Another Scott posted this in the comments earlier this week, but I think it deserves its own post. Thanks, Scott!
There’s a John Quincy Adams quote (1 page PDF) from when he was Secretary of State in July 1821 that’s been going around:
AND NOW, FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind?
Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity.
She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights.
She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own.
She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart.
She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right.
Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.
But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.
She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.
She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.
She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.
She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.
The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force….
She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit….
[America?s] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.
Tears of pride for what we tried to be, and tears of sadness for the terrible acts that are being done in our name, without our consent. This is what we’re fighting to get back.
Just 8 months until November.
RepubAnon
Democracy only works if the voters pay attention. If they view elections as supporting a team rather than how that team will run the government, bad things happen
Fabio
I read through what John Quincy said, and I get that he’s gonna go on and live his code and become an ardent abolitionist and pro-woman’s rights, etc.
But I kept thinking “…but the Indians” at every point of this speech.
jonas
Agree 1000%. We’re where we are now largely because the voting public mostly tunes out politics and has no understanding of how anything in the world works. I don’t think everyone needs to be a bunch of obsessive nerds about electoral politics like we are here, but knowing basic things like which party is which, who controls Congress, what tariffs are, and how vaccines work would help.
oldster
Thanks, WaterGirl!
Bupalos
@RepubAnon: It requires more than paying attention. A lot of the MAGATs are rapt and riveted.
And a lot of the MAGATs are woefully under-and-mis-educated and socialized. This devolution happened over decades of social neglect.
Bupalos
@Fabio: everyone has blindspots.
suzanne
@jonas: So many people are so unaware of just incredibly basic things that I am often shocked. “Politics is downstream of culture” and all that.
I remember reading about adults who didn’t know that they should brush their teeth twice a day.
prostratedragon
This would be the opposite:
tam1MI
John Quincy Adams was one of the few Presidents who actually did things to help rather than harm Native Americans.
Ruckus
@RepubAnon:
Democracy only works if the power of the government is about equality of all, not just the famous and wealthy.
Democracy only works when we all have ownership of the government.
Democracy only works when it is about ALL the people and that the wealthy have no more standing than the homeless on the street.
Democracy only works when it is all of us that own our own little piece of it.
Democracy only works when we are all equal, without consideration of skin color, gender, age, monetary holdings.
Democracy only works when it belongs to every single one of us and we have the same say and responsibilities.
Democracy only works when we each pay our fair share of the cost of the government, which depends on how much we have and how much we earn.
Democracy only works when the richest is equal to the poorest.
Democracy only works when each one of us insures that it does.
Sure Lurkalot
@prostratedragon:
Mike Johnson: “Iranians have “misguided religion”.”
Hat tip to those who had Armageddon, holy war or Crusades on their 2026 bingo card.
Quote via the incomparable Aaron Rupar: bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com
Booger
@Bupalos: …and deliberate, persistent, unrelenting effort by the malign forces of the right.
Ruckus
@Fabio:
You are right.
And humanity is, as all others in the animal kingdom, about the powerful. But that is where a democracy is a very different concept of government. It is about all of us – equally. It is about each one of us paying our fair share of the monetary side so that we all contribute what we can so that the government can operate with equality for each and every one of us.
And of course it doesn’t always work perfectly, this is after all humanity, with all the good, the not so good and the pure shit walking. But it is a must that we all help, in a level that we can and that money is not the holy grail. It is nice, it is powerful but it can be the wrong kind of power and that is why we pay our FAIR SHARE.
Ruckus
@Fabio:
You are right.
And humanity is, as all others in the animal kingdom, about the powerful. But that is where a democracy is a very different concept of government. It is about all of us – equally. It is about each one of us paying our fair share of the monetary side so that we all contribute what we can so that the government can operate with equality for each and every one of us.
And of course it doesn’t always work perfectly, this is after all humanity, with all the good, the not so good and the pure shit walking. But it is a must that we all help, in a level that we can and that money is not the holy grail. It is nice, it is powerful but it can be the wrong kind of power and that is why we pay our FAIR SHARE.
I am being told that I’m posting too quickly. Never seen this before.
Ruckus
Everyone, sorry about the double post.
Have zero idea about why it did this. Was not intentional!
prostratedragon
@Ruckus: The site has occasionally hiccupped like that the last several days.
JML
@prostratedragon: This is the shit that we have to tear out of the national security apparatus, root and branch. Get rid of every single one of these crazy-ass religious zealots, because fuck no to all that Bee Ess.
