9/11: Remembering Victims of Collective Hatred

He was the office hothead. He often took it to laughable lengths. One incident in particular produced a permanent image in my mind.

It was a small, struggling company, and it was hard to start an advancement program. It was a technological company with no formal training and development. So I proposed to management a series of lunchtime training sessions organized by employees. We would bring our lunches to a conference room once a week and take turns teaching each other from books we bought together.

Eventually, management began showing some enthusiasm. They offered to buy our next set of books. They began buying lunch for those participating. That’s where my hotheaded friend came in. “Pizza!” he said in disgust. “Every damn week, Pizza! If they don’t give us something different, I’m not coming anymore.”

It was emblematic of his always-on-edge personality. Glass half shattered.

So when I showed up for work that day and was greeted by an especially sour welcome, it made me laugh. “You watch television this morning?” he asked. Nope. Then, shouting: “What the HELL is wrong with you?”

Then my smile was replaced by horror. Someone had rescued a training television from some training room. A tall building was burning. People were dying as we watched.

Future generations who watch replays of television coverage of September 11 destruction will never know how it really was to experience it for the first time.
Continue reading “9/11: Remembering Victims of Collective Hatred”

Queen Elizabeth, Biden Semi-Tough, Docs Nuked, DOJ Politicized

  • Hackwhackers bids a fond farewell to Queen Elizabeth.
     
  • Professor PZ Myers has little regard for the British monarchy, but little resentment against the Queen herself. He seems to hope all the mourning and exaggerated analysis will just go away.
     
    Good summary:
    The Queen is dead. My regrets to those who cared about her. Call me when the monarchy is dead, OK?
     
  • Apparently, as the Queen got older, she asked that her hobby of dog breeding stop. Seems she didn’t want to leave a large number of dogs behind to be cared for.
     
    So, of course, Tommy Christopher is left to cover actual live television interviews on whether existing puppies are scheduled to be buried alive.
     
  • Reductress may have been the satiric source of the entire rampant buried-royal-puppies uproar.
     
  • President Biden made a speech and talked, in part, about an extreme MAGA philosophy and characterized it as like semi-fascism. Well, anti-democratic, prone to political violence in place of elections, authoritarian seem to fit the definition.
     
    Max’s Dad liked Joe Biden’s speech because he went against his own grain and stood clean-tough against the party of always-fight-dirty bullies.
     
  • Nan’s Notebook reads one notable opinion about President Biden’s most dangerous, divisive, demagogic speech.
     
    She wonders how anyone can be so certain and decides politics is akin to religious discussion.
     
    I dunno. It seems the temptation may be to stray toward a both-sides premise. That is the human tendency, often practiced by journalists, of presuming without evidence that two sides of any question are equally valid.
     
    I think of one hypothetical example: one side insists it is raining while the other maintains it is dry outside.
     
    Many modern reporters quote both sides equally and accurately and call it a day. Fair and balanced.
     
    Responsible journalism dictates we actually look outside to see what the weather is doing.
     
    President Biden defined with some precision to whom who he was referring when he talked of semi-fascist MAGA folk. He was talking about those who would use or endorse political violence in order to overturn democracy.
     
    He specifically exempted the majority of the Republican party.
     
    The writer to whom Nan rightly objects defines MAGA types as traditionalists who want what I recognize as a Bill Buckley variety of conservatism.
     
    And so the writer is outraged that the President would target him personally.
     
    It is a tactic that has been with us since language began: setting up a strawman in order to knock him down.
     
    My response to similar contrived anger:

  • My longtime conservative friend Darrell Michaels, at Unabashedly American, speculates on what he would do if he was a fascist or even a semi-fascist who wanted to destroy America.
     
    Oddly enough, what follows is mostly the familiar conservative caricature of what some on the right imagine that non-conservatives believe. A sample:
     
    Well, I would first want to take over our education system in order to indoctrinate our kids into believing that they live in an unjust and racist nation that brings nothing but ruin to others throughout the world. I would ignore teaching them of the United States history where we overcame so many great sins, like slavery and women’s inequality in rights. I would bury the truth of how the United States fought and buried hundreds of thousands of men in defense against the true fascism of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Mussolini’s Italy.
     
    None of which is advocated by anyone I have heard of.
     
    It may not have occurred to my friend that those who wanted to destroy our democratic republic and eradicate the freedoms that our constitution was formed in order to protect might instead form a lynch mob, storm the Capitol Building, assault police officers, and hunt for legislators to assassinate.
     
