Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

We won’t go back.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

Let there be snark.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / John Bolton Is The National Security Advisor

John Bolton Is The National Security Advisor

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281Comments

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    The deplorable has hired the despicable. Bolton scares me.

    I think he scares a lot of congresscritters too. Maybe we will get some more oversight by the few rational GOP out there. The Democrats are more than woke.

    This is scraping the fucking barrel.

  8. 8.

    Cheryl Rofer

  11. 11.

    Tom Q

    @Baud: I had the same “Let’s thank all the Jill Stein/stay home voters” thought.

    Help me, Robert Mueller; you’re my only hope.

  12. 12.

    The Dangerman

    John Fucking Bolton? How about the Fox and Friends crew?

    ETA: Maybe it should be Fucking John Bolton? Fuck, John Bolton?

  13. 13.

    Mike in DC

    Has he gotten that hand problem fixed?
    (Hand shoots up, utters “Mein fuhrer!”)

    Guess not.

  15. 15.

    Elizabelle

    You know who else should stand up? Parents and loved ones of our service members. Trump and Bolton are gonna waste their loved ones’ lives, to hold on to power.

    Enough.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    @Cheryl Rofer: If so, Team Mueller might be caffeinating up and putting on a fourth shift. Time to make some serious trouble for MercerLand, and all its execrable beneficiaries.

  19. 19.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    Hillary would have been worse.

    There will be a strict litmus test imposed come voting time.

    Anyone who agrees with that statement will be beaten to death by a frozen Haddock and not allowed to vote.

  20. 20.

    tobie

    The “March for Our Lives” is going to have a whole new significance now. Sorry if we hijack the kids’ march but with Bolton’s appointment the situation is existential.

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    So we’re down to one general, John Kelly, who is on record saying the best Americans are lying in military cemeteries?

    Well, all righty.

  26. 26.

    hilts

    @Elizabelle:

    Maybe we will get some more oversight by the few rational GOP out there.

    That’s not gonna happen.

    Mueller needs to find the smoking gun that will get Don Jr and/or Jared indicted.

  27. 27.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I’m not sure he can. He’s not resigning from the military. I thought I heard they’re going to fit him in somewhere as a 4-star.

  29. 29.

    Duane

    I remember thinking, ” At least the gasbag didn’t put Bolton in the administration.”
    So much for that idea.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    @debbie: I thought he was resigning from the military.

    Is there a rule that military people can’t testify in criminal probes?

  31. 31.

    tobie

    @Elizabelle: Isn’t Mattis still there? Not that he’ll be any check on the President but the other general, Kelly, definitely eggs him on in his worst tendencies.

  39. 39.

    CaseyL

    If I were to be diagnosed with a terminal disease, I could not feel more doomed than right now.

  40. 40.

    lamh36

    Welp…Trump fired NSA Gen McMasters and replaces him with John Bolton…WE ARE GONNA BE GOING TO WAR SOON ya’ll…bank on it. If Robert Mueller doesn’t come through in time w/charges…smh

    Fox News is now running our national security…we are screwed!

    So…if I move to Canada…do I need to learn the metric system…I know I will if I move to London…but Canada too?

    #AnytimeNowMueller

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    A lot could happen between now and April 9.

    Bolton is a terrible, terrible choice, and he’s embroiled in MercerLand and whatever is going on with the NRA and Russia. Maybe Mueller will drop some new indictments; speed them up. We’ve got about 2-3 weeks.

  42. 42.

    Cheryl Rofer

    The last in this sequence offers a small measure of hope.

  45. 45.

    MisterForkbeard

    Oh god. This is really, really bad.

    The only benefit from this is hearing Rachel Maddow yell “JOHN! BOLTON!” at the microphone again. But we can only enjoy that until Bolton starts 5 wars and kills us all.

    There are real consequences to the Right Media treating all these assholes as respectable, and the rest of the media not wanting to call it out. Trump is one, but so are appointments like this.

  47. 47.

    Thoughtful David

    @Baud: Not me. I hope he makes a beeline for the WaPo carrying a half-dozen 32-Gb flash drives.

    ETA: And sends copies to the Guardian and Mother Jones and the LA Times.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    I do wonder a bit if someone is putting the screws on Trump to get him out of there soon enough to install that nice Mike Pence before the midterms.

    Something is going on, and Trump is cracking up.

    Is it just Mueller? Or someone not on our shores? …

  51. 51.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Cheryl Rofer: Hmmm, a bit of a double-edged sword there: Fail at what? Fail at starting only a few wars and killing only a few people? Yikes.

  52. 52.

    Ohio Mom

    I had been trying to cultivate an ethic of hope. I wanted to believe optimism was not naive, that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice, that everything Trump was doing could eventually be undone, that better forces would prevail.

    I am now officially giving up on this project.

  57. 57.

    David Evans

    @lamh36: Canada is officially metric. It’s not hard to learn. Trust me. I was 69 when the last Imperial opt-out ended in the UK.

