The Russian embassy in the UK gets in on the “deep state” action, the cheeky bastards:
Russia wouldn’t respond in kind beyond pure dip.reciprocity.Our problem,like those of ??itself,doesn't lie w/??people,but elite&deep state pic.twitter.com/EKjdeCOp2K
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) July 31, 2017
Coincidentally, most Americans don’t have a problem with the Russian people but rather Putin’s blatant violation of our national sovereignty to install a dangerous fool at the head of our government.
I don’t know if he’s used the term yet, but Trump must buy this “deep state” nonsense completely since it suggests he won fair and square when he didn’t. The “deep state” concept is continuously invoked on Fox News as an excuse for Trump’s many failures, as well as by Trump’s paid supporters like this douchebag:
The deep state is real. All Obama hold overs in the Gov't need to go to allow @realDonaldTrump to Make America Great Again!
— Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) July 30, 2017
It’s also a favorite term of Trump-enabling douchecanoes like this gigantic asshole who runs Wikileaks:
Will the US deep state destroy Donald Trump?
Background: What is the deep state? https://t.co/s3LboI2q6T
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 13, 2017
Interesting how they’re all singing from the same hymnal now — even the Russian embassy.
Open thread!
Hunter Gathers
Finally, the far left and the far right agree on something: Russia is Awesome.
Patricia Kayden
Can someone please break into the Ecuadorian embassy and kidnap Assange and take his behind back to Sweden or wherever? Sick and tired of his blatant disrespect for our democratic processes.
By the way, what the hell is going on with Chris Christie assaulting regular Americans at baseball games?
Chyron HR
You better watch out, some day you’ll say something so mean that poor innocent Russia will have no choice but to unilaterally launch some nukes in response.
MJS
@Patricia Kayden: It’s easy to get in the face of others when you have a security detail. We’ll see how frequently Christie pulls this stunt once he’s out of office.
Chris
“Deep state.” Say what you want about the Russians, they’re definitely up on the lingo.
(Note the careful use of “elite and deep state” and not “the government,” which would imply they’re angry with Trump…)
oldster
As much as I hate to give him credit after what he did during the Bush years, David Frum has the right take on this “Deep State” nonsense: “Once you realize that “deep state” is code for “the rule of law,” you can translate their jibberish into something more like English.”
Wag
@Hunter Gathers:
I’ve always thought of the political spectrum as a circle instead of a line. As you move around the circle the communists and fascists meet and merge into each other. This concept makes it easier to understand the ease by which Putin was able to so easily and completely take over the Russian government and change it into a model seemingly diametrically opposed to their previous government.
It also provides a bit of hope for American democracy, as the move to a full fascist state is so much further than a similar Russian change.
opiejeanne
OT, sorry, but is McConnell really going to try to get a vote on Trumpcare or repealing the ACA today? My online friends have been whining and worrying themselves sick over this since Saturday but I see nothing about it today.
MattF
So, I guess ‘deep’ = ‘competent’. And ‘not characterized by personal loyalty to Donald J. Trump’.
Betty Cracker
@oldster: It’s disconcerting to agree with people like Frum, but when they’re right, they’re right. And he’s definitely got Trump’s number.
karensky
All together now. We are corrupt authoritarians or their toadies. Again…
NorthLeft12
You know, more and more it is becoming obvious that it was just about stopping Hilary Clinton. Not promoting Deadbeat Donald. I think the Russian government would have been almost as happy with any of the other Rethuglican douchecanoes. They know exactly how to play them.
Major Major Major Major
@Hunter Gathers:
The far left is worse than useless and is a convenient shortcut for me to know which acquaintences to ignore. With friends like them, who needs friends.
@oldster: Frum has written some decent articles in this the age of Trump, though once you get to his proposed remedies half of them are the standard ‘respectable’ republican bullshit, and a quarter are that democrats should do what they’re doing but be more inclusive of forced-birther antigay bigots who also hate Trump at their marches.
Lurking Canadian
I would just like to gape in awe at the fact that Assange is still calling for investigations of Hillary’s goddamned e-mail server on JULY 25, 2017.
Even the greatest Method Actors stop trying to live as their character after the show’s run is over, but Assange is still in character.
Major Major Major Major
@NorthLeft12: various leaks and whatnot agree that the goal was to damage Hillary and support Donald, that him winning would be an added bonus.
A Ghost To Most
@oldster: Man, the world is truly upside down. I find myself agreeing with David Frum, and cheering on Jennifer Rubin. Dogs and cats, living together – Mass Hysteria!
different-church-lady
I’M NOT THE PARROT! YOU’RE THE PARROT!
It’s not surprising that “even” the Russian Embassy is trying this line, because most of the others are following the Russian line, not paralleling it.
MattF
@Wag: Politics is just not a one-dimensional space, and I think it’s misleading to measure political differences along a single dimension.
Matt McIrvin
While there’s some political-spectrum-as-circle going on here, I think part of it is actually the conflict between two dimensions we think of as “left”: justice for minorities and women vs. economic justice. If you completely ignore the first dimension in favor of the second, it becomes “economic justice for white men”, which can easily be used to sell scapegoating of everyone else. What the anti-“identity politics” left and the far right have in common is that they believe minorities and women stole their cookies.
Peale
I kind of like the fact that the Deep State is now working for the Democrats. Back when I was a baby, they were beholden to the GOP. Led by Bush the Elder, Jim Baker and George Schultz. Concern with its existence seemed to be the special concern of the Worldwide Church of God and Lyndon LaRouche. Actually I wouldn’t be surprised to find that a lot of Assange’s interpretation of the world comes from second hand LaRouchism.
Betty Cracker
@different-church-lady: I’m somewhat surprised they’re doing so in public, which risks making it obvious to even the dimmest bulbs.
sacrablue
This deep state crap reminds me of “Yes Minister”. It is and always has been so. The Russian embassy in the UK should understand this perfectly.
Cheryl Rofer
@opiejeanne: No. Lindsay Graham has been maundering about maybe introducing something-or-other on “replacing” Obamacare, but I don’t think he has. There will be much more noise if he does, and even more if McConnell calls a vote on it. With McCain now undergoing his radiation and chemo treatment, he won’t be back in Washington for a while, so that makes McConnell’s job harder. McConnell is starting to take lumps from a few Republicans. He’s not going to call a vote unless every Republican Senator’s hand is chained to the “Yes” button.
We have a little time to breathe easy, but we have to remain vigilant. I think the next crisis will be raising the debt ceiling.
Wag
@MattF:
True, but thinking about it as a two dimensional construct is closer to reality than the usual one dimensional model.
MattF
@A Ghost To Most: Rubin writes here a little more generally about Republican failures.
hueyplong
The thing that has always worked for Trump when he gets into trouble is to sic the media on Hitlery. What he and the Russians seem not to realize is that she doesn’t matter anymore.
