Pizza and Italians

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by janiem 1. One weekend, years before I moved here, I was driving around the back roads of Maine with some friends. We came to an intersection, and I gazed out the window of the car as we paused to decide which way to turn. Right next to us was one of those little general … Read more

Anti-Gay Employment Discrimination Already Illegal Under Federal Law

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by Ugh So this is something I can support: On Monday, Chief Judge Robert Katzmann of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrote that anti-gay employment discrimination is almost certainly prohibited under existing federal law. Katzmann urged the 2nd Circuit to reconsider precedent holding that employees cannot sue for sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII … Read more

ACA, AHCA, DBCFT, Showdown Throwdown

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by Ugh So here we are, 7 years and one day after the ACA was signed into law by B. Hussein O. and after eleventybillion prior votes to repeal the law when it didn't matter, the House might finally vote on an ACA "replacement" bill via a process that actually involves all the mythical process … Read more

Who’s next open thread

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by liberal japonicus Regular commenter hairshirthedonist asks: Also, too, isn’t it kind of weird that Chuck Berry and Chuck Barris would die within such a short time of each other? Why yes, yes it is. I may watch Confessions of a Dangerous Mind tonite and 2016 was a banner year for famous people going off … Read more

Whither Soft Power?

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by wj I had thought that there were two views about “soft power” — influencing foreigners (individually or collectively) with persuasion rather than force or the threat of force. First, that it was an important and useful part of our foreign policy arsenal. This view has governed US foreign policy since WW II, and is … Read more

Comings and Goings

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by janie m Blog communities are like “real life” communities in some ways, and not like them in others. In my experience there are very few real life groups where a departure wouldn’t be noticed or commented on, but with blogs someone can just not comment one day, and no one notices, because well, people … Read more

A report from Georgia’s 6th

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by chmatl Hello, Obsidian Wingers! This is chmatl. LJ very graciously asked if I’d like to write a post on the upcoming special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District to replace Tom Price. I thought I’d fill you all in on the situation on the ground moving toward the election. A little background – the … Read more

Last Minute Hugo Artist Nominations

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by Doctor Science Just a few hours to go! Don’t forget you have to save each category individually! Check under your seat for any stray personal items! Best Professional Artist Kathleen Jennings Her illustrations are good, but her papercuts are *outstanding*. This is from “Tremontaine, Season 2”. Victo Ngai Cover of “Everfair” by Nisi Shawl. … Read more

Last Minute Hugo Nominations

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by Doctor Science I really dropped the ball on Hugo nominations this year. Or, to be fair to myself, the time and energy I had expected to spend on the Hugos turned out to be needed for historic levels of political action (and anxiety). Nominations will close on 2017-03-18 06:59 UTC (at 11:59 pm Pacific … Read more

A field guide to #TheResistance

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by Doctor Science If #TheResistance is a parade, some people are trying to jump in front of it and be called “leaders”. Michael Moore is the most egregious, but there are others, too. I’m the equivalent of the third piccolo player in this parade, which means I know enough to say where the movement came … Read more

Cemeteries

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by JanieM A couple of summers ago, after years of procrastination, I got a lawyer to help me rewrite my will. We also drafted a power of attorney for money matters and a health care advance directive. One of the reasons I had been procrastinating was that I wanted to write a novella-length response to … Read more

From the ObWi hivemind

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by liberal japonicus Just to let you know, we’ve asked a few people to join the front page, with the key being they provide some new points of view. I’m closing the comments to this post as it is just an announcement, but if you have ideas or recommendations for others, drop a line to … Read more

The United States has no national security

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by Doctor Science

This is not a drill, and I am not speaking rhetorically. I think the evidence shows that, at the White House level, the United States has *no* functioning national security, as the national security and intelligence communities understand it.

Most of the talk, as in the previous post, about the growing conflict between Trump and NS/IC is about Trump and his associates’ ties to Russia, and the extent to which they may be acting as Russian assets.

This is obviously a very serious charge that has to be investigated, post-haste. But a lot of us have been screaming our fool heads off about this for *months* without NS/IC going this far, so why now? What took them this long?

I wonder if the reason this has broken out now was the apparent use of the Mar-a-Lago terrace as a Situation Room. At Mar-a-Lago Trump and his staff showed themselves incapable of acting as part of a national security system. The whole intelligence community, the national security apparatus, and the military now saw, publicly, that classified or sensitive material given to the Trump White House will not be treated as such. It’s not as specific as “this particular person is compromised by Russia”, it’s a general failure to acknowledge that national security issues have special significance.

