Parliamentary Labour reminds me of the DNC, except without the likeability or competence.
Best commentary of the Blairites in Parliament that I have heard in a very long time.
Category: Good Writing
Quote of the Day
Think rich people get too many nice things from the government? Raise their damn taxes. Don’t use it as an excuse to make giving nice things to everyone else so complicated that it practically isn’t worth bothering.
This is a most excellent take-down of the over use of means testing of social programs.
It is both morally and fiscally bankrupt.
Yes, I am referring to Hillary Clinton’s objection to Bernie Sanders proposal for free college tuition was the remote possibility that Donald Trumps kids might get a free college education.
Headline of the Day
Why I’m Supporting the Demonic Creature That Emerged From the Depths of Hell In This Year’s Presidential Election
I don’t need to explain this one, do I?
Headline of the Day
Uber’s Dud Private Dick given a Hard Time by Judge in Stiff Surge Case.
The short version is that The Register has an article about a setback that the sociopaths Uber suffered in court after the judge found their use of a private detective to dig up dirt on critics.
Stephen Colbert Revives His ‘The Word’ Segment With ‘Trumpiness’ | Crooks and Liars
The Republican National Convention has proven such a clusterf%$# that Stephen Colbert revived his conservative pundit parody character for a new episode of The Word:
Stephen Colbert brought back his famous ‘The Word’ segment from his Comedy Central days for his first night of coverage of the Republican National Convention, and he did not disappoint. From ‘Truthiness’ to ‘Trumpiness’, Colbert explained that’s how far we’ve devolved in just a decade.
It was not his best “The Word”, but it was pretty good.
Comedy writers must be in paroxysms of bliss over recent developments.
Tweet of the Day
“If you are playing Pokemon Go, please do not to attempt to ‘collect’ Louie Gohmert. He is a person.” #RNCinCLE— Robert Yasumura (@teamyasumura) July 18, 2016
Robert Yasumura just won the internet.
Quote of the Day
I’m all for pragmatism and common sense in these things. All the regulars here know that. But, in this case, I’d almost rather have an open, declared enemy than this back-stabbing false balancing oligarch sock puppet. He’s just a prettier version of Joe Lieberman. He’s one of that tiny handful of people who make me sound like the people I deride as the rainbow farting unicorn-mounted purity cavalry.
—a Comment from ncsteve on Talking Points Memo in response to the news that contemptible Evan Bayh is running for Senate Again.
I wholeheartedly agree.
Quote of the Day
Clinton will probably get through this, but if she has any plans to shoot people on major thoroughfares or conduct human sacrifices in honor of the goddess of time and death, she’d be wise to put them on hold.
—Eirc Zorn explaining how he’s willing to cut Hillary Clinton a lot of slack because she is not Donald Trump.
Tweet of the Day
One of those uses the street finds for technology is smartphones finally showing us all how US cops just straight-up murder black people.— William Gibson (@GreatDismal) July 7, 2016
Yes, this is the author of Neuromancer, and yes, he is completely correct.
Quote of the Day
People ignore experts because the experts have been systematically misleading them about what the benefits of policies are likely to be.
—Sandwichman at Angry Bear
He is talking about how various “experts” are perplexed by the fact that a majority of the voters in the UK ignored them and voted for Brexit.
As he notes, the experts for years have been saying that structures can be established for the winners to support the losers, but the policies they support not only make 90% of the population worse off, but it diminishes the political, economic, and, social power of the bottom 90%, which means a withdrawal of support.
This leads to more policies that disadvantage a majority of the population, further increase the power and wealth of the elites.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
Read Taibbi
He makes what should be the obvious point, “If you believe there’s such a thing as “too much democracy,” you probably don’t believe in democracy at all:
In 1934, at the dawn of the Stalinist Terror, the great Russian writer Isaac Babel offered a daring quip at the International Writers Conference in Moscow:
Everything is given to us by the party and the government. Only one right is taken away: the right to write badly.
A onetime Soviet loyalist who was eventually shot as an enemy of the state, Babel was likely trying to say something profound: that the freedom to make mistakes is itself an essential component of freedom.
As a rule, people resent being saved from themselves. And if you think depriving people of their right to make mistakes makes sense, you probably never had respect for their right to make decisions at all.
This is all relevant in the wake of the Brexit referendum, in which British citizens narrowly voted to exit the European Union.
Because the vote was viewed as having been driven by the same racist passions that are fueling the campaign of Donald Trump, a wide swath of commentators suggested that democracy erred, and the vote should perhaps be canceled, for the Britons’ own good.
