Thursday
Jan092020
The Commentariat -- January 10, 2020
Afternoon Update:
** The One Who Got Away. John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "On the day the U.S. military killed a top Iranian commander in Baghdad, U.S. forces carried out another top secret mission against a senior Iranian military official in Yemen, according to U.S. officials. The strike targeting Abdul Reza Shahlai, a financier and key commander of Iran's elite Quds Force who has been active in Yemen, did not result in his death, according to four U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The unsuccessful operation may indicate that the Trump administration's killing of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani last week was part of a broader operation than previously explained, raising questions about whether the mission was designed to cripple the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or solely to prevent an imminent attack on Americans as originally stated."
Jonathan Chait: “Deep inside a long, detailed Wall Street Journal report about President Trump's foreign policy advisers is an explosive nugget: 'Mr. Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said.' This is a slightly stronger iteration of a fact the New York Times reported three days ago, to wit, 'pointed out to one person who spoke to him on the phone last week that he had been pressured to take a harder line on Iran by some Republican senators whose support he needs now more than ever amid an impeachment battle.' This would not mean Trump ordered the strike entirely, or even primarily, in order to placate Senate Republicans. But it does constitute an admission that domestic political considerations influenced his decision. That would, of course, constitute a grave dereliction of duty.... Of course, using his foreign policy authority for domestic political gain is the offense Trump is being impeached for." The Wall Street Journal report is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It is entirely plausible that Trump assassinated a foreign guy to distract from being impeached for messing with a foreign guy. And you get bet he doesn't see anything wrong with it: you might call it a "perfect assassination."
Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Marianne Williamson, the self-help author and spiritual adviser whose long-shot presidential campaign called for reparations and a Department of Peace, announced on Friday that she would drop out of the race." Mrs. McC: I'm having such a sad over this I might have to buy a self-help book to "realign my psychic forces." ~~~
~~~ Bridget Read of New York: "Marianne Williamson -- self-described 'bitch for God,' defender of yoga girls, vanquisher of dark psychic forces -- has finally dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential-primary race.... 'To the remaining Democratic candidates,' she said, 'I wish you all my best on the road ahead. It was an honor being among you. Whichever one of you wins the nomination, I will be there with all my energy and in full support.' And as always, she believes 'love will prevail.' Trust Williamson to drop out on the day of a lunar eclipse, as she ascends to a higher plane of celestial being."
Adam Raymond of New York: "Republican Doug Collins, a congressman from Georgia, said Wednesday that Democrats' are in love with terrorists.' He also accused his Democratic colleagues of mourning slain Iranian General Qasem Soleimani more than 'our Gold Star families who were the ones who suffered under Soleimani.' The comments were made to Fox News' Lou Dobbs.... In a tweet Friday, Collins apologized, saying he does not in fact think that Democrats are 'in love' with terrorists.... What makes the comments even more absurd, though, is that Trump's Republican allies are falsely accusing Democrats of doing things Trump has actually done. He has literally claimed that he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un 'fell in love.' And as far as respect for Gold Star families goes, there's only one person in Washington who's engaged in a protracted, personal spat with one and he's sitting in the White House."
Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday that she expects to send the articles of impeachment against President Trump over to the Senate next week to launch his long-awaited trial. The move comes more than three weeks after the House passed two articles of impeachment against Trump over his dealings with Ukraine and amid increasing pressure on the Speaker to drop her hold on the articles. 'I have asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to be prepared to bring to the Floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate,' Pelosi wrote in a letter to Democrats." The New York Times story is here.
Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration hit Iran with more sanctions Friday in the first concrete response to the attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq this week, which were in retaliation for the U.S. airstrike that killed the most powerful Iranian military commander. The sanctions targeted Iran's metal industries, and eight senior military and national security officials who U.S. officials said were involved in the ballistic missile attacks on two bases in Iraq that house U.S. military personnel." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Steve Mnuchin announced this at a joint presser with Mike Pompeo. Pompeo went on to take a few questions with reporters; either all Democrats & Republicans lied through their teeth about what intel they received at a classified briefing in which Pompeo participated -- or Pompeo lied this afternoon. You can't believe anything coming out of the mouths of any administration officials. ~~~
~~~ Update. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "For six days after Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani's death, the Trump administration assured us he was behind 'imminent' attacks but declined to offer details. Then Trump came out Thursday and just said it: The deceased Quds Force commander was going to 'blow up' a U.S. Embassy. There have to be real questions about the accuracy of that claim. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced a package of new Iran sanctions Friday, but unanswered questions about the strike on Soleimani loomed over [the press conference].... NBC News's Peter Alexander asked [Pompeo] about the claims by the senators ... that the briefings included no such evidence about embassies..., and Pompeo initially seemed to directly dispute their claims and confirm that the briefing included the embassies.... Alexander pressed him on it ... [and] Pompeo became less explicit and reverted to talking more broadly...."
Edward Wong & Megan Specia of the New York Times: "The State Department on Friday rebuffed the Iraqi government's request to begin discussions on pulling out troops, saying that any American officials going to Baghdad during a state of heightened tensions would not discuss a 'troop withdrawal,' as the Iraqi prime minister had requested. Instead, discussions would be about the 'appropriate force posture in the Middle East.' The statement from Washington was a direct rebuttal to Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq, and was certain to add to the friction between the two nations. The prime minister said earlier on Friday that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to send a delegation from the United States to discuss steps for the withdrawal of the approximately 5,200 American troops from his country, in the aftermath of a deadly American military strike ordered by President Trump that many Iraqis say violated their country's sovereignty."
~~~~~~~~~~
Catie Edmondson & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The House voted on Thursday to force President Trump to go to Congress for authorization before taking further military action against Iran, in a sharp rebuke of his decision to ratchet up hostilities with Tehran without the explicit approval of the legislative branch. The vote was 224 to 194, almost entirely along party lines, to curtail Mr. Trump's war-making power. It followed a bitterly partisan debate in which Democrats insisted that the president must involve Congress in any escalation against Iran, and Republicans -- following Mr. Trump's lead -- accused Democrats of coddling the enemy by questioning the commander in chief at a dangerous moment.... Mr. Trump took to Twitter early Thursday morning to rally House Republicans to oppose the measure, calling on them to 'vote against Crazy Nancy Pelosi's War Powers Resolution.'... Only three Republicans -- Representatives Matt Gaetz and Francis Rooney, both of Florida, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky -- along with the House's lone independent, Representative Justin Amash, joined Democrats in supporting the measure. Eight Democrats broke ranks to oppose it." The AP story is here.
Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "An Iranian missile accidentally brought down a Ukrainian jetliner over Iran this week, killing everyone aboard, American and allied officials said on Thursday, adding a tragic coda to the escalated military conflict between Washington and Tehran. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said his country had intelligence that an Iranian surface-to-air missile brought down the jetliner, which was carrying 63 Canadians among its some 176 passengers and crew. Mr. Trudeau said his conclusion was based on a preliminary review of the evidence but called for a full investigation 'to be convinced beyond all doubt.'... A security camera captured the impact -- first the predawn darkness, then a series of blinding bursts of light in the distance, followed by a storm of burning debris in the foreground." The AP's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Tim Hepher & David Shepardson of Reuters: "The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has accepted an invitation from Iran to take part in its investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian airplane in Tehran, the agency confirmed late on Thursday.... Canada, which had dozens of passengers onboard, has also assigned an expert, while a team from Ukraine held discussions in Tehran on Thursday, [Farhad] Parvaresh[, Iran's representative at the International Civil Aviation Organization,] said in a telephone interview." ~~~
~~~ Rob Gillies & Tim Sullivan of the AP: "'All is well!'... Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday night, days after a U.S. drone strike killed Iran's most powerful general, and Iran, after a barrage of missiles, had signaled it was stepping back from further escalation. But 27 seconds before Trump's tweet, commercial flight trackers had lost contact with a Ukrainian International Airlines jet that had just taken off from Tehran's main airport. On board were 176 people, including 138 passengers on their way to Canada and at least 63 Canadian citizens and 11 Ukrainians. The plane ... slammed moments later into the ground.... What had begun with a drone attack on Gen. Qassem Soleimani's motorcade at the Baghdad airport had suddenly rippled outward until dozens of Iranian-Canadians, dozens of Iranian students studying in Canada, were dead.... Some in Canada quickly blamed Trump for the disaster.... Robert Bothwell, a professor ... at the University of Toronto, noted that Trump has said nothing about the dead Canadians.... 'Not a word of sympathy.' By Thursday night, Trump had yet to mention Canada's tragedy. Instead, in a campaign rally in Toledo, he told crowds that Soleimani's killing was 'American justice,' while deriding Democrats for questioning his decision to carry out the attack without first consulting Congress."
