I’m too busy to look hard, but this reaction by Lindsey Graham is the most hysterical I’ve seen thus far: “Iran Deal ‘Akin to Declaring War’ on Israel.” Yeah, it’s just like that. Christ, what a crybaby.
Scott Johnson of the PowerTools calls it “Munich for our time,” but of course he would say that if President Obama deigned to accept Pepsi in lieu of Coke. What stupid reactions have you seen around the tubes?
PS: It’s STILL raining! Hens are mightily disgruntled. If there’s a wingnut hen, she’s probably annoying her coop-mates by denouncing Obama for unleashing a flood of biblical proportions.
ETA: I kind of admire these kids’ pluck, but someone is going to get shot.
ETA 2: Professor Krugman explains the Trump phenomenon — with science: “”He’s a belligerent, loudmouth racist with not an ounce of compassion for less fortunate people. In other words, he’s exactly the kind of person the Republican base consists of and identifies with.”
Mike G
Why does anyone listen to this hysterical tool from SC? His “Obama must stop ISIS before we are all killed!” bleating last year should have finished his sad, pathetic career.
Apart from being Kristol-level wrong about everything, he doesn’t exactly uphold the Repukes’ self-delusion of themselves as serious men of resolve and determined action. But I guess the more often he is on TV representing the Repuke Party as squawking chickens, the better.
chopper
netanyahu is going to give huckleberry a run for his money in that regard. just got to give him time to get warmed up.
Botsplainer
My favorite part of interminable rain is when the dog slinks into a side room to drop yesterday’s meal, and then comes bounding back, all happy.
One minute it’s “where’s the dog”, then it’s “you rotten little motherfucker, quit laughing about what you did”.
Mr. Prosser
Here’s Huckabee’s, courtesy of Charles Pierce.”Shame on the Obama administration for agreeing to a deal that empowers an evil Iranian regime to carry out its threat to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ and bring ‘death to America,'” he said.
Keith P.
This is worse than Hitler. We are doomed, and if the US and Gadsden flags that are in front of my house weren’t already at half-mast over gay marriage, I’d lower them all over again. Maybe I’ll lower them to quarter-mast..
gf120581
Lindsey Graham is a coward, so his hysteria is par for the course. Or maybe he’s afraid McCain will turn abusive if he can’t bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.
Bibi tops Lindsey, though. No one else is confusing Iran’s motive with that of Pinky and the Brain.
shell
Boehner harrumphed something, but I hit the mute before I could hear it.
Hungry Joe
I don’t know what they had to say
It makes no difference anyway
Whatever it is, I’m against it.
No matter what it is or who commenced it,
I’m against it.
Your proposition may be good,
But let’s have one thing understood,
Whatever it is, I’m against it.
And even when you’ve changed it or condensed it,
I’m against it.
— Prof. Wagstaff (Groucho Marx), “Horse Feathers”
NonyNony
I was going to quote the Huckster, but @Mr. Prosser beat me to it. I think that might beat Graham’s nonsense, even when the “it came out of Lindsay Graham’s piehole so up the nonsense rating by 10%” nonsense penalty is applied to it.
Those kids stealing Confederate Flags should stick to ones on official government property. The correct response for racist shitbags who fly the confederate flag is a flaming bag of dog poop on their front doorstep. With the bag adorned with Confederate Flags of course.
Cacti
Maybe Bibi can lead the Congressional GOP in a sing along on the Capitol steps:
“All we are saying, is give war a chaaaaaaaaance!”
And for the emo progs, any other snide remarks you’d like to make about the President’s Nobel Peace Prize?
LWA
They’ve already had the Munich/ Chamberlain/Hitler columns written and just left the date and specific details blank.
I think there is some sort of template they use.
Its just like the welfare queen/ decline and fall of Traditional Morality narrative that I see floating through emails and Facebook.
For every foreign policy issue its always 1939, and for every domestic issue its always 1979.
And only the Wolverines! and God fearing hard working Christians can save us now.
Roger Moore
@Keith P.:
I think all the chickenhawks who were getting excited about war with Iran have lowered their “flagstaffs” to quarter mast, or maybe a bit lower. You’d think gay marriage would get a lot of them all the way back up, though.
Cacti
@LWA:
It’s funny how Obama can be so many contradictory things at the same time in the right wing imagination.
He’s the limp-wristed, ineffectual love child of Neville Chamberlain and Jimmy Carter…
And also a ruthless, iron-fisted tyrant with no regard for the rule of law.
chopper
@Keith P.:
with all this gay iranian healthcare being shoved down our throats i don’t know what to think anymore.
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
Not an emoprog, but I’d say he ought to start clearing space on his mantle for another one.
boatboy_srq
@Mr. Prosser: Ditto on The Huckster leading the handwringing pack.
@NonyNony: @Betty Cracker @Top: Confederate flags? In Sarasota? Wow. Talk about devolving: SRQ was one of the few bright spots on the Gulf Coast (with the exception of Longboat Key, but that was on the other side of the reality portal a/k/a the Ringling Causeway).
mtiffany
Which is why you send in an explosive-laden drone to fuck that shit up, while you sit back comfortably, safely, and most importantly, deniably, far enough away.
And that idea you can blame on Obama. Not that I am advocating anyone commit any crimes. I’m just saying hypothetically an’ shit.
Mandalay
@chopper:
A deal that has the trifecta of Republicans, Israel and Saudi Arabia squealing like fucked piglets is almost certainly a good deal.
Davis X. Machina
@Cacti:
I’ll give you a place-holder till the real thing emerges:
“You realize this agreement only holds till Hillary is elected.
Because she will bomb Iran. You know it. I know it.
It’s why she’s running for President.
To start wars, and sell your children to Goldman Sachs.”
chopper
@LWA:
i once totally saw hitler in the grocery store buying t-bone steaks with his foodstamps.
Belafon
How about this from Netanyahu: Israel “not bound by the nuclear deal.” http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4679591,00.html
Betty Cracker
@boatboy_srq: It wouldn’t surprise me east of Hwy 41 and especially east of I-75.
mtiffany
@chopper: don’t think, just swallow.