    Darrell is a kindly, peaceful soul for whom such a possibility would not occur.
     
    I suppose it is worth pointing out that most of America has a somewhat different view of MAGAfolk than does my old friend:


    Nice to have you back, Darrell.
     

  • Iron Knee at Political Irony sees a bit of political gamesmanship in President Biden’s speech. In his view, the President gave precisely the sort of speech that would goad a furious, and ugly, Trump response: a response that will make the election all about Mr Trump himself.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life speculates on professional Republicans, staffers to politicians, who must find ways to keep voters motivated. What motivates the motivators?

Continue reading “Queen Elizabeth, Biden Semi-Tough, Docs Nuked, DOJ Politicized”

Putin’s Push, Go Biden, Marines, Unity, Semi-Fascists, Trump Docs

  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit sees a pattern in Vladimir Putin’s art of persuasion. He gets pushy around windows.
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors responds to the Republican hand flutters as President Biden makes a speech with 2 Marines in the distant background: tengrain provides an accurate translation.
     
  • It isn’t only Republicans. A few other pundits scold Biden for having a couple of Marines in the distance. Unprecedented!
     
    Margaret Philpot has a good memory

  • And we do have this:

  • Attorney Imani Gandy is skepical of the skepticism:

  • Republicans who popularized the Let’s Go Brandon euphemism for the nudge, nudge, wink, wink obscenity aimed at the President are horrified that he urges unity while criticizing fascism.
     
    North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz responds sensibly:

  • Frances Langum points to a Biden critic complaining because the President has blatantly urged people to vote. That makes it political.
     
  • It gets even worse!


    In the Borowitz Report Lindsay Graham warns that Biden’s pro-democracy rhetoric could lead to voting in the streets.
     

  • President Biden’s speech is about unity but he says MAGA folk are fascist-lite. Republicans are mad as hell about that! He just smeared half the country!
     
    Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged looks at the speech again and says Just a darn minute, citizens!.
     
    Best part for me was near the beginning:
    He did not smear all Republicans, and in fact went out of his way to say he didn’t even think the violence-inclined MAGAs were the majority of their party–
     
    And I perused the response on Twitter and elsewhere and heard the sound of a million or so hurt dogs being very, very hit. NO! They want to believe he just demonized HALF THE WHOLE COUNTRY. And this means WAR!!!!!

Continue reading “Putin’s Push, Go Biden, Marines, Unity, Semi-Fascists, Trump Docs”

Jamie Foxx IS Trump, Night Mar-A,
Natl Security in Locker Room Storage

  • Impersonation hell! tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors discovers that Jamie Foxx IS Donald Trump!
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony has a thought about Mr. Trump’s level of concern for the security of hyper-secret classified documents.
     
    Should we, maybe, keep them from our enemies?
     
  • At The Onion, the Assistant Manager at Mar-A-lago wonders if anyone will claim the nuclear briefcase held at Lost And Found.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged looks at various Trump criminalities and has a modest proposal.
     
  • The Department of Justice was hesitant to release too much information about every damn thing that led to the search warrant at Mar-A-lago.
    Would witnesses be put in danger?
    Would the direction of an investigation still in progress encourage persons-of-interest to coordinate falsehoods?
     
    Noted historian Heather Cox Richardson takes a look at the heavily redacted affidavit. Lots was hidden, protected from view. So the only thing left was… Sweet Baby Jesus!!Trump did WHAT?!!.
     
  • YellowDog Granny finds out why the Judge told Mr Trump to get off her lawn!
     
  • Meanwhile, News Corpse watches the screen as the Fox Network devotes itself to its frantic struggle to exonerate Trump.
     
  • In The New York Times, conservative Rich Lowry writes about liberal hypocrisy: Can You Tell Me What Would Happen if the F.B.I. Were Investigating a Democrat?.
     
    driftglass bludgeons Lowry with history: Gosh! If only we had one or two examples where that really happened!
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson is not excited by Mr Trump’s innocence proclamation:

  • Julian Sanchez does not hold Mr. Trump’s latest defense in high esteem.

  • So Donald Trump demands the release of the affidavit on which the search warrant was based. That would be the search warrant of Donald Trump. That would be THE Donald Trump. He knows the DOJ won’t do it because they don’t want to dox witnesses who gave information to the FBI, and don’t want to let witnesses know what lies to play. Then DOJ releases a redacted version.
     