They’re also patriarchal assholes who cover up rape in the ranks, and double fuck no on that noise too.
Belafon
@Bupalos: A lot of those MAGAts are rather well educated.
prostratedragon
@JML: Happy 250th.
Peale
@prostratedragon: Yep. Way to go fuckups. We warned you about putting the end of timers in charge of the war machine. But oh, no. Oh, no.
Anyway, I’d try to laugh if I didn’t know that 1) Their vision of the end times will make everyone’s life lousy. and 2) It will be lousier for people like me because when Jesus doesn’t come back rather than blame their beliefs, they blame the liberals like they always do.
schrodingers_cat
@Belafon: Ds got the vote of 55% of the white college grad vote. Not 90%. So over 40% of white college grads are still voting R
NutmegAgain
Thanks for that. JQ was right on a lot of things.
Archon
@schrodingers_cat: The fact Democrats got 55 percent of the college educated white vote when the other party is going directly at white identity speaks well for our University/College system.
frosty
WG: Good post. Unfortunately the jackaltariat wanted to go their own way and IMHO hijack the meaning behind what was posted. Particularly a lot of nyms I’ve never seen before.
See you all later today.
hueyplong
In national elections since the Dems stopped being the actual slavery party they’ve hit 55% a couple of times with FDR and once with LBJ and that’s about it. Decrying a 55% showing among white college grads kind of looks like making sure the bar is set to assure disappointment.
schrodingers_cat
@hueyplong: We are always told that college grads vote D. I thought the exact numbers tell a better story. YMMV.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s about the same number by which white women vote R.
We tend to use 50% as a dividing line, which is fine, but obviously 55-45 tells a different story than 85-15, for example.
jonas
@suzanne: Just as during the Iraq War, 8/10 Americans probably could not 1. find Iran on a map, 2. tell you anything about its history, culture, or religion (other than they’re crazy somehow and don’t like the US), or why the fuck we’re still fighting over there.
In the last case, people’s ignorance and war fatigue might be a saving grace since the Trump administration isn’t even making a half-hearted attempt to justify why they’re doing this, and people are going to be pissed off by the economic repercussions and casualties.
Geminid
I checked out Rudaw English to see the news from Iraqi Kurdistan, and saw that the entire Iraqi electrical grid is down. No cause given.
Also, that another barrage of drones and missiles were just fired at the US base near Erbil, which the is capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region.*
In other Iraq news, a coalition of Shi’ite parties has withdrawn the candidacy of former PM Nouri al-Maliki to head a new government. The US had objected to al-Maliki because he might be too to close to Iran. Iraq held parliamentary elections last Fall.
TurnItOnAndOffAgain
Even putting aside the war of 1812, the problem is that learned men of that age never counted adventures in colonialism as war against sovereign nations; they were just taking what the white man was owed. Liberating the natives from their savagery.
This Iran/Iraq/Afghanistan/Vietnam/take your fucking pick shit is just the great-grandchild of that colonialism. (We’ll be greeted as liberators). There’s no time it wasn’t a stain on our country. The only way to a better one is forward, not back.
Baud
@TurnItOnAndOffAgain:
You see that today among conservatives. We call them hypocrites but in fact they believe consistently in different rules for people im different social statuses.
no body no name
@Archon:
The fact that we won the six figure crowd speaks pretty well for well off Americans!
Baud
@no body no name:
Who would have guessed that they were among the most moral voters?
ETA: Not nearly as moral as most minority groups though.
Baud
HopefullyNotCassandra
@Fabio: I hear you. I was reading a critique of Bradley Whitford’s portrayal of James Blaine in “Lightning in a Bottle”. The complaint was Whitford played Blaine too pure and incorruptible. This complaint is true.
Yet, Blaine was a reformer, a true reformer, who tried to make this Union less corrupt in the ways he could see. Back then, this country was about as corrupt as the modern day gop is every day. If Whitford portrayed Blaine as he was, we moderns would likely fail to recognize he was a reformer and miss that critical part of the story. Sometimes artists have to take liberties to tell the true story.
