The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    The war of Giuliani's Grin

    By jollyroger on Mon, 11/14/2016 - 11:51pm |

     

    Good news, bad news, good news:  Rudy Guiliani will NOT be Attorney General, Rudy Guiliani WILL be Secretary of State, we will no longer be in doubt as to "why they hate us..."

     

    It is hard to conjure up a more toxic collection of misfiring neural networks than Giuliani.  He combines sumg incompetence (he ignored years of urgent suggestions too move his NYC security hub out of the World Trade Center) a megalomaniacal zeal for power, a vindictive pettiness that is legendary, and an almost autistic inability to imagine how he is seen by others.

     

    The only guy who is worse is his boss.

     

    I have always loved wars that carry a name reminiscent of what was once, apparently, considered a severe enough international breach so as to justify the projection of deadly, even occasionally existentially terminal, force.

     

    Thus, the War of Jenkins' Ear.

     

    Conversely, the war following upon "The Defenestration of Prague" merely went down in history as The Thirty Years' War.  (We are past half way there in Afghainistan, but I digess...)

     

    What a lost opportunity.

     

    I'm already looking for the "War of Ali's Finger" the first time some Iranian sailor flips the bird in the general direction of a US vessel, presuming someone on board has a cell phone (good bet...)

     

    Like Trump, Giuliani has become more and more floridly incoherent.

     

    He is bound to go all Skeletor at just the wrong moment.

    Comments

    Dear Lord ... Secretary of State?  I hadn't seen that.   (sigh)  We really are f*ck*d aren't we?
    His tendency to scream lately while giving speeches, made me think he was becoming senile or showing symptoms of dementia.  In addition to being scary, this next four years is going to be sad and pathetic, isn't it?
     


    by MrSmith1 on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 12:04am

    and full of peripetie--day to day you feel like the girl in excorcist.

     

    I thought John Bolton for SecState was enough of a war criminal (why are they always war criminals in that job?)


    by jollyroger on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 3:40am

    Restoftheworld: Bolton as SecState? That would be the worst possible decision you could make!

    Trump: .... hold my beer.


    by Obey on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 5:50am

    I'm thinking the "War of Putin's Finger" when the the Dumbfuckistan Administration realizes it has been, and then retaliates. 


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 10:32am

    But why should there be any fuss, really?  Russia needs $110/bbl oil (George Mitchell says so, I dunno, looks high to me) and that means no Qatari pipeline across Syria (securing the right of way for which is largely how the rebellion got it's seed money and early momentum).

     

    What if Trump has simply (perhaps with the help of oligarch money) seen the underlying strategic superiority of going with Iran over Saudi Arabia and the Gulf (we loved Iran when it was still Persia...). while fomenting detente with Russia and paying for it with Ukrainian and Belorussian acreage?


    by jollyroger on Wed, 11/16/2016 - 1:17am

    The $110 bbl is based on Russia's budget over the last several years and the amount of  "tax" dollars coming from the oil industry. Russia has continued to spend at those levels even though oil revenue has decreased by using emergency funds. Those funds have pretty much run out. Most analyst don't think Russia can maintain necessary government services at the current oil price especially considering the high costs of it's military adventures in Syria and to a lesser degree Ukraine. Does it "need" $110? Probably not as it can make some budget cuts. But there are limits.

    Trump is not proposing to go with Iran over former allies like Saudi Arabia. That was the accusation thrown at Obama. It was a false accusation but slightly less false than throwing it at Trump. Trump claimed he would withdraw from the Iran deal. That at least means he would not work to implement the provisions of that deal. He also claimed he would reenact the sanctions to give him leverage to renegotiate the deal. That's unlikely to be successful as it was the world wide sanctions that forced Iran to negotiate. Getting the world behind the sanctions wasn't easy and it's unlikely to be repeated. Most nations are satisfied with the deal, excepting Israel, and are unlikely to follow America's lead and withdraw. Nor are they likely to reimpose sanctions.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 11/16/2016 - 4:15am

    Actually he might cause less harm there than he would as AG.  Let professional diplomats handle him and keep him away from our justice system.

