Thursday, March 31, 2022
For Your Consideration
Biden Net Approval Among:
— Polling USA (@USA_Polling) March 31, 2022
All: -4%
Silent Generation: +5%
Boomers: -1%
Gen-Z/Millennials: -23%
Gen-X: -24%
Women: -9%
Men: -21%
Non-White: -2%
White: -21%
Marist / March 29, 2022 / n=1170 / MOE 3.7% / Telephonehttps://t.co/tNiD4GWzCp
Sure Why Not
When I asked anti-abortion activist Lauren Handy what homicide detectives pulled out of her house Wednesday, she only said, “people will freak out when they hear.” @DCPoliceDept now says it found 5 fetuses. @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/9Uvm7JY9dQ
— Nathan Baca (@NathanBacaTV) March 31, 2022
It Takes A Strong Man, Baby
The criminal investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has expanded to examine the preparations for the rally that preceded the riot, as the Justice Department aims to determine the full extent of any conspiracy to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory, according to people familiar with the matter.We will see!In the past two months, a federal grand jury in Washington has issued subpoena requests to some officials in former president Donald Trump’s orbit who assisted in planning, funding and executing the Jan. 6 rally, said the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Splitting The Baby
It is increasingly false to say I'm not THAT old, but it wasn't long ago when the Democratic president of the United States was (officially) against same sex marriage, and not long before that when gay characters simply existing on a TV show were controversial.
Dems thought the Supreme Court settled this for them, taking this "culture war" (what we call every important issue that doesn't matter much to rich white straight male pundits, which is everything except war and tax rates) issue off the table for them with Obergefell.
I don't like the "culture war" framing, in part because elite CW is always that the supposed Dem position is the losing side of it. Always against Real Americans. So they cower instead of showing leadership. But quite often the polls are on their side.
I'd like to be optimistic, but I suspect we're going to see more and more of your favorite pundits suggesting there's something to the "gay people are all filthy grooming pedophiles" stuff which is the new old line, and even more of your favorite pundits disagreeing with their good friends about this, but admitting they have a point.
And then more of your favorite pundits talking about how the Democrats have a problem, and they'd better address the Real Concerns of Americans who think gay people are all filthy grooming pedophiles, just as the whole CRT issue played out. Have to address their concerns!!!
Your favorite pundits are all bad, is part of what I am saying here. The other part is you can't always please Both Sides.
Take All His Money
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut judge on Wednesday said Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will be fined $25,000 to $50,000 per weekday until he appears for a deposition in a lawsuit brought by relatives of some victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Exaggerated
The cocaine orgies are real, is the point.NEWS: McCarthy says he told Madison Cawthorn during a meeting today that the freshman has lost his trust and he needs to take steps to turn his life around, or else there could be consequences.
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) March 30, 2022
Also says Cawthorn admitted his orgy & cocaine allegations were exaggerated/untrue.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
The Business Of The News Business
No I'm not curious. They don't do that.
Back when Media Matters did guests studies of the Sunday shows, the excuses made were literally, "Republicans are in charge so our viewers need to hear what they think" and then "Democrats are in charge so we need to give viewers a chance to hear what Republicans think."
Backwards
As settled issues become controversial, only straight white males have the appropriate objective perspective.its 2022 and republicans are accusing anyone who supports equal rights for the lgbt community of being a pedophile
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) March 30, 2022
The Good Chaps Theory Of Government
It's a somewhat jokey way to describe the unwritten UK constitution. Essentially, there are lots of traditions and norms and uncrossable lines and generally an understanding of how things are, and if any of the Good Chaps in government (they are all Good Chaps) find themselves (or are found to be) on the wrong side of those lines, then they do the right thing and resign, or at the top level, call for an election.Speaker Pelosi in the Dem caucus meeting, on Justice Thomas: "It's up to an individual justice to decide to recuse himself if his wife is participating in a coup." @NBCNews
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 30, 2022
A bit like a university Honor System.
But what if they don't? Ah, well...
Free To Be Just Like Me
JUST LIKE THE EIGHTEEN MINUTES
Since the Bush and Trump administrations, there has not a lot of reflection about how the system is much less able and much less willing to deal with rampant criminality, even criminality which threatens to overturn the entire system. Mostly a defense of it all.
Contrary to that recent editorial in The Fucking Newspaper, shunning people is Good, Actually, and there isn't enough expectation that powerful bad people are shunned by other less bad powerful people.
You don't have to be collegial to that racist pundit, or former Trump officials, for example.
Everyone in the system has a little bit of power. Being able to tell these assholes to fuck off to the moon might be the only power most people have, but it's something.
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Who Is Going To Report Out The Cocaine Orgies
A talking-to? House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is planning to sit down with Rep. Madison Cawthorn and talk to the North Carolina Republican about his latest incendiary public comment — suggesting that some of his colleagues invited him to orgies as well as used cocaine in front of him.
Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Can Wriggle Out Of This One
“Mr. Trump personally certified the accuracy of the Statements for the years prior to 2016, at which point his assets were placed in a revocable trust,” while Donald Jr. “was responsible for the Statements for the years 2016 to 2020,” James noted in the filing.That document said that from 2012 through 2016, the company’s financial statements said that Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower in Manhattan “exceeded 30,000 square and valued the apartment at up to $327 million based on those dimensions,” the filing noted.
But in 2017, the company’s statement “slashed the apartment’s value by two-thirds, sizing the residence at just under 11,000 square fees,” which is the figure specified in the offering plan for the building, the filing said.
Tucker and Tony
TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): So, let's say we eliminated the Russian head of state and of course that country's central government. What would happen to those weapons? Well, let's see. In Iraq, Saddam's weapons stockpiles, all conventional, wound up in the hands of militia that used them to kill Americans.Tony Blair, 2018So Russia has a large and restive population of Islamic extremists. Do we think it's possible that with no one running the country -- because of course we have no chosen successor to Putin -- is it possible, if we did that, that one of those 6,000 nuclear weapons might wind up in the hands of some anti-American terror group and be used against our civilian population here? A nuclear weapon. Well, it's not just possible, it's likely.
Tony Blair has reiterated a call for the West to ally with Russia to fight the threat of "terrorism".2014:Speaking at Chatham House in London on Wednesday about the dangers posed by "populism of the left and the right", the former UK prime minister said that although there would always be "disagreements" with Russia and its president Vladimir Putin, the need to tackle militant activity made cooperation necessary.
"On the Middle East, on fighting terrorism, yes, we will have to ally with Russia, but that's not to say we aren't prepared to have powerful and strong disagreements with them when they're doing things we don't agree with and can't agree with," he told the audience.
Tony Blair has warned Western leaders they must put aside their differences with Russia over Ukraine to focus on the threat of Islamic extremism.
Hot Dog Guy Dot Gif
Act Like It
But the price of that was likely the reduced House majority and losing to, for example, Susan Collins. This is a much more pausible theory than DEFUND THE POLICE. He basically encouraged the weirdos who love to vote split ticket to do so! Again, fine, he won. I'm not criticizing it, just pointing out that it was a strategy with other consequences.
There's now an ongoing tension between "the Republicans are an existential threat to the nation" and "I love to do bipartisan things with my good friends, the Republicans, who are, mostly, good."
This has not been worth the benefit of passing the shitty infrastructure bill and nothing else.
Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Can Wriggle Out Of This One
Internal White House records from the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that were turned over to the House select committee show a gap in President Donald Trump’s phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes, including the period when the building was being violently assaulted, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.
Monday, March 28, 2022
Reaching Out
(CNN)Following the revelation of Virginia "Ginni" Thomas' text messages with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, most members of the House select committee investigating January 6 -- including chair Bennie Thompson and vice chair Liz Cheney -- believe the panel should interview her, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.CNN has learned the committee is likely to reach out to Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in the coming weeks.
The Worst USG Institution
Most Americans don’t know it, but no other rich democracy has this kind of hyper-aggressive judicial review. In some countries, there is a special constitutional court with limited jurisdiction, in others it virtually never happens at all. The reason is obvious: When a handful of rich lawyers get dictatorial power over a society, they will abuse it. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter, “Our Judges are as honest as other men, and not more so.” It’s time to start facing that reality. Maybe we’ll even get around to ignoring the predilections of a corrupt, undemocratic body that wields judicial review as a weapon.
American Omnipotency
Poll: A majority of Americans believe Biden has not been "tough enough" on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but are concerned about the U.S. being drawn into an all-out war https://t.co/KGUtQ0QZK6
— Axios (@axios) March 28, 2022
Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Wriggles Out Of This One
This is a massive ruling. Judge has determined that Donald TRUMP likely committed felony obstruction of Congress.https://t.co/6VjYbzlIN0 pic.twitter.com/pYkSNnA0oH
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 28, 2022
Everything Gets Co-Opted
Sounds Bad
They will frame Manchin's opposition to things as "deep ideological commitment" or whatever instead of "deep commitment to increasing the amount of cash stashed in the safe of his yacht."
As I've long said - but perhaps not in awhile! - there's "the news" and then there's "talking about the news." Journalists at many outlets, including at That Fucking Newspaper, often do amazing work but it is forgotten right away because it's the political journalists - the worst ones, the ones who moonlight as cable news personalities - who shape the ongoing politics story.
You can write, for example, "President Trump, who has been accused of rape" every time you write about him or not. All those little choices matter.
