Slouching Towards Oblivion

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Keith

It Gets Worse

The EO banning Muslim immigration is being used by the bad guys to boost their efforts to radicalize and recruit more bad guys.  Of course, 45* has said "the world is an angry place" anyway, so it doesn't matter.

So let's go kick the hornet's nest.

NBC News
Karen Greenberg, director of Fordham University's Center on National Security, said the girl's death will be a boon to al Qaeda propagandists.
"The perception will be that it's not enough to kill al-Awlaki — that the U.S. had to kill the entire family," she said.
What was it 45* said during the Scampaign® ? 
"The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don't kid yourself. When they say they don't care about their lives, you have to take out their families," Trump said. 
You kill your way into problems, Don - not out of 'em.

A Question

Hey, TheoCons - how is it you can support a guy who is so obviously not a Christian, and proves it by practically everything he does



while you shit on a guy who so obvious is a Christian and demonstrates it all the fucking time?


Another Tweet



This is a shit storm - by design.  Like driftglass says, it's no different than a Distributed Denial Of Service attack. It's intended to overwhelm the system's built-in defenses.

Today's Quote

"The moderate Republicans are always there when you don't need them."
--Barney Frank

Yeah, But The Democrats

Nothing I hate more than the Both-Sides crap, so this is not that.

But there is definitely room to criticize the Dems - and harshly - when their response to something as shitty as Trump's Muslim Ban is as wishy-washy as some of the weak tea coming from our "leaders".

Jemma Portnoy, WaPo (the whole banana):
ROANOKE, Va. — Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) confirmed Monday that permanent legal residents — green card holders — are subject to President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning refugees from entering the United States.
Kaine said he received the clarification during a phone call with officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He plans to go to Dulles International Airport Monday afternoon.
He was also told that, unlike other immigrants, green card holders are allowed to board planes and fly to the United States. Once they arrive they will be questioned and can obtain a waiver allowing them into the country.
Kaine said he doesn’t believe the order should apply to these residents at all.
“The fact that they’re still saying the order applies to them but then there’s a waiver of it, it’s still a little bit odd, so I’m confused about that still, so more work to do,” he said during a tour of a library in downtown Roanoke.
He said the same procedure applies to people given special immigrant status, such as translators who worked with the U.S. military.
Kaine said he was told refu­gee families already approved and working with a resettlement program will be allowed entry at least for the next week or two.
At political event in Blacksburg Sunday night, Kaine said, he learned about a family who fled Syria and have been living in a United Nations refu­gee camp for almost four years.
Catholic Charities expects them to arrive in Roanoke Thursday, but they feared the family would be detained or barred from entering the country.
Kaine said supports intense vetting, but it should not be based on country of origin, but rather individual circumstances.
“I don’t think you should single out certain countries and especially single out people who have been victimized by war crimes,” he said.
"Tsk tsk naughty naughty" will not do here, Senator. Get up on your hind legs and make a ruckus. 

They go low, we go high? Fine, but sometimes those high ideals require a very lowdown fight.

The Wingnuts set the rules a long time ago - bringing their Creeping Authoritarian agenda into very sharp focus in the 90s - and since then, even when the Dems have managed to get in the game, they always seem to insist on playing from behind.

Now, we can have a nice long discussion about how the Dems doing the reactive thing is in keeping with the traditions of Due Process and cool-headed deliberation, but it looks way too much like appeasement now. And let's try to remember that the Daddy State moves very quickly - the fact that they issued the EO without running it through channels shows us how fast this shit unfolds - while a properly-functioning democratic system is intended to take its time.
So it'll have to be, "You come at my knees and I'm gonna take your fuckin' head off".

Because we can either defend our institutions now or see can them fall like dominos.

