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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let there be snark.

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

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

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

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

“woke” is the new caravan.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

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

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

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

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Thursday Morning Open Thread: No Happy Endings

Thursday Morning Open Thread: No Happy Endings

by Anne Laurie|  August 19, 20217:25 am| 182 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads

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Refugees who lived their entire lives in Afghanistan are arriving in the US after fleeing the Taliban.

One such refugee, 30-year-old Tamana, tells @GaryTuchmanCNN she felt she was dreaming when she finally touched down in the Washington DC area. pic.twitter.com/zC2F9v7js1

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) August 19, 2021

Hopefully, maybe, eventually, some bittersweet ones…

“However difficult this vote may be…Let’s just pause, just for a minute and think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control.”

– Rep. Barbara Lee in 2001

She was the only member of Congress to vote against the war in Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/Kr5hDSyfOU

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 12, 2021

Barbara Lee doesn’t feel vindicated for voting against the Afghan war: “I almost wish … I had been wrong” https://t.co/sUcRr2DQin

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 18, 2021

… Suddenly, Lee is the voice everyone wants to hear. Every cable pundit wants her opinion. Her office is inundated with media requests, even as she is scrambling to protect and evacuate U.S. citizens and Afghans fleeing the Taliban. Once reviled, her solitary vote against the Afghan invasion is now being reframed as an important, prescient moment in American history.

There is no sense of vindication. What she’s feeling right this moment is “worry and sadness and anxiety.” More than anything, there’s a sense of urgency.

“I’ve got to do more,” she sighed. More to protect women and children, more for the Afghans who helped American soldiers and journalists. As chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations — which funds diplomatic missions and humanitarian assistance — Lee is desperately trying to bring some order to chaos and make sure there are enough assets in the region to get everyone out safely. That means cutting through some of the bureaucracy to expedite special immigrant visas and pressure the Defense and State departments to move more quickly…

Throughout it all, voters in Oakland kept reelecting Lee, who’s also the subject of the new documentary “Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth To Power,” scheduled for release on Friday. The liberal Democrat has worked tirelessly to repeal the Iraq resolution and the 2001 authorization, partnering with veterans groups to build political support. Any president can respond to an imminent threat with military force, she said, but Congress cannot give up its role in declaring war. “It’s not easy, but again, I always say, as a Black woman in America, we have to be persistent.”

She supports President Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan but was stunned by the rapid collapse of the country. “I think we’re caught — I won’t say caught off guard — but surprised we didn’t calculate how ready the Taliban were,” she said. Our soldiers did everything we asked of them, she added. There will inevitably be hearings, the emotional deep dives into the what and how and why.

But for now, Lee hopes there are lessons to be learned. That America should not be in the business of nation-building. That the three aspects of foreign policy — defense, diplomacy and development — need to be reconsidered and rebalanced. As chair of the appropriations subcommittee, she oversees a budget of about $2 billion for diplomacy and development. The defense budget? $714 billion in 2020…

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Reader Interactions

182Comments

  1. 1.

    John S.

    August 19, 2021 at 7:32 am

    There is rarely satisfaction in being able to say “I told you so.”

  2. 2.

    debbie

    August 19, 2021 at 7:33 am

    I classify this as an Excellent Link: Larry David vs. Alan Dershowitz on Martha’s Vineyard.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2021 at 7:35 am

    … Suddenly, Lee is the voice everyone wants to hear.

    Funny. As the only anti invasion voice in my largish circle of friends, coworkers, and cavers, nobody is asking me what I think of the latest developments. I wonder why?

  4. 4.

    Spanky

    August 19, 2021 at 7:36 am

    Fuck you, CNN.

    Biden is struggling under intensifying scrutiny.

    Feeds right into the “senile” meme.

    Assholes.

  5. 5.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 19, 2021 at 7:38 am

    @debbie:

    “Larry is a knee-jerk radical,” Dershowitz told Page Six, “He takes his politics from Hollywood. He doesn’t read a lot. He doesn’t think a lot.”

    “It’s typical of what happens now on the Vineyard,” he added later, “People won’t talk to each other if they don’t agree with their politics.”

    No, Douche – they just don’t want to talk to you.

    Does he even hear himself anymore?

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2021 at 7:40 am

    Today’s Moment of “Duh!”:

    The federal government deliberately targeted Black Lives Matter protesters via heavy-handed criminal prosecutions in an attempt to disrupt and discourage the global movement that swept the nation and beyond last summer after the Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, according to a new report.

    Movement leaders and experts said the prosecution of protesters over the past year continued a century-long practice by the federal government, rooted in structural racism, to suppress Black social movements via the use of surveillance tactics and other mechanisms.

    The report was released by the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 50 activism and advocacy civil rights groups and professional associations representing Black communities and published in partnership with the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (Clear) clinic at City University of New York (Cuny) School of Law.

    “The empirical data and findings in this report largely corroborate what Black organizers have long known intellectually, intuitively, and from lived experience about the federal government’s disparate policing and prosecution of racial justice protests and related activity,” the report stated.

  7. 7.

    Spanky

    August 19, 2021 at 7:40 am

    Meanwhile, WaPo reports

    Taliban commander says group will apply Sharia law

    Wheeeee!

  8. 8.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 19, 2021 at 7:42 am

    @debbie:

    Then there’s this:

    “That’s the price of principle,” he said. He later said that his “principles require” that he defend the Constitution, and that he felt that the first impeachment of Trump was unconstitutional.

    He told us that that’s why he removed his second t-shirt after the run-in to reveal the one that read “It’s the Constitution, Stupid!,” which he said his wife bought him because so many people misunderstood his decision to defend Trump. (He said he was wearing two t-shirts at the time of the incident because he was on his way to meet a friend when he ran into David, and he had been planning to give the outer t-shirt to his pal as a gag gift.)

    “I’m a liberal Democrat and I voted for Biden just as enthusiastically as Larry did,” Dershowitz told us.

    “[David] is guilty of contemporary McCarthyism,” Dershowitz said, “McCarthy would have been proud of him.” He said that in the Fifties, political witch-hunter Joseph McCarthy “went after lawyers who represented people he disagreed with.”

    For these “principled voices of contrarianism”, there’s an unstated and stupid presumption that there isn’t a well-funded ecosphere of RWNJ asshole lawyers who are more than happy to do this work.

  9. 9.

    debbie

    August 19, 2021 at 7:42 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    O.J. taught him not to listen to himself. //

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2021 at 7:43 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: No. SATSQ.

  11. 11.

    debbie

    August 19, 2021 at 7:44 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Those first five words absolutely confirm your first quote. He cannot imagine a single word of his not being an absolute jewel. //

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2021 at 7:46 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: He later said that his “principles require” that he defend the Constitution, and that he felt that the first impeachment of Trump was unconstitutional.

    I guess his principles don’t require him to actually read the damn thing first.

  13. 13.

    Tony Jay

    August 19, 2021 at 7:47 am

    @Spanky:

    They have entire filing cabinets stuffed to the gills with rejected headlines from the Trump era. Accurate summations of his disastrous mismanagement that were toned down because they feared the hit to their social standing and ability to garner anonymously sourced titbits for their reputation-enhancing book deal that would follow if they actually did their jobs properly.

    Now they’re just repurposing them to toss crap at Biden, facts be damned. Get them a bit squiffy and they’ll tell you it’s his own fault for not respecting their vitally important role in making or breaking his Presidency.

    SHDD

  14. 14.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 19, 2021 at 7:48 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Harvard Law has a lot to answer for. Burn it down, scatter the rubble and salt the site.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 7:50 am

    The “ordererly withdrawal” is the same fantasy as the success of the nation building was. The precondition to an orderly withdrawal was the success of the nation building project.

