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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: The Prince Who Would Be Viceroy

Open Thread: The Prince Who Would Be Viceroy

by | 212 Comments

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Erik “Don’t Call It Blackwater” Prince would very much like to be out of the country, and behind a wall of his personal mercenaries, should something really bad happen…

The White House is actively considering a bold plan to turn over a big chunk of the U.S. war in Afghanistan to private contractors in an effort to turn the tide in a stalemated war, according to the former head of a security firm pushing the project.

Under the proposal, 5,500 private contractors, primarily former Special Operations troops, would advise Afghan combat forces. The plan also includes a 90-plane private air force that would provide air support in the nearly 16-year-old war against Taliban insurgents, Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater security firm, told USA TODAY…

The plan remains under serious consideration within the White House despite misgivings by Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, an Army three-star general, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Other White House officials, such as chief strategist Stephen Bannon, appear open to using private contractors…

Prince rejects criticism that he and others would profit from it. He said it would represent a cost savings for American taxpayers. “The idea of innovation and risk taking is certainly part of America,” he said.

Blackwater has attracted controversy under Prince’s leadership. In 2007, four Blackwater security personnel were accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. Last week an appeals court overturned a murder conviction for one of the guards and ordered the other three to be re-sentenced.

Blackwater was renamed Xe Services two years after the incident that sparked international outrage. The privately owned company is now Academi…

How bad, you ask?…



.

Prince has been shilling his “Lord of the Great Game” fantasy for some time…

Didn’t work for the British Empire (does nobody read Kipling any more?), didn’t work for Alexander the Great, isn’t liable to work any better for a handful of sociopath grifters with MBAs…

Reader Interactions

212Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    Erik needs to go to North Korea first. The president’s magniloquent rhetoric has caused some problems for neighboring countries.

  2. 2.

    Mary G

    I guess the looting isn’t going fast enough for them? And the grunts they hire on the ground won’t be eligible for VA benefits, either, I’m guessing.

  3. 3.

    Morzer

    http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2017/8/8/04556/02297

    I’ve been chugging along for nine months since Donald Trump was elected, trying to make some kind of contribution to the preservation of my country. I feel like, somehow, I’ve managed to do some of my best writing in this period despite the fact that the task no longer carries any joy. It’s been a slog and I’ve been uncharacteristically irritable and short-tempered most of the time. The president has now gone on vacation and Congress is in recess, so I’m bugging out for the wilderness for ten days. Maybe it will recharge my batteries and I’ll find the old love of combat that carried me along for the first decade of this blog. Maybe I’ll realize it’s time to move on and sell insurance or real estate. I really have no idea, which is part of the point of getting the hell away from this pathetic Shit Show for a while. I’m worn down to a nub.

    I need some rest and some time to think about things. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices to do what I do, and I’ve got to figure out if it’s still worth it. I’m going to leave up this page for a while, and if you’d like to see me keep up this line of work, maybe you’ll consider making a donation. You can use the PayPal link or you can just send a letter to P.O. Box 2278, Malvern, PA 19355.

    Martin Longman (Booman Tribune) really is one of the best. If you can, please show him some love. We need intelligent, dedicated voices like his more than ever in this age of a deranged orange creature in the White House.

    Any chance of this being front-paged?

  4. 4.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    Didn’t work for the British Empire (does nobody read Kipling any more?), didn’t work for Alexander the Great

    They did it all wrong…they were weak and not so great.

  6. 6.

    MomSense

    Trump’s behavior is not ok.

    Text “resist” to 504-09 and fax your Rep. and Senators to tell them Trump is unfit for office and that they need to act.

  7. 7.

    Morzer

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Alexander actually did some ass-kicking in part of Afghanistan. Arguably the only time an outsider actually “won” in that area. Left behind a fairly long-lasting Greek presence/cultural impact/zone of domination.

  8. 8.

    oatler.

    If we employ mercenaries to shore up the crumbling Empire, what could possibly go wrong? Huh, Flavius, huh???

  9. 9.

    Beezus

    Erik Prince is Betsy DeVos’s brother… NOT that a cushy, corrupt contract that would make him Halliburton-esque millions would be at all suspicious…

  10. 10.

    efgoldman

    Didn’t work for the British Empire (does nobody read Kipling any more?), didn’t work for Alexander the Great

    Didn’t work for the Soviets, who had no compunctions about hurting civilians, often on purpose for intimidation purposes

  11. 11.

    Captain C

    Erik “Don’t Call It Blackwater” Prince would very much like to be out of the country, and behind a wall of his personal mercenaries, should something really bad happen…

    What happens when he and his personal guard get ambushed by an overwhelming force of Taliban (probably due to the former’s hubris)? Or what happens when his idiot employees do a massacre of civilians and then need extraction because they’re surrounded by an entire city’s worth of armed and angry people?

  12. 12.

    Morzer

    @Captain C:

    I very much doubt that Erik Prince is going to put himself in the way of anything more dangerous than the AC failing in the clubhouse.

  13. 13.

    Morzer

    @oatler.:

    The Vandals can be reasoned with… Yes, mistakes were made, but we can find ways to mutually leverage creative synergies and drive disruption into every area of the imperial system

  14. 14.

    donnah

    I am a loyal reader at Booman Tribune, too. Martin’s a smart man, but like most of us, he’s burning out with Trump Fatigue. I donated today, because I read Balloon Juice and Booman multiple times a day. I feel like I get a good, sensible balance of info here and at Booman’s place.

    We all need help.

  15. 15.

    sm*t cl*de

    It will soon be two months since an unnamed “administration official” announced that “defense secretary Jim Mattis” was about to announce a 4000 troop surge that will bring Glorious Victory in another Friedman unit. I hope no-one is holding their breaths for that.

    Does anyone really believe that the 4000 non-US troops in Afghanistan would stay there under mercenary authority?

  16. 16.

    sm*t cl*de

    Pleasantly surprised that Prince didn’t cite Leopold’s “Congo Free State” as a precedent for how a pacifying occupation could run at a profit.

  17. 17.

    Wapiti

    I think Eric Prince is just what we need. But not as a Hessianmercenary “representing” the US. He goes in, US forces come out, and we wash our hand of the entire mess. He gets to stay as long as he is effective, or until the Afghans decide to shop him to the Iraqis to stand trial, whichever comes first.

