The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Saturday
Nov242018

The Commentariat -- Nov. 25, 2018

Late Morning Update:

Josh Dawsey & Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump is demanding top advisers craft a plan to reduce the country's ballooning budget deficits, but the president has flummoxed his own aides by repeatedly seeking new spending while ruling out measures needed to address the country's unbalanced budget. Trump's deficit-reduction directive came last month, after the White House reported a large increase in the deficit for the previous 12 months. The announcement unnerved Republicans and investors, helping fuel a big sell-off in the stock market. Two days after the deficit report, Trump floated a surprise demand to his Cabinet secretaries, asking them to identify steep cuts in their agencies.... When former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn's staffers prepared a presentation for Trump about deficits, Cohn told them no. It wouldn't be necessary, he said, because the president did not care about deficits, according to current and former officials. Trump also repeatedly told Cohn to print more money, according to three White House officials familiar with his comments.... Trump often uses 'debt' -- the total amount the government owes -- to refer to the deficit, the annual gap between what the government takes in and what it spends. Trump also is often not versed in the particulars of the federal budget." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: "Print more money" of course causes immediate & devastating inflation. Notice this is the same President* who suggested in a tweet this weekend (story linked below) that the Fed is causing inflation. I can just hear Steve Mnuchin trying to explain to Trump how federal income & spending work -- kinda like the way I explained to my then-five-year-old (or younger) how a checkbook works. Major difference: my little child understood the explanation. BTW, if you feel like shaking your head & muttering "What an idiot!" this is your opportunity. My favorite part: Trump guesses how much the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is paid. The exchange could help explain why Trump is no longer so enamored of "his generals."

Eric Levitz of New York: "[W]hile a majority of American voters ... want the new House majority to zealously investigate the president's malfeasance, some moderate Democrats aren't so sure.... But the idea that aggressive investigations of the Trump administration would be politically risky for Democrats -- as opposed to that scandal-plagued administration -- is absolutely bonkers.... There is simply no basis for thinking that Democrats will pay a political price for prioritizing investigations of Trump over helping the president score bipartisan policy victories. --s

Roey Hadar of ABC News: "Alan Dershowitz, a frequent defender of ... Donald Trump, said special counsel Robert Mueller's report will be 'devastating' for the president.... 'When I say devastating, I mean it's going to paint a picture that's going to be politically very devastating. I still don't think it's going to make a criminal case,' Dershowitz said."

George Gets a Jumpsuit. Rosalind Helderman & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Sunday ruled George Papadopoulos must report to prison as scheduled on Monday, rejecting a bid from the former Trump campaign adviser to delay the start of his sentence while a constitutional challenge to the special counsel investigation into Russia's election interference remains unresolved."

Juan Cole: "India's imports of petroleum from Iran in October doubled in value terms to $1.42 billion in October, year over year.... Even in volume terms, imports are up 38%. These statistics raise the question of whether Trump's attempt to squeeze Iran is failing.... Iran's economic relationship with Europe became warmer in 2018, growing by 7.5%.... [S]ince the US has not in fact managed to take most Iranian oil off the market, the Saudi tactic of producing extra has just caused the price to collapse, and boy are the Saudis angry.... So the squeeze play against Iran is failing right at the beginning. In part this failure is owing to the inability of the US to bully India, China and some other countries into cutting off Iran.... Saudi over-production hurts Saudi Arabia as much as it hurts Iran[.]" --s

Raphael Binder, et al., of the New York Times: "Thousands of people took to the streets of countries around the globe on Sunday, a day set aside by the United Nations to raise awareness of violence against women, to protest gender violence. It was the beginning of 16-day campaign urging individuals and organizations to fight the kind violence that will affect more than a third of women globally during their lives, according to the United Nations. Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile and the United Nations' high commissioner for human rights..., urged women everywhere to keep telling their stories of violence and 'to demand and accountability reparation.'"

Martin Longman of the Booman Tribune: "I did not know that there was such a thing as The Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball PAC. It's a horrible idea. Politicizing baseball is foolish, and it's especially dumb to donate to individual candidates. It looks like some baseball lobbyists were asked/invited to attend an event for Cindy Hyde-Smith and got shaken down for the maximum allowable $5,000 contribution. They're returning the money because Hyde-Smith has been exposed as a neo-confederate proto-fascist and that's a bad look for an organization that prides itself on integration and has retired Jackie Robinson's number '42' league wide."