Social media was filled with such calls. “Is it just me, or does #Brexit seem like a moment when the government should overrule a popular referendum?” wrote one typical commenter.
On op-ed pages, there was a lot of the same. Harvard economics professor and chess grandmaster Kenneth Rogoff wrote a piece for the Boston Globe called “Britain’s democratic failure“………
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I would argue that voters are the critical ingredient to save elites from themselves, but Sullivan sees it the other way, and has Plato on his side. Though some of his analysis seems based on a misread of ancient history (see here for an amusing exploration of the topic), he’s right about Plato, the source of a lot of these “the ancients warned us about democracy” memes. He just left out the part where Plato, at least when it came to politics, was kind of a jerk.
The great philosopher despised democracy, believing it to be a system that blurred necessary social distinctions, prompting children, slaves and even animals to forget their places. He believed it a system that leads to over-permissiveness, wherein the people “drink too deeply of the strong wine of freedom.”
………
You have to be a snob of the first order, completely high on your own gas, to try to apply these arguments to present-day politics, imagining yourself as an analog to Plato’s philosopher-kings.
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“Too much democracy” used to be an argument we reserved for foreign peoples who tried to do things like vote to demand control over their own oil supplies.
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It doesn’t mean much to be against torture until the moment when you’re most tempted to resort to it, or to have faith in voting until the result of a particular vote really bothers you. If you think there’s ever such a thing as “too much democracy,” you probably never believed in it in the first place. And even low-Information voters can sense it.
He’s right. As political philosopher and political prankster Dick Tuck once said, “The people have spoken, the bastards.”
At the end of the day, an fair election is a fair election.
Quote of the Day
You know someone has lived a life when, at their funeral, you can see Kris Kristofferson get introduced to the president of Turkey.
—Charlie Pierce on the funeral of Muhammad Ali
Truly a remarkable live.
But Where is the Money in That?
It is obvious that Russia has been much more aggressive in its dealings with the west lately, and the west has responded by calls for rearmament and massive military exercises near Russia’s border.
Russia has responded by moving military resources to the borders of Poland and the Baltic states.
Turn of events has the father of Glasnost, Mikhail Gorbachev, saying that the US war on Russia never ended.
Well here is a revolutionary proposal, how about trying diplomacy?
From a military standpoint, Western planners’ biggest headache is the defense of the Baltic states, located at the edge of NATO territory and hopelessly outnumbered by Russian troops. Indeed, the need to deter Russia will top the agenda when alliance leaders meet next month in Warsaw. But as they contemplate what military means might stop a swift, Crimea-type land grab, they should also review what they know about Moscow’s beliefs and motivations — and choose a path that might defuse, rather than elevate, regional tensions.
NATO’s fears are not unfounded. In Ukraine, Moscow achieved surprising success with unorthodox tactics that included the use of “voluntary battalions” and unidentified troops. President Putin has made it clear that Russia sees itself as the protective power for all Russians. Theoretically, this also includes the large Russian minorities in Estonia and Latvia.
Thus, the alliance is currently doing what can be expected from a collective defensive organization: it is ramping up defenses. In addition to the decisions at the last summit in Wales, Washington is sending a continually rotating brigade (about 5,000 men) to Eastern Europe. Furthermore, NATO is planning to station a multinational battalion in each of the Baltic States and Poland (altogether about 4,000 men). Romania recently reported the completion of a part of the European ballistic missile defense system. NATO is thus on track to better defend its easternmost allies.
But alliance leaders need a better approach, for even the planned measures are inadequate to mount a military defense. A recent RAND study found that available troops could hold off a Russian attack for a maximum of three days. For serious resistance, about 35,000 soldiers would be needed — and this imbalance is about to get worse. Rushing ahead of the anticipated Warsaw decisions, Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu recently announced the stationing of three new divisions (up to 30,000 men) on Russia’s western and southern borders.
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In fact, Russia has accepted the expansion of NATO, however reluctantly. Moscow is also clear-eyed about the ultimate consequences of an attack on an alliance member: war, and possibly with nuclear weapons. What Russia does not accept is further expansion into the post-Soviet space. To Moscow, therefore, NATO’s activism looks like hysteria and a pretext for an offensive rearmament.
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To prevent such a scenario and, in the absence of a fundamentally new approach, the Warsaw meeting should lead NATO back to a Cold War strategy that mixes deterrence and cooperation. What became known in the 1960s as the Harmel Doctrine – that is, the combination of stronger defense and the offer of dialogue with the Soviets – was ultimately implemented in NATO’s dual-track decision of 1979. Today, NATO needs a new dual-track strategy adapted to 21st-century needs.
