And he’s not afraid to sacrifice other Americans’ lives in order to live out his days-of-political-glory fantasy:
I repeat myself: the entire enemy force in Grenada was less than 2,000 total lightly armed Grenadan and Cuban soldiers. The war still killed and wounded as many Americans as Mogadishu.
Venezuela would easily muster at least 250,000 troops. Well-equipped, with favorable terrain. https://t.co/Z7kpKA6Psj
— Zeddediah Springfield (@Zeddary) May 26, 2019
I get that these guys are always horny for wars they'll never have to fight in.
But imagine any boomer being horny for a JUNGLE war. Did any lessons of your time get through that thick generational ego?
— Zeddediah Springfield (@Zeddary) May 26, 2019
According to Wikipedia, Graham is just a few months older than I am. So he didn’t actually have to avoid going to Vietnam, but he damn sure remembers what happened as that ‘intervention, for democracy’ wrapped up. But then, as long as you were a GOP politician, Grenada was just a splendid little military exercise!
The Guardian, on Saturday — “Pence hints at possible military intervention in Venezuela”:
… Vice-President Mike Pence has told the most diverse graduating class in the history of the US Military Academy the world is “a dangerous place” and they should expect to see combat.
“Some of you will join the fight against radical Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.
He also said: “Some of you may even be called upon to serve in this hemisphere.”…
Ah yes, the glorious invasion of Grenada. A tiny, isolated island defended by a small militia of locals, diploma mill security guards and a handful of Cuban construction workers that nonetheless caused as many US dead and wounded as the Black Hawk Down incident. https://t.co/Akp1uef1VA
— Zeddediah Springfield (@Zeddary) May 23, 2019
Definitely comparable to a resource-rich nation of 30,000,000 with a large military, integrated armed militia and plenty of cities and canopy jungle (remember those? Oh no I guess Trump wouldn't) to camp out in.
— Zeddediah Springfield (@Zeddary) May 23, 2019
Unlike ‘Mike Dense’, Lindsey Graham is not a certified idiot. But it seems he’s been huffing Trump’s farts so intensely, he’s beginning to hallucinate, per McClatchy:
… In a Wall Street Journal op-ed posted online Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who leads the Senate Judiciary Committee, favorably compared potential military action in Venezuela to the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983, an operation that lasted about a week and led to the overthrow of the Caribbean nation’s military-run government.
“I think the military option has to be real, I think the ultimate solution is getting Cuba out,” Graham said in an interview with McClatchy. “If Cuba goes, Maduro goes and we have a history of standing up to Cuban intervention in the past and this is a defining moment for the Trump presidency in terms of how they deal with Cuba.”…
When asked about the scale of military force needed in Venezuela, Graham did not offer specifics but said the goal is “to restore order.”
“We’re not occupying Venezuela, but if Maduro refuses to go and the Cubans keep using their military apparatus to prop him up, it is in our national serucity interest to do in Venezuela what Reagan did in Grenada,” Graham said.
President Ronald Reagan sent about 6,000 troops to Grenada, an island nation about double the size of Washington, D.C., with a population of about 100,000 people. The weeklong operation in Grenada resulted in the deaths of 20 U.S. troops…
Also Lindsey Graham, earlier this morning:
On Fox, Lindsey Graham encourages Trump to defy House subpoenas. https://t.co/xip4OJhLBw pic.twitter.com/54dM8QTljH
— Will Saletan (@saletan) May 26, 2019
Yeah, it’s not just Graham’s skin that’s as transparent as window glass…
Mnemosyne
Isn’t Graham allegedly a veteran? What the hell are they teaching officers if they don’t understand the difference between an island and a country placed in the midst of a continent?
Wag
After all, Lindsay is speaking from experience. After all, the whole Whitewater affair was an attempt to destroy a president and his wife…
Everything with these fools is projection. Every. Last. Thing.
Litlebritdifrnt
Oh yes the invasion of Greneda a British protectorate and member of the Commonwealth. The reaction in Britain was absolute and utter fury that the US thought it could just tromp into a country and try to take over. It turned out so well for the US (not) and now Lyndsey thinks that engaging in a conflict in Venezuala with Guerilla warfare in the jungles would be as deadly as Vietnam. Funny how all these people calling for war have never served a day in the military.
Bonnie
And, we are supposed to believe that the Starr Report and Whitewater and Benghazi weren’t meant to destroy the Clintons. The Repugs still want to destroy the Clintons. Last I heard they were still talking about more email hearings on HIllary’s emails. It’s not the Dems fault when the Repugs put a crook in office.
