Benghazi, Beirut or 9/11

 

“The Trump administration is not refusing to share power with an opposing party. It is refusing to follow the constitutional limits of a government that its own party controls completely,” @jonathanchait argues. https://t.co/BLf6KSSlSs pic.twitter.com/wPtTTdgW2i

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) February 11, 2025

I know there's good reason to just reminisce about when bipartisan shit was possible, but my biggest problem with this Trump infestation is the epistemic closure--the failure to have any light that lets in the darkness that is absofuckinglutely going to happen. You can disobey the laws of man--but not gravity.

So, the Bush folks felt ecstatic when they got the White House--finally! In 2001. After two long terms of the Bubbas! The grown-ups were in charge! And they pretended the little thing with the missing "W"'s was a big old riot of Democrat malfeasing--

And they didn't have their eye on the ball about the PDB that said Bin Laden was planning an attack on our soil. 

2025 Has Started with Terror

 

To wake and find that the promise of a new year is already draped in tragedy is a horrific start--and all my condolences to the friends and families of those lost in the horrific assault in New Orleans and to the survivors and theirs. It is a stark reminder that evil doesn't take a holiday, and that disturbed and radicalized people are among us. Violence is the burden of a society that needs meaning and unity. We are divided and life is stressful, and people dissociate and create demons to justify carrying out the worst of their fantasies. 

We should not become numb to this. We cannot accept it. It is inimical to civilized life. 

I don't know what the hell animated the mind of Shamsud-Din Jabbar to cause a man who once swore an oath to protect and defend this country to so drastically turn against its citizens, but this was an American--not a stranger. We grew this problem here. 

Elon Musk Goes Full Ford

 

It's not too soon to talk about Henry Ford being a whole racist who bought a newspaper just be extra-racist and who that reminds me of, right? Wow. But anyway, Elon Musk on the social media site he purchased to pretend to be a nonpartisan free speech warrior endorsed AfD which is pretty outstanding neo-Nazi stuff. They are pro-Putin and anti-NATO compared to the rest of Germany for the most part. The big thing is the neo-Nazi thing, though. They are even against climate change science, which I thought the head of Tesla would understand is crucial!

I don't think we should be so quick to define Musk. His own father tells us he isn't exactly what we think he is:

The End of Assad

 

I haven't really known where to start this week. Tblisi? Romania? But it's Syria. Good gracious if I were ever to believe, God. The rebels took over everywhere. Everything, after so many years, fell. And Bashar al-Assad's Russian friends have been run off, too. And he has fucked off to Moscow. (Actually, I know he was in Moscow last week and never noticed him leaving. When the heck did he leave to fuck off on back?)

I don't know if Assad-cheerleader and avid consumer of RU agitprop, Tulsi Gabbard is at home crying into her Putin shaped comfort woobie, but the quality of her often-offered pro-Assad and pro-Putin opinions are about to take an uncommon beating.  Which she totally has earned. 

I also don't know how Trump and them feel about what Romania has done with respects to their dodgy election. I personally think Trump should have been disqualified as an insurrectionist, but we just don't do stuff like that here, regardless of what our Constitution says. 

I do winder if some of the people who voted for him are feeling the buyer's remorse yet. And what exactly would happen if we tried to stage a "do-over" here. 

But this post isn't about the US--it's about this:

TWGB: The Failing Man

 

Trump's having a weird week--yesterday, he gave an answer to the question of how to make childcare more affordable that made JD Vance sound like Mr. Policy King by giving us nothing and landing on we're a "failing country". He was applauded when he finished his rambling response which did not go into policy details (sorry to Chris Sununu) and didn't even contain a complete sentence (sorry to Bobo Kennedy) but because he finished talking, which was all anyone wanted him to do at that point. 

Then, earlier today, he decided that the best way to handle his appeal of the first civil case judgment of defamation for his sexual assault victim would be to give a press conference where he defamed her(again!) and mentioned other (alleged) sexual assault victims of his. And he referred one of the women as not "the chosen one" as if to indicate sometimes he does pick out potential assault victims, but in his long career of doing this, she does not meet his exacting standards. 

