;)
The Commentariat -- Dec. 22, 2015
Internal links removed.
Afternoon Update:
Tim Arango of the New York Times: "On land and at sea, Turkey's borders, long a revolving door of refugees, foreign fighters and the smugglers who enable them, are at the center of two separate yet interlinked global crises: the migrant tide convulsing Europe and the Syrian civil war that propels it. Accused by Western leaders of turning a blind eye to these critical borders, Turkey at last seems to be getting serious about shoring them up. Under growing pressure from Europe and the United States, Turkey has in recent weeks taken steps to cut off the flows of refugees and of foreign fighters who have helped destabilize a vast portion of the globe,from the Middle East to Europe."
Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: Virginia "Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) announced Tuesday that Virginia will no longer recognize concealed carry handgun permits from 25 states that have reciprocity agreements with the commonwealth. Under the policy, Virginians with a history of stalking, drug dealing or inpatient mental-health treatment cannot obtain a permit in a state with comparatively lax laws and carry a handgun legally at home." ...
... Voting Saves Lives. CW: If you recall, Herring won election by "a mere 165 votes out of more than 2 million cast." This is why you vote Democratic, even if the candidate isn't super-progressive.
*****
** Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "In the past decade, Missouri has been a natural experiment in what happens when a state relaxes its gun control laws.... In the first six years after the state repealed the requirement for comprehensive background checks and purchase permits, the gun homicide rate was 16 percent higher than it was the six years before. During the same period, the national rate declined by 11 percent. After ... controll[ing] for poverty and other factors that could influence the homicide rate..., the result was slightly higher, rising by 18 percent in Missouri.... Before the repeal, from 1999 to 2006, Missouri's gun homicide rate was 13.8 percent higher than the national rate. From 2008 to 2014, it was 47 percent higher.... Other measures suggested that criminals had easier access to guns after the permit law was repealed." ...
... CW: Those sanctimonious right-to-lifers are killing our children as surely as if they pulled the triggers themselves.
David Remnick of the New Yorker writes a readable, engaging profile of John Kerry, which contributor Diane recommended yesterday. CW: My favorite sentence: "As a diplomat, Kerry is duty-bound to describe raw reality in upholstered platitudes." I have thought for decades that Kerry represented noblesse oblige in its finest form. Yes, he can be an insufferable bore, but he means well & he works hard at it.
Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: Human Rights Watch, "a leading human rights organization, is urging Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to investigate the U.S. bombing of a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan as a potential war crime."
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is setting up the Senate for an early 2016 fight over the acceptance of refugees in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. Don Stewart, a spokesman for the Republican leader, said that McConnell 'confirmed for the Speaker that the Senate will take up and consider legislation concerning the security of the refugee admission process, in particular, refugees from Syria, in the first quarter of next year.'"
American "Justice"/Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "... debt buyers are using the courts to sue consumers and collect debt, then preventing those same consumers from using the courts to challenge the companies' tactics.... The use of arbitration by the companies is the latest frontier in a legal strategy orchestrated by corporations in recent years. By inserting arbitration clauses into the fine print of consumer contracts, they have found a way to block access to the courts and ban class-action lawsuits, the only realistic way to bring a case against a deep-pocketed corporation."
Peter Henning of the New York Times: "The indictment of Martin Shkreli ... was described by a F.B.I. official as the 'securities fraud trifecta of lies, deceit and greed.'... What makes the case interesting is that a lawyer, Evan Greebel, has been charged as an accomplice for not protecting his corporate client that Mr. Shkreli is accused of using essentially as a personal piggy bank.... When legal advice pushes over the line into enabling fraud, then a lawyer can wind up on the wrong side of the law." ...
... Samantha Masunaga of the Los Angeles Times: "South San Francisco drug company KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday that it terminated its chief executive, Martin Shkreli, last week. KaloBios also said Shkreli resigned from his position on the company's board of directors." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
CW: Shkreli seems to be working on amassing particulars for an insanity defense.
Ovetta Wiggins & Bill Turque of the Washington Post: "The NAACP on Monday filed a federal civil rights complaint against Maryland, alleging that the state discriminated against African American residents in Baltimore when Gov. Larry Hogan killed the Red Line rail project and diverted state money to road and bridge projects elsewhere." ...