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump suggested Thursday that he ordered the killing of Iran's top military commander last week to disrupt a previously undisclosed plot to attack the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.... 'We did it because they were looking to blow up our embassy. We also did it for other reasons that were very obvious. Somebody died, one of our military people died. People were badly wounded just a week before,' he added. Trump was still vague about the threat.... Trump declined to share further details about the alleged plot to destroy the embassy, answering a follow-up question on the subject by suggesting that evidence of such a plot was out in the open. He pointed to protesters who stormed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad just days before the drone attack that killed Soleimani. Although it wasn't clear, the president seemed to indicate that it was the protesters who marched on the embassy who were trying to blow it up.... 'If you look at the protesters, they were rough warriors. They weren't protesters. They were Iranian-backed -- some were from Iraq -- but they were Iranian-backed.'... Sen. Richard Blumenthal called [Trump's claim] 'inconsistent' with the information provided to lawmakers on Wednesday." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Apparently Trump was trying out a new lie. If Soleimani had been behind a plot to "blow up the U.S. embassy" in Baghdad, that would have been the first thing intelligence agencies would have revealed. According to several members of Congress, in the classified meetings they had with intelligence officials, the meagre intel they received did not mention any plan to blow up the embassy. ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "It has been nearly a week since the killing of Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, and the justification for the strike is still clear as mud. The Trump administration initially said Soleimani was planning 'imminent' attacks on Americans and U.S. interests in the Middle East, but it hasn't provided much in the way of elaboration. It has since oscillated between pointing to the imminence of such attacks and suggesting that the strike was retaliatory for what Soleimani had already done. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to say whether the attacks were days or weeks away. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, unambiguously endorsed the idea of imminent attacks, but he also said the intelligence didn't 'exactly say who, what, when, where.' And now, in the past 24 hours, it has become even more opaque.... Appearing on the 'Today' show [Thursday, Mike] Pence said the Trump administration did not share some of the most important information because of its sensitivity.... And then, to top it all off, Trump came out around noon on Thursday and disclosed one of Soleimani's alleged plots: to blow up a U.S. embassy." ~~~
~~~ Trump Adds More Embassies to Supposed Soleimani Hit List. Will Steakin of ABC News: "... Donald Trump kicked off the 2020 election year at his first campaign rally by touting and defending his order to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and slamming his political opponents who questioned the move.... 'Soleimani was actively planning new attacks, and he was looking very seriously at our embassies, and not just the embassy in Baghdad...,' he [said].... 'And yet now I see the radical left Democrats have expressed outrage over the termination of this horrible terrorist,' Trump told the crowd in Toledo."
Working Title: "Donald Trump Is a Fucking Idiot." John Kerry, in a New York Times op-ed: "This moment was nothing if not foreseeable the moment Mr. Trump abandoned the 2015 [nuclear] agreement [with Iran], which was working, and chose instead to isolate us from our allies, narrow our options in the region and slam shut the door to tackling additional issues with Iran through constructive diplomacy.... Presidents make lonely, difficult decisions about the use of force to protect our interests -- usually with the solace of knowing at least that diplomacy had failed. The tragedy of our current plight is that diplomacy was succeeding before it was abandoned."