Jeremy
They can whine all they want but there really isn’t anything they can do to stop this deal from moving forward. This agreement will be voted on by the UN Security Council so this will be a security council resolution which makes it a binding agreement. Second, the sanctions regime that had the most effect on Iran were negotiated by the Obama administration and passed through the UN Security Council. Third, there currently aren’t enough votes to override a veto, and the legislation would only apply to congressionally approved sanctions which had little effect on bringing Iran to the table. The fact is the UN is where this will get done.
chopper
@Belafon:
what are you going to do, bibi, bomb the inspectors?
Omnes Omnibus
@chopper: That was Mr. Hilter – different guy entirely.
Arclite
Out here in Hawaii, it’s been hot, muggy, and rainy. Not too different from FL weather.
Roger Moore
@Arclite:
The weather, perhaps, but I’ll bet there are many fewer Confederate flags to steal.
Cacti
@Jeremy:
Without the other members of the P5+1 on board for any future sanctions, US only sanctions against Iran would amount to squat.
US trade with Iran hasn’t topped $160 million annually since the 1979 revolution.
RSA
Yeah. I have to shake my head at two common themes in the comments on that and other articles about the acts. One is how many people seem to think it’s okay to shoot guns at people for committing what’s really a minor crime, more a nuisance than anything else. That’s a medieval level of retribution. Two is how some people are saying, “Watch out, they’ll be coming for your American flag next.” Uh, no, dumbasses, you’re missing the entire point.
Chris
Last I checked, the constitution does not grant Israel veto rights on American foreign policy. Last I checked, American politicians were elected by Americans, not Israelis. And last I checked, they swore oaths to the United States, not Israel.
boatboy_srq
@chopper: Gay Cuban-Iranian commuted Clean Air Obamacare. Got to use the full term for maximum effect.
mtiffany
@Belafon:
It’s odd, I thought psychopaths were supposed to be manipulative and smart.
LWA
@chopper:
Its so funny- I came of age in the 1970’s in Southern California, the epicenter of weed-fueled laid back permissiveness, and remember how the conservatives railed against the immorality and lack of work ethic of “these kids today”.
I swear to Dog I saw on Facebook a long rant by some preacher ticking off the exact list of sins signaling the decline and fall of our once proud nation i.e., drug use, sexual promiscuity, students running wild in the schools, marriage falling apart, dogs and cats living together…And this was shared by someone a full 5 years younger than me, on her 4th marriage.
This really is projection- these folks are always and forever seeing debauchery in others, the log in the eyes of other people, when really all they are doing is trying to convince themselves of their own righteousness.
And that goes for their foreign policy also- they turn everything into a dick measuring contest.
mdblanche
All right, but apart from saving the economy, health care reform, gay rights, consumer protection, the Fair Pay Act, re-professionalizing the executive branch, the START Treaty, and two Supreme Court justices, what has President Obama ever done for us?
boatboy_srq
@Betty Cracker: I keep forgetting there’s anything east of I-75 besides livestock and palmettos. East of US 41 is trickier: Beneva Road seems like a better divider between reasonable and b#tsh!t-crazy.
jl
Yeah, let’s go with the GOP tough talking ninnies. Stomp our feet and pout and demand a strong international coalition to enforce stronger sanctions that will not exist, (and would not in any case exist for long regardless of whether we had negotiations) , and in the meantime Iran will do as it pleases.
Hey, that was the recipe for success of Dub administration. It worked for North Korea.
If preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons capability is really the Prime Directive, there are only two choices: this deal or go to war with Iran now. Which is it?
If our worthless idiotic corporate news celebrities pretending to be journalists were serious they would pose this choice to the likes of Graham and ol’ Huck. Instead they badger serious people trying to get things done with idiotic GOP talking points like “Well gee, this deal will only be for ten or twenty-five years, what about FOREVER!?”
You want ‘forever’ only one thing to do: continuous bombing of Iran for years until it is a smoking ruin. So, what’s it going to be war-idiots?
The GOP is nothing but cowardly bullshitters anymore. They gonna start carpet bombing Iran. I don;’t think so They will pull a Dub and do nothing but yell while the world does what it wants until something happens that gets them fired up for some other dsastrous counterproductive military adventure on the cheap that they figure just cannot go wrong, which will immediately costs trillions and backfire disastrously. Morons.
jl
@Jeremy: Yes, the fact that the GOP can’t really do anything about, for now, is comforting. There is reason to worry about what they might be able to do after 2016, which is why election is important.
Belafon
@mtiffany: Bibi’s used to saying “Israel!” and having American politicians genuflect. He doesn’t know what to do with Obama.
mtiffany
@Chris:
Jeebus. They swear secrets oaths to Jeebus. You can tell by their actions, since they think that by triggering the apocalypse, they can bring about the Second Coming. Funny thing about their god Jeebus, for an omnipotent deity, he sure does need a lot of help from the mortals to make things go right… and money, too. Jeebus sure does need a lot of money.
Sherparick
Krugman trolls O’Reilly, Trump, Scarborough, and the Republican Base. I look forward to the next 24 hours of heads exploding.
Davis X. Machina
You’re not counting Yu Darvish
mdblanche
@Omnes Omnibus: Hilter fur ein besseres Meinhead!
D58826
@Belafon: If Obama had gotten the Iranians to convert to Judaism, Bibi and the GOP would find fault with something.
chopper
@jl:
a conservative is a fellow who stands athwart history, yelling “DERP!”
dogwood
@Cacti:
I think it was Maya Angelou who said when people tell you who they are you should believe them. For the far left and any other disaffected Democrats who have been so very disappointed in the Obama administration I have very little sympathy. They didn’t really vote for Barack Obama; they voted for a fictional character created in their own imaginations. What they didn’t do was take stock of the real man running for office. If you were paying attention, you knew that he believed that change is difficult and comes slowly. If you actually listened to him you knew that his temperament did not lend itself to anger and confrontation as problem solving mechanisms. And if you thought carefully about his own personal assessment that patience and perseverance were his strongest virtues, you would have saved yourself a lot of grief. Barack Obama is exactly who he told us he was. I haven’t always agreed with the President, but overall I haven’t been disappointed in this administration. It has accomplished more than I ever thought possible.