... CW: This is a reminder that there are many, many ways to discriminate against the have-nots, & poor public transportation is one way that often goes unnoticed. There's nothing worse for the environment, BTW, than crummy or nonexistent public transportation systems. And a good public transportation system is one way governments can provide a big boost to the economy -- not that Republicans can grasp this highly complex concept. ...
... MEANWHILE. Luz Lazo of the Washington Post: "The planned Metro station in Alexandria's growing Potomac Yard community is officially part of the region's passenger rail system. The cheapest home for sale in Potomac Yard was more than half a million bucks in 2012. And so it goes.
Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "On Tuesday, the number of refugees and migrants that arrived in Europe this year passed the one million mark, according to the International Organization for Migration."
The Trump Card
Part 1. Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "In a country that has become not just polarized, but also atomized; in which we root unwaveringly for our own political 'teams' composed of those who look, think, vote and raise children exactly as we do; and in which we treat opposing viewpoints as motivated by malice or stupidity rather than honest disagreement, perhaps it is not so surprising that so many Americans have come down with a serious case of dictator envy, a longing for a political strongman (such as, say, Donald Trump) who will put our neighbors in their place and skirt the pluralistic niceties and nonsense of democracy." ...
Part 2. Peter Holley & Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: Donald Trump "has become a great outreach tool [for white nationalists like the KKK], providing separatists with an easy way to start a conversation about issues that are important to the dying white supremacist movement.... For ... a growing number of white nationalists flocking to the campaign's circus-like tent, the billionaire sounds familiar, like a man fluent in the native tongue of disaffected whites.... During Trump's meteoric rise to the top of the Republican field, white supremacist groups have enthusiastically embraced him." CW: Bear in mind, this is a straight news story in the relatively conservative Washington Post, not something you read in the Daily Worker.
Presidential Race
Dan Merica of CNN: "Hillary Clinton will roll out a plan to combat Alzheimer's disease in Fairfield, Iowa, on Tuesday, pledging to spend $2 billion annually to fight the disease and research a cure, according to a Clinton aide." ...
... Hillary Clinton IS Fighting Dirty -- For No Good Reason. Ryan Cooper of the Week: "Instead of laying low and playing it cool, [Hillary] Clinton is running as though the race were very close, tax-baiting [Bernie] Sanders with Republican talking points, and allowing a proxy to blow up a huge fight with the Sanders campaign over a data breach. It's a mystifying and risky way to run a campaign.... A promise of no tax increases means she cannot support Kirsten Gillibrand's paid leave proposal. Clinton's stance also basically rules out badly needed increases in Social Security.... Her 2008 campaign repeatedly stooped to outright race-baiting against Obama. In the grand scheme of politics, this data-breach story is small potatoes. Yet instead of trying to smooth over the dispute -- as Sanders himself did for Clinton's email problem -- her only response was to insist on a full accounting of her campaign data.... The DNC never would have gone so far as suspending access, even temporarily, if Clinton did not tacitly approve."
... Eliza Collins of Politico: John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, went on a "Twitter spree," attacking Donald Trump for being ISIS's "Recruiter-in-Chief."
Liar of the Year. Angie Holan, et al., of PolitiFact: "In considering our annual Lie of the Year, we found our only real contenders were [Donald] Trump's -- his various statements also led our Readers' Poll. But it was hard to single one out from the others. So we have rolled them into one big trophy.... We've rated 76 percent of them Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire, out of 77 statements checked. No other politician has as many statements rated so far down on the dial."
David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times: "Donald Trump leads the GOP presidential field in polls of Republican voters nationally and in most early-voting states, but some surveys may actually be understating his support, a new study suggests." ...
... Jonathan Allen in the New York Daily News: "For the first few months, the Trump deniers ... could be called wishful thinkers. With the primaries just around the corner, as many otherwise smart political analysts keep waiting, aching, for conventional order to be restored, it's time to call them what they are: delusional. He's sitting on a double-digit lead in New Hampshire, holds a 20-point edge in South Carolina and runs 27 points ahead of his nearest competitor in Georgia. Though he's probably going to lose Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus to Cruz, who's leading in the polls there, Trump could finish a strong second." ...
... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump used vulgar language as he attacked Hillary Clinton during a rally on Monday night, saying her use of the restroom at the last Democratic debate was 'too disgusting' to talk about and that in 2008 she got 'schlonged' by Barack Obama when he defeated her in the Democratic primary." CW: Hard to say if these remarks would seem more dignified if delivered in a posh British accent. (See video in December 19 Commentariat.) Nonetheless, it's lovely to hear words like "schlong" being introduced into presidential discourse. ...
... Justin Moyer of the Washington Post conducts a "linguistic investigation" of the use of "schlong" as a verb.
... Dana Milbank: Donald "Trump and his fellow Republican presidential candidates have connected political correctness to virtually every issue.... The notion of political correctness ... has recently grown into the mother of all straw men. Once a pejorative term applied to liberals' determination not to offend any ethnic or other identity group, it now is used lazily by some conservatives to label everything classified under 'that with which I disagree.'"
... Good news for the Fourth Estate: Trump hates "some of them," but promises not to kill reporters.
... Emily Atkin of Think Progress: "On Monday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Aside from former New York governor George Pataki -- who has consistently polled at zero percent and has failed to get his name on primary ballots in multiple states -- Graham was the only person in the crowded Republican field who admitted that the planet is warming, that the warming is harmful, and that humans are the primary cause." ...
... AND. Sahil Kapur: "With Graham’s exit, the GOP field has zero candidates who support a comprehensive immigration overhaul with a path to citizenship." Via Paul Waldman. ...
... Daniel Strauss catalogues the best one-liners Lindsey Graham delivered during the undercard debates.
Mandy Patinkin on Ted Cruz. If a candidate cannot embrace Patinkin's point, s/he is not qualified for high public office. Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link:
Beyond the Beltway
John Flesher of the AP: "A new study provides the strongest evidence yet of a link between elevated blood-lead levels in children living in Flint, Michigan, and the struggling city's water system, a pediatrician who first raised alarms about the matter said Monday."
CBS San Francisco: "A neighborhood in Richmond[, California] had to be evacuated Sunday when police say a man was making explosives in his home with the intent of harming the Muslim community.... Police removed a device from the home [in Richmond]..., and the Walnut Creek bomb squad detonated a device before neighbors were allowed to return to their homes." ...
... CW: Why is it I don't think the right will freak out over this particular (alleged) terrorist? ...
... Oh, and just by pure, accidental, serendipitous coincidence, the suspect -- one William Celli -- is a Donald Trump supporter.
Sarah Kaplan & Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "Lakeisha Holloway, "the homeless woman who plowed a car into pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip, killing at least one person and injuring dozens more, later told investigators that she was stressed out after security guards repeatedly ran her off their properties, where she'd been trying to sleep in her sedan.... Holloway is expected to be charged with murder with a deadly weapon among other charges, prosecutors said Monday."
Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Grand jurors in Texas declined on Monday to indict anyone in connection to the July death of a Chicago-area woman, Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in her cell at the Waller County jail, one of the special prosecutors assigned to the case said."
Blame the Victims. Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times: "Striking back legally against one of his many accusers, Bill Cosby on Monday filed a defamation suit against model Beverly Johnson, saying that she lied about him in an attempt to 'resuscitate her own career.'... Last week, he filed a countersuit against seven women suing him for defamation, accusing them of making false accusations for financial gain."
Way Beyond
Lindsay Murdoch of the Sydney Morning Herald: "... Brunei has banned public celebrations of Christmas, including sending festive greetings and the wearing of Santa Claus hats. Muslims seen celebrating Christmas and non-Muslims found to be organising celebrations could face up to five years jail. However the country's non-Muslims, who comprise 32 per cent of the 420,000 population, can celebrate Christmas in their own communities on the condition that the celebrations are not disclosed to Muslims." CW: Somebody might want to point out to Bill O'Reilly what a real War of Christmas looks like, but he would probably say the Brunei edict was President Obama's idea.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Besieged Afghan forces were struggling to head off a complete Taliban takeover of the critical southern district of Sangin on Tuesday, and a new deployment of British troops was rushed in to help direct an increasingly pressed battle across the surrounding province of Helmand."
Washington Post: "Iraqi forces broke into Ramadi's city center on Tuesday, pushing closer to its main government buildings in what commanders hope will be a final push to recapture the key provincial capital from Islamic State militants."...
... The New York Times story is here.
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Reader Comments (17)
The NJ Star Ledger conducted a serious investigation into Adolf's claim about the 'thousands and thousands' of Muslims celebrating 9/11.
