A Trump tweet, today, about Obamacare.
I'm speechless.
The billionaires want it gone.
Friday, June 30, 2017
Mika and Joe respond to the disgusting attack by Old Man Karamazov in the White House
There is no fixing or controlling or successfully chastising Bozo.
The only solution is to get rid of him.
The Congressional GOP would not impeach him if he turned out to be a serial killer with bodies even now in the White House basement.
He needs to be knocked off the GOP ticket in 2020 by the party.
Can they do that?
Will they?
Has anyone even heard the words "Dump Trump for 2020" out of a single Republican mouth?
Update 0811, "He's not well. He's not of sound mind."
And more on that line on Morning Joe at this hour.
And this.
Softening up America for Article XXV?
Do you really want Pence to finish Trump's term and have a guaranteed lead in the party for 2020?
Well, better than Trump, maybe, if we get split government with the Dems regaining at least one house of Congress starting in 2018.
Update 0821, Trump planted stories during the campaign in the National Inquirer, owned by a buddy, to harm people he wanted to attack.
At some point in time - when? - the White House called Joe and Mika and urged he call Trump to apologize for some story or else an attack story would appear in the Inquirer about Joe.
Reporters for that paper were personally calling and harassing Mika's two daughters (in their early teens).
They didn't cave, of course.
Rather a shame Joe is lending support to the idea that Trump's agenda could and should do wonderful things for coal miners and industrial workers desperate in Pennsylvania and other places.
It's all bunk, especially the baloney about the coal industry.
And, by the way, the agenda Trump announced in connection with energy the other day is a triple horror, encouraging the export of coal for use in producing electricity, encouraging the use of oil, and committing the US to increased use of nuclear power.
The latest on Fukushima.
Mika, Joe, and the others did not omit concern what the mentally unstable megalomaniac rage-a-holic in the White House might do in connection with Korea or some other crisis.
I hadn't realized they are actually a couple.
Joe and Mika.
The only solution is to get rid of him.
The Congressional GOP would not impeach him if he turned out to be a serial killer with bodies even now in the White House basement.
He needs to be knocked off the GOP ticket in 2020 by the party.
Can they do that?
Will they?
Has anyone even heard the words "Dump Trump for 2020" out of a single Republican mouth?
Update 0811, "He's not well. He's not of sound mind."
And more on that line on Morning Joe at this hour.
And this.
Softening up America for Article XXV?
Do you really want Pence to finish Trump's term and have a guaranteed lead in the party for 2020?
Well, better than Trump, maybe, if we get split government with the Dems regaining at least one house of Congress starting in 2018.
Update 0821, Trump planted stories during the campaign in the National Inquirer, owned by a buddy, to harm people he wanted to attack.
At some point in time - when? - the White House called Joe and Mika and urged he call Trump to apologize for some story or else an attack story would appear in the Inquirer about Joe.
Reporters for that paper were personally calling and harassing Mika's two daughters (in their early teens).
They didn't cave, of course.
Rather a shame Joe is lending support to the idea that Trump's agenda could and should do wonderful things for coal miners and industrial workers desperate in Pennsylvania and other places.
It's all bunk, especially the baloney about the coal industry.
And, by the way, the agenda Trump announced in connection with energy the other day is a triple horror, encouraging the export of coal for use in producing electricity, encouraging the use of oil, and committing the US to increased use of nuclear power.
The latest on Fukushima.
Mika, Joe, and the others did not omit concern what the mentally unstable megalomaniac rage-a-holic in the White House might do in connection with Korea or some other crisis.
I hadn't realized they are actually a couple.
Joe and Mika.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
How you can have your Secretary of State skip senate vetting
Appoint someone pretty well qualified and with views sensible enough to get confirmed by the senate and then isolate him and hand the actual job to your son in law, an ignorant and totally unqualified amateur who would never stand up to senate vetting.
Mika Brzezinski Goes Off on Trump and His 'Lobotomized' Staffers After Disturbing Tillerson Report
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski hammered President Donald Trump over reports that his secretary of state feels sidelined by White House political operatives.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly unloaded on Johnny DeStefano, head of the presidential personnel office, last week in front of other staffers during a heated meeting in the White House chief of staff’s office — and the “Morning Joe” co-hosts blasted the president and his dysfunctional administration.
“Everybody in Washington, in the administration, needs to look at this from, I think, a point of view where they’re not lobotomized because you’re sitting in there and you’re so scared of him, and you think you need to suck up to the president,” Brzezinski said.
“You need to look at this like any company.”
“Let’s say someone came into NBC and took over NBC, and started tweeting wildly about people’s appearances, bullying people, talking about people in the competition, lying every day, undermining his managers, throwing them under the (bus) — that person would be thrown out,” she continued.
“It’s just not normal behavior. In fact, there would be concerns that the person who runs the company is out of his mind.”
Trump responds by his usual brutal personal attacks, mostly on Mika B.
President Trump bashed the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, in tweets early Thursday that said Brzezinski was "bleeding badly from a face-lift" when he saw her late last year at his Florida resort.
"I heard poorly rated Morning Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!" Trump tweeted.
Mika Brzezinski Goes Off on Trump and His 'Lobotomized' Staffers After Disturbing Tillerson Report
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski hammered President Donald Trump over reports that his secretary of state feels sidelined by White House political operatives.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly unloaded on Johnny DeStefano, head of the presidential personnel office, last week in front of other staffers during a heated meeting in the White House chief of staff’s office — and the “Morning Joe” co-hosts blasted the president and his dysfunctional administration.
“Everybody in Washington, in the administration, needs to look at this from, I think, a point of view where they’re not lobotomized because you’re sitting in there and you’re so scared of him, and you think you need to suck up to the president,” Brzezinski said.
“You need to look at this like any company.”
“Let’s say someone came into NBC and took over NBC, and started tweeting wildly about people’s appearances, bullying people, talking about people in the competition, lying every day, undermining his managers, throwing them under the (bus) — that person would be thrown out,” she continued.
“It’s just not normal behavior. In fact, there would be concerns that the person who runs the company is out of his mind.”
Trump responds by his usual brutal personal attacks, mostly on Mika B.
President Trump bashed the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, in tweets early Thursday that said Brzezinski was "bleeding badly from a face-lift" when he saw her late last year at his Florida resort.
"I heard poorly rated Morning Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!" Trump tweeted.
It's all lies, says Cardinal of Australian charges
Australian Cardinal and Aide to Pope Is Charged With Sexual Assault
MSNBC just showed him in Italy denying everything, saying it's all lies and character assassination.
Uh huh.
He says he will travel to Australia to clear his name.
MSNBC just showed him in Italy denying everything, saying it's all lies and character assassination.
Uh huh.
He says he will travel to Australia to clear his name.
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Still in denial
Can't face that he's the most lying political figure in America, maybe the world?
Delude yourself that he just really doesn't know.
Fyodor Karamazov in the White House.
Sanders vs the press
Reporter lambastes Ms. Sanders for White House lies about the media, endlessly bashing them for "fake news," immediately after she denounces the Russia story as a vast media hoax.
Brian Karem, a White House reporter for The Sentinel, chimed in moments later, telling the White House spokeswoman that she was “inflaming everybody right here and right now with those words.”
“Any one of us, if we don’t get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us, but you have been elected to serve for four years at least. There’s no option other than that,” he said.
“We’re here to ask you questions. You’re here to provide the answers. And what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, ‘See, once again, the president is right, and everybody else out here is fake media.’ And everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.”
Yes.
Lies work.
And that's why she won't stop and nor will Bozo or his entire team.
Sanders said she “completely” disagreed.
Brian Karem, a White House reporter for The Sentinel, chimed in moments later, telling the White House spokeswoman that she was “inflaming everybody right here and right now with those words.”
“Any one of us, if we don’t get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us, but you have been elected to serve for four years at least. There’s no option other than that,” he said.
“We’re here to ask you questions. You’re here to provide the answers. And what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, ‘See, once again, the president is right, and everybody else out here is fake media.’ And everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.”
Yes.
Lies work.
And that's why she won't stop and nor will Bozo or his entire team.
Sanders said she “completely” disagreed.
Every word a lie
Including "the" and "but".
The president telling shocking lies in praise of the Republican senate bill right now on MSNBC, 1208 hrs EDT.
Universal coverage, much better coverage, much cheaper for everybody, no subsidies or taxes to support it, Obamacare is "essentially dead," and so on, lied our very own President Fyodor Karamazov.
Not a shred of doubt his true believers will hear all that and believe every word.
Lots of talk now of McConnell trying to get some Democrat votes for something that could only involve a few conservative Dems joining the GOP to strike a real blow against Obamacare and stab the party in the back, unless Schumer can hold them all together.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Fate
Neither Frollo nor Hugo is pagan enough to attribute his, Esmeralda's, and the book's debacle to fate, alone.
That he was a priest not made for celibacy, that she is a Gipsy, that she loves Phoebus, he repeatedly attributes all to fate, but also to the will of God.
Never a hint how the two might be related.
Reading The Hunchback.
Is even his base that stupid?
Trump's new foil: a silent Barack Obama
He now tacitly admits there was Russian meddling and accuses Obama of collusion.
What?
With the Russian effort to put him in the White House?
Good CNN piece.
Horrifying
Esmeralda's trial, the torture scene, the visit of the archdeacon in her cell.
What is Hugo saying?
The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Monday, June 26, 2017
A straw in the wind?
Supreme Court reinstates Trump travel ban
The Supreme Court is letting the Trump administration enforce its 90-day ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries, overturning lower court orders that blocked it.
The action Monday is a victory for President Donald Trump in the biggest legal controversy of his young presidency.
Trump said last week that the ban would take effect 72 hours being cleared by courts.
The justices will hear arguments in the case in the fall.
Supreme Court Revives Parts Of Trump's Travel Ban As It Agrees To Hear Case
The case centers on the president's move to block new visas for travelers from six majority-Muslim countries for 90 days, and to suspend the U.S. refugee program for 120 days.
Challengers to the ban said it would harm people who have legitimate reasons to be in the U.S. — including through family ties, work and education.
The justices removed the lower courts' injunctions against the ban "with respect to foreign nationals who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States," narrowing the scope of two injunctions that had put the ban in limbo.
The Supreme Court is letting the Trump administration enforce its 90-day ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries, overturning lower court orders that blocked it.
