Ilhan Omar (D – MN) had words for Elliott Abrams in his confirmation hearing yesterday.
Exchange between Rep. @IlhanMN and Elliott Abrams: "I fail to understand why members of this committee of the American people should find any testimony that you give today to be truthful." pic.twitter.com/n8aMbH1g3G
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 13, 2019
She is herself a refugee from wars like those in Central America during the 1980s. Abrams was one of the people responsible for supporting the people who made those wars. The instability that drives people from their homes to the United States today can be traced back to those wars. Now Donald Trump wants Abrams to help with Venezuela. Omar’s questions and comments are appropriate as Trump threatens military intervention in Venezuela.
I follow a number of members of The Blob on Twitter. They have interesting things to say, although they can be clannish and tend to ignore the hoi polloi. A few of them follow and interact with me. Yes, there is a Blob.
The Blob people I follow seem basically decent. I got some surprises last night.
Agree. Elliott Abrams is a devoted public servant who has contributed much of his professional life to our country. It’s time to build bridges in America and not tear people down. https://t.co/ncI9Bo31jn
— Nicholas Burns (@RNicholasBurns) February 14, 2019
Disgraceful ad hominem attacks by @IlhanMN on my @CFR_org colleague Elliott Abrams. She doesn't seem to realize he is a leading advocate of human rights and democracy–not a promoter of genocide! More evidence of the loony left I caution Democrats about: https://t.co/dyVdVOS7PY https://t.co/yjeLJksYCj
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) February 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/kellymagsamen/status/1095839488721543169
Look, I can’t defend Elliott Abrams — mainly because I only know him from Middle East policy, where I’ve had sharp but largely polite disagreements. But you know who I can defend? @kellymagsamen. She’s one of the finest people I know — and better than anyone currently @-ing her.
— Andrew Exum (@ExumAM) February 14, 2019
In turn, the Blobbies got some surprises of their own, many in the worst traditions of Twitter. Certainly some of the worst ratios I’ve ever seen, as well as a great deal of thoughtful pushback, including from me. Here’s an extended version of what I said.
Elliott Abrams was part of the group that encouraged violence and genocide in Central America. He lied to Congress about Iran-Contra, which he also was involved in. Nobody with that record should ever be in government again.
The foreign policy community is small, and everyone knows everyone else. Some of the apologia for Abrams was that he was a great mentor and colleague. What the public saw was the genocide and the dishonesty.
The lack of self-reflection in the Blob tweets – the inability to recognize how those outside their charmed circle might look at Abrams – is why the country keeps making foreign policy mistakes.
Evaluation of mistakes is essential for good governance. So is accountability for those who make those mistakes. And I am being kind to use the word “mistakes.” It’s been mentioned many times that mistakes never disqualify anyone for further government service. They should, and Abrams is a particularly egregious example. The people around Donald Trump include some who were on the wrong sides of Watergate, Iran-Contra, and George Bush’s Iraq War.
The United States has a long list of mistakes for which people have been unaccountable. Interventions in Iran and South and Central America. The second Iraq war and the torture that took place. Domestically, we have the financial crash of 2009 and the corrupt election of 2016.
At one time, when the governing elites were few and communications slower, it was possible to keep those things swept under the rug. But they’re all coming out now. We have to deal with them. The Blob’s attempt to convince us that Elliott Abrams is a member in good standing of their company and deserves another job with high responsibility tars them all.
Cross-posted at Nuclear Diner.
Dorothy A. Winsor
One of the striking things about “Vice” was how the same vile people kept coming back over and over, including Cheney. I thought Omar’s question was reasonable. He lied to Congress once. How do they know he won’t do it again? You get the benefit of a doubt only the first time. Once you have a record, that’s where judgement of you starts.
rikyrah
I watched the video of her and Abrams. I couldn’t help but smile and cheer her on.
It is so rare that azzes like Abrams are actually ever called on the carpet for their actions. That she did it, and didn’t flinch :)
rikyrah
A lot of the tweets against the Congresswoman have the undertone of ‘ who does this Darkie think she is?’
They couldn’t dispute that she had accurately covered Abrams and his policy decisions/choices.
Rarely does someone put a face on the victims of American foreign policy, let alone sympathy and accountability….
but, she did it.
Kathleen
Excellent post and response, Cheryl. Thank you.
Betty Cracker
The Blob?
eclare
@Betty Cracker: I wondered that too.
VeniceRiley
Right. How will we ever even know what happened in retrospect if those who hold office cover up, lie under oath, and get away with it? It’s a disqualifier. A mistake is if I forgot to turn off the stove. And I’m not even saying he should be disqualified for errors of judgement. It’s the excusing of lying and covering up … it makes me so very angry. These people have no ethics or morals, or even the slightest regard for their own word.
SenyorDave
I wonder if there was a German doctor in the 1950’s saying, “sure he made some professional mistakes but Dr. Mengele was a wonderful mentor when I trained under him. And he was such a nice man!”
guachi
@Betty Cracker: I think it’s a reference to the Foreign Policy Establishment in Washington where everyone knows each other.
Ian G.
Somehow, after all the times we’ve stepped on our dick with metal cleats in foreign policy, we’re gonna do it all over again in Venezuela, aren’t we? I can’t wait to have a Caribbean Libya on our hands after we fuck with any chance for Venezuela to peacefully transition from the Maduro regime and maybe to something resembling democracy.
MJS
God, the smug just oozes out of those tweets. “We know better than you people who want to hold a liar and war criminal to account.”
