Obsidian Wings

The Calm Before the Thynder - Open Thread

by Ugh

Vote Tuesday, he said, expecting the answer no.

I'll be in Silicon Valley then, having turned in my absentee ballot in races so one sided that "some" might say maximizing utility would be better spent watching the Haunting of Hill House, which I had to turn off last night (I'm 45 years old, tho I loved that Henry Thomas was cast in that episode - he deserved an Oscar for E.T.).  

What other Mules are out there? Are they only negative? I think not, or hope not what not. 

Open thread.

We Are Here to Witness

Joyce Fienberg, 75, of Oakland

Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross Township

Rose Mallinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill

Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood

Cecil Rosenthal, 59, of Squirrel Hill

David Rosenthal, 54, of Squirrel Hill (Cecil and David Rosenthal are brothers)

Bernice Simon, 84, of Wilkinsburg

Sylvan Simon, 87, of Wilkinsburg​​​​​​​ (Bernice and Sylvan are husband and wife)

Daniel Stein, 71, of Squirrel Hill

Melvin Wax, 88, of Squirrel Hill

Irving Younger, 69, of Mt. Washington

*****

Added later, and thanks to sapient for providing the details:

Maurice Stallard, 69

Vickie Lee Jones, 67

who died in the Kroger shooting.

"White people are so fragile, God bless ’em."

by liberal japonicus

Has it only been four days since I posted about the 'migrant caravan'? Lot of pressure and Ugh is there with a stent of an open thread, but here's a little more focussed post for those of you who want to chat.

This post is sort of about Megyn Kelly, formerly of the Today show and the title comes from this unrelated Guardian article
about Rhiannon Giddens and the final paragraph, which is:

She pauses. “White people are so fragile, God bless ’em. ‘Well, I didn’t own slaves.’ No you didn’t. Nobody is asking you to take personal responsibility for this. But you’re a beneficiary of a system that did. Just own that and move on.”

My wife (Japanese, never lived in the US) was struggling to see what was wrong with Megyn Kelly's comments. I pulled up some links and pointed out that 1) she's not talking about herself going as Diana Ross, she's talking about someone else, 2) she has a history of making racist comments and 3)she's getting umpteen million dollars so you think she would be intelligent enough to keep her mouth shut. My wife said 'naruhodo', which could be the Japanese equivalent of 'yeah, that's a bit racist...'

Thinking about another Meghan, here's an interesting compare and contrast. Been reading a bit about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's tour and Harry's own history in this regard in the realm of the ill-advised is interesting.

with some reporting from the time

So liberal japonicus, why does Harry get a pass, and Megyn Kelly get sent on her way? Well, I'm not sure if someone could have been kicked out of the royal family, but more importantly, this:

During one tantalising section of the film Prince Harry, who is currently dating the American actress Meghan Markle, hints at the possibility of becoming a father and introducing his children to the continent he has long loved and admired and where he has done some of his most meaningful work.

“I have this love of Africa that will never disappear,” he says: “And I hope it carries on with my children as well.”

We earlier talked about how political party affiliation is often something that can be seen as passing down from parent to child. This reminded me that a lot of things get passed down.

My senior thesis was a combination of a recital and a thesis about the pieces I played and one of the pieces I played was Hindemith's Sonata for Horn in F and I tied that to a poem that Hindemith linked to his Sonata for Alto Horn that is supposed to be recited before the piece.

Hornist:
Is not the sounding of a horn to our busy souls
Even as the scent of blossoms wilted long ago
Or the discolored folds of musty tapestry
Or crumbling leaves of ancient yellow tomes

Like a sonorous visit from those ages
Which counted speed by straining horses' gallop
And not by lightning prisoned up in cables
And when to live and learn they ranged the countryside
Not just the closely printed pages

The cornucopia's gift calls forth in us a pallid yearning, melancholy longing

Pianist:
The old is good not just because it's passed
Nor is the new supreme because we live with it
And never yet a man felt greater joy than he could bear or truly comprehend.

Your task, it is, amidst confusion, rush and noise
To grasp the lasting, calm, and meaningful
And finding it anew, to hold and treasure it.

