Jul 17, 2017

Today's Tweet



Something To Watch For


I've posted some links to Logical Fallacies, hoping to keep myself up with debate tactics that're less than honest - so I can avoid using them, but to remind myself to look out for them being used against me so I can counter them.

Here's the big one that Cult45 trots out almost every time:


And then this popped up for me on Wikipedia today:

What-About-ism

Usage by Donald Trump[edit]

U.S. President Donald Trump has been accused of employing whataboutism in response to criticism leveled at him, his policies, or his support of controversial world leaders.[80][81][82] During the 2016 presidential election, Trump was accused of using the technique to defend his support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been accused of human rights violations. When The New York Times asked about Erdoğan's treatment of journalists, teachers, and dissidents, Trump replied, "When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don't think we're a very good messenger."[83]
When criticized or asked to defend his behavior, Trump has frequently changed the subject by criticizing Hillary Clinton, the Obama Administration,[81] and the Affordable Care Act.[1] When asked about Russian human rights violations, Trump has shifted focus to the U.S. itself,[80][20] employing whataboutism tactics similar to those used by Russian President Vladimir Putin.[19][82]
After Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough called Putin a killer, Trump responded by saying that the U.S. government was also guilty of killing people.[20][84][85] U.S. Senator Marco Rubio also criticized Trump for his use of the technique.[86] Gary Kasparov commented to Columbia Journalism Review on Trump's use of whataboutism: "Moral relativism, 'whataboutism,' has always been a favorite weapon of illiberal regimes. For a US president to employ it against his own country is tragic. Trump repeating Putin’s words—and nearly Stalin’s—by calling the press the enemy of the people, has repercussions around the world."[36] In addition to Trump, other Republicans, including Dana Rohrabacher, have utilized whataboutism in response to criticism of Russia.[87]

I followed a link from the citations on the Wikipedia page and found these on YouTube (part 2 has the What-About-ism thing):




And oh yeah - here's Olbermann from Oct 2016:


Pleasant dreams, kids.


Weaseling Away

Let me say first that I hope John McCain makes it thru this blood clot thing in good shape.

The guy's turned out to be quite the putz in numerous ways and I'd love to choke the shit out of him once in a while, but no, not really - get better, you phony old fuck.

CNN

(CNN)Sen. John McCain, 80, is recovering at his Arizona home following surgery on Friday to remove a blood clot above his left eye, according to his office. The clot was discovered during a routine physical last week, according to a statement.


Surgeons at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix "successfully removed the 5-cm blood clot during a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision," the statement said.
An eyebrow incision is not a big deal, explained CNN Chief Medical Correspondent and practicing neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta, but the bone was opened to gain access to the brain, Gupta explained on CNN's New Day Monday.

"It's a significant operation," he said, adding that general anesthesia was used and "there was obviously an abnormality that was concerning enough for him to go through this."


Meanwhile, wouldn't it be interesting if McCain were to spend quite a bit more time in Arizona than they were expecting - considering his absence (deliberate or otherwise) could torpedo Mitch McConnell's whole plan for the GOP's Fuck-If-I-Care bill?

And let's try to remember this:


Jul 16, 2017

It's Rainin' Shoes


And then this - from a hearing on June 14 this year:

Natalia Veselniskaya occupying some prime real estate
This shit does not happen by accident
This thing is very wide and very deep.  It's about money, and the power that money gets you.

Once you "free" yourself from all that boring plebeian morality - when you abandon what tethers you to the Impulse Control of a working knowledge of why you do the good things and why you don't do the bad things - you replace that morality with matters having solely to do with profit and loss.


These people have no soul and no honor.

Joining Up

For a good long time, Bloody Bill Kristol has been a big factor in getting us to the point where we'd actually be ready to elect somebody as venal and dangerously empty-headed as 45*.

Just look at some of the guys who have been the beneficiaries of his most ardent cheerleading: Ronnie Rayguns, Dan (Mr Potatoe-Head) Quayle, Bush43, and Alan-Fucking Keyes.

("They are going to cull the herd, so that instead of having billions, we'll only have hundreds of millions of human beings on the face of the planet."  -Alan Keyes, warning what's behind President Obama's gun control proposal)

William Kristol is not in the running for America's Favorite Librul.

But while he has much to atone for - and I'd rather share my toothbrush with a leper than give that asshole a pass - at least he continues to line up Conservatives to push back against the hostile takeover of the GOP.

Mona Charen in NRO:

One column cannot accommodate the list of things you must believe if you trust that Donald Trump is truly the victim of a baseless witch hunt. Consider this a mere stab.

1) That Donald Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner did nothing wrong by meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian offering dirt on Clinton. The emails requesting the meeting specifically mentioned a “Russian government attorney” and added that the requested meeting concerned “very high level and sensitive information” that “is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” That doesn’t prove a willingness to collude.

2)  That concern about Paul Manafort’s extensive links with Putin’s former puppet in Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, including at least $12.7 million in payments, is, to quote Manafort’s words, “silly and nonsensical.”

3) That Jared Kushner’s attempt, during the transition, to secure a back channel with the Russian government using their secure communications equipment in the Russian embassy was not alarming/inexplicable.

-and-

14) That it’s unremarkable that presidential spokeswoman Sarah Sanders refuses to say whether Russia is an adversary, a friend, or a nation about whom we should be wary.


Coupla notes:

First, it's interesting to read the comments from people who still insist on trying to deflect everything with "Yeah, but Hillary".

Second, we still don't know that those commenters aren't trolls, or even that they're all real - some could just as easily be RuskieBots.

Daddy State 101

Peter Beinart, The Atlantic:

In Paris on Thursday, Donald Trump said, “A lot of people don’t know” that “France is America’s first and oldest ally.” That may be true. But commentators noted that when Trump uses the “a lot of people don’t know” formulation, it’s usually a sign that he didn’t know himself. 

It’s called projection. And Trump does it with remarkable frequency. You may have noticed that over the last few days, Trump and his allies have begun talking a lot about the Hillary Clinton campaign’s alleged collusion with the governments of Russia and Ukraine. On Wednesday morning, for instance, Trump tweeted a quote from the conservative Washington Times that claimed, “Democrats have willfully used Moscow disinformation to influence the presidential election against Donald Trump.”

Why is Trump suddenly interested in the Democratic Party’s ties to the Russian government? Perhaps because on Monday, The New York Times broke a blockbuster story about his campaign’s ties to the Russian government.
-and-

...Freud believed people project onto others impulses that they cannot accept as their own.
1) Every accusation is a confession

2) Every boast is an admission of inadequacy

3) Every warning is a threat - a statement of intent

Kafka's Jokes

McSweeney's Internet Tendencies:

“Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?” Alois asked again, more insistently.

“Knock knock.”

And so it went for years. It wasn’t until his deathbed Alois realized he was on the outside of the door.


-and-

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks, “Why the long face?”

“I was born into servitude, and when I die, my feet will be turned into glue,” replied the horse.

The bartender realized he would not be getting a tip.

Today's Pix















Jul 15, 2017

Today's Tweet



Enough irony to choke O Henry in his grave.

A New One For Me


This hasn't been on my radar at all, but I've heard it 2 or 3 times now in the last few days.


Consciousness of Guilt
Law and Legal Definition: Evidentiary rules allow a prosecutor to introduce testimony that tends to show that the defendant's actions prove he knew he was guilty (at least of something). This is sometimes referred to as “consciousness of guilt”.

Consciousness of Guilt Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc.
https://definitions.uslegal.com/c/consciousness-of-guilt/