by liberal japonicus
As always, a quasi-poen thread, but was hoping UKians might comment on this
Saw some YouTube videos from Good Morning Britain (and god, what an embarassment! That fanfare opening is half finished! I suppose one can’t expect much from a program that employed Piers Morgan, but wow) where Adil Ray keeps suggesting to Ed Milliband that it is hypocritical to complain about Sunak’s wife’s non-dom status because they’ve gotten contributions from other non-dom (Ray seems transfixed by pointing out that Baron Noon was ‘the curry king). It seems like such a non-sequitur that I struggle to imagine addressing it.
Anyway, my envy at the way the UK tax system handles things, in that it is Inland Revenue (if you are an US citizen, you are supposed to pay taxes no matter where you live. The list of countries that do that, let me see if I can find the list, oh, yeah, Eritrea. That’s it), is diminished quite a bit.
Later, it emerged that both Sunak and his wife have green cards with articles suggesting that Sunak might want to return to a career in the private financial sector. ‘Oh, and here’s our newest, Rishi, a great guy, did you know he was almost Prime Minster of the UK? Definitely ask him for restaurant recs if you are going to London!’
UKians and anyone else, have at it.
And this came up just after I posted
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/10/sunak-orders-investigation-leak-wife-non-dom-status
I’m sure Sunak thinks asking people to investigate him is the Olympian heights of self-sacrifice.
And this came up just after I posted
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/10/sunak-orders-investigation-leak-wife-non-dom-status
I’m sure Sunak thinks asking people to investigate him is the Olympian heights of self-sacrifice.
His best effort was referring to it all as “smears”.
Which seems to be the new term for true but inconvenient or embarrassing facts.
His best effort was referring to it all as “smears”.
Which seems to be the new term for true but inconvenient or embarrassing facts.
The most irksome point to me is that he held a green card – effectively declaring himself a permanent resident of the US – while actively campaigning for Brexit in the UK.
No doubt this will be put down to an oversight, but it does exemplify how the seriously wealthy tend to be detached from the rights and responsibilities – constraints, one might say – of citizenship.
The most irksome point to me is that he held a green card – effectively declaring himself a permanent resident of the US – while actively campaigning for Brexit in the UK.
No doubt this will be put down to an oversight, but it does exemplify how the seriously wealthy tend to be detached from the rights and responsibilities – constraints, one might say – of citizenship.
Nigel, was Sunak a die-hard Brexiteer or just one who clambered on the band-wagon later? The Wikipedia page doesn’t give many details.
Nigel, was Sunak a die-hard Brexiteer or just one who clambered on the band-wagon later? The Wikipedia page doesn’t give many details.
Obscure backbencher at the time, so not prominent.
I get the impression of an ambitious politician who sensed early on what would serve his ambitions best within the Conservative party.
His stated position at the time (which reads pretty boilerplate – ie conviction free – to me):
https://www.rishisunak.com/news/why-i-will-vote-britain-leave-eu-0
Obscure backbencher at the time, so not prominent.
I get the impression of an ambitious politician who sensed early on what would serve his ambitions best within the Conservative party.
His stated position at the time (which reads pretty boilerplate – ie conviction free – to me):
https://www.rishisunak.com/news/why-i-will-vote-britain-leave-eu-0
Totally with Nigel on the Brexit/Green Card issue (rather like Farage applying for German citizenship through his wife the day after the referendum), and indeed on everything else hereabouts. What a bunch of morally corrupt swine they are.
Totally with Nigel on the Brexit/Green Card issue (rather like Farage applying for German citizenship through his wife the day after the referendum), and indeed on everything else hereabouts. What a bunch of morally corrupt swine they are.
“I’m sure Sunak thinks asking people to investigate him is the Olympian heights of self-sacrifice.”
I’m not sure about that. Seems to me more like a tactic attempting to turn the tables.
If it’s a civil servant, then leaking personal data is a sackable, likely criminal offence, and the Tories will revel in the opportunity to express outrage.
If (as is perhaps more likely*) it’s a political opponent in his own party, then it would be much to his advantage.
*The consequences for civili servants breaching confidentiality are sufficiently severe (and leak enquiries are pretty uncomfortable affairs even for the innocent) to provide considerable deterrence.
Most political journalists will confirm that the great majority of leaks come form politicians.
“I’m sure Sunak thinks asking people to investigate him is the Olympian heights of self-sacrifice.”
I’m not sure about that. Seems to me more like a tactic attempting to turn the tables.
If it’s a civil servant, then leaking personal data is a sackable, likely criminal offence, and the Tories will revel in the opportunity to express outrage.
If (as is perhaps more likely*) it’s a political opponent in his own party, then it would be much to his advantage.
*The consequences for civili servants breaching confidentiality are sufficiently severe (and leak enquiries are pretty uncomfortable affairs even for the innocent) to provide considerable deterrence.
Most political journalists will confirm that the great majority of leaks come form politicians.
There are two investigations here: one, by the Independent Advisor on Ministers’ Interests, intended to declare that Sunak acted within the letter of the regulations, the other by the Treasury and Cabinet Office, intended to identify and punish the leaker and so make it less likely that other Ministers will have to go to the trouble of having their corrupt dealings whitewashed.
There are two investigations here: one, by the Independent Advisor on Ministers’ Interests, intended to declare that Sunak acted within the letter of the regulations, the other by the Treasury and Cabinet Office, intended to identify and punish the leaker and so make it less likely that other Ministers will have to go to the trouble of having their corrupt dealings whitewashed.
An appropriately cynical description…
An appropriately cynical description…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/putin-purges-150-fsb-agents-in-response-to-russias-botched-war-with-ukraine-lf9k6tn6g
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/putin-purges-150-fsb-agents-in-response-to-russias-botched-war-with-ukraine-lf9k6tn6g
Have just tried twice to post a link to a Times article about Putin’s purging of 150 FSB agents. Despite using my GftNC handle, which normally works when I’m posting links, it seems to have vanished.
Fixed — wj
Have just tried twice to post a link to a Times article about Putin’s purging of 150 FSB agents. Despite using my GftNC handle, which normally works when I’m posting links, it seems to have vanished.
Fixed — wj
Thanks, wj!
Thanks, wj!
Recently I have been considering starting tai chi and have been visiting all sorts of kung fu and qi gong related websites and fora int he process. Was reminded in the process of all of the tension between Falun Gong and the Chinese government, but the qi gong crowd seems pretty ambivalent there and anxious to avoid political commentary.
Which is the context and backdrop for my return to one of the firearms forums I lurk on and monitor. Surprise, surprise…the COVID paranoia and disinformation subforum there is full of anti-Chinese, anti-vax material that filters in from an assortment of “natural medicine” sites that seem mostly to be repackaging material from the Falun Gong owned Epoch Times.
Interesting.
Chinese cult influencing 2A RWNJs.
We live in a very discordian timeline.
Recently I have been considering starting tai chi and have been visiting all sorts of kung fu and qi gong related websites and fora int he process. Was reminded in the process of all of the tension between Falun Gong and the Chinese government, but the qi gong crowd seems pretty ambivalent there and anxious to avoid political commentary.
Which is the context and backdrop for my return to one of the firearms forums I lurk on and monitor. Surprise, surprise…the COVID paranoia and disinformation subforum there is full of anti-Chinese, anti-vax material that filters in from an assortment of “natural medicine” sites that seem mostly to be repackaging material from the Falun Gong owned Epoch Times.
Interesting.
Chinese cult influencing 2A RWNJs.
We live in a very discordian timeline.
The ULA and NASA have restarted their wet dress rehearsal with the Space Launch System. Due to anomalies in a helium valve, they won’t be fueling the second stage. So near as I can tell, they are willing to fly the Artemis 1 mission using a second stage that has never been fueled on the launch pad.
It’s one thing when SpaceX blows up the occasional $100M rocket early in its lifetime. (Using the standard measure, the Falcon 9 is now the safest heavy-lift rocket ever flown.) It’s another thing entirely to risk blowing up a $2B rocket because you skimped on the testing. $4B if you believe the NASA Inspector General on the proper way to do the accounting. And the second copy of the SLS won’t be finished for at least two more years.
The ULA and NASA have restarted their wet dress rehearsal with the Space Launch System. Due to anomalies in a helium valve, they won’t be fueling the second stage. So near as I can tell, they are willing to fly the Artemis 1 mission using a second stage that has never been fueled on the launch pad.
It’s one thing when SpaceX blows up the occasional $100M rocket early in its lifetime. (Using the standard measure, the Falcon 9 is now the safest heavy-lift rocket ever flown.) It’s another thing entirely to risk blowing up a $2B rocket because you skimped on the testing. $4B if you believe the NASA Inspector General on the proper way to do the accounting. And the second copy of the SLS won’t be finished for at least two more years.
It was probably the right decision, given his injury hostory and age.
https://www.mlb.com/news/clayton-kershaw-removed-from-perfect-game
But it hurts to see someone pitch 7 perfect innings, and then get pulled from the game. And after only 80 pitches — is that really a long outing, even this early in the season?
It was probably the right decision, given his injury hostory and age.
https://www.mlb.com/news/clayton-kershaw-removed-from-perfect-game
But it hurts to see someone pitch 7 perfect innings, and then get pulled from the game. And after only 80 pitches — is that really a long outing, even this early in the season?
The Space Launch System wet dress rehearsal failed again today. Tanks on the core stage were filled to about 5% with LOX and LH2 before a hydrogen leak required them to stop. The leak appears to be in the ground facilities, not the rocket. They have begun draining the tanks. No word yet on whether they will attempt another partial test in the near future, or haul the rocket back to the assembly building.
I am so glad I’m not working on a rocket that is so expensive to build and launch that the first flight has to be perfect, or the entire project is at risk of being cancelled.
The Space Launch System wet dress rehearsal failed again today. Tanks on the core stage were filled to about 5% with LOX and LH2 before a hydrogen leak required them to stop. The leak appears to be in the ground facilities, not the rocket. They have begun draining the tanks. No word yet on whether they will attempt another partial test in the near future, or haul the rocket back to the assembly building.
I am so glad I’m not working on a rocket that is so expensive to build and launch that the first flight has to be perfect, or the entire project is at risk of being cancelled.
Anything can be extremely expensive when it’s coated with politics and cover-your-ass.
Anything can be extremely expensive when it’s coated with politics and cover-your-ass.
In addition to other problems, it will be interesting to see if SLS can survive the retirement of Alabama Senator Richard “NASA’s manned space program will always be built in Alabama” Shelby.
In addition to other problems, it will be interesting to see if SLS can survive the retirement of Alabama Senator Richard “NASA’s manned space program will always be built in Alabama” Shelby.
It will be interesting to see if Alabamans decide to hedge their bets in that regard by electing a Democrat to follow Senator Shelby. Could economics be strong enough?
It will be interesting to see if Alabamans decide to hedge their bets in that regard by electing a Democrat to follow Senator Shelby. Could economics be strong enough?
Your Friday smile:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/15/florida-dont-say-gay-says-dont-say-straight-too/
Your Friday smile:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/15/florida-dont-say-gay-says-dont-say-straight-too/
It will be interesting to see if Alabamans decide to hedge their bets in that regard by electing a Democrat to follow Senator Shelby. Could economics be strong enough?
With tongue only partially in cheek, will a new Senator of either party be able to get Congress to continue ignoring economics? Of the three companies that are likely to be involved in NASA’s human space flights this decade, only the United Launch Alliance has or will have significant operations in Alabama. And ULA is starting to look very much like the high-priced option for everything.
Now some of that’s not their fault. Congress saddled them with reusing the Shuttle engines in the SLS, which also stuck them with LH2 fuel and solid-fuel boosters. Congress made them stop buying Russian-built engines for the Atlas V, although Russia would almost certainly have stopped delivering them to ULA by this point anyway because of Ukraine.
It will be interesting to see if Alabamans decide to hedge their bets in that regard by electing a Democrat to follow Senator Shelby. Could economics be strong enough?
With tongue only partially in cheek, will a new Senator of either party be able to get Congress to continue ignoring economics? Of the three companies that are likely to be involved in NASA’s human space flights this decade, only the United Launch Alliance has or will have significant operations in Alabama. And ULA is starting to look very much like the high-priced option for everything.
Now some of that’s not their fault. Congress saddled them with reusing the Shuttle engines in the SLS, which also stuck them with LH2 fuel and solid-fuel boosters. Congress made them stop buying Russian-built engines for the Atlas V, although Russia would almost certainly have stopped delivering them to ULA by this point anyway because of Ukraine.
With tongue only partially in cheek, will a new Senator of either party be able to get Congress to continue ignoring economics?
Of course, Alabamans may be blissfully (resolutely?) unaware that even a Senator of the “right” party might be unable to keep Congress doing so. Heaven knows voters seem able to ignore reality on other fronts.
With tongue only partially in cheek, will a new Senator of either party be able to get Congress to continue ignoring economics?
Of course, Alabamans may be blissfully (resolutely?) unaware that even a Senator of the “right” party might be unable to keep Congress doing so. Heaven knows voters seem able to ignore reality on other fronts.
Yup.
How Russia Media Uses Fox News to Make Its Case
Well worth reading in toto, but it examines (with stats) four ways Russian media has used Fox News to bolster the government’s narrative about the war:
1. Blaming NATO Expansion
2. Buttressing Conspiracy Theories
3. Questioning the West’s Aims
4. Criticising President Biden
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/technology/russia-media-fox-news.html
Yup.
How Russia Media Uses Fox News to Make Its Case
Well worth reading in toto, but it examines (with stats) four ways Russian media has used Fox News to bolster the government’s narrative about the war:
1. Blaming NATO Expansion
2. Buttressing Conspiracy Theories
3. Questioning the West’s Aims
4. Criticising President Biden
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/technology/russia-media-fox-news.html
Yes, because the enemy of both the Russian nationalist and the Fox viewer is modernism and the liberal nation state. And both groups are fronted by oligarchs hoping to become the new feudal overlords when crisis capitalism kills the Westphalian system.
Yes, because the enemy of both the Russian nationalist and the Fox viewer is modernism and the liberal nation state. And both groups are fronted by oligarchs hoping to become the new feudal overlords when crisis capitalism kills the Westphalian system.
Of course, Alabamans may be blissfully (resolutely?) unaware that even a Senator of the “right” party might be unable to keep Congress doing so.
The commentariate at Lawyers, Guns & Money regularly puts Alabama Senator Tuberville in the competition for “dumbest Senator”. I will give him credit for saying, during the hearings process for President Biden’s nominee to head NASA, “Bill Nelson [former Democratic Senator from Florida] understands that NASA’s rocket program needs to run through Huntsville.”
Of course, Alabamans may be blissfully (resolutely?) unaware that even a Senator of the “right” party might be unable to keep Congress doing so.
The commentariate at Lawyers, Guns & Money regularly puts Alabama Senator Tuberville in the competition for “dumbest Senator”. I will give him credit for saying, during the hearings process for President Biden’s nominee to head NASA, “Bill Nelson [former Democratic Senator from Florida] understands that NASA’s rocket program needs to run through Huntsville.”
“ 1. Blaming NATO Expansion
2. Buttressing Conspiracy Theories
3. Questioning the West’s Aims
4. Criticising President Biden”
I don’t have a problem with most of that. NATO expansionism is partly to blame. Not as much as Mearsheimer says, but events tend to be multi causal. Conspiracy theories” is vague. Like everyone else, I believe some and not others. Apparently thinking Nuland had something to do with the change in Ukraines’s government in 2014 is something the NYT called a conspiracy theory in a different piece. One should question the West’s aims. Governments are almost intrinsically hypocritical. Biden is a gigantic hypocrite on human rights,to the extent one can take anything he says seriously. He and Putin should share a prison cell.
Tucker’s motives, of course, are undoubtedly cynical. But then in different ways so are the motives of the NYT. I have seen them distorting facts in ways that contradict their own reporting— for instance, they claimed the Russians used to accuse Syrian dissidents of being members of Al Qaeda, yet they reported back in 2013 that when Obama put Al Nusra on the terrorist list this was opposed by Syrian dissidents because Al Nusra was the strongest force against Assad. They weren’t members but they were allies. Ben Rhodes and other pro interventionists in the Obama administration felt the same way.
The MSM goes into propaganda mode when the US is in something very close to a direct war with an enemy. It has been fascinating to see how this war is covered vs the way some others are. I don’t watch Tucker even though he occasionally has people on who I would like to see, like the Amazon labor union organizer. But I avoid him because he is slimy and not for those four reasons.
“ 1. Blaming NATO Expansion
2. Buttressing Conspiracy Theories
3. Questioning the West’s Aims
4. Criticising President Biden”
I don’t have a problem with most of that. NATO expansionism is partly to blame. Not as much as Mearsheimer says, but events tend to be multi causal. Conspiracy theories” is vague. Like everyone else, I believe some and not others. Apparently thinking Nuland had something to do with the change in Ukraines’s government in 2014 is something the NYT called a conspiracy theory in a different piece. One should question the West’s aims. Governments are almost intrinsically hypocritical. Biden is a gigantic hypocrite on human rights,to the extent one can take anything he says seriously. He and Putin should share a prison cell.
Tucker’s motives, of course, are undoubtedly cynical. But then in different ways so are the motives of the NYT. I have seen them distorting facts in ways that contradict their own reporting— for instance, they claimed the Russians used to accuse Syrian dissidents of being members of Al Qaeda, yet they reported back in 2013 that when Obama put Al Nusra on the terrorist list this was opposed by Syrian dissidents because Al Nusra was the strongest force against Assad. They weren’t members but they were allies. Ben Rhodes and other pro interventionists in the Obama administration felt the same way.
The MSM goes into propaganda mode when the US is in something very close to a direct war with an enemy. It has been fascinating to see how this war is covered vs the way some others are. I don’t watch Tucker even though he occasionally has people on who I would like to see, like the Amazon labor union organizer. But I avoid him because he is slimy and not for those four reasons.
Biden is a gigantic hypocrite on human rights,to the extent one can take anything he says seriously. He and Putin should share a prison cell.
I’m trying to remember when Biden ordered the invasion of a neighboring (or any) country. Or when troups under his command engaged in multiple, ongoing torture of civilians and other war crimes.
Help me out here Donald. Or are you just signing on to the Trumpian “everybody is equally bad” position?
Biden is a gigantic hypocrite on human rights,to the extent one can take anything he says seriously. He and Putin should share a prison cell.
I’m trying to remember when Biden ordered the invasion of a neighboring (or any) country. Or when troups under his command engaged in multiple, ongoing torture of civilians and other war crimes.
Help me out here Donald. Or are you just signing on to the Trumpian “everybody is equally bad” position?
I wonder when Donald will call for He, Trump to share that prison cell with Putin and Biden.
Who else would Donald lock up? Who would Donald make warden?
Putin would lock Donald up, either before or after poisoning him. So would Biden, right?
Morality is good. Morality is noble. We need morals. Hypocrisy is bad. Hypocrisy is detestable. We can do without hypocrisy.
All we need now is a Grand Arbiter of Morality and Hypocrisy. Anybody want the job?
–TP
I wonder when Donald will call for He, Trump to share that prison cell with Putin and Biden.
Who else would Donald lock up? Who would Donald make warden?
Putin would lock Donald up, either before or after poisoning him. So would Biden, right?
Morality is good. Morality is noble. We need morals. Hypocrisy is bad. Hypocrisy is detestable. We can do without hypocrisy.
All we need now is a Grand Arbiter of Morality and Hypocrisy. Anybody want the job?
–TP
I’m guessing that the alleged Biden crimes in question are mostly the use of drone strikes and artillery in mixed environments in Afghanistan and Iraq, the aerial bombing in the former Yugoslavian states, and the drones-and-special-forces actions in Yemen. Beyond that, Donald has pointed to his continued enabling of Saudi and Israeli aggression that human rights activists argue have often risen to the level of international war crimes. Which is to say that he (and we) enable – and outsource – a lot of state sponsored violence that we know crossed the line into grave violations under the guise of the “fog of war.”
Not arguing for Biden to be up on charges with the ICC here, or that the nature and scope of our own failings leave no bright lines between us and Putin, just trying to fill in the details of what I think is in question from our previous discussions here.
I’m guessing that the alleged Biden crimes in question are mostly the use of drone strikes and artillery in mixed environments in Afghanistan and Iraq, the aerial bombing in the former Yugoslavian states, and the drones-and-special-forces actions in Yemen. Beyond that, Donald has pointed to his continued enabling of Saudi and Israeli aggression that human rights activists argue have often risen to the level of international war crimes. Which is to say that he (and we) enable – and outsource – a lot of state sponsored violence that we know crossed the line into grave violations under the guise of the “fog of war.”
Not arguing for Biden to be up on charges with the ICC here, or that the nature and scope of our own failings leave no bright lines between us and Putin, just trying to fill in the details of what I think is in question from our previous discussions here.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I see a significant distinction between committing an offense and merely failing to stop it.
Not to say that one has no obligation to stop something bad if one can. Just that the level of offense is far greater for actively doing something than for failing to stop someone else from doing the same thing.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I see a significant distinction between committing an offense and merely failing to stop it.
Not to say that one has no obligation to stop something bad if one can. Just that the level of offense is far greater for actively doing something than for failing to stop someone else from doing the same thing.
Personally, I’m rather with Tony P. The real world allows precious few “bright lines”, I’ll take what I can get.
Personally, I’m rather with Tony P. The real world allows precious few “bright lines”, I’ll take what I can get.
What Tony P and GftNC said, but in more words:
The defendants at Nuremberg were not charged with the crime of Hypocrisy against humanity, and had they been, they would have been found innocent, the facts being what they fucking were.
When the victims of the Holocaust disembarked from the trains at the concentration camps with ash gently falling on their heads, they didn’t accost the Nazi guards directing them to the left or right and express outrage at the latter’s hypocrisy in having mislead the families as to their ultimate destinations.
“Your leaders said we were being transported to health spas and new lives. Now, what do you have to say for yourselves, you hypocrites? THIS, I say, is travel agent brochure hypocrisy!”
Harry Truman told Henry Wallace after the bombing of Nagasaki that “he didn’t like the killing of all those kids.”
