Whether or not their maneuver succeeds — and it almost certainly won’t —
they’ll have done something that has longstanding consequences.
Politicizing the Electoral College means that from here on out, whether
electors vote according to the wishes of their states’ citizens will be
an open question.
We’re now stuck with an extra step in presidential elections, whereby
electors, who are little more than party functionaries, find themselves
subject to pressure campaigns, demand intelligence briefings, and the
like, and are seemingly endowed with the ability to make a subjective
determination about the “fitness” of a candidate.
-- Michael Tracey, "Anti-Trump forces want the Electoral College to orchestrate a coup: Those ginning up resistance are breathtakingly hypocritical" (NEW YORK DAILY NEWS).
Monday, December 19, 2016
Truest statement of the week II
Whatever Russia did or didn’t do, the idea that its interference is what
cost Hillary Clinton the election is utterly ludicrous and absolutely
false. What cost Hillary Clinton the election can be summed up by a
single line from Sen. Chuck Schumer,
soon to be the country’s highest-ranking Democrat: “For every
blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up
two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can
repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.” As it turned out, he
was fatally wrong. It wasn’t the Russians who told the Democratic Party
to abandon the working-class people of all races who used to form its
electoral base. It wasn’t the Russians who decided to run a presidential
campaign that offered people nothing but blackmail—“vote for us or
Dangerous Donald wins.” The Russians didn’t come up with awful tin-eared
catchphrases like “I’m with her” or “America is already great.” The
Russians never ordered the DNC to run one of the most widely despised
people in the country, simply because she thought it was her turn. The
Democrats did that all by themselves.
-- Sam Kriss, "The Rise of the Alt-Center" (SLATE).
-- Sam Kriss, "The Rise of the Alt-Center" (SLATE).
A note to our readers
Hey --
Sunday.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
What did we come up with:
Michael Tracey gets another truest.
Sam Kriss gets a first.
They really are concerned -- about starting a war with Syria -- aren't they?
Ava and C.I. examined Hulu.
Yes, this is a humor piece.
The crazy never ends.
Iraq, of course.
Can he please go away?
Ditto.
What we listened to while writing.
Repost of Great Britian's Socialist Worker.
Press release from US House Rep Gabbard's office.
Press release from Senator Isakson's office.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them.
Editorial: Avoiding Iraq
One Tweet nailed it:
Across the internet, idiots like Alyssa Milano and Debra Messing were up in arms about Aleppo while ignoring Mosul.
Mosul's in Iraq.
Iraq's the country the US declared war on in 2003.
That's the war candidate Barack Obama swore in 2008 that, if elected president, he would end.
It hasn't.
RT noted:
US secretary of defense Ash Carter said this month that it is "certainly possible" that the "tough fight" to retake Mosul will occur before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Yet, a week prior, Rupert Jones, Britain’s most senior commander in Iraq and deputy commander of the US-led coalition in the region, called for "patience," saying that there is no deadline for establishing control of Mosul as civilian and military casualties continue to mount.
“They [the US-led coalition] probably realize that the thing in Mosul is not going to be very successful,” retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski told RT last month.
With a change in presidential administrations on the horizon, Carter has suggested an enduring US presence in Iraq seems likely, even if IS is expelled.
"But there will still be much more to do after that to make sure that, once defeated, ISIL stays defeated," he said earlier this month at the Reagan National Defense Forum. "We'll need to continue to counter foreign fighters trying to escape and ISIL's attempts to relocate or reinvent itself. To do so, not only the United States but our coalition must endure and remain engaged militarily."
Since taking office in January 2009, President Obama has overseen a vast expansion of Bush's "global war on terrorism," including targeted-killing campaigns with the use of armed, unmanned drones. In a presidential memorandum released on December 5, the White House said the US military operations around the world are grounded in the October 7, 2001, Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), by which Congress approved military operations and counterterrorism combat operations against Al-Qaeda and vaguely-defined "associated forces" following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Since August 2014, those "associated forces" have expanded to include operations against Islamic State and, more recently, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, among other groups.
But the Alyssa Milanos and Debra Messings crazies have nothing to say about Iraq.
The US-led war created the chaos and unrest in Iraq.
But the Empty Whore Democrats rush to focus on Aleppo (in Syria) and ignore Mosul.