Monday Morning
Sunday, March 27, 2022
Oscar Thread
Sounds Bad
COVID-19 is generally less severe in vaccinated patients but that does not mean breakthrough infections will be benign, a large study shows. Researchers analyzed data collected by the U.S. Veterans Affairs Administration from 16,035 survivors of breakthrough infections, 48,536 unvaccinated COVID-19 survivors and nearly 3.6 million uninfected people. At six months after infection, after taking their risk factors into account, people with breakthrough infections had lower rates of death and long-term lingering health problems than COVID-19 patients who had not been vaccinated. But compared to people who never had COVID-19, those who had breakthrough infections had a 53% higher risk of death and a 59% higher risk of having at least one new medical condition, particularly problems affecting the lungs and other organs. Even when breakthrough infections did not require hospitalization, the increased risks of death and lasting effects were "not trivial," the research team reported on Monday on Research Square ahead of peer review. "The overall burden of death and disease following breakthrough COVID-19 will likely be substantial," the researchers conclude.Even "mild" Covid (especially once that definition slipped from basically asymptomatic to no hospitalization) is something you don't want to catch. Whatever this means for what policy should be, it remains the case that being "covid wary" has been a pretty sensible, especially for people who really can't afford a long term illness.
US data isn't as timely and clear and uniform as it should be, but it remains the case that about 20-25% of covid deaths are of fully vaccinated people.
Owning The Libs By Backing A Flaming Sack Of Dogshit For President
I still don't get it.
What About Your Gaffes
Biden is Biden, but the people around him should be better prepared.
Obligatory troll repellent: Fine with me if Putin dies a humiliating death in a bunker, but I don't think it's clear that if that is the promised end that loss of life in Ukraine and elsewhere will be minimized.
A Grateful Nation Cheered
Joe Manchin - who this is aimed at - also doesn't care about the deficit.This bears repeating…
— Brian Deese (@BrianDeeseNEC) March 26, 2022
SURPRISING: b/c of historically strong economic growth & policy choices, the deficit last year actually fell. By $360bn.
MORE SURPRISING: We’re on track to see the fed deficit fall by > $1T this yr; largest nominal decline ever.
https://t.co/j036QnBf13
It is a bit disheartening that all the highly paid Advanced Politics Knowers at the highest levels of Democratic circles do not know this while I, a humble weirdo on the internet, does.
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Grand Old Police Blotter
WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - A U.S. jury on Thursday convicted U.S. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican from Nebraska, of lying to FBI investigators about illegal contributions to his 2016 re-election campaign.
BA.2
However, as new case totals begin to tick up in the state of New York, the campus is once again reporting a viral resurgence. This week, Cornell elevated its COVID-19 alert system to "yellow," indicating that transmission is rising, and prevalence of the virus is above predicted levels.And the money is all gone.Between March 17 and March 23, Cornell recorded 515 positive COVID-19 infections among students, staff and faculty, according to data from the university.
"COVID-19 cases on the Ithaca campus are increasing beyond our predictions, indicating a substantial prevalence of the virus on campus," Provost Michael Kotlikoff said in a statement on Wednesday. "This rising transmission is likely due to a number of factors, including relaxing mask requirements, the emergence of the BA.2 variant, and increased social activities."
Gotta Throw Some Hissy Fits
The Ginni/Clarence Thomas story will likely disappear by Meet the Press tomorrow. That is not how it should be, but you go to politics with the press you have, not the press you want.
Friday, March 25, 2022
Everybody's Got Somebody
Guaranteed The Fraud Is
A Florida man who worked closely with Rudy Giuliani on former President Donald Trump’s drive to get Ukraine to open an investigation that would be politically damaging to President Joe Biden pleaded guilty Friday to wire fraud in connection with a business scheme.Lev Parnas, 50, admitted in a federal court hearing that he deceived investors in the ironically-named business venture, “Fraud Guarantee,” which was ostensibly aimed at helping vet business opportunities for potential fraud.
Here and There
Senior magistrate hid evidence of wife’s role in violent coup attempt
— Sarah Rose (@thesarahrose) March 25, 2022
— hedline if this were any other country
Our Most Sacred Institutions
Fear of conflict, absurd belief in the importance of maintaining respect in rotten institutions, unwillingness to critique elites of any kind... I'm not sure precisely what the reason is.
When these types of things happen, a lot of people say, "imagine if this was a Dem," as a criticism against journalists. This is not a meritless complaint, as the press and their favorite sources tend to kneecap vocal Dems and obscure the wrongdoings of Republicans. But the other part of this is "imagine what Lindsey Graham would be saying" and asking why Dick Durbin [or whoever] isn't doing similar.
The political press is generally bad, but it isn't actually their job to fight your battles for you.
Obergefell
Judicial Ethics
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Lock Her Up
Ginni Thomas sent Meadows a Steve Pieczenik video about a "QFS" system. QFS is the "Quantum Financial System," an idea of a mythical money system that will bring on a sort of right-wing utopia. Pieczenik is a regular InfoWars guest. pic.twitter.com/DO7GYpihpJ
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) March 24, 2022
Afternoon Thread
Welcome Back To Meet The Press
Of course even horribly toxic racist politicians can be interviewed, but our system of elite political reporting is largely chummy, not adversarial, and they're all jolly good chums.