He followed this up with another rally thing where he forgot he wasn't running against Joe Biden and also made a weird non-joke about Nancy Pelosi's house having walls that did not stop the man who attacked her husband and gravely injured him. (Which says something about walls not working. An odd thing to note about a crucial gimmick of his political career.) 

This is why Joe Biden nailed Trump today, calling him "a failing man." 

Biden: My predecessor believes America is a failing nation. He is a failing president and a failing man pic.twitter.com/ZTnez17ImR

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 6, 2024

And that sums it up--Trump projects: nothing is his fault, his blame, his fuckup.  But the more he casts his insulting, perverse, negative view of the world, the more you can understand the sickness in him. 

TWGB: He'll Dance to Anything

 

Wow. This is a new low, even for Trump.

“It Was a Setup,” “Could have been the parents” Trump tries to blame Gold Star families for the Arlington incident
pic.twitter.com/7eO9CZ3tag

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 31, 2024

Maybe the Gold Star families, who invited him and have signed statements to the effect that they think his being there was cool and totally legal--fucked him over by posting pictures and videos. That's what HE SAID, babies, not me. He tried to suggest the people who were there to back his ass up backed his ass over. So he suggested he didn't know anything about the strategy of his dumb stunt and maybe he was stunted upon. Maybe it was the White House that he was going to claim bailed on a solemn event they totally were clued into.  Kamala Harris called him on it, and now that stunt is supposed to be "he said and she said". 

I'm not here to belittle the Gold Star families because their grief is real and how they feel is real regardless of the facts on the ground. Their loved ones saved people in assisting the evacuation that day and died in a suicide bombing from ISIS-K. Nearly 170 Afghan people also were killed by that blast. The war had been 20 years long. And many servicepeople cycled through that assignment.  They can cast their blame any and everywhere it feels valid. But we all know that serving in the armed services can mean being placed in danger. Their safety was not guaranteed, they guaranteed the safety of others and that was their great sacrifice and why Section 60 is hallowed ground. 

Nothing I can say makes that right. Throughout the war on terror, we have not stopped the tactic of extraordinary violence. The results are appalling and personal. I demur from politicizing it. I have my own ideas about why the withdrawal sucked, but it was a group effort. And yet, for the Abbey Gate tragedy, I still blame ISIS. There was one airport, and there were so many people who were running out of time to be safe.   It was time to leave, and the crowd itself was an exploit. An opportunity for terror. One last kick in the slats before leaving. One demonstration of the ideology that faced the country we tried to rehabilitate into something like a Western image.

TWGB: All the Bad Guys

 

Convicted Felon Trump bragging about colluding with Russia in front of all our faces because his supporters are rubes that will support him no matter how treasonous. pic.twitter.com/TKaQfkcZpG

— Tim Hannan (@TimHannan) June 4, 2024

It is fitting that convicted felon Trump chose to once again advise us that he was colluding with Russia just as we hear President Biden make a very clear statement regarding Trump: "All the bad guys are rooting for Trump, man." Putin is a bad guy who has taken a prisoner--effectively a hostage. He's a terrorist. And Trump says, basically, that his terrorist friend will release the hostage if he wins the election. 

Imagine that kind of friendship. "My hostage is your hostage." It sounds like...Trump is a goddamn terrorist too. A hostage taker. 

This is something people need to understand about Trump--in fact, it's something that our foreign allies already do. David Rothkopf, writing for The New Republic, describes the fear of a Trump presidency folks in the former eastern bloc countries experience, knowing he's willing to bargain away their freedom. McKay Coppins in the Atlantic reports in a similar vein: allies are worried that we do not appreciate the threat of a transactional and authoritarian leader inimical to the concept of democracy. 

TWGB: Art of the Deal

 

Trump claims he can free a journalist imprisoned by Russia, after he wins the election, but before he takes office, definitely. There's tons of reasons to be skeptical or, I would actually say--extremely appalled. Tom Nichols knows a bit about Russia, and he's pretty sure Trump is full of shit, but isn't the interesting part that he wants him there until after the election? 