Today's Tweet

Monday, January 30, 2017

One From driftglass

A quick look at Donald Trump's first address to the Senate.

driftglass


Dots

Pema Levy at Mother Jones:
By day, Joe Tien is a math professor at Ohio State University, where he studies the spread of infectious diseases. His research maps how a disease like Ebola jumps from village to village and plots the best way to stop its spread. On his own time, Tien has begun putting his skills in network science toward other subjects, including the connection between white nationalists and American politicians.
After the election, Tien and two other mathematicians set out to map the relationship between white nationalists and US senators on social media. The results produced one clear outlier: Based on an analysis of senators' Twitter followers, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), President Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general, had the most overlap with white nationalist groups and individuals.
"He's the closest of all senators to the white nationalist groups," says Tien.
Sessions has a controversial track record on matters of race, including allegations of racist comments toward black colleagues and the targeted prosecution of civil rights activists. But Tien was still surprised by the outcome of his research. He and his colleagues wrote a short paper on their findings and titled it "The Curious Case of Jefferson Sessions."
I don't know if it's ironic or karmic or what, but there's something spiritually delicious when a douchenozzle like Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III gets connected to White Supremacists by a guy who tracks Infectious Diseases.

That's some elegant shit right there.


About That EO

First - whenever I get all huffy and preachy about Press Poodles, I'll try harder to remind myself that Brianna Kielar is among the few exceptions.

Second - here she basically stomps the sawdust outa that schmuck, and points to a few things that I was totally unaware of.



Third - these things never state in clear language just how shitty the intent really is.  And the intent is always clearly shitty.

Anyway, I hadn't realized how insidious this is.  Kielar points out the veil - they needed to hide their shitty Muslim ban behind the upside-down bullshit that they're all about religious freedom, and we don't want good Christians to get fucked over as we go about fucking over the evil Muslims - just trying to make it OK for persecuted religious minorities to escape and blah blah blah.

"We'll need to engage in religious bigotry in order to combat all this religious bigotry."

The reason I call these assholes assholes is because they're assholes and they should be called assholes.

One For The Books

From Benjamin Wittes at LAWFARE:
The malevolence of President Trump’s Executive Order on visas and refugees is mitigated chiefly—and perhaps only—by the astonishing incompetence of its drafting and construction.
NBC is reporting that the document was not reviewed by DHS, the Justice Department, the State Department, or the Department of Defense, and that National Security Council lawyers were prevented from evaluating it. Moreover, the New York Times writes that Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, the agencies tasked with carrying out the policy, were only given a briefing call while Trump was actually signing the order itself. Yesterday, the Department of Justice gave a “no comment” when asked whether the Office of Legal Counsel had reviewed Trump’s executive orders—including the order at hand. (OLC normally reviews every executive order.)
This order reads to me, frankly, as though it was not reviewed by competent counsel at all.
Mr Wittes is a Senior Fellow at Brookings, and so he's not exactly Mr Conservative, but he's also not a Leftie Looney and while this is from the guy's blog, I was linked to it from The Brookings Institution's website, where it seems like the use of terms like "malevolence" and "horrific" in reference to a POTUS is a bit unusual.

Something could be up. There's an awful lotta smoke for no fire.

Weaving

I've been trying to get a consistency across my media platforms (and I already don't even like that I just said that, but oh well), and I haven't always posted the same stuff at every site.

So if you really need ya some more Mike (and of course you do - why would you not?), just hit me up some time.


Today's Tweet

Keith


Watch this video on The Scene.


The Bill Hicks reference:

Bill Hicks on Marketing

Sunday, January 29, 2017

45*'s Cherry

I'm not using his name any more than is absolutely necessary. 

From here on, I'll being calling him 45*.

Reuters:
A U.S. commando died and three others were wounded a deadly dawn raid on the al Qaeda militant group in southern Yemen on Sunday, which was the first military operation authorized by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The U.S. military said 14 militants died in the attack on a powerful al Qaeda branch that has been a frequent target of U.S. drone strikes. Medics at the scene, however, said around 30 people, including 10 women and children, were killed.
The gunbattle in the rural Yakla district of al-Bayda province killed a senior leader in Yemen's al Qaeda branch, Abdulraoof al-Dhahab, along with other militants, al Qaeda said.
Eight-year-old Anwar al-Awlaki, the daughter of U.S.-born Yemeni preacher and al Qaeda ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki, was among the children who died in the raid, according to her grandfather. Her father was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.
"She was hit with a bullet in her neck and suffered for two hours," Nasser al-Awlaki told Reuters. "Why kill children? This is the new (U.S.) administration - it's very sad, a big crime."
This is day 9 and we've got a dead trooper.  I wonder where 45* plans to be when that kid's body lands at Dover? And all the others that're sure to follow.

