So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

by Ugh

So I won't have fraud and noted stupid spineless squish Paul Ryan to kick around any longer. So sad, so sad. I'm sure he will go on to that great K Street suite in the sky.  But I will miss his ability to gracefully and with strangely weird-eyed aplomb sh1t on the poor, weak, and elderly while maintaining a sterling reputation for "wonkery" with the Beltway Press when all it really was warmed over College Republican douchebag jackasshattery, with a twist of lemon.

In other news, missiles to Syria, I'm glad I never set up a Facebook account, the attorney-client privilege is DEAD, and soon to be NBA playoff time. Bryce Harper off to another super hot start (I can haz 60 homerz plz?) and jeebus effing christ we're all gonna die aren't we.  Can we wait until Tiger wins another major?

Non-disclosure agreements about anything other than intellectual property should be prohibited by law (hear the April 6 podcast episode of Planet Money).

And soon, Asian Dawn will be taking over the world (see Time magazine).

So, open thread. Tell me the best new song you've heard in 2018, please, also, too.

Comments

[wj]

Actually, it is sad. I was rather hoping for him to run and lose.

[DaveC]

I'd nominate songs from 'Castlevania' by Starling Electric. I downloaded it for free on Bandcamp.com.
Wear Your Love Like Heather is the last song.

[russell]

From the AP News piece on Ryan's retirement:

A self-styled budget guru, ...

Made my day.

[Ugh]

Hi DaveC - I hope all is well

[russell]

In other news about retired (R) speakers....

Who's rolling?

[CharlesWT]

So I won't have fraud and noted stupid spineless squish Paul Ryan to kick around any longer.

Libertarians are glad to see him go too. Not that there's any expectation that he'll be replaced by anyone better.

[wj]

Not that there's any expectation that he'll be replaced by anyone better.

And here I thought there was an expectation that he would be replaced by a Democrat. Which even those of us who are (responsible) Republicans, not to mention something like fiscal conservatives, would have to see as a step up.

[wj]

I should perhaps note that I really, really dislike Pelosi. But still think even she would be an improvement over Ryan. SAD!

[wj]

Hot damn! A Bipartisan group of Senators (Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.)) had put up a bill to protect Mueller (or any other Special Counsel) from being fired. But there was serious question whether the Republican leadership would let it move forward. Now, it has: the Chair of the relevant committee has moved to put it on the agenda for their next meeting.**
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/bipartisan-senators-expected-to-release-compromise-special-counsel-bill/2018/04/11/bfb24852-3d3f-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html

* OK, technically what he has done is ask the ranking minority member for her approval to put it on the agenda. But does anyone imagine that Senator Feinstein will decline? Ha!

[hairshirthedonist]

I like to imagine an alternate universe in which Trump says (or tweets, I guess) things like, "I welcome Mr. Mueller's investigation and encourage him to be as thorough as is humanly possible. I hope he leaves no stone unturned, because I am confident that the result of his work will be my total exoneration. I am confident that none of my actions, nor those of my associates, were in any way unlawful, unethical, or not done fully in the best interests of the United States of America. I urge anyone contacted by Mr. Mueller's team to be as cooperative, open, and honest as they can and as I, myself, will be. Let his work go forth unimpeded to whatever final conclusion it may."

[Countme-a-Demon]

hairshirthedonist:

That's as about as likely to happen as .... I don't know ... John Boehner going to work for a marijuana company.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/john-boehner-is-joining-a-marijuana-company-2018-04-11?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts

Well, OK, maybe as likely as this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8nZBlPfR7Y

Capone seemed kind of innocent to me right there.

Don't it strike you like 'at?

Eliot Ness was very unfair to him and his family AND his colleagues.

[Donald]

The nonexistent deep state looks forward, not back

http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2018/images/04/09/letter.in.support.of.gina.haspel.nomination.to.be.cia.director.pdf

[Donald]

Trump’s actual dictator pal is Muhammad bin Salman and he is also pals with the very Trump-lIke Netanyahu and there has been a continual push towards war with Iran, another Russian ally and enemy of Trump’s pals, and all this before Trump began contemplating a war with Syria and Russia and Iran all at the same time.

So I was wondering how this fits with the Putin puppet theory?

https://theintercept.com/2018/04/11/the-trump-administration-continues-to-be-more-confrontational-toward-russia-than-obama-was/

[hairshirthedonist]

I don’t think Trump is Putin’s puppet, only because whoever is pulling the strings isn’t nearly as smart as Putin. The puppet master may be utterly mindless.

[sapient]

Trump’s actual dictator pal is Muhammad bin Salman and he is also pals with the very Trump-lIke Netanyahu and there has been a continual push towards war with Iran, another Russian ally and enemy of Trump’s pals, and all this before Trump began contemplating a war with Syria and Russia and Iran all at the same time.

So I was wondering how this fits with the Putin puppet theory?

It's confusing when you're being paid off by multiple parties!

[doretta]

"So I was wondering how this fits with the Putin puppet theory?"

