For every MAGA voter they lose, I think they’d persuade at least a couple of sane people to laugh at soshulism-is-evil rhetoric.
    –TP

  654. I’d like to see Frank Luntz sell He, Trump and Yertl McConnell on the idea of branding America’s biggest retirement program “Socialist Security”. I mean, if you’ve managed to make “socialist” a dirty word, and your goal is to destroy “entitlements”, what could be a better way than that to fire up the MAGA base?
    Alternatively, I would not mind seeing one or two of the Democratic presidential candidates take up the “Socialist Security” branding either. For every MAGA voter they lose, I think they’d persuade at least a couple of sane people to laugh at soshulism-is-evil rhetoric.
    –TP

  655. For every MAGA voter they lose, I think they’d persuade at least a couple of sane people to laugh at soshulism-is-evil rhetoric.
    And the biggest hit would be on the over-65 (i.e. receiving Social Security) voters who are currently the GOP base. Even more so than non-college whites.
    “Hands off my Medicare!” is a slogan which can cut both ways. šŸ˜‰

  656. For every MAGA voter they lose, I think they’d persuade at least a couple of sane people to laugh at soshulism-is-evil rhetoric.
    And the biggest hit would be on the over-65 (i.e. receiving Social Security) voters who are currently the GOP base. Even more so than non-college whites.
    “Hands off my Medicare!” is a slogan which can cut both ways. šŸ˜‰

  657. “People” don’t want “socialism”.
    “People” do want roads bridges schools and libraries, clean water and air, the ability to go to the doctor when they need to, to help their kids go to college if they want without having to re-mortgage the house or drain their life savings, and to have at least a modest level of financial security when their working lives are over. Which, for most, would preferably happen before they are 75 or 80.

  658. “People” don’t want “socialism”.
    “People” do want roads bridges schools and libraries, clean water and air, the ability to go to the doctor when they need to, to help their kids go to college if they want without having to re-mortgage the house or drain their life savings, and to have at least a modest level of financial security when their working lives are over. Which, for most, would preferably happen before they are 75 or 80.

  659. Well maybe not libraries so much. None of the rest of those things save the implication of Medicare for all are much considered socialist, as they really arent redustributive.
    No rational person would equate a government imposed insurance program, both ss and Medicare, with “entitlement” programs. We’ve been paying into those by edict for 50 years. The benefits are not redistributive, they are a government debt. I’ll just take what I paid in and no one has to pay me a funking dime, or shut the hell up about them. Both sides.
    College, well we’d be better to stop requiring grocery store cashiers to have a college education than paying for everyone to go.

  660. Well maybe not libraries so much. None of the rest of those things save the implication of Medicare for all are much considered socialist, as they really arent redustributive.
    No rational person would equate a government imposed insurance program, both ss and Medicare, with “entitlement” programs. We’ve been paying into those by edict for 50 years. The benefits are not redistributive, they are a government debt. I’ll just take what I paid in and no one has to pay me a funking dime, or shut the hell up about them. Both sides.
    College, well we’d be better to stop requiring grocery store cashiers to have a college education than paying for everyone to go.

  661. Sorry Donald, Tony P mentioned Chomsky and I posted the Pinker link. Wasn’t intended as a slam.

  662. Sorry Donald, Tony P mentioned Chomsky and I posted the Pinker link. Wasn’t intended as a slam.

  663. I’ll just take what I paid in
    ‘taint how it works.
    you’ll take some fraction of what current workers are paying in, the exact amount largely to be determined by whatever species of anti-government bug has crawled up the then-current GOP’s butt.

  664. I’ll just take what I paid in
    ‘taint how it works.
    you’ll take some fraction of what current workers are paying in, the exact amount largely to be determined by whatever species of anti-government bug has crawled up the then-current GOP’s butt.

  665. you’ll take some fraction of what current workers are paying in… and the government can manage to borrow…

  666. you’ll take some fraction of what current workers are paying in… and the government can manage to borrow…

  667. “No rational person would equate a government imposed insurance program, both ss and Medicare, with “entitlement” programs.”
    Someone run out and find me a rational person.
    Every conservative think tank, every conservative pundit, every conservative quasi-journalist, every conservative politician, every conservative man-and-woman-in-the-street refer to Social Security and Medicare and much else as entitlement programs that need to be curtailed, cut, or eliminated, and when they aren’t in mixed company but some more odious language is used.
    What’s worse, liberals and Democrats use the word entitlement as well when referring to the programs, but they at least they don;t put on a face like there is a bad smell in the room when they say it.
    You’ll take what you need as dictated by your longevity and the state of your health from these programs and you are entitled to do so, and good on ya.
    Whaddya gonna do, sit up in the your hospital bed when you are a codger, spit out the oxygen feed, unhook the monitors and announce “Time to cut me off, I’ve reached the limit of what I paid into Medicare! Bring one of them $17 aspirins and make it on the house and I’ll be out of here!”
    As my mother used to say about off-kilter people and/or statement: “You should have your head examined.”
    There will be a deductible and a copay for that, but if the condition is serious enough, and it sure sounds like it is, Medicare will pay.
    Did you mean to say people DON’T want libraries so much?
    Why, because they can put up with being ignorant, unread, and stupid for free online.
    Grocery clerks aren’t required to have college degrees, unless Whole Foods has jumped the shark.
    Hell, even the caddies, cabana boys, and shoe shine girls working in high places in government under the current crap merchants aren’t required to have a college degree, unless it’s bullshit arts or knob-polishing.
    “by edict”
    You mean the Rule of Law, don’tcha?

  668. “No rational person would equate a government imposed insurance program, both ss and Medicare, with “entitlement” programs.”
    Someone run out and find me a rational person.
    Every conservative think tank, every conservative pundit, every conservative quasi-journalist, every conservative politician, every conservative man-and-woman-in-the-street refer to Social Security and Medicare and much else as entitlement programs that need to be curtailed, cut, or eliminated, and when they aren’t in mixed company but some more odious language is used.
    What’s worse, liberals and Democrats use the word entitlement as well when referring to the programs, but they at least they don;t put on a face like there is a bad smell in the room when they say it.
    You’ll take what you need as dictated by your longevity and the state of your health from these programs and you are entitled to do so, and good on ya.
    Whaddya gonna do, sit up in the your hospital bed when you are a codger, spit out the oxygen feed, unhook the monitors and announce “Time to cut me off, I’ve reached the limit of what I paid into Medicare! Bring one of them $17 aspirins and make it on the house and I’ll be out of here!”
    As my mother used to say about off-kilter people and/or statement: “You should have your head examined.”
    There will be a deductible and a copay for that, but if the condition is serious enough, and it sure sounds like it is, Medicare will pay.
    Did you mean to say people DON’T want libraries so much?
    Why, because they can put up with being ignorant, unread, and stupid for free online.
    Grocery clerks aren’t required to have college degrees, unless Whole Foods has jumped the shark.
    Hell, even the caddies, cabana boys, and shoe shine girls working in high places in government under the current crap merchants aren’t required to have a college degree, unless it’s bullshit arts or knob-polishing.
    “by edict”
    You mean the Rule of Law, don’tcha?

  673. Every conservative think tank, every conservative pundit, every conservative quasi-journalist, every conservative politician, every conservative man-and-woman-in-the-street refer to Social Security and Medicare and much else as entitlement programs that need to be curtailed, cut, or eliminated
    Wouldn’t it be more accurate to identify them as libertarian, rather than “conservative”? All those Ayn Rand fans, like our recent House Speaker.
    Granted, there is a lot of (possibly deliberate) conflating of the two these days, at least in the US. But they really are rather different world views.

  674. Every conservative think tank, every conservative pundit, every conservative quasi-journalist, every conservative politician, every conservative man-and-woman-in-the-street refer to Social Security and Medicare and much else as entitlement programs that need to be curtailed, cut, or eliminated
    Wouldn’t it be more accurate to identify them as libertarian, rather than “conservative”? All those Ayn Rand fans, like our recent House Speaker.
    Granted, there is a lot of (possibly deliberate) conflating of the two these days, at least in the US. But they really are rather different world views.

  675. russell: “People” do want roads bridges schools and libraries, clean water and air, the ability to go to the doctor when they need to, to help their kids go to college if they want without having to re-mortgage the house or drain their life savings, and to have at least a modest level of financial security when their working lives are over.
    Marty: Well maybe not libraries so much. None of the rest of those things save the implication of Medicare for all are much considered socialist, as they really arent redustributive.
    Of course they are redistributive. No, not in the sense of taking money from one person and giving that money to another person. But the money is taken, and the goods/services that that money can buy are distributed to others.
    They may not be considered “socialist” — under the massively inaccurate current usage of the term. But redistributive they undeniably are.

  676. russell: “People” do want roads bridges schools and libraries, clean water and air, the ability to go to the doctor when they need to, to help their kids go to college if they want without having to re-mortgage the house or drain their life savings, and to have at least a modest level of financial security when their working lives are over.
    Marty: Well maybe not libraries so much. None of the rest of those things save the implication of Medicare for all are much considered socialist, as they really arent redustributive.
    Of course they are redistributive. No, not in the sense of taking money from one person and giving that money to another person. But the money is taken, and the goods/services that that money can buy are distributed to others.
    They may not be considered “socialist” — under the massively inaccurate current usage of the term. But redistributive they undeniably are.

  677. wj: They may not be considered “socialist” — under the massively inaccurate current usage of the term. But redistributive they undeniably are.
    What wj said.

  678. wj: They may not be considered “socialist” — under the massively inaccurate current usage of the term. But redistributive they undeniably are.
    What wj said.

  679. Marty: We’ve been paying into those by edict for 50 years. The benefits are not redistributive, they are a government debt.
    At long last, a glimmer of hope! Marty fails to swallow at least one Republican talking point!! Alert the press. Pop the corn.
    Just don’t get your hopes up. Marty will keep supporting He, Trump’s “(Republican) policies” even while acknowledging their logically bankrupt underpinnings.
    For instance: “government debts” cannot be paid except by raising taxes, borrowing money, or “printing” money. Somebody ask Marty which of those “(Republican) policies” he prefers.
    –TP

  680. Marty: We’ve been paying into those by edict for 50 years. The benefits are not redistributive, they are a government debt.
    At long last, a glimmer of hope! Marty fails to swallow at least one Republican talking point!! Alert the press. Pop the corn.
    Just don’t get your hopes up. Marty will keep supporting He, Trump’s “(Republican) policies” even while acknowledging their logically bankrupt underpinnings.
    For instance: “government debts” cannot be paid except by raising taxes, borrowing money, or “printing” money. Somebody ask Marty which of those “(Republican) policies” he prefers.
    –TP

  681. Sign spotted at tonight’s NBA Finals game:

    Make Raptors Great Again

    You just know Trump’s gotta be conflicted about this series. On one hand, the championship could be won by Canadians. Foreigners taking our championship! On the other hand, it could be won by Golden State, who are not only from California, but who snubbed him last year after they won.
    Clearly the whole thing is some kind of deep state plot to damage the Greatest President Ever!!!

  682. Sign spotted at tonight’s NBA Finals game:

    Make Raptors Great Again

    You just know Trump’s gotta be conflicted about this series. On one hand, the championship could be won by Canadians. Foreigners taking our championship! On the other hand, it could be won by Golden State, who are not only from California, but who snubbed him last year after they won.
    Clearly the whole thing is some kind of deep state plot to damage the Greatest President Ever!!!

  683. None of the rest of those things save the implication of Medicare for all are much considered socialist, as they really arent redustributive.
    ok, so QED.
    Socialism is not the the same as redistribution.
    And most of the things in my list are redisrtibutive, depending on circumstances. If you pay property taxes but don’t have school age kids, for example.
    And FWIW, the reason SS is a “government debt” is because Tip and Ronnie had a martini and figured out that when the boomers retired the program would be upside down. So for the last 35 years we’ve all been paying in at a rate greater than was needed to run the program. And now,as per plan, we’re spending down the surplus.
    The reason doing that is in any way a challenge at all is the Iraq War and the Bush tax cuts. Remember Al Gore’s “lockbox” and W’s field trip to Fort Knox?

  684. None of the rest of those things save the implication of Medicare for all are much considered socialist, as they really arent redustributive.
    ok, so QED.
    Socialism is not the the same as redistribution.
    And most of the things in my list are redisrtibutive, depending on circumstances. If you pay property taxes but don’t have school age kids, for example.
    And FWIW, the reason SS is a “government debt” is because Tip and Ronnie had a martini and figured out that when the boomers retired the program would be upside down. So for the last 35 years we’ve all been paying in at a rate greater than was needed to run the program. And now,as per plan, we’re spending down the surplus.
    The reason doing that is in any way a challenge at all is the Iraq War and the Bush tax cuts. Remember Al Gore’s “lockbox” and W’s field trip to Fort Knox?

  687. “Socialism is not the same…”
    It is in Bernies world, and has come to be used for government deciding it’s the best management vehicle for everything. Give the government all the money and it will spend it on the things that are important.
    For the objection to this see SS and Medicare funds redistributed to, well, general funds. National government is a really bad place to accumulate money, even with supposed specific purpose.
    You dont have to call it socialism, it’s just the convenient descriptor that shares all the downsides.

  688. “Socialism is not the same…”
    It is in Bernies world, and has come to be used for government deciding it’s the best management vehicle for everything. Give the government all the money and it will spend it on the things that are important.
    For the objection to this see SS and Medicare funds redistributed to, well, general funds. National government is a really bad place to accumulate money, even with supposed specific purpose.
    You dont have to call it socialism, it’s just the convenient descriptor that shares all the downsides.

  689. You dont have to call it socialism
    No, but we do. As you have done, as Hickenlooper did.
    My Trumpie niece put a FB post up showing that the fact that the Panera guy finally closed the last “pay what you want” restaurant proves that socialism doesn’t work.
    I’m neither a socialist nor not a socialist. I’m not really an “-ist”. But it damages people’s thinking when words are used in ignorance of what they actually mean.
    You appear to be fine with some forms of government management of public functions. And, not others. Which is pretty normal for everyone, including me.
    Life would be simpler if folks would just advocate for the positions they actually hold, instead of getting caught up in bogus vocabulary.
    Socialism is when the means of production are publicly owned. Not “publicly” as in traded as equities, but owned, collectively, by the public, i.e. the people.
    Redistribution is when you take something from one guy and give it to another guy.
    They are completely orthogonal concepts. I know you know this, I’m just trying to inject some clarity.
    Both are legitimate exercises of public, i.e. government, responsibility. Both are useful in some case and less so in other cases. And the cases where either are useful change over time, for any given context.
    Both are deemed completely acceptable *by people who otherwise claim they hate them*, in certain contexts.
    It would be easier to resolve things like this if we didn’t all have to dig through such an enormous mountain of bullshit before we got to the point. I’m not saying your comments here are bullshit, it’s a statement about the larger context in which we’re obliged to try to have a conversation.

  690. You dont have to call it socialism
    No, but we do. As you have done, as Hickenlooper did.
    My Trumpie niece put a FB post up showing that the fact that the Panera guy finally closed the last “pay what you want” restaurant proves that socialism doesn’t work.
    I’m neither a socialist nor not a socialist. I’m not really an “-ist”. But it damages people’s thinking when words are used in ignorance of what they actually mean.
    You appear to be fine with some forms of government management of public functions. And, not others. Which is pretty normal for everyone, including me.
    Life would be simpler if folks would just advocate for the positions they actually hold, instead of getting caught up in bogus vocabulary.
    Socialism is when the means of production are publicly owned. Not “publicly” as in traded as equities, but owned, collectively, by the public, i.e. the people.
    Redistribution is when you take something from one guy and give it to another guy.
    They are completely orthogonal concepts. I know you know this, I’m just trying to inject some clarity.
    Both are legitimate exercises of public, i.e. government, responsibility. Both are useful in some case and less so in other cases. And the cases where either are useful change over time, for any given context.
    Both are deemed completely acceptable *by people who otherwise claim they hate them*, in certain contexts.
    It would be easier to resolve things like this if we didn’t all have to dig through such an enormous mountain of bullshit before we got to the point. I’m not saying your comments here are bullshit, it’s a statement about the larger context in which we’re obliged to try to have a conversation.

  691. It is in Bernies world, and has come to be used for government deciding it’s the best management vehicle for everything.
    who actually believes this? who literally wants the government to manage “everything” ?
    nobody. that’s who.

  692. It is in Bernies world, and has come to be used for government deciding it’s the best management vehicle for everything.
    who actually believes this? who literally wants the government to manage “everything” ?
    nobody. that’s who.

  693. “Wouldn’t it be more accurate to identify them as libertarian, rather than “conservative”? All those Ayn Rand fans, like our recent House Speaker.”
    Ah jeez, let me put it this way:
    You don’t have to call it conservatism, it’s just the convenient descriptor that shares all the downsides.

  694. “Wouldn’t it be more accurate to identify them as libertarian, rather than “conservative”? All those Ayn Rand fans, like our recent House Speaker.”
    Ah jeez, let me put it this way:
    You don’t have to call it conservatism, it’s just the convenient descriptor that shares all the downsides.

