Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Everybody saw this coming.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The willow is too close to the house.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

192Comments

  3. 3.

    big ole hound

    Netanyahu telling us not to second guess him and then we re-arm him. Our chicken shit congress does this and nothing else before their vacay, My hate of politicians is spilling over to Israel and it seems I am not alone. Stop manufacturing and selling arms to anyone realizing this would cause some great pork barrel unemployment. Screw all the politicians and warmongers worldwide. They are leaches on us all. Grrr

  5. 5.

    Tommy

    @Death Panel Truck: I can make fun of the Brits 24/7. But what I can’t explain, and listening to the Who’s Greatest Hits cause of you, Can’t Explain, is why their music is at the core of the stuff I like the most.

  8. 8.

    Tommy

    @big ole hound: This is my take on this. We bombed them so much we ran out of bombs. We need more. We (meaning America) are like sure, here have some more. Seems like what is happening. Most of my clients are Jewish. I am not. Heck my best client just got back from Israel last week. Wanted to take his 13 year old daughter there. You ask them about this topic and they sound as liberal as I am if not more so. They are unhappy about it all. Pissed off to be honest.

  9. 9.

    Tommy

    @MattF: LOL in not such a good way. There are a few things I expect or want my government to do for me. If I was hiking and Iran took me in as a terrorist. I would like America to hop to my aid. Same if it got something like Ebola. I’d be like dude can you help me?

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    Just a heads-up that this coming Wednesday on TCM is Paul Muni day, 24 hours of his movies beginning 6 a.m. Eastern. Muni was once of those actors who gave his all no matter the role, no matter how lightweight the film might otherwise be, and it’s always worth watching him apply his theatrical flair.

    If had to choose just one of the films being shown to recommend, it would be I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (based on a true story), airing at 8 p.m. Eastern.

  11. 11.

    WereBear

    @big ole hound: Have we made no progress since 1914? Apparently not.

    I’ve had an enormously productive 24 hours by attending a play for work, (which didn’t stop me enjoying it, it was a community theatre production of Harvey,) actually getting a good night’s sleep, and updating my fussy iPod (it helped when I realized it had given me multiple copies of my favorite podcasts, thus filling up all my memory.)

    So I’m rewarding myself with All About Eve. This is probably my tenth time… and it only gets better.

    That’s a great movie.

  12. 12.

    Jay C

    @MattF:

    Donald Trump, [insert topic here], makes a fool of himself:

    And this is reported as “news”??

    Seriously, I were one of those unfortunate Ebola patients, or a friend or family member, I’d feel a lot more confident of their pulling through being treated at a top-notch American hospital, rather than the ramshackle 2×4-and Tyvek facilities they have to deal with in Africa. Though I gather that surviving Ebola is a matter of pure chance in any case.

  13. 13.

    big ole hound

    @Tommy: As you say, we have been coerced by tiny Israel to supply their military against every perceived threat so Israeli- Americans can have a ringside seat to war. What a great way to spend the summer for the kids. “How I spent my summer vacation” or Camp Granada for the Jews.

  14. 14.

    ? Martin

    @MattF: I’m sorry, but I have to again point out that ‘conservatism’ has become wholly synonymous with ‘fucking coward’. They’re afraid of germs, they’re afraid of refugee children (sending militias and the national guard being clear evidence). They’re afraid of Muslims, gays, atheists, and minorities in general. They’re so fucking afraid that they’re running around demanding the ability to carry military weapons for day to day interactions. They are developing this truly pathological victimization mindset.

    I just cannot see them as anything other than sniveling cowards any longer – and that’s not a group of people I’m willing to vote for or associate with.

  15. 15.

    Tommy

    @Jay C: It is bizarre. I got rid of cable TV months ago. I see something like this on Democratic Now. Super liberal show. I think god I am lucky I live in the US. Sure maybe Finland is better. But I will take my ER and that I have one above most other nations.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jay C:

    the ramshackle 2×4-and Tyvek facilities they have to deal with in Africa.

    I think you might be underestimating the better African hospitals here, particularly those in the major cities. Also, I imagine there are African doctors and nurses with more firsthand experience treating Ebola than their counterparts in even the finest American hospital.

  19. 19.

    Tommy

    @big ole hound: As a kid out of college I didn’t know anybody in DC. My Jewish boss brought me to her house time and time again. Let me say that again, time and time again knowing I was an atheist. Included me. As you might expect I recall things like that. She would say as I say this shit is fucked up.