Let them eat pipe bombs - Open Thread

by Ugh

As the liberal illuminati outsmart themselves by sending pipe bombs to their own leaders in a horribly failed attempt to distract from the overwhelming menace of a caravan of more than 100,000 heavily armed foot soldiers of Middle Eastern descent steadily marching toward the U.S.'s naked southern border, and due to get closer than 1,000 miles any day now, I present to you this open thread.

Sox are up 2-0.

Steph Curry is silly.

I still like the NFL.

Vote, please.

The unwanted guests

by liberal japonicus

There's so much shit happening, it is hard to keep track. We've not talked about it here, but the migrant caravan is a pretty amazing example of when one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong. The fact that a caravan like that, timed perfectly to encourage the Republican/Clickbait base when the elections take place, seems like the dictionary definition of dirty tricks had me and others wonder if it was a Republican operation which then allows for the deployment of Republican rhetoric on immigration

However, this Slate article suggests that it had its roots in Honduras. A couple of interesting grafs

According to FOSDEH, a local think tank, about two-thirds of the population lives in poverty and the total number increased by roughly six percent in 2017; 80 percent of workers earn below the minimum wage of a few hundred dollars per month. On top of this, Honduras ranks among the most violent countries on the planet. Fewer than one in 10 crimes is ever solved.

And then there’s the drought. Honduras is one of the countries that has been most affected by climate change, particularly in the part of its territory that intersects with what’s known as the Central America Dry Corridor. In the past, farmers in this region could rely on two harvests annually, but now they are lucky to produce one. This year, a severe drought during the rainy season meant tens of thousands of families produced none.

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol shows an increase in rural migration in the past year due to these issues, and so many migrants from that particular region have attempted to flee in the last week that Honduras closed its border there with Guatemala indefinitely.

Is it just me or does the caravan bring this to mind?

Anyway, a new thread about a fresh new hell, cause the previous one (thread that is, the holding capacities of various types of hells seem to be infinite)

Oh Lordy Lordy - Open Thread

by Ugh

There is too much sh1t goin' on.  Can we go back to the good old days of no drama? Pls thx bai?

Whatever.

Go Sox, tho' I wouldn't mind a Brewers World Series victory (wait, did I just talk about baseball? Don't tell the Count).

If Dems take the House you will see a lame duck session the likes of which even god has never seen.  Deliberation over judicial nominations? we don't need no stinkin' deliberation over judicial nominations.  But that's the Senate so what do I know?

The Senate should be abolished, BTW.  

Also, Dear MSM, Trump lies. 

Open thread.

Identity, inside or out: A post for National Coming Out Day

by liberal japonicus

There was a bit of a back and forth in the comments that started out with musings about changing citizenship and moved into the idea of this post, which, by a bit of synchronicity, goes out shortly after National Coming Out Day (11 Oct), though nothing in the post is specifically about that.

I don't mean to pile on here, but as someone who is going thru the process that was offhandedly mentioned, it really isn't as easy as some might think. You might say because I've chosen Japan, I've made it hard on myself and maybe it would be a lot easier for some other country. That may be true, I've not considered taking citizenship in any other country. However, I've always thought that the retort to libertarians about going to Somalia had its power not because libertarian principles in Somalia are writ large there but because the apparently simple process of picking up stakes and moving to that libertarian paradise would require so much work that it might wake up the libertarian to how intertwined everything is to our system of laws and government. The easier it is for someone to move to Somalia, the less likely they are to enjoy the privileges afforded by rules and regulations.

more below the fold

Climate Change "Realism"

by russell (albeit indirectly)

Check out the new (R) line on climate change.

It's happening anyway, probably not much we can do about it, none of that solar panel hippie crap is gonna work.

And we don't want to wreck the economy.

What is it gonna cost to, for example, re-locate Miami, Senator?

In America, the economy wrecks you!! Hahaha!

Dumb-asses.

We need to find a way to focus legislators' attention on a time-frame longer than the next election. They need to be incentivized to not just kick the can down the road, which is their current default position.

And not just legislators, for that matter.

Any ideas? I mean, short of chaining them to stakes in low-lying coastal areas.