  19. 19.

    J R in WV

    Eric’s princes of darkness should be allowed to do their dirty, bloody work. They should be required to wear orange jumpsuits, though !!!

  21. 21.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @Morzer: He married in, which seems to be the best way to deal–of course, you inherit all your new in-laws’ enemies when you do that, but at least you have a nearly-reliable set of allies that way, as opposed to no friends at all.

  22. 22.

    Adam L Silverman

    A couple of points:
    1) Academi is not only privately owned, it’s been bought be a larger company and is now a subsidiary.
    2) Prince’s current company is majority owned by the People’s Republic of China.
    3) I began providing strategic inputs on Afghanistan in 2009. At the time I thought that would be my next deployment towards the end of that year – didn’t happen. I have prepped the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Command Group, each Brigade Combat Team/Brigade Command Group, and each Battalion Command Group on the socio-cultural dynamics of Afghanistan, the religious dynamics of Afghanistan, and coordinated/designed the predeployment theater strategic cultural prep for the 4th BCT/101 Airborne Division (Curahee) and taught the religion dynamics of Afghanistan, engagement, and negotiations lessons to prepare them to deploy to Afghanistan. And I served on a working group pertaining to Afghan socio-cultural information at CENTCOM. I can honestly say that what Prince is describing will not work the way he thinks it will.
    4) The issue is not the quality of the US and NATO personnel doing the training, the problem is that their are 6 major societal groups in Afghanistan. These include another 134 subdivisions ranging from large to small. Just taking the Pashtun as an example, there are Pashtun that live in one valley that can’t communicate with the Pashtun living in the neighboring valley because the dialects have aged in very different directions. The group that live in the pass between the valleys basically interprets for each group a couple of times a year when they trade goods.
    5) The Afghans aren’t tribal. Again, using the Pashtun, their khels aren’t tribes, though under stress they’ve begun acting a bit more like them. So trying to use tactics that work with societies that have (more) traditional tribal structures won’t work.
    6) There is also almost no Afghan identity among the Afghans. What their is usually lays dormant until times when there’s a foreign invader. Despite the US being there for 16 years this hasn’t happened. Think about that for a minute.
    I’m running out of steam at this point, been a long couple of days, but you get the idea…

  26. 26.

    Patricia Kayden

    I don’t get this Erik Prince mercenary talk given that Blackwater was heavily involved in the Iraq debacle and we all know how that ended. It wasn’t good. Why would he do any better in Afghanistan?

  27. 27.

    MikeEss

    They did it all wrong…they were weak and not so great.

    T***p prefers the empires that aren’t run by a Queen (Victoria)…

  28. 28.

    Doug R

    @Adam L Silverman: There’s not much national identity among Canadians either, but there is a strong anti-American streak. Maybe there is something to work with there.

  29. 29.

    Another Scott

    @sm*t cl*de: If only we spent more on training the Afghans, that would take care of the problem. They just need more training – that’s the only problem.

    What’s that you say?

    Reuters (from 2016):

    In November, 15 months after joining up, he deserted, one of thousands of tired and frustrated soldiers who have shed their uniforms, seriously blunting the Afghan army’s power to repel a growing militant threat.

    For Amanullah, everything changed late last year when, fighting on an empty stomach and without being paid for months, militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns attacked his base from all directions in a three-day battle.

    The final straw came when requests for reinforcements at the remote outpost went unanswered and colleagues bled to death around him because of a lack of medical care. When the ambush ended, he joined three friends shedding their uniforms and walking away from the base near Kandahar, an area that has long been a Taliban stronghold. “I joined the army so that I could support my family and serve my country, but this is a suicide mission,” said Amanullah, 28, who, like many Afghans, uses one name.

    […]

    In 2015, the Afghan army had to replace about a third of its roughly 170,000 soldiers because of desertions, casualties and low re-enlistment rates, according to figures released by the U.S. military last month. That means a third of the army consists of first-year recruits fresh off a three-month training course.

    (Emphasis added.)

    I’m sure Prince’s mercenaries will fight so much harder and better than the Afghans themselves. After all, corruption and skimming and stealing money and materiel is unheard of in the private sector, and mercenaries always have the local population’s interests at heart.

    (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    While I would enjoy seeing Erik Prince get his ass kicked by the Afghan warriors who have tossed every other invader out of their country in the past 2000 years, I really don’t want innocent people to keep dying there.

  31. 31.

    Chris

    Let me repeat that using the East India Company as an example, Erik Prince is saying that he’d like Afghanistan to be run so incompetently that the entire country eventually blows up in his face, forcing the government to step in and clean up his mess. Which, at the end of the day, may very well be literally what he’s proposing, because what else has been the American business model in this day and age?

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    @sm*t cl*de: Think of it this way: you’re being paid a 120,000 to 150,000 base salary plus full benefits with a 35% ramp up for hazard and another 35% for danger and it’s a 72 hour work week with housing, food, laundry, provided. Liberal leave – travel paid for and the leave paid for. And you get the 12 month work abroad tax benefit. So at the end of the year, provided you don’t go completely bonkers at the PX or on Amazon, you’re going to net between 230 and 300K for one year’s work. Doing something you could do in your sleep. That’s how you keep these people in these jobs.

  35. 35.

    mai naem mobile

    Bpackwater,X whatever the fuck this POS owned company is called is located in Dubai to avoid paying US taxes. Fuck them.

  37. 37.

    Chris

    @efgoldman:

    Yeah, and this is one thing that irritates me when listening to arguments about Afghanistan; even the actual veterans I know, who generally do have a better grasp of things than Trump & co, often have this enduring fantasy that the reason we’re not winning is because we’re not willing to take the gloves off, and if only stupid rules of engagement were scaled back and more resources committed to the war and we really went to town on those rag-heads, everything would work out. (Something right wing outlets are always happy to carry far an wide).

    As if people far more hardcore than we hadn’t already tried it exactly that way, and come away with exactly the same result.

  39. 39.

    Shalimar

    @Captain C: The massacre is pretty much guaranteed. That would be the whole attraction for Trump of using mercenaries. They can commit atrocities that our military might not when ordered. Between this and North Korea, Trump is a few impetuous orders away from committing larger genocides than any other world leader in decades.

