The Delusions Of The Impeachment Witnesses Point To A Larger Problem
During yesterday's impeachment hearing at the House House Judiciary Committee one of the Democrats' witnesses made some rather crazy statements. Pamela Karlan, a Stanford law professor, first proved to have bought into neo-conservative delusions about the U.S. role in the world:
America is not just 'the last best hope,' as Mr. Jefferies said, but it's also the shining city on a hill. We can't be the shining city on a hill and promote democracy around the world if we're not promoting it here at home.
As people in Bolivia and elsewhere can attest the United States does not promote democracy. It promotes rightwing regimes and rogue capitalism. The U.S. is itself not a democracy but a functional oligarchy as a major Harvard study found:
Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.
But worse than Karlan's pseudo-patriotic propaganda claptrap were her remarks on the Ukraine and Russia:
This is not just about our national interests to protect elections or make sure Ukraine stays strong and fights the Russians so we don't have to fight them here, but it's in our national interest to promote democracy worldwide.
That was not an joke. From the video it certainly seems that the woman believes that nonsense.
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For one the Ukraine is not fighting "the Russians". The Kiev government is fighting against east-Ukrainians who disagree with the Nazi controlled regime which the U.S. installed after it instigated the unconstitutional Maidan coup. Russia supplies the east-Ukrainians and there were a few Russian volunteers fighting on their side but no Russian military units entered the Ukraine.
But aside from that how can anyone truly believe that the Ukraine "fights the Russians so we don't have to fight them here"?
Is Russia on the verge of invading the United States? Where? How? And most importantly: What for?
How would that be in Russia's interest?
One must be seriously disturbed to believe such nonsense. How can it be that Karlan is teaching at an academic level when she has such delusions?
And how is it in U.S. interest to give the Ukraine U.S. taxpayer money to buy U.S. weapons? The sole motive behind that idea was greed and corruption, not national interest:
[U.S. special envoy to Ukraine] Volker started his job at the State Department in 2017 in an unusual part-time arrangement that allowed him to continue consulting at BGR, a powerful lobbying firm that represents Ukraine and the U.S.-based defense firm Raytheon. During his tenure, Volker advocated for the United States to send Raytheon-manufactured antitank Javelin missiles to Ukraine — a decision that made Raytheon millions of dollars.
The missiles are useless in the conflict. They are kept near the western border of Ukraine under U.S. control. The U.S. fears that Russia would hit back elsewhere should the Javelin reach the frontline in the east and get used against the east-Ukrainians. That Trump shortly held back on some of the money that would have allowed the Ukrainians to buy more of those missiles thus surely made no difference.
To claim that it hurt U.S. national interests is nonsense.
It is really no wonder that U.S. foreign policy continuously produces chaos when its practitioners get taught by people like Karlan. In the Middle East as well as elsewhere Russian foreign policy runs circles around U.S. attempts to control the outcome. One reason it can do that is the serious lack of knowledge and realism in U.S. foreign policy thinking. It is itself the outcome of an educational crisis. U.S. 'political science' studies implement a mindset that is unable to objectively recognize the facts and fails to respond to them with realistic concepts.
The Democrats are doing themselves no favor by producing delusional and partisan witnesses who repeat Reaganesque claptrap. They only prove that the whole affair is just an unserious show trial.
In the meantime Trump is eliminating food stamps for some 700,000 recipients and the Democrats are doing nothing about it. Their majority in the House could have used the time it spent on the impeachment circus to prevent that and other obscenities.
Do the Democrats really believe that their voters will not notice this?
Posted by b on December 5, 2019 at 15:40 UTC | Permalink
next page »This is the woman that Common Dreams describes as a leading legal scholar.
And maybe she is, it would certainly help explain the current state of the US Judiciary and the legal system, which reflects internally the utter contempt for law and custom which characterises US behaviour in international affairs.
Posted by: bevin | Dec 5 2019 15:56 utc | 2
The same bs argument about “not fighting the Russians here” was used a couple of weeks ago by another witness, Tim Morrison. This shows you that the hysteria is bipartisan...
Posted by: DG | Dec 5 2019 15:56 utc | 3
History is not a strong point for the Dims., as it conflicts with ideology.
The Repugs just loot and plunder, with little regard for history.
Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Dec 5 2019 16:00 utc | 4
There is a large cohort of Americans who believe every word the professor spoke. Whatever you and I may think about it the professor's view of the world is normative for the educated class in America.
Posted by: oldhippie | Dec 5 2019 16:00 utc | 5
Regarding those food stamps, it is actually just a small rule change lowering the unemployment rate to 6% (from 10%) above which a state can waive the existing work requirement for single, non-disabled recipients aged 18-49. States can still also waive it if they deem that job availability is low.
Posted by: rednest | Dec 5 2019 16:02 utc | 6
Attributed to Mark Twain. Perhaps the learned professor karlan may affirm:
"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."
AND
Ukraine wishing to join NATO: well, not so fast for Hungary.
Hungary says it will block Ukraine from joining NATO over controversial language law
Budapest has signaled that it will not support Ukraine’s bid to join NATO until Kiev reverses a law that places language restrictions on ethnic Hungarians and other minorities living in the country.
Legislation that limits the use of Hungarian, Russian, Romanian, and other minority languages in Ukraine must be repealed before Hungary backs Ukraine’s NATO membership, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday.“We ask for no extra rights to Hungarians in Transcarpathia, only those rights they had before,” Szijjarto told Hungarian state media at a NATO summit in London. He alleged that 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in the region have been “seriously violated” by Ukraine.[.]
In February, Ukraine’s parliament ratified amendments to the constitution which made NATO membership a key foreign policy objective. However, a number of hurdles still remain before its membership is likely to be seriously considered. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker predicted in 2016 that it would be 20-25 years before Ukraine would be able to join NATO and the EU.
Posted by: Likklemore | Dec 5 2019 16:13 utc | 7
I don't believe that the so called "Professor's View" is normative for the educated class of Americans. It is the normative view of the Ivy League pseudoeducated individuals that have been placed in leadership positions in the US Goverment and Politics but they are not EDUCATED in any way. Karlan is almost certainly a Jew. She is without a doubt a whore who will do anything for her John as directed by her pimp. Being a brain dead feminist helps her with that role in life. I had an ex wife who fought me post divorce for 10 years trying to destroy me in any way she could. She finally stopped with the Breast Cancer she had for 7 of those years finally killed her. I see the same psychotic, sociopathic and off scall narcissitic behavior in every one of these women in politics and academics today. So don't think that something will get better without a terminal solution.
Posted by: Tick Tock | Dec 5 2019 16:18 utc | 8
Americans are entranced by the kayfabe (mock combat). Just as in wrestling it is designed to look 'real' but just keeps people engrossed in the action, unable to think of what they are NOT being told.
People must free themselves of partisan affiliations that are just levers used to manipulate them.
The establishment uses Democracy Works! propaganda to give you a false sense of power and security. But the people are an afterthought in US/Western politics. The politicians and their Parties work for the money. Much of that money comes from AIPAC, MIC, and other EMPIRE FIRST organizations that are leading us to WAR.
Lazy Americans must get off the couch and form protest Movements. Movements that the establishment works hard to prevent. This is what it takes: France Paralyzed By Largest General Strike In Decades.
It's messy and inconvenient but power only responds to power.