Cheryl Rofer
@Betty Cracker: @eclare: The Blob is the Washington foreign policy establishment, as guachi said. The term was coined by Ben Rhodes, who worked for Obama.
Cheap Jim
Odd how someone who seems basically decent to one’s self can turn out to be a really horrible individual to those not considered worthy of respect, ain’t it?
Doug Gardner
Perhaps some of the younger and more fearless MOCs like Ms. Omar can begin a trend toward not letting miscreants, criminals, and other bad actors off the hook as Congress has had far too long a record of doing. I liken this to the difference in interviewing “techniques” between, say, the BBC and nearly every US media organization. When a BBC interviewer is being stonewalled, they push back and demand an answer. In the US, it’s Chuck Todd and “that’s all the time we have”.
trollhattan
There can only ever be one Blob.
These guys can call themselves The Stingrays or something.
Mike in DC
Considering Henry Kissinger is able to show his face in public, this is disappointing yet unsurprising.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: Foreign policy ‘establishment’. The collection of people who have been disastrously wrong about a very large number of things, but have never paid a price for it. Elliott Abrams is a prime example. You’re not even allowed to think about holding them responsible. For anything, anywhere, ever.
NotMax
Would it be gauche to link to the theme song?
;)
Ian G.
@Mike in DC:
Good point. Whatever your feelings about Christopher Hitchens might be, his Kissinger book is really a must-read if you want to know just how obvious it is that Kissinger belongs in a cell in The Hague with Radovan Karadzic.
Leto
Seconded with excellent post. The fact we continue to recycle so many bad characters into government leadership positions, and then back into academic/think tank positions, is part of the reason why our foreign policy is so stagnant. The shitbirds mentor up and coming FP people and the the cycle of moral taint continues.
This is the same fallacy as people have with the president (as exhibited by W): “he’s a pretty good guy to have a beer with.” Who the fuck cares? His policies, or his approval of said policies, have caused countless suffering, death, destabilization, which amounts to long term issues for us and the region they’re in.
The Blob, like so many cloistered groups, need to get their head out of their asses and start doing a ground of review of everything they’re associated with. The same old recycled ideas aren’t working, assholes!
Kent
I was working in the Peace Corps in Guatemala in the 1980s when Elliott Abrams and his bunch were supporting right wing coups and facilitating genocide. I don’t think, however, that Abrams was a policy-maker. He was simply implementing the policy direction of the Reagan Administration at the time. They truly thought they were fighting the next vietnam in Central America against Cuban and Russian-supported leftist insurgencies. They were not entirely wrong, but much of the insurgency was also home grown. And it also served the purposes of the oligarchy. They would have had to invent leftist rebels if they didn’t already exist.
There is a LOT of blame to go around for what happened in Central America in the late 70s and 80s. The Catholic Church and the Vatican under Pope John Paul was as equally complicit. They supported the most retrograde right wing Catholic oligarchs. Cardinal Cassariego in Guatemala famously would bless Guatemalan Army tanks with holy water before sending them off to their little genocidal war in the Mayan highlands (that made what happened in El Salvador pale in comparison).
I think Omar was on point with her questions. I thought Abrams handled it poorly. All he really needed to say was that US policy in Central America was to oppose violent leftist insurgencies and support democracy and sometimes mistakes were made. Or whatever platitudes he wanted to say about that time. Abrams made my skin crawl back then. By all reports he has evolved into a normal mainstream conservative foreign affairs guy since. You got to have a thicker skin about this sort of thing. Or perhaps he was playing to an audience of one like Whittaker.
trollhattan
@Mike in DC:
Get a load of the fellows list at the Hoover Institution, housed at leafy Stanford. A few doozys there.
Eric U.
Hitler had a dog. Of course, he killed it in the end. Just like Elliot Abrams facilitated killing a lot of people.
oatler.
Democracy Now had a good piece on him this morning.
ruemara
I wish these people would stand up for what’s right as hard as they stand up for their colleagues. This reminds me of how news agencies went to the mat for Fox News & got to watch themselves be harassed and attacked at Trump events. Good work.
Leto
@MattF: Additionally, all of their solutions inevitably lead towards, “BOMB THEM! WE HAVE TO SHOW THEM WE’RE SERIOUS! BOMB BOMB
BOMB!” They were there in the Obama administration but I’m glad he was more of the, “We need to talk this out. Keep talking.” He wasn’t like that on every subject, as Rhodes book details, but overall he was more willing to engage with words which is what we need.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: At first I thought it was a clever nickname for the Orange in the WH.
hueyplong
Apparently there is literally nothing a tenured, old, white, Republican can do to render himself ineligible for service in a position of power. His prior perjury and war criming merely constitute “seasoning.”
As a standalone statement, what Omar said is beyond dispute. So of course it earns her the “uppity darkie” slur cited above by rikyrah.
Sorry about the old man grumpiness, but we’re neck deep in Hypocrisy Fatigue.
Leto
@Kent:
“You helped subvert the laws congress passed explicitly barring further intervention. Additionally, you were absolutely unapologetic about it. In short, gtfo out my chamber! You do not pass go, you do not collect your appointment! Good day, sir! I said good day!!!”
Mistakes are one thing. Subverting the will of Congress is something wholly else.
