Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

… gradually, and then suddenly.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

In after Baud. Damn.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

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

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Friday Evening Open Thread: Talk About Yer COLD War!

Friday Evening Open Thread: Talk About Yer COLD War!

by | 183 Comments

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I’m not a professional, like Adam, so I can just enjoy the diss track…


‘Course, Vladimir has American supporters, too…

Reader Interactions

183Comments

  2. 2.

    JPL

    It’s odd that Hannity is cheering for Putin, especially after Biden took down trump during the debate

  9. 9.

    hitchhiker

    The obvious answer to Putin’s gross demands is that he should debate Alexei Navalny, on national television.

    He won’t, though. Easier to throw him in prison.

  10. 10.

    Uncle Cosmo

    “Russian ambassador called home for consultations” – ? Hah. More like “Khe teenks I am keeler? Take dees umbrella ve got back from Bulgarians ueet you to Vite Khouz. Raskolnikov kheer veel tich you khow to vork. Ve sho khim!”

  11. 11.

    Old School

    There was a tweet from someone (forget who) that said the last person Biden debated ended up in Walter Reed.

  12. 12.

    Chris T.

    (Also why “Putin Vor! (thief)” is the best chant.)

    Wait, “vor” means “thief”?! Puts a whole new spin on the Vorkosigan saga… ?

    (PS: according to Google Translate, yes, it does mean that)

  14. 14.

    Roger Moore

    @Chris T.: ​
     

    Wait, “vor” means “thief”?! Puts a whole new spin on the Vorkosigan saga…

    This is something Lois McMaster Bujold learned after starting the series and actually incorporated into some of the later stories.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @Chris T.: If memory serves, there was at least some backstory that the Vor ‘counts’ were originally accountants.
    So, guess that checks out.

  16. 16.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    There are reports out of Simi Valley that Ronald Reagan is spinning so fast in his grave that it’s producing enough power to light eastern Ventura County and the western half of The Valley.

  19. 19.

    Brachiator

    “He will pay a price,” Biden said on Putin. “We had a long talk, he and I, when we—I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off I said, ‘I know you and you know me….

    What, we got Joe quoting Beatles songs now?

    He wear no shoe shine
    He got toe jam football
    He got monkey finger
    He shoot Coca-Cola
    He say I know you, you know me
    One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

    Come together, right now, over me

  21. 21.

    Ken

    @Starboard Tack: Has Russia ever had a functioning democracy?

    They have often followed “one man, one vote”.  For example from 1927 to 1953 Stalin was that one man.

  23. 23.

    Alison Rose

    Putin: “I am not joking or being ironic.”

    Narrator: He was definitely joking and being ironic, if by “ironic” he meant “I would actually love to see you die.”

  28. 28.

    p.a.

    Well well well…

    (nbclosangeles.com)

    Former President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, club has been partially closed because of a COVID-19 outbreak.

    That’s according to several people familiar with the situation, including a club member who received a phone call informing them about the closure Friday. A receptionist at the Mar-a-Lago club confirmed the news, saying it was closed until further notice, but declined to comment further.

    A person familiar with club operations said that, out of an abundance of caution, they had “partially closed” a “section of the club” for a short period of time and quarantined some of its workers.

  30. 30.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

     

    Daniel Korski

    @DanielKorski

    ·
    Mar 18

    No, not really. In fact, this relativising statement is a great insight into Vladimir Putin’s worldview. We are all the same. You’re bad, we are bad. Everyone is dirty. We aren’t doing anything you aren’t doing. But this isn’t true. Not by a mile.

    I mean, our involvement in the Middle East over the last 20 years kind of says otherwise, doesn’t it? We’re still involved in Syria and our drone strike policy often not only kills innocents but also angers the peoples that live there.

    Are we exactly the same as Russia? No. We don’t directly bomb hospitals. But that’s a low bar

    Am I wrong on this?

  31. 31.

    Martin

    @zhena gogolia: communists/socialists that favor anything anti-american as part of their communist creds. I think it originates with British communists that favored soviet tanks going to Hungary.

  35. 35.

    Alison Rose

    @zhena gogolia: Not to sound complimentary toward Putin whatsoever, but at least his IQ is higher than his waist size. Though I suppose we should be glad that Trump was too stupid to be as dangerous as Putin is.