Presumably, had he “liked” the idea of killing all those kids, we could rest a little assured that, well, at the very least, the man was not a hypocrite and then we could go about our business with a morally pristine attitude.
Which we mostly did anyway.
I sense that at the root of the creepy affection between the leader of North Korea and Donald Trump, and the malignant sympathies exchanged between Trump and Putin, was a mutual admiration of the absolute absence of hypocrisy in each of them.
Various governors and state legislatures, scrambling to remain absolute moral virgins, except when they are fucking their constituents at the motel on the edge of their racist gerrymandered district, are outlawing abortion, even in the event that the pregnancy is the result of rape and violence, AND pregnant women experiencing miscarriages and other medical problems during pregnancy are going to have their care compromised.
We will soon read about a woman, probably married, who was denied proper medical care during her pregnancy, because her doctor was afraid and intimidated by the threat of prosecution if he or she possibly contravenes some obtuse language in the new “laws”, and the doctor’s will die, as might her fetus.
The hypocrisy that will follow, especially authored by me, when that manslaughter is committed by vermin Christian conservatives, is going to be spectacular.
Hillary Clinton is a terrible hypocrite, so the American people, like von Hindenburg appointing Hiltler to the Chancellorship in 1932, in their earthy moral wisdom, went with a racist, pussy-grabbing, genocidal, immigrant-murdering, tax cheating fraudster psychopath whose subhuman larcenous cruelty comes straight from an honest heart of pure shit, because he sez-what-he-means is cash on the barrel-head to yer average plain-spoken American dunce.
And he means what he sez when he steals every election going forward.
True, a few opted in 2016 for the “What’s Aleppo” dude, thus choosing a kind of stoned and blinkered geographic ignorance, and thereby preserving their carefully curated political hymens.
Because not knowing what an Aleppo is comes in handy when someone else wipes it off the face of the Earth.
It’s fascinating that Putin and 80 million vermin conservatives in this country engage, in nearly identical words, their solidarity in absolute hatred of hypocrite Hillary Clinton.
“Governments are almost intrinsically hypocritical.”
All that means is that each of us are individuals free of hypocrisy until we occupy a leadership position in government to carry out the policy preferences of 280 million non-hypocrites, for the non-hypocrites, by the non-hypocrites and of the non-hypocrites.
On each of our first days in office, we will sign our names and the Presidential Seal to massive wheelbarrows full of hypocritical compromised bullshit, as one hypocrite to another.
Charges of hypocrisy always seem to me to miss the point, like when I miss both legs of my pants as I try to jump into them with both feet simultaneously every morning.
I agree with Donald and nous that we must try harder.
But when, for example (because I guffaw every time I think about), a guy sez the thing that he doesn’t care for about guns is that they are too noisy and bother his ears, I’m thinking his aim at the main target … the point of what is fundamentally evil about weaponry … is not true.
I mean, they give guys about to be shot by firing squads blindfolds, not earplugs.
The conservative operatives (fully groomed by the conservative second amendment groomers) who shoot up public schools are never, that I know of, charged with violating noise ordinances in leafy suburban neighborhoods.
I suppose if the shooters promised their mothers as they left for school in the morning that no, Mom, I won’t shoot anyone at school today, we could get them on charges of hypocrisy as well.
Anyway, I don’t disagree with Donald in the essence of what he writes, but short of a massive asteroid taking out the entire human race on Earth, I know of no way to eliminate both absolute EVIL and it’s morally compromised and ambivalent sidekick, hypocrisy.
Well, I am the hypocrite. I said the other day I wouldn’t be back until next week, and here I be.
What Tony P and GftNC said, but in more words:
The defendants at Nuremberg were not charged with the crime of Hypocrisy against humanity, and had they been, they would have been found innocent, the facts being what they fucking were.
When the victims of the Holocaust disembarked from the trains at the concentration camps with ash gently falling on their heads, they didn’t accost the Nazi guards directing them to the left or right and express outrage at the latter’s hypocrisy in having mislead the families as to their ultimate destinations.
“Your leaders said we were being transported to health spas and new lives. Now, what do you have to say for yourselves, you hypocrites? THIS, I say, is travel agent brochure hypocrisy!”
Harry Truman told Henry Wallace after the bombing of Nagasaki that “he didn’t like the killing of all those kids.”
Presumably, had he “liked” the idea of killing all those kids, we could rest a little assured that, well, at the very least, the man was not a hypocrite and then we could go about our business with a morally pristine attitude.
Which we mostly did anyway.
I sense that at the root of the creepy affection between the leader of North Korea and Donald Trump, and the malignant sympathies exchanged between Trump and Putin, was a mutual admiration of the absolute absence of hypocrisy in each of them.
Various governors and state legislatures, scrambling to remain absolute moral virgins, except when they are fucking their constituents at the motel on the edge of their racist gerrymandered district, are outlawing abortion, even in the event that the pregnancy is the result of rape and violence, AND pregnant women experiencing miscarriages and other medical problems during pregnancy are going to have their care compromised.
We will soon read about a woman, probably married, who was denied proper medical care during her pregnancy, because her doctor was afraid and intimidated by the threat of prosecution if he or she possibly contravenes some obtuse language in the new “laws”, and the doctor’s will die, as might her fetus.
The hypocrisy that will follow, especially authored by me, when that manslaughter is committed by vermin Christian conservatives, is going to be spectacular.
Hillary Clinton is a terrible hypocrite, so the American people, like von Hindenburg appointing Hiltler to the Chancellorship in 1932, in their earthy moral wisdom, went with a racist, pussy-grabbing, genocidal, immigrant-murdering, tax cheating fraudster psychopath whose subhuman larcenous cruelty comes straight from an honest heart of pure shit, because he sez-what-he-means is cash on the barrel-head to yer average plain-spoken American dunce.
And he means what he sez when he steals every election going forward.
True, a few opted in 2016 for the “What’s Aleppo” dude, thus choosing a kind of stoned and blinkered geographic ignorance, and thereby preserving their carefully curated political hymens.
Because not knowing what an Aleppo is comes in handy when someone else wipes it off the face of the Earth.
It’s fascinating that Putin and 80 million vermin conservatives in this country engage, in nearly identical words, their solidarity in absolute hatred of hypocrite Hillary Clinton.
“Governments are almost intrinsically hypocritical.”
All that means is that each of us are individuals free of hypocrisy until we occupy a leadership position in government to carry out the policy preferences of 280 million non-hypocrites, for the non-hypocrites, by the non-hypocrites and of the non-hypocrites.
On each of our first days in office, we will sign our names and the Presidential Seal to massive wheelbarrows full of hypocritical compromised bullshit, as one hypocrite to another.
Charges of hypocrisy always seem to me to miss the point, like when I miss both legs of my pants as I try to jump into them with both feet simultaneously every morning.
I agree with Donald and nous that we must try harder.
But when, for example (because I guffaw every time I think about), a guy sez the thing that he doesn’t care for about guns is that they are too noisy and bother his ears, I’m thinking his aim at the main target … the point of what is fundamentally evil about weaponry … is not true.
I mean, they give guys about to be shot by firing squads blindfolds, not earplugs.
The conservative operatives (fully groomed by the conservative second amendment groomers) who shoot up public schools are never, that I know of, charged with violating noise ordinances in leafy suburban neighborhoods.
I suppose if the shooters promised their mothers as they left for school in the morning that no, Mom, I won’t shoot anyone at school today, we could get them on charges of hypocrisy as well.
Anyway, I don’t disagree with Donald in the essence of what he writes, but short of a massive asteroid taking out the entire human race on Earth, I know of no way to eliminate both absolute EVIL and it’s morally compromised and ambivalent sidekick, hypocrisy.
Well, I am the hypocrite. I said the other day I wouldn’t be back until next week, and here I be.
I strongly suspect that Biden will wind up being the second US President to spend time in jail.
For speeding. In Washington DC. Just like Pres. Grant did.
(Grant could have tots beat the charge, the radar evidence being very shaky, but he was honest and copped to the charge)
OTOH, Putin should share a cell with Dubya and Cheney. For a few days, while the scaffold is prepared.
I strongly suspect that Biden will wind up being the second US President to spend time in jail.
For speeding. In Washington DC. Just like Pres. Grant did.
(Grant could have tots beat the charge, the radar evidence being very shaky, but he was honest and copped to the charge)
OTOH, Putin should share a cell with Dubya and Cheney. For a few days, while the scaffold is prepared.
I don’t, for the record, think that there is anything to be gained by trying to put Biden (or Obama, or Bush, or Clinton) in prison for war crimes. I would like to see such a thing happen to Putin or to Assad (and possibly to Erdogan) if only because the only way for that to happen would be for them to have fallen out of power, and I do sincerely wish for them to be out of power.
I would like to see the US become the sort of nation state that ratifies UN conventions and binds itself to international standards, but that’s not going to happen. Maybe whatever political institutions come after the US might do such a thing, but this nation won’t.
And even if we did ratify the conventions that we pay lip service to, I don’t think that we have effective enforcement mechanisms in place to make sure that the conventions are upheld.
Don’t mistake unromantic assessment for idealism. The goals I put effort into are all much smaller than our collective problems and are the sorts of things we can do with a small footprint and without a broad international consensus or problems of sovereignty.
I don’t, for the record, think that there is anything to be gained by trying to put Biden (or Obama, or Bush, or Clinton) in prison for war crimes. I would like to see such a thing happen to Putin or to Assad (and possibly to Erdogan) if only because the only way for that to happen would be for them to have fallen out of power, and I do sincerely wish for them to be out of power.
I would like to see the US become the sort of nation state that ratifies UN conventions and binds itself to international standards, but that’s not going to happen. Maybe whatever political institutions come after the US might do such a thing, but this nation won’t.
And even if we did ratify the conventions that we pay lip service to, I don’t think that we have effective enforcement mechanisms in place to make sure that the conventions are upheld.
Don’t mistake unromantic assessment for idealism. The goals I put effort into are all much smaller than our collective problems and are the sorts of things we can do with a small footprint and without a broad international consensus or problems of sovereignty.
nooneithinkisinmytree: The hypocrisy that will follow, especially authored by me, when that manslaughter is committed by vermin Christian conservatives, is going to be spectacular.
In an attempt to get ahead of the curve, I will point out that Kyril, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, seems to be one of those vermin Christian conservatives. Perhaps like the oft-mentioned Rod Dreher, perhaps not.
Religion is at the bottom of all atrocities (except the hypocritical ones) because “if you believe absurdities, you can commit atrocities”. Certain “Christians” wish to exclude themselves from that dictum, but that’s just majoritarian hypocrisy.
Happy Easter to the schismatics and heretics who (unlike Kyril and my Greek relatives) will be celebrating it tomorrow.
–TP
nooneithinkisinmytree: The hypocrisy that will follow, especially authored by me, when that manslaughter is committed by vermin Christian conservatives, is going to be spectacular.
In an attempt to get ahead of the curve, I will point out that Kyril, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, seems to be one of those vermin Christian conservatives. Perhaps like the oft-mentioned Rod Dreher, perhaps not.
Religion is at the bottom of all atrocities (except the hypocritical ones) because “if you believe absurdities, you can commit atrocities”. Certain “Christians” wish to exclude themselves from that dictum, but that’s just majoritarian hypocrisy.
Happy Easter to the schismatics and heretics who (unlike Kyril and my Greek relatives) will be celebrating it tomorrow.
–TP
On the other hand, this is the guy who should be in a cell with Putin. Sorry if you think it’s overly sentimental – despite his (absolutely no doubt) many flaws, I don’t:
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1515466820203032580?s=20&t=unmxIA3Izwj6vINdpuE1Bk5DU1e1nPmEl6wz_Sl4IF0
On the other hand, this is the guy who should be in a cell with Putin. Sorry if you think it’s overly sentimental – despite his (absolutely no doubt) many flaws, I don’t:
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1515466820203032580?s=20&t=unmxIA3Izwj6vINdpuE1Bk5DU1e1nPmEl6wz_Sl4IF0
Biden was a strong supporter of the invasion of Iraq. He continued to support the Saudi war in Yemen, including the blockade which is actually responsible for the majority of deaths there. And he is currently starving people in Afghanistan. ( Link in a moment) He supports Israeli oppression of Palestinians. There is the usual jabber about a 2ss. It means nothing.
The UNDP says a child dies in Yemen or war caused starvation every nine minutes, or 160 per day. The press could be writing about this every day. Some of these deaths are due to the Houthis who are also war criminals. The majority are from the blockade. This crap has been going on for seven freaking years and I have never once seen ribbons on trees or heard daily comments on the press about the horrors we support. There is a story now and then. It isn’t common knowledge, because the message sent by the press is that daily coverage of one set of atrocities vs sporadic coverage of another implicitly tells you which ones are important. Probably all political cultures are hypocritical to some degree. But Westerners should stop lying about what they are. We are a society that blathers on about the war crimes of our enemies and mostly looks away from our own. Perfectly normal human behavior, but people can rise above that. On the subject of war crimes we are roughly where the US was on the subject of freedom in the late 1700’s. It took centuries and we still aren’t there, but we did gradually start to see the immense hypocrisy of talking so much about freedom while supporting slavery and then Jim Crow, sundown towns and redlining and police brutality..
On Native Americans it dawned gradually on whites that both sides committed atrocities but whites were the aggressors. That also is an issue that hasn’t been resolved, but what progress has occurred began with recognizing our hypocrisy.
We could genuinely do better, but the first step is admitting the problem.
Ilhan Omar has been talking about this for awhile. She wants the US to join the ICC. The kerfuffle about her last June came about because she asked Blinken about where the victims of war crimes committed by the Taliban, Hamas, the US and Israel could go to get justice. There were cries of outrage by the leading hypocrites in both parties. How dare she compare democracies with terrorist organizations? Israel and the US are democracies which have functioning judicial systems. Yeah, Palestinians and parents in Yemen will be glad to hear it. Blinken was part of the 2015 decision to support the Saudis, thinking it would be a quick war, which is probably what Putin thought. In a slightly better world both would be in The Hague. In a somewhat better world the West at least would be as good as it pretends to be and Biden’s moral outrage towards Putin wouldn’t look like the hypocritical crap it is.
I don’t expect either Putin or Biden to be tried unless there is a revolution. There is a chance ( probably small) Trump could be tried, but not as a war criminal but for January 6.
Right now, step 1 is for the US to join the ICC. Step 2 would be to drop the BS about how the ICC is no threat to our political leaders, bureaucrats and military because we have a functioning judicial system, as does Israel. It’s a joke. Governments don’t have a history of holding themselves accountable for crimes of that magnitude. I remember when the issue of the US joining the ICC was first came up under President Clinton. Conservatives were opposed because they feared US troops would be falsely accused of war crimes in a foreign court. The liberals replied that there was no danger of this because the ICC only steps in when a country has no functioning judicial system capable of holding its own forces accountable and we have that. In short, both sides of the debate were full of crap but in different ways.
More broadly, there needs to be a worldwide movement to make the UN
a place where all war crimes can be investigated impartially. It can’t happen now because the US and Russia are part of the Security Council and can veto such things. It probably won’t happen anytime soon as Jon Schwarz pointed out in the Intercept because no government is going to give up that much power. But I don’t think it is hopeless. Ordinary people can stop accepting the BS that is spoon fed to them by governments and their media stenographers. It starts there.
Biden was a strong supporter of the invasion of Iraq. He continued to support the Saudi war in Yemen, including the blockade which is actually responsible for the majority of deaths there. And he is currently starving people in Afghanistan. ( Link in a moment) He supports Israeli oppression of Palestinians. There is the usual jabber about a 2ss. It means nothing.
The UNDP says a child dies in Yemen or war caused starvation every nine minutes, or 160 per day. The press could be writing about this every day. Some of these deaths are due to the Houthis who are also war criminals. The majority are from the blockade. This crap has been going on for seven freaking years and I have never once seen ribbons on trees or heard daily comments on the press about the horrors we support. There is a story now and then. It isn’t common knowledge, because the message sent by the press is that daily coverage of one set of atrocities vs sporadic coverage of another implicitly tells you which ones are important. Probably all political cultures are hypocritical to some degree. But Westerners should stop lying about what they are. We are a society that blathers on about the war crimes of our enemies and mostly looks away from our own. Perfectly normal human behavior, but people can rise above that. On the subject of war crimes we are roughly where the US was on the subject of freedom in the late 1700’s. It took centuries and we still aren’t there, but we did gradually start to see the immense hypocrisy of talking so much about freedom while supporting slavery and then Jim Crow, sundown towns and redlining and police brutality..
On Native Americans it dawned gradually on whites that both sides committed atrocities but whites were the aggressors. That also is an issue that hasn’t been resolved, but what progress has occurred began with recognizing our hypocrisy.
We could genuinely do better, but the first step is admitting the problem.
Ilhan Omar has been talking about this for awhile. She wants the US to join the ICC. The kerfuffle about her last June came about because she asked Blinken about where the victims of war crimes committed by the Taliban, Hamas, the US and Israel could go to get justice. There were cries of outrage by the leading hypocrites in both parties. How dare she compare democracies with terrorist organizations? Israel and the US are democracies which have functioning judicial systems. Yeah, Palestinians and parents in Yemen will be glad to hear it. Blinken was part of the 2015 decision to support the Saudis, thinking it would be a quick war, which is probably what Putin thought. In a slightly better world both would be in The Hague. In a somewhat better world the West at least would be as good as it pretends to be and Biden’s moral outrage towards Putin wouldn’t look like the hypocritical crap it is.
I don’t expect either Putin or Biden to be tried unless there is a revolution. There is a chance ( probably small) Trump could be tried, but not as a war criminal but for January 6.
Right now, step 1 is for the US to join the ICC. Step 2 would be to drop the BS about how the ICC is no threat to our political leaders, bureaucrats and military because we have a functioning judicial system, as does Israel. It’s a joke. Governments don’t have a history of holding themselves accountable for crimes of that magnitude. I remember when the issue of the US joining the ICC was first came up under President Clinton. Conservatives were opposed because they feared US troops would be falsely accused of war crimes in a foreign court. The liberals replied that there was no danger of this because the ICC only steps in when a country has no functioning judicial system capable of holding its own forces accountable and we have that. In short, both sides of the debate were full of crap but in different ways.
More broadly, there needs to be a worldwide movement to make the UN
a place where all war crimes can be investigated impartially. It can’t happen now because the US and Russia are part of the Security Council and can veto such things. It probably won’t happen anytime soon as Jon Schwarz pointed out in the Intercept because no government is going to give up that much power. But I don’t think it is hopeless. Ordinary people can stop accepting the BS that is spoon fed to them by governments and their media stenographers. It starts there.
Ezra Klein on Biden and Afghanistan
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/opinion/afghanistan-starvation-biden.html?searchResultPosition=26
This is valuable because Ezra is basically on the border between mainstream liberalism and the far left, so he can empathize with the liberal bureaucrats in the Biden Administration who defend their policies while being able to step outside and see how insane and morally indefensible the policy is.
I think things like this happen because Americans in the Beltway ( and people who identify too closely with a given political party) can’t or won’t do what Klein does here.
Ezra Klein on Biden and Afghanistan
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/opinion/afghanistan-starvation-biden.html?searchResultPosition=26
This is valuable because Ezra is basically on the border between mainstream liberalism and the far left, so he can empathize with the liberal bureaucrats in the Biden Administration who defend their policies while being able to step outside and see how insane and morally indefensible the policy is.
I think things like this happen because Americans in the Beltway ( and people who identify too closely with a given political party) can’t or won’t do what Klein does here.
“ Perhaps I’m wrong, but I see a significant distinction between committing an offense and merely failing to stop it.”
So if we funneled weapons to Putin, gave him logistical support for his war and he imposed a blockade supported by us that killed hundreds of thousands of children this would be “ failing to stop Putin’s atrocities”.
No doubt, but it seems to me it would be a bit more than that. It also seemed that way to some lawyers in the Obama Administration who worried that Americans could be tried for complicity in war crimes.
Anyway, that’s the end of my ranting for the day.
“ Perhaps I’m wrong, but I see a significant distinction between committing an offense and merely failing to stop it.”
So if we funneled weapons to Putin, gave him logistical support for his war and he imposed a blockade supported by us that killed hundreds of thousands of children this would be “ failing to stop Putin’s atrocities”.
No doubt, but it seems to me it would be a bit more than that. It also seemed that way to some lawyers in the Obama Administration who worried that Americans could be tried for complicity in war crimes.
Anyway, that’s the end of my ranting for the day.
Westerners should stop lying about what they are
Emphatically agree.
If “stop lying” seems too strong, feel free to substitute “gain some self-awareness”.
Westerners should stop lying about what they are
Emphatically agree.
If “stop lying” seems too strong, feel free to substitute “gain some self-awareness”.
She wants the US to join the ICC.
FWIW, so do I.
More broadly, there needs to be a worldwide movement to make the UN a place where all war crimes can be investigated impartially.
A laudable idea, but in my opinion likely to take as long as the setting up of The United Federation of Planets, and not just because of the veto.
She wants the US to join the ICC.
FWIW, so do I.
More broadly, there needs to be a worldwide movement to make the UN a place where all war crimes can be investigated impartially.
A laudable idea, but in my opinion likely to take as long as the setting up of The United Federation of Planets, and not just because of the veto.
support the Saudi war in Yemen, including the blockade which is actually responsible for the majority of deaths there.
I’m with you on this. We had a golden opportunity at the beginning of the Afghanistan War. The Iranians (not historically our biggest fans, to put it mildly) offered us free transit across their territory. Like idiots, we decided instead to pay big bucks to Pakistan to cross their territory; money that Pakistan’s ISI funneled to the Taliban, who we were fighting.
But if we’d worked with the Iranians, we’d have had the flexibility to move away from the Saudis. Sure, the Iranians run a theocracy. But so do the Saudis (in everything but name). And at least the Iranians a) didn’t staff al Qaeda and b) have been civilized for millenia, so there’s some basis for a relationship.
The result would be that we wouldn’t have felt any need to support the Saudi aggression in Yemen. And, because the Saudis would have known that, they might even have refrained from attacking in the first place.
Alas, we went with the stupidity of the fantasy “Axis of Evil.”
support the Saudi war in Yemen, including the blockade which is actually responsible for the majority of deaths there.