Baud
FWIW, Pense is probably talking about the United States.
Baud
This is truly sad. I mean, it was one thing for the United States to be concerned about Cuba when it was a client state of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. For the United States to be worried about Cuba in 2019 makes us a laughing stock (more than we actually are with you-know-who as president).
I’d like to think that I would be embarrassed by these people if I weren’t a liberal Democrat but it’s hard to say given how many non-liberal-Democrats take them seriously.
Litlebritdifrnt
The results are coming in for the MEP elections and I am shaking my head. I am watching my Country voting against it’s own best interests. It is stunning.
Baud
I also gotta think Maduro has “invasion by the United States” on the top of his Navidad list.
Mnemosyne
@Bonnie:
It’s really an admission on the Republicans’ part that Whitewater and the impeachment were 100 percent bogus and designed to prevent the Democrats to ever investigate Republican criminality.
hells littlest angel
@Litlebritdifrnt: But Lindsey Graham did serve in the military, and even received the Bronze Star.*
*For his work as a senior legal adviser to the Air Force. He was a JAG lawyer and never came within miles of combat. As getting laid was Trump’s Vietnam, so was writing briefs Lindsey’s Iraq.
kindness
The transformation of Lindsey isn’t so far fetched. Someone showed him footage of himself with another consenting adult and is using that on him. Lindsey now jumps on command. I mean, Lindsey has always been a self righteous dick but he’s so hypocritically worse now.
Baud
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Move back!
Baud
@kindness:
I just think he realizes that his voters in South Carolina have gone all in with Trumpism.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Wag: It’s actually much worse than that, not only was Sen Graham in the House at the time of Bill Clinton’s impeachment, he was one of the fucking impeachment managers that went over to the Senate to prosecute the case(my congresscritter at the time was also one, it cost him his seat).
hells littlest angel
@kindness: Yeah, maybe consenting, and maybe an adult.
Baud
@Wag:
Like that’s a bad thing…
Mnemosyne
@kindness:
I don’t even think that was it. I think someone showed Lindsey evidence that he accepted Russian money for his campaign, which would be grounds for him to be recalled to active service, court-martialled, and tossed into military prison for the rest of his days.
He knows that he’s already guilty of treason, so now he has to go all in to avoid punishment for what he did.
Aleta
@Litlebritdifrnt: France?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: as opposed to what the Rs wanted to do to President Clinton and his wife. How can they say crap like this so unironically?
HypersphericalCow
So, we’re we-activating the Monroe Doctrine, except in a stupid form. Because OIL!
Except that having Venezuela’s oil back on the market would actually make things worse for American oil producers, and would probably crash the economies of North Dakota, Nebraska, etc. That’s if they can actually get everything in VZ back up and running, which is unlikely, after years of neglect.
This plan was clearly well thought-out and properly organized.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I take pictures…the aftermath of the last year’s Woolsey fire,
and
Fishin’.
Bill Arnold
Dug up the piece where William Safire called William Barr the “Coverup-General”.
The Patsy Prosecutor (WILLIAM SAFIRE, OCT. 19, 1992)
Trump hired the “Coverup-General” because, why, exactly?
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
They’re not like us. They have neither the internal nor the external feedback mechanisms to reflect on their own hypocrisy.
We, on the other hand, invent controversies where we find them lacking.
tokyokie
So how well did the U.S. military do in defeating its adversaries in Vietnam? Now consider that Venezuela is roughly 5 times the size and double the population of South Vietnam in the late ’60s.Yeah, invading Venezuela, that’s going to work.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Damn, Bill. I hope there is a Juicer discount for your first show.
Bill Arnold
Long and interesting piece that deserves some attention IMO. Adam Schiff is very interested in the counterintelligence investigations. (To be clear I hope there are CI investigations of L. Graham and a few others who have been behaving suspiciously.)
The Spy Case That Made Adam Schiff a Russia Hawk – Three decades before he railed against the Trump campaign, the future congressman prosecuted an FBI agent who was seduced by a Soviet spy. (ZACH DORFMAN, May 26, 2019)
Baud
@HypersphericalCow:
No, we’re just watching sad old man beat their chest like Tarzan for the benefit of a bunch of other sad old men who watch Fox News.
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne: I don’t think we need to speculate about blackmail. Graham’s always been a loyal Republican, which these days has less and less in common with being a loyal American.
The Lost Cause Boys have a heritage, and that heritage is ‘Treason in defense of slavery.’ The modern GOP will use debt peonage and dirty cops instead of actually selling humans at auction, but then that model worked very nicely for them after the un-Reconstruction!