While also ignoring facts about Aleppo -- including that the group they're rooting for includes al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
They missed that somehow, poor, little psychos.
They miss a lot.
They miss so much.
But they care, you understand, they care.
About being seen as caring.
Stacy Herbert Across the internet, idiots like Alyssa Milano and Debra Messing were up in arms about Aleppo while ignoring Mosul.
Mosul's in Iraq.
Iraq's the country the US declared war on in 2003.
That's the war candidate Barack Obama swore in 2008 that, if elected president, he would end.
It hasn't.
RT noted:
US secretary of defense Ash Carter said this month that it is "certainly possible" that the "tough fight" to retake Mosul will occur before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Yet, a week prior, Rupert Jones, Britain’s most senior commander in Iraq and deputy commander of the US-led coalition in the region, called for "patience," saying that there is no deadline for establishing control of Mosul as civilian and military casualties continue to mount.
“They [the US-led coalition] probably realize that the thing in Mosul is not going to be very successful,” retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski told RT last month.
With a change in presidential administrations on the horizon, Carter has suggested an enduring US presence in Iraq seems likely, even if IS is expelled.
"But there will still be much more to do after that to make sure that, once defeated, ISIL stays defeated," he said earlier this month at the Reagan National Defense Forum. "We'll need to continue to counter foreign fighters trying to escape and ISIL's attempts to relocate or reinvent itself. To do so, not only the United States but our coalition must endure and remain engaged militarily."
Since taking office in January 2009, President Obama has overseen a vast expansion of Bush's "global war on terrorism," including targeted-killing campaigns with the use of armed, unmanned drones. In a presidential memorandum released on December 5, the White House said the US military operations around the world are grounded in the October 7, 2001, Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), by which Congress approved military operations and counterterrorism combat operations against Al-Qaeda and vaguely-defined "associated forces" following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Since August 2014, those "associated forces" have expanded to include operations against Islamic State and, more recently, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, among other groups.
But the Alyssa Milanos and Debra Messings crazies have nothing to say about Iraq.
The US-led war created the chaos and unrest in Iraq.
But the Empty Whore Democrats rush to focus on Aleppo (in Syria) and ignore Mosul.
While also ignoring facts about Aleppo -- including that the group they're rooting for includes al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
They missed that somehow, poor, little psychos.
They miss a lot.
The War Nerd
Another day, and the insane lies from Aleppo push up another notch. Charles Lister, Michael Weiss... http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/aleppo-civilians-killed-complete-meltdown-humanity-u-n-n695286 …
They miss so much.
Moxie Seo
Iraq: UN says Mosul death toll ‘staggering’ middleeastmonitor.com/20161202-iraq-… via @MiddleEastMnt
But they care, you understand, they care.
About being seen as caring.
TV: HULU, 8 or so years on
It's not been an easy haul for HULU.
The streaming service kicked off at the end of the '00s and featured films like DR. GOLDFOOT IN THE BIKINI MACHINE and CAPRICE and TV shows from FOX, NBC and ABC.
It quickly rushed to offer a fee based service in addition to free content.
The thing was, it's fee based content?
The exact same of what it had before.
And it knew it had a problem.
Every summer, the number of people using the service crashed as HULU was left without content with the networks offering nothing new. It would live for the moment when USA's summer shows started airing and it finally had some new content.
So it new the need for new content.
But it failed repeatedly at producing it.
THE MORNING AFTER was the closest the show came to a hit for years and this was just a five minute daily gossip show. It ran from 2011 to 2014.
HULU's other failures included MOTHER UP!, QUICK DRAW, THE AWESOME, THE WRONG MANS, RESIDENT ADVISORS, THE DOOZERS and especially DEADBEAT -- one of the worst
so-called comedies ever inflicted on audiences -- and that call is made by two people who watched NBC's THE PAUL REISER SHOW.
Finally, via purchasing, HULU ended up with FOX's THE MINDY PROJECT and possibly finally remembering women streamed as well they also added DIFFICULT PEOPLE (their first funny show created for the channel) which was followed by their first dramatic hit 11.22.63.
For months, those three were all they had but compared to, say, AMAZON they were a huge success.
They just got even more successful.
SHUT EYE is a caper show. It's about a married couple working a con -- played by Jeffrey Donovan and KaDee Strickland -- as psychics for a Roma gypsy mob.