Today's Pix














Saturday, January 28, 2017

The Daily Show

I'd been hoping they'd give Trevor Noah a good long shot to get his feet under him and make the thing his own; and thanks to a tip from The Professional Left, I went over to take a look, and wow - it seems like he's bringing it back in good shape, cuz he stuck the landing Thursday.

Here's the first bit:




And go see the full episode - you don't wanna miss the cake.

And the 3rd block will hip you to Trevor's new slang term, "Four-Five".

Full Episode - Comedy Central

Friday's Podcast

Episode 373 - All This Must End




be sure to click on the Amazon link

5calls.org




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Friday, January 27, 2017

Silly Crap


At best, that's a bumper sticker, not a policy.  It has no substance behind it when spoken by a man who tries mightily to substitute small-time charity for nation-wide justice. 

A nation built on sound bites and slogans is not a nation at all - it's barely even a marketing strategy anymore, as it begins to fail as a political platform.

@retail_recruit

Just Cuz


It seems Mr Hewitt assumes the GOP Congress Critters are as lacking in honor and morality as he is.

Anybody Tired Of Winning Yet?

Trump's Conflicts

Bloomberg
President Trump is poised to sign an executive order that would suspend all entry to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East, according to a draft proposal obtained by Bloomberg News. His proposed list doesn’t include Muslim-majority countries where his Trump Organization has done business or pursued potential deals. Properties include golf courses in the United Arab Emirates and two luxury towers operating in Turkey.
 

It almost looks reasonable (and remember, it always looks kinda reasonable at first). But what happens if there's an attack on a Trump-branded property? Or something happens in one of the countries that effects one of those properties - for good or ill? 

Will Trump change the immigration status of that country?  And how do we know the change will be driven by a diligent assessment of US National Interests, and not by Trump's own pocketbook?

None of this is new, of course - Rachel had a segment on it a while back - but it's important to see it as it materializes.

Bloomberg also has a decent snapshot of Trump's Conflicts that gets updated pretty regularly.

It Gets Worse

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Go Qualify Yourself

If you're dumb enough to be convinced that a guy will take your job when you're also convinced he can't even say, "I need a job" in English, then you're not the guy I want doin' that job.

Those Crafty Gals

Samantha Bee 25Jan2017

First Part:
(I should watch more of the bad shit - I had no idea the Marine Corps Band played the Monte Python theme)


Another Part:
(Don't miss MILCK starting about 4:15)

"Bitch, It's Saturday"

Seth Meyers - A Closer Look: Trump, Alternative Facts and The Women's March


Led By Example

From the heart of Mike Pence territory - 

Indianapolis Star OpEd:
I am a black man who has, for the vast majority of my life, been proud to be an American. Lee Greenwood’s ballad always makes me emotional. I am also proud to be the boys’ basketball coach at West Lafayette High School.
Monday afternoon, two of my players, both of whom are black, were verbally assaulted by three young men in a black SUV. The men in the vehicle stopped to call them “n-----s.” I have been relatively silent about what has happened in our country since the election, but I can be silent no longer.
Eight years ago, we elected a black man president of the United States. I never thought that would happen in my lifetime, but it did. I believe that President Barack Obama’s election empowered black people in our country. I certainly felt that way.
Now I believe that we have empowered white bigots by electing a white bigot to the highest office in our country. Since the election, there have been far too many instances of bigots who feel that they can be who they are without fear of consequences.
 

Trump Is Not Well

It's difficult to accept the validity of a Long-Distance Diagnosis. So even though it seems ridiculously obvious, we've seen this before when (eg) Robert Bork was saying much the same about Bill Clinton in the 90s.

So grains of salt are in order here.  