  40. 40.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Chris:

    forcing the government to step in and clean up his mess.

    I assume you mean the Afghani government because our government simply cut its losses when departing Iraq. Bush 43rd did nothing to try to clean up his mess. That’s how we ended up with ISIS.

  41. 41.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    I didn’t think watching Tom Hardy’s TV show Taboo, an alternative fictional history involving slavery, mercenaries, dirty deeds and the East India Company, or that reading a steampunk alternative history, The Peshawar Lancers, would be relevant to this modern world.

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Doug R: I wrote this as part of the first strategic analysis I provided. It was for a Canadian general who asked for my input. Most of what I wrote above was reconstructed from memory from what I wrote back in 2009.

    The two questions posed by BG You Don’t Need to Know His Name ( ? ) regarding teaching tribes to function as parties and then nesting them within a functional system where the central government, the tribal elements, and the localities share power, are interrelated and go right to the issue of Afghan identity. The heart of the first question is Afghan’s socio-cultural reality. Afghanistan has six major descent groups all of which are, at the highest level, structured around notions of ethno-linguistic/ethno-national identity. Their understanding of their internal relationships, their identity, as well as their external one is ultimately derived from the language they share. This sense of self, ultimately derived from common language, is similar too identities found in other parts of the world. For instance, the Quebecois in Canada have a distinct identity from Anglophonic Canadians as a result of speaking French. The identity distinctions that derive from the differences in language have been further deepened and cemented as a result of geography and geographic semi-separation. As a result the Francophone Canadian common identity that has developed as distinct from Anglophone Canadians is due to both language and location. While it is possible to look at this Canadian sub-culture similarly to those of Canada’s other regional subcultures, the Albertans for instance, the role of language adds a unique dimension.

    The Canadian example sheds light on the Afghan reality: there is not a tribal system in Afghanistan. Rather there are six major descent groups that divide themselves up based on language and location. These groups have developed a range of specific beliefs, norms, and customs, constructed out of language and location. Within many of these groups, however, tribal formation can now be observed. For example, the khels are essentially tribes within the Pashto community. They are not only organized based on descent along linguistic lines, but also from a perceived common ancestor. However, the Pashto community as a whole does not behave like a tribal society. The motivators for the Pashto that are of the greatest concern come from outside their identity or from overlapping identities. During the period of Soviet occupation the motivators were anti-occupation and eventually reactionary, extremist Islam. Today, the specific Pashto motivator is still reactionary, extremist Islam in the form of Wahabbiya, which is regionally referred to as Deobandism. It is only recently that the Pashto, specifically those in the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, are beginning to be motivated by a Pashto specific set of concerns: the potential for genocide directed at the Pashto community due to the perception that all Pashto are adherents of reactionary, extremist, violent Islam.

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    Blackwater founder Erik Prince tells USA TODAY the WH is weighing a plan to privatize much of the war in Afghanistan

    Blackwater? Sounds like a dumb episode of Black Adder.

  45. 45.

    cmorenc

    This sentence has a problem:

    Former head of Blackwater says plan would put 5,500 contractors in Afghan uniforms and crate a private air force to support struggling…

    …but I’ve fixed it:

    Former head of Blackwater says plan would put 5,500 contractors in Afghan uniforms and crate a private air force to support smuggling

    Hey, private military contractors gotta eat and support families…

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    @mai naem mobile: Actually now it’s Hong Kong. Prince is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the PRC who is bankrolling him. That’s the reason he’s pushing this: the PRC has already secured access to extract Afghan mineral resources. Putting the company they own and let Prince front in there, and removing the US and NATO military personnel, means they can extract how much they want, how they want with no concern for the Afghans or the environment. That is what this is about. The money, follow the money!

  47. 47.

    Laura

    @debbie: he’s a Christo-fascist loon with delusions of untold enrichment without accountability, oversight or limits.
    Will the Senate or the Congress care enough to stop it?

  48. 48.

    Chris

    @Adam L Silverman:

    1) I know I’ve asked this kind of thing before, but what the hey; do you have any particular book that you’d recommend as the best read in circulation on the topic of those societal group dynamics in Afghanistan?

    2) When you say Afghans have no real sense of national identity: how much of this is the way it’s always been, and how much of it comes from the fact that between foreign occupations and civil wars, anything that could be called “the state” basically hasn’t existed since 1979?

  49. 49.

    MikeEss

    So at the end of the year, provided you don’t go completely bonkers at the PX or on Amazon, you’re going to net between 230 and 300K for one year’s work. Doing something you could do in your sleep.

    $230,000 to $300,000 for your soul? Seems kind a light to me…it’s your soul man! Once you’ve sold it it’s gone, you can never get it back.

    Seriously, I can’t truly imagine the mindset of someone who’s a mercenary. My sense of morality wouldn’t let up. I’d be a walking wreck. I know things about myself. I can be tough (civilian tough), and have been on many occasions, but to sell myself as a soldier-for-hire…that’s way over my line…

  50. 50.

    lamh36

    @Morzer: So Booman is taking a break from blogging and politics online for a bit (maybe permanently?)…and I don’t blame him one bit..

    Since the election of Cheeto, all people of good conscious and some semblance of sanity have been feeling the same type of unsettledness and anger…and the daily bombardment from all the ways Cheeto and his GOP enablers are chipping away at the psyche of so many of us non-Trump loving Americans…

    At some point, we all need a moment for self care…even if just to come back ready to fight so more…

  54. 54.

    bystander

    I like the way Trump walks around clapping when he’s at these rallies. Kim Jung Un does the very same thing.

  55. 55.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Keith P.: American involvement ended for the most part with President Obama withdrawing most of our military during his first term.

  58. 58.

    trollhattan

    @lamh36:

    At some point, we all need a moment for self care…even if just to come back ready to fight so more…

    Returned from a week of mountain backpacking Saturday, definitely curious as to the status of the entire freaking world–that’s how deeply Trump has drilled into the psyche. Still, getting away and off grid was its own reward. Also found we have a French girl living at our place, but that’s working out fine.

