Month: August 2017

 
From Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged:

When a car apparently intentionally plows into a group of people participating in a counter-protest to the Nazi shindig in Charlottesville, it should be pretty obvious that you should call it terrorism, and disavow it, and condemn that sort of thing. Many politicians recognized at once the enormity of the situation, and called for the event to be treated as the terror that it was intended to be. This was the obvious response, the necessary response. Bigotry and violence are a bad and unnecessary combination in a diverse nation where we value free speech. The counter-protestors had all the same rights as the so-called “alt-right” protestors (although I prefer to just think of them as Nazis, because, well, what they do, say and think).

Our president, though, decided to make a comment condemning violence “on many sides”. How utterly inadequate of the man. As if there was a movement that somehow used violence against white supremacy on the regular.

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From Max’s Dad:

Im not sure what I expected out of Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film, Detroit, but what I got was another classic edge of the seat thriller. Bigelow, who specializes in films like The Hurt Locker, which was the tensest movie I’d seen in many years and Zero Dark Thirty, another film of controversy that featured hair raising magnitude, tackles another controversial subject, the 1967 Detroit riots.

The Detroit riots began after years of a burning fuse that finally ran out of space and the bomb went off in July of 1967. The first 45 minutes of the movie involve cops killing people and the people looting the stores and the chaos in the streets. Quite frankly its rather slow and cliche’ and I began to wonder when something was going to happen.

And then BOOM!

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Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.

Many sides.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.

– President Trump, in a prepared statement

There is only one side. #charlottesville

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 12, 2017

Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 12, 2017

Mr. President – we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism. https://t.co/PaPNiPPAoW

— Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) August 12, 2017

We should call evil by its name. My brother didn't give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home. -OGH

— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) August 12, 2017

But the incitement of hatred that got us here is as real and condemnable as the white supremacists in our streets.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 12, 2017

The list of things Donald Trump is too weak and frightened to criticize:
1. Vladimir Putin
2. White Supremacists
3. Neo-Nazis terrorists

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 12, 2017

• Max’s Dad reacts pretty much as many of us did, after yesterday’s apparent terrorist attack by a white supremacist, at hearing my President’s neutral condemnation of hate and violence “on many sides”. My question: How many folks were in that car?
   
• One right wing narrative casts Hitler’s Nazi movement as part of the political left. Green Eagle takes on the latest conservative book parroting this resurgent conservative meme.
   
• Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged reviews CNN’s firing of Jeffrey Lord after his Seig Heil tweet. She is all in for free speech. She also holds that not everyone is entitled to all platforms. Perhaps CNN ought to have drawn the line before arriving at the doorstep of Hitler?
   
• @bjork55 at Bjork Report sees evidence of an inverse relationship between conservatism and respect for democracy.
   
• Every month or so, Infidel753 posts a group of random observations. They are pithy bits of what may be considered wisdom (okay, I consider them wisdom), depending somewhat on predisposition. August strikes me as especially thoughtful.
   
• In MadMikesAmerica, Neil Bamforth looks into climate change and suggests that Britain’s devastating floods might soon be the new normal.
   
• Just what does Vlad Putin have on Don Trump? At The Moderate Voice Joe Gandelman takes a look at the weak response to mass expulsion of diplomats as the latest bigly sign that this President is in that President’s pocket.
   
• Jon Perr at PERRspectives looks at how “America First” came to mean America last.
   
• Tommy Christopher, watches as Joe Scarborough plays a pre-election clip of a Hillary warning on nuclear responsibility and admits that it now seems prophetic.
   
• Dave Dubya points to an underlying motivation for conservative hostility to health care.
   
• My conservative friend T. Paine, at Saving Common Sense, is frustrated by the failure of health care repeal. So he attacks the idea of progressive taxation, that the rich should have a higher rate than the poor. He expresses his apprehension about the prospective failure of a proposed massive tax cut for the most wealthy.
   
  My friend posits a parable of sorts, comparing the social safety net to a group of guys buying beer. His conclusion is a warning. If we don’t stop our violent persecution of the top one percent, they might just retreat to more friendly shores overseas.
   
  Let’s see. The maximum tax rate here is a little under 40%. So perhaps the oppressed job creators will find sanctuary in some tax friendly haven such as Spain at 45%? Britain at 62%? The Netherlands at 52%? Luxembourg at 52%? Somalia might be a good bet with virtually no taxation, no roads, no healthcare, no police, no protection. Pirates, terrorists, lack of clean water and food safety are problems, but you can’t have everything.
   
• Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post seems to think my President is less than credible. Actually, most of us have noticed that being pointed out before. It may seem repetitive, but it is worth repeating. With apologies to Mary McCarthy, every word Mr. Trump says or tweets is a lie, including “and” and “the”.
   