  20. 20.

    ? Martin

    @Amir Khalid:

    Also, I imagine African doctors and nurses certainly have more firsthand experience treating Ebola than even the finest American hospital.

    Firsthand experience handling volumes of Ebola patients, sure, but the hospitals that we have which are associated with the CDC and other groups like the Army Infectious Disease group really are the best in the world at this kind of stuff. They effectively have infinite resources. Doctors aren’t going to be torn between dozens of patients. Each american is going to have the best isolation room that exists and more doctors and nurses trained in this stuff than will fit in that room. We have loads of doctors with experience treating ebola – that’s why we send our doctors out to do such work with such frequency.

    I don’t think African doctors deserve any criticism over their skills and experience, but as a matter of infrastructure – facilities, access to equipment and medicine, volume of resources that can be brought to bear to a problem, Africa remains a huge problem compared to the US – particularly at the high end. We can’t manage to get water to people in the Superdome in an emergency, but you need a jet and ambulance outfitted for transferring infectious patients and 20 ebola experts in Atlanta in 12 hours – that we can do easily.

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    I don’t subscribe to Cinemax, but Steven Soderbergh’s latest project, “The Knick,” sounds binge-watching worthy:

    The Burns Archive, a trove of more than a million historic photographs crammed into a ramshackle townhouse on East 38th Street in Manhattan, is well known to scholars as one of the world’s most important repositories of early medical history ….

    But last summer, the place briefly took on another identity. … [C]ast members of “The Knick,” Steven Soderbergh’s new period medical series, which has its premiere on Cinemax on Aug. 8, came by for immersive tutorials in the sometimes gruesome world of early-20th-century surgery, complete with plenty of hands-on practice on silicone limbs.

    ….There are no monsters on “The Knick,” in which [Clive] Owen plays John Thackery, a brilliant, driven surgeon trying to take the profession “out of the barbershop and into the future,” as he puts it, while his hospital struggles to stay afloat amid the social tumult of New York in the year 1900. In fact, many of the show’s most seemingly gothic elements, from Thackery’s cocaine and opium addiction to the sometimes surreal surgeries he and his colleagues perform to the grim body count, are taken pretty much straight from the history books.

  23. 23.

    Jay C

    @Amir Khalid: @? Martin:

    I’m sure you’re right, Amir, about the quality of African medical facilities in some places, but from what I have seen on news reports (and no, I like to think I’m smart enough not to rely solely on the media for reliable information!) the Ebola outbreaks seem to be mainly in non-urban areas (or at least that’s what has been shown) – and the healthcare infrastructure in those locations is, well, fairly sub-optimal.

    And yes, you’re also right about the first-hand-experience factor: though, from what I’ve seen and read about Ebola, there is not a lot anyone can do about it: just try to keep it from spreading.

  25. 25.

    raven

    The news jackasses have a fucking chopper following the ebola ambulance from Dobbins to Emory and they are all breathless. Alex Witt wants to know if Emory is better than the hospital in Liberia.

  26. 26.

    Suffern ACE

    @Tommy: I reserve the right to be pissed at you for hiking in Iran when you know what has happened to hikers in the past and there are plenty of other trails in the world. At the same time, there are only so many places to go to help fight a disease, and so few volunteers capable of helping that I would expect the government to do better than send you to Hells Island Quarantine Center to die alone.

  27. 27.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Tommy: Speaking of clients, I made a comment about your fired client letter downstairs.

  28. 28.

    FlyingToaster

    @raven: A CDC research unit in an American hospital is somehow less able to perform an experimental treatment than the JFK Medical Center in Monrovia?

    Our commerical media is fucked up beyond repair. I want Al Jazeera back on my cable system already.

  29. 29.

    Suffern ACE

    @big ole hound: did they? I think the Senate left town without voting on the issue. Republicans blocked it because the funding for Israel didn’t come out of school lunch programs and UNICEF donations. Or was that resolved?

  31. 31.

    raven

    @FlyingToaster: The head of the Vandy School of medicine is on and he’s telling this twit that any hospital in America could deal with this. Apparently Trump tweeted that we have enough problems and these patients should be kept out!

  32. 32.

    Suffern ACE

    @raven: Obama is just bringing in those Ebola patients so that he can make them citizens and swing the election to the democrats. I’m onto him.

  33. 33.

    raven

    They are bringing the patient in a Grady ambulance. When I broke my back I was in Grady but my surgeon was an Emory orthopod.

