Ric and Zooey have a mutual grooming session every morning. I’m looking forward to a friendlier New Year, although there is little reason to expect it.
Open thread!
Here’s To A Friendlier New Year! (Open Thread)Post + Comments (33)
This post is in: Cat Blogging, Open Threads
Ric and Zooey have a mutual grooming session every morning. I’m looking forward to a friendlier New Year, although there is little reason to expect it.
Open thread!
Here’s To A Friendlier New Year! (Open Thread)Post + Comments (33)
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Daydream Believers
Somebody asked that on the previous thread. Short answer is I don’t know. But there’s more I can add. My Twitter feed has been full of reports from Iran. Demonstrations and rioting in several cities across the country are in their fourth day. Reports are that the demonstrations were started by the IRGC (hard-liners) to weaken President Rouhani and they got out of hand. I am taking pretty much everything provisionally. There are not a lot of reporters in Iran. People are not able to verify video purported to show events, and some look faked. Bellingcat is trying to start up a video verification and are asking for help.
My sense is that a great many people in Iran don’t know a lot about what is happening either. There are no clear leaders of the demonstrations, which have spread rapidly. Here’s a report from two days ago by Borzou Daragahi, who is in Istanbul. He’s a good person to follow on Twitter, too.
The government is taking a relatively moderate line, although two demonstrators have been killed.
There are a gajillion hot takes. Sir Lawrence Freedman, a historian at Kings College London, provided the all-purpose take.
'In retrospect it was inevitable'. My pre-prepared tweet for whatever happens to the protests in Iran.
— Lawrence Freedman (@LawDavF) December 30, 2017
Most of the hottest takes are of the form “The situation in Iran proves what I’ve been saying all along.” Of particular interest to me is the tie-in with the nuclear agreement. Most of those opposing the agreement are endorsing the demonstrations and hoping, sometimes openly, that they will lead to regime change, which is their goal. That’s not to say that a more open and democratic regime wouldn’t be an improvement, but getting there, as we’ve seen in Syria, has many pitfalls.
Donald Trump and a number of congresscritters have weighed in with statements supporting the demonstrators. Mike Pence has said he agrees with everything his boss says. The first Trump tweet was a copy of a Sarah Sanders tweet and relatively responsible. An argument continues as to whether we should support the demonstrators and their desire for greater democracy or if US support poisons the cause for many Iranians. The US is not popular in Iran, including among opponents of the regime.
Suzanne Maloney is another person you might want to follow on Twitter. Here is the start of one of her tweet threads on that subject.
On my feed (and in my household), there has been fierce debate around this question of what, if anything, the USG should say in response to turmoil in Iran. I come down somewhere in the middle…
— Suzanne Maloney (@MaloneySuzanne) December 31, 2017
The point is being made over and over again that if the Trump administration is sympathetic to the Iranian people, they might lift their immigration ban. Some of the people involved in the demonstrations will need to leave the country if the regime shuts down the protests.
And with that, I’ll open the thread for additional comments and questions. Fully open thread to come.
This post is in: Food, General Stupidity
I wish we were saying goodbye to this kind of stupidity along with 2017, but I fear not. “Unfiltered Fervor: The Rush to Get Off the Water Grid.”
One of the markers of civilized living used to be having water piped into your home, but that’s so twentieth century. Now we have “raw” “live” “real” water, untreated and ready to grow some algae.
There was a spring not too far from where we lived. My mother would occasionally take us kids along to fill up bottles of water for drinking. The spring was capped, and the water came out in a sluiceway that made it easy to fill the bottles.
I can recall drinking water from streams on hiking trips. That was before giardia became a big concern and before there were lots of people hiking in the mountains. I know, giardia comes from the natural animals that naturally live in those places. I never got sick from it.
I’m concerned about the lack of understanding of chemistry and biology shown by the people described in the article. The writeup is not bad. Here are a few of my thoughts as I was reading it.