The action Monday is a victory for President Donald Trump in the biggest legal controversy of his young presidency.
Trump said last week that the ban would take effect 72 hours being cleared by courts.
The justices will hear arguments in the case in the fall.
Supreme Court Revives Parts Of Trump's Travel Ban As It Agrees To Hear Case
The case centers on the president's move to block new visas for travelers from six majority-Muslim countries for 90 days, and to suspend the U.S. refugee program for 120 days.
Challengers to the ban said it would harm people who have legitimate reasons to be in the U.S. — including through family ties, work and education.
The justices removed the lower courts' injunctions against the ban "with respect to foreign nationals who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States," narrowing the scope of two injunctions that had put the ban in limbo.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Another season of Luther
My wife just told me one of our favorite shows is coming back.
Idris Elba, the Brit Denzel, is wonderful in it.
And the mad redheaded girl is great fun.
Rod Dreher, professional Christian, finds contemporary pop culture desperately alienating.
Well, contemporary culture altogether.
What must white nationalists think?
Can Pat Buchanan, Steve Bannon, or Ann Coulter stand to watch any TV at all?
Reruns of Father Knows Best and Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion?
Saturday, June 24, 2017
About labeling and the American right
Any American individual, group, or publication calling himself or itself conservative, a patriot, or patriotic is a radical, fringe individual, group, or publication that absolutely hates the America we have today and wants to profoundly and radically change it.
Decades of polling consistently show that the political center is supportive of all the achievements of progressivism since the end of the 19th Century and hopes for further improvement along the same lines.
That means liberals and Democrats are centrists on these issues, on which they (we) share exactly that outlook, while so-called conservatives and Republicans are radicals on the fringe.
And that means, too, according to the proper political meaning of the term, that America's liberals and America's Democrats are in fact America's conservatives.
Those who call themselves that are liars.
Decades of polling consistently show that the political center is supportive of all the achievements of progressivism since the end of the 19th Century and hopes for further improvement along the same lines.
That means liberals and Democrats are centrists on these issues, on which they (we) share exactly that outlook, while so-called conservatives and Republicans are radicals on the fringe.
And that means, too, according to the proper political meaning of the term, that America's liberals and America's Democrats are in fact America's conservatives.
Those who call themselves that are liars.
Reversing Ataturk
Turkey to stop teaching evolution in high school
Turkish high school students will no longer be taught the theory of evolution.
The subject has been cut from the curriculum under changes made to eliminate "controversial" topics, the head of the national board of education, Alpaslan Durmus, announced in a video address.
"If our students don't have the background, the scientific knowledge, or information to comprehend the debate around controversial issues, we have left them out," Durmus said.
The new curriculum will go into effect for the 2017- 2018 school year.
It was crafted to emphasize national values and highlight contributions made by Turkish and Muslim scholars, Durmus said.
History classes will look beyond "Eurocentrism" and music classes will focus on "all colors of Turkish music," he said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan survived a coup attempt last year and solidified his power in April in a referendum that handed him sweeping powers.
Critics view the changes in the education system as another step in the ruling Justice and Development Party's ambitions to make Turkey more conservative.
Erdogan has been vocal about wanting to raise "a pious generation."
Turkish high school students will no longer be taught the theory of evolution.
The subject has been cut from the curriculum under changes made to eliminate "controversial" topics, the head of the national board of education, Alpaslan Durmus, announced in a video address.
"If our students don't have the background, the scientific knowledge, or information to comprehend the debate around controversial issues, we have left them out," Durmus said.
The new curriculum will go into effect for the 2017- 2018 school year.
It was crafted to emphasize national values and highlight contributions made by Turkish and Muslim scholars, Durmus said.
History classes will look beyond "Eurocentrism" and music classes will focus on "all colors of Turkish music," he said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan survived a coup attempt last year and solidified his power in April in a referendum that handed him sweeping powers.
Critics view the changes in the education system as another step in the ruling Justice and Development Party's ambitions to make Turkey more conservative.
Erdogan has been vocal about wanting to raise "a pious generation."
Hmm, maybe not
How to Fix Gerrymandering
Make state legislatures bigger.
He thinks larger legislatures would be more representative of the ideological compositions of the states and that would make them unwilling to gerrymander.
But the first claim is questionable and the second groundless.
The constitution does not require that we elect house members by single member districts.
So don't.
Elect them at large, statewide, according to any one of the several formulae available.
Heck, there's no reason all the states need even use the same formula.
Make state legislatures bigger.
He thinks larger legislatures would be more representative of the ideological compositions of the states and that would make them unwilling to gerrymander.
But the first claim is questionable and the second groundless.
The constitution does not require that we elect house members by single member districts.
So don't.
Elect them at large, statewide, according to any one of the several formulae available.
Heck, there's no reason all the states need even use the same formula.
The Liar in Chief supports a plan that breaks all his promises
Trump's previous promises on health care
Trump has already thrown his weight behind the plan, tweeting: "I am very supportive of the Senate #HealthcareBill. Look forward to making it really special!"
He promised health care for all, but the senate bill is health care for a lot fewer.
He promised no harm to Medicaid and this guts Medicaid.
He promised lower costs and deductibles and this delivers higher costs and deductibles.
His lies are masking and thus enabling the standard Republican agenda that America always overwhelmingly rejects in polls, gut the welfare state to allow gigantic tax cuts for the rich.
Trump has already thrown his weight behind the plan, tweeting: "I am very supportive of the Senate #HealthcareBill. Look forward to making it really special!"
He promised health care for all, but the senate bill is health care for a lot fewer.
He promised no harm to Medicaid and this guts Medicaid.
He promised lower costs and deductibles and this delivers higher costs and deductibles.
His lies are masking and thus enabling the standard Republican agenda that America always overwhelmingly rejects in polls, gut the welfare state to allow gigantic tax cuts for the rich.
More lies from the Asshole in Chief
In a complete flip-flop, Fyodor now admits there was Russian meddling in the election.
But only in the context of more lies about Obama and the Democrats crafted to shift blame onto them.
Trump: Obama 'did nothing' about Russia election meddling
President Donald Trump questioned former President Barack Obama's response to Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election in an interview airing Sunday morning, saying Obama didn't do enough to address the situation.
"Well I just heard today for the first time that Obama knew about Russia a long time before the election, and he did nothing about it," Trump said in an excerpt of his interview on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" released Friday.
"But nobody wants to talk about that."
Everyone including Bozo (who immediately began his months of denial which continued until this interview) heard about Russian interference well before the election, and the Obama administration did what it could and what seemed appropriate at the time.
WAPO has a story about this that I can't get to because it's behind a pay wall.
Clearly, a bipartisan response would be nice, and O was right that there was no way in hell to get that from the GOP, and especially from Bozo who firmly and volubly insisted at the time that there had been no interference and the whole thing was a Democrat and media hoax, before the election nor, indeed, at any time since.
Russia took 4 clear paths to meddle in the US election
The first involved establishing personal contact with Americans perceived as sympathetic to Moscow — such as former Defense Intelligence Agency chief Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and eay Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page — and using them as a means to further Russia's foreign-policy goals.
The second involved hacking the Democratic National Committee email servers and then giving the material to WikiLeaks, which leaked the emails in batches throughout the second half of 2016.
The third was to amplify the propaganda value of the leaked emails with a disinformation campaign waged predominantly on Facebook and Twitter, in an effort to use automated bots to spread fake news and pro-Trump agitprop.
And the fourth was to breach US voting systems in as many as 39 states leading up to the election, in an effort to steal registration data that officials say could be used to target and manipulate voters in future elections.
But only in the context of more lies about Obama and the Democrats crafted to shift blame onto them.
Trump: Obama 'did nothing' about Russia election meddling
President Donald Trump questioned former President Barack Obama's response to Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election in an interview airing Sunday morning, saying Obama didn't do enough to address the situation.
"Well I just heard today for the first time that Obama knew about Russia a long time before the election, and he did nothing about it," Trump said in an excerpt of his interview on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" released Friday.
"But nobody wants to talk about that."
Everyone including Bozo (who immediately began his months of denial which continued until this interview) heard about Russian interference well before the election, and the Obama administration did what it could and what seemed appropriate at the time.
WAPO has a story about this that I can't get to because it's behind a pay wall.
Clearly, a bipartisan response would be nice, and O was right that there was no way in hell to get that from the GOP, and especially from Bozo who firmly and volubly insisted at the time that there had been no interference and the whole thing was a Democrat and media hoax, before the election nor, indeed, at any time since.
Russia took 4 clear paths to meddle in the US election
The first involved establishing personal contact with Americans perceived as sympathetic to Moscow — such as former Defense Intelligence Agency chief Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and eay Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page — and using them as a means to further Russia's foreign-policy goals.
The second involved hacking the Democratic National Committee email servers and then giving the material to WikiLeaks, which leaked the emails in batches throughout the second half of 2016.
The third was to amplify the propaganda value of the leaked emails with a disinformation campaign waged predominantly on Facebook and Twitter, in an effort to use automated bots to spread fake news and pro-Trump agitprop.
And the fourth was to breach US voting systems in as many as 39 states leading up to the election, in an effort to steal registration data that officials say could be used to target and manipulate voters in future elections.
Friday, June 23, 2017
The most astonishing hogwash
Benjamin Truman's report to President Johnson, April 9, 1866.
The contrary of Schurz's report in every way.
Hence, a tissue of arrant, white supremacist lies.
The Jihad of Maximum Stupid
Edgar Welch fired an assault rifle inside a Washington pizza restaurant, believing internet rumors that prominent Democrats were harboring child sex slaves there.
. . . .
Judge Ketanji B Jackson said she had never seen a case like Welch’s, and she gave him a punishment on the upper end of guidelines, in part to send a message to others.
If Welch believed an internet conspiracy theory that children were being harmed at the restaurant, he should have notified law enforcement, not attempted to take the law into his own hands, the judge said during Thursday’s hearing in US district court in Washington.
Jackson said it was “sheer luck” that no one was physically injured when Welch entered Washington’s Comet Ping Pong restaurant on 4 December armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and a revolver.
Speechless.
Nope. Not black.
Nobody ever really thought they were but certain fantasists at Black Studies departments and a few white cohorts, anyway.