  16. 16.

    hueyplong

    August 19, 2021 at 7:52 am

    I’m actually surprised that Lee is getting any attention.  The usual procedure when a lefty/dove turns out to be correct about something is to mutter briefly about the America-hater’s similarity to a stopped clock and then move on to the next costly misadventure without evidencing any interest in what she thinks about that.

  17. 17.

    hueyplong

    August 19, 2021 at 7:54 am

    @Kay: I wish someone/anyone would actually say that – word for word – on teevee.  Ever.

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    August 19, 2021 at 7:58 am

    Good Morning, Everyone???

  19. 19.

    Ten Bears

    August 19, 2021 at 8:01 am

    And she apologized for being right. That’s just wrong …

  20. 20.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    August 19, 2021 at 8:02 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Dear god, am I supposed to care what’s happening “on the Vineyard”? Get an honest job, man!

  21. 21.

    Geminid

    August 19, 2021 at 8:03 am

    Polling has begun for the 2022 contest betwen Florida Senator Marco Rubio and presumptive Democratic nominee Representative Val Demings. The latest from St. Pete Polls shows Rubio 48%, Demings 46%.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 8:03 am

    @hueyplong:

    An orderly withdrawal would require at least a functioning Afghan government- not even Afghan security forces because we can replace them with our own military for the withdrawal which is what we’re doing-  but a functioning government. There’s that “need a functioning Afghan government” problem again. As much a problem in the withdrawal as it was in the nation building.

  23. 23.

    Princess

    August 19, 2021 at 8:04 am

    This a great article on Afghanistan by a former NPR reporter who spent many years living there, after ceasing to be a reporter. It furthers my feeling that none of the American news is capable of telling us what has really happened there. American media is too in love with its myths of American exceptionalism.

    https://www.sarahchayes.org/post/the-ides-of-august

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    August 19, 2021 at 8:11 am

    @Geminid: Is that a poll of everyone or of registered voters?  When I saw those numbers I assumed that the poll is really registering Republican vs. Democrat and tells us nothing more than that.

    Maybe I woke up cynical this morning.

  25. 25.

    debbie

    August 19, 2021 at 8:13 am

    @Geminid:

    Doesn’t Marco have a competitor in his primary who’s polling pretty well? I saw something on Twitter last night (dick nixon, most likely) about it.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2021 at 8:14 am

    @Ten Bears: And she apologized for being right.

    I never read anything like that.

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    August 19, 2021 at 8:16 am

    @WaterGirl: I’m guessing it’s of registered voters. St. Pete Polls probably has it’s own website that gives methodology. I just picked the poll on @Ragnarok Lobster’s twitter feed, followed it to some state newspaper.

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    August 19, 2021 at 8:19 am

    @debbie: I hope Rubio does have a challenger. Republicans seem to have zeal for primarying their own officeholders these days. RINO hunting.

  29. 29.

    Barbara

    August 19, 2021 at 8:22 am

    @Princess: Everyone should read that.

  30. 30.

    Butter Emails

    August 19, 2021 at 8:23 am

    @Kay:

     

    I think it required functioning Afghan security forces as well. At some point the US and NATO forces have to pull out. Afghanistan is landlocked, so we can’t just have them all on a beach and pull them out simultaneously using landing craft into an ocean we control.

    The options are fly out or retreat across the border. I don’t think any of the bordering countries would be comfortable with a force of several thousand US marines and other soldiers crossing their borders even if such a retreat were safe and feasible.

    Flying out means at some point there will be insufficient forces to secure the airport and at a later point there will literally be no forces securing the airport – all troops will be on a plane. I wonder which troops will be selected as the rear guard.

  31. 31.

    Cermet

    August 19, 2021 at 8:24 am

    So the media and the lying thugs wanted a faster withdraw of Afghans and complain this should have been done earlier; yet first off, the thug party and its political news arm, fake (aka fox) news would have screamed bloody murder if a mass of Afghans were airlifted to the US months ago. Next, no one and I mean NO ONE guessed the Afghan government would fall so fast (and with so very little blood shed.)

    Finally, why isn’t the media pointing out the fake …fox commentators and some thug congress assholes are even now saying Afghans that helped the us shouldn’t even now be airlifted out to the US?

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    August 19, 2021 at 8:26 am

    @Kay: I’ve avoided coverage of the Afghanistan withdrawal for the most part because the only hot takes I’m interested in hearing are from people who identified the former Afghan government as vaporware 10 years ago. And those people are not on TV nor bylined in the major dailies.

    It doesn’t take foreign policy or military expertise to make simple inferences, such as that ramping up exits from Afghanistan earlier would have moved up the collapse timetable. It’s not rocket science. It’s not even bottle rocket science.

    I’ve got no problem with criticizing Biden for poor decisions, as long as the criticism takes place within the framework of reality, i.e., pertains to actual alternatives in the real world. Fantasyland alternatives, not so much.

  33. 33.

    Cermet

    August 19, 2021 at 8:26 am

    @Butter Emails: As for those in the last plane to leave the Afghan airport, they will be very proud volunteers. Of course, the taliban will do all they can to encourage and permit those troops to get out safely.

  34. 34.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 19, 2021 at 8:30 am

    @Butter Emails: Its a genuinely shitty problem – I suspect it plans out like the Son Tay raid in Vietnam, far in the North.

  35. 35.

    Quiltingfool

    August 19, 2021 at 8:31 am

    Trae Crowder’s take on Taliban and Pence: https://twitter.com/traecrowder/status/1428079605559164935?s=20

  36. 36.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 19, 2021 at 8:31 am

    @Geminid:

    So that doesn’t bode well for Val Demings or the Dems keeping the Senate, does it? I guess a lot can change in a year but Rubio is an incumbent and I distinctly remember Adam saying that statewide candidates in Florida need to poll a certain amount above their opponents to have a chance of winning

  37. 37.

    Woodrow/asim

    August 19, 2021 at 8:31 am

    @Princess:

    This a great article on Afghanistan by a former NPR reporter who spent many years living there, after ceasing to be a reporter. It furthers my feeling that none of the American news is capable of telling us what has really happened there. American media is too in love with its myths of American exceptionalism.

    https://www.sarahchayes.org/post/the-ides-of-august

    Thank you for sharing this. I wrote on Facebook about how little most Americans — including myself! — know about what is the day-to-day in the region, much less the forces driving this current situation.

    I confess to some concerns given the writer’s close ties to our American military, and dependence on “this is what people in the area tell me.” It’s easy — as we see today with crap like QAnon — to get the story you want to hear/they want you to hear, over a more nuanced survey of a situation. Yet it feels “of a piece” with what I’ve been reading, mostly thru Twitter, from other people with even closer ties than this writer.

  38. 38.

    Butter Emails

    August 19, 2021 at 8:34 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    That would only be true if the election were tomorrow. At this point in the race, the poll is actually good news.

  39. 39.

    Ohio Mom

    August 19, 2021 at 8:35 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Yeah, I read Barbara Lee’s comment along the lines of: “As soon as I saw that blue car run the red light, I could see it was going to crash into the black car. It was horrible. The fire department had to cut through the cars to get the drivers out. I wish my prediction had been wrong.”

    That’s not an apology, that’s pure ruefulness. She has too much heart to be self-congratulatory and say, “Told you so.” Definitely a better person than me.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    August 19, 2021 at 8:37 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s more than a year out!  She hasn’t declared her candidacy and she is most certainly not running ads yet.  This far out, and not declared yet?  46-48 looks really good.

  41. 41.

    Mary G

    August 19, 2021 at 8:41 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Polls this far out mean nothing.

