This year the Nobel Peace prize is
being shared between two people who have worked to bring to the
attention of the world the sexual violence that is being used as a
weapon of war. The first is a doctor who has worked to treat those
who have been subjected to sexual violence and the second is a young
woman who was held as a sex slave by ISIS.
In this video Dr. Mukwege asks a
pointed question. What are we, ourselves, doing to change this
situation?
While we are not all living in
situations of war where sexual violence is systemic we can not know
when we will find ourselves in a situation where we can stand up and
make a difference in the lives around us. It starts at home and it
takes courage. It means listening and believing someone when they
finally have the courage themselves to stand up and try to be heard.
Sometimes
that courage is sadly lacking, even in those in the highest positions
of power. In fact, sometimes they are part of the problem.
73 comments:
Pretty good winners. Can't really say anything negative about this choice and I had no other preferred candidate this year either.
You weren't holding out hopes for a win for Trump?
It's done. The votes are counted; all that's left is to swear Kavanaugh in.
Can't really say anything negative about this choice...
It was a good choice. Sexual violence, toward any gender, is an abhorrent thing. It should not be tolerated by anyone.
It's done.
That it is. There were a couple of talking heads speculating about how this Supreme Court fight has energized the Republican base. They are saying the "silent majority" is angry that Kavanaugh was treated so poorly.
I have to wonder, are they right? Is that what the majority in our country really takes away from this? After voting in Trump and watching all of those Minnesotans at his rally in Rochester the other day, I am left wondering.
I take some comfort in the protesters on the Capitol steps, although they are too little too late. People like that should have been voting in 2016.
It saddens me to think that the majority of Americans may be okay with Trump and his ilk. That is not a country I want to live in.
"It saddens me to think that the majority of Americans
may be okay with Trump and his ilk."
He didn't get a majority the first time, and he's lost ground since then. Last time Marcus asked me Nate Silver gave the Democrats 20.4% chance to take back the Senate. For all the Republicans' crowing, and the doom and gloom on the Democrats (they're depressed on account of they came close enough on Kavanaugh that they could start hoping), Silver's moved their chances up a little, not back. Silver's Senate Predictions. Ain't much, 1.6 points, but it's reason to not go doom and gloom and get all depressed.
So, here's where my thinkin's goin'…. I figure if we get a report out of Mueller that shows ‛collusion’ on behalf of the Trump campaign (whether or not he can take the trail to Trump personally, collusion in the Trump campaign), I'm willing to argue that the next President demands the resignation of both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and, if he (/she) doesn't get those resignations then we add two more justices to the Supreme Court. That can be done by a simple Senate majority--they broke the filibuster for the Supreme Court--time to fight back.
Truth is probably ought to add justices to the Supreme Court anyway. It's been nine justices since 1837 (nine or more, was temporarily ten just prior to the Civil War). The population in 1837 was 17,000.00 and that included the slaves in the South. And, Congress is getting locked up and increasingly it's just the President issuing Presidential Decrees and then they go to litigation before the Supreme Court eventually. Oughta be more than nine anyway, now's a good time to start thinkin' on makin' it eleven. That'll hold until we get the next President, but it's already on my list of things we oughta do.
That's supposed to be 17 million up there ↑↑. I lost track of a zero somewhere.
Hell, given the way the Republicans have played hardball since the 5-4 Republican Court put Dubya on in the White House, from whence he nominated another two very conservative justices, I wouldn't mind demanding their resignations unless…. And then going to eleven justices anyway, even if they do resign.
They wanna play hardball, it's time we fought back.
Susan Collins is now saying that she doesn't believe that Brett Kavanaugh was Christine Blasey Ford's assailant. Apparently the other women who have given accounts of his behavior elsewhere that is also questionable are not believable either. At least not enough to create a pattern of behavior in Collins' eyes.
She has fallen lower in my estimation of her character and integrity. I believe she is trying to have her cake and eat it too, now.
They wanna play hardball, it's time we fought back.
I believe that we need to find the balance we have lost. If that means impeachment or adding more justices to the Supreme Court then so be it.
"She has fallen lower in my estimation of her character
and integrity."