The stoopid cult-thinking must stop. This is where it leads: Buffalo Bishop Resigns Over Sex Abuse Cover-Up. Why do people cling to a corrupt Catholic Church? It's NOT just a few bad apples!! The pedophilia and cover-ups have been worldwide and reach into the highest levels of the Church.
This Buffalo Bishop, like dozens of other Bishops in the last decades, lied to cover for pedophiles and then used the power of his position to remain in his position. His wasn't for the children or any higher morality but for himself. He will get a nice, peaceful retirement - paid for by the deluded Catholic flock.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 5 2019 16:18 utc | 9
In the meantime Trump is eliminating food stamps for some 700,000 recipients and the Democrats are doing nothing about it.
The reason for that if very simple: the Democrats agree with Trump on this.
It's the same question many ask when studying Roman History for the first time: where were the legions when the Goths invaded? The answer is that the Goths were the legions, there was no invasion.
The same logic applies to the Right-Left political spectrum in modern Western Democracies. "Where are the lefties?" is the modern question the first worlders ask themselves since 2008.
--//--
As for the Pamela Karlan thing, it's an issue I've been commenting on here for some time now, so I won't repeat everything.
I'll just say again that imbecilization is a completely normal historical phenomenon in declining empires: the earlier example we have is the Christianization of the Roman Empire after Marcus Aurelius' death. The rise of Christianity was the messenger of the Crisis of the Third Century, the historic episode which ended the Roman Empire by giving birth to its demented form after the Diocletian Reforms.
Empires tend to have a very plastic conception of truth, that is, they believe they can fabricate reality for the simple reason they are geopolitically dominant.
It's easy to visualize this. The greatest philosopher of the end of the 18th Century and beginning of the 19th Century was a German, not a British. While Hegel wrote his proto-revolutionary works which would pave the way to Karl Marx, in UK we had the likes of Mackinder and Mahan dominating British philosophical thinking. And even then they weren't the dominant intellectual figures: the UK was the land of accountants and economists, not philosophers. The reason for this is that neither Hegel nor Marx had any ships to do gunboat diplomacy in Asia, as the British did.
Empires tend to think and rationalize the world in a much more plastic/practical way than the periphery. As the old saying goes: the stronger side doesn't need to think before it acts.
"...make sure Ukraine stays strong and fights the Russians so we don't have to fight them here"
Is this 2019 or 2003?
Posted by: Bart Hansen | Dec 5 2019 16:21 utc | 11
"In the meantime Trump is eliminating food stamps for some 700,000 recipients and the Democrats are doing nothing about it."
Bill Clinton took millions off of welfare support and was applauded for it.
Scroll down the page @ Steven Cheung {VID} on Twitter to watch this exchange where the RATS are told they are the ones who have abused power.
Professor Jonathan Turley, a lawyer's go-to-Constitutional Expert:
"The Record does not establish corruption in this case - no bribery, no extortion, no obstruction of justice, no abuse of power."
Trump should include Prof. Turley on his legal team.
The RATS have not thought this through to what will unfold in the Senate. A real court trial; No hearsay and no! no! no! "I was made aware"
And the Bidens, Schiff, and Pelosi under cross-examination. And the Whistleblower!!!
Year 2025 it is.
Posted by: Likklemore | Dec 5 2019 16:37 utc | 13
I used to think that stupid was a characteristic of the American right. It took Donald Trump getting elected to see that stupid knows no political borders. Seriously. I thought that education and progressive thinking also led to a clarity of thought. Boy, was I wrong. The most pro-war people in the USA seem to be Democrats. Bizarro world.
Posted by: Mischi | Dec 5 2019 16:39 utc | 14
Her delusions are a prerequisite for teaching at an academic level.
Posted by: Vonu | Dec 5 2019 16:40 utc | 15
To "...make sure Ukraine stays strong and fights the Russians so we don't have to fight them here"
This predates 2003 and stems from the red menace days when it was the communist legions would behave like a set of dominoes and eventually we (USA) would be fighting them in the streets of New York etc. Thus it was imperative that they defeat the commies in French Indo-China despite the fact that they could easily have simply bought the nation by supporting Uncle Ho who had been working for the OSS during WW2. But no, they had to win brownie points with the French by bankrolling their effort to retake the nation and when that didn't work a little "false flag" event employed to keep the ball rolling. I use quotations because while being false, the Tonkin Gulf event wasn't much of a flag.....
At any rate the fact that both Demublicans AND Republocrats are falling back on such antiquated rhetoric is bitterly laughable! It can also be seen as an indicator of just how dumbed down the USAn populace has become. As noted above article, how could anyone think that the RF would plan much less attempt an attack on the continental US?! A closer look at recent history has the US and it's poodles surrounding the RF with missile bases, sanctioning and embargoing the fhaak out it, and generally trying to destroy the nation as a whole with whatever clandestine methods are available. But hey ,take a page from the book of Cheney: deny everything and make counter accusations.....
Posted by: Chevrus | Dec 5 2019 16:47 utc | 16
thanks b... propaganda is the usa's education... see your breakdown of the nyt articles... most people don't get this...
the military industrial complex is in the people of usa's interest.. they think they benefit from the rayatheons, lockheed martins, boeings and etc - as they have relatives working at these places... the usa is one sick puppy, and Pamela Karlan, a Stanford law professor is just further proof of this... sorry if someone else said what i did, as i didn't read the comments yet..
Posted by: james | Dec 5 2019 16:52 utc | 17
wikipedia on pamela karlan.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_S._Karlan
"Throughout her career, Karlan has been an advocate before the U.S. Supreme Court.[10] She was mentioned as a potential candidate to replace Supreme Court Justice David Souter when he retired in 2009.[11]
Personal life
Karlan told Politico in 2009, "It's no secret at all that I'm counted among the LGBT crowd".[12] She has described herself as an example of a "snarky, bisexual, Jewish women".[13] Her partner is writer Viola Canales.[14]
she is not an american women apparently.. she is a jewish women.. oh well, lol...
Posted by: james | Dec 5 2019 16:55 utc | 18
The fact that the "papers of record" have become mouthpieces for the CIA/deep state has played a huge role in the brainwashing of academia and the rise of neoliberalism. The false narratives these "trusted sources" of information have been serving up create a very real Matrix, a false reality that is ingrained into those who rely upon them for their daily "news". Karlan is merely repeating what she accepts as truth, garnered from the NY Times and Wash Post, CNN, NPR, etc.
Believe me, even here in the red states, you won't find a hell of a lot of faculty members at large universities who are Trump supporters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsL6mKxtOlQ
Posted by: Perimetr | Dec 5 2019 16:56 utc | 19
What I find absent in most discussions about impeachment of Trump is the 800 pound gorilla - what will happen to the US if against all odds, Trump gets impeached. Could the US survive that cataclysmic event or would it rip the empire apart?
What contingency plans does everybody make for that unlikely, but not impossible singularity?
Posted by: Lorenz | Dec 5 2019 16:56 utc | 20
"In the meantime Trump is eliminating food stamps for some 700,000 recipients and the Democrats are doing nothing about it. Their majority in the House could have used the time it spent on the impeachment circus to prevent that and other obscenities."
That's why it's called bread and circus. The loot and pillage party's two separate funding arms get their funding and privilege from the same sociopath/psychopaths who operate the mass murder for profit economy we now live in.
