Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

The revolution will be supervised.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

This blog will pay for itself.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Innocent people do not delay justice.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

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27Comments

  1. 1.

    jenniebee

    Don’t know if you read Hullabaloo, but dday has a post up that is worth reading about the recent Sadr/Basra business – it links to this email from a jr. officer in iraq. A taste:

    In my opinion, what everyone fails to realize is that this is not a counterinsurgency. If we wanted to stay in Iraq, then it would be a counterinsurgency. But it is clear that our goal is to turn over power and pull out. So, in building our strategic endstate, it’s pointless to set goals that relate to our presence in Iraq. If the “insurgency” is a function of our being there, then it is not an insurgency in terms of our endstate. For example, if one of our goals is to stop IED attacks on US forces, that is pointless. When we leave, there will be no more IED attacks on us forces. So our endstate needs to be different. We need to ask “if we left tomorrow, what would happen in Iraq?” and from there, we need to determine which of those anticipated results are unacceptable to us. Then we must aim our efforts on making sure those unacceptable results do not occur.

  2. 2.

    Punchy

    In my opinion, what everyone fails to realize is that this is not a counterinsurgency. If we wanted to stay in Iraq, then it would be a counterinsurgency. But it is clear that our goal is to turn over power and pull out. So, in building our strategic endstate, it’s pointless to set goals that relate to our presence in Iraq. If the “insurgency” is a function of our being there, then it is not an insurgency in terms of our endstate. For example, if one of our goals is to stop IED attacks on US forces, that is pointless. When we leave, there will be no more IED attacks on us forces. So our endstate needs to be different. We need to ask “if we left tomorrow, what would happen in Iraq?” and from there, we need to determine which of those anticipated results are unacceptable to us. Then we must aim our efforts on making sure those unacceptable results do not occur.

    I haven’t a friggin clue what any of this says, but especially the bolded part.

  3. 3.

    Xenos

    Cognitive dissonance, immense conspiracies, or widespread confusion and flailing about? These two do not belong together:

    April 2 (Bloomberg) — The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global growth this year and said there’s a 25 percent chance of a world recession, citing the worst financial crisis in the U.S. since the Great Depression.

    Stocks started the second quarter with a soaring rally on Tuesday that sent the Dow Jones industrial average up nearly 400 points, its best performance in two weeks, as investors found reasons to take heart in a fresh round of mortgage-related write-offs at UBS and Deutsche Bank and a capital infusion at Lehman Brothers, the brokerage firm.

    I don’t know about the rest of your, but tens of billions of dollars of write-off at a weekly rate does not do much to make me feel we are averting a crisis. I doubt the IMF knows something that Wall Street does not. Is this a type of dead-cat bounce that occurs before the main drop takes place? is there such a thing as a mortally- wounded- cat- bouncing- off- a- ledge- before- it- goes- into- free-fall- down- the- Grand- Canyon- like- Wile- E.- Coyote Bounce?

  4. 4.

    jake

    Maybe your ‘nons went down because the Feeb pulled the wrong wire.

    NEW YORK – The military is using the FBI to skirt legal restrictions on domestic surveillance to obtain private records of Americans’ Internet service providers, financial institutions and telephone companies, the ACLU said Tuesday.

    Braaawk! If you’ve done nothing wrong you’ve got nothing to hide! [whistle]

    J.F.C. I don’t want to say these are the actions of a Banana Republic, but these are the actions of a Banana Republic.

  5. 5.

    John Cole

    I haven’t a friggin clue what any of this says, but especially the bolded part.

    Essentially, he is accusing the people arguing for a permanent presence of tautological thinking, in that if the insurgency exists only to attack us and we are staying there only to stamp out the insurgency, well, you get the point.

  6. 6.

    Jen

    The basic idea, Punchy, is: If we’re really going to leave this place, we need to fight like we’re leaving, not like we’re going to be here forever.

    I saw this yesterday and thought, what a freakin’ surprise that a junior officer is a better military strategist than Rumsfeld.

  7. 7.

    Jen

    Also, Barack (Hussein he’s the best? I’m sayin’ he’s the best!) Obama raised $30 mil in March to HRC’s $20 mil, but they are not reporting what I want to know, which is whether or not I won dinner with him.

  8. 8.

    Xenos

    I haven’t a friggin clue what any of this says, but especially the bolded part.

    I think this means that if we are not occupying the country, there can’t be an insurgency. Unless the insurgency is aimed at making us stay in the country, contrary to our policy of getting out of the country. In which case, I would say, the insurgency is succeeding if we take the administration at its word that it will leave when the insurgency is over.

    In the alternate, the insurgency is succeeding if the administration is lying to us and our real policy is for a permanent occupation, because then the insurgency would actually be an insurgency, and not a non-insurgency that looks like an insurgency, due to our non-occupation actually being an occupation.