  37. 37.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I know we have to have an accounting of the crimes of the last administration, and not just sweep it all down the memory hole. Hell, I’ve been saying through most of the last four years that I wanted to see a Truth and Reconciliation Commission when those assholes were out of office.

    But I just started listening to Rachel’s piece from last night on the DNI Election Interference Report and I got back that old rage that was my constant companion since January of 2017.

    The part that set me off was her pointing out that the DNI report explicitly says “Russia, Russia, Russia” and “not China, not China, not China”, that the classified version of the report was saying all that in early January of 2021, and that all the Former Guy spokespeople who read it were saying the opposite on all the media outlets.

    I just got to the part where she brings Nunes into it. That should be interesting, but I have to let the rage die down a little before diving back in.

    Edit to add: Is Bill Barr in any legal jeopardy? Please somebody tell me he is.

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    @Alison Rose:

    Not to sound complimentary toward Putin whatsoever, but at least his IQ is higher than his waist size.

    I am not seeing anything positive in this at all.

    Though I suppose we should be glad that Trump was too stupid to be as dangerous as Putin is.

    Trump did a lot of damage, and 500,000 people died of Covid who might have lived.  And a lot of “smarter” Republicans did all they could to keep Trump running around, wreaking havoc.

  42. 42.

    Ajabu

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    Yes he is . As am I. And as was Miles Davis, James Brown, Prince, Flip Wilson and many other accomplished professionals.

    Heightism is just another ism. Was #45 a superior being because he’s taller? Joe Biden isn’t a better man because he’s taller than Putin. That’s some irrelevant shit…

    ETA: Nothing personal. I just been dealing with that shit all my life and it sets me off sometimes.

  45. 45.

    germy

    The Heritage Foundation is hosting a 3/25 event titled "The Crown Under Fire: Why the Left's Campaign to Cancel the Monarchy and Undermine a Cornerstone of Western Democracy Will Fail"

    Because undermining the monarchy has never been a part of American democracy, apparently.

    — Aaron Mehta (@AaronMehta) March 19, 2021

  46. 46.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Chris T.: IIRC the chant in Ukraine when Vlad The Paler was putzing around with their democracy was Putin khui!, which IIUC is literally Putin (is) prick! but idiomatically may mean Fuck Putin! (NB G&T will know.)

  51. 51.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Starboard Tack: To answer question: Nyet.

    Arguably one significant reason Israeli politics are FUBAR is the influx and influence of Soviet Jews, who had absofuckinglutely zero clue as to how a functional democracy is supposed to work.

  52. 52.

    germy

    So 14 House Republicans voted against a resolution condemning the military coup in Myanmar…

    They must be so jealous they couldn’t do it here.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @germy:

    The Crown Under Fire: Why the Left’s Campaign to Cancel the Monarchy and Undermine a Cornerstone of Western Democracy Will Fail

     
    Shoot. I thought this time we had it in the bag.

  54. 54.

    MattF

    ‘Killer’

    • It’s true
    • Russia is a medium-sized country that sells raw materials to wealthier countries
    • Putin lost an asset, and that asset is going to stay lost
    • Putin’s dishonesty was a model for TFG
  55. 55.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I don’t think you can compare the two situations, honestly. That was a declared war between major powers that was largely defensive on the part of the Allies. What’s going on in Syria is an undeclared, proxy war and a lot of innocent people are suffering as a result

  57. 57.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    The Heritage Foundation is hosting a 3/25 event titled “The Crown Under Fire: Why the Left’s Campaign to Cancel the Monarchy and Undermine a Cornerstone of Western Democracy Will Fail”

    There aren’t enough words to mock the shit out of this stupidity.

  59. 59.

    raven

    @Martin: I remember some dudes marching outside the Illini Union with “Hail The Soviet Army in Afghanistan, Crush Muslim Extremism”!

  60. 60.

    Chris T.

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Are we exactly the same as Russia? No. We don’t directly bomb hospitals. But that’s a low bar

    Am I wrong on this?

    It is a low bar, yes. And you are wrong on this, yes. It turns out that tiny distinctions, like that low bar, make a huge difference. When I was young, like you, I expected huge differences between things that had hugely different names. It turns out that some of these hinge on the tiniest little things….

  61. 61.

    Mike in NC

    There’s a 1997 Russian movie called “Thief”, about a WW2 veteran who moves into an apartment building and starts robbing his neighbors when they are out. They all become terrified of him because he has a tattoo of Stalin on his shoulder and he tells them that he’s the dictator’s son.

