Morning Thread

I will be greatly relieved if this has been the shortest war evah!

27

Got a bit out of order accidentally. That last one was 26 not 28, but I skipped 29. God this is a sucky blog.

The Submarines - Swimming Pool

How's The War Going?

Just one night of excitement? Such a letdown, man.

Must Be Happy Hour Some Place

Lunch Thread

Get your lunch on.

[Insert Obligatory Paragraph About How Assad Is A Bad Guy]

My new policy is, you know, not doing that. There are lots of bad guys in the world, some of whom we are jolly old pals with. There is no logical path from "X is a bad guy -> therefore war is good" so this kind of disclaimer is really just gibberish. There is a logical path from "Blowing innocent people up is bad -> war is probably bad" so I'd kind of like a few more warmongers to include "blowing up innocent people is bad" and "destroying economies and resulting famines are probably bad for the children we claim to love" statements.

Yes, fine, Saddam was a bad guy. Heckuva job, everybody.

The Bi-Partisan Foreign Policy Establishment

Nobody actually thinks that what Trump did accomplished anything. Almost nobody is really willing to say what should happen next in Syria, not with any kind of semi-realistic plan behind it (Tom Friedman says "partition" without actually saying what that entails, for example). But Trump made a boom boom in his pants and everyone is so fucking excited!!

“Our administration never would have gotten this done in 48 hours,” one former senior official of the Obama administration told me. “It’s a complete indictment of Obama.”

“I feel like finally we have done the right thing,” Anne-Marie Slaughter, who served as Obama’s first-term chief of policy planning at the State Department and long publicly urged a more forceful response to Assad’s horrific attacks on civilians during the six years of war that have wracked Syria, told me. “The years of hypocrisy just hurt us all. It undermined the U.S., it undermined the world order.”

Slaughter, now the head of the New America Foundation and a major backer of Trump’s defeated opponent Hillary Clinton last November, tweeted, “Donald Trump has done the right thing on Syria. Finally!! After years of useless handwringing in the face of atrocities.” I later asked her if it was awkward to be cheering for Trump now. “I’m just glad to see it,” she said. “It was the right thing.”

Holbo:

Literally no one thinks Trump has any plan for improving the situation in Syria. That would be crazy. Why would you be heartened to see someone blowing things up without any plan? Why would the sight of huge gouts of American hellfire ever seem like a heuristic indicator of increased human welfare?

"We"

The worst instinct of the press is to think they are stand-ins for the Merkin Public. It isn't their job and a bunch of mostly white male millionaires on TV aren't exactly representative.

Why do so many in the news media love a show of force?

“There is no faster way to bring public support than to pursue military action,” said Ken Paulson, head of the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center.

“It’s a pattern not only in American history, but in world history. We rally around the commander-in-chief — and that’s understandable.”

Morning Thread

29 26

The New Pornographers - Slow Descent Into Alcoholism

I Hate Suits Too

Most business wear (for men and women) is stupid but really it's a small price to pay for running the world (or as close to it as you get).

Others, like this Friday Washington Post story, claimed that Bannon was the one considering a departure, preferring the free-wheeling, knives-out strategy of campaigning to his new buttoned-up reality in the White House.

As the Post reported, “One friend said he hates attending meetings, bemoans the need to frequently wear suits, and finds the government bureaucracy stifling.”

Happy Hour Thread

So much to be happy about! Have a video.

America's Worst Humans

Brian Williams.

Monorail

Governments are lining up to be the marks in the next great grift - the hyperloop!

The only good thing about the "self-driving car" thing is that we don't hear about fucking PRT systems anymore.

If Only There Was Some Way to Solve This Problem

This is a real humdinger.

RALEIGH, N.C.—In the past three years, Wake County has cut one in five bus routes, bumped children off the bus who live within a mile of their school, required others to walk farther to the bus stop, and now is considering starting some schools earlier in the morning.

Why? A shortage of school bus drivers.

Hmm..it's a puzzle... a conundrum... a riddle inside a mystery...