  59. 59.

    tobie

    @debbie: Umm…I was punning on the phrase “March for Our Lives” given just how life-threatening the news feels. I don’t seriously plan to “hijack” the march on Saturday–not that I would be able to do it in any event.

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    Appointing John Bolton NSA makes sense to Trump, I suppose, if one of Trump’s staff had warned the President that it would be absolutely crazy to appoint John Bolton NSA.

  61. 61.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Let’s dispel with the notion that Li’l Marco has a brain in his balding noggin

    Marco Rubio @ marcorubio
    I know John Bolton well, he is an excellent choice who will do an great job as National Security Advisor. General McMaster has served and will continue to serve our nation well. We should all be grateful to him for his service.

  62. 62.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Susan Sarandon, spoke out against Hillary Clinton, saying that her presidency could prove “more dangerous” than Donald Trump’s.

    “I believe in a way she is more dangerous. I don’t know if she is overcompensating or what her trip is.”

    “I think we’ll be in Iran in two seconds.”

    So much winning.

  64. 64.

    MisterForkbeard

    @TenguPhule: If you’re a youngish professional and can demonstrate skills, self-sufficiency and other positives it’s not THAT hard to get permanent residence status. But still difficult compared to many other countries that really want US Immigrants.

  65. 65.

    The Dangerman

    @TenguPhule:

    At this point a military coup is more then justified.

    We can call it a parade, with tanks and everything, with a surprise ending.

  66. 66.

    Trentrunner

    John Bolton will not “kill us all.”

    He will help us kill more brown people overseas, accelerate the degradation of America in the eyes of the world, and foment Trump’s worst foreign policy instincts.

    Susan Sarandon, Jill Stein, and all the Bernie bros (and Bernie, too) can die slowly in roasting, crackling fire.

  67. 67.

    japa21

    I really don’t believe we could win a war with either NK or Iran without resorting to nuclear weapons. I have no doubt that Bolton wants to start wars with both believing, as the Bush crew did, that victory will be easy.

    I fully expect nuclear weapons to be used within the next six months.

  68. 68.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Ohio Mom: It’s tempting, but don’t. This is Trump doing something stupid (yet again) that we can still recover from, and WILL recover from given enough time.

  70. 70.

    Elizabelle

    I find the WaPost’s banner headline a tiny bit amusing and hopeful:

    H.R. McMaster is out as national security adviser, to be replaced by John Bolton, Trump says

    That “Trump says” might be doing a lot of work. Maybe Bolton will not be sitting his capacious ass in the Executive Branch in a few weeks ….

    ETA: I realize this post is Exhibit A for being in a state of denial But, I found the WaPost’s headline a bit odd …

  71. 71.

    TenguPhule

    @Trentrunner:

    John Bolton will not “kill us all.”

    He will help us kill more brown people overseas, accelerate the degradation of America in the eyes of the world, and foment Trump’s worst foreign policy instincts.

    I don’t see us winning WW III. I really don’t.

  73. 73.

    SiubhanDuinne

    The news that John Dowd resigned/was fired feels as though it broke a month ago.

    It was this morning.

  75. 75.

    lamh36

    To all those folks who voted for Chump, or 3rd party or Bernie-bros, or those who just “couldn’t vote for Hilary, …or anyone who may have stayed home in Nov ’16…

    Sure, Russia had some shit to do with it,and there was disenfranchisment in key minority areas… but the fact that over half of white folk voted FOR Chump or 3rd party folks…also made a big difference

    TO ALL OF THEM, I SAY….

    https://media.giphy.com/media/9fCF8UH1LhzPi/giphy.gif

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    @Trentrunner:

    He will help us kill more brown people overseas

    I am a brown people overseas from America, and this prospect does not please me.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    @SiubhanDuinne: I know.

    I keep looking for bright signs, and I am damned glad a lot of us are out marching this weekend for kids lives; against gun violence. It has put us in touch with like-minded souls, it’s good exercise, and it needs to happen a LOT more frequently, on a LOT of different issues.

    Show the world that we are not behind this illegitimate POS POTUS.

  82. 82.

    Corner Stone

    Gen Barry McCaffrey somehow asserts there will be a moderating coalition between R Congressional leadership and SecDef Mattis. And Pompeo is not an Iran war hawk…SOMEHOW

  83. 83.

    PaulWartenberg

    to the Republican-held Congress:

    YOU hold the purse-strings. If trump wants to so much as fart in North Korea or Iran’s general direction you have the ability to tell him “YOU’RE paying for it out of your own damn pocket.”

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    @Cheryl Rofer: That could work.

    Even a lot of Republicans have to be aghast at putting Fox News in as NSA. They could respond well to public pressure on this.

  85. 85.

    lamh36

    Not for nothing, but I’ve never seen Tweety this angrily animated in a long time…over this Bolton news.

  87. 87.