Lindsey Graham's the wacky neighbor who comes by every night to shoot the shit, not someone who faces scrutiny during his 700 daily TV hits.
Defund The Police
The top watchdog for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has identified more than 40 alleged members of gang-like groups of deputies that operate out of two sheriff’s stations.I regularly laugh about the fact that the people who have spent several months obsessed with the supposed evils of corporate racial sensitivity training programs, spent the several previous months proposing that police problems could be solved with racial sensitivity training programs.In a letter dated Monday, Inspector General Max Huntsman said his office has compiled a partial list that includes 11 deputies who allegedly belong to the Banditos, which operate out of the East L.A. sheriff’s station, and 30 alleged Executioners from the Compton sheriff’s station.
"Laugh," anyway.
Back to Normal
That many extra deaths is a lot of extra trauma, a lot of additional people having their lives upended due to lost partners/children/primary caregivers.
Going to time travel back to 2003, go on cable news, and start yelling about 9/11, GET OVER IT YOU LOSERS. MOVE ON.
If You Ignore It Will It Go Away?
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Wriggled Out Of That One
Dear Alvin,I write to tender my resignation as a Special Assistant District Attorney and to explain my reasons for resigning.
As you know from our recent conversations and presentations, I believe that Donald Trump is guilty of numerous felony violations of the Penal Law in connection with the preparation and use of his annual Statements of Financial Condition. His financial statements were false, and he has a long history of fabricating information relating to his personal finances and lying about his assets to banks, the national media, counterparties, and many others, including the American people. The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes — he did.
Back On Their Bullshit
NYT: racial overtone
— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) March 23, 2022
CNN: racial undertone
Politico: racially charged
WaPo: racially tinged pic.twitter.com/2pULBdB7q9
Better Call Saul, Paul
MIAMI (AP) — Former Trump adviser Paul Manafort was removed from a plane at Miami International Airport before it took off for Dubai because he carried a revoked passport, officials said Wednesday.I'd actually like to know, as whatever I think of the guy, passport revocation should have a clear reason!
Lock Her Up
Kind of a Bad System
Current CDC Mask Guidance
Low
- Wear a mask based on your personal preference, informed by your personal level of risk
Medium
- If you are immunocompromised or at high risk for severe illness
- Talk to your healthcare provider about additional precautions, such as wearing masks or respirators indoors in public
- If you live with or have social contact with someone at high risk for severe illness, consider testing yourself for infection before you get together and wearing a mask when indoors with them.
High
- Wear a well-fitting mask indoors in public, regardless of vaccination status or individual risk (including in K-12 schools and other community settings)
- If you are immunocompromised or at high risk for severe illness
- Wear a mask or respirator that provides you with greater protection
The color map, by the way.
It is not anything approaching "consider wearing a mask for the sake of others, if you are able." Mask wearing has gone from "you wear one to help others," which was the message for a long time, to "wear one for yourself, if you must, weirdo."
I'm not the caricature of a "mask fanatic." I don't get mad if other people aren't wearing them. I keep one in my pocket and put it on in shops and public transport and things like concerts. I'm not talking about individual behavior or mandates, I'm talking about the message coming from above. It is Covid Over, except for weirdos.
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Covid Waves
Afternoon Thread
Desperate To Be The Tough Guys
So many positions coded as macho/tough in our politics, though you can guess which party tends to get those voters."I'm completely over mask mandates," DCCC Chair Sean Maloney tells @Axios.
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) March 22, 2022
"I don't think they make any sense anymore. I'm for whatever gets rid of mask mandates as quickly as possible." https://t.co/sLofOpll9Y
Covid Normal
The plan for a next wave, if there is one (likely!), is "lol lmao nothing," but I guess if they're managing to pretend 1000 deaths per day aren't happening, why not go for 4000 daily.
The changes were based on a new framework designed to protect communities from the worst, a surge so big that it might overwhelm local hospitals, while being less disruptive to everyday life, amid falling case counts and a desire among many for relief from masking and other public health measures. But some worry it leaves the country unprepared for another wave and abandons those who are most vulnerable.The thing is, I don't think it would be that difficult in a lot of places, if they would stop thinking substack is real life. Opposition to mask wearing has been a red state/conservative area and elite journalist thing. Endless pieces about how mask wearers are fucking weirdos....
The plan’s adequacy may soon be tested if the United States sees the same sharp increase in coronavirus cases now bedeviling Europe, a possibility federal officials are anticipating. If such increases lead some communities to be reclassified as red, it remains an open question whether state and local officials would be willing to reinstate controversial indoor masking guidelines. There may be little political appetite for such measures, even in Democratic areas.
...
“Convincing a large swath of the population to put masks back on will be very difficult,” said Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Also, boosters matter a lot, especially as immunity is waning for everybody, and it seems that part of the "pretending covid is gone" plan is "giving up on a big booster campaign."