  42. 42.

    Shalimar

    August 19, 2021 at 8:42 am

    @debbie: “I admire Pompeo’s work bringing peace to Afghanistan” is an even worse defense than “I’m always a Trump toady”.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2021 at 8:45 am

    @Ohio Mom: Yep. Saying, “I wish I had been wrong.” is not an apology, it’s an acknowledgement of how much things suck.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 8:45 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s thinking that sees the US as the only actor with agency and an agenda. It’s weird that it’s always presented as super sophisticated because it’s so simplistic. It’s wrong now and it will always be wrong. They have to recognize we’re not the only actors. They have to let that go.

  45. 45.

    Shalimar

    August 19, 2021 at 8:47 am

    @hueyplong: Lee is getting attention because it was just her and that isn’t threatening.  If there had been 30 votes against the war, all of them would be ignored now including Lee.

  46. 46.

    Geminid

    August 19, 2021 at 8:48 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think that with the election a year away and Demings still building name recognition among Florida’s 8 million+ voters, 48-46 is a good number.

    Demings has plenty of name recognition here, but that’s because of her role as House Manager in the first first impeachment. Before that, a lot of people would have been like, Val who?

  47. 47.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 19, 2021 at 8:48 am

    @Butter Emails:

    @WaterGirl:

    @Mary G:

    @Geminid:

    Oh well, forget what I said then. I suppose I remember how Gillum lost to Death Sentence in 2018 and he (Gillum) was polling ahead a point or two and that’s what my reasoning was based on. That, and 2022 may not necessarily be a good year for Dems, given the first midterms of a President’s term don’t go well for his party historically. Also, I’ve read that FL is trending more red

  48. 48.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 8:49 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    “We do THIS and then they do THAT”. They’ll only recognize the first part of that. How can anyone talk to them about it? It’s “well, but those other people will also be doing their thing and at the same time” then you’d just kind of trail off and give up, realizing it’s futile :)

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    August 19, 2021 at 8:52 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Being right isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    August 19, 2021 at 8:52 am

    @Kay: Such a simple concept, and yet it eludes people who are paid a lot to analyze complex situations with more than one actor.

  51. 51.

    sdhays

    August 19, 2021 at 8:54 am

    @WaterGirl: Hasn’t she declared? She has at least opened an exploratory committee.

    This poll will no doubt help Demmings raise a ton of money. While Marco is the favorite, he’s going to have a tough race on his hands. If he can make it to the general election, that is.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 8:57 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    And why is it always put in this childish frame of “blame”? “Don’t blame the Afghan government- instead blame their parents in the US government”. What? How do you respect someone’s autonomy and agency while not holding them responsible for their individual actions? I, unlike CNN, believe the Afghan government is or was composed of adults. I think that’s respectful.

  53. 53.

    Soprano2

    August 19, 2021 at 9:00 am

    @Kay:The “orderly withdrawal” is the same fantasy as the success of the nation building was.

    None of them seem to be able to articulate how an “orderly withdrawal” could have happened, and the press mostly lets them skate.

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    August 19, 2021 at 9:00 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Well, I hope you don’t give up on Ohio’s Senare race. Ohio can be said to be trending red also, but Sherrod Brown won reelection in 2018 by 300,000 votes.

    In a way, I kind of envy Ohio Democrats. They will have a real battle to fight. Virginia hasn’t had a close Senate race since 2014. Since then, Virginians have reelected moderately liberal Tim Kaine and liberally moderate Mark Warner by comfortable margins. Not that Democrats have become complacent here. They seem very motivated for this year’s statewide races.

  55. 55.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    August 19, 2021 at 9:05 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: if ever there were proof that shaun king is a white man, his not being arrested during this crackdown is it.

  56. 56.

    Geminid

    August 19, 2021 at 9:05 am

    @sdhays: Demings has raised $3.1 million already. Florida is an expensive place to run statewide, but I expect she will be competitive  with Rubio in funding. Since the Impeachment hearings Demings has a good name among Democrats nationally.

  57. 57.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    August 19, 2021 at 9:07 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: no way in hell capt. underpants voted against el jefe maximo de maralago.

  58. 58.

    Citizen Alan

    August 19, 2021 at 9:07 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I will never stop believing this: Gwen Graham would have won.

  59. 59.

    Woodrow/asim

    August 19, 2021 at 9:08 am

    @Kay:  To me, all this — at least media-wise — always seems like it’s all about chasing the dopamine boost and money flow that was the 1st Iraq War for CNN/etc. That was the War that seems to have created so much of the modern media coverage of such events, and even other events that could be “leveraged” into War-like ratings.

    Every War since then, from a media lens, seems to gets built around re-creating that situation, both in terms of framing and in terms of the kind of coverage that tries to get Americans invested. That framing requires our media to shape everything in ways they think/know Americans will invest in watching, for good and ill.

    That said: it’s not the media singular “fault”. There’s tons of blame to go around on how American Exceptionism keeps blinding us to truths. But they are far from helping us to understand the real depths of these situations, much less to grapple with how other cultures and countries see America.

    It’s really damn exhausting.

  60. 60.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    August 19, 2021 at 9:09 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: among harvard alumni, i would take ted kaczynski over ted cruz. & also over kayleigh mc enany, jared kushner, tom cotton, brieannah-joy gray, & mark zuckerberg*.

    *he attended long enough, even if he didn’t graduate

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    August 19, 2021 at 9:09 am

    @Kay: I guess it’s part of the “who’s up, who’s down” horserace bullshit that has made political reporting in the U.S. so dysfunctional.

  62. 62.

    sixthdoctor

    August 19, 2021 at 9:11 am

    With the Washington Post running Afghanistan op-eds from all of their right wing hacks like Marc Theissen and guests like Condoleeza g*ddamn Rice, I’m glad I cancelled my subscription before I saw Richard Sackler’s op-ed on pain management.

  63. 63.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 19, 2021 at 9:11 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Does he even hear himself anymore?

    He never did.

  64. 64.

    WaterGirl

    August 19, 2021 at 9:12 am

    @sdhays: I don’t think she has declared yet, but it’s pretty obvious that she plans to – to people like us who are paying attention.

    But this poll included regular people who are most likely not tuned in like we are.  So for all intents and purposes, I consider her undeclared.

    edit: I stand corrected! I googled, and Val Demmings formally declared on June 9.

  65. 65.

    sab

    August 19, 2021 at 9:14 am

    @Princess: I had been wondering what became of her.

  66. 66.

    debbie

    August 19, 2021 at 9:14 am

    @Shalimar:

    The man cannot sink low enough.

  67. 67.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    August 19, 2021 at 9:15 am

    @Shalimar: ding! just like russ feingold’s lone senate nay vote against the usa-patriot act. (though in russ’s case, it was as much grandstanding by mc cain, jr., as it was principle. whereas i am pretty sure barb lee is a pacifist.)

  68. 68.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 19, 2021 at 9:15 am

    That means cutting through some of the bureaucracy to expedite special immigrant visas

    Maybe, after that, somebody can devote a staff member or two to processing regular immigrant visas.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 19, 2021 at 9:16 am

    @WaterGirl: Exactly.

  70. 70.

    J R in WV

    August 19, 2021 at 9:17 am

    @Spanky:

    Meanwhile, WaPo reports

    Taliban commander says group will apply Sharia law

    Wheeeee!

    Just as our Christianist taliban in TX, FL, LA. MS, AL, etc…  wish to keep people from getting vaccinated, wearing masks, make everyone catch Covid. Asses everywhere!

