I only played Uncle Buck for four or five days, and I am SPENT.
Archives for September 2019
Open Thread: Some Minor Pushback on the Gun-Fondlers, Finally
Now at the LBJ presidential museum. Remarkable to recall that RFK was assassinated in June of ‘68 and Johnson had a gun control bill on his desk by October. pic.twitter.com/HqcwbQDNTu
— Kara Voght (@karavoght) September 2, 2019
BREAKING: Walmart will discontinue all sales of short-barrel rifle ammunition that can be used with military style weapons, discontinue sales of handgun ammunition and stop all handgun sales in Alaska, following two shootings at Walmart stores this summer. https://t.co/xtIAvxxWlu pic.twitter.com/d23XxnYDcP
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) September 3, 2019
*whispers* Walmart knows they’re facing massive liability after multiple in-store shootings. This was about money not decency. https://t.co/0dF9dU9hbH
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) September 3, 2019
Large American retailers dropping the sale of guns is an important step toward reestablishing that weapons aren’t just another consumer good like cheap towels or folding chairs.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) September 3, 2019
But, of course, #MoscowMitch will fight to the last ruble…
More McConnell on what he will allow on the Senate Floor when it comes to background checks legislation: “If the president is in favor of a number of things he has discussed openly and publicly and I know we will pass it and it’ll become law, I’ll put it on the floor.”
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 3, 2019
I don't know. Is it guns?
— francesc (@francesc) September 3, 2019
Reminder: There’s more of us than of them… if we can learn to leverage our strength:
Surprised that “mandatory gun buybacks” polled at 46% in Quinnipiac. That’s high! Good for the theory that parents sick of their kids doing mass shooter drills are outnumbering the “actually the AR stands for ArmaLite” people.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) September 3, 2019
Open Thread: Some Minor Pushback on the Gun-Fondlers, FinallyPost + Comments (145)
Respite (Sorta) Open Thread – Military Giant Cats
I could use a respite right now – I’ve been reading the tortured logic of some folks who claim that being able to fight a limited nuclear war, and believe that it won’t get worse, is absolutely necessary to keep a nuclear war from happening. The assumptions pile up in giant haystacks like Boris Johnson’s hair. (And hey, how about that first vote!)
This is something that my corner of Twitter is having a lot of fun with. A new account, started this month (like yesterday), called Military Giant Cats. They tweet out only photoshops of cats and military scenes. No comments, but others have been adding them. They have 48 tweets and over 14,000 followers. Some of my faves:
The Pentagon pic.twitter.com/wbkyJbykpp
— Giant Military Cats (@giantcat9) September 3, 2019
Trooping the Colour pic.twitter.com/NELA4c6KMf
— Giant Military Cats (@giantcat9) September 3, 2019
Boxer AFV pic.twitter.com/r4Z9n6mIpS
— Giant Military Cats (@giantcat9) September 3, 2019
Moscow pic.twitter.com/FEPV64MiS4
— Giant Military Cats (@giantcat9) September 3, 2019
MV-22B Osprey / HMAS Canberra pic.twitter.com/nsZ4fpLVXr
— Giant Military Cats (@giantcat9) September 3, 2019
French Garde Republicaine pic.twitter.com/PqJI0PQDYg
— Giant Military Cats (@giantcat9) September 3, 2019
LCVP Mk5 pic.twitter.com/nTIVNA2kEd
— Giant Military Cats (@giantcat9) September 3, 2019
Open thread!
Respite (Sorta) Open Thread – Military Giant CatsPost + Comments (38)
Shooting Yourself In The Foot Brexit Update
Adam’s post below has more detail on this whole Brexit clusterfuck, but since he posted it, Boris Johnson has lost what appears to be a major vote – 21 Tories voted with the opposition to allow debate on a bill which would disallow a no-deal Brexit. Boris’ other move – a snap election – appears to be blocked unless and until that no-deal bill passes, since Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn says his side won’t vote for the election, which requires a 2/3 majority.
In other words, Boris is in a box. I watched an hour or so of his presentation and questions today, and he seems not-so-clever. He artlessly ducked questions about the kinds of negotiations his government is undertaking with the EU (truthful answer: none). From my limited knowledge of British politics, Corbyn is in a weak position because there are Labour MPs who are pro-Brexit, and because Corbyn himself isn’t really that hot on the EU. (His position seems similar to Pelosi’s on impeachment – not too keen on it, even if his rank-and-file were.) Also, for whatever reason, some who should be his natural ally hate Corbyn’s guts.
