When People Tell You Who They Are, Believe Them

"Republicans can't win so they cheat" was pretty damn awful in the context of maintaining a healthy democracy but safe to say "Republicans can't win so they riot and commit treason" is much worse...

— Antifa #BLM James (@wetcasements) January 13, 2021

Jesus Christ, What A Pack of Lawless Assholes

If this isn't symbolic of the sea-change in how Americans view cops in 2020 I don't know what is:

"Law Enforcement ‘Strategically Deflated’ Tires During Minneapolis Protests"

(They were using knives, natch.)

Tree Of Liberty Watered By The Blood of Yadda Yadda

It's like the ruling classes of America and England _desperately want_ us working assholes to build as many guillotines as possible, ASAP.

— Your Little Ray of Sunshine James (@wetcasements) May 27, 2020

Please Reset The Matrix For Me TIA

Just read an article re: Trump loses 2020 but runs again 2024 and where is my bottle of Jack Daniels anyhow?

— 2020 Is Already Bullshit, James (@wetcasements) April 21, 2020

Predictable And Depressing

Brittany Wong on the double-damage of the coronavirus upon Asians and Asian-Americans in particular:

"Encounters like those experienced by Cruz’s parents have become commonplace for Asian Americans in the wake of the current global public health emergency.

Because COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China, Asian Americans have been widely scapegoated, regardless of whether they’re Chinese or not. (Asian Americans ― Indonesians, Chinese, Koreans, Thai, Filipinos, and others ― aren’t a monolith, but for Americans with bigoted views, that hardly matters.)

Asian Americans of every descent are dealing not only with the virus itself, but verbal and physical violence from xenophobic neighbors. The choice to wear a mask or not is widely debated among friends and relatives ― do you wear one to protect yourself from the virus or does it draw unnecessary attention?"

This virus is killing so many, disrupting lives and families, and simultaneously traumatizing the fuck out of all of us.

When did "don't be a fucking asshole is a crisis situation" become such an impossibly high bar for so many white Americans?

Sorry Grandma, But We Can't Allow Shares of General Electric To Fall Any Further

beginning to think when Republicans dream at night there are no human beings, just the NYSE growing higher and higher and higher forever amen...#TrumpVirus

— 2020 Is Already Bullshit, James (@wetcasements) March 24, 2020

Overdetermined

Something something atheists in foxholes something something Libertarians in a global pandemic.

Dying To Own

A bit from Talking Points Memo about how Republicans would literally prefer getting / transmitting the coronavirus to one another if it means OWNING THE LIBS:

"In a Fox News interview on Sunday, for example, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) encouraged people to crowd restaurants.

'It’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant,' he said. 'Likely you can get in easily. Let’s not hurt the working people in this country that are relying on wages and tips to keep their small business going.'

The governor of Oklahoma struck a similar tone Saturday, posting a (since-deleted) picture of himself and his kids at a local restaurant. 'It’s packed tonight!' Gov. Kevin Stitt wrote, along with the hashtags '#supportlocal,' and '#OklaProud.'  (He declared a state of emergency the following day and encouraged Oklahomans to follow the CDC’s guidance.)

For some, maintaining a presence in crowded public spaces was open trolling, an effort to solicit a reaction and score political points."

I guess the Zen question is something like -- "Is a political party that exists solely to troll their opponents, and whose only policy suggestion is tax cuts for the ultra-rich, still actually a political party or rather a cult, and a pretty dangerous one at that?"

To Think I Give This Kind of Wisdom Out for Free

Just here in my office thinking lovely thoughts such as, if the coronavirus lasts past summer (not likely but this is 2020 we're talking about) how much will it take for Trump to suspend the November national elections for "security" reasons?

Answer: not much, give or take a slight-to-major Joe Biden polling lead.

Small Political Thought

Michael Bloomberg is the ultimate shit sandwich.

"When you’re waiting for a bus to your second job. . . ."