  695. I’m having a bipartisan moment. Maybe it’s one of my spells. I should see a physician.
    Here’s the political problem, vis a vis p and Sanders for both republicans, the half-dozen who make a show of hating p, and democrats that Marty beings to light with his Hickenlooper comment way up there.
    If Hickenlooper* or similar wins the Democratic nomination, many Democrats will doze off and stay home from the polls in weird self-imposed compliance with republican gerrymandering and Jim Crow voting franchise restrictions, even as a few, very few conservatives SAY they will vote for Hickenlooper as relief from p.
    p wins.
    If Sanders or similar wins the nomination, pro-Sanders folks who voted for p in 2016, the wily purity bastards, in protest of Clinton, will come back into the Democratic fold, but the nasty republican sh*t hits fan political machine will rev up to the dirtiest motherf*cking display we’ve ever seen to secure their malign base’s full, not to mention violent, turnout in 2020.
    p wins, even from a jail cell, which is why jail is not nearly onerous … and final … enough.
    p is peak full-of-sh*tness, which is why he appeals to the peak American full-of-sh*tness of the full of sh*t marginal American majority, meaning the elites who vote in the Electoral College.
    Myself, I stepped around a pile of horse pucky yesterday while hiking on a trail in the foothills west of Denver which I would vote for if IT ran against p, but then my principles can be as pristinely high or pristinely as low as they need to be to eliminate the GOP in all of its masked bullsh*t guises.
    When the GOP is dead, my work is done.
    I don’t care what follows.
    When John Wayne shot conservative (alright already, wj, Valance was a libertarian) Liberty Valance dead as a dog in the street, he tossed the carbine back to Pompey and headed back to the ranch.
    That Jimmy Stewart was what followed was beside the point.

  696. I’m having a bipartisan moment. Maybe it’s one of my spells. I should see a physician.
    Here’s the political problem, vis a vis p and Sanders for both republicans, the half-dozen who make a show of hating p, and democrats that Marty beings to light with his Hickenlooper comment way up there.
    If Hickenlooper* or similar wins the Democratic nomination, many Democrats will doze off and stay home from the polls in weird self-imposed compliance with republican gerrymandering and Jim Crow voting franchise restrictions, even as a few, very few conservatives SAY they will vote for Hickenlooper as relief from p.
    p wins.
    If Sanders or similar wins the nomination, pro-Sanders folks who voted for p in 2016, the wily purity bastards, in protest of Clinton, will come back into the Democratic fold, but the nasty republican sh*t hits fan political machine will rev up to the dirtiest motherf*cking display we’ve ever seen to secure their malign base’s full, not to mention violent, turnout in 2020.
    p wins, even from a jail cell, which is why jail is not nearly onerous … and final … enough.
    p is peak full-of-sh*tness, which is why he appeals to the peak American full-of-sh*tness of the full of sh*t marginal American majority, meaning the elites who vote in the Electoral College.
    Myself, I stepped around a pile of horse pucky yesterday while hiking on a trail in the foothills west of Denver which I would vote for if IT ran against p, but then my principles can be as pristinely high or pristinely as low as they need to be to eliminate the GOP in all of its masked bullsh*t guises.
    When the GOP is dead, my work is done.
    I don’t care what follows.
    When John Wayne shot conservative (alright already, wj, Valance was a libertarian) Liberty Valance dead as a dog in the street, he tossed the carbine back to Pompey and headed back to the ranch.
    That Jimmy Stewart was what followed was beside the point.

  697. National government is a really bad place to accumulate money, even with supposed specific purpose.
    Insofar as the Trust Fund was essentially a vehicle to raise taxes on regular folks so the revenue could be used to buy a lot of other stuff that rich people wanted (lower taxes for them & military hardware), I would agree. Given that the government can issue money whenever it wants, it was kinda’ unnecessary.
    I don’t get how Marty does not understand that Social Security is essentially redistributive. It’s young folks paying a part of their income to support old folks.
    sheesh.

  698. National government is a really bad place to accumulate money, even with supposed specific purpose.
    Insofar as the Trust Fund was essentially a vehicle to raise taxes on regular folks so the revenue could be used to buy a lot of other stuff that rich people wanted (lower taxes for them & military hardware), I would agree. Given that the government can issue money whenever it wants, it was kinda’ unnecessary.
    I don’t get how Marty does not understand that Social Security is essentially redistributive. It’s young folks paying a part of their income to support old folks.
    sheesh.

  699. *Hickenlooper was a pretty good Governor of my state of Colorado, which is not really purple but rather red in some places and blue in others, with a little bit of bleed around the edges.
    He, being a temperamentally moderate entrepreneur in the sin trade ….. breweries and bars … had certain issues he wouldn’t compromise on, such as trying to even attempt to regulate the fracking industry in Colorado, the rules as written years ago are even more vague and lax on the industry than what they are in Texas from what I understand, but he was skeptical (perhaps rightly so) of the legal marijuana industry in our state, pointing out the downsides, which happen to be the same as the downsides of the booze industry, but never mind.
    The marijuana industry is kind of stuck in between principle-wise, which is what happens when libertarian hippies all of a sudden become conflicted libertarian entrepreneurial business people.
    It’s kind of a joke to observe the conflicted drama.
    They are against being made illegal again, as many republicans and conservatives would like to do to them, unless of course the republicans are made board members of the going concerns, in which case, f*ck all principles, outside of shareholder rights, but they chaff like conservative businessmen at the taxes and regulation the Democrats levy on them, so, sh*t man, if it’s legal, what’s the problem.
    They try to be good citizens, like all Americans, unless citizenship gets in the way of their self-interest.
    The Founders wrestled with this but called the fight a draw.

  700. *Hickenlooper was a pretty good Governor of my state of Colorado, which is not really purple but rather red in some places and blue in others, with a little bit of bleed around the edges.
    He, being a temperamentally moderate entrepreneur in the sin trade ….. breweries and bars … had certain issues he wouldn’t compromise on, such as trying to even attempt to regulate the fracking industry in Colorado, the rules as written years ago are even more vague and lax on the industry than what they are in Texas from what I understand, but he was skeptical (perhaps rightly so) of the legal marijuana industry in our state, pointing out the downsides, which happen to be the same as the downsides of the booze industry, but never mind.
    The marijuana industry is kind of stuck in between principle-wise, which is what happens when libertarian hippies all of a sudden become conflicted libertarian entrepreneurial business people.
    It’s kind of a joke to observe the conflicted drama.
    They are against being made illegal again, as many republicans and conservatives would like to do to them, unless of course the republicans are made board members of the going concerns, in which case, f*ck all principles, outside of shareholder rights, but they chaff like conservative businessmen at the taxes and regulation the Democrats levy on them, so, sh*t man, if it’s legal, what’s the problem.
    They try to be good citizens, like all Americans, unless citizenship gets in the way of their self-interest.
    The Founders wrestled with this but called the fight a draw.

  701. National government is a really bad place to accumulate money, even with supposed specific purpose.
    why?

  702. National government is a really bad place to accumulate money, even with supposed specific purpose.
    why?

  703. the legal marijuana industry in our state, pointing out the downsides, which happen to be the same as the downsides of the booze industry
    Actually, we in California are discovering one additional downside: nobody has yet come up with a good test for “driving while under the influence.”
    https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/06/01/three-years-into-legal-cannabis-and-california-still-doesnt-have-a-reliable-test-for-driving-while-high/
    There’s general agreement that one shouldn’t. Just no objective way to measure it, let alone a threshold.

  704. the legal marijuana industry in our state, pointing out the downsides, which happen to be the same as the downsides of the booze industry
    Actually, we in California are discovering one additional downside: nobody has yet come up with a good test for “driving while under the influence.”
    https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/06/01/three-years-into-legal-cannabis-and-california-still-doesnt-have-a-reliable-test-for-driving-while-high/
    There’s general agreement that one shouldn’t. Just no objective way to measure it, let alone a threshold.

  705. Just no objective way to measure it, let alone a threshold.
    just have cops show drivers an episode of Rick & Morty. if they laugh, they’re stoned.

  706. Just no objective way to measure it, let alone a threshold.
    just have cops show drivers an episode of Rick & Morty. if they laugh, they’re stoned.

  707. “National government is a really bad place to accumulate money, even with supposed specific purpose.”
    Since Trump and the GOP decided that it was more important to further enrich the rich, while blowing a trillion-dollar hole in the US budget, not much money is going to be ‘accumulated’ for quite some time.
    Flow in (and straight out again), sure. Accumulate? Nah.

  708. “National government is a really bad place to accumulate money, even with supposed specific purpose.”
    Since Trump and the GOP decided that it was more important to further enrich the rich, while blowing a trillion-dollar hole in the US budget, not much money is going to be ‘accumulated’ for quite some time.
    Flow in (and straight out again), sure. Accumulate? Nah.

  709. …even more vague and lax on the industry than what they are in Texas…
    I have a friend that consults on small-to-medium oil and gas development in a variety of states. He asserts that Texas is the state where you have to pay the closest attention to following the regulations because (a) there are detailed rules, (b) Texas taxes the industry to fund an adequate number of inspectors, (c) the Texas Rangers are happy to shut down operations on the inspectors’ say so, and (d) the Railroad Commission will cheerfully fine you into oblivion.
    His examples of states where you can get away with murder are Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He says that those three make Colorado look great.

  710. …even more vague and lax on the industry than what they are in Texas…
    I have a friend that consults on small-to-medium oil and gas development in a variety of states. He asserts that Texas is the state where you have to pay the closest attention to following the regulations because (a) there are detailed rules, (b) Texas taxes the industry to fund an adequate number of inspectors, (c) the Texas Rangers are happy to shut down operations on the inspectors’ say so, and (d) the Railroad Commission will cheerfully fine you into oblivion.
    His examples of states where you can get away with murder are Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He says that those three make Colorado look great.

  711. Yup, PA, Ohio, and WV are shameless in the regard. Odd, how Texans aren’t moving back there to enjoy the freedom.
    This is fun:
    https://twitter.com/ByDonkeys?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1135436716683272192&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.balloon-juice.com%2F
    Scroll for the cools bits where they project anti-p stuff on to Big Ben and Parliament.
    The Brits should have denied landing right of way to Air Force One after the lout’s insulting bullsh*t.
    If sh*t is sh*t from his mouth during the stay, hustle him and his dumb-hatted, surly-mouthed entourage of American vermin to the airport and deport his ass on Air Force One. Make sure the plane is accompanied at each wing tip by fully armed British fighter jets until it is out of British airspace, like they would any Russian and enemy incursion into their airspace.
    If it attempts to turn back to Britain or any other evasive tactic, shoot it out of the sky.
    Have some real nationalist pride, England.
    Make England great again and the world a safer place to live.

  712. Yup, PA, Ohio, and WV are shameless in the regard. Odd, how Texans aren’t moving back there to enjoy the freedom.
    This is fun:
    https://twitter.com/ByDonkeys?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1135436716683272192&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.balloon-juice.com%2F
    Scroll for the cools bits where they project anti-p stuff on to Big Ben and Parliament.
    The Brits should have denied landing right of way to Air Force One after the lout’s insulting bullsh*t.
    If sh*t is sh*t from his mouth during the stay, hustle him and his dumb-hatted, surly-mouthed entourage of American vermin to the airport and deport his ass on Air Force One. Make sure the plane is accompanied at each wing tip by fully armed British fighter jets until it is out of British airspace, like they would any Russian and enemy incursion into their airspace.
    If it attempts to turn back to Britain or any other evasive tactic, shoot it out of the sky.
    Have some real nationalist pride, England.
    Make England great again and the world a safer place to live.

  713. The Brits should have denied landing right of way to Air Force One after the lout’s insulting bullsh*t.
    You’re not looking at the big picture.
    Trump is massively unpopular in Britain. Trump is endorsing Brexit, preferably a no-deal Brexit. Not to mention endorsing Boris et al. Which combination may just be sufficient to push the British into rejecting the whole Brexit thing, and its partisans, in favor of sanity. Not for its own sake so much as to stick it to Trump and anyone he likes. “The friend of my enemy is . . . a useful idiot.”
    One can hope, anyway.

  714. The Brits should have denied landing right of way to Air Force One after the lout’s insulting bullsh*t.
    You’re not looking at the big picture.
    Trump is massively unpopular in Britain. Trump is endorsing Brexit, preferably a no-deal Brexit. Not to mention endorsing Boris et al. Which combination may just be sufficient to push the British into rejecting the whole Brexit thing, and its partisans, in favor of sanity. Not for its own sake so much as to stick it to Trump and anyone he likes. “The friend of my enemy is . . . a useful idiot.”
    One can hope, anyway.

  715. Thanks for that Led by Donkeys stuff, JDT, most enjoyable. I think there’s a pretty good chance he’ll see the USS John McCain one at least, since Madam Tussaud’s is very close to the US Ambassador’s residence, where he’s staying. So even though they’re doing most of his travelling by helicopter so he can’t see protests etc, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll see that one. Unless they black out the helicopter’s windows to spare his feelings of course….

  716. Thanks for that Led by Donkeys stuff, JDT, most enjoyable. I think there’s a pretty good chance he’ll see the USS John McCain one at least, since Madam Tussaud’s is very close to the US Ambassador’s residence, where he’s staying. So even though they’re doing most of his travelling by helicopter so he can’t see protests etc, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll see that one. Unless they black out the helicopter’s windows to spare his feelings of course….

  717. p likes the attention.
    As long as his name is the subject and/or object, preferably both, he grows wood.
    Even if his presence in England now torpedoes the anti-Brexit movement, he wins, in the self-regarding arrogance of his single Big Mac-fed brain cell, as the far Right across the world regroups and quickly evolves like velociraptors or bug aliens to strike again, next time violently.
    It’s only when his plane hits the water, given my imaginary scenario, will the too-late flicker of “oh, shit!” recognition of his self-destructive assholosity cross his face, and even then the punks with him on the plane will interpret that look as rightwing victory.
    Like when Joe Pesci gets it in the garage as he goes to his made man christening in “Goodfellas”.

  718. p likes the attention.
    As long as his name is the subject and/or object, preferably both, he grows wood.
    Even if his presence in England now torpedoes the anti-Brexit movement, he wins, in the self-regarding arrogance of his single Big Mac-fed brain cell, as the far Right across the world regroups and quickly evolves like velociraptors or bug aliens to strike again, next time violently.
    It’s only when his plane hits the water, given my imaginary scenario, will the too-late flicker of “oh, shit!” recognition of his self-destructive assholosity cross his face, and even then the punks with him on the plane will interpret that look as rightwing victory.
    Like when Joe Pesci gets it in the garage as he goes to his made man christening in “Goodfellas”.

  719. Also, in case it (understandably) didn’t get much coverage in the US, you should know that the US Ambassador (who is, even in a crowded field of Trump appointees, unbelievably half-witted and pathetic – I can back this up but don’t get me started…) in an interview before Trump’s visit, said that in the future talks about the trade deal between the US and the UK after Brexit, the NHS would be “on the table” like pretty much everything else. You can hardly overestimate how damaging a remark this was from the point of view of its effect on the UK public (for whom the NHS is pretty much a sacred cow): damaging for Trump’s endorsed candidate for PM, and hopefully (possibly?) even for the prospects for Brexit (although for this latter one cannot hold one’s breath). The gaffes by these people provoke many varied reactions (despair, amusement, schadenfreude etc), but this one almost certainly directly harms the Trumpistas’ desired outcomes.

  720. Also, in case it (understandably) didn’t get much coverage in the US, you should know that the US Ambassador (who is, even in a crowded field of Trump appointees, unbelievably half-witted and pathetic – I can back this up but don’t get me started…) in an interview before Trump’s visit, said that in the future talks about the trade deal between the US and the UK after Brexit, the NHS would be “on the table” like pretty much everything else. You can hardly overestimate how damaging a remark this was from the point of view of its effect on the UK public (for whom the NHS is pretty much a sacred cow): damaging for Trump’s endorsed candidate for PM, and hopefully (possibly?) even for the prospects for Brexit (although for this latter one cannot hold one’s breath). The gaffes by these people provoke many varied reactions (despair, amusement, schadenfreude etc), but this one almost certainly directly harms the Trumpistas’ desired outcomes.

  721. JDT, sure, Trump’s ego is boosted by the flap. But sometimes ya gotta take one for the team. In this case, we accept a little (temporary, like always) ego boost for Trump as the price of doing right by our allies. (Unlike Trump, some of us remember that we have those….)

  722. JDT, sure, Trump’s ego is boosted by the flap. But sometimes ya gotta take one for the team. In this case, we accept a little (temporary, like always) ego boost for Trump as the price of doing right by our allies. (Unlike Trump, some of us remember that we have those….)

  723. Well, that is …. something.
    Here’s a link filling in what GftNC is referring to regarding the American right wing dictating to other countries how they may conduct their health systems, when the former aren’t trying to murder Americans with pre-existing and post-existing conditions, including the newly-born infants the right-wing purports to want to save from abortion.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/what-u-s-wants-u-k-it-will-sign-trade-n1013081
    Who do we think we are?