Braudel characterized the entire ancient Mediterranean region as the historic ecosphere of the Caucasian race.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Changing my view, a little, about the Russians' impact on the election
For a while, I thought Hillary would have lost even without the Russians doing their Wikileaks and disinformation campaigns.
That was and is the CW among "responsible persons."
To say otherwise is to say that, once again, a Republican was "selected, not elected" over a Democrat, and made it to the White House only on that account.
But this time it was Putin who did the selecting and not the Republicans on the Supreme Court, and that would and should be so much more alarming to so many more people, and delegitimates Trump in a much more fundamental way.
True enough, Comey's late, second bite of the emails apple was timed to do maximal damage and he deserved to be fired for that.
But the whole emails thing would have been a lot less of a problem without the Russians, their Wikileaks, and their extensive disinformation.
Heck, despite the Russians and Comey, both, Hillary actually won the voters' suffrage.
Without the Russians, I now think, she would have done enough better to also gain the suffrage of the Electors.
So, yes, the Russians stole the election from Hillary and handed it to the Siberian Candidate, Donald Trump.
Or the Russians and the corrupt, rigged system - the Electoral College - if you want to see it that way.
That was and is the CW among "responsible persons."
To say otherwise is to say that, once again, a Republican was "selected, not elected" over a Democrat, and made it to the White House only on that account.
But this time it was Putin who did the selecting and not the Republicans on the Supreme Court, and that would and should be so much more alarming to so many more people, and delegitimates Trump in a much more fundamental way.
True enough, Comey's late, second bite of the emails apple was timed to do maximal damage and he deserved to be fired for that.
But the whole emails thing would have been a lot less of a problem without the Russians, their Wikileaks, and their extensive disinformation.
Heck, despite the Russians and Comey, both, Hillary actually won the voters' suffrage.
Without the Russians, I now think, she would have done enough better to also gain the suffrage of the Electors.
So, yes, the Russians stole the election from Hillary and handed it to the Siberian Candidate, Donald Trump.
Or the Russians and the corrupt, rigged system - the Electoral College - if you want to see it that way.
Norwegian woods
Norwegian government backs down over memorial to Breivik victims
20 people whining stopped the project to memorialize the victims of the most horrible right wing terrorist attack committed outside the USA since the end of World War II.
Imagine the whines of 20 people stopping the Oklahoma City Memorial.
Or the Flight 93 Memorial.
Who would these 20 have to be?
The planned memorial, entitled Memory Wound, would have involved a wide slit cut into a strip of land near the island of Utøya where most of Breivik’s 77 victims were killed.
The project was generally approved of aesthetically, but about 20 locals, some of whom helped save lives during the massacre, sued the state to block the project, arguing it would harm the local community and landscape.
They saw the planned memorial as too invasive and too close to their homes.
NIMBY?
Really?
In order to appease critics [20 critics - PV], Norway’s minister of communal affairs and modernisation, Jan Tore Sanner, said on Wednesday that the project would be abandoned and another as-yet-undecided memorial would be raised on the dock where the ferry to Utøya departs.
20 people whining stopped the project to memorialize the victims of the most horrible right wing terrorist attack committed outside the USA since the end of World War II.
Imagine the whines of 20 people stopping the Oklahoma City Memorial.
Or the Flight 93 Memorial.
Who would these 20 have to be?
The planned memorial, entitled Memory Wound, would have involved a wide slit cut into a strip of land near the island of Utøya where most of Breivik’s 77 victims were killed.
The project was generally approved of aesthetically, but about 20 locals, some of whom helped save lives during the massacre, sued the state to block the project, arguing it would harm the local community and landscape.
They saw the planned memorial as too invasive and too close to their homes.
NIMBY?
Really?
In order to appease critics [20 critics - PV], Norway’s minister of communal affairs and modernisation, Jan Tore Sanner, said on Wednesday that the project would be abandoned and another as-yet-undecided memorial would be raised on the dock where the ferry to Utøya departs.
"Push those fogeys aside, dammit!"
Some House Democrats say it's time for Pelosi to go
Two, anyway, both young, new, inexperienced, and untested, trying to push the established and highly competent and knowledgeable leadership aside to make room for themselves.
Ah, great idea.
Agism, anyone?
Two, anyway, both young, new, inexperienced, and untested, trying to push the established and highly competent and knowledgeable leadership aside to make room for themselves.
Ah, great idea.
Agism, anyone?
"A big DEM hoax!"
Trump: Russian interference is ‘all a big Dem HOAX!’
Yesterday the ex-head of Homeland Security testified in Congress, in detail, about extensive Russian interference.
Over to Bozo.
President Trump on Thursday called Russia's meddling in the 2016 election “all a big Dem HOAX” and accused former president Barack Obama and his administration of not doing enough last year to “stop” Russian interference.
. . . .
In another Thursday tweet, Trump wrote, “If Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn't they stop them?”
Yesterday the ex-head of Homeland Security testified in Congress, in detail, about extensive Russian interference.
Over to Bozo.
President Trump on Thursday called Russia's meddling in the 2016 election “all a big Dem HOAX” and accused former president Barack Obama and his administration of not doing enough last year to “stop” Russian interference.
. . . .
In another Thursday tweet, Trump wrote, “If Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn't they stop them?”
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Bill Cosby
O.J. all over again?
Black jurors still won't convict a prominent black man for crimes against white women?
The jury got it right, it seems
He was charged with second degree manslaughter and the jury found him not guilty.
One of the defense attorneys said the verdict was correct, twice.
It was a legitimate traffic stop for broken tail-lights that went way wrong.
After an initial brief but perfectly civil, correct, and polite exchange between the cop and the driver during which the cop explained the reason for the stop and asked to see a license and registration, Castile, also politely, told the officer he was carrying a firearm and had a license to carry.
The officer politely and with no indication of being concerned or alarmed, said, "OK. Don't reach for it, then."
But then the officer draws his gun as he repeatedly, rapidly, and with increasing alarm and volume cries "Don't pull it out! Don't pull it out!"
Then he fires three or four times into the car.
The girlfriend said Castile was reaching for ID, and you hear her say that to the officer after the shots are fired.
[Update. I have seen reports claiming that Castile was reaching for his ID and was actually saying so as he did it. I don't hear that on the tape, and clearly the officer didn't hear it, if that actually happened.]
Reportedly, the officer saw Castile's hand on the handle of his gun, or thinks he did.
I have seen nothing in the news about where the gun actually was, which might throw light on whether Castile even could plausibly have been reaching for it.
But in any case the officer was not told where the gun was before the shooting.
Castile had just told the officer he had a gun when he started reaching - digging around? - for something.
It was not unreasonable to suppose, and absolutely not unreasonable to fear, that he was reaching for the gun.
It is possible, of course, Castile was reaching for his gun but with no malign intent.
But a cop who tells you not to reach for your gun cannot merely hope your intent is harmless if you nevertheless reach for it.
The city fired the cop, anyway, though according to MSNBC they gave him a nice package and promised to help him move on into another career, perhaps working for the city.
Just to stave off riots and inflammation of racial tensions?
At any time as the cop was crying out, "Don't pull it out!" Castile could and should have held up two empty hands, stopped moving, and waited for things to settle down.
Why didn't he?
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
More full-bore and conventional liberal sites end up agreeing with me
Years later, if not decades.
There's still a big opening in America for white nationalism -- or FDR liberalism
Thing is, to do this the Dems would have to spend a lot of time on Sister Souljah moments.
And that's because both the right and left wing noise machines have spent decades convincing whites that blacks mostly, but other nonwhites also, hate them with a deathless and irremediable passion and will harm them politically as much as they can, as soon as they can.
Such moments can do nothing about the loyalties and behavior of whites who actually hate blacks.
David Duke and Richard Spencer will remain David Duke and Richard Spencer.
But they can help keep comfortable in the increasingly female, nonwhite, and LGBT Democratic fold a whole lot of whites who don't hate but fear blacks, just as all that propaganda from both machines intends they should.
But Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to act on this.
The hypocrisy and blame-shifting of the following kind of piece is not only stunning and offensive, it is totally disgusting.
Our Fear of Black Men is Racist, and It Killed Philando Castile
There's still a big opening in America for white nationalism -- or FDR liberalism
Thing is, to do this the Dems would have to spend a lot of time on Sister Souljah moments.
And that's because both the right and left wing noise machines have spent decades convincing whites that blacks mostly, but other nonwhites also, hate them with a deathless and irremediable passion and will harm them politically as much as they can, as soon as they can.
Such moments can do nothing about the loyalties and behavior of whites who actually hate blacks.
David Duke and Richard Spencer will remain David Duke and Richard Spencer.
But they can help keep comfortable in the increasingly female, nonwhite, and LGBT Democratic fold a whole lot of whites who don't hate but fear blacks, just as all that propaganda from both machines intends they should.
But Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to act on this.
The hypocrisy and blame-shifting of the following kind of piece is not only stunning and offensive, it is totally disgusting.
Our Fear of Black Men is Racist, and It Killed Philando Castile
Monday, June 19, 2017
An Act to Confer Civil Rights on Freedmen, and for Other Purposes
Mississippi, 1866.
Section 3 says this in part.
That it shall not be lawful for any freedman, free negro, or mulatto to intermarry with any white person; nor for any white person to intermarry with any freedman, free negro, or mulatto; and any person who shall so intermarry shall be deemed guilty of felony, and on conviction thereof, shall be confined in the State Penitentiary for life; . . .
Reading John David Smith, A Just and Lasting Peace, Signet Classic, 2013, page 154.
It took a long time to fix this.
Thank Earl Warren and his court, whom conservatives and Republicans never stop cursing.
And a loose reading of the Civil War amendments, including incorporation.
Loving v. Virginia
It took a long time to fix this.
Thank Earl Warren and his court, whom conservatives and Republicans never stop cursing.
And a loose reading of the Civil War amendments, including incorporation.
Loving v. Virginia
Another lie
Trump tweeted,
I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director!
Witch Hunt[!]
Deputy AG Rosenstein wrote a memo for the president that did not outright urge firing Comey but provided plenty of "for cause" cover in case he did that.
In the above tweet, Bozo is universally believed to be alluding to that memo and, as is his wont, lying about it.
And, anyway, it is not Rosenstein but Mueller, a man appointed for the job by Rosenstein to Republican and White House applause, who is investigating the whole Russia thing.
