Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

In my day, never was longer.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Fight them, without becoming them!

The revolution will be supervised.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

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

Republicans do not trust women.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Worst Takes (Open Thread)

Reader Interactions

285Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    Even Cucker Tarlson may have a hard time topping that crap reaction.

    I have faith that he’ll stoop to the occasion.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    I’m assuming the retweets are people who agree with him and the quote tweets are people making fun of him.

  6. 6.

    Josie

    I looked him up. American stock broker, financial commentator, and radio personality.  Are we surprised?

    ETA: Dorothy Winsor was even more specific. This guy is a real prince.

  7. 7.

    Cameron

    Hell, why stop there?  Why aren’t we providing proper three-piecers for all Ukrainan military personnel?  A gentleman wouldn’t dream of going into combat without at least an ascot and a blazer.  We’re not barbarians – we’re the Aristocrats!

  10. 10.

    Baud

    While I don’t know this person, over-the-top buffoonery is a common tactic used by the right to create a distraction.

  12. 12.

    Mike Furlan

    Had he worn a suit, the comment might be something like, “He looks pretty good, the war must not be so bad.  Why is he complaining so much.”

    And if he made the fatal mistake of wearing a tan suit, the US would be forced to call in a nuclear strike on Kiev.

  13. 13.

    Mm

    I had a WW2 veteran friend who had served on a destroyer in the Pacific theatre and who was anchored in Tokyo Bay during the surrender ceremony.

    Later on he was on the bridge when their relief came aboard. The captain looked at them and said “My God. They’re wearing ties.”

    No need to wear a suit when you’re under attack.

  14. 14.

    Starfish

    @Nicole: That thread was so good.

    Per Wilhoit, there is an in group the law must protect and never bind, and an out group the law must bind and never protect, and that in group wears a goddam tie, sir!
    — John Rogers (@jonrog1) March 16, 2022

  15. 15.

    smith

    And, really, why can’t Zelenskyy be bothered make the same kind of effort those nice Russian gentlemen did in remembering to bring their dress uniforms?

  17. 17.

    MisterForkbeard

    I was actually thinking the opposite – I love how Zelensky is giving speeches and doing meetings in combat-lite clothes. He’s not decked out like soldier, but he’s not a politician wearing a suit because this is not a normal time. He’s wearing practical and functional clothes that will help him if he has to move quickly and won’t stand out, because he’s under constant threat of assassination, attack and capture.

    I don’t love that it’s the situation, but he’s taking it seriously and assholes like twitter-dumb up there need to get it through their heads.

  18. 18.

    Starfish

    @Baud: It is not just a distraction.

    On Twitter, people, quoting the stupid things to make fun of them, are still spreading the stupid message. And the original bozo sees this as “100,000 engagements.”

  19. 19.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    Over the top buffoonery is all they have.

    Besides they can’t see over all the bullshit that falls out of their mouths on a continuous basis.

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    Here’s a bad take, courtesy of the GQPer (one of many!) who voted to acquit the former guy of extorting Zelenskyy with American-taxpayer-funded defensive weapons systems:

    “Our own president needs to step up his game,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters on Capitol Hill after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a virtual address to Congress from Kyiv.

    “We’re not doing nearly enough, quickly enough to help the Ukrainians,” McConnell added. “And I think comparing Zelenskyy to Biden is depressing. President Biden needs to step up his game right now before it’s too late.”

    Yes…President Biden, who managed to rally essentially the entire world against Putin while still (knock on wood) keeping us out of WWIII…he really needs to step it up.

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    The thing is, Zelensky undoubtedly does own suits; there’s certainly plenty of video clips of him in The Before Times wearing more formal clothing and presumably the Russians haven’t yet managed to burn down his closet. The T shirt look might well have been a deliberate choice. Part of his image in the West is that he’s leading his people by example and suffering along side them, and a nice tailored suit would distract from that.

    And no, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that choice.

  24. 24.

    Paul M Gottlieb

    It’s always a mystery why someone like this Peter Schiff douchebag feels an overwhelming urge to stand up and shout “Hey world, look at me! I’m an asshole!” I’m sure his friends and family already know it.

  25. 25.

    Ruckus

    @MisterForkbeard:

    assholes like twitter-dumb up there need to get it through their heads.

    Imfuckingpossible. That’s solid bullshit inside that dome. Been cured to a impenetrable mass that nothing but more bullshit will penetrate. He thinks the suit makes the bullshit more presentable.

  33. 33.

    patrick II

    Unlike Zelenskyy, Putin would have worn a suit to show respect as he explained why the U.S. is a force for evil for trying to stop him from restoring Greater Russia. And, while nattily dressed, would explain to the congressmen for whom he has so much respect that he would nuke them if they tried to interfere with his plans for war and death.  But he would look civilized while doing it.

    Also, 3,500 likes.

  34. 34.

    randy khan

    @Jeffro:

    And of course McConnell doesn’t offer any specifics of what else he thinks the Administration should do because then he’d be responsible for those suggestions.  It’s much easier to lob non-specific “they should do more” comments out.

  35. 35.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    The classic Twitter “ratio” is replies vs. likes or retweets. It is an oddity of Twitter—or maybe just my non-member browser view of it—that you don’t see how many replies/comments there are to a tweet when you have it highlighted (as above) vs. having a response highlighted with the original comment in view.

    Right now there are 47.7K comments vs. 15.2K retweets and 3.8K likes, so Schiff is getting ratio’d pretty hard. (The theory is that people are moved to reply in opposition, vs. those who agree just hitting “like.”) A ratio over 2.0 is considered bad. Getting up around 5.0 or 6.0 is Hindenburg/​Fyre Festival territory.

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:

    There is.

    But it’s the longest tweet string ever. More examples than you’d ever want to read. They tried to judge it once but they gave up out of shear terror and disgust that the next tweet might actually be worse than the last one.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Delk:

    His beard is already better looking than Cruz’s. 

    In Shithead Ted’s defense, Shithead Ted’s disgusting face doesn’t help the situation.

  41. 41.

    Heidi Mom

    Betty, please forgive me if it’s inappropriate to use a brand-new thread in this way, but here goes:  In the previous thread Schrodinger’s Cat asked for a list of books on Russia.  About two weeks ago I created a book display on Ukraine for my public library, and these are some of the books that were included:

    A Short History of Russia–Mark Galeotti, 2020

    A History of Twentieth-Century Russia--Robert Service, 2009

    Russia: A 1,000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East–Martin Sixsmith, 2012

    Once Upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchs–Ben Mezrich, 2015

    The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare, 1945-2020–Tim Weiner, 2020

    Putin’s World–Angela E. Stent, 2019

    The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia–Masha Gessen, 2017

    Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold-War Stalemate–M. E. Sarotte, 2021

    Putin’s People–Catherine Belton, 2020

    These may also be of interest:

    The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine–Serhii Plokhy, 2015

    Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine–Anne Applebaum, 2017

    Black Square: Adventures in Post-Soviet Ukraine–Sophie Peckham, 2016

    Please note that I’m not a professional librarian, just a retired lawyer with a part-time job in the reference section of a public library, so this is not a curated list of the best books out there.  Basically I grabbed what was on our shelves and made do.  And let me recommend one of the glories of 21st-century America:  Inter-library loan!

  43. 43.

    Betty Cracker

    @Starfish: I’ve seen variations on this theory bandied about a lot — amplifying stupid things is a distraction, spreads falsehoods, etc. I can see the logic in it, but it runs counter to human nature and common sense, IMO. Ignoring unpleasant people doesn’t make them go away.

    The douche-canoe quoted above is a frivolous example. I don’t think America will turn as one toward that idiot and ignore what’s happening in Ukraine because a terrible tweet gets “engagement,” and the ratio on that tweet indicates the originator is getting roasted.

