The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    We should deal with Trump/Kim

    It's happening and it is immensely important.

    I'll open the floor gates and I expect that  after me the sensible people will join in.

    My belief is that Trump is actually pretty well qualified for today's meeting.

    He made money in a tough league. That's real.  Of course ,exaggerated but for him to exaggerate , there had  to be something for  him to exaggerate, There was some "there" there.

    The  Dagblog view  of his character is unsparing. None of us have a word of praise or even tolerance,

    Rightly so.

    He's  morally unspeakable.

    Kim's Critical First Minute Opening Line

    Trump: I'll know 'within the first minute' if North Korea is serious at summit meeting.

    I saw and envied your inauguration crowds, they were so huge, they were so much bigger than Obama's!

    I want you to denuclearize us, because of the wise teaching of you by your uncle from MIT you are smarter than so called experts!

    Dotard actually means great genius emperor in ancient Korean!

    jollyroger's picture

    Blundering towards Bethlehem

    As Trump in Singapore bids fair to fulfill the mandate to provide his reality show with an audience pleasing finale, may we friends of humanity argue that no downside lurks in the prospect of a supine Trump, albeit producing a Potemkin peace?

    What I mean is this: Granting that Trump, by definition, understands nothing, what's the worst that could happen?

    The fear seems to be that Trump will "give away" too much in his zeal for a chance to sample the golden shower culture of Oslo. That is obviously bullshit.

    Ted Kennedy's Eulogy for his brother Bobby

    Fifty years ago today, Ted Kennedy delivered a eulogy for his brother Bobby considered by some to be the most profound speech of his career.  Katie Mettler at WaPo today offered an excellent writeup of that moment.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/06/08/those-he-to...

    Last Dreamer Dies, Dream of Legalization Unrealized

    July 4, 2115 - Geraldine Lopez, the last known so-called Dreamer, died of natural causes at age 108 in Virginia. She was the last of the so-called Dreamers, who signed up in a program set up by Barack Obama, President from 2009-2016. The program was intended to create a path to citizenship for children brought to the United States illegally by their parents, and who grew up in the US knowing no other country. Over the decades it has remained in effect due to a mutiplicity of court cases, decisions, edicts and appeals, but just for those who were in up to 2018. Republicans have used the issue over and over in campaigns, to motivate their dwindling, mostly white rural, base to show up at the polls. Over many, many campaigns, Republicans have cast the aging, and over recent decades diminishing in numbers, Dreamers as everything from dangerous terrorists to lazy moochers.  Most notably, Republicans cast Dreamers, who were never eligible for federal programs, as "abusing freeloaders", and the reason the Republicans, who controlled Congress and the Presidency those years, claimed they "had no choice" but to "reluctantly" end Medicaid and Medicare in 2038, and Social Security in 2040. 

    Can anything effective be done to combat implicit racial bias?

    Perhaps.

    john a. powell (a black racial justice advocate who uses the lower case for the first letters of his first and last names) speaks to this, among other, issues in his book Racing to Justice (pp. 160-61):

    Reflections--Somewhat Belated--on Israel's 70th Anniversary

    The debate about the events in Israel/Palestine in 1948 will be going on at least until there is an Arab-Israeli peace, and maybe longer than that.  But I think humane, reasonable people who know the history will agree that what Jews did to Arabs in 1948 was very bad indeed. There were about a dozen massacres, many expulsions, and 700,000 people exiled and dispossessed.(If you need sources, check Benny Morris' The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem and Walid Khalidi's All That Remains).

    CVille Dem's picture

    Am I the Only One Who Was Once a Teenager?

    When Gina Haspel “answered questions it reminded me of when I was  teenager, just learning to lie to my parents:  

    1.  “Did you go to the party at Annie Thomas’s pajama party , like you said.?” 

    1*. Did you ever meet alone with president trump?

    Answers:   “YES!!  I went to Annie’s party”   [[ for ten minutes....The rest of the time I was at the big block party because there were no parents around.]]

    Gun Massacres: Why the Republican Party Doesn't Act

    Nicholas Kristof yesterday had a roughly 3000 word essay with loads of data titled "How to Reduce Shootings". The word "Republican" does not appear at all in it. "NRA" - uh, no mention of it.  "Liberal" appears twice, as in "Frankly, liberal opposition to guns has often been ineffective, and sometimes counterproductive. The 10-year ban on assault weapons accomplished little...." Nick, the careful sincere liberal, being very politically correct, gives reams of data, never mentions Republicans, so as not to upset Republicans, as he just gives them..the GOP....the cold hard facts...!! Don't laugh, please.  There are eight dead students, and two teachers, whose lives have just been ended, and survivors, some gravely wounded, facing years of pain. Kristof means well, but as has been abundantly clear on many issues, facts do not matter to the Republican Party.

    Richard Day's picture

    THE NADIR

    I have reached the nadir.

    How much more can I fall?

    And yet, according to Wiki, even the nadir is relative at best.

    We have a potus who lies.

    He lies about his height.