When the firing occurred, it was immediately recognized by everyone - and Bozo himself has since confirmed - that the real reason was that Comey would not play ball with Trump and drop any part of the Russia investigation, including the Flynn part.
But in the same tweet The Greatest Blowhard Ever confirms he is indeed under investigation.
Could be he was just playing into the accepted narrative that he is, and actually he has not been notified by anyone that he is, and has no knowledge that he is.
All the same, that is not how his liars are now making the case he admitted nothing of the kind in the tweet.
Update, 06202017, 0849 hrs EDT.
His surrogates now explain his tweet was in response to a preceding WAPO report based on an anonymous source that he was under investigation.
So it isn't independent confirmation.
Neither Trump nor anyone in the White House has any source on this matter apart from the media, themselves.
The very scenario I speculated.
I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director!
Witch Hunt[!]
Deputy AG Rosenstein wrote a memo for the president that did not outright urge firing Comey but provided plenty of "for cause" cover in case he did that.
In the above tweet, Bozo is universally believed to be alluding to that memo and, as is his wont, lying about it.
And, anyway, it is not Rosenstein but Mueller, a man appointed for the job by Rosenstein to Republican and White House applause, who is investigating the whole Russia thing.
When the firing occurred, it was immediately recognized by everyone - and Bozo himself has since confirmed - that the real reason was that Comey would not play ball with Trump and drop any part of the Russia investigation, including the Flynn part.
It was then and is still generally understood that the Rosenstein memo was a mere pretext, whether or not, as was then and is still suspected, the White House or the president himself actually requested that Rosenstein provide the memo.
But in the same tweet The Greatest Blowhard Ever confirms he is indeed under investigation.
Could be he was just playing into the accepted narrative that he is, and actually he has not been notified by anyone that he is, and has no knowledge that he is.
All the same, that is not how his liars are now making the case he admitted nothing of the kind in the tweet.
Update, 06202017, 0849 hrs EDT.
His surrogates now explain his tweet was in response to a preceding WAPO report based on an anonymous source that he was under investigation.
So it isn't independent confirmation.
Neither Trump nor anyone in the White House has any source on this matter apart from the media, themselves.
The very scenario I speculated.
Update, 06212017, 1421 hrs, EDT.
Rosenstein unavoidably comes out of this rather smelly, I think.
The Guardian actually published this headline
Police hunt and kill black people like Philando Castile.
The extent and impunity of police violence in America are a shocking national disgrace.
Still, this incendiary racist lie should have been over the line even for that known racist shitpaper, The Guardian.
The policeman in question is Latino, by the way, and not to the eye entirely white.
Though mostly.
Clown sends a circus pal to do what real people can't do
Kusher to Middle East to make peace.
His wife apart (she converted), the only Jewish member of Trump's immediate circle?
Liberals did not protest on that ground, though they are always ready to insist it is at least suspect and usually worse for men, Christans, and whites to make rules for women, non-Christians, and blacks.
Jared Kushner headed to Middle East to broker peace talks
Top White House aide Jared Kushner will travel to the Middle East this week to help pave the way for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, it was reported.
Kushner, who President Trump has designated as his go-to guy to broker a peace agreement, will arrive Wednesday for meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah, the Wall Street Journal reported , citing White House officials.
Jared Kushner headed to Middle East to broker peace talks
Top White House aide Jared Kushner will travel to the Middle East this week to help pave the way for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, it was reported.
Kushner, who President Trump has designated as his go-to guy to broker a peace agreement, will arrive Wednesday for meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah, the Wall Street Journal reported , citing White House officials.
Sex discrimination?
People on the news say from time to time that it is illegal to charge women more than men for the same insurance coverage.
Why does my life insurance cost about 50% more than my wife's given we are the same age, roughly the same health conditions, and my coverage is actually a bit less?
Why does my life insurance cost about 50% more than my wife's given we are the same age, roughly the same health conditions, and my coverage is actually a bit less?
Watch out for Mueller
Too many people are advocating that Trump cannot commit obstruction of justice by firing somebody in the Justice Department from the AG down because the constitution does not specify reasons for which he, as president, may, or may not, fire such people.
Yes, they are claiming the president can fire anybody in the Justice Department exactly because they are investigating him or someone else and he wants to put a stop to it, with impunity.
They are saying, in plain language, he has a constitutional right to obstruct justice, and so cannot be guilty of obstruction of justice, if he goes about it in that precise way.
Of course, the constitution is totally silent about any alleged presidential power to fire anyone.
This is about that very long and crucially important part of the constitution written in invisible ink that only lawyers and judges can read.
But never mind.
If such a thing were written in it in the boldest black letters it would be an indefensible monarchist idiocy we would want officials to refuse to countenance and judges to ignore.
But watch out for the ignorant, stupid clown in the White House who is pretending to be our president actually firing whoever he needs to to get someone to fire Mueller.
He thinks he could rape and kill Jared on the White House lawn and the Republicans wouldn't impeach him, and he might be right.
Well, not until most of what they think they can pass of their vicious and lunatic agenda is through, anyway.
Why hide it?
Because it will be really, really awful and they want to avoid adverse publicity before the vote.
Secret health care bill roils Senate Republicans
When a reporter noted the other day that Senate Republicans are pushing a health care bill amid a level of secrecy “not seen since before World War I,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) dismissed the observation as “crazy talk.”
In this case, the GOP gambit may be “crazy,” but the charge is true.
Don Ritchie, the official historian emeritus of the U.S. Senate, told the L.A. Times last week that during the Wilson administration, Senate Democrats crafted major tariff reforms in secret, but such an approach to federal legislating “hasn’t happened since.”
The report on the GOP’s health care scheme, citing Ritchie’s analysis, added, “[N]ot since the years before World War I has the Senate taken such a partisan, closed-door approach to major legislation.”
The truth may make Cornyn uncomfortable, but doesn’t make it wrong.
The same article had this striking quote from a key Republican senator:
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said holding public hearings about the legislation would only give Democrats more opportunity to attack the bill.
“We have zero cooperation from the Democrats,” he said. “So getting it in public gives them a chance to get up and scream.”
It’s a fascinating, albeit bizarre, perspective.
To hear Orrin Hatch tell it, there’s nothing especially problematic with Republicans tackling a health care overhaul – life-or-death legislation, affecting one-sixth of the world’s largest economy – in total secrecy, because if there was transparency, some might criticize the legislation.
It was a lie at the time, but the GOP complained the Dems were drafting at least parts of O-care in secret.
In truth, the whole process of drafting and adopting O-care was of exemplary transparency.
Secret health care bill roils Senate Republicans
When a reporter noted the other day that Senate Republicans are pushing a health care bill amid a level of secrecy “not seen since before World War I,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) dismissed the observation as “crazy talk.”
In this case, the GOP gambit may be “crazy,” but the charge is true.
Don Ritchie, the official historian emeritus of the U.S. Senate, told the L.A. Times last week that during the Wilson administration, Senate Democrats crafted major tariff reforms in secret, but such an approach to federal legislating “hasn’t happened since.”
The report on the GOP’s health care scheme, citing Ritchie’s analysis, added, “[N]ot since the years before World War I has the Senate taken such a partisan, closed-door approach to major legislation.”
The truth may make Cornyn uncomfortable, but doesn’t make it wrong.
The same article had this striking quote from a key Republican senator:
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said holding public hearings about the legislation would only give Democrats more opportunity to attack the bill.
“We have zero cooperation from the Democrats,” he said. “So getting it in public gives them a chance to get up and scream.”
It’s a fascinating, albeit bizarre, perspective.
To hear Orrin Hatch tell it, there’s nothing especially problematic with Republicans tackling a health care overhaul – life-or-death legislation, affecting one-sixth of the world’s largest economy – in total secrecy, because if there was transparency, some might criticize the legislation.
It was a lie at the time, but the GOP complained the Dems were drafting at least parts of O-care in secret.
In truth, the whole process of drafting and adopting O-care was of exemplary transparency.
Well, fuck you, Mr. Putin
Russia threatens to treat U.S. coalition aircraft as targets over Syria
Russia on Monday angrily condemned the downing of a Syrian aircraft by a U.S. fighter as a “flagrant violation of international law,” and said its forces will treat U.S.-led coalition aircraft and drones as targets if they are operating in Syrian airspace west of the Euphrates while Russian aviation is on combat missions.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said it is suspending an agreement to minimize the risk of in-flight incidents between Russian and U.S.-led coalition aircraft operating over Syria.
Russia, which has provided military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2015, was reacting to U.S. military confirmation that a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian Su-22 fighter-bomber on Sunday.
The Syrian jet had just dropped bombs near members of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a militia aligned with the U.S. military in the campaign against the Islamic State.
Andrea Mitchell is outraged, outraged that the president is being soft on the Russians about this, er, outrage.
Russia on Monday angrily condemned the downing of a Syrian aircraft by a U.S. fighter as a “flagrant violation of international law,” and said its forces will treat U.S.-led coalition aircraft and drones as targets if they are operating in Syrian airspace west of the Euphrates while Russian aviation is on combat missions.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said it is suspending an agreement to minimize the risk of in-flight incidents between Russian and U.S.-led coalition aircraft operating over Syria.
Russia, which has provided military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2015, was reacting to U.S. military confirmation that a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian Su-22 fighter-bomber on Sunday.
The Syrian jet had just dropped bombs near members of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a militia aligned with the U.S. military in the campaign against the Islamic State.
Andrea Mitchell is outraged, outraged that the president is being soft on the Russians about this, er, outrage.
About that invisible ink
Josh has questions about the constitution that can't be answered by recourse to the text.
That's why only lawyers deeply trained in traditional constitutional wisdom can ever be deluded enough to think there is an answer, and they actually know what it is.
The Constitution Looks Like Trump’s Only Hope
Can a sitting president be indicted?
Can a president be guilty of obstruction of justice?
Remember the Saturday Night Massacre?
Was the Nixon impeachment bogus?
I can drive my car for any reason I want.
So can I be the getaway driver in return for a cut?
Only lawyers think that one is a puzzling question.
That's why only lawyers deeply trained in traditional constitutional wisdom can ever be deluded enough to think there is an answer, and they actually know what it is.
The Constitution Looks Like Trump’s Only Hope
Can a sitting president be indicted?