    I hope that helped. It sure gave me a headache to write it.

    Whatever is going on, it sure does not feel like winning.

  9. 9.

    Jen

    Oh, I promise this will be the last from me for a little while, but while you’re catching up JC, Wal-Mart backed off their judgment against the Shank family. Will wonders ever cease.

  10. 10.

    John Cole

    I would like to point out here, since I don’t want to front page it, that Captain Ed is circulating a hit piece about Hillary from a former employer. You can go check it out yourself.

    Know what is missing from the memeorandum page? Link from bunches of Obama supporters rushing to spread the right-wing attack piece on Hillary.

    If the role was reversed, Talk Left, hillaryis44, No quarter, etc., would all be pimping it claiming that it is “devastating news” for Obama and doing their damned best to advance the meme into the mainstream media.

  11. 11.

    Xenos

    Has Hillary ever been employed outside her stint as a Ciongressional staffer and as an adjunct law prof?

    I fear I shall have to go to the Cap’n’s site to find out.

  12. 12.

    ParagonPark

    The only thing left for TalkLeft is to hire Jason Leopold and publish a story claiming that Obama has been indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald and told he has three days to tidy up his affairs.

  13. 13.

    Punchy

    The basic idea, Punchy, is: If we’re really going to leave this place, we need to fight like we’re leaving, not like we’re going to be here forever.

    Thanks John, Jen, etc. I didn’t understand what “endstate” meant in the context that it was utilized.

    As for the above blockquote, I give you THIS:

    The failure of Iraqi forces to defeat rogue fighters in Basra has some in the military fearing they can no longer predict when it might be possible to reduce the number of troops to pre-surge levels.

    “It’s more complicated now,” said one officer in Iraq whose role has been critical to American planning there.

    I really wish this was something I should brag about, but I’ve been saying this for over a year: we aint NEVER pulling ANY troops out of Iraq before late Sept/early Oct. They claim the military rotations demand a sooner deployment — just you watch how they’ll “fix” that problem. We’re there all summer.

    God damn I feel bad for those guys overseas fighting this crap.

  14. 14.

    Jake

    Look at the comments after the hit piece. Even the nutjobs over at HotAir know another nutjob when they see it. I think one can safely conclude that it’s more of a pop up than a hit.

  15. 15.

    Dennis - SGMM

    The failure of Iraqi forces to defeat rogue fighters in Basra has some in the military fearing they can no longer predict when it might be possible to reduce the number of troops to pre-surge levels.

    “It’s more complicated now,” said one officer in Iraq whose role has been critical to American planning there.

    Oh, cool. Especially in view of this (From WaPo):
    Heavy Troop Deployments Are Called Major Risk

    Senior Army and Marine Corps leaders said yesterday that the increase of more than 30,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has put unsustainable levels of stress on U.S. ground forces and has put their readiness to fight other conflicts at the lowest level in years.

    In a stark assessment a week before Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is to testify on the war’s progress, Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff, said that the heavy deployments are inflicting “incredible stress” on soldiers and families and that they pose “a significant risk” to the nation’s all-volunteer military.

    The article goes on to explain that we have no troops left should the balloon go up elsewhere. Moreover, the troops are no longer re-training, they’re just deploying over and over again. They’re no longer working with or training for the full range of weapons at their disposal, focusing instead on those needed for Iraq.

  17. 17.

    leinie

    Anybody watch Frontline last night? About the Bad Voodoo platoon, riding protection for convoys all over Iraq, and hating the mission? “We’re driving around, waiting to get blown up.”

    Pretty compelling.

  18. 18.

    jenniebee

    Feeling compelled to add my own 2c, it means that if they’re only fighting us because we’re there, and we don’t really want to be there anyway, then the most efficient way to stop them from fighting isn’t to stay and beat them down, it’s just to make everybody happy and GTFO.

    Of course, this thinking obscures the Preznit’s true strategic goal, which is (in simple terms) SUCK ON THIS. Even if it would solve all the problems to leave, we can’t leave as long as it’s clear that they want us to, because to do so would be to be perceived to accede to the wishes of a weaker power. That’s one of the “unacceptable” outcomes of withdrawal. Another is the protection of and opportunities for expansions for US business interests in Iraq. A significant part of Bush’s remaining political support is not from the people who read the likes of Malkin, but from the people who pay her, and they know that – for them – Iraq was always about opening up to US trade a new market that had oil money to spend. That’s why they’re hot for Iran, guarantee you there’s somebody making the rounds in DC every day, letting anybody who will talk to him know that it’s our patriotic duty to send planes over Tehran, all because he’s already lined up the option for all the McDonalds franchise rights in Iran. So right now, there’s no likely endpoint that pays off on the investment that group has had the US taxpayer make on their behalf, and that makes leaving a no-go.

  19. 19.