  724. Well, that is …. something.
    Here’s a link filling in what GftNC is referring to regarding the American right wing dictating to other countries how they may conduct their health systems, when the former aren’t trying to murder Americans with pre-existing and post-existing conditions, including the newly-born infants the right-wing purports to want to save from abortion.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/what-u-s-wants-u-k-it-will-sign-trade-n1013081
    Who do we think we are?

  731. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-today-president-suggests-att-boycott-as-he-begins-uk-visit-2019-06-03?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts
    AT&T and all telecommunications providers should boycott, to the extent they can under the White House’s arrangement with the government security apparatus to provide telephone and internet services, serving the White House by halting all telecommunications connecting these filth, in the White House or in Congress, to the outside world.
    Cancel p’s cellphone contract (Sorry, Vlad and every other spy agency in the world, I know it was good listening while it lasted) too.

  732. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-today-president-suggests-att-boycott-as-he-begins-uk-visit-2019-06-03?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts
    AT&T and all telecommunications providers should boycott, to the extent they can under the White House’s arrangement with the government security apparatus to provide telephone and internet services, serving the White House by halting all telecommunications connecting these filth, in the White House or in Congress, to the outside world.
    Cancel p’s cellphone contract (Sorry, Vlad and every other spy agency in the world, I know it was good listening while it lasted) too.

  735. One quibble, both the words “gaffe” and “flap” are misused above.
    JDT: the gaffe was Woody Johnson admitting openly what many here have feared for ages, and the Tories have been eager to deny was a possibility. This rather takes the rug out from under them, unless they are prepared to admit (which is true) that Woody Johnson is a half-wit and has no idea at any time what he is talking about. Of course, you could (and I do) say the same about Trump, but still, the fact is that (by accident) the Ambassador wasn’t wrong.

  736. One quibble, both the words “gaffe” and “flap” are misused above.
    JDT: the gaffe was Woody Johnson admitting openly what many here have feared for ages, and the Tories have been eager to deny was a possibility. This rather takes the rug out from under them, unless they are prepared to admit (which is true) that Woody Johnson is a half-wit and has no idea at any time what he is talking about. Of course, you could (and I do) say the same about Trump, but still, the fact is that (by accident) the Ambassador wasn’t wrong.

  737. the US Ambassador … in an interview before Trump’s visit, said that in the future talks about the trade deal between the US and the UK after Brexit, the NHS would be “on the table” like pretty much everything else.
    I may be even dimmer than usual today, but what does this even mean? That Clickbait and his criminal cabal will demand that the UK weaken or abandon the NHS as a condition of getting something or other from the US? Next it will be that people who want to do deals with us will have to make their gun laws more like ours, and ban abortion….

  738. the US Ambassador … in an interview before Trump’s visit, said that in the future talks about the trade deal between the US and the UK after Brexit, the NHS would be “on the table” like pretty much everything else.
    I may be even dimmer than usual today, but what does this even mean? That Clickbait and his criminal cabal will demand that the UK weaken or abandon the NHS as a condition of getting something or other from the US? Next it will be that people who want to do deals with us will have to make their gun laws more like ours, and ban abortion….

  739. I think they want the NHS to let a raft of American-made products in on their contracting system, but the other stuff would not be beyond them.
    I wouldn’t be surprised either if America, in conjunction with Russia, demands greater latitude in exporting deadly weaponry into England.

  740. I think they want the NHS to let a raft of American-made products in on their contracting system, but the other stuff would not be beyond them.
    I wouldn’t be surprised either if America, in conjunction with Russia, demands greater latitude in exporting deadly weaponry into England.

  741. No point to just letting American drugs have access to the NHS. Unless NHS is required to buy them even though they cost several times as much as the same thing from elsewhere.
    Not that that level of market interference is beyond this administration….

  742. No point to just letting American drugs have access to the NHS. Unless NHS is required to buy them even though they cost several times as much as the same thing from elsewhere.
    Not that that level of market interference is beyond this administration….

  743. If I’m not mistaken a gaffe is an unintentional act or remark causing embarrassment to its originator; a blunder.
    There was nothing UNintentional or by accident.
    about Woody Johnson’s statement.
    He meant to say it and he meant what he said and there is no shame or embarrassment on his part about saying it, and it is not a blunder, though I understand that maybe some pro-Brexit dips aren’t completely with the new right-wing program of leaving behind dreadful political correctness and dog whistles and telling like it is with unmistakable eye-poking candor.
    To call it a gaffe is like calling Grover Norquist’s drowning the baby in the bathtub remark a misstatement, which it most assuredly is not, or to call the Federalist Society’s statement on its website that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional and they will work to abolish them a typo, or to call the comedian’s bit about the horse loose in a hospital to describe p, and then joking that now, all of a sudden, we have people who think it’s OK to use the N word on TV, a hiccup.
    They, the first two, deliberately mean what they say and the comedian included the bit about he ‘M” word because it’s all of a piece with the racist scum on the right who opened the door to let the horse into the hospital to run amuck.
    Anyway, a small point. šŸ˜‰

  744. If I’m not mistaken a gaffe is an unintentional act or remark causing embarrassment to its originator; a blunder.
    There was nothing UNintentional or by accident.
    about Woody Johnson’s statement.
    He meant to say it and he meant what he said and there is no shame or embarrassment on his part about saying it, and it is not a blunder, though I understand that maybe some pro-Brexit dips aren’t completely with the new right-wing program of leaving behind dreadful political correctness and dog whistles and telling like it is with unmistakable eye-poking candor.
    To call it a gaffe is like calling Grover Norquist’s drowning the baby in the bathtub remark a misstatement, which it most assuredly is not, or to call the Federalist Society’s statement on its website that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional and they will work to abolish them a typo, or to call the comedian’s bit about the horse loose in a hospital to describe p, and then joking that now, all of a sudden, we have people who think it’s OK to use the N word on TV, a hiccup.
    They, the first two, deliberately mean what they say and the comedian included the bit about he ‘M” word because it’s all of a piece with the racist scum on the right who opened the door to let the horse into the hospital to run amuck.
    Anyway, a small point. šŸ˜‰

  747. I’m sorry to say, JDT, that I disagree with you.
    I think that although they (the Rs, the Trumpistas etc) have always had every intention of putting the NHS and everything else on the table, they have known that this cannot be said openly while there is still a chance that a) Article 50 might just possibly be revoked and Brexit not happen, or b) the UK might have a general election and this having been said openly would be a gift to Labour and/or the Lib Dems, or in fact to anybody except the Tories, who would suffer very badly for it. If the Tories were safely and securely in power, and then Brexit had happened or was about smoothly to happen, this would have been an open play. But as it was, the stupid and ignorant Woody Johnson walked right into the trap and told the truth because he was too stupid and ignorant to know what a terrible mistake he was making.

  748. I’m sorry to say, JDT, that I disagree with you.
    I think that although they (the Rs, the Trumpistas etc) have always had every intention of putting the NHS and everything else on the table, they have known that this cannot be said openly while there is still a chance that a) Article 50 might just possibly be revoked and Brexit not happen, or b) the UK might have a general election and this having been said openly would be a gift to Labour and/or the Lib Dems, or in fact to anybody except the Tories, who would suffer very badly for it. If the Tories were safely and securely in power, and then Brexit had happened or was about smoothly to happen, this would have been an open play. But as it was, the stupid and ignorant Woody Johnson walked right into the trap and told the truth because he was too stupid and ignorant to know what a terrible mistake he was making.

  749. the stupid and ignorant Woody Johnson walked right into the trap and told the truth because he was too stupid and ignorant to know what a terrible mistake he was making.
    It is, in many ways, the strongest weapon we have against Trump and his boys: their massive incompetence means that they are frequently unable to execute even when they might be in a position to advance their cause.

  750. the stupid and ignorant Woody Johnson walked right into the trap and told the truth because he was too stupid and ignorant to know what a terrible mistake he was making.
    It is, in many ways, the strongest weapon we have against Trump and his boys: their massive incompetence means that they are frequently unable to execute even when they might be in a position to advance their cause.

  751. And you can be sure that anybody in the Trump administration who has any tactical sense whatsoever about trade, and contrary to appearances there must be one or two, is filled with rage that Johnson did this, and they can probably explain why to Trump in words of one syllable in which case he’ll be enraged too. I understand that last time Trump was here there was quite a lot of anger from the White House about some of Johnson’s comments, and this makes whatever he said then look completely negligible.

  752. And you can be sure that anybody in the Trump administration who has any tactical sense whatsoever about trade, and contrary to appearances there must be one or two, is filled with rage that Johnson did this, and they can probably explain why to Trump in words of one syllable in which case he’ll be enraged too. I understand that last time Trump was here there was quite a lot of anger from the White House about some of Johnson’s comments, and this makes whatever he said then look completely negligible.

  753. Stupid and ignorant is as stupid and ignorant does.
    Both are among America’s top exports and we just don’t understand why you Brits won’t open your markets to our handmade stupidity and ignorance, organically grown in some instances, overpriced as they are. šŸ˜‰
    And, you use the words stupid and ignorant with strict abidance to their meaning, so we’ll call it a match.

  754. Stupid and ignorant is as stupid and ignorant does.
    Both are among America’s top exports and we just don’t understand why you Brits won’t open your markets to our handmade stupidity and ignorance, organically grown in some instances, overpriced as they are. šŸ˜‰
    And, you use the words stupid and ignorant with strict abidance to their meaning, so we’ll call it a match.

  755. And if one was in a mood to be amused, one would be amused to see the cascade of Tory ministers (particularly those vying for the leadership) insisting that “the NHS is not for sale”.
    https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/foreign-affairs/brexit/news/104292/donald-trump-warned-nhs-not-sale-brexit-trade-deal-he
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7097209/The-NHS-not-sale-Health-Secretary-hits-Ambassador.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

  756. And if one was in a mood to be amused, one would be amused to see the cascade of Tory ministers (particularly those vying for the leadership) insisting that “the NHS is not for sale”.
    https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/foreign-affairs/brexit/news/104292/donald-trump-warned-nhs-not-sale-brexit-trade-deal-he
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7097209/The-NHS-not-sale-Health-Secretary-hits-Ambassador.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

  759. I’m just trying to get past the idea that our ambassador to the UK is named Woody Johnson.
    You couldn’t make this stuff up.

  760. I’m just trying to get past the idea that our ambassador to the UK is named Woody Johnson.
    You couldn’t make this stuff up.

  765. Marty: thanks for that, I’d never heard it before. He may be an annoying, self-aggrandising guy, but nobody can deny his talent.

  766. Marty: thanks for that, I’d never heard it before. He may be an annoying, self-aggrandising guy, but nobody can deny his talent.

  767. GftNC, one of those songs that seems as meaningful today as it was in 1973. Perhaps ironically, the b side was one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.

  768. GftNC, one of those songs that seems as meaningful today as it was in 1973. Perhaps ironically, the b side was one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.

  769. I’m saddened that Paul Simon has retired from the music business, including songwriting.

  770. I’m saddened that Paul Simon has retired from the music business, including songwriting.

  773. Need more anxiety? This gave me the agita when I heard it on the radio last night:

    So one of the concerns is that we’re seeing sort of diminishing government safety nets while we see intensifying environmental pressures. And a lot of people are becoming more and more concerned that in our lifetimes we will see, you know, disruptions in our food supply. This was foreign to me because I’m not someone who – I have never stockpiled food in my own home.
    But I had relatives and friends, including my brother, who was a climate scientist, who was beginning to stockpile survival foods in the basement of his home. And I thought, what in the world is going on, and how urgent is this problem?

    https://www.npr.org/2019/06/02/729261391/fate-of-food-asks-what-s-for-dinner-in-a-hotter-drier-more-crowded-world

  774. Need more anxiety? This gave me the agita when I heard it on the radio last night:

    So one of the concerns is that we’re seeing sort of diminishing government safety nets while we see intensifying environmental pressures. And a lot of people are becoming more and more concerned that in our lifetimes we will see, you know, disruptions in our food supply. This was foreign to me because I’m not someone who – I have never stockpiled food in my own home.
    But I had relatives and friends, including my brother, who was a climate scientist, who was beginning to stockpile survival foods in the basement of his home. And I thought, what in the world is going on, and how urgent is this problem?

    https://www.npr.org/2019/06/02/729261391/fate-of-food-asks-what-s-for-dinner-in-a-hotter-drier-more-crowded-world

  775. Even Biden has come up with a respectable renewable energy transition plan:
    But it’s not.

    • The US has three essentially independent power grids: Eastern, Western, and Texas. This is a plan for the Eastern grid. It’s a big FU to the Western in particular, even though the Western got >48% of its electricity from low-carbon sources last year (>40% from renewables).
    • It’s heavy on offsets; the phrase “net carbon emissions” is a red flag.
    • It assumes that the R&D effort will produce unicorn technologies that make the whole thing painless.
    • Once the numbers are actually laid out, they aren’t going to add up. The US national labs have spent 30 years studying this subject. The plan reads like those people weren’t consulted.

  776. Even Biden has come up with a respectable renewable energy transition plan:
    But it’s not.

    • The US has three essentially independent power grids: Eastern, Western, and Texas. This is a plan for the Eastern grid. It’s a big FU to the Western in particular, even though the Western got >48% of its electricity from low-carbon sources last year (>40% from renewables).
    • It’s heavy on offsets; the phrase “net carbon emissions” is a red flag.
    • It assumes that the R&D effort will produce unicorn technologies that make the whole thing painless.
    • Once the numbers are actually laid out, they aren’t going to add up. The US national labs have spent 30 years studying this subject. The plan reads like those people weren’t consulted.

  777. I want to behave like this in my life:
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/tenants-trump-tower-campaign-money
    I’m going to sit down with my son later this week when I’m visiting him and tell him all my fatherly advice has been catastrophically misguided through the years.
    Stop your scientific studies, drop all pretense of merit, remove your nose from the grindstone, and for God’s sake halt this practice of not cutting corners in life.
    Lie, cheat, steal your way to the top, kid. Butt in line. Take what is yours, at gunpoint if it comes to that. Cook the books. Kite the checks. Don’t trouble yourself with all of that permission crapola.
    Earn it … screw that! Take it! And then offshore it.
    Speak with a forked tongue during all of those pigfucking daily transactions.
    Negotiate? Fuck ’em. Take it or leave it. Every offer should be a one-off final offer and have your thugs standing by to collect.
    If you are sitting around the table and you can’t figure out whose rat is being fucked, then you are the rat.
    Be the fucker instead. It’s the way business is done.
    Be an American. Be a shithead. Elbow and knee your way through the prole crowd.
    Fuck everyone and everything you can. Lift their wallets and shortchange your fellow man. Kick em in the balls.
    Why should America be great again and you not get your piece of its vermin republican greatness.
    Remember these words to the song:
    But it’s all right, it’s all right
    We’ve lived so well so long
    Still, when I think of the road
    we’re traveling on
    I wonder what went wrong
    I can’t help it, I wonder what went wrong
    Well, whatever went wrong, kiddo, let the suckers worry over that. Meanwhile, make your move while they’re busy looking the other way being sentimental.
    Exploit their sorry asses. Kick em while they’re down, because if your fellow men are down, that makes you “UP” by default and without even trying or giving a shit.
    Make a killing. Offload that underwater beachfront property to the unsuspecting dreamers.
    Capitalize, baby, and not just the first letter.
    Don’t put out the garbage. Put a bow on it and sell it the first unsuspecting schmoe who comes along.
    I say these words tenderly to you, son. But remember, tender is for steaks, not eaten by chumps and schmucks who tow the line and can’t afford the prime cuts in asshole America.
    Eat their meat raw.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkpjLKX_Wbo

  778. I want to behave like this in my life:
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/tenants-trump-tower-campaign-money
    I’m going to sit down with my son later this week when I’m visiting him and tell him all my fatherly advice has been catastrophically misguided through the years.
    Stop your scientific studies, drop all pretense of merit, remove your nose from the grindstone, and for God’s sake halt this practice of not cutting corners in life.
    Lie, cheat, steal your way to the top, kid. Butt in line. Take what is yours, at gunpoint if it comes to that. Cook the books. Kite the checks. Don’t trouble yourself with all of that permission crapola.
    Earn it … screw that! Take it! And then offshore it.
    Speak with a forked tongue during all of those pigfucking daily transactions.
    Negotiate? Fuck ’em. Take it or leave it. Every offer should be a one-off final offer and have your thugs standing by to collect.
    If you are sitting around the table and you can’t figure out whose rat is being fucked, then you are the rat.
    Be the fucker instead. It’s the way business is done.
    Be an American. Be a shithead. Elbow and knee your way through the prole crowd.
    Fuck everyone and everything you can. Lift their wallets and shortchange your fellow man. Kick em in the balls.
    Why should America be great again and you not get your piece of its vermin republican greatness.
    Remember these words to the song:
    But it’s all right, it’s all right
    We’ve lived so well so long
    Still, when I think of the road
    we’re traveling on
    I wonder what went wrong
    I can’t help it, I wonder what went wrong
    Well, whatever went wrong, kiddo, let the suckers worry over that. Meanwhile, make your move while they’re busy looking the other way being sentimental.
    Exploit their sorry asses. Kick em while they’re down, because if your fellow men are down, that makes you “UP” by default and without even trying or giving a shit.
    Make a killing. Offload that underwater beachfront property to the unsuspecting dreamers.
    Capitalize, baby, and not just the first letter.
    Don’t put out the garbage. Put a bow on it and sell it the first unsuspecting schmoe who comes along.
    I say these words tenderly to you, son. But remember, tender is for steaks, not eaten by chumps and schmucks who tow the line and can’t afford the prime cuts in asshole America.
    Eat their meat raw.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkpjLKX_Wbo

  783. Say what you will about Trump’s daft trade wars. At least one of them has created an opening for this from the State Department:

    We salute the heroes of the Chinese people who bravely stood up ā€¦ to demand their rights. Today, Chinese citizens have been subjected to a new wave of abuses, especially in Xinjiang, where the Communist Party leadership is methodically attempting to strangle Uighur culture and stamp out the Islamic faith, including through the detention of more than one million members of Muslim minority groups. Even as the party builds a powerful surveillance state, ordinary Chinese citizens continue to seek to exercise their human rights, organize independent unions, pursue justice through the legal system, and simply express their views, for which many are punished, jailed, and even tortured.