This is a long winded way of saying John Quincy Adams was a highly moral man for his times, even though to us, with our modern sensibilities, he can feel wanting. It was men like John Quincy who helped give birth to these modern sensibilities that give us strength to battle the corruption endemic in the gop imho
Baud
@HopefullyNotCassandra:
Right. I don’t subscribe to the idea that progress can only happen if we limit ourselves to the work of morally pure individuals. We should never whitewash their flaws as a matter of history, but we can take ideas and build off of them based on our experience.
zhena gogolia
@HopefullyNotCassandra: I assume Whitford didn’t write the script!
artem1s
@Fabio:
I think mostly he was trying to keep Jefferson (and the rest of the plantation states) from getting the US in the middle of the 5 century old squabble between England and France and the Catholic Church and Church of England’s dispute over who should be sitting on the throne in London.
Ruckus
@prostratedragon:
Thanks
At least it isn’t all me….
suzanne
@jonas:
Yeah, I know. They’re scary and brown, though! Thus a valid target of our bombs!
different-church-lady
Personally I think we should stop tearing down our politicians from our past, and get back to the important work of tearing down our politicians in the present.
stacib
@jonas: Agree. A youngish co-worker (33 yo) just asked me on Monday to explain the difference between Democrats and Republicans. He’s always heard they’re the same, and he honestly has no idea how any of this works.
different-church-lady
@stacib: “Well, Democrats believe in helping people and Republicans are psychopaths. Does that clear it up?”
Omnes Omnibus
@Fabio: Let’s never cite anything by any historical figure ever. Also, most living people have issues as well.
artem1s
@stacib: Republicans – pedophiles and god botherers.
Democrats – actually believe and legislate based on what the libertarians claim to believe. everyone has rights and the government shouldn’t be invading our privacy and/or making laws that take away civil rights. But with our rights come responsibilities too. Paying taxes, voting, following the law, etc. No ones rights supersedes others rights, no matter which invisible sky god or gun or oil well you worship or covet. or as Jeebus said “worry about the damn forest in your own eyes and quit worrying about the speck in your neighbors eye”. IOW mind your own damn business.
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon: They have degrees from respected institutions. That doesn’t automatically equate to being well educated.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: IIRC Hegseth is a
HarvardPrinceton alumjonas
Despite the fact that the country’s very name, Iran, is directly related to the word “Aryan”. Now Aryan only acquired its racial connotations in the 19th century, but if you want to run with that, Iranians are technically the OG white people.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: I know his undergrad is from Princeton.
schrodingers_cat
@jonas: Aryan or Arya is Sanskrit (also probably in PIE) is pure or someone who spoke Sanskrit.
Arya was a linguistic term before the Germans got hold of it in the late 19th century.
PIE:ProtoIndoEuropean.
Persian and Sanskrit are from the same branch of IndoEuropean language family.
WTFGhost
@Fabio: Well, that’s why philosophy discusses moral relativism. In his day, colonialism was just what people did, and they didn’t think about displaced individuals. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were both enemies, and champions, of human freedom and dignity, in a similar fashion.
Of course, some philosophies say “it doesn’t matter whether or not JQA, TJ, and GW were good people; what matters is you being a good person.”
@prostratedragon: Hee. Once again, making me feel as if the rapture happens, the wrong people get raptured, and the bitter left behind create the very tribulation that they thought they’d avoid, by empty words in church one day (maybe including some water).
@Baud: The easy answer is, “of course we’re not at war, only Congress can declare war, which is why these acts of targeted strikes are not acts of war.” Said answer is to be delivered in a contemptuous tone of voice, as if you were very stupid not to understand the difference between “targeted strikes,” and “warfare.”
Old School
No need for a runoff in Texas. Trump will vote soon.
WTFGhost
@Omnes Omnibus: As (Dorothy Parker?) said, “you can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make him think.” (Well, “her” instead of “him” in the original, but I’m sure she wouldn’t disagree with the “whore” bit.)
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: Kurdish is from that same language family too. Like the Iranians and Parsees, Kurds will celebrate Nowruz in a couple of weeks, on the Spring Equinox.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Already corrected. Good catch.
Paul in KY
@RepubAnon: The GQP has really tried to make it like following a sports team. Has been a conscious strategy of theirs for years now.
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: Nou, neo, new all mean new.
roz = day
WTFGhost
@jonas: It’s worth noting, they get called “white” in census data, but, (all per Duckduckgo search assist) feel more like POC because of discrimination. Which makes sense, but I’m betting an Iranian’s grandchildren (who would grow up with minimal accent) would swim with the white fishes, if desired.