Montanareddog
@Litlebritdifrnt: I think the results are actually quite positive, but the MSM are following their pre-formed narrative (looking at you, Auntie) of a major victory for Farage. But the net changes compared to the last EUP elections, 5 years ago, show that the % gain for the Brexit Party is less than the % decline of UKIP + the Tories. I read that as a net gain for Remain parties
low-tech cyclist
I’m old enough to remember when the MSM were passing off Lindsey Graham as one of the Republicans with integrity.
Hell, I’m older than Lindsey Graham, but you get the idea. Boy howdy, did they blow it.
germy
@Mnemosyne:
Yes, I think that’s it.
People always ask “Why is he protecting Trump??” when the answer is “He’s protecting himself.”
They’re all protecting themselves.
Steeplejack
@Litlebritdifrnt:
What’s going on with your husband? Is he still in Atlanta?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Bill Arnold: I mentioned above that being an impeachment manager cost my former congresscritter his seat, the guy who defeated him was a former prosecutor named Adam Schiff.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Now that’s an upgrade!
MattF
Lindsey’s been in free-fall since McCain’s death. Something going on there, I’m guessing– but I’m actually not very interested in knowing exactly what.
Montanareddog
@Montanareddog: France: Macron essentially held his own against Le Pen in an election where protest votes rule. Huge surge for the Greens in Germany. Netherlands: Wilders’ party from 4 to 0 while their functional replacement, FvD, 0 to 3; gains for the Labour party and the Green/Left. Overall positive so far
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Thanks.
hells littlest angel
@germy: Yeah, I’m sure the Russians hacked the Republicans just as they hacked the Democrats. The difference is that what they found on the Republicans was too good to give away to WikiLeaks.
Aleta
Yascha Mounk @Yascha_Mounk
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yeah, the guy before the impeachment manager dude ended up doing time in the Federal pen.
Dr Ronnie James DO
“Trump’s opponents want to commit political suicide, and I advise him to oppose that tooth and nail.”
“The train is careening off a cliff, and I urge Trump to throw himself on the tracks if he has to.”
Litlebritdifrnt
@Montanareddog: I agree, we see UKIP losing 28% support and Brexit gaining 28% support so it is obvious that the leavers have gone over to Brexit. It is slightly good news that the pro remain parties LibDem and Green have gained massively. It is not all bad news.
Mike in NC
Pence was telling the new grads at West Point that he and Fat Bastard are busy looking for places for them to pointlessly die (Iran, North Korea, Syria, etc.).
Mike in NC
Newspaper article on today’s front page: “Trump Needles Japanese Over Trade Issues”. Because the Japanese have always been very receptive to being needled, right?
Expect him to do something stupid and offensive when he meets the new emperor.
Raven
Paul “Andy” Stein. KIA Operation Meade River, 11/22/1968.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Litlebritdifrnt: One of the things that really infuriates me is that a person in the Brexit party was elected as an MEP for the North East despite the fact that he LIVES IN FUCKING FRANCE! How stupid are people that they would elect someone to represesent them in their area who doesn’t even live there?
Baud
@Aleta:
Sounds mixed, depending on the country.
I blame the Clinton machine.
PPCLI
@Bonnie: And the records of the Rose Law firm that Hilary worked for (note:well before Bill was Pres). And the f*cking White House Christmas card list, that was the subject of 140 hours of testimony (to see if President Clinton had used it to identify Democratic donors). And an extensive investigation of a suicide of a close friend of the Clinton’s, with the objective of establishing that they had murdered him. And on and on…. Nothing was too personal, nothing was too trivial, nothing was too shameless or indecent for Lindsey Graham and his fellow House vultures.
Aleta
Yascha Mounk @Yascha_Mounk
Major Major Major Major
joel hanes
@Mnemosyne:
I think someone showed Lindsey evidence that he accepted Russian money for his campaign
I’m guessing that Putin/Trump have that kind of kompromat on maybe a dozen Republicans, possibly one or two Democrats, the Attorney General, one nominal Independent, and perhaps a couple “journalists”.
And that there’s slightly different kompromat on the son of a former Supreme Court justice who is in banking.
Redshift
The idea that we woulda won Vietnam if not for those damn hippies is as much as article of faith among conservatives as the idea that a certain candidate woulda won is to another group.
It’s changed somewhat in recent years, but not long ago the divide between liberals and conservatives could be traced to whether they came through the Vietnam era believing the anti-war protesters or the authorities trying to keep them down were the good guys.