    The Other Steve

    I would like to point out here, since I don’t want to front page it, that Captain Ed is circulating a hit piece about Hillary from a former employer. You can go check it out yourself.

    It’s actually a link to hotair, which I just discovered has been blocked by our corporate firewall. Probably because of the video content would be my guess.

  20. 20.

    John Cole

    Anybody watch Frontline last night? About the Bad Voodoo platoon, riding protection for convoys all over Iraq, and hating the mission? “We’re driving around, waiting to get blown up.”

    Pretty compelling.

    Actually, yes.

    The thing that was so striking to me was how young SFC Nunn is. He is younger than me 9I would guess 34 or so). I remember when I was active duty, SFC Francois, my platoon leader, looked ancient compared to all of us 18-19 year olds.

    Of course, when the average age of your platoon is 19-22, 35 looks ancient. I remember thinking our squadron Sergeant Major looked like a grandfather.

    I also had forgotten how military guys talk- “We got all our fingers and all our toes and most important all our joes.” I wonder if there has ever been a serious study of military rhetoric.

  21. 21.

    jake

    Senior Army and Marine Corps leaders said yesterday that the increase of more than 30,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has put unsustainable levels of stress on U.S. ground forces and has put their readiness to fight other conflicts at the lowest level in years.

    Waaah! Why do Senior Army & Marine Corps leaders hate our Troops(R)?

    To the sandboxes brave citizens. We must show that our brave Troops(R) could stay in IraNistan for a thousand years!

  22. 22.

    Dennis - SGMM

    The thing that was so striking to me was how young SFC Nunn is.

    Average age in Vietnam was nineteen. See Paul Hardcastle’s YouTube video of “Nineteen” if you want a quick summary of that other sorry mess (Can’t get the link to work). As a twenty-four-year-old NCO I was the Old Man of my unit.

  23. 23.

    leinie

    I also had forgotten how military guys talk- “We got all our fingers and all our toes and most important all our joes.” I wonder if there has ever been a serious study of military rhetoric.

    Would be interesting. I had to laugh at the beginning, when the Sgt. was telling the guys they’d have to cut back on their cursing, and they came up with the “alternative” comment to their going out to fuck some stuff up.

    You’re right – they all looked so young. Fascinating and heart wrenching show.

  24. 24.

    Original Lee

    Since this is an open thread, the ostensible reason Al Wynn of MD is resigning in June (after he tries to pass some key legislation for his new buddies) is to allow his successor, Donna Edwards, to have seniority over other freshman representatives, because his district will hold a special election this summer to replace him. Thanks for screwing over your taxpayers again, Al – special elections aren’t cheap.

  25. 25.

    Dreggas

    Oh Snap!

    Obama speaking today:

    “There’s been some talk about Rocky Balboa over the last couple days. And you know we all love Rocky,” Obama told the labor leaders.

    “But we got to remember Rocky was a movie,” Obama continued. “And so is the idea that someone can fight for working people and at the same time, embrace the broken system Washington, where corporate lobbyists use their clout to shape laws to their liking.”

  26. 26.

    dj spellchecka

    it seems after last weeks failed attempt to attack al-sadr, maliki has had to replace a bunch of his army.

    juan cole explains: ”

    The induction of Badr Corps fighters (the paramilitary of ISCI) and those of the Da’wa Party into security positions came in the wake of the firing of thousands of officers and troops who had refused to obey orders to fire on the Mahdi Army militiamen in Baghdad and the southern provinces. They were accused of mutiny.

    If al-Zaman’s reporting is correct, the scale of the mutiny is breathtaking, and helps explain why government troops did so poorly against the Sadrists– the hearts of the thousands of them were simply not with the fight.”

  27. 27.

    Conservatively Liberal

    I would like to point out here, since I don’t want to front page it, that Captain Ed is circulating a hit piece about Hillary from a former employer. You can go check it out yourself.

    Know what is missing from the memeorandum page? Link from bunches of Obama supporters rushing to spread the right-wing attack piece on Hillary.

    If the role was reversed, Talk Left, hillaryis44, No quarter, etc., would all be pimping it claiming that it is “devastating news” for Obama and doing their damned best to advance the meme into the mainstream media.

    What?! You are not going to front page this story! I am, um, uh, hmmm, well I AM something! What it is I am not sure of but give me a few weeks and I am sure that I will figure it out.

    In the meantime, I am going to rush right over there and see the latest Hillary slam! Ok, I will after I get some rest, but for sure then! Oh, right. I have to mount the oil cooler and the new braided stainless lines on my motorcycle after I rest. THEN I will rush right, oops! I have to pick the wife up from work because she will be shopping afterward, and I will have to help put the groceries…

    Ahhh hell, I guess I will have to leave this to everyone else. I have more important things to do

    But I AM SOMETHING!!! That I am sure of. I think.

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