So: I’m betting today, to the white supremacists, Iranians are POC who can *pass* as white, the dirty filthy (plural form expletive deleted), but once we’re not at war with Iran, they’re white neighbors, classmates, etc..
suzanne
@jonas: I didn’t say that the right wing’s bigotry toward Persians/Iranians made any, you know, sense!
Kinda like how “Caucasian” came to mean “white people”. And “Anglo-Saxon”.
LAWL all of this is such bullshit.
suzanne
@WTFGhost: Most white supremacists are not okay with Arabs, Persians, and some even have problems with Turks.
Should be noted that the right-wingers who are trying to make “heritage Americans” a thing do not consider Germans, Italians, or Eastern Europeans in that category.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Geminid: thank you, I look forward to news sources outside the U.S. so I am glad to find a new one. So far I’m looking at France24, Irish times, Straits Times(Singapore), India today, and Al Jazeera English.
Old School
different-church-lady
@Old School:
Leavitt must be so proud!
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: I suppose that such reporting will cease once the Paramount deal closes
Paul in KY
@TurnItOnAndOffAgain: One of the early (17th Century) ‘reasons’ for taking over the land of the American Indians was they they didn’t use it ‘efficiently’. Farming/cultivation was not done in a European manner and to hunt/gather, a large area of land was needed for a small population (by European terms) to thrive.
WTFGhost
@Old School: So, by tomorrow, the girls will become “domestic terrorists,” who they took down before they could attack American occupiers, if American occupation happens.
Baud
@Paul in KY:
Per the discussion in the previous thread, they were “feckless”.
Paul in KY
@artem1s: I was recently thinking about all that happened to get England out of Roman Catholicism and onto The Reformation and at least 18 different unusual/crazy/WTF decisions/events had to occur for that to happen.
stacib
@different-church-lady: That’s almost my explanation, word for word. lol
stacib
@artem1s: This one – I’m gonna cut and paste to him. Thanks!
Paul in KY
@Old School: ‘Not that we know of’ means ‘we know the Israelis did as we gave them that as a target’.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Ha! Feckless they were (to those rapacious English louts).
“Ye gads, yon Indians be as feckless as mine chamber drudge after a night in his cups!’
Jackie
OT: Apparently FFOTUS isn’t a fan of Runoffs – when it concerns Republican Senate races:
I’m actually stunned. I can’t wait to see Cornyn and Paxton’s response!
bluefoot
@WTFGhost: based on the experience of people close to me, people of Iranian descent here in the US are rarely treated as white. Where you are in the US does influence that, however.
prostratedragon
@Baud: We would never get anywhere that way. ( I’m daughter of a UCC minister.)
Old School
Baud
@Jackie:
So Easy To Beat that I, Donald Trump, Your Favorite President, need to Interfere in The Republican Runoff!
Baud
@Old School:
Even The Lone Ranger can’t catch a break in Texas these days.
Chetan Murthy
Last night I read a ‘stack from Rachel Bitecofer: thecycle.substack.com/p/six-things-pundits-still-dont-understand
Her thesis is that the voters simply -do not- pay attention. But if misgovernment becomes sufficiently extreme, then they -will- begin to pay attention, and “throw the bums out”. Which assumes that the elites remain committed to democracy, for if they decide to no longer allow the masses that power, then democracy is over. Sigh.
gvg
@Paul in KY: I can almost understand that in the context of people who migrated because they or their families or large numbers of people like them were starving or poor and at the mercy of luck because they didn’t have land or property. I think of my Irish ancestors, and before that various religious refugees who usually had all property confiscated whenever their flavor of Christianity lost a battle to be top dog in some area. Most people were what we would consider sort of serfs, or tenent farmers of share croppers. Owning land was a big big deal and had been for a thousand yearsI think. I don’t think they could understand the indian concepts. Population density or the lack therof caused different social arrangements and we should remember that when talking about natural human tendencies.
Gin & Tonic
@Old School: Paging Omnes.
Paul in KY
@bluefoot: I think they are generally treated as YT. Exceptionally hairy Italians and so on.
Belafon
@Chetan Murthy:
Nothing over the last 15 years has led me to believe that they pay attention even when it becomes extreme. They just do step two.
prostratedragon
@WTFGhost: Iranians are somewhat diverse. Among other, Genghis Khan and his army had an impact that is still noticeable.
Geminid
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I get a lot out of Rudaw English. They cover news from greater Iraq and the larger region as well, but I value their reporting on Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region especially.
