Kid's got some ups.
Happy #LeapDay at least someone still has upward mobility heyo pic.twitter.com/IcQAvI3Vj5— Flan Bites (@flanbites) February 29, 2020
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Today's Today
Kid's got some ups.
About That "Deal"
Max Boot, WaPo:
Taliban and U.S. representatives signed on Saturday what has been described as a peace deal. Beware the treachery of labels. Just as Magritte’s painted pipe was not really a pipe, so this vaunted “peace deal” is not really a peace deal.
It has been heartening to see a steep reduction in violence over the past week — a U.S. precondition for signing the deal — but there is no agreement on a permanent cease-fire, much less a resolution of all the issues that divide the democratically elected Afghan government from the Taliban. What was signed on Saturday is an agreement to try to reach an agreement. To get even this far, the United States had to drop its long-standing demand for intra-Afghan negotiations to precede a U.S. troop drawdown. Now the Taliban will enter the talks, scheduled to take place in Oslo, in a stronger position after having already achieved their chief demand — a timetable for U.S. withdrawal within 14 months.
I envision three potential scenarios for what happens next: good, bad and ugly.
The good scenario would look like Colombia. After more than 50 years of war and four years of peace talks, the government and the FARC insurgency signed a peace deal in 2016. The rebels agreed to lay down their arms and to be reintegrated into civilian society. There has been some fraying of the accords since then — with accusations of violations from both sides — but the deal has largely held. The civil war has not reignited. The murder rate reached an all-time low in 2017, and although it has increased slightly in the past two years, Colombia remains far more peaceful than in the past.
The bad scenario would look like Lebanon. That country’s ruinous civil war began in 1975 and ended in 1989 with the signing of the Taif Accord. This agreement modified power-sharing among the major sectarian groups — Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Druze — and its implementation was overseen by Syrian occupiers. The Syrian troops finally left in 2005, but the peace deal has largely held — albeit at a significant price. While Lebanon is technically a democracy, real power is held by Hezbollah, which is both a political movement and a radical Islamist militia. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah has not imposed its fundamentalist views on more secular Lebanese people: Women are free to walk around Beirut without head coverings and alcohol flows freely in restaurants. But Hezbollah dictates who rules, and it uses its Lebanese strongholds to project power into nearby countries and across the world.
The ugly scenario would look like South Vietnam. The 1973 Paris Peace Accords brought an end to the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam, but North Vietnam began violating its terms at once. Two years later, the weakened state of South Vietnam was overrun by a North Vietnamese blitzkrieg. America’s abandoned allies had to flee or be consigned to brutal “reeducation” camps.
Max rates the probabilities for success in reverse order:
- Ugly
- Bad
- Good
I think the only thing we can be pretty sure of is that we'll see the whole thing return to a kind of Status Quo Ante - more or less the same as it was before we went in there and started fucking with it.
And that's pretty much always how it works out when we take on these enormously stupid projects.
The lesson we never seem to learn is that we shouldn't do this shit just because we can.
And Colin Powell's Pottery Barn rule gets truer and truer: You break, you own it.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Today's Tweet
Incels - whaddaya gonna do?
Pornhub, YouPorn and XXXVideo are reporting unusually high traffic coming from the Alexandria and Fort Washington area which coincidentally is where CPAC is currently being held.— YS (@NYinLA2121) February 27, 2020
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Today's Tweet
Normally, I'd say there's a guy who lost a bet - but how're we supposed to know now?
When Q-Anon's had a wild party the previous night. pic.twitter.com/VE5Olr5nAr— BlueWorld #AnAmericaForAll #VBNMW2020 💙 (@BlueR00n) February 27, 2020
Always An Option
Most of us are blissfully ignorant of the US national death rate.
7,452 people in the US die each day - about 1 every 12 seconds.
WaPo:
Problems with a government-created coronavirus test have limited the United States’ capacity to rapidly increase testing, just as the outbreak has entered a worrisome new phase in countries worldwide. Experts are increasingly concerned that the small number of U.S. cases may be a reflection of limited testing, not of the virus’s spread.
While South Korea has run more than 35,000 coronavirus tests, the United States has tested only 426 people, not including people who returned on evacuation flights. Only about a dozen state and local laboratories can now run tests outside of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta because the CDC kits sent out nationwide earlier this month included a faulty component.
U.S. guidelines recommend testing for a very narrow group of people — those who display respiratory symptoms and have recently traveled to China or had close contact with an infected person.
We all know good-n-goddamned well that Cult45 will lie to us about how people died - or just conveniently not report the deaths at all, either by ignorance or incompetence.
A big shift in the cultural paradigm is in progress, and appears to be accelerating.
7,452 people in the US die each day - about 1 every 12 seconds.
WaPo:
Problems with a government-created coronavirus test have limited the United States’ capacity to rapidly increase testing, just as the outbreak has entered a worrisome new phase in countries worldwide. Experts are increasingly concerned that the small number of U.S. cases may be a reflection of limited testing, not of the virus’s spread.
While South Korea has run more than 35,000 coronavirus tests, the United States has tested only 426 people, not including people who returned on evacuation flights. Only about a dozen state and local laboratories can now run tests outside of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta because the CDC kits sent out nationwide earlier this month included a faulty component.
U.S. guidelines recommend testing for a very narrow group of people — those who display respiratory symptoms and have recently traveled to China or had close contact with an infected person.
We all know good-n-goddamned well that Cult45 will lie to us about how people died - or just conveniently not report the deaths at all, either by ignorance or incompetence.