Trump can’t stand scrutiny on his own. That’s how he became the Puppet to begin with.
rikyrah
The Limits and Dangers of Trump’s Need to Dominate
by Nancy LeTourneau
July 31, 2017
To the extent that we can distance ourselves from the daily indignities of the Trump persona, we have the opportunity to observe an unqualified display of dominance as the foundational principle in relationships, be they personal, political or global. That is essentially what Jeet Heer is talking about when he writes about the rise of the “New York douchbag” persona in the White House.
…………………………………..
Foer zeros in on the misogyny involved in how Trump treats women, and he is right to do so. But that is part of the overall package of dominance as an approach to every relationship. The big picture is the use of dominance as a way to win, which is all that matters and can only be achieved at someone else’s expense.
We’ve all been living in a culture that defines dominance as the only real form of power for a very long time. But it finds its purest distillation in men like Trump and Scaramucci. That is why we are in the midst of a lesson on its limits…if we are willing to observe and learn.
We’ve already witnessed many examples of how an approach based on unqualified dominance fails. I am reminded of the time when the House Freedom Caucus was threatening to not support Obamacare repeal. Mike Allen told the story of Steve Bannon’s failed approach.
Major Major Major Major
@Matt McIrvin:
Well-put.
I also agree about the ideological circle thing being overly simplistic. There’s also the authoritarian axis, for instance, spanning from left-economic-justice-communists and left-economic-justice-anarchists.
rikyrah
in moderation. please help.
smintheus
No chaos! No chaos. You’re the chaos!
rikyrah
Trump loyalist sees last week’s failures as a great success
07/31/17 10:42 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump hasn’t had many good weeks as president, but by any fair measure, last week seemed especially brutal.
The president demanded that Senate Republicans pass a health care bill, and they did not. He banned transgender Americans from serving in the military, and the decision immediately faced bipartisan pushback. The drama surrounding the White House staff reached a meltdown stage, culminating in the humiliating departure of the president chief of staff.
Trump picked a pointless fight with his own attorney general, and congressional Republicans were quick to take Jeff Sessions’ side in the dispute. The president faced pushback from police departments nationwide after he delivered a speech in which he endorsed police abuses.
And the Boy Scouts felt compelled to issue a public apology after Trump’s antics embarrassed the organization.
Despite all of these events unfolding over the course of about five days, the Wall Street Journal reports that some of the president’s more sycophantic allies were actually quite impressed with last week’s developments.
Major Major Major Major
@Peale: they aren’t working for the democrats, they’re working against Trump. Although insofar as the democrats are the only adults I guess they’re working for them, but not for ideological reasons. they’re operating from one of the political laws of physics–bureaucracies are fiercely self-perpetuating.
Matt McIrvin
@Peale: LaRouche’s brand of insanity has had more effect on US politics than most people think. A vanity journal published by his organization was the origin of the “volcanoes emit more X than human civilization” trope, though it only got huge after Rush Limbaugh took it up.
(X was originally ozone-destroying chemicals, though it eventually mutated into a statement about carbon dioxide. It’s false either way.)
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
The “d” at the end of his Twitter username indicates that this is the Assange parody account.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah: It’s Ministries of Truth all the way down.
@Major Major Major Major: The way I see it, they’re not so much working against Trump either, they’re working diligently on behalf of reality. (Which automatically means working against Trump.)
rikyrah
@Peale:
There’s a difference in having ideological differences…the IC is used to that. They know how to negotiate with that.
what the IC is facing is their heartfelt belief..
that The President of the United States and others close to him..
ARE ASSETS OF A HOSTILE FOREIGN POWER.
The IC considers themselves to be true patriots.
And, THEY, before anyone else…HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN that Putin used to be Head of the KGB.
chris
Can’t MAGA until all those pesky liberal facts are gone. Also those horrible people who know how to get shit done. I read somewhere that we’ll achieve wage parity with China around 2020; at the rate things are going political parity with Russia will happen about the same time. All part of the plan of course…
OT: @Betty Cracker. You wrote about teenagers and cellphones and a number of people chimed in. Y’all should look at these bad boys. Met a guy at the garage with one. The screen was cracked but it still worked. The screen was cracked because it fell off the side of his tuck and he drove over it. With both wheels of his jacked up 1 ton pickup. And his free replacement was on the way.
Villago Delenda Est
How the far left can embrace a fascist thug really amazes me. This guy orders journalists to be killed, and they yawn.
Face
#StatesLivesMatter
Villago Delenda Est
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): But it reads just like the real McCoy!
Nicole
Since it’s an open thread- RIP Sam Shepard. I still remember being thoroughly confused by Buried Child in HS English class. I liked it a bit more when I got older. ;)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/theater/sam-shepard-dead.html?mcubz=0
Betty Cracker
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Could be — thanks for the heads-up. I replaced it with another “deep state” tweet from what appears to be the real Assange account.
Major Major Major Major
@different-church-lady: Right, and since reality has a well-known liberal bias…
The Moar You Know
@rikyrah: In this case, blame rests not with Trump but with the BSA’s Chief Scout, whose day job happens to be CEO of AT&T. Who’s trying to get a merger with Time Warner approved. Which needs both Sessions’ and Trump’s approval.
Trump could have gone up on that stage and said anything. He had permission.
Barbara
@rikyrah: A reminder that Trump is being enabled by a lot of people who see themselves as very serious and respectable, etc. Chris Collins’s district is between Buffalo and Rochester, New York.
opiejeanne
@Cheryl Rofer: Thanks. I was wondering about it when there was radio silence this morning on the subject. Mostly the noise was on Facebook and from generally well-informed people, but this time it was near hysteria. I didn’t believe them and they shouted me down.
wuzzat
When you’re as shallow as Trump, everything looks deep.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@A Ghost To Most:
Don’t forget Republican strategist Steve Schmidt who suddenly seems like a guy you could have a (insert your preferred beverage here) with.
Villago Delenda Est
Corey Lewandowski, btw, is a fuckin’ idiot, and has no fucking idea how government works.
Par for the course for Trumpanzees.
Villago Delenda Est
@wuzzat: Upfist
Regnad Kcin
@Nicole: Wow. That was *some* HS English class.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major:
In a perfect world, I’d probably be an anarchist.
kindness
@Peale: – I don’t agree. I think ‘The Deep State’ supports the traditional government more than political parties. I agree it hems more to traditional Republican world when Deep State ponders things but TrumpCo is far removed from traditional Republican world, so Deep State is out for a walk on it’s own. It owes Donald Trump nothing. Deep State only owes Deep State and that will never change.