Nicole Gaouette & Jamie Gangel of CNN: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was a driving force behind ... Donald Trump's decision to kill a top Iranian general, sources inside and around the administration tell CNN, a high-stakes move that demonstrates Pompeo's status as the most influential national security official in the Trump administration. Taking Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani 'off the battlefield' has been a goal for the top US diplomat for a decade, several sources told CNN. Targeting Iran's second most powerful official -- the leader of the Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, the politically and economically powerful military group with regional clout -- was Pompeo's idea, according to a source from his inner circle. That source said the secretary brought the suggestion to Trump. Pompeo 'was the one who made the case to take out Soleimani, it was him absolutely,' this source said." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The CNN story, along with a NYT story linked a couple of days ago, refutes earlier NYT (and other) reporting that Trump angrily but surprisingly chose the most extreme option from a menu of optional responses to violent Green Zone protests, stunning top Pentagon officials. Apparently, those Pentagon officials should have been paying more attention to Pompeo. BTW, because he has been a Congressman, the CIA director and Secretary of State, we tend to think of Pompeo as a Washington fixture. But ten years ago, Pompeo was an obscure CEO of a company that partnered with the Koch brothers' industries. He was elected to Congress in the 2010 Tea Party wave, also a Koch boys project. His claim to fame was badgering Hillary Clinton on Benghazi & making up 4-Pinocchio stuff about her. This is what passes for "statesmanship" in the GOP.
Parisa Hafezi & Babak Dehghanpisheh of Reuters: "A[n Iranian] Revolutionary Guards commander said Iran would take 'harsher revenge soon' after Tehran launched missile attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq in retaliation for last week's U.S. killing of an Iranian general, Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday.)
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday once again rebuffed growing calls to send the House's articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate for trial and refused to provide a timetable for doing so, saying only that after weeks of delay, she would probably move 'soon.' Ms. Pelosi reiterated a call for Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, to detail the rules for a Senate trial so she could choose a team of lawmakers to prosecute the House's abuse of power and obstruction of Congress case."
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is backing a resolution to change the Senate's rules to allow for lawmakers to dismiss articles of impeachment against President Trump before the House sends them over. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced on Thursday that McConnell has signed on as a co-sponsor to the resolution, which he introduced earlier this week.... Changing the rules would either require a two-thirds vote or for Republicans to deploy the 'nuclear' option. The resolution would give the House 25 days to send articles of impeachment over to the Senate. After that, a senator could offer a motion to dismiss 'with prejudice for failure by the House of Representatives to prosecute such articles' with a simple majority vote, according to Hawley's proposal. McConnell has repeatedly lashed out at Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for delaying sending over the two articles of impeachment."
Jury Foreman Colludes with Slacker Defendant Living Large in Public Housing. Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "... Mitch McConnell and ... Donald Trump met Wednesday at the White House and discussed the upcoming Senate impeachment trial, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. McConnell, one of the sources said, walked Trump through the trial format and discussed how Senate Republicans were reacting to the developments around the trial.... The senator from Kentucky has not shared with the White House the text of the resolution that would set up the trial, according to one of the sources, who insists there's no negotiation with the GOP leader's office on how the language should be drafted. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has demanded to see the resolution before sending the two articles of impeachment to the Senate." (Also linked yesterday.)
