Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

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

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

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

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

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

He really is that stupid.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Night Open Thread: Point. Mock(ba).

Late Night Open Thread: Point. Mock(ba).

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I have way too much riding on this. Putin can’t give up now!

But seriously:

I have been thoroughly enjoying reading these stabs here on Twitter. But resisting the non-negligible urge to join in, I want to give those analysts a fair trial. After all, social scientists are notoriously bad at predictions, especially about the future.

It is also fair that few, outside of the US intel community, anticipated a full scale Russian invasion, few were unsurprised by Ukraine’s capable and fierce resistance and Russian military’s inaptitude, and few are observing the developing counteroffensive without a sense of awe.

Yet the analysts and politicians (we all know who they are) of whom I write are a different breed. What they share in common and what sets them apart from the rest of us whose expectations are overtaken by events is two things: arrogance and self-righteousness.

It is also remarkable that these analysts fall into two diametrically opposite theoretical camps: so-called realists and so-called pacifists. Their premises are entirely different but their predictions and prescriptions converged.

Realists looked at the balance of power, defined in material terms. They counted Russian tanks, airplanes and troops, pointed to Russian nukes and GDP per capita, and concluded that Ukraine didn’t stand a chance.

They also looked at the balance of interest in Ukraine between Russia and the West, and stated, as a matter of an axiom, not an argument, that Russia wanted Ukraine more, that the US had no vital interest in Ukraine, so it should not get involved.

The pacifists started from the premise that no military solutions of any security problem are legitimate; in Ukraine they are also not possible. No explanation given, but if one were required, see realists above.

The pacifists’ urge for concessions and peace negotiations stem from their declared concern for civilian lives, which concessions and negotiations would save. Western arms supplies, they argued, would only prolong the war, which Ukraine would likely lose anyway.

Both realists and pacifists make their assumptions and theoretical commitments transparent. The problem is that neither is falsifiable. No new evidence, scholarship, even unfolding real-time events are likely to sway them to rethink the merits of their assumptions.

In that, realists and pacifists are not theoretical traditions. They are ideologies. They have already decided how the world works and if it might appear that the world doesn’t work like they think it does, it’s the world’s problem, not the problem of their theories.

It’s not that most realists and pacifists knew little about Russia and even less about Ukraine. It’s that they didn’t even care to learn. They could take just one look at Russia and see a great power, take a glimpse at Ukraine and conclude that it’s weak and worthless.

I might have indulged in a bit of strawmanning, but not much. I do hope, however, that both realists and pacifists can take a hard look at Ukraine today and use it as opportunity to learn in earnest: revisit their assumptions, gaps in understanding, and ethical commitments.

Arrogance and self-righteousness is no way to go through life; it is also no basis for advocating policy that can make or break a people about whom you know or care next to nothing. END

Reader Interactions

89Comments

  1. 1.

    piratedan

    AL, I am kind of digging all of these parallels between the predictions in the outcomes of the Russia/Ukraine war and our own 2020 midterm elections..

    everyone “who matters” making these hot takes about what they expect to unfold based on their own biases and perceived expectations and little thought at all given to the details and the reality of the street.  I get the idea that not too many people enjoy flying in the face of the media narratives but as we’re finding out, a LOT of media narratives are lazy as shit, poorly researched, poorly reasoned and very prone to ignoring voices outside of their own circle, which is astonishingly small, or so it seems.

  2. 2.

    Wag

    Excellent post, and a well deserved linkage established between the so called realists and so called pacifists.  Both are wrong.  Both have been wrong since the invasion.  Both will continue to be wrong far into the future.

    now to the question of the day. Who snatched FPOTUS off the golf course, and why?   Speculation is running rampant and BJ has yet to weight in.

  4. 4.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    1. I think I already know the answer to this, but is that “American recruitment ad” in the Matt Walsh treat real?
    2. What the hell is going on with that T-72? Was the throttle stuck? Were they that panicked?
    3. In addition to the pacifists and and so-called realists, I think we can the add the people who believed “Putin is the good guy because he opposes the US. Oh and drones.” who need to reexamine their worldviews. Just because a country opposes the US doesn’t make them good by default, guys. It’s not that simple
  5. 5.

    lurker

    @Wag:

    Who snatched FPOTUS off the golf course, and why?