    Or maybe he might drop dead.  That wouldn't be bad either.  


    by anna am on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 10:36am

    I would personally be very glad to see donald trump and mike pence drop dead simultaneously BEFORE January 20th.  What a delicious constitutional crisis that would be!  I guess the person with the most popular votes would take over.  Who could argue otherwise.  I know, I know....the entire GOP, but who would actually decide that?

    Since it is highly unlikely to happen, I won't waste any more time on it, but a gal can dream, can't she?


    by CVille Dem on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 11:45am

    Funny, even Paul Ryan starting to look good (or "better"?) at this point.


    by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 11:50am

    Well, Ryan is the Plan B Coup that goes where faithlesss electors deadlock the college, the house deadlocks, the senate deadlocks, there's no president and Ryan is acting Prez going forward

     

    fThe Plan A coup is the simple impeachment to replace Trump with Pence--that, of course, cannot begin until January 20, (or shortly thereafter)


    by jollyroger on Wed, 11/16/2016 - 1:00am

    I'd like to see a sufficient number of republican electoral college voters change their vote to Hillary. They could claim the reason was because she won the popular vote. Or enough republican EC voters change their vote to Rand Paul to give Hillary  a plurality. I know it won't happen but it would show the essential ridiculousness of the electoral college. They can vote for anyone they want. Though most states require they vote with the popular vote of their state many believe that requirement is unconstitutional.


    by ocean-kat on Wed, 11/16/2016 - 4:28am

    Got any ideas for the appointment of U.S.Ambassador to the Court of St. James?

    I'm thinking Sheldon Adelson.

    Or Eric Trump.

    Ted Nugent, maybe.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 12:18pm

    Excellent choices. I hear Bannon is pushing for Palin as Secretary of the Interior.  

    Eric trump should be ambassador to some African country so he can kill all the endangered animals without having to travel very far. 

    Edited to add new thought


    by CVille Dem on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 12:33pm

    Hey. Cville. They are also floating Bolton for Secy of State. Rand Paul will fight that.


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 1:05pm

    Rudy G is in competition for that.  This would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic.


    by CVille Dem on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 1:54pm

    Russian techs are going to rig Barron's X-box so he can crash the NASA climate satellites on 4th July over Mar-a-Lago. Don't need the data, climate change a EU or Chinese hoax. Trump is a practical guy, and knows more than the Generals and the scientists.


    by NCD on Tue, 11/15/2016 - 4:18pm

     

    Russian techs

    You touch (widely parenthetically) a nerve for me--purely meta, but with all the so called hacker talent (Mitnick, I'm talkin' to YOU) that prides itself on outlawry and pirating (and looting and rap--never mind) and stuff, how come no one has hacked Roger Stone, or Steve Bannon, or Laura Ingraham or Sean Hannity, or...I could go on, but, wtf??  Are you tryin to tell me those  bozos practice better internet hygeine than 95% of the world.   If ever there were a guy who you could count on to use "password" as his password, it's Hannity!


    by jollyroger on Wed, 11/16/2016 - 1:05am

    Bolton is an extra special primo scumbag, but he is of one mind with Trump on the issue of reprisals against innocent women and children--he's all for it.

     

    http://dagblog.com/reader-blogs/john-bolton-we-should-go-after-dead-pira...

     

     


    by jollyroger on Wed, 11/16/2016 - 1:08am

    OK, I take the Eric Trump (altho if he didn't need to be close by to help dad wipe his own ass he could be happy as ambassador to S. Africa) as a joke, but Poe's law has me flummoxed.

     

    I had not heard anything about Palin, but it would be such a perfect "fuck you" to the entire enviro world that I'm scratching my ass thinking "Dear God, can this be real??

     

    Edit to add: CVILLE!!!  It's not satire, it's real--Poe's law bites again!!!


    by jollyroger on Fri, 11/18/2016 - 3:07pm

    Apparently we were warned...(By Trump!)

    "Again calling Palin's endorsement an "honor," Trump at the end of the relatively brief interview took another victory lap over his opponents who did not get her backing.

    "It's such an honor, because as you know, very badly, so many people are so disappointed that she didn't support them," he said. "But certainly there'd be a role in the administration if she wanted, and I'm not sure that she does want that. But there'd certainly be a role."

    http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/trump-sarah-palin-cabinet-218005


    by jollyroger on Fri, 11/18/2016 - 3:12pm