I’m cutting here because this post is long and has embedded tweets and other slow-down factors.

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This view from a Former CIAer is Disturbing

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by Ugh

Vox has an interview with "a 23-year veteran of the CIA and a former deputy officer on the National Intelligence Council."  I picked this up in my twitter feed, that person describing it as "chilling."  But I think they meant chilling from an "isn't Trump a horrible threat?" perspective, although perhaps not.  But my take away is that the intelligence community – or at least this person who spent more than two decades working in it – is full of themselves (and "it") and feels entitled to undermine the President of the United States if they view him as sufficiently not to their liking.

More below.

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unexpected but welcome

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by russell Leaving the flaming hulk of the Trump administration aside for a moment, I thought this piece from Reuters to be of interest.  Unexpected, but welcome. tl;dr – big pharma is not all that interested in a massive rollback of FDA regulation.   The primary reason seems to be that drugs that actually make it … Read more

Hacking Trump’s Brain

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by Doctor Science A few days ago media guru Dan Pfeiffer tweeted: Trump might be the most predictable human on earth https://t.co/GmmtMlM4j6 — Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) February 6, 2017 So-called President* Trump is also easily influenced (especially by the last person he spoke to), and is, of course, probably the most influential person in the … Read more

He May be a Dumpster Fire, but he’s OUR Dumpster Fire (Open Thread)

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by Ugh The Magical Mystery Reality Show of Doom, Tacos and Discontinued Clothing Lines continues here in the United States of Fnckin' A.  While Week 3 showed a slight down-tick in pictures of CBP-handcuffed pre-Kers and other similar defenses of the national security, we still managed to have our fair share of entertainment, in a "oh-god-we're-all-gonna'-die-pass-the-vodka-and-Valium" … Read more

bannon

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by russell I've been curious about Steve Bannon, Trump's advisor.  Trump is pretty much a well-known quantity – what you see is what you get, who and what he is, is basically there to see.  I don't think there's any significant hidden depths behind the surface – what's on the surface is who he is. … Read more

Your Ugh Fixes U.S. Professional Sports Open Thread

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By Ugh

Because I can’t help myself, and because I need a break from our newly enshrined Dear Leader, my thoughts below and after the jump on how to fix the three major professional American sports (sorry hockey and “soccer”), starting with the one most in need of fixing.*  Also, too, Open Thread.  The best.  Have a steak.

MLB Baseball

(1) Shorten the season by 20-40 games.  Season is too damn long, especially with the current playoff system.  P&C report at the end of February and the WS ended on November 2 in 2016.  That 8 full months.  Then comes award season where the Cy Young, MVP, etc. are dribbled out over the rest of November.  Enough.  The season should finish by early October.  Yes this makes historical record comparisons harder/meaningless, but PEDs have already done sailed that ship.

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Now is the time to start studying Chinese

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by liberal japonicus Or, according to google translate 现在是开始学习中文的时候了。 (Xiànzài shì kāishǐ xuéxí zhōngwén de shíhoule.) I have made several concerted efforts to study Chinese, and thought that I had given up, but this article makes me realize that I better bite the bullet and take another run at the damn language. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/30/donald-trump-is-handing-china-the-world.html I can … Read more

infrastructure

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by russell Here is a draft version of the Trump administration's initial infrastructure priorities.  Somewhat to my surprise, they all seem pretty good, to me.  They all seem like… useful, needed infrastructure. Many of the concerns that have been raised about the funding mechanisms, and what the ownership status of the projects will be once completed.  I.e., … Read more

A Reminder: The United States is a low-taxed nation

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by Ugh Since this is the issue I know best and as we head further into the darkness that started on Friday, I thought I would post this helpful reminder when it comes to the debate regarding "tax reform" this year:  the U.S. is a low taxed nation among developed economies, our supposed competitors. This may … Read more

Commuted — Open Thread

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by wj President Obama has now commuted more sentences than any previous President. From what I can tell, a lot of there are non-violent drug offenders and others whose sentences are arguably out of proportion to the reality of their offense. So far, so good. But then there’s this: “Chelsea Elizabeth Manning – Oklahoma City, … Read more