Kay
Shouldn’t there be like 700 think pieces on how people were wrong about Wikileaks being this beacon of transparency and good government?
Boy, did they get that wrong. So much for that bullshit, huh?
I guess we’re just never going to mention that they work for the Trump campaign. We’ll just pretend the two years of glorifying them never happened.
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Federalist 51
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Kay: Of course they’ll pretend. To do otherwise would mean openingly admitting that they fucked up and got it wrong. That would ruin their reputations and they can’t have that.
Kay
@The Moar You Know:
Oh, gross. Really? Don’t tell me 4-H is horribly corrupt or I’m just never endorsing any youth org of any kind ever again.
What is wrong with these people? The greed and self interest is just endless.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I hope prickileaks goes down in cyber flames.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: Anybody who hasn’t seen the Snowden/Assange/Greenwald axis clearly for what they are for some time now probably needs Velcro sneakers and a note pinned to their shirt.
Kay
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Weird that these truth tellers can’t come up with any info on Trump. They’re still flogging the DNC emails. They got Hillary Clinton’s secret plan to run for President.
rikyrah
@Nicole:
Sam Shepherd?
Awe.
RIP :(
SFAW
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
I confused. Are you saying you’re not one currently?
Kay
As far as I can tell 4-H is still unsullied by Trump corruption.
It’s weird that they haven’t been tied to far Right political factions- they’re the rural kids org. You’d think it would be a natural fit.
I wonder if it’s because they’re genuinely democratic. They vote on everything. It’s infuriating if you’re part of it (it takes so much time) but it seems to act as a check on capture.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@rikyrah:
Can we ever get to talking about the following:
1. The 4 decade crusade by the New York press to foist this deadbeat idiot, his idiot opinions, his shitty lazy accent, his tasteless lifestyle and his sham idea of business upon us;
2. Why they insisted on softpedaling his record of failure and gross family dysfunction for all of 2016;
3. Why New York media hasn’t exposed the fact that finance is overloaded with shitasses like Scaramucci, who are dumb as stumps and do business by bravado instead of cold analysis.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Uh huh
Uh huh
Greg in PDX
Anytime a columnist seriously uses the term “Deep State” , I know that they are irrelevant psychos and can be ignored. You could write the same articles and substitute “illuminati”, “The Gay Agenda” or “Marxist” and it would be just as ridiculous. These people use these meaningless terms to make themselves seem in the know and that they have access to secret information.
SFAW
@Nicole:
From ALS, apparently. Shitty way to go (not that any of them are good, of course).
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
Hey. did you hear Bannon “wants” to raise taxes on rich people? He does! He told The Intercept that!
He cares deeply about the working man.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
Actual real-life “farming as a business” types are by nature conservative but not monolithic, and tend not to hew so hard to ideology.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Get the tax returns! Jeez. What kind of hackers are they if all they can do is get boring campaign emails.
Major Major Major Major
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Say what you will about Silicon Valley, our media loves to report on the Titans of Tech being complete shitheels.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major:
For all the deifying the founders get,they did have some good ideas. We don’t live in a perfect world. I still hold out hope that someday government won’t be necessary.
That’s what conservatives don’t understand about liberals; we don’t want big government for it’s own sake, just for what’s needed to create a better society.
A Ghost To Most
@MattF: Yea; I usually leave a few choice comments in Rubin’s comment section.
I quit subscribing to WaPo 9 years ago, mainly because of a hatred of Jen Rubin. I came back last year, partiallly because of Rubin’s journey back into the light.
PIGL
@Villago Delenda Est: yeah. I know former CPC members who are full tilt boogie with the Russia Today line. I could understand and sympathize in the 70s, when there was some trace of the ideals of socialist internationalism. But today? The fuck?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Next up – let’s talk about the fluff job that New York reportage first gave on Kasowitz.
The guy is a fucking idiot – if he was here, his wings would have been clipped on the bullshit he apparently routinely does on behalf of Trump about 30 years ago.
Maybe, just maybe, New York business types and New York journalists and New York lawyers are just not that smart, and pull out all the stops to hide the fact.
SFAW
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Not sure which was a greater contributor: the NY press fluffing Lying Littledick, or World-infamous Fuckhead “Pinch” Sulzberger using his paper in a 25-year-long attack dog capacity on the Clintons. I’m thinking it’s the latter.
PS: Don’t tell schrodingers cat I blamed the FTFNYT — you know how much she loves it/them. (Blows kisses in SC’s direction.)
O. Felix Culpa
Huh. You would almost think it was coordinated.
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Just because something is idolized by the enemy, doesn’t mean it can’t also be pretty neat. They’re the ones who operate under Cleek’s Law, not us.
Nicole
@Regnad Kcin: Yeah. I think our English teacher was sometimes overly optimistic about what a bunch of teenagers could comprehend, but in retrospect, I’m grateful for the challenge.
@SFAW: Truth. We all want to go peacefully in our sleep, but few of us get that gift.
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
This ranks up there with “Rancid P*nis” telling Molly Ball of the Atlantic that the Repug Party is in the best shape it’s been since 1928. Thanks for keeping me informed while I drink a cold, cold can of PBR at the Dock House in Beaufort, NC. A lot of Trump and Confederate Battle Flag stickers on pick ups here in NC’s third oldest town and Carteret County’s county seat. The locals really are embarrassing themselves with the tourists. I weep for my birth state.
Villago Delenda Est
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: They are conservative in the traditional sense of that word, not in the “movement conservative” sense.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker:
Never misunderestimate the dimness possibility of dim bulbs.
Amir Khalid
@Patricia Kayden:
Per Wikipedia, Swedish authorities have suspended the rape investigation against Assange, but might resume it if he sets foot again in Sweden before the statute of limitation runs out in 2020. There is still a Metropolitan Police arrest warrant out on him because he didn’t turn himself in to a court, and of course your Uncle Sam is still after him.
Another Scott
@opiejeanne: TheHill:
It sounds like their Trumpcare bill is dead for a good while.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
different-church-lady
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I suspect a lot of it has to do with the relationship a parasite has to a host.
Quinerly
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
Well, let’s not get carried away here, now…..
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah:
Well, have you seen his other weeks?
PIGL
@Greg in PDX: as far as I can recall, the term deep state comes from Turkish politics in the 70s and 80s. It had a very definite and concrete meeting that referred to actual power locci within state institutions, especially the military. In Turkey it is no longer fubctioning.
Major Major Major Major
@Another Scott: doesn’t the NDAA usually pass with a bunch of votes? Dumbfucks can’t even write a defense spending bill that isn’t complete toxic bullshit.