    Is this an actual thing?  Not sure if this is a joke or reference to reality, and I am now curious.  Nothing coming up for me elsewhere in a momentary search…

    Are you getting my hopes up here … ?

  6. 6.

    lurker

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    In addition to the pacifists and and so-called realists, I think we can the add the people who believed “Putin is the good guy because he opposes the US. Oh and drones.” who need to reexamine their worldviews. Just because a country opposes the US doesn’t make them good by default, guys. It’s not that simple

    I know you believe this, but there are multiple generations of tanks out there and similar types who have proven through extensive discourse that anyone who opposes the US is good.

    I know, I know, you want to believe in reality, but these people know better…

    ; – )

  9. 9.

    piratedan

    @lurker: there have been some tweets that put TFG in DC with clothes directly off the golf course (speculative) but with a coat over his head in order to try and prevent identification (allegedly).  Others have noted that there were some US Marshalls vehicles also in proximity…

    my own thoughts are… if it was TFG, then unless they confiscated his phones, he would have tweeted about it, because that’s what he does….

    best snark I’ve seen in relation to his “arrest” would be that perhaps he’s being exchanged in return for Brittany Griner (and future draft picks)

  17. 17.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Redshift: Maybe Biden decided Trump should go on Air force One to the Queen’s funeral after all, and had Trump hustled out of a golf game for it. lol

  18. 18.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Redshift:

    I don’t trust this kind of reporting at all.  If it is him, there are still a hundred reasons he could want the trip to be clandestine.  Anything that a narcissist thinks makes him look weak, for example.  He could have a UTI.  A lot of the possibilities are hard to guess because he’s deranged.  He could be scared BLM protestors in Cadillacs they bought with welfare money will kill him with uzis in a drive-by-shooting.  Or it could be something major.  If it’s the latter, we’ll find out, I guess, but I’m not holding my breath.

  19. 19.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The Pitch Bot explains the unfolding Russian disaster.

    New York Times Pitchbot@DougJBalloon
    Not a fan of Putin, but the war in Ukraine would be going quite differently if the woke mob hadn’t forced Russian soldiers to start giving their pronouns.

  20. 20.

    JoyceH

    @Frankensteinbeck: Oh, it’s him. There’s video of him deplaning in Dulles, and also photographs at the SUV window. I think we can take it as a given that Trump did fly to Dulles on Sunday. The WHY is yet to be determined. Occurs to me that whatever the reason, he must be feeling very disoriented. He hardly ever goes places where he has to stay in a property he doesn’t own. And he no longer owns the DC hotel, and the White House is off limits…

  21. 21.

    prostratedragon

    In the video he’s wearing the jacket normally and has his hands free walking down the stairs from the plane and being helped into the car.  Little doubt that it was he. Had luggage including a large spinner or wardrobe.

  22. 22.

    JoyceH

    BTW, the news report on who is getting the Queen’s corgis was the first I’d heard that Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson are living together (because they’re getting the corgis). Of course, the Royal Lodge is massive, so ‘living together’ there is less significant than it would be in most of our homes, but still. Kinda unusual…

  23. 23.

    prostratedragon

    @JoyceH:  I think he still has a golf course in the area which must have quarters of some kind.  Not under arrest since that’s not a government plane,  but could be otherwise court-related. Medical emergency from golf course to DC without being stabilized locally also seems unlikely, though we’ve probably got a pretty bad patient who might need trickeration to come to heel.

  24. 24.

    Martin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    What the hell is going on with that T-72? Was the throttle stuck? Were they that panicked?

    Panicked. The guys weren’t just falling off the back. If you look, on either side of the road are Ukrainian soldiers shooting them off the back. That tank found itself well behind a line that was moving faster than it could move. In American terms that’s called: “Let’s try and make a break for it, boys”.

