Open Thread For September 6, 2017
Rethug Fratricide Over Harvey Aid & Debt Ceiling Plan? Looks possible. I don’t see how this Party doesn’t end up splintering. If only the D’s had their bleep together…
Manafort’s Been At This For Decades. Check out what he did in Kashmir and Pakistan back in the 1990’s.
Kelly Keeps Sheriff Clark Out Of White House. I think he truly is just trying to keep Trump from doing something totally disastrous.
Trump Isn’t Gonna Donate That $1 Mill To Harvey Relief. He may not even have that kind of cash on hand.
Eric Schneiderman For President. Will announce multi-state lawsuit on behalf of DACA Dreamers today. I hope that Delaware is on board.
James Fallows On DACA. I’ve always respected his take on things.
Women Are Rescuing Rock & Roll From Oblivion. Or, at least indie rock. After all, there’s only so much a quartet of white guys can wrap their heads around. This is a great interactive piece from the NYTimes Magazine. We’ve already booked Sheer Mag at the Gild Hall. Who would you like to see?
What do you want to talk about?
“I don’t see how this Party doesn’t end up splintering. If only the D’s had their bleep together…”
With all eyes on Trump, most people haven’t noticed that both parties have collapsed into civil war.
Yep. And Hillary’s Pity Party about how mean Ol’ Bernie hurt her chances is yet another attempt to maintain the hegemony of Clinton’s Corporate Cabal:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/05/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-what-happened/index.html
Yep, it was also the fault of Bernie and Joe that they campaigned on behalf of her in places that she didn’t deign to go. She is beyond pathetic. Go away!
James Fallows? the gutless bastard who has been wrong about everything? He hides in Asia for years and comes back every so often to tell us how dumb he is.
Name one other country with a DACA policy, you can’t because no one else is that stupid.
Gutless bastard is an ironic charge coming from someone who won’t sign his own name. He therefore has more guts than you. But of course, that’s not saying much.
So tell us, exactly how tiny is your dick that you have to compensate for it like this?
@El Som: I have avoided reading anything about this book because I didn’t want yet another reason to dislike her. But checking out your link, I see she claims Bernie “paved the way” for the “crooked Hillary” charge. No, her own money-grubbing over the decades had nothing to do with it.
Incredible. Hey, things could be worse. She could be in the White House.
You know as a Wilmington native I’m sincerely embarrassed to admit this, but my first time to Arden Gild Hall will be this month to see Bromberg’s band. Never been. I guess I had to kind of age into it.
I have notice the acts booked in have been more interesting in the last 18-24 months. Again that may just be my previous lack of awareness.
On the other… Al’s correct. The Democratic side is just as fucked up. No political power though so the situation flies below the radar.
Half the left is spoiling for a fight while the enemy is in chaos (proudly carrying the sobriquets ‘the dirt bag left’, BernieBros, DSA, IWW, BLM, Heather Heyer*).
The other half are busy studying charts and reading the tweets of Neera Tanden & Steve Schmidt and allying themselves with (former) Republican members of Congress. I never knew this many Democrats had so much respect for the work of David Frum & Nicolle Wallace.
……….
*Acknowledgement to ‘puck’ who referred to Heyer a day or two ago in this context. It should always be noted. She put her life on the line in the street for these ideas.
REV: Say hi to me. I generally work the concerts in some way, even produce a few.
I will search you out…
More bad-behaving cops. No shortage of them, it seems:
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/nfl-player-who-backed-kaepernick-says-vegas-cops-threatened-to-blow-his-fcking-head-off/
I propose Alby run a special column here. Maybe call it “Protecting & Serving”. Tagline: How the myth of Blue Lives obscures and encourages menace, civil disorder and mistrust.
It would take a lot more than a column.
The tragedy of Black Lives Matter is that, while blacks disproportionately suffer from police unaccountability, we all suffer from it to a lesser degree. The movement isn’t about black lives, or it shouldn’t be — it should be about the appalling lack of accountability we demand of police. If we demand accountability from teachers, who carry no weapons, we damn well are owed accountability from cops.
I am not an enormous fan of unions — more of them repeat the sins of management than fight them — but I recognize their value. Still, given that Republicans are all about disbanding unions, the police unions should be the first to go. And if they aren’t, the GOP should be forced to explain why not.
Oh, and a bonus case of horrible police behavior:
http://www.salon.com/2017/09/06/pennsylvania-man-arrested-after-asking-sen-pat-toomey-a-question-about-deportations/
The irony of “Blue Lives Matter” is that cops are outraged to be judged by the uniform they wear. The fact that this is exactly what they do to most people all day every day is lost on them.
Delaware has indeed joined the lawsuit on behalf of DACA Dreamers:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/states-dc-sue-trump-admin-over-daca
Good for Matt Denn.
I am aligned with Black Lives Matter. I also think that part of the problem with police is that their mandate is far too broad. (the same is true for teachers). (Firemen: write a plan for fighting this fire. Make sure your plan measures up to firefighting standards, in particular…..) Ridiculous, right? Police should have mental health backup for mental health incidents at the very least. Take drug enforcement off their shoulders and place that entire responsibility with public health. (Legalize like Portugal). Fund public health. We know that when we expect more of people than they can possibly do, we have terrible outcomes.
@Paul: PTSD symptoms among recent war veterans runs about 50% — half those exposed to combat develop it at some point. Cops are subject to the same stressors and stress levels, but for decades rather than years.
My suspicion is that at least half of all cops suffer from PTSD, most without recognizing it. It’s not the source of all the problems, but it accounts for many of them.