    Radiumgirl

    Can’t add much to this except every move Trump makes seems designed to weaken the U.S. — the economy is going into the shitter if the trade war kicks off as planned, they slashed taxes, so we’ll be in the hole. How do you plan to pay for the war? It’s back to 70s style stagflation at best; at worst we’ll be in the direct line of fire this time and war will no longer be an abstraction to our arm-chair commandoes — it’ll be something we’ll be lucky to survive.

  88. 88.

    CaseyL

    Strategically speaking, if Bolton really becomes NSA, Iran would be perfectly justified – under the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war – of bombing us first.

    I feel sick. Really, honestly, sick.

  90. 90.

    MisterForkbeard

    @zhena gogolia: Don’t get me wrong, this is really, really bad. Astonishingly bad. But still survivable and even if the Senate doesn’t have to confirm him, there are still ways to fight it.

    @SiubhanDuinne: I know, right? I’m kind of amazed at how repeated and consistent the crazy news is. And usually, how awful it is.

  91. 91.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Calm down, y’all, he promised.

  92. 92.

    mai naem mobile

    This is good news for John McCain. No,really. Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran. Take my hand….bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran

  93. 93.

    JMG

    Trump wants to make boom-boom like the big boy Presidents. He’ll get his way, too. The worst part is that a North Korean missile will land on LA or Seattle, decent places, rather than a shithole like Hazleton, Pa. that elected Trump.

  96. 96.

    NotMax

    NSA #4 in a year and a bit. Flynn, Kellogg, McMaster, Bolton.

    Obama had 3 NSAs over 8 years, Dubya and Clinton each had 2.

    This is chaos.

  98. 98.

    Cheryl Rofer

    It occurred to me earlier that this is Cleek’s Law in action. Trump is probably enjoying Twitter right now.

  99. 99.

    Gravenstone

    As I noted downstairs, Bolton is pretty strongly anti-Putin. That’s liable to cause immediate friction. Whether that’s enough to derail this train to Armageddon….

  100. 100.

    TenguPhule

    @lamh36:

    Bolton promised Trump he “wouldn’t start any wars”

    If that was supposed to be a joke, I’m not laughing.

  102. 102.

    Jay

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    “@Cheryl Rofer: Hmmm, a bit of a double-edged sword there: Fail at what? Fail at starting only a few wars and killing only a few people? Yikes.”

    In all it’s failing and flailing Wars of Choice, the US has relied on it’s Global and Regional alliance systems.

    With Bolton in, the Alliances are out. The odds of South Korea and North Korea forming an alliance to expell the US Military from Asia just went from impossible to probable.

  105. 105.

    mai naem mobile

    Jared probably bought a bunch of defense stocks last week. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell probably bought their defense related stocks today.

  106. 106.

    TenguPhule

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Of course, this depends on the hopeful assumption that Trump and Bolton are master strategists who won’t back themselves into any corners and get us all killed.

    Yeah, about that fatal flaw in the plan….

  109. 109.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Cheryl Rofer: Technically, Bolton wouldn’t start the wars. He’d just tell Trump to do it. It’s technically correct – the BEST kind of correct.

  110. 110.

    ewrunning

    The War Party is clearly in the ascendancy now. I just heard McMaster is retiring, not getting another assignment and a 4th star. Suppose that means he knows what’s coming? The question now is what will Mattis do?

  112. 112.

    trollhattan

    @Elizabelle:

    Something is going on, and Trump is cracking up.

    This is different? Seems like another day in Trumpland to me. “Did you see the great job I just did with China? Wait for my next great thing!

  113. 113.

    lamh36

    I hate to say it, but my first thought with this Bolton news was “I wonder if my cousin is still active duty enlisted”?

    I had to call him and ask him. He’s no longer enlisted. He got out when in 2012 when Obama stopped the last troops in Iraq…smh

    Mahn, but the folks who still have enlisted family members/friends…I’m wondering how they are feeling about this news…

  114. 114.

    TenguPhule

    @Gravenstone:

    That’s liable to cause immediate friction. Whether that’s enough to derail this train to Armageddon….

    It simply means it will be America against the entire rest of the world.

  116. 116.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MoCA Ace:

    Years and years ago, I got very high one night. Didn’t feel a thing until four or five hours later when

    time

    j u s t

    s l o w e d

    W A A A Y

    d

    o

    w

    n

    Today feels like that.

  117. 117.

    Gravenstone

    @lamh36: But did Trump promise Bolton that he [Trump] wouldn’t start any wars? That’s rather more to the point…

  119. 119.

    Cermet

    A war with North Korea would devastate South Korea and possibly Japan via a nuke and that folks, ends horribly for North Korea with retaliation and leaves fall out for the great U S of A – not sure even the orange fart cloud could get a real attack at that level to go. In a similar manner, a war with Iran would be a land based blood bath for both sides – one which frankly, we have too few troops to maintain but at least, nukes would not be possible (the amerkican military has made that clear.)

    The most likely action is bomber attacks on either country’s or even both. If Iran, that just means a conventional pay back later that is hard to trace. For North Korea, that means Soul gets heavy artillery retaliation and a strong threat of Japan getting nuked if we cross a trip wire.