  26. 26.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: this is mean but I wouldn’t mind seeing TFG going to the UK in one of those huge planes they use to transport troops and celebrities for USO tours.  They’re very basic and do not look comfortable at all. I do not see Biden or his intelligence folks letting TFG fly with him. I can totally  see them letting him fly in some official plane to set him up.  You damn well know TFG will insist on meeting and calling his Russian and Saudi pals on the phone.

  27. 27.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Relatedly, he did kind of help to try to kill the US Savings Bonds program, continuing on from the Bush Administration’s closing of several marketing offices for them in the early 2000s. The Treasury making them all digital and forcing investors to purchase them on the dumpster fire that is TreasuryDirect cut down sales for them a few years later to only 400,000 compared to the millions sold before this shift.

    A lot of this is detailed in this Forbes article written by a prominent Bogleheads writer from 10 years ago. It’s still relevant because not much has changed since then. None of the Treasury’s arguments about cost saving hold any water because savings bonds always paid less than marketable treasuries. What does this mean? It means the Treasury shot itself in the foot, foregoing lower borrowing costs from savings bonds.

    Treasury Killing Off U.S. Savings Bonds?: Savings Bonds Program Dying a Slow but Seemingly Certain Death

    The death of U.S. savings bonds

    Savings bonds have been around since the 1930s and were apart of the fabric of this country. They were often given as gifts to graduates, grandchildren, and newlyweds. They were a safe way for Americans to save money. Now that’s been ruined. I can only imagine it’s because Wall Street and big banks wanted it so because it takes business away from them. After all, they can’t invest in these nonmarketable investment products. With the ending of the market-based interest rates for savings bonds starting in the mid-2000s and the move to arbitrary fixed rates set by the Treasury since the Great Recession, near or at zero now for years, and then the switch to electronic-only bonds, the US government has done everything it can to kill this age-old program

    I’d like to know why Obama and now Biden have done nothing to reverse any of this?

  30. 30.

    Amir Khalid

    @Redshift:

    I’m not sure why anyone would care that TFG flew to DC to play golf. He’s a private citizen now, and he’s free to spend his time any way he pleases. At least he’s not watching Fox News all morning instead of presidenting.

  33. 33.

    prostratedragon

    @Amir Khalid:  He usually chooses less casual travel dress, and the thought is that he might have been taken
    from the golf course, maybe with some insistence. Still quite speculative, and maybe inconsequential , or not. It’d sure short circuit a lot of malarky.

  35. 35.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Dulles isn’t DC. It’s 30 miles away. More likely he had something going on the Russian owned golf course that he fronts, which is only a couple of miles away from Dulles, Virgina

  36. 36.

    Tony Jay

    Duh, wake up sheeple. The James Webb Space Telescope comes online looking for threats out of Deep Space and suddenly the Men in Black are hustling the real President off the sportsfield and jetting him to DC to take control? Isn’t it obvious what’s happening? Do you need to see the real transcripts from Hunter (if that is his real name) Biden’s laptop to put the pieces together?

    This is it. The arrests begin at dawn, and may God have mercy on the souls of those who tried to keep the creator of the frikking Space Force from protecting the Earth from alien invasion.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    Excellent roundup, AL. A motley crew of losers exposed. Putin’s Twitter army doing as well as his real army.

  41. 41.

    bjacques

    From that Russian nationalist syllogism up top about Ukrainians being Russian, it follows that hoisting the blue and yellow atop the Kremlin and the Hermitage this coming weekend is totally horrorshow, da?

  42. 42.

    Brachiator

    Nail biter in Sweden. From BBC News

    Sweden’s election was too close to call on Sunday night, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said.

    Exit polls at first predicted victory for the incumbent left-wing coalition, but results later suggested the right-wing bloc could narrowly win.

    Crime and integration of communities were major issues in the campaign, and the far-right Sweden Democrats look set to become the second-largest party.

    It could take until Wednesday for all votes to be counted.

    Soon after polls closed, an early exit poll by Sweden’s public broadcaster suggested Ms Andersson’s coalition of four left-wing parties would narrowly win, with 49.8% of the vote compared to 49.2%.

    But the left’s celebrations were perhaps premature, as later partial results put the right-wing group ahead, with a projected 176 of 349 seats in parliament after 94% of electoral districts were counted.