@PIGL: this is my understanding as well.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@SFAW:
No. Anarchy right now, isn’t feasible. Humanity isn’t ready for it. I like the good that government can do (social safety net, police that protect the innocent, regulating big business, etc). I don’t like it when authorities abuse their power to kill or hurt people unnecessarily or other forms of corruption that occur. I wish spying didn’t have to happen and resources didn’t have to be fought over with people dying as a result.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@SFAW:
New York press kept propping up the bloated, fraudulent, lying, perverted preening asshole for 30 years, kept asking his opinion on things outside Trump Air, Trump Water, Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump Casino.
Would love an answer “why”.
different-church-lady
@Greg in PDX:
Actually, they’re more like secret handshakes. They pushing the buttons on the base. The base responds to this stuff on the Pavlovian level with programmed hatred. Has nothing to do with impressing them with insider knowledge.
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: anarchy is also anathema to real technological and scientific and medical progress.
different-church-lady
New thread please, this one’s been claimed.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Also, given Zinke’s threat to Murkowski, Is love to see a senate panel question him as to why he followed President Snow’s orders to deliver threats of retribution to District 12.
SFAW
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
I was kidding. But your response makes me think that you think anarchy is viable at some point.
Probably never will be. [I’m assuming you’re not talking about anarchy where all of society’s norms have broken down, etc., but rather the idea that self-determination for everyone, without government providing the “incentive,” can work. It can’t/won’t.]
jl
@Quinerly:
‘ Rancid P*nis” telling Molly Ball of the Atlantic that the Repug Party is in the best shape it’s been since 1928. ‘
Hmm…. 1928, huh… the economy was roaring in 1928 too. OK, maybe we should hope the Drumpfster is right on that.
Maybe if we can hold off his planned attacks on voting rights, in four years, the GOP will be in the best shape it’s been in since 1932.
Another recent president also really liked the roaring 20s and Silent Cal, IIRC. How did that turn out for Dub?
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady: I am honored [blushes and bows]. But please carry on, brilliant BJ commentariat.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
Volcanoes probably did emit more than humans. At one time. Like when the earth was very young and humans were still swimming and breathing through gills. Of course LaRouche would never acknowledge that.
BTW I thought the fucker was dead. He’s not.
Villago Delenda Est
@jl: Silent Cal was Reagan’s favorite predecessor.
Which explains a great deal about the shitty grade Z movie star.
Gindy51
My neighbor’s kid was in Russia on a Mormon mission during the election and he said the people were very happy Trump won and partied for hours. My come back was, no kidding they helped install him and they know no better since all they hear is the Kremlin propaganda bs. Kind of like the Trump voters here..
Amir Khalid
We’ve been practising major chords tonight, the Girl and I. The F major chord doesn’t seem quite as hard as people say it is. I’m a southpaw learning to play right-handed, as I’ve mentioned before. but I don’t think it’s going to cause me any problems. There’s still some way to go before my left hand develops the muscle memory for chord shapes, and my right hand needs to learn how to strum with a consistent rhythm but both seem very do-able.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@jl:
The quest for deregulation of finance and tax cuts does reveal an acknowledgment that Keynes had a point about fiscal stimulus and the economy. Problem is, the New York Powers That Be accomplish it through asset bubbles (usually real estate), fraudulent financial schemes and oppression of working Americans, passing all the costs of the fiscal stimulus downward. It creates greater rewards for a few rentiers and skimmers, but a lifetime of soul crushing debt for everyone else.
Another Scott
@Major Major Major Major: AFAIK, the budget is going to be a mess for FY18 and they’re doing nothing to un-mess it. There’s still the Sequester legislation on the books, so if they want to build Donnie’s Wall and do all the security and defense things that they love so much, they’ve got to gut the rest of the budget. They don’t have the votes to do that. But they’re writing up “budgets” that assume their fractious majority can pass something without Democratic votes.
I don’t know why they’re bothering.
Federal News Radio from June 26:
Clowns…
Cheers,
Scott.
jl
@jl: @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: retweet in Josh Marshall’s twitter has quote indicating that Reince Priebus, the human anagam, said that, not the Drumpfster.
@Villago Delenda Est: I thought Dub was a big Coolidge fan too.
Miss Bianca
@Matt McIrvin:
Yep. “Economic justice for white people”. Of course, most of them would be incensed if you pointed out to them that “rural, white and Christian” is also an “identity” in “identity politics” – but that they have no problem saying that we need to privilege THAT identity over any other.
Quinerly
@Amir Khalid:
?
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
Representative Collins presumably belongs to the “Donald Trump, fuck yeah!” House caucus.
TenguPhule
@Patricia Kayden:
You want us to commit an act of War just to let Assange walk free after a couple years in jail?
Mnemosyne
@Nicole:
Apparently Jeanne Moreau also died today. Apparently not at the same time or in the same place, but you never know with a famous femme fatale like Miss Moreau. ?
Cheryl Rofer
Trump’s fave poll, Rasmussen Reports, just dropped below 40% approval.
Caution: Very obnoxious sound on autoplay video.
ETA: Since I warned you, I can at least give you some of it in the spirit of “I read it so you don’t have to.”
TenguPhule
@Wag:
Actually it just means that the fascists are better educated in America then in Russia.
Yes, a low bar to hurdle.
Otherwise, same actors, different language.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
Why are the warning always at the ends of these things?!
/Dr. Strange
jeffreyw
@Amir Khalid: On the road to a debut at Carnegie Hall!
The Moar You Know
@Kay: Scouting was extremely helpful to me as a young guy, in part because my Scoutmaster knew the religious part was a bunch of crap and never even hinted at going there. Learned the outdoor skills and all that. Great for youngsters, especially those who haven’t had any wilderness, or even in most cases nowadays, outdoor experience.
So when they went full Social Conservative during the Clinton years, and doubled down on it during Bush’s tenure, I was pissed. But this is not just a step too far, this is simply monstrous. He sold the legacy of the Boy Scouts for a greenlight for a corporate merger that will fail, but make him money. He’s a sociopath and a monster.
Quinerly
@jl:
Posted the link to the Atlantic article yesterday. Jaw dropping. As for “Rancid P*nis”…that was Scaramucci’s public nickname for Priebus in front of other staffers. Those staffers laughed. In other news, Melania has been pretty quiet on that anti bullying campaign of hers….
pamelabrown53
@Major Major Major Major: @89.
The dumbfuck republicans of which you speak, can’t pass the simplest of crucial bills because their teabagger members cannot refrain from attaching poison pills to anything and everything. The republicans’ have lost all ability to govern as they’re completely ruled by the extremists who are supported by a vast alt right media.
TenguPhule
@Lurking Canadian:
Is it still against BJ policy to suggest that the CIA do something to shut Assange down?
opiejeanne
@West of the Rockies (been a while): And Rick Wilson, who seems to have a sense of humor and a pretty dry one at that.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@SFAW: It probably won’t. And as M^4 said up above its not good for scientific, medical, or technological progress.
jl
Apparently Trump and his gang of stoops do think that tweets are official WH documents? Or what? At this rate, maybe nothing will happen re transgenders in military?