    But serious shit in the discourse is also subject to that same admonishment, and I think it has the potential to be dangerous. Crackpots and malevolent people say crazy and dumb shit, and it needs to be countered. Not all the time, every time. But if no one speaks up, terrible ideas can take hold, and awful people can amass power.

  45. 45.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Nicole: I smell a new Leverage villain. (Rogers keeps saying that they often had to tone down their villains because their real-life inspirations were just too unbelievable. Reminiscent of an aphorism I heard: the difference between fiction and non-fiction is that fiction has to be plausible.)

  47. 47.

    germy

    Pete Schiff’s father died in prison while serving time for tax evasion.  It’s a libertarian family.  Taxes are theft, etc.  Pete calls Medicare a ponzi scheme.

  49. 49.

    Barbara

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, like Donald Rumsfeld before him Zelenskyy is redefining macho.  Do you think they get up in the morning with the goal of sounding like breathless idiots finding a way to make everything come back to their own pet rock ideas, or does it come so naturally they don’t even have to try?

    It was Kathleen Parker for those trying to follow along, and the tweet was:

    Zelensky has gone a long way toward redefining manhood in a time of gender muddle and animus toward men.

  51. 51.

    gvg

    It has been said that if Zelinsky had left, Ukrainians wouldn’t have held, example Afghanistan. He is leading his people and their opinions are much more important than some random foreign citizen. Overdressing would not have projected to his own people that he was one of them. He was an actor. I assume he knows impressions are important.
    The twitter idiot does not grasp the gravity of the situation. It is too far outside his experience.
    When I look back to pre 60’s film, it seems odd to me how formally people dressed, even in sports stadiums or manual labor. I guess there are some people who still dress up.
    I have been thinking how amazing modern times are. In a big war, the actual President is able to address remotely the governments of multiple countries “live”. I think Zelinsky has done Canada, UK an the US plus others. I bet Churchhill would have killed to have had that chance. A small country wouldn’t have had the voice that Ukraine has turned out to have.

  55. 55.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Heidi Mom: Plokhy’s book is good, but I think the definitive modern English-language history of Ukraine is the one by Orest Subtelny.

  59. 59.

    scav

    @Barbara: Aaaahhhhhhhhhh, just remembering all the images / videos of Zelenskyy in spike heels or piano playing.  The Unmuddled Icon of our time.

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    “Hey Schiff, a missile took out my fucking dry cleaner last week. Now what’s worse, wearing fatigues or a fucking wrinkled suit? You got that right, you simpering douche, no proper gentleman presents in a wrinkled suit, something with which you are clearly unaware, now good day, sir!”

  61. 61.

    Alison Rose ???

    @Gin & Tonic: I’d wanted to ask, and forgive me if this has been gone over, which is the spelling we should use? I have tended toward Zelensky since that’s how I see it in most media, but I do see that he spells it Zelenskyy, so now I feel like it’s more appropriate to use that one. But is the one-y spelling also okay?

  67. 67.

    Old School

    For those interested in his old sitcom, Netflix has added Servant of the People starring Volodymyr Zelenskyy back to its lineup.

  69. 69.

    different-church-lady

    Yeah. A suit. Maybe with a sash and epaulets.  Something appropriate for a war. [DOPE SLAP]

  70. 70.

    West of the Rockies

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I think they remain employed so that outfits like The Post can say, “See, we’re unbiased!”  And they are there to create anger, cuz anger equals engagement with the media platform.

  71. 71.

    Cameron

    The dress-up BS is important to some people.  Remember the story about Trump smacking one of his spawn for not wearing a coat and tie…to a baseball game?

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @dmsilev: Yeah but something tells me that when he ran for his super secret bomb shelter, grabbing a suit was the last thing on his mind.

  76. 76.

    JoyceH

    @smith: ​
     

    And, really, why can’t Zelenskyy be bothered make the same kind of effort those nice Russian gentlemen did in remembering to bring their dress uniforms?

    I was coming here to say that very thing! They could have used the space the uniforms took to pack more food, so bad call on their part. Maybe they could barter the uniforms for a few turnips or something…

  77. 77.

    JoyceH

    @Old School:

    For those interested in his old sitcom, Netflix has added Servant of the People starring Volodymyr Zelenskyy back to its lineup.

    Thanks! Queued it. I’d searched on it just a few days ago and it wasn’t there.

    Apparently he also starred in some rom-coms, maybe they could dust those off and rerelease to a crush-struck world.

  79. 79.

    Sure Lurkalot

    I might be on to something here but it seems as if our betters are not better. And not getting better.

    The guy kept defending himself through the thread. He and his ilk, every last one of them, need to be taxed to smithereens. If there’s a better way to shut them up fast, I’m all ears.

  81. 81.

    Alison Rose ???

    @JoyceH:

    Apparently he also starred in some rom-coms, maybe they could dust those off and rerelease to a crush-struck world.

    I’m gay and ace and I’d watch the absolute hell out of those. Somehow this man’s appeal manages to cross all lines of attraction. I’ve seen plenty of straight men being like “When he winked in that video I got tingly”. Sometimes I worry the response is inappropriate given the situation, but I hope that maybe knowing he’s become an international thirst trap gives Zelenskyy a few moments of light in an otherwise dark time.

  82. 82.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @West of the Rockies: They don’t create anger in me since I never read them.  I figure they are just there to induce clicks and I won’t. Thiessen, Parker, Wills, Hewitt, Douthat, etc.  I would drop my subscription except I love and support  Krugman and Renkl.

  83. 83.

    Ken

    @randy khan: And of course McConnell doesn’t offer any specifics of what else he thinks the Administration should do

    I have a couple of suggestions, starting with investigation of recent Russian “investments” in various US states that somehow never built anything, despite huge amounts of money being moved around.

  86. 86.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @gvg:

    I have been thinking how amazing modern times are. In a big war, the actual President is able to address remotely the governments of multiple countries “live”. I think Zelinsky has done Canada, UK an the US plus others. I bet Churchhill would have killed to have had that chance. A small country wouldn’t have had the voice that Ukraine has turned out to have.

    If you’d come today you would have reached a whole nation
    Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication

    — Jesus Christ Superstar

  87. 87.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Heidi Mom:  And let me recommend one of the glories of 21st-century America:  Inter-library loan!

    It really is amazing how easy that is, compared to the pre-Internet era.

  88. 88.

    Jeffro

    @randy khan: yup

    And it’s just another classic example of Republican goalpost-moving drag-racing whenever a Democratic official is working to actually (gasp) solve some problem

  89. 89.

    Cameron

    Don’t know what called it to mind, but I just remembered how jarring it was to read A Clockwork Orange, with its vile street gang protagonist worried about always being dressed “in the height of fashion.”

  90. 90.

    Jeffro

    @germy: It’s a libertarian family.  “Taxes are theft”, etc.

    Whenever I hear ‘taxes are theft’, I don’t even waste time on the speaker.  If I have no time or it’s someone I don’t know well, I just laugh and roll my eyes.  If it’s someone I do know well, I tell them to grow the fuck up.

  93. 93.

    Cameron

    @randy khan: That’s his whole approach to governing – or should I say, “governing?”  Remember how he freaked out when Rick Scott spilled the beans and actually created a to-do list?  It was a dreadful document, but that wasn’t what bothered Turtle.  It was the fact that it had policies in it instead of vague criticisms.

  94. 94.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @gvg:

    When I look back to pre 60’s film, it seems odd to me how formally people dressed, even in sports stadiums or manual labor. I guess there are some people who still dress up.

    Well, there’s that guy who punched his son for not wearing a suit to go to a baseball game.

  95. 95.

    germy

    Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema made fun of President Joe Biden and praised Republican Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Andy Biggs at a closed-door fundraiser, a forthcoming book says.

    The New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns pull back the curtain on Sinema’s frequently tumultuous relationship with the Biden White House in their upcoming book “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future.” Axios reported some of the accounts in their book on Wednesday morning.