    As the race is so close, the final result may have to wait until all votes, including postal and advance votes, are counted over the next few days.

    Whatever the result, the far-right Sweden Democrats have made significant gains, appearing to become the country’s second-largest party behind the Social Democrats.

    However, its leader, Jimmie Akesson, is unlikely to become prime minister even if the right-wing bloc wins the largest number of seats. Instead, Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson is likely to take that role, with the Sweden Democrats hoping to become part of his government.

    Not a good sign that right wingers are gaining anywhere.

  43. 43.

    JPL

    CNN was told that trump was just going to his other golf club, but they are keeping watch.    I tuned in late but I guess Maggie has a new book stating that trump wanted to barricade himself in the White House.

  44. 44.

    hueyplong

    One thing we can trust our own eyes about in the footage is that Trump looks neither healthy nor happy. That will do for now.

  49. 49.

    gene108

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    The US Army recruitment ad is real. I think there was a push to expand the Army recruitment base. IIRC, there were a few other ads in the same vein showing cartoon representations of people from non-traditional backgrounds choosing to enlist.

    Republicans had a fit and got the ad campaign pulled. There are a lot of Republicans whining about how great and manly the recruitment ads in  1980’s and 1990’s were. Though the ads didn’t motivate any of the complainers to enlist.

  50. 50.

    Tony Jay

    @JPL:

    Our news is showing your new king.

    Not my King, pal. I kneel only to Conan.

    Mad, isn’t it? If it wasn’t for the fact that the majority of them look like a pool ball fucked a toad, the Windsors and their chinless shenanigans would make perfect CelebNews fodder.

    It’s been beyond annoying over here. Our entire News output has been reduced to a 24/7 North Korean style omnicoverage of the IMMENSE NATIONAL TRAGEDY as though nothing else is even allowed to happen. Programs without adverts (too jolly), only sad music on the radio (fucking Elton John) no sport allowed (too much opportunity for plebs to boo the anthem) unless it’s Eton, where it’s understood that the spawn of the rich are just naturally too patriotic to have to prove it through sacrifice.

    They’re barely letting the funeral cortege out of their sight, like they’re not entirely convinced she’s not going to break out of the casket and start ripping out courtiers’ watery brains.

    Bloody madness. Thank Jeebus for the streaming of non-Royal programmes, otherwise I’d be out there getting arrested with the terrible traitors who DARED to hold placards asking who, exactly, elected this shower of Incesticons.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @Tony Jay:

    I don’t mind live coverage of events because it’s been a long time since UK had a change in regents, so it’s a historic spectacle. The nonstop commentary that goes beyond explainimg the traditions sucks though, as it usually does for US politics.

  57. 57.

    R-Jud

    @Tony Jay: ​
      I’m able to avoid a lot of the nonsense as I’ve used a blocking app to nuke most UK news sites until the 20th. However, when I opened my Costa Coffee app yesterday to collect points for the latte I was buying, there was a black banner with the words “STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II”.

    And there was something similar when I opened the Sainsbury’s app to order groceries. And on Spotify. At least the weather app hasn’t gone there.

  59. 59.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    Live coverage, sure, let them have their big send off.

    Constant coverage, smothering anything else, with granular obsession on every single fucking detail of every single fucking thing to do with every single fucking moment of it? Nah.

    Plus the straight out enforcement of “No fun for the plebs” bans on anything that’s not grieving centred, except for work, of course. Truss and Co have given themselves two weeks off, not so much for anyone else. And while they’re entirely comfortable blanket banning any talk of republicanism (the good kind) as “too political”, that same ban definitely doesn’t apply to pro-monarchist blather.

    I’d like to think that this horrendous, unwarranted overkill has done more for republican sentiment than a million Prince Andrew scandals, but we’ll see.

     

    @zhena gogolia:

    Big O’Brien fan, huh?

    It’s the loincloth and massive head combo. Follow him to hell, I would.

  62. 62.

    Tony Jay

    @R-Jud:

      At least the weather app hasn’t gone there.