  71. 71.

    wvng

    August 19, 2021 at 9:20 am

    My brother was in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan in the 70s, prior to the Russian invasion that led to 30 years of horror for the country. His “family” there was the extended family of his cook and offered a microcosm of what life was like then. My brother never met or even saw his cook’s wife, who was isolated from men not of her family, but was friends with his cook’s brother’s wife, who was totally out in society and in no way constrained. These were family decisions in those days.

    At some point after the Russians invaded (not sure when, could have been when the Taliban took control), the entire family fled to Iran. They returned after the US deposed the Taliban from rule, an action that was greeted with joy by a very solid majority of Afghans, and my brother was able to re-establish contact (in person as well as electronic) with them, after so many years of silence. Now they have to make a choice again; they really don’t want to be refugees again and it is not clear that Iran will accept refugees.

    Nothing about this is easy or simple.

  72. 72.

    mali muso

    August 19, 2021 at 9:21 am

    @Woodrow/asim: I think you are onto something there.

  73. 73.

    zhena gogolia

    August 19, 2021 at 9:23 am

    @sixthdoctor:

    Hahaha

  74. 74.

    J R in WV

    August 19, 2021 at 9:24 am

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    It’s more than a year out! She hasn’t declared her candidacy and she is most certainly not running ads yet. This far out, and not declared yet? 46-48 looks really good.

    She’s emailing me repeatedly, I’m on a regularly scheduled donation via Act Blue… seems like a declared race to me, ever since I got the email where she declared. We are talking about the she which is Val D, right?

  75. 75.

    Another Scott

    August 19, 2021 at 9:25 am

    There’s a new AP/NORC poll out, and the writers are spinning like mad to make it bad news for Biden.

    They write of “grim scenes”, as people are evacuated with few signs of violence…

    https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-asia-pacific-afghanistan-only-on-ap-503a50cd8074ced7bc36d9c12e9fd2e4

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  76. 76.

    MomSense

    August 19, 2021 at 9:27 am

    Good news – my friend is not in Afghanistan!  She’s in Pakistan. Yay?

  77. 77.

    wvng

    August 19, 2021 at 9:27 am

    @Betty Cracker: “It doesn’t take foreign policy or military expertise to make simple inferences, such as that ramping up exits from Afghanistan earlier would have moved up the collapse timetable. It’s not rocket science. It’s not even bottle rocket science.”

    Bingo. Biden said as much.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 9:28 am

    @Another Scott:

    52% approve on national security is good for a Democrat. Democrats have to overcome the completely untrue operating assumption that Republicans are better at it.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    August 19, 2021 at 9:28 am

    @J R in WV: I stand corrected!

    Val Demmings formally declared on June 9.

  80. 80.

    Another Scott

    August 19, 2021 at 9:29 am

    @WaterGirl: She announced she was running weeks ago.  There’s a comment thread here somewhere about it.  I donated the first day.

    :-)

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  81. 81.

    geg6

    August 19, 2021 at 9:31 am

    @WaterGirl: ​
     
    I believe she has declared. But maybe I’m misremembering.

  82. 82.

    Soprano2

    August 19, 2021 at 9:32 am

    Since it’s an open thread, I want to thank everyone for their support the past couple of weeks while I’ve dealt with the death of my mother. I can’t possibly find everyone’s posts to thank them individually, and I’ve probably missed some since I’ve only been reading sporadically. Know that it helped to see how many people cared about me and my situation. Jackals come through again!

    Now I want to say something from the heart. Stated baldly, I had to make the decision whether to allow my mother to die peacefully. She had an advanced directive that said she didn’t want to be kept alive with a feeding tube if there was no hope of recovery. Knowing her wishes made a hard decision a little bit easier. Having an advanced directive is an act of love toward those who will be left to make decisions for you if you can’t make them. If you’ve ever had any doubts about whether you wanted to do an advanced health care directive, let me ease those doubts. Making your wishes known before a situation like the one I faced arises is an act of caring, and if your children or other loved ones are resistant to talking or even thinking about it, tell them you’re doing it out of love for them. It’s the truth. I also can’t say enough good things about the hospice people and the people at the care home my mother went to at the end. It’s a good thing that there are people called to do that work; I cannot imagine doing what they do, especially with the caring and grace they display doing it.

  83. 83.

    zhena gogolia

    August 19, 2021 at 9:32 am

    @MomSense: I would say so.

  84. 84.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 19, 2021 at 9:34 am

    There’s a Herman Cain Award Reddit for people like me to chortle about.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/

  85. 85.

    zhena gogolia

    August 19, 2021 at 9:34 am

    @Soprano2: I’ve been thinking about you often. Your love for your mother has shone through all your posts. She felt that.

  86. 86.

    Ken

    August 19, 2021 at 9:37 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:  He said he was wearing two t-shirts at the time of the incident because he was on his way to meet a friend when he ran into David, and he had been planning to give the outer t-shirt to his pal as a gag gift.

    Believability aside… Ew.  “I got you a gift, let me take it off.” At least it didn’t require dropping trousers.

  87. 87.

    rp

    August 19, 2021 at 9:37 am

    @Another Scott: That article is a straight up editorial.

  88. 88.

    zhena gogolia

    August 19, 2021 at 9:38 am

    My husband is so worried that all this is going to gravely hurt Biden. I hope he’s wrong.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 9:38 am

    @wvng:

    They’re not going to accept it though. Instead they’ve decided to accept the alternate hypothetical that an orderly withdrawal was possible. It goes back to them assuming that the government was functioning. They’re clinging to that assumption. Biden no longer had that assumption. He’s ahead of them. He began his acceptance process in 2011.

  90. 90.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 9:40 am

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think there’s a group of hawks in DC who are hoping they can really hurt him with it, because if he wins the public argument they’re discredited.

  91. 91.

    Steeplejack

    August 19, 2021 at 9:44 am

    Classic Japanese cinema on TCM all day today, starting in just a minute:

    9:45 EDT: Repast (Meshi, 1951). Setsuko Hara, Ken Uehara. “Michiyo is unhappy living in a small home in Osaka cooking and cleaning for her husband.”

  92. 92.

    Anne Laurie

    August 19, 2021 at 9:45 am

    @wvng: Nothing about this is easy or simple.

    Well, except our Failed Media Pundits.  They’re very simple, and extremely easy!  (Just tickle their self-importance a little.)

  93. 93.

    zhena gogolia

    August 19, 2021 at 9:45 am

    @Steeplejack: I think you made that up.

  94. 94.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 19, 2021 at 9:45 am

    @Spanky: What the fuck? Get fucked Empty Podium Network!

  95. 95.

    WaterGirl

    August 19, 2021 at 9:47 am

    @Another Scott: I apparently beat you by mere seconds!

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    August 19, 2021 at 9:49 am

    @geg6: Yes, on June 9.  I corrected my comment above.

  97. 97.

    Cermet

    August 19, 2021 at 9:50 am

    @Princess: Fantastic article; must read for everyone – but that means no one that makes policy or thugs will bother or ever want to know the truth for that cluster fuck we called Afghanistan policy.

  98. 98.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 19, 2021 at 9:50 am

    @zhena gogolia:

    Meshi (1951)

    MarlicOne {[email protected]}

    Michiyo lives in the small place Osaka and is not happy with her marriage, all she does is cook and clean for her husband.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043801/plotsummary?item=po1143403

    No ma’am.  Not “On. Those. Trays”, “Uno. Dos. Tres.”

  99. 99.

    sab

    August 19, 2021 at 9:51 am

    @Soprano2: I want to frame your comment and post it on the wall. Thank you for taking the time and energy to think it out and write it.