  34. 34.

    raven

    The coverage on MSNBC is incredible. This idiot announcer is trying to paint this as some terrifying event and every medical expert she has talked to has said that they would relish the chance to work on such a case.

  36. 36.

    Josie

    @? Martin:

    We can’t manage to get water to people in the Superdome in an emergency,

    Can’t or won’t? It seems to be a matter of motivation.

  37. 37.

    Iowa Old Lady

    “Ebola” gets headlines, clicks, and eyeballs. “Folks,” ditto. The need for medical research and aid, and our use of torture? Not so much. I am sick of it all.

  41. 41.

    Suffern ACE

    @Gin & Tonic: but don’t worry. We here at balloon juice will make memorial donations to the charity of her choice, so it will even out in the end.

  42. 42.

    Kathleen

    @WereBear: I think I’ve seen that movie 10 or more times also. I never get tired of it. Timeless themes and relationships. I feel the same way about Casablanca.

  43. 43.

    Suffern ACE

    @Suffern ACE: it does make me wonder though. If we all succumb to Ebola, will there be enough commenters and front pagers left to carry on. I think BJ would be down to Amir, Randy and SPT, LT, Debbie and littlebrnft (sp).

  46. 46.

    pamelabrown53

    @WereBear: “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night”. Love “All About Eve” ; great movie to revisit.

    Recently, I had a chance encounter with an Annette Bening movie, “About Julia” where Julia, unlike Eve, actually turns the tables on the ruthless aspiring young actress. It had a good supporting cast with Jeremy Irons and Shaun Evans, the young “Inspector Morse”, aka “Endeavour”.

    Enjoy your well-earned pleasure.

  47. 47.

    Anoniminous

    @MattF:

    Why should the average American care about interdicting, thus stopping, a disease with a 60% mortality rate spreading across the US?

  50. 50.

    pamelabrown53

    @big ole hound: Seriously, sounds anti-semitic. It’s horrible that you label all American Jews as warmongers wanting a safe ring-side seat from America. Frankly, your comment is disgusting and not Balloon Juice worthy.

  51. 51.

    FlyingToaster

    @Suffern ACE: I’ve lived under RomneyCare for 8 years, and somehow the life expectancy in the Commonwealth People’s Republic of Massachusetts has gone up! And the school kids have fewer absences (modulo their parents not being anti-vaxxers).

    @raven: Yep. While not every hospital has a full-bore isolation facility, every teaching hospital that I’m aware of DOES. And I believe the CDC is less than a mile away up Clifton Road NE from Emory University Hospital.

  56. 56.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Noisemax strikes again!

    NRCC Head Greg Walden: Something is ‘Terribly Wrong in Washington’

    Yes. They’re called teatards.

  61. 61.

    pamelabrown53

    @schrodinger’s cat: I don’t know what you’re missing but for me “Casablanca” is at the top of my all time greatest hits. I love the story, the cast, the dialog and the score.

  68. 68.

    scav

    Horrors! A wealthy Idle man complaining about a probably relatively wealthy productive and highly trained man getting health care following infection after contributing to the welfare of others. What is the free-market health care system coming to! This socialism has just gone too far I’m telling you. Haummph Harummph Harummph. The joys of learning that supposedly the finest health care system the world and invisible free hand can produce and should not at all be interfered with is functionally equivalent to some hastily assembled epidemic facilities in rural areas is also providing a certain mild amusement.

  70. 70.

    nalbar

    The autoplay I get when I come here is;
    ‘We will NEVER surrender’
    and then again
    We will NEVER surrender’
    and then it cuts off suddenly

    It’s in some strange movie dialogue voice, in the background. There is no pop up, and no ad playing. It’s happened for quite awhile (off and on for at least a week).
    It’s so strange I am sure everyone will think I am making it all up and say ‘Fuck you, clown’.

    Hey, I been called worse.

  71. 71.

    FlipYrWhig

    I think the Ebola story is being added into the migrants/refugees story to form one big ball of panic about the Invasion Of The Infectious Outsiders. Lotta PhD theses are going to be written about this nonsense in 50 years or so.

  73. 73.

    big ole hound

    @pamelabrown53: Dangerously close? Once again, anti Israel is not anti semitic. Why is this so hard to fathom? I did not label anyone except those that want to travel there in a time of war for a ringside seat. The warmongers.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    Hey, Omnes, how are you celebrating our birthday? (Tomorrow is also someone else’s birthday from around here — Cassidy, maybe?)