Michael Miller of the Washington Post: Vandals keep defacing a street free library on Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., dedicated to Michelle Obama. Earlier this month, vandals crossed off Obama's name & replaced it with Trump's." Mrs. McC: Why would even a Trumpbot "dedicate" a library to Trump -- who is semi-illiterate?

Jamie Doward of the Guardian: "The Conservative party [in the UK] is under pressure to reveal details about its relationship with the London arm of a US lobbying firm accused of smear tactics against critics of Facebook. UK Policy Group [UKPG], a consultancy with close links to the Conservative party, is part of Definers Public Affairs, the controversial firm ditched by Facebook earlier this month following a New York Times exposé that has further dented the social media network's image.... UKPG's only known client is the Conservative party, for which it reportedly provides research on its opponents.... Definers set up UKPG just as concerns about Facebook's relationship with the discredited data firm Cambridge Analytica reached fever pitch.... In the US, Definers was close to Cambridge Analytica. Its sister company, America Rising [financed in part by the billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer], with which it shares offices and some staff, held a joint Christmas party with the data firm in 2015." --s

*****

Miranda Carter, in the New Yorker, writes of the uncanny parallels between the personalities & behavioral patterns of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who ruled Germany from 1888 to 1918, & Kaiser Donald. "I'm not suggesting that Trump is about to start the Third World War. But recent foreign developments -- the wild swings with North Korea, the ditching of the Iran nuclear deal, the threat of a trade war with China -- suggest upheavals that could quickly grow out of American control.... The real lesson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, however, may be that Trump's leaving office might not be the end of the problems he may bring on or exacerbate -- it may be only the beginning."

I, Trvmpvs. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump capped the Thanksgiving holiday weekend by again expressing gratitude for himself and his administration's accomplishments. 'So great that oil prices are falling (thank you President T),' Trump tweeted Sunday morning. 'Add that, which is like a big Tax Cut, to our other good Economic news. Inflation down (are you listening Fed)!'" Mrs. McC: Never mind that among the multiple reasons inflation is low is that the Fed, whom Trump repeatedly has criticized for raising interest rates, has raised interest rates.

Joshua Partlow & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has won the support of Mexico's incoming government for a plan to remake U.S. border policy by requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims move through U.S. courts, according to Mexican officials and senior members of president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador's transition team. The agreement would break with long-standing asylum rules and place a formidable new barrier in the path of Central American migrants attempting to reach the United States and escape poverty and violence. By reaching the accord, the Trump administration has also overcome Mexico's historic reticence to deepen cooperation with the United States on an issue widely seen here as America&'s problem.... The prospect of keeping thousands of Central American asylum seekers for months or years in drug cartel-dominated Mexican border states -- some of the most violent in the country -- has troubled human-rights activists and others who worry that such a plan could put migrants at risk and undermine their lawful right to apply for asylum."

... Jack Crosbie of Splinter: "On a practical level, this is a travesty for many people fleeing violence in Latin America. Many migrants have relatives already living in the United States, and before this policy, were usually allowed to find a home in the country while their asylum claim was processed. Now, they'll be forced to stay in camps. The policy comes after weeks of tension on the border, which the Trump administration stoked for political gain during the midterms. On Monday, the DHS shut down the entire Northbound section of the largest border crossing in California, citing unsubstantiated claims that migrants were planning to rush the border. The justification for the new policy, it seems, is the woeful lack of space at migrant facilities on the Southern border." ...

     ... Update. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump asserted Saturday night that migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. will be forced to stay in Mexico while their claims are individually processed, though an incoming Mexican government official claimed his country had not agreed to such a policy. 'Migrants at the Southern Border will not be allowed into the United States until their claims are individually approved in court. We only will allow those who come into our Country legally,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Other than that our very strong policy is Catch and Detain. No "Releasing" into the U.S. All will stay in Mexico,' he continued. 'If for any reason it becomes necessary, we will CLOSE our Southern Border.'" ...

