M.B.S. – Real, or Really B.S.?

found online by Raymond

 
From Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post:

One of the most encoraging signs was how earlier this year, he became the first senior Saudi royal to publicly state his support for an Israeli homeland, even though his government does not as of yet officially recognize the state of Israel. When White House “adviser” Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump visited his country in May of 2017, he met with them and has generally spoken in favor of strengthening ties with the U.S. He was given control of Saudi Aramco by royal decree in 2015, and was named Chair of the Council for Economic and Developmental Affairs that same year. Additionally, through his efforts, it is now possible for Saudi women to legally drive automobiles by themselves, as he has been instrumental in rolling back the power of the Saudi religious conservatives.

The Prince has taken leadership over restructuring his country’s economy. In 2016, he introduced Vision 2030, a group designed to help it strategically plan for the next 12 years or so. Its aim is to develop more diversification and especially to strengthen non-oil companies and those involved with systaubable fields and the creation of a $500 billion economic zone across thousands of miles of Saudi territory next to the Red Sea. He has also been pioneering Saudi investment in renewable energy. The prince has been described as both a nationalist and an economic populist – and that is perhaps why Donald Trump has been so warm to him. Regrettably, and also much like Trump, he has revealed himself to be a bit of a thug.

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How Not to Do It

found online by Raymond

 
From Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged:

Trump fires Jim Comey for “reasons”, partially because he claims the Clinton email investigation was handled badly, and had Sessions and Rosenstein fig leaf that justification with letters that sound serious enough, and then blows that reason up in a nationally-viewed interview with Lester Holt. (He also tells a few Russians, in a particularly stupid way.) And that is how he ended up with a Special Counsel.

So how does he go about the firing of his AG this time out? Well, for one thing, he picks a very Trump-sympathetic hack (Bigfoots! Time travel hot-tubs! Massive hog toilets!) and then lets it be known he basically picked this person because he was a Trump-sympathetic hack. This might be construed, even to a layperson like myself, like even more obstruction of justice. (Like the Sally Yates, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, etc., things.) But then he has so little idea that what he is doing is abusive of justice, he just says what he did!

Meanwhile, the Mueller investigation does it’s quiet and necessary work, despite obstacles.

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Trump’s White House Chaos Is Worsening

found online by Raymond

 
From Jonathan Bernstein:

How chaotic are things now?

There’s no nominee to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was fired a week ago, and the acting attorney general is under fire from multiple directions. It’s already highly unusual to go this long without naming a new regular successor for such a critical post, and it’s not clear there’s any intention to choose one. There’s also no nominee to replace United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced her resignation back on Oct. 9. Nor is there one for the Environmental Protection Agency, which has been headed by Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler since July 9.

That’s three cabinet vacancies without a nominee.

And that’s not all.

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Stacey Abrams Really Won

found online by Raymond

 
From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

Stacey Abrams won.

The fact that she officially announced she will not be taking the office she ran so beautifully for, is a mere technicality—one that good people who were paying attention, realized was likely a foregone conclusion before a single vote was ever counted. Today is less a terrible surprise, than a long-expected moment of grieving.

For months, her opponent made sure this day would come. Already the beneficiary of years of insidious gerrymandering and historic voter suppression that had stacked the deck precariously in his favor—he resorted to blatant theft for safe measure. He chose the same filthy, soulless path that he has seen blazed by similarly small men when facing strong women they are outmatched by and unworthy of: lie and steal and fix the game until you win.

Stacey Abrams won.

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The Wealthy as America’s True War Heroes

Burr has the day off after a tiring week of productivity, as he strives to become one of Mr. LaFerrara’s American heroes.

One notable exchange this week included an inspired bit of prose from Trey. We began with a quote from libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara about Veterans Day.

But America’s veterans are not the whole story. So, I’d like to use this Veterans Day post to acknowledge the unsung hero of America’s military prowess, the productive American citizen. No military as strong and as competent as America’s can exist in a vacuum. It requires something else – something indispensable – a great economy.

America’s economy, historically the most productive the world has ever seen, is the foundation that supports our military personnel.

Trey responded to a reminder that Mr. LaFerrara’s definition of “economically productive” is usually “economically successful” as measured by wealth. Trey expressed a bit of poetic irritation at the subordination of the bravery demonstrated, and sacrifices made, by those in military service:

Ah yes. Many a’war have been fought and won from an Executive Suite. Many a’revolutions and freedoms have been secured from the Stock Exchange.

