This is often the day my savage breast requires a little soothing charm.
Aug 2, 2017
Lawrence
The Last Word - Lawrence O'Donnell
It seems a bit overblown. It's easy to assume a pathology with a guy like 45*. And fake lord knows he gives us plenty of reason to believe he's fuckin' nuts.
But I think 45*'s "incoherence" - eg: saying he has no comment in the middle of making a comment, and then not giving a real answer on whether he'll try to fire Mueller or not - is just 45*'s instinct always to keep everybody guessing; never giving anyone a good solid place to stand in opposition.
The real point though - 2 points actually:
1) Words do indeed mean nothing to 45*. But that's a little too simple. Actually, he thinks he can make words mean whatever he needs them to mean in any given situation.
If the facts don't support your conclusion, change the facts.
So he says whatever he thinks will get him past this particular moment, and/or whatever puts people off-balance so he can look for something that might get him some advantage a little later on. And he knows the rubes are Etch-A-Sketchable pretty much on the fly, so it doesn't matter if everything he says today contradicts everything he said yesterday.
Classic Shitty Salesman behavior, on triple-shot Red Bull with a side of steroids. And nuclear-fucking-weapons - let's not forget that little wrinkle.
2) Press Poodles are short-handing this daily bizarro shit. It's not so much they're accepting it all as "just the way the guy is" - I think they've caught on that this is dangerous and scary; and they're starting to remember what the old-timers tried to tell them about this weird archaic practice called Journalism.
What gives me heartburn is that an awful lot of people are not able to be tuned in very closely.
But there's a "but" - and it's a big one. The audience numbers continue to shift away from DumFux News, and towards MSNBC and CNN and some of the traditional print outlets.
So I go out with this hopeful little thought, from Mr Churchill:
“You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the other possibilities.”
It seems a bit overblown. It's easy to assume a pathology with a guy like 45*. And fake lord knows he gives us plenty of reason to believe he's fuckin' nuts.
But I think 45*'s "incoherence" - eg: saying he has no comment in the middle of making a comment, and then not giving a real answer on whether he'll try to fire Mueller or not - is just 45*'s instinct always to keep everybody guessing; never giving anyone a good solid place to stand in opposition.
The real point though - 2 points actually:
1) Words do indeed mean nothing to 45*. But that's a little too simple. Actually, he thinks he can make words mean whatever he needs them to mean in any given situation.
If the facts don't support your conclusion, change the facts.
So he says whatever he thinks will get him past this particular moment, and/or whatever puts people off-balance so he can look for something that might get him some advantage a little later on. And he knows the rubes are Etch-A-Sketchable pretty much on the fly, so it doesn't matter if everything he says today contradicts everything he said yesterday.
Classic Shitty Salesman behavior, on triple-shot Red Bull with a side of steroids. And nuclear-fucking-weapons - let's not forget that little wrinkle.
2) Press Poodles are short-handing this daily bizarro shit. It's not so much they're accepting it all as "just the way the guy is" - I think they've caught on that this is dangerous and scary; and they're starting to remember what the old-timers tried to tell them about this weird archaic practice called Journalism.
What gives me heartburn is that an awful lot of people are not able to be tuned in very closely.
But there's a "but" - and it's a big one. The audience numbers continue to shift away from DumFux News, and towards MSNBC and CNN and some of the traditional print outlets.
So I go out with this hopeful little thought, from Mr Churchill:
“You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the other possibilities.”
Today's Tweet
...and GIF
ok, this gif made my entire evening. pic.twitter.com/z5SefC3UFf— Swedish Spaceman (@SwedishSpaceman) July 30, 2017
Aug 1, 2017
Dots
... sometimes they lead to some interesting places.
45* ... The Mooch ... BayRock ... Felix Sater ... Russian Mob.
Citing Maduro’s “outrageous seizure of absolute power,” the U.S. government froze any American assets he may have and banned Americans from doing business with him. The move came after Maduro heralded the Sunday vote creating a new super-congress made up entirely of government backers. The newly cast legislators included his wife and son. The body will have sweeping powers to rewrite the constitution and redraw Venezuela’s governing system.
45* ... The Mooch ... BayRock ... Felix Sater ... Russian Mob.
BTW - Nicolas Maduro moves Venezuela into the Asshole Dictatorship column, and 45* himself has nothing to say one way or another. So maybe that can be seen as 45* making some kind of "progress" cuz at least he isn't standing and cheering for the prick - the way he's done with almost every other Asshole Dictator.
