Monday, February 20, 2017
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Your Liberal Media
For no particular reason other than the obvious, I am regularly reminded of this piece by Richard Cohen, who was actually the Washington Post's premier "liberal" columnist for years, written in 2013.
I sometimes think I have spent years unlearning what I learned earlier in my life. For instance, it was not George A. Custer who was attacked at the Little Bighorn. It was Custer — in a bad career move — who attacked the Indians. Much more important, slavery was not a benign institution in which mostly benevolent whites owned innocent and grateful blacks. Slavery was a lifetime’s condemnation to an often violent hell in which people were deprived of life, liberty and, too often, their own children. Happiness could not be pursued after that.
Steve McQueen’s stunning movie “12 Years a Slave” is one of those unlearning experiences. I had to wonder why I could not recall another time when I was so shockingly confronted by the sheer barbarity of American slavery. Instead, beginning with school, I got a gauzy version. I learned that slavery was wrong, yes, that it was evil, no doubt, but really, that many blacks were sort of content. Slave owners were mostly nice people — fellow Americans, after all — and the sadistic Simon Legree was the concoction of that demented propagandist, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was a lie and she never — and this I remember clearly being told — had ventured south to see slavery for herself. I felt some relief at that because it meant that Tom had not been flogged to death.
Stunned Into Silence
The news reports keep coming in from Sweden. The death toll is up to zero in this tragedy.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Saturday Evening Thread
#notallorangecritters:
Orange cat: "Trump has destroyed the reputation of us orange critters by breaking the world. How can I ever hold my head up again?"
Grey cat: "Don't worry, mate. #notallorangecritters."
Orange cat: "And I do have nine lives, unlike those poor humans."
Grey cat: "Four. Four lives left."
Orange cat: "Four? I count at least five left."
Grey cat: "Remember how you jumped from the neighbor's roof to attack his van and missed?"
Orange cat: "That was Trump attacking Mexico."
Small Pleasures
At least we got the humiliation of Chris Christie.
New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie is still looking for the bottom as Garden State voters disapprove 78 - 17 percent, including 53 - 39 percent among Republicans, of the job he is doing, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
Kinda Thought It Was A Disaster
But nobody listens to Atrios.
Got my tombstone all picked out.
We now take a break from your regularly scheduled scandals to bring you some not-so-breaking news: austerity was as big a disaster as its biggest critics said it was.
That, at least, is what economists Christopher House and Linda Tesar of the University of Michigan and Christïan Proebsting of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne found when they looked at Europe's budget-cutting experience the last eight years. It turns out that cutting spending right after the worst crisis in 80 years only led to a lower gross domestic product and, in the most extreme cases, higher debt-to-GDP ratios. That's right: trying to reduce debt levels sometimes increased debt burdens.
Got my tombstone all picked out.
Friday, February 17, 2017
A Twitterval In Three Acts
(think that's 4:32 EST, since deleted)
I would hope that our leaders would never believe that any American desires to make another American an enemy. Let's dial it back.
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) February 17, 2017
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
Make Them Deny It
Leaked draft orders don't mean that policy is about to be implemented. People write up all kinds of crazy proposals, presumably. But the leaks mean either a) someone wants it to be at trial balloon to see if it flies b) someone wants to shoot down the trial balloon before it leaves the ground. The White House has quickly denied this one, but denial doesn't make the story untrue. It just means they aren't yet ready to announce it, and may never be if enough shit is kicked up.
And some plans sit on the shelf for just the right moment.
(AP) -- The Trump administration is considering a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to a draft memo obtained by The Associated Press.
The 11-page document calls for the unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana.
Four states that border on Mexico are included in the proposal — California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — but it also encompasses seven states contiguous to those four — Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
And some plans sit on the shelf for just the right moment.
ICE Are Shit People
Mall cops on a mission (link to video).
An undocumented woman was detained by two agents as she exited a courtroom after asking for a protective order. Federal officials have said they took her into custody outside the courthouse.
But They Know Better
One of the recurring whispered themes is that Republicans in Congress are a bit concerned about Trump for various reasons. I have no idea what's in their little heads, but these sorts of anonymous quotes are just telling journalists what they want to hear and maintain the illusion that they are Very Serious when the Trump train goes completely off the rails. They can do a bit more than voice their concerns anonymously if they are really concerned.
I lived through the Clinton years. When Dems were "concerned" about the 867 investigations or anything else they ran to the cameras and insisted that their names be printed in bold fonts. This was pretty stupid for a variety of reasons, but they owned it.
I lived through the Clinton years. When Dems were "concerned" about the 867 investigations or anything else they ran to the cameras and insisted that their names be printed in bold fonts. This was pretty stupid for a variety of reasons, but they owned it.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Not Gonna Last
It is very simple. Trump appoints a real president - Pence, a chief of staff, whatever - to handle things daily and then Trump gets to go on teevee and babble and look crazy and everything hums along (horrifyingly, but still humming) in the background.
But that can't happen because he'll watch cable news and get mad.
Not sure how this is sustainable.
..and no one is smarter than he is.
But that can't happen because he'll watch cable news and get mad.
Not sure how this is sustainable.
..and no one is smarter than he is.
WASHINGTON — President Trump, smarting from a series of crises, moved his surrogates aside on Thursday and assigned the rescue of his month-old presidency to the only spokesman he’s ever really trusted — himself.
For days, a frustrated and simmering president fumed inside the West Wing residence about what aides said he saw as his staff’s inadequate defense and the ineffectiveness of his own tweets. Over the objections of some top advisers who wanted to steer him away from confrontation, Mr. Trump demanded to face the media, determined to reject the narrative that his administration is sinking into chaos, scandal and incompetence.
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