    The book says Sinema, who has repeatedly opposed corporate-tax increases in Biden’s proposed economic and social-spending package, painted herself as “anti-government” and “anti-tax” while speaking to the audience of a closed-door fundraiser primarily attended by Republican lobbyists. Axios also reported that Sinema, according to the book, also mocked Biden, but did not detail what exactly she said.

    “I love Andy Biggs,” she said of her fellow Arizona lawmaker at the fundraiser, the date of which is not made clear in the book. “I know some people think he’s crazy, but that’s just because they don’t know him.”

    To know know know him, is to love love love him.

  97. 97.

    MisterForkbeard

    @The Moar You Know: You notice the complete lack of discussion of what Biden should actually do? Does the media?

    It’s because this is just about criticizing Biden, like literally every other time McConnell opens his mouth.

  98. 98.

    Gravenstone

    @Jeffro: As I noted last thread, Congress holds the power to declare war if they so wish. If Mitch seriously wants to go down that road, it’s within his capability…

  100. 100.

    Matt McIrvin

    @MisterForkbeard: It’s also because discussing what he should do would reveal the division on the right between the people who want the US to be much more aggressive and the people who support Putin. But they can agree that Biden is bad and wrong.

  102. 102.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I was actually thinking of making a joke about the T-shirt earlier, but decided it was too stupid and the stakes are too high for it to be funny. That somebody would make the comment seriously is just… (shakes head silently).

    In one of my favorite action movies, “Under Siege”, I was amused that the rogue naval officer played by Gary Busey, who is engaged in an actual terrorist act and in a mortal battle with Steven Seagal, takes the time to complain about Seagal’s uniform and behavior not being fit for an officer.

    Mr. Schiff, that kind of thing is a joke. You see the joke is that anyone in the middle of a battle would ever seriously be thinking… have their mind on… oh the hell with it.

    (drops mike, wanders forlornly off stage left)

  103. 103.

    Baud

    @germy:

    I too detest Sinema but this

    Axios also reported that Sinema, according to the book, also mocked Biden, but did not detail what exactly she said.

    Is bullshit.

  104. 104.

    Kelly

    Biden’s list of supplies to Ukraine included 20 million rounds of small arms, grenade launcher and mortar rounds. Zelenskyy said he needed ammunition not a ride. Kind of amazed we can deliver that much considering Ukraine’s weapons are not US weapons.

  105. 105.

    Geminid

    @O. Felix Culpa: Hewitt’s principal platform is his 3 hour morning radio show. I think it is self supporting; at least, Hewitt is constantly hawking gold, natural pain relief elixir, morgtage services, etc. The Wapo gives him editorial space as a “balancing” pundit whose Wall Street Journal-type conservatism won’t embarrass them too much.

    Not that Hewitt needs money. As a fairly young attorney, he transitioned from the Reagan White House Counsel’s office to a long practice in Southern California commercial real estate law. I think he came away with some real money.

    Hewitt is very much tied into wealthy Republican circles. He is the head man at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, where he hosts Big Thinkers who talk about Deep Geo-Strategic Matters.

  106. 106.

    Dangerman

    Times are hard? Times are HARD?!

    Realizing there isn’t any toilet paper on the roll a little too late in the process is hard…

    …finally got up the nerve to go to that famous nude beach but you forgot the sunscreen is hard…

    …having someone shooting missiles at you is a  lot more than hard.

  107. 107.

    germy

    @Baud:

    Axios is just referencing a book written by two NYT reporters that I don’t plan on reading.

    What’s bullshit?   Axios is making up stuff that isn’t really in the book, or the book is making up stuff that didn’t happen?

  108. 108.

    Ken

    @Gravenstone: If Congress declares war, does the President have to commit troops?  I don’t think we’ve ever had that situation, but I could easily be wrong. I know Wilson in 1917 and Roosevelt in 1941 both asked Congress.

    It would be interesting if Congress declared war, and Biden announced “After consultations with the Joint Chiefs, and in my role as Commander-in-Chief, I judge that our current actions are the best way to prosecute the war.”

  109. 109.

    senyordave

    I watched that joke of a conference with Powell.  He seems to have one mission in life, and that is to protect and boost markets.  He spent most of his time reassuring the moneyed class.  It seemed like every time he opened his mouth the markets went up.   Re-appointing him is the wort thing Biden has done, and I think it sends a clear message that the Biden administration doesn’t consider inflation a long term issue.  Combined with Buttigieg’s recent remarks about it being a short term problem the only reason the middle class should support the Dems on the economy is that they aren’t as bad as the Republicans.

  110. 110.

    Gravenstone

    @germy: “I know some people think he’s crazy, but that’s just because they don’t know him.”

    Bitch, please! His own family hates him and has publicly said as much. Try and explain how they don’t know him.

  113. 113.

    oatler

    To paraphrase John Mulaney, he’s the kind of guy who would call for gazebo construction in the midde of The Civil War.

  114. 114.

    Gravenstone

    @Ken: I don’t believe he would be obligated, no. But if Mitch wants to swing his dick around and “do something”, well that is certainly within the scope of his abilities as a Senator.

  115. 115.

    JoyceH

    @Alison Rose ???:

    I’m gay and ace and I’d watch the absolute hell out of those. Somehow this man’s appeal manages to cross all lines of attraction. I’ve seen plenty of straight men being like “When he winked in that video I got tingly”. Sometimes I worry the response is inappropriate given the situation, but I hope that maybe knowing he’s become an international thirst trap gives Zelenskyy a few moments of light in an otherwise dark time.

    While I’m being shallow, can I also say he beards up nicely? Some guys stop shaving and you’re like “Just… no.”

  116. 116.

    Heidi Mom

    @lowtechcyclist: Agreed–WorldCat is our friend!  And it’s surprising to me how many of the ILL requests I’ve processed aren’t for serious, weighty tomes–they’re for popular works of fiction, especially series, especially sci-fi/fantasy series.  Love of reading is alive and well.

  121. 121.

    MomSense

    So my kid got a phone call today that the gap year program he was supposed to do in Greece starting this summer was canceled. Now I’m wondering if they relied on Russian funding.

  122. 122.

    Captain C

    Even Cucker Tarlson may have a hard time topping that crap reaction.

    If he reads Balloon Juice, he’ll take that as a challenge, and probably exceed it in one night.  He strikes me as the mama’s boy heir who desperately wanted to be one of the mean frat kids but couldn’t really cut it as such, so he’s spent the rest of his life compensating.

  123. 123.

    Baud

    @germy:

    Making a representation about what she said without reporting what she said.  If you don’t know, then don’t report it.

  124. 124.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Ken:

    There’s a RWNJ fiction novel on that premise, and Congress’ answer was to issue letters of Marque and Reprisal to a carrier battle group.

  125. 125.

    germy

    @Baud:

    It seems like they treat these books on current events like teaser trailers for blockbuster movies.   They’re afraid spoilers will hurt sales?

    Who buys these books?

  126. 126.

    Alison Rose ???

    @JoyceH: LOL agree on both counts. The FTFNYT keeps feeling the need to mention him being unshaven in their articles, and I’m like, for one thing, who fucking cares, and for another, you say that like it’s a bad thing

  128. 128.

    Baud

    @germy:

    I certainly don’t.  I just don’t trust political reporters-cum-book authors enough, especially those who work for the NYT.

  130. 130.

    PPCLI

    @Jeffro:

    McConnell continued:
    “And frankly, I don’t see how anyone could vote for a President who doesn’t demand that Zelinskyy announce investigations of the children of the President’s political rivals before any aid is provided.”

    “And I think comparing Zelenskyy to Biden is depressing. President Biden needs to step up his game right now before it’s too late.”

  131. 131.

    Blue Manatees

    @senyordave: I watched it and if anything, my reaction is worse.  The Democrats can pay lip service to the middle class, but if Biden really cared no way he would have re-appointed Powell.  He and the Fed report to the investor class.