Rudy Giuliani, drooling, pants-unzipped Constitutional scholar, has written an opinion piece, which apparently only the Daily Caller would run, arguing that the Supremes should step in & declare the Articles of Impeachment against his "client" to be unconstitutional. I have reluctantly linked Giuliani's screed so you won't have to look for it.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly praised Major Golsteyn and in December appeared with him at a campaign fund-raiser. -- New York Times
There are war criminals we assassinate, and (alleged) war criminals we laud. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ~~~
~~~ Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "An Army general has denied a request by an officer pardoned in an open murder case by President Trump to have his Special Forces tab reinstated, setting up a potential flash point with the commander in chief. The decoration for retired Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn was denied Dec. 3 by Lt. Gen. Francis M. Beaudette, the commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, the Army disclosed Thursday. Beaudette's decision is not final, and the service said in a statement that it will next have an administrative panel consider whether it should reinstate the Special Forces tab and a Distinguished Service Cross -- the U.S. military's second-highest valor award -- and expunge a letter of reprimand Golsteyn received in connection with his case. Golsteyn was awaiting trial this year in the alleged murder of a suspected Taliban bombmaker in Marja, Afghanistan, in February 2010. The service opened an investigation into Golsteyn after he disclosed the killing during a 2011 polygraph as the CIA was considering him for a job. Army officials revoked the tab and valor award in 2014 while issuing the reprimand and charged Golsteyn with murder in 2018.... In December..., [Golsteyn] appeared with the president at a closed-door Republican fundraiser in Miami."
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A divided federal appeals court has lifted a lower court's order blocking $3.6 billion in military construction funds that ... Donald Trump planned to use to finance an expanded and improved border wall. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order on Wednesday granting the Trump administration's request to stay the injunction that U.S. District Court Judge David Briones, based in El Paso, Texas, issued last month." The plaintiffs have not decided whether or not to appeal the decision. (Also linked yesterday.)
Julia Conley of Common Dreams: "As Puerto Rico dealt with the fallout from a series of devastating earthquakes in recent days, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined calls Thursday for the Trump administration to release $18 billion in disaster aid to the island more than two years after the money was appropriated. The funds were meant to go to the U.S. territory after Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused nearly $150 billion in damage in September 2017.... On Thursday, about two-thirds of the island once again had no power and hundreds of thousands of people were without running water following the earthquakes, including a 6.4-magnitude earthquake which struck Tuesday[.] 'We call upon the White House to stop its unlawful withholding of funds from Puerto Rico,' Pelosi said at a press conference Thursday. 'There are needs that need to be met, there has been a disaster designated, but the ongoing withholding of funds appropriated by Congress to Puerto Rico is illegal.'"
Now, This Was a Hoax. Devlin Barrett & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "A Justice Department inquiry launched more than two years ago to mollify conservatives clamoring for more investigations of Hillary Clinton has effectively ended with no tangible results, and current and former law enforcement officials said they never expected the effort to produce much of anything. John Huber, the U.S. attorney in Utah, was tapped in November 2017 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to look into concerns raised by President Trump and his allies in Congress that the FBI had not fully pursued cases of possible corruption at the Clinton Foundation and during Clinton's time as secretary of state, when the U.S. government decided not to block the sale of a company called Uranium One." The Raw Story has a summary of the WashPo report.
Way Beyond the Beltway
U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, failed to get clearance from Queen Elizabeth II before announcing their unorthodox plan to become part-time, financially independent royals and divide their time between Britain and North America. But the couple had been planning the move for months.... Soon after the couple issued a statement saying they planned to 'step back' from their royal duties, they elaborated their thinking on a new, slickly produced website. The site was quietly designed by a firm in Canada with no input from Buckingham Palace.... It has swiftly come to symbolize what palace officials regard as a rogue operation by Prince Harry and Meghan, one that now threatens the unity of the House of Windsor and the future of two of its most popular members.... The Duke and Duchess of Sussex ... felt forced to disclose their plans prematurely after they learned that the Sun, a tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, got wind of the internal discussions about their status and was preparing a story, two people with ties to the family said." ~~~
~~~ Afua Hirsch in a New York Times op-ed: "If the media paid more attention to Britain's communities of color, perhaps it would find the announcement far less surprising. With a new prime minister whose track record includes overtly racist statements, some of which would make even Donald Trump blush, a Brexit project linked to native nationalism and a desire to rid Britain of large numbers of immigrants, and an ever thickening loom of imperial nostalgia, many of us are also thinking about moving. From the very first headline about her being '(almost) straight outta Compton' and having 'exotic' DNA, the racist treatment of Meghan has been impossible to ignore."
