Jolly Old Pals

Saudi Arabia is quite likely the worst state in the world, perhaps second only to North Korea. You don't have to look for anecdotes - potential aberrations from the norm - to know this. The legal status of women in that society is enough, though not even the only issue. But we're all jolly old pals. Occasionally I read "great game" explanations for this which never actually make sense to me, probably because I'm not Very Serious enough. But as long as the anglosphere is their pals and extremely happy to sell them weapons I'm unlikely to listen to anyone talking about our noble humanitarian interventions.

Boris Johnson pressed Liam Fox to continue exports of weapons to Saudi Arabia after the bombing of a funeral in Yemen last October that killed over 140 people and was condemned by UN monitors.

Correspondence between the ministers shows that a month after the strike, Johnson, the foreign secretary, wrote: “I am aware you have deferred a decision on four export licence applications to supply the Royal Saudi Air Force with equipment which could be used in the conflict in Yemen.”

In the letter dated 8 November, Johnson advised the trade secretary it was right to proceed with the arms sales. “The issue is extremely finely balanced, but I judge at present the Saudis appear committed both to improving processes and to taking action to address failures/individual incidents,” he said.

Not that our own hands are clean on this, of course, but at least when we're doing the bombing we sort of own it. Letting others pay us (or the UK) for the privilege is even grosser.

Marmalade

Chris Matthews has spent decades doing nothing but covering politics, or at least that slice of it that he finds interesting. And it's still all about having Strong Daddy in charge.

There Is No 'We'

Sure sometimes activists (you know, people) get excited about a campaign and pour money into a probably unwinnable campaign. And, hey, sometimes the people "in charge" do much the same thing. The former at least has the advantage of getting people involved and excited about something, while they latter often involves throwing money at someone based on the the fact that they're proved their worth by being rich enough to throw money at themselves.

That isn't to say I think primarying Manchin is an especially good idea, but if the right candidate appears, why not? The DSCC and DCCC throw big money at losing campaigns every cycle, though not primaries. Winning is obviously the most important goal, but it isn't the only purpose for a campaign. And there is no lump of campaign resources (money) to be allocated. If people get excited about something they contribute, and it's not as if that money would go elsewhere.

Anyway, I guess I always see too much fretting about these things. If a candidate can get attention and raise money and get people involved, that's good, and not a waste of fixed resources.

61

Stars - Dead Hearts

The Blogger's Secret

Easy D

Trump loses stay of Muslim ban appeal, 3-0.

Happy Hour Thread

get happy

Love Him

The funny thing is that it's easy for any Republican president to be pretty popular. I think the asymmetry is fading, but it's still the case the D-leaning people are willing to give Republicans the benefit of the doubt. The totebagger force is still strong. And, yes, they have to make their base happy, but that's also pretty easy. Their base loves to piss off liberals, but spend any time in the fever swamps and you realize they don't usually have any idea about what actually pisses off liberals. Grunt in the direction of those things, be a "kindler gentler conservative" on a couple of things which liberals like and which conservatives like until they realize liberals like them, and otherwise be conservative but not a complete asshole. Even George Bush almost pulled that off until the (lack of) competence thing caught up with them. I mean, I knew all the ways that administration was horrible, but your typical totebagger didn't.

You Can't Do It, My Friends

Immigration issue aside, I do get enraged at the regular newspaper articles about "worker shortages," especially for highly skilled jobs (and don't kid yourself into thinking a good produce picker isn't a high skilled job, even if it doesn't require a lot of highfalutin booklearnin') in the middle of nowhere. Want to attract good workers? Pay them. It's in all of those Econ 101 textbooks that otherwise rule our existence.

The Pinnacle of 1960s Futurist Architecture

I'm not really interested in the design of this building as a metaphor for Apple design generally, or vice versa, but it's an office park almost entirely shut off from its surroundings. Every other consideration is just confetti.