  134. 134.

    raven

    @Mm: In the “Final War Diary” of my old man’s destroyer the captain notes that they had been out there so long that the crew had “gone native”. I know dad had a huge red beard by the time the war ended.

  135. 135.

    bcw

    @Nicole: Well you are of course right. For instance, he has the suit he wore when he played an accidental President of Ukraine when he had a comedy show on TV in his previous career as a comedian.​

  136. 136.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: The whole genre is 90% crap, and reporters writing a book on real-time events they’re covering as employees of a newspaper seems wildly unethical. Reporter or political gossip monger? They need to pick one.

  137. 137.

    Suzanne

    Dude was on Zoom. I’d be impressed if he was wearing pants. T-shirt is totally fine.

    Fuck you, Schiff.

  138. 138.

    raven

    @Benw: You know that one of the Admiral’s at Pearl ignored intelligence because it was ungentlemanly to read someone else’s mail?

  139. 139.

    Heidi Mom

    @Captain C: Thank you!  And most of them are out in circulation, which says good things about our community (college town/county seat).

  140. 140.

    Danielx

    Save for weddings, funerals and a couple of interviews I have not worn a suit and tie since I left the world of corporate dogshit thirty years ago. Clearly I am not a serious person.

    Thank FSM.

  142. 142.

    Ruckus

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    He and his ilk, every last one of them, need to be taxed to smithereens.

    Even if it doesn’t shut them up, at least the money could be useful in ways other than holding up the celling in some bank and/or stockbrokers office.

  144. 144.

    Carol Van Natta

    There are always idiots who self-righteously take umbrage at the clothing choices of others. At least Peter-My-Suit-is-Más-Macho is complaining about a man’s clothes, for once. (Kamala Harris in sneakers shows a lack of serious decorum, and all that.)
    “I had to kill them, Your Honor. They wore white after Labor Day!”

  145. 145.

    Captain C

    @jonas:

    Glenn Greenwald has won every single one so far.

    If Glem ever sees this comment, he may well put together a 80-tweet thread refuting this assertion (successfully only in his mind) which will technically sort of be correct because that thread will then take the title over his other tweets.

  149. 149.

    Kay

    @germy:

    Sinema, who has repeatedly opposed corporate-tax increases

    Her one job is to protect the Trump tax cuts for corportations and the ultra wealthy. It’s the only work she does.

  150. 150.

    Jeffro

    @Kelly:Biden’s list of supplies to Ukraine included 20 million rounds of small arms, grenade launcher and mortar rounds. Zelenskyy said he needed ammunition not a ride. Kind of amazed we can deliver that much considering Ukraine’s weapons are not US weapons.

    I am picturing ol’ Uncle Sam rooting around in the pantry, looking for some odds and ends…”oh, THERE’s that case of Ukrainian mortar rounds I bought at the farmer’s market last year…”

    Something like that.

  152. 152.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Carol Van Natta: One of my personal “stop paying attention to this person” markers is when their rant about the decay of society gets onto the menace of grown men wearing short pants. It’s pretty reliable.

  153. 153.

    Kay

    Kate Smith
    @byKateSmith
    NEW & BIG
    Citigroup will now offer travel expenses for employees seeking an abortion.

    Why not just locate only in free states?

  154. 154.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @raven: It surprised me when I first saw the WW2 cartoons of Bill Mauldin that he depicted his recurring characters Willie and Joe with beards. Till I read a note that hot water to shave with would have been a luxury not usually available to soldiers marching around Europe.

    Nevertheless, apparently he had a run-in with Patton over that issue. Patton wanted all his soldiers to be clean-shaven, and Mauldin made fun of him for it.

  156. 156.

    Yutsano

    @Kay: The whole, “but they vote for our judges!” canard needs to die on November 9th regardless of the outcome of the election. Either we get a majority beyond those two or it’s a Republican wash and they can let their freak out then. Either way she and Manchin need roasting.

  157. 157.

    senyordave

    On the economy the Democrats are clearly better than the Republicans, but that is the lowest bar in the universe..  The Democrats kiss up to the billionaire class, don’t fight hard to remove some of the obvious, glaring loopholes that allow the uber-rich to avoid paying taxes (like putting options that turn out to be worth billions in your Roth IRA).  If I were a single-issue voter on the economy only, I would vote Democrat because the Republicans are terrible, not because the Democrats are good.  By the way, the market is up almost 2% today, mostly based on what Powell didn’t say, like we will do what it takes to curb inflation.  Elon Musk, Carl Icahn, et. al thanks you

  161. 161.

    Captain C

    @Yutsano: Senator Umbridge won’t know what to do when she’s not the center of attention.  As an ex-AZ resident, I can’t wait to start donating to her ’24 primary oppenent.

  162. 162.

    Geminid

    @Kelly: Ukraine has received a  lot of infantry weapons from the U.S. since 2014, so they’ll be able to use the resupplied items. They might still need Soviet-style munitions, but the CIA may be providing some. There are a lot out there.

  163. 163.

    Kay

     

    @byKateSmith
    .@Citi
    has 8.5k employees in Texas.
    From the filing:
    “In response to changes in reproductive health-care laws in certain states in the U.S., beginning in 2022 we provide travel benefits to facilitate access to adequate resources

    Still doesn’t solve the problem for pregnant women who are now forbidden from receiving emergency medical care for a pregnancy with serious complications, one that requires termination. I guess you just roll the dice in Texas and hope there’s time to get you to Colorado, where women can still receive life saving medical care immediately if it becomes necessary. That’s gonna be a real scary commercial flight out of Texas.

  164. 164.

    oldgold

    Schiff’S favorite song:

    Clean shirt, new shoes
    And I don’t know where I am goin’ to
    Silk suit, black tie (black tie)
    I don’t need a reason why
    They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
    ‘Cause everybody is crazy  ’bout a sharp-dressed man

  165. 165.

    topclimber

    @gvg: ​Ukraine’s team negotiating with the Russians created a stir two weeks ago when they showed up in combat rather than diplomatic wardrobe. I think it is a plot to let the Russians know that they are dealing with barbarians who will show no mercy to invaders.

  166. 166.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: My question is, if these employees are in Missouri or Oklahoma or wherever, does that mean that the Citigroup board gets indicted (and eventually, executed?)

    And how do you word this in your employee benefits package?

    And what if Citigroup’s database gets hacked and these employees’ private medical info – or even a record of their ahem *medical trip reimbursement* – gets out?  Can the employee sue?

    and and and…so many questions that shouldn’t have to be asked, just because RWNJs gotta RWNJ

  167. 167.

    Kay

    @Yutsano:

    I just resent how they wasted everyone’s time. I loathe fake negotiators. All they had to do was admit that anything that even slightly modified the Trump tax cuts was off the table and the country wouldn’t have had to listen to 9 months of their silly lies.

    Poor character. You can’t fix it. The only cure is to not hire the person. They don’t get better.

  168. 168.

    RandomMonster

    “War — why can’t people dress more formally in the middle of one?”

    You know those nazis had pretty snappy uniforms…

  171. 171.

    Ruckus

    @Alison Rose ???:

    Absolutely.

    I’ve been unshaven for 49 yrs. I trim but last time I was clean shaven was in 1973, the day I was discharged from the navy. Now I have no idea how I compare to a Ukraine president…..

  172. 172.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    The US is already dead last for maternal health among developed countries – not a priority or area of interest- you see how little coverage these draconian pregnancy regulations get. We haven’t made progress on it in 30 years, and everyone else did. Competitive out there. Can’t just sit on your ass and wave a flag and and expect to stay in the top 10.

    According to a report out Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System, the 2018 maternal mortality rate was 17.4 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births — meaning 658 women died in 2018. The figure includes deaths during pregnancy, at birth, or within 42 days of birth.The rate once again put the US last among similarly wealthy countries, according to Eugene Declercq, a professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health. If you compare the CDC figure to other countries in the World Health Organization’s latest maternal mortality ranking, the US would rank 55th, just behind Russia (17 per 100,000) and just ahead of Ukraine (19 per 100,000). And “If you limit the comparison to those similarly wealthy countries,” such as Germany, “the US would rank 10th — out of 10 countries.”