At Rainbow Grocery, a cooperative in this city’s Mission District, one brand of water is so popular that it’s often out of stock. But one recent evening, there was a glittering rack of it: glass orbs containing 2.5 gallons of what is billed as “raw water” — unfiltered, untreated, unsterilized spring water, $36.99 each and $14.99 per refill
Santa Fe water rates are high, an $18.42 monthly service charge, plus $6.06 per 1,000 gallons for the first tier, and $21.72 per thousand gallons after that. The “raw water” is about $6 per gallon, a thousand times as much.
An Arizona company, Zero Mass Water, which installs systems allowing people to collect water directly from the atmosphere around their homes, began taking orders in November from across the United States…The system — called Source, which retails for $4,500, including installation — draws moisture from the air (the way rice does in a saltshaker) and filters it, producing about 10 liters of water a day and storing about 60 liters.
Gonna take a long time to amortize that initial investment.
There is some nonsense about fluoride. That’s kind of amusing – resistance to fluoride originally came from the right wing. General Jack D. Ripper in “Dr. Strangelove” drinks only pure grain alcohol and rainwater to maintain his purity of essence from the fluoride put in by the gummint for mind control. This time around, it’s the hippies (or whatever we’re calling them today). Fluoride has been studied, and no harmful effects have been found at the levels added to drinking water. It’s kind of wonderful (to me anyway) that kids today have so many fewer cavities. That’s from fluoride.
I think it’s a federal requirement that water systems send out an accounting of the trace elements and potential bacteriological contaminants in their water. I know I get them twice a year and am always impressed that the numbers are so low. But that’s part of what the new water fanatics are concerned about: not enough “good” minerals and probiotics.
He said “real water” should expire after a few months. His does. “It stays most fresh within one lunar cycle of delivery,” he said. “If it sits around too long, it’ll turn green. People don’t even realize that because all their water’s dead, so they never see it turn green.”
Eh. The green is algae. If a closed bottle of “real water” turns green after one lunar cycle, also known as a month, it had algae in it to begin with, or spores. And who knows what else – E. coli, V. cholerae, S. enterica. Just thinking about that makes me want to boil water before I drink it.
The thinking seems to be part of the general desire to get away from the ordinary and brand oneself as special, along with magical thinking about the purity of nature and nature spirits. I wish we could turn this kind of energy toward dealing with global warming.
by Betty Cracker| 185 Comments
This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity
We usually leave our Christmas tree up until January 2nd. Not this year. I’m ready to put 2017 in the rear-view mirror, so I de-Christmasified the house this morning. Onward!
But first, as the squeaky screen door of time swings toward 2017’s ass, here’s a quick look back at some hopeful things:
Every damn person who showed up to a Women’s March event anywhere in the world gave me hope, including the millions who joined my family and me in the chilly streets of Washington, D.C., where we put the previous day’s inauguration crowd to shame with our numbers and general fabulousness.
Also, here’s a special shout-out to the sisterhood that ensured Trump will go down in history as the man who was rejected by the most women in a single day, ever.
And speaking of women who are tired of the bullshit, here’s a shout-out to the #MeToo movement. I’ve seen too many “Year of the Woman” magazine covers through the decades to ever expect a smooth progression or easy answers, but I’ll take a national conversation when we can get one.
Here’s to the Resistance writ large; let us resolve to work our asses off in the coming year to turn Trump and his band of elected sycophants out.
Yes, the ocher skidmark is a daily embarrassment, a constant degradation to be endured. But it would be fair to describe his administration as “besieged,” and those of us who have showed up at protests, made phone calls to our reps, registered new voters, attended town halls, joined activist groups, donated to campaigns, etc., have laid siege to those motherfuckers!
Let’s keep it up next year as we hope for better things. Open thread!
Don’t let the door hit ya in the ass, 2017!Post + Comments (185)
This post is in: Because of wow., Open Threads, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
Another amazing photo from commentor & savior-of-a-daybreak-poster Marvel, in the Pacific Northwest.