The six million Kurds living there enjoy the closest Kurds have come to self-rule in the modern era, and they are making the most of it. There are plenty of good stories there that Western media does not report, perhaps because there’s a bias towards the bad stories.
I’ve noticed something funny though. I often see Kurds portrayed as a down-trodden people, perpetually betrayed by the West and the US in particular. Kurds are the kind of charismatic underdogs Westerners love to champion.
But I’m not sure people even notice Iraqi Kurdistan. The US helped protect it from the first Gulf War through the second one, and helped ensure that its autonomous status was codified under the new Iraqi constitution.
This does not fit the common narrative though. It’s like once the charismatic underdogs are empowered, people lose interest in them.
Chief Oshkosh
@Jackie:
Well, one of them is going to say “Ha! Money well-spent!” and the other is going to be saying “Dammit! I knew I should’ve made a bigger deposit!”
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
@Belafon:
The problem is, throw the bums out used to mean swing to the other party. Today, a large number of people simply cannot swing to Dems.
Scout211
Leavitt the liar:
WTFGhost
@Paul in KY: That thought is included in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” books – paraphrased, “land belongs to people who will farm it; that’s simple justice,” so the idea remained into the 19th century.
How strong was it? Well, IIRC, when the character (not a member of the Ingalls family) says that, they’re all squatting on land they hoped to homestead, that belonged to the local Native Americans, with the expectation that the US Cavalry will come to “move them along west.”
That said, lots of people have bankrupt moral reasoning if you wave something big like a homestead in front of their faces.
Chetan Murthy
@Belafon: Her ‘stack is worth a read. She brings data. Seriously, have a read. That said, two more things:
(1) After Nov 2024, I was -pretty- dour on the American public (our fellow countrymen) and to a great extent I stll -am-. I truly did estimate them ….. very, very poorly. I will not give examples of my disappointment and anger, b/c it would distress some of the commenters here, but rest assured, I am far, far, far more critical of America and Americans than probably anybody else in the commentariat.
and yet! (2) There’s that saying “nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public”. But it’s -possible- that I have (in #1) underestimated them. Which, color me shocked if it turns out to be true.
I’m not saying that Bitecofer’s message is one of hope, and I certainly didn’t read it that way myself.
Paul in KY
@Chetan Murthy: Interesting read by Ms. Bitecofer. Thank you for the link.
Belafon
@WTFGhost: The University of Oklahoma team name is the Sooners. I really believe that name should rank up there with using Indian as a school mascot.
HopefullyNotCassandra
@Geminid: Iraqi Kurdistan was seeing an influx of tourists. So, some are paying attention to how that enclave is thriving. I say was in my belief that few will wish to travel into a war zone.
I agree there are not enough stories about them. I admit to loving the successful underdog (especially when they, like the Iraqi Kurds, appear to believe in universal human rights).
WTFGhost
@bluefoot: Agreed, hence the mention of the census issue. But my point is, Iranians aren’t “scary brown people.” If you lived in a neighborhood of third generation Iranians, and were asked to point out who was “the outsider,” you’d be able to guess, sometimes, but you’d be as likely to guess any other nominally white person.
If people want to hate on Iran for being part of the “axis of evil,” (because W was right about so much!!!), that’s fine, but they have a much harder time hating on the “scary brown people” so much as “the people a white supremacist wouldn’t mind sharing a neighborhood with, until he learns that they’re OMG #NotReallyWhite!
Does that make more sense?
M31
@Old School:
Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you: White America
HopefullyNotCassandra
@Jackie: clearly our president worries the Senate will hold him accountable for his many corruptions.
Geminid
@prostratedragon: There are plenty of Azeris in Iran, about 20% of its population of ~93 million. There are more Azeris in Iran than there are in Azerbaijan. Iranian President Pezeshkian is Azeri
Ed. I think Iran’s ethnic breakdown is ~60 percent Persian, ~20% Azeri, ~10% Kurd, with 10% Balochis and other minorities.
jonas
@Old School: This time it was just mayo. You should see how they deliver salsa down in Texas.
Paul in KY
@gvg: Good points. I do understand the point of view of a European, from a teeming city. The poor Indians were (IMO) fucked from the time we arrived. Just too many people in England/Europe compared to the Indian populations, combined with their so much more advanced military systems, would spell doom in the long run.
As far as not understanding the Indian’s POV, it was more they just didn’t give a shit about them (in any meaningful manner). Especially when the Indians in question were not ‘Christian’. You could lie and cheat them at will, as it wasn’t a sin (apparently).
