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Both Sides Do It!

You are here: Home / Archives for Both Sides Do It!

Late Night Open Thread: Au Revoir, Little Red Sparrow

by Anne Laurie|  October 28, 201912:36 am| 33 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Gun Issues, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Russia, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Both Sides Do It!, Nobody could have predicted, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

At the airport, Butina tells a group of journos that “Russians don’t surrender,” apparently forgetting that she pleaded guilty to a felony in the US and testified against Alexander Torshin, which got him booted out of Russia’s Central Bank. pic.twitter.com/O8a3SfdZdE

— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) October 26, 2019

NEW: Maria Butina Receives Hero’s Welcome in Moscow https://t.co/6ZjkYPQ6Fv

My latest for @thedailybeast

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) October 26, 2019

One day you’re the NRA’s top pin-up girl, the next you’re (allegedly) fighting for food in an American prison:

… Eagerly anticipating Butina’s impending liberation, Russian state media outlets expected to live-stream her release, but U.S. authorities had other plans. Having traveled to the Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institution from Atlanta, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida, Russian state TV stringers were stranded for hours filming traffic, building exits and geese on the lawn. Meanwhile, Butina was quietly whisked out of the facility and transferred to the custody of ICE for a speedy deportation back to Russia…

Appearing on 60 Minutes—the most popular news talk show in Russia—the correspondent of Russia’s state-TV channel Rossiya-24 Valentin Bogdanov pointed out that the Western media no longer dares to call Butina a spy. “They’re being careful,” Bogdanov said, speculating that media outlets are afraid of being sued for using the wrong language. In the Kremlin-controlled Russian media, Butina is being described mainly in glowing terms…

Working at the direction of a Russian government official, Alexander Torshin, Butina infiltrated Republican political circles and the National Rifle Association around the time of the 2016 election in order to promote Russian interests. In September of 2019, an investigation by Senate Democrats determined that the NRA has acted as a “foreign asset” in providing Russian officials access to US political organizations.

In court documents, prosecutors argued that Butina’s efforts had the hallmarks of a Russian espionage operation, suggesting that she was acting as a “spotter” by identifying people who have the ability to influence policy in Russia’s favor, as a set of targets Russian spies could potentially cultivate. Investigators from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team questioned Butina on only one occasion for approximately an hour. Her name was left out of the final version of the Special Counsel’s redacted report. Many questions about the full scope of Maria Butina’s activities in the United States remain unanswered…

There is little doubt that Maria Butina will be actively used by Russian state media for anti-American propaganda. Butina also has other plans. In April, she told CNN that she might start tutoring Russian students who want to study in America.

Maria Butina says she has no plans to return to the US at the moment for personal safety reasons. She has been deported for committing a felony and would never be allowed back. https://t.co/SIWzvRsdtu

— X Soviet (@XSovietNews) October 26, 2019

On the surface, but historically Russia has always assumed that those jailed abroad may have been recruited while in custody, and they have met unpleasant fates on their return. https://t.co/6Gf0SdIS5r

— X Soviet (@XSovietNews) October 26, 2019

Putin expects others to be like him and keep someone in prison until an exchange is agreed. Maria Butina was released even before the end of her sentence, so Putin has no need to offer Paul Whelan in return. For him people are just bargaining chips. https://t.co/vo6YQtb8HI

— X Soviet (@XSovietNews) October 26, 2019

Why would Alexander Malkevich (left), the editor of one of the Internet Research Agency’s disinformation websites aimed at the United States be meeting Maria Butina with flowers at the Moscow airport? Sure looks like him. https://t.co/12P70I5u05

— Mike Walker (@New_Narrative) October 26, 2019

Late Night Open Thread: <em>Au Revoir</em>, Little Red SparrowPost + Comments (33)

Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Meanwhile, at the Other Pole of the Horseshoe…

by Anne Laurie|  October 15, 20193:20 am| 38 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, Open Threads, All Too Normal, Both Sides Do It!

The Trump administration is doing what it does, but on steroids. Meanwhile, the Too-Woke-To-Settle-For-A-Mere-Imperfect-Democrat “Left” is… acting out that Nietzsche quote. “… When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

This whole article is very strange, and I'm not sure how much to say, but, for the record, I would like to state that it's very odd to cast Malia Obama as the central figure in your neoliberal technocratic hellscape. https://t.co/eDxzViGL0Z pic.twitter.com/g7rPbxfuhz

— Mangy Jay (@magi_jay) October 14, 2019

Framing a rant about your personal political frustrations around a 20 year old college girl whose father you hate is many things.