Can a president be guilty of obstruction of justice?
Remember the Saturday Night Massacre?
Was the Nixon impeachment bogus?
I can drive my car for any reason I want.
So can I be the getaway driver in return for a cut?
Only lawyers think that one is a puzzling question.
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Biggest story of the day buried by US media
It distracts from Bozo and anyway upsets the exaggerated Cold War II anti-Trump narrative.
Gingrich: The Duce can do no wrong
Gingrich embraces the Führerprinzip to defend Trump.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday that it's impossible for President Donald Trump to obstruct justice because of the fact that he's president.
"Technically, the President of the United States cannot obstruct justice," Gingrich said at the National Press Club in an event to promote his new book, "Understanding Trump."
"The President of the United States is the chief executive officer of the United States. If he wants to fire the FBI director, all he's got to do is fire him."
However, Gingrich himself has in the past voted to impeach a president over such charges.
While speaker of the House, Gingrich voted in 1998 to impeach President Bill Clinton on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury.
Told you he's a lying sack of shit.
He's also a preposterous sack of shit.
He was never the smartest man in the room, though in his heyday his media whores notoriously (especially in the WSJ) used to insist he always was.
He was just the most brazen.
And now he is exceeding his past achievements, becoming a genuinely toxic, though buffoonish, threat to the constitution and the Republic.
The perfect stooge for Bozo the Duce, Duce Fyodor, himself the greatest threat to both since the Civil War.
By the way, Clinton was a cheap political opportunist, a selfish pig, and a horn dog who couldn't keep it zippered who should have resigned.
And he was guilty of perjury, for which he was disbarred upon leaving office.
Update.
"If the president does it that means it's not illegal."
Who first floated that idea in those very, selfsame words?
Update.
"If the president does it that means it's not illegal."
Who first floated that idea in those very, selfsame words?
From Carl Schurz's report of December 19, 1865.
Aside from the assumption that the negro will not work without physical compulsion, there appears to be another popular notion prevalent in the south, which stands as no less serious an obstacle in the way of a successful solution of the problem.
It is that the negro exists for the special object of raising cotton, rice, and sugar for the whites, and that it is illegitimate for him to indulge, like other people, in the pursuit of his own happiness in his own way.
Although it is admitted that he has ceased to be the property of a master, it is not admitted that he has a right to become his own master.
As Colonel Thomas, assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in Mississippi, in a letter addressed to me, very pungently expresses it: "The whites esteem the blacks their property by natural right, and, however much they may admit that the relations of masters and slaves have been destroyed by the war and by the President's emancipation proclamation, they still have an ingrained feeling that the blacks at large belong to the whites at large, and whenever opportunity serves, they treat the colored people just as their profit, caprice or passion may dictate."
Think of the Nazi view of the slavs.
And the role in the future society of the East they intended for them.
Much like what the South African whites did to the native blacks, though they hid the blacks' helotry behind the label, "separate development."
Friday, June 16, 2017
There are two baskets of deplorables
Trump leads the ignorant, stupid, racist, mostly male white canaille.
He was the nominee of and is the president of a party he never belonged to and damned throughout the campaign, but whose radical right wing agenda he fairly serves.
He leads a government he denounced as corrupt, hand in hand with an establishment he furiously railed at, at the head of a system he bellowed was unAmerican, unpatriotic, and antiwhite, having "won" an election he said would be rigged if he lost only courtesy of the Electors, having in fact lost the voters suffrage to Hillary, whom he endlessly damned - a fact he denied, insisting absurdly, baselessly, and racistly her entire lead of 3 million votes was owing to 3 to 5 million illegal votes cast by illegal aliens.
He repeatedly endorsed a threatened uprising of his supporters in case the rigged election was stolen from him and from them - meaning in case he lost.
Bernie leads the mostly male and white anticapitalists.
He was a candidate for the nomination of a party he never belonged to and damned throughout the campaign, and has damned since, and indeed all his life long, but was overwhelmingly rejected in a process he denounced as rigged.
Throughout his campaign he denounced the government as corrupt, the system and election process as rigged, the establishment as an evil capitalist oligarchy, the Democrats in general and Hillary personally as bought and paid for, calling repeatedly, angrily, and urgently for a socialist revolution.
His fans, still in sheeps clothing as "progressives", continue to insist the Democrats must adopt him and his rejected agenda.
Always remember what it suits Trumpists and Sandersites to pretend did not happen, that Hillary won the suffrage of the American voters.
(What did Democrats who rejected Bernie reject, anyway?
Most of his advertised legislative agenda, surely, but also and especially his and his supporters' vociferous and passionate, past and continuing rejections of capitalism, the system, the establishment, the American republic, the American government, the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, and the emerging future of global democratic capitalism.
Him, them, and their stupid revolution.)
Bernie Sanders to mark the 'turning point' for his political revolution
'Inspirational' Corbyn offers blueprint for our party, say left-leaning Democrats
" . . . but not their own facts."
Fake news in the news.
They published vicious, actionable lies serving their feminist political agenda and got caught.
After several years of legal upheaval over a contested story about an alleged on-campus gang rape, Rolling Stone Magazine is putting an end to its battle with a University of Virginia fraternity by agreeing to pay the group $1.65 million to settle a defamation lawsuit, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
The settlement serves as the last leg of a controversy sparked by the November 2014 story "A Rape on Campus,” about a woman identified only as "Jackie" who claimed to be raped by members of the school's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity as part of an initiation rite.
. . . .
In their complaint, the fraternity claimed the magazine knew that Jackie was not a reliable source but proceeded to publish her story without verifying all of her facts.
The writer did not attempt to reach out to the alleged ringleader of the supposed attack or contact any others who could have debunked the story, the suit claimed.
"Rolling Stone and Erdely had an agenda, and they were recklessly oblivious to the harm they would cause innocent victims in their ruthless pursuit of that agenda," the fraternity's lawsuit read.
. . . .
In April, the magazine agreed to pay university administrator Nicole Eramo an undisclosed amount to settle her defamation lawsuit.
Eramo claimed the article portrayed her as a villain who discouraged Jackie from reporting the incident to police.
A police investigation found no evidence to back up that claim by Jackie.
The people as mob in literature
Shakespeare's drama apart, does it appear anywhere else than in Hugo?
The canaille are much encouraged to hatred and violence when Sachette denounces Esmeralda.
It will later be revealed by cornball Hugo that, unbeknownst to the principals, Sachette is Esmeralda's mother.
The criminal rabble of the Court of Miracles who toy with the life of Gringoire are, in his (the translator's) words, merely the lowest stratum of the people, while the latter are presented by our author as scarcely less cruel and brutish than those lumpenproles.
As we see in their hate-fest of enjoyment of the wholly undeserved flogging of Quasimodo in the Place de Grève.
One can't help think of John Gay or Daniel Defoe.
Or Bertolt Brecht.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Hugo indulges a bit of the delusional fantasy seen at greater length in Les Miserables than here in his presentation of the lives of street children in Paris - gamins, as he calls them - , never considering for a moment in either novel whether the fate of actual street children, mostly, is to be victims of sexual predation.
Update 09072019.
The novels of Dickens, some of them at least, depict the mob.
Barnaby Rudge, A Tale of Two Cities.
But by no means only these.
Update 09072019.
The novels of Dickens, some of them at least, depict the mob.
Barnaby Rudge, A Tale of Two Cities.
But by no means only these.
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Figures, I suppose
Bernie supporters included a lot of overheated, bitterly alienated whackos of the left, every bit as angry as the nut jobs of the right.
Suspect in congressional shooting was Bernie Sanders supporter, strongly anti-Trump
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Shadow Brokers and WannaCry
Why hacking the NSA and releasing their tools were not good things.
Criminals hide behind - and share! - widespread hostility to US cyber forces encouraged by Big Tech "libertarians," radical leftists, media and liberal fools, and anarchists.
Along with racist militias and right wing Jihaders.
Side by side with the Russians, the Chinese, the Koreans, and other swell folks.
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Lies from the beginning
Andrew Johnson's "Message to Congress," December 4, 1865.
Including such whoppers as that the US constitution was ratified by the whole people of the whole nation, who voted for that purpose, and that the assertions of the perpetuity of the Union in The Articles of Confederation, ignored in every way at Philadelphia, mean the Philadelphia constitution disallows secession.
And that secession did not really happen, but the states that had attempted it, still and always in the Union, were subjected to civil tumult and unrepublican government the general government had every right and duty to put down.
Hence the US president was not a conqueror and the Union army did not occupy the territory of a defeated foreign power.
Though it is not all lies, it is a complete rejection of the realism urged by Stevens.
Reading John David Smith.
Update.
Lincoln was criticized for fighting a war without congressional authorization.
Fighting a war against a foreign power would constitutionally require that.
Putting down domestic insurrection, civil disorder, and domestic tumult, seeing that the laws are faithfully executed, would arguably not.
The perfect stooge for The Duce
Gingrich is and always was a knife fighting, lying sack of shirt.
He is now the perfect Trumpist, out to intimidate Mueller, prepare the base for a new Saturday Night Massacre, and pave the way for Republican acceptance and defense of just such overt and totally over the top obstruction of justice.
First Christopher Ruddy of Newsmax, and now Newt.
When Mueller was named, the leadership of both parties was cheered.
Even the Trump White House was OK with his selection.
News sources confirm Trump can't fire Mueller, but the Attorney General, whom he can fire, can.
Except Sessions has recused himself from all matters connected to the Russian investigation, so actually it would be the Assistant AG, the same guy who appointed him.
Monday, June 12, 2017
Baloney headline
The CNN story has this headline.
Are Republicans ready to dump Trump?
But it doesn't for a moment consider whether they might nominate someone else in 2020.
It's only about "distancing" and 2018.
Does "leak" have so formal a meaning?
Comey testified under oath he at one point asked a friend to share info from his memos of his Trump conversations with the press.
The memos are not classified and Comey broke no law doing this, though the physical memos are FBI property.
But Bozo and his surrogates and allies are denouncing Comey's "leaks".
Comey defenders insist it's not a leak if it's not both classified information and an illegal release.
State 51? State 52?
Puerto Ricans vote for US statehood
Light turnout, but 97% voted for statehood.
It would be blue, I think.
And, on second thought, we need another guaranteed blue state to help redress the imbalance in the Senate and the Electoral College.