Amanda Mull on how "Social Media Made America Tired of Rich People," and why that's a Very Good Thing:

"At first, people responded to these kinds of social-media boasts with a mix of fascination and revulsion—plenty of clicks, likes, and guillotine jokes. But the trend persisted, and was even adopted by plenty of adults, as wealth inequality, student debt, and housing costs all soared. Such constant proof of how rich people really live made young people resent them. In a recent poll by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, a majority of people under 30 said that rich people amassed their fortunes by taking advantage of others; the poll also found that the same age group was the only one in which favorable attitudes toward socialism edged out those toward capitalism. When you’re waiting for a bus to your second job while looking at photos of teenagers taking a helicopter to the Hamptons, it might be hard to hold on to the old idea of American meritocracy, or believe that the wealthy really are better than you.

Indeed, the Democratic presidential candidates who stand furthest to the left—Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders—enjoy the largest proportion of youth support, which they gained through promises to do things such as tax the wealthy and pursue universal health care. Buttigieg and his defenders have either failed to fully detect the cultural anger toward the upper class or simply made a calculation and decided that the money is worth it, and that the power they’re tapping into isn’t going anywhere. Either way, the country’s elite will have to figure out how to address those who demand answers. The internet lifted the veil, and now everyone knows what’s behind it."

Say what you will about Marie Antoinette, but even she at least proposed an alternative, however outlandish, for bread.  With our current Silicon Valley overlords, or more traditional fail-spawn of the rich, no such luck.

USA! USA!

The next time somebody asks "How can we possibly afford universal health-care?" or even, god forbid, free lunches for poor kids, remind them that America has occupied Afghanistan (and Iraq) for two decades now, trillions of dollars were flushed, and every bit of "progress" made was a complete fucking lie:

"What’s more is that this military-industrial-congressional complex is largely insulated from public accountability, so what’s the incentive to change course? The Pentagon’s entire budget operates in much the same way: unprecedented amounts in unnecessary appropriations resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse. Yet Congress continues to throw more and more money at the defense department every year without ever requiring it to account for how it spends the money. In fact, the war in Afghanistan is small potatoes by comparison.

The bottom line is that the Afghanistan Papers clearly show that a lot of people were killed, injured and subject to years, if not lifetimes, of psychological trauma and financial hardship because a bunch of men – yes, mostly men – in Washington didn’t want to admit publicly what they knew privately all along. If we don’t start holding these people to account – and it’s not just about Afghanistan – the DC foreign policy establishment will continue to act with impunity, meaning that it’s probably more likely than not that in 50 years there’ll be another batch of 'papers' revealing once again that we’ve failed to learn obvious lessons from the past."

I'm old enough to remember when any criticism of the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan were met sincere, doe-eyed questions to the extent of "Why do you hate America and our freedoms?"

Three Simple Truisms Regarding American Politics And Gender

One:

We exist in a media environment where obviously intelligent and accomplished women like Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Hillary Clinton before them are to be faulted for being "too shrill," "too smart," or even (dear fucking god) "too prepared."

Meanwhile, obviously near-senile men like Joe Biden can make gaffe after gaffe and remain "likable" and "relate-able."  Smart but objectively less experienced men like Buttigieg don't even have to take the same "approach-able, not a total bitch" test that women do.  They pass automatically, because the son of academics is somehow always, at all times more "down to earth" than a woman who grew up actually working class and entirely self-made.

And really, let's revel in the pure wisdom of our David Gergens -- to dare to be a smart women in America ca. 2019, to be "too prepared" so to speak, is to really mean you're a shrill "hectoring" bitch who needs to shut about it and everything else.

Two:

And of course, we Democrats must always bend our ear to Republican men (well, Independent since 2017) telling us who our best bets are against Cheeto Hitler.  Oh, and Megan McCain too of course, because the Princess of Arizona will not be ignored!

It may come as a shock that the inverse of this -- Republicans must always listen to advice from Democrats -- is not ever true !  Never, ever!  (To the fainting couch!)

Three:

There aren't enough vomit bags and / or bottles of Jameson for me to make it another 12 months.