     ... AND. Amy Guthrie of the AP: "Mexico's incoming government denied a report Saturday that it plans to allow asylum-seekers to wait in the country while their claims move through U.S. immigration courts, one of several options the Trump administration has been pursuing in negotiations for months. The deal was seen as a way to dissuade thousands of Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S., a process that can take years. In effect, Mexican border towns are already acting as waiting rooms for migrants hoping to start new lives in the U.S. due to bottlenecks at the border. 'There is no agreement of any sort between the incoming Mexican government and the U.S. government,' future Interior Minister Olga Sanchez said in a statement. Hours earlier, The Washington Post quoted her as saying that the incoming administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had agreed to allow migrants to stay in Mexico as a 'short-term solution' while the U.S. considered their applications for asylum. Lopez Obrador will take office on Dec. 1." ...

... "The Criminalization Is Intention." Angelo Guisado in Slate: "... the Justice Department openly admitted it was diverting resources from drug-smuggling operations to incarcerate migrants. This has clearly been part of a broader political strategy of vindicating ... Donald Trump's xenophobia: The Trump administration's nativist rhetoric is more effective when our immigrants are manufactured into criminals, not portrayed as tired, huddled masses of refugees. This practice of criminalizing asylum attempts is also a classic case of entrapment. Systematically rejecting destitute asylum-seekers at the border and stranding them in life-threatening border towns forces these individuals to cross unlawfully.... The recent interim rule to deny asylum to anyone who crosses the border 'illegally' won't have its intended deterrent effect.... Under Trump's latest policy, the U.S. is criminalizing potentially thousands of individuals who have arrived at our nation's doorstep seeking asylum. Worse still, the U.S. knows that these individuals are here to seek asylum; the criminalization is intentional." ...

... Huh? Trump Thinks He Already Shut Down the Border. Or Not. Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump insisted -- twice -- in an odd exchange with reporters Thursday that he already shut down the border with Mexico and even signed an order to do so. 'Actually two days ago we closed the border,' Trump said at Mar-a-Lago during a meeting with journalists. 'We actually just closed it. We said nobody's coming in because it was out of control.'... Then he walked back what he had just insisted, saying he would shut the border in the future if it's necessary.... But minutes later he returned to his insistence that he had already closed the border. 'I've already shut it down, I've already shut it down -- for short periods,' he said in response to a question to clarify the shutdown. 'I've already shut down parts of the border because it was out of control with the rioting on the other side in Mexico. And I just said, "Shut it down." You see it. I mean, it took place two days ago.' When someone asked if he had to sign an order to shut it down, Trump responded: 'Yeah, they call me up, and I sign an order.' Asked if the media could get a copy, Trump responded: 'You don't need it. Don't worry. It's not that big a deal. Maybe to some people it is.' No order on closing the border has been released by the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Another White House Friday Afternoon Holiday News Dump. Jeremy Barr of the Hollywood Reporter: "Bill Shine received an $8.4 million severance package upon leaving his post as co-president of Fox News Channel in May 2017, according to a financial disclosure form he filed upon entering Donald Trump's White House as deputy chief of staff for communications. The document was released to The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, a day after Thanksgiving. Shine, who officially began working in the White House on July 5, will also receive a bonus and options of about $3.5 million from 21st Century Fox both this year and next year. That means that Shine will be paid simultaneously by both the White House and the parent company of Fox News, a network that has had close ties to the Trump administration. The severance agreement expires on May 1, 2019." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

A Must-Read for for the Lunatic Fringe. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Two of the president's longest-serving advisers allege in a new book that scores of officials inside the White House, Congress, the Justice Department and intelligence agencies are 'embedded enemies of President Trump' working to stymie his agenda and delegitimize his presidency. The authors, Corey R. Lewandowski and David N. Bossie, are both Republican operatives who do not work in the administration but are close to Trump and fashion themselves as his outside protectors. They portray the president as victim to disloyalty on his staff and 'swamp creatures' intent on extinguishing his political movement. Their book, 'Trump's Enemies: How the Deep State Is Undermining the Presidency,' which is being released Tuesday and was obtained in advance by The Washington Post, paints a dark and at times conspiratorial portrait of Trump's Washington. The authors identify by name a number of Trump appointees who they claim have formed a 'resistance' inside the government during the first two years of Trump's presidency.... The narrative reads in part like Trump's Twitter grievances in book form." ... Mrs. McC: Other than that, Mr. Rucker, how did you enjoy the book?