But Boris has been so obvious about his desire for a no-deal Brexit catastrophe that Corbyn has been able to put together a coalition opposing “no deal”, the one thing that they can all agree upon. So instead of a horrible no deal Brexit, the UK is just going to suffer and slowly bleed while parliament votes itself more time to faff around.
Shooting Yourself In The Foot Brexit UpdatePost + Comments (69)
Fair elections in North Carolina forthcoming
NEWS — We just won our NC state court gerrymandering lawsuit! The trial court struck down the current state House and state Senate plans and required that new plans be drawn immediately.
— Daniel Jacobson (@Dan_F_Jacobson) September 3, 2019
This is a state constitutional case and does not rely on federal law. In this way, North Carolina will be like Pennsylvania in how it de-gerrymanders.
Open Thread.
Fair elections in North Carolina forthcomingPost + Comments (83)
Crisis in The Commons: Johnson Loses His Majority As Brexit Consumes the United Kingdom
Boris Johnson has lost his majority in The House of Commons.
Here's @DrPhillipLeeMP going to sit with the Lib Dems. Govt no longer has a working majority pic.twitter.com/Vv9HBvF36s
— Daniel Kraemer (@dcakraemer) September 3, 2019
And this won’t be the last defection today.
Sir Nicholas Soames says he will vote against the government this evening.
It will be w great look for Boris Johnson to expel the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill from the Conservative Party on what is the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. pic.twitter.com/12hinUf9z9
— Charlie Proctor (@MonarchyUK) September 3, 2019
Here’s the live feed from the House of Commons. Michael Gove is at the microphone now spewing his usual bullshit.
Here’s live coverage from Sky News:
Neither the BBC, nor ITV are running live feeds and coverage of what is going on. Or, rather, that can be embedded here.
As always, Carol Cadwaller is on top of this story!
So many have knocked, minimised & ignored. Perhaps cos they haven't understood it? It wasn't a criminal conspiracy; it was several. And it's not a one-off, it's systemic. Our laws don't work. The tech is out of control. And there's been no justice. Only cover-ups, denials, delays
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) September 2, 2019
via @JuliaDavisNews. Full clip here: https://t.co/DvKMspIr1m…
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) September 1, 2019
Peter Jukes gets right to the core of the problem.
It’s been proven beyond doubt that Cummings and Johnson cheated during the EU referendum. They got away with it. Now the government is being run by Vote Leave, the cheating and law breaking will continue apace. Those who downplayed the cheating are also now responsible.
— Peter Jukes (@peterjukes) September 2, 2019
Of course Brexit isn’t the crime, it is the cover up!
If the UK is still in the EU come January
New anti tax evasion laws will start exposing offshore accounts of the mega rich tax avoiding UK elite, people like Rees-mogg, Johnson & Farage
Will also expose where Arron Banks unexplained £8m Brexit funding came from#StopTheCoup
— Cirian75 / Simon #FBPE ? #WorkingClassRemainer (@cirian75) September 3, 2019
And here’s some solid analysis from Lewis Goodall of SkyNews.
This is really quite simple: any democracy where the government refuses to obey the rule of law is no longer a democracy. https://t.co/w5mzVPPxjf
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 1, 2019
When Parliament legislates you cant ignore it. No ifs. No buts. That’s it. It is, as we are so often reminded, sovereign.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 1, 2019
On a side note, if the govt wants to see how ugly things can get when we start picking and choosing which laws we observe, I look forward to seeing their reaction when the Scottish govt decides to hold IndyRef2 and unilaterally declares independence without a legal process.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 1, 2019
And as I’ve written many times in recent weeks, MPs cannot be the executive. Continuing to upend convention to seize control of the Commons and to try and bind govt in a million directions is not especially healthy nor productive. If you don’t like the govt. Change. The. Govt.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 1, 2019
The government is too frit to get a new parliament. The Parliament is too frit to get a new government. It’s a sorry state of affairs and fundamentally it’s that loop which is keeping us parked in this nightmare.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) September 1, 2019
Here’s a link to my analysis the day after the Brexit vote. An excerpt:
The short course for strategy and policy is really quite quick and simple. To make policy one determines what your ideal objectives are, establish how much risk you are willing to assume to achieve them, and then either decide to attempt to achieve those objectives or a less than ideal, but still perfectly acceptable, but less risky alternative. Once this is done, in order to further minimize that risk and to ensure the maximum likelihood of success, you determine what ways and means you have, what additional ways and means you may need, how to bridge the gap between the two, and then you execute: applying your ways and means to achieve your ends. Finally, personalities matter and relationships matter. Congratulations! You now know more about strategy and policy than any elected or appointed official pushing for the Leave position that I saw on the BBC News coverage of the Brexit vote from 8 PM EDT last night to 3 AM EDT this morning.