Gozer
@SenyorDave: Look up the “Rudel Scandal” in W. Germany. Hans Ulrich Rudel was an unrepentant nazi who helped other nazis escape post-war Germany (incl. Mengele) and was defended by then high-ranking German Air Force generals.
schrodingers_cat
Our political establishment has failed us. Their tone deaf responses to T-regime give a RL demo of how something like the French or Russian revolution can happen. Instead of behaving like members of a democracy they behave a like a permanent court on the Potomac. The same can be said about our media establishment too.
khead
Gee, looks like Max hasn’t come quite as far as some folks think.
NotMax
@ruemara
Can’t begrudge the example you offer. No substantive difference from the ACLU going to the mat for Nazis marching in Skokie. Cherry picking constitutionally guaranteed freedoms is not a place I care to see us go.
(((CassandraLeo)))
Thirding (or fourthing or whatever) the “great post” feedback. Elliott Abrams belongs in a trial at the Hague next to Kissinger, not testifying before Congress. (IIRC the associated prison isn’t actually in the Hague – Rotterdam? Can’t recall.) I lost a considerable amount of respect for a large number of people yesterday. I understand not wanting to believe the worst of people who have been kind to you personally, but these are horrific war crimes. It’s a giant thing to have a blind spot for. The comparison to the Kavanaugh hearings seems on point.
I’ll also second the recommendation for Hitchens’ book on Kissinger. A quick read, too, unlike a lot of his stuff – IIRC it’s fewer than 150 pages long. Hitchens had his own blind spots but that book was relatively unaffected by them.
stinger
Niiiiiice bootlegger. Punchline to an old joke, but still pertinent today.
If Abrams is such a great mentor, then are there not any younger members of The Blob who are qualified and don’t have the taint of Abrams’ past?
MattF
@(((CassandraLeo))): And there’s also ‘The Missionary Position’, Hitchens’ book on Mother Teresa. I didn’t like Hitchens much, but he had a good collection of enemies.
Kent
@Leto:
I agree with you. Abrams was a vile aparatchik back then who facilitated war crimes and lied to Congress. All I’m saying is that he did a poor job responding to Omar. He could have just brushed her off and gotten away with it instead of creating a scene. But perhaps that was what he wanted to do in the first place…get all indignant and push back.
There are a bazillion people who need to be held accountable for their actions overseas, starting with most of the Bush Administration vis a vis Iraq. Many of them much higher than Abrams. Like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, for example. Who also lied up and down to get us into war. I guess Abrams is as good of a place as any to start. But I don’t think he is even in the top 10 in this category.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: @eclare: I thought ‘the blob’ referred to William Barr, our brand-spanking-new AG. So much hangs on what he’s going to do now w/ the SC investigation. So very much…
Roger Moore
@Kent:
The insurgency in Vietnam was also mostly home grown. So were all the anti-imperialist insurgencies. The best way of keeping the Communists from getting involved would have been to end colonialism and imperialism and let them have democratic governments, but nobody in the foreign policy establishment was ever going to accept that our continued involvement was the problem.
kindness
I would have a hard time being polite with people defending Abrams past (or present). You are much more zen than I am Cheryl.
Leto
@Kent: True, he’s not in the top 10 but man, we have to start someplace and he’s a good as any place to start. If we can keep even one of these dipshits out of official office, that has to be a positive.
Also agreed that he did a poor job of responding, but that’s been the de facto stance for all Rethugs coming before Congress for this administration. So he figured he’d keep the same line going, then hit a brick wall.
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: B^2 is pretty fat. I have a suspicion that T is surrounding himself with other fat men to make himself look thinner.
germy
Beware! The Blob
eclare
@schrodingers_cat: So I guess Christie should be expecting a call any minute now….
NotMax
@Kent
The scene: the gates of Heaven.
“Name?”
“Donald Rumsfeld.”
“Rumsfeld… Rumsfeld… Ah, here it is. You’re down for Hell, or somewhere to the east, west, south, and north of there.”
;)
schrodingers_cat
Its time to give Max the Boot, and while we are at it knock of that fucking hat. Who does he think he is? Indiana Jones/
BruceFromOhio
@rikyrah: This, this, this. Those Iran-Contra scoundrels got bloody hands and tainted souls, and NO ONE seems to remember the horror wrought on humans by their actions.
@Betty Cracker: My thoughts exactly. Binary large object? Mid-50’s sci-fi movie? Other? Abrams arc of history isn’t kind, and anyone defending him better get the whole story, and get it straight.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
Ask Steve McQueen.
laura
I am grateful that the Congresswomen spoke truth to power. Those who are rallying around Elliot Abrams wilfully blind themselves to the atrocities committed on his watch on numerous occasions. None of them have expressed any concern for the victims of those trained at the School of the Americas.
And what Charlie Pierce said too!
germy
Of course, people like Elizabeth Landers will continue camping outside of Democrats’ offices to ask the important questions. They are not republican agents but they act like it, because of the Republican stuff they ignore and the Democratic stuff they try to amplify.
NotMax
OT.
Enough with the rain already!
Does Amazon sell modular ark kits?
/rant
Betty Cracker
@MattF: Yeah, I’m tempted to distribute copies of that book every time I hear Mother Teresa invoked as a model of goodness. On balance, Hitchens was probably right more often than he was wrong. But when he was wrong, he was so very infuriatingly, smugly, unbearably wrong.