  59. 59.

    rikyrah

    ——————–
    McConnell Slams Trump for ‘Excessive Expectations’
    August 8, 2017 at 2:14 pm EDT

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “offered some of his toughest criticism yet for President Donald Trump in a speech Monday,” CNN reports.

    Said McConnell: “Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before. I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process.”

    He added: “Part of the reason I think people think we’re under-performing is because of too many artificial deadlines unrelated to the reality of the legislature which may have not been understood.”

    http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/politics/mitch-mcconnell-excessive-expectations/index.html

  60. 60.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Adam L Silverman:

    the PRC has already secured access to extract Afghan mineral resources. Putting the company they own and let Prince front in there, and removing the US and NATO military personnel, means they can extract how much they want, how they want with no concern for the Afghans or the environment.

    Wait, the world’s suppy of lapis lazuli is now in the hands of China?!
    I blame Obama.

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MikeEss: The people doing this don’t think of themselves as mercenaries. A lot of them are former SOF. They have very specialized skills, have their pick of assignments, and the ones I know take the jobs that they think are inline with their understanding of American interests.

  62. 62.

    Chris

    @Patricia Kayden:

    No, that’s not what I meant. I was going with the East India Company analogy. The EIC’s rule of India was so terrible that it culminated in a massive rebellion, namely, the Mutiny of 1857 (that may not be the most current/politically correct name, I welcome corrections), after which the British government stepped in and took over what had previously been the EIC’s own, private, precursor to the Belgian Congo.

    Mind you, if I recall correctly from Schrodinger’s Cat who knows this stuff much better than me, the British government ended up being even more rapacious and abusive towards India than the EIC had been. But from the point of view of the colonizer (i.e. whoever would be paying Erik Prince for this), the fact remains that asking him to set up his own East India Company in Afghanistan is just asking for a mess that you’re going to have to foot the bill for later.

  63. 63.

    Baud

    @lamh36: I just saw one of those HGTV shows where they were buying in Guam.

    Seems like an odd decision tactically, but everyone involved is crazy, so there’s that.

  65. 65.

    sm*t cl*de

    let Prince front in there, and removing the US and NATO military personnel, means they can extract how much they want, how they want with no concern for the Afghans or the environment.

    Think of it as “creating work for the locals in the rubber plantations”.

  66. 66.

    rikyrah

    Dean Barker‏ @deanbarker
    Gabriel Debenedetti‏Verified account @gdebenedetti

    With Bernie pushing Medicare-for-all, his allies are making clear to Dems: “This is fast-emerging as a litmus test.”

    Dean Barker Retweeted Gabriel Debenedetti

    Progressive Vermont now has a Republican governor in part thanks to putting the single payer slogan before getting the policy right.

  68. 68.

    Adam L Silverman

    @sm*t cl*de: I honestly haven’t kept up with what is being extracted. I know a report was prepared back in 2009ish about there being rare earth elements there in an attempt to drum up investment.

  69. 69.

    rikyrah

    White House defends silence on mosque bombing, says it might have been faked by liberals

    The White House will not officially comment on the bombing of a Minnesota mosque because it may be a hate crime faked by a liberal, according to Trump national security adviser Sebastian Gorka.

    An as-of-yet unidentified individual threw a makeshift bomb through the window of a mosque in Minnesota Saturday, and Gorka was asked on MSNBC Monday if the White House will comment. Gorka said that the White House will “absolutely” comment once there is a finalized investigation into the incident.

    “There’s a great rule: All initial reports are false,” Gorka said. “You have to check them and find out who the perpetrators are. We’ve had a series of crimes committed, alleged hate crimes by right wing individuals in the last six months that turned out to be prop propagated by the left. Let’s allow the local authorities to provide their assessment and then the White House will make its comments.”

  70. 70.

    Chris

    @Brachiator:

    Yes, Blackadder if Baldrick were running the show.

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Did you? I apologize if so. I remember you sending me (in fact, writing a whole post about) links to the web sites and blogs you got your news from (Jadalliya et al) a year or two back, and I remember several other times when you’ve linked to more in-depth articles upon request, but I don’t remember asking about this particular topic. Well, thanks anyway.

  71. 71.

    Mike in NC

    In 2005 I was working at a Beltway IT contractor that was expecting to lose said contract to the completion. My manager was a retired Army O-5 with a logistics background, and he jumped at the chance to take a new job in Iraq running supply convoys. The position was to last a year and he was guaranteed a minimum of $100K tax-free and several other perks. Most of us wouldn’t have touched that deal for any amount.

  73. 73.

    lamh36

    Does anyone know what the generals Trump surrounds himself with attitudes feel about military action against NK? I mean, are they more big on diplomacy? Or would they err on the side of slow reasoned reaction? Or would they be perfectly ok dropping bombs, swiftly…? I’m assuming those generals will really be the ones making decisions and Trump will just agree with whatever the Generals say.

    @jimsciutto
    Breaking: US flew 2 B1-B bombers over Korean Peninsula Mon out of Anderson AFB in Guam, part of “continuous bomber presence” @PACAF tells me

  76. 76.

    Patricia Kayden

    @debbie:

    . He’s a loon.

    He shares that trait in common with Trump then which is probably why Trump finds him so alluring.

  77. 77.

    lamh36

    Ya know it’s coming…

    @owillis
    “How can Democrats complain about Trump launching nukes, when their party was the first to use atomic weapons?” – SOON

    “This just fulfills the need to have atomic weapons be bipartisan!”

    congressional gop will just say trump is “following in the tradition of truman”

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Prince’s supply of hardened, vicious goons from South Africa must be getting a bit long in the tooth by now. Any knowledge about from where he’s recruiting at present?

    (Know of his on again, off again grandiose grifting with China, but unaware of any affiliated recruitment there.)

  81. 81.

    rikyrah

    Daniel Gross‏Verified account @grossdm

    looking forward to next Politico piece: “After failing to avert thermonuclear war, Ivanka and Jared are moving on.”

  82. 82.