Roger Moore
@mdblanche:
He re-established diplomatic relations with Cuba, appointed dozens of lower-level federal judges, allowed women into combat units, rewrote overtime rules, gave clemency to non-violent drug offenders, and declared 16 new National Monuments.
LWA
@chopper:
A conservative is a fellow who sits in his Medicare hoverround athwart history, yelling “DERP!”
Face
@chopper: I suspect we’re in for Iraqi 2; Inspector Fail Boogaloo. Wherein every time the inspectors come back with “nope, they’re good”, we’re going to hear the GOP Screech(TM) that Iran must be hiding their shit. Or bribing the inspectors, camouflaging their ‘fuges, going underground, using InvisiCream, etc.
IOW, there’ll be no such thing as an acceptable inspection of Iran’s stuff according to Bibi and his GOP ilk. Not one. Ever.
boatboy_srq
@mtiffany: Xtian Jeebus is a cheap djinn of Mammon, and global thermonuclear war is the lamp he’s stuck inside.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeremy:
That never stopped us before.
Punchy
@Davis X. Machina: Say what?
Davis X. Machina
@Roger Moore: No public option, though. Won’t catch me voting for him again. Enough is enough
? Martin
@Cacti:
Oh, I suspect it topped that number when Reagan was illegally selling weapons to them.
Belafon
@Roger Moore: And transgender people are about to be allowed to serve in the military.
Elizabelle
I love today’s google doodle. It’s the New Horizons Pluto flyby, and kinda mesmerizing.
Looks like a cute little doggie with a big black nose (or black rawhide stick) and a white collar, circling and circling. Easily entertained here.
(Oh, and Mickey Mouse — or Hello Kitty! — is on the face of Pluto.) You may see something more scientific ….
jnfr
Between this agreement and the Pluto Flyby, I am a very happy liberal today. Give me peace and science! That’s all I need.
Well, maybe another cup of coffee.
Doug R
@mdblanche: …..but he wants to fix NAFTA! !! In secret!!! And Dronz!!!!!
boatboy_srq
@? Martin: Wouldn’t that have shown up on Nicaraguan balance sheets instead of US ones? Just askin’…
? Martin
@Roger Moore:
Yeah, but Pluto got demoted from planet status.
Thanks, Obama!
pamelabrown53
@NonyNony:
Maybe those kids should fight fire with fire: plant a cross of confederate flags on the lawn and burn it. Worked for the KKK. Too violent to be effective?
Davis X. Machina
@Punchy: Yu Darvish. He’s only half-Iranian, though…
? Martin
@boatboy_srq: Sure, but it was still US trade with Iran on the front-end. And we dumped the money in Switzerland before sending it along to Nicaragua.
Mike J
@ Martin:
Alan Stern, the Principal Investigator of the mission is a planetary scientist. He says Pluto is a planet, and that’s the commonly held belief of planetary scientists. He says astronomers are unqualified to make that call and should be ignored.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/07/10/2015/new-horizons-prepares-for-pluto-close-up.html
? Martin
The lesson we should all be remembering about this deal isn’t Iraq, but North Korea:
Bush said he wouldn’t negotiate with NK as Clinton was doing. NK has nukes now. QED.
Cacti
Whenever the subject of Iran comes up, I always stop and ask myself “What would Reagan do?”.
Then I remember:
Sell weapons illegally to the Ayatollah, then use the proceeds to help a Central American rebel group traffic cocaine into the US inner cities.
Elizabelle
@dogwood:
Good that President Obama has that, and then some, because I wonder how most people would even get up in the morning, knowing all the stupidity and slights that will come their way, all day, every day, in stereo, as they try their best to make a positive difference.
boatboy_srq
@? Martin: … and of course since it went to anyone EXCEPT the (official) Sandanista government, it wouldn’t show up on the Nicaraguan books either, come to think of it.
? Martin
@Mike J: We should ignore Neil deGrasse Tyson?
I don’t like this plan.
Mike J
@ Martin:
If he’s commenting on something others are better qualified to speak about, yes. There are plenty of areas where he may know more, and should then be deferred to.
Donald
@Cacti:
This emoprog thinks that the Nobel committee should have waited until now, when Obama may have finally earned it. Seems reasonable to me.
KG
the Munich line must be part of the talking points because I saw it at the American Spectator’s blog too. Apparently, this deal means the entire region is going to go nuclear because Israel will apparently admit they have nukes and all the Arab stats will get nukes.
The funny thing is, pursuing nuclear weapons is actually a very rational thing. Countries with nukes don’t get invaded
pamelabrown53
@boatboy_srq:
Heh. While Longboat Key is Reactionary Republican Central it has pretty good shelling!
Roger Moore
@Mike J:
Yeah, and the lead scientist of our Pluto probe is clearly the least biased source available about whether or not Pluto is a planet.
MattF
@Elizabelle: The heart-shaped thing in the doodle has been an actual feature of the images from Pluto. I’m expecting that up close it will say “I [heart] Alpha Centauri.”
jl
@Mike J: My layman’s understanding is that part of definition of planet is that it sweeps a broad clear path around its orbit. That is not a planetary science thing, that is an astronomy thing, isn’t it?
Does Alan Stern disagree with that pat of the definition? Or does he think that the astronomers can’t figure out what a proper ‘broad clear path’ should be? Or maybe Ceres should be a planet too?
Maybe the planetary scientists and astronomers need to find a way to just get along?
Oh well, I will listen to the interview and see what he says. Thanks for the link to the interview.
Scratch
Sometimes I wonder why I go looking at Facebook comments like those at Senator Tom Cotton’s page. There’s no doubt about it now. The Republican platform is all about appealing to the insane and stupid. The Republican base is largely insane and stupid.
jl
@KG:
” The funny thing is, pursuing nuclear weapons is actually a very rational thing. Countries with nukes don’t get invaded ”
Gee, I wonder where that kind of paranoid thinking got started in all these little non-US countries?
dmsilev
@KG: Nah, the Munich line is a reflex action among the right wing. _Everything_ reminds them of Munich.