I’m with you on this. We had a golden opportunity at the beginning of the Afghanistan War. The Iranians (not historically our biggest fans, to put it mildly) offered us free transit across their territory. Like idiots, we decided instead to pay big bucks to Pakistan to cross their territory; money that Pakistan’s ISI funneled to the Taliban, who we were fighting.
But if we’d worked with the Iranians, we’d have had the flexibility to move away from the Saudis. Sure, the Iranians run a theocracy. But so do the Saudis (in everything but name). And at least the Iranians a) didn’t staff al Qaeda and b) have been civilized for millenia, so there’s some basis for a relationship.
The result would be that we wouldn’t have felt any need to support the Saudi aggression in Yemen. And, because the Saudis would have known that, they might even have refrained from attacking in the first place.
Alas, we went with the stupidity of the fantasy “Axis of Evil.”
Two weeks ago I had two classrooms full of students who were upset that no one was doing enough to prevent the UN’s Six Grave Violations of children’s rights in armed conflict. They wanted to round up all the violators and put them through the ICC.
Two weeks of research later, I have two classrooms full of students who have shifted their attention to trying to help the children who have survived these grave violations to reintegrate, to manage the effects of trauma, and to live happy, productive, peaceful adult lives.
The ICC is an important institution, and the UN conventions and protocols are important aspirational goals, but we have to break the cycle of violence and its legacies of human damage to actually do any of that, and we need to do that in a way that flows around the obstructions that the superpowers place on issues of justice and sovereignty, because those obstructions are not going anywhere.
Two weeks ago I had two classrooms full of students who were upset that no one was doing enough to prevent the UN’s Six Grave Violations of children’s rights in armed conflict. They wanted to round up all the violators and put them through the ICC.
Two weeks of research later, I have two classrooms full of students who have shifted their attention to trying to help the children who have survived these grave violations to reintegrate, to manage the effects of trauma, and to live happy, productive, peaceful adult lives.
The ICC is an important institution, and the UN conventions and protocols are important aspirational goals, but we have to break the cycle of violence and its legacies of human damage to actually do any of that, and we need to do that in a way that flows around the obstructions that the superpowers place on issues of justice and sovereignty, because those obstructions are not going anywhere.
wj: Alas, we went with the stupidity of the fantasy “Axis of Evil.”
“We” means wj and me — and Donald! — plus our 300 million closest friends. “We” sort-of-elected Dick and Dubya, who made that stupid decision.
But of course, had “we” elected Al Gore he would have done the same thing because there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the major political parties in the US. Or in any democracy for that matter. So the moral thing to do is wash our hands of them. Like Pontius Pilate.
Somewhere in the maelstrom of news this past couple of months, I read something to the effect that Jarred Kushner’s sugar daddy MBS is pissed at Biden for not supporting his war on Yemen enough, so no Saudi oil for you! Could be bullshit, I don’t know. What I do know is that weaning “ourselves” off oil has always been our best hope for cooling the jets of the petro-theocrats. And one party has been resolutely opposed to that. But the other party is just as bad, right?
–TP
wj: Alas, we went with the stupidity of the fantasy “Axis of Evil.”
“We” means wj and me — and Donald! — plus our 300 million closest friends. “We” sort-of-elected Dick and Dubya, who made that stupid decision.
But of course, had “we” elected Al Gore he would have done the same thing because there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the major political parties in the US. Or in any democracy for that matter. So the moral thing to do is wash our hands of them. Like Pontius Pilate.
Somewhere in the maelstrom of news this past couple of months, I read something to the effect that Jarred Kushner’s sugar daddy MBS is pissed at Biden for not supporting his war on Yemen enough, so no Saudi oil for you! Could be bullshit, I don’t know. What I do know is that weaning “ourselves” off oil has always been our best hope for cooling the jets of the petro-theocrats. And one party has been resolutely opposed to that. But the other party is just as bad, right?
–TP
“We” sort-of-elected Dick and Dubya, who made that stupid decision.
Well, here’s the thing about democracy. “We” elected him only if we voted for him. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t. (And I’m guessing that you didn’t either.)
Now you could argue that we are responsible because we failed to educate the majority of the population who did vote for him. But at least in my case, a solid majority of my friends and neighbors (i.e. my state) also didn’t vote for him. There’s limits about how much responsibility I am prepared to take for the ignorance of people who live thousands of miles away from me.
“We” sort-of-elected Dick and Dubya, who made that stupid decision.
Well, here’s the thing about democracy. “We” elected him only if we voted for him. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t. (And I’m guessing that you didn’t either.)
Now you could argue that we are responsible because we failed to educate the majority of the population who did vote for him. But at least in my case, a solid majority of my friends and neighbors (i.e. my state) also didn’t vote for him. There’s limits about how much responsibility I am prepared to take for the ignorance of people who live thousands of miles away from me.
Why even worry about taking responsibility? Align your actions with repairing the damage that’s already done, and align your intentions with mitigating future damage and altering course as much as we can.
Whoever is a part of that process is part of the solution, whatever their past responsibility. Work out restorative measures after we start fixing the problems going forward.
We need a restorative justice approach that lets people into being part of the solution and finding their way back to community.
Why even worry about taking responsibility? Align your actions with repairing the damage that’s already done, and align your intentions with mitigating future damage and altering course as much as we can.
Whoever is a part of that process is part of the solution, whatever their past responsibility. Work out restorative measures after we start fixing the problems going forward.
We need a restorative justice approach that lets people into being part of the solution and finding their way back to community.
Amen
Amen
This,
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/will-macrons-centrism-defeat-frances-growing-right-wing
via LGM might be a way to look at this from the outside. As Goldhammer points out, Macron has to appeal to populist urges while the left calls him a sell-out, which sounds like here. Of course, Macron got to his place on the greasy pole by simultaneously standing up against Marine La Pen and tacking to the right of Hollande
So you paint this picture of Macron going further right than people like us might have hoped. And yet that seemed to be not quite far enough for the French electorate, and that’s what I’m just trying to understand.
I think you’re quite right. It doesn’t seem completely warranted. The rate of immigration, both legal and illegal, has been curtailed, in part by covid. There’s no particular reason for anxiety. I think the beheading of Samuel Paty in broad daylight on a public street, by a Chechen refugee, was a major source of anxiety. There’s a trial going on right now of the surviving terrorist involved in the Bataclan attack in 2015. So that’s a reminder that terrorism is an omnipresent danger in France. But still it goes too far. Macron’s critics attack him for being anti-democratic in their view, but here he’s responding to a clear popular demand, where polls showed that seventy per cent of the French think he hasn’t gone far enough. So he’s caught between a rock and a hard place.
A lot of Western countries faced violence from Islamic terrorism over the past two decades, but it seems in most of these countries it’s somewhat faded as a major issue, and certainly as a central issue in Presidential campaigns.
I think the French have had more recent reminders. The Paty murder was extremely shocking because of its nature. And there also has been a change in the French media landscape. There are now two channels that have adopted the Fox News formula of going with shocking stories around the clock: BFMTV and CNews. CNews is owned by a billionaire similar to Rupert Murdoch, a guy named Vincent Bolloré, who was one of the promoters of Éric Zemmour. He meets frequently with Zemmour and gave him his own show, so Zemmour had several hours a week of airtime to vent his Islam-hostile views.
This isn’t to defend Macron, but I see similarities in the situations. I also like nous’ point that trying to figure out who is responsible is a fool’s errand, especially when you are on the level of comments in a blog.
This,
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/will-macrons-centrism-defeat-frances-growing-right-wing
via LGM might be a way to look at this from the outside. As Goldhammer points out, Macron has to appeal to populist urges while the left calls him a sell-out, which sounds like here. Of course, Macron got to his place on the greasy pole by simultaneously standing up against Marine La Pen and tacking to the right of Hollande
So you paint this picture of Macron going further right than people like us might have hoped. And yet that seemed to be not quite far enough for the French electorate, and that’s what I’m just trying to understand.
I think you’re quite right. It doesn’t seem completely warranted. The rate of immigration, both legal and illegal, has been curtailed, in part by covid. There’s no particular reason for anxiety. I think the beheading of Samuel Paty in broad daylight on a public street, by a Chechen refugee, was a major source of anxiety. There’s a trial going on right now of the surviving terrorist involved in the Bataclan attack in 2015. So that’s a reminder that terrorism is an omnipresent danger in France. But still it goes too far. Macron’s critics attack him for being anti-democratic in their view, but here he’s responding to a clear popular demand, where polls showed that seventy per cent of the French think he hasn’t gone far enough. So he’s caught between a rock and a hard place.
A lot of Western countries faced violence from Islamic terrorism over the past two decades, but it seems in most of these countries it’s somewhat faded as a major issue, and certainly as a central issue in Presidential campaigns.
I think the French have had more recent reminders. The Paty murder was extremely shocking because of its nature. And there also has been a change in the French media landscape. There are now two channels that have adopted the Fox News formula of going with shocking stories around the clock: BFMTV and CNews. CNews is owned by a billionaire similar to Rupert Murdoch, a guy named Vincent Bolloré, who was one of the promoters of Éric Zemmour. He meets frequently with Zemmour and gave him his own show, so Zemmour had several hours a week of airtime to vent his Islam-hostile views.
This isn’t to defend Macron, but I see similarities in the situations. I also like nous’ point that trying to figure out who is responsible is a fool’s errand, especially when you are on the level of comments in a blog.
Just a few days ago just a case for jokes in a youtube comment section, now seemingly serious:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/pointing-critical-race-theory-florida-rejects-math-textbooks-rcna24791
Admittedly, I already poured cold water on those jokes by naming historical precedents of using math textbooks for indoctrination. E.g. in the 3rd Reich math word problems were used to push euthanasia and in the GDR to promote the armed forces. I could easily see something similar in the US (How much tax money is wasted on illegal immigrants/fighting the black crime wave compared to higher funds for border security? How far could we lower taxes, if we got rid of social security for the unworthy? How much money is China stealing from us through the trade deficit and how high have the tariffs to be to compensate for that? etc.)
Just a few days ago just a case for jokes in a youtube comment section, now seemingly serious:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/pointing-critical-race-theory-florida-rejects-math-textbooks-rcna24791
Admittedly, I already poured cold water on those jokes by naming historical precedents of using math textbooks for indoctrination. E.g. in the 3rd Reich math word problems were used to push euthanasia and in the GDR to promote the armed forces. I could easily see something similar in the US (How much tax money is wasted on illegal immigrants/fighting the black crime wave compared to higher funds for border security? How far could we lower taxes, if we got rid of social security for the unworthy? How much money is China stealing from us through the trade deficit and how high have the tariffs to be to compensate for that? etc.)
The fraction 3/5’s still figures prominently in white trash racist genocidal Christian vermin republican conservative math texts.
Banking math, such as compound interest, will add up via eliminationist subtraction in subhuman republican conservative minds to the mathematical elimination of Jews in Putin/Trump America:
https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/doug-mastriano-and-other-republicans-are-speaking-conference-hosted
Them bankers again .. helping outnumbered pregnant women on the run from pigfucking Texas Christians mobs:
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2022/03/21/republican-texas-lawmaker-issues-warning-to-citigroup-over-its-abortion-policy
Here’s a Republican who was fucking dumb enough to give military weaponry to his armed conservative enemies who will kill him and his family, and then they will murder everyone to his left … us:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/fred-upton-death-threats-congress
Ya think, Fred?
Genocide is nothing new to theocracies that rule by the gun:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a39751133/supreme-court-school-prayer-kennedy/
Number theories of race, religion, and elections. It ain’t the numbers; it’s the counters:
https://digbysblog.net/2022/04/18/is-the-mar-a-lago-machine-working/
Republican Governor vetoes bill to ban trans athletes, but signs bill to permit the unlicensed carrying of weapons that murderous Christians, even those many who carry the genital herpes virus, will use to kill LGBT and trans humans.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/22/indiana-governor-vetoes-transgender-girls-sports-bill
Here’s a numbers game: The countdown to violent race and religious Civil War in all 50 states in America. It’s already well underway, so count backwards real fast to catch up.
There will be no Kansas/Nebraska Compromise this time around. These evil fucks want all of it.
Trump is the risen perverted conservative anti-Christ.
Round about next Easter, Joe Biden will be crucified.
Mitt Romney may not be slippery enough to avoid being crucified along with Biden as murderous all-American Christians and their high Court Judges do their worst … once again:
https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/mormon.asp
The fraction 3/5’s still figures prominently in white trash racist genocidal Christian vermin republican conservative math texts.
Banking math, such as compound interest, will add up via eliminationist subtraction in subhuman republican conservative minds to the mathematical elimination of Jews in Putin/Trump America:
https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/doug-mastriano-and-other-republicans-are-speaking-conference-hosted
Them bankers again .. helping outnumbered pregnant women on the run from pigfucking Texas Christians mobs:
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2022/03/21/republican-texas-lawmaker-issues-warning-to-citigroup-over-its-abortion-policy
Here’s a Republican who was fucking dumb enough to give military weaponry to his armed conservative enemies who will kill him and his family, and then they will murder everyone to his left … us:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/fred-upton-death-threats-congress
Ya think, Fred?
Genocide is nothing new to theocracies that rule by the gun:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a39751133/supreme-court-school-prayer-kennedy/
Number theories of race, religion, and elections. It ain’t the numbers; it’s the counters:
https://digbysblog.net/2022/04/18/is-the-mar-a-lago-machine-working/
Republican Governor vetoes bill to ban trans athletes, but signs bill to permit the unlicensed carrying of weapons that murderous Christians, even those many who carry the genital herpes virus, will use to kill LGBT and trans humans.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/22/indiana-governor-vetoes-transgender-girls-sports-bill
Here’s a numbers game: The countdown to violent race and religious Civil War in all 50 states in America. It’s already well underway, so count backwards real fast to catch up.
There will be no Kansas/Nebraska Compromise this time around. These evil fucks want all of it.
Trump is the risen perverted conservative anti-Christ.
Round about next Easter, Joe Biden will be crucified.
Mitt Romney may not be slippery enough to avoid being crucified along with Biden as murderous all-American Christians and their high Court Judges do their worst … once again:
https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/mormon.asp
I’m not gonna get my testicles tanned, because I’ve seen what happens when you fry Rocky Mountain oysters, but I’m thinking about having my Tucker Carlson bleached.
I’m not gonna get my testicles tanned, because I’ve seen what happens when you fry Rocky Mountain oysters, but I’m thinking about having my Tucker Carlson bleached.
Christianity on the march:
https://juanitajean.com/thats-my-story-and-im-sticking-to-it
It’s a murderous, genocidal worldwide movement.
Glasnost between conservative American killers and conservative Russian killers, all with yachts converging on Golgotha, as Ronald Reagan intended.
The Ark of the Trump/Putin Covenant.
They crucify everyone but the thieves.
Any lurking conservative republicans here would who like to translate?
https://vpk.name/news/379169_na_flagmane_chernomorskogo_flota_budet_hranitsya_chastica_kresta_gospodnya.html
Christianity on the march:
https://juanitajean.com/thats-my-story-and-im-sticking-to-it
It’s a murderous, genocidal worldwide movement.
Glasnost between conservative American killers and conservative Russian killers, all with yachts converging on Golgotha, as Ronald Reagan intended.
The Ark of the Trump/Putin Covenant.
They crucify everyone but the thieves.
Any lurking conservative republicans here would who like to translate?
https://vpk.name/news/379169_na_flagmane_chernomorskogo_flota_budet_hranitsya_chastica_kresta_gospodnya.html
That story about the Texas legislator trying to threaten Citi Bank is . . . I was going to say “amazing” except that it isn’t actually even surprising. No doubt he is unaware (or doesn’t give a damn) that underwriting municipal bonds isn’t that big an earner for banks. All that his threatened action would do is increase the interest costs for Texas municipal bonds. Especially if other banks land in the same category.
But then, watching Abbott run up the cost of groceries for Texans, what else would one expect? Except maybe that Abbott had gotten their first.
That story about the Texas legislator trying to threaten Citi Bank is . . . I was going to say “amazing” except that it isn’t actually even surprising. No doubt he is unaware (or doesn’t give a damn) that underwriting municipal bonds isn’t that big an earner for banks. All that his threatened action would do is increase the interest costs for Texas municipal bonds. Especially if other banks land in the same category.
But then, watching Abbott run up the cost of groceries for Texans, what else would one expect? Except maybe that Abbott had gotten their first.
The first time I encountered someone going nuts over tanning was over 50 years ago in a Marine barracks in Quantico, Virginia.
We were on the second floor with windows opening on a first-floor roof.
One of the guys would go out on the roof nude to sunbathe. But, I think in his case, it was just a compulsion to tan every square centimeter.
Some officer housing was on a hill overlooking the barracks. And there were complaints. I don’t know whether it was men or women complaining. Could have been both. He wasn’t that good-looking.
The first time I encountered someone going nuts over tanning was over 50 years ago in a Marine barracks in Quantico, Virginia.
We were on the second floor with windows opening on a first-floor roof.
One of the guys would go out on the roof nude to sunbathe. But, I think in his case, it was just a compulsion to tan every square centimeter.
Some officer housing was on a hill overlooking the barracks. And there were complaints. I don’t know whether it was men or women complaining. Could have been both. He wasn’t that good-looking.
All that his threatened action would do is increase the interest costs for Texas municipal bonds.
Yeah, I had thoughts about the very conservative rural/exurb communities in particular in Texas suddenly having to pay much higher fees for underwriting services because a Houston-area Republican did this.
All that his threatened action would do is increase the interest costs for Texas municipal bonds.
Yeah, I had thoughts about the very conservative rural/exurb communities in particular in Texas suddenly having to pay much higher fees for underwriting services because a Houston-area Republican did this.
The debate over the US joining the ICC sounds a lot like some of the dialog in Captain America: Civil War.
The debate over the US joining the ICC sounds a lot like some of the dialog in Captain America: Civil War.
The debate over the US joining the ICC sounds a lot like some of the dialog in Captain America: Civil War.
Wakanda Forever!
The debate over the US joining the ICC sounds a lot like some of the dialog in Captain America: Civil War.
Wakanda Forever!
The CDC is unconstitutional:
https://www.afj.org/document/kathryn-mizelle-background-report/
I’m flying in June. I’m a realist about the marginal benefits of masking in the vicinity of subhuman unvaxxed and infected conservative and libertarian vermin, but I will nevertheless be masked and I look forward to any verbal trash talk directed my way at 30,000 feet.
Otherwise, also looking forward to savagely violent Civil War on every street in America.
Seems the only thing that will remain constitutional in fascist racist vermin conservative America, except perhaps slavery, is killing with automatic weapons, because that semi-shit seems so biggus dickless to that bleached bullshit orifice, Tucker Carlson.
‘As Trump judge Amy Coney Barrett put it: “Adherence to originalism arguably requires, for example, the dismantling of the administrative state, the invalidation of paper money, and the reversal of Brown v. Board of Education.”’
It will be “put” one day soon to Amy Coney Barrett the way the Founders put it to British subhuman conservatives and Lincoln to cracker racist republican slaver conservatives, whom we apparently neglected to “put it to” with utter eternal murderous finality when we had the chance.
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/04/what-is-going-on-at-montpelier
There are 29 Madison-authored Federalist Papers.
If you rip them out of the book, they make for good kindling.
There’s a Quentin Tarantino movie with a scene depicting the fiery end of Leonard Leo’s Federalist Society.
I won’t trouble you again with its prescience for subhuman fascist conservative America.
On the other hand, slave-wanna-be Clarence Thomas might look good in short pants fetching my mint julep, if he can keep his pubes away from the ladies of the house.
The CDC is unconstitutional:
https://www.afj.org/document/kathryn-mizelle-background-report/
I’m flying in June. I’m a realist about the marginal benefits of masking in the vicinity of subhuman unvaxxed and infected conservative and libertarian vermin, but I will nevertheless be masked and I look forward to any verbal trash talk directed my way at 30,000 feet.
Otherwise, also looking forward to savagely violent Civil War on every street in America.
Seems the only thing that will remain constitutional in fascist racist vermin conservative America, except perhaps slavery, is killing with automatic weapons, because that semi-shit seems so biggus dickless to that bleached bullshit orifice, Tucker Carlson.
‘As Trump judge Amy Coney Barrett put it: “Adherence to originalism arguably requires, for example, the dismantling of the administrative state, the invalidation of paper money, and the reversal of Brown v. Board of Education.”’
It will be “put” one day soon to Amy Coney Barrett the way the Founders put it to British subhuman conservatives and Lincoln to cracker racist republican slaver conservatives, whom we apparently neglected to “put it to” with utter eternal murderous finality when we had the chance.
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/04/what-is-going-on-at-montpelier
There are 29 Madison-authored Federalist Papers.
If you rip them out of the book, they make for good kindling.
There’s a Quentin Tarantino movie with a scene depicting the fiery end of Leonard Leo’s Federalist Society.
I won’t trouble you again with its prescience for subhuman fascist conservative America.
On the other hand, slave-wanna-be Clarence Thomas might look good in short pants fetching my mint julep, if he can keep his pubes away from the ladies of the house.
May he survive conservative movement putin genocide in Ukraine to get his weaponry and killing chops back stateside to wipe out the racist subhuman election-stealing conservative murderers in America.
https://twitter.com/PaulRieckhoff/status/1516205215267102724
May he survive conservative movement putin genocide in Ukraine to get his weaponry and killing chops back stateside to wipe out the racist subhuman election-stealing conservative murderers in America.
https://twitter.com/PaulRieckhoff/status/1516205215267102724
I very strongly dislike nooneithink’s remark about Clarence Thomas.
I very strongly dislike nooneithink’s remark about Clarence Thomas.
As Trump judge Amy Coney Barrett put it: “Adherence to originalism arguably requires, for example, the dismantling of the administrative state, the invalidation of paper money, and the reversal of Brown v. Board of Education.”
In search of optimism, this thought occurs to me. Suppose, as must happen sooner or later, Justice Alito and Justice Thomas pass from this mortal coil. Suppose further that this happens while the Democrats still control the Presidency and the Senate. At that point, the conservative 6-3 majority falls to a 4-5 minority. And with not much prospect of changing back in their favor very soon.