She is deceiving herself because, for some reason, she really, really wants to. She's been looking away from the obvious conclusions every since Mitch McConnell lied to her back in 2017 about giving her a floor vote on her proposals to shore up the ObamaCare exchanges. Flat out lied to her, and she pretended it didn't happen, and she's just been getting worse every since. I'm not certain what's behind that behavior. But something's got her convinced to embrace a self-deception.
The guy that's a surprise to me is Lindsey Graham. Went form being McCain's best buddy to being Trump's best buddy--in spite of all the dirt Trump has tried to heap on McCain. (I understand Trump hating McCain--McCain was an honorable man, well, did his best; only so much of that ya can stick to and still be a long-term successful politician in America. I understand why Trump would hate that example.)
Graham is a lackey; a sidekick. He lost his primary, John McCain, and now he's latched on to Trump. I didn't realize how shallow he was (hangin' 'roun next to McCain made him look better than he was).
I bought Michael Lewis' new book "The Fifth Risk", which covers the Trump administration's setting up its version of government and its dismantling of what was in place before. It's a short book, but I think an important read. The simple incompetence shown about how our government works is breathtaking in its scope. Comey's likening Trump and Co. to a mafia family in their behavior is spot on. The power given to Ivanka & Jared Kushner to craft how this process, in the sense that they were allowed to fire Chris Christie as transition leader, is odd to say the least.
One thing he mentions, that I found rather interesting, is the fact that back in 2005 when Christie was U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey he had prosecuted and jailed Kushner's father, Charles, for tax fraud.
They do say that birds of a feather flock together.
(I decided to read this book before "Fear" as it deals with things early on in the Trump administration which lead up to what that book depicts as happening later.)
"If that means impeach[ing]…justices…."
I didn't say anything about impeaching either of them (although I wouldn't object to impeaching Kavanaugh just based on what I know already). But, impeaching a justice requires a two thirds majority.
Lee: "You weren't holding out hopes for a win for Trump?"
Nope. That would have been ludicrous. Not as completely over the top silly as awarding it to Obama was, but still silly.
Post Script:
Susan Collins is up for reëlection in 2020. Maine is fairly moderate. I think she may be in trouble come 2020.
It appears that they are shifting the time frame ten years sooner for a critical tipping point in climate change, making the year 2030 rather than 2040.
There was an article in my paper today about a lake in Alaska that is leaking methane gas to an alarming degree, more so than any other they have seen. They were saying that one lake would be tolerable, but if there are more leaking to that extent then we have a very serious problem.
I had always hoped that I would not be around to see this, but it appears that I may have been wrong in that assumption.
I didn't say anything about impeaching either of them...
Not Gorsuch, I think I read that somewhere with regard to Kavanaugh. But it would take real evidence of misconduct on his part, and as you said, a majority that is not likely to happen any time soon.
Susan Collins is up for reëlection in 2020. Maine is fairly moderate. I think she may be in trouble come 2020.
A lot can happen before 2020, so we will have to wait and see.
Just as a lot can happen this year before the elections in November. Although Trump is already crowing about an upcoming Republican victory because of those who are so angered by the Kavanaugh hearings.
"…it appears that I may have been wrong in that assumption."
You very well may have been wrong. I've noticed some local changes that I ascribe to a few degrees warmer, and I'm a long way from the edge of the ocean; sea level rise ain't immediately noticeable ‛round here. Best I can tell, it's already started.
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I am somewhat surprised by the amount of editorial comment that the confirmation of Kavanaugh has generated this past weekend. It's suckin' up all the oxygen amongst the editorial types.
Liberal folks are really pissed.
Conservative folks are really scared. (I know they present themselves as angry, but it's been said before that ‛anger is fear turned outward’, and I think that's true here.)
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"I think I read that somewhere with regard to Kavanaugh."
Not from me, although, now that the subject's been broached…. I'm not adverse to the idea if there comes a real chance of getting the two thirds majority necessary to impeach Gorsuch. (Not bloody likely.)
I am willing to entertain the idea of impeaching Gorsuch on account of his failure to resign when called upon, if Trump's campaign is found to have conspired with the Russians, constitutes ‛misbehavior’, which is Constitutional reason to impeach a justice. (‛High crimes and misdemeanors’ is for the President--rules are a little looser for Justices.)