We Do Love Our Children

If you're kid growing up even with modest means, almost everything is "free" in that everything you need is provided for by other people. Still many people think being born in the lucky sperm club makes you a better human being, and those who weren't need to learn just how horrible and inferior they are because their parents are poor.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wants kids to learn early in life that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. To make sure they absorb that lesson, he’s proposing that low-income children do some manual labor in exchange for their subsidized meals.

Rich kids don't need to learn this life lesson, because they earn their lunches through manipulation of reality due to their superior genes.

Trying To Get My Ambassadorship

Buy this piece of Ivanka Trump clothing! It is the best!!!

Let It Snow

So President pig fucker was pissed that Gorsuch said mean things about his tweets. Somebody apparently convinced pig fucker that Gorsuch DID NOT SAY THOSE THINGS SO STOP SAYING THAT SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP even though it's been confirmed that he said them. I guess if Trump's lickspittles can keep convincing him of that the Gorsuch nomination remains, otherwise Trump will withdraw his name and Judge Wapner (still alive!) will be called in.

Though it suggests that Trump will always see his nominee as a made man. His judge. There to do the boss's bidding.

62

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down - Bag of Hammers

Happy Hour Thread

Only a few more hours of Wednesday crazy shit before we get to Thursday crazy shit. The crazy shit producers really need to think more about our crazy shit-life balance.

Obama Hotels

The idea that being president is going to improve your brand - or that of your family - is pretty ridiculous, no matter who you happen to be. About 20% of the population is guaranteed to actively hate you. Another 20% will probably strongly dislike you. That's 40% of potential customers gone, and any stores which sell your stuff are going to have to figure out how to deal with associating with your brand. Even the next 20% of people who might actually like you probably don't like you enough to overcome the idea that buying presidential-branded trinkets is somehow a bit off. And that's even before we get to various ways your products - especially hotels! - can be legally demonstrated against.

My point is that even for a relatively beloved president, by the standards of these things, it's probably not such a cunning plan.

Afternoon Thread

Get your afternoon on.

Racists

I'm not going to justify the profiling of Muslims in any way, though at least given the madness of the age (terror! terror! terror!) I'll allow that people can convince themselves that this is a security issue (again, not justifying, just that fear of terrorist acts committed by Muslims is the framework for so much of what we so it's predictable that people respond in this way). But the treatment of Latinos just shows this is purely about bigotry against brown people, and we have a security state that empowers this bigotry.

What To Do

To me the obvious problem with a potential (and now, you know, actual) Trump presidency was his obvious obliviousness about and unconcern with the basic unwritten norms of our presidency which are, sadly, a necessary important check on power abuses in our rather flawed constitutional system. It doesn't really have the power to hold back an out of control executive.

I didn't expect him to actually follow through on any of the "good" stuff he said in the campaign, but the specifics of policy aside, he might just bring down our entire system of government.

Happy Wednesday!

How Will Those Self-Drivng Cars Work

They won't, but to work better they need a lot of public investment.

Pittsburgh has put up with Uber for a long time. The city stayed quiet as Uber gutted Carnegie Mellon for robotics talent in early 2015, and welcomed the Advanced Technologies Center it later set up. Pittsburgh wrote a letter in support of Uber when the company was fined $11.4 million for operating in Pennsylvania without permission. And in September, Pittsburgh opened its streets to tests of self-driving cars with real people, and played along with Uber’s hasty and elaborate press event.

From Uber, Pittsburgh wanted help winning the 2016 Smart City Challenge, a US Department of Transportation competition with a $50 million prize. In May 2016, Peduto asked Uber to spend $25 million on a new transit connection from Carnegie Mellon to the neighborhood where it would be testing autonomous vehicles. Uber not only refused, but came back with a laundry list of things that Pittsburgh could do to better accommodate Uber, among them access to bus lanes, designated pick-up and drop-off spots for self-driving cars, and “prioritization of snow removal” on self-driving car routes. “I would be voted out of office,” Peduto retorted at the time. “You aren’t offering anything back to the public.”

Next time just ask me.