Now I believe Chief Justice Roberts cares enough about the law (and about the Court) that he will be willing to spend years writing dissenting opinions. But I’m thinking that the partisan hacks that Trump appointed may decide that they’d rather resign and maybe take up a safe red Senate seat instead. No point in staying on when you can’t trash the Constitution in pursuit of your preferred ideological ends.
As Trump judge Amy Coney Barrett put it: “Adherence to originalism arguably requires, for example, the dismantling of the administrative state, the invalidation of paper money, and the reversal of Brown v. Board of Education.”
In search of optimism, this thought occurs to me. Suppose, as must happen sooner or later, Justice Alito and Justice Thomas pass from this mortal coil. Suppose further that this happens while the Democrats still control the Presidency and the Senate. At that point, the conservative 6-3 majority falls to a 4-5 minority. And with not much prospect of changing back in their favor very soon.
Now I believe Chief Justice Roberts cares enough about the law (and about the Court) that he will be willing to spend years writing dissenting opinions. But I’m thinking that the partisan hacks that Trump appointed may decide that they’d rather resign and maybe take up a safe red Senate seat instead. No point in staying on when you can’t trash the Constitution in pursuit of your preferred ideological ends.
“I very strongly dislike nooneithink’s remark about Clarence Thomas.”
I’m not too hot on it myself, but unelected Thomas and his co-Supreme Court Justice administrative state wife would vote against the two of us, as politically incorrect speech is first of all constitutionally-protected verbal violence, and second of all, he likes it, and third, because if both sides don’t do it, it’s only half the fun for freedom-loving Americans like himself.
And make that a Sazerac.
And then there are the five other conservative votes on the Court, which makes it 7-3 against you and me holding our sensitive tongues.
I strongly dislike non-Judge Thomas’ coming vote to throw Brown vrs Board of Education under the Jim Crow II wheels of constitutional originalism.
But by then, you won’t be able to hear speech on account of the incessant gunfire, also constitutionally protected.
“I very strongly dislike nooneithink’s remark about Clarence Thomas.”
I’m not too hot on it myself, but unelected Thomas and his co-Supreme Court Justice administrative state wife would vote against the two of us, as politically incorrect speech is first of all constitutionally-protected verbal violence, and second of all, he likes it, and third, because if both sides don’t do it, it’s only half the fun for freedom-loving Americans like himself.
And make that a Sazerac.
And then there are the five other conservative votes on the Court, which makes it 7-3 against you and me holding our sensitive tongues.
I strongly dislike non-Judge Thomas’ coming vote to throw Brown vrs Board of Education under the Jim Crow II wheels of constitutional originalism.
But by then, you won’t be able to hear speech on account of the incessant gunfire, also constitutionally protected.
“In Search of Optimism.”
Zelensky’s memoir of that title has been banned in 21 formerly American states on account of the nudity depicted among raped and murdered Ukrainians carried out by Putin’s Russian Republican National Committee for the Restoration of Trumps Who’s Got it, Keeps it, and Them’s Who Don’t, Don’t.
“In Search of Optimism.”
Zelensky’s memoir of that title has been banned in 21 formerly American states on account of the nudity depicted among raped and murdered Ukrainians carried out by Putin’s Russian Republican National Committee for the Restoration of Trumps Who’s Got it, Keeps it, and Them’s Who Don’t, Don’t.
As Trump judge Amy Coney Barrett put it: “Adherence to originalism arguably requires, for example, the dismantling of the administrative state, the invalidation of paper money, and the reversal of Brown v. Board of Education.”
In the quote’s context, she doesn’t argue that any of those things should be done.
Congressional Originalism
As Trump judge Amy Coney Barrett put it: “Adherence to originalism arguably requires, for example, the dismantling of the administrative state, the invalidation of paper money, and the reversal of Brown v. Board of Education.”
In the quote’s context, she doesn’t argue that any of those things should be done.
Congressional Originalism
Arguably, her stint so far on the Supreme Court and the sudden appearance of conservatively originalist bespoke cases, assembly-lined by right wing “legal” outfits, in obvious preparation for her appointment to the Court, proves her statement several paragraphs later in the paper to be along the lines of a typical Trumpian “I’m the least racist, and most honest person in the universe’ statement.
“No one is likely to ask
the Supreme Court to rethink arguably nonoriginalist decisions like
the constitutionality of the Social Security Administration, paper
money, or segregated public schools—and if anyone did ask, the
Court would deny certiorari.”
Arguably, her stint so far on the Supreme Court and the sudden appearance of conservatively originalist bespoke cases, assembly-lined by right wing “legal” outfits, in obvious preparation for her appointment to the Court, proves her statement several paragraphs later in the paper to be along the lines of a typical Trumpian “I’m the least racist, and most honest person in the universe’ statement.
“No one is likely to ask
the Supreme Court to rethink arguably nonoriginalist decisions like
the constitutionality of the Social Security Administration, paper
money, or segregated public schools—and if anyone did ask, the
Court would deny certiorari.”
Arguably, her stint so far on the Supreme Court and the sudden appearance of conservatively originalist bespoke cases, assembly-lined by right wing “legal” outfits, in obvious preparation for her appointment to the Court, proves her statement several paragraphs later in the paper to be along the lines of a typical Trumpian “I’m the least racist, and most honest person in the universe’ statement.
“No one is likely to ask
the Supreme Court to rethink arguably nonoriginalist decisions like
the constitutionality of the Social Security Administration, paper
money, or segregated public schools—and if anyone did ask, the
Court would deny certiorari.”
Arguably, her stint so far on the Supreme Court and the sudden appearance of conservatively originalist bespoke cases, assembly-lined by right wing “legal” outfits, in obvious preparation for her appointment to the Court, proves her statement several paragraphs later in the paper to be along the lines of a typical Trumpian “I’m the least racist, and most honest person in the universe’ statement.
“No one is likely to ask
the Supreme Court to rethink arguably nonoriginalist decisions like
the constitutionality of the Social Security Administration, paper
money, or segregated public schools—and if anyone did ask, the
Court would deny certiorari.”
“No one is likely to ask
the Supreme Court to rethink arguably nonoriginalist decisions like
the constitutionality of the Social Security Administration, paper
money, or segregated public schools—and if anyone did ask, the
Court would deny certiorari.”
The MAGAts have more urgent fascist priorities to be dealt with first, and in any case those issues would come up on the Shadow Docket where fingerprints are not left, and speed and stealth are of utmost importance.
“No one is likely to ask
the Supreme Court to rethink arguably nonoriginalist decisions like
the constitutionality of the Social Security Administration, paper
money, or segregated public schools—and if anyone did ask, the
Court would deny certiorari.”
The MAGAts have more urgent fascist priorities to be dealt with first, and in any case those issues would come up on the Shadow Docket where fingerprints are not left, and speed and stealth are of utmost importance.
Coney Barrett is either lying to Leonard Leo or to everyone else:
https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/trumps-judge-whisperer-promised-to-take-our-laws-back-to-the-1930s/
Lying is Christian conservative and constitutionally protected speech, and then is elevated to religious dogma to make sure.
Except when you lie to Leonard Leo, so I guess the rest of us are the suckers.
Bullshit.
The purpose of conservative and libertarian commentary at OBWI is to show up a day late and three dollars short to admit that “well, I didn’t see that coming”, as the malignant conservative movement proves to be as malignantly sincere as I have predicted since before Moe Lane spit shined Erick Erickson’s wife’s shotgun.
And speaking of the Census Bureau, Joe Biden must convene by executive order a redo of the 2020 Census.
If the Supreme Court doesn’t like it, then the question becomes .. acutely …. how many divisions do those popes have:
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/04/14/trumps-handling-of-the-2020-census-was-even-worse-than-you-think/
Coney Barrett is either lying to Leonard Leo or to everyone else:
https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/trumps-judge-whisperer-promised-to-take-our-laws-back-to-the-1930s/
Lying is Christian conservative and constitutionally protected speech, and then is elevated to religious dogma to make sure.
Except when you lie to Leonard Leo, so I guess the rest of us are the suckers.
Bullshit.
The purpose of conservative and libertarian commentary at OBWI is to show up a day late and three dollars short to admit that “well, I didn’t see that coming”, as the malignant conservative movement proves to be as malignantly sincere as I have predicted since before Moe Lane spit shined Erick Erickson’s wife’s shotgun.
And speaking of the Census Bureau, Joe Biden must convene by executive order a redo of the 2020 Census.
If the Supreme Court doesn’t like it, then the question becomes .. acutely …. how many divisions do those popes have:
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/04/14/trumps-handling-of-the-2020-census-was-even-worse-than-you-think/
“I very strongly dislike nooneithink’s remark about Clarence Thomas.”
I’m not crazy about it myself, but would just remark for anyone who has forgotten that the “pubes” comment (although not the most offensive bit) refers to Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings, where (the highly credible, now-Law Professor) Anita Hill alleged that during his sexual harassment campaign against her, involving multiple discussions of pornography, he claimed someone (possibly himself?) had put a pubic hair on his soft drink, and used the porn name “Long Dong Silver”. He denied everything, of course.
“I very strongly dislike nooneithink’s remark about Clarence Thomas.”
I’m not crazy about it myself, but would just remark for anyone who has forgotten that the “pubes” comment (although not the most offensive bit) refers to Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings, where (the highly credible, now-Law Professor) Anita Hill alleged that during his sexual harassment campaign against her, involving multiple discussions of pornography, he claimed someone (possibly himself?) had put a pubic hair on his soft drink, and used the porn name “Long Dong Silver”. He denied everything, of course.
If Clarence Thomas were lily-white, and had said and written every word that he has in fact said and written since he got his ass on the SCOTUS, would anyone object to calling him a “slave-owner wannabe”?
Maybe somebody would, on the grounds that Thomas has never explicitly in so many words stated a desire to personally own a single slave. Such fastidiousness may be commendable, but it’s also mighty convenient from a MAGAt point of view.
I have begun to think that the US needs another 4-6 years of MAGAt misgovernance before the survivors rise up and rid themselves of would-be totalitarians masquerading as “originalists”.
–TP
If Clarence Thomas were lily-white, and had said and written every word that he has in fact said and written since he got his ass on the SCOTUS, would anyone object to calling him a “slave-owner wannabe”?
Maybe somebody would, on the grounds that Thomas has never explicitly in so many words stated a desire to personally own a single slave. Such fastidiousness may be commendable, but it’s also mighty convenient from a MAGAt point of view.
I have begun to think that the US needs another 4-6 years of MAGAt misgovernance before the survivors rise up and rid themselves of would-be totalitarians masquerading as “originalists”.
–TP
I have begun to think that the US needs another 4-6 years of MAGAt misgovernance before the survivors rise up and rid themselves of would-be totalitarians masquerading as “originalists”.
I would hope, though not necessarily be confident, that another round of MAGAts in power would have that result.
But I would far prefer, and be more confident of, having the MAGAts start losing elections. Not because I think it would change any of their (putative) minds. But because those who have been toadying to them simply to gain power would decide they needed a different path. And cut them off.
(Not to mention how vastly less damaging to the nation it would be to avoid having them back in power. Even for a day, much less several years.)
I have begun to think that the US needs another 4-6 years of MAGAt misgovernance before the survivors rise up and rid themselves of would-be totalitarians masquerading as “originalists”.
I would hope, though not necessarily be confident, that another round of MAGAts in power would have that result.
But I would far prefer, and be more confident of, having the MAGAts start losing elections. Not because I think it would change any of their (putative) minds. But because those who have been toadying to them simply to gain power would decide they needed a different path. And cut them off.
(Not to mention how vastly less damaging to the nation it would be to avoid having them back in power. Even for a day, much less several years.)
…would anyone object to calling him a “slave-owner wannabe”?
There’s no symmetry between oppressor and oppressed. If racist rhetoric is acceptable here so long as it’s directed at bad judges, I’ll be off.
…would anyone object to calling him a “slave-owner wannabe”?
There’s no symmetry between oppressor and oppressed. If racist rhetoric is acceptable here so long as it’s directed at bad judges, I’ll be off.
There is no doubt that racist rhetoric should be unacceptable here, and everywhere.
There is no doubt that racist rhetoric should be unacceptable here, and everywhere.
Clarence Thomas seems strongly inclined to side with the oppressors against the oppressed at every opportunity. “Originalists” are like that.
Most of us around here find racist rhetoric unacceptable. We libruls are like that.
Now, I can’t tell whether Pro Bono at 6:36PM meant to compare, or to contrast, the snippet he quoted from my 4:13PM comment with nooneithink’s 8:47AM remarks, for which Pro Bono expressed his strong dislike at 11:15AM. It would be helpful to know what the “racist rhetoric” was.
BTW, is it racist to observe that Vladimir Putin is a lily-white mass murderer? Or to note that his pet POTUS and the MAGAts who clamor to be governed by that pasty-ass grifter again are not all white, but sure do spew racist rhetoric a lot? Can anybody tell the difference between actual racist rhetoric (backed by a patent desire to actually oppress people) and colorful blog comments?
–TP
Clarence Thomas seems strongly inclined to side with the oppressors against the oppressed at every opportunity. “Originalists” are like that.
Most of us around here find racist rhetoric unacceptable. We libruls are like that.
Now, I can’t tell whether Pro Bono at 6:36PM meant to compare, or to contrast, the snippet he quoted from my 4:13PM comment with nooneithink’s 8:47AM remarks, for which Pro Bono expressed his strong dislike at 11:15AM. It would be helpful to know what the “racist rhetoric” was.
BTW, is it racist to observe that Vladimir Putin is a lily-white mass murderer? Or to note that his pet POTUS and the MAGAts who clamor to be governed by that pasty-ass grifter again are not all white, but sure do spew racist rhetoric a lot? Can anybody tell the difference between actual racist rhetoric (backed by a patent desire to actually oppress people) and colorful blog comments?
–TP
Dana Milbank explains, with examples (lots of examples), how one of the math books which Gov DeSantis has banned from Florida schools (Precalculus With Limits) would inflict forbidden topics and beliefs on children.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/19/florida-math-textbooks-critical-race-theory/
Dana Milbank explains, with examples (lots of examples), how one of the math books which Gov DeSantis has banned from Florida schools (Precalculus With Limits) would inflict forbidden topics and beliefs on children.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/19/florida-math-textbooks-critical-race-theory/
It would be helpful to know what the “racist rhetoric” was.
Tell me how this is not racist? Colorful my xyz…
slave-wanna-be Clarence Thomas might look good in short pants fetching my mint julep
It would be helpful to know what the “racist rhetoric” was.
Tell me how this is not racist? Colorful my xyz…
slave-wanna-be Clarence Thomas might look good in short pants fetching my mint julep
Faculty on my campus are abuzz with the news yesterday that a former undergraduate student here was being charged in court for weapons violations and threats to the campus. This was news to most of us who didn’t know that a) he’s already been arrested and tried once and that b) he’d been out on probation and started preparing for it again.
1000+ rounds of .300 Blackout ammo, an illegal firearm purchased out-of-state, and illegal magazines that exceed the state capacity seem like a pretty solid threat. It’s disturbing to note that there was a three year history of this person and problems and credible threats, but we only found out any of it a month after the latest of those threats was dealt with. Dude had been posting McVeigh quotes on his twitter page and sending threats to administration, and the people who were on the ground heard not one bit of it until well after the fact.
Going to a physical classroom on an open campus is very much an act of faith these days.
Faculty on my campus are abuzz with the news yesterday that a former undergraduate student here was being charged in court for weapons violations and threats to the campus. This was news to most of us who didn’t know that a) he’s already been arrested and tried once and that b) he’d been out on probation and started preparing for it again.
1000+ rounds of .300 Blackout ammo, an illegal firearm purchased out-of-state, and illegal magazines that exceed the state capacity seem like a pretty solid threat. It’s disturbing to note that there was a three year history of this person and problems and credible threats, but we only found out any of it a month after the latest of those threats was dealt with. Dude had been posting McVeigh quotes on his twitter page and sending threats to administration, and the people who were on the ground heard not one bit of it until well after the fact.
Going to a physical classroom on an open campus is very much an act of faith these days.
novakant – agree that it’s a racist framing, even if I think that the racism was being performed ironically for rhetorical effect. I think this is one of those cases where the framing drowns whatever affect is hoped for.
novakant – agree that it’s a racist framing, even if I think that the racism was being performed ironically for rhetorical effect. I think this is one of those cases where the framing drowns whatever affect is hoped for.
Going to a physical classroom on an open campus is very much an act of faith these days.
True, apparently, of any and every school, from university down to (and maybe beyond) kindergarten. Also of any place of business. Even something as apparently non-controversial as Hone Depot can find itself firebombed during business hours.
Gun control is obviously urgently needed. But it seems like vastly improved mental health facilities are as well. To the point that I would argue for reinstituting state mental health hospitals as part of the recreation of the necessary infrastructure.
Going to a physical classroom on an open campus is very much an act of faith these days.
True, apparently, of any and every school, from university down to (and maybe beyond) kindergarten. Also of any place of business. Even something as apparently non-controversial as Hone Depot can find itself firebombed during business hours.
Gun control is obviously urgently needed. But it seems like vastly improved mental health facilities are as well. To the point that I would argue for reinstituting state mental health hospitals as part of the recreation of the necessary infrastructure.
What nous said @3.02.
It’s hard to ridicule the hatefulness of the people nooneithink is trying to ridicule, without straying into extreme offensiveness (of various kinds, as we have often identified). Best not attempted, but nooneithink is a highwire operator, who doesn’t often look down.
What nous said @3.02.
It’s hard to ridicule the hatefulness of the people nooneithink is trying to ridicule, without straying into extreme offensiveness (of various kinds, as we have often identified). Best not attempted, but nooneithink is a highwire operator, who doesn’t often look down.
To the point that I would argue for reinstituting state mental health hospitals as part of the recreation of the necessary infrastructure.
Perhaps you should vote for Shellenberger.
To the point that I would argue for reinstituting state mental health hospitals as part of the recreation of the necessary infrastructure.
Perhaps you should vote for Shellenberger.
But it seems like vastly improved mental health facilities are as well. To the point that I would argue for reinstituting state mental health hospitals as part of the recreation of the necessary infrastructure.
Perhaps you should vote for Shellenberger.
“I’m also going to create a statewide psychiatric and addiction care system, “Cal-Psych,” that will be a model for the U.S. A statewide system will allow us to treat addicts and the mentally ill in parts of California where the cost of living is lower. This statewide system will be more cost-effective than the individual county systems, which are failing to do the job. If California is going to treat America’s drug addicts and mentally ill, then I will make sure we are reimbursed for it by the federal government. California is being taken advantage of, and I will put an end to it.”
Shellenberger for Governor: Homelessness
But it seems like vastly improved mental health facilities are as well. To the point that I would argue for reinstituting state mental health hospitals as part of the recreation of the necessary infrastructure.
Perhaps you should vote for Shellenberger.
“I’m also going to create a statewide psychiatric and addiction care system, “Cal-Psych,” that will be a model for the U.S. A statewide system will allow us to treat addicts and the mentally ill in parts of California where the cost of living is lower. This statewide system will be more cost-effective than the individual county systems, which are failing to do the job. If California is going to treat America’s drug addicts and mentally ill, then I will make sure we are reimbursed for it by the federal government. California is being taken advantage of, and I will put an end to it.”
Shellenberger for Governor: Homelessness
The moderation pit is filling up…
The moderation pit is filling up…
Absolutely magnificent comeback by Mallory McMorrow, a Dem State Senator in Michigan, in response to a fundraising ad by Senator Lana Theis accusing her of grooming and sexualising children:
https://twitter.com/MalloryMcMorrow/status/1516453738403143681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1516453738403143681%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fopinions%2F2022%2F04%2F20%2Fmallory-mcmorrow-james-carville-wokeness-democrats%2F
Absolutely magnificent comeback by Mallory McMorrow, a Dem State Senator in Michigan, in response to a fundraising ad by Senator Lana Theis accusing her of grooming and sexualising children:
https://twitter.com/MalloryMcMorrow/status/1516453738403143681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1516453738403143681%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fopinions%2F2022%2F04%2F20%2Fmallory-mcmorrow-james-carville-wokeness-democrats%2F
As long as Clarence Thomas carries Strom Thurmond’s water on states’ rights issues pertaining to racist gerrymanders and equal voting rights, affirmative action, women’s rights, LGBT matters as implied by the coming striking down of Obergefell and more, religious indoctrination by conservative Christians attempting to turn the Establishment Clause inside out, and to enable the shoving down our throats of all of the above by arming the conservative movement to the teeth and grooming the gun owners for just that anti-government eventuality, and whatever else he and his fellow white ilk plan on bringing our way, he might as well fetch me a drink too while he’s up.
As long as his wife carries Timothy McVeigh’s and Donald Trump’s water to enable the stealing of Presidential and other elections and the wholesale destruction of the Federal Government, the color of her skin is irrelevant to the dealing out to her of the just desserts of extreme counter-rebellion.
I know a couple of radical Radio Rwanda Hutus when I see them, and the rest of we moderate Hutus and all Tutsis in America are in grave danger from them and theirs.
Let me dig myself a little deeper on to this high wire framing, in which I seem to be framing myself for a fall without a net.
How is it that Peter Thiel is the only openly gay individual in America who is not being accused by every conservative political figure and media figure in America of grooming American children for the latter’s sexual molestation, as they are despicably accusing public (and only public, you’ll notice) school teachers, all liberals, and Joe Biden of, including the money-groomed man of Thiel’s dreams, fake hillbilly race- and gay-baiter, the oh so innocent faced groomed Trump choir boy, J.D Vance?
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/04/peter-thiel-buys-new-mcmansion-for-his-sock-puppet
In the meantime, I agree with pro bono, novakant, GftNC, and those who haven’t yet risen to rightly condemn … which should happen in any normative time which now escapes us … my racist, “framing” of this matter, but I’m no longer playing this spiderwebby conservative movement game of neo-“political correctness” the conservative scum have us in wrapped us up in like Shelob stinging and immobilizing Frodo … they pride themselves loudly on their racist, homophobic, anti-Mexican, anti-foreigner statements and policy prescriptions and then accuse US of practicing “political correctness” and “wokeness”*, and .. wait for it .. hypocrisy, if we defend the OTHER they despise, which shifts emphasis from one election cycle to another to keep the haters fine tuned.