This can't be coincidence: The Wall Street Journal issued an editorial back on Friday with the title Susan Collins Consents.
‛Consent’, of course, is the difference between getting screwed and getting raped.
Best I can tell, it's already started.
I believe so too. Here we have been colder than normal for October and getting more rain then is usual for that month. We've seen swings in temps of 30 degrees in 24 hours. Now, Minnesota is known for extreme weather, but not usually in that short of time period. That article about the permafrost melting in Alaska and releasing methane gas doesn't really bode well either.
And we are going into this with a government where the Chief Executive is basically undermining its functionality. And the American people remain clueless because they are believing his lies. Or at least enough of them appear to be.
Not a good situation at all.
I am somewhat surprised by the amount of editorial comment that the confirmation of Kavanaugh has generated this past weekend.
There was an article in the Washington Post Sunday section, which I get with my paper, that gave a bit of the back story on Kavanaugh's group of friends from Yale and their ongoing support for one another. Apparently there was a lot of calling going around that circle from Kavanaugh instructing people how to respond to questions. Kind of reminded me of a good old boy network in action. Given the controversy over this confirmation I'm not surprised that there is still a lot of press about it.
The Wall Street Journal issued an editorial back on Friday with the title Susan Collins Consents.
I've now seen her in various interviews trying to justify her vote. She has said that Kavanaugh all but promised that he will not be a part of overturning Rowe vs Wade. We'll see.
I suspect that if the Supreme Court really does tilt too far to the right there will be hell to pay. I hope that Justice Roberts is smarter than that.
"She has said that Kavanaugh all but promised…"
Of course he did, ‛all but…’. I'm surprised he didn't promise her outright. The question is why she would choose to believe him. The word on her is already out. Lie to her is all she wants. She doesn't require it be believable; she'll believe it, or pretend to, anyway.
Oh, geez. Trump is blathering on about how wonderful Brett Kavanaugh is, apologizing to him on behalf of the American people for the treatment he received at the hearing. He is going on about fairness and justice and what kind of country we will have now in the future.
Can I be sick now? I was actually enjoying my dinner until His Orangeness started with that train wreck that I couldn't stop listening to.
Kavanaugh is now speechifying. I will forever see him as he was depicted by Blasey Ford and have no faith in his ability to judge fairly or in any unbiased manner after his testimony at the hearing.
If Trump and his ilk are the way this country is going then I will be forever out of step.
"I will forever see him as…"
You will probably get over it eventually, if Kavanaugh proves to be a politically independent and fair-minded Justice. (I think that is almost certain not to happen; he's already told us who is, and I believe what I saw.) But, even in that unlikely event, a lot of people will never get over this. So, the Supreme Court's authority is compromised at least until Kavanaugh dies or resigns.
"If Trump and his ilk are the way…"
Hang in there; just about a month now and there'll be some signs of the reckoning to begin. I'm pretty sure the Democrats are gonna take the House; Senate's a long shot, but not impossible (but still a long shot and I'm not gettin' my hopes up on account of then I'll be gettin' all depressed and gloomy like some other folks who managed to get their hopes up on maybe stoppin' Kavanaugh--I'll let you guess who I mean).
Paul Romer was awarded the Nobel for Economics and he's just a raving lunatic really. Way worse than giving the peace prize to Trump, this.
Back in 2016 he actually, non-ironically, suggested that since Sweden is sparsely populated we could just "rent out" an area about the size of Hong Kong to "refugees" and then, since they would not become citizens they would have to become self sufficient and it wouldn't cost us a thing.
https://www.dn.se/ekonomi/skapa-en-frizon-for-flyktingar-i-sverige/
Yeah, great idea, let's take 50% various arabs many of whom hate each other, 30% Africans many of whom hate each other and whom the arabs also hate, 15% central asians who everyone hates and sprinkle some loathed minorities like kurds and such in there. Lock them all in in a sealed off area up around the polar circle and see what happens. What could go wrong? I bet a new economic powerhouse like Hong Kong would magically appear. Or not.
"Paul Romer was awarded the Nobel for Economics and he's
just a raving lunatic really."