    “The West Coast may be due some relief from its heat-related wildfire problems as a GLOBAL GRIEFSTORM displaces this area of high pressure and dumps something in the region of… well… huge amounts of salty mourning from San Jose to Puget Sound. God Bless you, Ma’am, and now here’s Wally with the Sports news.”

  64. 64.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Mimi:

    Well, I hope TFG is dead and I’m not interested in the details.

    Nah, I want to see him indicted, convicted, and imprisoned for life.  And may he have a looooong life, with the best medical care to ensure that his stay in the slammer is as long as possible.

  66. 66.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    There’ll be a delicate balancing act. How to turn public opinion against Big Ears himself without spoiling the future sellability of Willy the Peg and the rest of House Stepford.

    Our Press have form, I’m sure that their tradition tactics of brute force and massive ignorance will carry the day – for a while.

  67. 67.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    Worthy of nomination to the rotating tag.

    Also “Arrogance and self-righteousness is no way to go through life” from the big quote box up top.

  68. 68.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    I know someone people don’t like the Royals but they’re a small market team with a low payroll

  70. 70.

    eversor

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    He talked about how we needed to cut it before he ran for president at think tanks.  He also tried to “Grand Bargain” it away but was shot down by the Tea Party crazies of all things because “NObama!”.   So Obama advocating cutting Social Security and putting it on the table is 100% correct.  So is the Republicans preventing that cut due to outright lunacy.

    As per Ukraine you can break down the pro Russian side into two groups.   The Christian Nationalists who freaked out over gay marriage.  After which Putin jumped into bed with the Church, advocated traditional gender roles with stay at home moms and lots of babies, and went all in on homophobia.  At which point Putin became the defender of Christendom.  They want the US to lose militarily because that will prove traditional values and Christianity are the key to everything.  They will keep doubling down on those so Putin’s support comes straight from our churches.  The next is the far left who just want the US to lose to end the empire and something something thus capitalism ends and so do all wars.   So really, Russia taking over the Ukraine is a human victory.

    Both groups are insane.   But one believes they are fighting for god and has a loud platform, the other are just cranks at DSA meetings nobody listens too.

  72. 72.

    kalakal

    @Baud: You’ve put it exactly. The live coverage fine, documentaries for those who want them fine but

    The nonstop commentary that goes beyond explainimg the traditions sucks though, as it usually does for US politics.

    carpet bombing of all media is ridiculous.

    I’m remember being totally pissed off when her mother died by it

  73. 73.

    lowtechcyclist

    @eversor:

    Putin jumped into bed with the Church, advocated traditional gender roles with stay at home moms and lots of babies, and went all in on homophobia.  At which point Putin became the defender of Christendom.  They want the US to lose militarily because that will prove traditional values and Christianity are the key to everything.

    I’ll let my wife’s relatives explain to me how rape, torture, mass deportations, random killings of civilians, turning cities into rubble, and so forth are traditional Christian values.

    The attitude among so many of them, that being on their side wrt abortion and LBGTQ stuff excuses just about any other horrific conduct, is abominable.

  75. 75.

    Brachiator

    @Tony Jay:

    Plus the straight out enforcement of “No fun for the plebs” bans on anything that’s not grieving centred, except for work, of course.

    I subscribe to the BBC Friday Night Comedy podcast. Got a message Friday that there would not be anything in deference to the death of the Queen. I presume that regular programming will not resume until after the Queen’s funeral.

    Supposedly no government business, but I read that some upper level civil servant got fired, upsetting some folks.

  76. 76.

    BruceFromOhio

    Arrogance and self-righteousness is no way to go through life; it is also no basis for advocating policy that can make or break a people about whom you know or care next to nothing.

    See also, every Republican Senator.

  77. 77.

    Tony Jay

    @Brachiator:

    Oh yeah, no fun times for anyone because that would be ‘disrespectful’, but nothing stops them playing their little power games, because that’s ‘different’.

    They are who they are.

  78. 78.

    Ken

    @zhena gogolia: So Jake held a whole panel discussion on who would be in the “delegation” without knowing that there would be a delegation?

    Someday news programs will realize they don’t need to pay for these political analysis programs, when they can just send a camera crew to the local McDonalds and film a group of retirees blathering as they sip their endless coffee refills.