    The Palmer Report provides a meltdown chronicle as Donald Trump goes frantic-bizarro berserk in response.
     
  • Tommy Christopher relates the amazement of political professionals. Trump Team leaks out a letter they just know will help Trump and hurt Biden. Everyone and his brother is amazed. How could Trump-folk believe that could help?
     
  • They warned us, didn’t they?
     
    Any attempt to bring the law to Donald Trump would bring on Civil War. And the 2nd Amendment has provided the weaponry.
     
    The search at Mar-a-Lago crossed the line.
     
    Green Eagle goes to the battle site of the first battle in Knox County, Ohio and reports on the result that the insurrectionists did not expect.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil is unimpressed with Republican candidates, enraged as they are about law enforcement applied to hyper-secret classified documents stolen by Mr Trump, who talk bravely about committing deadly violence against FBI agents.

Continue reading “Jamie Foxx IS Trump, Night Mar-A,
Natl Security in Locker Room Storage”

Biden Progress, Mar-A-lago Search, Mini-Rage, FBI Attacked, Rushdie Okay

A patient teacher speaks to a misbehaving child named Donald:

And Michael Jay throws some Kim Carnes at him:

@stilloneblackmansopinion All those FBIs…#parody #creatorsofcolor #votethemout #busted #maralago #bluewave #gopisdead #voteblue ♬ original sound – StillOneBlackMansOpinion

  • At Whatever, John Scalzi discovers a day, this very week in our history of self-governance, that is not only not cringeworthy, but is meaningfully encouraging.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger began this week with the Mar-a-Lago FBI search, looking at the warrant and what was found. He does not see a path for Mr. Trump to avoid being charged with a serious crime.
     
  • First time I had seen this. Ant Farmer’s Almanac has figured out what was in that more secret than top secret cache of documents stolen by Mr Trump. Yeah, yeah, I already know it’s satire.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life starts with this:
     
    To my knowledge, though, no one has looked at what it means for an unproductive malignant narcissist to have stolen from the White House.
     
    Jack makes a plausible case that Mr Trump saw, in those more-secret-than-top-secret documents a chance to show off.
     
    An interesting take, and a departure from the assumption by those in my corner of the ideological spectrum that it involved a serious, dark, self serving, financial motive.
     
    When it comes to revealing secret documents that damage national security, where does the substitution of a petty, silly motive leave us?
     
  • At first, the Mar-a-Lago search was supposed to cement Donald Trump’s political position as a martyr to the cause of Trump. Then details of probable cause and a list of items of specific topper-than-top secret documents began to emerge. The Palmer Report takes a close look at the warrant and discovers something more that bodes ill for Mr. Trump. The usual legal justification is missing. Instead, the document contains something much worse.
     
  • So the probable cause contains stuff that could hurt people: doxing the informant and a couple of signing FBI agents. And it could let a few people-of-interest get phony stories straight. Gotta be careful with all that.
     
    Trump demands the affidavit that led to the warrant be published. Press organizations are ready to file suit to get the affidavit. Garland says okay but some information must be redacted. The judge agrees the affidavit should be redacted and open to the press.
     
    So Tommy Christopher reports that all God’s children want that affidavit open.
     
    The judge holds a hearing on it. All sides can be heard. But Trump’s lawyers are strangely silent. On publishing the affidavit, on redaction, on everything. Weird.
     
    Former Fox maven, current CNN maven, Chris Wallace knows why.
     
  • So Mr Trump has a host of explanations, excuses, and attacks as he encounters possible legal consequences for stealing ultra-secret documents. Iron Knee at Political Irony explains why political experts examine his reasoning with barely suppressed laughter.
     
  • At Cato Institute, Julian Sanchez has some fun with a defense made popular by the Trump-can-do-no-wrong rage machine:

  • My one time President explains that anytime he takes a classified document, it is, by a sort of transubstantiation, no longer classified. Nojo very briefly explains where this honored tradition began.
     
  • News Corpse lists some of the Trump excuses for holding on to the stolen documents, including the newest one. They assure us the storeroom was mostly locked and only real nice people had keys. Promise? Promise!
     