Cheryl Rofer
Here’s a thread with more background on Abrams than I had time to look up.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
We’ve been interfering in South and Central America(*and other places) for over a hundred years. Same as it ever was, I am reminded of this portion of retired Gen. Smedley Butlers book War is a Racket:
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
It’s too bad the U.S. by and large does not teach it’s own recent history in grade school. Maybe we wouldn’t keep doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting it to turn out differently. Let’s not forget the 1953 CIA backed coup in Iran that overthrew their Prime Minister for having the nerve to want an audit of the AngloIranian oil company and for daring to mention nationalizing Iran’s oil fields.
goblue72
One of President Obama’s most admirable traits was the utter disdain he held for the DC-based foreign policy establishment.
eclare
@germy: I eagerly look forward to our hearings on Bonghazi.
rikyrah
Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) Tweeted:
Bill Barr’s son-in-law is leaving the US attorney’s office in Alexandria, Virginia and joining …the White House counsel’s office, per CNN.
https://t.co/7QRo0KoknV https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1095858464654614528?s=17
MattF
@Betty Cracker: Yeah. His attempt to smear Natalie Maines just showed he was a creep and had no taste in music.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Well put. Shall forever be a niche in my heart reserved for a talk he gave which was shown on C-SPAN (sometime during the 90s) which included this unbleeped line:
“Rush Limbaugh is a fat fuck.”
goblue72
@Roger Moore: Insert a “100” emoji to this one.
Kent
@Roger Moore:
In Central America that would have meant land reform and expropriating massive American corporate landholdings of companies like Chiquita and Dole. That is something they could not abide. It was “what’s good for American corporations is what’s good for America” sort of mentality. And now the chickens are coming home to roost in the form of the migrant movement.
But there was also a tremendous amount of cold war communist scaremongering at the time. Reagan was muttering about Sandanistas showing up at the Texas border with Cuban arms. That sort of nonsense.
By taking a different direction in the 70s and 80s they could have turned Central America into a Switzerland. Or at least 5 more Costa Ricas. But no, we went the other direction.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
More Californians are considering fleeing the state as they blame sky-high costs, survey finds
Thoughts, Californians? The article says top destinations for those moving from California are Texas, Nevada, Arizona, and Oregon.
However, many of those only have a high school education rather than a college education, so I’m wondering how that will factor in to the changing political demographics of Texas for example.
oldster
I sent Ilhan Omar a contribution this morning, to say thank you for her questioning of that scum.
I encourage all of you to do the same. Online donations are a quick and easy way to say “thanks” to people on the front lines of progressive change.
Omar is taking a lot of heat, on many fronts, but she is standing strong. We need to support that.
PJ
@Betty Cracker: Hitchens’ favorite subject was how clever, brave, and right he was. Second favorite subject was all of the famous people he hobnobbed with.
neldob
When these chummy pals subvert our republic that is crossing the bridge of no return. And he lied to congress, what more does he have to do before we see he has had his chance, let someone else do the job.
James E Powell
@rikyrah:
This, of course, comes as a total shock.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@rikyrah:
That sure doesn’t sound like a conflict of interest, no sirree!
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: Speaking of which, why hasn’t the White House physician released data from Trump’s medical exam? It’s been what, five or six days? They’re counting on us to forget, I think. I want a clock graphic on CNN, damn it!
AnotherBruce
Why do I suspect that if Donald Trump would start the ” right” war, the Never Trumper neocons would be right there to support him.
goblue72
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Its entirely about the housing costs – and specifically, the mostly the housing costs in the coastal areas where the job centers are. Primarily San Diego, L.A., and the SF/SV Bay Area. Which still makes it a “statewide” issue given that’s where the bulk of the state’s population resides.
And to degree people are leaving, its mostly about lower income residents moving out, and being replaced by higher income residents. We’ve gotten really GOOD here in California with importing high skilled professionals and exporting semi-skilled working class / lower-middle class workers. We still have a lot of poor, because they don’t have any money to go anywhere except the streets. Which is main reason our homelessness crisis is exploding.
On the net, means California population growth is leveling off and turning into a “big sort”. Its entirely self-inflicted and incredibly shitty.
Everyone knows what the solution is – taking control over land use away from the locals and vesting it with the state in order to facilitate housing production. Problem is the political will to get there.
The Moar You Know
@Mike in DC: I am a pretty staunch opponent of the death penalty. But if there were ever room for an exception post-Nuremburg, Kissinger would have to be it.
Roger Moore
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I object to using the word “fleeing” for people considering moving to places with lower housing costs, but other than that there’s not much that’s surprising in that article. Everyone in California knows our housing prices are out of control, and it looks as if our state government is finally going to start doing something serious about it. Unfortunately, we need to have a housing boom like we haven’t seen since the post-war years to have a chance of bringing prices down, and that’s going to be very hard without green field sites to build in.
JaySinWA
I am glad others have asked what The Blob is and the responses. I may have seen it before but it didn’t stick with me.
Is there a term for an expression that is both descriptive and vague?
Villago Delenda Est
Fuck Max Boot’s “discovery” that Rethuglicans are pigshit. He still is. He’s on the tumbrel manifest with the rest of the “never Trumper” garbage who actively worked to make Trump a reality over the last 50 years.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Orange blob has probably put on elebenty pounds because of his burger, two scoops and Faux watching life style.
NotMax
@JaySinWA
A foxymoron?
:)
trollhattan
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
My quick response is that with the exception of a couple of brief interludes some version of that article has been published daily for the last 25 years.
Martin
@goblue72: I think we might get there. I’ve never been a huge fan of Gavin, but I have to say I’m warming up to him.