They will continue the slaughter until the enforcers within society finally understand they work for criminally insane cultists who will never have enough money, power, and prestige.
Posted by: Dave | Dec 5 2019 17:00 utc | 21
I see that distrust to everything that is good and decent is extended to law professors. Stanford is a short (if sometimes slow) ride from Berkeley that has a more famous professor in its own law school (Wiki):[you know
John Choon Yoo (born July 10, 1967)[4] is a Korean-American attorney, law professor, former government official, and author. Yoo is currently the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.[1] Previously, he served as the Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Department of Justice, during the George W. Bush administration.
He is best known for his opinions concerning the Geneva Conventions that attempted to legitimize the Bush administration's War on Terror. He also authored the so-called Torture Memos, which provided a legal rationale for so-called [you know what]
=====
First, they torture logic... The ignorants who could not tell tollens from a toilet brush would not even know what to twist, hence the need for professors.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 5 2019 17:02 utc | 22
@ b who wrote
"
The U.S. is itself not a democracy but a functional oligarchy as a major Harvard study found:
"
My only quibble with another great post is the assertion that the US is functional.
Functional would mean it had supportive infrastructure but instead we have homeless shitting in the street because they are driven out of the parks to do so and they must be bad people that don't deserve public toilets.
Functional would mean, as Jackrabbit linked to above, and a I i did a few hours ago in the Weekly Open Thread, that there wouldn't be 117 sexually abusive Catholic priests in the Buffalo NY area doing the same thing as Epstein was doing to his clients.
Functional would mean we would not have the blatant hypocrisy Chervus quoted from the posting above
"
To "...make sure Ukraine stays strong and fights the Russians so we don't have to fight them here"
"
I agree with Chervus that this is same BS that got us the Iron Curtain with Russia after WWII because they wanted Godless communism instead of global private finance. And also, as I ranted recently in the Open Thread, this gave us the 1950's change to the US Motto to In God We Trust which gets back to the control of the obfuscatory/hypocrisy narrative telling us that the private finance cult are doing God's work and that "competition is good/sharing is bad"
The US is dysfunctional on purpose to keep the masses under control and dumbed down/brainwashed
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 5 2019 17:15 utc | 23
Ha! More connections to Stanford:
"Ancient Logic: Forerunners of Modus Ponens and Modus Tollens". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
BTW, it is totally lost on the entirety of Western establishment that you cannot make Ukraine strong (wouldn't we all love to see strong Ukraine?) while wrecking its economy by encouraging policies like
spending 5% of GDP on the military
switching to more expensive energy sources
cutting itself from traditional markets and supplies, replacing with rather worthless "cooperation" agreement with a trading block that is neither particularly interested in trading with Ukraine (Ukraine strongest exports are in surplus within EU) nor inclined to subsidize it (budgets are tights and plenty of recent EU members are in dire needs already)
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 5 2019 17:15 utc | 24
I think it's tragic that that creatures like Karlan are not simply seen as the blatant bigots and Nazi's that they are. You have to be wearing a large set of blinkers not to be able to see that.
Unfortunately this is endemic in the western world. 'Democracy' seems to consist of dumbing down the population as much as possible, and telling them what they have to think so the self-anointed leaders of society can have their way (both those in front, and behind the scenes).
I'm far from certain this is a recipe for success.
The biggest tragedy is that Americans seem to think that the only way to succeed is to tear down any other country that isn't essentially a puppet government, necessarily defining them as 'enemies', and therefore someone/thing that must be hated and destroyed, by any means, fair or foul.
Russians and Chinese in particular, and BRICS/SCO in general, are showing the way. The countries involved have very different political systems, but they understand that co-operation is much more beneficial than constant conflict. Unless, of course, a quarter of your government tax income is dedicated to supporting an amazingly corrupt Military-Industrial-Intelligence Complex.
Posted by: Ant. | Dec 5 2019 17:17 utc | 25
Trump supporters approve of cutting food stamps. The majority of Democratic Party politicians approve of cutting food stamps. Both parties agree times are good and the future is rosy. The only thing they disagree on is foreign policy. The guy who couldn't even win the election (and merely fluked in on a technicality that undermines all progress since 1788,) refuses to play by the rules on foreign policy. And he is not justified by success, not in any terms, not in making peace, not in winning, not in anything. The only people who are upset about impeaching Trump are Trump lovers and cranks who think being president is like being elected God and no one but sinners can defy Him.
The Trump supporters were going to turn out for him anyway, barring an economic crisis even they couldn't ignore. Impeachment has no downside so long as it is from the right, and doesn't rile up the rich people. Except the rich donors are leaving the Democratic Party anyway. The strategy for a nicey-nice campaign that leaves enough Trump voters soothed enough to sit it out has one enormous defect: Trump was not elected by the people anyhow.
But the Democratic Party politicians are anti-Communist, which means pro-Fascist, so yes, they do see this as (im)moral principles to die for, though they hope to politically kill for it. Their problem is, Trump is also anti-Communist and pro-Fascist, which everyone knows, which means Trump was merely his office for campaigning. That may be hypocritical and a violation of campaign laws. But in the eyes even of the anti-Communist/pro-Fascist population missiles for Ukrainian fascists with strings or without strings is merely a tactical disagreement. Even worse, the president breaking laws is perceived as strong leadership, smashing the machine, getting rid of those awful politicians and their oppressive government.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 5 2019 17:27 utc | 26
This is a typical example of the stupidity and often dementia of most of the highly educated. Especially those in academia, who exist in a funhouse hall of propagandist and ideological mirrors. But it's true of the educated in the general. I personally know plenty of highly educated people who make themselves more stupid and mentally ill by the day by uncritically reading the NYT and watching CNN.
I don't know why anyone would expect anything different. All system schooling at whatever level boils down to the same two goals:
1. Instill the basic literacy necessary for a given cog position within the hierarchy.
2. Instill obedience to authority, including indoctrination into its ideology.
From kindergarten to grad school these are the same; whether one's being trained to pump gas or to assume a high position in the corporate world/government/academia these are the same.
So it's no wonder that an elite Stanford law professor is in practice the exact same stupid, ignorant, deranged yahoo as you could easily find in a trailer park, just with better manners and diction.
That's the American system.
"One must be seriously disturbed to believe such nonsense. How can it be that Karlan is teaching at an academic level when she has such delusions?"
I assume this question was meant rhetorically. After all, Karlan's Russia comment would receive enthusiastic thumbs up from at least Biden, Obama, W. Clinton, H. Clinton, Rubio, Klobuchar, Pelosi, Warren, Graham, Buttigieg, Romney, the late McCain, Pompeo, Bolton, Mattis...the list goes on and on.
For a related, institutionalized, revolting example packaging multiple instances of such delusional thought, see "russias-dead-end-diplomacy-syria". Have a pail nearby to catch the spew.
Posted by: mrr52 | Dec 5 2019 17:42 utc | 28
steven t johnson 26
"The guy who couldn't even win the election (and merely fluked in on a technicality that undermines all progress since 1788,)"
I don't think you ever answered when I asked you last time:
Are you saying you think Hillary was so stupid she didn't know about the electoral college, and that it was electoral votes she had to fight for, not popular ones?
Because if you're not saying that, then nothing is changed: Trump beat Hillary in the electoral fight they were both trying to win. It's pure nonsense to babble about "technicalities".