Over ten episodes, the couple plot and plan to get out from under the mob -- while Donovan's Charlie actually manages to develop psychic powers.
If that's all the show offered, it would still be a success on pure entertainment terms.
But what really made the December offering a success was Isabella Rossellini's performance as Rita. SPOILERS follow.
Rita's the mother of mobster Fonzo (Angus Sampson).
And from the start, she was shudder inducing. Charlie's sister is caught in a lie and, to punish her, Rita has mobsters hold her down while Rita carves letters into the woman's face.
She's not at all troubled by what she's doing or by the screaming taking place as she does it.
Throughout later episodes, she goads and admonishes her son.
This includes when, to end a beef, she forces Fonzo to marry off one of his under-age daughters.
Fonzo is torn up over committing his daughter to another family and destroying her life. He tells his mother, at one point, that he wishes he'd had a son. Rita eyes him up and down before replying that so does she.
It all ends with Rita set up for murder by her own son and carted off to prison.
The role of Rita is scary and juicy, the kind of role that too often doesn't exist for a woman of any age, let alone one over forty.
Isabella runs with the role and, in the process, HULU can boast of something truly memorable as 2016 winds down. With any luck, they'll build on that in 2017.
The streaming service kicked off at the end of the '00s and featured films like DR. GOLDFOOT IN THE BIKINI MACHINE and CAPRICE and TV shows from FOX, NBC and ABC.
It quickly rushed to offer a fee based service in addition to free content.
The thing was, it's fee based content?
The exact same of what it had before.
And it knew it had a problem.
Every summer, the number of people using the service crashed as HULU was left without content with the networks offering nothing new. It would live for the moment when USA's summer shows started airing and it finally had some new content.
So it new the need for new content.
But it failed repeatedly at producing it.
THE MORNING AFTER was the closest the show came to a hit for years and this was just a five minute daily gossip show. It ran from 2011 to 2014.
HULU's other failures included MOTHER UP!, QUICK DRAW, THE AWESOME, THE WRONG MANS, RESIDENT ADVISORS, THE DOOZERS and especially DEADBEAT -- one of the worst
so-called comedies ever inflicted on audiences -- and that call is made by two people who watched NBC's THE PAUL REISER SHOW.
Finally, via purchasing, HULU ended up with FOX's THE MINDY PROJECT and possibly finally remembering women streamed as well they also added DIFFICULT PEOPLE (their first funny show created for the channel) which was followed by their first dramatic hit 11.22.63.
For months, those three were all they had but compared to, say, AMAZON they were a huge success.
They just got even more successful.
SHUT EYE is a caper show. It's about a married couple working a con -- played by Jeffrey Donovan and KaDee Strickland -- as psychics for a Roma gypsy mob.
Over ten episodes, the couple plot and plan to get out from under the mob -- while Donovan's Charlie actually manages to develop psychic powers.
If that's all the show offered, it would still be a success on pure entertainment terms.
But what really made the December offering a success was Isabella Rossellini's performance as Rita. SPOILERS follow.
Rita's the mother of mobster Fonzo (Angus Sampson).
And from the start, she was shudder inducing. Charlie's sister is caught in a lie and, to punish her, Rita has mobsters hold her down while Rita carves letters into the woman's face.
She's not at all troubled by what she's doing or by the screaming taking place as she does it.
Throughout later episodes, she goads and admonishes her son.
This includes when, to end a beef, she forces Fonzo to marry off one of his under-age daughters.
Fonzo is torn up over committing his daughter to another family and destroying her life. He tells his mother, at one point, that he wishes he'd had a son. Rita eyes him up and down before replying that so does she.
It all ends with Rita set up for murder by her own son and carted off to prison.
The role of Rita is scary and juicy, the kind of role that too often doesn't exist for a woman of any age, let alone one over forty.
Isabella runs with the role and, in the process, HULU can boast of something truly memorable as 2016 winds down. With any luck, they'll build on that in 2017.
The scandal that could rock Barack's presidency
As Barack Obama prepares to wrap up his second (and final) term as President of the United States, the administration is rocked by a scandal.
Wags say Barack entered into a torrid affair in the last weeks of the election, one that blinded him to interference from outsiders such as the North Pole where Santa's naughty list -- leaked to WikiLeaks -- is said to have cost War Hawk Hillary Clinton the election.