Belafon
@Roger Moore: I’m rather fascinated by the need for some people to keep Pluto a “planet,” as if Pluto cares.
pamelabrown53
@mtiffany:
Sorry, mtiffany but do you really think your anti-drone comment is going to fly on this tread?
Either you’re a RW plant or missed the anarchists’ blog. Don’t let Redstate kick you in the ass on your way to oblivion.
MattF
@dmsilev: They all see themselves as Winston Churchill. They’re all pointing to Gallipoli and saying “Send the troops there.”
Betty Cracker
@pamelabrown53: A friend and I collected enough clams there once to make a meal for two. If she hadn’t overcooked them so they tasted like fishy erasers, it would have been awesome, I’m sure! ;-)
boatboy_srq
@pamelabrown53: True. But don’t tell them that – they’ll think the “shelling” is proof of some fantastical gay Cuban-Iranian bombardment.
Villago Delenda Est
@mtiffany: Jeebus is, after all, the son of Mammon. And Mammon is their god, make no mistake about it.
pluege
lindsey graham is not a crybaby – he’s a psychotic, bloodlusting warmongerer that always chooses war as the only solution to every international disagreement. He should be under professional psychological care.
Cacti
@dmsilev:
It’s always funny that GOPers try to rewrite WWII as some sort of Republican success.
The GOP wanted nothing to do with “Europe’s war” and Hitler/Mussolini had plenty of admirers among the US industrialist class.
boatboy_srq
@pluege:
But he’s already in the Senate.
MattF
@Cacti: Another one of the unmentionable political reversals of the past two decades. Remember when Bob Dole talked about “Democrat wars”?
Mandalay
When it comes to never backing down, even the NRA has to tip its hat to the police unions. Murdering Eric Garner wasn’t good enough for them. They want to shit on his corpse as well:
Vile hatred from a contemptible organization.
dmsilev
@Cacti: Like, for instance, Jeb!’s grandfather.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Many years ago, a neighbor found out that we were going to visit family in New England. She gave us keys for her cabin in Maine which was on the coast. The cabin was on fifty acres, which we didn’t know until we arrived. We had mussels and clams the entire time. The ex did go to a lobster trap that a local fisherman had, so that was fun.
Villago Delenda Est
@boatboy_srq: And he’s from South Carolina…too small to be a republic, too large to be an asylum.
jl
@Scratch:
First comment under Cotton’s ravings:
” Obama is a muslim who wants to destroy Amerca and Israel and have them take over the world! Why can’t people see that? ”
And come to think of it, I wonder what idiot recent administration of what idiot political party did some idiot thing to increase Iran’s power and influence in the region? Leaving it about the only functioning partner for military operations in the region?
The whack-a-mole logic of the GOP in Middle East Policy is a collection of incoherent and butt ignorant ravings that react to anything that they cannot delude themselves into believing that they have total control of. What they want is the illusion of having some abject flunky doing US bidding in the Muslim Middle East. Of course that apparent abject flunky immediately takes them to the cleaners, and then they have an excuse to stomp and shout and panic some more.
Houthis and Hamas and Abbas, OH MY!
Houthis and Hamas and Abbas, OH MY!!
Houthis and Hamas and Abbas, OH MY!!!
How stupid and ignorant to you have to be to believe a word the GOP says on foreign policy. Or racist, since the whole thing boils down to hating every single thing the inadequate blah man does in the White House. I guess the 27 percent know for sure.
Mike J
@mtiffany:
Actually, it was Clinton who ordered the arming of Predator drones. You may remember the cruise missile strikes against bin Laden during the 90s. A drone had spotted a meeting of AQ people, including bin Laden. A strike was called in on the site, but the flight time from the nearest cruise missile destroyer was over 45 minutes. The meeting concluded and the participants left.
This was the strike where Republicans complained about using a million dollar missile to blow up a tent, and wag the dog became a popular phrase.
If the predator had been carrying a weapon, bin Laden would have been killed in 1998, three years before the 9/11 attacks.
trollhattan
@Mike J:
Here’s Dr. Tyson on the topic, linking to the “real killer.”
Keith G
@Donald: Splitter!
boatboy_srq
@Cacti: NAIL. HAMMER. IMPACT. The interventionist GOP is comparatively new (Nixon, or Reagan? I can never tell; definitely PNAC though). Typical of the GOTea, when pondering a moment of true US greatness, to assume credit for the consequence while condemning each and every cause as unAhmurrcan.
Belafon
@Mike J: I like how he dismisses those who don’t agree with him as “astronomers.” I also like his reaction compared to someone whose new discovery would no longer be considered a planet: http://www.space.com/2791-pluto-demoted-longer-planet-highly-controversial-definition.html.
Punchy
@Roger Moore: I wonder what Disney thinks of this decision to demote Pluto. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will never quite be the same.
boatboy_srq
@Villago Delenda Est: Better care in The District than in Columbia.
catclub
@mdblanche:
Got out of the way for FLOTUS
Mike J
@Cacti:
Also called “Mr. Rosenfelt‘s war”.
It would be wrong to say that Republicans weren’t concerned about what happened to Jews at the outbreak of WWII. They were just on the other side.
jl
@Punchy: Disney isn’t in this action. New Pluto pics today, IMHO, clearly show that the heart shape on Pluto is really a giant X. That’s right, Pluto is the Planet X of Duck Dodgers and the 24 and a half century. You heard it hear first. Note the date and time.
KG
@jl: I’m going to go with “the Cold War period” as a general point of reference. Both we and the Soviets (and occasionally other nuclear powers, like the UK in the Falklands) were more than keen to get involved in wars in countries that were not our own or each other’s.
AshWing
A fun exercise would be to find out how many of these clowns going crazy also recently supported keeping the confederate flag and memorials around.
Mike J
@jl: Is there an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator on board? We could settle the whole planet or not question once and for all.
Cacti
@Mike J:
Henry Ford got a shout out from AH himself in Mein Kampf for his anti-semitic tirades in the Ford owned and published Dearborn Independent.
pamelabrown53
@Betty Cracker:
Hah! Your friend didn’t overcook the clams, it’s just that they became republican clams once they washed ashore. Since it’s a republican beach the clams didn’t stand a chance!