So far the substance of "more confrontational" consists of a bunch of blustery mean tweets and closing a consulate in Seattle, the latter of which was probably sold to Trump as punishing those darn Seattle latte-drinking liberals with the side benefit of looking like he's not Putin's puppet.

[wj]

I'd bet the sale was made saying "This is necessary to keep you from looking like Putin's poodle. And it's not like you have to actually do much of anything. Vlad will understand."

[sapient]

the latter of which was probably sold to Trump as punishing those darn Seattle latte-drinking liberals with the side benefit of looking like he's not Putin's puppet.

Probably sold to him by Putin.

[Ugh]

The nonexistent deep state looks forward, not back

That letter is great evidence that the CIA should be razed to the ground and rebuilt as an intelligence gathering outfit w/o operations.

[sapient]

I notice that we're on the same page here again, wj. I didn't see your note before I replied. doretta is also right on.

[sapient]

ugh, how did you become a front-pager? Just curious, and not at all trying to be rude. liberal japonicus recently said that there was some kind of crooked timber connection with his key. Kind of interesting who and how people took on the work. And it is work!

[Ugh]

Just spent a lot of time commenting here back in the day. Used to have more substantive things to say but have been distracted by twitter in the time of Trump for the past year.

[cleek]

A Bipartisan group of Senators (Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.)) had put up a bill

think back to your Schoolhouse Rock lessons and see if you can spot the fatal flaw in this.

[russell]

ugh ftw @ 8:21

[cleek]

the President is being investigated for allegedly conspiring with Russians in order to win the election. and in the process of that investigation, his personal lawyer is being investigated for campaign violations allegedly involving paying a porn star to keep quiet about an affair she had with the future-President. it was paid on the eve of the election by this lawyer, who wrote the contract possibly without the knowledge or consent of his client, The President. the investigation has so far yielded twenty-two indictments, including several members of the President's former and recent staff in various matters including involving lying to the FBI about foreign contacts during the campaign. the President is known to be the proprietor of a fraudulent "university", which bilked millions of dollars out of people. he's known to be involved in real estate fraud involving foreign organized crime gangs.

AND THE PEOPLE WHO SHIT THEMSELVES ABOUT OBAMA FACILITATING A GOOD DEAL TO A SOLAR PANEL COMPANY ARE DEFENDING TRUMP.

fuck the GOP. it's a cult.

[sapient]

cleek ftw @ 9:41

[wj]

But cleek, you have missed the critical difference. Obama's got that permanent suntan. (And, unlike Trump's tan, such as it is, it's not sprayed on.)

[sapient]

Just spent a lot of time commenting here back in the day.

My story too.

I love to hear from you, btw.

[sapient]

uh oh. Is it fixed?

[sapient]

Not?

[sapient]

It's fixed. Sorry, y'all!

[wonkie]

I still have a FB account and I think the flapdoodle is is mostly just flapdoodle. Bottom line with FB is that nothing posted is private. Anyone who didnt realize that from the get go was just not thinking.

Besides who cares if someone knows what you cooked for dinner the name of your dog and our political outlook? Its not like any of that isnt already known. Neighbors know that stuff, anyone who googles your political donations knows your politics,,,,

And why is it creepy that ads match the page holders interests? Info about interests si already shared I bought smoe bulbs from a catalog and next thing I knw I was getting catalogs form plant selling companies I'd neverf heard of a introductory editions to plant magazines...

I am creeped out that scammers who prey on old people started in on me the week I turned sixty. But they dint find our from FB.

To me the interesting thing about Cambridge Analytica dqta theft from FB is that they were trying to identify racists to organize as a base for a political movement within the Republican party. Maybe that/s why all the sanctimonious huffing and puffing from Repubicans in Congress; they want to discuss FB because they dont want to discuss the nature of the data that was stolen..

I think the real issue to wrry about with social media is fake sites set up as money scams (apparently the largest BLack Lives Matter site which gathered hundreds of thousands in donations was run by a white guy in Australia) and for manipulative purposes by foreign agents. That I can get riled up about.

But privacy? I never expected any on FB. OR twitter, Or commenting on blogs, for that matter.

[wj]

I really wonder what all those analysis programs make of my Facebook account. I do have one.

But I've never posted anything. All I use it for are the occasions (maybe once a year) when I want to follow a link to someone else's Facebok post, and I am required to log in with an account in order to do so.

[Donald]

“It's confusing when you're being paid off by multiple parties”

I could actually buy that.

As for substance, Trump did supply weapons to the Ukrainians. And in that loveable way that Americans have we somehow now have ground troops in Syria like it is just the most natural thing in the world and all the experts say it would be terrible to pull them out. It is curious to see people egging Trump on to bomb Syria. I think a very large number of Beltway types have already kicked the Iraq Syndrome and we haven’t even finished bombing Iraq. Or at least we were bombing Mosul very heavily last year, killing thousands of civilians. It is hard to keep up. In the old days we left Vietnam, felt suitably chastened and didn’t get into another major war for 15 years. We haven’t even finished all the wars we are in now, proxy or otherwise, and people want Trump the incompetent narcissist to escalate in a big way.