    I doubt anything substantive will come of it. But it’s nice to see a glimmer of the old days of US diplomacy.
    At least it was enough to generate an outraged response from the Chinese embassy in Washington. Of course, all these years later they’re still twitchy about any reference to Tiananmen Square.

  784. Say what you will about Trump’s daft trade wars. At least one of them has created an opening for this from the State Department:

    We salute the heroes of the Chinese people who bravely stood up ā€¦ to demand their rights. Today, Chinese citizens have been subjected to a new wave of abuses, especially in Xinjiang, where the Communist Party leadership is methodically attempting to strangle Uighur culture and stamp out the Islamic faith, including through the detention of more than one million members of Muslim minority groups. Even as the party builds a powerful surveillance state, ordinary Chinese citizens continue to seek to exercise their human rights, organize independent unions, pursue justice through the legal system, and simply express their views, for which many are punished, jailed, and even tortured.

    I doubt anything substantive will come of it. But it’s nice to see a glimmer of the old days of US diplomacy.
    At least it was enough to generate an outraged response from the Chinese embassy in Washington. Of course, all these years later they’re still twitchy about any reference to Tiananmen Square.

  785. And by the way, just to continue flogging a dead horse, I wouldn’t have put it past Trump to make the same idiotic misstep even if Woody Johnson hadn’t done it first, and for the same reason: arrogance, stupidity and ignorance. But the consequences are/would have been the same: harm to their underlying aims, although how much harm remains to be seen. Lots I hope, but there’s still too much up in the air (on Brexit, and the Tory leadership) to know for sure, and in a worst-case scenario it could end up being drowned out as just temporary PR noise.

  786. And by the way, just to continue flogging a dead horse, I wouldn’t have put it past Trump to make the same idiotic misstep even if Woody Johnson hadn’t done it first, and for the same reason: arrogance, stupidity and ignorance. But the consequences are/would have been the same: harm to their underlying aims, although how much harm remains to be seen. Lots I hope, but there’s still too much up in the air (on Brexit, and the Tory leadership) to know for sure, and in a worst-case scenario it could end up being drowned out as just temporary PR noise.

  789. I’m saddened that Paul Simon has retired from the music business
    The man is almost 80, and he’s been doing this for a living since 1956. He has written, easily, dozens of songs that people will sing 50 or 100 years from now.
    Plus, it’s a vicious bitch of a business, even when you’re on top.
    If he wants to hang out with the grandkids, OK with me. Whatever he may have owed the world, he’s paid in full.

    Oh, we come on the ship they call the Mayflower
    We come on the ship that sailed the moon
    We come in the ageā€™s most uncertain hour
    And sing an American tune

    It’s always an uncertain hour. ya still gotta sing.

  790. I’m saddened that Paul Simon has retired from the music business
    The man is almost 80, and he’s been doing this for a living since 1956. He has written, easily, dozens of songs that people will sing 50 or 100 years from now.
    Plus, it’s a vicious bitch of a business, even when you’re on top.
    If he wants to hang out with the grandkids, OK with me. Whatever he may have owed the world, he’s paid in full.

    Oh, we come on the ship they call the Mayflower
    We come on the ship that sailed the moon
    We come in the ageā€™s most uncertain hour
    And sing an American tune

    It’s always an uncertain hour. ya still gotta sing.

  791. From the NPR link:
    Environmental journalist Amanda Little says the sustainable food revolution will include meat cultured in a lab, 3-D printer food, aquaculture and indoor vertical farming.
    If you want to know how and what to eat after climate change fubars industrial scale agriculture, go to the third world and see what poor people eat. Or just normal people.
    Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.
    First step: don’t waste anything.

  792. From the NPR link:
    Environmental journalist Amanda Little says the sustainable food revolution will include meat cultured in a lab, 3-D printer food, aquaculture and indoor vertical farming.
    If you want to know how and what to eat after climate change fubars industrial scale agriculture, go to the third world and see what poor people eat. Or just normal people.
    Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.
    First step: don’t waste anything.

  795. My thought is that solutions that rely on capital-intensive high technology stuff are not really gonna get it done. We should think about ways to accommodate ourselves to the world, rather than the opposite.
    My two cents.
    Charles, just chop up some chilis and put them on your tomatoes.

  796. My thought is that solutions that rely on capital-intensive high technology stuff are not really gonna get it done. We should think about ways to accommodate ourselves to the world, rather than the opposite.
    My two cents.
    Charles, just chop up some chilis and put them on your tomatoes.

  797. Charles, just chop up some chilis and put them on your tomatoes.
    I don’t eat things like hamburgers anymore. But a couple of slices of juicy, hot tomatoes on a burger would really taste great.

  798. Charles, just chop up some chilis and put them on your tomatoes.
    I don’t eat things like hamburgers anymore. But a couple of slices of juicy, hot tomatoes on a burger would really taste great.

  799. If you want to know how and what to eat after climate change fubars industrial scale agriculture, go to the third world and see what poor people eat.
    Some eat bugs. I would eat bugs if I couldn’t tell they were bugs from looking at them, even if I still knew they were bugs. They’re pretty f**king nutritious.

  800. If you want to know how and what to eat after climate change fubars industrial scale agriculture, go to the third world and see what poor people eat.
    Some eat bugs. I would eat bugs if I couldn’t tell they were bugs from looking at them, even if I still knew they were bugs. They’re pretty f**king nutritious.

  801. My thought is that solutions that rely on capital-intensive high technology stuff are not really gonna get it done. We should think about ways to accommodate ourselves to the world
    Any reason tech canā€™t accomplish that, with a bit of thought ?

  802. My thought is that solutions that rely on capital-intensive high technology stuff are not really gonna get it done. We should think about ways to accommodate ourselves to the world
    Any reason tech canā€™t accomplish that, with a bit of thought ?

  803. I guess the real ‘solution’ will involve killing the human ‘surplus’ on a scale making Hitler an Pol Pot (not to forget Stalin and Mao) envious. Don’t forget, the US (upperclass) way of life is non-negotiable.

  804. I guess the real ‘solution’ will involve killing the human ‘surplus’ on a scale making Hitler an Pol Pot (not to forget Stalin and Mao) envious. Don’t forget, the US (upperclass) way of life is non-negotiable.

  805. “Between 1980 and 2018, worldā€™s population increased by 71.2 percent. The time price of commodities fell by 72.3 percent. As such, the time price of commodities declined by 1.016 percent for every 1 percent increase in the worldā€™s population.”
    The Simon Abundance Index 2019: The Earth was 518.98 percent more abundant in 2018 than it was in 1980.
    In anticipation of objections:
    “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

  806. “Between 1980 and 2018, worldā€™s population increased by 71.2 percent. The time price of commodities fell by 72.3 percent. As such, the time price of commodities declined by 1.016 percent for every 1 percent increase in the worldā€™s population.”
    The Simon Abundance Index 2019: The Earth was 518.98 percent more abundant in 2018 than it was in 1980.
    In anticipation of objections:
    “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

  809. yeah, i’m not sure adding consumers to a finite system while, making it easier for them to consume, is a path that’s going to work out in the long run.

  810. yeah, i’m not sure adding consumers to a finite system while, making it easier for them to consume, is a path that’s going to work out in the long run.

  811. Any reason tech canā€™t accomplish that, with a bit of thought ?
    My guess is if we maintained the same energy inputs for a LOT smaller world population (i.e., major resource input reallocation) that tech could possibly do that. Maybe some Kuznets type could look into it. But….
    Our current industrial civilization and way of life is locked in.
    This will not be pretty. Peak abundance (good one HSH) it is.

  812. Any reason tech canā€™t accomplish that, with a bit of thought ?
    My guess is if we maintained the same energy inputs for a LOT smaller world population (i.e., major resource input reallocation) that tech could possibly do that. Maybe some Kuznets type could look into it. But….
    Our current industrial civilization and way of life is locked in.
    This will not be pretty. Peak abundance (good one HSH) it is.

  813. My thought is that solutions that rely on capital-intensive high technology stuff are not really gonna get it done.
    It’s interesting to run through Biden and Inslee’s energy plans with this in mind.
    Biden says we’ll invent carbon capture and sequestration tech that will work. We’ll invent new cheap nuclear fission reactors. We’ll invent really, really cheap batteries. We’ll figure out ways to make so much biofuel, so cheaply (and implicitly without disrupting food crops) that we can continue to use 25% thermal-efficiency internal combustion engines. In ten years we’ll be ready to start deploying all of that on a big scale.
    Inslee says we have enough tech: hydro, wind, solar, HVDC transmission, adequate batteries to cover >90% of the use-cases for cars, adequate tech to electrify >90% of building HVAC. Start deploying now, and we’ll worry about the last hard cases last.
    When you start putting the pieces together, what you find is that Inslee is proposing a plan for the Western Interconnect and Biden is proposing a plan for the Eastern Interconnect and neither one works very well in the other half of the country.

  814. My thought is that solutions that rely on capital-intensive high technology stuff are not really gonna get it done.
    It’s interesting to run through Biden and Inslee’s energy plans with this in mind.
    Biden says we’ll invent carbon capture and sequestration tech that will work. We’ll invent new cheap nuclear fission reactors. We’ll invent really, really cheap batteries. We’ll figure out ways to make so much biofuel, so cheaply (and implicitly without disrupting food crops) that we can continue to use 25% thermal-efficiency internal combustion engines. In ten years we’ll be ready to start deploying all of that on a big scale.
    Inslee says we have enough tech: hydro, wind, solar, HVDC transmission, adequate batteries to cover >90% of the use-cases for cars, adequate tech to electrify >90% of building HVAC. Start deploying now, and we’ll worry about the last hard cases last.
    When you start putting the pieces together, what you find is that Inslee is proposing a plan for the Western Interconnect and Biden is proposing a plan for the Eastern Interconnect and neither one works very well in the other half of the country.

  821. A lot of people in Texas seem to have forgotten the “Don’t mess with Texas” message that meant don’t litter the streets and highways. šŸ™ Maybe it’s all those people from California…

  822. A lot of people in Texas seem to have forgotten the “Don’t mess with Texas” message that meant don’t litter the streets and highways. šŸ™ Maybe it’s all those people from California…

  823. More seriously, the Texas Interconnect lacks the resource and geographic diversity that renewables have in the West. They lack the general water richness of the East (IIRC, during the last big Texas drought they came close to having to shut down one of their nukes over cooling water limits). OTOH, if they close the pipelines at the border, they’re probably sitting on a thousand-year supply of natural gas, which plays nicely with irregular wind and solar. Decisions, decisions.

  824. More seriously, the Texas Interconnect lacks the resource and geographic diversity that renewables have in the West. They lack the general water richness of the East (IIRC, during the last big Texas drought they came close to having to shut down one of their nukes over cooling water limits). OTOH, if they close the pipelines at the border, they’re probably sitting on a thousand-year supply of natural gas, which plays nicely with irregular wind and solar. Decisions, decisions.

  825. Michael Cain – any good analysis articles to link to for the competing plans? All I’m finding on a shallow search are links to the press releases or to the media’s summaries of the releases, which are mostly useless.

  826. Michael Cain – any good analysis articles to link to for the competing plans? All I’m finding on a shallow search are links to the press releases or to the media’s summaries of the releases, which are mostly useless.

  827. Nous, I don’t know of any. I’ve been thinking about trying to write one, but it would be difficult. Few (if any) of the plans provide any numbers, or details about how the proposed pieces are supposed to fit together. Many have a lot of extraneous (from my perspective) stuff. Eg, the Green New Deal spends a lot of effort making the case that we can print essentially unlimited money to pay for it, whatever “it” turns out to be.
    Inslee is kind of unusual. He or his staff has pretty clearly (and not surprisingly) been reading the Western Governors Association energy documents. WGA, particularly driven by the 11 contiguous states from the Rockies to the Pacific, has taken the subject seriously for many years. Their reports also point to some of the relevant work done at the national labs.

  828. Nous, I don’t know of any. I’ve been thinking about trying to write one, but it would be difficult. Few (if any) of the plans provide any numbers, or details about how the proposed pieces are supposed to fit together. Many have a lot of extraneous (from my perspective) stuff. Eg, the Green New Deal spends a lot of effort making the case that we can print essentially unlimited money to pay for it, whatever “it” turns out to be.
    Inslee is kind of unusual. He or his staff has pretty clearly (and not surprisingly) been reading the Western Governors Association energy documents. WGA, particularly driven by the 11 contiguous states from the Rockies to the Pacific, has taken the subject seriously for many years. Their reports also point to some of the relevant work done at the national labs.

  833. All of this misses the point, perhaps ?
    None of the various plans will survive contact with reality – in the same manner that our plans for WWII, other than to fight, were utterly incoherent at the start of the war.
    Before any of that, you at least need an administration committed to doing something.
    The good news is that the likely annual cost is likely to be far less than the near 40% of GDP that US war spending peaked at in 1945 – likely around 2-3% of GDP, and that being invested in productive rather then destructive assets.
    Though it will be a decades long commitment.

  834. All of this misses the point, perhaps ?
    None of the various plans will survive contact with reality – in the same manner that our plans for WWII, other than to fight, were utterly incoherent at the start of the war.
    Before any of that, you at least need an administration committed to doing something.
    The good news is that the likely annual cost is likely to be far less than the near 40% of GDP that US war spending peaked at in 1945 – likely around 2-3% of GDP, and that being invested in productive rather then destructive assets.
    Though it will be a decades long commitment.

  839. Some good advice from Wittes:
    https://www.lawfareblog.com/mueller-bows-out-what-does-congress-do-now
    words, fighting over the redactions in the Mueller report is a legal slog; it risks doing institutional damage; and itā€™s not likely to produce much thatā€™s usefulā€”especially because much of the redacted information is, in any event, available already to congressional leadership.
    The better approach, in my view, is to focus on live testimony from witnesses who supplied the material about President Trumpā€™s conduct that Mueller made public in the reportā€”mostly but not exclusively in Volume II. There are a lot of these witnesses. Congress could easily hold weekly hearings that would be riveting television. Who knows? They might even get what the president most values in the world: good ratings….

  840. Some good advice from Wittes:
    https://www.lawfareblog.com/mueller-bows-out-what-does-congress-do-now
    words, fighting over the redactions in the Mueller report is a legal slog; it risks doing institutional damage; and itā€™s not likely to produce much thatā€™s usefulā€”especially because much of the redacted information is, in any event, available already to congressional leadership.
    The better approach, in my view, is to focus on live testimony from witnesses who supplied the material about President Trumpā€™s conduct that Mueller made public in the reportā€”mostly but not exclusively in Volume II. There are a lot of these witnesses. Congress could easily hold weekly hearings that would be riveting television. Who knows? They might even get what the president most values in the world: good ratings….

  841. If we could only keep our bestest crystal clear cleanest waters and our can’t miss extreme weathery climate from leaking out of America’s porous borders and prevent other countries’ air and their sense of pollution from going up, think how warm Prince Charles would feel, statistically speaking.
    Just shoot me.
    The problem with brownish immigrants is that they smuggle all of that up air and carbon dioxide across our borders by holding their breath in their lungs, and then once they get here, they exhale.
    At the very least, we should make them exhale BEFORE they invade.
    The only good immigrant is a suffocating immigrant turning blue.

  842. If we could only keep our bestest crystal clear cleanest waters and our can’t miss extreme weathery climate from leaking out of America’s porous borders and prevent other countries’ air and their sense of pollution from going up, think how warm Prince Charles would feel, statistically speaking.
    Just shoot me.
    The problem with brownish immigrants is that they smuggle all of that up air and carbon dioxide across our borders by holding their breath in their lungs, and then once they get here, they exhale.
    At the very least, we should make them exhale BEFORE they invade.
    The only good immigrant is a suffocating immigrant turning blue.