I would add--isn't it pretty interesting he has this special relationship, and never used it during his presidency?

As a former wrongful detainee in Russia, I would just like to remind everyone that President Trump had the ability to get myself and Paul Whelan out of Russia for years and chose not to. I would be skeptical of any claims about getting Evan Gershkovich back in a day.

— Trevorrowdyreed🇺🇲🇺🇦 (@trevorrowdyreed) May 24, 2024

I mean--he did things that were great for Putin--but not for the US?  He thinks he has a relationship but what he isn't going to have is leverage because he is a soft weak pudding of a man who never cared about anything but himself. Because he made an imprisoned journalist, just now, about himself and his election. 

Sort of in the way he made a border bill about him, and deferred it until he was (he hopes) back in office, and could take credit. The way he shut down the government in 2018 because he panicked about his future and wanted border wall money when he no longer had control of the House. And what did he get?

Impeached. Because he was still making deals for himself and not doing whatever it was he promised he would do in office. 

The Signs of the Crocus

 

So, #ISIS posted a graphic body cam video of one of the terrorists. Which looks & sounds bona fide ISIS. Here’s the blurred out version. The original is under the link.

It was ISIS. https://t.co/42q0Fm7uKW#MoscowAttack pic.twitter.com/GScxXL9DS0

— olexander scherba🇺🇦 (@olex_scherba) March 24, 2024

The shocking thing about the kind of society Russia is, is that a horrific terrorist attack can take place in the heart of the country, where the government had been warned such an attack might be immanent by the US, where credit for the attack has been claimed, the sitting dictator fresh from his irrelevant and rigged election can decide to blame it on Ukraine, and such is the propaganda network, absolute chunderfucks will vomit out this unintelligence for actually--free. They don't even need to be paid to be conspicuously wrong about a grave thing. 

The intelligence all says it is ISIS. But what if these guys looked awfully white to be Muslims (I dunno, man--it's not like there's a reverse paper-bag test to get into ISIS)? What if they were headed towards Ukraine? What if your aunt had balls and you were a chimp--would that make her a monkey's uncle? Kremlin Supergenius Putin thinks maybe it could be Ukraine. 

If one wanted it to be enough, couldn't it be? 

The Fine Red Line

 

I think it was an act of moral courage for Senator Schumer to express criticism of Israel PM Netanyahu and concern for the lives of innocent Palestinians. Leaving aside whether he was the best person to make this message because of his own Jewishness and long-standing support of Israel, that there needed to be daylight between what the United States supports and what Netanyahu's government is carrying out was a necessity, because OUR US government must be accountable. The ongoing suffering of people who had no choice in the horrific and malicious actions of 10/7 is inhumane. The idea of so much suffering on both sides without a clear path to reconciliation, and ultimately peace, feels unthinkable. 

There have been protests in Israel that suggest that many people do not feel like Netanyahu has done everything he can to get the hostages home and end the current war. Although Schumer called for elections what he did not do is imply who should win them--rather, he indicated that a referendum on the desires of the people in our democratic ally would settle what their vision is for the future of the Israeli state--without leaving it in the hands of someone who had done everything he could to prevent a two-state solution. 

Stopping Pirates and Terrorists is Actually Good

 

There's something very opaque to me about the politics of places like Yemen, where there has been a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iranian-backed group Ansar Allah (Houthis), and I'm by no means an expert, but when a group has been attacking international trade at sea--private ships flying under the flags of multiple nations! and also taking shots at US military targets, it makes sense for the US to respond so they knock that shit off. We aren't really being given a choice. 

Doing nothing means they keep doing that. To use a homey little analogy, if I was a business owner and my store was getting robbed and my employees were physically threatened, yes, I would want protection, and violence against the perpetrators would be a part of that defense. 

This isn't just about what's going on in Israel--although Ansar Allah is similar and has the same kind of ethos it seems as Hezbollah.  First--they have been a problem. They are not "freedom fighters" and there's a difference between being in control of Yemen and being a government. The Houthis own a share of the blame for rampant famine in that country. 