Statehood for DC !
Saturday, June 10, 2017
Like him better, the more I know
Thaddeus Stevens on reconstruction, p 70, A Just and Lasting Peace.
What are we to make of white people who, even as late as the dawn of the 20th Century, or later still, professed to lament the defeat of the South?
Or to celebrate the heroism of the Rebels, who fought to establish an empire of slavery?
Yes. But not.
Trump’s Still Gunning for NATO
Josh Marshall is perfectly right to make this argument that there is nothing like a NATO fund to which anybody could owe back payments.
But Trump is saying that over all that time that country X did not carry its weight everybody else, mostly the US, was carrying its weight.
And for that payback is due, not to some imaginary NATO defense fund but to the US.
He just hasn't made the point completely clear.
In his view, each member of the NATO alliance should spend as much on its own defense as we spend on its defense - not absolutely in dollars, d-marks, or whatever (so far, anyway), but according to its ability, as a percentage of GDP.
And if they haven't they owe us.
Not NATO.
Us.
Not an easy point to dispute.
Which is not to say it's indisputable, but so far the left is avoiding even engaging the point by instead leaning heavily on the always entirely believable "Trump is ignorant, confused, and incoherent" line.
Worse than John McCain in a senior moment.
Friday, June 9, 2017
While we are pulling down statues and flags
When does the military start to rename its bases currently named after confederate leaders?
Army Stands by Naming Bases after Confederate Generals
A story published in June of 2015.
Should we name outposts after Nazi or Communist generals in a spirit of reconciliation?
They, too, hold a place in our history.
And surely it ought to be clear enough that confederate military leaders were not military leaders in our army, they were not leaders in our military history?
Except for those who betrayed both their country and their oath to support the US Constitution in order to support the Confederacy, instead, of course.
Shouldn't our Attorney General change his middle name?
MSNBC.com reached out to the Army to ask whether bases named after Confederate generals who fought against the U.S. should be renamed.
“Every Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a place in our military history. Accordingly, these historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies,” said U.S. Army Chief of Public Affairs, Brig. General Malcom B. Frost in an exclusive statement to msnbc.com.
“It should be noted that the naming occurred in the spirit of reconciliation, not division.”
Of the 18 Army bases across the country named after Civil War generals, eight of them are named after Confederates.
U.S. Flag Waves Over 10 Army Bases Proudly Named for Confederate Officers
As Lee's army moved north into Pennsylvania any free blacks encountered he sent south into slavery.
Watching Ken Burn's The Civil War on Netflix.
Army Stands by Naming Bases after Confederate Generals
A story published in June of 2015.
Should we name outposts after Nazi or Communist generals in a spirit of reconciliation?
They, too, hold a place in our history.
And surely it ought to be clear enough that confederate military leaders were not military leaders in our army, they were not leaders in our military history?
Except for those who betrayed both their country and their oath to support the US Constitution in order to support the Confederacy, instead, of course.
Shouldn't our Attorney General change his middle name?
MSNBC.com reached out to the Army to ask whether bases named after Confederate generals who fought against the U.S. should be renamed.
“Every Army installation is named for a soldier who holds a place in our military history. Accordingly, these historic names represent individuals, not causes or ideologies,” said U.S. Army Chief of Public Affairs, Brig. General Malcom B. Frost in an exclusive statement to msnbc.com.
“It should be noted that the naming occurred in the spirit of reconciliation, not division.”
Of the 18 Army bases across the country named after Civil War generals, eight of them are named after Confederates.
U.S. Flag Waves Over 10 Army Bases Proudly Named for Confederate Officers
As Lee's army moved north into Pennsylvania any free blacks encountered he sent south into slavery.
Watching Ken Burn's The Civil War on Netflix.
Bozo's clown lawyer does his idiot bidding
Donald Trump lawyers to file complaint against 'leaker' James Comey
Trump’s legal team was confirmed to be preparing to file a complaint against Comey, for sharing his memos of meetings with the president with the New York Times.
“Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication ... and WOW, Comey is a leaker!” Trump tweeted in his first public comments on Thursday’s Senate intelligence committee hearing, bringing to a close an unusually prolonged silence for a president whose first line of defense is often expressed in 140 characters or less.
Trump appeared to be accusing Comey of lying to Congress in a hearing that was watched across the country.
After Comey’s testimony, Trump’s lawyer Marc Kasowitz said in a brief statement to the press the former FBI director had “admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorised disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president”.
The legal complaint will be filed with the office of the inspector general for the Department of Justice early next week, according to a source close to the legal team who did not want to speak on the record before the complaint was filed.
The legal team will also send a complaint to the Senate judiciary committee regarding Comey’s testimony before that panel last month – as well as his testimony before the intelligence committee – to clarify on the record what Trump’s legal team views as discrepancies and falsehoods in the displaced FBI director’s testimony.
Richard Painter, a White House ethics counsel under George W Bush, said such an action would only amplify the notion that Trump was trying to impede the investigation.
“Trying to get DOJ to go after Comey – a material witness – over ‘leak’ is yet more obstruction of Justice,” he tweeted.
Trump’s legal team was confirmed to be preparing to file a complaint against Comey, for sharing his memos of meetings with the president with the New York Times.
“Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication ... and WOW, Comey is a leaker!” Trump tweeted in his first public comments on Thursday’s Senate intelligence committee hearing, bringing to a close an unusually prolonged silence for a president whose first line of defense is often expressed in 140 characters or less.
Trump appeared to be accusing Comey of lying to Congress in a hearing that was watched across the country.
After Comey’s testimony, Trump’s lawyer Marc Kasowitz said in a brief statement to the press the former FBI director had “admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorised disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president”.
The legal complaint will be filed with the office of the inspector general for the Department of Justice early next week, according to a source close to the legal team who did not want to speak on the record before the complaint was filed.
The legal team will also send a complaint to the Senate judiciary committee regarding Comey’s testimony before that panel last month – as well as his testimony before the intelligence committee – to clarify on the record what Trump’s legal team views as discrepancies and falsehoods in the displaced FBI director’s testimony.
Richard Painter, a White House ethics counsel under George W Bush, said such an action would only amplify the notion that Trump was trying to impede the investigation.
“Trying to get DOJ to go after Comey – a material witness – over ‘leak’ is yet more obstruction of Justice,” he tweeted.
Bozo's infrastructure bullshit
On cable news live, he's making his campaign points on the same topics, utter John Gault bullshit, filled with his usual meandering, contradictory complaints about hated government getting in everybody's way for no reason at all.
So far, as I understand it, it's really just a slew of tax cuts and regulation cutbacks, gifts to businesses to the cost of consumers, workers, and the environment, dressed up in a ridiculous costume, pretending to be an infrastructure, pro-blue collar guy plan.
(Remind you of the plan to "repeal and replace" Obamacare?)
Bozo calling out "Hey! Look at all this cool stuff! Forget Russia and that rat-fink Comey!"
Thursday, June 8, 2017
McCain babbles for his entire seven minutes' opportunity to question Comey
During an unmistakable and prolonged senior moment, he claimed he was unable to understand that it was not proof of a double standard, that the investigation of Hillary's use of a private email server was completed by last July with no charges brought while the investigation of Russian involvement in the election and possible collusion by persons involved in the Trump campaign is not over and may yet result in charges.
He seemed completely confused and to somehow think Hillary and her team had been or should have been or should be foci of the investigation of Russian efforts to ensure she lost the election.
But his babbling was so confused and muddled that poor Comey really didn't know quite what to say as McCain several times challenged him for this "double standard".
Update, later that same day.
And now we know it's not just me.
Concerns increase about John McCain’s health after Comey hearing
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Sometimes terrorism works
Three quarters of voters agree with Jeremy Corbyn about British foreign policy increasing the risk of terror attacks
Majority of British voters agree with Corbyn's claim UK foreign policy increases risk of terrorism
It knocked Spain out, remember?
Yes, in so many ways, Corbyn is horrible.
But Theresa May, the Tories, and Brexit are so much worse.
Majority of British voters agree with Corbyn's claim UK foreign policy increases risk of terrorism
It knocked Spain out, remember?
Yes, in so many ways, Corbyn is horrible.
But Theresa May, the Tories, and Brexit are so much worse.
Can't wait for a tweet from Bozo. Open rejoicing?
Twin Attacks Hit Iran's Parliament And Khomeini Mausoleum; ISIS Claims Responsibility
Two teams of attackers used gunfire and explosives to strike Iran's parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran Wednesday, according to state media.
The twin attacks wounded at least 42 people and killed 12.
"Deputy Interior Minister Hossein Zolfaqari said that the terrorists had entered the parliament in [women's] dress," Iran's state news agency reports.
It adds that a female assailant detonated herself outside the mausoleum.
What Does It Mean When ISIS Claims Responsibility For An Attack?
The Iranian Intelligence Ministry says it foiled a third attack and is asking people to avoid public transportation, state broadcaster IRIB reports.
Islamic State, via its Amaq news agency, claimed responsibility for the attacks, NPR's Alison Meuse reports.
Two teams of attackers used gunfire and explosives to strike Iran's parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran Wednesday, according to state media.
The twin attacks wounded at least 42 people and killed 12.
"Deputy Interior Minister Hossein Zolfaqari said that the terrorists had entered the parliament in [women's] dress," Iran's state news agency reports.
It adds that a female assailant detonated herself outside the mausoleum.
What Does It Mean When ISIS Claims Responsibility For An Attack?
The Iranian Intelligence Ministry says it foiled a third attack and is asking people to avoid public transportation, state broadcaster IRIB reports.
Islamic State, via its Amaq news agency, claimed responsibility for the attacks, NPR's Alison Meuse reports.
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Found him
He's often on MSNBC talking about terrorism and Western responses to it, and generally makes a good deal of sense.
Malcolm Nance.
Malcolm Nance.
Pot, Kettle
Saudi Arabia opposes Qatar for supporting radical Islamic ideology
Saudi Arabia said it was cutting ties due to Qatar’s “embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region,” including the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, the Islamic State group and militants supported by Iran in the kingdom’s restive Eastern Province.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry accused Qatar of taking an “antagonist approach” toward Cairo and said “all attempts to stop it from supporting terrorist groups failed.”
