Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

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

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

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How to Stop a War

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Our Commander-in-Chief:

President Trump told reporters Friday that the United States had killed Qasem Soleimani, one of Iran’s top military figures, in a bid to “stop a war.” The president, speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, urged Iran not to retaliate.

“We did not take action to start a war,” he said.

So it goes something like this, see if I’m paying attention:

  1. Kill top general of the opposition forces.
  2. ?????
  3. War stopped. QED

Other thoughts in the same vein:

  • “I didn’t go running in traffic to get hit by a car, but to cross the street.”
  • “I didn’t have unprotected sex to get pregnant, but to have some fun.”

Open thread.

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Election 2020 Open Thread: Elizabeth Warren Is Still Winning People Over

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Rebecca Solnit, at the Guardian — “My dream candidate exists… “:

If I was going to invent a dream candidate, she would be grounded in small-town, rural or heartland America but able to hold her own in the citadels of power on the coasts. She would comfort the afflicted with the same passion with which she afflicts the comfortable, and she would understand the causes of those afflictions and have good ideas about how to remedy them. She would be moved by compassion but wouldn’t ask us to rely on compassion; she would have tangible strategies for widening our distribution of income, healthcare, education and opportunity, and she would be smart about the intersections of race, gender, class and the rest.

She would have been around long enough to remember that since the 1980s the government has dismantled a lot of systems that made us more safe and more equal, and she’d be fresh enough to imagine new ways out of the consequences of that catastrophic dismantling. Also she would have to be funny and have big plans to address climate change. OK, she already exists, and I’m talking about Elizabeth Warren. She is, to me, a better candidate for president than I ever expected we’d have.

My dream candidate would’ve been a woman of color with all these qualities, and my dreamiest dream candidate would be a woman of color with Medusa hair who could turn the entire Republican Senate to stone with a glance, but Warren is who’s left in the race, and she is magnificent, and superheroes from Megan Rapinoe to Roxane Gay agree. Also, she pretty much turned Wells Fargo’s CEO into stone in a 2016 Senate banking committee hearing, more than a decade after she became one of the most outspoken experts telling Wall Street why it’s vicious and half a decade after she endorsed Occupy Wall Street. The strength of her candidacy is shown by how she’s made it to the front of the race despite misogyny from across the political spectrum, the wrath of the billionaires pouring money – and themselves – into the race, and the smears and distortions of the mainstream media…

I’m from the urban coastal immigrant-Jewish left myself, which does not actually make me virtuous, but lucky in that I didn’t have to travel far to land in progressive positions (and gives me a front-row seat on how much misogyny and meanness the left can include). The word radical comes from a word for roots; Warren has certainly been radical in her analysis of root causes since 1975, when her first law-review article savaged an anti-bussing court ruling. Way back then, she was delving deep into how the law blocked equal educational opportunity, and she weighed in on the side of Detroit’s black families and the urban poor generally…

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Jailbroken iPhone (Open Thread)

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Well:

Back before Trump under-bussed Rudy’s goons, back when Parnas and Fruman were very much on the Trump train, Parnas mused about his son to a New Yorker reporter:

He ended our nearly ninety-minute meeting on a wistful note, saying that he looked forward to returning home to Florida and spending more time with his wife and son. “He’s the real story,” Parnas said, of Aaron. “My son graduated college at sixteen. He’s graduating law school at twenty. He’s about to be a lawyer. He’s doing some fascinating things. He wants to be President one day.”

Maybe his son told Parnas that John Dean’s offspring would have a better shot at the Oval Office than G. Gordon Liddy’s kid.

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Say Hello to the New Boss

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Apparently Qasem Soleimani was a key leader in the Iranian military:

As leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, the 62-year-old bore responsibility for Iran’s clandestine operations abroad, quietly extending the military reach of Iran deep into foreign conflicts such as those in Syria and Iraq.

In the process, he earned himself near-mythical status among his enemies and idolization by his Iranian hard-line supporters.

Analysts have complained that Soleimani had more diplomatic clout than Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and pondered whether he would eventually seek top political office. Some compared him to Karla, the fanatical, but fictional, Soviet spymaster in John le Carré’s Cold War novels.

Killing him was a major provocation, and certainly it will have some effect on the morale and capabilities of the Quds Force, but is it going to have any long-term effect? My guess is that it won’t, for two reasons. First, military and paramilitary organizations are designed to be resilient to loss of command since one of the major risks of war is, obviously, death. Second, the command structure of any quality military organization is going to be full of ambitious and talented officers who are capable of taking the place of the top leader.

In other words, there are half a dozen Karlas waiting in the wings to replace this guy. The history of this endless war is replete with the killing of some #1 or other that probably causes some short-term chaos, but changes very little in the long run. I think part of the reason that the US is constantly “decapitating” enemies is that we can do it with precision airstrikes rather than a commitment of ground troops, so it is a relatively easy gesture that shows we’re “doing something”.

Well, now we did something. As much as Trump, Pompeo and the rest want to do more, that next steps are a hell of a lot more militarily and politically risky than a targeted airstrike.

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Who’s the rogue state now?

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Senator Chris Murphy assesses the situation:

I don’t know much about Iran, except that the country is a horrifying theocracy (as is Saudi Arabia). I don’t know what they’re likely to do in response to the U.S. assassination of the Iranian general. But if they’re smart, the Iranians will use Trump’s reputation as a belligerent idiot to paint the U.S. as a rogue state, undermine any remaining support for sanctions and strike trade deals.

Iran has vowed “harsh revenge,” and people are understandably spooked by the prospect of terrorist attacks and the U.S. being drawn into a wider conflict, with proxies joining the melee. Maybe the Iranians really mean it.

But while we know we in the U.S. don’t have rational leadership at the moment, the question is: does Iran?

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On The Road – Wag – The Wilson Group, Part 2

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Good morning everyone,

 

We continue today with Wag’s submission. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Welcome to Part 2

After our fun day on Wilson Peak, we were looking forward to more high altitude fun.  After a recovery night at a hotel in the town of Ridgway (and an excellent meal at the Colorado Boy Pub and Brewery), we drove to our next trailhead at Kilpacker Basin.

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On The Road - Wag - The Wilson Group, Part 2 7
Kilpacker BasinAugust 30, 2019

In the late afternoon od the 30th we hiked in about 3 miles up Kilpacker Basin and set up camp in a beautiful meadow.  It was late in the summer, but here were still a few wildflowers to be found

Friday Morning Open Thread: Is There Such A Thing As A ‘BS Storm Emergency Day’?

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Snow Storm Emergency Kit - Stone Soup

(Stone Soup via GoComics.com)

 
We’re only three days into the new year. There’s people still on their year-end break, for Murphy’s sake!

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