That said, it's not just a few people running around like their hair's on fire. This is becoming a very strongly-held conviction among observers who're otherwise calm and clear-eyed about such things.

Raw Story (a year ago):
But a lack of empathy is just one part of narcissistic personality disorder. Just beneath the surface layer of overwhelming arrogance lies a delicate self-esteem that is easily injured by any form of criticism. We have all seen Trump unjustifiably lash out at a number of people with harsh and often extremely odd personal attacks. When he thought he had been treated unfairly by Fox News host and Republican debate moderator Megyn Kelly, he responded by calling her a “bimbo” and later saying that she had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” In response to the strange, misogynistic comments Kelly said that she “may have overestimated his anger management skills.” If the news host would have pegged him as a bona fide narcissist from the beginning she might have expected such shamelessly flagrant behavior.
To be fair, it is certainly true that not all narcissists are terrible people. Some of our most beloved celebrities and musicians have been suspected narcissists, including Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, Kanye West, and even Alec Baldwin. Not only are these decent people, some have also done a lot of good through philanthropic work. Surely Donald Trump has more in common with these individuals than he does with a psychopath like Saddam Hussein.
There is no doubt that this has been true of the past, yet there is one critical difference between those people and Trump or Saddam. Only the latter two were in or are pursuing positions as heads of state—a role that grants enormous power over world affairs and people’s lives. While a narcissistic personality might be one of the traits that allowed Trump to be such a successful businessman and reality TV star, it is also the trait that makes him potentially dangerous as a political leader.
We were warned. People saw it coming a year ago. And since then, Trump's behavior has done nothing but reinforce the view that the guy is fucking dangerous.

And still, it seems like Congress just sits and dithers away.  I imagine they're all scrambling mightily to wrangle a deal for themselves as they work out the plan to sink Trump, but we need to get to the nut-cuttin' here, guys.

Call 'em and tell 'em. 

The Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121

Today's Tweet

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Careerism On Steroids and Triple Shot Espresso

We're not talking about if there will be an implosion, but when.

New York Magazine:
The president is a 70-year-old child whose TV time must be closely monitored — because any news story that upsets his ego will trigger a temper tantrum followed by irrational demands that his indulgent, overwhelmed guardians will be helpless to refuse.
Or so Donald Trump’s aides keep confiding to the nearest available reporter.
On Sunday, one of the president’s confidantes told Politico that his staffers have to “control information that may infuriate him,” a task made difficult by the fact that the leader of the free world “gets bored and likes to watch TV.”
-and-
Nearly a dozen of Trump’s closest confidantes helped plant an embarrassing news story about how their boss can’t handle embarrassing news stories. Which is to say: A president who prizes loyalty in his subordinates has already been betrayed by a huge swath of his inner circle.
 

hat tip = Bob and Chez Podcast

If Wal-Mart Could Vomit

Podcast From Yesterday

Bob and Chez - 24Jan2017:

Gaslighting Refresher

The whole banana from Psychology Today:
Gaslighting is a tactic of behavior in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works a lot better than you may think. Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting. It is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders. It is done slowly, so the victim doesn't realize how much they've been brainwashed. In the movie Gaslight (1944), a man manipulates his wife to the point where she thinks she is losing her mind.
People that gaslight use the following techniques:
1. They tell you blatant lies.
You know it's an outright lie. Yet they are telling you this lie with a straight face. Why are they so blatant? Because they're setting up a precedent. Once they tell you a huge lie, you're not sure if anything they say is true. Keeping you unsteady and off-kilter is the goal.
2. They deny they ever said something, even though you have proof.
You know they said they would do something...you know you heard it. But they out and out deny it. It makes you start questioning your reality - maybe they never said that thing. And the more they do this, the more you question your reality and start accepting theirs.
3. They use what is near and dear to you as ammunition.
They know how important your kids are to you, they know how important your identity is to you. So that is one of the first things they attack. If you have kids, they tell you that you did a disservice by having those children. They will tell you that if only you weren't _____________, you'd be a worthy person. They attack the foundation of your being.
4. They wear you down over time.
This is one of the insidious things about gaslighting - it is done gradually, over time. A lie here, a lie there, a snide comment every so often...and then it starts ramping up. Even the brightest, most self-aware people can be sucked into gaslighting - it is that effective. It's the "frog in the frying pan" analogy - the heat is turned up slowly, so the frog never realizes what hit it.
5. Their actions do not match their words.
When dealing with a person or entity that gaslights, look at what they are doing rather than what they are saying. What they are saying means nothing. It is just talk. What they are doing is the issue.
6. They throw in positive reinforcement to confuse you.
This person or entity that is cutting you down, telling you that you don't have value - is now praising you for something you did. This adds an additional sense of uneasiness. You think, "Well maybe they aren't so bad." Yes, they are. This is a calculated attempt to keep you off-kilter - and again, question your reality. Also look at what you were praised for - it is probably something that served the gaslighter.
7. They know confusion weakens people.
Gaslighters know that all people like having a sense of stability and normalcy. Their goal is to uproot this and make you constantly question everything. And humans' natural tendency is to look to the person or entity that will help you feel more stable - and that happens to be the gaslighter.
8. They project.
They are a drug user or a cheater - yet they are constantly accusing you of that. This is done so repetitively that you start trying to defend yourself - and are distracted from the gaslighter's own behavior.
9. They try to align people against you.
Gaslighters are masters at manipulating and finding the people they know will stand by them no matter what - and they use these people against you. They will make comments such as "____________ knows that you're not right", or "___________ knows you're useless too". Keep in mind it does not mean that these people actually said these things. The gaslighter is a constant liar. When the gaslighter uses this tactic it makes you feel like you don't know who to trust or turn to - and that leads you right back to the gaslighter. And that's exactly what the want. Isolation gives them more control.
10. They tell you or others that you are crazy.
This is one of the most effective tools of the gaslighter - because it's dismissive. The gaslighter knows if they question your sanity, people will not believe you when you tell them the gaslighter is abusive or out-of-control. It's a master technique.
11. They tell you everyone else is a liar.
By telling you that everyone else (your family, the media) is a liar, it again makes you question your reality. You've never known someone with the audacity to do this, so they must be right, right? No. It's a manipulation technique. It makes people turn more to the gaslighter for the "correct" information - which isn't correct information at all.
The more you are aware of these techniques, the quicker you can identify them before you fall into the gaslighter's trap.
Copyright 2017 Sarkis Media
www.stephaniesarkis.com

 

Today's Tweet

Today's New Normal

"...and the place was packed."
--Sean Spicer

"PRESIDENT MOBBED BY ADORING CROWD"
--Conservative Media

"We're seeing quite a surge in the president's Alternative Popularity."
--Kellyanne Conway

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Today's Pix













The Coming War(s)

Trade Wars that is. 

I've spent a lot of time and effort playing Snarky McFreak-Out since 11-8-16, and I'll continue in that vein for as long as I can (because it's pretty fun), but I have to get back to my semi-wonk self and start looking at the specifics behind what I think is obviously gonna be a whole series of clusterfucks as Trump Drains The Swamp Into His Cabinet So They Can Funnel Tax Dollars Into Their Pockets.

And we might as well start with trade.

Brookings Institution:
The aim of these policies, as stated by Trump, are to address harms to U.S. workers from trade and to improve trade deals he sees as not being in the U.S. interests. These are certainly worthwhile goals. The problem is that Trump’s current trade proposals will work against each other, threatening to cancel out any gains, and likely inflicting additional costs on the very people he has pledged to help. And, as the U.S. is approaching full employment, the key challenge is less about more jobs but rather about getting at the concentrated losses in particular communities.
And holy fuck, right outa the chute, there's something I missed because I wasn't really paying attention the way I shoulda done.
For instance, Trump has stated that he plans to renegotiate NAFTA —the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. Mexico and Canada are the U.S.’s largest export markets, together buying more U.S. goods and services than any other country. President Obama also proposed renegotiating NAFTA in 2008 and the TPP was his response. So from one perspective the TPP already achieves this goal.
But should Trump withdraw from the TPP and then seek to renegotiate NAFTA, any concessions on the part of Canada and Mexico will also require concessions by the U.S., i.e., lower tariffs and other trade barriers.
So I still (obviously) don't know all I need to know, but I gotta say Brookings is a decent thing to follow. They tackle some of the big stuff and explain it in a bite-sized-chunks kinda way. I think I'm learning.