And if any significant Democrat faction was saying thruout 2016, and not just after the election, that the election should NOT be about electoral votes, please direct me to where and when they were saying that, because I don't recall ever hearing it. And I think the reason I never heard it was because the Dems were so smugly sure of electoral college victory. And if Hillary had won, we never would've heard a word from you or anyone else about the electoral college.
Piotr Berman @24:
it is totally lost on the entirety of Western establishment that you cannot make Ukraine strong while wrecking its economy
It's even worse than that. The economy will never recover while oligarchs have a stranglehold on economic activity and government. And USA's capitalist dementia ensures that will never change. (The West as a whole is headed in the direction of unabashed oligarchic rule.)
Why would anyone invest in Ukraine?
Sometimes I think Putin was happy for the Western coup to succeed and simply planned to keep the best parts.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 5 2019 17:47 utc | 30
But do they really believe what they (the mid-level elites) say or is it all some kind of theater of the increasingly absurd? I am never clear on who among the narrative managers is sincere and who is simply acting sincere. Are people like this woman or the Bellingcat narrative managers or any of their numerous colleagues in their mid-level narrative management positions occupying their positions simply due to their acting abilities? They seem to be both delusional and ill-informed. When these people get together at their conferences and dinner parties, does the mask come off?
Posted by: casey | Dec 5 2019 17:48 utc | 31
Mischi #1
never underestimate the stupidity of people. Even professors.
Or as I think it was Einstein that reportedly said: (I paraphrase from memory)
To truly understand the infinite, just contemplate human stupidity.
Posted by: juannie | Dec 5 2019 17:49 utc | 32
Related news (on the subject of "American delusion"):
Well, mr. Stephens kind of tells the truth on the headline. But at least he could be more polite.
casey @31: When these people get together ... does the mask come off?
I doubt it. They have convinced themselves that they are right and/or are following the wishes of people who are right-thinking. In USA, most people are brainwashed to assume that people with lots of money are right-thinking (as in: they must be doing something right!).
Upton Sinclair:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 5 2019 18:03 utc | 34
John Kerry endorses Joe Biden, says he’s the one ‘who can beat Trump’
Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 5 2019 18:18 utc | 35
Wasn't the "so we won't be fighting them here" meme used also to justify the Iraq invasion and the War on Terror?
Posted by: Really?? | Dec 5 2019 18:25 utc | 36
Russ says:
Are you saying you think Hillary was so stupid she didn't know about the electoral college, and that it was electoral votes she had to fight for, not popular ones
no, i think what he's saying is that if Cinderella had had a better sense of timing, she would have made it home before her carriage turned back into a pumpkin.
Posted by: john | Dec 5 2019 18:30 utc | 37
Upton Sinclair self-published a book in 1922 about education in America entitled Goose Step. Predating the infamous era of the Nazi/Fascist Goose Stepping thugs then armies, I read a preview and found an inexpensive copy. The subject as might be assumed was about the use of school systems to indoctrinate young Americans at all educational levels and nationwide to conform to the views of the rather few wealthy people who sat on interlocking boards that controlled curriculum--sort of like the oligarchic control over media today. And as we've seen with the study of political-economy, the ability to erase rather recent developments and personages and inserting false doctrines and their priests was done rather easily and with little noted protest. And so it's gone on down through the decades until today--just look at the War Criminals hired by Stanford and other universities for proof of its being an ongoing problem.
That ideological blinders are omnipresent is easily proven by the various defense planning documents referenced here over the last several years, all of which relate to the unilateral, might makes right mindset that's one of the Evil Outlaw US Empire's longstanding traits that predates the 20th Century. Too many will never learn humility and the reality accompanying it until it's enforced. But there's a wiser group residing within the Empire, some of us present at this bar ready to deal with the mess once humpty-dumpty falls from its perch upon which it's currently tottering.
Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 5 2019 18:31 utc | 38
@33 vk
'Free World'? What exactly does that mean?
What does 'Freedom' mean?
I 'freely' admit I simply have no idea what people mean when they urgently bleat words like that at me.
To me, freedom applies to an action. You are free to do this, or you are free to do that. Which is, of course, actions that are constrained or allowed by various laws passed by local, state, federal and/or international entities. I would suppose that the amount of freedom you have depends on haw many laws have been passed in your own country to criminalize various activities.
Has anyone done such an analysis, to define which countries have limited their citizens behaviour? Simplistically, which countries have written the most laws?
I'll be willing to bet they are the 'democracies' that are most bellicose about protecting 'freedoms'. Let's face facts, politicians just love to keep passing laws, otherwise they have no reason to exist. I unreasonably think there should be another superior law, that any government should only be able to have so many laws. If they want to have yet another one, take some other law away. Otherwise 'freedoms' are just being chipped away at, constantly.
'Freedom', as a thing unto and onto itself, seems a completely meaningless concept. I keep wondering why politicians aren't asked what they are talking about when they roar about 'freedom' as a general term.
Posted by: Ant. | Dec 5 2019 18:32 utc | 39
Trump takes it hard when he suffers criticism and mockery by his peers. He would take it pretty hard to get fired from his job too. But after the stages of grief, he might be pretty happy to get of DC and just live as happy a life as he can until he dies.
Posted by: Random Person | Dec 5 2019 18:33 utc | 40
Perhaps, in her native language of various clicks and hisses, her statements made perfect sense. The failing could be that her perfectly reasonable argument could not be correctly translated into human speech.
I just looked up Pamala Karlan. Apparently there is a story that when she was a baby she was so ugly her parents had to put shutters on her pram.
She claims to have a partner? There’s no accounting for taste I suppose but even for a U.S. citizen there must be a red line. Somewhere? someone!
As to her intellectual prowess, in my limited understanding, intellect depends on the platform it rests upon. Put a Jaguar engine into a Mobility scooter and see how well that performs. Plenty of power but no means of utilising it.
Logical mechanisms such as law require as little emotion as possible. People like her just bring the demise of a great nation into action sooner rather than later.
I suppose we should be grateful such fools consider Russia an adversary, it’s makes predicting what comes next much more clear and succinct action can be instigated.
Professor Pamela Karlan. Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
Posted by: Beibdnn | Dec 5 2019 18:40 utc | 42
@41 Josh
Ha! Clearly an avatar of our reptilian overlords! Good stuff.
Posted by: Ant. | Dec 5 2019 18:49 utc | 43
@29 russ...steven is making himself look like a fool regularly with that crap.. oh well..
@36 really? yes, indeed.. same faulty logic one would expect from a stanford law prof.. as @22 piotr rightly notes - john yoo, the freak who could make torture in abu graib okay is another one cut from the very same cloth..
i see one of Pamela Karlans comments got the ire of melania trump.. article here..
“The Constitution states that there can be no titles of nobility. So while the president can name his son Barron, he can’t MAKE him a baron.” Pamela S. Karlan
"A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics. Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it." — Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) December 4, 2019
Karlan apologized for her remark as the hearing continued late Wednesday. “It was wrong of me to do that,’’ she said, according to the Associated Press. “I do regret it.”
Posted by: james | Dec 5 2019 18:58 utc | 44
Universally accepted fact among the devoted is that “America is fighting Russia in the Ukraine”, though there are exactly zero confirmed reports of Russian troops in the region in the past five years.
