Author: Burr Deming

• M. Bouffant at Web of Evil observes Howard Schultz toying with a presidential run and is … um … unimpressed.
   
• tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors finds one little item that Democratic candidates so far have that Howard Schultz does not.
   
• As Schultz attacks a proposed return to progressive taxation, Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger illustrates how we are told trickle-down works and what actually happens.
   
• So intelligence chiefs pretty much demonstrate Trump is dangerously wrong in many ways on national security. Vixen Strangely watches as our President draws the obvious conclusion. They are all either stupid or misquoted. Trump rejects intelligence is entendre squared.
   
• Jonathan Bernstein looks forward to my President’s State of the Union speech as a probable wasted opportunity.
   
• At The Moderate Voice, Eleanor Paynter takes a lesson from Europe’s refugee crisis on why the Trump wall can’t work.
   
• North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz diagnoses the toxic tribalism of the American right as a symptom of simple emotional laziness. It is easiest to hate.
   
• Anti-immigrant bigotry affects US national security in many ways. Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit notes the unintentional lesson for those in war-torn countries who would help US troops stay alive: We will not protect you and you and your families will pay with your lives.
   
• nojo explains Roger Stone and the criminal lies by simply quoting email contents as revealed in the indictment. nojo is that rare writer who is capable of eloquence with no words of his own.
   
• The Onion is there as Foxconn’s first assembly line robot is activated and immediately attempts suicide. Aunt Tildy and I will again discuss the meaning of satire.
   
• driftglass explains why he did not crush a MAGA conservative with telling information about Peggy Noonan.
   
• Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes is not interested in Sojourner Truth as an historical figure as much as in her development as a human being.
   

 

It seemed as if the shutdown would never end, until it did.

Ordinary people were not being hurt. And then they were.

It was not about officials suddenly opening their eyes. It was about who they saw, all along, as ordinary people.

Continue reading “Why Ordinary People Ended the Shutdown”

• nojo delves into history and discovers a close parallel to the special prosecutor blowing up a story that, if true, would have proven my President is a criminal.
   
• Iron Knee at Political Irony chronicles the controversy as investigators question whether President Trump is disloyal to Russia. Putin seems impatient.
   
• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit carefully explains the problem Trump and his wily advisors had in calling the bluff of Nancy Pelosi: Pelosi wasn’t bluffing.
   
• After all that, my President still does not even have a date for the State of the Union. Green Eagle suggests that Nancy Pelosi has provided an important lesson for Democrats.
   
• In fact, Andy Borowitz reports as Nancy Pelosi stands firm, saying no as Ann Coulter demands to deliver the State of the Union address.
   
• To explain why the shutdown went on so long, driftglass links Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to Jacob Marley’s ghost. Click to find what the Dickens he means.
   
• Dave Dubya confirms a few judgments as he attempts to engage with Trump conservatives.
   
• News Corpse reports on the Fox News freakout, as new Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is compared to Hitler and Stalin for wanting those living in extreme wealth to pay more in taxes.
   
• Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara makes a strange case for capitalism as Facebook deals with privacy violations. Seems you can’t blame capitalistic greed because we live in a mixed economy. Reminds me of a close friend accusing my church of “organized hypocrisy.” I responded: “That’s not fair! We’re not organized!”
   
• Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson semi-gloats as state Republican leaders are unimpressed with the first State-Of-the-State speech by new Democratic Governor Tony Evers. I dunno. Could it be a case of Republican heartburn? Evers did defeat conservative darling Scott Walker. Kind of reminds me of John F. Kennedy’s reaction when told the Republican National Committee had passed a resolution saying he had pretty much been a failure as President. Responded JFK: “I assume it passed unanimously.”
   
• Max’s Dad isn’t buying the new version of innocent, yet provoked, young Covington students mocking and shouting down the chanting, walking, Native American Vietnam veteran. Video still shows a teen smiling as he boldly attempts to stare down the chanter as he blocks his way.
   
• PZ Myers explains the media backlash on Covington coverage and the tsunami of mea culpa pronouncements.
   
• Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post posts a list of “Scumbag Liars We Have Known”, not all of whom are Republicans or conservatives.
   
• This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from Real Clear Politics as former ABC news personality Sam Donaldson provides an acerbic analysis of the relationship between Donald Trump and Kellyanne Conway.
   

We spent the other evening watching yet another showing of the Ian Fleming thriller with hero James Bond. Sean Connery remains the template, of course.

But I was, as always, most impressed with the lifelong versatility of Robert Shaw. Every new role made this early effort more amazing. It is hard to believe the same actor who later became Nazi Colonel Hessler, mobster Doyle Lonnegan, and crusty old shark hunter Quint so capably portrayed the evil villain trained to kill Bond.

The movie differed from Fleming’s original plot. The cinematic character was an Irish spy employed by an international crime organization dedicated to creating conflict between Western Powers and the Soviet Union.

In Fleming’s book, Shaw’s character was the pretend friend who turned out to be the dangerous agent of Russia, sent to destroy any defense Britain, and ultimately the West, would have against Russian aggression.