  124. 124.

    MisterForkbeard

    @ewrunning: Adam has said in the past that getting McMaster back into active military was going to be very difficult – McMaster was at the end of his career (in terminal assignment) and wasn’t going to ever be promoted. Putting him BACK into the military was going to fuck up the career paths of a lot of established generals and military people, and would have been very difficult to get military agreement on.

    @jimmiraybob: Ambassador to Iran. Or possibly White House Communications Director when Hope Hicks finally exits.

  125. 125.

    TenguPhule

    @Cermet:

    If Iran, that just means a conventional pay back later that is hard to trace.

    Iran has had years to prepare for this.

    They’ll find a way to hit us where it hurts at home.

  127. 127.

    TenguPhule

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Putting him BACK into the military was going to fuck up the career paths of a lot of established generals and military people, and would have been very difficult to get military agreement on.

    Naturally this is going to happen.

  133. 133.

    p.a.

    @Radiumgirl: As usual w trump, the econ bark of tariffs is worse than the bite: every major steel and aluminum trade partner is exempt. It’s a show for the MAGA proles, just like the Carrier/Indiana show.

    re: Bolton however, I got nuttin’…

  138. 138.

    Steeplejack

    Jee-zus. Does my spit-take still count because I’m an hour late getting the news on the DVR.

  144. 144.

    Jay

    @TenguPhule:

    Nope, their BFF’s with Qatar now, where the US has CENTCOM and 11,000 troops, and then there’s the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea’s impact on Global Trade.

  147. 147.

    Adria McDowell

    Just the other day I was telling my (retired military) husband that he needed to update some information with a few government entities.

    Haha yeah, I’ll conveniently forget to remind him about that now. He can just stay retired if they can’t find him, right?

  149. 149.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Princess: I mean “be in south korea while Bolton starts a war there” is a really good way to keep him from testifying to Mueller.

  150. 150.

    Amir Khalid

    @Matt McIrvin:
    I was under the impression that Congress was in charge of declaring war … Oh. I see your point. Anyway, Trump will happily delegate his CinC war-starting power to Bolton as soon as Bolton asks.

  153. 153.

    Brachiator

    John Bolton Is The National Security Advisor

    Be afraid. Be very afraid.

    It seems like it was only yesterday when people foolishly thought that advisers like Kelly and McMaster would be the adults in the room and would restrain Trump. Some pundits and reporters would note, but underestimate how much Trump chaffed at having to be “presidential,” being thoughtful and deliberative.

    The greatest danger that Bolton poses is that he might think too much like Trump himself and be quick to anger and vindictiveness. But either way Trump is eager to govern with his inner rage monster fully unleashed.

  156. 156.

    TenguPhule

    @Jay:

    Nope, their BFF’s with Qatar now, where the US has CENTCOM and 11,000 troops, and then there’s the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea’s impact on Global Trade.

    This would be on top of all of those. Like I said, they’ve had years to plan for a total war with us.

  157. 157.

    Hungry Joe

    TO WAR, TO WAR / WE’RE FINALLY GOING TO WAR / HI-DE, HI-DE HI-DE, HI-DE HO /
    TO WAR, TO WAR / TO WAR WE’RE GONNA GO!

    — The Marx Brothers in “Duck Soup”

  158. 158.

    Marcopolo

    Who knows, the way the Trump admin works I say there’s a 50/50 chance Bolton’s done something in the past few years that makes it impossible to get a security clearance. If That were the case he could only be NSA for six months or so, right? Oh yeah, that Jared dude is still there isn’t he?

  159. 159.

    TenguPhule

    @Corner Stone:

    “I may have committed a little light bombing campaigns.”

    We may have misplaced a couple thousand cruise missiles. And an Airborne division.

  160. 160.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Sweeney Todd would feel right at home in this thread:

    There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit
    And it’s filled with people who are filled with shit
    And the vermin of the world inhabit it.
    But not for long.
    They all deserve to die.
    Tell you why, Mrs Lovett, tell you why.

    Because in all of the whole human race, Mrs Lovett,
    There are two kinds of men and only two.
    There’s the one who stays put in his proper place
    And the one with his foot in the other one’s face.
    Look at me, Mrs Lovett, look at you.
    Though we all deserve to die. Even you, Mrs Lovett, even I.

    Bcause the lives of the wicked should be, made brief.
    For the rest of us death will be a relief.
    We all deserve to die.

  161. 161.

    NotMax

    Sudden massive influx of requests to relocate to below the top ten floors of the Secretariat building. Film at 11.

  163. 163.

    dmsilev

    @Hungry Joe: Someone needs to replicate the famous Spy magazine prank and ask members of the Trump administration about where US policy stands on Freedonia.

  164. 164.

    Frankensteinbeck

    So, Bolton’s position is advisory and he’s not the first fruitcake Trump has put there. Trump remains a coward of legendary proportions. I’m not freaking out, yet. We’ll probably get a ramp up of chest beating. Trump does love his chest beating.