@boatboy_srq:
Too funny. I forgot that “shelling” isn’t only a placid, serenity term. Maybe many of the Longboat key folks will now be patrolling the beach for the gay Cuban-Iranian bombardment.
We’ll know them by their black out curtains in the highrises!
jl
@KG: I have to disagree. Little countries could work a deal and stave off an invasion. Saddam was willing to deal as invasion threat became more real, and it did him not one ounce of good. The US policy was that it would do exactly as it liked and make its own history and that was that. Everyone else was a spectator. Cal it the ‘Dub Doctrine’. I think Iraq is the reference point for the world now. The GOP and neocon habit of ginning up a reason to go to war with whatever random whatever country of the day (whichever can make the biggest domestic splash) is just that party continuing Dub Doctrine thinking while out of executive power.
Elie
Obama is leaving all his opponents writhing in anger, frustration and complete inability to even frame coherent responses. He is blowing up their frames in such a way that there is little they can say or do as a coherent response. Neither Israel nor Saudi Arabia is gonna do squat. Neither has that power or the capability to absorb the huge blowback should they try. Bibi is a 2 bit narcissist who has been coddled too long and again, he has nothing he would really do except bluster. The foreign policy approach that Mr Obama is using is ugly to watch but totally in place. Sunni, Shia and Israeli interests are being played off each other to build more balance in the ME. While ISIS (which is Sunni and was at least partially started by the Saudis), remains out of control, no ONE group is calling the shots — a situation they all resent terribly but the only way the US can start to manage this ME mess we have gotten into. We can no longer afford to have it be our only foreign policy centerpiece. We get nothing out of it except a place to pour trillions and lose thousands of our troops. There are no markets here, no enhancements for all the US pain and effort. This is what management is starting to look like. More work still to be done, but the pieces are in place. To undue the balance would be a disaster for the US. To go forward allows for the regional players to start acting like this is their region (which it is) and takes the US out of the middle of this. Israel must start to act like it has regional issues to consider and stop being the bully. It is just one interest. The Saudis also need to start taking responsibility of their shit now that the Iranians will be freed up to pursue their needs. Turkey needs to also pay attention here… (Erdogan has his troubles but is definitely a regional player). Let them sort it out.
GregB
Neville Chamberlain Obama has signed a deal with Adolph Hitler Obama!
Worst capitulation ever.
KG
@boatboy_srq: I think the interventionalist GOP is even more recent than Reagan. Reagan pulled the Marines out of Beirut after a bombing – I couldn’t imagine GWB doing something like that (in keeping with his tradition of invading the wrong countries, he probably would have used it as cover to invade Jordan). Reagan was more than willing to deal with the Soviets on nuclear proliferation and disarmament. While GWB did something like this with Putin, I couldn’t imagine any of the current crop of GOP candidates to even consider that. I think it’s a post-Cold War development, they saw Clinton praised for Bosnia and want in on the action.
jl
@Mike J: I think that big sandy ‘X’ splotch is obviously a huge deposit of the strategically essential Illudium Phosdex, the Shaving Cream Atom. Let the war for Pluto commence!
Omnes Omnibus
@KG: It’s PNAC and the neo-con boys in ascendance.
Another Holocene Human
ScottWalker.com ad on this page, only image is a giant America’s Best logo, lol. Yes, the right prescription is important!
NonyNony
@boatboy_srq:
I see Confederate flags flying here in Columbus Ohio. There’s an asshole right down the street from me who has a huge one that hangs on his porch and another one painted in the window of his pickup truck (a pickup truck, I might add, that looks like it has never been used a day in its life – I’ve seen Porsches with more dirt on them.)
And this is Ohio. Two states away from the Confederacy – and yet these treasonous rags seem to be all over the place.
KG
@jl: you may be right. I’d just point out that Pakistan and India developed nuclear weapons long before W’s grand misadventures. And that gave Pakistan a much stronger position when it came to dealing with the US in regards to Afghanistan and the Taliban. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of smaller nations took the lesson you suggest from Iraq, but my guess is that the line of thinking goes much further back.
Elizabelle
Andy Borowitz:
Andy’s not far off there.
Omnes Omnibus
@NonyNony: You aren’t in German Village then.
D58826
According to Bibi and the GOP the Iranians are irredeemably evil terrorist with the single minded goal of destroying Israel. Therefore the only policy response, short of war, is to increase the sanctions until the Iranian leaders see reason and accept Israel’s right to exist. There seems to be a conflict in those two sentences but if Bibi say so…….
NonyNony
@Omnes Omnibus: Nope. Not Victorian Village either. Couldn’t afford to live in either place :)
Matt McIrvin
@NonyNony: People fly them in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, usually on pickup trucks.
JPL
@D58826: hmmm Seems like he said the same thing about Iraq. That worked out well for him.
boatboy_srq
@NonyNony: Sarasota is an oddity. I could see the Dixie swastika in Bradenton, Riverview, Ruskin, Port Charlotte, or Naples, but not there so much. Sarasota used to be a comparatively sane place. Hence the WTF…
Matt McIrvin
@KG: It’s a widely accepted proposition in Russia today that Russia’s gigantic nuclear arsenal is the only thing keeping Obama from bombing and invading Moscow. In Russia’s case this is probably incorrect, but you can see where they got the idea.
Elie
@Elizabelle:
That is BRILLIANT! And totally true. Obama is blowing up their little set ups to more war. He is making it harder for them — they hate him for it. How can the GOP campaign with this? Sure, they can squeal but the immediate bridge to instant war in the ME has been rendered less certain — and they have no immediate substitute.. not that they won’t try…
boatboy_srq
@KG: I think it began with Reagan: Grenada and Iran/Contra were test runs for PNAC all-guns-all-the-time all-stick-no-carrot diplomacy. But it’s definitely worse now than it was, and not improving.
? Martin
@Matt McIrvin: That’s not a confederate flag, it’s a republican flag. They look remarkably similar.
? Martin
@boatboy_srq: Thankfully President Trump will come along and invade Mexico for us.
Mike G
@Chris:
This should be imprinted on a plaque at the Capitol Building, since quite a few Representatives and Senators seem to need reminding.