"Creepy" is about the nicest thing you can call it. https://t.co/ZqYezbc9Tg

— Peter Wolf (@peterawolf) October 14, 2019

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Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Meanwhile, at the <em>Other</em> Pole of the Horseshoe…Post + Comments (38)

Late Night Open Thread: Good for Luke Skywalker

by Anne Laurie|  September 30, 201912:23 am| 68 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Popular Culture, Trump Crime Cartel, Both Sides Do It!, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

You misspelled "Fraud."#GoForceYourself https://t.co/ORY6eeyGgj

— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) September 29, 2019

The whistleblower’s under federal protection because of rabid MAGAts, but Daddy’s Liddle’ Pwincess wants the world to know how very normal’n’basic her life is…

Mark Hamill gets heat for slamming Ivanka Trump's photo of her son in 'Star Wars' costume: 'You s… https://t.co/pgbuoMsTzS via @YahooLifestyle

— hardknoxfirst (@hardknoxfirst) September 30, 2019

and how about the Kids who can't have à nice Sunday because of her family ?

— Supernad (@NightwingNad) September 29, 2019

Mommy, why does Luke Skywalker hate us?
Because we are terrible, terrible people, son.

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) September 29, 2019

Gotta agree, I personally can’t wait until Jarvanka and all their adult kin are in prison or in exile, may the Goddess of Consequences permit.

Late Night Open Thread: Good for Luke SkywalkerPost + Comments (68)

Industrial clusters and thick labor markets

by David Anderson|  August 9, 20195:00 pm| 70 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, Free Markets Solve Everything, Glibertarianism, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Both Sides Do It!, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To

I’m waiting for a huge piece of code to rerun and I should not be working on a cognitively intensive revise and resubmit on a Friday afternoon, so I want to go back to what I originally went to grad school for — urban economics and economic development — for a minute to respond to a seemingly populist and really dumb proposal to strip the federal government of expertise proposed by Andrew Yang.

Washington DC feels very detached from the daily lives of most Americans. One way to change this – relocate Federal agencies that don’t need to be in DC to other parts of the country. Would save tons of money too as DC is one of our most expensive cities. https://t.co/owX9qa8yeo

— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) August 8, 2019

Let’s think about Washington DC’s primary export industry as government and more specifically federal government leadership and top level analysis and management. The federal government is an industrial cluster in DC much like venture capital fueled technology firms are an industrial cluster in San Francisco-San Jose region, bio-tech is a cluster in Greater Boston and steel was a cluster in Pittsburgh. Clusters are interesting in that they are often positive feedback loops until they run into hard constraints or a massive external shock.

There is a huge literature on the positive feedback loops on economically successful clusters. One of the major drivers is that a cluster creates a rich and thick labor market. This means that at any given point, there are lots of good jobs available to anyone who is qualified to work in the cluster. People aren’t locked into a “good enough” job because that is the only job available that utilizes any specific human capital/education/tacit knowledge available to them, but that people can readily shift between positions to maximize their personal gain. In Washington DC, if someone is a research economist, there are a hundred opportunities within seven Metro stops of their current place of employment. If someone is a research economist in Sault Ste. Marie, there may be one or two within an hour of their current place of employment. The same applies for geneticists who work in Boston vs. geneticists who work in Boise.

Employment concentration creates specialization and optimization. It allows for work to be more productive as the cluster grows and the labor market becomes even thicker and deeper. This is all pretty standard.

There is another labor market point to make; large urban areas have lots of jobs that are not in the primary export industry. This could matter for me at some point in the future as I could easily see myself spending a couple of years working for either the federal government in the DC-Baltimore region or working for an entity that directly services the federal management and analysis industrial cluster. My wife has a skill set that could translate into this industrial sector but her current experience is in a general professional environment. If my options for moving to DC for federal work or Boone, North Carolina, my wife will far more readily find a good enough job in DC.

Dispersing the vast majority of the DC/Baltimore/NOVA government management and analysis cluster that has been built up over four generations is a great way to make the federal government less efficient and less attractive to top tier talent especially if the dispersion would be going to smaller urban clusters with far shallower and thinner labor markets.

Industrial clusters and thick labor marketsPost + Comments (70)

Repub-on-Repub Open Thread: Speaking of DISARRAY!!!…

by Anne Laurie|  July 14, 201910:32 pm| 56 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Repubs in Disarray!, Both Sides Do It!, Decline and Fall, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

1/ There's a very passionate reaction to @realDonaldTrump's racisty racism this morning. It's justified, but pointless.