  • Satirist Andy Borowitz reports as Tucker Carlson calls Trump’s theft of nuclear secrets less worrisome than Hunter Biden’s use of Joe’s Netflix password.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson appears unimpressed with Mr Trump’s legal maneuvers

  • Dave Columbo does Tucker: outraged at the unlawful raid victimizing the honorable Mr Trump:
    @davecolumbo Back by popular demand 🙂 #democrat #democrats #democratsoftiktok #maralagoraid #politicalsatire #politicaltiktok #politicalhumor #fy #fyp #foryou ♬ Manke, honobo, everyday, funny, loop – arachang

  • Dave Dubya documents Trump-folk frustration as they are confronted by criminal statutes, evidence, and answers to excuses.

Continue reading “Biden Progress, Mar-A-lago Search, Mini-Rage, FBI Attacked, Rushdie Okay”

Raid/Search, Classified, Stolen Docs, Nuke Secrets, Trump Loss, Biden Wins

Continue reading “Raid/Search, Classified, Stolen Docs, Nuke Secrets, Trump Loss, Biden Wins”

Kansas, Jan 6, DOJ, Veterans, Ukraine, Soc Sec, Alex Jones, Uhura, Bill Russell

  • The strategy worked for a while. The conservative movement, with their overt tax cut and implicit racism agenda, found a way to use the anti-abortion, anti-gay side of religion as a smokescreen.
     
    Infidel753 looks at the conservative disaster in Kansas, followed by the flatfooted Republican attempt to oppose veteran’s health care, and concludes the smokescreen has eaten the original agenda and taken over the movement.
     
  • Imani Gandy has a thought on Kansas:

  • Iron Knee at Political Irony looks at the Supreme Court changes to the Constitution affecting abortion, conservative activists pushing for even more, then Kansas – and suggests that maybe – well lets see how Iron puts it:
    This is what overreach looks like.
     
  • Andy Borowitz reports that Kansas Republicans are facing a dark future in a state where women have rights.
     
    Best quote:
    “If this kind of nightmare can happen in Kansas, it can happen anywhere,” one Republican said.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has the numbers. Reputable polling shows the Republican campaign to move abortion decisions from individual women to the hands of government bureaucrats, conservative politicians, and anti-abortion activists is depriving Republican candidates of their traditional off-year advantage. Currently, Democrats are even ahead.
     
  • Darren Bailey is a candidate now catching a tsunami of flack after comparing abortion to the Holocaust. driftglass finds a lesson on how to tell what Republicans really stand for.
     
    Turns out it isn’t that hard.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit sees the overturning of Roe v Wade as already endangering women.
     
  • Julian Sanchez points out that a bogus accusation is suddenly turning real:

  • The Palmer Report considers how to limit a renegade Supreme Court apparently set to drastically slash basic rights, and comes up with an alternative to expanding the court.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life reminds us of the open plan of conservative activists to rewrite basic rights by Convention, replacing the US Constitution with something that fits a right-wing vision.
     
  • Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara makes a bad argument on his blog against a bad argument in an op-ed against a bad anti-vax argument accusing abortion rights advocates of hypocrisy.
     
    Michael agrees with abortion rights, but objects to making a needlessly weak case. He believes he can do better.
     
    He can’t.
     
    His standard is simple. It is at the heart of libertarianism. If government tells you what to do, it is wrong. That includes prohibition of abortion. It also would include proscribing a mandatory vaccination.
     
    Abortion prohibition is wrong.
    My body, my choice.
     
    Government mandated vaccination is wrong.
    My body, my choice.
     
    A private business vaccination requirement is absolutely right.
    My business, my choice.
     
    The weakness in his argument goes to definition:
     
    Properly understood, a vaccine mandate issued by the state violates individual rights. An employer “mandate”—which is really a condition of employment to work at that company—violates no one’s rights. When the government mandates vaccines, it means get a vaccine, period. A business can not mandate a vaccine for anyone. It can simply say if you’re not vaxed, you can’t work here.
     
    Aside from members of the military, there has never existed a government vaccine mandate in the US as Michael defines it. No private citizen has ever been forced to get a vaccine.
     
    Although he does not say it here, Mr. LaFerrara does oppose actual vaccine mandates as they have existed: the government requirement that businesses impose mandates, it is easier to oppose what does not exist.
     
    Government requirements on private businesses have been an integral part of American society since long, long before either Michael A. LaFerrara or I came into existence. Before Mr. Trump’s exaggerated influence, it was controversial only on the fringes.
     
    Libertarians are against any workplace safety standards. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan in 1911 killed 146 workers who could not get out of the building. Libertarians say that since that sort of thing is bad for business, that should be cost enough. Same with vaccinations. Whether to protect employees who do not want exposure to a virus to be a job requirement should be a business decision, unaffected by government standards.
     