  166. 166.

    Elizabelle

    @TenguPhule: It’s not America against the world.

    It’s fucking Trump and all the fucking Republicans, including plutocrats and oligarchs, who put him there.

    This is not us against the world.

    I think we are past the beginning of the end of Trump, and not necessarily at the beginning of the end of us. (In before Tenguphule can snark about that.)

  170. 170.

    jimmiraybob

    @Elizabelle:

    “Something is going on, and Trump is cracking up.”

    Not cracking up. Accelerating the plan…er, campaign promise – the strongest military ever and the strongest economy ever. What do you suppose Hitler was promising and the German people loved him until their cities started getting bombed and then were eventually marched through the death camps to reflect on their bad choices.

    Coal, steel, heavy manufacturing. What was it that was so central to Hitlers ambitions? What book did wife #1 …or #2, …or thereabouts, say that The Donald used to keep on the nightstand? MGGA.

    Of course, Trump has also promised to build our nuclear arsenal and actions like trimming the Bears Ears in Utah opens up an awful lot of land for Uranium mining.

    He’s a demented old, angry, authoritarian, immoral, ethically devoid, and deluded narcissist that’s deliberately looking to create a Grand legacy even if it means burning Obama…..I mean the world to the ground. And he loves him the dictator crowd.

    (God it’s hard to gauge whether I’m an old conspiracy theorist crank or a prescient prognosticator. Either way I’m engaging the bourbon tonight.)

  171. 171.

    Elizabelle

    @SiubhanDuinne: And the trade war was so 9 o’clock.

    FWIW, TCM has Sunset Boulevard at 8 Eastern tonight, and then Gone with the Wind. (How apropos.) I think I will skip the bloviating on cable news. Casablanca a bit later.

  176. 176.

    Jay

    @TenguPhule:

    Iran’s not going to hit the US “at home”, they will content themselves with watching the US blow up it’s Global Military and Economic Alliance system, blow up the Global Economy again, and content themselves with fighting the US to a bloody stalemate.

    Iran will emerge as the Regional Power, with greatly increased economic ties to the EU, South Korea and Japan.

  178. 178.

    Jeffro

    Actual email quote to my RWNJ dad – who actually understands that this is not good news for the country: “Thots and prars for the 51M South Koreans, 127M Japanese, and 23K US soldiers who just got quite-justified chills down their spines at this announcement”

  179. 179.

    jimmiraybob

    @TenguPhule:

    Neat. In a big ole red wine glass. Of course before this is all over it’ll probably devolve into straight from the bottle while crouching in the bunker.

  183. 183.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    NSA #4 in a year and a bit. Flynn, Kellogg, McMaster, Bolton.

    I honestly, seriously, genuinely do not remember a “Kellogg.”

    (Sounds flaky to me.)

  184. 184.

    jc

    Trump is such an incredible asshole — anything Obama did must be undone. John Bolton also has sleazy ties to Cambridge Analytica — hey, he’s the perfect choice to be the National Security Advisor.

  185. 185.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Elizabelle: Something is going on, and Trump is cracking up.

    I wonder if any of those questions from Meuller included the words “in your tax returns from 2006 to 2014….”

  186. 186.

    Uncle Cosmo

    The. Fucking. WALRUS. Goo goo ga joob.

    I am embarrassed to admit I share a place of birth (Baltimore) with that bloodthirsty mofo. Though on opposite sides of “Bawlmer.”

    College buddy who was at HS with Bolton (McDonogh, a “semi-military school” until 1971) said he was as fucked up then as he is now. And my friend still identifies as a Republican….

  188. 188.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @TenguPhule:

    Anyone who agrees with that statement will be beaten to death by a frozen Haddock and not allowed to vote.

    Well, technically, if they’ve already been mortally haddocked, then they’re dead and can’t vote anyway. Unless they’re Democrats.* In which case we would want them to vote, right? I say bring on the haddock!

    *wingnut logic, duh.

  189. 189.

    Aleta

    Bolton is an ally of Gottlieb (Oregon radical who started ‘the 2 am. fdn’ and ‘the cit. comm. for right to … arms.’ He also started/directed/ is heavily involved with IAPCAR, though he doesn’t seem to cop to that now.)

    Those groups oppose international efforts to limit the conventional weapons flow that feeds smaller wars in developing counties. (Soon after Aurora they managed to get the Senate to (along with the Russians) vote down a UN treaty. Bolton helped.).

    I suspect Bolton’s association with IAPCAR explains his video for the 2013 conference in Russia that IAPCAR’s Russian affiliate hosted and iirc NRA leaders and some Congress members attended, along with Gottlieb. This Russian affiliate (called something like Arms for Rus.) had joined them (after forming?) in 2012.

    I might be wrong about this, but IAPCAR seems to organize groups in countries around the world and then announce that those groups have joined them. They seem kind of secretive to me. They seem to use women’s self defense and anti-immigrant hatred as themes, to connect to their belief that the UN and Pres. Obama want to take away rights.