"Expertise in one field does not carry over into other
fields. But experts often think so. The narrower their
field of knowledge the more likely they are to think so."
R.A. Heinlein―The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
The Nobel Prizes have a history of nut-jobs among the winners. Most recently we have had William Shockley. And, there will always the Peace Prize given to Yassar Arafat to wave at folks.
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Here's an alternative take on the Kavanaugh nomination, wholly cynical (which means I'd been thinking along these lines already) and entirely Machiavellian (James Carville is a rather clearer thinker along these lines than I am; he can think it a little further along than I do.)
"'If the Democrats win the House, they'll probably hold
some kind of hearings on the fact that a lot of people
think that he perjured himself during his confirmation
hearings to the Court of Appeals,' Carville predicted.
***
"'He's not going to go away and had they defeated
him, [the Republicans] would have just picked some-
one equally as right-wing as Kavanaugh...in a lame
duck session. We're not going to get this seat on the
Supreme Court and I think in terms of political optim-
ization, I think today's result is probably as good as you
could hope for,' Carville told Smerconish.
"The veteran Democratic strategist warned this is just
the beginning, that Democrats will 'keep digging up
stuff' on Kavanaugh…."
RealClearPolitics
Nikki Haley has resigned as UN Ambassador.
I didn't see that one comin'. Not even a little bit. Major blindside.
Hang in there; just about a month now and there'll be some signs of the reckoning to begin.
I certainly hope so. That Michael Lewis book I am reading is seriously depressing in that it is highlighting the things that are getting screwed up that we don't see. Very scary. I think even Marcus would have reservations if Sweden were being run by these kinds of people. Never mind policy issues, we are talking simple competence for everyday workings of government.
Back in 2016 he actually, non-ironically, suggested that since Sweden is sparsely populated we could just "rent out" an area about the size of Hong Kong to "refugees" and then, since they would not become citizens they would have to become self sufficient and it wouldn't cost us a thing.
lol! Okay, there are wingnuts everywhere.
I didn't see that one comin'. Not even a little bit. Major blindside.
You can say that again!
Angry voters have donated over $4 million to an escrow fund to pay for the campaign of whatever Democrat wins the nomination in Maine to take on Susan Collins in 2020. USAToday (It says $3 million, but that was last Friday; it's up over $4 million today--that's major campaign money in Maine. Wouldn't go far in New York or Florida, but it's major money in a Maine campaign.)
I had heard they were doing that. They were talking about it on one of the news programs. One of the talking heads on the Republican side tried to imply that it was akin to blackmail as it was started before her vote. I think that was a stretch. They are also her constituents and had the right to let her know how they feel. They also have the right to campaign against her. I don't know if it will backfire on them or not, but it is their money.
A number of the campaigns have been running scare tactic ads here. Something I am tired of. The one is saying how "dangerous" the Democrats are for America. It would be almost laughable if it weren't so sad that we have come to this.
"…scare tactic ads here."
I've read a couple of articles here lately that say this is a nationwide phenomenon this cycle (for the Republicans anyway). Here's one I believe I mentioned before ↑↑ that the Democrats are pissed off now and the Republicans are runnin' scared. (Well, liberals and conservatives is how I described them before, but it's close to the same thing.)
The Republican politicians are simply trying to ride what'll get their base out to vote, and this cycle it's fear that's driving their base.
Some bad editing just above. Missed putting in a period [.] and probably should have put in a paragraph break, as in…
"Here's one.
"I believe I mentioned before…"
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Just to help shake off the post-Kavanaugh blues…. I noticed that our Great Orange Leader is no longer the ratings boost on Foxnews that he once was. Politico Neither the White House nor FoxNews wished to comment for the record.
I thought it was just me that was tuning out when he came on. Might be a problem for him if his right wing fans start to do that as well.
As for fake newsery have a look at this:
https://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/attachments/general-chit-chat/1609673d1421548322-time-magazine-cover-april-1977-hoax-not-image.jpg
Then have a look at this:
https://us-east-1.tchyn.io/snopes-production/uploads/2017/05/1101070409_400.jpg?resize=550,688
Which was the actual story of the time? ONE of them is obviously FAKE NEWS.