The summary showing here :
http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/12/trumps_story_on_jc_celebrations_is_finally_put_to.html#incart_2box_opinion
says that it was about 50-75.
So Adolf is seriously popular among white supremacists, other forms of racists, ISIS and people that don't believe in democracy.
In other words, he has exposed the scum that has been hiding under the trash. We will soon see what America really is or is not.
So I suggest at the next debate someone ask Adolf: Where and when do you plan to build the ovens?
For those who have been following the Syrian civil war closely and are able to connect the dots with all the different actors, I recommend this lengthy review which delves into the schism between Obama's strategy and vision of the debacle and its deep contradictions with the assessments of the military intelligence community. It contains some really interesting behind the scenes tensions and a good overview of the involvement of each of the actors contributing to this massive human tragedy.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n01/seymour-m-hersh/military-to-military
For my part, I have to admit I've been skeptical about the constant calls of Obama about ousting Assad before anything could get moving forward. Maybe that strategy would've worked a year or two into the war when a viable alternative could have been organized, but at this point if Assad gets killed or just up and left to Russia, the fundamentalists would overrun the country and bring catastrophe to the region. John Kerry has finally seen the light and started toning down the demands of Assad's ouster, far too late but progress.
Watch what Mandy Patinkin has to say about Ted Cruz:
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Trump would seriously demean the office of president should he be elected; his party has already laid waste to some established and vital American institutions, such as Congress and the courts. His people (the base) have made America a far scarier and less respected place in a fairly short amount of time through their actions both inside and outside the voting booth. I realize I am guilty of the distrust in the electorate which shows up in the surveys Catherine Rampell cites in her article, But honestly, one side does appear to be fairly crazy and has for at least eight years. From almost the minute Barack Obama was elected, we were treated to news footage of nascent Tea Partiers screaming "Take My Country Back." At the time, the complete fury was puzzling, as it seemed to spring from almost nowhere - the election, though contentious and weird because of Palin, was reasonably civil. Obama was admired around the world, and had won the office by a wide margin. But suddenly people started focusing on issues like the deficit which hadn't necessarily been a big part of the election and blaming our brand new president. And with the deplorable birtherism, things went from bad to worse. There seemed to be an outright refusal to recognize a duly elected president.
While I admire what Rampell wrote, the "both sides do it" implied is disturbing. Only one side ignores scientific evidence on climate and other matters and is willing to accept bald faced lies regardless how many fact-checkers call "foul." This is intensely alarming to me, and means that I would have to answer the "faith in the American electorate" question in the negative, too. But it is not all of the electorate, but just a significant minority who seems to have gone off the rails. And that's not because I think myself "better" but because I am a sane person who can recognize reality when I see it. There are so many people like me (everyone here, for example) but it is a stubborn but vocal minority that is acting in such a way as to destroy democracy. When they admire Putin (who admires Stalin) you know we're in trouble.
When I hear the word "Schlong" I immediately think of Clarence Thomas and his propensity for watching films like "Long Dong Sliver" that Anita Hill, with a grimace, told us about.
Milbank is absolutely right.
Have already said most of what I have to say about PC, but this morning his list of the Right's recent universal adoption of the term prompts a few additional thoughts.
As originally used by the Right, the term implied some avoid certain subject and terms only because they hesitate to offend, and that hesitancy interferes with more vital considerations of free speech and free thought. Criticizing anything as PC implied shades of inappropriate delicacy and even cowardice on the part of both the speaker and of those whose feelings might be hurt by what was said. In short, PC was a sign of weakness and its opposite PI, an emblem of strength.
(It occurs to me that traditional perceptions of feminine and masculine elements fit well here. Ain't tough-talkers like Rush Limbaugh and The Donald quite the men? I guess Carly is too.)
Of course, if we get to the point where we're afraid to say anything, PC does run the danger of squelching thought. I remember more than a few moments of discomfort growing up in a world I found too Emily Post for my liking, when it seemed everything of real interest was hidden in a closet.
The irony of the current Republican campaign's universal invocation of PC is that the candidates use it to cloak their own cowardice. They don't want to recognize, certainly not grapple with our real challenges, so they use claims of PC to deflect attention from the echoing emptiness their campaigns have to offer. Free as they remain to think and to speak, they think and say nothing realistic, practicable or substantive, while they demonstrate their own courage by channeling and trumpeting the resentment and fear of others.