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The proponents of deterrence are right: The Kremlin must be shown the limits. But deterrence alone is simply not enough. In order to better gauge Russia’s intentions and prevent a costly decade of mutual rearmament, the alliance must re-discover diplomacy — starting in Warsaw.
With the end the Cold War, the policy of the US and the NATO alliance the past 25 years its policy has been to try to reduce Russia to a 3rd world vassal state, now that Russia has the inclination, and the wherewithal, to resist this, we are back into an arms race.
The only people who win are the the defense contractors.
The NRA: Home of the .223 Caliber Micropenis
lol they deleted it but looks like the @NRA may have been hacked pic.twitter.com/MqusCnb8g6— Connor (@alsoconnor) June 16, 2016
It appears that someone hacked the NRA’s Twitter account.
Either that, or someone just said, “I quit,” in the most awesome way ever.
[on edit]
Damn. It turns out to be to be a hoax, but what a lovely hoax.
America’s Finest News Source Must Read OP/ED on Orlando
At Times Like This, We Need To Pull Ourselves Up, Hold Our Loved Ones Close, Block Any Legislation That Would Prevent Suspected Terrorists From Buying Guns, And Say A Prayer For The Victims
Snark of the Day
Peter Thiel Does the Impossible!
Nobody’s ever sympathized with Gawker before.
Too True.
Legal Exchange of the Day
If someone threatens me with a libel suit, I have to remember to cite Arkell v. Pressdram.
It involved an English magazine, Private Eye, which had a uncovered that a man named James Arkell had been taking kickbacks to throw debt collection business to some firms.
Arkell’s solicitor demanded a retraction:
9th April 1971
Dear Sir,
We act for Mr Arkell who is Retail Credit Manager of Granada TV Rental Ltd. His attention has been drawn to an article appearing in the issue of Private Eye dated 9th April 1971 on page 4. The statements made about Mr Arkell are entirely untrue and clearly highly defamatory. We are therefore instructed to require from you immediately your proposals for dealing with the matter.
Mr Arkell’s first concern is that there should be a full retraction at the earliest possible date in Private Eye and he will also want his costs paid. His attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of your reply.
Yours,
(Signed)
Goodman Derrick & Co.
Private Eye, published by Pressdram, Ltd., made this response:
Dear Sirs,
We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr. J. Arkell.
We note that Mr Arkell’s attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: f%$# off.
Yours,
Private Eye
(%$# mine)
I’m going to have to remember the legal citation.
How Evocative
Last night said that he had mixed emotions about Ted Cruz leaving the race, because it cleared the decks for Trump:
Is this a yay? I’m so conflicted. I mean, Ted Cruz lost, but it’s because Donald Trump won. It’s like finding out your herpes is gone but it’s because your dick fell off.
This is an almost perfect metaphor for the campaign season.
Quote of the Day
There is one aspect, however, in which Game of Thrones has a claim to being the most realistic show on television. Despite the wizards, the wights and the way every character manages to maintain perfect hair even when they’re being pointlessly tortured to death, there is something horribly relatable about Martin’s world of Westeros, whose characters have now become part of public myth. What sets it apart is not the monsters, the nudity or the festering gallons of gratuitous gore, but the overwhelming sense that the plot got run off the rails three books ago and is being steered towards a terrible precipice by a bunch of bickering, power-mad maniacs. This, coincidentally, happens to be the plot of the entire 21st century so far.
As an aside, I probably should to watch a few episodes this show eventually, if just to understand the Obama/Anger Translator Luther “Khaleesi is coming to Westeros” reference.
Today’s Must Read
Edward Snowden has an essay in The Intercept on on the nature whistle-blowing that you really need to read:
………
If harmfulness and authorization make no difference, what explains the distinction between the permissible and the impermissible disclosure?
The answer is control. A leak is acceptable if it’s not seen as a threat, as a challenge to the prerogatives of the institution. But if all of the disparate components of the institution — not just its head but its hands and feet, every part of its body — must be assumed to have the same power to discuss matters of concern, that is an existential threat to the modern political monopoly of information control, particularly if we’re talking about disclosures of serious wrongdoing, fraudulent activity, unlawful activities. If you can’t guarantee that you alone can exploit the flow of controlled information, then the aggregation of all the world’s unmentionables — including your own — begins to look more like a liability than an asset.
Read the rest.