Obsidian Wings

We are all John Boltons now...

by Ugh

To quote Jon Lovitz as Michael Dukakis in a spoof of a 1988 Presidential debate, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy." 

These days I kind of wander around in a general state of "WTF", trying to stay off the twitterati. 

63 million people voted for this guy in 2016.  It's a whole "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people" kind of thing, I guess.  

Separately, General Aviation is dangerous and I don't recommend it unless the pilot is an immediate family member (and probably not even then, see, e.g., JFK Jr.).  

Open thread to talk about the latest and most recent unpleasantness.  Or the Superbowl.  

Paper Trails

by wj

I was tempted to title this The Best People. But it's what the "best people" have been doing that boggles my mind.

The blanket refusal to respond to subpoenas has been in start contrast to how previous administrations, all previous administrations, have dealt with Congress. Let's face it, no matter what one's opinion of Trump and all his works, it looks terrible. Considering how obsessed Trump is with his image, the question has to be asked: why?

The latest bits of documents to surface (hand written notes by Lev Parnas) give, perhaps, a glimmer. It looks like the folks working for Trump on his Ukraine efforts wrote down lots and lots of stuff which buttress the case for impeachment and removal. The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight seems to have not only done criminal stuff, not only talked about what they were doing, but actually written down their criminal plans. Stalking a US Ambassador, and suggesting taking actions against her personally (whether assassination or simple assault is not clear to me) is not something normal people would want to make a record of. But there is it.

I have to say, if I was a Republican Senator, the last, the very last, thing that I would want to happen is to find that I voted to not allow evidence and testimony during the Senate trial. And then have conclusive evidence come out before my next election campaign. Considering the rate at which stuff is coming out, even in the face of determined administration stonewalling, there doesn't look to be much chance that won't happen. The question in all of their minds has to be "Do I really want to take a bullet for this guy?" -- especially considering their off-the-record opinions of him already. No matter how fanatically devoted Trumps fans are, there are worse things than offending them. And those worse things look to be on the horizon . . . and closing fast.

let's talk about something else

by russell

Donald J Who?  I'm tired of that human trainwreck sucking all the air out of the room.  Let's take a short break from the clown show and talk about something else.

Stumbled across this and thought it was a combination of interesting, accurate, and dire.  What is it like to be a young person trying to find your way into something like a life, nowadays?  If you're not a tech whiz, a quant, or some other form of bright flaming comet streaking across the sky?

What if you're just... kind of normal?  But you still want to make a living, and live someplace other than your parent's house or with five room-mates until you're 30 years old?

What are the practical effects of wide divergences in income and wealth?  What kind of society do we want to live in?

The author has some ideas for how to make things better.  Some of them might even make sense.

The floor is open.  Talk about You Know Who if you must, but remember - it's not obligatory.  We all know he's an ass.

It's 2,000 & 20: do u know where ur democracy is?

by Ugh

It's interesting times.  The slow motion movement to (soon) U.S. minority white nationalism rule continues apace, aided and abetted by SCOTUS.  Donald the Dove is getting his WAR! on.  For some reason I can't get it through my head that it's all about the 9 rings for some people, thus asking "why" or what the reasoning is behind any action is useless (I'm looking at you, Mitch).  Presently:  bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.  And he did it!  Truly, Donald is President now...

Also, too, love Pompeo saying that US troops aren't leaving Iraq no matter what the Iraqis say.  I suppose it's the same in Japan.

Good times.