Baud
Better military graduation news than Pence.
debbie
@Mike in NC:
That monstrosity of a trophy was a good first step for that.
Raven
@Redshift: I don’t know, if they would have let us kill a couple of million more who knows?
NotMax
Does the word quagmire ring a bell, Lindsey?
Tony Jay
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I’m watching it too, but I’ve got to agree with Montanareddog. What we’re seeing is the UKIP vote from the last Euro elections swap to Brexit ( which you’d expect) minus the really hardcore screaming racists who like the overt fascist tilt UKIP has taken and reject Farage’s private company for trying to keep the extremist rhetoric on the down-low. They’ve also taken a huge chunk of Tory voters, which you’d also expect.
This is giving them big percentages in a lot of Leave voting areas, And quite a few seats, but they’re nowhere near getting 50+ of the vote. That’s because the pro-Remain Parties (and I’m including Labour in this bloc) combined are beating out the pro-Brexit Parties but splitting the vote between them.
Messages? The Tories are being punished badly, with pro-No Deal lunatics going Brexit and pro-Remain going Lib Dem. It’s the same story for Labour but less extreme either way. The Lib Dems are picking up mostly Tory Remainers while the Greens are picking up mostly Labour Remainers (That’s my personal take, but I think it’s likely). Brexit is picking up only about 5% to 7% more than UKIP nationwide, by cannibalizing UKIP and picking off the Leave voters from the major parties.
Yeah this is a free protest vote where the major parties are concerned, but it’s important they listen. The Tories are going to see they need to go extreme pro-Brexit to keep their voters, Labour needs to win back Remain voters by moving in that direction. The Lib Dems can see their Remain credentials are good for business, as can the Greens. Change UK and UKIP can rent a bedsit together and listen to the Best of Emo-Goth on Depression FM, they are done.
Ruckus
@HypersphericalCow:
Seems like it would be impossible to type with your tongue that far into your cheek.
Redshift
@Mnemosyne: I don’t think there’s any sort of blackmail or threat. While McCain was alive, Graham could ride his fawning press coverage and pretend to be the reasonable Republican the pundits so desperately want to exist, and do okay. But he’s can’t pull it off on his own, and his voters are Trump-lovers and Foxbots. The contest between keeping his seat and appearing to have integrity was no contest. Since he became a shameless sycophant, he’s way more popular back home, and the possibility of Trump empowering a primary challenger is gone.
Baud
@Raven:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Steeplejack
@Raven:
Semper fidelis, PFC Stein.
I was just at that site earlier today, lookng at the entry for my uncle, an “adviser” who was KIA in 1964. Not quite 32 years old, and he left behind a wife and two little kids. RIP, Uncle Dean.
germy
So… tomorrow’s Memorial Day. Will PEETUS pardon those guys like he said he would?
PPCLI
@joel hanes: And a former (Democratic) New York State Attorney General, who had been making lots of noise but not actually doing anything about Trump’s many state offenses (fx. the corrupt “Trump Foundation). Then suddenly it came out that a) he was violently abusive to many partners. b) Some of those partners had been directed to none other than Michael Cohen. It was then noticed that c) On a couple of earlier occasions, Trump had broadly hinted to Schneiderman on Twitter that he knew the dark secrets.
Upon Schneiderman’s resignation, quickly an investigation of the Trump foundation (etc.) was launched at the State level under the new (acting) AG.
Evidently Trump and his thugs thought they had that base covered, but they miscalculated.
germy
Raven
@Steeplejack: Looks like he may have been a chopper pilot?
John Revolta
Graham changed practically overnight from being a Trump critic to being all-in for him. They’ve definitely got something on him.
Baud
@germy:
No point speculating.
Tony Jay
In fact, every time a new result comes in you wince at the Brexit Vote and think “How? Are you blind?” Then they show the % change since the last election and the way the seats are divided up and you see exactly where the Brexit Vote has come from (UKIP and Tory extremists) and that Brexit has simply taken over the old UKIP seats in Brussels, really hardly any change.
Once the pundits get over their initial fap-crazy reaction to the (not so) sudden appearance of Brexit, in about a week, they’ll start grudgingly admitting that the pro-Remain vote is actually bigger in an election you’d expect the pro-Brexit voters to be vety, very enthused about getting to the polls.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@germy:
The asshole’s going to be in Japan tomorrow, right? He won’t be in Arlington on Memorial Day.