Also, I hope someone asks if Drumpfster made the decision with ‘his’ central casting generals, why is there no evidence that they were in the loop, and a lot of evidence that they were completely out the loop. Or maybe Gorka was designated an acting general for the purposes of the decision? He’s appeared in a cute uniform from time to time.
Hey, I’m not chaos, YOU”RE chaos!
Elizabeth McLaughlin
@Elizabeth_McLau
Pentagon confirms today they have not received any further direction from White House on transgender military ban
https://twitter.com/Elizabeth_McLau/status/892050437188317184
found via Josh Marshall’s twitter feed.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@TenguPhule:
I’m more fond of some aggrieved rogue MI6 sniper splattering Assange’s brains on the gate of the Ecuadorian Embassy the moment that he triumphantly steps foot onto English soil…
Mike in DC
@Cheryl Rofer:
Yep. Bush didn’t hit levels like this until well into his second term. I think his low was 31 approve, 67 disapprove.
The all time low is Gallup, Truman in 1952, 22%. There might have been an outlier poll for Nixon which had him in the high teens though.
Clearly, though, the perfect time to go to war with Republican congressional leadership.
Mnemosyne
@Quinerly:
If it was anyone else saying it, I’d say they were throwing shade, but I doubt that guy has enough self-awareness to realize what happened in 1929 that destroyed the Republican Party for about 20 years.
Quinerly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Really interesting article on Zink in GQ. He interviewed with Trump…had no idea what he was interviewing for during the interview, got the job and had to ask Priebus what the job was when Priebus called him to tell him he had “the job.”
SgrAstar
@rikyrah: I think people like trump and scaramucci Perform dominance, without Being dominant. Who are the real Alphas in New York? I’d say Jamie Dimon, Mike Bloomberg, and some of the hedge fund guys. Trump has never dealt on those levels, nor has he earned an iota of respect from any of them. The trumps and their acolytes are posers and contemptible, to a man (or woman).
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Such a great actress. So many great movies. My French class used “Jules et Jim” as a teaching tool. The multiple viewings of the film made me love Moreau and Truffaut.
I knew Sam Shepherd more through his work as an actor than as a playwright. Interesting character.
..
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@TenguPhule:
Dunno . I’m still eager to see Greenwald droned. They could put that on pay per view and make the deficit disappear.
jl
The jackass Drumpf is completely disassociated from reality. It’s revealed in damn near every statement he makes about facty things.
The ignoramus thinks the economy is zooming towards his promised nearly 4 percent growth rate per year.
Edit: I had extremely low expectations for Drumpf. My bar for him was sitting in a shallow hole I had mentally dug for him. In terms of mental and emotional discipline, and ability to understanding anything at all about the world, he managed to vastly under-perform even that low bar.
Thankfully, so far, he has managed to under-perform my fears about his competence to get bad things done (so far… my fingers are crossd).
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
Russia is getting increasingly more confident that Trump is gonna hamstring everything.
They’re getting bolder in their actions, up to and including assassinations on American soil.
Quinerly
@Mnemosyne:
Here’s the link. Smarty pants phone is burning through its battery, I’m burning through PBR at Beaufort’s Dock House…need greasy cheeseburger at the Royal James Bar and Pool Hall. Carry on!: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/the-final-humiliation-of-reince-priebus/535368/
TenguPhule
@Another Scott:
Not to be a gloomer, but they said the same thing about the House bill.
These fuckers are willing to lie about everything.
Of course, in this case we have so many fucking fiscal disasters coming down the legislative pipe that they may actually be telling the truth this time.
raven
@Brachiator: This was a hugely controversial scene in “Elevator to the Gallows” because Malle didn’t male her up much. Miles did the soundtrack by playing while he watched the film.
MomSense
@NorthLeft12:
I don’t think they would have been able to secure the cooperation of any other Republican candidate and their campaign staff, surrogates, and family members. It doesn’t get enough attention but the Russian hackers were not also experts on presidential elections such that they knew who to target in which precincts. That’s pretty sophisticated knowledge that had to come from inside trump’s campaign and/or the RNC.
pamelabrown53
@Cheryl Rofer: @110.
Won’t click on your Rasmussen link, Cheryl, but appreciate the info. I can’t think of any other pollster that exists to blow blow rainbows up republicans’ asses. Sounds significant to me.
opiejeanne
@Another Scott: Yes, I told my friends this and then one of them started ranting that there would be ANOTHER HEALTHCARE VOTE on Monday. AAIIIEEEEE!!! He posted a link to something or other last night but I fell asleep before clicking on his link.
I had just told them that Lindsay was just making loud noises, and that McConnell was not on board when they started losing their minds again.
Robin G in NY
@Lurking Canadian: Well, the Russians didn’t hack it, and he Wants. To. Know. Why!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@SgrAstar:
Good point – it’s the pretense.
Last week, I was looking for stories on what the cruise murderer did for a living (never got that answer). I did find a reference in a discussion thread of MGTOW – and god, was that a cesspool.
As I read their whines, I pictured 25 year olds who have no redeeming qualities or hobbies, whose grooming habits are casual, whose sartorial choices run the gamut of stained “Han Shot First” tshirts and whose entire knowledge of intimate relationships come from their free porn preferences, three minutes at a time. Of course, their porn objectified visions of what a partner could be are warped and unattainable, and instead of whining about all the bitches that won’t fuck them (because they’re “nice guys”), they could be improving themselves.
The converse on those sites are the fedora sporting “fuck all you bitches” types, who do a fair job of pretending to be alphas in order to manipulate women.
All those guys are disgusting, and I see the Mooch in all of them.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
You would be correct.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look good.
Today was the unofficial deadline to actually do something.
Now its crazy balls time at Treasury. Which would be bad even with a competent person at the helm.
With who we’ve got now……..
A Ghost To Most
@Amir Khalid:
Six String Belief
rikyrah
@Cheryl Rofer:
Rasmussen?
Uh huh
Uh huh
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
I had literally forgotten the existence of Melania for the past four or five days.
jl
@pamelabrown53: Poll aggregates that I see have had the Drumpfster consistently just below 40%, on average since middle of May. Gallup’s tracking poll one or two points under. Rasmussen had to follow sooner or later.
Trump’s approval problems are amazingly consistent. Truman, even Dub, had high ratings, and their dips into very bad territory due to bad events. With Trump, is just everything about him and how he governs, consistently since he took office.
raven
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
And the note reads: “Don’t let me ever vote again”
Steeplejack
@Brachiator:
I think you were one of the ones who asked about my new tablet last week. I didn’t get back to that thread until way later. Anyway, lengthy answer is here. (Click the comment being replied to to see the actual model.)