EU countries (most, all?) won't consider you to be fully vaccinated if your last shot was more than 9 months ago, so I expect some international travelers will be surprised soon...
Christ What An Asshole
A law enforcement officer was called step in Sunday after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) got into a heated argument with airline attendees at an airport in Bozeman, Mont., on Sunday, The Daily Mail reported.
Mussed Hair
Perhaps the most alarming revelation to emerge from the new Bush biography is the elder man’s recollection that while Cheney had been his defence secretary, he had commissioned a study on how many tactical nuclear weapons would be needed to eliminate a division of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard.It's one thing to contemplate "little nukes" against a country that doesn't have Big Nukes. That's horribly evil and wrong but perhaps it won't lead to the apocalypse. But the Blob Ghouls think that's for pussies.Apparently the answer was 17, though a more profound conclusion is that Cheney was a more dangerous figure than anyone knew. It adds weight to reporting by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker that Cheney also contemplated the use of low-yield nuclear bunker-busters against Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facilities. The more we hear about the George W Bush administration, the clearer it becomes that the global damage it wrought could have been even worse.
That they're the same types of people who get enraged when their pizza order is late, or when the Whole Foods is out of a particular kind of lettuce, is, well, interesting!
*Some of these people quite clearly have "humanitarian help" and "serial killer" wires crossed in the brains, and truly think they are doing good.
Monday, March 21, 2022
Splitting The Baby
Basically, "if only extreme feminists would agree with a set of abortion restrictions I just made up, The Right would happily accept it and go away forever and we would never have to talk about this again."
Not how it works. Not how it ever works.
Speaking Of Democratic Moderates
A super PAC backing Pennsylvania Senate candidate Conor Lamb is warning prospective donors that he is trailing frontrunner John Fetterman by 30 percentage points in the Democratic primary — and that the public’s perception of his opponent’s ideology must change for Lamb to have a shot.Conflict in primaries is fine to me, but people concerned about Brand Democrat are generally the people who spend their campaign money tearing it down. I'm not a filthy commie cophater like [checks sign on door] the Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania! Vote Democrat!...
The document highlights the testing of aggressive negative messaging against Fetterman, who is Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, including that he is a “dangerous radical who proudly calls himself a socialist,” “supports far-left policies like a $34 trillion-dollar government takeover of healthcare,” and has “spoken at Defund the Police rallies and wants to release convicted felons back onto our streets.”
As caricatures, Fetterman's the kind of guy political consultants tell you they want and Lamb's the kind of guy they deliver. Like telling you they want a regular guy, such as a farmer, but what they mean is they want a guy who owns a 160,000 acre farm property.
How It All Happened
Several months ago, Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) announced that she won’t be running for re-election. Recently, she explained why in a worshipful interview with Rachel Bade at Politico, excerpted in its Playbook newsletter (“Presented by PhRMA”): She’s mad about Democrats criticizing her for not supporting President Biden’s agenda. “I am surprised at how short the memory is. It’s as short as being celebrated for having flipped a seat and then excoriated for taking votes that help you keep that seat,” she said.This is a crock. Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda is dead because a handful of the party’s most conservative members, including Murphy, killed it. Now the party has nothing of legislative substance to run on, and members in swing districts are looking down the barrel of a possible midterm electoral bloodbath. The culprits are starting to head for the exits, scapegoating everyone but themselves for the consequences of their horrible decisions.
Sounds Bad
Stretching for 186 miles along the border of Utah and Arizona, Lake Powell serves as one of two major reservoirs that anchor the Colorado River. Last week, the lake reached a disturbing new milestone: water levels fell to their lowest threshold ever, since the lake was created by the damming of the Colorado in 1963.The precipitous drop is the result of the decades-long drought in the American West that has ravaged the Colorado River for years, forcing unprecedented water cuts in states like Arizona. This newest milestone on Lake Powell, though, is significant for another reason. The reservoir also sustains a hydroelectric power plant, Glen Canyon Dam, that provides energy to millions of people. That power source, critical for rural and tribal communities across the region, is now in jeopardy.
What Is War
I find as time fades, even anti-war liberals tend to remember the atrocities of the Iraq war more generously, and that's even without mentioning General Droney and his War On Weddings Everywhere.
This is what war is, not two armies in different costumes squaring off in a field in Pennsylvania.
Anyway, if you correctly saw the Iraq war for what it was when it started, do not let the passage of time convince you that it was, actually, not so bad, because Our Intentions Were Good. They were not good. Dick Cheney's intentions were not good.“War” is not the right word to describe these actions. Call it terrorism, crimes against humanity, even genocide, but “war” suggests a battle between opposing armies. This is not that. #StopPutinNOW . https://t.co/3hEFJQDfcE
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) March 20, 2022
Invading countries is bad. The Ukrainian military don't deserve to get slaughtered any more than their civilians do, and precision targeting by the various flying exploding death machines is a myth. The distinction between "intending to blow up hospitals" and "oopsy accidentally blew up a hospital" isn't really that important if hospitals (for example) are being blown up.