WaPo:
Citing Maduro’s “outrageous seizure of absolute power,” the U.S. government froze any American assets he may have and banned Americans from doing business with him. The move came after Maduro heralded the Sunday vote creating a new super-congress made up entirely of government backers. The newly cast legislators included his wife and son. The body will have sweeping powers to rewrite the constitution and redraw Venezuela’s governing system.
“Maduro is not just a bad leader,” said President Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster. “He is now a dictator.”
But BTW BTW - Where the fuck is Rex Tillerson?
Sir John of Oliver
I think I understand the impulse to "keep a civil tongue in your head". Taking steps to prevent rhetorical violence turning into physical violence is an important part of the foundation of American Democracy.
But when a legitimate news item has that violent rhetoric at its core, I think I'd prefer to hear it straight out.
That's why we're better served when the "news" is presented to us by John Oliver and Samantha Bee and Bill Maher, et al.
And that's why I bitch about having to rely on half-hour comedy shows to get something approaching the real story.
But when a legitimate news item has that violent rhetoric at its core, I think I'd prefer to hear it straight out.
That's why we're better served when the "news" is presented to us by John Oliver and Samantha Bee and Bill Maher, et al.
And that's why I bitch about having to rely on half-hour comedy shows to get something approaching the real story.
C'mon, Press Poodles - dial it up a little.
Keith
By the time I get a blog post ready to go, the "news" I'm posting about has already gone outa date. Glad to know it's happening to somebody else too.
Today's GIF
There's always a dark and sinister side to populism, but as long as we have people who can stand off and make fun of it all, we'll have the best of checks-n-balances.
And when it comes to the issues of Net Neutrality, that's kinda the whole fuckin' point. Fight for it.
Because "Checks and Balances" is a metaphor, not a mechanism. It doesn't work if we don't work it.
Today's Tweet
Almost exactly 9 hours apart. pic.twitter.com/O2MyQSSvwA— Conrad Close (@conradclose) July 31, 2017
Jul 31, 2017
Res Ipsa Loquitor
"The occurrence of an accident implies neglect"
When something shitty happens - terrorists or a hurricane or whatever - remember that Cult45 has been awfully slow about getting people in place who oughta be working hard so we'll be ready for the shit when the shit happens.
It's not at all certain that we're being set up to accept Daddy State rule, but how do we dismiss the probability given our current "leadership"?
hat tip = Foreign Policy (pay wall)
Today's Deep Thoughts
Facts:
- Liberals love them because they make you smarter.
- Conservatives hate them because they make you liberal.
Today's Tweet
BREAKING: Scaramucci deserts wife & new born baby for the love of another man- @realDonaldTrump Don't tell @MikePenceVP pic.twitter.com/PDkGsOY5PS— RichardNixonZombie (@RNixonZombie) July 30, 2017
Jul 30, 2017
Today's Mind Fuck
New Scientist - Joshua Sokol
Please welcome to the stage a master illusionist. An energy beam that stabs out of galaxy M87 like a toothpick in a cocktail olive is pulling off the ultimate magic trick: seeming to move faster than the speed of light.
Almost five times faster, in fact, as measured by the Hubble Space Telescope. This feat was first observed in 1995 in galaxy M87, and has been seen in many other galaxies since. It might have you questioning your entire reality. Nothing can break the cosmic speed limit, right? You can’t just flaunt the laws of physics… can you?
If you want to just enjoy the illusion from your seat in the audience, stop reading. Otherwise, I welcome you backstage for a look at how the trick works – and how it’s helping astronomers to understand the fate of entire galaxies.
If you want to just enjoy the illusion from your seat in the audience, stop reading. Otherwise, I welcome you backstage for a look at how the trick works – and how it’s helping astronomers to understand the fate of entire galaxies.
Blobs faster than light?
We’ve known about the jet of plasma shooting from the core of M87 since 1918, when astronomer Heber Curtis saw a ray of light connected to the galaxy. To be visible from so far away, it had to be huge – about 6000 light years long.
As modern astronomers now know, pretty much all galaxies have a central black hole that periodically draws in stars and gas clouds. When gas begins to swirl down the drain, it heats up and magnetic fields focus some of it into jets of hot plasma. These jets shoot out at velocities near to – but not faster than – the speed of light.
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