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
@sacrablue: Found some info for you on the ID card issue. See the last Anderson health care thread.
sukabi
@jl: since EVERYTHING in Drumpf world is important only as it pertains to him, he’s probably talking about his personal economy…and in that he’s probably right. His financial net worth has gone up significantly. See? Economy is booming.
pamelabrown53
@Quinerly: @115.
Hah! Melania is pretty inscrutable. She may have picked cyber bullying as a cause to fuck with her husband. To me, she acts like she’d rather writhe naked in maggots than be touched by trump
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
Of course much of the “justice for minorities and women” is about economic justice, just aspects of economic justice that aren’t top priority for white men. Huge numbers of “women and minorities” issues are obviously and explicitly economic. It’s hard to imagine any other category for things like equal work for equal pay, maternity leave, childcare, redlining, and steering minorities into subprime mortgages. Even a lot of things that we think of as “social issues” have very strong economic components. Abortion and birth control steer right into maternity leave, childcare, and the whole issue of how businesses treat women around pregnancy. Mass incarceration has a devastating economic impact on minority communities, including the way that businesses are reluctant to hire ex-cons.
TenguPhule
@SFAW:
Human nature would ruin it every single time.
We’re wired for individual survival at the cost of others.
TenguPhule
@pamelabrown53:
Given Trump’s tastes, she may actually had to in order for him to get it up.
Miss Bianca
@Quinerly: I haven’t been able to bring myself to read that article yet. I despise Zinke and shudder to think of all the damage he could do at Interior. On the other hand, he was apparently dumb and venal enough to carry Trump’s water for him and threaten Murkowski, who *just so happens* to chair the committee that oversees the Department of the Interior, so maybe he, like so many other Trumop appointees, is just too dumb to actually get anything done. I mean, Jesus, wasn’t this guy *in* Congress? He couldn’t game out the possibility that pissing off Murkowski was, perhaps, not the smartest thing in the world to do?
As Mr. Coffee Nerves sighed to Neil the Horse, “it’s so difficult finding *competent* evil assistants these days!”
Quinerly
@raven:
Great soundtrack.?
raven
@Quinerly: Have you tried the Riverview Cafe in Snead’s Ferry?
Jeffro
J-Rubs is calling for a truth and reconciliation committee once Trump leaves office one way or another … to hold Republicans accountable and see if the party is even worth saving
(Jen…it’s not.)
But I do love the idea of full exhaustive hearings into how they got this far off the rails
Roger Moore
@Quinerly:
It’s as if he doesn’t remember what happened in 1929.
SFAW
@pamelabrown53:
And the difference is …. ?
A Ghost To Most
Good luck with that, Jen – the American Fascist Party will only do that AFTER the mushroom clouds.
pamelabrown53
@Quinerly: @131.
You may be contemplating a sublime greasy burger at Beaufort’s Royal James Bar and Pool Hall but as a Soulard Girl have you ever traveled to Columbia and eaten a Bouche Burger?
P.S. While they test the limits of self-discipline, 2 or 3 a year can’t hurt that much.
TenguPhule
@SFAW:
The maggots are harmless.
chris
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Meh, have you met the incels (involuntary celibates) yet? ::shudder::
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Actually, we aren’t. Dawkins had his research wrong, because he doesn’t actually understand behavior.
We’re wired to live in small groups, usually with family ties.
Felonius Monk
@Another Scott:
Never underestimate The Turtle. He might look like he’s hiding in his shell, but he can jump out and bite you good at anytime. As per the Boy Scout motto, Be Prepared.
TenguPhule
Trump played a lot of golf in July.
Bears repeating often. The fucker is a lazy ass shitheel.
pamelabrown53
@SFAW: @158.
To me, writhing naked in maggots is the epitome of disgusting. Still better than stuck in a hole with only a torch to fend off thousands of poisonous snakes. (Sorry for the Indiana Jones imagery).
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Jeffro:
My favorite part. Because it’s true. Take that Raygun! They really haven’t moved beyond the so-called Reagan Revolution.
The Moar You Know
@Jeffro: A good idea. But I’m not willing to let them off quite so easily. The GOP’s decent into party-wide lawlessness began, not with Trump or the Russians, but with the “Brooks Brothers Riot” and all the other bullshit that happened in the lead-up to the 2000 elections. Any commission that doesn’t start at a minimum that far back, is not worth spending one dime or minute on.
Like the South African Truth and Reconciliation hearings, I’m not at all interested in putting anyone in jail so long as they tell the truth. I think it all needs to be laid out in the open more than anything else, because I’m not interested in payback so much as I am in utterly shaming their voters and enablers. Broadcast to the world. Recorded for eternity. Anyone who retracts or denies afterwards gets jailed.
Besides, since most members of the party can’t tell the truth about anything, it will still lead to satisfactory prison sentences all around.
bystander
@Nicole: The first straight play I ever saw in NYC was Shepard’s Operation Sidewinder at the Vivian Beaumont. Understood not a jot, but enjoyed the Holy Modal Rounders providing musical accompaniment. Sad.
TenguPhule
@pamelabrown53:
But the torch would attract the snakes as it would be a source of heat.
Major Major Major Major
@pamelabrown53:
The teabaggers are a minority of their caucus, it requires quite a few other dumbfucks to let their amendments get attached in the first place, and all of this is ultimately caused by their dumbfuck leadership’s decision that bills must go through with no Democratic input or support.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
Just jailing them all would be faster and less frustrating then expecting truth or shame from them.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: As usual with behavioral biology, it’s more complicated than either of those alone, because it’s both and then some.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
The party that believes government doesn’t work, got elected and proved it.
The Thin Black Duke
@raven: Maybe it’s me, but I think Moreau looks beautiful.
Gin & Tonic
@The Thin Black Duke: It’s not just you.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
I’m inclined to agree. I think they’d sooner go the CSA route then ever williingly admit any wrong-doing. In their minds, they’re the Real Americans and their version of America is the only true one.
pamelabrown53
@Major Major Major Major:
Yep. <3!
Major Major Major Major
@pamelabrown53: Buncha dumbfucks!
Roger Moore
@Felonius Monk:
I think we must deal with it.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Its worse then that. They’re not even as organized as the CSA. So thousands of would be chiefs and nobody wanting to play second fiddle Indian and more then willing to use violence to get their point across. The greatest threat to our country has always been the breakdown of voluntary compliance with the law, because the authorities literally don’t have the manpower to enforce the law if more then a small minority stop obeying it.