  100. 100.

    wvng

    August 19, 2021 at 9:54 am

    @Anne Laurie: regarding the not simple part, Sarah Chayes piece is essential reading.  The Ides of August (sarahchayes.org)

  101. 101.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 19, 2021 at 10:00 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    “Cuatro cinco cinco seis…Pretty fly for a white guy…”

    Sorry – the ear worm happens EVERY time.

  102. 102.

    Uncle Cosmo

    August 19, 2021 at 10:02 am

    @debbie:  IMHO if it doesn’t show Larry turning Derpowitless into a Cubist caricature with repeated application of a tire iron, it’s not excellent enough to click on.

  103. 103.

    frosty

    August 19, 2021 at 10:03 am

    @Soprano2: I missed your news earlier, and I’m sorry for your loss. I completely agree on the advanced directive. My mother had one also, “No extraordinary measures” or something like that. She had an infection and the nursing staff told us she would never come off the antibiotics. My siblings and I discussed it and told them that Mom wouldn’t have wanted that. She passed about a week later.

    The directive made the decision much easier. We knew what she wanted.

  104. 104.

    OGLiberal

    August 19, 2021 at 10:06 am

    @Spanky: They are so late to the game.  Obama, Huma and Ilhan Omar implemented it here in the US many years ago!  And George Soros…can’t forget Soros.

  105. 105.

    Soprano2

    August 19, 2021 at 10:07 am

    @Kay: I think there’s a group of hawks in DC who are hoping they can really hurt him with it, because if he wins the public argument they’re discredited.

    Yep, and they’ll have the help of a lot of the press who have been trying to prove their “bothsides” bona fides by pinning a scandal on Biden since he was sworn in. They think they’ve found a “scandal” that they can pin on Biden – he “lost” Afghanistan.

  106. 106.

    Soprano2

    August 19, 2021 at 10:08 am

    @sab: You have my permission if you want. I never thought about it like this until I actually had to face the situation.

  107. 107.

    burnspbesq

    August 19, 2021 at 10:11 am

    @Butter Emails: 

    One imagines a truckload of SA-25s carefully making its way over a narrow mountain road from Uzbekistan toward Mazar-a-Sharif.

  108. 108.

    Raven

    August 19, 2021 at 10:12 am

    @Soprano2: I’m sorry you had to do it and I’m glad you had it in yourself to do so.

  109. 109.

    lowtechcyclist

    August 19, 2021 at 10:14 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s not rocket science. It’s not even bottle rocket science.

    I am so stealing that one. :-)​
    ​
    ​

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    August 19, 2021 at 10:15 am

    @Soprano2: Well said and thanks for sharing this with us.

    Peace to you in this difficult time.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    Mary G

    August 19, 2021 at 10:17 am

    @Soprano2:  My mom’s doctor was so great. He had called me to say he did not know what was causing her symptoms. I asked him if she was going to die and he said yes, if he couldn’t get them solved and they went on for any length of time, but he had more tests to try. About a week later he called me up and said it was time. We met in her room and I told her and tried not to cry. He explained that he had ruled out anything he could cure, but if she wanted to, she could have more tests to pin it down. She said no, I want to go home. I told to set to set up home hospice and he started waffling around about it may be all booked up (he didn’t think I could handle it alone. I told him to do it. She told him to do it. She won. I took her home that afternoon and there was already a hospital bed in the living room. You are right that hospice nurses are a gift from Dog, and people came out of the woodwork to help. She got to say goodbye to a lot of people and we apologized to each other for old hurts. If she showed signs of pain, I had morphine to give her, and more prescriptions could be delivered 24/7, which in the days before DoorDash felt like an immense luxury. My 19-year-old cat, who had always wanted nothing to do with my mom, just jumped up into the hospital bed and snuggled.

    it was pain and magic at the same time.

  112. 112.

    sixthdoctor

    August 19, 2021 at 10:20 am

    I’m really getting Obamacare website/Ebola scare vibes from the media; they help the Republicans milk the narrative and when the Republicans wring out all of the outrage they want you never hear of it again.

    This is not to say, of course, that we don’t need an honest accounting, just that we won’t get an honest one.

  113. 113.

    Steeplejack

    August 19, 2021 at 10:21 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Pretty sure she was joking.

  114. 114.

    germy

    August 19, 2021 at 10:22 am

    Illustrated man:

    LEVEL TWO: ALAN DERSHOWITZ ? LARRY DAVID https://t.co/LNeuh1aVFm pic.twitter.com/pOZvjB0tPr

    — Dan Schkade (@DanSchkade) August 19, 2021

  115. 115.

    Ohio Mom

    August 19, 2021 at 10:23 am

    @Soprano2: When my cousins were following my aunt’s DNR, they received much gratitude from the doctors and other staff, basically for not making a bad situation worse.

    The staff complimented my aunt’s paperwork — she had worked in nursing homes as an OT so she was very informed and had left detailed instructions — and that made my cousins proud.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 10:25 am

    @Soprano2:

    I don’t mind it as much as some of the other scandals; emails, Benghazi, because this is a real difference. There was no “emails should be insecure” side. There was no “attacks in Benghazi are something Clinton supports” side.

    They’re seizing on the withdrawal and insisting it’s about logistics and planning but the bigger argument is about the US role in invading, occupying and then nation building. I think Biden can win that argument with the public.

    They don’t want to have that argument, they want to have the narrower one where they argue over conducting the withdrawal. Biden is insisting they have it, so they’re mad. They want to set the terms of this to a really narrow discussion about securing an airport. He’s not accepting their terms, hence the anger.

  117. 117.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 19, 2021 at 10:26 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Looks like some of the in the closet hood heads still haven’t got the memo Black people are White now. I mean Jesus fucking Christ, these dimwits will destroy the economy if they get their wish and destroy the Black Middle class. There is no one to replace them.

  118. 118.

    Another Scott

    August 19, 2021 at 10:27 am

    Dean Baker’s latest at CEPR – The $26/hour minimum wage:

    That may sound pretty crazy, but that’s roughly what the minimum wage would be today if it had kept pace with productivity growth since its value peaked in 1968. And, having the minimum wage track productivity growth is not a crazy idea. The national minimum wage did in fact keep pace with productivity growth for the first thirty years after a national minimum wage first came into existence in 1938.

    […]

    If you’re thinking that it’s been tougher to stay in place, let alone get ahead, in the US economy since about 1968, you’re right. Just look at the graph.

    Much more at the link.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  119. 119.

    Uncle Cosmo

    August 19, 2021 at 10:27 am

    @Kay: “We do THIS and then they do THAT”. They’ll only recognize the first part of that.

    Too many of our ruling-class geenyusses treat policy as if it were analogous to an exercise in theoretical mathematics: Find the closed-form solution and wallah! In fact it’s generally a drawn-out complex scenario in game theory. Because the other side always gets a move in response. And (doghelpus) sometimes moves first.

  120. 120.

    germy

    August 19, 2021 at 10:29 am

    Pundit sad about the withdrawal:

    https://thenib.com/crocodile-fears/

  121. 121.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 19, 2021 at 10:29 am

    @hueyplong: I’m actually surprised that Lee is getting any attention.

    It works in the “Democrats are in disarray” narrative.

  122. 122.

    Betty Cracker

    August 19, 2021 at 10:30 am

    @lowtechcyclist: I stole it from someone here. Uncle Cosmo maybe?

  123. 123.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 19, 2021 at 10:30 am

    @Soprano2: Agree 100% on the advanced directive. It helped a great deal with my mother’s case, as it did with yours – what also helped is that she had been *very* vocal about her wishes for years and years (she viewed Jack Kevorkian as a national hero.)

    Anyway, my dear wife and I made sure that was part of our estate planning as well. My plug: if you have any assets to speak of, and want assurance that things will go smoothly after your inevitable demise, get a good attorney who specializes in this and spend the bucks. It will just cost your executor more later if you don’t.