Condemning me for what I wrote is a little like condemning the actor James Anderson, who played the racist, child-molesting Robert E Lee “Bob Ewell in the film “To Kill A Mockingbird” for reciting the lines author Harper Lee and screenwriter Horton Foote observed in the mouths of their Jim Crow neighbors and family members and southern confederate politicians.
In 1988, the jerry-rigged photo of Willie Horton did the trick for the racist conservative base’s “they-all-look-alike numbskulls, who, had the Republican Party run Clarence Thomas’ photo by accident instead, would have been just as effective in igniting their racist bloodlust.
I’m going to be THEM on THEIR terms they’ve chosen because I want the conservative movement dead. Not wounded, dead, however it can be accomplished, and utterly.
And my opinions or my policy preferences, which are generally somewhat to the left of center, are irrelevant to this goal.
I don’t like the cut of their jibs. I don’t like the way they operate. I hate them ruthlessly just as they hate me, as an exact replica of their hatefulness.
So anyway, I’m an idiot. I encourage pro bono and whomever else feels they must leave OBWI on account of me to not be foolish enough to deprive others here of your presence and thoughts.
Say the word, and I’ll leave. I don’t mind. ‘Cause it doesn’t seem like I’m going to change my tune in these introductory days of the second American Civil War.
*I notice loud-mouthed genius Elon Musk is now complaining that Netflix is suffering from “woke mind virus”. Doesn’t he know that the muscle car jagoff, protein-supplemented thick necks among the masculine testical tanning conservative movement and their gas-guzzling, carbon-spewing, oil drilling land barons and paid off right wing politicians find the entire idea of electric cars and solar power slightly woke, as in a little, ya know, light in the loafers, not quite the manly American vehicular testosterone we’ve come to expect from red-blooded Texans.
As long as Clarence Thomas carries Strom Thurmond’s water on states’ rights issues pertaining to racist gerrymanders and equal voting rights, affirmative action, women’s rights, LGBT matters as implied by the coming striking down of Obergefell and more, religious indoctrination by conservative Christians attempting to turn the Establishment Clause inside out, and to enable the shoving down our throats of all of the above by arming the conservative movement to the teeth and grooming the gun owners for just that anti-government eventuality, and whatever else he and his fellow white ilk plan on bringing our way, he might as well fetch me a drink too while he’s up.
As long as his wife carries Timothy McVeigh’s and Donald Trump’s water to enable the stealing of Presidential and other elections and the wholesale destruction of the Federal Government, the color of her skin is irrelevant to the dealing out to her of the just desserts of extreme counter-rebellion.
I know a couple of radical Radio Rwanda Hutus when I see them, and the rest of we moderate Hutus and all Tutsis in America are in grave danger from them and theirs.
Let me dig myself a little deeper on to this high wire framing, in which I seem to be framing myself for a fall without a net.
How is it that Peter Thiel is the only openly gay individual in America who is not being accused by every conservative political figure and media figure in America of grooming American children for the latter’s sexual molestation, as they are despicably accusing public (and only public, you’ll notice) school teachers, all liberals, and Joe Biden of, including the money-groomed man of Thiel’s dreams, fake hillbilly race- and gay-baiter, the oh so innocent faced groomed Trump choir boy, J.D Vance?
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/04/peter-thiel-buys-new-mcmansion-for-his-sock-puppet
In the meantime, I agree with pro bono, novakant, GftNC, and those who haven’t yet risen to rightly condemn … which should happen in any normative time which now escapes us … my racist, “framing” of this matter, but I’m no longer playing this spiderwebby conservative movement game of neo-“political correctness” the conservative scum have us in wrapped us up in like Shelob stinging and immobilizing Frodo … they pride themselves loudly on their racist, homophobic, anti-Mexican, anti-foreigner statements and policy prescriptions and then accuse US of practicing “political correctness” and “wokeness”*, and .. wait for it .. hypocrisy, if we defend the OTHER they despise, which shifts emphasis from one election cycle to another to keep the haters fine tuned.
Condemning me for what I wrote is a little like condemning the actor James Anderson, who played the racist, child-molesting Robert E Lee “Bob Ewell in the film “To Kill A Mockingbird” for reciting the lines author Harper Lee and screenwriter Horton Foote observed in the mouths of their Jim Crow neighbors and family members and southern confederate politicians.
In 1988, the jerry-rigged photo of Willie Horton did the trick for the racist conservative base’s “they-all-look-alike numbskulls, who, had the Republican Party run Clarence Thomas’ photo by accident instead, would have been just as effective in igniting their racist bloodlust.
I’m going to be THEM on THEIR terms they’ve chosen because I want the conservative movement dead. Not wounded, dead, however it can be accomplished, and utterly.
And my opinions or my policy preferences, which are generally somewhat to the left of center, are irrelevant to this goal.
I don’t like the cut of their jibs. I don’t like the way they operate. I hate them ruthlessly just as they hate me, as an exact replica of their hatefulness.
So anyway, I’m an idiot. I encourage pro bono and whomever else feels they must leave OBWI on account of me to not be foolish enough to deprive others here of your presence and thoughts.
Say the word, and I’ll leave. I don’t mind. ‘Cause it doesn’t seem like I’m going to change my tune in these introductory days of the second American Civil War.
*I notice loud-mouthed genius Elon Musk is now complaining that Netflix is suffering from “woke mind virus”. Doesn’t he know that the muscle car jagoff, protein-supplemented thick necks among the masculine testical tanning conservative movement and their gas-guzzling, carbon-spewing, oil drilling land barons and paid off right wing politicians find the entire idea of electric cars and solar power slightly woke, as in a little, ya know, light in the loafers, not quite the manly American vehicular testosterone we’ve come to expect from red-blooded Texans.
Yeah, I’m the problem.
https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/idaho-lt-gov-janice-mcgeachin-rallying-stew-peters-pro-putin-conspiracy
They will kill us.
Yeah, I’m the problem.
https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/idaho-lt-gov-janice-mcgeachin-rallying-stew-peters-pro-putin-conspiracy
They will kill us.
…find the entire idea of electric cars and solar power slightly woke, as in a little, ya know, light in the loafers, not quite the manly American vehicular testosterone we’ve come to expect from red-blooded Texans.
As I told my friend whose (expensive) hobby used to be amateur racing at places like Road Atlanta, “Gasoline ICE aficionados must have been crying about the auto ads during the Super Bowl this year.”
…find the entire idea of electric cars and solar power slightly woke, as in a little, ya know, light in the loafers, not quite the manly American vehicular testosterone we’ve come to expect from red-blooded Texans.
As I told my friend whose (expensive) hobby used to be amateur racing at places like Road Atlanta, “Gasoline ICE aficionados must have been crying about the auto ads during the Super Bowl this year.”
Tell me how this is not racist?
my own take on this:
it’s certainly rude. is it racist?
it’s hard for me to disentangle racism from pretty much any and everything, at least here in the US. in other countries, the markers may be different. here in the US, skin color, as arbitrary and insignificant as that is, persists as one of the things that distinguish “us” from “them”.
I take Pro Bono’s and nous’ points about the rhetoric, and fine with me if we say racist rhetoric in any context is unacceptable.
noone’s comment alludes to race, and alludes to our national history, in ways that raise some of the uglier bits right up to the surface. it does so in the interest of calling out the bullshit of originalist SCOTUS jurisprudence.
because the blessed founders, the secular saints of originalist dogma, would nearly to a man have sold Clarence Thomas’ ass to the highest bidder.
intent is significant, IMO. noone has been posting here for, at this point, a decade. Maybe two – have we been here that long? does anyone think he is a racist, above and beyond the degree to which any of us are infected by our persistent national virus?
I’m fine with calling the comment out, but can we also please recognize the realities of the moment?
Worrying about the political correctness of our rhetoric is a luxury. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Tell me how this is not racist?
my own take on this:
it’s certainly rude. is it racist?
it’s hard for me to disentangle racism from pretty much any and everything, at least here in the US. in other countries, the markers may be different. here in the US, skin color, as arbitrary and insignificant as that is, persists as one of the things that distinguish “us” from “them”.
I take Pro Bono’s and nous’ points about the rhetoric, and fine with me if we say racist rhetoric in any context is unacceptable.
noone’s comment alludes to race, and alludes to our national history, in ways that raise some of the uglier bits right up to the surface. it does so in the interest of calling out the bullshit of originalist SCOTUS jurisprudence.
because the blessed founders, the secular saints of originalist dogma, would nearly to a man have sold Clarence Thomas’ ass to the highest bidder.
intent is significant, IMO. noone has been posting here for, at this point, a decade. Maybe two – have we been here that long? does anyone think he is a racist, above and beyond the degree to which any of us are infected by our persistent national virus?
I’m fine with calling the comment out, but can we also please recognize the realities of the moment?
Worrying about the political correctness of our rhetoric is a luxury. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Gun control is obviously urgently needed. But it seems like vastly improved mental health facilities are as well.
CA has done about as much as it can, unilaterally, on the regulation front…more in some mostly pointless cases (microstamping was always a dumb idea).
Federal action is exceedingly unlikely in the current political climate, and I worry that law enforcement will use further regulations differentially against minority citizens when such things are left to their discretion.
Liberal firearm associations do exist, but all of them that I have found take the same hands-off approach to regulation as the RW associations do for the same anti-government reasons. A lot of their members are LGBTQ+ or BIPOC or both and deeply mistrustful of both government and of law enforcement, especially in this political moment when the right is coming after them hard.
Sensible, moderate, informed gun policy of the sort you find in civilized nations is nowhere on the table.
All that aside, the individual in question here had already been placed on a 5150 hold back in 2019. Being held was one of the sources of his grievance against the university.
Again, I don’t know what we can hope to accomplish with locking the mentally ill up that is not going to be a deep source of concern for everyone on the left if the current RW politicians and law enforcement decide to take those tools and use them against anyone that they see as a threat.
One more tightrope act in a high wind.
Gun control is obviously urgently needed. But it seems like vastly improved mental health facilities are as well.
CA has done about as much as it can, unilaterally, on the regulation front…more in some mostly pointless cases (microstamping was always a dumb idea).
Federal action is exceedingly unlikely in the current political climate, and I worry that law enforcement will use further regulations differentially against minority citizens when such things are left to their discretion.
Liberal firearm associations do exist, but all of them that I have found take the same hands-off approach to regulation as the RW associations do for the same anti-government reasons. A lot of their members are LGBTQ+ or BIPOC or both and deeply mistrustful of both government and of law enforcement, especially in this political moment when the right is coming after them hard.
Sensible, moderate, informed gun policy of the sort you find in civilized nations is nowhere on the table.
All that aside, the individual in question here had already been placed on a 5150 hold back in 2019. Being held was one of the sources of his grievance against the university.
Again, I don’t know what we can hope to accomplish with locking the mentally ill up that is not going to be a deep source of concern for everyone on the left if the current RW politicians and law enforcement decide to take those tools and use them against anyone that they see as a threat.
One more tightrope act in a high wind.
Rod Dreher’s wife had filed for divorce.
On a personal level, this is a sad event, having been through it myself.
But it won’t be me in some nearer time than we imagine supporting an orthodox constitutional made-up legal position that divorce between a man and a woman shall be prevented by a theocratic gummint, and love and dedication among LGBT married couples and living parents shall be torn asunder by an intentionally perverted activist Supreme Court.
He’ll be OK. He’ll return soon to America with a sexy Hungarian nationalist chick on his arm who believes George Soros is the gay Jew anti-Christ commie Jew and letting Putin also into her pants.
I fear for his children, who obviously his devotion to Christ has prevented him from attending to, unlike agnostic me.
He closed comments to that thingy at the Anti-Other Conservative , for fear his wife my show up.
He’s a gentle soul who accuses the rest of us of grooming. And then denies it.
Rod Dreher’s wife had filed for divorce.
On a personal level, this is a sad event, having been through it myself.
But it won’t be me in some nearer time than we imagine supporting an orthodox constitutional made-up legal position that divorce between a man and a woman shall be prevented by a theocratic gummint, and love and dedication among LGBT married couples and living parents shall be torn asunder by an intentionally perverted activist Supreme Court.
He’ll be OK. He’ll return soon to America with a sexy Hungarian nationalist chick on his arm who believes George Soros is the gay Jew anti-Christ commie Jew and letting Putin also into her pants.
I fear for his children, who obviously his devotion to Christ has prevented him from attending to, unlike agnostic me.
He closed comments to that thingy at the Anti-Other Conservative , for fear his wife my show up.
He’s a gentle soul who accuses the rest of us of grooming. And then denies it.
Just noticed Charles WT’s note about moderation, I’ve released the two comments he had, but there were no others.
Just noticed Charles WT’s note about moderation, I’ve released the two comments he had, but there were no others.
And about the kerfluffl-y stuff, I’m in a similar frame of mind as Russell. Calling the comment out, no problems. I think one of the things that is in exceedingly short supply is people looking at a comment and saying ‘wait a minute, if you say that, then…’ Words do matter, and if you find a problem with someone’s words, by all means, say it. But, speaking of highwire acts, it is a bit problematic to threaten to withdraw participation as an additional threat. my 2 cents.
And about the kerfluffl-y stuff, I’m in a similar frame of mind as Russell. Calling the comment out, no problems. I think one of the things that is in exceedingly short supply is people looking at a comment and saying ‘wait a minute, if you say that, then…’ Words do matter, and if you find a problem with someone’s words, by all means, say it. But, speaking of highwire acts, it is a bit problematic to threaten to withdraw participation as an additional threat. my 2 cents.
Seems like a song is called for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg_TRaiWj4o
But, of course, everyone knows what it’s like, and my eyes aren’t blue, but I’m headed for karaoke and thought I’d give it a shot.
Seems like a song is called for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg_TRaiWj4o
But, of course, everyone knows what it’s like, and my eyes aren’t blue, but I’m headed for karaoke and thought I’d give it a shot.
lj, thanks.
lj, thanks.
Rereading my last comment, it was a bit fuzzy. I think that there are a lot of people picking at each other’s words, but not so much in the spirit of ‘here’s my take, but it’s just the impression I get’ One reason I like this little Beau Geste out on the edge of the internet is that more people do that here than in other places.
Rereading my last comment, it was a bit fuzzy. I think that there are a lot of people picking at each other’s words, but not so much in the spirit of ‘here’s my take, but it’s just the impression I get’ One reason I like this little Beau Geste out on the edge of the internet is that more people do that here than in other places.
intent is significant, IMO. noone has been posting here for, at this point, a decade. Maybe two – have we been here that long? does anyone think he is a racist, above and beyond the degree to which any of us are infected by our persistent national virus?
We are all a bit racist, but it’s entirely possible that nooneithink is less racist than I am.
I do not seek to detect or eliminate racist thoughts. I do not seek to determine how racist a person might be and judge them for it. Those things are too hard for me.
The racism that matters is expressed in words and deeds, and exists independent of the private thoughts of the speaker or actor. Therefore, I use the word ‘racist’ to describe words or deeds, but seldom people.
it is a bit problematic to threaten to withdraw participation
OK. It wasn’t intended as a threat, in that I made no demands. I simply don’t want to be (a very minor) part of a community where what nooneithink wrote is generally thought acceptable.
intent is significant, IMO. noone has been posting here for, at this point, a decade. Maybe two – have we been here that long? does anyone think he is a racist, above and beyond the degree to which any of us are infected by our persistent national virus?
We are all a bit racist, but it’s entirely possible that nooneithink is less racist than I am.
I do not seek to detect or eliminate racist thoughts. I do not seek to determine how racist a person might be and judge them for it. Those things are too hard for me.
The racism that matters is expressed in words and deeds, and exists independent of the private thoughts of the speaker or actor. Therefore, I use the word ‘racist’ to describe words or deeds, but seldom people.
it is a bit problematic to threaten to withdraw participation
OK. It wasn’t intended as a threat, in that I made no demands. I simply don’t want to be (a very minor) part of a community where what nooneithink wrote is generally thought acceptable.
As I see it, nooneithinkisinmytree is engaging in obvious satire regarding a Black American who is integral – at the very highest of levels – to an American political movement that overtly attempts to marginalize Black Americans. There’s nothing racist about his words other than the racism those words satirize.
As I see it, nooneithinkisinmytree is engaging in obvious satire regarding a Black American who is integral – at the very highest of levels – to an American political movement that overtly attempts to marginalize Black Americans. There’s nothing racist about his words other than the racism those words satirize.
Fox Business headline: “Time for Disney and corporate America to stay out of culture wars”
I won’t click on the link because it’s Fox Business, but the headline alone is a thing of beauty. Where to start?
Fox Business headline: “Time for Disney and corporate America to stay out of culture wars”
I won’t click on the link because it’s Fox Business, but the headline alone is a thing of beauty. Where to start?
As I see it, nooneithinkisinmytree is engaging in obvious satire regarding a Black American who is integral – at the very highest of levels – to an American political movement that overtly attempts to marginalize Black Americans
I agree with this, and with russell’s point that Clarence Thomas enthusiastically espouses an approach (originalism) that if followed consistently would result in his enslavement. Which, of course, was partly the point of nooneIthink’s comment. What I meant about the highwire act is that noone’s extraordinary performance art inexorably involves him in unacceptable stuff, because that is what he is (in hsh’s word) satirising. Or using reductio ad absurdum, or something. I don’t have the proper words for what noone is doing, actually, but I can see how often it involves deeply uncomfortable-making wording. Everyone has to make their own decisions about how much is too much, and everyone does, I guess. It’s a shame, because I think the thousand flowers of our community are very worthwhile when they bloom. But so it goes.
As I see it, nooneithinkisinmytree is engaging in obvious satire regarding a Black American who is integral – at the very highest of levels – to an American political movement that overtly attempts to marginalize Black Americans
I agree with this, and with russell’s point that Clarence Thomas enthusiastically espouses an approach (originalism) that if followed consistently would result in his enslavement. Which, of course, was partly the point of nooneIthink’s comment. What I meant about the highwire act is that noone’s extraordinary performance art inexorably involves him in unacceptable stuff, because that is what he is (in hsh’s word) satirising. Or using reductio ad absurdum, or something. I don’t have the proper words for what noone is doing, actually, but I can see how often it involves deeply uncomfortable-making wording. Everyone has to make their own decisions about how much is too much, and everyone does, I guess. It’s a shame, because I think the thousand flowers of our community are very worthwhile when they bloom. But so it goes.
It come to this.
It come to this.
We live in a time in which the very darkest of dark satire just comes naturally.
Go deep in a cave. Turn off your lamp. Then take it twice as dark. That.
We live in a time in which the very darkest of dark satire just comes naturally.
Go deep in a cave. Turn off your lamp. Then take it twice as dark. That.
Money == Speech == Money
Everything that FOX News spews should be prosecuted as “material support for terrorism”.
You’d think that it would be an obvious 1A violation, but similar prosecutions (and convictions!) have already occurred.
Money == Speech == Money
Everything that FOX News spews should be prosecuted as “material support for terrorism”.
You’d think that it would be an obvious 1A violation, but similar prosecutions (and convictions!) have already occurred.
Everything that FOX News spews should be prosecuted as “material support for terrorism”.
I don’t necessarily support prosecuting Fox News as a company. But I would support prosecuting the Murdochs (and any other major shareholders), the executives of Fox News, and all of the prime time entertainers — can’t call them reporters, given that they themselves (in court filings in their defense) say that they are entertainers and no sensible person would take them for reporters or their statements as facts. Also any company which provides advertising (i.e. financing) for those prime time shows.
If it wasn’t profitable for the owners, it wouldn’t happen. If the advertisers were held responsible for what they are funding, it wouldn’t happen.
Everything that FOX News spews should be prosecuted as “material support for terrorism”.
I don’t necessarily support prosecuting Fox News as a company. But I would support prosecuting the Murdochs (and any other major shareholders), the executives of Fox News, and all of the prime time entertainers — can’t call them reporters, given that they themselves (in court filings in their defense) say that they are entertainers and no sensible person would take them for reporters or their statements as facts. Also any company which provides advertising (i.e. financing) for those prime time shows.
If it wasn’t profitable for the owners, it wouldn’t happen. If the advertisers were held responsible for what they are funding, it wouldn’t happen.
Peter Thiel is a gay man.
J.D. Vance is a heterosexual man.
Those trivial personal facts have nothing to do with the savage revolutionary violence their subhuman conservative movement, led by the evil lawless figurehead Donald Trump and his murderous, election-thieving minions, will spark in every state, every county, and every street in America, from sea to blood-red sea.
They will burn Washington DC to the ground. They will murder the US government.
They will destroy a couple of hundred million human lives.
I take no solace whatsoever that they will first put a bullet in Liz Cheney’s head, as Vladimir Putin is feted at the Mar-a-Lago White House, or some adjacent Florida structure, following the latter’s use of nuclear weapons to murder Ukraine, and as his murderous strategies serve as a template to subdue, pacify, and murder every balky Other occupying the land mass formerly known as America, in the name of the their vengeful Christian God decked out in the fake libertarian motley armament of do-as-we-command-or-we’ll-kill-you.
https://digbysblog.net/2022/04/21/listen-to-what-these-people-are-saying/
The long version:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets#intcid=_vanity-fair-verso-hp-trending_dba7dade-17b7-4e74-a64c-cd9262aa9155_popular4-1
There is no rule of law in America. There will no government entity, NO administrative officialdom to petition to protect us from their predations.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ohio-republicans-ignoring-state-supreme-court-gerrymandering-redistricting-rulings-constitutional-amendment-federal-court
Instead, those wheels of justice whose pathetic movement is imperceptible when it comes to dealing with the present malignant EVIL will be retooled and employed to swiftly fuck all of us.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/doj-justice-department-signal-expansion-capitol-insurrection-investigation-merrick-garland-prosecutor-thomas-windom
Which means there will be no rule of law required to carry out in turn the death of the malignant conservative movement.
This is how it happens. It’s going to be horrific, because the cruelty will be the point. All bets will be off.