Qatar long has denied funding extremists, though Western officials have accused it of allowing or even encouraging funding of Sunni extremists like al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, once known as the Nusra Front.
The Gulf countries ordered their citizens out of Qatar and gave Qataris abroad 14 days to return home to their peninsular nation, whose only land border is with Saudi Arabia.
The countries also said they would eject Qatar’s diplomats.
The nations said they planned to cut air and sea traffic to Qatar. Trucks carrying food have begun lining up on the Saudi side of the border, apparently stranded.
Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers, has suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain until further notice.
On its website, the carrier said the suspension of its flights would take effect Tuesday and customers are being offered a refund.
Saudi Arabia meanwhile said Tuesday it revoked Qatar Airways’ operating licenses and closed the airline’s offices in the kingdom.
The Saudi ports authority said Qatari-flagged shipping vessels are barred from docking.
It said it ordered shipping agents not to receive any vessels owned by Qatari companies or Qatari nationals and not to unload any goods from Qatar.
Saudi Arabia said it was cutting ties due to Qatar’s “embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region,” including the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, the Islamic State group and militants supported by Iran in the kingdom’s restive Eastern Province.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry accused Qatar of taking an “antagonist approach” toward Cairo and said “all attempts to stop it from supporting terrorist groups failed.”
Qatar long has denied funding extremists, though Western officials have accused it of allowing or even encouraging funding of Sunni extremists like al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, once known as the Nusra Front.
The Gulf countries ordered their citizens out of Qatar and gave Qataris abroad 14 days to return home to their peninsular nation, whose only land border is with Saudi Arabia.
The countries also said they would eject Qatar’s diplomats.
The nations said they planned to cut air and sea traffic to Qatar. Trucks carrying food have begun lining up on the Saudi side of the border, apparently stranded.
Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers, has suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain until further notice.
On its website, the carrier said the suspension of its flights would take effect Tuesday and customers are being offered a refund.
Saudi Arabia meanwhile said Tuesday it revoked Qatar Airways’ operating licenses and closed the airline’s offices in the kingdom.
The Saudi ports authority said Qatari-flagged shipping vessels are barred from docking.
It said it ordered shipping agents not to receive any vessels owned by Qatari companies or Qatari nationals and not to unload any goods from Qatar.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Nigel Farage spreads fear of Muslims
Nigel Farage says London blighted by 'wholly Muslim areas' as he defends Donald Trump's response to the attack
He endorses Trump's attacks on the Mayor of London and on PC, and supports Trump's demand the US courts allow his travel ban to go through.
Nigel Farage is a paid political commentator and expert on Brit affairs on Fox News.
Echoing the Trump line, he says Britain has been "hidebound by political correctness" and blames both the Mayor and Theresa May for not doing enough.
‘Calls for internment will grow’: Fox contributor linked to Russia scandal suggests camps for British Muslims
“This is now the third terrorist incident that has happened in my country in the space of as many months,” he explained.
“And the mood that I get now is we want some real action. We don’t just want speeches.”
“And if there is not action, the calls for internment will grow,” Farage added.
“We have 3,000 people on sort of a known terrorist list. And we’re watching their actions. But a further 20,000 people who are persons of interests, namely they’re linked by some way to extremist organizations. Unless we see the public getting tough, you will see public calls for those 3,000 to be arrested.”
Farage admitted that the move “might alienate decent fair-minded Muslims.”
Later in the morning, Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins also told Fox & Friends that “we do need interment camps.”
He endorses Trump's attacks on the Mayor of London and on PC, and supports Trump's demand the US courts allow his travel ban to go through.
Nigel Farage is a paid political commentator and expert on Brit affairs on Fox News.
Echoing the Trump line, he says Britain has been "hidebound by political correctness" and blames both the Mayor and Theresa May for not doing enough.
‘Calls for internment will grow’: Fox contributor linked to Russia scandal suggests camps for British Muslims
“This is now the third terrorist incident that has happened in my country in the space of as many months,” he explained.
“And the mood that I get now is we want some real action. We don’t just want speeches.”
“And if there is not action, the calls for internment will grow,” Farage added.
“We have 3,000 people on sort of a known terrorist list. And we’re watching their actions. But a further 20,000 people who are persons of interests, namely they’re linked by some way to extremist organizations. Unless we see the public getting tough, you will see public calls for those 3,000 to be arrested.”
Farage admitted that the move “might alienate decent fair-minded Muslims.”
Later in the morning, Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins also told Fox & Friends that “we do need interment camps.”
Remember Theo Van Gogh?
The killing of Theo Van Gogh was one of the early atrocities that provoked public horror at Jihaders in our midst.
An outspoken film-maker, Theo van Gogh, was shot dead by a 26-year-old Dutch-born Muslim last Tuesday.
Since then a series of public figures have been threatened with death by Islamic extremists.
And doesn't this sound an awful lot like that attack?
Brendan Cox: ‘It would be easy to be consumed by fury and hatred and bile’
Thomas Mair, a 52-year-old Nazi sympathiser incensed by Jo’s support for refugees, had calmly approached the MP outside her constituency surgery in the Yorkshire village of Birstall, shot her with a sawn-off shotgun, pulled her to the ground and stabbed her repeatedly with a dagger.
A 77-year-old pensioner who tried to stop him was stabbed. Cox’s last words were to her two assistants: “Get away, let him hurt me, don’t let him hurt you!”
Mair’s last words, after shooting her twice more, were: “Britain first. Britain will always come first.”
An outspoken film-maker, Theo van Gogh, was shot dead by a 26-year-old Dutch-born Muslim last Tuesday.
Since then a series of public figures have been threatened with death by Islamic extremists.
And doesn't this sound an awful lot like that attack?
Brendan Cox: ‘It would be easy to be consumed by fury and hatred and bile’
Thomas Mair, a 52-year-old Nazi sympathiser incensed by Jo’s support for refugees, had calmly approached the MP outside her constituency surgery in the Yorkshire village of Birstall, shot her with a sawn-off shotgun, pulled her to the ground and stabbed her repeatedly with a dagger.
A 77-year-old pensioner who tried to stop him was stabbed. Cox’s last words were to her two assistants: “Get away, let him hurt me, don’t let him hurt you!”
Mair’s last words, after shooting her twice more, were: “Britain first. Britain will always come first.”
Trump blames Mayor of London, political correctness
After Britain Attack, Trump Unleashes a Twitter Storm
Complete asshole.
His tweetstorm includes one insisting this proves his travel ban is right and necessary.
Archie Bunker in the White House.
Jihaders start to really annoy the Brits. What will they do?
London terror attack: what we know so far
British Prime Minister Theresa May claimed there was "too much tolerance" of Islamist extremism in the UK as she vowed a clampdown in the wake of the third terror attack to hit the UK this year.
Seven people died and 48 were injured when three masked men drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before leaping out and launching a stabbing spree in nearby bars and restaurants.
Police said the three attackers, wearing fake suicide belts to sow further panic, were shot dead within eight minutes of police receiving the first emergency call just after 10 p.m. local time.
Authorities announced 12 arrests on Sunday.
Speaking in Downing Street five days before the UK general election, May described the latest attack as "brutal" and said extremism had to be defeated.
"We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are," she said.
"Enough is enough."
People are prone to forget three things.
First, we can no more prevent terrorism than feminists can end rape and take back the night.
Second, terrorists killing a few people at a time, even a few dozens, or even occasionally a thousand or so, do not and cannot constitute "an existential threat" or "a threat to our way of life".
Third, the rule in general is that Western nations, especially the US, can be counted on to wildly overreact to terrorist attacks.
The two clearest examples were the manhunt for the Boston Bombers and the subsequent investigation, and the destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan by GW Bush in response to the events of 9/11/2001.
- Seven people have been killed and dozens injured during attacks in two closely connected areas of London on Saturday night. The police are treating the attacks as terrorist incidents.
- Police were called when a white rental van ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge at about 10.08pm Saturday night. The van continued on to nearby Borough Market where three attackers emerged and carried out multiple stabbings in pubs and restaurants.
- Armed police arrived and shot the attackers dead within 8 minutes of being alerted. The attackers were armed with knives and wore what turned out to be fake suicide vests.
- There were multiple casualties in addition to the deaths, with London Ambulance Service saying at least 48 people have been taken to five hospitals in the capital. The NHS said 21 are in a critical condition.
British Prime Minister Theresa May claimed there was "too much tolerance" of Islamist extremism in the UK as she vowed a clampdown in the wake of the third terror attack to hit the UK this year.
Seven people died and 48 were injured when three masked men drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before leaping out and launching a stabbing spree in nearby bars and restaurants.
Police said the three attackers, wearing fake suicide belts to sow further panic, were shot dead within eight minutes of police receiving the first emergency call just after 10 p.m. local time.
Authorities announced 12 arrests on Sunday.
Speaking in Downing Street five days before the UK general election, May described the latest attack as "brutal" and said extremism had to be defeated.
"We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are," she said.
"Enough is enough."
People are prone to forget three things.
First, we can no more prevent terrorism than feminists can end rape and take back the night.
Second, terrorists killing a few people at a time, even a few dozens, or even occasionally a thousand or so, do not and cannot constitute "an existential threat" or "a threat to our way of life".
Third, the rule in general is that Western nations, especially the US, can be counted on to wildly overreact to terrorist attacks.
The two clearest examples were the manhunt for the Boston Bombers and the subsequent investigation, and the destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan by GW Bush in response to the events of 9/11/2001.
Yard work
There is a huge hedge in front of the house that is getting really annoying.
About 6 feet high at the center of the not really flat top, the thing is sort of a large rectangle about 4 feet in depth and 11 or 12 feet in width.
I'm over 6 feet tall and it took me two days of tiptoe stretching, leaning way into the hedge, to get the new growth trimmed.
Now I need to figure out how to cut away enough old growth to make it no more than 4 feet tall and maybe not much more than 3 feet in depth.
While I was at it I trimmed off the low growth of the tree in the front yard to keep the walkway clear, and attended to the proliferation of foreign saplings mixed up with the rose bushes and lilacs in the side yard.
That was another day.
About 6 feet high at the center of the not really flat top, the thing is sort of a large rectangle about 4 feet in depth and 11 or 12 feet in width.
I'm over 6 feet tall and it took me two days of tiptoe stretching, leaning way into the hedge, to get the new growth trimmed.