  62. 62.

    germy

    Hilarious to see people who insisted Trump was actually very tough on Putin having the vapors because Biden is tough on Putin.

    — Schooley (@Rschooley) March 19, 2021

  63. 63.

    germy

    Here's my take on Biden tripping on the stairs of Air Force One:

    Jim Jordan voted to cut $36 billion from Medicare today, continuing his long campaign to slash the Social Security and Medicare we spend our lives earning. #Bidenfall

    — Jeff Sites for Congress (@Sites4Congress) March 19, 2021

  64. 64.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    I never said the US was. But our involvement is contributing to the humanitarian crisis there. It hurts our image as a country.

    I really don’t like the idea of flying death robots (drones) that can be used to target practically anybody on the planet.

  68. 68.

    germy

    @Baud:

    It was a windy day.  No big thing, but of course the usual suspects are trying to make it into something.

    He’s fine.  Nothing broken.

  72. 72.

    Dan B

    @Brachiator: Someone forgot to inquire as to which “Heritage” they most support.

    I’d love to see them all digitally dressed in Redcoats or some 18th century finery.  The Schlapps in powdered wigs would also be inspiring.

  73. 73.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Congress passing a declaration of war is the difference?  Congress passed an authorization to use force in the “War on Terror”, this is an outgrowth of that.  The problem with Syria that Obama faced is that there are no good options.  If we didn’t get involved, what would be the result?  That’s the question that policy makers have to answer.

     

  74. 74.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    I edited it out, sorry.

    I don’t know, sometimes the “purity left” you guys deride has decent points about our foreign policy.

    Everywhere I go whenever I see the replies to the tweets that commenters and front pagers post, I see comments about the US bombing Syria and it makes we wonder if we’re on the right path when it comes to foreign policy. I particularly saw them in response to the new promotions of the female generals. Hell, even Stephen Colbert made a “Now even little girls will get to bomb Syria when they grow up” joke. I’m serious as a heart attack when I say he said that during one of his stand-up openers

    There was also some single panel comic posted in response to Biden’s tweet with two Middle Eastern people talking about how historic it was for a woman drone pilot to bombing them in the background.

    I guess it was meant to highlight the absurdity of “identity politics” when mixed with war?

  78. 78.

    Mary G

    I can’t find it to give credit, but yesterday someone on Twitter said Biden was so powerful, he turned Putin into Ben Shapiro in only 58 days.
    It’s never the candidate who’s ahead in the polls that wants to debate, either.

  79. 79.

    Ken

    @germy: More and more I think the whole right wing is set up like a Nigerian prince email scam, deliberately made unbelievable as a way to select people stupid enough to send money.

  80. 80.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @germy:

    They are, but so have we, though not to the same degree. All the drones do, AFIK, is make foreign peoples despise us. The top commanders in ISIS who are killed are quickly replaced by others

  81. 81.

    Baud

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I don’t know, sometimes the “purity left” you guys deride has decent points about our foreign policy

    Conservatives are capable of decent points too. What we deride is the bullshit those possibly decent points are wrapped in. One can have a dissenting view on Syria without pretending that Biden = Putin or some other lame rhetoric.

  82. 82.

    Brachiator

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I don’t know, sometimes the “purity left” you guys deride has decent points about our foreign policy.

    Really? Sometimes I wonder. You cannot do anything about Russia’s expansion in the Middle East, or Assad’s attacks on his own people, or the Saudi destruction of Yemen, but you go on about the US, even as that involvement declines.

    The “purity left” never seemed to have much to say about Trump’s capitulation to Putin, and its impact on the region.

    I have never been particularly gung ho about much of US foreign policy, but I have rarely found anything of value in the musings of the “purity left,” and this includes people who were talking about this long before you were born.

  85. 85.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ken: IIRC someone posted to that effect here in the last few days, e.g., that the terrible grammar in some of those scams is intentional in order to weed out all but the terminally stupid for convenient fleecing?

  86. 86.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Brachiator:

    This is from Stephen Colbert’s “Tooning Out the News”.

    In this exclusive clip from the Stephen Colbert-produced cartoon news show, “The Establishment” pulls no punches against Joe Biden.