[liberal japonicus]

ugh, how did you become a front-pager? Just curious, and not at all trying to be rude. liberal japonicus recently said that there was some kind of crooked timber connection with his key.

Don't know if the 'how' is 'is there some secret method' or 'about when did it happen, I didn't notice'. About the latter, I don't have an exact date but it was at least 2013, about the former, every so often, the tree of ObWi needs to be refreshed by the blood of front pagers, so I write to a few people who seem to have interesting things to say. It usually happens after something goes wrong with the blog and I need to dig around in it. One can note that the sidebar hasn't been updated because rather than make accounts for the people to post, we have been (sometimes) posting on the superuser account and the link doesn't take you to an archive of each front pager's posts.

About the Crooked Timber connection, there isn't one, it's just that a single person who has commented here and figured out who I was in real life often comments at Crooked Timber and I see him there from time to time. I think Crooked Timber is a great blog, but it has, how can I say, the sharpness of academic discourse baked in, so I don't feel so comfortable participating there. No disrespect to the bloggers there, but just not my cup of tea.

[wonkie]

My sister googgled my name and found a comment I made on an obscure blog ears ago. There's probably a way to troll through blog coments to find people needed to support whatever someone wants to support.

Meahwile FB can be used for good. It was the primary tool of the peopel who rescued the dogs from the Olympic Animal Sanctuary hoarding situation. It is used for fundraising for animal rescue and for netwrking animals to be them places. I dont konw how animal rescues got a long before FB and we would take a real loss without it.

[russell]

I still have a FB account and I think the flapdoodle is is mostly just flapdoodle.

I'd say there is room for improvement in how we (the US) handles data privacy.

Everyone has an opinion, that's mine.

[wonkie]

I think the policy should cross the whole range of places where data can be mined, an not be focused on one place. If we are gong to spend our time on privacy as an issue.

[wj]

I'd say there is room for improvement in how we (the US) handles data privacy.

I'd definitely agree. But I suspect what we will see is something that, while arguably better, suffers from being written by people who have no clue about what the unintended consequences might be.

That's what we are seeing with GDPR (the EU's General Data Protection Regulation.) I'm seeing a lot of scrambling in organizations which aren't big enough to put a big project together on the subject. And which would be bankrupted by the fines mandated for failure to comply. Because it doesn't (as far as I can tell) matter whether you are Facebook or a little 5 person company; the fines are still the same: "€10 million, or 2% of the worldwide annual revenue of the prior financial year, whichever is higher." [emphasis added]

As so often before, the world we live in has changed. And, as before, we will probably have several false starts before we work out how to deal with the new reality very well.

[CharlesWT]

I really wonder what all those analysis programs make of my Facebook account. I do have one.

Facebook labels me as very conservative. 8/

[CharlesWT]

..., suffers from being written by people who have no clue about what the unintended consequences might be.

FOSTA is a case in point. Very few things are so bad that government can't make them worse.

Trump signs ‘FOSTA’ bill targeting online sex trafficking, enables states and victims to pursue websites

[wj]

Remember, while you're being thankful for all those fish, that they may not be long for this world. At least in the numbers we are accustomed to.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/slow-motion-ocean-atlantics-circulation-is-weakest-in-1-600-years/

And, for the popularized version,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/04/11/the-oceans-circulation-hasnt-been-this-sluggish-in-1000-years-thats-bad-news/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.40f1d054513f

Ah, climate change. Bringing an end to the Gulf Stream and colder weather to the Northeast. (Not to mention Europe.)

[hairshirthedonist]

Ah, climate change. Bringing an end to the Gulf Stream and colder weather to the Northeast.

And all this time I've been waiting for NJ to get the weather of coastal NC. Now it's going to be the other way around. Damn!

[russell]

I think the policy should cross the whole range of places where data can be mined

works for me.

I suspect what we will see is something that, while arguably better, suffers from being written by people who have no clue about what the unintended consequences might be.

given the choice of that, or it being written by lobbyists for folks who want to game the law to make their personal billion, I'll go with the clueless outsiders.

but I think it might be a false choice. I suspect there are people out there somewhere who are both knowledgeable and financially disinterested.

Bringing an end to the Gulf Stream and colder weather to the Northeast.

A likely cause for the Younger Dryas was the interruption of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation due to glacial melt.

Good times.

[hairshirthedonist]

I got interested in how far back I could find any of my blog comments. I stumbled upon this:

http://coyotequiddity.blogspot.com/2011/01/liberals-philosophy-xvi-blog-122.html

Here's the intro, referring to a thread on this very blog (meaning ObWi, not the one linked):

Below is a very long blog thread of 143 statements from 2007 without edits – there are two sentences which I have boldfaced in red because they represent the fundamental lesson I took from this discussion. I know this is long. Please read it. These are very educated and specialized minds that are quarrelling and nit-picking in a startlingly immature way – because – they are defending their civil religion. Making and responding to these entries started me on the road to unmasking the civil religion of modern liberalism (see the footnote in blue at the bottom of this post).