The rot is spreading.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
I think it all goes back to the teabaggers, though. They’re getting their way so much because they’ve demonstrated their willingness to blow shit up, even their own party, if they don’t get their way. The Tea Party per se hadn’t been invented yet, but the radical wing of the party already demonstrated their willingness to blow shit up and burn it down when they voted down TARP. Since then, they’ve taken down their own Speaker for nothing more than failure to be quite as ideological as they wanted. They’re hostage takers who have a proven willingness to shoot the hostage, and that means the rest of the party is deathly afraid of them. That problem won’t be solved until the rest of the party is happier to cut deals with the Democrats than with the Tea Party.
Steeplejack
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s dumbfucks all the way down!
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule: Then the rest of us who do believe in a democratic America dedicated to pulling us all up will have step in and help.
Ruckus
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
You really haven’t studied human beings at all have you? There will always be a need for government. Because there will always be people who can not cope and need help. There will always be people that get sick, even if it’s their own bodies turning on them. There will always be a need to provide transportation and infrastructure. There will always be someone somewhere who wants what you have, without earning it. There will always be greedy fuckers who want it all And on and on and on.
NotMax
@Miss Bianca
Neil the Horse? Impressive outre reference. A round of bananas for the house!
On the ol’ anthropomorphic obscurity meter, would give it a 7 out of 10, with something like Zatoichi the blind walrus at 9.9.
Major Major Major Major
@Steeplejack: With a post turtle on top!
@Roger Moore:
And let’s not forget Cantor.
mai naem mobile
Well, Dolt 45 is less one candidate for DHS. Joe Arpaio was found guilty by the judge. He gets sentenced in October. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dolt pardons him.
Frankensteinbeck
@opiejeanne:
I sincerely doubt it. He has two hard ‘no’ votes against anything (Collins and Murkowski), and McCain out. In fact, C&M are saying the thank yous they’re getting have hardened their stance further. He can’t win a vote, period, and he knows it. Why bash his head into that wall again?
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Conservatives think we want big government to stop them from abusing minorities. Reagan was not subtle when he popularized that meme.
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, Dawkins is not loved by behavioral evolution scientists. He oversimplified and mysticized. What passes your genes down is incredibly complex and often counterintuitive. It often includes not personally reproducing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wow, Scaramucci’s out. Kelly’s got his first victory.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
Mooch has already been fired
mai naem mobile
Don’t know if anybody saw this. Sam Shepard died. Really good playwrigt,actor etc etc. Didn’t know he had ALS. Horrible way to die. RIP.
TriassicSands
Has anyone reported this yet?
The Mooch is out.
Kelly wanted him gone.
Gin & Tonic
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Fired and divorced within a week. Not bad.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: Dang. Impressively obscure. And here I thought Usagi Yojimbo was the ultimate in unlikely sword-wielding mammalian life!
That’s right, old Neil was fond of bananas, wasn’t he? I’d forgotten that particular little quirk of his character.
Patricia Kayden
@Amir Khalid: Watching rock stars (especially Prince) playing the guitar makes it look like such a fun instrument but alas I am limited to hitting a few chords on the piano. Sounds like you’re having fun learning to play.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Are you kidding? Wowzers. What a messy administration. So missing No Drama, Obama.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have CNBC on, which I do not usually do, and I noted that they’re saying that The Mooch is out as communications director, they’re not saying he’s been booted out the White House.
lgerard
Who had 10 days in the Mooch pool?
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Woah. Call me gobsmacked. I figured Trump would love him thanks to the absurd flattery. Maybe everyone else ganged up on him and pushed Trump’s buttons more.
TriassicSands
I saw that others remarked about The Mooch removal as I was typing.
It’s hilarious. And scary. What utter chaos.
No way was General Kelly going to have a communications director with The Mooch’s mouth doing end runs around him.
And Trump can’t say no to a general. Eventually, we may end up with an all military/former military government with Trump as the nominal head — being manipulated constantly by generals.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Up is down, denying reality is what dictatorships do, whether they be Communist, Nazi or T faithful Rs.
Brachiator
Scaramucci out already? Well, at least he can go home to his family. Wait, uh no.
Out, out, brief candle.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
The problem there is we’re not organized either, we’re Democrats.
And given the rampant abuse of the legal system and the unforgivable behavior of those both in charge of making the law and those charged with enforcing it, the erosion of the innate respect for the law is with us as well (though for admittedly much better reasons).
We don’t trust the institutions, we’re back to hoping specific individuals in those institutions do their jobs honorably.
And that’s no way to run a country for long.
Mike in NC
@Gin & Tonic: Shit with Trump is simply surreal!
Patricia Kayden
With The Mooch’s departure, who will wax poetic about Huckabee Sanders’ makeup and hair? Sad.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Is that a joke. I have been in class all morning. I haven’t checked the news. What happened?
joel hanes
@Jeffro:
how they got this far off the rails
Southern Strategy plus deliberate radicalization of fundagelicals via wedge issues for political advantage
John Mitchell
Reagan (by far the most genial exponent of evil social policy and toxic mythology yet produced)
Weyrich and Falwell
Young Republicans
Gingrich
Buchanan
Rush
Roger Stone
Rupert Murdoch and (the bad) Roger Ailes
Kochs/ALEC and Mercers and DeVos and Adelson
Richard Bruce Cheney
Tom Delay
Phil Gramm
Paul Ryan
the power grab on W’s behalf in the wake of the Florida 2000 fiasco; Brooks Brothers riot, and it worked, rewarding the nihilists
Sarah Palin
and the abject failure of the American press
TenguPhule
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
So he sold his soul, his integrity and his credibility just to be pantsed by the Tang the Merciless?
SiubhanDuinne
YOU GUYS!!
Just saw a headline that Mooch is OUT as Comm Director!
EDIT: Which any fool would know if they bothered to read the past 15 minutes’ worth of BJ comments.
lgerard
Who is ready for President Kelly?
schrodingers_cat
@TriassicSands: Pakistan with even more nukes!
schrodingers_cat
@lgerard: Fuck no. We don’t want a Christian Zia.
Gin & Tonic
@TenguPhule:
He had none to sell.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Look, there is no call to insult Pakistan like that.
Just One More Canuck
@schrodingers_cat: per CNN.com
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in other news…
Remarkable if true, and interesting that… somebody… chose to leak this now. CNN story makes it look like it came from friends of Comey.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
Part of this is because a lot of behavioral evolution studies ain’t science. It ain’t even sociology. Both Dawkins and his critics here are often blowing it out their asses.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
But no prime minister (kinda)
Cheryl Rofer
That was fast.
TriassicSands
@schrodingers_cat:
And we’re headed toward theocracy. Really scary.
Fortunately, the American electorate is highly intelligent and well-informed and would never stand for…oh, wait. Shit.
Another Scott
@TriassicSands: Just saw that at FTFNYT. I laughed.