Camila Molina of the Raleigh News & Observer: "After living almost a year in a Durham church, an undocumented man was arrested Friday by immigration officers when he left the church to keep an appointment with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Morrisville. Samuel Oliver-Bruno, 47, has been living in the basement of CityWell United Methodist Church for 11 months while he petitions to have his deportation to Mexico delayed. Churches are one of the few places where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not make arrests.... In a joint statement released Friday evening, Reps. David Price and G.K. Butterfield accused USCIS and ICE of coordinating the arrest.... Morrisville Police and the Wake Sheriff's Office arrested" numerous supporters of Oliver-Bruno, including the church's pastor Cleve May, "after multiple warnings to disperse. Oliver-Bruno's son, Daniel Oliver Perez, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in the parking lot after approaching the van to say goodbye to his father. He was charged by Morrisville police with assault on a government officer."

Election 2018

She's So White. Ashton Pittman of the Jackson Free Press: "U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith attended and graduated from a segregation academy that was set up so that white parents could avoid having to send their children to schools with black students, a yearbook reveals. A group photo in the 1975 edition of The Rebel -- the Lawrence County Academy Yearbook -- illustrates the point. High-school cheerleaders smile at the camera as they lie on the ground in front of their pom-poms.... In the center, the mascot, dressed in what appears to be an outfit designed to mimic that of a Confederate general, offers a salute as she holds up a large Confederate flag. Third from the right on the ground is ... Cindy Hyde. The photo ... adds historic context to comments she made in recent weeks about a 'public hanging' that drew condemnations from across the political spectrum." Hyde-Smith went on to send her daughter to another "segregation academy"; the daughter was gradated in 2017. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Eric Bradner & Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith once promoted a measure that praised a Confederate soldier's effort to 'defend his homeland' and pushed a revisionist view of the Civil War.... As a state senator in 2007, Hyde-Smith cosponsored a resolution that honored then-92-year-old Effie Lucille Nicholson Pharr, calling her 'the last known living "Real Daughter" of the Confederacy living in Mississippi.' Pharr's father had been a Confederate soldier in Robert E. Lee's army in the Civil War. The resolution refers to the Civil War as 'The War Between the States.' It says her father 'fought to defend his homeland and contributed to the rebuilding of the country.' It says that with 'great pride,' Mississippi lawmakers 'join the Sons of Confederate Veterans' to honor Pharr. The measure 'rests on an odd combination of perpetuating both the Confederate legacy and the idea that this was not really in conflict with being a good citizen of the nation,' said Nina Silber, the president of the Society of Civil War Historians and a Boston University history professor. 'I also think it's curious that this resolution -- which ostensibly is about honoring the "daughter" -- really seems to be an excuse to glorify the Confederate cause,' Silber said." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll dedicate this to Senator Cindy. We folks up North, we just don't understand:

Carole Cadwalladr of the Guardian: The British "Parliament has used its legal powers to seize internal Facebook documents in an extraordinary attempt to hold the US social media giant to account after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly refused to answer MPs' questions. The cache of documents is alleged to contain significant revelations about Facebook decisions on data and privacy controls that led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It is claimed they include confidential emails between senior executives, and correspondence with Zuckerberg."

Beyond the Beltway

Avi Selk of the Washington Post: Police in Hoover, Alabama, shot dead a young black man, Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr., whom they said had shot others in a local shopping mall on Thanksgiving night. It now appears that, although he may have been involved in an altercation that led to the brief shooting spree, he was not the shooter. The gunman, police said, is still at large.

Baraboo Boys Have First-Amendment Right to Salute Nazis at School-Related Event. AP: "Students who appeared in a photograph that showed several high school boys giving what appears to be a Nazi salute are protected by free-speech rights and are unlikely to face discipline, Baraboo School District officials said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The New York Times story, by Christina Caron, is here. Here's my favorite part: Lori Mueller, the district school superintendent, "wrote that the image had been posted on social media 'to create harm.'" Yeah, the Nazi boys are victims here.