News Lede
AP: "U.S. employers downshifted their hiring in December, adding 145,000 jobs as consumer spending appeared to aid gains in the retail and hospitality sectors. The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate held at 3.5% for the second straight month, prolonging a half-century low. Hiring slipped after robust gains of 256,000 in November caused in part by the end of a strike at General Motors."
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Reader Comments (9)
Pray tell how killing one guy would have disrupted a plan—already in the works—to blow up the US embassy? Was Soleimani the only guy with the combination to the locker the explosives were kept in? Was he in sole possession of the embassy floor plan? Was he the guy who was going to plant the bomb and personally detonate it?
Seems to me if this was a serious plan all ready to go, the killing of Soleimani would have initiated the go ahead within hours. They really couldn’t come up with a better lie? How about Soleimani had access to Fatty’s tax returns and was planning on releasing them to the failing NY Times? Or maybe his wife was planning on bringing out a new line of fashion knock-offs to stick it to Princess Ivanka. Trump just makes shit up with no thought about whether or not his lies are remotely believable.
Such a joke. He’s not even a half-assed fabricator. He even fucks up his own lies. In grade school he probably told the teacher that he ate his homework. Schmuck.
Hey, I figured out why Trump put a hold on emergency relief funds for Puerto Rico. He asked them to dig up dirt on the Bidens and they told him to fuck off. Wasn’t Hunter Biden spotted in San Juan a couple of years ago? VERY suspicious. McConnell will subpoena him to ask about that at next week’s show trial. “It appears that Hunter Biden showed up with a tan a couple of years back. That’s why we’re not giving Puerto Rico any money!”
Doesn’t that sound better than “Because we’re racist pigs and vindictive assholes”?
In just the same way as “very stable genius” sounds better than “erratic addlepate”.
@Akhilleus: Your joke theory about Trump's tax returns is just as plausible as "he planned to blow up the embassy."
A practical reason not to assassinate enemy leaders is that they will be replaced. "The Quds Force 'will be unchanged from the time of his predecessor,'" Ayatollah Khamenei said, in replacing Soleimani. In addition, there's a good chance the new Quds leader Esmail Ghaani has less control over the Quds forces & their proxies than did Soleimani, a national hero. So this is but one of numerous ways Trump's "plan" has made the situation with Iran even less stable.
As foolish as the idea is, the Blob has long believed in a theory of "decapitation." The fact is it has backfired badly whenever it has been attempted, and is one of the reasons for the growth of drug cartels in Colombia and Mexico. If you put El Chapo in jail it does not mean his cartel becomes impotent through infighting and lack of leadership, it means that now you are going to have it metastasize like a cancer, and each of the new cartel leaders will be at least as ruthless and cruel as he was. General Suleimani was a soldier and his replacement was waiting and ready, officially appointed within a day but actually taking over within minutes. Assassination is not a way to "send a message," either. This does not deter future actions. These people survived an eight-year war with Iraq, to whom we sold chemical weapons (WMD, weapons of mass destruction) to use on them. It's estimated that war killed a million Iranians. They are not going to be deterred by the death of one.
It's pure agony to listen to this very lame fuck–-sorry, Duck–-spew lie after lie during his briefings, tweets and at the recent rally––a rally? After what just went down, you just have to be fed once again by your rally rousers? And many are still willing to change his nappies and wipe his ass. What is it going to take before that shit is going to get us deeper into war? I'm profane because I don't know what else to do with my fury!
I've been reading about Marcel Ophuls (The Sorrow and the Pity) whose documentary film "The Memory of Justice" is about the Nuremberg war trials while delving into the human capacity for evil. One of the main points in Ophuls' film is that there was nothing special about the Germans that predisposed them to become killers or, more often to look away when the killings were done. There is no such thing as a criminal people, he says. A quiet-spoken young architect can end up with more blood on his hands than a Jew-baiting thug. This is exactly what Yehudi Menuhin meant at the beginning of the film when he declares that the barbarism of Nazi Germany can only be seen as a universal moral catastrophe.