  173. 173.

    Almost Retired

    Kathleen Parker is not exactly 100% wrong with her notion that Zelenskyy is “redefining manhood in a time of gender muddle” (whatever that is).  I’m a straight married male and I’m swooning over him.  Is that what she meant by redefining manhood?

  177. 177.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @Jeffro: ​

    “We’re not doing nearly enough, quickly enough to help the Ukrainians,” McConnell added. “… President Biden needs to step up his game right now before it’s too late.”

    Did McConnell say that before or after he voted against sending aid to Ukraine?

  178. 178.

    Suzanne

    @Captain C:

    As an ex-AZ resident, I can’t wait to start donating to her ’24 primary oppenent. 

    You and me both.
    I loved her last primary opponent, Deedra Abboud. I still follow her on social media and she is entertaining AF.
    I am not optimistic that AZ will elect someone as progressive as Ruben Gallego statewide any time soon. I think Greg Stanton could be a solid choice.

  180. 180.

    Ruckus

    @Danielx:

    I have a suit in my closet. It’s been in there for a while. It’s stayed in there for a while, a rather long while at that. In my life I’ve had 3 suits. One when I was a very young kid and my grandmother passed, one was purchased for the service. One when I was a little older and suits were worn in a lot of situations. I think I wore it twice. That suit I still have has been worn twice for about an hour each time. A wedding and a funeral. If you told me now I had to wear a suit or could not attend an event, the only word you’d hear from me would be “Pass.”

  182. 182.

    raven

    @Ruckus: Fucking assholes buzzed our heads at Oakland Army Base while we were waiting (for three days on a concrete floor) to muster out when I came home. It was 6 years before I shaved and got a haircut and that was only because I broke my back in a wreck and they piled my hair up and taped it with athletic tape for 2 months!

  183. 183.

    Kay

    @scav:

    Wild though, right? “Here’s passage to a state with modern health care available”. Just for pregnant women- obviously. Men will still get top notch health care in Texas if they can afford it.

  184. 184.

    Captain C

    @Suzanne:

    I am not optimistic that AZ will elect someone as progressive as Ruben Gallego statewide any time soon. I think Greg Stanton could be a solid choice.

    I would take either of them well before her.

  185. 185.

    Suzanne

    @Almost Retired:

    Kathleen Parker is not exactly 100% wrong with her notion that Zelenskyy is “redefining manhood in a time of gender muddle” (whatever that is).  I’m a straight married male and I’m swooning over him.  Is that what she meant by redefining manhood? 

    Eh, I have had the thought that Zelensky puts forth a distinctly Gen X style of leadership, and I guess one could also say of masculinity. The T-shirt is actually a perfect example of a Gen X-esque thing to do. Distinctly utilitarian, non-fussy, anti-hierarchical. He also doesn’t seem to be compensating for anything, which is refreshing.

  187. 187.

    germy

    Tonight on PBS

    FRONTLINE
    Putin’s Road to War
    Insight into what led to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, including the grievances that drive him and how the conflict with the West resulted in war.

  188. 188.

    Ruckus

    @Kelly:

    A lot of smaller military weapons, hand held or hand carried use the same ammo any more. A 9mm handgun is about as common as it gets and is what most armed forces use, as is most of the rest of the worlds small arms, same caliber. Especially friendly nations. We can give each other ammunition or fight together with common ammunition. Think about it, what would be the reason to have different among friendly nations that might depend on each other, say NATO nations for example.

  189. 189.

    scav

    @Kay: Everything’s weird.  But at least Citigroup’s guns are the sort to be heard by all but the most ideologically-driven politicians — and they’re pointed in the less bat-shit direction.  Fucking big tea leaves to read and not just expressed in the back rooms to those already obsequious to donations.

  190. 190.

    Suzanne

    @Captain C: Agreed. Sinema sucks.

    What I am afraid of, though, is that I think her suckiness is a distinctly Arizona kind of suckiness. By that I mean, the things that we hate most about her are actually what make her appealing to other voters, specifically the Mormon mom cohort who usually don’t vote for Democrats but do go for her. Mesa is the most conservative large city in the country, and Sinema’s congressional district includes some of it. She’s threaded a needle for a while and I think a lot of people here don’t really appreciate that.

    I think Gallego (Ruben, not Kate) is great, and that Stanton is solid, and if the primary opponent isn’t one of the two of them, it’s going to be hard for the Dems to keep that seat.

  193. 193.

    geg6

    @germy:
    I don’t know about anyone else, but I couldn’t possibly care less about his stupid fucking grievances.  My guess is that they are not that much different than every other despot in Russian history.  It’s all about how they are a great empire/nation that isn’t give the respect that is their due.  Glorious Russia!  We kept the Middle Ages going well into the 20th century!  And we want it back there for the 21st!​

  194. 194.

    Captain C

    @Suzanne:

    Mesa is the most conservative large city in the country

    I lived there for 10 years (near Mesa & Broadway, then near University and Gilbert) and I must agree with you, although it seems to be better run than most places with a conservative majority.

  195. 195.

    Kay

    @scav:

    I agree. I’m waiting for women to figure out that pregnancy monitoring and regulation by religious extremists includes all pregnancies. They will. Some already have in Texas.

  196. 196.

    germy

    Adam Davidson just figured something out:

    I just watched a bunch of GOP political ads.

    I am embarrassed–even ashamed–that for years I reported earnestly about the GOP's free market based vision.

    That clearly was a thin scrim over ethnonationalism.

    I truly regret the error.

    — Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) March 15, 2022

    Here’s a good reply:

    I am embarrassed—even ashamed— that I reported that mother had disappeared when she had simply put both of her hands in front of her face https://t.co/0su1mNmkp0

    — Ed Zitron (@edzitron) March 16, 2022

  197. 197.

    smith

    Interesting that Schiff based his criticism on the need to show respect for the US Congress. I think the rest of us should only be instructed to show respect for that august body after its members start to do so.

  198. 198.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @germy: Andy Biggs literally won the publishers clearing house sweepstakes. That’s how he afforded his start in politics and becoming a congress critter. Its not like he worked his ass off at some job or built up a successful business.

    I can’t be bothered to look him up but i am pretty sure Peter Schiff is one of those supposed deficit hawks…the ones who only complain about spending during a Democratic administration. Pretty sure I’ve seen him on CNBC. I believe he also wrote an anti-Clinton book.

  199. 199.

    Ruckus

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    When I joined the navy it was still up to each station/ship’s Captain if beards were allowed. Admiral Zumwalt became the admiral in charge of the navy and changed that decades/centuries old thing into any sailor could start a beard and had 6 weeks to grow it into an actual beard. A ships captain could not countermand this order. Everyone I knew got at least 6 weeks of not having to shave. Some got to keep up not shaving, as one had to actually have a beard in 6 weeks. Some of us could not do that – at the time. Asshole officers (and lifers) did not like this policy, because it was one more thing to fuck with everyone that was taken away from them. Poor little toddlers.

  200. 200.

    Suzanne

    @Captain C: So I lived at Brown and Stapley as a kid, then Southern and Alma as a teenager, then Baseline and Alma for some time as an adult. The conservatism is real.

  201. 201.

    Kay

    @germy:

    I thought it was good. They have a whole set of Putin docs. The Obama one was interesting to me because the dislike between the two men was obvious. Really cold.

    In that one you can compare Bush and Obama- Bush got duped because Putin told Bush he had found religion. Not Obama. He was no one’s fool. And also not Clinton, interestingly. The (Bill) Clinton mistrust and dislike is in the latest doc.