Ya gotta think big like they do, or we just aren’t keeping up. They’ve got a plan, long in the making, and its fascist, predatory infrastructure is being constructed right before our eyes.
Like Bannon and Aleksander Dugin think, who have declared war on us and everything we stand for.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/scary-future-american-right-national-conservatism-conference/620746/
“They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. . . . As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
— Paul Weyrich
We are talking about Christianizing America. We are talking about the Gospel in a political context.”
— Paul Weyrich
“We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them and eventually destroy them,” said Weyrich protégé Eric Heubeck, writing for the Free Congress Foundation. “We will maintain a constant barrage of criticism against the Left. We will attack the very legitimacy of the Left. We will not give them a moment’s rest . . . We will use guerrilla tactics to undermine the legitimacy of the dominant regime.”
All by the gun.
Peter Thiel is a gay man.
J.D. Vance is a heterosexual man.
Those trivial personal facts have nothing to do with the savage revolutionary violence their subhuman conservative movement, led by the evil lawless figurehead Donald Trump and his murderous, election-thieving minions, will spark in every state, every county, and every street in America, from sea to blood-red sea.
They will burn Washington DC to the ground. They will murder the US government.
They will destroy a couple of hundred million human lives.
I take no solace whatsoever that they will first put a bullet in Liz Cheney’s head, as Vladimir Putin is feted at the Mar-a-Lago White House, or some adjacent Florida structure, following the latter’s use of nuclear weapons to murder Ukraine, and as his murderous strategies serve as a template to subdue, pacify, and murder every balky Other occupying the land mass formerly known as America, in the name of the their vengeful Christian God decked out in the fake libertarian motley armament of do-as-we-command-or-we’ll-kill-you.
https://digbysblog.net/2022/04/21/listen-to-what-these-people-are-saying/
The long version:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets#intcid=_vanity-fair-verso-hp-trending_dba7dade-17b7-4e74-a64c-cd9262aa9155_popular4-1
There is no rule of law in America. There will no government entity, NO administrative officialdom to petition to protect us from their predations.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ohio-republicans-ignoring-state-supreme-court-gerrymandering-redistricting-rulings-constitutional-amendment-federal-court
Instead, those wheels of justice whose pathetic movement is imperceptible when it comes to dealing with the present malignant EVIL will be retooled and employed to swiftly fuck all of us.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/doj-justice-department-signal-expansion-capitol-insurrection-investigation-merrick-garland-prosecutor-thomas-windom
Which means there will be no rule of law required to carry out in turn the death of the malignant conservative movement.
This is how it happens. It’s going to be horrific, because the cruelty will be the point. All bets will be off.
Ya gotta think big like they do, or we just aren’t keeping up. They’ve got a plan, long in the making, and its fascist, predatory infrastructure is being constructed right before our eyes.
Like Bannon and Aleksander Dugin think, who have declared war on us and everything we stand for.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/scary-future-american-right-national-conservatism-conference/620746/
“They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. . . . As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
— Paul Weyrich
We are talking about Christianizing America. We are talking about the Gospel in a political context.”
— Paul Weyrich
“We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them and eventually destroy them,” said Weyrich protégé Eric Heubeck, writing for the Free Congress Foundation. “We will maintain a constant barrage of criticism against the Left. We will attack the very legitimacy of the Left. We will not give them a moment’s rest . . . We will use guerrilla tactics to undermine the legitimacy of the dominant regime.”
All by the gun.
Donald Trump: “Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?” followed by Tucker Carlson and the American infestation of 50 million traitorous conservatives cackling.
https://digbysblog.net/2022/04/21/i-dont-mean-to-alarm-you/
They will kill us one way or another.
Donald Trump: “Why can’t we use nuclear weapons?” followed by Tucker Carlson and the American infestation of 50 million traitorous conservatives cackling.
https://digbysblog.net/2022/04/21/i-dont-mean-to-alarm-you/
They will kill us one way or another.
This shit never goes away until it is put away:
https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/qanon-figure-leading-harassment-effort-against-school-boards-also-follows
This shit never goes away until it is put away:
https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/qanon-figure-leading-harassment-effort-against-school-boards-also-follows
I realize that I’m going into noone’s territory, but I’m now wondering if Peter Thiel is grooming JD Vance….
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/04/peter-thiel-buys-new-mcmansion-for-his-sock-puppet
I realize that I’m going into noone’s territory, but I’m now wondering if Peter Thiel is grooming JD Vance….
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/04/peter-thiel-buys-new-mcmansion-for-his-sock-puppet
First it’s yer naked Jewish Mauses, and now here they come after yer suspected gay Disney mice.
https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/daily-wire-host-calls-metaphorically-taking-mickey-mouses-head-and-putting-it-spike
Originalists don’t believe in metaphors, so I suggest Mickey and Minnie gun up good and automatically.
Ralph Ellison wrote a novel called “The Invisible Mathematician.”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/desantis-banned-textbooks-teach-kids-kindness-black-mathematicians-exist-florida
Alice Walker’s novel title has been changed to “Don’t Say What Color, Unless It’s Beige”.
Or maybe it should be “I’m thinking of a Color, but whatever you do, Don’t Guess Santorum Blah …… k.”
The Holocaust- and Slavery-ENVY among white Christian conservatives seems alarming to me. It’s as if they won’t be satisfied until they too are equally enslaved and exterminated and can collect reparations.
Affirmative action for white martyrs. The pale American Trump victims often ask themselves, “How is it that the Armenians got so lucky? Why not us, too?”
It would seem both sides historical fairness to American conservative fascists would justify, at public expense, a US Holocaust Memorial Museum From the Nazi Perspective, built next to the existing Holocaust Museum with a bowered seating area in between for those who can’t decide who really started it all, with an emphasis on white conservative Christian innovations in boxcar ventilation, funny walks, tattoo artistry, and games for the kids, such as “Smoking Out the Other”, “Both Sides Get Badges” and “Advanced Barking for Aspiring Gauleiters.”
The Other in America must stop horning in on the one and only patented crucifixion, or at least pay a steep fee for the user rights.
The Battle of the Little BigHorn must herewith and in perpetuity be referred to as “The Big White Custer Testicle Tanning Spa.”
And watch it with the word “little”.
There is nothing “little” in American history.
It’s bigly, all of it.
And colorless. Always has been.
And from now on, white residents in red states may continue to say: “So, this guy was walking toward me … he was a black guy …”, but black, brown, and yellow residents must act as if the person walking toward them is colorless, unless they themselves are walking or driving while colored; the details have not yet been ironed out, so immediate tasing will be continued in those cases until we rewrite the procedures.
No more rainbows, or coalitions thereof. One color for all crayons and paints, and black and white photography is a no-no, as contrast will not be tolerated.
Color photography? Nada. No, no, and no!
No more of those races to the bottom, and to be absolutely fair, races to the top will be limited to the colorless.
Suspect identification in police work will be limited to “humanoid” of no particular identifying characteristics, except in the case of Willie Horton and all of his lookalikes, but not Clarence Thomas.
Ya know, one of them, the Scots-Irish cop will hint to the prosecutor with a wink and a slitting with a knife motion across his neck or maybe imitating a guy hanging and choking from a noose.
But not Clarence Thomas, who will still turn down taxi rides from black cabbies in the wrong parts of town at night because he is colorblind to colorblindness.
First it’s yer naked Jewish Mauses, and now here they come after yer suspected gay Disney mice.
https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/daily-wire-host-calls-metaphorically-taking-mickey-mouses-head-and-putting-it-spike
Originalists don’t believe in metaphors, so I suggest Mickey and Minnie gun up good and automatically.
Ralph Ellison wrote a novel called “The Invisible Mathematician.”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/desantis-banned-textbooks-teach-kids-kindness-black-mathematicians-exist-florida
Alice Walker’s novel title has been changed to “Don’t Say What Color, Unless It’s Beige”.
Or maybe it should be “I’m thinking of a Color, but whatever you do, Don’t Guess Santorum Blah …… k.”
The Holocaust- and Slavery-ENVY among white Christian conservatives seems alarming to me. It’s as if they won’t be satisfied until they too are equally enslaved and exterminated and can collect reparations.
Affirmative action for white martyrs. The pale American Trump victims often ask themselves, “How is it that the Armenians got so lucky? Why not us, too?”
It would seem both sides historical fairness to American conservative fascists would justify, at public expense, a US Holocaust Memorial Museum From the Nazi Perspective, built next to the existing Holocaust Museum with a bowered seating area in between for those who can’t decide who really started it all, with an emphasis on white conservative Christian innovations in boxcar ventilation, funny walks, tattoo artistry, and games for the kids, such as “Smoking Out the Other”, “Both Sides Get Badges” and “Advanced Barking for Aspiring Gauleiters.”
The Other in America must stop horning in on the one and only patented crucifixion, or at least pay a steep fee for the user rights.
The Battle of the Little BigHorn must herewith and in perpetuity be referred to as “The Big White Custer Testicle Tanning Spa.”
And watch it with the word “little”.
There is nothing “little” in American history.
It’s bigly, all of it.
And colorless. Always has been.
And from now on, white residents in red states may continue to say: “So, this guy was walking toward me … he was a black guy …”, but black, brown, and yellow residents must act as if the person walking toward them is colorless, unless they themselves are walking or driving while colored; the details have not yet been ironed out, so immediate tasing will be continued in those cases until we rewrite the procedures.
No more rainbows, or coalitions thereof. One color for all crayons and paints, and black and white photography is a no-no, as contrast will not be tolerated.
Color photography? Nada. No, no, and no!
No more of those races to the bottom, and to be absolutely fair, races to the top will be limited to the colorless.
Suspect identification in police work will be limited to “humanoid” of no particular identifying characteristics, except in the case of Willie Horton and all of his lookalikes, but not Clarence Thomas.
Ya know, one of them, the Scots-Irish cop will hint to the prosecutor with a wink and a slitting with a knife motion across his neck or maybe imitating a guy hanging and choking from a noose.
But not Clarence Thomas, who will still turn down taxi rides from black cabbies in the wrong parts of town at night because he is colorblind to colorblindness.
I have nothing but respect for the idea that racist behavior – word or deed – is unacceptable.
The thing to consider is whether speech that candidly addresses the legacy and reality of racism is racist.
I have no clear and reliable guidelines to offer. I hear noone, and I also hear nous and Pro Bono.
It’s true that noone’s posts are often offensive. I don’t know what to say about that other than please just skip them if they bug you. It’s what I do when I’m just not interested in that brand of invective.
But when I do read them, there is usually something in there worth my time. As there is, always, in everything nous and Pro Bono contribute here.
Eat the meat, spit out the bones.
Peace out, y’all.
I have nothing but respect for the idea that racist behavior – word or deed – is unacceptable.
The thing to consider is whether speech that candidly addresses the legacy and reality of racism is racist.
I have no clear and reliable guidelines to offer. I hear noone, and I also hear nous and Pro Bono.
It’s true that noone’s posts are often offensive. I don’t know what to say about that other than please just skip them if they bug you. It’s what I do when I’m just not interested in that brand of invective.
But when I do read them, there is usually something in there worth my time. As there is, always, in everything nous and Pro Bono contribute here.
Eat the meat, spit out the bones.
Peace out, y’all.
wrs
wrs
Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home
But for some, there apparently are multiple ones. We knew Mark Meadows was registered in both Virginia and at a North Carolina trailer where he never lived. That latter has been dropped. But it turns out he had, and still has, a third registration in South Carolina.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/22/mark-meadows-was-simultaneously-registered-vote-three-states/
Guess maybe he wears multiple hats, and therefore…?
Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home
But for some, there apparently are multiple ones. We knew Mark Meadows was registered in both Virginia and at a North Carolina trailer where he never lived. That latter has been dropped. But it turns out he had, and still has, a third registration in South Carolina.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/22/mark-meadows-was-simultaneously-registered-vote-three-states/
Guess maybe he wears multiple hats, and therefore…?
But for some, there apparently are multiple ones.
I dislike incompetent state governments. Where does he have a valid driver’s license? When he got it, his previous state should have been notified that his state of residence had changed. The DMV, upon notification, should have passed it on to the voter registration people, who should remove him from the rolls. It’s like they’re not even trying.
But for some, there apparently are multiple ones.
I dislike incompetent state governments. Where does he have a valid driver’s license? When he got it, his previous state should have been notified that his state of residence had changed. The DMV, upon notification, should have passed it on to the voter registration people, who should remove him from the rolls. It’s like they’re not even trying.
Where does he have a valid driver’s license?
But if he had a valid license for the first location, but used something else (passport? birth certificate? mere signature attesting that he is a resident and eligible?) for the later ones? That could work.
I don’t know how carefully voter registrations are vetted in various states. Even the ones which claim to be super-worried about voter fraud frequently seem to have very lax checks, provided you have something (license to carry a gun, perhaps) which looks like you are likely to vote for their preferred party.
Where does he have a valid driver’s license?
But if he had a valid license for the first location, but used something else (passport? birth certificate? mere signature attesting that he is a resident and eligible?) for the later ones? That could work.
I don’t know how carefully voter registrations are vetted in various states. Even the ones which claim to be super-worried about voter fraud frequently seem to have very lax checks, provided you have something (license to carry a gun, perhaps) which looks like you are likely to vote for their preferred party.
It’s Earth Day. If you want to loose your faith on American democracy on a Friday night, I can highly recommend:
https://www.pbs.org/video/the-power-of-big-oil-part-one-denial-redxh6/
It’s Earth Day. If you want to loose your faith on American democracy on a Friday night, I can highly recommend:
https://www.pbs.org/video/the-power-of-big-oil-part-one-denial-redxh6/
It’s Earth Day. If you want to loose your faith on American democracy on a Friday night…
Another day of high winds and ridiculously low humidity in the Southwest. Currently it’s just Arizona and New Mexico that are burning down. But there have already been little wildfires just down the road from me already here in Colorado.
It’s Earth Day. If you want to loose your faith on American democracy on a Friday night…
Another day of high winds and ridiculously low humidity in the Southwest. Currently it’s just Arizona and New Mexico that are burning down. But there have already been little wildfires just down the road from me already here in Colorado.
We did wildfires here way back in February. California! Leading the way!
But amazingly enough, we’ve had a couple of storms come thru this month. In fact, in April we’ve had over an inch and a half of rain. Which is lower than normal . . . but also more than triple what we had in January, February, and March combined. (We even had chain requirements going over the Sierras this week!)
So, not an end to the drought, but we’ll take every little bit we can get.
We did wildfires here way back in February. California! Leading the way!
But amazingly enough, we’ve had a couple of storms come thru this month. In fact, in April we’ve had over an inch and a half of rain. Which is lower than normal . . . but also more than triple what we had in January, February, and March combined. (We even had chain requirements going over the Sierras this week!)
So, not an end to the drought, but we’ll take every little bit we can get.
Talk about HOT!
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/22/madison-cawthorn-photos-00027286
Hey, girls just wanna have fun! Looks like a coked up karaoke night on stormy seas to me.
I suspect he was in drag so he could secure a seat on the lifeboats in case the ship hit an iceberg later that night.
Gangway! Man the lifeboats! You too, Ensign Madison!
I really don’t want to see the photos of Ted Cruz cruising and bobbing and weaving on the poopdeck and grooming the ship’s purser … Hello, Sailor! …. on that ship of fools with a winsome Tom Cottonclub in blackface on his arm auditioning for RuPaul’s Drag Race.
This is exactly how and why the Empress of Britain at the beginning of World War II went down, as Rod Dreher will tell you from his new bachelor pad overlooking holy spots (Holy Spots! Will ya look at that!”) in the cradle of the Apocalypse.
The Nazis had no recourse because they had to exterminate all Weimar fun domestic and foreign in the world, right?
Now Dreher is accusing orthodox Israeli Jews of treating him like a Muslim as he gets HIS righteous tourista orthodox bonafides turned away.
I’d link, but ….
What did you expect, Rod? They are conservative canceling bigots, like all conservatives of all religions on every continent.
Heck, you might as well be wearing lingerie.
Talk about HOT!
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/22/madison-cawthorn-photos-00027286
Hey, girls just wanna have fun! Looks like a coked up karaoke night on stormy seas to me.
I suspect he was in drag so he could secure a seat on the lifeboats in case the ship hit an iceberg later that night.
Gangway! Man the lifeboats! You too, Ensign Madison!
I really don’t want to see the photos of Ted Cruz cruising and bobbing and weaving on the poopdeck and grooming the ship’s purser … Hello, Sailor! …. on that ship of fools with a winsome Tom Cottonclub in blackface on his arm auditioning for RuPaul’s Drag Race.
This is exactly how and why the Empress of Britain at the beginning of World War II went down, as Rod Dreher will tell you from his new bachelor pad overlooking holy spots (Holy Spots! Will ya look at that!”) in the cradle of the Apocalypse.
The Nazis had no recourse because they had to exterminate all Weimar fun domestic and foreign in the world, right?
Now Dreher is accusing orthodox Israeli Jews of treating him like a Muslim as he gets HIS righteous tourista orthodox bonafides turned away.
I’d link, but ….
What did you expect, Rod? They are conservative canceling bigots, like all conservatives of all religions on every continent.
Heck, you might as well be wearing lingerie.
Cawthorne’s personal relationship with Jesus is looking more and more like Trump’s personal relationship with underage beauty queens.
Cawthorne’s personal relationship with Jesus is looking more and more like Trump’s personal relationship with underage beauty queens.
Ah, yes. The Rittenhouse Effect.
I don’t think it has anything to do with polar bears.
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-hosts-tucker-carlson-and-jeanine-pirro-warn-progressive-district-attorneys-will-drive
I give my public institutions not yet in the hands of and ruined by conservative vermin fascism permission to fight back with all and every means necessary:
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/04/the-new-mccarthyism-like-the-original-is-about-destroying-public-institutions
Teachers, librarians, the good people serving as the administrative state and all of the Other threatened by these savages must become heavily armed.
The Constitution demands it.
We’ll call it simply … The American Effect.
Ah, yes. The Rittenhouse Effect.
I don’t think it has anything to do with polar bears.
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-hosts-tucker-carlson-and-jeanine-pirro-warn-progressive-district-attorneys-will-drive
I give my public institutions not yet in the hands of and ruined by conservative vermin fascism permission to fight back with all and every means necessary:
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2022/04/the-new-mccarthyism-like-the-original-is-about-destroying-public-institutions
Teachers, librarians, the good people serving as the administrative state and all of the Other threatened by these savages must become heavily armed.
The Constitution demands it.
We’ll call it simply … The American Effect.
Thomas believes whites are irredeemably racist, and is a dyed in the wool black nationalist. By an odd twist this has become transformed into just another version of “bootstrap economics”, i.e., “I made it, why can’t you?” In this version, succeeding in an institutional atmosphere of segregation proves ones “worth”….as for the rest of the black community that failed this lofty standard? ……well fuck ’em. He calls for equal resources in education, etc., how this is to be politically accomplished in a white dominated society that is racist to the core is unexplained.
Thomas believes whites are irredeemably racist, and is a dyed in the wool black nationalist. By an odd twist this has become transformed into just another version of “bootstrap economics”, i.e., “I made it, why can’t you?” In this version, succeeding in an institutional atmosphere of segregation proves ones “worth”….as for the rest of the black community that failed this lofty standard? ……well fuck ’em. He calls for equal resources in education, etc., how this is to be politically accomplished in a white dominated society that is racist to the core is unexplained.
“I don’t care how educated you are, how good you are at what you do—you’ll never have the same contacts or opportunities, you’ll never be seen as equal to whites.”
I agree with Thomas here.
“From a young age, the primary divide Thomas had to confront came from the privileges associated with black wealth and light skin. “You had the black élite, the schoolteachers, the light-skinned people, the dentists, the doctors,” Thomas has said.”
This is precisely accurate.
‘In a survey, between a quarter and a half of Thomas’s classmates agreed with the following statements: that black people “have less ambition” than whites; that black people have “looser morals” than whites; that black people “smell different” from whites. In a 1987 letter to the Wall Street Journal, Thomas wrote, “A new media fad is to constantly harp on the plight of black college students on predominantly white campuses. Believe it or not, the problems are the same as they were 20 years ago. . . . The major difference is that the media paid little attention to them then.”’
Again, precisely at it was and is.
“At Yale, Thomas developed an understanding of racism that he would never shake. Whites—Southern and Northern, liberal and conservative, rural and urban—are racists.”
He is correct.
‘The most that can be hoped for is that whites be honest about it. Honesty is demonstrated through crude statements of personal animus or intellectual suggestions of racial inequality. Dishonesty is demonstrated through denial of one’s racism and sympathetic extensions of help. Dishonesty lulls black people into a false sense of security, assuring them that they are safe when they are not. One of Thomas’s favorite songs is the 1971 hit “Smiling Faces Sometimes,” by the Undisputed Truth. Its classic lyric—“Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies”—resonates with his experience of Northern white liberals. Among the virtues of the Reagan Administration, he has said, was the fact that no one there was “smiling in your face.”.
This is on the money. Being referred to by Ronald Reagan as a “monkey” is bracing honesty, which makes two-faced northern liberals like the Kennedy family, who refused to allow Sammy Davis Jr to present at the 1960 Inauguration (the reason Sinatra, who ran the show, broke with the Kennedys), and also continued to shill for racist vermin slaver southern Democrats-turned- Republicans like Strom Thurmond all thru the 1950s for electoral purposes, look like so many American Founders writing that “all men are created equal”, because the word “men”, in an honest constitutional originalist “interpretation” was a term of vast delimitation and exclusion, ya know … originally.
“The second way affirmative action continues white supremacy is by elevating whites to the status of benefactors, doling out scarce privileges to those black people they deem worthy.”
This is precisely because the American founding, whether it was 1776 or 1619, shackled us to the American original sin in perpetuity.
“The simplest, most effective way for the Law School to diversify itself would be to become less selective. It could accept anyone who completed a certified program. It could stop relying on the LSAT, which, Thomas insisted and the Law School admitted, is an “imperfect” diagnostic tool. But the school refused to adopt such inclusive measures, not because it was committed to meritocracy—policies such as “legacy preferences” proved otherwise—but because exclusivity was its central objective.”