    “I don’t think our audience has an impervious allegiance to any particular politician,” Pearce tells me of the show’s pivot to hold the new president accountable. “And there’s a sincere hunger for pointing out hypocrisy and highlighting where robust government mechanisms can harm people actively and passively. If that completely vanished under the Biden Administration, I think we’d happily announce The Establishment’s cancellation.”

    Later, the cartoon host introduces a new segment called “Who Did We Just Kill?” that breaks down the details of recent airstrikes in Syria while jaunty music plays in the background. “Who authorized this strike?” Hughes asks, mocking the “polite imperialism” of Biden who is “looking more presidential than ever” with his flashy military debut

     

    Really? Sometimes I wonder.

    What does this mean?

  87. 87.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Uncle Cosmo: It’s Putin khuylo! (Путін хуйло!) which basically means Putin is a dickwad/dickhead. This grew out of an older chant at football games, with the fans of FC Metalist (Kharkiv) expressing their opinion about the then-president of Ukraine’s football federation. As in most other countries, high-level football matches can get pretty rowdy. It’s suited for a chant, with both the proper name and the descriptor having two syllables, and it works since the word is usable in both Russian and Ukrainian (Belarusian as well.) It can also be nicely abbreviated to fit on a t-shirt as

    ПТН

    ХЛО

  88. 88.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    You’re right about “Biden=Putin” being stupid. They’re not the same, but it does bother me what people like Colbert say

  89. 89.

    Baud

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    “I don’t think our audience has an impervious allegiance to any particular politician

     
    If the “audience” is the purity left you were talking about, I think they do have an allegiance to certain particular politicians.

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Hell, even Stephen Colbert made a “Now even little girls will get to bomb Syria when they grow up” joke. I’m serious as a heart attack when I say he said that during one of his stand-up openers.

    I guess it was meant to highlight the absurdity of “identity politics” when mixed with war?

    I suppose. During the 70s I had friends who were adamant that no one should ever allow themselves to be drafted or to join the military. If you were against war, you were also against armies. If you believe that, then obviously women should not be in the military. Not because they are weak or incapable, but because the military itself should not exist.

    So if you have ultra pacifist leanings, a woman general is not a “positive” achievement.

  96. 96.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @germy:

    Good add-on:

    Follow strictly the words of the founding fathers, who fought a war to keep the left from cancelling the power of the monarchy.

    — Aaron Mehta (@AaronMehta) March 19, 2021

  98. 98.

    Martin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think what a lot of people get wrong about foreign policy is that it is solely about maintaining power on the world stage. It’s not about advancing human rights as part of some moral agenda, but it might be about advancing human rights as part of increasing soft power.

    I know everyone wants those things to be in alignment, but they aren’t. They operate under the ‘put your mask on before your childs’ theory that good things will result provided the US doesn’t lose power in the region. Collateral damage > genocide.

    A lot of foreign policy is choosing the least terrible outcome.

    That’s not to excuse this stuff. We’ve done a lot of terrible things and we need to own up to it all. But we shouldn’t get too caught up when US behavior in Afghanistan looks terrible to how we think people should be treated, because the alternative was what the Taliban would do. By all means pick apart the stuff that didn’t contribute to the goals. Did that wedding really need to be bombed? Really?

    But Libya was a potential genocide. Syria is a genocide. Opportunity costs are a thing. The US didn’t intervene in Rwanda, and half a million were killed. We don’t know if we could have made that better. Lots of people believe we could have.

    I think it’s fair to criticize the US in that some non-trivial fraction of the defense budget would probably yield better outcomes as soft power – humanitarian aid, etc. But that’s not been something the Dems really have control over, unfortunately.

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Those folks complaining about U.S. bombing in Syria are making a lot out of one raid. It was retaliation against an Iranian backed militia that attacked U.S. forces inside Iraq with missiles. Observers noted that the U.S. did not attack the militia inside Iraq so as to avoid putting the Iraqi government in an invidious position.

    One can argue that we should not have troops at all in Iraq. But as long as  we do, I expect us to shoot back. And Syria is a war zone. Its government is a vicious violator of the human rights of civilians, and ISIS, Turkey, Iranian-sponsored militias are not far behind. And it is a slow week when the Israelis don’t bomb at least one Iranian position, or an arms shipment on it’s way to Lebanon.

    That U.S. raid was a drop in this bucket. People on the left pretend it’s a big deal, but that’s because they will try to use any opportunity whatsoever anytime to undermine confidence in a Democratic administration.