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Frankensteinbeck
By the way, I am claiming victory. It is time for ‘Republicans always fold’ to be retired. It may be a tough fight, but not a hopeless one. The cracks in their coalition are there.
@TriassicSands:
Huh. Maybe that’s it. Trump, as an utter coward, can’t stand up to an actual tough guy?
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: In Pakistan, the army controls everything, the politics is just a side show.
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, and I considered succeeding Mariano Rivera as closer for the Yankees.
schrodingers_cat
@TriassicSands: Evangelistan of America?
Miss Bianca
@Brachiator:
ha-ha! Well-played indeed! But the rest of the quote is apropos here as well: Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more..it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
(apologies if I’ve got it wrong, quoting from memory as i’m too damn lazy to look it up).
Matt McIrvin
@jl: I think Amity Shlaes’ Coolidge biography spawned a lot of Coolidge hero-worship on the right in the past few years. Last I checked, Wikipedia’s bio page on Coolidge cites it as a source for the claim that Herbert Hoover caused the Depression by being too much of a tax-and-spend liberal (that is, not like Coolidge).
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Don’t know the details. News alerts started popping up on my phone.
TriassicSands
Despite what Trump says about knowing more than the generals (I mean, he knows more than everyone, about everything), I think Trump may be completely impressed and cowed by real, live generals who have spent their careers ordering people around and being obeyed. To Trump, that’s the apex of democracy.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
Well, she’s a chick, so she was going to fold as soon as a Manly Man like Zinke called her and talked tough. Because chicks, amirite?
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
I think that’s exactly it, yeah. And I’m sure you’ve seen this line of thinking in action many times.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Heh my great grandmother raised 9 sons and two daughters, and oversaw the family pearl fields after her husband died. She was a tough old cookie. Died when was she 90. Everyone except her kittehs were a little bit afraid of her.
I have no idea why women are called the weaker gender. Brute strength is not the only strength.
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: Giant volcanic eruptions probably were responsible for massive global warming that produced some of the prehistoric mass extinctions, particularly the end-Permian (which made the big smash at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs look like a little fender-bender). But those eruptions were colossal compared to the modern ones that the LaRouchies were talking about. Those mostly excel at producing particulates, which have a cooling effect.
TriassicSands
@schrodingers_cat:
Evan — Jell — I — Stan.
It has a real ring to it. Though I imagine it’s founder would prefer:
Trumpistan.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Yes, to be clear, “evolutionary biology” is bunk. But Dawkins also doesn’t know shit about anthropology or archeology and yet feels comfortable about claiming a genetic basis for his preferred theory even when those two fields contradict him.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
What? No it’s not bunk. Studying crap like how different mating signals in leafhoppers result in different reproductive success numbers in following generations and where equilibrium strikes is as science as it gets.
What’s bunk is when people try to extend this stuff to human behavior, where the interacting factors are too complex and we can’t do controlled multi-generation studies.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, I noted that I don’t think much of either Dawkins or most evolutionary biologists. However, neither anthropology nor archeology tell us much that is definitive about genes and behavior.
TriassicSands
@SiubhanDuinne:
Forgive yourself. When you see news that startling, the first impulse is to get it out, not go back and read 15 minutes worth of BJ comments. That’s why I prefaced my comment by asking if anyone had reported it yet. It turns out we were typing at the same time, but they were slightly ahead of me.
What matters is that The Mooch is out and everyone knows The Mooch is out and everyone makes fun of The Mooch from now until the day he dies.
The Trump administration is the world class stage for buffoonery and buffoons. The Mooch was one of the best, short-lived though he was. I’m having trouble typing, I’m laughing so hard at The Mooch.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
I used to like Dawkins, but that whole Elevatorgate mess and his later gatherings really turned me off him and other “New” Atheists. And yes evo psych is definitely bunk. Although, I do think an evolutionary argument for basic morality can be made.
Matt McIrvin
Evolutionary biology is fine and legit. Even Dawkins has done some good work in the field.
It’s the kind of popular “ev-psych” where you justify every sexist element of modern society by reasoning backwards to some analogy to the prehistoric veldt that is a problem.
Another Scott
@TriassicSands: Did the sale of his company to the Chinese close yet? Would be interesting if that blows up in his face, also too.
Not that I would wish anything bad to happen to him. Not at all…
Cheers,
Scott.
TriassicSands
The Mooch, July 28, 2017: Donald Trump is the smartest, bravest, hardest-working, greatest human being ever.
The Mooch, July 31, 2017: I may have misjudged Donald Trump.
Loyalty is what makes Donald Trump the ultimate boss.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
But with the current mess, the army needs to put on a better show.
TriassicSands
@Another Scott:
I think maybe we’re both bad people.
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
You could also make a case for basic immorality or basic amorality.
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
You can. Studying altruism and when it is and is not beneficial is one of the more publicly accessible behavioral evolution topics. And like most publicly accessible science, it gets completely screwed up by said public and used in situations when it doesn’t apply.
Best current understanding is that there are equilibrium levels where too many cheaters stop being an advantage. But that varies by species and environment, is affected by a million factors, and fuck trying to apply it to humanity. You would be speaking your own biases, because you can’t get numbers. An understanding of common mechanisms is not enough.
TenguPhule
@Frankensteinbeck:
Never.
It will always be 25 years old.
Major Major Major Major
@Frankensteinbeck: I took a behavioral biology class from Robert Sapolsky at college and the only thing he wrote on the board during the first lecture was IT’S COMPLICATED.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Brachiator:
There probably is.
Mnemosyne
@Matt McIrvin:
You are correct. I was getting my terms mixed up. ?
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Matt McIrvin and Frankensteinbeck noticed that I was mixing up evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology, and that’s my bad.
My contention is that Dawkins tends to slide into evolutionary psychology while claiming that he’s just looking at genetics, and a lot of evo-psych junk science is refuted by anthropology and archeology.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne:
For instance, anything refercing harem-based primates, which we are not.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Frankensteinbeck:
I had to read Our Inner Ape by Frans de Waal, a primatologist, for a writing class in college. It was a pretty interesting read, though I read it nearly three years ago now and can’t remember much. I do remember the book discussing altruistic behavior in apes, specifically bonobos, and how similar to humans it is. I believe my paper focused on an evolutionary argument for universal ethics in human beings and cited evidence in our nearest evolutionary relatives. In-groups and out-groups were also mentioned to explain why we don’t always apply these ethics equally to other groups of people.
Frankensteinbeck
@Major Major Major Major:
Eeyup.
@Mnemosyne:
Eeyup.
That’s one of the biggest reasons Dawkins is disliked by his peers.
J R in WV
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
In a perfect world, being an anarchist would make sense!! If we ever see a perfect world….