“Rather than setting up a conditional, he (Thomas) is presenting the inability to end racism as the condition of American society.”
and …
“Affirmative action, then, is not about racial equality; it’s about preserving the prerogatives of white élites, allowing them to bestow the blessings of society upon a few lucky African-Americans.”
Preach it.
And ..
“Put simply, Thomas believes that affirmative action is a white program for white people.”
All programs for Americans are in the end FOR white people, as the Founders intended, just as anti-pollution programs are co-opted by and for polluters and Obamacare was looked upon as medical welfare for “those” people, and on and on. Heck, Thomas’ allies in the conservative movement, and the “victimized” whites they pander to, now demand “Equal Opportunity” in victimization. Whites even want to co-opt victimhood. How come blacks get to be the victims? What about me, republicans incite!
“Rather than setting up a conditional, he (Thomas) is presenting the inability to end racism as the condition of American society.”
The phenomenon of Thomas making common cause with Charlie Kirk, ya know, that honest dealer, and those ilk is final proof that America has had an irredeemable hitch in its get-along from day one.
“They are better friends to my race for telling us what they are, and what they mean, than all the hypocrites put together,” Garvey said, of the Ku Klux Klan. “I like honesty and fair play.”
That testifies to the sick racist shit baked into America’s original cake.
Next up, Peter Thiel will prefer to be tied to a fence line and beaten to a pulp by a band of homophobes than attend the frigging gay Oscar ceremonies.
Finally:
“Malcolm X wrote in his “Autobiography,” outlining a belief system, from his early years in the Nation of Islam, in which respect for black women would seem to be a means to a more important end.”
Tell it to Anita Hill, Judge.
“I don’t care how educated you are, how good you are at what you do—you’ll never have the same contacts or opportunities, you’ll never be seen as equal to whites.”
I agree with Thomas here.
“From a young age, the primary divide Thomas had to confront came from the privileges associated with black wealth and light skin. “You had the black élite, the schoolteachers, the light-skinned people, the dentists, the doctors,” Thomas has said.”
This is precisely accurate.
‘In a survey, between a quarter and a half of Thomas’s classmates agreed with the following statements: that black people “have less ambition” than whites; that black people have “looser morals” than whites; that black people “smell different” from whites. In a 1987 letter to the Wall Street Journal, Thomas wrote, “A new media fad is to constantly harp on the plight of black college students on predominantly white campuses. Believe it or not, the problems are the same as they were 20 years ago. . . . The major difference is that the media paid little attention to them then.”’
Again, precisely at it was and is.
“At Yale, Thomas developed an understanding of racism that he would never shake. Whites—Southern and Northern, liberal and conservative, rural and urban—are racists.”
He is correct.
‘The most that can be hoped for is that whites be honest about it. Honesty is demonstrated through crude statements of personal animus or intellectual suggestions of racial inequality. Dishonesty is demonstrated through denial of one’s racism and sympathetic extensions of help. Dishonesty lulls black people into a false sense of security, assuring them that they are safe when they are not. One of Thomas’s favorite songs is the 1971 hit “Smiling Faces Sometimes,” by the Undisputed Truth. Its classic lyric—“Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies”—resonates with his experience of Northern white liberals. Among the virtues of the Reagan Administration, he has said, was the fact that no one there was “smiling in your face.”.
This is on the money. Being referred to by Ronald Reagan as a “monkey” is bracing honesty, which makes two-faced northern liberals like the Kennedy family, who refused to allow Sammy Davis Jr to present at the 1960 Inauguration (the reason Sinatra, who ran the show, broke with the Kennedys), and also continued to shill for racist vermin slaver southern Democrats-turned- Republicans like Strom Thurmond all thru the 1950s for electoral purposes, look like so many American Founders writing that “all men are created equal”, because the word “men”, in an honest constitutional originalist “interpretation” was a term of vast delimitation and exclusion, ya know … originally.
“The second way affirmative action continues white supremacy is by elevating whites to the status of benefactors, doling out scarce privileges to those black people they deem worthy.”
This is precisely because the American founding, whether it was 1776 or 1619, shackled us to the American original sin in perpetuity.
“The simplest, most effective way for the Law School to diversify itself would be to become less selective. It could accept anyone who completed a certified program. It could stop relying on the LSAT, which, Thomas insisted and the Law School admitted, is an “imperfect” diagnostic tool. But the school refused to adopt such inclusive measures, not because it was committed to meritocracy—policies such as “legacy preferences” proved otherwise—but because exclusivity was its central objective.”
“Rather than setting up a conditional, he (Thomas) is presenting the inability to end racism as the condition of American society.”
and …
“Affirmative action, then, is not about racial equality; it’s about preserving the prerogatives of white élites, allowing them to bestow the blessings of society upon a few lucky African-Americans.”
Preach it.
And ..
“Put simply, Thomas believes that affirmative action is a white program for white people.”
All programs for Americans are in the end FOR white people, as the Founders intended, just as anti-pollution programs are co-opted by and for polluters and Obamacare was looked upon as medical welfare for “those” people, and on and on. Heck, Thomas’ allies in the conservative movement, and the “victimized” whites they pander to, now demand “Equal Opportunity” in victimization. Whites even want to co-opt victimhood. How come blacks get to be the victims? What about me, republicans incite!
“Rather than setting up a conditional, he (Thomas) is presenting the inability to end racism as the condition of American society.”
The phenomenon of Thomas making common cause with Charlie Kirk, ya know, that honest dealer, and those ilk is final proof that America has had an irredeemable hitch in its get-along from day one.
“They are better friends to my race for telling us what they are, and what they mean, than all the hypocrites put together,” Garvey said, of the Ku Klux Klan. “I like honesty and fair play.”
That testifies to the sick racist shit baked into America’s original cake.
Next up, Peter Thiel will prefer to be tied to a fence line and beaten to a pulp by a band of homophobes than attend the frigging gay Oscar ceremonies.
Finally:
“Malcolm X wrote in his “Autobiography,” outlining a belief system, from his early years in the Nation of Islam, in which respect for black women would seem to be a means to a more important end.”
Tell it to Anita Hill, Judge.
Just so:
https://www.balloon-juice.com/2022/04/23/saturday-evening-movies-open-thread-be-like-a-duck-look-calm-unruffled/
There is no winning against this conservative movement monster.
There is only defeating and destroying it
and then taxing their asses off, for the few that survive.
Just so:
https://www.balloon-juice.com/2022/04/23/saturday-evening-movies-open-thread-be-like-a-duck-look-calm-unruffled/
There is no winning against this conservative movement monster.
There is only defeating and destroying it
and then taxing their asses off, for the few that survive.
Macron won decisively!
Thank heavens.
Le Pen would have been the beginning of the end of the EU.
I just wish the media hadn’t written her and Zemmour up like they did – they just can’t resist a right winger, cf. Trump.
Macron won decisively!
Thank heavens.
Le Pen would have been the beginning of the end of the EU.
I just wish the media hadn’t written her and Zemmour up like they did – they just can’t resist a right winger, cf. Trump.
The lesser evil wins its share of elections.
The lesser evil wins its share of elections.
Charles, I’m curious as to whether there has ever, in any major country, been a candidate (one with a serious chance of winning, or even who won) that you didn’t regard as, at best, a “lesser evil.” That is, have you even seen a serious candidate** who you would be willing to actually support?
** Say, just as a number to toss out, one with at least 50% as much support as the leading candidate. But feel free to propose an alternate threshold for “serious candidate”
Charles, I’m curious as to whether there has ever, in any major country, been a candidate (one with a serious chance of winning, or even who won) that you didn’t regard as, at best, a “lesser evil.” That is, have you even seen a serious candidate** who you would be willing to actually support?
** Say, just as a number to toss out, one with at least 50% as much support as the leading candidate. But feel free to propose an alternate threshold for “serious candidate”
Pa Kettle calculates the difference between the greater and the lesser evil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSrPlf4GBHc
Pa Kettle calculates the difference between the greater and the lesser evil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSrPlf4GBHc
Well, I don’t know about Charles, but the French people – perennial cranks that they are – certainly view the winners of the second round as the lesser evil.
The electoral system is designed that way, as they say in France: in the first round you vote with your heart, in the second with your head.
Well, I don’t know about Charles, but the French people – perennial cranks that they are – certainly view the winners of the second round as the lesser evil.
The electoral system is designed that way, as they say in France: in the first round you vote with your heart, in the second with your head.
who you would be willing to actually support?
Can’t think of anyone at the moment. A national leader’s ability to do good is pretty limited while their ability to do evil is a bit open-ended. So, regardless of who they are, the odds are that their reign will be net evil. If not explicitly evil, the bad policies will outweigh the good.
who you would be willing to actually support?
Can’t think of anyone at the moment. A national leader’s ability to do good is pretty limited while their ability to do evil is a bit open-ended. So, regardless of who they are, the odds are that their reign will be net evil. If not explicitly evil, the bad policies will outweigh the good.
the odds are that their reign will be net evil
Seems like, after millenia** of net evil after net evil, things ought to be far worse than they are. Even if we assume (on zero evidence, mind) some ancient state of grace as a starting point.
** Although, if it’s only democracy that produces net evil, the span of increasing evel would be less. That might account for it….
the odds are that their reign will be net evil
Seems like, after millenia** of net evil after net evil, things ought to be far worse than they are. Even if we assume (on zero evidence, mind) some ancient state of grace as a starting point.
** Although, if it’s only democracy that produces net evil, the span of increasing evel would be less. That might account for it….
To hear CharlesWT tell it, the world would be better off without “national leaders”. I bet he doesn’t mean a single “world leader” would be preferable, so if there’s any sort of “leaders” CharlesWT could endorse they’d have to be at a lower level. In the US, “state leaders” perhaps. Or maybe “city leaders”.
But even in a small city there will be differences of opinion as to what’s “good” and “evil”, so it’s possible CharlesWT even objects to mayors. What’s left? Block captains?
I suppose it’s possible that CharlesWT means “leaders” are problematic, at any level. Nobody should “lead” anybody. Except for CEOs, of course. I doubt a Libertarian(TM) would claim that “corporate leaders” tend to produce “net evil”, but I could be wrong.
–TP
To hear CharlesWT tell it, the world would be better off without “national leaders”. I bet he doesn’t mean a single “world leader” would be preferable, so if there’s any sort of “leaders” CharlesWT could endorse they’d have to be at a lower level. In the US, “state leaders” perhaps. Or maybe “city leaders”.
But even in a small city there will be differences of opinion as to what’s “good” and “evil”, so it’s possible CharlesWT even objects to mayors. What’s left? Block captains?
I suppose it’s possible that CharlesWT means “leaders” are problematic, at any level. Nobody should “lead” anybody. Except for CEOs, of course. I doubt a Libertarian(TM) would claim that “corporate leaders” tend to produce “net evil”, but I could be wrong.
–TP
There is a great piece in the NYT: The War in Ukraine Has Unleashed a New Word.
It describes the etymology of a tri-lingual pun.
There is a great piece in the NYT: The War in Ukraine Has Unleashed a New Word.
It describes the etymology of a tri-lingual pun.
I was particularly taken by this bit:
It increasingly appears that the Ukrainians view Russia, and especially the Russian Army, as a joke. A bad joke, certainly. But still, a joke.
I was particularly taken by this bit:
It increasingly appears that the Ukrainians view Russia, and especially the Russian Army, as a joke. A bad joke, certainly. But still, a joke.
In America, and soon, lesser evil is going to have kick up its game and go exponentially nuclear evil to destroy, this time forever, the absolutely EVIL conservative movement fascism that is descending upon us.
We’ve done it before.
Then one day, too late for me, we can get back to boring old lesser evil.
Obviously, if conservative movement blacks are holding the KKK in high esteem for the latter’s nihilistic, racist, murderous candor and honesty, then the country has gone Nazi-level insane and its operating system requires a lengthy and violent defrag and total reboot before the malignant, sadistic republican party theoreticians, in league with Putin’s theoreticians, do their worst.
In America, and soon, lesser evil is going to have kick up its game and go exponentially nuclear evil to destroy, this time forever, the absolutely EVIL conservative movement fascism that is descending upon us.
We’ve done it before.
Then one day, too late for me, we can get back to boring old lesser evil.
Obviously, if conservative movement blacks are holding the KKK in high esteem for the latter’s nihilistic, racist, murderous candor and honesty, then the country has gone Nazi-level insane and its operating system requires a lengthy and violent defrag and total reboot before the malignant, sadistic republican party theoreticians, in league with Putin’s theoreticians, do their worst.
The lesser evil wins its share of elections.
For which, we all give thanks.
The lesser evil wins its share of elections.
For which, we all give thanks.
It increasingly appears that the Ukrainians view Russia, and especially the Russian Army, as a joke. A bad joke, certainly. But still, a joke.
I certainly can’t speak for the Ukrainians, but an army that looks like it will slowly reduce your entire country to rubble isn’t a joke, no matter how incompetent they may be outside of the artillery.
It increasingly appears that the Ukrainians view Russia, and especially the Russian Army, as a joke. A bad joke, certainly. But still, a joke.
I certainly can’t speak for the Ukrainians, but an army that looks like it will slowly reduce your entire country to rubble isn’t a joke, no matter how incompetent they may be outside of the artillery.
Charles acknowledges the lesser evil, it would be nice if he could acknowledge the greater good…
Charles acknowledges the lesser evil, it would be nice if he could acknowledge the greater good…
“it’s possible CharlesWT even objects to mayors. What’s left? Block captains?”
Home-owner’s Association Presidents, AKA ‘little tin dictators’.
“it’s possible CharlesWT even objects to mayors. What’s left? Block captains?”
Home-owner’s Association Presidents, AKA ‘little tin dictators’.
https://jabberwocking.com/ron-desantis-should-be-in-prison/
Corporations were never people.
But they are now the OTHER, joining all of the rest of us who were never, and never WILL be considered human by the fascist murderous conservative movement destroying America.
Welcome to the lesser evil club, corporations.
Corporations are now commies, uppity niggers, fags, kikes, wetbacks, feminazis, chinks, outside agitators, camel jockeys, and just so many vermin to the subhuman christian republican trump and putin-aligned filth who are going to kill all of us.
Corporations must now unite with we real citizens …. citizens united to citizens instead of non-people united to fascist corrupt money and against people … and become heavily armed to survive this monstrous EVIL.
Corporations, like Starbucks and so many others, whose leaders don’t count their employees as human if they happen to stand together in unions, can remain subhuman conservative republican and be wiped off the face of the Earth.
Starbucks and Amazon management aren’t people yet.
Disney needs to arm Mickey and Minnie to let them defend themselves as human mice … Mice United … against republican exterminators.
Twitter will not have free speech under anti-union, racist corporate politically correct subhuman, Elon Musk.
https://jabberwocking.com/ron-desantis-should-be-in-prison/
Corporations were never people.
But they are now the OTHER, joining all of the rest of us who were never, and never WILL be considered human by the fascist murderous conservative movement destroying America.
Welcome to the lesser evil club, corporations.
Corporations are now commies, uppity niggers, fags, kikes, wetbacks, feminazis, chinks, outside agitators, camel jockeys, and just so many vermin to the subhuman christian republican trump and putin-aligned filth who are going to kill all of us.
Corporations must now unite with we real citizens …. citizens united to citizens instead of non-people united to fascist corrupt money and against people … and become heavily armed to survive this monstrous EVIL.
Corporations, like Starbucks and so many others, whose leaders don’t count their employees as human if they happen to stand together in unions, can remain subhuman conservative republican and be wiped off the face of the Earth.
Starbucks and Amazon management aren’t people yet.
Disney needs to arm Mickey and Minnie to let them defend themselves as human mice … Mice United … against republican exterminators.
Twitter will not have free speech under anti-union, racist corporate politically correct subhuman, Elon Musk.
Like many, I have been operating under the assumption that Russia had a larger, substantially larger, army than Ukraine. That’s larger across the board. Which made this particularly interesting:
If Ukraine has more tanks, and Russia doesn’t have control of the skies (which they still don’t, and no serious prospect of gaining it either) then Russia is in a bad way. Even with more infantry (if you count untrained and unmotivated conscripts), they’re looking at quite possibly getting tossed out of eastern Ukraine as well.
I wonder if Trump will abandon his buddy, if Putin turns out to be a loser….
** Not to mention starting to acquire sophisticated counter-battery weapons.
Like many, I have been operating under the assumption that Russia had a larger, substantially larger, army than Ukraine. That’s larger across the board. Which made this particularly interesting:
If Ukraine has more tanks, and Russia doesn’t have control of the skies (which they still don’t, and no serious prospect of gaining it either) then Russia is in a bad way. Even with more infantry (if you count untrained and unmotivated conscripts), they’re looking at quite possibly getting tossed out of eastern Ukraine as well.
I wonder if Trump will abandon his buddy, if Putin turns out to be a loser….
** Not to mention starting to acquire sophisticated counter-battery weapons.
Hopefully, all this will lead the CCP to decide that the status quo is preferable to invading Taiwan.
Hopefully, all this will lead the CCP to decide that the status quo is preferable to invading Taiwan.
In Xi’s place, I’d be seriously wondering whether my generals and intelligence folks were being as over-optimistic as Putin’s obviously were. Especially when contemplating by far the biggest amphibious assault since WW II. Against an opponent who, unlike Ukraine, has known for decades they faced the threat of just that kind of attack, and had the resources to dig in against it.
In Xi’s place, I’d be seriously wondering whether my generals and intelligence folks were being as over-optimistic as Putin’s obviously were. Especially when contemplating by far the biggest amphibious assault since WW II. Against an opponent who, unlike Ukraine, has known for decades they faced the threat of just that kind of attack, and had the resources to dig in against it.
In Xi’s place, I’d be seriously wondering whether my generals and intelligence folks were being as over-optimistic as Putin’s obviously were.
You can bet they are as China is very much a hierarchical, shot-the-messenger society.
In Xi’s place, I’d be seriously wondering whether my generals and intelligence folks were being as over-optimistic as Putin’s obviously were.
You can bet they are as China is very much a hierarchical, shot-the-messenger society.
If Ukraine has more tanks, and Russia doesn’t have control of the skies (which they still don’t, and no serious prospect of gaining it either) then Russia is in a bad way. Even with more infantry (if you count untrained and unmotivated conscripts), they’re looking at quite possibly getting tossed out of eastern Ukraine as well.
Russia *had* more tanks at the start, but they had lost about a third of their tanks in the first month, IIRC, and sanctions had shut down the assembly lines for any new tanks.
And Russia is too reliant on tanks and does not have the support that tanks need for sustained fighting: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/europe/ukraine-war-russia-trucks-logistics-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
In recent years, Putin has boasted about Russia’s hypersonic missiles like the Zircon and Kinzhal, stealth fighter jets like the Su-57, and its modern fleet of 11 ballistic missile submarines.
“Often glamorous dictator militaries are good at the showy weapons, they buy the fancy aircraft and the fancy tanks, but they don’t actually buy the less glamorous stuff,” O’Brien says.
With all the conscripts in the regular army, the Russians are used to using their tanks to break through resistance and then coming in behind them with light infantry forces to clean up. They have little support for protecting their armor, so the Ukrainian military has been able to isolate and take out tanks without fear of being pinned down by infantry.
All this is why the Russians have been using the Wagner Group to recruit Syrian mercenaries to fight on their side. They don’t have the infantry they need to actually take and hold territory. All they can do is blow the crap out of things and try to attrit their opponents with the atrocities we have been seeing in the news.
If Ukraine has more tanks, and Russia doesn’t have control of the skies (which they still don’t, and no serious prospect of gaining it either) then Russia is in a bad way. Even with more infantry (if you count untrained and unmotivated conscripts), they’re looking at quite possibly getting tossed out of eastern Ukraine as well.
Russia *had* more tanks at the start, but they had lost about a third of their tanks in the first month, IIRC, and sanctions had shut down the assembly lines for any new tanks.
And Russia is too reliant on tanks and does not have the support that tanks need for sustained fighting: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/europe/ukraine-war-russia-trucks-logistics-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
In recent years, Putin has boasted about Russia’s hypersonic missiles like the Zircon and Kinzhal, stealth fighter jets like the Su-57, and its modern fleet of 11 ballistic missile submarines.
“Often glamorous dictator militaries are good at the showy weapons, they buy the fancy aircraft and the fancy tanks, but they don’t actually buy the less glamorous stuff,” O’Brien says.
With all the conscripts in the regular army, the Russians are used to using their tanks to break through resistance and then coming in behind them with light infantry forces to clean up. They have little support for protecting their armor, so the Ukrainian military has been able to isolate and take out tanks without fear of being pinned down by infantry.
All this is why the Russians have been using the Wagner Group to recruit Syrian mercenaries to fight on their side. They don’t have the infantry they need to actually take and hold territory. All they can do is blow the crap out of things and try to attrit their opponents with the atrocities we have been seeing in the news.
Ukraine is certainly a lesson in what China shouldn’t do if they decide to take back their “rogue province”. I know how I would approach the problem, but it doesn’t involve the PLAN much at all.
Ukraine is certainly a lesson in what China shouldn’t do if they decide to take back their “rogue province”. I know how I would approach the problem, but it doesn’t involve the PLAN much at all.
There’s EVIL, there’s lesser evil, and then there is
unlicensed ophthalmology selling dog shit and hoping the blinded have lost their sense of smell too:
https://digbysblog.net/2022/04/26/rand-and-russia/
How many humans who were infected with Covid-19 by attacker Rand Paul also suffer from lifelong symptoms?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rand-paul-attacker-sentenced-additional-prison-time-over-yard-assault-n1235013
President Biden should pardon that patriot neighbor and commission a statue alongside the reflecting pond depicting him re-arranging Ayn Rand Paul’s hair with a leaf blower.
There’s EVIL, there’s lesser evil, and then there is
unlicensed ophthalmology selling dog shit and hoping the blinded have lost their sense of smell too:
https://digbysblog.net/2022/04/26/rand-and-russia/
How many humans who were infected with Covid-19 by attacker Rand Paul also suffer from lifelong symptoms?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/rand-paul-attacker-sentenced-additional-prison-time-over-yard-assault-n1235013
President Biden should pardon that patriot neighbor and commission a statue alongside the reflecting pond depicting him re-arranging Ayn Rand Paul’s hair with a leaf blower.