• Andy Borowitz is on the scene as President Trump assures us that he just got a phone call from Robert Mueller telling him that he is “the most innocent person ever”. Okay, it’s satire, but it sounds like it could be tomorrow’s press conference.
   
• Oh wow! Julian Sanchez, senior fellow of Cato fame, explains what reasonably can be surmised from the dark of the morning raid on the home of Paul Manafort, former chair of the Trump campaign.
   
• Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara at Principled Perspectives defends Martin Luther King from attack over what he calls a stray quote.
  
  

  “All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the womb a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born…We in the West must support these revolutions.”

  The quote is taken by an antagonist as an endorsement of “the Viet Cong, the Pathet Lao and the Khmer Rouge.” Mr. LaFerrara objects to an extrapolation of a brief quote spoken before the evils of those groups were known. Actually, his case is stronger than he thinks. He might also have gone to the speech in which Dr. King expands on his central theme, that a “positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism.” Not exactly what Mr. LaFerrara’s dishonest opponent alleges.
   

• In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, former pastor and current atheist Bruce has developed a few insights into how religious authority provides leaders the opportunity to sexually abuse trusting parishoners.
   
• Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass is skeptical about explanations by Kentucky’s governor for a sweetheart real estate deal.
   
• M. Bouffant at Web of Evil is confused by adjoining headlines, one saying that malls and retail are being killed in the internet age, the other that a new local mall replacing an historic racetrack will bring in lots of revenue.
   
• This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’, coming from The Baltimore Sun, dissects President Trump’s recent claim that he has personally updated the U.S. nuclear arsenal. He didn’t.
   

Locked Out Politics and the Abolition of Health Care

Conservatives blame Democrats for their failures in health care repeal.

Democrats might remember Bobby Kennedy and his handling of a faked confrontation over half a century ago.

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From The Journal of Improbable Research:

“The medial [sic] appeal of table tennis seems to go down in terms of TV hours, at least outside Asia. One of the reasons is the fact that the speed of the game is nowadays so high that it is very hard for spectators to follow the balls.”

So, in terms of slowing down the game (in order to increase its appeal for TV viewers) what might be done? In 2013, a team from the Institute of Physics, and the Institute of Community Medicine at Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University, Greifswald, along with the Faculty of Informatics and Electrical Engineering, University Rostock, Germany, decided to use a computational modeling approach to provide answers.

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From PZ Myers:

That was a book that was one of those profound disappointments — I heard so much gushing over it, so much praise and enthusiasm, that I opened it with high expectations…and instead found page after poorly written page of drivel wrapped around 1980s pop trivia. It’s a crappy work of soppy nostalgia for bad computer games and bad TV and bad fiction. I read the first couple of chapters in disbelief, and then riffled through the rest looking for any redeeming qualities at all, and they just weren’t there.

So now Steven Spielberg is turning it into a movie — a sappy, treacly movie that he probably likes because it’s about his glory days and also features lots of praise for sentimental old Spielberg movies. There is so much good science fiction that could be turned into a movie, and this is what he chooses to throw millions of dollars at? I am so disappointed, and so unsurprised, since this book was a calculated attempt to cash in.

My repulsion for this book was so great that I am relieved when I see reviews that share my views — I’m not an out-of-touch weirdo after all!

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From Uppity Negro at The Intersection of Madness and Reality:

Because the administration of Trump was a veritable dumpster fire even before the inauguration, the Democrats never had the usual trial by fire and public shaming that the losing party normally gets. There was never an opportunity for the Democratic party to listen to its constituents and perform a full autopsy on just how catastrophic the 2016 election was. Rather, an obstructionist-lite position was adopted, and the Democratic base hasn’t raised much fuss.

Most sane people are able to admit there’s no real way to say definitively that Sanders would have beat Trump in a tête-à-tête, but there was a particular resignation amongst the Democrats who held their nose, pragmatically voting for Hillary Clinton in hopes of keeping Trump out of the White House at all costs. For many, this wasn’t about making the decision to participate in electing the first woman to the presidency, but really about a clash of ideologies. Many Democratic voters were miffed at how little the party’s establishment reached out to Sander’s supporters. Unlike how Obama reached out to Clinton in 2008. While the numbers bear themselves out–Clinton did win the nomination fair and square–once the emails of the DNP were leaked it was clear that throughout the primary, every lever was moved to make sure Clinton secured the nomination.

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From Jonathan Bernstein:

We have all become used to very boring presidential re-election campaigns. Bill Clinton in 1996 won easily; George W. Bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2012 made it close enough to induce some mild suspense, but not all that much, really. None of them had even a hint of a challenge for re-nomination.

That’s not going to be the case for Donald Trump, at least barring some extremely unlikely reversal.

In fact, the reporting over the weekend about early stirrings among potential Republican candidates for 2020 only confirmed what’s obvious: Unpopular presidents get nomination challenges. Here’s the history:

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Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.