Mind you, that's the characterization made by the commenter with whom people were arguing. (It's a very unbiased assessment.)

As Johnny Carson used to say, "Funny stuff."

[JanieM]

hsh, I am never clicking on one of your links again. ;-)

Sheesh. Did urbancoyote get banned? ... No, don't even answer that.

I first came here when Andrew Sullivan linked to Andrew Olmsted's last post. So I owe Andrew that much.

I have no idea when I first wrote a blog comment, but it was probably at Ed Brayton's "Dispatches from the Culture Wars" in maybe 2004ish. Not long afterwards, Brayton was a jerk to a commenter in a way that made me decide I wasn't all that interested in his thoughts. It took me longer with Andrew Sullivan, in part because the Dish was so eclectic in its subject matter and I enjoyed that.

Aside from other scattered pokings around, the only other blog I once read pretty faithfully (to the point of having at least a phone acquaintance with one of the front-pagers) was 3 Quarks Daily. With that one I just lost the energy.

[Nous]

Much as I'd like to celebrate the Fall of Paul, my WI connections give me little hope for an quick turnaround. The subtlety of WI white supremacy makes it all the more pernicious and hard to eradicate.

But hey, there is new (heavy, progressive pipe organ) music, like Anna von Hausswolff, so...

Should tide me over until the new Amorphis album comes out.

[cleek]

Google can still find internet communications of mine from 1992.

can't say when my first 'blog' posting was, because i was certainly using (and hosting) things that looked like blogs well before 'blog' became a word.

[JanieM]

So I owe Andrew that much.

Andrew Sullivan, that is.

cleek -- 1992 ... talk about early adopters.......

I never landed in the early internet world pf list-serves, etc. I was busy having my kids and settling in Maine so it took me a while.

[cleek]

if Google could still search usenet, it would show me (embarrassing) records of me as far back as 1988 - that's when i first met the net.

[Ugh]

From that thread:

John Thullen

Posted May 13, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Alternative lives:
Pol Pot, cutting short his stint at the Engineering School of Information Technology and Management in Paris because he found the subject matter tedious, decides to enroll at the French Culinary Institute to pursue his authentic passion.

After graduation, he is accepted for an apprenticeship with a renowned three-star chef in Lyon and advances rapidly to sous chef. His mentor bankrolls Chef Pot in a new venture, a little establishment where he begins experimenting with a menu of classic French food infused with Asian ingredients –the first known example of French-Asian fusion cuisine.

He is awarded three stars and after becoming an institution in France, he accepts an offer to head up the staff of a new establishment in New York. He builds the restaurant’s reputation to three-star status in the high-pressure New York scene of the 1960s and early 1970s , but then has one star removed by the New York Times food critic at the time, and descends into a deep and embittered depression and eventually a breakdown.

He rarely ventures out of his small New York apartment, becoming a recluse, though his name remains legend in culinary circles. He spends his days plotting vengeance on those who have wronged him, concocting a complicated scheme to murder, one by one and by gruesome means, all of the major food critics in New York, starting with those who wear eyeglasses.

Catching himself before this plan could become reality, he disappears into foody oblivion, working at a succession of New Jersey truck stops as a short-order cook, finally ending up at a low-end ski resort in New England, where he once again prepares a menu combining Asian and French influences fused with the fresh produce of the New England region.

He is rediscovered in the mid-1990s, now a man over 70, by Emeril Lagasse, who invites him on to his show on the Food Channel. They part amicably after disagreeing on the amount of cayenne papper one should use in a Cambodian pot au feu, and he now has two shows on the Food Channel and writes a column for Bon Appetite Magazine as he relaxes into his chef emeritus days.

Tune in next week when we trace the life of Joseph Stalin, whose existence turned on a single incident as a 30-something revolutionary when he spots by accident the beautiful 12-year-old Grand Duchess Anastasia, who drops one white glove in his path as she enters the St Petersburg Opera House after catching his eye.

Weary from frequent exiles to Siberia, and like Dante seeking Beatrice, he succumbs to hopeless longing and turns inward, writing some bad poetry and spending his days outside the palace trying to catch a glimpse of his beloved.

We’ll also pay a visit to the young Adolf Hitler in Austria, who early on takes a shine to dogs, and studies biology and tries to eliminate the genetic aggressiveness out of the Doberman and German Shepherd breeds, eventually succeeding and opening a successful guide-dog training school for blind Hasidim.

[hairshirthedonist]

Ugh - finder of diamonds inside turds.

[Michael Cain]

Now I feel ancient. My usenet use goes back to the UUCP days, when half the US traffic between East and West Coasts ran through Bell Labs' private network while it was relatively idle at night...

[Priest]

Since I probably idled away many hours at work reading that thread when it was shiny and new, I could only make it a little ways in, then scrolled through mostly to see the makeup of the commentariat, many familiar names who no longer, or seldom, make an appearance these days.