Brown made some headway, but it seems like Newsom is going to push harder on this issue. We’ll see how serious he is when he targets SF. SF has the worst housing policy in the state in terms of approving new development.
NotMax
@Martin
San Francisco: The hills are alive with the sound of
musicIGMFU.Barbara
I will go back and read the comments, but you have identified the one thing that I hate most about Washington — this notion that people like Abrams should be judged by whether they are good colleagues or mentors rather than based on whether they implemented disastrous, indefensible, and even criminal policies that can never be viewed as anything other than a failure. “Oh, well, yeah, a few million people in Central America were displaced and hundreds of thousands were tortured and killed — but he was so helpful in making phone calls for me and giving me pointers on my CV when I was looking for a job!” How can anyone think like that? And with Abrams, it’s not even once, but repeatedly. And then lying to Congress! The worst part about it is that it is almost always a form of self-defense — I won’t judge you and in return you won’t judge me — the impermeable barrier that allows you to fail spectacularly in ways and still collect your promotion for failing in ways that would get most people like me fired.
It’s all about who you know and since none of them know poor refugees and immigrants whose lives have been upended and destroyed by Abrams’ policies, those things just don’t count, at all. That is not my idea of public service.
khead
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I’ll put it this way: I am considering going to the moon. I will let folks know when I actually do it.
gene108
@Leto:
One thing I remember from the Iran-Contra hearing (I was 11-12 at the time) was an undercurrent of people saying they did not break legitimate laws. They broke laws passed by a Democratic Congress.
Not sure why that stuck, but that’s the impression I got.
Fair Economist
@(((CassandraLeo))):
Yes, the Hague first. Trial before sentence. We’re not the Queen of Hearts.
NotMax
@khead
Hear tell that the wi-fi service there is really, really laggy.
;)
dmbeaster
Do any of these Blob people ever try to explain why Abrams should still be held in esteem despite his terrible track record? It is kind of like saying that a criminal should still be held in esteem because he was loyal to friends and volunteered to help children. Maybe that can justify some form of rehabilitation, but seriously, why should someone convicted of lying to Congress about something as serious as Iran-Contra ever get a second chance at shaping US policy no matter how much rehabilitation?
This is hard to understand. I could understand a response that explained why on balance he merits respect despite prior bad acts (even though I doubt I would ever be persuaded about this guy), but I just cannot fathom the actual response that seems dumbfounded that any would criticize him at all.
Brachiator
Help. Interesting word.
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
We would all feel ashamed of how poor our health is in comparison to Trump, and to save America from a collective breakdown of not being as healthy as Trump, they are keeping the records to themselves.
Only logical explanation.
Martin
@NotMax: Yeah, it’s pretty depressing that the most liberal city in the US is also the poster child for the problems that stem from NIMBYism. The government must do something to help the homeless! What do you mean there will be a shadow cast over my house from the new medium density apartment block? My child will die of Vitamin D deficiency! We must stop it!
Fair Economist
@Martin:
I always thought of Newsom as a lightweight but he is proving me wrong. He is going to the mat for important issues, like housing here, and making tough decisions, like the semi-hold on the bullet train.
Martin
@Barbara: I have heard that Hitler threw great dinner parties. How bad could he have been?
trollhattan
In non-blob news, see the Narcissus fresco they’ve uncovered in Pompeii.
Sucky way to die but the unlucky folks in that city left a phenomenal legacy to unwrap.
Jackie
McConnell just announced Trump will sign the Bill AND Declare a National Emergency.
Timurid
@schrodingers_cat:
He’s moments away from the point where he realizes that there’s no way to beat Trump without compromising the power and privilege of white elites.
That’s when he trades that fedora for a MAGA cap…
Martin
@Fair Economist: I get the reasoning behind the hold on the train, but it’s seriously disappointing. I would like to see the problem ratcheted up from the other side – announce an end to in-state flights at some future date. LA/OC – SF/OAK flights are a staple and should be ended. That would help light a fire under the cities objecting to the train. I’d like to see a ban on the sale of gas/diesel cars by 2030. That too would help.
MattF
@Jackie: A two-fer!
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@ruemara: Reminds me of how people who went to the Ivies all stick up for each other, even the terrible ones, who, sure they made some errors in judgement but they have “brilliant legal minds” or “dazzling expertise in foreign policy”. It’s never that they’re terrible, immoral people with mediocre intelligence, even when it’s obvious that’s the case (yeah I’m looking at you Brett K). We can’t admit that they are what they are because they’re in our club, and if we admit that anyone in our club is sub-par morally or intellectually then people might just start to question whether other people in our club, perhaps even me, are as smart and virtuous as we claim. And then the special privilege that adheres from being in the super duper smart and virtuous club might start to crumble. And if that happens we might even start having to compete on an even playing field with those schmoes from the State University systems, and some things are just not done.
gene108
@hueyplong:
Yes there is.
If a Republican actually is honest and outs the Republican establishment for crimes committed, he/she will be blackballed for life.
Movement Conservatism is like the mafia. As long as you don’t snitch on the doings of the organization to the authorities, you’ll still be in good standing, even if you did bad things.
catclub
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
offer of any benefit of doubt may not apply to those who are not white males who went to the right schools.
gratuitous
Aw geez, are you libruls still all hung up on those massacres and arms-for-hostages swaps and death squads? Get over it already!