Who could forget the Allied Victory at Midway or the Battle of the Bulge by these giants of industry when they achieved market capitalization by hedging their losses with short term cuts to their dividends? They realized, faster than America’s enemies did, through market analysis that their yields would experience an uptick when the moving average was adjusted following the capitulation of the Axis Powers in Europe and Asia.

The blue chip is mightier than the sword.

But, yeah, Happy Veterans Day. But also let’s not forget about the John Galts of the world you little toy soldiers.

Well done, Trey.

Burr expects to return in Thanksgiving next week.

Going to Court for the Future of Air and Water

found online by Raymond

 
From PZ Myers:

That sounds like a good idea to me.

The plaintiffs, who include 21 people ranging in age from 11 to 22, allege that the government has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property by failing to prevent dangerous climate change. They are asking the district court to order the federal government to prepare a plan that will ensure the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere falls below 350 parts per million by 2100, down from an average of 405 parts per million in 2017.

How can you argue against that? The Trump administration has a simple defense.

By contrast, the US Department of Justice argues that there is no right to ‘a climate system capable of sustaining human life’ — as the Juliana plaintiffs assert.

That is not the answer I expected.

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The Bare Minimum

found online by Raymond

 
From Stinque:

We’ve been wondering for awhile what the number, the minimum number, of deaths is required to make a mass shooting a national story, the kind everyone talks about, can’t help talking about.

We started wondering last year, when three or four people were shot and killed one evening in our Denver area, and nobody noticed. Those are common now — between Pittsburgh and Thousand Oaks, there were eleven mass shootings, four or more victims each, and we didn’t notice those. We figured it takes double-digit fatalities to get noticed these days.

But Thousand Oaks was twelve, one more than Pittsburgh. One of the victims had escaped the Las Vegas massacre. That was in the news, Thousand Oaks was in the news, it’s not like Thousand Oaks wasn’t in the news. But the details, they came and went. You may have heard some. Then again, you may have missed a few. Thousand Oaks hasn’t been commanding national attention.

You know what has instead. Tuesday we had a significant national election. Wednesday we had a live presidential meltdown, followed by an abrupt firing, followed by an abrupt appointment. That’s what everyone was noticing Thursday morning instead of the slaughter of twelve people in Thousand Oaks, and that’s what they’re still noticing now, as well as Arizona and Florida and fires again consuming California.

It’s just been one of those weeks where there’s too much to notice, and the mass murder of a dozen people that doesn’t involve race or religion or children isn’t going to get noticed, because we know that story, the story of thoughts and prayers and nothing getting done.

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‘Heil Hitler, Heil Trump,’ Nazi Salute Interrupts ‘Fiddler on the Roof’

found online by alert reader Trey

 
From The Baltimore Sun:

A man shouting a pro-Nazi and pro-Trump salute during a performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” in Baltimore has reignited discussions of anti-Semitism amid increases in hate crimes in Maryland and nationwide.

Audience member Rich Scherr said the outburst, during intermission at the Hippodrome Theatre on Wednesday, prompted fears that it was the beginning of a shooting. The man, who had been seated in the balcony, began shouting “Heil Hitler, Heil Trump.” Immediately after that, “People started running,” Scherr said. “I’ll be honest, I was waiting to hear a gunshot. I thought, ‘Here we go.’”

Samit Verma was seated in the balcony when he heard shouting and saw a man holding his hand straight up in a Nazi salute, he said in an email Thursday. Ushers rushed over to the man while audience members quickly made their way out of the theater and into the hall, Verma said.

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Man’s Fall in the Garden of Eden: An Ancient Labor Relations Tale?

found online by Raymond

 
From Bob Felton in The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

Sometime around 1800 B.C., an Akkadian stoneworker chiseled into rock a remarkable story.

It seems there were two ranks of gods, important gods who made all the decisions, and lesser gods who did all the work. One day, assigned to dig some canals, the hot and dirty and tired worker-gods decided to go on strike; “You are killing us,” they complained.

The impasse was broken by this proposal: the important gods would create a new creature to do the hard labor, man, but the leader of the strike had to be sacrificed. It was so agreed, and man was created from the dust, the water, and the blood of the sacrificed god.

But, as so often is the case, there was a fly in the ointment — the men were noisy at night, and the gods weren’t getting proper rest. After several warnings, the gods decided to get rid of men and sent a flood to drown them all. Only one man and his family survived, Atrahasis.

It’s easy to see in this tale the roots of two of the Old Testament’s best-known stories, the Creation and Fall, and Noah’s flood.

Now skip forward almost 4000 years to a story that is true, to the copper mines in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

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