[wj]

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Now we seem to have a reprise of the Watergate tapes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-allies-worry-that-federal-investigators-may-have-seized-recordings-made-by-his-attorney/2018/04/12/16d6345a-3e89-11e8-912d-16c9e9b37800_story.html

It seems that Mr Cohen had a thing for making tapes . . . and Trump's allies are wondering if the FBI got some (or lots) in their search. And what might be on those tapes.

Anyone else feeling like we've seen this movie before?

[sapient]

What movie?

[russell]

Watergate redux. first tragedy, then farce.

[wj]

Tragedy requires a protagonist with virtues, to which his "tragic flaw" contrasts. When thete are no virtues, farce is all that's left.

[bob mcmanus]

Sic Semper Tyrannis

"Some details I’ve been able to glean, with the caveat that as ‘South Front’ has noted: ‘most the information tidbits are sourced from anonymous sources’.

Russian MoD has released a photo of a Su 34 overflying Syria with a rack of anti ship missiles (kh 37?). Russia has asked Iran for basing near Iraq & todays news is that Russian strat. bombers are taking off. The Su 34 pic is a message to USN that Russia will attack missile launching destroyers. The big bombers going to Iran will be armed with long range cruise missiles; carrier killers. SmoothieX12 can probably comment this better.

The US has apparently asked Turkey, Iraq & Jordon for overflight privileges

South Front makes USN resources in the Med as 3-4 destroyers within days & 1 or 2 sub armed with cruise missiles. I think their calculation was a wave of 750 missiles, not including French or British assets. The carrier group is a week or more away.

What the Israelis will do is another mystery but I think they are motivated to play with fire. Hezbollah knows this so if push turns to shove I expect them to attack Israel."

Accuracy not verified. Suggest other sources. But Pat Lang's crew is scared. I think a short limited shooting war is possible, followed by a longer semi-hot war, including economic disengagement from Russia, China, parts of ME, who knows. Recession or depression, war economy, authoritarianism, fascism.

The key to understanding the Republican Southrons is that they don't care if their serfs are poor. Alabama and Mississippi love being on the bottom of standards of living.

So look at Dixie, at Alabama, Miss, Utah and understand that they love autarky, even if it means poverty. I thought Trump might arrange the isolation of the US.

[novakant]

Russia USA Israel Iran Turkey Syria ...

What could possibly go wrong?

Why oh why did they support "the rebels" in the first place? They never learn, this is how world wars start:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/12/syria-elements-world-wars-west-leaders-escalate-history

[bobbyp]

novakant,

remember, the prime directive is "always" (haha), "We have to DO something!"

[Donald]

“That letter is great evidence that the CIA should be razed to the ground and rebuilt as an intelligence gathering outfit w/o operations.”

I think the problem is deeper. We could raze the CIA, but then we would outsource torture to our allies or have another agency do the dirty work.

The deeper problem imo is that we have a bipartisan foreign policy community ( politicians, bureaucrats, think tanks funded by various groups with agendas, and mainstream pundits) who think the US is above the law. Both our laws and international law. Torture is a policy dispute and certainly nothing that should get in the way of anyone’s career. This principle also extends to state sponsored terrorism and wars to topple dictators we don’t like, even as we support other dictators as they commit crimes against humanity similar to the ones we condemn.

In the case of Syria, Trump has taken every conceivable position. He is clearly the biggest narcissistic idiot we have ever had in the WH, utterly unreliable, and yet many supposedly responsible people want him to bomb Syria, which might lead to a wider war with Iran, and possibly with Russia.

We and our Saudi allies have funded a covert war in Syria, pouring arms into there which often ended up in the hands of either ISIS or Al Qaeda in a matter of weeks. The group in Douma , the Army of Islam, used chemical weapons against civilians in Aleppo two years ago according to the VOA. They have put civilians in cages. At one point they called for the extermination of the Shi’a. For awhile we funded a different group which later put up a video of its members chopping the head off a teenage boy.

The Syrian civil war began with peaceful demonstrations which the Assad government suppressed by shooting and arresting people. There is also a history of violent Muslim fundamentalist opposition there and there are claims violence from them came very early on. I don’t know. At any rate, the US in its wisdom thought it would be a great idea to support a violent revolution. Consequently over 100,000 Syrian soldiers and militia have been killed, many of them Alawites who fear genocide if the rebels win.

Imagine some hypothetical country pouring billions of dollars into the hands of “ moderate Palestinian rebels”. Hamas would easily qualify by Syrian standards. The extremist group there is Islamic Jihad, but much of the weapons would end in their hands. Suppose as a result a war went on for years, with 100,000 dead among the IDF. How would Israel fight such a war? The WB and Gaza would be piles of rubble. And the US would put all the blame on the Palestinians and their supporters. We would be Russia in that situation and would be doing some of the bombing.

My point being that we did is the equivalent of trying to solve the Israeli Palestinian conflict by fueling a civil war where massive death tolls were guaranteed. But our foreign policy elite in both parties blames Obama and Trump for not intervening and wants Donald Trump to rectify Obama’s unwillingness to intervene even more. Donald Freaking Trump as the savior of the Middle East.