Way Beyond

Daniel Boffey, et al., of the Guardian: "EU leaders have given their backing to the Brexit deal struck with Theresa May, firing the starting pistol on the prime minister's race to win parliamentary approval in time for the UK's withdrawal next March. At an extraordinary summit in Brussels, the bloc's 27 heads of state and government took a decisive and historic step towards sealing the terms of Britain's split from Brussels after 45 years of membership. Unanimous support was given to the terms of a voluminous draft withdrawal treaty, covering citizens' rights, the £39bn divorce bill, and the Irish border issue, along with a 26-page political declaration setting out the basis of the future relationship. In a statement, the EU's leaders stated their intention to build 'as close as possible a partnership' with the UK after Brexit, while warning that they would be 'permanently seized' in future negotiations by the principle that countries outside the bloc cannot enjoy the same rights as those within."

Marc Santora of the New York Times: "... Andrej Babis, prime minister of the Czech Republic and its second-richest person, has long been compared to Donald J. Trump for his populist politics, bombastic style and exuberant wealth. He has also been similarly besieged by opponents he accuses of being part of an organized cabal out to bring him down. On Friday, those tensions hit another high point when lawmakers held a vote of no confidence seeking to end Mr. Babis's government, the second time they have done so since he came to power more than a year ago. Though Mr. Babis survived the challenge, all sides agree that the conflict has become so venomous that it has paralyzed the politics of this small Central European country.... In the most recent and bizarre turn of the scandal [surrounding Babis], it was reported that Mr. Babis's eldest son -- Andrej Babis Jr., 35, known as Junior -- had claimed that his father had had him abducted and held outside the country against his will to prevent him from talking to investigators." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Now, that should give Trump an idea.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (10)

Saw the film "The Post" last night because HBO was having a free week (which ends later today). Well-worth watching. It's not "All the President's Men," but it's a good prequel to it. And it's a feminist film. BTW, criticisms that the story doesn't adequately portray the New York Times' central role in publication of the Pentagon Papers is stupid: it's like complaining that Dickens' novels suck because they doesn't adequately portray Queen Victoria's role in the plights of the characters.

November 25, 2018 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

"The Kaiser was susceptible but never truly controllable. He asserted his authority unpredictably, as if to prove he was still in charge, staging rogue interventions into his own advisers’ policies and sacking ministers without warning. “You cannot have the faintest idea what I have prevented,” his most obsequious aide, Bernhard von Bülow, complained to a friend, “and how much of my time I must devote to restoring order where our All Highest Master has created chaos.”
Another historical figure to compare our arch-plutocrat to and this time it rings so true it's almost as if Wilhelm has resurfaced as an American Kaiser (In Wisconsin the rolls that are used for bratwurst are called Kaisers). Maybe my granddaughter was right–-"when people die they come back as someone else."

I keep wondering about Trump's shelf-life–-the mold on the mess is stinking so bad it's hard to breathe. But I keep remembering how Shakespeare made clear in "Julius Caesar"–-if you are going to remove a tyrant you'd better have a good plan. Sounds a lot like Stringer Bell who said in the "Wire"–-if you're going for the head, you best not miss.

November 25, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Neither Mexico nor Mexican cities/states will be willing to pay the costs of the "border camps" that will start to grow along the south side of the border as asylum seekers start to pile up there. It is possible that the UN could provide support, but improbable that third countries would do so directly as they often do for other refugee camps. Pressure will grow for the US to pay to accommodate asylum seekers in camps, which done properly involves schools, health care, camp governance, transportation, housing, etc. It will cost us more per capita than letting those folks in, where they can find work.

Soon we could have semi-permanent camps where a few get US asylum after years of waiting (e.g. like VN boat people camped in Malaysia, the Philippines, etc. for years); some find work in Mexico and Mexico accepts them; and the least able languish in camps and grow aggrieved against Mexico and the US. Those will be a new kind of threat on the border.

We are starting to excel at creating our own problems. We used to do that by accident, now it seems like we WANT to shoot ourselves in the foot. Must be the bone spurs affecting the brain.

November 25, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Population shifts have always created geopolitical pressure. With the rapid increase in world population since WWII and the economic and communication interconnections that have accompanied globalism's expansion, the pressure points on borders have grown in number and intensity.

Why should we be surprised?

Historically, the United States played an interesting role. Over the better part of two centuries, by accepting millions of refugees, primarily from Europe, more lately from those brown countries to the south, "legally" or not, we acted as a relief valve that bled some of the population pressure away from parts of the world where either the politics or the economy was not meeting people's needs.

During much of that same period, Australia did the same. More recently, in a reversal of roles, Europe did, too.