    I’ve seen them promote AfD (Germany), which they misname “populist.”
    From wiki:

    Founded in April 2013, the AfD narrowly missed the 5% electoral threshold to sit in the Bundestag during the 2013 federal election. In 2014 the party won seven seats in the European election as a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists. After securing representation in 14 of the 16 German state parliaments by October 2017, the AfD became the third-largest party in Germany after the 2017 federal election, claiming 94 seats in the Bundestag, a major breakthrough for the party as it was the first time the AfD had won any seats in the Bundestag.

    So without any proof I wonder about them and arms dealers and fascism.

  190. 190.

    TenguPhule

    @Jay:

    Iran’s not going to hit the US “at home”,

    They’d be stupid not to. And Iran is anything but stupid.

  191. 191.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @jimmiraybob:
    The former. There are plausible signs Trump considers himself a Nazi, but despite his declarations of love for new nukes, he hasn’t done anything about it. Despite his many threats against Iran and North Korea he hasn’t done anything about them. Congress has given him a little more money for defense and otherwise ignored him in terms of actual lawmaking. His grand legacy consists so far of a lot of deregulation and not staffing positions. After the Yemen raid bit him in the ass, his only actual military action was a symbolic bombing in Syria he got Putin’s approval for. All his talk about prosecuting his enemies, firing Mueller, extorting NATO, he’s done none of it. I guess he did put some idiot tariffs into place, but the only thing you can really rely on Trump to do is sit on his ass and tell you how tough he is.

  196. 196.

    Gin & Tonic

    I will be babysitting my grandchildren next week. I hope I get to watch them grow up.

  198. 198.

    lgerard

    When Bolton was Undersecretary of State for Arms Control/Intl Security at @StateDept during Bush 43,he drove a number of outstanding career nonProliferation experts out of their jobs.

    When the British were negotiating with Gaddafi to give up their nuclear program and make amends for the Lockerbie incident they absolutely insisted that Bolton play no part in the discussions whatsoever. They knew he would screw it up.

  199. 199.

    TenguPhule

    @Jay:

    A key cornerstone of physical comedy is the self inflicted wound.

    I wasn’t expecting “Ow, my balls!” to be shot in real life.

  201. 201.

    Steeplejack

    @Corner Stone:

    It’s not completely on purpose. I have MSNBC on one of the DVR’s two channels. I start the show a little bit late so I can fast-forward through commercials. But then I get distracted by phone calls, Cherokee Korean princess Joanna on Fixer Upper, bright objects on the Internet, making dinner, feeding the housecat, drinking, etc. So the buffer builds up. Silver lining: I’ve got more room to fast-forward through distasteful segments like Chris Hayes massaging Bernie Sanders.

  202. 202.

    Chip Daniels

    One question I don’t see being asked-
    Does Putin want us to go to war with N Korea?

    Seems like the deciding factor.

  205. 205.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ohio Mom:

    Germany is a better country today than it was 70 years ago. Hope has a much longer timeline than you realized, unfortunately.

  206. 206.

    raven

    Bolton

    He wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book “I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost.”[25]

  207. 207.

    Jay

    @TenguPhule:

    It’s not that easy to “hit the US at home”, despite all the hyped Islamic terrorism fears.

    The US presence in Iraq, Syria and Qatar’s definately toast.

  209. 209.

    tobie

    @Jay:

    Iran will emerge as the Regional Power, with greatly increased economic ties to the EU, South Korea and Japan.

    I think this is right. The American Century is over. Trump has blown up the post-WWII order with his trade wars, his anti-NATO stance, his bellicose rhetoric vis-a-vis North Korea, and now his willingness to involve the US in regional conflicts. If Iran plays its cards right, it will renew it’s commitment to the agreement with its European partners. That would be a powerful alliance for it.

  210. 210.

    Chyron HR

    I’m loving my new life, free from the tyrannical yoke of the neoliberal status quo.

  211. 211.

    Steeplejack

    Tweety is starting out with the apoplexy at 11. He may stroke out before the hour is over. (Still an hour behind on the DVR.)

  212. 212.

    Elizabelle

    LOL. TCM host: “Tonight’s movies all feature famous last words.” He later corrected that to say “last lines.”

    First up, Billy Wilder.

    And there’s a topic for a thread: what famous director/screenwriter would have been perfect for chronicling the Trump years?

    We have never lived in a reality TV show before, held hostage for headlines. We are there.

  213. 213.

    TenguPhule

    @Jay: We have plenty of soft and vital targets. The threat of retaliation has always served as a check, because state actors know that its very very hard to keep the truth from being found out eventually.

    But an actual war is different. The usual rules go out the window.

  214. 214.

    debit

    @Trentrunner:

    Susan Sarandon, Jill Stein, and all the Bernie bros (and Bernie, too) can die slowly in roasting, crackling fire.

    You can join them.

  218. 218.

    TenguPhule

    I just realized that this is eerily like the time skipping from present to future in Futurama.

    Except the alien invasion and intelligent mutant life forms are missing.