    He lies about his weight.

    He lies about his net assets.

    He lies about his previous statements.

    He lies about his current statements.

    Gaza

    Monday's IDF commander was not a war criminal.

    It's absolutely impossible to say who was "responsible" for that day's 60 deaths. The unspoken assumption underlying a lot of Monday's press coverage is that Israel was to blame. Rightly so?

    Some of my best friends

    are liberals....Gerard Alexander in yesterday's Times.

    Does cause one to wonder. About them.

    To improve Junior's chance of acceptance at the University of Virginia? Or perhaps to join its political science department which appears to need help? 

    Moving on.

    Richard Day's picture

    DAVID FRUM & REDEMPTION

    I used to hate David Frum.

    I took over five or seven hours listening to him lately; as he admonishes the idiots who voted for Trump.

    Every historical analysis involves context.

    I never knew David Frum.

    I never met with Mr. Frum.

    SO WHY DID I HATE HIM SO?

    Richard Day's picture

    WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT'S DINNER LIVE!

    In just a few hours  we shall be entertained, once again with the White House Correspondence Dinner.

    Once every year, the PRESS (as it is wont to be called) coagulates at some strange meeting place and makes fun of the POTUS.

    This is kind of like a combination of All Hallow's Eve and April Fool's Day.

    However, and it is a big however, the current POTUS is going to skip the festivities.

    I think that his absence has something to do with this event as it occurred in 2011.

    jollyroger's picture

    Trump Taint strikes: VA administrator designate death watch

    Trump is like the Bernoulli effect at the bottom of a toilet--a whirlpool that sucks in all who venture close.

    Poor Ronny Jackson!  Served multiple presidents with no exposure of his flaws, widely respected and liked.

    Obama liked him.

    All he had to do was slight science for sycophancy in his White House Physician's report on Trump's health, and next thing you know, he's under the predictable nominee scrutiny lens.

    Hi jinks ensue...

    Feed Me Sweet Dumdrops

    Feed Me Sweet Dumbdrops

    But do not steer me to black holes expecting me to see the sucked-up truth

    Copied and edited  from somewhere forgotten: So many people hate and distrust alternate news sites because they give airtime to journalists, experts, and perspectives that are filtered out on their behalf by capital’s preferred propaganda networks, which keeps them comfortable in their dangerous ignorance. 

    I stole this too:

    Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget

    Richard Day's picture

    HANNITY'S INANITY?

    This Hannity thingy just got to me!

    This Cohen guy just got caught with his hands on ....his balls or his client's balls?

    http://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/16/michael-cohen-client-list-526288

    And, of course Hannity suddenly cares about lawyer/client crapola.

    Richard Day's picture

    ERICK ERICKSON HITS GOLD?

    Erick Erickson by Gage Skidmore.jpg

    I do not like Erick Erickson

    TYT decided to discuss this interview by Erick with some anonymous Repub Congressman.

    I do not like green eggs and ham.

    I do not like Erick.

    I most certainly do not like green ham (like Arpaio)

    Ryan's running in 20

    Since Ryan's announced reason for retiring  from  the Speakership is risible , clearly the  real reason is Ryan's belief that  doing so gives him a shot at a better job.

    One guess what that isl

    But first the pretend explanation.

    That he has teen age kids. Many people do.A miniscule % of whom  conclude the onslaught of off- spring adolescence is a rational  pretext for retiring from a good job just before those higher tuition bills start rolling in. No more needs to be said.Let's move on.

    Gini Thomas & GOP Trivializing of the Holocaust

    Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, shared on her Facebook page a series of posts critical of the survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, who have become vocal advocates for gun control. Thomas shared a post Monday that included a pile of shoes from people killed during the Holocaust. The post was directed at students who walked out their classrooms last month to protest gun violence.

    Fall River

    As my sainted Aunt Nellie used to say, if you´re looking for Compassion, try the Dictionary. Under C.

    Joe and Bonnie get the feeling that things ain´t what they used to be. Because they aren´t...And can´t be. Because when Reagan cut the maximum incremental rate from 70 to 30%, things stopped being what they used to be.

    You can´t get 20 lbs into a 10 lbs bag. If the overall growth of national wealth is 3% and that of the upper 50% is 10%......a funny thing happens to Joe and Bonnie´s share. I know because I just tried it using match sticks.

    EPA's Pruitt to Get New Airborne Division For Protection

    US Army Forces Command has been ordered by President Trump to form a new Airborne Division of 5,000 to protect his EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

    Mr. Pruitt had complained that his 19 full time body guards and 19 armored vehicles dedicated solely to protect him in his dangerous job were inadequate and insufficient for the threat vectors in the Oklahoma-Washington DC environment. He has demanded that in addition to more personnel, he required paratroops with heavy weapons drop capability to safely navigate the Washington DC area where he resides. A C-5 with airdrop capability will be in the air 24/7 over DC when Administrator Pruitt is in the area. Whether munitions will include non-strategic nuclear weapons, and what types of warheads,has not been answered and is considered classified information.

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