    Anyhow, I know it’s a major, ending-in-zero day for you. Wishing you all the best in case I don’t see you again before The Day.

  76. 76.

    PurpleGirl

    @nalbar: Did you post this comment in the thread immediately below this one (“Site Maintenance”). And lots of regulars have been commenting on autoplays, pop-ups, and the surrender thing.

  80. 80.

    MomSense

    @Suffern ACE:

    it does make me wonder though. If we all succumb to Ebola, will there be enough commenters and front pagers left to carry on. I think BJ would be down to Amir, Randy and SPT, LT, Debbie and littlebrnft (sp).

    According to a commenter who must not be named, most of us are actually sitting in cubicles in a basement at the Pentagon (or was it Langley??) so BJ should ride this out just fine.

  81. 81.

    scav

    @PurpleGirl: I was thinking that looked a bit familiar and characteristically not quite feathered to recent conversations. Part of the overall program or is my sub-hobby of internet suspicions getting out of hand again?

  82. 82.

    MomSense

    @? Martin:

    A study done in the UK supports your observation.

    A study at University College London in the UK has found that conservatives’ brains have larger amygdalas than the brains of liberals. Amygdalas are responsible for fear and other “primitive” emotions. At the same time, conservatives’ brains were also found to have a smaller anterior cingulate — the part of the brain responsible for courage and optimism.

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/28/conservatives-fear-center-brain/

  86. 86.

    PurpleGirl

    @scav: It could also be that my mind is quite filled with cultural references (pop or not). No surrender becomes never surrender becomes Galaxy Quest dialogue.

  107. 107.

    pamelabrown53

    @big ole hound: I understand the strong feelings against Israel. What I don’t understand is how you lumped every American jew into your “enjoying the carnage from the sidelines” scenario. How can you justify that statement?

  108. 108.

    p.a.

    Any news on/from Cole? Has he punched a hippie for trying to administer a toxin cleansing enema? (Hope I’m not being too glib. Know some people who have gone through it. Some went smoothly, some were horrible. One friend solo cold turkeyed off heroin. Said he barely slept for a month. Went borderline psychotic with hallucinations.)

  112. 112.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @p.a.:

    Went borderline psychotic with hallucinations.

    The Ted Cruz experience can be very traumatizing, yes.

  113. 113.

    pamelabrown53

    @Mike E: I enjoyed “Being Julia” too. Especially because I found it serendipitously and thus had no expectations beyond “what a great cast”.

  118. 118.

    Suffern ACE

    @scav: nah. I tend to avoid management. That’s why I don’t buy that marked up vending machine food that they “provide” us as a “benefit.” I know the score. Just because I work to sow confusion and obfuscation covering for our most reckless blunders and vile policies doesn’t mean I can’t be said to stick it to the man now and again.

  122. 122.

    Anoniminous

    @Amir Khalid:

    Yes in that they have first hand clinical experience.

    No in that Doctors Without Borders, WHO, and African doctors have experience with Ebola outbreaks in rural areas. This is the first time it’s made the jump to major cities. Nobody in the world has experience with that.

    At the moment Ebola is unsuccessful organism in human hosts. It kills the host too rapidly and it contagious rate is very low. Now that it is in major cities it will encounter hosts with other infections, e.g., influenza, with a high rate of contagion. Thus the odds of Ebola mutating and gaining a high rate of contagion are good. Well. For the Ebola virus. Not so much for humans.

  125. 125.

    scav

    @Suffern ACE: Well, I tried eating the cushions with the mustard found underneath, but . …… I was really hungry and haven’t managed a way out for months now …..

  128. 128.

    Joy in FL

    I wanted to post an update on Goathouse Refuge. That story really got to me– not sure why. When I checked their website this morning, I saw some information about having donations doubled. I thought some of you would be interested to know that and possibly contribute, or even contribute again. So here’s that link.

  134. 134.

    srv

    Obama destroys West Virginia:

    One the biggest U.S. coal companies, Alpha Natural Resources, announced they will lay off 1,100 workers. The company has 11 mines in West Virginia, and communities in the state are horrified at the removal of the staple job stability they have come to depend on. The average salary of a coal miner is around $85,000 – much needed income to keep the towns fueled and running. The elimination of the positions comes after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched public meetings to address carbon emissions.

  138. 138.

    PurpleGirl

    @srv: Why am I suspicious of the salary number? Did they include the CEO and all management in the averaging calculation? Are Alpha Natural Resource’s mines union or non-union?

