That "British historian" has spent most of his lengthy career in the United States, is married to an American, and once upon a time was my thesis advisor in grad school. He is very well-informed about American politics and has always had a remarkable talent for colorful, witty, and insightful expression.
WASHINGTON—President Trump is encountering headwinds on a top national-security priority for his administration with several Republicans joining Democrats in refusing to greenlight a federal spy program ahead of a deadline this week.
The pushback from some members of Trump’s own party, who have long said they have constitutional concerns about the program, comes amid broader intraparty friction. Last week, several conservatives voted against advancing legislation to reauthorize the spy program alongside Democrats, who are protesting Trump’s pick of Bill Pulte to temporarily lead the intelligence community.
It's excruciating for me as a patriotic American, but it has to be done. We need the entire rest of the world to see us as we truly are right now, and to respond in appropriate horror and outrage.
We need to rip off the bandage. It's going to hurt and be a bloody pus-encrusted mess. But we can't recover without going through this.
We need to be shunned. We don't have this out of our system yet. We won't until things get so bad The Cult dwindles to a tiny faction that has to hide its face lest they be pelted with rocks and garbage every time they are seen.
It's going to hurt like hell, but it hurts pretty bad right now. We need to persevere through the end or things will only get so much worse we can't even imagine. Have it all on right now.
"Hegseth allowed two of his kids who accompanied him on the trip to dress up in full camouflage fatigues while they visited the American cemetery and met World War II vets."
This is the sort of detail you'd see in a comedy with a very heavily stereotypical American character. He'd toast the graves with Coca-cola and salute a gun.
Keep in mind there are Europeans who are buying what he is selling. And a great many will gladly destroy the social systems of their countries (or even their economies) just to make sure those brown immigrants get the shaft.
“a special kind of loathsomeness: a blend of historical deafness, grotesque stupidity and comically ludicrous self-importance.”
I think it's also important to note how poorly written and badly delivered the speech was too- because, like other fascists, this administration constantly wants to hit rhetorical heights in their public addresses, they badly want to make memorable, quotable public speeches, but they're just very shit at it.
They seem to have as their only cultural references made-for-cable TV-distribution-only war movies. With the worst actors, written by screenwriters using pen names and directed by George Spelvin (or John Milius, same thing).
They don't even deliver B-movie lines and poses well though.
American christo-fascists traveling to Europe to commemorate the day fascism was beaten down and teach the Europeans how to also hate everyone who isn't white and behave like American fascists.
"If he wasn’t telling Megyn Kelly the absolute truth when he promised to never drink a drop if he can just be WAR secretary, pretty please, we’d be inclined to suggest that running the Defense Department in between vodka benders might finally be taking a toll on the guy."
Leading to the hypothesis that the behavior he's displayed since being appointed is all the result of an extended bout of the DTs.
"Dry Drunk" - somebody recovering from alcoholism who has successfully abstained from drinking for a period of time but still displays the same dysfunctional behaviors they had when they were using.
This guy is tough as hell when it comes to berating allies.
But in a recent talk about China, Secretary Warfighter suddenly became all sweet and polite, telling an audience of leaders and diplomats in Singapore that the USA and China should build a "constructive relationship."
Either he has his priorities seriously fucked up, he's a coward beneath the bluster, or both.
"I mean, whatever happened to those good old Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese governments from the 1930's that knew how to stand up to desperate and impoverished people?"
Former Oregon Senator and sex pest Bob Packwood is dead at 93. Look at that, would ya. A functioning ethics committee and a 94-6 vote to enforce their subpoena. And the Supreme Court saying yer on yer own, bud. Quaint.
<Just two weeks after Packwood's reelection in 1992, The Washington Post printed allegations from former female employees and acquaintances that the senator had subjected them to uninvited sexual advances.
The Senate Ethics Committee also investigated allegations that Packwood solicited jobs from lobbyists for his ex-wife, used his staff to try to threaten the female accusers into keeping quiet and obstructed the investigation by altering his personal diaries.
The Senate held two days of extraordinary debate in 1993 over whether Packwood should have to comply with an ethics committee subpoena for his diaries, in which he reportedly made entries relevant to the investigation. The Senate voted 94-6 to enforce the subpoena.
Didn't realize he was still alive all these years.
Never forgave him for beating Wayne Morse, one of two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, in 1968. There is a statue of Morse outside the Lane County courthouse in Eugene. I know of no statues of Bob Packwood.
If somebody does erect a statue of Packwood, they should include a plaque with his quote when his sex pest history, a pathetic Georgie Porgie pattern of unwanted groping and kissing, was revealed: "I just didn't get it."
His run was before my political awareness ramped up.
< He was most proud of the lead role he played in a sweeping tax reform of 1986 that lowered the top income tax bracket and eliminated many itemized deductions.>
That "British historian" has spent most of his lengthy career in the United States, is married to an American, and once upon a time was my thesis advisor in grad school. He is very well-informed about American politics and has always had a remarkable talent for colorful, witty, and insightful expression.
OT and SAD!
WSJ
WASHINGTON—President Trump is encountering headwinds on a top national-security priority for his administration with several Republicans joining Democrats in refusing to greenlight a federal spy program ahead of a deadline this week.
The pushback from some members of Trump’s own party, who have long said they have constitutional concerns about the program, comes amid broader intraparty friction. Last week, several conservatives voted against advancing legislation to reauthorize the spy program alongside Democrats, who are protesting Trump’s pick of Bill Pulte to temporarily lead the intelligence community.
It's excruciating for me as a patriotic American, but it has to be done. We need the entire rest of the world to see us as we truly are right now, and to respond in appropriate horror and outrage.