  101. 101.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Brachiator:

    I’m definitely not one of those people. I’m not that naive.

    I guess when I see stuff like that, I sometimes begin to doubt my own perceptions when I don’t have any good rebuttal if that makes sense

  103. 103.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Dan B:

    Can remember neither the exact line nor the person who originated it, but every time somebody refers to the Schlapps, I think of the description “ ‘Matt Schlapp’ sounds like a slice of raw liver falling on the kitchen floor.”

  105. 105.

    Martin

    Eruption about 15 miles from Reykjavik.  15 miles is closer than I’d want to be to an eruption.

  111. 111.

    mrmoshpotato

    Too bad for Putin’s cheering section, led by @DumpJr.

    Like Kremlin shitstain father, like Kremlin shitstain son.

  113. 113.

    Martin

    Oh man, Ohio State losing to Oral Roberts is not going to be easy to recover from in Columbus. At least when you lose to Princeton you can say ‘well, it’s Princeton’.

  118. 118.

    Martin

    @Baud: Yeah, but a lot of those criticisms don’t even seem to be made in good faith. As with the tankies reference above, uncritically hating on US foreign policy seems to be a necessary step to calling oneself a socialist.

    I would expect Adam to be the fiercest defender of US foreign policy here, and also the most devastating critic.

  119. 119.

    Dan B

    @SiubhanDuinne: The first time I saw Matt Shlapp on TV I couldn’t believe people would want to be anywhere near that piece of burning rage.  That he’s in charge of the American Conservative Union is mind blowing.  It’s certainly not a look the Birchers or any influential conservatives from the fifties to the aughts would have shown in public.  There are worse personalities but they’re not loud and powerful.  Most of them tone it down in public or hide in the mob

     

    The image of liver hitting the floor is good on so many levels.

  120. 120.

    OGLiberal

    @Martin: I am following, not watching, the tourney.  Ohio State busted my bracket, big time.  I normally love the underdogs in this thing but Oral Roberts?  And Liberty threatening Okie State.  Not those underdogs.

    ETA: Nothing against the non-loony kids on those teams, and I’m sure there are several, but just can’t get behind the institutions

    ETA 2: And, yeah, most of the institutions suck but those are really just terrible.

  121. 121.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:

     Yeah, but a lot of those criticisms don’t even seem to be made in good faith. As with the tankies reference above, uncritically hating on US foreign policy seems to be a necessary step to calling oneself a socialist.

    Makes one wonder what they would think of a hypothetical Bernie presidency

  122. 122.

    Baud

    @Martin:

    Agreed. We are constantly surrounded by bad faith arguments, and it’s frustrating thing for the more conscientious of us (by which I mean all of you).

  124. 124.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): What’s going on in Syria is not — except in a small and fairly insignificant sense — a “proxy” war. It’s an incredibly complex civil war, the causes of which have practically nothing to do with the United States government, and almost all the horrible bloodshed and destruction is entirely on the multifarious local combatants (some of whom — like the Kurds — have every justification imaginable for violently defending themselves; others — like Assad and his supporters — are essentially the fucking Nazis; there are a host of others somewhere along the spectrum between those two ends).

    There are no good options for anyone, very much including us. It’s just one opinion, and it may not be true or defensible, but several close family members in the military who have been deployed to that area recently told me that if the US was not involved it would be worse there (the Yezidis would be eliminated, the Kurds maybe not far behind). They also realize full well there are no good options, just believe that non-intervention/isolationalism on the part of the US is the worse call. Again, just their opinion.

  126. 126.

    Dan B

    @Martin: Having been 110 air miles and on a later date 80 miles from St. Helens I would agree, especially if it’s an explosive eruption.  Although the huge curtains of lava fountains in another eruption on Iceland looked “impressive”.

  128. 128.

    Starboard Tack

    @OGLiberal:

    I can’t even pay attention this year. The only thing I’ve seen in passing is Gonzaga’s doing well. Two years ago it was the time of the mid-majors. This year it’s who’s not sick. Maybe next year I’ll be interested.

  135. 135.

    cain

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I have never been a fan of American foreign policy – a mostly self defeating short term gain kind of trajectory. Especially when a Republican is involved.

    At times we actively try to co-opt Democratic govt because their actions are not good for us. I find that repulsive. I do realize though that my high falootin life style here is kept up because of being the dominant power. But it doesn’t have to be.