Dan B
@HypersphericalCow: My partner keeps saying that the Koch bros have the only refinery that can process Venezuelan crude. Don’t know if it’s true but it would be a good link to corrupting democracy.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Goddamn, I had to sit through interminable video to get to the actual number: 34.
Mike in NC
I was on active duty during the absurd Grenada affair, which was more than anything meant to draw attention away from the Beirut bombing fiasco and make Reagan look “tough”. We were training at Gitmo and about half the Atlantic Fleet was dispatched for that bit of theatrics.
Ruckus
@Steeplejack:
Trying to figure out why the name is familiar to me. It could be it sounds like a name of someone I do know or I ran across something about him before this.
joel hanes
@PPCLI:
Schneiderman
Thanks for connecting those dots. It’s hard to keep up with the atrocities.
Baud
@Dan B:
I never knew refineries weren’t generic.
@Steeplejack:
Not all heroes wear capes.
Steve in the ATL
@John Revolta:
Exactly. Or “word to your mother”, as I understand the kids say these days. It’s 1993, right?
Brachiator
I have been off enjoying the holiday weekend. Why is the Trump administration talking about fighting in Venezuela? Are there Islamic terrorists there using that country as a staging area for a US invasion? Yes, absurd. Or is Bolton or some other fool looking for an easy target?
And what happened to all the shiny military hardware being sent to frighten Iran?
These dopes can’t give it a rest for even a minute. Always trying to stir up some bullshit.
Steve in the ATL
@Mike in NC: and if that weren’t bad enough, we had to watch a really shitty Clint Eastwood movie about it.
Kay
The NYTimes had the worst political coverage in the country, and it’s not even close. This has to be deliberate. They can’t be this bad, this consistently without planning.
Steve in the ATL
@Brachiator:
I have played golf, played in the water with my dogs, eaten salmon, and drunk excellent wine today. Any yet, it’s not enough—I still need Balloon Juice !
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
When bullshit is all they have………..
Baud
@Mike in NC:
https://snltranscripts.jt.org/86/86jgrenada.phtml
(Couldn’t find the video)
Baud
@Kay:
They know what they are doing.
Ruckus
@Steve in the ATL:
Was there ever any other kind of CE movie besides shitty and very shitty?
I mean one line out of all of them was good.
MomSense
We are still in Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Now the Republicans want war with Iran and Venezuela.
Kay
The worst.
Steve in the ATL
@Ruckus: “two mules for sister sarah”
Raven
@Ruckus: Letters from Iwo Jima, The Unforgiven, and Coogans Bluff were all good.
Baud
@Kay:
She should talk to El Chapo. He went through a similar crisis.
SFAW
@PPCLI:
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I think it’s highly likely that they’re trying to manufacture some bullshit scandal to try to take down Tish James, so it’ll all be good.
The only surprise is that they didn’t take out Spitzer sooner. [Yes, I know Spitzer has/had “issues.”]
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: zing!
debbie
@Mike in NC:
All those deaths so Reagan wouldn’t appear to be the negligent asshole he was.
Mnemosyne
@Anne Laurie:
Sure, but I’m also pointing out that we don’t even have to get into sexual speculation here. Financial compromise by the Russians would be more than enough to get Graham court-martialed. It’s much simpler and therefore much more likely than anything else, IMO.
Kay
@Baud:
Steeplejack
@Raven:
No, he was a Ranger (or “Ranger-qualified”—not sure of the distinction) leading search-and-destory missions and doing close air support for the ARVN. Kind of murky back in the early days before the big buildup in ’65. Hence “adviser.”
From the second page of his VVMF entry:
I didn’t know any of that until years later. At the time it was just: “Uncle Dean died in a helicopter crash.”
I looked up the other four men killed in the crash: ages 18, 21, 21 and 30. What a waste.
Baud
@Kay:
https://youtu.be/8JOpPNra4bw
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
The stories I’ve seen, even from the sometimes dishonest BBC, have noted the strong Remain vote. Intelligent reporting has noted that the increase in votes going to the Lib Dems is essentially a pro Remain protest vote. The Conservative Party has been hammered hard, probably losing both BREXIT and Remain supporters.
Labour has been slapped around as well. There had been a big appeal to Labour supporters to vote Lib Dem just this once for the European Elections. I don’t see that Tory supporters would jump to the Lib Dems to the same degree.
I don’t know what the voter turnout has been. I saw something in the mid 30s percent, but this might have been referring to exit polls.
I’m not surprised, but it is still sad to see the degree to which a chunk of the British media love kissing up to Farage and pro BREXIT bullshit.