***********
I had a bunch of longform articles I meant to share during this traditionally “slow news” year-end period, but the combination of Donny Dollhands and my own personal Spousal Unit being on vacation didn’t leave much time or space. If I were the sort of person who made calendar-flip resolutions, I’d resolve to spend less time reading Twitter and more time sharing “real” journalism in 2018.
.
What’s on the agenda, prepping for tonight’s Giant Amateur Drunken Desperation Festival?
Sunday Morning Chat Thread: Happy New Year’s EvePost + Comments (196)
This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Clown Shoes
I protested @realDonaldTrump at the #hallofpresidents cuz I'll never get this close in real life probs. #lockhimup pic.twitter.com/jKOQShIdz8
— Earnest Gay Thoughts (@JayMalsky) December 27, 2017
Jay Malsky has all the most correct perspectives on his side, but I’m afraid that as a performance, this is lacking.
Jay Malsky, an actor and comedian enjoying his 15 minutes for heckling the animatronic Donald Trump in Disney World’s Hall of Presidents, is speaking out.
In a statement to TheWrap, Malsky said that anyone upset by his decision to heckle the robot needed to “check their privilege.”
“Anyone that’s upset I disrupted a family vacation can check their privilege and consider getting mad about the thousands of children being taken away from their parents because of Trump’s racist immigration policies, or the families of the hundreds of trans Americans murdered each year by transphobic and homophobic people, or the negative impacts of the tax bill on poor and middle-income Americans,” he said….
Compare:
Disney finally put Trump in the Hall of Presidents and the others are all “can you believe this schmuck” pic.twitter.com/cpn3N3kxfe
— shauna (@goldengateblond) December 19, 2017
“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate…” pic.twitter.com/DWFZxYE47c
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) December 19, 2017
One of those paintings with a bunch of ex-Presidents sitting around goofing off and playing cards except they're all trying to teach Donald Trump how to tie his shoelaces.
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) December 19, 2017
Wow bold choice by Disney pic.twitter.com/X5JLEapD62
— The Outline (@outline) December 19, 2017
This post is in: I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To
So, Bret Stephens has another column explaining why he remains a never-Trumper. It is, I guess, churlish to dump on someone who has consistently weighed in on the right side of that particular question. But, frankly, that’s a low bar. The fact that so many of his co-conservative-cultists have failed to surmount it is their shame, and while I’m surely not criticizing Stephens for his stance, I’m not sure how many cookies he’s earned just yet.
And so, I’m unwilling to let this pass unscorned:
Tax cuts. Deregulation. More for the military; less for the United Nations. The Islamic State crushed in its heartland. Assad hit with cruise missiles. Troops to Afghanistan. Arms for Ukraine. A tougher approach to North Korea. Jerusalem recognized as Israel’s capital. The Iran deal decertified. Title IX kangaroo courts on campus condemned. Yes to Keystone. No to Paris. Wall Street roaring and consumer confidence high.
And, of course, Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.
What, for a conservative, is there to dislike about this policy record as the Trump administration rounds out its first year in office?
That’s the question I keep hearing from old friends on the right who voted with misgiving for Donald Trump last year and now find reasons to like him. I admit it gives me pause. I agree with every one of the policy decisions mentioned above.
So here, I’ll confess. This whole post is an excuse to publish this:
An amazing resemblance, right?
OK. Let’s go through Stephens’ list:
Tax cuts? You mean tax increases on at least 53% of American households w/in the life of this bill.
Deregulation? Like this? Because, of course, no one needs less oversight than those who can wreck an entire coastline.
More for the military? Because, of course, there is no upper bound to the transfer payments to be made to what Eisenhower knew to be a danger to democracy.
Less for the UN? Because, of course, unilateralism is our best defense. I take this catchphrase as a synecdoche for the wholesale abandonment of multilateral ties, from hammering NATO to the blanket disdain of multi-nation trade negotiations to the gutting of the State Department. This is the fever dream of American exceptionalism, and without turning this whole post into Bronx cheer on this one point, I’ll just say that those who’ve actually had self and others at risk in the world tends to think that a gazillions for defense and none for soft power approach is the way of keyboard kommandos and dangerous buffoons.