    Chris

    @Adam L Silverman:

    See… I’d believe that this is true of most of them, but there are times when my “I’m sorry, but in what fucking universe did you think taking this job would further American interests?” reflex just overrides my suspension of disbelief. Erik Prince being a privateer for the People’s Republic of China, both in general and specifically here as you pointed out, is a case in point. So is Michael Flynn consulting for Putin and Erdogan. I can understand the Sir Francis Drake rationalization of “I’m a pirate, but I do it all for England,” but if Sir Francis Drake had decided to start taking contracts from the Spanish halfway through his career, I’d have had a very hard time not concluding that he was completely full of shit and just in it for the money.

  86. 86.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @trollhattan:

    Still, getting away and off grid was its own reward.

    I suspect you are (and will continue to be) the subject of some envy for that.

    Also found we have a French girl living at our place, but that’s working out fine.

    The most (unfrightening and) interesting tease on the internet today.

  87. 87.

    lamh36

    Am I the only one who thinks, if…a big if… somehow NK did “strike against” US in some “big” way, that with any other President, the country would rally around the President…I mean sure, the right will do what the right will do, but with ONLY 38% of white people having trust in Cheeto, I just can’t imagine the other 62% of the country, will feel anything but anxiety…smh?

  91. 91.

    Morzer

    @rikyrah:

    Vermont is a strange state politically. It’s not the progressive stronghold some people want it to be. I’d say it’s more its own blend of leftish libertarianish homebrew.

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    Jeb Bush on Trump’s first 200 days: Feels like world has been ‘turned upside down’
    08/08/17 04:06 PM EDT

    Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) on Tuesday said President Trump’s first 200 days in the White House makes it feel as if “the whole world’s been turned upside down.”

    “It’s exhausting. I mean, it’s an incomplete grade in the sense that not much has been done,” Bush told Univision News about grading Trump’s first six months in office. “But it feels like the whole world’s been turned upside down.”

  94. 94.

    lamh36

    Ugh…brown rice is the devil!

    I’m going back to white rice…just smaller portions of it…bleh…

  96. 96.

    germy

    @rikyrah:

    Said McConnell: “Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before. I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process.”

    He added: “Part of the reason I think people think we’re under-performing is because of too many artificial deadlines unrelated to the reality of the legislature which may have not been understood.”

    Poor Mitch sounds like he’s at the end of his rope.

  97. 97.

    Patricia Kayden

    @rikyrah:

    He added: “Part of the reason I think people think we’re under-performing is because of too many artificial deadlines unrelated to the reality of the legislature which may have not been understood.”

    Or perhaps folks think you’re under performing because you’re crappy at governing. Your party is in control of Congress and yet you have passed no legislation to advance your (awful, horrific) agenda.

  98. 98.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @lamh36:

    I’m assuming those generals will really be the ones making decisions and Trump will just agree with whatever the Generals say.

    If you look carefully at the video of Trump making his threat, you can see Melania on his left, Tom Price on his right, Kellyanne Conway on Price’s right. In front of the camera, across from Trump, is Jared’s slicked-down black hair. On his left is a baldish white-haired man, Jeff Sessions maybe? But no sign of Kelly, Mattis, or McMaster. Trump seems to have an index card in front of him, although he reels off the “fire and fury” statement like it’s his, looks down at the card for what to say about KJU, and then repeats the “fire and fury.”

    We may hope that he will agree with what the generals say, since they seem to know how foolish an attack on North Korea would be. But none of them seemed to be there for the statement.

  101. 101.

    Chris

    @NotMax:

    There probably wouldn’t be. If the Chinese pay Prince to do what they don’t want to do themselves, having their own citizens under him would defeat the purpose.

  102. 102.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rikyrah:

    I know assessing the first 100 days of all presidents is a tradition, but I don’t recall a similar magnifying glass being turned on subsequent 100-day markers for previous POTI. Maybe to note in passing, but not the everlasting listicles and think pieces.

  103. 103.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Chris: Okay. Got it now.

    @Mnemosyne: Agreed. Too many innocent people would be harmed and Erik wouldn’t suffer any personal consequences for his Afghani misadventure. As long as he makes money, he’d be alright.

  104. 104.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    If you look carefully at the video of Trump making his threat

    Do you have a link to a video showing all these people? The only thing I found was a ~ 30-second clip where the camera was pretty tight on Trump the whole time (briefly showed Melania but not the others as far as I recall).

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman:

    So at the end of the year, provided you don’t go completely bonkers at the PX or on Amazon, you’re going to net between 230 and 300K for one year’s work. Doing something you could do in your sleep. That’s how you keep these people in these jobs.

    Yup. And the skim paid off to Academi or whatever for each and everyone of these guys could easily be 25% or more on top of those costs. Prince just wants to get paid to conduct live fire exercises on Afghans and keep his boys warmed up for the next operation or contract.

  106. 106.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Chris: First war of independence is what its called in India. Yes, you are right that the Victorian rule was worst because it came with an extra dose of sanctimony along with the rapaciousness, the so called white man’s burden. It was not just the sepoys* (sic) that rebelled. It was also a popular uprising, and the leaders of the uprising were all killed in battle, executed (hung) or exiled.
    This included Tatya Tope, Rani Laximibai, and the last Mughal Emperor (Bahadur Shah Zafar). British exiled 80 year old Zafar to Burma. Red Fort, the seat of the Mughal Empire was turned into a prison. They are still remembered fondly in India. It took India 90 years to get rid of the British. British ruled India was a brutal police state. India, until then known for its riches became synonymous with poverty.

    *sepoy == anglicized version of sepahi or shipai ( akin to a private)

  107. 107.

    kindness

    Jeez, you know I’d have to seriously question the judgement of anyone who thought that Blackwater did such a good job massacring civilians in Iraq and getting the US sued that they should deserve a shot at running the whole kagang in Afghanistan. Really I would.

  109. 109.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Patricia Kayden:
    Who’s to say some enterprising private citizen wouldn’t take matters into their own hands re: Prince Erik

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    @Cheryl Rofer: Wasn’t this Donnie’s Great Opium War Briefing? I assume that’s why nobody with any military experience was there, and why Price was there.

    It’s another flabbergasting aspect of the statement. It wasn’t the place for it, in addition to being insane and counter-productive…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    NotMax

    Prince has long salivated (possibly other bodily fluids involved as well) over having his own private air force.

  112. 112.

    schrodingers_cat

    BTW, East India Company’s chief administrative officer was called the Governor General, Viceroys were appointed only after the crown took over.