The footage of Omar confronting Abrams is priceless. It’s probably as close as he’ll ever come to having to answer to his victims. I note also that Abrams was nearly expressionless when Omar detailed some of the atrocities the Reagan administration, in which Abrams so proudly served, committed in Central America.
germy
Turtle video:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/mcconnell-predicts-senate-passage-of-border-security-bill-hopes-trump-signs-it/2019/02/14/2f6e2cba-306f-11e9-8ad3-9a5b113ecd3c_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.26ebb22d7915
JaySinWA
@NotMax:
Are you talking about The Blob or Abrams?.
WaterGirl
OT. I got my info together for my taxes. I left the University at the earliest possible age and years of service. We get a 3% interest on our retirement money (which we paid for by paying extra into the system in order to have that guarantee) so I have several years of data available.
Every year — retirement income goes up by 3%, federal withholding also goes up every year.
Until 2018, when retirement income goes up by 3%, and federal withholding went down by $1,000, so the withholding amount is nearly 1,500 less than it should have been had the previous trend for the past 10 years continued.
I dropped off my info to the tax accountant this morning, but I fear that I am going to be one of the many who gets screwed in the tax deal at least in terms of what I have to write a check for – unexpectedly.
If I’m right, they will have done this to every single person receiving retirement money from the State of Illinois. I will be pissed, and I will not be alone.
NCSteve
The way the Blob works seems remarkably similar to the way the New York Times works.
catclub
@Martin:
I remember visiting Bari in Italy, wall to wall 6 floor apartment buildings on narrow streets.
That density was probably 50 times as high as any US city outside NYC and maybe Chicago. And they appear to be thriving!
Brachiator
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
This is largely about people contemplating a move. Hard to compare actual moves, or net migration (newcomers vs people who leave).
This is interesting. From the story itself:
The loss of families with kids has an impact on schools, which might see a net loss of students, and so a loss in state and federal funds.
The loss of people with only a high school education is a troubling signal if related to the lack of employment opportunities. It is also exporting income inequality to other states.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: No conflict of interest there! (oh my fucking god, the balls on these people)
ruemara
I’m about to slap people whining about Kamala Harris prosecuting people who smoked weed. Had it up to here. Never a word about Wilmer and the crime bill, but the black people who get into the justice system are supposed to not enforce laws. Fuck it. Americans on the left are more than willing to play stupid gotcha games and dabble in misinfo so we can really have another decade or more of a full blown nazi government. Fuck people.
@Brachiator: Our town has seen a big drop in families with school age children. The COL is too much.
Mayur
@Martin: He could paint an entire apartment in one day! Two coats!
gene108
@Martin:
I live in a garden condo development in New Jersey. I park in a parking lot. There is no way I can charge an electric car. Millions of other people living in apartments, in cities, where they park on the street or pay to park in a parking garage, and basically everyone, who doesn’t have a garage really cannot cope with the limitations of electric cars.
I doubt parking garage owners, condo associations, etc. are going to put the money into investing in charging units, unless the government completely subsidies the implementation.
Hydrogen fuel cells seemed interesting, but I have no idea what’s happened with them. There was a lot of talk about them, in the early Bush, Jr. years, but they seem to not be making news anymore.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
A mistake likely shouldn’t, repeatedly doing the same thing that failed, over and over again should. Considering even Ronald “Prosaic at best PONTUS” Reagan figured out the Central American policy Abrams was part of crafting sucked says a lot.
RAM
I liked Barack Obama and would vote for him again. But he made four serious blunders that we’re going to have to live with forever: 1. Failure to prosecute those responsible for torture during the Bush Administration; 2. Failure to prosecute those responsible for the real estate bubble that caused the Great Recession; 3. Believing it was possible to reach a compromise with the right wing well past the time it was obvious it simply couldn’t be done; and 4. Instituting a program of austerity instead of expansion during the Great Recession that badly hobbled the nation’s economy. The failure to prosecute torture is a blot on our nation’s soul–as is Elliot Abrams, for that matter.
catclub
@WaterGirl:
I bet this means a 3% cost of Living adjustment — COLA
Gravenstone
@germy: Every time they ask her one of those stupid “gotcha” variants, it appears Speaker Pelosi is just going to smack Republicans with an ever larger rhetorical hammer. Sooner or later, the questions will stop.
NotMax
@Martin
And was satisfied with the same one scoop of ice cream everyone else received.
Excepting Bavarian Grudge Ripple.
Steeplejack
@Jackie:
MSNBC thread here:
Neldob
@Jackie: Who was it who referred to M McConnell as “the gravedigger of American democracy”?
Gravenstone
@Betty Cracker: Can’t release specifics without patient approval. If the Doc told Trump that he wouldn’t lie to his complete satisfaction, you can guarantee that approval will never be forthcoming. Bad enough he let loose that whole “healthy for the next two years” bullshit.
jl
No executive or judicial branch witness deserved kid globs deferential treatment in hearings. And a convicted criminal like Abrams certainly does not.
So, good for Omaar.
I notice that she raised funds mostly from small donors, as did Max Rose, as did AOC. And those three folks seem to be willing and able to do good things, so far, that the big money politicians are not/ i don’t know if Rose and Omar made some kind no corporate PAC money, but most of the support is from individual donors.
trollhattan
@gene108:
“Here is your giant inductive charging plate, sir. Please try to center the car accordingly.”
dnfree
Fantastic and thoughtful post and comments on Abrams and the foreign policy network. We do not hold people accountable. It started in my lifetime with Ford pardoning Nixon and I can’t remember anyone in a position of authority being held accountable since. Gotta look forward!