ISIS crushed in its heartland? I blame Obama.
Assad hit with cruise missiles? And…? (Also, Yemen.)
Troops to Afghanistan? OK — he did that. And…? This is a success, how? There’s an end goal of what?
Assad hit with cruise missiles? And…? (Also, Yemen.)<
Arms for Ukraine? This is perhaps the most interesting of the alleged foreign policy successes. How much of this was forced by the need to be seen not to be in Putin’s pocket? History may relate. Perhaps this will end well, confounding the sad record of the region.
A tougher approach to North Korea? Really? I mean, Bret, seriously? Just today the news broke that Trump’s Russian friends are supplying fuel to the North Korean regime. NK’s nuke program continues to display itself at regular intervals. Trump managed to make Kim look rather the more self-controlled leader — a task that takes some doing. Tell me one aspect in which the Trump approach to North Korea has advanced US interests or enhanced the security of our allies?
I’m waiting…
Jerusalem recognized as Israel’s capital. Well, NYT colleague Chunky Ross sees the lack of overwhelming Arab anger as proof that this is all going to turn out OK, but, again, tell me one US interest this advances.
I’m still waiting.
The Iran deal decertified? This is good because absent that deal there’s no barrier to the creation of an Iranian bomb? This is just tribal stupidity, of course. And it reflects the state of “conservative” “intellection”: the second step in the chain of reasoning needs never to be expressed. Decertify Iran and then…what? Profit? As the cartoon has it…
Title IX gutted? Because sexual assault is such a messy problem….(This one is going to look less and less good with each passing day, I reckon, but what do you expect from, as Stephens himself puts it, “
the party of the child-molesting sore loser” and its allies, heirs and assigns.)
Yes to Keystone? Come on, Bret. Not even trying here. This truly is just checking off the in-group markers.
No to Paris? Because what is an incorrigible (literally) climate denialist to say? You’d think after the last year even Stephens might be a bit diffident here, but no, that would be to ignore the key aspect of his branding. He’s the reasonable conservative who is on the merits dubious about the science of climate change, and if he were to admit he were wrong, how much else in the edifice would fall? (All of it Katie.) (And no, I’m not going to bother here to relitigate climate science. I refer anyone whose interested back to my column of some time ago, and to, well, pretty much the entire research output of the field.)
Wall Street roaring and confidence high? Ladles and Jellyspoons, I give you not so much September 2007 as roughly 2005-6. It all looks great until it doesn’t, and while all the circumstances of the Great Recession are not (yet?) present, there are a lot of assumptions I wouldn’t be altogether comfortable with lying behind current financial judgments. I can tell you that in my book-in-progress about the South Sea Bubble, I’m just about up to June, 1720 — and I can tell you it looked just as good from there, so much so that even Isaac Newton was fooled. I don’t think Bret Stephens is smarter than my man Izzie.
And Neil Gorsuch? Well, Bret, let me just say this. In a column in which Stephens argues that culture and character are vital to the long-term fate of the United States, let me simply say that the fact that Merrick Garland is not now a Supreme Court justice is exhibit [n] that Trump isn’t the cause of any erosion of American political culture. He’s the symptom of the damage a deranged party chasing power over principle can do. That would be the party to which you pledge fealty, the Republicans, who blocked Garland in order to pack the court themselves.
Stephens plays on honest conservative broker on the pages of the Times. He’s actually something less interesting but more revealing: a case study to show how knowing the answer makes you unable to understand the questions, or reality.
/rant over. I know that this is all pointless. Stephens is part of the guild and all of us dirty hippies will never grasp the eternal sunshine of the spotless discourse therein. But I guess I still want it on the record, some record, that what passes for argument in Stephens’ neighborhood, isn’t.
Image: Facsimile of a miniature from a ms. in the Bibl. de l’Arsenal