    From Mangal Pandey* Mangal Mangal. 90 years of freedom struggle in 9 min.

    Mangal Pandey was the first martyr of 1857, played here by Aamir Khan from mid aughts movie, Mangal Pandey. Mangal also means holy in Sanskrit and Sanskrit derived Indian languages.

  115. 115.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    I prefer brown rice to white BUT it has to be cooked long enough to get chewy. Otherwise, it’s like eating rocks.

  116. 116.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Prince is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the PRC who is bankrolling him. That’s the reason he’s pushing this: the PRC has already secured access to extract Afghan mineral resources.

    Good news, Gold Star families! Your sons died to provide China with unfettered access to mines.

  117. 117.

    Chris

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Ah, thank you. Yes, “Sepoy Mutiny” is the other word I remember for it. Thanks for clarifying both what that means and that it went beyond them.

  118. 118.

    schrodingers_cat

    Prince’s plan should go down really well with India, Pakistan and China, because they have such lovely and pleasant memories of the British East India Company.

  122. 122.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    If Prince thinks he’s going to be able to have the same relationship with China that he did with South Africa, he’s got another think coming. He’s a useful idiot for them.

  125. 125.

    lamh36

    @Mnemosyne: I tried to cook it two ways…rice cooker…too gummy…stove top w/strainer…not gummy, just bleh…

    Too many of my fav NOLA staples include rice (we like rice with our dishes here) I’m back on Weight Watchers, so I’ve had to start doing “healthier” versions of my fav things, and brown rice was the way to go, but nope…I’m done…

    Gonna go with my white rice, just smaller portions…

  129. 129.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @NotMax:
    Prince reads history of the Battle of Britain

    Cum dribbles down his leg

  135. 135.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    Last I saw with WW, white rice was only 1 or 2 Points more than brown rice, so it’s probably not worth it to force yourself to eat it.

    I prefer my rice on the sticky side, but I can see how that might not work for New Orleans dishes.

  136. 136.

    ? Martin

    The first job of any business is to not lose their best customers. Private contracting companies have no incentive to end wars, only to start and prolong them.

  137. 137.

    lamh36

    @schrodingers_cat: I will give it one last try…3rd time may be the charm…but I’m just getting small bag and just in case the 3rd time doesn’t work out…I’m gonna make sure I have me some white rick on hand, JIC

  140. 140.

    trollhattan

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
    It was vaguely hinted around departure time that my kid and spouse had been in contact with a student-exchange agency about a girl whose family had fallen through but this was probably the tenth such conversation and I didn’t take it seriously. So imagine my surprise upon coming in the front door there’s a strange girl asleep on the sofa*.

    Anyhoo, she’s a delight and my kid temporarily has “the sister I always wanted.” Since she has better manners I hope someone is taking notes, but that’s a lie parents tell ourselves.

    *For the record she has her own room but she’s still a little jet-lagged.

  143. 143.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I think Mark has it pretty much right. He used to be in the State Department Bureau of Nonproliferation, now at a think tank.

  144. 144.

    trollhattan

    @lamh36:
    I can’t tolerate the stuff unless it’s made savory, such as cooking in good stock or somesuch. Otherwise it’s like rice dipped in wax.

  148. 148.

    Mnemosyne

    @trollhattan:

    Now you get to figure out which cool places in California you should visit with her in tow, so that should be fun for everybody.

  149. 149.

    TenguPhule

    @lamh36: Have you tried a half/half mixture of white and brown rice? Otherwise your best bet is to buy a bag of Japanese polished brown rice, which cooks more like white rice but with most of the brown rice fiber.

    ETA: If your brown rice is coming out runny in a rice cooker, you’re using too much water to cook it.

  151. 151.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @NotMax:
    My brand of satire and humor isn’t subtle. It’s blatant, kind of dark, and profane (just not racist/sexist). See Robot Chicken or any (good) YouTube Poop.

  153. 153.

    Morzer

    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/07/trump-tpp-deal-withdrawal-trade-effects-215459

    On a cloud-swept landscape dotted with grain elevators, a meat producer called Prestage Farms is building a 700,000-square-foot processing plant. The gleaming new factory is both the great hope of Wright County, which voted by a 2-1 margin for Donald Trump, and the victim of one of Trump’s first policy moves, his decision to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

    For much of industrial America, the TPP was a suspect deal, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which some argue led to a massive offshoring of U.S. jobs to Mexico. But for the already struggling agricultural sector, the sprawling 12-nation TPP, covering 40 percent of the world’s economy, was a lifeline. It was a chance to erase punishing tariffs that restricted the United States—the onetime “breadbasket of the world”—from selling its meats, grains and dairy products to massive importers of foodstuffs such as Japan and Vietnam.

    The decision to pull out of the trade deal has become a double hit on places like Eagle Grove. The promised bump of $10 billion in agricultural output over 15 years, based on estimates by the U.S. International Trade Commission, won’t materialize. But Trump’s decision to withdraw from the pact also cleared the way for rival exporters such as Australia, New Zealand and the European Union to negotiate even lower tariffs with importing nations, creating potentially greater competitive advantages over U.S. exports.

    Read the whole thing. I suspect that this sort of epic, unnecessary screw-up is what will bring “businessman” Trump down as much as anything.

  155. 155.

    JPL

    @Mnemosyne: The reviews are amazing, and I might try that. I prefer brown rice, but recently decided to try frozen brown rice from whole foods. It’s not as good as making it yourself, but is convenient.

  156. 156.

    germy

    @? Martin:

    The first job of any business is to not lose their best customers. Private contracting companies have no incentive to end wars, only to start and prolong them.

    excellent point.

  157. 157.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    It’s heresy, but I made a pretty good microwave risotto a couple of months ago. I think it was the recipe from Epicurious.

  160. 160.

    Mnemosyne

    @JPL:

    I buy frozen brown rice from Trader Joe’s, because I’m lazy. I like it just fine to go under a stir-fry, which is my most common reason for eating rice.

    I bought their frozen quinoa but haven’t tried it yet. I can never seem to get dried quinoa rinsed enough to get rid of the soapy taste.