  845. The only good immigrant is a suffocating immigrant turning blue
    I thought them being and voting blue was the problem.
    Any money available for combatting climate change will be put into the (never audited) Pentagon budget. Apart from the severe shortage in horses and bayonets, there is a painful lack of coal-fired battleships in the US Navy. Time for the MAGA class of hyperdreadnoughts.

  846. The only good immigrant is a suffocating immigrant turning blue
    I thought them being and voting blue was the problem.
    Any money available for combatting climate change will be put into the (never audited) Pentagon budget. Apart from the severe shortage in horses and bayonets, there is a painful lack of coal-fired battleships in the US Navy. Time for the MAGA class of hyperdreadnoughts.

  847. The reality of Trump and the parody of Trump are one and the same.
    Not convinced. Trump manages to exceed what we thought was parody on a regular basis.

  848. The reality of Trump and the parody of Trump are one and the same.
    Not convinced. Trump manages to exceed what we thought was parody on a regular basis.

  853. “It is finally over, then, the state visit during which U.S. President Donald Trump treated Britain like a Moscow hotel mattress. God, we deserved it.ā€

  854. “It is finally over, then, the state visit during which U.S. President Donald Trump treated Britain like a Moscow hotel mattress. God, we deserved it.ā€

  855. The entertaining (if depressing) piece from which JDT took that quote:
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2019/jun/05/donald-trump-is-the-one-person-whos-more-of-a-political-basket-case-than-britain
    My favourite (if depressing) bit:
    Much as a toddler intimidated by a new present will play with the box instead, Trump dealt with the aspects of the visit that were beyond his skillset by returning to areas firmly within it. In Westminster Abbey, he was shown a white marble slab commemorating the Romantic poet Lord Byron, and took the opportunity to ask what stone the flooring was made from. Doubtless it will make a lovely splashback when they refit the executive bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.

  856. The entertaining (if depressing) piece from which JDT took that quote:
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2019/jun/05/donald-trump-is-the-one-person-whos-more-of-a-political-basket-case-than-britain
    My favourite (if depressing) bit:
    Much as a toddler intimidated by a new present will play with the box instead, Trump dealt with the aspects of the visit that were beyond his skillset by returning to areas firmly within it. In Westminster Abbey, he was shown a white marble slab commemorating the Romantic poet Lord Byron, and took the opportunity to ask what stone the flooring was made from. Doubtless it will make a lovely splashback when they refit the executive bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.

  857. From the comments:

    styxanstanes 5 Jun 2019 16:13
    Excellent clinical dispatch Marina; thank christ at least one commentator is honest enough to openly laugh at the pudgy emperor and his invisible attire rather than indulge in meaningless “analysis” of the “significance” of this sick, irrelevant and utterly banal charade. Trump is in essence a stupid liar with a non-existent grasp of diplomatic and political subtlety, next to no creative proposition on any issue, and displaying a consistently stunning lack of self awareness. It’s been shocking to witness the televisual media in particular being unwilling or unable to call out this charlatan. I felt for the Irish premier having to sit through a ten minute dose of embarrassing verbal slush which unfortunately accurately represented Trump’s outlook on the Irish border question. Unchallenged unhinged views on climate change, delivered repetitively and meaninglessly were equally beyond ridicule. He flounders, he offends, contributing nothing but the propagation of hatred, division and untruths. God fucking help us all when there’s so much obvious media complicity in keeping up the dutiful respect for this dangerous and wholly loathsome fake, seemingly smugly ensconced beyond the spears of probing criticism.

  858. From the comments:

    styxanstanes 5 Jun 2019 16:13
    Excellent clinical dispatch Marina; thank christ at least one commentator is honest enough to openly laugh at the pudgy emperor and his invisible attire rather than indulge in meaningless “analysis” of the “significance” of this sick, irrelevant and utterly banal charade. Trump is in essence a stupid liar with a non-existent grasp of diplomatic and political subtlety, next to no creative proposition on any issue, and displaying a consistently stunning lack of self awareness. It’s been shocking to witness the televisual media in particular being unwilling or unable to call out this charlatan. I felt for the Irish premier having to sit through a ten minute dose of embarrassing verbal slush which unfortunately accurately represented Trump’s outlook on the Irish border question. Unchallenged unhinged views on climate change, delivered repetitively and meaninglessly were equally beyond ridicule. He flounders, he offends, contributing nothing but the propagation of hatred, division and untruths. God fucking help us all when there’s so much obvious media complicity in keeping up the dutiful respect for this dangerous and wholly loathsome fake, seemingly smugly ensconced beyond the spears of probing criticism.

  859. Okay, my favorite bit:

    As far as the real royals go, Camillaā€™s possible wink at the cameras was greeted by some as ā€œepic trollingā€. Incorrect. The Tea Act of 1773 was epic trolling. Or to put it another way, in the Profit column Iā€™ve got ā€œa Ā£40m state visitā€, and in the Loss column Iā€™ve got ā€œa winkā€. Wake up.

    I can’t help laughing out loud at stuff like this, even though the proper reaction to the whole spectacle is grief and rage.
    Hyde’s take on the media reminds me of a moment I had forgotten: when Diana died, someone upstairs from me put the TV on, and I stopped by now and then and watched snippets of the coverage of her funeral. I had long since stopped watching TV (I know, I’m culturally illiterate), and two things struck me immediately that would have been harder (for me at least) to notice if I were a habitual watcher:
    1) the performance of a certain tone on the part of the commentators, and
    2) the utter inanity of what they were saying in that tone, having, as they did, to fill hours and hours of air time without saying anything of any significance whatsoever. It was much better with the sound off, just watching the pageantry.
    Funny the kind of thought trains that weave themselves around the royal family. šŸ˜‰

  860. Okay, my favorite bit:

    As far as the real royals go, Camillaā€™s possible wink at the cameras was greeted by some as ā€œepic trollingā€. Incorrect. The Tea Act of 1773 was epic trolling. Or to put it another way, in the Profit column Iā€™ve got ā€œa Ā£40m state visitā€, and in the Loss column Iā€™ve got ā€œa winkā€. Wake up.

    I can’t help laughing out loud at stuff like this, even though the proper reaction to the whole spectacle is grief and rage.
    Hyde’s take on the media reminds me of a moment I had forgotten: when Diana died, someone upstairs from me put the TV on, and I stopped by now and then and watched snippets of the coverage of her funeral. I had long since stopped watching TV (I know, I’m culturally illiterate), and two things struck me immediately that would have been harder (for me at least) to notice if I were a habitual watcher:
    1) the performance of a certain tone on the part of the commentators, and
    2) the utter inanity of what they were saying in that tone, having, as they did, to fill hours and hours of air time without saying anything of any significance whatsoever. It was much better with the sound off, just watching the pageantry.
    Funny the kind of thought trains that weave themselves around the royal family. šŸ˜‰

  863. I can’t help laughing out loud at stuff like this, even though the proper reaction to the whole spectacle is grief and rage.
    Exactly my feelings. When I laugh at the marble question, and that the US has one of “the cleanest climates there are”, I immediately afterwards feel sick at what is actually happening, and being normalised.

  864. I can’t help laughing out loud at stuff like this, even though the proper reaction to the whole spectacle is grief and rage.
    Exactly my feelings. When I laugh at the marble question, and that the US has one of “the cleanest climates there are”, I immediately afterwards feel sick at what is actually happening, and being normalised.

  865. I still have a hard time accepting the absurd reality of the Trump presidency. It occasionally strikes me as being impossible to this day, even after 2-1/2 years of it. It’s a goddam Simpsons gag come to life.
    I’m not sure if part of it is my being from New Jersey and having seen him as a tabloid freak-show character over 3 decades (plus a few years). It doesn’t seem to bother a good number of my fellow New Jerseyans, though. It’s a head-scratcher.

  866. I still have a hard time accepting the absurd reality of the Trump presidency. It occasionally strikes me as being impossible to this day, even after 2-1/2 years of it. It’s a goddam Simpsons gag come to life.
    I’m not sure if part of it is my being from New Jersey and having seen him as a tabloid freak-show character over 3 decades (plus a few years). It doesn’t seem to bother a good number of my fellow New Jerseyans, though. It’s a head-scratcher.

  867. i’m still baffled at just how stupid and short-sighted GOP primary voters turned out to be. yes, they won the WH, but at such an enormous cost to the country and to their own brand.
    on the other hand: the insincerity of their loudly-proclaimed principles is clear for all to see. so, that’s a boon.

  868. i’m still baffled at just how stupid and short-sighted GOP primary voters turned out to be. yes, they won the WH, but at such an enormous cost to the country and to their own brand.
    on the other hand: the insincerity of their loudly-proclaimed principles is clear for all to see. so, that’s a boon.

  871. “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” ā€”H.L. Mencken

  872. “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” ā€”H.L. Mencken

  877. Fucking hell, you absolutely could not make it up:
    GOP Chairwoman Claims D-Day Anniversary Should Be About ā€˜Celebrating Our Presidentā€™ Ronna McDaniel made the comment on Fox Business while griping about the media coverage of Trumpā€™s European trip.
    Her actual tweet, on the GOP Twitter feed:

    GOP
    āœ”
    @GOP
    @GOPChairwoman: We are celebrating the anniversary, 75 years of D-Day. This is the time where we should be celebrating our President, the great achievements of America, and I don’t think the American people like the constant negativity.

  878. Fucking hell, you absolutely could not make it up:
    GOP Chairwoman Claims D-Day Anniversary Should Be About ā€˜Celebrating Our Presidentā€™ Ronna McDaniel made the comment on Fox Business while griping about the media coverage of Trumpā€™s European trip.
    Her actual tweet, on the GOP Twitter feed:

    GOP
    āœ”
    @GOP
    @GOPChairwoman: We are celebrating the anniversary, 75 years of D-Day. This is the time where we should be celebrating our President, the great achievements of America, and I don’t think the American people like the constant negativity.

  879. I’m grateful that he didn’t take the occasion of the D-Day remembrance to talk about the very fine people on both sides.
    Heard Michael Benet, Senator from CO and Yet Another (D) Candiate For POTUS in 2020, on the radio night before last.
    Sensible guy. I probably prefer Warren on the issues, Bennet is probably an easier sell to The Heartland.
    If the primary was today, we’d probably get Biden. Dear Uncle Joe – how can we miss you when you won’t go away?

  880. I’m grateful that he didn’t take the occasion of the D-Day remembrance to talk about the very fine people on both sides.
    Heard Michael Benet, Senator from CO and Yet Another (D) Candiate For POTUS in 2020, on the radio night before last.
    Sensible guy. I probably prefer Warren on the issues, Bennet is probably an easier sell to The Heartland.
    If the primary was today, we’d probably get Biden. Dear Uncle Joe – how can we miss you when you won’t go away?

  881. the past shouts:

    In Gallup’s latest poll, conducted June 11-14, 2007, Clinton leads Obama by 11 points among Democrats (33% to 21%).

  882. the past shouts:

    In Gallup’s latest poll, conducted June 11-14, 2007, Clinton leads Obama by 11 points among Democrats (33% to 21%).

  883. I got e-mail from the Inslee campaign this morning saying that the Democratic National Committee had turned down their request to have one of the debates dedicated to climate change. Perhaps more interesting, the e-mail said the DNC had threatened that any candidate taking part in a non-DNC debate on climate change would be barred from any future DNC debates.
    I sent the Inslee campaign some money because I want the topic front and center. Clearly, the DNC and I disagree on its importance.

  884. I got e-mail from the Inslee campaign this morning saying that the Democratic National Committee had turned down their request to have one of the debates dedicated to climate change. Perhaps more interesting, the e-mail said the DNC had threatened that any candidate taking part in a non-DNC debate on climate change would be barred from any future DNC debates.
    I sent the Inslee campaign some money because I want the topic front and center. Clearly, the DNC and I disagree on its importance.

  885. frankly, a single-issue debate with 24 people who probably all agree on the big picture doesn’t seem like it would be very interesting. there wouldn’t be much debate, just a bunch of “i agree with what [the last person to speak] said”.
    IMO

  886. frankly, a single-issue debate with 24 people who probably all agree on the big picture doesn’t seem like it would be very interesting. there wouldn’t be much debate, just a bunch of “i agree with what [the last person to speak] said”.
    IMO

  887. I see cleek’s point, but this:

    the DNC had threatened that any candidate taking part in a non-DNC debate on climate change would be barred from any future DNC debates

    is mind-boggling. WTMFF?

  888. I see cleek’s point, but this:

    the DNC had threatened that any candidate taking part in a non-DNC debate on climate change would be barred from any future DNC debates

    is mind-boggling. WTMFF?

  889. It’s a goddamed Simpsons gag come to life
    JDT, it is obvious from looking at the video on that link that the writers for the Simpsons were in possession of a time machine! Who knew?

  890. It’s a goddamed Simpsons gag come to life
    JDT, it is obvious from looking at the video on that link that the writers for the Simpsons were in possession of a time machine! Who knew?

  891. i haven’t seen the DNC’s actual letter (though i searched a bit for it), but i wonder if the intent there is more like “don’t do non-DNC debates on any topic.”

  892. i haven’t seen the DNC’s actual letter (though i searched a bit for it), but i wonder if the intent there is more like “don’t do non-DNC debates on any topic.”

  893. I can see where the DNC might be concerned about debates where someone restricted participation on a basis different from the one they are using. If it was a basis which allowed more participants, I would see that as a non-issue. But if it was a basis which rather tightly restricted participation, thus squeezing out candidates who might be (inconveniently) surging, that could be a real problem.

  894. I can see where the DNC might be concerned about debates where someone restricted participation on a basis different from the one they are using. If it was a basis which allowed more participants, I would see that as a non-issue. But if it was a basis which rather tightly restricted participation, thus squeezing out candidates who might be (inconveniently) surging, that could be a real problem.

  895. also, just for the record: the quicker this primary turns into another anti-establishment celebration of performative ideological purity, the quicker i’m going to lose interest.

  896. also, just for the record: the quicker this primary turns into another anti-establishment celebration of performative ideological purity, the quicker i’m going to lose interest.

  899. So on the D-Day see-saw of emotions, two stories:
    Someone I used to know who was a young officer on D-Day, when as you know the exact date had been kept secret til that day, used to tell the story of how he was woken by his batman with the immortal words “Morning sir. Tea sir. Invasion sir.”
    And I’ve just been reduced almost to tears (I’m the equivalent of a cheap date these days) by a meeting engineered by Channel 4 News between Harry Reid, 95 years old, who parachuted yesterday onto the same beach he parachuted onto 75 years ago, and a German who was 18 on that day, fighting on the same beach. They had never met before, and discussed the blessings of the peace that D-Day bought, and which must still be fought for, and parted with the German saying “We are friends, we understand each other, we feel the same”, and Harry Reid saying “We are more than friends, we are brothers.”

  900. So on the D-Day see-saw of emotions, two stories:
    Someone I used to know who was a young officer on D-Day, when as you know the exact date had been kept secret til that day, used to tell the story of how he was woken by his batman with the immortal words “Morning sir. Tea sir. Invasion sir.”
    And I’ve just been reduced almost to tears (I’m the equivalent of a cheap date these days) by a meeting engineered by Channel 4 News between Harry Reid, 95 years old, who parachuted yesterday onto the same beach he parachuted onto 75 years ago, and a German who was 18 on that day, fighting on the same beach. They had never met before, and discussed the blessings of the peace that D-Day bought, and which must still be fought for, and parted with the German saying “We are friends, we understand each other, we feel the same”, and Harry Reid saying “We are more than friends, we are brothers.”

  901. Why not celebrate the president on D-Day? Ike has been neglected a bit lately.
    Although “We salute the last decent Republican in the White House for his prior deeds in WW2” may be slightly too divisive.

  902. Why not celebrate the president on D-Day? Ike has been neglected a bit lately.
    Although “We salute the last decent Republican in the White House for his prior deeds in WW2” may be slightly too divisive.

  903. the quicker i’m going to lose interest.
    Boredom really isn’t an option, cleek. I mean, I get what you’re saying, but we have to have a plan, stick with it, and win. I’m not so confident about the elections for so many reasons. But if we can’t deal with the Democratic Party’s internecine arguments (which are annoying as hell), then those of us who feel that way have to figure out how to work on things in a different way.
    This is the anniversary of D-Day. We were well organized then. We have to find a way to do that again. No drop-outs, even if the work is tedious and miserable.

  904. the quicker i’m going to lose interest.
    Boredom really isn’t an option, cleek. I mean, I get what you’re saying, but we have to have a plan, stick with it, and win. I’m not so confident about the elections for so many reasons. But if we can’t deal with the Democratic Party’s internecine arguments (which are annoying as hell), then those of us who feel that way have to figure out how to work on things in a different way.
    This is the anniversary of D-Day. We were well organized then. We have to find a way to do that again. No drop-outs, even if the work is tedious and miserable.

  905. At the Washington Post, Eugene Robinson makes an interesting point about Russian interference in our elections.

    Only someone without a clue would fail to realize that he could be the victim of such meddling in 2020.