So Much for the Bentley Bomber

 

At the top of the above picture, just past the border checkpoint, you can see a car frozen in air after its driver had made some very poor speed-related decisions. This unfortunate launch of a generally land-based vehicle resulted in an explosion that Fox News, among others, wanted to term a terrorist attack. 

It wasn't, but a lot of right-wing fear-mongers jumped on the news:

Ted Cruz reposting noted journalist Benny Johnson to say his "worst fears" were confirmed is amusing to me in a way I don't think Sen. Cruz would understand. 

Sometimes I think to myself that conservative "news" outlets and the politicians they have a symbiotic relationship with are just cynical liars, but I also think they do believe their own bullshit. People who say things like "open borders" in all serious are like people who say "post-birth abortion"--what they fuck are they on about? It's delusional. They assumed that OF COURSE an explosion on a bridge was terrorism. Because OPEN BORDERS: is why! I think there's some people this morning who are mad their talking point got, um, exploded.

But man, I am still trying to wrap my head around who is doing terrorism in a Bentley. That is a distant Saudi prince with Jason Chaffetz's turkey in his lap kind of high-priced terrorism....

"If You Go Carrying Pictures of Chairman Mao...."

 

I get it, I think. There's a handful of them in every radical crowd. They're so hip, they're positively pelvic. If you're offended by their t-shirt, the problem is you, etc. And nonetheless, the young folks who have discovered Bin Laden's "Letter to America" are just so disappointing. I always hoped, somewhere out there, that, having grown up with the internet, some kind of extra media-savvy would rub off on them, and they would understand that there is propaganda, everywhere, and just because you've run into something "new to you" doesn't mean it's actually valid. That the youths would seek context.

This is called, me, being overly optimistic about human nature. Also, too, I know a bunch of elderly "leftists" who are likewise suckers for the same sort of thing. 

Bin Laden was a recruiter for terrorism against the US--he peddled horseshit pills for what ailed the world. Lots of bloody-minded assholes do that. It's not special. 

I'm not going to be the one who waves my fist and yells at the kids to get off my lawn or stop making human chains or whatever they do today, even if for the love of the revolution, please consider why you are getting dragged off of private property and whether blocking doors are a fire hazard. And also too, be aware cops will wreck your property and get physical at pretty much any leftist protest--it isn't personal. 

But for the love of fuck, please try not to make actual monsters your fucking mascots--is that TOO MUCH to ask? 

Finally--yes, movements can be discredited by malicious actors from within. There were bad actors embedded in Occupy and BLM, and they are already down in your pod.  Don't be hoodwinked and bamboozled babies. It's a jungle out there. 

This is Stupid. Don't be This.

 

There's simply no condemnation of Hamas that is not at the same time a condemnation of the Palestinian resistance. pic.twitter.com/FzZmsqUlQO

— Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) November 9, 2023

No, actually, you can condemn Hamas because they have not accomplished shit. If being a terrorist entity that lobs missiles all over the place, and most recently did a pogram and raped and mutilated Israeli and other people and went on to kidnap hostages and are the kinds of unstable fucks who don't care if literally tens of thousands of Palestinians die as a result because it's all GOOD PRESS, then actually, I would not call this shit "resistance" but "sociopathy."

If one was really interested in the cause of Palestinian liberation but didn't care if the people lived or died, I'd be skeptical. So let's talk stupid numbers: if the IDF has killed 10,000 people to get to 60 Hamas fighters (and they've killed more UN aides and journalists including their families) you probably see 500K Gazans dead before the government thought they were done routing out Hamas. MAYBE.

Don't ask what number of Gazan dead is OK for the Israel government: what is OK for the supposed liberators of Palestine? What the fuck are they doing? I condemn what is supposedly a "Palestinian resistance" because they aren't shit. They are not shit. The Palestinians dying all over the place? The way Hamas has fuel for rockets but not generators and all that? The way there is tunnels for terror, not to save lives? 