Let me remind you: there is no bottom. There is no better Trump. It's never a joke, or 87-dimensional chess, or some clever strategery.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) July 14, 2019

Obviously they’ll renominate him. But we should be clear about where the responsibility lies.

— Seth Masket (@smotus) July 14, 2019

There never was a factual objection. Just establishment politesse and denial. https://t.co/p4BOgkM0RR

— Ishaan Tharoor (@ishaantharoor) July 14, 2019

I've read this article. What I see is a few people saying: "I didn't expect Trump to win, I sure didn't expect him to win again, and I wish I hadn't limited my career options." Then you shouldn't have signed anything. Beyond that, not sure what this "fracturing" is. https://t.co/3GDGR3yZMH

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 14, 2019

… This weekend, a few dozen once-prominent GOP foreign policy figures, including some original “never Trumpers,” are gathering at a private Reagan Institute retreat in Beaver Creek, Colo., to promote and preserve the 40th president’s “conservative internationalist” approach to foreign affairs. Yet the White House has shown little willingness to tap into this wellspring of expertise, even as Trump cycles through national security aides and faces a dwindling pool of experienced staffers for a potential second term.

The ostracizing of the group has led some to reconsider their roles in a prominent public movement to stop Trump three years ago.

“I’m not comfortable with letters anymore,” said Patrick Cronin, head of the Asia-Pacific security program at the Hudson Institute, who signed the first letter, which called Trump “fundamentally dishonest” and “utterly unfitted to the office.” In March 2017, Cronin was forced to withdraw from a new position overseeing a Pentagon think tank after Trump allies blasted his appointment by then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis…

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Repub-on-Repub Open Thread: Speaking of <em>DISARRAY!!!</em>…Post + Comments (56)

Both Sides From The New York Times

by Cheryl Rofer|  June 15, 20194:03 pm| 153 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, War, Assholes, Both Sides Do It!

My Twitter lit up this morning with Bret Stephens’s call to sink Iran’s navy. But nobody wants war, he assures us.

Right next door (figuratively speaking), Eliot Higgins has an excellent explainer on the evidence proffered so far and how to analyze it. If you want to learn more about how to do open-source intelligence, take some time with this article.

Stephens’s piece, of course, offers nothing remotely like evidence.

And the Times Editorial Board advises the President to heed his deal-making reflex, not his hawkish advisers.

I guess two out of three isn’t too bad.

Open thread – slow afternoon.

Both Sides From The New York TimesPost + Comments (153)

Cohen Testimony Open Thread: Breakout ‘Stars’

by Anne Laurie|  February 27, 20199:42 pm| 102 Comments

This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Repubs in Disarray!, Russiagate, Both Sides Do It!

I’m putting together a tweet-narrative on some of the GOP sideshow artistes who particularly beclowned themselves today, but first, strong supporting character noms for two of today’s partipants.

Steve Lynch (D-Southie) has not always endeared himself to the rest of us Masshole Dems, but he deserves credit for this:

holy shit pic.twitter.com/9SWsah617d

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) February 27, 2019


Who is Jody Hice?

Rep Hice has said that Muslims don't deserve 1st Amendment protection and that he's ok with women running for public office “if the woman’s within the authority of her husband.” https://t.co/WE1D4BtvvD

— Russ (@RussMcNamara) February 27, 2019


 
On the opposite end of the vertebrate spectrum, do *not* overlook Clay Higgins:

Clay Higgins: "I never heard about you before today."

What the average IQ of this committee? 85?

— Jonathan V. Last (@JVLast) February 27, 2019

Man, one stupid appearance and people start disrespecting Louie Gohmert. https://t.co/crxmpIm8E3

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) February 27, 2019

Reminder that Clay Higgins, who is currently castigating Cohen's dishonesty and profiteering for "getting you on television," is a tea party caricature of a local cop who bragged about using his office to sell souvenirs and get free airtime pic.twitter.com/31CWNA35Dh

— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) February 27, 2019

Anybody want to guess how many people Clay Higgins arrested that were innocent? https://t.co/QyXeKf9z3f

— Crutnacker (@Crutnacker) February 27, 2019

Moron, or miscreant? Why not both?

Cohen Testimony Open Thread: Breakout ‘Stars’Post + Comments (102)

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