Early critics of PC were right. In some circumstances the PC label can short-circuit thought, and in this year's Republican field it certainly has.
Victoria D., excellent comment. The difference between you and me and the confederates is that we check facts. The confederates have no issue in accepting lies because they never check anything. Total ignorance by desire. And note the Washington Post/ABC poll that shows that the percent of Republicans with a college degree that supports Trump is 8%.
I'm thrilled to hear that Trump won't be murdering any reporters who incur his royal wrath. Less thrilled to hear that he had to reconsider that decision before grudgingly giving up homicide as a domestic policy option.
We've passed a line a long while back, like driving at night and not realizing that you've crossed a border. Come daybreak, landmarks both unfamiliar and grotesque, sullen and suspicious heavily armed bands of white people storming across the landscape looking for enemies, confirm your suspicion that you're not in Kansas anymore. In fact, you wish that you were in Kansas. At least no one there (a candidate for the presidency!), as bad as it is, is mulling over the likelihood of murdering those they don't particularly like.
We're in a new world where a presidential candidate can tear into huge parts of the nation, talking openly of rounding up undesirables and kicking them out or putting them in camps until they can be processed, building walls around the borders, north and south, insulting vast swaths of the population with the most vile, bigoted statements, talking about indiscriminate bombing of foreign countries, simply because of the dominant religion, and wondering aloud whether he might or might not have to kill certain Americans who displease him.
And that's just ONE guy. Add in the atrocious, aggressively unAmerican and hateful expressions of the other candidates for president and it's clear we're no longer where we thought we were. Or should be.
Trump has long ago ceased to be a sideshow if he ever was. But media types still give him the benefit of the doubt--even after all of the above--and talk with him and about him as if he's a sane, reasonable, and responsible person who has every right to inhabit the Oval Office.
But even if we had a contemporary Ed Murrow or Walter Cronkite to publicly discredit the demagoguery, lies, and hate of a Donald Trump, a frightening number of people who don't realize that they've also crossed a border to somewhere outside the United States of America, would never listen. Never care. Their instructors have taught them well. Taught them the importance of ignoring inconvenient facts, so factual evidence can be ignored. Best to rely on emotion and gut instincts.
Trump is their new schoolmaster and he's getting ready to oversee the matriculation of millions into his School of Acceptable Hate and Bigotry. Up 'til now, they've been getting homeschooling. Trump aims to consolidate and weaponize their hatreds.
Wonder what they'll all do after graduation?
Wonderful clip of Mandy Patinkin's take on what Ted Cruz (and nearly all Republicans) misses (yes, yes, they miss a lot, but this is especially poignant).
The problem is, unlike the character of Inigo Montoya, Cruz and his cohort of chaos, have not the personal integrity or perspicacity to accommodate the slightest form of self-interrogation. Self-awareness is not a quality valued in the Confederacy.
Safari,
For some time, I've felt as you do about the Syrian conundrum. There are so many examples of anarchy descending upon a country when a strongman/dictator is removed from power, Iraq being only the most obvious. As Soviet power dissolved, entire regions became enveloped in age-old hatreds, the dissolution of Yugoslavia being a prime example. Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, Macedonians, all went right back to where they had been for centuries--slitting each other's throats--the day after Soviet tanks rolled out leaving them all to their own devices. We all remember the Balkan wars. They're still cleaning up and may be for the next couple of generations or more.
But there are alternatives, at least theoretically, between dictatorship and murderous chaos, but those require the cooperation and commitment of many actors, some of whom may have to come kicking and screaming to the table.
But that's a separate argument. I have long felt the Assad family to be one of the worst and most dangerous in that part of the world. The old man, Hafez al Assad, was a wily conniver and manipulator. He smartly kept out of the limelight inhabited by center stage egotists like Khaddafi and quietly worked his evil under deep cover. The kid doesn't seem nearly as shrewd but he inhabited a power and command structure put together by the old man, a master. He certainly deserves the kind of fate that has befallen many rat bastard dictator sonsabitches.
But yanking him out with ISIS in the wings?
I dunno.