Ammon Bundy arrested on contempt charge

Ammon Bundy defamed a hospital and made it close down temporarily due to targeted harassment. He lost a suit and now has to pay millions of dollars. And he is fooling around with his assets to avoid paying them. I became aware of him because of the Bunkerville standoff. Because his family's ranch were a bunch of deadbeats over grazing fees and decided it was WAR! And then later, there was the Malheur occupation. The family is, you might say, an environmental issue. 

He's not exactly a folk hero. Right-wing people do love their myths, though. I remember when they wanted to make LaVoy Finicum into a martyr, I guess the way they want to with Ashli Babbitt or Craig Robertson. 

The history of right-wing extremist militia-affiliated people just walking away after making a threat of themselves doesn't seem to set a good example. It's an example that they can use to try to accelerate their antisocial behavior. 

Anyway, the usual characters will be out defending him saying The Man is only on his case for "being a conservative." And some people will buy that because deep down, they like the idea of some people getting to be outlaws, when what they are is armed pests. Ammon Bundy threatened the judge in this past case, just like he has in other cases:

In a July 9th open letter posted online, Bundy directly addressed Baskin, alluding to potential violence should she rule in favor of St. Luke’s.  

“Please do not sanction a war that may end in innocent blood and require others to bring justice upon those who are responsible for shedding it,” he wrote.  

Bundy has also complained about other judges in his previous cases, always calling them out by name and sometimes encouraging his followers to go to their homes. 

 Bundy ran for governor of Idaho, once. He lost, but there are people in this country who could really see a man like that being president. It really does make you think.

Twenty Years Ago, the US Invaded Iraq

 

Saddam Hussein was no hero and his statue rightfully was toppled ending an anti-democratic regime so many years ago, but the invasion 20 years ago was a war of choice and the US often blows off our dumbest choices, refusing to understand the how and why of our clearest fuckups. But our basis for war then was thin.  The US made choices during that war that impacted the country very negatively, and the US failed to understand why or how until it was too late. The cost was high. 

To me, the worst thing about it was the war of choice also lead to horrible choices at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere--the dehumanization of populations, the broken faith that we were supposed to be the good guys. That even now, we have a potential US Presidential candidate who sanctioned rectal feedings at Gitmo should appall us. He rose up in the GOP bestride a very horrific steed--the willingness to not just follow a multitude to do evil, but to lead a pack. Iraq was a proving ground of what was the worst in us. Our attempts to manage the government of Iraq by crisis, to use their tragedy to make bank should be taught in every classroom. It won't be, but it should. 

Climate Change is Terror

 

I have never seen climate carnage on the scale of the floods here in Pakistan.

As our planet continues to warm, all countries will increasingly suffer losses and damage from climate beyond their capacity to adapt.

This is a global crisis. It demands a global response. pic.twitter.com/5nqcJIMoIA

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) September 10, 2022

 I know this is a hell of a message to send on the 21st anniversary of 9/11, but I can't hear the skirling bagpipes deliver "Amazing Grace" one more time without thinking about the future pressures of what colonialism and global commodification of the planet will mean for future generations. We've been looking at the war on terror as about a lot of things, but about oil and water, not so much--maybe we should. About self-determination, and the world corporations would leave us to--not so much. Maybe we should.  We were lost, but will we be found? We were blind, but will we see? 

We tend to want to put a face on our terrors and consider the villain as "the other". Nature, in its raw power and inexorableness, seems to us to act in ways so removed from our capability to harness it--but we harnessed the atom. We can make use of the energies of water and wind and even capture lightning in a bottle and the sun in a mirror. I think we should be able to understand that over 30 million people are displaced and maybe thousands have died or will, and a third of a large country is under water, destroying crops and homes and livelihoods, because for over a hundred years, we, humanity, did something to the atmosphere that made storms more potent and the future more uncertain. 

President Biden Has Not Forgotten

 

One of the most significant figures behind the 9/11 attacks, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been taken out by way of drone while hanging out on a balcony in Afghanistan, at a safe house where he was hosted by Sirajuddin Haqqani. 