The pistol was tucked inside his garter belt, or was it his brassiere?
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cawthorn-cited-gun-north-carolina-airport
I fully expect conservative subhumans running for gauleiter positions across the country to increasingly show up toting unlicensed weaponry in illegal locations, perhaps sneezing into their neighbors’ bouillabaisse and citing the Constitution.
The pistol was tucked inside his garter belt, or was it his brassiere?
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cawthorn-cited-gun-north-carolina-airport
I fully expect conservative subhumans running for gauleiter positions across the country to increasingly show up toting unlicensed weaponry in illegal locations, perhaps sneezing into their neighbors’ bouillabaisse and citing the Constitution.
“Ukraine is certainly a lesson …”
In what?
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/five-points-on-russia-threats-to-expand-its-war-to-moldova
This is being done by conservative Christian Putin to crater the world’s economy and incite commodity inflation on behalf of electoral benefit to election-thieving traitors Trump and the entire vermin genocidal christian republican party.
“Ukraine is certainly a lesson …”
In what?
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/five-points-on-russia-threats-to-expand-its-war-to-moldova
This is being done by conservative Christian Putin to crater the world’s economy and incite commodity inflation on behalf of electoral benefit to election-thieving traitors Trump and the entire vermin genocidal christian republican party.
This fascist conservative Christian has been looking forward to, while pretending to tsk tsk, an inevitable New Hitler to vanquish and exterminate the 21st Century Weimar Republic in free countries he despises.
Dreher:
“Liberalism is falling apart, because honestly, who can give a damn about what it has become? Silencing everyone who disagrees, mutilating children and alienating them from their bodies, sanctifying a certain kind of racism, valorizing pornography and transgressive sex, and all the rest. Good riddance to it.
But we are going to miss it when it’s gone, and people like that angry Jewish woman, and Madame Defarge of the Millennials, are in the driver’s seat. It’s coming.”
Meanwhile, this Christian murderer as well wants the end of Liberalism and the institution of theocratic fascism throughout the West.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/le-pens-lessons-for-americans/
Hey, traditional conservatives, be very afraid.
When these ilk say “kill Liberalism”, they are talking about removing Classical Liberalism, not just chicks with dicks, from the Earth, the Enlightenment, everything all the way back to the fucking murderous and horny Popes of the Middle Ages, gone.
This fascist conservative Christian has been looking forward to, while pretending to tsk tsk, an inevitable New Hitler to vanquish and exterminate the 21st Century Weimar Republic in free countries he despises.
Dreher:
“Liberalism is falling apart, because honestly, who can give a damn about what it has become? Silencing everyone who disagrees, mutilating children and alienating them from their bodies, sanctifying a certain kind of racism, valorizing pornography and transgressive sex, and all the rest. Good riddance to it.
But we are going to miss it when it’s gone, and people like that angry Jewish woman, and Madame Defarge of the Millennials, are in the driver’s seat. It’s coming.”
Meanwhile, this Christian murderer as well wants the end of Liberalism and the institution of theocratic fascism throughout the West.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/le-pens-lessons-for-americans/
Hey, traditional conservatives, be very afraid.
When these ilk say “kill Liberalism”, they are talking about removing Classical Liberalism, not just chicks with dicks, from the Earth, the Enlightenment, everything all the way back to the fucking murderous and horny Popes of the Middle Ages, gone.
From a Russian Daily KOS contributor:
“However, recently I came across a lecture by Ekaterina Schulmann, a notable Russian political scientist specializing in studying the inner workings of corrupt and autocratic regimes (especially Putin’s), and in response to an audience question, she gave a reply that chilled me to the bone, even though she reiterated that this was only a hypothesis that was not yet to be taken as fact. Below is my translation of Schulmann’s response, the original Russian-language recording of
The question from the audience was, why does Putin need this war? Why did he start it?
Ekaterina Schulmann:
“Many people will ponder this question and come up with many different answers, all of which will seem logical. Naturally, I have my own hypothesis, which I don’t claim is the one truth. Nevertheless, since we are having such a remarkable discussion, I will share it.
He did this to halt time. I’ll try to explain what this implies.
I think that these processes which we [political scientists] were observing, including the transformation of values, of worldviews, of public opinion [specifically in Russia], were real. I do not think that we were all in thrall of illusions when we noted that violence in society is decreasing; that crime rates are falling; that new generations have a new value system; that video games actually reduce violence, rather than increase it; that, in general, the younger the social stratum, the more pronounced the decline in violent crime and in consumption of hard liquor; that imperial nostalgia is fading into the past.
Now, turn this picture around, and imagine yourself on the other side. There you sit and watch as the sands of time slip through your fingers. You will inevitably be succeeded by — let’s use his language — traitors. Your children are traitors. They do not share your view of life, they do not share your view of the world, they do not see that which you see with such clarity. You are the last defender of the fortress. They will surrender it to the enemy, because they do not even consider him an enemy, and no matter how much you try to convince them, they still won’t consider.
A sizable, cultured and educated segment of the public sits around you at a safe distance, looks on and says: “Go on, we’ll wait. When you die, it will be our turn. The sympathies of the future are on our side. The youth idolizes us, not you. But do go on, sit there for now, why not. We will not storm the Kremlin, we only need to wait.”
A year passes, and another, then a third. Everything continues in the same vein. At the same time, your head is full of geopolitics, and the neighboring country is causing you unease. It had somehow made progress, which is very disturbing. And you realize that a little more, just a tiny bit longer, and that’s it, your historical time will end. Your window will shut. They will tell you: “Well, that’s enough, get down from there. The next ones are coming.” And these next ones are unacceptable to you. From your point of view, they are worse than useless, they will doom everything, they will ruin everything.
“He’ll smash to bits the sacred vessels, he’ll feed the dirt with royal oil, he’ll squander everything – and by what right?” [from The Covetous Knight, by Alexander Pushkin]. Read that again, and realize that this is not about money. You will be seized with horror, at this hatred for one’s heirs, hatred for the living simply because they shall go on living. “It’s time for me to rot, and you to blossom.” A reasonable person can accept this, can caress a baby, understanding that “yes, I will turn to dust, but you will live on and prosper.”
But if you happen to be constituted a little bit differently, and you also happen to hold a great deal of power in your hands, then you can do this trick: onto the heads of all these future generations, you will overturn a heavy concrete slab, which will crush them forever, or least in any foreseeable perspective. That future that they wanted, they won’t get. Instead, they will get the future your way, even after you are no longer among the living, because you will do such a thing, oh my…
You are inside, you understand? Yes, inside this fortress that you’re guarding, you will figuratively detonate an atomic bomb. True, there will be no life left in the fortress, but it will be radioactive and therefore unapproachable, and so it will forever remain “unconquered”, so to speak.
Not to speak of the specific culprit, with all due respect for him and his functions, but of a whole social and demographic stratum. Have you seen our average age figures? But it’s not just age per se. It’s a certain social affiliation, a certain kind of experience, a certain world view that is formed by this experience. Anyone who can’t accept the flow of time and come to terms with it, yet possesses power, could do this kind of thing.
This is my explanation. It’s only a working hypothesis, but that’s how it is. I do see confirmation from many sources, as well as in very public official pronouncements about how “we need to do this right now, tomorrow would be too late”, just another moment and everything will turn to irrevocable regret and musings of “we should have…”
This sentiment of “time flowing away” is something that I have been hearing for a long time, I think. I speak about this whenever I discuss generational change. The feeling that somehow history is not headed “in our direction”, this hatred and disgust for tomorrow, because “it is not what I need”, is clearly audible [in Putin’s speeches]. What was hard to grasp is that someone would go to such ends in an attempt to drown out these apparently unbearable feelings.
The trouble is, of course, that this terrible work of isolation is being done from both sides. The wall is being built from both outside and inside. We cannot blame the outside world for wanting to protect itself from, let’s say it out loud, an aggressive regime that is attacking and killing people. Still, the labor of isolation is being worked by four hands. It’s horrible. [To repair the damage] will take a lot of work over a very long time. Simply returning to a level that, until now, we took for granted, will require an unimaginable expenditure of effort and resources.
It’s remarkable and tragic how humanity can squander its strength like this.”
Trumpism, the Republican Party, the entire malignant genocidal conservative movement infesting and standing athwart and stopping time in America … Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arizona are Putin’s orthodox reclaimed conservative movement territories being turned into rubble.
Sarah Death Palin can see Russia from her house.
She’s in the same Mother Russia time zone as Putin: Stopped Time.
Why not invite him in?
From a Russian Daily KOS contributor:
“However, recently I came across a lecture by Ekaterina Schulmann, a notable Russian political scientist specializing in studying the inner workings of corrupt and autocratic regimes (especially Putin’s), and in response to an audience question, she gave a reply that chilled me to the bone, even though she reiterated that this was only a hypothesis that was not yet to be taken as fact. Below is my translation of Schulmann’s response, the original Russian-language recording of
The question from the audience was, why does Putin need this war? Why did he start it?
Ekaterina Schulmann:
“Many people will ponder this question and come up with many different answers, all of which will seem logical. Naturally, I have my own hypothesis, which I don’t claim is the one truth. Nevertheless, since we are having such a remarkable discussion, I will share it.
He did this to halt time. I’ll try to explain what this implies.
I think that these processes which we [political scientists] were observing, including the transformation of values, of worldviews, of public opinion [specifically in Russia], were real. I do not think that we were all in thrall of illusions when we noted that violence in society is decreasing; that crime rates are falling; that new generations have a new value system; that video games actually reduce violence, rather than increase it; that, in general, the younger the social stratum, the more pronounced the decline in violent crime and in consumption of hard liquor; that imperial nostalgia is fading into the past.
Now, turn this picture around, and imagine yourself on the other side. There you sit and watch as the sands of time slip through your fingers. You will inevitably be succeeded by — let’s use his language — traitors. Your children are traitors. They do not share your view of life, they do not share your view of the world, they do not see that which you see with such clarity. You are the last defender of the fortress. They will surrender it to the enemy, because they do not even consider him an enemy, and no matter how much you try to convince them, they still won’t consider.
A sizable, cultured and educated segment of the public sits around you at a safe distance, looks on and says: “Go on, we’ll wait. When you die, it will be our turn. The sympathies of the future are on our side. The youth idolizes us, not you. But do go on, sit there for now, why not. We will not storm the Kremlin, we only need to wait.”
A year passes, and another, then a third. Everything continues in the same vein. At the same time, your head is full of geopolitics, and the neighboring country is causing you unease. It had somehow made progress, which is very disturbing. And you realize that a little more, just a tiny bit longer, and that’s it, your historical time will end. Your window will shut. They will tell you: “Well, that’s enough, get down from there. The next ones are coming.” And these next ones are unacceptable to you. From your point of view, they are worse than useless, they will doom everything, they will ruin everything.
“He’ll smash to bits the sacred vessels, he’ll feed the dirt with royal oil, he’ll squander everything – and by what right?” [from The Covetous Knight, by Alexander Pushkin]. Read that again, and realize that this is not about money. You will be seized with horror, at this hatred for one’s heirs, hatred for the living simply because they shall go on living. “It’s time for me to rot, and you to blossom.” A reasonable person can accept this, can caress a baby, understanding that “yes, I will turn to dust, but you will live on and prosper.”
But if you happen to be constituted a little bit differently, and you also happen to hold a great deal of power in your hands, then you can do this trick: onto the heads of all these future generations, you will overturn a heavy concrete slab, which will crush them forever, or least in any foreseeable perspective. That future that they wanted, they won’t get. Instead, they will get the future your way, even after you are no longer among the living, because you will do such a thing, oh my…
You are inside, you understand? Yes, inside this fortress that you’re guarding, you will figuratively detonate an atomic bomb. True, there will be no life left in the fortress, but it will be radioactive and therefore unapproachable, and so it will forever remain “unconquered”, so to speak.
Not to speak of the specific culprit, with all due respect for him and his functions, but of a whole social and demographic stratum. Have you seen our average age figures? But it’s not just age per se. It’s a certain social affiliation, a certain kind of experience, a certain world view that is formed by this experience. Anyone who can’t accept the flow of time and come to terms with it, yet possesses power, could do this kind of thing.
This is my explanation. It’s only a working hypothesis, but that’s how it is. I do see confirmation from many sources, as well as in very public official pronouncements about how “we need to do this right now, tomorrow would be too late”, just another moment and everything will turn to irrevocable regret and musings of “we should have…”
This sentiment of “time flowing away” is something that I have been hearing for a long time, I think. I speak about this whenever I discuss generational change. The feeling that somehow history is not headed “in our direction”, this hatred and disgust for tomorrow, because “it is not what I need”, is clearly audible [in Putin’s speeches]. What was hard to grasp is that someone would go to such ends in an attempt to drown out these apparently unbearable feelings.
The trouble is, of course, that this terrible work of isolation is being done from both sides. The wall is being built from both outside and inside. We cannot blame the outside world for wanting to protect itself from, let’s say it out loud, an aggressive regime that is attacking and killing people. Still, the labor of isolation is being worked by four hands. It’s horrible. [To repair the damage] will take a lot of work over a very long time. Simply returning to a level that, until now, we took for granted, will require an unimaginable expenditure of effort and resources.
It’s remarkable and tragic how humanity can squander its strength like this.”
Trumpism, the Republican Party, the entire malignant genocidal conservative movement infesting and standing athwart and stopping time in America … Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arizona are Putin’s orthodox reclaimed conservative movement territories being turned into rubble.
Sarah Death Palin can see Russia from her house.
She’s in the same Mother Russia time zone as Putin: Stopped Time.
Why not invite him in?
Ekaterina Schulmann’s explanation does highlight the remarkable parallels between Putin’s motivations and the motivations of the MAGA crowd. It’s not just that world is changing. It’s that the views, the worldview, of the next generations are so wildly different from theirs.
That’s impossible for some to accept. I know it’s hard; I’m uncomfortable with some aspects of the younger generations’ views myself. I’d go so far as to say that I expect them to experience a serious reality check on some parts** of it. But that doesn’t mean that I think that I have to “destroy the village in order to save in” — a memorable phrase from the Vietnam War.
** And I do realize that which parts may well not be the ones I expect.
Ekaterina Schulmann’s explanation does highlight the remarkable parallels between Putin’s motivations and the motivations of the MAGA crowd. It’s not just that world is changing. It’s that the views, the worldview, of the next generations are so wildly different from theirs.
That’s impossible for some to accept. I know it’s hard; I’m uncomfortable with some aspects of the younger generations’ views myself. I’d go so far as to say that I expect them to experience a serious reality check on some parts** of it. But that doesn’t mean that I think that I have to “destroy the village in order to save in” — a memorable phrase from the Vietnam War.
** And I do realize that which parts may well not be the ones I expect.
What we have, definitely, is a sort of epistemological war on future change. The coalition against future change here in the US seems to be wider than MAGA – or at least made up of a lot of people who are structurally aligned with MAGA while completely cynical about Trump and his true believers. This is what happens when a binary worldview comes face to face with a moment in time that demands a non-binary approach to complex, existential communal problems.
It’s nihilism dressed up as faithfulness to higher principles.
What we have, definitely, is a sort of epistemological war on future change. The coalition against future change here in the US seems to be wider than MAGA – or at least made up of a lot of people who are structurally aligned with MAGA while completely cynical about Trump and his true believers. This is what happens when a binary worldview comes face to face with a moment in time that demands a non-binary approach to complex, existential communal problems.
It’s nihilism dressed up as faithfulness to higher principles.
I seem to have a different understanding of “nihilism” than nous. (Although I’m willing to yield to his expertise, if he’s a philosophy teacher.)
As I understand it, nihilism rejects all moral principles. But Putin and the MAGA crowd have moral principles, ones which they are fighting desperately to maintain. We may find their principles appalling, but there really isn’t any question that they are principles.
Of course folks like McCarthy and Graham and perhaps even Trump, who only care about power, probably fit the bill. But the marks they are scamming in pursuit of that are a different story.
I seem to have a different understanding of “nihilism” than nous. (Although I’m willing to yield to his expertise, if he’s a philosophy teacher.)
As I understand it, nihilism rejects all moral principles. But Putin and the MAGA crowd have moral principles, ones which they are fighting desperately to maintain. We may find their principles appalling, but there really isn’t any question that they are principles.
Of course folks like McCarthy and Graham and perhaps even Trump, who only care about power, probably fit the bill. But the marks they are scamming in pursuit of that are a different story.
Until recently I would have said that Putin was a ruthless pragmatist with few ‘values’ as we see them.
E.g. I still believe that the guy is 100% atheist and just plays a pious defender of orthodoxy (and Kyril is in on it but finds it convenient to play along).
But I am not sure about the pure pragmatist thing anymore. His public patriotic speeches are still imo hogwash but I get the impression that he got a ‘holy mother Russia’ infection some time in the past (not too distant).
Until recently I would have said that Putin was a ruthless pragmatist with few ‘values’ as we see them.
E.g. I still believe that the guy is 100% atheist and just plays a pious defender of orthodoxy (and Kyril is in on it but finds it convenient to play along).
But I am not sure about the pure pragmatist thing anymore. His public patriotic speeches are still imo hogwash but I get the impression that he got a ‘holy mother Russia’ infection some time in the past (not too distant).
I was using nihilism more in the psychological sense than in the philosophical sense. It’s about the total breakdown of self or the world in a way that justifies exceptional responses and self-destructive behaviors.
I was using nihilism more in the psychological sense than in the philosophical sense. It’s about the total breakdown of self or the world in a way that justifies exceptional responses and self-destructive behaviors.
Hartmut, I agree that Putin got the “holy mother Russia” thing. Along with a longing for the, as he sees it, glory of the USSR. But I’m not at all sure that it’s a recent affliction. My sense is that he’s had it for decades. It’s just taken him a while to reach a position where he can act on it.
Hartmut, I agree that Putin got the “holy mother Russia” thing. Along with a longing for the, as he sees it, glory of the USSR. But I’m not at all sure that it’s a recent affliction. My sense is that he’s had it for decades. It’s just taken him a while to reach a position where he can act on it.
It might help asking the question from a different angle: If you lie as much and as cynically and brazenly as Putin and do this for your whole life – how can you not be a nihilist in the sense that nous outlined?
There’s simply no there there.
Philosophically and even psychologically, I think most thinking people have gone through bouts of nihilism and these phases can even be important to get to some sort of truth, as opposed to cliche and convention – but for most people, as opposed to Putin, these are temporary states of mind.
It might help asking the question from a different angle: If you lie as much and as cynically and brazenly as Putin and do this for your whole life – how can you not be a nihilist in the sense that nous outlined?
There’s simply no there there.
Philosophically and even psychologically, I think most thinking people have gone through bouts of nihilism and these phases can even be important to get to some sort of truth, as opposed to cliche and convention – but for most people, as opposed to Putin, these are temporary states of mind.
My sense is that Putin lies braxenly, but not cynically. His lies do help keep him in power, but that is actually a fringe benefit. The reason, the motivation, for the lies is the restoration, as he sees it, of the glory of mother Russia. That is, it’s a matter of the end justifying the means.
But the end, for Putin, is something more than mere personal self-aggrandizement. Which, if you think about it, actually puts him on a higher moral plane than McCarthy and Graham. Not that they would care, of course.
My sense is that Putin lies braxenly, but not cynically. His lies do help keep him in power, but that is actually a fringe benefit. The reason, the motivation, for the lies is the restoration, as he sees it, of the glory of mother Russia. That is, it’s a matter of the end justifying the means.
But the end, for Putin, is something more than mere personal self-aggrandizement. Which, if you think about it, actually puts him on a higher moral plane than McCarthy and Graham. Not that they would care, of course.
The reason, the motivation, for the lies is the restoration, as he sees it, of the glory of mother Russia. That is, it’s a matter of the end justifying the means.
I don’t get the sense that Putin cares one bit about anyone else in Russia, though. He cares about being the Glorious Russian Leader and the glory of Mother Russia only matters in that it is a necessary trapping of his self-image. It comes from a place of deep insecurity, not of security in ones own beliefs and worldview.
Putin, like Trump, needs things to be just so because the alternative confirms their worst suspicions about themselves. There is no positive core on which to build, just a gaping, hungry maw of absence.
That’s why I say nihilism. There is nothing there at the core, just a pretty façade to cover the hole.
The reason, the motivation, for the lies is the restoration, as he sees it, of the glory of mother Russia. That is, it’s a matter of the end justifying the means.
I don’t get the sense that Putin cares one bit about anyone else in Russia, though. He cares about being the Glorious Russian Leader and the glory of Mother Russia only matters in that it is a necessary trapping of his self-image. It comes from a place of deep insecurity, not of security in ones own beliefs and worldview.
Putin, like Trump, needs things to be just so because the alternative confirms their worst suspicions about themselves. There is no positive core on which to build, just a gaping, hungry maw of absence.
That’s why I say nihilism. There is nothing there at the core, just a pretty façade to cover the hole.
There is nothing there at the core, just a pretty façade to cover the hole.
Absolutely agree that this describes Trump.
I don’t have anywhere near as good a read on Putin. But from what I can see, when it comes to being the Glorious Leader of Glorious Russia, “Glorious Russia” is at least as important to him as “Glorious Leader.”
He doesn’t care much about individual Russians (or about any other human beings) — except that there have to be some for there to be a Glorious Russia. How miserable, how poor, etc. they are doesn’t matter. But there gotta be some.
There is nothing there at the core, just a pretty façade to cover the hole.
Absolutely agree that this describes Trump.
I don’t have anywhere near as good a read on Putin. But from what I can see, when it comes to being the Glorious Leader of Glorious Russia, “Glorious Russia” is at least as important to him as “Glorious Leader.”
He doesn’t care much about individual Russians (or about any other human beings) — except that there have to be some for there to be a Glorious Russia. How miserable, how poor, etc. they are doesn’t matter. But there gotta be some.
Think of Russia as Putin’s Trump Tower. What matters is that there is a monument to him, and that it appear impressive.
Gilt manipulations.
Think of Russia as Putin’s Trump Tower. What matters is that there is a monument to him, and that it appear impressive.
Gilt manipulations.