A separate concern is the Sy Hersh piece. I've only skimmed it but it packs a wallop and contains some wild theories. I've been a big fan of Hersh for many years but it seems that late in life he may have crossed his own border somewhere. His stuff used to be thoroughly investigated and scrupulously reported, with plenty of documentary evidence and people going on the record. Lately, this hasn't been the case. His exposé about the Bin Laden raid is based entirely on a single guy, an anonymous source. This LRB piece seems like it comes from the a similar place.
The idea that the Joint Chiefs and assorted mucky mucks in the Pentagon have been conducting a covert action designed to hamstring the president behind his back is pretty wild. It sounds very "Seven Days in May"-ish, if you recall that 1964 thriller of Pentagon perfidy.
I'm not saying he's wrong, plenty of stuff that sounds unbelievable on its face is completely true (the Supreme Court halting a presidential election to install their choice in the Oval Office is one) and this story as well as his story on the Bin Laden raid may likewise be true. I'll read this more carefully, but going on the word of another anonymous "former senior advisor" raises a medium size red flag. If it weren't Hersh, it'd be a huge red flag. I have to admit that I'm not the least surprised that Obama hatred runs through the Pentagon as much as over right-wing radio airwaves. But if true, this would be treason of a very high order, something plenty of wingers don't think to be all that bad if directed toward the hated Kenyan usurper.
Strange days indeed, as John Lennon might say.
Akhilleus -
You've brought to mind The Doors & Jim Morrison's "Strange Days":
Both music & lyrics capture the surreal & frightening status - often expressed here - of the current (if long-rusting) state of our impoverished "civilization":
"Strange days have found us
Strange days have tracked us down
They're going to destroy our casual joys
We shall go on playing or find a new town, yeah . . . "
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-NSz-9qqgKE
Ophelia,
Which in turn reminds me of this.
It's not hard to feel strange in Donald Trump's Amerika.
Think any of the "Muslims are All Evil" crowd in the GOP will mention this?
Muslims protect Christians from extremists in Kenya bus attack.
Extremists, boarding a bus outside the Kenyan city of El Wak, demanded that passengers separate into two groups, Muslims and Christians.
Isn't this pretty much what Ted Cruz plans to do? Separate Muslims from Christians in order to decide who stays and who goes? Looks like Ted would get along great with these Somali terrorists.
I was listening to NPR (local edition) this morning while tooling about for groceries. Greenberg, from PolitiFact, was speaking to the local host about liar of the year, Trump. He spent a great deal of time explaining how PolitiFact doesn't use the term "liar" except once per year when "lie of the year" is announced. According to him, you can't know the "intent" of someone, so you can't call him/her a liar. Ahem....Really. There were no Muslims partying in New Jersey over the WTC. The specific intent is irrelevant and many people in politics lie - flat out, looking right into the camera, and doubling down when called on it.
The NYT can't vet their sources and publishes innuendo and lies. Baquet is a joke. PolitiFact finds the word "lie" somehow indelicate and spends a lot of blah. blah, blah on contriving some explanation for their decision to not make a decision. Its pretty much the Gobi Desert out there in journalism land.
Again, I have a problem calling Trump a liar. That gives him way too much credit. In order to lie you have to know the truth. Muslims dancing on 9/11 was just a story he heard. Did he check? Of course not. He is the TRUMP, whatever he likes to hear is the truth. I think that is the cause of most of his 'lies'. A totally unprofessional idiot is a better definition.
@Akhilleus & safari: You, Ak, and I had a conversation some time ago regarding Hersh's Bid laden piece –-both of us said we had paid attention to Hersh for years, admired his stuff, but that this piece sounded "far out"––a bit off. I'm as baffled as you after reading safari's link. Perhaps the man has lost his moorings and has sailed into seas of conspiracy so deep he's caught in the vortex of his own whirlpool.
As far as Assad is concerned: His father, from what I've read, was the tyrant––Assad was the default ruler since his brother who was supposed to be the next in line died? Am not sure about this, but from the New Yorker piece on Kerry it appears that Assad could be worked with (brutal as he may be)–– I got the impression that his military had more power than he has. If Assad goes, who or what is going to take up the reins? Would the Syrian refugees have a chance to vote–- for whom?
Akhilleus -
<< Which in turn reminds me of this.
It's not hard to feel strange in Donald Trump's Amerika. >>
Indeed / Touché.