  139. 139.

    James E. Powell

    @srv:

    It’s got nothing to do with Obama or the EPA. If you want to know why those miners are getting laid off, just ask Alpha:

    It’s due to a combination of familiar factors, Alpha said: competition from cheaper natural gas, weak domestic and international markets and low coal prices. Prices of coal sent to Europe for power are at a four-year low, and prices for steel-producing coal have dipped more than 20 percent in less than a year, Alpha said.

    Another driving factor is that Appalachian coal just isn’t as accessible anymore. Thick, easy-to-reach seams have been largely picked clean.

    “Many mines in the region have done a great job finding ways to reduce costs and remain economically viable in this unprecedented business climate,” said Alpha President Paul Vining, “but some Central Appalachia mines haven’t been able to keep up with the fast pace at which coal demand has eroded and prices have fallen.”

  141. 141.

    WereBear

    In other news, I made my own mayo yesterday, using a mason jar and a stick blender, and I’m ecstatic. I’m planning to use fresh dill… macadamia nut oil… horseradish… it’s so darn easy!

  142. 142.

    Baud

    Anyone from Toledo? Via Reddit, water is contaminated with algae produced toxins. No drinking or touching water apparently.

  145. 145.

    ? Martin

    @James E. Powell: In the US, the leveled cost of electricity from coal is the same or higher than for wind, natural gas, hydro, and commercial solar. There’s no cost advantage to coal, and with record low interest rates, everyone is better off with higher capital cost plants such as solar and wind than with high recurring cost plant such as coal.

    Anyone who is in this for the next 3 decades is running from coal. And there’s a PR cost to those energy companies now as well. Why keep fighting the EPA when it’s just as, or more cost effective to not build a coal plant?

  146. 146.

    Gin & Tonic

    Football (soccer) fans in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, today, marching through the streets before the Metalist (Kharkiv) vs Dynamo (Kiev) match, chanting the well-known “Putin khuilo!” slogan. What I find interesting is that the banner at the head of the column, on the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian national colors, says “Kharkiv is Ukraine.” In Russian. As I have been saying for months, the purported division between Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians is a myth.

  147. 147.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Gin & Tonic:

    As I have been saying for months, the purported division between Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians is a myth.

    Our local myth spreader is Bob Romanov.

  150. 150.

    scav

    @efgoldman: Well, getting a Mason to emulsify with anything but another Mason, is rather a trick. Stick Blenders just don’t have the handshake.

  152. 152.

    Bob In Portland

    @Villago Delenda Est: If there is no division why has the “anti-terror” campaign been going on for four months? Are the Ukrainians fighting with their best lemurs? It’s awful slow considering that there is no division between Russian speakers and the fascists. Sorry, mates, but some people actually remember what the fascists did the last time they were in power. And some people actually resent having their homes flattened by mortars and their families killed by the Ukie army.

    Four months. Or is it five yet? How many more months? Will they eliminate the terrorists before winter?

    Also, what about the deal being brokered between Merkel and Putin? It’s essentially natural gas to Ukraine in exchange for Crimea and a devolved, federalized eastern Ukraine where death squads cannot operate and people can speak Russian. Or don’t you believe in negotiating? How about the California National Guard training with the Ukrainian army? Here or there? And what happens when one of those Californians gets shot?

  155. 155.

    PurpleGirl

    @? Martin: This brings to mind the experience of Tucson Electric Power in the late 80s and early 90s. With the lower prices of coal and the potential for selling power to utilities in California, they began planning the Springerville coal plants. There were to be 4 plants. They built one and began generating and selling the power. In the meantime, the prices of gas went down, coal prices began going up; they mothballed Springerville 2 without bringing it on-line, put building Springerville 3 on hold and never moved to get construction plans for Springerville 4. I think they eventually brought Springerville 2 on-line and stopped there. It’s been a while since I looked at their website to see how the company was doing.

  156. 156.

    Amir Khalid

    @Bob In Portland:

    It’s essentially natural gas to Ukraine in exchange for Crimea and a devolved, federalized eastern Ukraine where death squads cannot operate and people can speak Russian.

    Germany and Russia are negotiating over Russia trading natural gas for the sovereign territory of Ukraine? Yeah, sounds legit to me.

  158. 158.