  204. 204.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Bill Clinton told Boris Yeltsin that he had made a mistake bringing Putin into his administration. Yeltsin eventually came to believe Clinton had been right.

  205. 205.

    misterpuff

    the Unites States

     

    I know its a typo but “wouldn’t want to disrespect the institution by using Spellcheck”.

    Stupid Fuck.

  206. 206.

    Geminid

    @raven: Have you read Pearl Harbor: Final Judgement (1992), authors Henry Clausen and Bruce Lee? It’s one of the very best books on Pearl Harbor that I’ve come across.

    Clausen’s book focuses on the handling of intelligence by the Army and Navy in the period up to the Japanese attack. In 1945, with a special writ from Secretary  of War Stimson, Clausen interviewed many of the officers involved under oath. He was similarly empowered by the Navy and took affidavits from the Naval officers as well.

    A JAG Colonel, Clausen had served as Assistant Recorder for the Army’s Pearl Harbor Board. For his later assignment, Clausen was given clearance and access to the top secret Purple Code intercepts that had been witheld from investigators. He was furnished copies that he carried in a magnesium flare “bomb pouch” strapped to his torso, the idea being that Clausen needed to show them to the various witnesses if only to convince them that he was empowered to take testimony on these intercepts.

    The officers Clausen questioned were scattered from the Pacific to Europe. He caught up with one crucial witness  Colonel Bratton, in occupied Germany, summer of 1945. By the end of his interview Bratton had signed an affidavit admitting that he lied to the Pearl Harbor Board about his delivery of the final Purple intercept to General Marshall in the hours before the attack. This was one of many failings by responsible officers.

    Clausen’s 800 page report was submitted to Congress. His later book is a summary his findings, along with some interesting observations about the various actors.

  207. 207.

    Captain C

    @Suzanne: I can’t count the number of times I had to hold my tongue and keep a straight face when I worked at the main library there (1997-2003).

  208. 208.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    trying not to let my hope lead to unwarranted optimism, but this seems at the very least like a huge Fuck You to Putin

    Liz Sly @LizSly

    There couldn’t be a more powerful sign of which way the wind is blowing in Ukraine. China meeting with Ukraine officials in Lviv. “We have seen how great the unity of the Ukrainian people is” the Chinese ambassador is quoted as saying

    WithUkraine 24/7 @With__Ukraine · Mar 15

    “China will continue to be a force for good for Ukraine”: both economically and politically, said Chinese A mbassador to Ukraine Fan Xianrong during a meeting with the head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, Maxim Kozytsky. Source: Lviv Regional State Administration

  209. 209.

    Captain C

    @Suzanne: BTW, you wouldn’t happen to have heard of (or be a fan of) the band Major Lingo, would you?  I basically followed them around the state while I was there.

  211. 211.

    debbie

    @germy:

    That ran here last night. Horrifying. There’s also an older documentary “Putin’s Way” which was also horrifying. Everything about Putin is horrifying.

    ETA: Also a two-parter on Putin which I can’t remember the name of and also very horrifying.

  212. 212.

    raven

    @Geminid: I’ll get it. The one I read, and I can’t find it, was about the code breakers and how unconventionally they lived while doing their work.

  213. 213.

    scav

    @Kay: If we’re lucky, they’re also responding to hints of a reluctance to work in the Republics of Gilead. Would be amusing to observe the states in question congratulating themselves on a brain-drain and softening housing market.

  214. 214.

    Ruckus

    @raven:

    As I said I haven’t fully shaved since I stepped off the gangplank. I also didn’t cut my hair for well over a year. Did I have some hair then! Now I let it grow on my face so at least I remember having hair above my shoulders……

  215. 215.

    Suzanne

    @raven:

    My idiot brother and his Nazi wife live there. 

    Yep. When I was a student at the quality educational institution of Westwood High School (near Alma and University), I had a bunch of Nazi classmates. Every one of them was dumb and ugly.

    One of my HS classmates, who was not a Nazi but wasn’t vaccinated, died of Delta Covid.

  216. 216.

    Suzanne

    @Captain C: Not a fan, but have certainly heard of them.

    I knew Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World when I was in high school. We both worked at an art supply store.

  219. 219.

    Barney

    I mean, Winston Churchill was always careful to wear a proper suit when meeting world leaders during wartime … oh:

    Similar in style to boilersuits worn by many workers, including mechanics, bricklayers, and tank crews to protect their standard clothing, the siren suit was invented by Winston Churchill as an original leisure suit in the 1930s.[4] He played a large part in popularising it as an item of clothing during World War II, wearing it regularly, including when meeting other important people, such as U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower,[5] and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.[6]

    The advantages of clothing that could be easily and quickly put on over other clothing led to the adoption of this style of suit during the war by many who were forced to leave their homes to seek shelter during air raids. Warning of the raids was given by sirens, so these suits came to be known as siren suits.

    Wearing dresses or professional clothing while in an air raid shelter may not have been very practical.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren_suit

  221. 221.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    https://twitter.com/NikaMelkozerova/status/1504140488756142084?s=20&t=Dmi6-3wsI_M2XEz30H6a4g

    For your feel-good story of the middle of the week, looks like Ukrainian special forces rescued the popular and legitimate mayor of Melitopol from captivity, a mere two days after the Ukrainian prosecutor general opened a treason investigation against a pretender (Galina Danilchenko) at the request of the current city council.

    I saw her bullshit proclamations; she was never going to be able to show her quisling face in public.

    Hopefully, she goes up against a wall in the next 72 hours or so, as a lesson to others.

  223. 223.

    Ruckus

    @Suzanne:

    He also doesn’t seem to be compensating for anything, which is refreshing.

    Of course, if a man is a complete douche then he needs to dress up properly, so that he looks like he at least knows something, like that someone he knows at least knows how to make him look like the mannequin he actually is.

    An actual male human being, who isn’t a complete douche doesn’t need that.

  224. 224.

    Suzanne

    @Geminid: Not that much daylight on their Congressional voting records, probably, but there’s a difference in style and experience. Ruben Gallego comes from one of the two majority-minority CDs. (Kate Gallego, the current mayor of Phoenix, is his ex-wife.) Greg Stanton is the congressman from Sinema’s CD (currently AZ-9), which is much swingier. He also used to be the mayor of Phoenix before Kate Gallego. He’s a solid Dem, but any mayor of Phoenix has to deal with the terrible Phoenix PD and has to be pro-development.

  225. 225.

    raven

    @Suzanne: One issue with this woman is that she in not stupid. She’s a high level cardiac nurse who transitioned into some work involving pacemakers. She’s from Long Beach and I’m not sure how she ended up there.

  228. 228.

    geg6

    @Ruckus:

    Vova is always, first and foremost, compensating for being shorter than I am.  I don’t care about how tall a man or anyone else is, but I can guarantee that Vova is very, very, very sensitive to it.  He is the very picture of short man syndrome.

  229. 229.

    Geminid

    @raven: It’s a good one. Clausen was a Californian, and practiced law in San Francisco before and after the war. He died two years after his book was published, in 1994.

  235. 235.

    matt

    People like Schiff have always been at war with t-shirt guys. It might be the most important thing in the world to them.

  237. 237.

    Suzanne

    I want to note that Ruben Gallego is from AZ-7, which was represented for many years by Ed Pastor. That district is mostly south Phoenix, which is heavily Latino, mostly Mexican, and they have been voting Dem for decades. It is not representative of the state. Greg Stanton is in the adjacent AZ-9, which is much whiter (though certainly mixed), and that district includes Arizona State University and some bougie areas, as well as some poorer and more Latino-majority areas. So Gallego can be a more outspoken liberal. Stanton’s district is less of a sure thing.

  242. 242.

    Calouste

    @debbie: The two-parter might be a German documentary called “Moskaus Imperium”, apparently known as “Generation of Change” in English. An acquaintance of mine was one of the writers.