    Ya know, it’s true. Putin could well decide that having Trump lose, complete with accusations of foul play (albeit directed at Democrats, rather than Russians), would be to his advantage. Considering how long Trump’s fans have been embracing the Lost Cause, Putin could be right that it would keep paying off for decades.

  906. At the Washington Post, Eugene Robinson makes an interesting point about Russian interference in our elections.

    Only someone without a clue would fail to realize that he could be the victim of such meddling in 2020.

    Ya know, it’s true. Putin could well decide that having Trump lose, complete with accusations of foul play (albeit directed at Democrats, rather than Russians), would be to his advantage. Considering how long Trump’s fans have been embracing the Lost Cause, Putin could be right that it would keep paying off for decades.

  907. we have to have a plan, stick with it, and win.
    My plan is simple. Whoever has a (D) after their name, gets my vote. Not excluding the proverbial ham sandwich.
    If they dig up John Silber and run him, he’ll get my vote.
    It’s even come to that.

  908. we have to have a plan, stick with it, and win.
    My plan is simple. Whoever has a (D) after their name, gets my vote. Not excluding the proverbial ham sandwich.
    If they dig up John Silber and run him, he’ll get my vote.
    It’s even come to that.

  913. I’m skipping Marty’s comment – not sure why.
    But, I will say that fighting the current situation may require actual interaction with people in person. Because broadcasting our strategy to the world is probably not helpful?
    Not sure how to organize that though. People here, who are smarter than me, can give a hint?

  914. I’m skipping Marty’s comment – not sure why.
    But, I will say that fighting the current situation may require actual interaction with people in person. Because broadcasting our strategy to the world is probably not helpful?
    Not sure how to organize that though. People here, who are smarter than me, can give a hint?

  917. Fucking hell, you absolutely could not make it up:
    That is the party of Trump.
    A point reinforced by the spectacle of Trump standing in front of Normandy war graves as he delivered potshots at Pelosi and Mueller…

  918. Fucking hell, you absolutely could not make it up:
    That is the party of Trump.
    A point reinforced by the spectacle of Trump standing in front of Normandy war graves as he delivered potshots at Pelosi and Mueller…

  921. I found this surprising not sure why
    i was surprised to see a National Review page come up under an MSN URL.

  922. I found this surprising not sure why
    i was surprised to see a National Review page come up under an MSN URL.

  925. Every President with a beard has been a Republican.
    I did not independently verify this assertion.l

  926. Every President with a beard has been a Republican.
    I did not independently verify this assertion.l

  927. I found this surprising not sure why
    Not me.
    R.I.P. Dr. John. Hard to imagine a world without him.

  928. I found this surprising not sure why
    Not me.
    R.I.P. Dr. John. Hard to imagine a world without him.

  929. So Thinking about it, I was surprised that these State department folks felt a more aggressive approach was called for. Although at least the author wasn’t a career diplomat.

  930. So Thinking about it, I was surprised that these State department folks felt a more aggressive approach was called for. Although at least the author wasn’t a career diplomat.

  933. Look, over there! W!
    US foreign policy toward Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union has been less than vigorous. Romney is the only guy I can think of other than weird old cold warriors who saw Putin and Russia as a threat.
    Europeans, especially Russia’s near neighbors, have been much more concerned about Putin’s ambitions.
    Sometimes we get things wrong. Or, sometimes different approaches are needed at different points in time.

  934. Look, over there! W!
    US foreign policy toward Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union has been less than vigorous. Romney is the only guy I can think of other than weird old cold warriors who saw Putin and Russia as a threat.
    Europeans, especially Russia’s near neighbors, have been much more concerned about Putin’s ambitions.
    Sometimes we get things wrong. Or, sometimes different approaches are needed at different points in time.

  935. I’ve posted in the past about enjoying the livestreams from Okeanos Explorer. Today I bring you another source for the same kind of thing, streaming from Exploration Vessel Nautilus. This is a project led by a foundation funded by Robert Ballard, the guy who discovered the Titanic, who’s always been very enthusiastic about telepresence. EV Nautilus uses the same kind of two-remotely-operated-vehicle rig as Okeanos Explorer, one ROV to get very close to the sea floor and one to hang back several meters, tend cables, and get an overall view. You can hear the team that operates the ROVs and the science crew looking at the data coming in, requesting new targets, and like that.
    Their website links to their Youtube channel with the pair of video feeds, one from each vehicle. It’s a well-done site.
    This morning, as I type, they’re diving on a seamount in the eastern Pacific, taking temperature and gas composition samples from lil’ geysers at around 2700 meters. Some of the images are just spectacular, with tight zooms that let you see the very sharp boundaries of emerging jets of superheated water from underground. And as always, for me, listening to happy scientists and engineers enjoying their work is a warm, nostalgic kind of thing.
    http://www.nautiluslive.org

  936. I’ve posted in the past about enjoying the livestreams from Okeanos Explorer. Today I bring you another source for the same kind of thing, streaming from Exploration Vessel Nautilus. This is a project led by a foundation funded by Robert Ballard, the guy who discovered the Titanic, who’s always been very enthusiastic about telepresence. EV Nautilus uses the same kind of two-remotely-operated-vehicle rig as Okeanos Explorer, one ROV to get very close to the sea floor and one to hang back several meters, tend cables, and get an overall view. You can hear the team that operates the ROVs and the science crew looking at the data coming in, requesting new targets, and like that.
    Their website links to their Youtube channel with the pair of video feeds, one from each vehicle. It’s a well-done site.
    This morning, as I type, they’re diving on a seamount in the eastern Pacific, taking temperature and gas composition samples from lil’ geysers at around 2700 meters. Some of the images are just spectacular, with tight zooms that let you see the very sharp boundaries of emerging jets of superheated water from underground. And as always, for me, listening to happy scientists and engineers enjoying their work is a warm, nostalgic kind of thing.
    http://www.nautiluslive.org

  937. I’m not sure why commenting on an article about a book that happened to pop up on my news feed was Look, Over There. I thought the outlook was interesting and surprising. I guess it wasnt.
    Being soft on Russia and China, especially China is a bipartisan long term problem imo. But this just caught my attention.

  938. I’m not sure why commenting on an article about a book that happened to pop up on my news feed was Look, Over There. I thought the outlook was interesting and surprising. I guess it wasnt.
    Being soft on Russia and China, especially China is a bipartisan long term problem imo. But this just caught my attention.

  939. Europeans, especially Russia’s near neighbors, have been much more concerned about Putin’s ambitions.
    After seeing what happened to Georgia and Ukraine, how could they not be? Especially the Baltics — there’s a reason they are among NATO’s biggest fans. (And why one of them has the most, per capita, casualties of all those fighting in Afghanistan. Which is, after all, the only place where the alliance’s mutual defense clause has been invoked — a fact of which Trump is doubtless ignorant.)

  940. Europeans, especially Russia’s near neighbors, have been much more concerned about Putin’s ambitions.
    After seeing what happened to Georgia and Ukraine, how could they not be? Especially the Baltics — there’s a reason they are among NATO’s biggest fans. (And why one of them has the most, per capita, casualties of all those fighting in Afghanistan. Which is, after all, the only place where the alliance’s mutual defense clause has been invoked — a fact of which Trump is doubtless ignorant.)

  941. I’m not sure why commenting on an article about a book that happened to pop up on my news feed was Look, Over There.
    Because you appear to be attempting to deflect criticism of Trump et al by citing criticisms of Obama on a tangentially related issue.
    Deciding whether that perception is arrived at fairly or not, I leave as an exercise for the reader.

  942. I’m not sure why commenting on an article about a book that happened to pop up on my news feed was Look, Over There.
    Because you appear to be attempting to deflect criticism of Trump et al by citing criticisms of Obama on a tangentially related issue.
    Deciding whether that perception is arrived at fairly or not, I leave as an exercise for the reader.

  943. US presidents can’t make Putin obey them. That’s not surprising.
    I can’t tell from the article what Sciutto wanted Obama to do about that, other than shout more.
    If you’re not willing to go to war over something, then all you’ve got is some combination of diplomatic and economic pressure. And make it as easy as possible for your adversary to do what you want. That was Obama’s policy.
    Or you might prefer the Trump approach – make it clear that you like Putin better than NATO, not least because he helped you get elected. Perhaps a nice guy like Putin will respond to that by forsaking aggression. Or perhaps not.

  944. US presidents can’t make Putin obey them. That’s not surprising.
    I can’t tell from the article what Sciutto wanted Obama to do about that, other than shout more.
    If you’re not willing to go to war over something, then all you’ve got is some combination of diplomatic and economic pressure. And make it as easy as possible for your adversary to do what you want. That was Obama’s policy.
    Or you might prefer the Trump approach – make it clear that you like Putin better than NATO, not least because he helped you get elected. Perhaps a nice guy like Putin will respond to that by forsaking aggression. Or perhaps not.

  945. was Obama naive about Russia? sure.
    but he didn’t claim to have seen Putin’s soul. and he didn’t welcome (or receive) Russia’s help in getting elected President. and he didn’t relax sanctions on Russia for doing the things the article blames on Obama.
    but, NR’s gotta NR. they gotta shit on Dems – even if it means pretending Republicans aren’t guilty of far worse.
    so, i loved that article. i loved how perfectly it portrays modern Republicanism.

  946. was Obama naive about Russia? sure.
    but he didn’t claim to have seen Putin’s soul. and he didn’t welcome (or receive) Russia’s help in getting elected President. and he didn’t relax sanctions on Russia for doing the things the article blames on Obama.
    but, NR’s gotta NR. they gotta shit on Dems – even if it means pretending Republicans aren’t guilty of far worse.
    so, i loved that article. i loved how perfectly it portrays modern Republicanism.

  951. So unless a topic directly applies to Trump, preferably negatively we just dont discuss it. Got it. I wasnt actually thinking of it in relation to anything but interesting historical information.

  952. So unless a topic directly applies to Trump, preferably negatively we just dont discuss it. Got it. I wasnt actually thinking of it in relation to anything but interesting historical information.

  953. So unless a topic directly applies to Trump, preferably negatively we just dont discuss it.
    He writes after someone discusses it.

  954. So unless a topic directly applies to Trump, preferably negatively we just dont discuss it.
    He writes after someone discusses it.

  957. So unless a topic directly applies to Trump, preferably negatively we just dont discuss it. Got it.
    surely, part of the discussion of our policy towards Russia and China is noting that the story doesn’t start or end with Obama.
    sorry if that wrecks the narrative.

  958. So unless a topic directly applies to Trump, preferably negatively we just dont discuss it. Got it.
    surely, part of the discussion of our policy towards Russia and China is noting that the story doesn’t start or end with Obama.
    sorry if that wrecks the narrative.

  959. I wasnt actually thinking of it in relation to anything but interesting historical information.
    It may be helpful to introduce a topic by talking about what it was you found interesting.

  960. I wasnt actually thinking of it in relation to anything but interesting historical information.
    It may be helpful to introduce a topic by talking about what it was you found interesting.

  961. What does “soft” mean?
    Detail what “hard” would mean.
    I’m also fascinated by the word “quiet” in the link’s headline.
    If I can hear it, it’s not quiet.
    Interestingly, everything Obama did not do ….. the fullness of time will
    tell us what we need to know …… is hardily endorsed, though of course they won’t admit it, by most of the writers over at the American Conservative, who want no American involvement abroad, so that’s another feather in Obama’s conservative cap, if conservatives were giving out feathers, which they are not.
    Larison, while somewhat an isolationist, agrees with Obama’s cautious entreaties to Iran and believes p’s reversals are monumentally disastrous and could lead to total war in the Middle East, and I’ll add that it could lead to nuclear confrontation.
    Much of Obama’s distaste for international confrontation was a direct result of the disastrous second Iraq War and his reading of Americans’ desire to turn inward, though of course he, according to isolationist conservatives, was too aggressive in Libya and other places.
    Of course, what would Sciuttos have us do in each of the cases he “quietly” cites?
    Short of military confrontation, because the populations of the relevant countries can live with trade embargos and other measures a lot longer than Americans can stand to do without the world’s product?
    It was conservatives who pushed the ideology of global free trade, at its root a good thing, but without attending to the unforeseen (bullshit, many foresaw the downsides for American workers, but shit conservatives and corporations wanted union busting, low wages, benefit cuts, unregulated business practices, etc) consequences (those items they are always nattering on about when a liberal sneezes in the wrong direction) and NOW it’s conservatives who want to blow up the global trading system, after it is well in place, and just like their support for the system for decades, it must be utter and complete, with no compromise or even attention paid to the losers resulting from these vast changes.
    How touchingly innocent Kudlow and the rest of them seemed decades ago when they thought China would not game the system, no, free trade is the absolute unalloyed good, not to be mitigated with domestic programs to assist the losers. Now, the same always-wrong asshole walks around telling us the absolute opposite, in the same absolutely certain tones, and implies his absolutely certain prosperity gospel gods came up with both ideas and shall not be questioned.
    Fuck him!
    Conservatism, a series of contradictory bad ideas (oh, look open free markets … unreservedly fantastic and profitable .. Whoops, oh look, the opioid epidemic as a result, along with the unregulated corporations and medical practitioners mainlining the underemployed and forgotten working class with the stuff) one after the other, forced upon us with no attempt at softening the edges and compromising for the sake of the losers.
    STFU conservatives or we’ll shut you the fuck up.

  962. What does “soft” mean?
    Detail what “hard” would mean.
    I’m also fascinated by the word “quiet” in the link’s headline.
    If I can hear it, it’s not quiet.
    Interestingly, everything Obama did not do ….. the fullness of time will
    tell us what we need to know …… is hardily endorsed, though of course they won’t admit it, by most of the writers over at the American Conservative, who want no American involvement abroad, so that’s another feather in Obama’s conservative cap, if conservatives were giving out feathers, which they are not.
    Larison, while somewhat an isolationist, agrees with Obama’s cautious entreaties to Iran and believes p’s reversals are monumentally disastrous and could lead to total war in the Middle East, and I’ll add that it could lead to nuclear confrontation.
    Much of Obama’s distaste for international confrontation was a direct result of the disastrous second Iraq War and his reading of Americans’ desire to turn inward, though of course he, according to isolationist conservatives, was too aggressive in Libya and other places.
    Of course, what would Sciuttos have us do in each of the cases he “quietly” cites?
    Short of military confrontation, because the populations of the relevant countries can live with trade embargos and other measures a lot longer than Americans can stand to do without the world’s product?
    It was conservatives who pushed the ideology of global free trade, at its root a good thing, but without attending to the unforeseen (bullshit, many foresaw the downsides for American workers, but shit conservatives and corporations wanted union busting, low wages, benefit cuts, unregulated business practices, etc) consequences (those items they are always nattering on about when a liberal sneezes in the wrong direction) and NOW it’s conservatives who want to blow up the global trading system, after it is well in place, and just like their support for the system for decades, it must be utter and complete, with no compromise or even attention paid to the losers resulting from these vast changes.
    How touchingly innocent Kudlow and the rest of them seemed decades ago when they thought China would not game the system, no, free trade is the absolute unalloyed good, not to be mitigated with domestic programs to assist the losers. Now, the same always-wrong asshole walks around telling us the absolute opposite, in the same absolutely certain tones, and implies his absolutely certain prosperity gospel gods came up with both ideas and shall not be questioned.
    Fuck him!
    Conservatism, a series of contradictory bad ideas (oh, look open free markets … unreservedly fantastic and profitable .. Whoops, oh look, the opioid epidemic as a result, along with the unregulated corporations and medical practitioners mainlining the underemployed and forgotten working class with the stuff) one after the other, forced upon us with no attempt at softening the edges and compromising for the sake of the losers.
    STFU conservatives or we’ll shut you the fuck up.

  963. russell, I will not post anything in the future unless I have a well thought out cogent reason I thought it was interesting that I can articulate in depth.
    Even John couldnt bring himself to discuss it except in terms of yeah but conservatives should be shot.
    This was an Obama appointee and his boss reflecting on, mostly as I read it, the hesitance to call out Russia and China. Not necessarily to act. Being more careful than was warranted and slow to take a position.

  964. russell, I will not post anything in the future unless I have a well thought out cogent reason I thought it was interesting that I can articulate in depth.
    Even John couldnt bring himself to discuss it except in terms of yeah but conservatives should be shot.
    This was an Obama appointee and his boss reflecting on, mostly as I read it, the hesitance to call out Russia and China. Not necessarily to act. Being more careful than was warranted and slow to take a position.

  965. Still an open thread, so:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb8E20-ZYW4
    my favourite Dr John song (if you hadn’t guessed from the original quotation), and probably my favourite version (although I was tempted by his his version in The Last Waltz – my favourite Rock n Roll movie).
    Thank God it’s still possible to be transported away from politics (and I include it all in that: Trump, Brexit, Putin etc etc) to somewhere else, and somewhere marvellous at that.

  966. Still an open thread, so:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb8E20-ZYW4
    my favourite Dr John song (if you hadn’t guessed from the original quotation), and probably my favourite version (although I was tempted by his his version in The Last Waltz – my favourite Rock n Roll movie).
    Thank God it’s still possible to be transported away from politics (and I include it all in that: Trump, Brexit, Putin etc etc) to somewhere else, and somewhere marvellous at that.