A shitshow for the ages

by liberal japonicus

From this
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-turks-have-tapes

The Post is reporting that Turkish officials have told their US counterparts that they have audio and video recordings that prove Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. It appears that the claimed video evidence is more circumstantial. The audio evidence would appear to be from listening devices either within or targeting the compound. According to the Post, the tapes the Turks claim to have essentially have the audio of Khoshoggi being interrogated, tortured and then finally killed.

As the Post describes it, the Turks are extremely leery of sharing the evidence. And it’s not clear they’ve shared it with the US, as opposed to describe it to their US counterparts. It’s a dicey situation. They clearly don’t want to out themselves or at least out the ways they bug diplomatic compounds.

I like Josh Marshall, but here, he seems a little dense. Might the reason the Turks are leery of sharing is because of this?

“That would be a very sad thing, and we’ll probably know in the very short future,” Trump replied. “We have incredible people and incredible talent working on it. We don’t like it. I don’t like it. No good.”

Trump later told reporters at the White House that he wasn’t open to stopping arms sales to Saudi Arabia because “this took place in Turkey and to the best of our knowledge, Khashoggi is not a United States citizen.”

And maybe a dash of this?

As suspicions that the Saudis had killed Khashoggi mounted, the top US diplomat in Riyadh met with MBS and requested an explanation. MBS responded by demanding a call directly with the White House. That’s the Bolton/Kushner call. As a former Trump White House official told Politico, his insistence on talking directly to the White House “indicate[d MBS was] hoping to leverage his close ties with Kushner and others in Trump’s inner circle to avoid repercussions.”

When I heard this I wondered whether MBS really demanded a call with both men or really just wanted to talk to Kushner. Another report CNN published today provides another clue.

While bin Salman reached out specifically to Kushner, his established White House interlocutor, to deny the accusations, national security adviser John Bolton also joined the call, and later, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had his own conversation with the crown prince.

Clearly the Crown Prince wanted to talk directly to Kushner and apparently only to Kushner. The writing here is ambiguous. But the details suggest Bolton was on the call as something like a minder. That may be too adverse a read. Maybe Kushner realized how delicate a situation it was and wanted Bolton on the call too. Regardless, MBS wanted to go right to Jared, a man who has strongly advocated for him and with whom he has apparently had numerous back-channel conversations out of earshot of the US government.

It seems to me that an equally likely possibility is the Turks aren't going to share the info because they think Trump will hand it over to the Saudis.

Nixon resigned because a bunch of Cubans busted into the Democratic headquarters and a pair of Washington Post reporters found out. Given the way the world has been working, it would be totally expected if Trump gets impeached because a Saudi death squad killed a columnist for the WaPo.

Sometimes the shit comes down so heavy I feel like I should wear a hat. (a Brexit thread)

by liberal japonicus

From the Guardian

A group of remain-backing Tory MPs are plotting to form a rival movement to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s highly effective Eurosceptics, with the aim of voting down Theresa May’s Brexit deal amid concerns that it would wreck the economy.

On my distant understanding of this, Rees-Mogg looks to me like the typical upper-class twit of the type made fun of in Monty Python.

and this
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/oct/10/brexit-where-things-stand-britain-end-game-explainer

The consensus among pundits seems to be that an agreement on some version of the Chequers deal, with compromises on both sides, is the most likely outcome. Then May could just about get the deal through the Commons, especially if some Labour MPs defy the whip to back the plan.

I'd be especially interested in the take of anyone here who is there.

The quote in the title is from Lawrence Kasden's movie Body Heat, and it occurs to me that our current condition is best described by this dialogue

RACINE How's the cop business, Oscar?

GRACE Real good. Always starts hoppin' in
weather like this. When it gets hot,
people try to kill each other.

STELLA It's true. I could tell you some
people who'll be dead if we don't
get a break soon.

She leaves. The three men exchange amused looks.

GRACE We've got more of everything bad
since the wave started. It's the
crisis atmosphere. People dress
different, feel different, sweat
more. They wake up cranky and they
never recover. Look at Lowenstein.

(a flash of smile)

Things are just a little askew. Pretty
soon people think the old rules aren't
in effect. They start breaking them.
Figure no one'll care, cause it's
emergency time...

Have at it.