Our foreign policy community is arrogant, irresponsible, and basically criminal. Trump just adds a massive dose of naked corruption and personal instability to the mix, but most of the Beltway needs to be burned to the ground and replaced with people who aren’t morally insane.

[Donald]

The VOA story

https://www.voanews.com/a/kurdish-officials-rebels-may-have-used-chemicals-aleppo/3276743.html

[bob mcmanus]

Just a little more (coffee, pyramid og (kushy), blue dream)

Oh, read a review of the remake of anime Legend of Galactic Heroes, and would take too long, but this line was nice:

"If you’re in the mood for wry men ponderously deciding the fate of millions of soldiers, Galactic Heroes is the place to be." ...bobduh, Wrong Every Time.

Why do we peasants talk of war and "speak of the death of kings" or something like that from Richard II near my favorite Shakes cause it talks of the tragic origins of war and horror. We're peasants, kings and generals and oligarchs do what they will we pay for it and watch it on tv? And suffer and die.

Donna Haraway
has a new book out. One of my mentors. This review contrasts her sharply with Naomi Klein.

"We are situated beings, and Haraway fleshes out the possibilities that exist in our fully living with, in sympoiesis (collective collaboration), nonhuman beings – the animals (which Haraway endearingly calls critters), insects, micro-organisms and bacteria, plants and geological formations that enfold us in their presence. Similarly, Morton provocatively urges solidarity with ‘nonhuman people’. We are cadet Gaians, junior partners in what used to be called the great chain of being. Humility has been forced upon us by circumstance. Sympoiesis is now, Haraway urges, our opportunity."

Haraway's turn toward animals and ecology has implications, i.e., for our attitudes toward other agents with differing intelligences and capabilities for example computer programs and self-driving cars.

Listening to Kenny Drew, Karima Nayt, lots of Haydn. Don't much like Vivaldi, but checked out Archie Corelli and and damn that's smooth shit.

Thinking about fading out and making a statement by studying the Haydn Quartets, especially Opus 50. Got three books. As pointless and useless as possible, I wanna fiddle while it all goes morel and shiitake clouds.

[bob mcmanus]

Oh, before I forget, just finished Amartya Sen's recent(? 5yr) Uncertain Glory and this is a sublime and brilliant piece of sustained social democratic advocacy for programs to help the poor in a radically unequal neoliberal India. This is how it's done, at least how liberals do it. There is a lot to learn from this book.

[russell]

Thinking about fading out and making a statement by studying the Haydn Quartets, especially Opus 50.

I'm envious.

Enjoy!!

[Girl from the North Country]

What a drag that McKinney, for example, seems to have disappeared off into his work and life. I do so wonder what his (and Marty's) view on this stuff would be, given their unshakeable belief in HRC's criminality and corruption, and certainty that she would have been as undesirable a president as Trump. Are they starting to get the dizzying symptoms of cognitive dissonance yet, or are they still protected from them in the bubble...:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/rosenstein-firing-coming/557894/?utm_source=twb

In other words, the president wants to fire Rosenstein because apolitical law enforcement is stronger with him than without him, and the president is at war with the very notion of apolitical law enforcement.

You don’t need to take my word on this point. Trump himself says it all the time—and loudly. He announces at every turn that he thinks the attorney general’s job is to protect him from the Russia probe and that he wants law enforcement to focus on Clinton. Rosenstein is only on Trump’s radar screen at all because the investigation of potential ties between associates of the Trump campaign and Russia required the attorney general’s recusal, a matter about which Trump also serially complains. The president’s attitude toward federal law enforcement is not just corrupt. It is openly and flamboyantly corrupt. He wants the FBI and the Justice Department to be at his beck and call. He wants them to be expressions of his power and interests.

[Girl from the North Country]

By the way, I apologise if I still seem to be fighting past battles. I just can't help myself from wondering how "conservatives" are dealing with this stuff psychologically.

[cleek]

I just can't help myself from wondering how "conservatives" are dealing with this stuff psychologically.

statistically speaking, they love and worship Trump and will defend him till the very end. 80+% of Republicans approve of him.

it's a cult. they have to.

[wj]

I just can't help myself from wondering how "conservatives" are dealing with this stuff psychologically.

Well, the first thing to realize is that they are not, in reality, conservatives. (And, truth be told, never were.) Real conservatives were merely the closest politicians available to what they really wanted. Now, they've got a populist reactionary who will tell them what they really always wanted to hear. So psychologically, it's easier to deal with than it used to be.

[Pro Bono]

I'm not surprised that "conservatives" have no problem with Trump's stupidity and ignorance, nor with his criminality. But I am surprised that they seem to have no difficulty overlooking his public boorishness, towards his wife in particular.

[Girl from the North Country]

So wj, using cleek's stats (which I have just looked up on the Gallup site), do you think that those 80+% of self-identifying Republicans were never in reality conservatives? I hope this question makes (statistical, and other) sense, it's been a hard week and I am already slightly drunk.....