  124. 124.

    Kathleen

    August 19, 2021 at 10:31 am

    @Betty Cracker: I’ve concluded they’re not paid to do that. They’re paid to advance an agenda (TFG For King!) hence they are no more than purveyors of propatainment.

  125. 125.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 10:33 am

    @Soprano2:

    The FURY with which they respond to Biden making his own broader argument instead of the narrower one they want is to me almost amusing. He’s allowed to set the terms of the debate just like they’re setting the terms. Why are they the deciders of what the question is? When was the decision made that we may only discuss orderly transport to the airport? Because that discussion is what the hawks want to talk about because if it’s broader than that they lose?

    Biden’s not a fool. There’s no requirement he accept their framing of the question. He won’t.

  126. 126.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 19, 2021 at 10:33 am

    @Butter Emails: Flying out means at some point there will be insufficient forces to secure the airport and at a later point there will literally be no forces securing the airport – all troops will be on a plane. I wonder which troops will be selected as the rear guard.

    A flight of B-52s carpet bombing the airport with dollar bills will solve that problem. Not to mention cheaper than shooting our way out.

  127. 127.

    gvg

    August 19, 2021 at 10:35 am

    @Citizen Alan: I am not so sure of that. She was know as her fathers daughter but barely. What I read about her was unthreatening but bland or boring. Maybe she would have. it was NOT close to a sure thing.  Lots of people were also far more enthused about Gillum. Shrug, we can’t go back in time for a redo.

  128. 128.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 19, 2021 at 10:36 am

    @Butter Emails: There was a last heli out of Saigon. It departed with no issues I can recall.

  129. 129.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 10:41 am

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    But that’s a denial of Afghan autonomy and agency. It’s a recognition that it’s not a real government. If the United States is wholly responsible for whether their government actors function then it’s the United States government. It’s not theirs.

  130. 130.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 19, 2021 at 10:43 am

    @Kay: Biden’s not a fool. There’s no requirement he accept their framing of the question. He won’t.

    They had 8 years of Bush who was one of them, then 8 years of Obama who couldn’t push back lest he be seen as uppity, then 4 years of Trump gaslighting himself. So Biden is the first time The Blob is facing someone it can’t make shut up.

  131. 131.

    Kathleen

    August 19, 2021 at 10:45 am

    @Kay: Thank you for articulating the root cause of the propatainment complex’s fury. It makes sense. I agree that he can make his case successfully with American people. He’s one of the very few public figures that regular normal people don’t  seem to have an overwhelming desire to villify.

  132. 132.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 19, 2021 at 10:45 am

    @Uncle Cosmo: A pedant might say that game theory *is* theoretical mathematics – von Neumann used a theorem from topology for a seminal proof.

  133. 133.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    August 19, 2021 at 10:45 am

    @MomSense: the cricket is pretty good.

  134. 134.

    BellyCat

    August 19, 2021 at 10:46 am

    @Princess: Remarkable and courageous narrative. Hoping she has a very good security detail. :-/

  135. 135.

    Uncle Cosmo

    August 19, 2021 at 10:46 am

    @lowtechcyclist: Then you can steal it from me, the same way Cracker said she was going to do (& did) a few months ago when I posted it here (after using it for years in other circles).

    (ETA: Cracker at #122 supra steped up already! Thanky kindly, ma’am!)

    But hey, no prob with either of you, so long as you use it liberally!​ :^D​

  136. 136.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    August 19, 2021 at 10:47 am

    @Ken: dersh only enly enjoyed the donnas early material, anyway.

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    August 19, 2021 at 10:47 am

    @Princess:

    This a great article on Afghanistan by a former NPR reporter who spent many years living there, after ceasing to be a reporter. It furthers my feeling that none of the American news is capable of telling us what has really happened there.

    This is excellent background material. I have seen some similar critiques before, but few so clear and eloquent as this.

    Thanks very much for this link.

  138. 138.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    August 19, 2021 at 10:48 am

    @OGLiberal: soros?

    it’s as if the habsburgs lost the battle of vienna.

  139. 139.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 10:48 am

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    And they can do that! They can say the United States is wholly responsible for the actions of the Afghan government. We certainly set it up. I have no interest in defending the US from blame. But they can’t say it WHILE insisting it was a legitimate, autonomous government. It can’t be both.

  140. 140.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 19, 2021 at 10:50 am

    While the rest of the Right is working themselves into a rage about the Afghanistan refugees the Mormons in Utah are welcoming the refugees specifically because of Mormon history. Nice to see not everyone on the Right has lost all their humanity.

  141. 141.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 10:51 am

    @Kathleen:

    We know this because they do it with everything. It’s never the idea or the concept- it’s always the execution. That way the idea stays pristine and untested and can be tried again. We don’t need fewer invasions and occupations- we need safe and orderly withdrawals.

  142. 142.

    Uncle Cosmo

    August 19, 2021 at 10:55 am

    @Gin & Tonic: ​A pedant might say that game theory *is* theoretical mathematics – von Neumann used a theorem from topology for a seminal proof.

    And a pragmatic person would reply, So fucking what? The point is that the “classical” concept of theoretical math (theorem – proof, theorem – proof, lemma – lemma – lemma** – proof) that focuses on closed-form solutions is utterly incapable of “solving” problems where the game you’re blasting away at is able to blast right back atcha.

    ** FTR, Lemma Lemma Lemma is the fraternity chapter in the math geek reboot of Animal House…

  143. 143.

    Steeplejack

    August 19, 2021 at 10:57 am

    I made these notes for something else, but I’ll go ahead and drop them here for anyone who might be interested. If you’re feeling stressed out or angry about the “real world,” or just having a bout of pandemic cabin fever, you could do worse than dip into one of these movies.

    Foreign films usually get short shrift on TCM, and it’s extraordinary for them to air a whole day and night of Japanese movies. Subtitles! Black and white! The set also contains a pretty good retrospective of director Yasujiro Ozu’s work. From Roger Ebert’s 1993 assessment:

    Yasujiro Ozu was a Japanese film director who died 30 years ago. At the time of his death, he was all but unknown except to Japanese audiences—and even there his popularity was limited. Today, if you polled the world’s film critics, asking them who was the most universal and beloved of all directors, Ozu would rank at or near the top of the list, along with Jean Renoir, Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock. [. . .]

    We are programmed to think in terms of “foreign films,” as if somehow their values are just as foreign as their languages. With Ozu, that is not the case. Last winter I taught a class on the greatest films of all time, as selected in an international poll held every 10 years by Sight & Sound magazine. One of the films was Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953). Most of the class members hadn’t seen an Ozu film before, and were not necessarily looking forward to it, so I was surprised by the intensity of their response. As Ozu’s story unfolded, telling of the old couple who come to visit their children and are received correctly but distractedly, there was first of all complete silence in the auditorium, and then I began to hear snuffling and the blowing of noses, and when the movie was over and the lights went up it was clear that for many of the viewers it had been a powerful emotional experience. Weeks later, when the class ended, it was agreed that none of the other “greatest films” had equaled the Ozu in its emotional impact. [. . .]

    To love movies without loving Ozu is an impossibility. When I see his films, I am struck by his presence behind every line, every gesture. Like Shakespeare, he breathes through his characters, and when you have seen several of his films you feel as if you must have known him.

    (All times EDT.)

    11:30 a.m. Sound of the Mountain (1954). So Yamamura, Setsuko Hara, Ken Uehara. “A kindly Japanese father becomes closer to his son’s unhappy wife than he is to his own daughter.” Directed by Mikio Naruse.