Meanwhile, it's being suggested that we all ditch the customs of shaking hands, or kissing and hugging each other in greeting.
A big shift in the cultural paradigm is in progress, and appears to be accelerating.
Not To Worry
The guy who can't quite master the intricate workings of an umbrella; has no idea how the Civil War got started, and then wondered why Andrew Jackson didn't do more to stop it; believed Colorado is a border state; thinks healthcare insurance costs about 12 bucks a year; thought Canadians burned the White House; asked why we can't just nuke the hurricanes; and claimed windmills cause cancer -
- that's the guy who went on national TV yesterday to tell us COVID-19 is no big deal, and if it is a big deal, we're ready for it.
And anyway, the warm weather will fix it.
We are so fucked.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Today's Tweet
When I have to decide who I'll believe, it comes down to some random dude with an anecdote vs a "president" who's told >16,000 lies in the last 3 years.
That choice is pretty obvious.
🤡— Clear Cider (@TheClearCider) February 25, 2020
Our clown-in-chief suggests we find alternative medicine for dealing with his lack of preparation.
He's already got his.
😷pic.twitter.com/TqFNZamFNX
We are so fucked.
Be A Lady
When it comes to relationships with women, I've been know to bitch about getting mixed signals.
There are some very good reasons for the confusion.
Cynthia Nixon, via Girls.Girls.Girls Magazine
There are some very good reasons for the confusion.
Cynthia Nixon, via Girls.Girls.Girls Magazine
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Econ 100
Quick one from Dr Orvel Trainer, Chairman Economics, Univ of Northern Colorado, 1973
(updated and paraphrased)
You're hangin' out with some friends, and someone suggests you all pitch in and order a pizza, which is going to be 3 or 4 bucks each.
By the time the delivery guy rings the bell, you're really hungry. So you make a mad dash for the door, pay for the whole thing yourself, and sit at the kitchen table enjoying your pizza while pushing everybody else away.
This does not make you a capitalist taking advantage of your opportunities as they present themselves.
This makes you an asshole.
Monday, February 24, 2020
History
John Oliver - on the confederacy and the shit people try to pull when they need to cover their asses.
Today's Paraphrasing
Over the last 50 years or so, "conservatives" have degraded themselves to the point where their only concern is the search for a believable argument that you can morally justify being an unethical self-centered asshole.
hat tip - John Kenneth Galbraith
Today's Darwin Award
I just wanna know how long I'm required to hate myself for having laughed at this.
WaPo:
In December, buttressed by his conviction and advances in homemade rocketry, “Mad” Mike Hughes flipped on a camera and fantasized about the moment when he shows mankind that it lives on a verdant disk.
The plan: Float dozens of miles high in a balloon, then fly a rocket to the Karman line, the 62-mile-high barrier that separates the atmosphere and the cold vacuum of space, filming the entire way. “For three hours, the world stops,” Hughes said during a live stream, imagining the reaction.
Hughes, a self-styled daredevil, flat-Earth theorist and limousine-jumping stuntman, died Saturday when his crudely built contraption propelled him on a column of steam, spiraled through the air and cratered into the sagebrush outside Barstow, Calif. He was 64.
WaPo:
In December, buttressed by his conviction and advances in homemade rocketry, “Mad” Mike Hughes flipped on a camera and fantasized about the moment when he shows mankind that it lives on a verdant disk.
The plan: Float dozens of miles high in a balloon, then fly a rocket to the Karman line, the 62-mile-high barrier that separates the atmosphere and the cold vacuum of space, filming the entire way. “For three hours, the world stops,” Hughes said during a live stream, imagining the reaction.
Hughes, a self-styled daredevil, flat-Earth theorist and limousine-jumping stuntman, died Saturday when his crudely built contraption propelled him on a column of steam, spiraled through the air and cratered into the sagebrush outside Barstow, Calif. He was 64.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Today's Deep Thought
The total number of people your age can only decrease.
I didn't say it wasn't depressing
On The Local
The Daily Progress:
A federal judge agreed to dismiss Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler’s lawsuit against the city of Charlottesville and various officials on Friday.
Kessler has filed several lawsuits since the deadly Aug. 12, 2017, rally. The lawsuit dismissed Friday was filed on the two-year anniversary of the rally and claimed that the defendants violated Kessler’s First Amendment rights as the rally turned violent.
Judge Norman K. Moon ruled that law enforcement has no obligation to protect people when other parties attempt to suppress their speech.
“[T]he First Amendment merely guarantees that the state will not suppress one’s speech,” he wrote. “It does not guarantee that the state will protect individuals when private parties seek to suppress it.”
Friday, February 21, 2020
In Memoriam
Helen Irene (nee Hnatiuk) Tostanoski
Oct 1 1925 - Feb 19 2020
I’ve learned that grief is love - but seen from a different angle.
Grief is all the love you want to give but can’t.
All of the unspent love piles up in the corners of your eyes.
It gathers to make a lump in your throat, as it leaves that aching hollow in your chest.
Grief is love with nowhere to go.
Remembering,
and knowing others have been where we are now
is how we get from despair to celebration.
We will find each other in the darkness
and move the light to where we need it.
Best mother-in-law ever.
Today's Tweet
Something something 30-foot wall.
Something something 35-foot ladder.
Wow, isn't it amazing how well tRump's wall is working? 😂 🤣 😂 #tRumpsFailedWallpic.twitter.com/A4N8OcwBGB— McSpocky™ 👽🔄🌊 #VoteBlue2020 (@mcspocky) February 20, 2020
And I'm thinking, the application of a fairly simple scissors jack - about halfway up - might even do the trick.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
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