We need to rip off the bandage. It's going to hurt and be a bloody pus-encrusted mess. But we can't recover without going through this.
We need to be shunned. We don't have this out of our system yet. We won't until things get so bad The Cult dwindles to a tiny faction that has to hide its face lest they be pelted with rocks and garbage every time they are seen.
It's going to hurt like hell, but it hurts pretty bad right now. We need to persevere through the end or things will only get so much worse we can't even imagine. Have it all on right now.
This fascist bullshit is NOT what paul spent 23 years of his life protecting and defending us all against, dammit.
"Hegseth allowed two of his kids who accompanied him on the trip to dress up in full camouflage fatigues while they visited the American cemetery and met World War II vets."
This is the sort of detail you'd see in a comedy with a very heavily stereotypical American character. He'd toast the graves with Coca-cola and salute a gun.
Allowed my ass. Most kids wouldn't voluntarily wear full camo, let alone own a set of fatigues.
<The historian also called the secretary of Defense a “comic book nobody,”>
Tales of a 4th Rate Nothing
Tee hee!
Deeeeeeeeeep cut. Well done. Merlot?
Don't mind if I do. Merci.
C’est rien, mon ami.
When your superpower is stupidity, you're already losing.
American Nazis. God, I hate American Nazis.
Keep in mind there are Europeans who are buying what he is selling. And a great many will gladly destroy the social systems of their countries (or even their economies) just to make sure those brown immigrants get the shaft.
“a special kind of loathsomeness: a blend of historical deafness, grotesque stupidity and comically ludicrous self-importance.”
I think it's also important to note how poorly written and badly delivered the speech was too- because, like other fascists, this administration constantly wants to hit rhetorical heights in their public addresses, they badly want to make memorable, quotable public speeches, but they're just very shit at it.
They seem to have as their only cultural references made-for-cable TV-distribution-only war movies. With the worst actors, written by screenwriters using pen names and directed by George Spelvin (or John Milius, same thing).
They don't even deliver B-movie lines and poses well though.
You gotta know stuff to make good points that resonate.
He should never have gotten that GI Joe doll when he was a child.
I bet he shaved it first thing after he got it.
Great!
American christo-fascists traveling to Europe to commemorate the day fascism was beaten down and teach the Europeans how to also hate everyone who isn't white and behave like American fascists.
Eat the billionaires
"If he wasn’t telling Megyn Kelly the absolute truth when he promised to never drink a drop if he can just be WAR secretary, pretty please, we’d be inclined to suggest that running the Defense Department in between vodka benders might finally be taking a toll on the guy."
Leading to the hypothesis that the behavior he's displayed since being appointed is all the result of an extended bout of the DTs.
"Dry Drunk" - somebody recovering from alcoholism who has successfully abstained from drinking for a period of time but still displays the same dysfunctional behaviors they had when they were using.
See George W. Bush.
This guy is tough as hell when it comes to berating allies.
But in a recent talk about China, Secretary Warfighter suddenly became all sweet and polite, telling an audience of leaders and diplomats in Singapore that the USA and China should build a "constructive relationship."
Either he has his priorities seriously fucked up, he's a coward beneath the bluster, or both.
"I mean, whatever happened to those good old Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese governments from the 1930's that knew how to stand up to desperate and impoverished people?"
Former Oregon Senator and sex pest Bob Packwood is dead at 93. Look at that, would ya. A functioning ethics committee and a 94-6 vote to enforce their subpoena. And the Supreme Court saying yer on yer own, bud. Quaint.
<Just two weeks after Packwood's reelection in 1992, The Washington Post printed allegations from former female employees and acquaintances that the senator had subjected them to uninvited sexual advances.
The Senate Ethics Committee also investigated allegations that Packwood solicited jobs from lobbyists for his ex-wife, used his staff to try to threaten the female accusers into keeping quiet and obstructed the investigation by altering his personal diaries.
The Senate held two days of extraordinary debate in 1993 over whether Packwood should have to comply with an ethics committee subpoena for his diaries, in which he reportedly made entries relevant to the investigation. The Senate voted 94-6 to enforce the subpoena.
Packwood took the case to federal courts and lost, ending when Chief Justice William Rehnquist refused Packwood's request for the U.S. Supreme Court to intercede.> https://abcnews.com/Politics/wireStory/maverick-republican-sen-bob-packwood-oregon-resigned-after-133666001?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
Didn't realize he was still alive all these years.
Never forgave him for beating Wayne Morse, one of two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, in 1968. There is a statue of Morse outside the Lane County courthouse in Eugene. I know of no statues of Bob Packwood.
If somebody does erect a statue of Packwood, they should include a plaque with his quote when his sex pest history, a pathetic Georgie Porgie pattern of unwanted groping and kissing, was revealed: "I just didn't get it."
What's to get, Bob?
Oh, that's a shame.
If Hollywood had named a molester in a political movie "Sen. Packwood" the audience would have thought it too silly.
I get him confused with Sen. Wide Stance. Republican, natch.
I remember the “Packwood” jokes back then. You were supposed to keep the misogyny on the downlow.
Imagine being so arrogant that journaling sexual assault seemed like a good idea.
His run was before my political awareness ramped up.
< He was most proud of the lead role he played in a sweeping tax reform of 1986 that lowered the top income tax bracket and eliminated many itemized deductions.>
Not great, Bob.
Does Hicseth know that Jeebus was not blonde, nor blue-eyed, nor really of pale white skin?
Maybe First Coming Jesus. But certainly not Second Coming Jesus.
Impossible!! Next you'll be saying crazy shit like he was some sort woke Socialist or something!
OT: just learned that Right Said Fred is too sexy for vaccinations. They could have been invited to the Freedom 250 debacle.