But as I remember it in my youth in the early 80's the "threat" then was a new ice age. It was the ozon layer and a new Ice Age. That I clearly recollect.
So, while I didn't read Time at the time I am tending to believe the former coverage page is the actual real one.
Which do you think is/was real?
While I don't remember which magazine it was, Time I think, but I'm not sure, and I certainly don't remember the magazine cover, I do know that one of the popular magazines made a big deal in one issue in a slow news year about the supposedly coming new ice age, all of which was based on bullshit and not on the opinions of the competent climate scientists of the time.
Since then the right wingers have been pointing to that magazine as proof that the scientific consensus back then was an ice age was approaching. The reason they use a popular magazine as their scientific ‛source’ is because no real scientific sources exist for the proposition that climatologists were expecting a new ice age (they were not).
However, the publisher was serious about selling magazines, even though the story was spurious.
So, really don't care if you've found a real magazine cover. It was bullshit back when it was printed, even if you've found an image of the real magazine cover, that doesn't make it not bullshit back then, and that don't mean real scientists believed it.
I suspect that the people today who are caught up in the extreme weather events that seem to be everywhere lately don't really care why they have occurred, they just know their lives won't be the same.
Mexico Beach looks like it was flattened. I realize that people are intent on rebuilding their lives, but I have wonder at those who want to rebuild in exactly the same place after an event like a hurricane. I knew someone who survived Hurricane Katrina and she was quite happy to rebuild her life in Minnesota.
There has been a break in the rain and the yard dried out enough today so that I could do some cleaning up. Tomorrow should be a nice day too, so I can finish some things. It feels good to be able to get something done for a change!
Drat! I forgot that they had a special on tonight with Melania Trump. I was going to watch that. While I know she will support her husband I wanted to see if she had anything of value to say.
You mean other than that she's no longer concerning herself with Trump's infidelities?
I finished Michael Lewis's book. It is very depressing, and scary to see the damage Trump has been doing to the various governmental agencies.
I had someone knock on my door tonight who is running for state representative. He is the Republican endorsed candidate. He was very nice, but I have to wonder if he didn't really regret picking my door after I told him what I thought about Trump and the Republicans in Washington. Of course, he did try to say that he really didn't have much to do with that, but I said that part of the problem with Trump is that there is little push back from other Republicans.
You mean other than that she's no longer concerning herself with Trump's infidelities?
I was kind of curious to see her answer to the "do you love your husband" question, I will grant you. But in one of the snippets they showed they started to talk about whether there were people in the White House that she did not trust. She said there was. I was kind of interested to see if they would delve a little more into that. Oh well, maybe they will have the interview posted somewhere on the internet.
I discovered today that, not only have four sitting Supreme Court justices been appointed by minority Presidents (i.e. by Presidents who lost the popular vote), but four sitting justices have also been confirmed by minority Senators, (i.e. the Senators voting against them represented fewer people than the Senators voting in favor of their confirmation).
These are not identical lists; there is not 100% overlap. One of the justices getting sat after confirmation by minority Senators was Clarence Thomas (who was confirmed by a vote of 52-48 on back of rural "red-state" senators' votes).
So Trump apparently isn't ready to put his money where his mouth is.
President Donald Trump claims he "didn't say" that he would pay $1 million to Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren for taking DNA test to review her Native American heritage, after she released the results of one on Monday morning.
Not surprising.
I talked to someone over the weekend who has read Woodward's book "Fear". He didn't go into details, since I hadn't read it yet, but he did say he was hoping for a turnover in the mid-term's.
I would take that, for now.
"Not surprising."
Not at all surprising. To the dedicated Trumpkin, this also does not matter.
Perhaps even less surprising, after Trump publicly suggested the Saudi plead ‛rogue’ elements of the Saudi regime were responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi government has claimed exactly that. Now they're saying that he was accidentally killed in an unfortunately too enthusiastic an interrogation.
Bad news for civilization in general… Turns out barley is extremely heat sensitive. CBSNews Cost of beer is gonna be a casualty of global warming.
Turns out barley is extremely heat sensitive. CBSNews Cost of beer is gonna be a casualty of global warming.
lol!
Well, that's gonna hurt someone.