    If anyone knows where to find the English version, could you tell me? I watched a bit of it when it was first released, but my German wasn’t good enough to follow it.

  244. 244.

    Martin

    I think we’re getting close to the end here. Russia’s ask was actually pretty reasonable. Ukraine still said no.

    The S-300 plan (high-altitude antiaircraft weapons) that replaced the MiG plan is in effect – some have already been delivered (assuming Polands). More are being worked on. There’s maybe 3 dozen or so such systems scattered across NATO/NATO allies. Not going to turn the tide, but it Ukraine is increasing their stock while Russia is losing theirs, and that’s all that matters ATM.

    The drones Adam talked about last night (Switchblades) are a go – 100 of them. Along with another 1000 or so anti-tank, anti-air weapons from Greece, another 14,000 (!!!) from the US; grenade launchers, rifles, machine guns, 25,000 body armor, and 60 million rounds of ammunition, including mortars. 70 Humvees and a bunch of other goodies – anti-mortar systems, comms, etc. And some helicopters. Also, increased intelligence and satellite imagery.

    There are probably now at least two anti-tank weapons in Ukraine for every Russian armored vehicle. If the Russian army hasn’t been able to budge, their window has now closed. Putin is starting to make his play – Ukraine isn’t the enemy, the Russians sympathetic to Ukraine are. The new enemy is internal, and Putin will go full fascist, because what other choice does he have.

    Civilians will continued to be killed indiscriminately, but the end state is starting to come into focus. Things are desperate for Russia now.

    Related, China is getting clobbered economically. Problem number one is that they did a masterful job of covid-zero except for the vaccinating the public bit, and the preserving the public trust bit (particularly the videos of Chinese officials going into the homes of infected people while they are at the quarantine clinics and beating their dogs to death – literally, with a club). They kinda fell down on that, and that’s really coming to bite them in the ass now. I think they’ll get on top of this, but it hurts.

    And China’s tech crackdown has destroyed that sector. I know China wanted to reduce its influence, but I think even they are shocked at how badly gutted it is. Tencent and Alibaba are now rated ‘uninvestable’ by JPMorgan. In part because of their exposure to potential western sanctions should China side with Russia, but also because of deliberate actions by the Chinese govt. China is seeing wealth destruction on par with Russia. Can’t imagine China is going to voluntarily sign up for more of this by assisting Russia. I think Russia now knows that. Nobody is coming to save them.

  246. 246.

    Birdie

    @senyordave: Why is inflation a middle class issue?

    Wages are rising, which is increasing demand, which is leading to inflation as supply can’t keep up. Prices are going up.

    But that doesn’t mean inflation is definitively bad. With moderate inflation, savings lose value but so do debts. If you are living paycheck to paycheck and have no rainy day fund (which is a huge class of Americans), surely there’s a benefit from inflation – your debt being effectively reduced – and limited downside? That’s why the Fed set policy in September 2020 to target full employment as the first priority, not an inflation red line.

    I had understood inflation to be primarily a concern for people with wealth more than income. That tends to describe people who aren’t poor or ‘just getting by’, usually. I don’t think aggressive inflation targeting serves the wide middle, it primarily serves the bankers who make bigger spreads on higher interest rates.

  248. 248.

    Suzanne

    @Calouste:

    Yesterday the Chinese said that if they had known in advance of Putin’s invasion plans, they would have done everything they could to stop them. 

    Shady bastards.

  250. 250.

    Ruckus

    @geg6:

    At 7 I was on the normal/tall side. I stopped growing, literally. I was short. Shortest boy in my HS freshman class, not even close, never a doubt. It isn’t that my height bothered me as much as some other kids would make fun. And that bothered me. Got in a fight in 4th or 5th grade about that. Kicked his tall ass. He didn’t talk to me for the next 7-8 yrs of school. Started to grow in HS, summer 9-10th grade. over 2 1/2 inches in the next 3 yrs. Continued to grow till I was about 22 yrs old. Almost 3 more inches after HS.

    My point is that I understand both being short and being average height. Some take it a lot harder than I did. I didn’t make 5 ft tall until I was 12 going on 13. I’m almost a foot taller now so unless I told this story, even if you met me, you wouldn’t know this. I don’t knock him for being short, just for being a complete, utter, fucking asshole about it and everything else in the world.

  251. 251.

    Ksmiami

    @Yutsano: yes! Make them both pariahs without power. Loyalty to a just cause matters and they are both so pathetically self-serving

  256. 256.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Calouste: I would not be surprised if we learn at some point that Putin said, or strongly intimated, that he intended to limit his adventures to the eastern provinces. And I suspect Xi is not someone who likes surprises

  260. 260.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Martin:

    I do fear a transition to tactical nuclear weapons as an extension of “escalate to de-escalate” at this point, but it does look much better on the conventional front.

    Question though – infrastructure damage and trade disruption looks to be in the vicinity of trillions. That’s a pretty pickle for Russian negotiators – how do you return to a status quo ante with that kind of damage to a neighbor? At least when we come in and fuck things up we arrive with pallets of rebuilding and development cash.

    Does Russia think they can war time for weeks and that the West will happily pay to redevelop an enforced neutral country that they broke? And what about the instigators? Shouldn’t they be hemmed into their own borders and fear arrest anytime they cross an international boundary?

  262. 262.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Birdie:

    I had understood inflation to be primarily a concern for people with wealth more than income. That tends to describe people who aren’t poor or ‘just getting by’, usually.

    It also describes retirees, who may not be super rich but have no wage income. But there’s also pain for anyone whose wage is not going up in step with inflation.

  263. 263.

    Martin

    @Birdie: Yeah, inflation is complicated. Mostly the problem is that while inflation affects both costs and earnings, it always lags (sometimes quite badly) on earnings. If inflation is at 7%, but savings are still paying 1% or less, that’s a problem. Of course the banks are going to be happy pocketing that difference. Same for earnings – even if your employer gives you a suitable COLA, it’s going to be annual while the cost of goods increasing is continual – they get a year of pocketing that difference.

    So it’s more the case that the promise of wages rising is up against the reality of costs rising. And you can decide how much you trust that promise to turn into reality. Put another way, in the ‘Fight for $15’, a 7% inflation rate immediately turns that into a ‘Fight for $16’. But we’re still working on the promise of $15.

    It helps homeowners because that inflation usually gets put against a fixed rate mortgage. Your house is worth more, but your mortgage doesn’t get bigger, and if you earnings do go up, it becomes cheaper. Deflation kills homeowners. I mean, catastrophically – that’s what 2008 was. So you want some inflation. The real problem that inflation causes is that it changes how people buy stuff. Weird stuff happens. All of those streaming services are dependent on a relatively constant value of money. They can’t be raising prices every month, but with enough inflation they’ll have to. Consumers will turn away from them to some degree. Under deflation, you don’t want to spend your money because it goes up in value over time, so the economy starts to crash. Under high inflation, you don’t want to save your money so defaults go up because nobody maintains a cushion. Commodities get weird, etc.

    That’s why the US ideal is 2-3%. Just enough to help home buyers and anyone with long term debt, but positive so consumers keep consuming rather than saving, but not so positive that they stop saving altogether.

    And you see some of this problem in gas prices – as wholesale prices go up, retail prices go up just as quickly. But as wholesale prices go down, retail prices lag – sometimes a lot. So there’s a lot of shenanigans around that float that disfavor consumers. Smoothed out over the year, its a steady 7%, but when it goes from $40 to fill up one week to $70 the next, that really hurts certain kinds of consumers. And it doesn’t then matter if the average over the year is less, that point in time pain is remembered. The relief from it isn’t.

  265. 265.

    Lyrebird

    @Betty Cracker: Crackpots and malevolent people say crazy and dumb shit, and it needs to be countered. Not all the time, every time. But if no one speaks up, terrible ideas can take hold, and awful people can amass power.

    I might be too late on this thread, but I wanna say THANK YOU for your willingness to read and watch the crazy and dumb shit and to take action.