  142. 142.

    Martin

    @OGLiberal: I’d throw GCU on that list. Not the least of which  reason is that having amateur students playing for a for-profit university is wrong.

    The for-profits sure are showing up in the NCAA. Funny how that might happen.

  143. 143.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mike in NC: LOL!  239 pounds in chins alone I reckon, but Dump is tremendous bigly at the health.  His hippie doc said so in a letter.

  144. 144.

    Yutsano

    @Martin: 

    The US didn’t intervene in Rwanda, and half a million were killed.

    Bill Clinton has cited that as one of the biggest regrets of his Presidency. It’s not much of a redemption arc but it’s a start.

  146. 146.

    OGLiberal

    @Starboard Tack: My RU Scarlet Knights are in for the first time in 30-years so have extra interest this year.  They would have been in last year but COVID changed that.  Big 10 not exactly doing well so far but one can hope.

  149. 149.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    UPDATE: My father, who is more fluent in this particular flavor of Russian, contends that this more like the Southern “bless his heart.”

    That does sound likely, but I do like to throw in an interesting fact. “Bless his/her heart” is, at its core, a term of affection. “Oh, she’s a mean one when she’s feeling jealous, bless her heart” means “I don’t dislike her, or want harm to come to her, but wow, she *can* be mean if she thinks you’ve got wandering eyes, friend.”

    Of course, the idea that you can say something unkind, but “bless his/her heart” is just too tempting for people who want to talk mean, much like “let’s not be politically correct, (bigot’s term)s are all (bigot’s stereotype)”.

  155. 155.

    OGLiberal

    @raven: About the only first round Big 10 loss I had in my bracket was Wisconsin.  Not upset that they won.  Purdue v. N. Texas seems not good.

  156. 156.

    Brachiator

    @Yutsano: 
    The US didn’t intervene in Rwanda, and half a million were killed.

    Bill Clinton has cited that as one of the biggest regrets of his Presidency. It’s not much of a redemption arc but it’s a start.

    A number of lefties urged caution or doing nothing, and instead preferred to talk about the history of colonialism in Rwanda and other parts of Africa.

    Note that the UN and France also fucked up big time here.

  159. 159.

    raven

    @OGLiberal: Oh I know. My wife is from Appomattox and I’ve spent WAY too much time there.  They let them in a higher ed consortium I was part of and they were fucking slimy.

  161. 161.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Brachiator: A lot of my views on US intervention stem from what happened when we didn’t intervene in Rwanda and got involved far too late in the former Yugoslavia.  I think that is true of a lot of RTP advocates and liberal interventionists.

  162. 162.

    Ken

    @mrmoshpotato: You sure it wasn’t Dump in his Biden mask? ?

    And Q-day is tomorrow!  (Rescheduled from March 6, I think.)  The Orange One shall reveal Himself, and His loyal followers shall receive their eternal rewards, while His enemies will be cast out of office!

  164. 164.

    Ken

    @raven: Liberty is non-profit.

    Non-profit, or doesn’t turn a profit because of all the money being spent on (ahem) unspecified services?

  165. 165.

    Bill Arnold

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Arguably one significant reason Israeli politics are FUBAR is the influx and influence of Soviet Jews, who had absofuckinglutely zero clue as to how a functional democracy is supposed to work.

    Yeah, and also, very negative attitudes about Islam were imported from the FSU. (There’s academic pushback of course but these pieces are not wrong.)
    Auditing Israeli Democracy – 2009 Twenty Years of Immigration from the Soviet Union (Asher Arian, Michael Philippov, Anna Knafelman)

    Old values in the new homeland: political attitudes of FSU immigrants in Israel (Paywalled (university access or sci-hub), Michael Philippov & Anna Knafelman, 08 Dec 2010)

  167. 167.

    raven

    Liberty University (LU) is a private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It was founded by Jerry Falwell Sr. and Elmer L. Towns in 1971. Although the university’s physical campus is in Lynchburg, most of its students are online.[7][8] It is one of the largest evangelical Christian universities in the world and one of the largest private non-profit universities in the United States, measured by student enrollment.[9][10] As of 2017, the university enrolls more than 15,000 students at its Lynchburg campus and more than 94,000 students in online courses for a total of about 110,000.[11]

  168. 168.