If I could have gone back then and given them any advice, it would have been to pack up and move beyond the Mississippi river and use that as a hard border over which no European may cross, on pain of death. Create a political/military organization that speaks for all Indians and to the maximum extent possible, do not come into contact with any European.
Even that wouldn’t have changed the outcome, I think.
jonas
@Jackie: OMG, can popcorn futures go any higher?
Paul in KY
@Baud: That is (IMO) partly due to the GQP’s effective strategy of making supporting the party like supporting your favourite college football team.
Old School
Feelings … Woah oh oh feelings.
Chetan Murthy
@Jackie: John Cornyn, Face-Eating Leopard Party member in good standing.
different-church-lady
@Chetan Murthy: She misses the mark slightly: they’re all for throwing the bums out before misgovernment becomes sufficiently extreme. They are lazy thinkers, and “throw the bums out” is lazy thought.
WTFGhost
Well, I saw some nominally well-read people in a blog posting about the Ds breaking the Senate filibuster because Rs were refusing to confirm Obama’s judges. They were wailing about the loss of minority rights.
Now, if you aren’t a political junkie, it’s hard to express “you don’t understand, they’re not just filibustering the really bad judges who are way out of line; they’re filibustering everyone they can!” because of the ad hominem fallacy – “you’re just saying that because you’re on the D side!” Well, you need to be very well informed indeed to know that, on that one specific matter, the Ds hands were clean, and the Rs were dirty.
In the moment, it seems like such a simple bumpersticker issue: Ds break the filibuster! Explaining it away takes actual *work*. So, although Rs were acting extremely corruptly, the Ds were the ones who took the reputational harm.
Just like with Trump, the Ds were excruciatingly careful not to look like they were seeking revenge, but, they were crapped on for persecuting the right wing’s precious trumpie bear.
different-church-lady
@Old School: Hey, he got elected because of feels, why shouldn’t he govern via feels?
Chetan Murthy
@different-church-lady: I certainly do not offer her words as a message of hope. lolsob. But IIUC, she has a certain amount of gravitas simply based on her track record.
Paul in KY
@WTFGhost: I think by a very wide percentage, your average, generally moral, settler just couldn’t fathom a huge parcel of land setup to be for subsistence hunting only. It smacked of the old forest preserves the medieval English kings had (which were uniformly hated by the populace).
HopefullyNotCassandra
@Paul in KY: when in actuality, the Iroquois nations actually produced more and better quality crops exhausting less land in the process.
Paul in KY
@M31: He wasn’t shot. So have to subtract a few ‘White America’ points.
Chetan Murthy
@Chetan Murthy: Oh la, it seems that Trump might throw his weight behind Cornyn! If it weren’t all so awful, it’d be hilarious, watching these two cockroaches scramble for his endorsement.
HopefullyNotCassandra
@zhena gogolia: You are absolutely right. He did interpret it, though.
prostratedragon
@Geminid:
Sounds like what I’ve heard. There are some travel docs on Iran at youtube, including reliable Rick Steves, who went there in 2009. Here is the Tehran segment, with notice of the prominent ethnicities near the beginning.
prostratedragon
@Jackie:
Will either of them go Mortimer Duke on him? Tune in for hourly updates …
Paul in KY
@HopefullyNotCassandra: That was the Iroquois, for sure. Many other Indians didn’t feel the need to extensively farm their land, as they were also able to hunt/fish & gather effectively in the wonderful American forests that existed at the time.
Eyeroller
@Geminid: There is a whole branch of Indo-European called Indo-Iranian (linguists don’t use “Aryan” anymore). Generally speaking, they are “satem” languages and the rest are “centum,” based on the word for 100. Germanic languages are “centum” even though “hundred” isn’t related to that (it presumably comes from a pre-IE language in the area).
But then within Indo-Iranian there’s “Indo” (direct descendants of Sanskrit such as Hindi) and “Iranian” which includes Farsi, Dari, various Kurdish languages, etc.
Eyeroller
@bluefoot: I’ve met quite a few Iranians and Afghans over the years and they vary a lot. Most are kind of swarthy but not much or any more than say Italians. Some are a little darker. Making a very broad generalization, they tend to be “whiter” than Arabs on the whole, or so it seemed to me.