[Girl from the North Country]

So wj, using cleek's stats (which I have just looked up on the Gallup site), do you think that those 80+% of self-identifying Republicans were never in reality conservatives? I hope this question makes (statistical, and other) sense, it's been a hard week and I am already slightly drunk.....

[Girl from the North Country]

But not so drunk I posted twice.

[wj]

So wj, using cleek's stats (which I have just looked up on the Gallup site), do you think that those 80+% of self-identifying Republicans were never in reality conservatives?

I'd say that most of that 80% were, at best, reactionaries. (Which is not unrelated to conservative. But definitely not the same either.) Especially the ones that we acquired from the Deep South thanks to Nixon's "Southern Strategy." With a big helping of "ignorance is bliss . . . so let's glorify it."

And of the rest of the GOP, the biggest portion were actually libertarians rather than conservatives. (Not libertarians in the Ayn Rand/Paul Ryan nut case version. But at least in the Koch brothers version.) I admit to the occasional libertarian leanings myself. Especially when I've been having to deal with some of the more toxic members of the far left. But not to the extent of denying the self-evident fact that there are some things that we simply need government to do.

[Tony P.]

wj,

Was Ronald Reagan "conservative", "reactionary", "libertarian", or what?

He was certainly a Republican, as was Nixon. If you care to distinguish between Reagan as president, governor, or anti-Medicare pitchman, feel free.

Also, feel free to classify the likes of Ryan, McConnell, any Bush, or any Cheney.

--TP

[Girl from the North Country]

Thank you wj. So I see that your view entails a wholesale redefinition of present day GOPers as non-conservatives, which should not surprise me given their extraordinary abandonment of e.g. adherence to the principles of deficit reduction, and your own (clearly highly principled) insistence that you are yourself a Republican, and presumably a conservative, while obviously (and self-admittedly) having nothing whatsoever in common with today's GOP. It seems an eccentric if noble position, relying on a kind of alternate reality. Understandable, of course, under the current circumstances.

(Rather conveniently, I disclaim all responsibility for this post due to drunkenness).

[wj]

Tony, I'd say Reagan was a mix of conservative and mild libertarian. His rhetoric as governor tended to be a bit more extreme than he actually was, in response to the rather liberal political environment in California at the time.

What particularly distinguished Reagan from current Republican politicians is that he was willing to learn from experience and be seen to have done so -- for example, when cutting taxes didn't increase revenues as advertised, he had no problem raising them again.

Nixon was conservative for the time. But not obsessively so. (He, after all, is the President who created the EPA. Not to mention extending recognition to Red China.) He was happy to pander to conservatives to get elected, but also to do things that no rigid conservative ideologue would embrace.

And it should be noted that both were quite willing to work with Democrats in the various legislatures. Can you picture a current prominent Republican politician who would be willing to spend his evenings hanging out with a liberal Democratic who was Speaker of the House, the way Reagan did? Me neither.

[wj]

It seems an eccentric if noble position, relying on a kind of alternate reality.

Actually, I suppose it makes me a different kind of reactionary. I want to get back to a past where the lunatics were not running the asylum. ;-)

[Marty]

I dont know about McK but i can tell whose cognitive dissonance should be getting worse.

And its not mine.

Every day the FBI demonstrates another abuse of its power, to cleeks see no evil dismay, in the atfempt to force Trump out of office at any cost.

There is notjing left to talk about hereas Comey, in his scathing personal and childish rebuke of the idiot king, states plainly in his book he doesnt think Trump is guty of obstruction and Loretta Lynch protected Hilary.

My cd is fine.

[Kenneth Almquist]

Trump has pardoned Libby. As far as I know, Libby is an unrepentant criminal.

After rereading a summary of the closing arguments[1], I'd say there is a reasonable chance that Libby lied in an attempt to protect himself. If that's the case, Libby's decision to lie was a mistake. As the prosecutor noted, “The sad truth is that sometimes when people lie it looks dumb when they get caught.”

On the other hand, Libby's decision to lie may not have been dumb. So far as I can see, the only rational reason for Libby to lie to the grand jury was if he had evidence that other people in the White House violated the law. Other reasons don't make sense:

1) Libby is a lawyer and would have fully understood that the 5th Amendment protected him against answering questions that would have tended to incriminate him.

2) Once a special counsel is appointed, an investigation is likely to be pretty thorough. A few convincing lies to a grand jury would be unlikely to convince the prosecutor that the case was too weak to be worth investigating thoroughly.

3) Grand jury testimony is secret, and generally only becomes public if it is used in a criminal prosecution. If Libby had been able to get through his grand jury testimony without either lying or implicating anyone in a crime, nothing he said to the grand jury, however embarrassing, would ever see the light of day.

So I think there is a real possibility that Libby successfully obstructed justice, and has now been pardoned for it.

[1] https://www.thenation.com/article/libby-trial-final-arguments-about-scooter-cheney-truth/

[wj]

Every day the FBI demonstrates another abuse of its power

Are you including in your list of "abuses" the execution of a duly obtained search warrant against Mr Cohen? Because if so, you need to expand your complaint to include a far wider range of targets. (Just for openers, Mr Mueller et al. aren't part of the FBI at all.)