SFAW
Well, I just found out I may be able to retire early.
I just got e-mail from a “Major Dennis Hornbeck” saying “I am in the military unit here in Afghanistan, we have some amount of funds that we want to move out of the country. My partners and I need a good partner someone we can trust. It is risk free and legal.”
They didn’t say how much he and his friends would pay for my help, but I’m sure it will be substantial. Maybe, instead of retiring early, I can buy a really nice lakefront home in Maine.
Sure seems legit to me.
ETA: I think it’s especially classy for these guys to pretend they’re a vet, on Memorial Day.
Kay
@Baud:
Love that this is all now optional for certain special people.
Gosh, I hope she’s okay!
Baud
@Kay:
AL put up a new thread on this topic.
Dan B
@Baud: Partner just confirmed the Koch bros specialty is tar like crude, similar to Alberta Tar Sands hence their interest in XL pipeline as well as Venezuela.
Steeplejack
@Ruckus:
He was from Arizona. Any connections there?
Baud
@Dan B:
Interesting. Thank your partner for me.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
You will enjoy this. Haberman is getting dragged up and down Twitter for her victim-porn story on Hope Hicks, starting with this thread from @emptywheel:
The Times is even getting dragged for the “glamour shot” picture of Hicks accompanying the article.
Steve in the ATL
@Mnemosyne: bingo
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack: but their cooling section! But their crossword puzzle! But their book reviews!
Brachiator
@Steve in the ATL:
Sounds great. Hope the rest of the holiday weekend is equally enjoyable.
I’ve been running around, taking care of odds and ends, but also had a hugely wonderful dinner with friends at a local Thai restaurant. And now I get a little Balloon Juice catch up.
Anne Laurie
@Kay: See next post!
schrodingers_cat
@Aleta: Yasha Mounk is full of shit, I find his analyses to be sketchy. YMMV.
Steeplejack
@Steve in the ATL:
Actually, I do like all that stuff and shamelessly partake of same. But their political coverage—specifically national, executive branch—sucks. Literally. (Is it okay to say that?)
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne: I don’t think the Russians would bother buying Graham’s loyalty, when it is obvious to the meanest intelligence that Lindsey was already going full-metal Confederate Nation to protect his party and his own seat.
schrodingers_cat
@Anne Laurie: Thanks AL for posting my write up about the elections, I have two more in the works.
schrodingers_cat
@Steve in the ATL: Do they have a heating section too? I have been reading English language publications in India for election coverage. OMG, NYT has nothing on them.
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack: NO! PIE FILTER! Figuratively. I’m not literally pieing you.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Bird was good. Mystic River is excellent. Unforgiven is very good, but I think slightly overrated. But even his early film, Play Misty For Me, is solid.
Anne Laurie
@Steeplejack: If you check the time stamps, yes, I was working up the next post even as you posted this comment.
Tony Jay
@Brachiator:
It’s looking like voter participation is around 37%, which is just shocking. On the one hand, when the people who care enough to vote come out its a pretty good Remain victory. On the other hand, what happened to the 2016 voters who didn’t vote this time? Is it that young Remain-leaning voters didn’t bother and older pro-Remain voters are now dead? I just don’t know.
What’s absolutely clear, the policy Labour has followed to keep its unity so far has cost it a huge number of protest votes. Yeah, a shitload of that is to do with how badly the Media has presented that policy to the public, but clearly that presentation has done it’s job. Good. That’s a clear signal that policy needs to change in the way I prefer.
The biggest takeaway for me, the Tory vote plus the UKIP and Brexit Vote is below 50%. That’s huge. That’s the Game right there. The Tories can’t move closer to the centre or Nigel’s horror show will eat them, Labour have a much easier route to getting those votes back. Labour win a lot more by going full on Remain than they do by appeasing Leavers.
Anne Laurie
@schrodingers_cat: I’m looking forward to them — as, I’m sure, are other BJ jackals!
Steve in the ATL
@schrodingers_cat: if you crumple it up and stick it in your pot bellied stove. Or perhaps if your stupid spellcheck doesn’t change the word “cooking”, which you correctly typed, to an irrelevant word.
Steve in the ATL
@Tony Jay: is it fair to say that Labour has played everything exactly wrong?
joel hanes
@Anne Laurie:
I don’t think the Russians would bother buying Graham’s loyalty
I’m guessing that’s now how it goes down.
Candidate accepts several generous contributions from a source that seems … not alarming.
Contributor seeks a way to contribute even more, and does so — perhaps through the NRA, perhaps through a PAC that seems like any other PAC …
The election happens.