Today's Tweet

Monday, January 23, 2017

Keith

One From Slate

William Saletan - Slate:
A Morally Empty Man Gave A Morally Empty Speech
Trump’s narcissism and cynicism seemed boundless. He said blacks had stayed home on Election Day “because they liked me.” He implied that the agency in charge of enforcing immigration laws had supported his candidacy: “ICE endorsed Trump.” He suggested that Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative activist who died last year, had endorsed him out of sheer opportunism. Trump, speaking of himself, paraphrased Schlafly this way: “I don’t care what exactly he is. He’s like an unknown quantity. But he is gonna win.” Trump said Priebus had made the same calculation. In Trump’s mind, these people didn’t care what sort of person he was. They just wanted power. And he admires them for it.

On Friday, a morally empty man gave a morally empty speech. There was no talk of humility, no acknowledgment of enduring prejudice, no plea for decency. Instead, Trump railed against foreigners and “a small group in our nation’s capital” that “has reaped the rewards of government.” In place of Bush’s praise for mosques, Trump spoke of Islam only as a source of terrorism. The man who ran on a platform of “take the oil” fumed that American wealth had been “redistributed all across the world.” He accused countries of “stealing our companies and destroying our jobs.”
This is why Trump is unworthy of your respect. It’s not because he didn’t win the popular vote. It’s not because of his party or his policies. It’s not because of Russia. It’s because of who he is. For all his faults, even those that turned out to be disastrous, Bush was a decent man. He believed in something greater than himself. Trump doesn’t.

With Apologies To Mr Truman

Sarah Cooper - on psychological warfare:
“But reporters were clapping and laughing, they loved it.”  — a commenter defending Trump’s first press conference.
“But members of the CIA were clearly laughing at his jokes and clapping, so what he was saying couldn’t have been inappropriate.”  — CNN pundit defending Trump’s CIA speech where he talked about his war with the media, in front of a memorial to men and women who lost their lives in actual wars.
The clapping and laughing you hear in both instances are Trump’s own people. They are sycophants who he brings to cheer him on and make it seem like what he’s saying is being well-received. And it’s working.
The laugh track was invented to cue the audience to the jokes and encourage laughter in response. But it has another effect: if you hear people laughing and you’re not, you start to question if maybe there’s something wrong with you for not getting it. You might even impulsively start laughing just to fit in, not because you think anything is funny. In fact that’s how these fluffers work — one person initiates a clap and suddenly everyone thinks there’s something to clap for. And then everyone is clapping. For no reason.
It's business and it's politics. It's the business of politics, and the merging of politics with business, wrapped in the flag and blessed by the church. The result is the institutionalized hyper-corruption-on-steroids called Fascism. In that system especially, if you wanna friend, buy a dog.

I won't be forgiving of willful ignorance. I won't be tolerant of Alternative Facts. I won't be quiet about it.

And while I'll always try not to be deliberately unkind to you, understand that I'll fail in that regard on occasion, because I won't treat you like a child by tiptoeing around your delicate sensibilities.

I'm really not trying to be an asshole about it - it just seems like too many people are trying to make it impossible for me not to be.

So put all of this under "Sorry-Not-Sorry-But".

If you come in here without a helmet,
you might leave with some brain damage.

A Tweet

The Balls

In 1993, the Clintons attended 14 inaugural balls.

Laura & W went to 8 of 'em in 2001.

And the Obamas had 10 in 2009.

Trump had 2, and they were lightly attended - Trump's 2 itty-bitty sad little balls.

*Is any of this true? Who gives a fuck - this is the Post-Truth World of Alt-Fact.
It's not a question of True vs False. The only thing that matters now is what you choose to believe at any given moment.
And that's how the bad guys get power; and how they stay in power.