J R in WV
@Keith P.: OT Grammar note:
Keith, your flags can only be on a mast if you live on a house-boat. Otherwise they are on a staff, and you cna lower them to half-staff, or quarter-staff, whenever you wish to mourn publicly.
On any ship (or boat, I’m easy that way) flags are often flown on a mast, and when ordered, the bosun will see to it that the flag is lowered to half-mast. Usually when a Medal of Honor winner dies, or a President dies. But not to half-staff, as on a ship they aren’t staffs, they are masts.
Speaking here as a one-time bosun’s mate, wed to a grammarian who cries bitter tears when she sees this done wrong, which is surprisingly often. So don’t feel bad, you have plenty of company.
Mandalay
@Elizabelle:
Borowitz nails it. The same guy also came up with this gem:
Gimlet
With new outrage piled upon years of Obama-inspired rage, I am getting the uneasy feeling something is going to happen to him.
maurinsky
I live in Eastern CT and I see Confederate Flags and Confederate Flag paraphernalia all the time. It’s good to know who the awful people are, though.
Kyle
@NonyNony:
Last week I spotted a big Dixie Swastika on a pickup truck parked at an Indian casino in Bishop, California. Whatever, if people want to self-identify as stupid assholes it makes it easier to avoid them.
pamelabrown53
@? Martin:
Wouldn’t it be delicious if a reporter asked Trump:” When you’re president
which country would you invade first: Mexico or Iran”? Then all the rest of the clown car will have to answer the same question as Trump seems to be calling the shots.
boatboy_srq
@? Martin: and here I thought a pResident Trump would fire Mexico.
? Martin
Oh, this should be fun: https://twitter.com/20committee/status/621025483136847872
Might appear that Trump wound up with some Nazi stock photos in his campaign materials.
rikyrah
now this is just funny. What Governor doesn’t understand how to use a veto pen?
…………….
Maine Attorney General Agrees That Gov. LePage Massively Botched Vetos
ByTierney Sneed
PublishedJuly 14, 2015, 2:35 PM EDT
Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s efforts to stop a batch of bills he intended to veto from becoming law were dealt another blow late last week when Maine Attorney General Janet Mills (D) released a letter siding with Democratic lawmakers who say the governor missed his deadline to veto the legislation.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/maine-attorney-general-veto-lepage
Mike J
@J R in WV: What’s funny is that you usually don’t fly flags at the masthead. The pennant halyard typically only goes 1/2-3/4 of the way up, and underway you fly the national flag on a short staff at the stern.
Speaking of which, beer can racing tonight. I have to start preparing if I’m going to tryhard properly.
Elizabelle
@Elie: Good comment. I’m impressed at how thoughtful this administration is, and how it never forgets, it’s incremental work, step by step by step. Learn what works, and what doesn’t, and get the best realistic deal you can. In time, the parameters can change.
gelfling545
@Donald: you underestimate the impact on the international community of just not being George W Bush.
Iowa Old Lady
@chopper: Are you sure that wasn’t Obummer?
trollhattan
Because open thread:
Vallejo, CA PD: “Listen, about that whole ‘You kidz faked the kidnapping and wasted our time’ thing…our bad.”
It gets better, because other articles talk about him being part of a self-styled “Ocean’s Eleven” gang practicing for kidnapping rich people for ransom. [Hilarity] Trigger alert: wetsuits are involved.
scav
OT Unexpected Sane Response from Official!
Welsh government responds in Klingon to UFO airport query
Elizabelle
Hunting about for audio to Hillary’s speech yesterday on her economic issues, found that 538 put up a post on it.
The Numbers Behind Hillary Clinton’s Economic Vision
Hillary campaign link to her speech video; link for a transcript is in there too.
trollhattan
@pamelabrown53:
“I would make Mexico invade Iran. It would be classy and I’d consider it partial payment for the border wall I’m making them build.” #TweetLikeTrump
dogwood
@Elizabelle:
There’s always been a lot of second guessing about this president’s priorities. Remember he shouldn’t go for healthcare, but focus on jobs? As if jobs and healthcare aren’t intrinsically connected. The worse mistake Clinton made was signing off on welfare reform and NAFTA without getting a deal on healthcare first.
boatboy_srq
@Elie: Well put. Related: is it just me, or is energy efficiency the forgotten leg of anti-terror foreign policy? Deny ISIS et al their petrodollars and they’re just herdsmen in the desert; do it globally and they’ll be persona non grata everywhere they go. Oil is the only reason they have any power, both from petrodollars buying their munitions and the oilfields they use those munitions to control; devalue oil and they don’t have funds to buy weapons or reason to defend oilfields. Just my 2c.
Ghost of Joe Liebling's Dog
@chopper:
did he have a pina colada in his hand?
a chinese menu?
jest askin’
Elizabelle
@dogwood: I’m so grateful he went for healthcare, because we see how much cooperation he’s gotten from the GOP on jobs, jobs, jobs, in a pretty much jobless recovery. They never care about any jobs, save their own or those affiliated with fighting wars or building armaments. That’s their jobs program.
PBO knew the nature of work had changed, and went for what he could to protect Americans. The world, at large and domestically, is a little less scary with him at the helm.
Matt McIrvin
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: His hair was perfect.
trollhattan
@boatboy_srq:
Sadly, the sentiment has been reduced to “Frack our way to Freedom.”
The federal solar tax credit expires after next year, and I know darn well congress won’t be renewing any DFH program like that.
Roger Moore
@gelfling545:
That seems to have been a major consideration for the Nobel Prize committee recently. As far as I can tell, the prizes in 2002, 2005, 2007, and 2009 might as well be called the Nobel Prize for Not Being George W. Bush.
gene108
@Cacti:
I remember during the early days of the Iraq War v. 2.0 right-wingers were stating, “what if liberals had been in charge during WW2? We’d just have surrendered to Hitler”
They said this with a straight face and none of the T.V. talking heads ever bothered to check, who was Presidenting during WW2, what party he/she belonged to and what domestic policies he/she advanced.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: Hitler is not a werewolf. Geez.