Posted by: nwwoods | Dec 5 2019 19:19 utc | 45
Many of the dumbest people I met were university students or graduates. They are thought to absorb information as given, reproduce once, forget. They are not trained to question anything, they follow a narrative. Some even denounced everything they ever learned and became a follower of some religion, which is just another narrative.
I remember one student dorm in particular. Someone came in and decided it was too warm. Put the central heating thermostat on "arctic winter", opened all doors and windows while it was freezing outside. Then someone else came in and decided it was cold, closed all doors and windows, put the thermostat on "incinerate". Repeat 24/7. The few times I tried to explain how a thermostat works, I felt like being rubbed out of existence.
Only one guy understood that you set a room thermostat at a comfortable level and it would regulate to desired temperature. He was an alcoholic, always stoned up to his eyeballs, not a student except for the 3 or 4 studies he briefly tried and failed, and had given up on life in general. He was also the only one there who questioned things.
Posted by: Joost | Dec 5 2019 19:22 utc | 46
If this exchange wasn't a set-up then I'll eat my MAGA hat*.
This bubbling "fat guy" comes with FOX News talking points and Joe Biden mops the floor with him. Not only denouncing the question, but insulting the questioner. I like the majestic (IMO pre-arranged) touch: "let him talk". Oh so respectiful - yet seconds later he insults the questioner!! LOL.
Anyone that dares to ask about Hunter Biden after this will be dismissed by Biden who will say that the question's been asked and answered and he's being hounded by Trump partisans.
This exchange reminds me of the set-up between Trump and Acosta at the Presidential New Conference, which we discussed at moa at the time.
* Just kidding. I don't own a MAGA hat.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 5 2019 19:25 utc | 47
I think that getting into looks etc. is self-trolling. PK looks like a typical lady of her age, and commendably, she seems not to gain weight. Kind of reminds me something I found looking for a snide quote:
...and what a nice girl will you find her!
She can pass for forty three
In the dusk, with the light behind her!
I was actually looking for the source of "love can snare you with a single hair",giving romantic chances to those of us who can count scalp hair with a single hand.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 5 2019 19:27 utc | 49
@ 49 piotr... i agree with your first statement.. when i read that i thought it was really cheap.. moa commentators are generally better then that..
Posted by: james | Dec 5 2019 19:32 utc | 50
Why assume that democracy was not always a trick? Pax Romana anyone?
Also there are some pretty nasty comments on here about the confused professor that say a whole lot more about the hangups of the poster.
Posted by: Yevgeny | Dec 5 2019 19:36 utc | 51
I've seen Jonathan Turley on TV a number of times. He always seemed to be a person of integrity. One needs to add courage to the list after testifying against impeachment on the presented "evidence". I will be very surprised to see him on PBS or CBS ever again. Their news readers are nearly giddy with excitement about impeachment. They never consider what could happen if Trump is convicted but refuses to leave the White House. Then what?
---------
The food stamp program changes will kill people. As intended. One of the most affected groups will be people who are too sick or otherwise too impaired to work, and maybe unable to even leave their home, but still can't get social support. The system says there is no problem because desperate people can get a free meal on Thanksgiving and Christmas. For the other 363 days a year, go find a dumpster to dive in.
Almost all Social Security Disability applicants are denied on the initial application. There are no interim payments or support of any kind. Many give up, as intended. The rest file appeals and wait years for a hearing before an "administrative law judge", who is not a "real" judge, but just some lawyer with fancy title.
ALJ decisions tend to be rather arbitrary, so a favorable decision depends on which ALJ hears a case. Sure there are more levels to appeal, and many more years of no social support, if an applicant can find a way to survive for years on zero income, all the while being sick with probably no medical care.
Social Security and disability lawyers have colluded to keep lawyers in business. Social Security requires the use of a standard contract that gives the lawyer a fixed percentage of the retroactive benefits. "Retroactive benefits" are the regular monthly benefits that accrue from the officially determined "date of disability". So if it takes three years to get benefits, the lawyer gets a nice chunk of change for a few hours work writing a brief and showing up for the hearing.
The lawyer who signed my contract did nothing to help my case, and he even hired someone else to write the brief and attend the hearing. One wonders if ALJs get some benefit from lawyers to encourage long wait times, since long wait times increase lawyer profits at zero cost.
The US system really is that cruel and barbaric. It would be kinder to take us out back and shoot us, but that's too obvious. Much better to let people die slowly in the shadows so the rest of society doesn't have to see us.
And I'm one of the fortunates who managed to hang on, despite bankruptcy, a civil suit, the disability benefits process (only took six years), and state attempts to revoke Medicaid, all at the same time. I know it sounds melodramatic, made up, or at least exaggerated. That's understandable, because it seems that way to me, too!
About 1000 people a week kill themselves in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Does anyone wonder why, or even notice? The reason for many of these deaths is the lack of social supports. In Uncle Sam Land, social apoptosis is a feature, not a bug.
Posted by: Trailer Trash | Dec 5 2019 19:39 utc | 52
>What does 'Freedom' mean?
>Posted by: Ant. | Dec 5 2019 18:32 utc | 39
In Uncle Sam Land, "freedom" has two meanings. Rich people are free to do as they like. The rest of us are free to live under a bridge and starve.
We do have one right: The Right To Obey.
The whole society is organized around obedience, and the purpose of public education is to make sure every one obeys. Modern schools are more accurately called "day prisons", with all the cameras, metal detectors, armed police, isolation rooms, etc. I wonder how many people realize that "lockdown" is straight out of the criminal prison system, and is now a regular occurrence for little kids.
Posted by: Trailer Trash | Dec 5 2019 19:51 utc | 53
Did anyone really expect the Dems to appoint unbiased legal scholars to advise them on the finer legal points of the Articles of Impeachment?
Posted by: chet380 | Dec 5 2019 20:07 utc | 54
This fucking shining city on the hill, is so f*ing shiny that it’s flames is burning the world.
Posted by: Kooshy | Dec 5 2019 20:10 utc | 55
Russ@29 forgot the comments where I've reviewed exactly how everybody rejected the Electoral College, holding legitimacy came from winning the real election. Until Gore, every time the EC violated the expectation that it was a technical way of recording the popular vote, there was justified outrage. Bush's camp in 2000 had plans to contest an EC loss, until that shoe turned out to be on the other foot. If Trump had won the popular vote and lost the Electoral College, he would no more accept the results. Only liars take refuge in the simplistic legalisms. And only Trump ass-lickers are so contemptible as to pretend Trump was the stable genius who outplayed Clinton in the real game. Trump had no more idea how to win the EC without winning the popular vote than anyone else. Further, by the witless pretended principles of Russ' ilk, a presidential candidate who managed to win faithless electors who ignored even their own states' pluralities* would still be the legitimate president! Every single defender of Trump the one legitimate president is witless and worthless.