  79. 79.

    Tony G

    @Wag: Offhand, I don’t know whether any of the pundits on “the left” who oppose Ukraine’s efforts to defend themselves are true pacifists — i.e., people who oppose violence and war under all circumstances.  Chris Hedges, for example, is not a true pacifist.  The ideology of Hedges and others like him, on the other hand, seems to be that anything that the United States does is, by definition, evil, regardless of the particular circumstances.  It’s a variety of “American Exceptionalism” — an unshakeable belief that, like the “American Exceptionalism” of the right, cannot be penetrated by facts or logic.

    @Wag:

  80. 80.

    Montanareddog

    @Tony Jay:

    How to turn public opinion against Big Ears himself without spoiling the future sellability of Willy the Peg and the rest of House Stepford.

    Reminds me of the apocryphal story of the radio phone-in quiz

    DJ: what is the name of the children’s character created by Enid Blyton, a gnome who lives in Toytown?

    Caller: Err, no idea – can I have a clue?

    DJ: He drives a yellow car.

    Caller: Uh, Still stuck, another clue please?

    Exasperated DJ: His best friend is Big Ears

    Caller: Prince Charles!

  82. 82.

    Geminid

    @Tony Jay: Journalist Marcy Wheeler mainly covers American legal matters, but she lives in Limerick, Ireland now and this may be why she retweeted a long thread about British politics by Richard Murphy. He starts by observing that Parliament has been suspended indefinitely due to the Queen’s passing, and goes on to explain at length why “this is totally unacceptable.”

    Murphy also notes that the while the Accession Council never even met, an accession proclamation was issued declaring that Prince Charles now “has become our only rightful and lawful Liege,” as if Britons were under some feudal obligation to the Crown. Murphy objected to the assertion

        …that I hold anything as a favor from a monarch who did no more to acquire that right than to be born. Every political sensibility I have is offended by that idea.

    Murphy was not nearly finished. He went on to say:

        It was announced that the new King would do a tour of the capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I cannot object to that. I can object when he is to be accompanied by Liz Truss as the new Prime Minister.

    ….[this] ties the Crown to the Tory Party which is dangerous….A wise new King would have a avoided being used as a political pawn…

    @RichardJMurphy.

     

  83. 83.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Tony Jay: Plus the straight out enforcement of “No fun for the plebs” bans on anything that’s not grieving centred,

    I gather that’s the problem with a republic in the UK, the last time it was Mr No-Fun-for-you himself, Oliver Cromwell.

    Watching the ceremonies is interesting as an American, but then I got to turn off when I want to.  But you are right the commentators are annoying, and frankly blatant thought control if you ask me.

    There was one angry young man who was shouting at the queen’s coffin in Edinburgh, it wasn’t clear what his grievance was and it did seem a bit futile.  She’s dead.

  84. 84.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @germy shoemangler: What’s going on with the King’s hands? They’re all puffy and swollen like sausages.

    I conjecture that this is a product of going down the long line of well-wishers and shaking their hands and having his own hand squeezed multiple times in the process. It’s not an activity he has a lot of experience with, or he might have solicited some advice on how to protect himself. IIRC LBJ** had a particular Vulcan-pinchy method of grabbing hands reaching out to him that kept them from squeezing his.

    ** Obligatory “fuck LBJ” for BJ’s most notorious Bulldogs fan

  87. 87.

    Jinchi

    @Wag:

    Who snatched FPOTUS off the golf course, and why?

    Did I miss something?

    (Secretly hoping he’s been whisked off to prison, but I’d be okay with him fleeing to his North Korean beach resort)

  89. 89.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: Can’t tell if you are being serious or ironic. But I’ll say that Murphy seemed very conversant with the traditions, even the role of the Accession Council (which I’d never heard of). Murphy understood that the Council’s affirmation would have been certain but he thought cutting it out of the process entirely was a bad idea.

    I think that like Mr. Jay, Murphy understands well the constitutional traditions but sees through them, and in Murphy’s case thinks they are being abused. It’s a very interesting thread.

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