WaterGirl
Lesson # 875 in: There are apparently no consequences for white men in government.
Tweets above, shorter: Pay no attention to all the lives that were destroyed by his actions; he was on the path of righteousness, and you can’t blame a good guy for collateral damage.
Neldob
@Martin: Some French company offered to build a train along the 5 but Congress creatures from the central valley nixed it.
Gravenstone
@Jackie: Um, yay?
catclub
@RAM: 5. was having the same people in charge of the Treasury Department as had fucked things up.
rather than cleaning them out.
6. Judges – Senate gets blames there – extremely slow learning.
JaySinWA
@WaterGirl: I did a rough up on my taxes last night, It’s about six hundred less than last years in total dollars. We don’t do withholding on retirement income, to much variable investment income to make sense of. So we do quarterly payments generally based on safe harbor payments equal to the prior years taxes. It makes refund/payment a little choppy, but avoids any penalties.
catclub
@trollhattan: I want a giant lazy susan in my driveway so I don’t have to back out. That would be perfect!
WaterGirl
@catclub: I worded that completely wrong! We get a 3% increase in our retirement amount each year from the amount it was the year before. It’s 3% each year, regardless of whether there is a cost of living adjustment amount.
But it’s very clear that this isn’t being given by the goodness of their hearts – that 3% interest was factored into the amount we had to pay in all those years.
catclub
@Jackie: I assume the lawsuits and bills challenging the emergency declaration
have already been written. The only emergency is that the House is held by Democrats. Everything else was not an emergency for the first two years he was in office.
japa21
@Gravenstone: He didn’t say Trump would be healthy to the end of his term. He said he didn’t find anything that would make him think otherwise.
And yes, you are correct. Without Trump approving the release of the findings, he can’t say anything else. So, obviously, Trump doesn’t want us to know the findings. I would make the guess specifically related to issues of obesity.
Mnemosyne
@RAM:
And which “austerity” program did Obama implement, pray tell?
Hint: The sequester was a Republican program, not Obama’s.
NotMax
@catclub
Here ya go.
catclub
Tell it to Archbishop Romero. Also the MaryKnoll Sisters.
NotMax
@japa21
And also what medication(s) he’s receiving.
catclub
@NotMax: Exactly!
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
It’s as though the universe is commenting on Trump with this fresco find.
Scientists recently concluded that some residents died in a particularly grisly manner. Mount Vesuvius Boiled Its Victims’ Blood and Caused Their Skulls to Explode
For some of the lucky ones, their bodies fried before the message reached their brains.
WaterGirl
@JaySinWA: For the past 10 years, they took out enough from my retirement income that unless I earned a significant amount of income from my consulting business, I was in pretty good shape.
I will be shocked if this works to my benefit. And it can’t of course, because I don’t reserve the 33% of my consulting income to pay for the taxes, because the “extra” amount they take out always covers that. Grrr.
I should know in a week, but I am expecting an unhappy surprise.
trollhattan
@catclub:
Right? That would be killer.
Back In the Day passengers and bystanders could spin the SF cable cars on their turntables at the end of the line. Sort of audience participation.
NotMax
@Brachiator
“That’ll teach ’em not to put a penis on every street corner.”
– any RWNJ
Also too, poor Hercualneum is the Rodney Dangerfield of 79 A.D.
;)
NotMax
@Brachiator
Whoops. Called ourt by FYWP for a naughty word. Fix (I hope).
“That’ll teach ’em not to put a penis on every street corner.”
– any RWNJ
Also too, poor Hercualneum is the Rodney Dangerfield of 79 A.D.
;)
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
The little shit is going to try to get his wall, no matter what.
The Wall is to American nutjobs as BREXIT is to British dopes.
Ruckus
@VeniceRiley:
They know their word is shit.
That’s why they squeal so loud, to cover up the truth and make it about you asking embarrassing questions.
The louder they squeal, the more guilty they are.
JaySinWA
@WaterGirl: Everyone is going to be a little different. I looked at trying to set retirement withholding to appropriate levels and just found doing it all in quarterly payments was easier to manage and understand. In our case the standard deduction increase covered the loss of itemization and exemptions. I’ll review the deductions but I doubt I’ll be itemizing.
Fair Economist
@Martin: My first take on the hold was that it was very disappointing, but looking into it I found serious issues with both the LA and SF links. The original plan to go through the Pacheco Pass had to be abandoned because it was too close to the reservoir and there isn’t a solid alternative plan. The Palmdale link is also sketchy because a) a Grapevine link (which is much more direct) has never been studied and there, as well, the original plan has hit problem due to displacement of existing uses. So right now the train was going forward with a solid plan to connect to NEITHER of the metro areas which were the goal of the train. That’s a no go.
With the halt there will be some consideration of alternatives that could create a functioning link, such as a lower-speed connection from Bakersfield to Metrolink rail in the Valley, and maybe an Altamont pass alternative to the Pacheco Pass. The Pacheco Pass would create a better network since it would open a new rail crossing and add very useful high-speed commuter service from Gilroy on up to San Jose; but on the other hand there is already rail through the Altamont pass and the HSR could possibly just ride that at lower speeds for now; plus the track could potentially be upgraded at much lower cost than crazy tunnels through Pacheco.
germy
@Fair Economist:
Roger Moore
@gene108:
Most people don’t have gas pumps at their houses for their fossil fuel powered cars, but they manage to make do. There is a growing network of paid charging stations for electric cars, which will work both for those who are away from home and for those who can’t put a charger in where they live.