But very likely the real objection to the response is the insistence that Trump isn't magically guaranteed re-election because...well, the real reason is slavish devotion to a God named Trump. Even with the advantage of incumbency this time around, with even more support from the wealthy (the people who have really turned away from the Democratic Party to favor political gangsterism,) Trump is likely to lose the election again. If I were in Congress I would offer a compromise, where the Republicans were assured Trump would not be investigated any more, much less impeached, for abolition of the Electoral College. But I think Trump would say no, because he knows deep down he's a loser.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 5 2019 20:11 utc | 56
*US politicians rarely win majorities of the electorate. Politicians of all stripes have agreed that non-voting is always to be deemed as "Satisfied" with either choice instead of "Alienated, with no choice." Decent people suspect otherwise.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Dec 5 2019 20:13 utc | 57
@38 Karloff1 You can still Read the late John Taylor Gatto's The Underground History of American Education online. He did a great job highlighting the history and purpose of copying the Prussian style of education to replace the one room school houses and instill the "martial spirit" in the American public. I have to hand it to the Oligarchs of old too. They were very effective in their implementation.
[malformed/wrong link deleted - b.]
Posted by: goldhoarder | Dec 5 2019 20:23 utc | 58
@ steven.. you keep digging a whole for yourself deeper then the last time..
Posted by: james | Dec 5 2019 20:31 utc | 59
Karlan type of academics is scattered all over the US universities.they are the Academia´s gatekeepers, watching over & "spotting" of our future leaders. the majority of them are claptraps selling jingoism to our youth in order to fulfill the Judeo-Zionist agenda.
Posted by: nietzsche1510 | Dec 5 2019 20:31 utc | 60
I knew that name sounded familiar...
John Taylor Gatto, former New York City and New York State teacher of the year, stated:The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders; and John Holt concluded, School is a place where children learn to be stupid . . . Children come to school curious; within a few years most of that curiosity is dead, or at least silent.
http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/john_gatto.html
Posted by: Trailer Trash | Dec 5 2019 20:39 utc | 61
Ant. | Dec 5 2019 18:32 utc | 39
re freedom confusion...
For best results, take it to a dictionary; not a dinky one, but a respected, college-level one that includes data on from what the word derives, i.e. its original meaning by whomever coined the term.
Whatever the results, you are thereby benefited.
At an informal roundtable gathering [at a library Senior Center] the word "education" was questioned and utter blather and mystery and weird interpretations were spouted. Finally someone got out a dictionary and, in short, read the original sense as "to lead out" and it was left to each individual to fill-in the blank "lead-out from what?", or "What do you want be lead-out of?". Calm ensued.
Posted by: chuteh | Dec 5 2019 20:40 utc | 62
@61 trailer trash.. i read gattos book - Dumbing Us Down...good book! a friend of mine turned me onto it.. it was the reason he raised his 2 sons outside the school system for the most part.. his wife is a university prof and went along with it..
Posted by: james | Dec 5 2019 20:44 utc | 63
I have noticed the following: all the Tribe´s spawns speak the same language, I mean all the instruments of their orchestra are tuned to play the same script.
Posted by: nietzsche1510 | Dec 5 2019 21:03 utc | 64
Kooshy | Dec 5 2019 20:10 utc | 55
It's really the Sinning City of the Shills
Posted by: AntiSpin | Dec 5 2019 21:09 utc | 65
I recall when I was a student at the University of Technology, Sydney, way back in the Mesozoic era (1980s), the economics dept there had a lecturer there with a Harvard University background so the staff made him head of the department. Just because he had a Harvard University PhD. He was hardly a great administrator and the subjects he taught (compared with other lecturers' subjects) were much less structured. Of course this meant the courses he taught were easier on students' time and energy, though if you made use of the opportunity a less structured course gave, you could turn in an end-of-term essay with impressive research equivalent to the level required of a post-grad.
The university also had an exchange program with the University of Oregon, and most of the Oregon students who came to UTS (usually in their second or third year) found the UTS coursework very heavy-going and difficult.
In those days, UTS was only supposed to be a second-tier university in Australia.
Posted by: Jen | Dec 5 2019 21:15 utc | 66
Jen @67
b misattributes the study to Harvard researchers. It was Princeton.
(check the link b provides)
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 5 2019 21:24 utc | 67
This hearing is a theatre performance (kabuki -- hey, I learned a new
word, thanks) and PK's lines are an invocation of the official US myth
(the shinning city on the hill, the exceptional, indispensible
nation). No one in the room took that seriously or literally
(especially PK herself) and IMHO these national myths are not really
anything to freak out about - every nation has got its myth, and this is
an arrogant one, but compared to a few others it's almost likeable.
Of course it is at odds with historical records and the reality, but
all of them are, because, frankly, the truth, being descendants of
genocidal, religious nutters and slavers, is apparently very
motivational -- in the KSA...
The RU/UK lines are slightly more worrisome, but that's just a
matching background for her story - the fluff. She doesn't have to
belive it - it's just a performance, an elegant one but meaningless in the end.
A lot of the visitors comment about the deep state, most of the time
mentioning three letter agencies. Here comes a piece about a four
letters one, acting more or less in the plain sight:
OIRA, E.O. 12866
A group of virtually anonymous, unaccountable people wields quite
considerable power over both legislative and executive. A very
interesting construction...
Posted by: ac | Dec 5 2019 21:34 utc | 68
@ 23 psychohistorian
“The US is dysfunctional on purpose to keep the masses under control and dumbed down/brainwashed.”
This is an interesting statement which seems like a contradiction but is it? Surely there must be some functionality
to be able to keep the masses dumbed down/brainwashed; it implies some sort of thought out strategy.
How do we get the same narrative trotted out in media in exactly the same format from LA to Warsaw,
from Lima to Bangalore if it’s all so dysfunctional? Maybe decadence is preferable to dysfunctional
as it implies a level of corruption which is typical of late empires.
But there’s a deeper level to the comment. Netflix now gives us some great series on true crime
where police behaviour is scrutinized in depth. We see cops plant evidence and set up victims
for easy prosecution. In other words the cops are portrayed as dysfunctional and corrupt.
Yeah, right. That makes us feel better. It also makes us feel that unlike drama we can make
our own minds up about who is guilty and who is not. How delightfully postmodern.
The system has become so brazen that it can show us truths which sort of reinforce its very self.
When it sets up false flags it can even give us clues and stuff to work on to the extent that
every “terrorist” event that happens is considered by some people as a false flag
when it may not be and everyone who supposedly died has not died when the reality
is there is a mix – some events are false flags some aren’t; in some false flag events
people are killed; in others maybe not.
Posted by: Lochearn | Dec 5 2019 21:51 utc | 69
Posted by: nietzsche1510 | Dec 5 2019 21:03 utc | 65
You hit the nail on the head. Karlan's loyalty is to her tribe, not this nation. That's the crux of almost every major problem and injustice we're suffering from in this country, from private prisons to Wall Street looting to endless foreign wars to censorship. There is one group of people behind it with a very bad track record in terms of how they treat their host nations. I wonder when we will finally get our act together and become the 110th country to expel them.
And Goldhoarder, while you may not mind how your posts look, you've managed to damage this comment thread and until b deletes your poorly structured post, we all suffer for it.
Posted by: information_agent | Dec 5 2019 22:08 utc | 70
@ Posted by: Lochearn | Dec 5 2019 21:51 utc | 72 who seems to disagree with my concept "dysfunctional on purpose"
and wants to use decadence instead and wrote:
"
Surely there must be some functionality
to be able to keep the masses dumbed down/brainwashed; it implies some sort of thought out strategy.
How do we get the same narrative trotted out in media in exactly the same format from LA to Warsaw,
from Lima to Bangalore if it’s all so dysfunctional?
"
I posit that strategy of "dysfunctional on purpose" is control of the narrative and language and it is purposefully used.