  219. 219.

    jimmiraybob

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    OK. For now I’m stepping back back off the ledge. We’ll see. A lot of Hitler’s early detractors thought that he was an ineffectual goof too. If we had some kind of governmental checks besides hoping for the Mueller investigation to stop the madness i’d feel better.

  220. 220.

    lgerard

    what famous director/screenwriter would have been perfect for chronicling the Trump years?

    Whoever directed Sharknado

  223. 223.

    Jeffro

    @SiubhanDuinne: Nope go right ahead. I guarantee you that at least half of them will feel that same chill.

    “Living through exciting times in history” just officially got old, I will gladly take “boring and competent as fuck” (circa 2008-2016), thanks.

  224. 224.

    Elizabelle

    @lgerard: We never expected to see the sharks in the White House mess.

    Some of them can probably even pass security clearance.

  227. 227.

    Jay

    @TenguPhule:

    There’s a reason 9/11 was a fluke and most terrorist attacks in the US are Nazi’s. The National Security State in the US and it’s global survelliance regime, make the US “homeland” a very hard target.

    The Iranian’s are also very well aware that to many in the US, and Internationally, they are the “bad guys”. They know that a terrorist attack would create sympathy for the devil, where flooding social media with telegenic dead Iranian kids, from the indescriminate US bombing will be an impossible narrative for the US to counter, more so given Treason Tribble’s twitter and Bolton’s mouth.

  228. 228.

    lamh36

    @Mnemosyne: oooh.. French…I’ve from NOLA…i know a few French words…and I had French in high school and college…oh…10 years ago…oh wait…lol

    Maybe London then?

  231. 231.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    And there’s a topic for a thread: what famous director/screenwriter would have been perfect for chronicling the Trump years?

    Orson Welles.

  232. 232.

    JaneSays

    @NotMax: Kellogg was only an acting NSA, and was never intended to serve long-term. He kept the seat warm for one week between Flynn and McMaster. Flynn is officially listed as the nation’s 25th NSA and McMaster is considered the 26th.

    But even three in just 14 months is still beyond absurd.

  235. 235.

    boatboy_srq

    @Elizabelle: Just remember that to the GOTea the only worse thing possible than this fvcking trainwreck would be ANY Dem in the WH.

  237. 237.

    Amir Khalid

    @lamh36:
    Don’t you already use the metric system, or at least SI units, at work? In any case the metric system is way easier to learn and use than the US system, so you shouldn’t face any problems at all.

  240. 240.

    Fair Economist

    @CaseyL:

    Economic activity tomorrow should be interesting.

    Dow futures are only mildly down. Either the market doesn’t care about this or this leaked to market players and it’s already been discounted in the late afternoon slide.

  242. 242.

    TenguPhule

    @Jay:

    They know that a terrorist attack would create sympathy for the devil, where flooding social media with telegenic dead Iranian kids, from the indescriminate US bombing will be an impossible narrative for the US to counter, more so given Treason Tribble’s twitter and Bolton’s mouth.

    It wouldn’t be terrorism though. That’s my point. They could hit economic targets like ports and bridges, assassinate government officials and it would all be legal under the laws of war. The only sympathetic coverage would be domestic, we’d get the whole “this is your fault” internationally.

    If Iran plays to win, they have to hit us domestically in order to disrupt forces and supplies shipping from the US mainland to a fight in the middle east. Our military’s biggest weakness has always been logistical.

  243. 243.

    lamh36

    @Amir Khalid: oooh…we do for the few things we have in Micro where we use S.I. units. But it’s not really alot…grams, liters…other areas in the lab probably use more

  244. 244.

    Elizabelle

    @geg6: Yup. Thought immediately that Kubrick died too early. Or maybe it is better he not see this.

    Sunset Blvd is a trip. I forgot the meeting Norma Desmond scene.

    Max: “If you need any help with the coffin, just call.” (if memory serves)

    Norma speaking of the gair-rhaj (garage).

  245. 245.

    Elizabelle

    “It was all very queer. But queerer things were still to come.”

    Sunset Blvd is a perfect accompaniment to today.

  246. 246.

    Ohio Mom

    @lamh36: IIRC, you do not have to speak French to be welcomed to Canada but it helps.

    They award points for various characteristics: so many points for being in a certain age range (they don’t want you if you are too old), for certain professions and skills sets, and so on, and points if you speak French.

    If you have enough other points, you can get in without French but if you are on the cusp and speak French, that could give you a high enough score.

  248. 248.

    NotMax

    @JaneSays

    The title was not the same and his resumé may thus differ but it matters not if it was for one hour. He was still head honcho of the office and exercised control of all that goes with it. See: Lawrence Eagleburger, for a different example.

  249. 249.

    lamh36

    @Ohio Mom: well shoot, my French ain’t THAT good…so…London then? It can’t be that hard to learn how to drive on the other side of the road…hmm

  250. 250.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    Iran’s not going to hit the US “at home”

    I agree with you here. Any talk coming from conservatives about Iran as a threat would be Iraq War level bullshit.