    1:30 p.m. Late Autumn (1960). “A Japanese widow (Setsuko Hara) needs to marry off her daughter, but some of the potential suitors are more interested in her.” Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.

    3:45 p.m. The End of Summer (1961). Ganjiro Kakamura, Setsuko Hara, Yoko Tsukasa. “A man deals with his declining business, a former mistress and two daughters searching for love.” Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.

    5:30 p.m. Tokyo Twilight (1957). Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishu Ryu. “Two sisters learn their long-lost mother is not dead.” Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.

    8:00 p.m. Late Spring (1949). Setsuko Hara, Chishu Ryu. “A widowed professor fakes an impending marriage to spur his adult daughter to get on with her life.” Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.

    10:00 p.m. Early Summer (1951). Setsuko Hara, Chishu Ryu. “A 28-year-old Japanese woman resists parental and societal pressures to marry.” Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.

    12:15 a.m. Tokyo Story (1953). Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara. “An elderly couple visit their busy children but receive no respect.” Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.

    2:45 a.m. The Idiot (1951). Masayuki Mori, Setsuko Hara, Toshiro Mifune. “A Japanese veteran, driven partially mad from the war, travels to the snowy island of Hokkaido, where he soon enters a love triangle with his best friend and a disgraced woman.” Directed by Akira Kurosawa.

  144. 144.

    laura

    August 19, 2021 at 10:58 am

    @Soprano2: Thank you for this! An advanced directive can alleviate so much guilt, or when there isn’t unanimity accross a family about what should be done, provide a roadmap. When our dad died in 2018, hospice was truly a miracle, the Roadie Brothers and I cared for dad in his home for the final week – the first time we’d been together under one roof for that long in 30 years. It was the most intimate and loving experience as a family and further cemented our already close sibling relationship. We worked as a team to get the old man sailing off to the distant shore where our mother waited for him. Thank you Soprano2, your words speak a great truth.

  145. 145.

    zhena gogolia

    August 19, 2021 at 11:02 am

    2:45 a.m. The Idiot (1951). Masayuki Mori, Setsuko Hara, Toshiro Mifune. “A Japanese veteran, driven partially mad from the war, travels to the snowy island of Hokkaido, where he soon enters a love triangle with his best friend and a disgraced woman.” Directed by Akira Kurosawa.

    I’m reading the St. Petersburg version of that right now. Too bad I got rid of TCM :(
    Maybe HBO Max has it.

  146. 146.

    Mary G

    August 19, 2021 at 11:03 am

    @Kay: They’re really mad because they only got the one day of desperate men trying to get onto the plane as it was lifting off and falling to their deaths. The next day there was none of that sweet disaster porn to keep them in clicks. Every media outlet is getting 30% less attention than they did during the years of TFG and it’s killing them.

  147. 147.

    Butter Emails

    August 19, 2021 at 11:03 am

    @Kay:

    They don’t want to have that argument, they want to have the narrower one where they argue over conducting the withdrawal. Biden is insisting they have it, so they’re mad. They want to set the terms of this to a really narrow discussion about securing an airport. He’s not accepting their terms, hence the anger.

    They’re trying to have it both ways. They’re trying to pin the entire Afghanistan debacle on him using a couple days of chaos at the airport.

  148. 148.

    Felanius Kootea

    August 19, 2021 at 11:06 am

    @Steeplejack: Is Sound of the Mountain based on Yasunari Kawabata’s book?

  149. 149.

    Anyway

    August 19, 2021 at 11:07 am

    @zhena gogolia:

    I am sooo worried that Afghanistan on top of Delta+news of needing boosters is going to hurt Biden.

  150. 150.

    Steeplejack

    August 19, 2021 at 11:09 am

    @zhena gogolia:

    It’s available in the Criterion Collection ( also which has a channel on Amazon Prime).

  151. 151.

    zhena gogolia

    August 19, 2021 at 11:10 am

    @Steeplejack:

    Oh, good to know. I’ll look into it

    ETA: It’s available with “Filmbox.” But I’m only a few pages into the novel — I’ll have to wait until I’m done. (Although I’ve read it five times and know how it ends, but I’m a little crazy that way.)

  152. 152.

    wvng

    August 19, 2021 at 11:10 am

    @Uncle Cosmo: It’s as if “if-then-else” logic strings are one step too many for these people.

  153. 153.

    Steeplejack

    August 19, 2021 at 11:11 am

    @Felanius Kootea:

    Yes! I like Kawabata a lot. Thousand Cranes is one of my favorite novels. Snow Country is close behind.

  154. 154.

    Brachiator

    August 19, 2021 at 11:14 am

    @Steeplejack:

    Great movie list. Tokyo Story is all the more magnificent for the deceptive simplicity of its filmmaking.

  155. 155.

    wvng

    August 19, 2021 at 11:15 am

    My daughter just came downstairs in tears over a news item she just saw. An Afghan woman, with one semester left to finish here bachelors degree, was in class when news came that the Taliban had taken over.  The men in her class started laughing at the women right then and there. “Back to the burka.”

  156. 156.

    Mary G

    August 19, 2021 at 11:16 am

    Bit scary – saw a tweet that the RNC was ordered to evacuate their building a few minutes ago, now this:

    Library of Congress Madison Building is ordered to evacuate— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) August 19, 2021

  157. 157.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 19, 2021 at 11:21 am

    @Steeplejack: As a (occasional) Go player myself, I read and thoroughly enjoyed The Master of Go some years ago.

  158. 158.

    germy

    August 19, 2021 at 11:23 am

     

    https://wnyt.com/politics/chief-in-charge-of-intel-before-capitol-riot-returns-to-post/6211251/?cat=661

    WASHINGTON (AP) – Yogananda Pittman, the Capitol Police official who led intelligence operations for the agency when thousands of Donald Trump loyalists descended on the building last January, is back in charge of intelligence as officials prepare for what’s expected to be a massive rally at the Capitol to support those who took part in the insurrection.

    Police officials in Washington are increasingly concerned about a rally planned for Sept. 18 on federal land next to the Capitol that organizers have said is meant to demand “justice” for the hundreds of people already charged in connection with January’s insurrection.

     

  159. 159.

    germy

    August 19, 2021 at 11:27 am

    Source confirms to me the FBI is on the scene,

    There is an effort to "engage in dialogue" with the man in truck https://t.co/Gpp4ANph6x

    — Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) August 19, 2021

    Oh, so a white guy then.

  160. 160.

    Steeplejack

    August 19, 2021 at 11:33 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    That was a good one. I’ve read almost all of his stuff (that’s available in English). I discovered him in high school on Okinawa. There was a little newsstand/​bookshop, Tuttle’s, by the Marine camp in Machinato where I used to go to get the latest Marvel Comics. The company (Charles E. Tuttle) had their own editions of Japanese authors in translation—Kawabata, Kobo Abe, Yukio Mishima (I think), Junichiro Tanizaki, etc. It was a great introduction to Japanese literature.

  161. 161.

    Steeplejack

    August 19, 2021 at 11:35 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Have you ever looked for a software version of Go?

  162. 162.

    Another Scott

    August 19, 2021 at 11:37 am

    @germy: My shocked, shocked face.

    It’ll be interesting to see JJMacNab’s eventual take. It looks like I need to put her on my daily scan list again.

    Anti-lockdown protesters 'seize' Edinburgh castle citing Magna Carta (sovereign citizen) https://t.co/J2FzX19SIU

    — JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) August 17, 2021

    Update: Judge dismisses lawsuit brought by armed group stopped on their way to Maine https://t.co/ULox27icd9

    — JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) August 18, 2021

    (The second one is about the Black militia that (supposedly) ran out of gas.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  163. 163.