It is said that Barack did not protect the sanctity of the election in part due to his extramarital affair.
After ending the affair at the insistence of First Lady Michelle Obama, Barack thought the matter was behind him.
But the ex-lover refuses to go away and has taken to stalking Barack as the photo below demonstrates.
Valerie Jarrett is said to have told friends that Michelle first learned of the affair when Barack showed up one night with frost burn on his privates.
It's said that Barack's male lover, being referred to as Frosty The Snowman, practice "snowballing" with the president.
Frosty, an aged celebrity, is said to be both hurt and hoping to parlay this into greater fame and his own reality TV show.
Asked about the affair, White House spokesperson Josh Ernest insisted that there was absolutely no truth to the rumors -- thereby indicating that every word was true.
Wags say Barack entered into a torrid affair in the last weeks of the election, one that blinded him to interference from outsiders such as the North Pole where Santa's naughty list -- leaked to WikiLeaks -- is said to have cost War Hawk Hillary Clinton the election.
It is said that Barack did not protect the sanctity of the election in part due to his extramarital affair.
After ending the affair at the insistence of First Lady Michelle Obama, Barack thought the matter was behind him.
But the ex-lover refuses to go away and has taken to stalking Barack as the photo below demonstrates.
Valerie Jarrett is said to have told friends that Michelle first learned of the affair when Barack showed up one night with frost burn on his privates.
It's said that Barack's male lover, being referred to as Frosty The Snowman, practice "snowballing" with the president.
Frosty, an aged celebrity, is said to be both hurt and hoping to parlay this into greater fame and his own reality TV show.
Asked about the affair, White House spokesperson Josh Ernest insisted that there was absolutely no truth to the rumors -- thereby indicating that every word was true.
Fear's all corporate war hawks in the Democratic Party have to offer
Civil War.
That's what a friend feared.
Saturday.
We were catching up for the first time in weeks.
And she explains she's doing okay but she's afraid. Of the coming Civil War.
Like us, she's a lefty.
Let's flesh out her politics.
She's also scientifically based/obsessed.
And harbors a real crush on Glenn Greenwald.
How, we wondered, could she have been pulled over to the Debra Messing crazy.
MoveOn.
It was MoveOn that had convinced her Civil War was coming to the US.
Specifically, it was coming Monday, December 19th if the Electoral College didn't overturn Donald Trump's victory and award the presidency to Hillary Clinton.
She hadn't bought into the Debra Messing crazy -- meaning she didn't believe Hillary should be president ("We'd be bombing Syria right now," she offered) but MoveOn had alarmed her.
And that really is the point of this crazy, isn't it?
To scare up support and, when you can't force people to support Hillary, just scare them with the threat of violence.
That's what a friend feared.
Saturday.
We were catching up for the first time in weeks.
And she explains she's doing okay but she's afraid. Of the coming Civil War.
Like us, she's a lefty.
Let's flesh out her politics.
She's also scientifically based/obsessed.
And harbors a real crush on Glenn Greenwald.
How, we wondered, could she have been pulled over to the Debra Messing crazy.
MoveOn.
It was MoveOn that had convinced her Civil War was coming to the US.
Specifically, it was coming Monday, December 19th if the Electoral College didn't overturn Donald Trump's victory and award the presidency to Hillary Clinton.
She hadn't bought into the Debra Messing crazy -- meaning she didn't believe Hillary should be president ("We'd be bombing Syria right now," she offered) but MoveOn had alarmed her.
And that really is the point of this crazy, isn't it?
To scare up support and, when you can't force people to support Hillary, just scare them with the threat of violence.
What's ignored week after week
This.
CLAUDIA And this.
Sillywabbitsz
Mosul doctors struggle to save civilians on Iraq front line
And this.
#IRAQ شمرية العراق
#BreakingNews Iraqi Sunni civilians killed by Iraq army airstrike on #Mosul
#Warcrimes
#MosulOffensive
#MosulAid
#MosulOp
And this.
Edoardo Camilli
15 civilians killed in Mosul
And this.
Iraq: UN says Mosul death toll ‘staggering’ middleeastmonitor.com/20161202-iraq-… via @MiddleEastMnt