War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."When we do it, we do it differently" is just that usual American Exceptionalism, and it doesn't require you thinking Dick Cheney is precisely as bad as Putin to understand that. "We" also did things like "tell everyone to leave a city, prevent the young men from leaving, and then bomb the shit out of it."
Sunday, March 20, 2022
There Is A Natural Order To Things
Journalists who think their role is to hold the powerful to account versus those who see their role as holding the public to account.
That "the paper of record" (that fucking newspaper) puts itself in the latter category is not good! America's actual Finest News Source:
When The Onion’s editorial board convened to discuss the tumultuous events of the previous month, one conclusion became evident: The world stands at a crossroads. Two visions of our collective future stand before us: On one side is a free and enlightened society, dedicated to the principles of openness, tolerance, and debate; the other is built upon ignorance, fear, and the suppression of dissent. Today, the path forward could not be clearer.Simply put, we need mass censorship now.
Our country was founded upon the admirable principles of a moneyed elite spoon-feeding its beliefs to the ignorant and unwashed masses, and yet today that legacy stands in tatters. For too long, our nation has tolerated the mewling and rambling of the confused public. For too long, we have watched the God-given right to suppress free speech slip away. That’s why The Onion now stands united in calling on all governments, domestic and foreign, to immediately muzzle protesters, dissidents, and citizens of all stripes who take part in the blighted pestilence on human affairs known as freedom of expression.
...
Critics may question where the globe’s citizens will find the information they need if not through traditional news sources. Of course, The Onion stands at the ready to act as a mouthpiece of the world’s elite, using its distinguished reportage to parrot whatever the party line happens to be. Genocide, eugenics, incest—no topic is too taboo to find support in our paper so long as it has been approved by a trustworthy establishment. What, indeed, is the purpose of the Fourth Estate if not to shepherd the simple-minded throng into blindly following a single unquestionable narrative? To this ideal, we remain dedicated.
He's Got This
Religion In Politics
I don't think all of those societal forces have disappeared, they're in some ways as strong as ever, but the explicit branding of everything as "faith" and "morals" and "values" has gone.
Sure they're succeeding in banning abortion, but there's much less Jesus talk surrounding it than there used to be.
The problem with Democrats, we are told, is that they are too woke, not that they don't pepper their speeches with enough Jesus references.
It's more honest, at least if we honestly acknowledge that what is meant by "too woke" is "not racist enough."
Which is not to say it's correct in general, but it does get closer to acknowledging what the political divide in this country has long been about.
Saturday, March 19, 2022
Clown Show
Prediction Time
Could be wrong!
Channel Surfing
Was something pleasurable about repatedly hitting that button to prove to yourself that, yes, there are 57 channels and nothing is on.
Friday, March 18, 2022
They Really Are Stupid
I'll just re-run Pareene classic.
I couldn’t agree more: If you think offensive speech shouldn’t be aired in certain contexts and venues, you don’t believe in free speech. Which is why it is incumbent on Weiss, and her bosses, to ask me to come to the offices of the New York Times and give a talk to the editors and columnists of the opinion page about how stupid they are.It is absolutely necessary, for the sake of democratic ideals, that the staff attend my talk, and they must listen politely (and quietly) as I condescendingly dismiss their idiotic worldviews and personally insult them. They cannot yell at me or express indignation in any way. For them not to allow this to happen would be an alarming sign of the decline of liberalism in the West.
It’s not enough that I have the right to criticize Bari Weiss, James Bennet, and Bret Stephens here at the web publication I work for, or on Twitter, or really any other platform I have access to. The problem is that there is a platform I don’t have access to—the offices of the New York Times, specifically the opinion section—and, therefore, I have no way to personally and directly criticize the people I find objectionable. That is a clear-cut violation of the principle of open and lively democratic debate.
Sounds Bad
A North Carolina schools superintendent has apologized for a mock “slave auction” in which white middle-schoolers pretended to sell their Black classmates."Tell me you never went to an average public school without telling me" is how I always react to The Discourse about things like "liberal indoctrination in public schools," as the idea that students are typically being bombarded with ultra-lefty anti-racist "propaganda" is just absurd.
Most teachers (and this does not make them bad!) are not the imagined elite-educated ultrawoke "Teach for America" applicants (who also aren't as imagined). Just people with degrees from modest state universites ("Normal Schools" then "Teachers Colleges" many were once called), where they aren't force feeding them James Baldwin or whatever.
Speaking of the limits of punditry.
Defund The Police
In a series of text messages, a white supervisor and other police officers in Montgomery County, Md., talked about preparing for a “race war,” and expressed hope that Black Lives Matter protesters would be killed, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week by a Black colleague.Many villains to choose from that aren't named Joe Biden, but many of those villains have a D after their names. "The cause is good, but the slogan is bad" was replaced with "haha, fuck you, the cause is bad you disgusting assholes."The officer, Mark Miles of the Maryland-National Capital Park Police, says in the lawsuit that his supervisor and other officers repeatedly made racist, hateful and offensive comments on a group text chain that was used to discuss work assignments and other business.