  971. I have had him in my headphones since last night Such a Night is posted in my Instagram. This week I lost, and yes I feel I personally lost, two of my all time favorites in Dr. John and Leon Redbone.
    Some days I think politics not a valuable use of my time, the pace of my world dying away overcomes me and convinces me to leave it to my kids.

  972. I have had him in my headphones since last night Such a Night is posted in my Instagram. This week I lost, and yes I feel I personally lost, two of my all time favorites in Dr. John and Leon Redbone.
    Some days I think politics not a valuable use of my time, the pace of my world dying away overcomes me and convinces me to leave it to my kids.

  977. as an aside, and with reference to that last video, it’s a crime that more people don’t know what a freaking brilliant guitarist Nils Lofgren is.
    tone like the finest silk

  978. as an aside, and with reference to that last video, it’s a crime that more people don’t know what a freaking brilliant guitarist Nils Lofgren is.
    tone like the finest silk

  979. I sometimes think Rod Dreher at TAC should be shot, too, but he gets a reprieve for this post:
    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/chris-arnade-america-dignity/
    Marty, I paid respect to you by reading the link …. Twice. And commenting on it, albeit not without my usual boilerplate.
    Obama, the cautious moderate conservative, can be criticized. Also shot, by other conservatives who have the means to do it and frequently expressed the desire, by packing when Obama was in the vicinity trying to obtain the latter healthcare for the gunshot wounds the Secret Service and the FBI would have visited upon them.
    But, I want to know, should those Chinese-made islands in the South China Sea be blown up by the American Navy?
    It takes 90 minutes to know everything a person needs to know about nuclear weapons, according to he who knows all.
    Maybe another 45 minutes for Americans at large to know …. when the warheads land here.

  980. I sometimes think Rod Dreher at TAC should be shot, too, but he gets a reprieve for this post:
    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/chris-arnade-america-dignity/
    Marty, I paid respect to you by reading the link …. Twice. And commenting on it, albeit not without my usual boilerplate.
    Obama, the cautious moderate conservative, can be criticized. Also shot, by other conservatives who have the means to do it and frequently expressed the desire, by packing when Obama was in the vicinity trying to obtain the latter healthcare for the gunshot wounds the Secret Service and the FBI would have visited upon them.
    But, I want to know, should those Chinese-made islands in the South China Sea be blown up by the American Navy?
    It takes 90 minutes to know everything a person needs to know about nuclear weapons, according to he who knows all.
    Maybe another 45 minutes for Americans at large to know …. when the warheads land here.

  981. On the Doctor: fantastic, all of it!
    (russell, I don’t think your Giddi come come link is working, unless it’s just me)

  982. On the Doctor: fantastic, all of it!
    (russell, I don’t think your Giddi come come link is working, unless it’s just me)

  983. There’s only one link in the “giddiness come come” post, I don’t know why the rest of the text is underlined.
    Stupid computers.

  984. There’s only one link in the “giddiness come come” post, I don’t know why the rest of the text is underlined.
    Stupid computers.

  985. John,
    In answer to your only question, not unless they fire at our ships from them. Then, yes. But, what do I know. I should have noted that the first half of your comment was on point. Thanks.
    russell, Nils Lofgren is way under known, I started to say underrated but your take is right.
    Another I like
    https://youtu.be/hVL2_gY2-ew

  986. John,
    In answer to your only question, not unless they fire at our ships from them. Then, yes. But, what do I know. I should have noted that the first half of your comment was on point. Thanks.
    russell, Nils Lofgren is way under known, I started to say underrated but your take is right.
    Another I like
    https://youtu.be/hVL2_gY2-ew

  989. “Some days I think politics is not a valuable use of my time.”
    Truer words are not available. We’d all be better off splitting hogs like Slart.
    But the internet would collapse.

  990. “Some days I think politics is not a valuable use of my time.”
    Truer words are not available. We’d all be better off splitting hogs like Slart.
    But the internet would collapse.

  993. There’s a very good article by Joseph Stiglitz on the future of capitalism in the the TLS:
    https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/capitalism-ethical-economics-joseph-stiglitz/
    Regarding Russia, I hate Putin and everything he stands for, but what people seem to be incapable of understanding is that he’s just pursuing the bog standard objectives of politics driven by the “national interest”, like many other nations.
    It’s not pretty, and I would hope that eventually a more collaborative way of dealing with each other will take hold.
    But Americans or the British singling out Putin, Iran, China, or whoever the threat du jour might be, is either complete ignorance or astounding hypocrisy.
    The worst thing is, it makes a constructive dialogue impossible: if the counterpart is regarded as inherently evil or irrational, there is no way of finding a political solution.
    Cf.
    https://theintercept.com/2018/03/17/new-york-times-iran-israel-washington-think-tanks/

  994. There’s a very good article by Joseph Stiglitz on the future of capitalism in the the TLS:
    https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/capitalism-ethical-economics-joseph-stiglitz/
    Regarding Russia, I hate Putin and everything he stands for, but what people seem to be incapable of understanding is that he’s just pursuing the bog standard objectives of politics driven by the “national interest”, like many other nations.
    It’s not pretty, and I would hope that eventually a more collaborative way of dealing with each other will take hold.
    But Americans or the British singling out Putin, Iran, China, or whoever the threat du jour might be, is either complete ignorance or astounding hypocrisy.
    The worst thing is, it makes a constructive dialogue impossible: if the counterpart is regarded as inherently evil or irrational, there is no way of finding a political solution.
    Cf.
    https://theintercept.com/2018/03/17/new-york-times-iran-israel-washington-think-tanks/

  997. I love the tradition, I occasionally just hum that to myself fo no reason I’m through ’75 listening to his albums in order on Spotify.
    While I work of course.

  998. I love the tradition, I occasionally just hum that to myself fo no reason I’m through ’75 listening to his albums in order on Spotify.
    While I work of course.

  999. and I would hope that eventually a more collaborative way of dealing with each other will take hold.
    since it won’t, what’s plan B ?

  1000. and I would hope that eventually a more collaborative way of dealing with each other will take hold.
    since it won’t, what’s plan B ?

  1001. I hate Putin and everything he stands for, but what people seem to be incapable of understanding is that he’s just pursuing the bog standard objectives of politics driven by the “national interest”, like many other nations.
    I’m not convinced. Putin appears more focused on enriching Putin than anything else.
    Skewing the system to favor the local elites is one thing. That is, as you say, not uncommon. But a flat-out kleptocracy is a different kettle of fish. Puts Putin behind other petro-states when it comes to minding the national interest. I’ve got no brief for the UAE, let alone Saudi Arabia. But they’ve done better by their nations than Putin’s Russia.

  1002. I hate Putin and everything he stands for, but what people seem to be incapable of understanding is that he’s just pursuing the bog standard objectives of politics driven by the “national interest”, like many other nations.
    I’m not convinced. Putin appears more focused on enriching Putin than anything else.
    Skewing the system to favor the local elites is one thing. That is, as you say, not uncommon. But a flat-out kleptocracy is a different kettle of fish. Puts Putin behind other petro-states when it comes to minding the national interest. I’ve got no brief for the UAE, let alone Saudi Arabia. But they’ve done better by their nations than Putin’s Russia.

  1003. Regarding Russia, I hate Putin and everything he stands for, but what people seem to be incapable of understanding is that he’s just pursuing the bog standard objectives of politics driven by the “national interest”, like many other nations.
    …..
    But Americans or the British singling out Putin, Iran, China, or whoever the threat du jour might be, is either complete ignorance or astounding hypocrisy.
    But last I heard, neither the Americans or British have (for the last several decades) been sending assassination squads to poison political critics/enemies in other nations, not to mention risking local populations’ health with secret radioactive substances. (I suppose you can make a case for the assassination of Osama bin Laden, but good luck standing up that equivalence). And also not to mention the astonishingly awful human rights situation in Russia for LGBT people, or indeed internal critics.

  1004. Regarding Russia, I hate Putin and everything he stands for, but what people seem to be incapable of understanding is that he’s just pursuing the bog standard objectives of politics driven by the “national interest”, like many other nations.
    …..
    But Americans or the British singling out Putin, Iran, China, or whoever the threat du jour might be, is either complete ignorance or astounding hypocrisy.
    But last I heard, neither the Americans or British have (for the last several decades) been sending assassination squads to poison political critics/enemies in other nations, not to mention risking local populations’ health with secret radioactive substances. (I suppose you can make a case for the assassination of Osama bin Laden, but good luck standing up that equivalence). And also not to mention the astonishingly awful human rights situation in Russia for LGBT people, or indeed internal critics.

  1007. Hey, Girl from the North Country, I’ve been reading something that made me think “I need to recommend this to someone besides my usual outlets”, and realized, it’s you. šŸ™‚ So here goes.
    Reaktion Books publishes a series called Lost Civilizations. So far I’ve read The Greeks and am halfway through The Indus, and am loving both. They are, in a good way, at the level of a well-made documentary – they’ve sent me to the dictionary or Wikipedia a few times, but mostly been fine for me as is.
    The Greeks is cool for being exactly what it says: about people identifying as Greek, rather than about the place. From very early on, Greeks spread throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and later all the way over to Afghanistan. The author points out how across a lot of time and space, being Greek could matter a lot in terms of political access and social privilege, but wasn’t much a matter of ethnicity at all. Do you speak Greek? Do you know some about Greek culture, history, etc? Do you live in Greek ways – wear the clothes, eat the food, honor the gods, etc? Then you’re Greek.
    It was profoundly relaxing to read about the opposite of an ethno-state and the successes of governing that way, as you well may imagine.
    The author takes his story far and wide, too, and forward in time to the end of the Byzantine empire. He quotes a good line, to the effect of, they said “We are Roman”, but they said it in Greek. šŸ™‚
    The Indus is equally engaging but quite different, since it’s about the first civilization in eastern Pakistan and western India, with a script the experts cannot decipher, and say that without an equivalent to the Rosetta Stone and/or a whole lot more samples, probably never will. A lot of the book is about what you can and can’t know about a society in the absence of its language, how people’s whole lives shape their speculations, and like that.
    The Indus society itself turns out to be fascinating, as well, for a bunch of reasons. High among them is that there’s no serious evidence of warfare! Not much for major social stratification, either.
    Obviously this isn’t sf/f. But it deeply scratches the same itch that good imaginary world-building does, and I thought you might want to know about them.
    I see they’ve also got a series on animals that’s similar. Reaktion Books may be getting a lot of my money this year.

  1008. Hey, Girl from the North Country, I’ve been reading something that made me think “I need to recommend this to someone besides my usual outlets”, and realized, it’s you. šŸ™‚ So here goes.
    Reaktion Books publishes a series called Lost Civilizations. So far I’ve read The Greeks and am halfway through The Indus, and am loving both. They are, in a good way, at the level of a well-made documentary – they’ve sent me to the dictionary or Wikipedia a few times, but mostly been fine for me as is.
    The Greeks is cool for being exactly what it says: about people identifying as Greek, rather than about the place. From very early on, Greeks spread throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and later all the way over to Afghanistan. The author points out how across a lot of time and space, being Greek could matter a lot in terms of political access and social privilege, but wasn’t much a matter of ethnicity at all. Do you speak Greek? Do you know some about Greek culture, history, etc? Do you live in Greek ways – wear the clothes, eat the food, honor the gods, etc? Then you’re Greek.
    It was profoundly relaxing to read about the opposite of an ethno-state and the successes of governing that way, as you well may imagine.
    The author takes his story far and wide, too, and forward in time to the end of the Byzantine empire. He quotes a good line, to the effect of, they said “We are Roman”, but they said it in Greek. šŸ™‚
    The Indus is equally engaging but quite different, since it’s about the first civilization in eastern Pakistan and western India, with a script the experts cannot decipher, and say that without an equivalent to the Rosetta Stone and/or a whole lot more samples, probably never will. A lot of the book is about what you can and can’t know about a society in the absence of its language, how people’s whole lives shape their speculations, and like that.
    The Indus society itself turns out to be fascinating, as well, for a bunch of reasons. High among them is that there’s no serious evidence of warfare! Not much for major social stratification, either.
    Obviously this isn’t sf/f. But it deeply scratches the same itch that good imaginary world-building does, and I thought you might want to know about them.
    I see they’ve also got a series on animals that’s similar. Reaktion Books may be getting a lot of my money this year.

  1009. Footnote: the title format is this: “The Greeks: Lost Civilizations”, “The Indus: Lost Civilizations”, and so on.

  1010. Footnote: the title format is this: “The Greeks: Lost Civilizations”, “The Indus: Lost Civilizations”, and so on.

  1011. The idea that Greek is a culture not an ethnic group was quite a hot topic back then. Aristotle for example insisted on a (as we would say) genetic superiority of true Greeks making them the natural Herrenvolk (and everyone else a natural slave of the Greek masters). On the other hand ‘barbarian’ was originally a neutral term for those not speaking proper Greek with no automatic assumption of cultural inferiority (that came later).

  1012. The idea that Greek is a culture not an ethnic group was quite a hot topic back then. Aristotle for example insisted on a (as we would say) genetic superiority of true Greeks making them the natural Herrenvolk (and everyone else a natural slave of the Greek masters). On the other hand ‘barbarian’ was originally a neutral term for those not speaking proper Greek with no automatic assumption of cultural inferiority (that came later).

  1013. ROTFLOL! Between history and statistics, you can learn so much.

    Men selected as major-party nominees for president have failed to win the popular vote 50 percent of the time. Contrast that to the 100 percent of the time that a female nominee for president has won the popular vote.

  1014. ROTFLOL! Between history and statistics, you can learn so much.

    Men selected as major-party nominees for president have failed to win the popular vote 50 percent of the time. Contrast that to the 100 percent of the time that a female nominee for president has won the popular vote.

  1015. Bruce Baugh, I thought I replied – it may be lost in the spam trap. Those books sound very interesting, I will certainly investigate further, thank you

  1016. Bruce Baugh, I thought I replied – it may be lost in the spam trap. Those books sound very interesting, I will certainly investigate further, thank you

  1021. Max Boot:

    Trumpā€™s buffoonery is bad enough at home; itā€™s especially embarrassing when he is supposed to be representing the entire country overseas. He makes me ashamed to be an American. But donā€™t say you werenā€™t warned: From the start of his campaign in 2015 until today, Trump has been nothing if not consistent in his contempt for behavioral norms. Itā€™s not his fault that he is so awful; after 72 years, he canā€™t help himself. Itā€™s our fault that we elected him and might reelect him in 2020.

  1022. Max Boot:

    Trumpā€™s buffoonery is bad enough at home; itā€™s especially embarrassing when he is supposed to be representing the entire country overseas. He makes me ashamed to be an American. But donā€™t say you werenā€™t warned: From the start of his campaign in 2015 until today, Trump has been nothing if not consistent in his contempt for behavioral norms. Itā€™s not his fault that he is so awful; after 72 years, he canā€™t help himself. Itā€™s our fault that we elected him and might reelect him in 2020.

  1023. The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research drafted testimony for Congress on climate change. It quoted government research on the expected effects. The author refused White House demands to remove those — they said they “didn’t jibe” with the administration’s official position on the subject. Even though they were findings already published during this administration.
    Read the proposed testimony here:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/the-national-security-implications-of-climate-change/d5977183-15d9-45eb-a011-d4c701b02594/
    Well, at least, they aren’t (yet) trying to bar the author from testifying in person (as opposed to written testimony).

  1024. The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research drafted testimony for Congress on climate change. It quoted government research on the expected effects. The author refused White House demands to remove those — they said they “didn’t jibe” with the administration’s official position on the subject. Even though they were findings already published during this administration.
    Read the proposed testimony here:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/the-national-security-implications-of-climate-change/d5977183-15d9-45eb-a011-d4c701b02594/
    Well, at least, they aren’t (yet) trying to bar the author from testifying in person (as opposed to written testimony).

  1025. “Itā€™s our fault that we elected him and might reelect him in 2020.”
    Why change the horseman in the middle of the apocalypse?

  1026. “Itā€™s our fault that we elected him and might reelect him in 2020.”
    Why change the horseman in the middle of the apocalypse?

  1027. Who cares but at this moment Iā€™m sitting in Detroit Tigers stadium next to my son and theyā€™ve played Jimmy Mack and a bunch of Isley Brothers songs on the PA system so far.
    That and a sausage sandwich with three different sausage in it and it couldnā€™t get better if the Beatles, Mickey Mantle and James Joyce showed up.

  1028. Who cares but at this moment Iā€™m sitting in Detroit Tigers stadium next to my son and theyā€™ve played Jimmy Mack and a bunch of Isley Brothers songs on the PA system so far.
    That and a sausage sandwich with three different sausage in it and it couldnā€™t get better if the Beatles, Mickey Mantle and James Joyce showed up.