Now I need to figure out how to cut away enough old growth to make it no more than 4 feet tall and maybe not much more than 3 feet in depth.
While I was at it I trimmed off the low growth of the tree in the front yard to keep the walkway clear, and attended to the proliferation of foreign saplings mixed up with the rose bushes and lilacs in the side yard.
That was another day.
Saturday, June 3, 2017
You can't handle the truth!
Clinton says Obama broke through the racial barrier because he’s an “attractive, good-looking man”
During her Wednesday interview at ReCode’s Code Conference 2017, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blamed her loss at least partly on misogyny, while claiming that President Obama was able to overcome racial barriers due to his appearance.
“So I never said I was a perfect candidate, and I certainly have never said I ran perfect campaigns, but I don’t know who is or did,” she told interviewer Kara Swisher.
“And at some point it sort of bleeds into misogyny. And let’s just be honest, you know, people who have a set of expectations about who should be president and what a president looks like, you know, they’re going to be much more skeptical and critical of somebody who doesn’t look like and talk like and sound like everybody else who’s been president.”
Yes, she makes too much of misogyny, exactly as she and the white sisterhood did during the campaign and just as some of her sisterhood surrogates did, absurdly claiming discrimination against even white women was a greater historic wrong and a greater obstacle than racism has been in America for black men.
She then attempted to explain Barack Obama’s success and her failure by complimenting his looks.
“And you know, President Obama broke that racial barrier, but you know, he’s a very attractive, good-looking man with lots of —”
Charm?
Charysma?
“Well, he’s likable enough,” Swisher quipped, a reference to a remark Obama made in a debate during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries.
“He’s likable enough, absolutely!” Clinton responded.
George Will said he was as elegant as Fred Astaire.
Friends and foes alike often called him a rock star.
This was a very significant difference between Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson, and goes far to explain why the former succeeded while the latter failed.
Yup.
It's the Oreo thing, as O's black critics so perceptively put it.
They said with scorn and resentment that he talked and acted white.
Meaning he didn't sound like a ghetto street thug with his mouth full of mashed potatoes, as Jesse Jackson did, and still does.
During her Wednesday interview at ReCode’s Code Conference 2017, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blamed her loss at least partly on misogyny, while claiming that President Obama was able to overcome racial barriers due to his appearance.
“So I never said I was a perfect candidate, and I certainly have never said I ran perfect campaigns, but I don’t know who is or did,” she told interviewer Kara Swisher.
“And at some point it sort of bleeds into misogyny. And let’s just be honest, you know, people who have a set of expectations about who should be president and what a president looks like, you know, they’re going to be much more skeptical and critical of somebody who doesn’t look like and talk like and sound like everybody else who’s been president.”
Yes, she makes too much of misogyny, exactly as she and the white sisterhood did during the campaign and just as some of her sisterhood surrogates did, absurdly claiming discrimination against even white women was a greater historic wrong and a greater obstacle than racism has been in America for black men.
She then attempted to explain Barack Obama’s success and her failure by complimenting his looks.
“And you know, President Obama broke that racial barrier, but you know, he’s a very attractive, good-looking man with lots of —”
Charm?
Charysma?
“Well, he’s likable enough,” Swisher quipped, a reference to a remark Obama made in a debate during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries.
“He’s likable enough, absolutely!” Clinton responded.
George Will said he was as elegant as Fred Astaire.
Friends and foes alike often called him a rock star.
This was a very significant difference between Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson, and goes far to explain why the former succeeded while the latter failed.
Yup.
It's the Oreo thing, as O's black critics so perceptively put it.
They said with scorn and resentment that he talked and acted white.
Meaning he didn't sound like a ghetto street thug with his mouth full of mashed potatoes, as Jesse Jackson did, and still does.
The right wing jackass at the EPA
A man who wants to abolish the EPA was, of course, put in charge of it by Bozo.
Paris Agreement is European ploy to put the US economy in shackles, says EPA chief Scott Pruitt
When the Republicans rejected the Kyoto deal they said it was because it would shackle the US economy to the advantage of China.
But Trump says China is pretty cool, and he's left our policy toward North Korea in China's hands.
Trump's bête noire is neither China nor, you old sap, Russia.
It's Europe, you dope.
European leaders urged the United States to stay in the Paris climate agreement so they could suppress the American economy, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Friday.
"The world applauded when we joined Paris, and you know why? I think they applauded because they knew it was going to put this country at an economic disadvantage," he said during a White House press briefing.
"And the reason European leaders ... that I think they want us to stay in, is because they know it will continue to shackle our economy," he said.
I'll bet if you asked he'd tell you climate change is a hoax - and that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim Marxist who was not born in the US and hates America to the marrow of his bones.
Paris Agreement is European ploy to put the US economy in shackles, says EPA chief Scott Pruitt
When the Republicans rejected the Kyoto deal they said it was because it would shackle the US economy to the advantage of China.
But Trump says China is pretty cool, and he's left our policy toward North Korea in China's hands.
Trump's bête noire is neither China nor, you old sap, Russia.
It's Europe, you dope.
European leaders urged the United States to stay in the Paris climate agreement so they could suppress the American economy, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Friday.
"The world applauded when we joined Paris, and you know why? I think they applauded because they knew it was going to put this country at an economic disadvantage," he said during a White House press briefing.
"And the reason European leaders ... that I think they want us to stay in, is because they know it will continue to shackle our economy," he said.
I'll bet if you asked he'd tell you climate change is a hoax - and that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim Marxist who was not born in the US and hates America to the marrow of his bones.
Honi soit qui mal y pense
Bill Maher uses racial slur during 'Real Time' interview
He called himself a "house nigger," though with no apparent racially disparaging intent.
A startling choice of words to achieve a very poor joke.
Inexplicable, really.
The two were discussing teenagers and maturity when Maher mentioned that adults dress up for Halloween in California.
He then asked Sasse if people do that in Nebraska.
"It's frowned upon. We don't do that quite as much," Sasse said.
"I've got to get to Nebraska more," Maher replied.
"You're welcome. We'd love to have you work in the fields with us," the senator added.
"Work in the fields? Senator, I'm a house n****r," Maher said.
He called himself a "house nigger," though with no apparent racially disparaging intent.
A startling choice of words to achieve a very poor joke.
Inexplicable, really.
The two were discussing teenagers and maturity when Maher mentioned that adults dress up for Halloween in California.
He then asked Sasse if people do that in Nebraska.
"It's frowned upon. We don't do that quite as much," Sasse said.
"I've got to get to Nebraska more," Maher replied.
"You're welcome. We'd love to have you work in the fields with us," the senator added.
"Work in the fields? Senator, I'm a house n****r," Maher said.
Friday, June 2, 2017
Imagine a world without the Electoral College
Hillary would be in the White House.
And nobody would be writing stuff like this, a "why Democrats lose" article absurdly indistinguishable from what would have been written if the US president was chosen by a national popular majority and Trump had won that election.
Yes, yes.
Too many whites are racist and sexist, but that is not why Trump is in the White House.
Trump is in the White House because the US constitution does not award the presidency to the national popular vote winner.
We should do it like the French.
The national popular vote winner gets the job, provided he gets more than half the votes.
If no one gets more than half the votes then another vote is held to decide between the two candidates who did best in the first vote.
And while we're at it we can exclude from eligibility anyone who has not been elected to the senate or a governorship and served a full term, or twice in succession been elected to and served a full term in a seat in the house.
That would keep out at least some of the most notably idiotic and disgraceful amateurs beloved of the brainless fans of reality TV.
And create a commission to enforce eligibility requirements, since nobody right now seems to have that job.
Though, of course, this is a change that will never happen.
And nobody would be writing stuff like this, a "why Democrats lose" article absurdly indistinguishable from what would have been written if the US president was chosen by a national popular majority and Trump had won that election.
Yes, yes.
Too many whites are racist and sexist, but that is not why Trump is in the White House.
Trump is in the White House because the US constitution does not award the presidency to the national popular vote winner.
We should do it like the French.
The national popular vote winner gets the job, provided he gets more than half the votes.
If no one gets more than half the votes then another vote is held to decide between the two candidates who did best in the first vote.
And while we're at it we can exclude from eligibility anyone who has not been elected to the senate or a governorship and served a full term, or twice in succession been elected to and served a full term in a seat in the house.
That would keep out at least some of the most notably idiotic and disgraceful amateurs beloved of the brainless fans of reality TV.
And create a commission to enforce eligibility requirements, since nobody right now seems to have that job.
Though, of course, this is a change that will never happen.
Bozo (and Syria, and Nicaragua) against the world
And while he's at it,
A great day for Buchananites.
Breitbart this morning is attacking the media, celebs, Huffpo, The Weather Channel, the EU, and pretty much everyone in the universe who isn't a climate change denier for denouncing Trump's move.
Trump in the next sentence said the US would immediately renegotiate for better terms for reentering the accord.
The EU - the world, really - has already said no, the deal is the deal, take it or leave it.
But Mike Pence stands with him.
(But not Pittsburgh.)
Obama signed the agreement and tried to get people to accept it as an "executive agreement," though in fact anything having this sort of huge impact on the US could not really count as that and would be legally binding only if confirmed by the senate as a treaty.
O never even proposed it to the senate because it would not have ratified the deal, no more than it was willing to ratify Kyoto.
Strictly, Trump rejected a deal that was never lawfully entered into by the US, anyway.
On the other hand, the accords allowed each country to do whatever it wants to about climate change, so long as it's something and a bit more each year.
So whatever the US was or is to do about it is whatever Trump wanted to do, anyway, so long as it's something.
Thing is, what he wants to do is actually nothing at all.
And yet, the deal allegedly allows China to expand fossil fuel consumption for some decades, still, while requiring the US and Europe to cut back.
The very sort of bias that led the senate to reject Kyoto when Clinton submitted it.
Job killing deals?
Unemployment is 4.3%, its lowest in some 10 years, they say.
More on Pittsburgh re this story.
And yet, the deal allegedly allows China to expand fossil fuel consumption for some decades, still, while requiring the US and Europe to cut back.
The very sort of bias that led the senate to reject Kyoto when Clinton submitted it.
Job killing deals?
Unemployment is 4.3%, its lowest in some 10 years, they say.
More on Pittsburgh re this story.
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