In fact, you'd pretty much have to argue that the entire system for the administration of justice (at least at the Federal level) is badly broken. Is that where you're at?

[Girl from the North Country]

Not to mention, as of February 20th, the investigation had resulted in this:

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has either indicted or gotten guilty pleas from 19 people and three companies so far — with most of those being announced just in the past few weeks.

That group is composed of four former Trump advisers, 13 Russian nationals, three Russian companies, one California man, and one London-based lawyer. Five of these people have already pleaded guilty — the latest being former Trump campaign staffer Rick Gates, who signed a plea deal and committed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation Friday.

[Tony P.]

Marty: Every day the FBI demonstrates another abuse of its power ... in the attempt to force Trump out of office at any cost.

Tell it to Christopher Wray, the guy He, Trump appointed to head the His FBI.

Your attitude toward the "idiot king" is schizophrenic at best, Marty. You seem to proclaim that if Lying Liar Jim Comey "states plainly in his book he doesn't think Trump is guilty of obstruction" then that settles the matter in Dear Leader's favor.

When He, Trump orders the Secret Service to go arrest Christopher Wray, head of the power-abusing FBI, and frogmarch him out of the building, what makes you think the SS will obey? Who will Dear Leader's last defender be, do you think? I know, I know: not you. But you'll fight His "enemies" to the death, it seems.

--TP

[Marty]

Doj/fbi/NY Attorney General thanks wj, oh wsit, everyone that had their boss fired.Well show this ass who's in charge. the overreach at this point has reached ridiculous stage.

Im still looking for that collusion. Not a single charge related to that,

[Marty]

Yhey are now the enemies of democracy. A coup in slow motion. Thats not how we do things here. Only the Democrats cult could miss the plain truth that our justice system answers to no one, and brags thats the way its supposed to be. Say what?

They report to the President so we have control of them, they are not meant to be an independent and unaccountable shadow government.

Thats stupid. Migbt as well let the military take over.

[Tony P.]

Marty: Might as well let the military take over.

What makes you think "the military" would be on He, Trump's side?
Or yours, for that matter?

--TP

[Girl from the North Country]

Did you feel the same way about Kenneth Starr?

[Nous]

RE: Wisconsin White Supremacy, since I mentioned it earlier in the thread:

Here's a not-so-subtle one blowing himself up by accident in Beaver Dam.

Wisconsin - summer playground for Illinois Nazis.

[cleek]

Every day the FBI demonstrates another abuse of its power, to cleeks see no evil dismay,

i'm still waiting for you to list all the FBI's abuses.

go ahead, tell us all about them.

[wj]

Im still looking for that collusion. Not a single charge related to that

Well it may be worth remembering that Mueller's mandate isn't to find collusion (or whatever the actual legal charge would be). It is to look at Russian interference in the US election -- regardless of whether anybody here worked with them.

Somehow, Trump seems to feel that looking at Russian interference is an attack on him. "The guilty flee where no man pursueth."

[Girl from the North Country]

Excellent point, wj.

[wj]

Only the Democrats cult could miss the plain truth that our justice system answers to no one, and brags thats the way its supposed to be. Say what?

Say what indeed! Would you rather than the justice system be a tool of whoever happens to have won the last election??? We used to have something like that. And decided that we would rather have a justice system composed (ideally, if not always successfully in practice) of people who are dedicated to impartiality and the rule of law.

Mostly, and with admitted failures, that's what we have built. And, again mostly, those who stray from that ideal end up in trouble. They may last an unfortunately long time; some even get away with it for their entire career. They may get a Presidential Pardon. But I would say that most of the time most of the people working in the system at least try to achieve the ideal. And personally this Republican wouldn't have it any other way.

[cleek]

Yhey are now the enemies of democracy. A coup in slow motion.

LOL

lay off the Breitbart. it's rotting your brain.

[bobbyp]

And it should be noted that both (Raygun, TrickyDicky) were quite willing to work with Democrats in the various legislatures.

I should think that having to deal with Congresses comprised mostly of Democrats may have had something to do with this. Plus, the two major parties were less ideologically cohesive back in those days.

[bobbyp]

...they are not meant to be an independent and unaccountable shadow government.

You and some of my lefty friends should sit down at the bar for some drinks and commune about "the Deep State". You would find you have this hot take in common with them.

I'd even stand the first round.

[bobbyp]

...and Loretta Lynch protected Hilary.

Protected her from what? I guess I'll have to wait for the release of the book to look into this nugget of nonsense.

[bobbyp]

Say what indeed! Would you rather than the justice system be a tool of whoever happens to have won the last election???

Or better yet, the personal domain of J. Edgar Hoover, thus preserving its institutional "independence". Those were the days!

[bobbyp]

Just more Clinton Rules.

[hairshirthedonist]

I dont know about McK but i can tell whose cognitive dissonance should be getting worse.

No CD for people who already thought Trump was not only horrible but also worse than Clinton (by a large margin).