  162. 162.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    I like it just fine to go under a stir-fry, which is my most common reason for eating rice.

    Long grain rice is heresy.

  164. 164.

    ? Martin

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    If you look carefully at the video of Trump making his threat, you can see Melania on his left, Tom Price on his right, Kellyanne Conway on Price’s right. In front of the camera, across from Trump, is Jared’s slicked-down black hair. On his left is a baldish white-haired man, Jeff Sessions maybe? But no sign of Kelly, Mattis, or McMaster. Trump seems to have an index card in front of him, although he reels off the “fire and fury” statement like it’s his, looks down at the card for what to say about KJU, and then repeats the “fire and fury.”

    Unfortunately, Trump is too stupid to know to take his shoe off and bang it on the table while saying it, just to round out the performance.

  166. 166.

    Keith P.

    @JPL: You ever try germinated brown rice? When I ate brown rice (I’m on dialysis, so my nutritionist and taste buds recommend white rice, particularly jasmine) I would germinate it. It gave it a nice “pop” when you eat it, it cooks faster, tastes sweeter, and it supposedly much, much healthier. I recommended it to some friends, but they hated it (couldn’t get it cooked right, I suspect…I’m always running into people who readily admit they can’t cook rice)

  167. 167.

    lamh36

    @Alex_Panetta
    Alexander Panetta Retweeted Alexander Panetta
    Updates: Prime Minister Trudeau has a delegation in Pyongyang. I’m told his national-security advisor Daniel Jean is there specifically 1/

    2/ to deal with the case of the imprisoned pastor – but: “That doesn’t preclude … discussing other issues of regional concern.” Also…
    3/ “We’re not blind to the other things going on” now with NK.

    https://twitter.com/Alex_Panetta/status/895075018723344386

    Sooo…I guess it’s folks like Merkel and Trudeau and other “sane” country leaders…to keep the world turning while Trump continually try to burn it all down? Here’s hoping they never tire of it for the next four years, or quicke ifTrump leaves office early!!

  168. 168.

    debbie

    @lamh36:

    I don’t know what the strainer is supposed to do, but I just cook brown rice following the package directions. I make smaller batches, 1 cup water to a half cup of rice, simmering for 35 minutes. I don’t get sticky rice. Maybe you’re not cooking away all of the water?

  169. 169.

    TenguPhule

    @lamh36:

    Hmmm…another option…maybe I’ll give it a 4th time after the 3rd time…

    If you’re trying to ease into it, 2 cups white to 1 cup brown is fine. The problem may also be the brand of brown rice. You may want to try one that is more polished then straight husky brown rice. What you lose in nutrients you make up for in the ease of cooking it.

  171. 171.

    lamh36

    @Keith P.: Oooh…why didn’t I think of Jasmine Rice…Jasmine Rice could work, but many NOLA staples are seasoned such, that adding fragrant jasmine rice may be too much for the palette.

    But for non NOLA stuff…yeah, it might work.

  173. 173.

    TenguPhule

    @Keith P.:

    I’m always running into people who readily admit they can’t cook rice)

    That’s what electric rice cookers were invented for. Its literally been simplified to the point a child could do it.

    All it requires is the ability to fill the water in the pot to the point where the line says “this much for X cups of rice” and no more.

    And then push a button to start it.

  174. 174.

    JPL

    @Keith P.: That sounds interesting. I haven’t soaked my rice before hand, but I do let it start to brown in oil before adding water and seasonings. That gives it a nutty taste.

  176. 176.

    lamh36

    @JPL: I actually do soak white rice before I cook it. My gran would say “take out all that excess starch” but I admit, I totally forgot to do it with brown rice.

  178. 178.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    Microwaves are incredibly versatile. As with any oven, takes a while and some practice to become familiar with any particular unit’s idiosyncrasies.

  180. 180.

    TenguPhule

    @lamh36:

    My gran would say “take out all that excess starch”

    Soaking or washing? You wash the rice to get rid of the extra starch, you soak it to get it to plump up.

  181. 181.

    JPL

    The mutt decided that today would be a good time to bring me a present, and he brought me Peter the Cottontail. He dropped it, but now realizes that was a mistake, because rather than cook it for him, I gave it a proper burial.
    As a reminder, it’s only Tuesday.

  183. 183.

    TenguPhule

    @JPL:

    He dropped it, but now realizes that was a mistake, because rather than cook it for him, I gave it a proper burial.

    And you made sure he couldn’t dig it back up for a midnight snack?

  184. 184.

    germy

    Donald Trump was ticked off by reports that his chief of staff General John Kelly was trying to control his Twitter feed, the Washington Examiner reports.

    According to a person familiar with Trump, reports that Kelly’s structural changes in the West Wing sought to limit access to the president and “[push] the tweets in the right direction.” angered the commander-in-chief.

    Trump “was pissed when he read Kelly wanted to control his Twitter feed,” the person told the Examiner.

  185. 185.

    trollhattan

    @Mnemosyne:
    She’s from Nice so we’ll let her compare/contrast with SF then Lake Tahoe for some mountains. Sorry she’s leaving on eclipse day, otherwise that would have been a fun day to plan. Also, needs to see a gosh darn baseball game.

  187. 187.

    JPL

    @TenguPhule: On the other side of my fence lies eleven acres, and I like to think of it as a little bit of heaven. He’s brought me mice before, but the bunny is a first.

  189. 189.

    Regnad Kcin

    @Adam L Silverman: excellent read, thank you; is there any similar source of documents for other cultures where American forces have run aground? Vietnam, in particular?

  190. 190.

    PST

    @Captain C:

    What happens when he and his personal guard get ambushed by an overwhelming force of Taliban (probably due to the former’s hubris)?

    When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
    And the women come out to cut up what remains,
    Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
    An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier

  192. 192.

    Keith P.

    @lamh36: I would imagine that NOLA cooking almost requires basmati, like using Tabasco instead of anything else. But I prefer the scent and softness of jasmine rice. But I avoid brown rice due to its relatively high phosphorous content.

  193. 193.

    Mnemosyne

    @trollhattan:

    She’s going to be gone by eclipse day? That’s not much of an exchange.

    Or was there an issue where the previous family had to bail early so she needed someplace to crash for the last few weeks of her stay? I may be slightly confused about the sequence of events.