  1029. He makes me ashamed to be an American.
    yes.
    JDT, that sounds like one hell of a good day. Carry on!

  1030. He makes me ashamed to be an American.
    yes.
    JDT, that sounds like one hell of a good day. Carry on!

  1039. All kidding aside regarding the Mick, however, he gave one of the great heroic mea culpas for a life decimated by alcohol and some of the other deadly sins about the time he was dying of liver cancer in his final interview with Bob Costas.
    He coulda been a contenda.

  1040. All kidding aside regarding the Mick, however, he gave one of the great heroic mea culpas for a life decimated by alcohol and some of the other deadly sins about the time he was dying of liver cancer in his final interview with Bob Costas.
    He coulda been a contenda.

  1043. As an aside, it strikes me that NOLA must lead the world in trombones per capita.
    Exactly.
    On the Mickey Mantle thing, I realise after reading JDT’s responses, that I knew nothing about him, except that he was a famous ballplayer. I had (lazily) taken the response that I posted to signify that he was being self-satirical, and particularly about his sobriquet, and I was (lazily) approving. But it didn’t occur to me that it might have meant that he was a self-sabotaging fuckup, and that his response might have been considered pretty boorish, even by people who were not prudish about the actual experience described. Apologies if this was a misunderstanding of an American (anti)hero.

  1044. As an aside, it strikes me that NOLA must lead the world in trombones per capita.
    Exactly.
    On the Mickey Mantle thing, I realise after reading JDT’s responses, that I knew nothing about him, except that he was a famous ballplayer. I had (lazily) taken the response that I posted to signify that he was being self-satirical, and particularly about his sobriquet, and I was (lazily) approving. But it didn’t occur to me that it might have meant that he was a self-sabotaging fuckup, and that his response might have been considered pretty boorish, even by people who were not prudish about the actual experience described. Apologies if this was a misunderstanding of an American (anti)hero.

  1045. Most of Americas heroes are deeply flawed. That’s who we are.
    But then most human beings are deeply flawed, requiring all of us to see the essential goodness of humanity through that prism.

  1046. Most of Americas heroes are deeply flawed. That’s who we are.
    But then most human beings are deeply flawed, requiring all of us to see the essential goodness of humanity through that prism.

  1047. All I can say, GFTNC, is that you gave me a deliciously colorful piece of Mantle trivia with which to stump my Mantle- and Beatle-loving best friend.
    I have a very similar piece of information regarding John Lennon at one of their clubs off the Reeperbahn in Hamburg during their early days.
    Alexander Portnoy had nothing on those two.
    No, To put a finer point on Marty’s statement, Mantle was both a self-sabotaging fuck-up and the all-American boy hero of his time.
    He was like a Greek God when I was a kid. Blond, clean cut, aw-shucks Oklahoma muscled kid fastest from home to first when he debuted with the Yankees the year I was born, could hit the ball 490 feet from both sides of the plate, and chase any ball down among the on-the-field monuments of the old Yankees Stadium, whose outfield sported the largest acreage of just about any park in the country despite the short distances down the foul lines.
    His myth accrued early as all of the males in his family, his Dad and one son the last, died early from genetic Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and Mickey was sure he would too. Then his knees went early in his career hand by the end he running bone on bone, but gritted his teeth and did it.
    The drinking stories are, first tragic, but Irish in their prodigious hilarity, especially when you consider his booze companions Whitey Ford and Billy Martin were along with, the latter the one who came up with the most outrageous dares during their bibilous hunting trips and other off-the-field “activities”.
    On the field, to which his hangovers accompanied him, it could be spellbinding too, amid the life-as-train-wreck accoutrements. One early afternoon Yankees game late in Mantle’s career, Manager Casey Stengel looked down the dugout for a pinch hitter, and there sat Mantle, eyelids at nearly full mast with a very recent snoutful, having come nearly directly from the bars to the game, and Casey said, “Mick, kid, you’re up.”
    Mantle limped over to the bat rack, dragged himself to the on deck circle, then half-heartedly dug-in at the plate and swatted the ball a country mile, blindly found his way around the basepaths by vague memory, and the Yanks took the lead.
    It’s not for nothing that Stengel, the raconteur and witnessing chronicle-ler of these feats, said: “Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional ball player. It’s staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in.”
    Course, Stengel also ordered his players to not “drink in the hotel bar. that’s where I do my drinking.”
    They obeyed.

  1048. All I can say, GFTNC, is that you gave me a deliciously colorful piece of Mantle trivia with which to stump my Mantle- and Beatle-loving best friend.
    I have a very similar piece of information regarding John Lennon at one of their clubs off the Reeperbahn in Hamburg during their early days.
    Alexander Portnoy had nothing on those two.
    No, To put a finer point on Marty’s statement, Mantle was both a self-sabotaging fuck-up and the all-American boy hero of his time.
    He was like a Greek God when I was a kid. Blond, clean cut, aw-shucks Oklahoma muscled kid fastest from home to first when he debuted with the Yankees the year I was born, could hit the ball 490 feet from both sides of the plate, and chase any ball down among the on-the-field monuments of the old Yankees Stadium, whose outfield sported the largest acreage of just about any park in the country despite the short distances down the foul lines.
    His myth accrued early as all of the males in his family, his Dad and one son the last, died early from genetic Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and Mickey was sure he would too. Then his knees went early in his career hand by the end he running bone on bone, but gritted his teeth and did it.
    The drinking stories are, first tragic, but Irish in their prodigious hilarity, especially when you consider his booze companions Whitey Ford and Billy Martin were along with, the latter the one who came up with the most outrageous dares during their bibilous hunting trips and other off-the-field “activities”.
    On the field, to which his hangovers accompanied him, it could be spellbinding too, amid the life-as-train-wreck accoutrements. One early afternoon Yankees game late in Mantle’s career, Manager Casey Stengel looked down the dugout for a pinch hitter, and there sat Mantle, eyelids at nearly full mast with a very recent snoutful, having come nearly directly from the bars to the game, and Casey said, “Mick, kid, you’re up.”
    Mantle limped over to the bat rack, dragged himself to the on deck circle, then half-heartedly dug-in at the plate and swatted the ball a country mile, blindly found his way around the basepaths by vague memory, and the Yanks took the lead.
    It’s not for nothing that Stengel, the raconteur and witnessing chronicle-ler of these feats, said: “Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional ball player. It’s staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in.”
    Course, Stengel also ordered his players to not “drink in the hotel bar. that’s where I do my drinking.”
    They obeyed.

  1049. For good measure, it wasn’t like Mickey couldn’t put things in perspective.
    He observed: “During my career, I came to bat almost ten thousand times. I struck out about 1700 times and walked almost 1800 times. You figure a ball player will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played almost seven years without ever hitting a ball.”
    To say that sums up what it is to play baseball, both the queer metaphysical beauty of it, and the unspeakable rate of failure (not the walks, though a guy likes to put the bat on the ball) is an understatement.
    As Stengel said about baseball players propensity for uncommon humor, and regarding the amount of time a player has on his hands during games, “they tend to develop peculiarities of the mind.”
    This business advice too: “The secret to managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven’t made up their minds.”

  1050. For good measure, it wasn’t like Mickey couldn’t put things in perspective.
    He observed: “During my career, I came to bat almost ten thousand times. I struck out about 1700 times and walked almost 1800 times. You figure a ball player will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played almost seven years without ever hitting a ball.”
    To say that sums up what it is to play baseball, both the queer metaphysical beauty of it, and the unspeakable rate of failure (not the walks, though a guy likes to put the bat on the ball) is an understatement.
    As Stengel said about baseball players propensity for uncommon humor, and regarding the amount of time a player has on his hands during games, “they tend to develop peculiarities of the mind.”
    This business advice too: “The secret to managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven’t made up their minds.”

  1057. Baseball teaches a valuable life lesson: you have to be able to fail, pick yourself up and try again . . . knowing you will most likely fail again, but you still have to try.
    Consider. As a major league hitter, if you fail 3 times out of 4, you’re batting .250 and about average.
    If you only fail 2 times out of 3, you’re hitting .333, and quite possibly the top hitter on your team. (Keep it up across a career, and you’re in the Hall of Fame. After all, only 2 guys ever had lifetime averages over .350.) Fail only 3 time out of 5, and you’re one of the legends of the game. But note that, in every case, you’ve failed more than you’ve succeeded.

  1058. Baseball teaches a valuable life lesson: you have to be able to fail, pick yourself up and try again . . . knowing you will most likely fail again, but you still have to try.
    Consider. As a major league hitter, if you fail 3 times out of 4, you’re batting .250 and about average.
    If you only fail 2 times out of 3, you’re hitting .333, and quite possibly the top hitter on your team. (Keep it up across a career, and you’re in the Hall of Fame. After all, only 2 guys ever had lifetime averages over .350.) Fail only 3 time out of 5, and you’re one of the legends of the game. But note that, in every case, you’ve failed more than you’ve succeeded.

  1059. I keep meaning to read the book/watch the movie Moneyball. My impression of the thesis is that the right mix of good players can beat all-star teams while saving money on payrolls.

  1060. I keep meaning to read the book/watch the movie Moneyball. My impression of the thesis is that the right mix of good players can beat all-star teams while saving money on payrolls.

  1061. Both book and movie are worth the time.
    I have many thoughts and second guesses not coalescing at the moment, so it’s time for a song.
    By way of introduction, I met this woman recently who introduced me to this band. We danced in my apartment. I now have new shoes. That is all.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p_81l4DXlwM

  1062. Both book and movie are worth the time.
    I have many thoughts and second guesses not coalescing at the moment, so it’s time for a song.
    By way of introduction, I met this woman recently who introduced me to this band. We danced in my apartment. I now have new shoes. That is all.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p_81l4DXlwM

  1065. Maybe it was the soles he wore out? Rather than damage to the tops of the toes. At least that was my thought on first reading….

  1066. Maybe it was the soles he wore out? Rather than damage to the tops of the toes. At least that was my thought on first reading….

  1067. I met this woman recently who introduced me to this band
    All the young Russians I work with and all the middle aged beatniks I know worship Gogol Bordello. Crazy-ass Ukrainian gypsy punk. The singer shows up in the film Everything Is Illuminated when he plays basically himself in the form of shady driver-slash-tour guide.
    There is a cynical, joyfully anarchic street level vibe to a lot of Eastern European stuff that can be kind of attractive if you just take it face value and go with it. We’re all screwed, the institutions are all corrupt, let’s crash all the parties, raid all the open bars, steal the hotel towels, and have fun.
    Have fun, JDT.

  1068. I met this woman recently who introduced me to this band
    All the young Russians I work with and all the middle aged beatniks I know worship Gogol Bordello. Crazy-ass Ukrainian gypsy punk. The singer shows up in the film Everything Is Illuminated when he plays basically himself in the form of shady driver-slash-tour guide.
    There is a cynical, joyfully anarchic street level vibe to a lot of Eastern European stuff that can be kind of attractive if you just take it face value and go with it. We’re all screwed, the institutions are all corrupt, let’s crash all the parties, raid all the open bars, steal the hotel towels, and have fun.
    Have fun, JDT.

  1069. “She was that bad a dancer, huh?”
    I skipped some steps.
    The new shoes came later when she decided I needed a funky upgrade.
    I acquiesced.

  1070. “She was that bad a dancer, huh?”
    I skipped some steps.
    The new shoes came later when she decided I needed a funky upgrade.
    I acquiesced.

  1073. It was a joke, though obviously not a good one!
    I loved the alcohol-fuelled home run story…

  1074. It was a joke, though obviously not a good one!
    I loved the alcohol-fuelled home run story…

  1075. Your joke was a great one.
    The “That is all.” was meant to be a tease to speculation, while also, natch, maintaining plausible deniability in the face of the rich imaginations round these here parts.

  1076. Your joke was a great one.
    The “That is all.” was meant to be a tease to speculation, while also, natch, maintaining plausible deniability in the face of the rich imaginations round these here parts.

  1077. Kind of on the same tip, if you squint a bit, Macedonian jazz guitarist meets gypsy brass band in a tribute to the great NOLA drummer Ed Blackwell.
    Politics is politics, and then there’s people doing their thing and living their lives.
    Plus, it has a good beat and you can dance to it.

  1078. Kind of on the same tip, if you squint a bit, Macedonian jazz guitarist meets gypsy brass band in a tribute to the great NOLA drummer Ed Blackwell.
    Politics is politics, and then there’s people doing their thing and living their lives.
    Plus, it has a good beat and you can dance to it.

  1089. All the young Russians I work with and all the middle aged beatniks I know worship Gogol Bordello.
    I was *this close* to seeing them on New Year’s Eve in Philly some number of years ago. I don’t remember why it didn’t happen, but I regret it. That probably would have been the best NYE of my life.

  1090. All the young Russians I work with and all the middle aged beatniks I know worship Gogol Bordello.
    I was *this close* to seeing them on New Year’s Eve in Philly some number of years ago. I don’t remember why it didn’t happen, but I regret it. That probably would have been the best NYE of my life.

  1091. Neither as scary or as impractical as its opponents pretend.
    What’s scary about reparations isn’t something like the cost. It’s the very idea that slavery is something to be apologized for. A lot of these folks are, after all, fans of the Lost Cause. (They still, even today, make remarks about how blacks were better off as slaves.)
    So yeah, for them it’s every bit as scary as they say.

  1092. Neither as scary or as impractical as its opponents pretend.
    What’s scary about reparations isn’t something like the cost. It’s the very idea that slavery is something to be apologized for. A lot of these folks are, after all, fans of the Lost Cause. (They still, even today, make remarks about how blacks were better off as slaves.)
    So yeah, for them it’s every bit as scary as they say.

  1095. What’s scary about reparations isn’t something like the cost.
    Well, that is until you have to include the multitudes of Irish slaves who suffered comparably to African slaves (according to some very well-informed people). You might not know about such things, though, if you’ve only heard the “official” story.

  1096. What’s scary about reparations isn’t something like the cost.
    Well, that is until you have to include the multitudes of Irish slaves who suffered comparably to African slaves (according to some very well-informed people). You might not know about such things, though, if you’ve only heard the “official” story.

  1097. They still, even today, make remarks about how blacks were better off as slaves.
    For an alternative view of slavery and much of the rest of American history:
    “In this groundbreaking book, noted historian Thaddeus Russell tells a new and surprising story about the origins of American freedom. Rather than crediting the standard textbook icons, Russell demonstrates that it was those on the fringes of society whose subversive lifestyles helped legitimize the taboo and made America the land of the free.”
    A Renegade History of the United States

  1098. They still, even today, make remarks about how blacks were better off as slaves.
    For an alternative view of slavery and much of the rest of American history:
    “In this groundbreaking book, noted historian Thaddeus Russell tells a new and surprising story about the origins of American freedom. Rather than crediting the standard textbook icons, Russell demonstrates that it was those on the fringes of society whose subversive lifestyles helped legitimize the taboo and made America the land of the free.”
    A Renegade History of the United States

  1099. it was those on the fringes of society whose subversive lifestyles helped legitimize the taboo and made America the land of the free
    Slavery having been “legitimized” by people at the very center of American “society”, it’s hard to argue with the proposition that anti-slavers were “on the fringes”. But “subversive lifestyles”?!
    –TP

  1100. it was those on the fringes of society whose subversive lifestyles helped legitimize the taboo and made America the land of the free
    Slavery having been “legitimized” by people at the very center of American “society”, it’s hard to argue with the proposition that anti-slavers were “on the fringes”. But “subversive lifestyles”?!
    –TP

  1101. They still, even today, make remarks about how blacks were better off as slaves.
    Famously, Pat Buchanan.

    First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

    No doubt I am taking his remarks out of context.

  1102. They still, even today, make remarks about how blacks were better off as slaves.
    Famously, Pat Buchanan.

    First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

    No doubt I am taking his remarks out of context.

  1103. You simply have to define freedom and prosperity as having Europeans (or the descendants thereof) impose a way of life upon you. Then it makes all the sense in the world.

  1104. You simply have to define freedom and prosperity as having Europeans (or the descendants thereof) impose a way of life upon you. Then it makes all the sense in the world.

  1105. hsh, but those Irish were papists*, so they too got the chance to learn the true faith in America (OK, that seems to have been a failure for the most part) šŸ˜‰
    *and as Celts of course not ‘really’ white either.

  1106. hsh, but those Irish were papists*, so they too got the chance to learn the true faith in America (OK, that seems to have been a failure for the most part) šŸ˜‰
    *and as Celts of course not ‘really’ white either.

  1109. It’s all part of Make America Great Again.
    If you want to outdo the Harding administration on its core competency (and it was, until Trump, the unquestioned champion), then you have to do the whole “favors for friends”/”it’s not what you know it’s who you know” thing. If you (and your people) don’t, you have no chance at Most Corrupt Administration Ever!!! — and wouldn’t that be sad?

  1110. It’s all part of Make America Great Again.
    If you want to outdo the Harding administration on its core competency (and it was, until Trump, the unquestioned champion), then you have to do the whole “favors for friends”/”it’s not what you know it’s who you know” thing. If you (and your people) don’t, you have no chance at Most Corrupt Administration Ever!!! — and wouldn’t that be sad?

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