    Iran will emerge as the Regional Power, with greatly increased economic ties to the EU, South Korea and Japan.

    Neither Saudi Arabia nor Israel will allow Iran to become a regional power.

    The US under Trump will be clueless as to how to deal with this since this administration is inent on fatally weakening the country’s intelligence and diplomatic resources.

  253. 253.

    boatboy_srq

    On the bright side, my friends and family in Europe no longer have to worry about nukes flying over their heads; the US won’t send them, and the Russians won’t have to.

    /s

  254. 254.

    Steeplejack

    @Elizabelle:

    And there’s a topic for a thread: what famous director/screenwriter would have been perfect for chronicling the Trump years?

    We might be in Oliver Stone territory, maybe with a script by John Milius.

  255. 255.

    Ohio Mom

    @lamh36: I looked at a “So you want to immigrate to Canada” site back during Bush Jr’s administration.

    It was immediately apparent that Ohio Family was nowhere near making the cut so that fantasy was over.

  258. 258.

    boatboy_srq

    @Steeplejack: Tarantino directing a Mamet script. Or Michael Bay directing something based on Zola or Harte (Everybody Dies; now with bigger explosions!).

  261. 261.

    Jay

    @TenguPhule:

    Iran doesn’t have the ability to carry out any kind of domestic campaign in the US. Despite the RWNJ’s claims of IRG’s flooding into the US, almost all the “Iranian Plots” in the US have involved the FBI entrapping some less than stable Iranian-Americans in Keystone Cops Plots. The IRG’s greatest sucesses, aside from Iran-Contra, is/was getting Greedy American’s to ship them spare parts and blueprints to allow them to repair/maintain/modify the Shah Era weapons in their arsenal.

    Iran also has no need to target US ports or politicians. Every port and airport in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea is well within range or surrounded by a Shia minority or majority. There’s no need for Iran to shoot US Politicians, they shoot themselves in the foot regularly in regards to Iran.

  266. 266.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

    If the “Real Men go to Tehran” crew get their “waron”, it will probably be the US, UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia vs Iran, with Israel cheering from the sidelines.

    Of course, in Iraq, Syria and Qatar, things will go sideways suddenly for the US presence. Turkey and Pakistan will opt out of cooperating with the US and could either side with Iran, or just take passive agressive actions to muck up the US in the region. Afghanistan could go either way, and India would be “out” as any kind of US Regional Partner.

    The Sauds, UAE, Bahrain are currently flailing in Yemen, burning through cash and liquidating Reserves. $150 a barrel oil would look good on paper, but since the Iran-Iraq War, Iran has invested heavily in their ability to shut down the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. They learned a lot about US capabilities and weaknesses from DubyaDubya Me Too, and studied the hell out of the US’s failed Scud Hunt in the Gulf War. They’ve spent a lot of time and money on ways of making US and Allied bases in the region, ports, and airfields “untenable”.

    The US’s Gulf State allies will be the first to fold. Bahrain might even violently become a democracy, and the Saud’s have that little problem of having all their oil and refineries under Shia tribal turf.

  269. 269.

    Yutsano

    @Mnemosyne: You only have to speak one of the two official languages fluently. English is one, so she’s fine there. Also, anything medical will get her a work visa faster than anything. She could probably start the process and be good in a year.

  272. 272.

    Vhh

    Everyone should take notice that:

    1. Trump’s lawyers are now all some combination of incompetent, corrupt or crazy. Müller and the FBI are none of these.

    2. Trump’s cabinet, with the exception of Mattis and Chao, are now all some combination of incompetent, corrupt or crazy. Incl Pompeo, who invited the top brass of Russian intel to DC for a meeting.

    3. Trump’s immigration policies have achieved nothing but the infliction gratuitous cruelty on the weak. That is tragic, but Obama deported more by concentrating on real criminals.

    4. Trump’s budgets have turned into a grab bag for Congress, incl Dems.
    Who cares about deficits?

    5. Trump is a pretend President with a pretend staff, a pretend Cabinet, pretend policies, and a pretend legal defense strategy. For him, the US is just another Trump name franchise like Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump Casino, Trump University.

    6. The big question is whether he’ll stiff us like he did his rube investors. Remember that no bank but the failing Deutschebank [aka the Moscow Laundromat] has been willing to lend him money for over a decade.

    Yeah, it’s bad. But I predict that in the end, it’s the GOP who foots the bill.If the collateral damage ain’t too bad, that is a slightly positive outcome.

  277. 277.

    Sherparick

    @Cheryl Rofer: The problem with him being a diaster will be the five to ten million dead, and when it fails, Bolton will be on Sean Hannity being paid a handsome sum to say it would have all worked out but for dolchstoss from the “globalists, hippies, foreigners, etc.” It was his excuse for not serving in Vietnam.

  281. 281.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Lovely, a carpet chewing, has been, Chicken Hawk for security advisor. Trump’s brain ossified in the ’80s.

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