Robert Shaw deserved the acclaim he received at the realistic portrayal. Audiences still find it difficult to distinguish between the actor and his subject.

Shaw died in 1978, 38 years too early to witness Mike Pence himself become Vice President of the United States.

• This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from The Boston Globe, explaining why Trump lies, and why we should care.
   
• Iron Knee at Political Irony finds parallels between TrumpTruth and George Orwell with 1984 set 35 years too early.
   
• tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors can’t quite believe he’s quoting David Frum as Frum analyzes Nancy Pelosi’s warm, polite cancellation of my President’s SOTU. Frum reads the courteous, respectful letter carefully, and finds that every sentence draws blood.
   
• nojo, at Stinque, actually manages to draw a bit of cautious optimism from the Trump shutdown.
   
• The Onion reports that, after months of refusing to address the issue, the administration has finally launched a campaign to reunite immigrant children with their original arresting officers.
   
• At Strangely Blogged, the ever insightful Vixen Strangely delves into Steve King’s in-your-face racism and explains why the GOP’s reaction is significant, and why it’s not.
   
• driftglass doesn’t much care for conservative public figure S.E. Cupp and unleashes withering contempt for her castigation of Representative Ilhan Omar who, in 2016, became the first Somali American elected to any legislative office in the nation. S.E. Cupp continues to be outraged at Ms. Omar for something she did not actually say.
   
• Frances Langum briefly reviews the likely shady dealings behind the early, early early retirement of a Congressional Rep.
   
• Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara has always been skeptical about the potentially catastrophic effect of human activity on climate. Now he suggests that climate has always been wild and destructive and that fossil fuels are part of the solution. The libertarian ideology has a problem with the notion of the classic Tragedy of the Commons, situations in which actions benefiting each person individually are destructive to all individuals as a group. The libertarian response is usually denial that those situations can ever exist. For example: the possibility that humans can cause climate catastrophe.
   
• In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce takes a hard look at how some Christian leaders approach lying. I recall being a little less understanding a few years ago about one incident.
   
• In MadMikesAmerica, Glenn Geist believes an inept science writer gives the Hindenburg dirigible (“Oh, the humanity!”) a bad rap.
   
• At The Moderate Voice, David Robertson decides we can use some good news. So we can now read 25 stories about folks helping folks, folks helping kittens, bad guys getting beaten by intended victims, good people being honored… that sort of thing. I liked it.
   

• This week’s note in “Alternative Facts” comes from Truth Out, going through history to argue that departures from truth result in massive horrors. Suggestive of where we are heading now.
   
• Our current President claimed that former Presidents assured him privately that they supported his wall. Okay so that claim was pretty much demonstrated to be, uh, mistaken. tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors brings us another group of people who secretly spoke to my president within the Cone of Silence in his head.
   
• Mark at News Corpse watches the Trump Wall debate metastasize as Fox News urges him to declare a national emergency.
   
• Dave Dubya responds to a conservative question and offers a few quick reasons the Trump Wall should not be constructed.
   
• Finally, someone has been able to do it. Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit makes a brief but cogent case for building a wall across the border and making our neighbor and trading partner pay for it. Oh wait. Not Mexico?
   
• M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has come up with 19 examples of the many, many things on which my President is an expert. Reminds me of the old definition of an expert as someone who knows more about less. Taken to it’s logical limit, that might mean that my President knows everything about nothing.
   
• Out of the blue, my president parrots the far-fetched Russian invented line on why the USSR invaded Afghanistan to save their puppet government and got destroyed. The new tall tale is that the Soviet Union had to combat terrorism on their southern border. Seems obvious Vladimir told him that bedtime story before tucking him in. Green Eagle discerns a secondary, more dangerous, motivation that would go beyond the usual presidential obtuseness.
   
• Andy Borowitz reports as Nancy Pelosi announces she will no longer meet with President Trump. She will, instead, negotiate directly with Putin.
   
• Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post sees the Democratic sweep, the rise of Nancy Pelosi, and the quirky moments of weird behavior by Donald Trump since, as indicators of the beginning of the end of this administration.
   
• America has been blinded by the light as we have gazed on the bright polished surface of the first Bush presidency. Jon Perr at PERRspectives takes a brief glance at the down and dirty undercoat. Mixed legacy seems the destined historical verdict.
   
• driftglass rejoices at seeing a longtime slippery Chicago machine politician finally get caught and charged.
   
• Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass brings back 5 minutes of the remarkable, wonderful Representative from Texas, the late Barbara Jordan. I remember watching and hearing those opening remarks with awe as the impeachment of Richard Nixon was considered in 1974.
   
• PZ Myers not only likes a couple of Democratic ideas, but finds a reason to tax the rich that I confess had never considered before. He includes two novel reasons the rich should be enthused about increasing the top rate.
   
• John Scalzi at Whatever talks about dickheads who troll science fiction authors. He notices their number is in a slump. Wonder if that’s true elsewhere.
   
• Infidel753 takes 10 potential worthy posts and crunches them down into 10 pithy observations. Oh come on, give it a click.