Then the contributor makes it known that those contributions were in fact from prohibited foreign sources, shows documents colorable as candidate knowingly accepting such, suggests that certain courses of action might cause contributor not to speak to anyone else about this matter … do they understand each other ?
We know that a huge flow of money came through the NRA.
Where did it go ? And how ?
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
On the election in India? I would really like to check it out.
Steeplejack
@Brachiator:
A Perfect World (1993) is an overlooked gem. Well, maybe not a gem, but something worth a look. Also a good Kevin Costner movie.
Steeplejack
@Anne Laurie:
Glad you’re front-paging it.
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
Some of this was the media, but it was also deliberate strategy by Corbyn. Yeah, Labour needs to change policy.
Prior to this, the Tories making the most noise as they head into their party leadership elections were BREXIT hardliners. They may be poised to compound their previous blunders.
Yep. Agree with you on this.
Matt McIrvin
My first thought when I read this was that he was talking about deploying them in the United States.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: The obvious response is going to be “OK, what specifically has he done for the economy?”
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack: omg enough with the shameless brown nosing. She’s not interested in you, dude!
Tony Jay
@Steve in the ATL:
Yes and no, maybe.
Labour had to maintain Party unity in Westminster in order to be able to be a viable party of national govenrment. It has Leave voters and Remain voters, and when it comes to a General Election you need both.
European votes are protest votes, and after the 2016 Referendum they are supercharged protest votes. Clearly Labour have to decide if they can now swing much further towards Remain because they can assume the Leave vote will be split between Tories and Brexit.
37% of the electorate voted last Thursday. That’s less than will vote at the next GE. Assuming the missing voters will be all Remain and so gettable by a full Remain Labour is… Not certain.
I want Labour to be full-on Remain, I always have, but I understand why they haven’t been. I want a Labour Government, especially a Corbyn-led Labour Government, which needs Leave votes. Hopefully the extremism the Tories are bound to embrace will make it easier to Labour to claim the centre-ground and offer a 2nd referendum to strip the Brexiteers.of their only claim to legitimacy.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Here it is on my blog
and here is the Balloon Juice thread.
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
I never saw this one.
I will put it on my watch list.
ETA. I see that Aladdin is doing well at the weekend box office. I guess we are now doomed to see live action versions of every Disney film ever made. A live action version of Fantasia might be a trip.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: We were doomed to see those the moment the live-action Cinderella made all the money, which was four years ago.
Ruckus
@Raven:
That was a bit tongue in cheek there, The Unforgiven is my favorite western. But he didn’t really play to type in that. Only sort of.
Baud
@Brachiator:
@Matt McIrvin: .
Beauty and the Beast too, IIRC.
Tony Jay
@Brachiator:
Yup, we basically agree on most things.
The important thing is that Brexit/UKIP/Tories = Low 40%
Then the rest of the parties, including Labour (Corbyn has just made a statement presenting two options – GE or 2nd Referendum) got about 50%.
The problem for the BBC and it’s ‘experts’ is that they’re trying to hype the drama by looking at this like a FPTP election, whoever gets the biggest share of votes ‘wins’. That’s skewing their coverage. Accidentally, I’m sure.
Ruckus
@debbie:
Not to give the old demented fool too much credit, but he wasn’t the first or last to get innocent people for the same reason.
Steve in the ATL
@Brachiator: Will Smith is no Robin Williams.
Steve in the ATL
@Ruckus: but treason is treason is treason, whether Nixon or Reagan or Bush….
Steeplejack
@Brachiator:
At lunch the other day my media-saturated friend and I were talking about that phenomenon where the trailer for a movie convinces you that you will never, ever want to see that movie. Live-action Aladdin pegged the meter for both of us.
Ditto for that movie (which has come and gone already) with Julia Roberts as the concerned mother of the drug-addicted teenager. As if Julia Roberts could project concern for anyone that is not Julia Roberts’s character in the movie.
. . . Ah, Ben Is Back. Had to look it up, it was so unmemorable.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: The remarkable thing is that literally none of these remakes are good, as far as I can tell. But they still pack ’em in.
Ruckus
@Steeplejack:
Don’t know. He was about 15 yrs older than me so it might just be the name sounds similar to a long ago person, it might be a link from a friend who joined the army to fly helicopters in the very late 70s and was killed in a crash, the details I never found out about, but it was not in combat. Been racking my tiny, tiny brain and come up with zip.