Javier Morillo, former president of the SEIU Local 26, said some of the language in the tentative Minneapolis police union deal is “bonkers,” and he said it “boggles the mind” why the city didn’t broker a better deal after Floyd’s killing brought “global shame” upon the city.Again, there isn't one "boss of the police" in the country. 50 states, numerous big cities and of course numerous other municipalities. But nominal democrats tend to run the big cities.
I've Seen The Best Minds Of My Generation Poisoned By Twitter
Makes me understand, yet again, how a bunch of sinecure writers for elite publications absolutely lost their fucking minds when blogs showed up and started making fun of them. I WRITE FOR THE NEW YORKER AT MID-5 FIGURES A POP AND SOME GUY NAMED NAMED ARTRION WITH A WEBSITE NAMED CALLS ME A WANKER?!?!!?!??!
Who Are 4 People Who Have Never Been In My Kitchen
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Lock Him Up
Ziegler has also said on a rightwing podcast that he and others in Navarro’s office – seemingly referring to Trump White House aides Christopher Abbott and Hannah Robertson – started working on Navarro’s report about two weeks before the 2020 election took place. “Two weeks before the election, we were doing those reports hoping that we would pepper the swing states with those,” Ziegler said of the three-part Navarro report in an appearance last July on The Professor’s Record with David K Clements.
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
This week, Congress nixed $15 billion in coronavirus funding from a $1.5 trillion spending bill, which President Joe Biden then signed on Tuesday. The decision is catastrophic, and as the White House has noted, its consequences will unfurl quickly. Next week, the government will have to cut shipments of monoclonal-antibody treatments by a third. In April, it will no longer be able to reimburse health-care providers for testing, vaccinating, or treating millions of uninsured Americans, who are disproportionately likely to be unvaccinated and infected. Come June, it won’t be able to support domestic testing manufacturers. It can’t buy extra doses of antiviral pills or infection-preventing treatments that immunocompromised people are banking on but were already struggling to get. It will need to scale back its efforts to improve vaccination rates in poor countries, which increases the odds that dangerous new variants will arise. If such variants arise, they’ll likely catch the U.S. off guard, because surveillance networks will have to be scaled back too. Should people need further booster shots, the government won’t have enough for everyone.Nothing left, basically.
Buh-Bye
WASHINGTON — Jeffrey D. Zients, an entrepreneur and management consultant who steered President Biden’s coronavirus response through successive pandemic waves and the largest vaccination campaign in American history, plans to leave the White House in April to return to private life, President Biden said in a statement.The less-than-rich assholes at least have a better perspective.
Still The Worst
They're showing their true colours again.
— Mukhtar (@Mukhtar_iam) March 17, 2022
It's one thing that chemical weapons are used on Muslims in Syria but... pic.twitter.com/Wiw4qzBlTB
IOFFE: I fear that just right now it doesn't yet. I think NATO is still going to stay on the sidelines of this, precisely because they don't want a direct military confrontation with Russia. It's the thing that everybody's been trying assiduously to avoid.But what happens, for example, if Vladimir Putin uses chemical weapons in Kyiv or in Mariupol. We've seen him and his allies in Syria do the same. They're clearly preparing something, because they've been making a lot of noise at the U.N. and in the media that -- Kremlin-controlled media that the Ukrainians are -- have all these biological, chemical weapons, and that they're going to use them, which seems like fertile ground for a false flag operation.
So, what is NATO going to do if -- you know, it's one thing for sarin gas to be used on people in faraway Syria who are Muslim and who are of a different culture. What is Europe going to do when it's on European soil done to Europeans? Are they going to intervene? Are they going to keep standing back? And if they do intervene, how far are they willing to go? And are they willing to have a direct confrontation with Vladimir Putin, which is what he seems to want.
Actual Good Policy
All Californians who file a tax return would get a $400 rebate to offset the state’s gas tax and rising prices, under proposal from a group of state Assembly Democrats.
Immunity
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, left, talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a gala at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, Wednesday. Martin left the event after testing positive for Covid-19.Mostly elderly, like all covid deaths, but our Congress is not full of zoomers. At current rate, that's about 100,000 deaths of fully vaccinated people per year.
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Philadelphia Inquirer Endorsed Brian Fitzpatrick
What are those other ways?
— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) March 16, 2022
Fitzpatrick said through technology, like sonar radar and electro-magnetic pulses, etc. But he also acknowledged then there’s a risk of that technology falling into someone else’s hands.
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) March 16, 2022
The Best And The Brightest
I just watched a bunch of GOP political ads.
— Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) March 15, 2022
I am embarrassed--even ashamed--that for years I reported earnestly about the GOP's free market based vision.
That clearly was a thin scrim over ethnonationalism.