  194. 194.

    trollhattan

    @Mnemosyne:
    It’s not the typical swap-kids-for-a-semester deal, more a cultural exchange for three weeks, although since I still have kid #1 here there’s actually no exchange. Hey, wait a minute!

    As with many things I was not consulted, just kinda informed.

  195. 195.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Cheryl Rofer: If you look carefully at the video of Trump making his threat, you can see Melania on his left, Tom Price on his right, Kellyanne Conway on Price’s right. In front of the camera, across from Trump, is Jared’s slicked-down black hair.

    Pretty sure I saw Ivanka at that table, too.

  196. 196.

    frosty

    @lamh36: We’ve used a rice mix by Texmati (Royal Blend) that cooks up like white rice and doesn’t taste like brown. Mix of brown, white, wild, and red rice. Used it for red beans and it wasn’t bad.

  199. 199.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @lamh36: Sounds like Trump, bully didn’t work so Trump is in his ass kissing stage with Muller.

  200. 200.

    schrodingers_cat

    @lamh36: Typically in Indian cooking we try to sprout the beans and add hing (asafoetida) to it while cooking, both tend to make it easy to digest the beans/legumes and make them less gassy.

  201. 201.

    Keith P.

    @lamh36: OK, glad you brought this up, as I’m just about to make some red beans (that I didn’t soak). I’ve always soaked them, but I read several articles recently that discouraged me (at least this once). The gist was that soaking only took 15 minutes off the cooking times typically, didn’t alter gassiness, and watered down the flavor of the beans. I’m not sure if all this holds true for red beans, since they get cooked down almost to mush, but I’m going to try it out.

  203. 203.

    q

    @Keith P.: yeah…a good pot of classic beans is soft and not “firm” kidney beans. And I guess if you buy some generic brand of kidney beans, it may change the flavor. I think the low cost brands are “light kidney beans”, NOLA red beans should be dark kidney beans, or Camellia red beans is THE best brand, the ONLY brand my family has ever cooked…I’ve had to use the light kidney beans when I was in Texas and it really was a different taste

  204. 204.

    lamh36

    @Keith P.: yeah…a good pot of classic beans is soft and not “firm” kidney beans. And I guess if you buy some generic brand of kidney beans, it may change the flavor. I think the low cost brands are “light kidney beans”, NOLA red beans should be dark kidney beans, or Camellia red beans is THE best brand, the ONLY brand my family has ever cooked…I’ve had to use the light kidney beans when I was in Texas and it really was a different taste

  205. 205.

    Keith P.

    @lamh36: Interesting…I’ll keep an eye out for them (I’m in Texas, so I’m using some Hill Country Fare kidney beans). It’s very good as long as I good them for hours (and hours), use a lot of Andouille (my favorite part) and a ham neck. I also haven’t eaten since yesterday morning (dialysis treatment in between), so I *know* it’s going to be delicious.
    I do need to get back to NOLA soon, though. I was there last year, but my AC was broken, and with the construction on Jefferson(?), it was a nightmare. I managed to grab some muffalettas and pralines while I was there but missed out on a roast beef po-boy.

  206. 206.

    Racer X

    “16-year-old war against Taliban insurgents…” – 16 years!!! All I can say is – fuck everyone – you all stink.

  207. 207.

    Wapiti

    @trollhattan:

    She’s from Nice so we’ll let her compare/contrast with SF then Lake Tahoe for some mountains.

    If she hasn’t already stuck her foot into the Pacific, she might want to do that.

  208. 208.

    J R in WV

    I found an interesting Civil Defense publication based upon research at Oak Ridge national Lab firsts published back in 1970, and revised for republication in 1987. It’s called “Nuclear War Survival Skills” by Cresson H Kearney, and it includes set by step instructions for building an effective fallout shelter with shovels and small trees or lumber and a waterproof layer like shower curtains or builder’s plastic sheeting.

    He even designed a home-built radiation detector and an home-made air circulator. The designs were tested by having individual families build from the documents with no other guidance. He was an engineer at Oak Ridge for many years.

    Here’s a link where I managed to download the whole shooting match, pics, drawings, etc. It isn’t as sophisticated as publications built with computers and software, but it isn’t hard to understand, and might interest folks. Hand tools is all that’s required, a saw, an ax, shovels and a pick, etc. These are intended to be built just as they become needed, not to be built ahead of time years before they become important. They won’t last for years and aren’t intended as such.

    Another interesting and educational site is This Map of all Nuclear Explosions from 1945 to 1998 which proves that a few nuclear explosions won’t end the world, or we would already be all gone.

  209. 209.

    Anne Laurie

    @Morzer:

    Vermont is a strange state politically. It’s not the progressive stronghold some people want it to be. I’d say it’s more its own blend of leftish libertarianish homebrew.

    There are still plenty of native Vermonters who will tell you the state should never have given up on being its own Republic. It’s only in relatively recent memory (like, the 1960s/70s) that national infrastructure impinged to the point where a lot of “blow-ins” fleeing urban hellholes like Boston, New York, or Chicago (hello, junior Senator!) could make even a bare-bones living catering to rich tourists and out-of-state students. “Leftish” and “libertarian” aren’t really good descriptors, except insofar as the invaders are numerous enough to skew polling responses. The difference between VT and NH is that, IMO, the Green Mountain people really would be happy to / capable of going it alone, worse comes to worst, while the Granite Hearters Staters would collapse within weeks if they couldn’t leech off Massachusetts infrastructure and out-of-state tourists.

    You’ll notice I live in MA. I truly enjoy visiting VT, but I’m old & soft & like having my comforts ready to hand. I mean, it’s admirable that there isn’t a 24hr service plaza on the highway between Burlington and the border, but we’re old and have weak bladders, and so do our little dogs…

  210. 210.

    Anne Laurie

    @JPL:

    He’s brought me mice before, but the bunny is a first.

    From this year’s crop of no-longer-baby-bunnies, quite likely.

    Your mutt is helping weed the slow & stupid recruits out of the gene pool.

  212. 212.

    Vhh

    Erik Prince, the Man Who Would Be King. The book by Kipling ends with the erstwhile King’s head in a sack. Make it so.

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