I’m still way too fuzzy to write, so just a couple of links:
First, an amusing little allegory posted at Gates of Vienna (with a h/t to Bill Keezer; I’ve been offline a lot this week, and hadn’t visited GoV in a few days).
Second, I think a recent podcast by John D. on the topic of race is particularly good. You can listen to it here.
Beyond that, I got nuthin’. The floor is yours, folks.
36 Comments
http://warontherocks.com/2016/01/navigating-the-post-iran-deal-waters-in-the-gulf/
Since Malcolm is still in a state of “purple haze”, maybe the “sudden scheduling” of a town hall type debate in prime time Monday night will be of interest. CNN will do the hosting honors. The emphasis is on “sudden”. If Bernie is smart, he will decline to play along.
JK, I read that piece by Melissa Dalton and nearly threw up.
Well Whitewall.
JK to the rescue!
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/north-korea-claims-it-developed-hangover-free-alcohol/
Try that again …
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/north-korea-claims-developed-hangover-free-alcohol-article-1.2503148
Hangover free alcohol? Praise the Lord and pass the bottle. Flynt, MI might need some too.
You are absolutely right about Flint. Governor Snyder should resign immediately for having stood by while the children of Flint were poisoned, the residents were lied to, and the administrators he appointed dithered.
Needless to say, this never would have been tolerated in a white, middle class suburb like Grosse Pointe or Bloomfield Hills. Never let anybody tell you that races and classes are treated equally in America.
Sure as hell not anybody from Roane county Tennessee, 94.4% white.
Eh, Whitewall?
You ever found yourself ‘locked in-place due to circumstances beyond control’ [eg snow/ice] and … not wanting to bookmark because (more or less) while just about anything might appear interesting at the moment …
Anyway:
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/the-modern-history-of-the-republican-presidential-primary-1976-2012/
Says something doncha think?
JK, we are about to be “locked in place” here in central and western NC by a big snow event, so the weather fibbers tell us. I have been locked in at times by broken airplanes, too many men with too many guns, an angry father of a Nicaraguan young lady…Mgr. of the Hertz rental car counter at the airport…and a few other “events” elsewhere. I just roll with it.
Yes the political parties are somewhat different in style when they want something from us peasants, but become very similar once in DC and away from the American side of the beltway. I actually enjoyed the DEM 1968 convention as I was interested in HH winning, and in ’76 I enjoyed the RNC fandango as I wanted RR to win. It would make me happy to see both parties have to go to “brokered” conventions this year.
Are you stuck somewhere or just “stove up”?
¼ inch of “fallen outta the sky” pure water and it’s 24° and though I’ve got a set of studded tires on the rear wheels and an engine out of a Camaro under the hood, the body and frame is nonetheless
S-10 Chevy. And, an automatic at that. So …
‘Nother thing I suppose might figure – I ain’t got enuf beer to be drunk.
I reckon to answer your question WW, all I can rightly say is, I’m in the odd position of having too much sense to be out on the road.
Absurdly so – given my History.
“I’m in the odd position of having too much sense to be out on the road.” On the way home a while ago from our Yoga for Seniors class, we stopped at a store and stocked up. If you get a mental picture of yoga/seniors…it’s probably accurate. Do you know someone who is a bit slack in the sense dept who might bring you some needed rations?
Have you seen where D Duff is nearly panting over Sarah Palin endorsing Donald of Trump?
Yeah. Might though, keep an eye out for his enthusiasm to get somewhat dampened though – as it happens – just after I’d read the link I put on here (from Larry Sabato’s) I found another and sent an email a flying his way … including one I’d sent him after there appeared on D&N some likewise “panting” re: Ryan on the Romney ticket.
Lemme see …
http://www.fpri.org/docs/media/Kurth_-_Crisis_of_American_Conservatism_0.pdf
It appears the Alanok people had their “holy book” and some violent ways, but it also seems they had become familiar with the recent updated book “Rules for Radicals”. Both used together, they brought a soft people to a state of subservience as “growers of food, bearers of wood and fetchers of water”. All seems oh so familiar.
Re Flint:
Step 1: walk up the chain of command, ignoring all antecedent causes (and derelictions by Federal agencies), until you come to some administrator with an (R) next to his name.
Step 2: affix blame.
Step 3: Say something virtuous about social justice, so everyone knows what a great person you are.
@ Hoberman
√
@Hoberman
I have not seen your commentary here before, so I must assume you are very perceptive. That is exactly how the OEM rolls.
Hoberman, this seems to support what you wrote yesterday..https://reason.com/blog/2016/01/21/the-government-poisoned-flints-waterso-s
No, Hoberman, there are no “antecedent causes.” The problem started the day that administrators working for the state switched the water supply, and was magnified when they repeatedly ignored warnings from the EPA and others, belittled and mocked those who pointed out that kids were being poisoned, and lied to Flint residents by pretending that their water was safe when it was known to be anything but safe.
Nor is it a matter of “affixing blame.” State and local water agencies are wholly responsible for monitoring water quality and maintaining the federal standards for water safety.
Flint is poor, black, and votes Democratic. Had the affected city been middle class, white, and votes Republican, the problem would have been addressed with a celerity of lightning speed.