"I proceed from the the assumption that every human being is guilty."
The fact that it happened in Germany, he says, doesn't mean that it cannot happen elsewhere. This statement comes after we have seen the Nazi leaders, one after the other, declare their innocence in the Nuremberg courtroom.
Now some took to clutching their pearls or expensive watches over Ophuls' messages but they refused to understand what Ophuls was up to. The film never suggests that Auschwitz and the My Lai massacre or French torture prisons in Algiers are equivalent, let alone the Vietnam War was a criminal enterprise in the same level of the Holocaust. Instead he tries to complicate the problem of moral judgement. What makes human beings who are normally unexceptional commit atrocities under abnormal circumstances. What if such crimes are committed by our fellow citizens in the name of our country? Will the memory of justice, as Plato assumed, make us strive to do better?
I think we can say a definitive no to Plato.
"For Germans living under the Third Reich it was risky to imagine too well what these rulers were doing. To protest was positively dangerous. This is not yet true for those of us living in the age of Trump, when the president of the U.S. openly condones torture and applauds thugs for beating up people at his rallies.[ We could add lots more here] We need films like this masterpiece by Ophuls more than ever to remind us of what happens when even the memories of justice fade away." Ian Buruma
One more thing: The German novelist Martin Walser once said about the Auschwitz trials held in Frankfort. He wasn't against them but he argued that the daily horror stories in the German press about the grotesque tortures made it easier for ordinary Germans to distance themselves from these crimes and the regime that made them happen. Who could possibly identify with such brutes? If only monsters were responsible for the Holocaust and other mass murders, there would never be any need for the rest of us to look in the mirror.
George Conway's anti-Trump Group puts Evangelicals on notice in a damning new ad: ( scroll down)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/george-conway-trump-evangelicals_n_5e180267c5b6640ec3d1e008
I would like to watch George's new ad, but I really have trouble with the unavoidable fact that he, George, is married to an assistant liar in the administration. If he REALLY hated the presidunce, he would no longer be married to the unrepentant hag who helped elect the monster. I don't believe a word or a video from these so-called anti-trumpanzee people. They are as shit-stained as the bonkers followers who don't even share a brain. Right now our teevee is black...It is dangerous to our health to even be in the same room as Pompousasseo on the teevee. Abhorance doesn't seem to be enough. And I have had it with most of the media, even on the so-called left-leaning channels/stations. Where does one go to buy a new brain that doesn't function at all? I am envious of those that possess one. They seem much happier in total ignorance. Where should I go to acquire the kind of brain that can ignore politics altogether? I would guess Walmart...
@Jeanne, I don't think Walmart is the place. I went to one this week for the first time in years (I try to boycott them) because I was told they had what I needed. They had all kinds of shit piled up, but not what I went out of my way to get.
I believe you touched on a solution to your angst. Your teevee is black, keep it that way.
I pulled the plug and canceled the cable years ago. Just got tired of all the noise, repetition, hype and general bullshit. Now it's just selective online activity and books. Taking walks help too.
To be read in conjunction with today's Krugman column.
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/10/795218092/australias-wildfires-spark-disinformation-battle-as-they-take-a-tragic-toll
Commenedt very late on Krugman. To wit:
"Late to this party, I know, but would contribute this thought: Though it may be tenuous, I see a real connection between the inequality our economic and political systems have created and climate change denial.
To deal with climate change would require some sacrifice, either great or small, and those who live hand to mouth like most of our hard-working citizens whose economic situation forces them to live day to day do not have the wherewithal to consider and deal with longer term issues.
Food on the table, shelter, medical bills and paying for their children's education (most often on credit) are all they can afford or contemplate.
And that's the way Republican capitalists like it: keep 'em economically powerless and too desperate to think."
Someone replied even later to my brief note that the educated R's are also into climate change denial. He/she was correct, but I'd guess there aren't as many of the intellectually and psychologically stunted R's who are also relatively well-educated and -off as there are of the desperate 'bots who follow them.