     

    I’m not reading the worst takes because I don’t have your or Anne Laurie’s or Adam’s fortitude…  that list could be a lot longer.  A man’s gotta know his limitations, and I would be sunk, so again, THANK YOU.

  266. 266.

    Brachiator

    @Birdie:

    Wages are rising, which is increasing demand, which is leading to inflation as supply can’t keep up. Prices are going up.

    I have never bought this argument. It also amazes me that business reporters go on about how ours is a consumer driven economy and then blame consumers for spending. This does not make sense.

    Wages are rising, especially for some lower income workers, but they had been criminally underpaid and often still cannot deal with housing and food costs. This alone makes me question whether demand particularly high.

    It has been noted that people spent stimulus money, but also were able to save and pay down personal debt. Shouldn’t this be good for the economy?

    Corporate profit continued to rise during the pandemic. There have been supply chain shortages, but it appears to be more that companies are striving to maintain high profits than that they are struggling to meet demand.

    For example, an NPR program recently noted that there has been a modest increase in the price of toilet tissue, but a significant decrease in the size and number of sheets per roll. There have been similar shrinkages in other products. Consumers have also noted that there has been a post pandemic decrease in the variety of brands that many supermarkets are stocking. This does not sound like a problem with accommodating demand.

    I am not an economist and try not to portray one on the Internet. But during the pandemic I paid more attention to stories about business and the economy and when I paid closer attention, it seemed that a lot of the conventional ways of looking at the economy did not really make sense.

  267. 267.

    Martin

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I don’t think additional escalation is necessary. That was the bombing of civilians, and while we haven’t put ‘boots on the ground’, sending in S300s and drones and aircraft is a pretty solid escalation from the west. I mean, the ‘additional intelligence and satellite imagery’ for all Putin knows means that US is going to start calling out targets to Ukrainian artillery.

    I mean, we did respond, but we did economically not militarily. Putin either initially dismissed the impacts of those sanctions or thought that he could inflict pain on Ukraine faster than we could inflict it on Russia, but it’s looking in the last 24 hours that no, we hurt him badly. I’d take this as yet more examples of Putin’s people lying to him. Those fancy Russian tractors that he thought his country could produce were just rebadged Czech tractors, and yeah, they’re fucked in terms of producing their own tractors. I’m guessing things have gotten bad enough that the lying to leadership is forced to stop – at least enough that Putin is starting to realize the real problem he has. I’m seeing video taken from grocery stores across Russia and there’s nothing. I mean, not a single goddamn thing on the shelves there. I’m sure that’s more panic buying than anything else just 3 weeks in, but it’s also enough time to know if domestic production can backfill imports, and aside from a few staples that they overproduce internally, I’m guessing the answer is ‘no’.

    As to the costs to rebuild Ukraine, that’s hard. Europe demanded reparations from Germany after WWI but you can’t squeeze blood from a stone, and that led in part to WWII. My guess is that the cost to rebuild Ukraine will come from future concessions from Russia as well as from continued sanctions opening up economic space for other nations, who will need to provide funding to Ukraine.

    Sarah Taber has a good read on India’s new role backfilling the wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine. That’s going to be an economic boon for India, as well as for the US. And these nations will need to figure out how to steer some of that boon to Ukraine. Europe will see a more immediate benefit in that reconstruction of Ukraine won’t come from Russian businesses but from EU ones. Steel won’t come from Russia. Concrete won’t. Labor won’t.

    And if the US can get bilateral nuclear disarmament with Russia in exchange for sanctions relief, that would be well worth funneling money into Ukraine for. Or support from Russia on Iran, etc. Those sanctions have value.

  268. 268.

    TerryC

    @Ruckus: I identify ❤️ I was still 5 foot tall when I graduated from high school. I ended up being 5‘10“, now 5‘8“, but I’ve had the short man syndrome ever since.

    in the mid-1950s my brother and I did acrobatics on talent shows on the major TV networks for about four years. Maybe 20 times altogether, they always told the audience we were younger than we were.

  270. 270.

    Martin

    @Brachiator: It’s universal that companies will adopt a risk profile that reduces *their* exposure to future risks by shifting that to consumers. And if they overcompensate, that’s just profits, baby. They are very quick to mitigate new risks, and very slow to hand that back to consumers. Over time, it becomes a predictable part of their margins.

    Those headphone jacks that Apple took out of the iPhone? That smooths out their future exposure to warranty claims because it’s one less mechanical part that can break. That alone is tens or hundreds of millions in profits. That the AirPod revenues have grown to roughly that of Tesla’s revenues are just a bonus. Apple wasn’t sure if that would happen, but it didn’t need to. The known warranty savings alone justified the decision.

  272. 272.

    billcinsd

    @Heidi Mom: I’d add “Putin’s Russia” by Anna Politkovskaya. Which is a little bit old now as Putin had her murdered in like 2008

  273. 273.

    Brachiator

    @TerryC:

    I was still 5 foot tall when I graduated from high school. I ended up being 5‘10“, now 5‘8“, but I’ve had the short man syndrome ever since.

    I can empathize. People in my family were typically short and around 5th grade I used some formula in a book to predict that I would be around 5’6″ as an adult.

    In junior high school I attended a new school with few of my old friends and was absolutely persecuted by the prettiest girl in school, who was also among the tallest and whose last name, swear to God, was “Short.”

    Fortunately, although I was very shy, I was not insecure, so I eventually shook off the hazing. Later on had a growth spurt to 6 ft.

    in the mid-1950s my brother and I did acrobatics on talent shows on the major TV networks for about four years. Maybe 20 times altogether, they always told the audience we were younger than we were.

    This is so cool. Always amazed to learn about the cool stuff that people have done in their lives. Also interesting to note that for tv purposes you were younger than you really were.

  274. 274.

    Martin

    Reports of explosions in multiple Belarus cities. Nobody knows why.

    Times are getting more interesting.

  275. 275.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    Shouldn’t this be good for the economy?

    To a degree yes. But we have an entire industry/business model built around owing money. And we have a class of people that like that we owe money. Not too much mind you, just enough to keep you always in debt because that keeps you in line and makes them money. The problem always is when the balance gets out of wack and it can get out of wack in either direction, too much or too little debt. We also have business models built around providing the stuff that keeps you in debt, which doesn’t have to have a reasonable value/cost model because they don’t pay people to make it, they mostly pay companies in other countries with a lower wage schedule to create the stuff to keep up the demand for that owing line of business. And people that “steal” money from others then have money to invest in the stuff that sells, even if it is worthless or less than worthless, thereby extending the chain. This keeps the “contained” people from getting free of the vicious circle of always being in debt, thereby continuing them getting your money.

    I think that’s about the gist of it.

  276. 276.

    Ruckus

    @TerryC:

    You aren’t the first person, nor will you be the last that has to go through this bullshit. Like I said it didn’t make me feel less or smaller but in a world where physical presence can make a difference in how the rest of the world sees you that is the common response to height issues and given human beings, I’m not holding my breath for it to change. It’s like skin color, it’s a marker for something, something, bullshit. It isn’t real, but it often is treated as if it is. Humans get taught by adults and by people their own age who have been taught by adults. And not all adults are good or reasonable humans. They may not hate all “defects” equally but they often do hate things that in the long run don’t mean shit.

  279. 279.

    Geminid

    @Martin: The Times of Israel put up an article about this with the classic headline, “Few facts, much speculation as explosions are heard in Belarus.”

  280. 280.

    Ruckus

    @Kalakal:

    I’ve never gone for an interview in which the job required a suit. Or the interview.

    Even the one where I worked in an office for the far shorter time I was there than on the road.

  284. 284.

    mapaghimagsik

    @Barbara: The dude is begging for military aid and having to talk about children being bombed, and this is how we respond?

    Kathleen Parker should be ashamed, but I think that’s bred out of our dilettante class.

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