So, a couple of things--this demonstrates that we did not still need to be at war in Afghanistan for our principal counterterrorism mission to be continued. If someone wants to bring up the Doha accords, I'm just echoing what has already been established, the Taliban never renounced al-Qaeda. Not attacking our troops as we were pulling out was the bare minimum. Just as with the Osama bin Laden operation, this demonstrated the resolve of the United States to follow through in the pursuit of terrorists--where we cannot receive full justice, we will avenge. 

I would not be fully in character if I did not take the opportunity to backhand the twice-impeached one-term wonder who hosted the KSA-backed LIV golf tournament at his Bedminster property and dissembled that "we" never got to the bottom of 9/11. He too, could have gone after al-Zawahiri, but apparently did not know who that was. As to Trump's "successful" attacks of his own, I have never been persuaded he fully knew what he was doing. I mean really, I think he was clueless, you guys. We can pretend al-Baghdadi was a bigger get for a whole moment of stony silence in Trump's honor, if he likes. And I think he really would. 

I'm not short on memory. I think a lot of us consider the savaging of Trump at the 2011 WHCD followed by Obama's announcement that the US got bin Laden both scared Trump off of running in 2012 and began his supervillain origin story to become the only president to plan an attack on the US homeland himself. 

That should not be forgotten, either. 

When Putin Brings Down Russia, Will it Make a Sound?

The story of this war is nothing without identifying Putin as the perpetrator of this mess, which has revealed that the storied Russian Army is a mess kitted out with the poor equipment that is the legacy of corruption and the failure of a supply chain that came from yes men telling Putin this exploit of sovereign Ukraine would take 48 hours or so, and not weeks. And it is a mess because conscripts weren't told their actual mission at all, they might have been told it was a drill. Their people back home aren't informed of anything. They have motorized crematoria to disappear the dead, when they bother to collect them.

So when the ceasefire to create a humanitarian corridor is violated, who is that on? Vlad, the destructor. The one who will rupture Russia's economy to prove he could take Ukraine, and is being foiled by a guy who plays the piano with his penis. 

I'm just saying, for all the obvious reasons, Putin would have looked more like a boss without trying to do this thing and actually destroying the ruble and losing the credit capability of all Russian people. But now he looks like a monster who indiscriminately kills women and children and old people and basically anyone who gets in the way of his fulfilling an exceptionally bad history lesson. 

The folks who deplored Trudeau over his treatment of the convoy can sit and think about what a sentence of 15 years in jail would be like for the folks who understand that Russia is engaged in war, and would very much prefer no one mention it. Or think about how Russia is totalitarian as hell. 

To me, this is the obvious villain. Putin initiated a war, and now feels stressed, He did this to his country.

The Blockade isn't Over

 

Voici la vidéo : pic.twitter.com/94iXLiHVni

— Mylène Crête (@MyleneCrete) February 19, 2022

You can see this is pure malevolence against a journalist. It is very much like the claim of Trumpers that journalists are the "enemy of the people"--unless they are personalities that they like, such as Tucker Carlson.  

Here's why you won't see me comparing Trudeau to Hitler, like some dumb South African billionaire did--because a blockade would be an act of war, actually, and because the supposedly civil protestors don't even understand how civil rights protests work. Of course you can go to jail--it's supposed to be the point. These people are insurrection-minded and Nazi-adjacent, and I don't respect any inch of their snow-sculpture autonomous space. 

The funders of this stupidity want to do this here. I am genuinely thinking that funders of terror in the US should be subject to confiscatory justice, and just get their whole capacity for monetary shenanigans taken away. 

There is really a part of me that is cool with people fucking around, to the extent that they will also be finding out. But the finding out part is non-negotiable. As in, everyone associated with any such a thing in the US should be finding out--but that these guys used tactics like using their own kids as human shields makes me shudder. 

And I guess I also have very little time for people extending their best wishes towards this stubborn street stain. I am anti-convoy, or antiblockade. I think blocking the streets with massive trucks is dangerous to commerce and the cause of freedom. I don't think much of what these people do, or the tactics they employ, and am glad Canada has shut them, lawfully, down.