    Bob In Portland

    @Amir Khalid: Ah, the Kosovo Rule. You probably didn’t even notice it when it happened. But we know that there was a time in the 90s when the Serbs were the designated bad guys, so lopping off a piece of their country was just hunky dory for you. And pushing a half million “folks” out of Krajina was okey dokey too. Unfortunately, after all that bombing there were a lot more “folks” who died there than in Russia’s military operations in Crimea.

    How about the US “infringing” on the sovereignty of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, et al? I guess around here if you get mildly upset by what the US does to “some folks” it’s okay to exchange recipes and kick back for some lemonade in our quickly warming world.

  161. 161.

    Bob In Portland

    @Amir Khalid: Yes, and Texas is soon to be transferred back to Mexico. And Florida to the Seminoles. If you want to draw the line on sovereignty with a place that has a longer history with Russia than Ukraine, most of whose inhabitants are glad to be rid of the Ukie fascists, then you go ahead. The Ukies accept international volunteers.

  167. 167.

    Amir Khalid

    @Bob In Portland:
    You’re the only person I’ve come across who refers to Ukraine and Ukrainians as “the Ukies”. Is it meant to be disparaging? It does sound like a good name for a ukelele band, though.

    By the way, Russia’s long history of sovereignty over Crimea doesn’t mean anything in the present day. Crimea is Ukrainian sovereign territory now and Russia has no more right to it.

  173. 173.

    muddy

    @scav: Speaking of handshake, I learned the other day that the bottom of blenders is the same as mason jars, and you can blend right in that. Mind blown!

    Am I the only one who didn’t get this glorious memo?

  174. 174.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid: Well, it’s not like Germany and Russia have never negotiated over the division of the territory of other sovereign states before. I mean, just ask Poland about that.

  176. 176.

    sm*t cl*de

    The news jackasses have a fucking chopper following the ebola ambulance from Dobbins to Emory and they are all breathless

    Puzzled, me. A couple of Americans want to go home. The staff at a hospital are keen to treat their colleagues. Why do Trump, or the media, or anyone else think they have a say?

  178. 178.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @debbie: Your link takes me to an article about a man trying to push a Brussels sprout up Mt. Snowdon with his nose. Admittedly this is both more interesting and valuable that a link to tweets by a short-fingered vulgarian, but it is not what you advertised.

  182. 182.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @debbie: I think that once you are pushing a Brussels sprout up Mt. Snowdon with your nose all else is ephemera.

  184. 184.

    cckids

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    The sprout article was pretty cool. I mean, what gives someone that idea?

    The headline definitely gives you pause: ” Stuart Kettell starts pushing sprout up Snowdon with nose”

    I mean, I’m not a huge Edward S. fan, but this seems extreme.

  192. 192.

    Bob In Portland

    @Villago Delenda Est: Who divided Korea? How about the US in Vietnam, when it blocked elections in 1954 and Vietnam became North and South? That worked out well. Lots of examples of people dividing territory.

    But if you don’t want Russia to keep Crimea, what do you plan to do to put it back in Ukraine? War? How far are you willing to go? Exchange of nukes? Low-level guerrilla warfare?

    More sanctions? And what is your best solution to Ukraine running out of natural gas in a few months?

    And what do you intend to do with those folks in eastern Ukraine? I realize that Gin says that all the rebels in eastern Ukraine aren’t Ukrainian (which, considering the OUN/B history is a little scary, considering how they’ve determined who’s Ukrainian or not in the past), but bear with me. How about Russian? Will people get to speak it for official business? What about Pravy Sektor? Okay to allow those fascist militias directed by oligarchs to keep operating?

    I asked the other day what BJers thought were the US and Russian national interests in Ukraine. I’ve asked the same questions in other forums. The best I’ve gotten is one poor soul who said the US has no interests in Ukraine, suggesting that we’re rattling sabers and are willing to risk nuclear war for fuck all. BJers certainly can’t identify any US national interests.

    All I get here besides ad hominems (the post-John Locke kind) are smarmy remarks. I presume that most people here want peace and most people here want some kind of negotiated settlement. Most people don’t want a nuclear war.

    So does anyone here have a solution? Let them keep fighting until the winter when Ukraine runs out of gas? Have the US Air Force do a Libya on the rebels? Flood Ukraine with NATO weapons?

    If I recall the west and the east divided up Germany at one point. The West divided up Yugoslavia in the 90s. How is dividing up Yugoslavia okay and dividing up Ukraine (or at least acknowledging that they lost Crimea) not okay?

    I realize that by asking so many questions here none of you will answer anything. You can’t.

Comments are closed.