    Brachiator

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    A lot of my views on US intervention stem from what happened when we didn’t intervene in Rwanda and got involved far too late in the former Yugoslavia. I think that is true of a lot of RTP advocates and liberal interventionists.

    These were very tough times for a lot of people. Lots of introspection. I didn’t know how many immigrants from the former Yugoslavia lived in Southern California, especially in the San Pedro area.

    There was a time when a secretary of Croatian descent in the office where I worked was frantically trying to locate family members in Europe and get them to safety.

    I think she largely succeeded, but it was a horrible ordeal for her and others in the US.

    With Rwanda, it was hard to watch so little concern from people who could have done something.

  169. 169.

    Steeplejack

    I’ve got a tech bleg here: What do you guys currently like for (Windows) disk-partitioning software? I haven’t had occasion to do it in quite a while, and I’m feeling rusty.
    The particular problem is that my RWNJ brother has a Win10 computer with a small C drive (≈ 240 GB) and a huge D drive (≈ 1.8 TB) on one physical disk. He has limped along for quite a while, putting all his data on the D drive, but his C drive is still getting jammed. There’s no reason why he can’t have everything on one gigantic (2TB) C drive, and I’m trying to determine if it’s something I could talk him through on the phone or whether I should just tell him to take the box to some tech shop and have them do it.​

  170. 170.

    Bill Arnold

    @germy:

    It was a windy day. No big thing, but of course the usual suspects are trying to make it into something.

    Rather windy, gusting to 30+ mph.
    https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/md/andrews-field/KADW
    I like the weatherunderground history pages. Very useful.
    (I’m well north o there, in NY, which was also windy; grill on a deck got blown over twice today; that has never before (not even once) happened in the 2 years with this grill.)

  171. 171.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @raven:

    That wasn’t my intention. It was something that’s been bothering me for awhile and I didn’t have any good rebuttals for when I would come across such arguments. The good Jackals helped me out a ton.

    I’ll try to cut down on this in the future if it bothers people so much

  172. 172.

    Bill Arnold

    @Brachiator:

    I have never been particularly gung ho about much of US foreign policy, but I have rarely found anything of value in the musings of the “purity left,”

    Mostly I agree, though mainly because leftish critiques are often wrapped up in creaking ancient rhetoric and disinformation and it takes a lot of effort to filter out the shit and manipulation.
    Adam Curtis’s HyperNormalisation is worth a watch, though, at least for the images and the quality of the production.

  175. 175.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Steeplejack:

    I’m trying to determine if it’s something I could talk him through on the phone or whether I should just tell him to take the box to some tech shop and have them do it. 

    No way in hell would I do that over the phone – RWNJ or not.

  176. 176.

    J R in WV

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​
     

    I don’t think you can compare the two situations, honestly. That was a declared war between major powers that was largely defensive on the part of the Allies. What’s going on in Syria is an undeclared, proxy war and a lot of innocent people are suffering as a result

    This is so wrong I will not attempt to correct things. Both historically and current affairs, just wrong.

    Read some history before you continue to be so wrong.

  177. 177.

    J R in WV

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    You’re right about “Biden=Putin” being stupid. They’re not the same, but it does bother me what people like Colbert say

    Goku, Colbert is a fucking comedian.

    If that bothers you, stop watching him!

  179. 179.

    dr. luba

    @Uncle Cosmo: It was “Putin khuilo!” and yes, it means Putin is a dick.  The chant was started by Ukrainian footballers, and spread throughout the country.

  182. 182.

    karen marie

    @H.E.Wolf:

     

    We’d do these long flights on Air Force One where we would play the card game Spades and he would be really competitive.

    I would love to partner Obama for a game of Spades.

  183. 183.

    J R in WV

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    That [trolling] wasn’t my intention. It was something that’s been bothering me for awhile and I didn’t have any good rebuttals for when I would come across such arguments. The good Jackals helped me out a ton.

    I’ll try to cut down on this in the future if it bothers people so much

    There is a tool which can help people learn about complex thing of all sorts, called search engines.

    Someone curious about how something complex came to be, or could be managed, can use a search engine to find overview articles, or in-depth articles on almost any topic, gaining education prior to going to internet friends with further questions.

    DuckDuckGo is one, Google is another one, even Yahoo and reddit can do this to some degree. Try it, you might like it~!!~ Your questions can become well-informed that way, instead of SO basic and kind of wrong-headed.

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