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
But here’s the dilemma. Can’t the Conservatives engineer a BREXIT before the next general election? And they don’t need to wait until the October 31 extension deadline.
I was almost going to write that it might be to the EU’s advantage to allow a quiet BREXIT, especially since they don’t want BREXIT MEPs making noise.
However, dumping May doesn’t change much for the Conservatives. The Tories and Leavers keep pretending that the Irish backstop problem will magically go away, among other fantasies.
Ruckus
@Dan B:
Koch Bros – crude like tar. Yep, that’s the Koch Bros.
Jay
@Ruckus:
And petcoke,
PPCLI
@Brachiator: And let’s not forget High Plains Drifter. I agree on Play Misty For Me. (I also have a soft spot for Invictus).
Brachiator
@Steve in the ATL:
Very true. I can’t think of many current actors or comedians who come close.
However, I wonder what Robert Downey Jr or Kate McKinnon might have done with the role. I also seem to recall that Downey Jr is a passable singer.
NotMax
@Brachiator
Before he talked to chairs, he talked to the trees.
;)
Ruckus
@Steve in the ATL:
Xactly.
This is a nation founded by war. It is a nation that was quite successful at WWII and that paid off quite well for a couple of decades after that war. But that has gone to the heads of many of our politicians that war is what defines us and makes us strong. And better. So whenever it seems that a president is in trouble the war crap is rolled out, because there is always some far off country in need of a war, and who better to give it to them than the greatest country? Is it possible that the movie industry is somewhat responsible for the republican party’s idea that war solves all problems? It can’t be reality, they don’t believe in that. Look at the current republican politicians. The leaders all are boomers or older, whose parents were adults during WWII, the “greatest” generation.
Tony Jay
@Brachiator:
I think one thing is certain after tonight. The pro-Remain Tories are going to do whatever it takes to stop whoever replaces May from lurching into a No Deal. They’ll support a No Confidence vote rather than let that be the Tory Party’s legacy.
Bed now. The Brexit vote seems stable at more than 30% but less than 40%. That’s okay by me, I can sleep without bad dreams.
Jay
@Brachiator:
Nope.
The two remaining options for Brexit are:
May’s NotReallyBrexit Backstop, which won’t pass the House,
and a Hard Brexit, Nov.1, 2019.
The EU’s done with the fools.
Chris Johnson
@Baud: This. Pence means on American soil.
People are over-quick to assume he is completely stupid, rather than ‘dedicated Russian-aligned traitor prepared to take over from the previous puppet’. This is why we can’t just impeach only Trump and be done with it. It’s way worse than just that.
Jackie
@NotMax: @NotMax: I have to confess loving Paint Your Wagon! (But, not for CE’s singing lol)
Steeplejack
@Jackie:
Yes, Lee Marvin’s singing was so much better! //
Jackie
@Steeplejack: Oh, I don’t know… that husky, raspy voice…?
Jay
@Chris Johnson:
“ This. Pence means on American soil.”
Nope. Wingnut’s think the US Military is their SS, funny thing though,
Most take their oaths seriously,
And while “generic Republican” polls at 58% amongst the Military, Needy Amin polls at 38% now,
16% amongst Officers.
Steve in the ATL
@Steeplejack: I can’t stand the way he sings/but i love to hear him talk….
Fair Economist
@Tony Jay: The other part of the UK EU vote is that based on pre-election polling the remaining Labour *and* Tory votes are overwhelmingly Remain. The people who said they’d vote Labour were about 75% Remain and Tories about 70% Remain. Basically, voters nutty enough to support Brexit at this point are pretty faithless too and left their parties for Brexit, while Remain voters mostly stayed loyal. So the vote shows a very strong preference for Remain in the electorate.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
With one exception?
:)
Fair Economist
@Brachiator:
I’d watch that!
Jackie
@NotMax: lolololol
J R in WV
@Steve in the ATL:
We watered and fertilized the ferns and moss, groomed the boulders of chickweed, watered new plants not yet planted.
Then we had a cocktail, showered, went next door, for a gathering old time musicians. Wonderful folks, great talent.
SFAW
@NotMax:
It was a singin’ day in Wolf City, Wyoming,
SFAW
@Steve in the ATL:
Up on Physically Challenged Creek?
Steve in the ATL
@SFAW: precisely! And hopefully the creek is ADA-compliant.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
Check on the banks for ramps.
;)
Ken_L
I’m sorry, libtards, but it’s past time America stood up to the relentless efforts to turn Latin America into a Cuban colony. Cuba may have the money and the fancy guns, but the USA has the balls! USA fuck yeah!