Apparently Mitch McConnell has stated what has been obvious for some time now. The Republicans are going to go after Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to lower the deficit, which was increased with their tax cuts.
After instituting a $1.5 trillion tax cut and signing off on a $675 billion budget for the Department of Defense, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that the only way to lower the record-high federal deficit would be to cut entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
"It’s disappointing but it’s not a Republican problem," McConnell said of the deficit, which grew 17 percent to $779 billion in fiscal year 2018. McConnell explained to Bloomberg that "it’s a bipartisan problem: Unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future." The deficit has increased 77 percent since McConnell became majority leader in 2015.
Of course it's bi-partisan. American voters on both sides of the aisle voted in wolves in sheeps clothing. Either by voting or not voting.
"Mitch McConnell has stated what has been obvious for
some time now. The Republicans are going to go after
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to lower the
deficit…."
Gotta wonder ‛bout the wisdom of that admission at this moment in time. The Democrats, being Democrats, have been struggling to come up with a message any more positive than ‛stop Trump’. Looks like McConnell has done them a favor here with just three weeks to go ‛fore the election. Handed them an intro to a message.
But, McConnell is a cagey ol' bastard, and perhaps he's got a plan with this, but it sure looks to me like a potential mistake in the makin'.
I've been looking over the politics of some of the local dedicated Trumpkin tribe here of late.
I had been curious about the immunity the dedicated Trumpkins display towards their all too frequent encounters with the dishonesty, calumny, and mendacity that is Trump. Nothin' shakes them.
I've come to understand that I was mistaken about their commitments to their originally stated incentives to support Trump. (Oh, I had largely understood their fall back posititions when Trump failed to deliver on his promises. No draining the swamp for Trump, and they let it slide, but I understood that. No ‛clean coal’ and no resurgence in deep tunnel mining, so no reëmployment of the miners, and they let that slide, but I understood that. They know there's no significant problem with voter fraud in this country, the problem is getting independents and liberals to vote at all, not keeping them from voting early and often. And etc…, and etc…, ad damnum, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.)
But just the day after day after day of it, the dishonesty and mendacity just keeps getting poured on, and they stand and take it; no effect on the dedicated Trumpkins. There was something I'd overlooked. Had to be.
Turns out it was all fairly simple. They had long ago learned that their political leaders were lying to them. They know global warming is real; they've known that for a long time now. They know that tax cuts for the wealthy don't pay for themselves down the road. They know voter fraud's not a real problem; ain't no hordes of illegal immigrants linin' up to vote for Hillary. They know. They've known for a long time.
This is not something I would have figured out on my own. I'd long known that their leaders were lyin' to 'em. The ‛faerie tales’ I'd named them. But, I'd kinda always assumed that the Republican base believed the bullshit.
I was wrong. They knew; they knew all along. I've been watching and listening here of late, and here of late they've begun giving it away.
So, it's really not that big a deal that Trump's lying about things out in the open, almost all things, and without shame, and we all know it. That eliminates some of the hypocracy for them. (Not all, as they still require explanations they can repeat with a straight face. But that's just a matter of convenience--something to shut up the liberals and the grandkids; that's a minor hypocracy from their viewpoint.)
Word from Bloomberg is that Mueller has indeed prepared for a future where Trump in which Trump no longer has to hold off taking action on account of the mid-term elections. Bloomberg is reporting on what I'd call a rumor if it came from other sources, to the effect that Mueller has some key findings set to release and he's holding off until the November elections are over. Then it's just a matter of whether or not Trump can take action fast enough to shut Mueller down before he releases his report (first report).
Lee: "Perhaps even less surprising, after Trump publicly suggested the Saudi plead ‛rogue’ elements of the Saudi regime were responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi government has claimed exactly that. Now they're saying that he was accidentally killed in an unfortunately too enthusiastic an interrogation."
Prince Salmon really fucked up on this one. His hubris is so immense he thought he could get away with literally anything and everything. That the Saudis have gotten used to that is perhaps not so strange. They've been exporting terrorism for decades, building extremist madrassas all over the place, torturing and killing and doing proxy-warfare, hell they even did 19 parts out of 20 out of 9/11. But Big Daddy, that is the USA, has had their back always. No real repercussions for the 5000 Princes in Chiefs so long as the oil-for-dollars-for-arms deal was upheld.