Now we're all saying, "Enough. We're full up," and I don't see another geographic relief valve in sight.

The alternatives I see are all nasty.

November 25, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/24/opinion/sunday/john-roberts-donald-trump.html?

Have discovered a pleasant alternative to generating my own Sunday Sermon: A Douthat counter-sermon. He's so much fun to pick on.

"It's a reading problem, Ross. You missed the smirk and the jab in Schumer's last line.

" But I am thankful today that he — almost alone among Republicans — stood up to President Trump and for an independent judiciary.”

Read it again and you may notice the independent judiciary business should be taken as a statement about what we do not have under the Roberts' Court so much as it is a statement about what we should, that is, a remark intended to be both an admonishment and a suggested course correction.

Kinda subtle, I thought.

And if it succeeds in prompting Roberts to rein in some of the worst impulses of his bench's corporate-friendly yahoos who have never seen a human right that doesn't look better if it's clothed in garments of Big Money and screened from responsibility by barriers of fine print and limited liability, where's the loss?

Think of the prospect of an independent judiciary as a possible wedge issue Schumer is using to pry the Roberts Court to the Left.

As a matter of power, judging from Roberts and Trumps sparring the wedge is already there. As a matter of politics, there's not much separating the Robert's Court and Trump's gang of predators.

But if the power struggle can nudge the ideology...ah, the Robert's Court might not turn out to be the disaster it is poised to become.

And actual people might benefit without having to incorporate first.

In some states, some might even get to vote."

November 25, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Ken: "But if the power struggle can nudge the ideology...ah, the Robert's Court might not turn out to be the disaster it is poised to become." I was thinking the same thing. Good response to our NYT's cleric.

@Marie: I agree with your complaint about the complaint re: some who wrote about "The Post." We here are streaming "House of Cards" where Claire is now president––there is so much intrigue and complicated plot lines you feel exhausted at the end of each segment. There is an early scene where one of Claire's secretaries is telling her the venomous backlash she is receiving from various and sundry–-all the names she is being called--"lots of which start with C–-but you don't want to hear those." She tells him , yes, she does. If we thought Francis Underwood was devious, we are in for more dead branches to fall from that tree.

Compare Claire to Julia D.'s character in Veep and we have images of female leaders who are tough as nails and command absolute loyalty or else, although there's no comedy in Claire–-she's out for bear–-bare and bloody.

And before Akhilleus corrects me, since he knows "The Wire," it was Omar who said, "You come at the King, you best not miss."

November 25, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@Patrick: Yes to all that. Instead of forcing Mexico to pay for The Wall, the U.S. will pay Mexico for substandard "camps" run by corrupt officials. I am exhausted from so much winning.

November 25, 2018 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

One of the better lines from the best television novel ever created. I didn’t see any need for a correction (not feeling my inner schoolmarm today), the idea is the same, and well said. But you’re right, they are slightly separate ideas. Going for the king is one thing, having a plan for the fallout is another.

Like any half decent chess player, you have to look four or five moves down the road (just beat my almost-eight year old with a quick checkmate, not because I’m a mean daddy but because I wanted to show him that what seemed like an immediately satisfying capture of my bishop left his king wide open. Next time he’ll be thinking ahead). In this case, “killing” the King leaves us with Spanish Inquisition mikey.

Probably better to hobble the king and chase his fat ass around the board for the next two years, picking off all his defenses, and hoping the Democrats get their shit together for 2020 and the aftermath.

As Lester Freemon says in The Wire, “All the pieces matter.”

November 25, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Ken et al.

https://phys.org/news/2009-11-mankind-earth-resources-alarming.html

November 25, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterWhyte Owen

In the WaPo piece on "DiJiT meets the deficit", Kelly is quoted as saying DiJiT, when asked, guessed that the Chairman JCS is paid $5 million year, a bit more than the approximate $200K.

He would be amazed to learn that the average soldier is willing (notionally) to risk his/her life 24/7 365, for less annual pay than the cost of a couples ticket to a fundraising gala. The idea is totally unknowable to him.

(Also ... the payoff for those fourstars comes after retirement. Their pensions are not capped, hence are higher than their salaries. Plus there's all that "retired general" board, consulting, weapons-builder VP, etc. cash. Pittance to Wall Street types, but looks good to folks who spent decades scraping by.)

November 25, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.