Consider the current seeming understanding of the terms, socialism and capitalism by many of your fellow barflies.
Many of our fellow barflies would have one believe that China is socialist and the West is capitalist...exclusively.
I and a few others keep trying to point out that both China and the West are, to varying degrees mixed economies,
including aspects of both socialism and capitalism
Consider the implicit definition of government if you will. Is government, as compared to dictatorships, not explicitly socialistic?
Are not the provision of water, sewage treatment and in many case electricity explicitly socialistic by definition?
Is it not dumbing down and brainwashing that many don't understand reality but spout the words and concepts they are fed
by those in control of the narrative and media pushing it?
And, not to make too fine a point of it, does all of the West not live under the dictatorship of global private finance at this time?
So how much more would I get ignored if I beat that drum as part of my comments here?
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 5 2019 22:31 utc | 71
@ psychohistorian:
You confine yourself my first paragraph. What about my second where I consider your comment in another light?
Posted by: Lochearn | Dec 5 2019 22:41 utc | 72
@ Posted by: Lochearn | Dec 5 2019 22:41 utc | 75 who writes that I did not consider their complete comment
I did focus on the "dysfunctional on purpose" versus the state of decadence you thought was more apt.
You wrote
"
The system has become so brazen that it can show us truths which sort of reinforce its very self.
"
I see this as purposeful again and not a sign of decadence...they are normalizing perfidy..and it is working, unfortunately to their advantage.
Please explain further how I have misrepresented your comment, if indeed I have.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 5 2019 22:48 utc | 73
Okay psychohistorian:
You pretend to know about finance when you know fuck all.
You keep on about private finance like you are hinting at something. Like who? Like what?
Jews? Well as it happened Jews just beat the Anglos.
Jews were also some of the greatest socialists and some of the the most brilliant artists.
Posted by: Lochearn | Dec 5 2019 22:56 utc | 74
Lorenz | Dec 5 2019 16:56 utc | 20:
IF Trump is removed from office then the war on Lebanon and Iran would be accelerated. Israel will likely go for all the marbles and annex the last remaining Palestinian holdings. Some here believe this couldn't happen but we all live in bizarro world now.
Also, don't expect the Electoral College to oust Pence after the general election since he's more pro-war; even the electors from Democrat controlled states would support him. IMHO, the US would continue on; business as usual.
However, if the Democrats are crazy enough to follow through, the Republican dominated Senate would reject it. Basically a repeat of what happened to Clinton. In the end, nothing changed.
Posted by: Ian2 | Dec 5 2019 23:07 utc | 75
James #44
"“It was wrong of me to do that,’’ she said, according to the Associated Press. “I do regret it.”"
Ya but . . .as Tucker Carlson spot-on reacted, that comment sure looked as though it had been rehearsed in front of the bathroom mirror. It was sooooo lame!!! I mean, it was obvious (on the video) that Karlan really thought she was (wait for it! It's on the way) landing a very clever bon mot!
It is a small thing, yet it speaks volumes about the spirit of this clearly clueless human being (and others of her ilk), and her handlers, who must have cleared this little gotcha for prime time. Been up on the podium too long, bleating to students who can't/don't bleat back! No common sense.
Never a connection with a child, I'll bet, or she could never have said such a thing. Painful to look at the pinched little face, decent hairdo missing in action, with the rant coming out of the tight little mouth. A pathetic individual.
Ditto Noah Feldman from the Felix Frankfurter Dept of the Harvard Law School: Pure bloviation with skin like a baby's bottom. Better coiffed, actually, than Karlan. Quels types!!!
Posted by: Really?? | Dec 5 2019 23:07 utc | 76
Steve
"Trump had no more idea how to win the EC without winning the popular vote than anyone else. "
You are a mind reader?
This is pure speculation and wishful thinking.
Trump won the 2016 election---not the 2000 one.
Get over it.
Posted by: Really?? | Dec 5 2019 23:13 utc | 77
@goldhoarder #71: You may not realize it, but in some browsers your comment #58 stretches the page so wide that it makes it very hard to read. This happened because you have used HTML link tags incorrectly or have posted a very long link without wrapping it in HTML link tags (<a></a>). Hence my suggestion to you to learn the basics of how HTML tags work. Your reply makes you look disrespectful of other posters. Nothing to be proud of, really. Here's how to post links properly:
1. Type <a href=""></a> . That's "less than" character, then letter "a", then space, then word "href", then "equals" character, then two straight quotes, then "greater than" character, then "less than" character, then forward slash character, then letter "a", then "greater than" character.
2. Place your cursor between the two straight quotes and insert your link, like so: <a href="https://www.craigmurray.org.uk"></a> .
3. Place your cursor between >< characters and insert the title of your link, like so: <a href="https://www.craigmurray.org.uk">Craig Murray's blog</a> .
Alternatively:
1. Copy the example provided above the comment input text field, on the right, under the heading "Allowed HTML Tags": <A HREF="http://www.aclu.org/">Headline (not the URL)</A> .
2. Replace example link http://www.aclu.org/ with your link.
3. Replace example link title Headline (not the URL) with your link title.
The above will result in a nice-looking link: Craig Murray's blog.
Posted by: S | Dec 5 2019 23:13 utc | 78
@ Posted by: Lochearn | Dec 5 2019 22:56 utc | 77 who seems to be accusing me of racism when I have consistently challenged others here to prove
that those that own global private finance are jewish
I suggest you go to a comment I just added to the latest Open Thread and go to the link provided
Perhaps you will learn something and stop misunderstanding my purpose here..I hope so
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 5 2019 23:16 utc | 79
Jackrabbit @ 68:
My comment @ 67 was actually just to highlight the (most undeserved) reputations that places like Harvard and Stanford have among certain faculties in Australian universities. In those days Stanford, Harvard and MIT were the holiest of holy shrines to do business studies / economics degrees. Years later I read a book by someone who actually did do a Stanford MBA and the scales fell from my eyes then. The work was similar to what I'd done as an undergraduate (albeit collapsed in the space of 18 months; I had the luxury of doing part-time and then going full-time as a student).
I should have added that the Harvard PhD guy who taught me comparative economics was a lousy teacher as well as a lousy administrator. I visited his office once and it looked as if a tornado had just hit it. To be fair though, he really wasn't cut out to be a lecturer, he was much better at research and analysis.
Before he became a lecturer, he worked at the CIA as a researcher. He knew next to no German (he was of Polish background) so he was assigned to the section to read East German newspapers. A fellow he knew who could speak and read German but no Bulgarian was assigned to the ... Bulgarian section. That experience must account for my lecturer's sloppy personal style.
But now that you draw my attention to the link, yes you are right that the study was done at Princeton University.
Posted by: Jen | Dec 5 2019 23:21 utc | 80
Nice, some asocial nutty or gal has messed up the thread again! It's now unreadable. Was that the intention of the nut job?
b., can't you keep these irritating readers off the range.
Posted by: Quentin | Dec 5 2019 23:29 utc | 81
This may be a potential reason why the Democrats are going all in with the impeachment:
Now I see that the thread is alright in Firefox. @ 84 I was using Safari.