It didn’t matter if the official was from the Conservative Party or from the Labor Party or from the UK Independence Party. They knew what the ends they wanted to achieve – leave the EU on terms negotiated to be the most favorable to Britain, but that was it. None of them expressed any real idea of how to achieve this beyond Vote for Leave, Article 50 now or later, return of sovereignty, and a better future for Britain. I don’t mean to make light of what happened or what anyone tuning in witnessed. A number of these ladies and gentlemen were quite articulate, had a clear grasp of how the Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty process worked, and in some cases actually were quite aware that the real issues were poor outcomes for average, and often rural/small town/village British people that resulted from the failures of British government and governance, not because of anything specifically involving the EU.
The pro Brexit vote demonstrates the failure of elected and appointed officials who do not have a firm grasp of policy, strategy, and their potential effects – positive and negative. It is quite ironic that a successful referendum campaign partially based on anger at elites, notables, and experts to run things effectively has shown that the elites, notables, and experts running the Vote Leave movement and campaign do indeed not have the foggiest idea of how to run things effectively. Nothing says “I understand and empathize” like a Vote Leave Tory Member of Parliament, who graduated from public school and the Oxbridge system and has been an MP for his entire professional career, explaining to BBC anchors that the average British person is fed up with the failures of the elites and the experts running Britain and that is why the country must leave the EU.
The chaos seen today clearly demonstrates the failure of strategy and policy among the Vote Leave campaign leadership. We can clearly see that they don’t really have any ways and means to achieve their stated end: a negotiated departure from the EU that provides Britain with the best possible terms. Nor do they have any idea what they should be. They have destroyed their relationships with the EU leadership who want the separation done immediately and are in no mood to bargain, let alone allow Britain off the hook easy. And they have no leverage with the EU as a result. Johnson, Gove, Stuart, Farage, and others are now the dog that caught the Vauxhall. Unfortunately they clearly have no idea what to do with it.
And here’s a live shot of Brexit in action:
https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1168791087873441793
Rule Britannia, Britannia rule a bunch of small towns in the middle of England where the population is old, on government assistance, white, and angry.
Open thread!
World’s Greatest Negotiator
As the trade war drags on, China’s President Xi has Trump’s shriveled little raisins in his fist, but Trump still seems to think he has the upper hand. CNBC summarizes this morning’s tweet-negotiations:
President Donald Trump pressured China on Tuesday to make a trade deal with the U.S. in the near future, warning talks will get much tougher if he is reelected in 2020.
Trump said in a series of tweets: “We are doing very well in our negotiations with China. While I am sure they would love to be dealing with a new administration so they could continue their practice of “ripoff USA”($600 B/year),16 months PLUS is a long time to be hemorrhaging jobs and companies on a long-shot…And then, think what happens to China when I win. Deal would get MUCH TOUGHER! In the meantime, China’s Supply Chain will crumble and businesses, jobs and money will be gone!”
Meanwhile, Xi, who despite being president for life in an autocratic country and thus above petty concerns like fluctuations in popular support and elections, probably knows how to read polls. One recent poll shows Trump losing by double-digits to Biden, Harris, Sanders or Warren — and that’s in an economy where Trump’s mismanagement hasn’t yet resulted in widespread pain, though signs are on the horizon.
The real question is what Xi thinks is in his own and China’s bests interests. Is China better off with a belligerent idiot in charge of their most formidable geopolitical foe or not? We’ll find out soon enough.
Open thread!
ETA: Speaking of world’s greatest negotiators…
This was the moment Boris Johnson lost his majority in parliament https://t.co/j9uMkLTaQl pic.twitter.com/l9dwkIIzUi
— The Independent (@Independent) September 3, 2019
Jesus. What a pair of clowns.