Benw
Graham and the Neocons like him have never really gotten over the fact that someone else was in charge of the U.S. when they got to drop some lovely, lovely a-bombs on some icky brown people. Now they don’t really have another chance and it drives them crazy.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Werewolf? There wolf.
Roger Moore
@boatboy_srq:
I think it’s a key feature of foreign policy in the Middle East in general. The whole place is teeming with repressive governments propped up by oil. Take oil out of the equation, and those repressive governments won’t have the money to pay their armies or any ability to convince Western countries to come to their defense.
Kathleen
@mdblanche:But he’s no different from Bush and Democrats and Republicans are the same so why vote.
/////
burnspbesq
Well, Bibi is correct that Israel isn’t bound by the P5+1 agreement.
What Israel Is bound by is its lack of long-range strategic bombers and aerial refueling capabilities.
Davis X. Machina
@trollhattan: Spanish-owned, Floria-headquartered, deregulated Central Maine Power won’t stand for it. Iberdrola shareholders will never get their money back if solar becomes widespread.
Elie
@Elizabelle:
Its their rationality, the cold step by step fact based strategy. It makes the opponents crazier and crazier trying to fracture it… but they haven’t yet. The administration rolls on not only shaping this time in office but making it pretty hard to undo easily given the multilateral and complex nature of the agreements. This aint 2001 and the US showed it couldn’t control events in Iraq or Afghanistan, so no one is fooled that any new American adventurism in the region would be welcome or successful. He is dismantling all the set up for their pretense towards an argument for more hot war intervention. There is also no real outlet for them with Eastern Europe and Russia which is more risky for a real nuclear war — not just a little hardware outlet for the arms industry…
catclub
@trollhattan:
Except, a tax credit equals a tax cut for somebody, so letting it expire is the same as raising taxes, as far as the Club for Growth/Grover Norquist is concerned. And there will be rich people lobbying to keep it.
KG
@Omnes Omnibus: no, the British royal family are werewolves, at least according to the Doctor.
Gravenstone
@? Martin: Yep. If nothing else, Republicans are absolute experts in allowing rogue nations into the Nuke Club.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: Why are you talking that way?
burnspbesq
Obama may be the Antichrist, but he ain’t dumb.The agreement is perfectly timed to deflect the public’s attention away from the Federal takeover of Texas.
Gimlet
@Roger Moore:
Hence the oil glut to hurt Russia, etc.
Kathleen
@dogwood: @? Martin: And reclaim Waco.
boatboy_srq
@trollhattan: @Roger Moore: The problem is (and has only recently become) the dual conviction that a) resources are infinite and b) conspicuous consumption is Righteous Use of Resources as Demanded By Jeebus. Hence “Drill Baby Drill” and knee-jerk resistance to any suggestion of conservation.
Gimlet
@boatboy_srq:
Although considerable progress in the understanding of this multi-step oil formation mechanism has been achieved, there are still problems that need to be solved.
Such a slow multistep mechanism differs significantly from hydrothermal petroleum formation. No evidence is so far available on the extent to which this alternative single-step oil generation process has contributed towards the origin of presently exploited oil reserves.
Thus the rapid formation of oil and gas is not only feasible on the basis of carefully controlled laboratory experiments, but has now been shown to occur naturally under geological conditions that have been common in the past.
Significantly, these short timescales are well within those proposed by creation scientists for the generation of petroleum from organic matter in sediments laid down during Noah’s Flood.
Subsequently, the discovery of the hydrothermally produced petroleum on the ocean floor in the Guaymas Basin of the Gulf of California is even more crucial to the case of the creation scientists and Flood geologists
Indeed, the bulk of the volcanic products would have been superheated water, similar to the hydrothermal fluids found in the Guaymas Basin. The rock record contains many layers of volcanic lavas and ash between other sedimentary layers, many containing organic matter.
Thus this model for hydrothermal generation of petroleum is more than a feasible process for the generation of today’s oil and gas deposits in the time-scale subsequent to Noah’s Flood as suggested by creation scientists.
Aleta
Liberal elite Massachusetts ecoterrorists cheer as beached great white shark is rescued
catclub
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2015/07/the_iran_nuclear_deal_offers_a_clear_choice_constrain_the_islamic_republic.2.html
Fred Kaplan at Slate is in favor. I am not sure where he usually falls, but thought he was often on the neocon side of things.
Maybe I am confusing him with some Kagan – who I know is way on the neocon side of things.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
If only this were true. The sectarian violence will continue no matter what happens to oil prices. Afghanistan doesn’t have oil. Nor does Turkey, Syria or Pakistan or Egypt. And, sadly, arms are relatively cheap, and arms merchants are willing to sell on credit.
Iran had not been able to sell much of its oil due to sanctions, but this only moderately dampened its regional political projects. And there are claims that nothing in the recently negotiated deal requires that they back off on any influence peddling.
The price of oil could drop to a penny a barrel and the US would still be involved in the region, because of tensions between Israel and its neighbors, and the tensions between Pakistan and India, among other issues.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@catclub: Fred Kaplan is IIRC a long time skeptic of neo-conservatism, anti-Arab (and Perisan, and…) paranoia and military adventurism. I tend to trust him.
I muted MSNBC when they brought on Joe Manchin, and didn’t take it off for Jane Harman. I’m pretty sure I know where Manchin came down, Harman is a bit less predictable. I know she was an Iraq hawk but I’ve also seen her express some regret.
Capt Seaweed
@Elie:
Yes. Indeed. Cogent analysis.
catclub
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I looked again, and agree. Thanks.
? Martin
@trollhattan:
They won’t be needed. Installed solar is $0.04/kwh in bulk, and by next year will be price competitive with most residential power rates for anyone with reasonably high consumption levels. Those big solar plants in the desert are now flat-out cheaper than building a coal plant, no subsidy needed.
Brachiator
Just listening to right wing radio wingnut say that the deal is a “win, win, win for Iran.” They get $100 billion in frozen assets freed up, and any request for inspection could be delayed for 24 days. Iran is sitting on 10 percent of oil reserves and can add 400,000 barrels a day; second largest producer of natural gas, so ending of sanctions is a windfall. I’m counting on Israel to keep an eye on Iran. Fortunately, the best thing that might happen is allowing capitalism to flourish because free markets is the best guarantee of peace.”