This time though, Prince Salmon made a HUGE mistake for at least 4 reasons:
1. He had a journalist killed and so he pissed off the media which is comprised of journalists who value one journalist life at about, oh, maybe 50.000 regular lives.
2. The journalist in question worked at the Washington Times for crying out loud. Not only can you not just go around Pulp Fictioning journalists, you certainly cannot do that is they have international fame and work in the US capitol.
3. He had him killed in a government building in another country and could not do damage control afterwards.
4. That other country was Turkey and Prince Salmon is not on great terms with Sultan Erdogan no more.
Salmon's goose may well be cooked here.
In English it's spelled ‛Salman’; salmon is a fish.
And it was fifteen out of the nineteen; the twentieth hijacker has never been conclusively identified; several people have been alleged to have been the intended (or have made the claim on their own).
Lee: "In English it's spelled ‛Salman’; salmon is a fish."
LOL! I know that. I just think it's lulzy to call him Prince Salmon.
Did you really think I was unaware that Salman is a pretty common arabian name and that a salmon is a fish?
I figured it was just a spelling error, easy 'nuff to happen in a second language. Usually I wouldn't even bother with the spelling error, 'cept for the fish thing.
And you may well remember that I have said before I long for the day when the US will turn on the Saudis and hold them accountable for all the shit they've pulled through the years. And that I do believe that day will come.
Now, I don't necessarily think this is that time. I think at this point a soft regime change where Prince Salmon is thrown under the bus and another ruler from the House of Saud that is a bit less reckless takes over the reins is a plausible outcome.
Lee: "I figured it was just a spelling error, easy 'nuff to happen in a second language. Usually I wouldn't even bother with the spelling error, 'cept for the fish thing."
The fish thing is what makes that deliberate spelling error so funny, wouldn't you agree?
There's even a skit about that in a Seinfeld episode where Kramer thinks he's come across Salman Rushdie in a sauna and the dude he came across presents himself as Sal Bass and Kramer explains to Jerry that it must be Rushdie because Bass is a fish and Salmon is a fish and Salmon sounds just like Salman.
Oh, and what 'bout Pocahontas? She actually went ahead and did a DNA test and actually decided to publish the resulting result. How INSANE is she? She shot herself in both feet with that.
And to think she got into Harvard based on that lie. The problem is not so much that she got in, but that there are limited spots and she stole one from someone else by falsely claiming minority status.
Well, at least now she won't be running for anything ever again. So there's that.
Actually, Warren didn't mention her ‛Indian heritage’ claim to Harvard until after she was already teaching there. But, the other story sounds better to right-wingers eager for a weapon to use against her, so they tell the other story.
I have read otherwise but you may well be correct. In any case: she shot herself in both feet. She ain't no Cherokee and even the Cherokee are pissed of with her for claimin' to be.
Trump's slander against her was fairly spot on here, and it's plain for anyone to see. She's Pocahontas forever and won't be runnin' for shit.
"I have read otherwise…"
Of course you have. ‛Alternate facts’ are exceedingly popular amongst the right wingers these days.
McConnell is a cagey ol' bastard, and perhaps he's got a plan with this, but it sure looks to me like a potential mistake in the makin'.
My thoughts kind of ran across the same lines as yours. That McConnell had given the Democrats an issue that had legs.
He is also resurrecting the possibility of repealing Obama Care. An issue that will not go away, apparently.
I can only hope he is shooting the Republicans in the foot. But my understanding of what is important to the average American voter has been faulty in the past, so I won't hold my breath on that.
Prince Salmon really fucked up on this one. His hubris is so immense he thought he could get away with literally anything and everything.
I tend to agree. But perhaps he felt that there wouldn't be anyone who would care? He might have gotten the impression from somewhere that journalists were expendable. Especially those who worked for the Washington Post.
Lee: "Of course you have. ‛Alternate facts’ are exceedingly popular amongst the right wingers these days."
Result's the same. She won't be running for shit. She's now Pocahontas, the lying wannabe Cherokee, and that'll stick forever.
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