Posted by: Quentin | Dec 5 2019 23:31 utc | 83
@Formerly T-Bear #70: Please don't swear. Goldhoarder may not realize he/she is breaking the page layout—the issue only shows up in some browsers. I assume you are using Safari. If yes, then you can fix the problem yourself:
1. Create a new file in TextEdit and copy/paste the following line into it: div.comments-body, div.comment-content { word-break: break-word; }
2. Save the file in your Documents folder under the name custom.css
3. Open Safari > Preferences… menu item, click Advanced tab, click Style sheet: drop-down menu, select Other… menu item and choose your custom.css file in the file picker.
This will solve the problem once and for all.
The line makes long links and other unbrekable character strings in comments breakable, preventing them from ruining pages.
Posted by: S | Dec 5 2019 23:36 utc | 84
Propagandists are rarely smarter than the group they are trying to influence. Most Propaganda is about reinforcing groupthink and pulling it in a desired direction. But the influencers are with one leg inside the bubble. They are more pushing the bubble from the inside than pulling from the outside.
Posted by: Tuyzentfloot | Dec 5 2019 23:46 utc | 85
@ S | Dec 5 2019 23:36 utc | 87
Regrets, these incidents keep happening and vast pixels expended trying to make right without effect.
No, I am on Yandex, had changed just because Safari did the same.
My computer programming days used machines containing ferrite cores strung on wires.
Old dogs and new tricks are formula for disaster, given failing eyesight and Benign Idiopathic Tremor.
And not a teenager in sight to supervise the errors.
The irascibility intended to get the attention of irresponsible rascal, as in training a stubborn Missouri Mule story.
Am trusting b to delete entry. Don't go snowflake about sharp language, that is its utility to get attention
and awake the inattentive to their deeds.
Thank you again for trying to right this problem. I cannot see how breaking a link can be accomplished without
undoing the link's function by inserting extraneous line breaking symbols into it and disrupting the continuity a
link requires. I notice a '?' as well as '-' break links with minimal page expansion. Am interested in the mechanics.
Again Thanks!
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Dec 6 2019 0:17 utc | 86
@81
Why do you assume a technical illiterate could read those instructions? I can't even begin to do anything with that. It is never simple enough for those who have not been initiated.
HTML works by magic. Your instructions do not convince me otherwise.
Better solution is to forgo links altogether if not competent. Or spell out the link and force the really interested to transcribe. Of course no one is going to go to effort of spelling out a link as long as that one above. Which would be a good thing.
Posted by: oldhippie | Dec 6 2019 0:18 utc | 87
She's been gone some time now (she died in April 2018) but Karen Dawisha, a so-called expert on Russian and post-Soviet politics who obtained a higher degree at the London School of Economics, was another deluded academic twat who wrote the book "Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?"
The 1-star, 2-star and 3-star reviews on Amazon.com of the book refer to the tabloid quality of many of the claims in the book, poor sourcing, cherry-picking of facts and the author's inability to write at a level that would attract a readership outside the academic community.
The least we can say for her is that she is no longer in a position to, erm, "advise" the US and UK governments on issues and help formulate policy that would backfire on Washington and London anyway.
Posted by: Jen | Dec 6 2019 0:27 utc | 88
#90
Yes, I too am nonputercompetent. Simply the title is good, but also tinyurl >'Tiny url, say "dot" then add the tail.
the url for this page is 193 characters.
like this tinyurl[dot]com/wovqbpy
that's 23 characters, only 7 if the prefix is understood.
try it. it brings you back here.
Posted by: Walter | Dec 6 2019 0:30 utc | 89
@ Posted by: Walter | Dec 6 2019 0:30 utc | 92 who continues to suggest the tinyurl alternative
The problem with tinyurls is that when you mouse over the link you cannot see where it will take you.
This means that some bad person could provide one here and send you to a web site that would compromise your computer
If folks want to provide links here they should know what they are doing and/or use proper HTML formatting
And if they screw up I would appreciate if they take responsibility for doing so and stop linking or otherwise
limit their linking to minimize these sort of page formatting issues....please and thank you
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 6 2019 0:38 utc | 90
Jackrabbit @47
I think I was wrong about this. The ZH article has a link that doesn't have good audio.
After hearing the whole audio, it sounds genuine.
Biden lost his cool and was insulting. Not sure that it matters to the Democratic faithful though. Many will see the farmer as a Republican proxy and will view the interaction as Biden's being up to taking on Trump.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 6 2019 0:43 utc | 91
Piotr #49
"I think that getting into looks etc. is self-trolling. PK looks like a typical lady of her age, and commendably, she seems not to gain weight. "
In general I would agree with you.
("Commendably she seems not to gain weight" is kind of patronizing. She might for all you know be anorectic. Or bulimic. You wouldn't happen to be a male, would you???)
Actually, most people do wear their character on their faces---seeing them "live" is far more revealing than in a still. And most people also read faces and hear speech, and their intuition, honed over decades of adulthood, sends them a gut feeling.
Regarding Karlan, I had the same gut feeling/response as Tucker Carlson. what a pinched, sad little face, producing the the bombastic, self-righteous noises about patriotism and the unacceptable joke about Barron Trump.
Posted by: Really?? | Dec 6 2019 0:52 utc | 93
#73
"you've managed to damage this comment thread and until b deletes your poorly structured post, we all suffer for it."
How has the comment thread been "damaged"?
How are we all suffering?
Posted by: Really?? | Dec 6 2019 0:58 utc | 94
@ : psychohistorian | Dec 6 2019 0:38 utc | 93
I wish you had explained to this depth previously. I had not realized that defect, or "vulnerability", and I thank you kindly. You are clearly correct. One assumes of others what one knows about one's own character...this, as you have pointed out, makes a tendency to false assumptions - and makes for a fissure in forum such as this... I was wrong. The TURL method does have merit in other contexts though; in cryptography, specifically steganography, I think - but that's opinion. Not deep crypto, just one step past stupid.
I shall be obliged to forgo Patric Fermor's walking stories and toying with translation - in favor of study of what you have provided as tutorial.
Posted by: Walter | Dec 6 2019 1:11 utc | 95
"If folks want to provide links here they should know what they are doing and/or use proper HTML formatting"
I wish I were able to understand the instructions.
I guess I will not link.
Posted by: Really?? | Dec 6 2019 1:12 utc | 96
S @81 - Thanks! Rather than being impolite, you have provided clear (I think) instructions for posting links.
Posted by: spudski | Dec 6 2019 1:40 utc | 97
As the great wise man, Frank Zappa proclaimed about the USA:
"Politics/government is the entertainment division of the Military-Industrial Government."
American politics makes much greater sense (and is a hell of a lot more entertaining) if you understand this truism.
US Presidential Debates and impeachment hearings are a swell occasion for drinking games.
Every time a political hack, media shill, or academic invokes some variant of American Exceptionalism, take a shot of your favorite alcoholic beverage.
You will be drunk within half an hour--guaranteed!
Posted by: ak74 | Dec 6 2019 2:14 utc | 98
I'd say unbelievable but I know that is only wishful thinking on my part. What's scary is that these people populate the "educational" system which explains why we're as screwed as we are.
Posted by: Gal | Dec 6 2019 2:19 utc | 99
Correction. The quote should be: "Politics/government is the entertainment division of the Military-Industrial Complex."
Posted by: ak74 | Dec 6 2019 2:21 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
never underestimate the stupidity of people. Even professors.
Posted by: Mischi | Dec 5 2019 15:45 utc | 1