So, the deal is bad, except maybe it’s good?
Cervantes
Today’s reactions can be ignored. And anyway, I am tired. I’ll look in a few days.
Re Graham: “akin to” is not “identical” but I agree that he seems a little over-excited, as is his wont.
Also, for what it’s worth: I don’t care for that “hysterical.” Just calling it out on principle here; no need for you to defend it, obviously.
trollhattan
@? Martin:
Confess after being evaluated and “rejected” by a big solar contractor (“bad roof configuration”) I’m not expecting any price-plunge miracles. From what I could ascertain, installation, cabling and the inverter comprise the most significant fraction of the overall install. Need to find a more innovative installer, as my location should be pretty ideal and California electricity rates make it pretty easy to do better than break even.
gogol's wife
Open thread, so: At the auction (still in progress) today of Shirley Temple’s personal collection, her dress from Stand Up and Cheer went for $75,000. And other similar prices are being posted. So I’m not the only nut in the world. I’m just a poorer one.
Another Holocene Human
@boatboy_srq: late but it’s full of loaded, tight wad racist Midwestern retirees
Bem
@RSA: “Uh, no, dumbasses, you’re missing the entire point.”
They aren’t “missing it”, they are actively dodging that sumbitch.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
We would still have interests in the region, but they would be a lot smaller. We would still be interested in Turkey because they’re a strategic partner against Russia, Egypt because of the Suez canal, and Pakistan because they’re a nuclear state. But we could, and likely would, be much freer to disentangle ourselves from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran the same way we’re disentangling ourselves from Afghanistan. (FWIW, you’re wrong about Syria; they do have oil, some of which Daesh is selling to support themselves.) And don’t underestimate the extent to which we’ve gotten tangled up with countries that don’t have substantial oil reserves because of our relationship with Saudi Arabia.
As to the sectarian fighting, it might still be going on, but we wouldn’t necessarily be as heavily involved in it. There’s ethnic and sectarian fighting elsewhere in the world that we feel comfortable blowing off, or at least treating as a minor issue, because it doesn’t threaten global oil supplies. Even Israel’s status would be more stable if its most belligerent neighbors didn’t have oil money to fund their armies.
Another Holocene Human
@dogwood: this this this this
You said it do much better than I ever could have. May I quote you?
boatboy_srq
@Brachiator:
True. But Saudi Arabia and Qatar do, and Wahhabists have been backing jihadi wingnuts for over a quarter century. Munitions are only a small part of funding a movement: foodstuffs, clothing and general supply items cost much more and are consumed far more quickly. Ending sectarian violence in this case is secondary to ending US financial support for sectarian violence by cranking down the petrodollar spigot. The Saudis and most of the Emirates are staring at deficits as long as oil is below $110/barrel, which while acceptable short-term will bankrupt them before too long. Without those petrodollars it’s less easy to arm, feed and supply a movement; ISIS/ISIL, the Taliban and the other wingnutty groups in the region will have a very hard time finding support once the largesse from Wahhabi-run oilfields drops to a trickle. We don’t even need to halt imports; just keeping oil demand low enough that <$75/barrel pricing is sustainable for an extended period and the damage will largely be done. The part of the puzzle that mystifies me is how the same people who whinge incessantly about the Great Existential Christian/Muslim Struggle are instantly and unequivocably rejecting the most immediate, most powerful weapon in the West's arsenal in that fight – the power of the purse – and instead doing everything they can to encourage consumption (which only makes The Enemy as they have defined it wealthier and thereby stronger).
Keith G
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s dinner time and thoughts drift back to afternoons at Schmidt’s or a taking a cute guy to Lindy’s.
Good times.
catclub
http://www.juancole.com/2015/07/illegally-khomeini-weapons.html
reminder of the good old days of US-Iran trade and diplomacy.
Spike
@Cacti:
That’s the SEC, ACC, Big XII, Big 10, and Pac 12 plus Notre Dame, right?
Roger Moore
@boatboy_srq:
Because they don’t want the enemy to wither away. They need a strong external enemy more than anything, because that strong external enemy gives them a weapon to use against their internal enemy, i.e. the forces of modernism and liberalism. And they desperately want a clash of civilizations that will either justify exterminating the dangerous Other or (for the truly crazy) bring on the End of Days.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Actually, this is a good point that leads me to untangle two separate points. Whether the US would still have interests in the region is a separate point. Maybe we would, though I think support for Israel would still keep us involved. However, as I noted before, sectarian violence, Islamic terror and fundamentalism, and increasing instability would continue and is not as violently as ever. There were deep problems before the discovery of oil, and they will continue even if oil prices declined precipitously. And oil would still have some value and Iran and other countries have huge supplies of natural gas.
@boatboy_srq
Pakistan has backed the Taliban and other groups even though it has no oil and has long mismanaged its economy.
Or this will give them a reason to turn on their former puppet masters.
And of course, a long and steep decline in oil revenues could actually result in greater instability and violence.
AxelFoley
@chopper:
Please provide your home address so that we can send you your internets.
AxelFoley
@Roger Moore:
I mean, shit, Iran AND Cuba in the same year? Hell yeah, he needs to make room on that mantle.
Tree With Water
@gogol’s wife: John Lennon maintained a scrapbook of his writings and art that he had created throughout his childhood. He took genuine pride in it, perhaps because he was born with an adult’s sensibility (as Yoko once noted). Even as a child he recognized his own talent. When the Fabs began their climb up the show biz ladder, he lent it to a friend who published an entertainment weekly in Liverpool- and it got thrown away when the paper moved locations. What do you think it would fetch at auction nowadays?
AxelFoley
@Gimlet:
Man, GTFO with that kind of thinking. Ain’t shit gonna happen to him.
Bitter Scribe
@chopper:
i once totally saw hitler in the grocery store buying t-bone steaks with his foodstamps.
Sure it wasn’t schnitzel?
Ben
@Betty Cracker:
I lived briefly in Sarasota for a few months in 2012. The further you get away from the coast, the more Southern Sarasota County becomes…
Marshall
You sure would never know from the rhetoric that appeasement was a conservative party policy.