WTFGhost
@Paul in KY: I’m not condemning the settlers, just pointing out that, if you have a huge material gain, for something that’s going to happen anyway, and if you don’t get it, someone else will, then fine moral questions like “shouldn’t we stop moving the Indians westward?” are more easily dropped than otherwise.
So a person in an East Coast city might say “I don’t think we should keep moving the Indians westward, and here’s why (blahblahblah).”
A person able to get a *really good* homestead might know that argument by heart, but decide, “in the end, land should belong to farmers! It is justice that the land be used to its potential!”
Similarly, a nominal abolitionist, who realized they could make a boatload of money with just a small number of slaves might find themselves falling for the “Good Master” fallacy, the idea that it was the quality of the slaver, not the institution of slavery, that caused injustice. E.g.: “No, don’t call me a slaver; I give them good food, good housing, I don’t work them more than (n) hours a day, and give them the Sabbath off!” Meh, still a slaver.
HopefullyNotCassandra
@Chetan Murthy: Senator Cornyn is no John Quincy Adams. Heck, he does not even approximate that odious defender of slavery (“our peculiar institution”) in every publicly spoken sentence, John C. Calhoun.
Nonetheless, Senator Cornyn would be preferable to every sane human to Ken Paxton.
Ergo, this president will certainly pick Ken Paxton. This president appears incapable of sane action. He is cunning, yes; however, sane or enlightened thought appear to be a stretch too far for this man, whose top life excitements seem to be hurting others and cheating at golf.
(edited to add) maybe this president picks senator Cornyn if his handlers can convince him it will make lib’ruls cry.
Geminid
@Eyeroller: I saw something funny reposted by Bora Bingol, a Turkish engineer I follow on social media. There was a picture of large hill in the English district of Cumbria and this explaination of its name:
Scout211
The news media is reporting that Trump will be going with Cornyn.
Geminid
@Scout211: Cornyn would be the safer pick. I think Chief of Staff Susan Wiles has the largest say in endorsements besides Trump himself, and that choice would be in character.
HopefullyNotCassandra
@Scout211: I feel a Cheshire Cat grin coming. All of that Paxton evil will be undone by his Dear Leader because Paxton’s corruption is electoral turd blossoms! Perfection
That is Cheshire Cat grin material right there.
HopefullyNotCassandra
@Geminid: Hill hill hill hill is more perfectly absurd splendidness for a crisp, clear day. Thank you !
WaterGirl
@Old School: Magic 8-ball apparently said YES!
Captain C
@Paul in KY:
Once smallpox started spreading throughout the densely populated, mobile, and unexposed pre-Columbian Native American population, their fates were sealed.
Kayla Rudbek
@Belafon: I went to college and law school with too damned many of them
Paul in KY
@WTFGhost: Money (or land) changes everything. Self interest (gonna be someone, why not me) won over many who really weren’t bad people. Just a bum deal/bad luck for those American Indians born after 1750 (in general).
Paul in KY
@HopefullyNotCassandra: We’ll know how whacked out his re-adaption is by whom he picks. Coryn and reality still has some bite. Paxton and Cray Cray All The Way.
Paul in KY
@Captain C: Oh yeah. Doomed once the diseases took hold. Even if they hadn’t been affected, they were probably doomed, IMO.
YY_Sima Qian
I think Trump threatening Spain w/ economic coercion, because Spain refused to allow the US to utilize its bases in the country to support any aspect of the war against Iran (including transits & logistics), has largely flown under the radar in the US:
YY_Sima Qian
Israel is doing everything it can to prevent a net positive outcome in Iran (might not succeed, since Israel cannot dictate events on the ground operating from the air or by proxy), but color me surprised (link to FT article below):
Israel’s strategy as summarized by Citrinowitz (not necessarily his personal preference):
That is the attitude of the most malevolent & violent kind of hegemon, very much that of European & American colonial powers toward the peoples they colonized, dominated & brutalized.
The GCC states may not prefer an Iran that is united & reinvigorated, even if no longer under the Islamist regime, they certainly would not want an Iran riven by anarchy & civil war, because such destabilization will spill over into the wider region (& civil war will draw in regional players from all directions, & pit them against each other). We have seen that in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, etc.
At some point soon, & we have already seen early signs over the past couple of years, Israel’s naked imperialism will precipitate a countervailing coalition, & the declining empire that has been writing blank checks will not always be in a position to back it up or bail it out.
Paul in KY
@YY_Sima Qian: Likud Israel in a nutshell.