RAM
@Mnemosyne: Here you go: https://newpol.org/issue_post/obama-austerity-and-change-we-really-can-believe/
Frank McCormick
@SenyorDave: Not specifically about Mengele, but there’s a significant amount of that sort of testimony in the movie “Judgement at Nuremberg”.
Dan B
@NotMax: Amazon does sell Ark kits. They come filled with Snowpocalypse fresh from Seattle.
Careful what you wish for… /
PeakVT
Excellent post. Sadly, I don’t think there is much chance the Blob will change, because there is vastly more money backing war (typically called “intervention”) than there is peace, or at least rare and carefully considered war.
Just One More Canuck
@germy: In a sane world, Nancy’s response would have been “Go suck a dead rat’s ass”
Dan B
@gene108: It’s the infrastucture stupid! (To paraphrase a political slogan..) The infrastructure for electric cars is pricey but not crazy expensive. WA State is doing it. We have fruends whose condos have installed chargers and they’ve been built out so you can go in every direction with some hiccups.
Many chargiing stations are at casinos and malls. Some are popping up at community centers. They’re in parking lots so your situation could be addressed if your garden apartment could be persuaded to install a couple stations or if your work did so. It requires favorable financial incentives and investment in jobs, ie. policy.
The infrastucture for hydrogen is just as expensive or more so. Almost everywhere in the country has electricity. Very few places have hydrogen production facilities large enough to support more than a few hundred vehicles and scaling….. oy vey! Hydrogen is challenging to store. It is the smallest atom and escapes from the tiniest leaks. Plus it’s mostly made from natural gas so the carbon footprint is terrible. Hydrogen is good if it’s generated by solar pv and used for overnight power generation on site.
debbie
@Cheryl Rofer:
Huh, I’ve been reading posts by a guy named Blob and was totally lost.
smintheus
Elliott Abrams didn't help to murder my own children, in fact he once shared some of his truffle pasta with me at a conference, so I'm fine with everything he's ever done. I swear I'll piss on the grave of anyone who dares to criticize him, especially all those damned grieving mothers.
smoke
@ruemara: De-lurking to say, this accusation doesn’t make any sense. California decriminalized possession of less than an ounce of weed in 1975 … so not a misdemeanor, just an offense like a traffic ticket, with a similar fine. There would still be prosecutions for sale, but even that would have been a very low priority in the Alameda DA’s office in the 90s when she was a working deputy DA. Often a lesser offense you’d plead to as part of a deal.
J R in WV
@RAM:
I’m with you on items 1 and 2 — but especially item 4 was not President Obama’s fault, it was the fault of congress, and mostly Republican congressional members. Though plenty of Dems were swayed by the FTNYTimes and the Main Stream Media that spending up the deficit, even during the worst recession since the 1929 Depression-beginning collapse, was a terrible and irresponsible choice~!~
This was somewhat stupid on the part of those in congress who didn’t go along with the desperate need for stimulus spending by the federal government, which is the only source of deficit funding for stimulus spending during a depression. We were really lucky that things turned around as soon as they did!!!
Not President Obama’s fault at all, though!
Haroldo
@Cheryl Rofer:
Our boy Max just blew a gasket. Someone got a little to close to his bubble.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/14/why-ilhan-omars-botched-interrogation-elliott-abrams-got-just-about-everything-wrong/?utm_term=.4f4c1aaf1458
J R in WV
And I want to add that I very much support Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D – MN) and her questioning of war criminal Elliott Abrams in committee hearings recently.
Abrams is a convicted perjurer, who helped to foment horrible war crimes in Central America, while working for the treasonous Ronald Reagan, who used treason to help win election, and went on the commit war crimes around the world. In the name of American Freedom for us, and for no one else.
No way he is fit to work for any government this side of the Third Reich. And the look on his face revealed to me that he knows he is guilty of war crimes, and was appalled and amazed that this dark complected woman was willing to list his crimes to his face in a public hearing. I loved the whole thing, and am so glad it is now part of the public record of this monster in a human suit.
Villago Delenda Est
The spirit of George Marshall is decidedly missing in the Blob.
They need someone with Marshall’s wisdom…that critiquing proposals and actions is NECESSARY to whip them into line.
Mike in Pasadena
@NotMax: 27.33 inches of rain in my backyard since the first 2.5 inches on 11-29-18
Annie
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: @Kent:
I live in San Francisco. I’m fortunate to have a rent-controlled apartment and a job that pays decently. I love it here. Also, there’s good public transit which I need since I don’t drive. So it is easy for me to say I’m not going anywhere.
However anyone moving to another state needs to take a good look at the real costs and wage levels in their new place. A friend of mine moved to Washington state in the mid 1990s because house prices were a lot lower then. But he found salaries were a lot lower too. Luckily he’d only sublet his apartment and he came back in 6 months.
MoxieM
@trollhattan: welp, many of them suck. (I’ll let myself out, since I’m 7 hours late anyway.)
Steve in the ATL
@J R in WV: late to the party, but hell yes to all of this
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Hermann Göring was a keen art collector and a raconteur. Why are liberals being so mean to him.
mere mortal
I keep thinking about the last scene from Three Days of the Condor, with Redford’s character recoiling at “The Community” and the games they play, the plans they make, that get people killed.
Oh, and I was not shaken as Condor was by “How do you know they’ll print it?” until this era. Now I am positively unnerved.