    Libertarians are also against consumer safety standards. When the Bush administration relaxed food inspections, the Peanut Corporation of America sent out contaminated peanut butter to kids all over the nation. 8 people died. That sort of thing is bad for business, and that should be cost enough. Same with vaccination or masking requirements. Businesses should decide for themselves whether to protect their customers, whether we’re talking about a virus or Salmonella infection.
     
    Arguing against any and all work safety and food safety standards is a heavy lift, but Libertarians should take it on. They occasionally do.
     
    Arguing against government agents pushing needles into the arms of unwilling citizens is easier.
    But it is a bogus argument against a bogus example.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson reacts emotionally to Dick Cheney. Don’t we all?

  • Dave Dubya finds hope in the January 6 Committee, newly revealed DOJ investigations, and public reaction. But he warns there is much more that must be accomplished.
     
  • So Republicans reverse themselves and support healthcare for veterans after celebrating their success in blocking it. At The Moderate Voice Kathy Gill reads the bill and considers the Republican accusation that their opposition was misunderstood.
     
  • Scotties Playtime has Rand Paul explaining why he opposes health care for veterans.

Continue reading “Kansas, Jan 6, DOJ, Veterans, Ukraine, Soc Sec, Alex Jones, Uhura, Bill Russell”

Manly Josh, Jan 6, Secret Service Secrets, Biden COVID, Big Lie, Gaetz

Continue reading “Manly Josh, Jan 6, Secret Service Secrets, Biden COVID, Big Lie, Gaetz”

See Hawley Run, Jan 6, GOP, Tucker, Secret Service Secrets, Abortion


Oh puhleeeze watch this for 12 seconds:

  • In Letters from an American, noted historian Heather Cox Richardson provides an overview, then a detailed account, of Thursday’s hearing. Trump’s deliberate inaction, and his fumbling resentments flowing even beyond the day of violence show a deliberate fanning of the flames. While Trump does not come off well, Senator Josh Hawley(Republican from here in Missouri) comes off worse: a tough talking bully who quickly gets frightened right down to his running shoes.
     
    She quotes journalist Adam Serwer:
    Hawley riling up the mob and then fleeing in terror is an incredible political metaphor.
     
  • Tough talk, raised fist supporting insurrectionists, instructing Americans that they are no longer masculine enough, explaining how to man up. In Hackwhackers, Senator Hawley runs in panic from the same lynch mob he had cheered on. The video has gone viral.
     
    He is up for re-election in 2024. I wonder if he will be, you know, running.
     
  • Frances Langum brings us Capitol Officer Michael Fanone, with some choice words for poor frightened Josh.
     
  • The Palmer Report believes the January 6 Committee has finally discovered the shared hidden weakness of Misters Trump and Hawley.
     
    The Achilles heel of Washington heels.
     
  • Former Trump aide Garrett Ziegler testifies as ordered before the January 6 Committee, but doesn’t like it at all. tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors relays a couple of phrases from the resulting diatribe.
     
    In Garrett’s view female witnesses are garden utensils come on, you know what I’m saying. He also applies a term I had to look up. Hip young misogynists use it to describe women they consider too sexually active.
     
    Damn, I’m old!
     
    I am a little more familiar with Ben Shapiro, a virulent conservative who considers any Jew who voted against Trump as a bad Jew, a JINO – Jewish In Name Only.
     
    Apparently Mr. Ziegler explodes against fellow rightist Ben because he is Jewish.
     
    Ted McLaughlin helpfully offers Garrett a bit of useful career advice.
     
  • It seems Garrett Ziegler is not the only right-wing activist who hates fellow right-wing activists if they are Jewish. M. Bouffant at Web of Evil shows us the evidence as the right-wingers of the right wing revert to earlier roots.
     
  • Dave Dubya suggests the Zieglar rant is dangerously iconic: a view of future possibilities.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson does not seem enthused about the current crop of Wisconsin Republican candidates:

  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life talks about the story being told by the Committee from a different point of analysis: why a story is important to understanding.
     
    Best line:
    Lucky for us all the pointy heads over in the psychology ivory tower looking down on all us peons trying to infect us with their communist socialist feminist hatred of America for our freedoms have come up with narrative psychology.

Continue reading “See Hawley Run, Jan 6, GOP, Tucker, Secret Service Secrets, Abortion”