    Soprano2

    August 19, 2021 at 11:42 am

    @Gin & Tonic: My plug: if you have any assets to speak of, and want assurance that things will go smoothly after your inevitable demise, get a good attorney who specializes in this and spend the bucks. It will just cost your executor more later if you don’t.

    Completely seconded. She has a trust, which will help me a lot. Unfortunately, she left a significant amount of money to the forces of evil. Larry Klayman, mother – really? Evidently she wanted to enable pointless lawsuits, go figure. She gave money to a good animal rescue, too – I wish she had given them more.

  164. 164.

    sixthdoctor

    August 19, 2021 at 11:53 am

    I spoke to a veteran communications professional who has been trying to place prominent voices supportive of the Afghanistan withdrawal on television and in print.

    They told me it has been next to impossible.https://t.co/mBQy5AnCuq pic.twitter.com/iuhQ1qXDiJ
    — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) August 19, 2021

  165. 165.

    PST

    August 19, 2021 at 11:55 am

    I can’t resist making a comment on the Larry David vs. Alan Dershowitz story. My wife used to manage sales at a cemetery in South Florida where David’s parents are buried. She says that in person he was indistinguishable from the character he played on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He dressed the same, talked the same, etc. She also says he was pleasant and polite, something not always true of the celebrities who buried parents there. Dershowitz I remember as an egotistical douche half a century ago, so nothing about him surprises me.

  166. 166.

    Kay

    August 19, 2021 at 11:55 am

    @wvng:

    I read another account that was similiar to that one. The stories are heartbreaking but they also point to the folly of our “nation building”. The men laughing at her are not the Taliban and they’re not the Afghanistan version of rural Trumpsters. They’re university students. If  men who are her classmates at the university don’t support women attending school we didn’t make much progress.

    She’s going to need a critical mass of men, because men still have most of the power. If she can’t find them in a university where are they?

  167. 167.

    Captain C

    August 19, 2021 at 11:55 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    By

    “People won’t talk to each other if they don’t agree with their politics.”

    I think he actually means “if they think you’re a pedophile.”

  168. 168.

    PJ

    August 19, 2021 at 12:17 pm

    @zhena gogolia: ​
      There’s a loose Czech adaptation of The Idiot (Navrat Idiota, directed by Sasa Gedeon) from the ’90’s which is also very good (it’s set in contemporary times, and has a much happier ending than the book.)

  169. 169.

    Ruckus

    August 19, 2021 at 12:22 pm

    @debbie:

    It may not be the seventh level of hell deep but Marianas Trench deep is pretty far down…..

  170. 170.

    Ruckus

    August 19, 2021 at 12:23 pm

    @J R in WV:

    Asses everywhere!

    A great band name?

  171. 171.

    PJ

    August 19, 2021 at 12:28 pm

    @Kay: It’s not just that they are discredited, but also that the gravy train will dry up.  If they can’t sell their consulting or contracting services, or get themselves on the TV as “experts”, or (for journalists) advance their career by exploiting a humanitarian disaster involving US policy, or (for active military and intelligence) advance their careers through a foreign adventure, they are afraid that sweet tap will be turned off for as long as Biden has influence.

    There’s been a lot more news recently about the insane levels of corruption in the Afghan government and in the US government and contractors in Afghanistan, but this kind of careerism, predicated on the US getting involved in and maintaining military disasters overseas, is another kind of corruption.  It’s not illegal, but it’s just as pernicious.

  172. 172.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 19, 2021 at 12:29 pm

    @Another Scott: The Magna Charter group going to invite a French prince in to replace the Queen like what the barons tried on King John?

  173. 173.

    Suburban Mom

    August 19, 2021 at 12:30 pm

    @Geminid: For what it’s worth, St. Pete Polls has a B+ rating from 538.  Over 26 polls they called 56% of the races correctly.  This is what St.PetePolls.org says about their list “The list of people to poll comes from the publicly available state-registered voters list for the state of Florida. It is not a complete list of registered voters, it is only those voters that added their phone numbers when they registered to vote(which is optional) in addition to white pages phone book listings for registered voters.”

  174. 174.

    Ruckus

    August 19, 2021 at 12:49 pm

    @Soprano2:

    I would agree 1000%.

    I had to go through this with both my parents and it was never easy but it was easier with their directives. And their directives weren’t as explicit, possibly because of how long ago they were written.

    I was also exposed to the opposite side of the issue with my sister. Some of her friends wanted her to be committed so that her directive and wishes could be overridden. That shocked me a lot, I didn’t expect that.

    This is never an easy time, it’s often a time of irrationality by a lot of people, maybe the majority of people. Giving them direction and rules helps make it work better. And that’s as good as it gets.

  175. 175.

    Geminid

    August 19, 2021 at 12:50 pm

    @Suburban Mom: Interesting. I might check out how close the Saint Pete people were to actual results in last year’s Florida races..

    Polls are only more or less accurate, and vary widely. I may keep following the St. Pete poll, though. Month over month results from the same poll can at least provide good information as to trend, I think.

  176. 176.

    Ruckus

    August 19, 2021 at 12:58 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    It is good but yes, I’ve heard it before as well.

    I doubt the person that came up with it first will mind, it is a great phrase.

  177. 177.

    Geminid

    August 19, 2021 at 1:09 pm

    @Geminid: So, the final St. Pete poll of last year’s Presidential election  showed Biden up 1 point, 49%-48% (poll taken Oct. 29-30). In the event, Biden lost by 3.36%.

    It seemed like last year’s Republican turnout showed a trump bump. I think one question hanging over next year’s elections is, will there be a post-trump slump? I guess we won’t know the answer until the elections.

  178. 178.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 19, 2021 at 1:15 pm

    Thinking this threw with the Afghans and The Blob.

    You have a bunch of American elites who think they are master  strategists and persuaders because no one around them is allowed to object. Even when someone calls them on their stupidity their own staffs protect them. The view their fellow Americans as contemptible fools, much less little brown people over seas.

    verses

    A group of tribal leaders in a society were there is no law, their authority is more from respect from other members of their tribe and the consequences to them if they get stupid is death. These Tribal leaders may not see the big picture, but one on one they know a liar when they see one.

    I think from start the Afghanis saw right threw The Blob’s Forever War scheme and sensed the Afghanis would be left to die by The Blob if things went to bad and that’s why the Afghanistan government was always a farce.

  179. 179.

    Captain C

    August 19, 2021 at 1:54 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    “I’m a liberal Democrat and I voted for Biden just as enthusiastically as Larry did,” Dershowitz told us.

    I don’t think I believe him.

  180. 180.

    Soprano2

    August 19, 2021 at 2:07 pm

    @Kay: The men laughing at her are not the Taliban and they’re not the Afghanistan version of rural Trumpsters. They’re university students. If  men who are her classmates at the university don’t support women attending school we didn’t make much progress.

    She’s going to need a critical mass of men, because men still have most of the power. If she can’t find them in a university where are they?

    This is exactly right. I think part of the reason for the collapse of the Afghan government we propped up is that the majority of the men in the country didn’t support it, and didn’t support women’s rights much at all.

  181. 181.

    Captain C

    August 19, 2021 at 2:20 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: A few years ago I was in SLC visiting a friend, and we went to see an Afghan musician at a branch library, and then went to eat dinner at an Afghan restaurant.  I suspect there’s already a small community, and that will be helpful to any arriving refugees.

  182. 182.

    TriassicSands

    August 20, 2021 at 2:03 am

    My  brother, hugely anti-vax, has recently been experiencing problems with his cell phone. I told him I’d buy him a new phone if he got vaccinated.

    He probably begged them to give him the placebo.

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