“I don’t want to be Chicken Little, but we’re in crisis mode,” said Bob Snidemiller, the district’s senior director for transportation. Mr. Snidemiller is recommending the board vote this week to alter bell schedules at a half-dozen schools. The district is offering $750 retention bonuses to its drivers this year. Next year they’d like to raise pay from the starting rate of $12.55 an hour.

Not yet coming to me...where this shortage came from... I mean, who wouldn't want to volunteer to drive 40 screaming kids around in a death machine...

Hey! Maybe they actually get it.

“We have to get more competitive to succeed,” he said. “Our concern is that as the economy continues to grow, our competition is much greater.”

Anyway, $12.55 for a certified driver is absolutely shit pay. These are people responsible from getting your kids to school and home and preventing them from being killed in the process, daily.

Friday Crass Commercialism

Chris Hayes wrote a book. I have not read it.

The Oracle Pareene

From March 1.

Here’s another thing you should understand about these guys: The only thing the elite Washington press corps likes more than a bipartisan commission on debt reduction is a stack of flag-draped coffins.

War Is Always Good

There are certain disturbances in the force that can be sensed by those of us attuned to it (yes, my superpower is hypersensitivity to cable news). I remember years and years ago there was a celebrity murder case by some D-list celebrity that barely anybody even remembered and CNN was desperately ramping up to go into OJ mode. Certain flood the zone stories just get them so excited. Gulf War I, OJ, Monica Madness, Gary Condit, 9/11, the Iraq War, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, the Trump campaign. You can see their blood pressure spiking, the adolescent hormones oozing from their pores. None of these things ever ends well, of course, but god it's so much fun.

How You Become A Real Boy In America

.@FareedZakaria on Syria strikes: "I think Donald Trump became President of the United States" last night https://t.co/dLipRu6SZu

— New Day (@NewDay) April 7, 2017

Universality

It took a long time - not until the late Cameron era - but the UK finally caught up with us and now the idea that maybe there are things the government is supposed to do for everyone is now commie talk. It's hard to describe very well, but in other countries the idea of the state as a presence in life which is Good (and also Bad, but Good too) or at least Necessary is pretty standard, while here we barely accept that the government builds highways. It's been weird watching that be completely eroded in the UK - it survived Thatcher! - so that what would have been pretty normal proposals for things the government might do are now full commnism. It goes beyond whether something is a good or bad idea, the suggestion itself is suspect.

Looking at it from one perspective, this makes universality a terrible waste. You’re raising all of that revenue from taxes and then giving some of it back to people who are quite capable of funding whatever it is themselves privately. What if the NHS required everyone earning above a certain figure to pay hotel rates for overnight hospital stays, and asked poorer people to fill in a form to be allowed to stay for free? With the healthcare budget as stretched as it is, the money could be put to all kinds of good use. And shouldn’t higher earners have to contribute a fee if they decide to put their children in state education? Think of the books and equipment it could pay for.

Of course, the relatively affluent already do contribute more towards the cost of public services in the form of taxes (though the very wealthiest have concocted all kinds of schemes to avoid paying what they should). Means testing isn’t necessary to ensure that those who can afford it are asked to pay more. What it represents, in reality, is a rejection of the idea of collectivity. Universal provisions are seen as public goods which benefit the whole of society. Means testing assumes that, ideally speaking, the person making direct use of a service should foot the bill – but help should be provided to those who can’t manage.

The erosion of universality has turned Nice Things into welfare. This is a key issue here, also. The way to "means test" programs is to increase taxes on the rich. That is how they pay more. Adding in bureaucratic hurdles and income and asset tests (and drug testing and criminal penalties for "lying" on your application form!) just humiliate the needy while not actually reducing costs much, if at all. I lose my shit when Very Serious People talk about "means testing" Social Security, by which they mean clawing back benefits for higher income people. You "save" no money doing that unless you start clawing back benefits for people who don't make that much money at all. Everything is already (or should be) means tested on the tax return. You don't need a separate eligibility bureaucracy for every little thing. Provide education, health care, school lunches, retirement, etc. Don't means test public high schools, and don't means test the rest of the Nice Things government should provide as a part of a healthy civil society.