Poor Little Dictator...

Take your pick with regards to Cheeto Hitler getting booed at a World Series game in DC.  Let's go with Roy Edroso for now though.  Or Matt Ford.

I'm from the DC area.  And yeah, it skews liberal but not just because it's a historically black city.  It's also because it's filled with Federal workers, and Trump has done nothing but shit on them (not just the "Deep State" FBI and CIA) since he came into office.

Of course he was going to get booed, and the sheer hubris of thinking his one and only foreign policy success ever would change that is, like everything about him, laughable.

And I'm still rooting against my better senses for the Nats, but it looks like the Astros and their shit-headed management have this thing won.

Why Bother?

It takes a lot for me, a life-long Orioles fan (stop laughing) to root for the Nationals in this World Series.  But lo and behold, an overpaid douche-bro sexual violence apologist managed to do the trick!

Go Nats!

(Ugh.  Why do I bother with sports at all?)

"failing upwards"

Nick Cohen on what links the sheer incompetence of men (almost always men, white men) like Boris Johnson and Donald Trump as they drag us all down to a hell of their own making:

"Johnson’s career of failing upwards since he left Eton illustrates that overconfidence is class determined. In politics and so many other British institutions, you see mediocrities take jobs for which they are not remotely qualified, because wealthy families and a private education have emboldened them.

In all spheres, catastrophic men and women are united by an imperviousness to the suffering they cause. Even on the most optimistic assumptions, UK in a Changing Europe found Johnson’s 'deal' will take £16bn from already dangerously underfunded public services and all who depend on them. (The pessimists believe £49bn will go.) The PM’s lack of concern for them is typical. Dixon described the siege of Kut in 1915 in what is now Iraq: an operation that led to 30,000 British and Indian army casualties. It distinguished itself, even in the First World War, for having no military purpose whatsoever."

Arguably, England is screwed even worse than America right now, because Brexit will last for generations.  Not that Trumpism is going away any time soon (there is no difference between Trumpism and Republican ideology), but at least we can start to turn things around next year, given some exceptional luck in the polls.

Late Capitalism Is Adorable

It's as if, under Capitalism, companies care more about profits than they do human rights and Democracy.#obvioustweet@apple@blizzard

— Winterfell Barista James (@wetcasements) October 10, 2019

Trumpism Can Never Fail, It Can Only Be Failed

Matt Ford calls it like it is, regarding Cheeto Hitler:

"What we’re witnessing is the birth of a lost-cause mythology for the Trump presidency. His supporters are being told that if he is impeached and removed from office, it won’t be due to the fact that he violated his oath of office by inviting foreign governments to interfere in the American democratic process. His downfall will instead be precipitated by a shadowy cabal of partisan Democrats, bent on overthrowing him—and American democracy, by proxy—through corrupt and illegitimate means. The risk here, as with the original Lost Cause narrative, is that it will encourage far-right groups to assault and murder Trump’s political opponents."

You say "Lost Cause," I say Dolchstoßlegende, but we're treading in the same dangerous, fascist pool here regardless.

But I'm sure Mitt Romney's measured tweets will protect us all from actual right-wing violence.

Your Scary Thought Of The Day

Over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money, a perfectly cromulent question is asked -- if Trump loses the presidential election in November, 2020 (I'd put it at a solid 50/50 as of now) will he step down?  Will he physically walk out of the White House and fly back to his gold-plated toilets in New York?  More specifically, will his Republican enablers deny the will of the Electoral College?  (They obviously don't give a shit about the popular will, c.f. Gore 2000 and Clinton 2016).

In this great experiment known as American Democracy, the answer is clear -- Who the hell knows?

Safe Spaces Indeed

Can we now please dispense with the notion that conservatives lamenting the end of free speech are principled Philosopher-Kings?

In fact, they're privileged assholes who want to ensure they are never criticized or mocked by people less famous and wealthy than they are?

Or that the Oberlin Student Council carries the same weight as Fox News?