You would have to go back to the invasion and occupation of Iraq to see a greater dereliction of duty by government officials. It is remarkable to me — although it shouldn’t be — that there are some who refuse to accept the obvious culpability of those whose gross negligence will affect many Flint residents for the rest of their lives, and instead seek to find villains more aligned with their political dogma. It is as absurd as Sarah Palin blaming President Obama yesterday for her son’s arrest for domestic violence. Conservatives love to lecture about personal responsibility, unless they are clearly at fault, in which case someone else is always to blame.
Eh, Whitewall?
The post you referenced Whitewall;
http://duffandnonsense.typepad.com/duff_nonsense/2016/01/what-do-mda-and-mds-know-that-i-dont.html
& “The Dampening” I expected;
http://duffandnonsense.typepad.com/duff_nonsense/2016/01/trembling-i-have-decided-to-disobey-mda-and-mds.html
Some stuff, like ice and snow … by the way WW, you pay attention to my alarums about “staying in stock” – how is your weather today?
Near 40° here in Arkansas .. and sunny. Finally. Beer’s replenished.
JK, I just wandered over to Duff’s and gave him a warning.
Our weather fibbers got it way wrong. We were prepared for over a foot of snow. They made it sound like snow “rear end deep to a giraffe” was coming. We stocked up and wrangled up all the loose giraffes and waited. We now have 3 inches of snow, sleet and ice with it blowing sleet now. This is to continue all night before ending as snow tomorrow. Hopefully no more freezing rain. Going out is pointless.
But Whitewall you are well glad are you not that, ol’ JK – iced in (in circumstance not quite expected) “advised” GET BEER … fu*k batteries are you not?
Because, as you now undoubtedly recognize, (providing of course that ice fell as mine did … which, I expect likely as you say “pointless”)
I’d further explain my peculiar situation Whitewall – but I am no longer free to do on the blogs as, mere weeks ago I was as … well.
That’s all I dare say.
Well maybe (very slightly further) “one should not give out exactly which blogs [nor, for damn certain the ID one regularly comments with] because, though one figured “One will likely be single from here on out” … shit happens etc.
As Duff might put it, She who cannot be ignored etc etc.
That’s quite a whipping you’ve taken there, JK.
Ye p.
http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2016/01/you-read-it-here-first.html
JK, here is the money quote from your linked article:
I know the emphasized portion of the quote to be an indisputable fact.
Henry, the name David Petraeus will loom large I’ll bet as this story unravels. If enough evidence is found–there is already more than enough–for FBI Director Comey to hand over for a Grand Jury to consider charges, all eyes on Loretta Lynch. Does she stall for time, refuse to act or maybe quite possibly resign her office? Whatever happens, I expect the FBI rank and file to revolt if necessary. That would be a good place for more massive protests to begin.
And actually Henry, Whitewall, there’s another name that should also be looming large.
From Wiki:
Bradley Edward Manning is a United States Army soldier who was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, … sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years’ imprisonment, … Assigned in 2009 to an Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst, Manning had access to classified databases. In early 2010, leaked classified information and confided this to Adrian Lamo. Lamo informed Army Counterintelligence (*as required by statute – JK), and Manning was arrested in May that same year. The material included … 251,287 U.S. diplomatic cables … Denver Nicks [biographer] writes that the leaked material, particularly the diplomatic cables, was widely seen as a catalyst for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010.
Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.
JK, thanks. I had completely forgotten about him…her…it. Whatever! This thing surrounding Hillary for much of her professional life..non stop corruption.. really gets down to the nub of what we are as a representative republic. She believes in her current mental illness reality that she is above all laws. There are people in her party covering for her. I was trained to call people like that ‘traitors and enemies’.
http://thefederalist.com/2016/01/26/obamas-chief-of-staff-admits-they-want-tyranny/
That’s painfully weak even by your low standards, OEM. A white, middle-class suburb that votes Republican wouldn’t have gotten its finances so titanically screwed up by that many decades of Democratic populism that it needed to be “saved”.
There’s a lot about the Dems that I dislike, but I positively loathe their addiction to what one might call circumstantialism. By which I mean the idea that success in life is due chiefly to outside factors– how people treat you– and almost not at all to what’s in your head. No bigger lie was ever told. What black people ought to hate is the degree to which white liberal pity has infantilized them.
Thomas Sowell, an African American scholar whom I admire very much, has been saying the same thing for years. Alas, most African Americans hate him, presumably because they don’t want to hear that kind of wisdom. I suspect that has a lot to do with shunning personal accountability. Too uncomfortable, doncha know?
Daniel Dennett, in one of his excellent books on free will, said:
“If you make yourself small enough, you can externalize everything.”
Although Dennett wrote this in a narrow philosophical context, the idea is very apt for this topic as well.
For more on the original context, see our series on free will, starting with this post.
I might also mention that the Flint situation was the result not of Republican pennypinching, but of pressure in favor of a Keynesian infrastructure project:
https://reason.com/blog/2016/01/25/the-flint-water-crisis-is-the-result-of
Not that OEM will be able to hear something that contradicts a cheap way to rationalize his emotions, but I thought I’d mention it for everyone else.
Even the OEM’s low standards are not his own. His screed comes directly from the Leftist Commissariat, which he worshiply sucks on for “intellectual nourishment” (narishkeit in Yiddish).
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/40128