I truly regret the error.
You're The Instigator, The Orator Of The Town
Rule
Again, a lot of this is baked into the system, though some of the reasons for that (not all!) could be changed.
Winning The Pandemic
"Ron DeSantis was the best at manipulating us" is not how they'd put it, but it is usually how they judge politicians.
Proud of being the marks, proud of their role in mass murder.
Cringe
Paying higher gas prices does not help the people of Ukraine. Higher gas prices are not, at least the moment, an inevitable consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine or our efforts to put an end to it. It's the level of "sacrifice" which means nothing to people with money, but a reasonable amount to those without. In other words, you're just claiming (incorrectly) that The War Effort (whatever it is) should be paid by the poorest of us and people should STOP COMPLAINING.
Stop it. The distribution of the costs - the price paid - of everything is a policy choice. You aren't going to make people happy by trying to shame them like this. The "economy" issue, whatever its merits, isn't going to be won pretending $4.50 gas is our little Victory Gardens or whatever.
Also, ban cars.
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
MORE THAN ONE THIRD
There has been just been months and months of this, with most media coverage painting the minority of whining freaks who hate masks (what other restrictions have there been, anywhere, really?) as the Majority Opinion, AKSHUALLY.how is 38% evidence of impatience at ending covid restrictions? does latimes understand 58 > 38? this is just unmitigated mendacity. pic.twitter.com/QSQL6WinUJ
— Jennifer Weishaar (@JMWeishaar) March 15, 2022
Oh no why won't Congress pass any Covid money? So mysterious.
Top 57 Harsh Burns In Trump's Latest Speech
There's a reasonable debate about how, precisely, actual journalists should cover Trump, but I would like to suggest that treating him as comical listicle fodder is perhaps not it.
Are We The Baddies
A detainee at a secret CIA detention site in Afghanistan was used as a living prop to teach trainee interrogators, who lined up to take turns at knocking his head against a plywood wall, leaving him with brain damage, according to a US government report.
Ruh-Roh
Sen. Brown on Sen. Manchin’s opposition to the Raskin nom and ties to the fossil fuel industry: “I don't generally question my colleagues motivation, but on this, it's so in your face, you can't not see it.”
— Christian Hall (@christianjhall) March 14, 2022
I Guess They've Been Reading David Leonhardt And [checks internet] The CDC Website
I dunno, White House Covid Response Team Guy, just how did everyone in power come to the conclusion that Covid is OVER and there was no need for any more money.We spent *weeks* briefing Congress on the urgent and immediate needs that required funding to sustain our response through June.https://t.co/dfv8By3vFe
— Ben Wakana (@benwakana46) March 14, 2022
Monday, March 14, 2022
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
What's The Goal
I don't even like linking to the "the important thing is Putin doesn't think we're pussies" pieces, but so you know I am not making them up, here is one.
This is all bloody and brutal stuff. But, to quote Clausewitz again, “If one side uses force without compunction, undeterred by the bloodshed it involves, while the other side refrains, the first will gain the upper hand.” We are dealing with an enemy that is vicious but weak, menacing but deeply fearful, and that is likely to crack long before our side does—if only we have the stomach for doing what needs to be done.People like this are always loud in Blob circles, and their concern for The Lives Of Other People is precisely zero. Lives in Ukraine are irrelevant. They can all be sacrificed for yet another dick measuring contest (this guy is mad because we lost the last one in Afghanistan).
I am not being uncharitable.
There's A Lot Going On!
Miracles
Have my own theories, but don't know!
The Challenges We Face
I'd like to clap louder a bit more often. I might even fake it if I thought it'd help! I try not to insta-pundit every single thing that comes out of the White House/Democrats, try to resist the impulse to play theater critic for every moment, every message, but it's disheartening to see how quickly actual Professional Advanced Politics Players (broadly defined) get back on their usual bullsht at near light speed. A window opens briefly when thing are possible, and then it's back to worrying about the SALT deduction limit (for some, other stupid venal shit for others).
And it isn't just the obviously malign actors, it's everybody with petty concerns and their own little petty empire, combined with the topsy-turvy media system that elevates defenders of the status quo as brave contrarians.
A lot of stuff going on right now!
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Conflicting Goals
There's also the general belief that "we" are actually all powerful, that all we have to do is choose to go kick some ass, that all we lack is THE WILL. The important thing is that Putin doesn't think we're pussies, no matter what justification they use. Of course this is ridiculous, but we are ruled by many (not all) ridiculous people.
Speaking Of Not Very Bright
That's Fascinating, Grandpa
Sit down with me and watch this timely and relevant movie from [checks VHS cover] 1999, starring one "Keanu Reeves," you young person born in [squints] 2003.
Old stuff is often good, of course, but it's still old!
These Are Not Very Bright Guys, And Things Got Out Of Hand
Malign interests manipulating a bunch of Dunning-Kruger briefcase wankers explains so much of our empire.