Wednesday, March 02, 2022

Stone Zone

Don't see how he wriggles out of this one!
An Oath Keeper accused of providing protection to Roger Stone before storming the U.S. Capitol in a stolen golf cart appears to have cut a plea deal with the feds, raising the prospect of a potent witness turning on key players in the violent insurrection.

Joshua James, 34, was originally charged last April after allegedly communicating and congregating with several other members of the far-right group before and during the Capitol riot. But he is no run-of-the-mill defendant in the “Stop the Steal” plot to undermine democracy: Last month, the Alabama resident was among 11 individuals to be hit with seditious conspiracy charges, alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.

by Atrios at 14:30


Looking Under Rocks

I bet there is a lot of backchannel communication between the US and the UK right now about just which "bad rich Russians" it is ok to target! You never know what you might find underneath one!
by Atrios at 13:30

Lunch Thread

Feed.
by Atrios at 12:30

The Special People

There's a persistent dynamic in social groups (including professional environments) such that certain people are always deferred to, their whims indulged, their status unquestioned. The people who are treated as Authorities and The Adults In The Room even as they're running around with feces smeared all over themselves and they're lighting fires in their offices (metaphorically speaking). Also harassing all the other coworkers and a general HR nightmare.

Also, too, politics (and political journalism). 

by Atrios at 11:30

That Fucking Newspaper

Shot:
Let me ask about another subject that I suspect you might say has been distorted nationally: the Tenderloin, which the mayor declared an emergency zone. But whether anything actually new is happening there is almost beside the point. The point is that an open-air drug market is a bad thing for a city. What can you be doing to improve the situation?

The Tenderloin has been an ongoing public-health crisis and state of emergency for at least a decade. This is not a new problem. In fact, one of your colleagues [bretbug] at The New York Times wrote an Op-Ed in which he was highly critical of me. He linked to a video of the Tenderloin and the Civic Center BART station that adjoins it as an example of progressive prosecutors failing. But the video was from 2018. I hadn’t even run for office yet. I’m not saying that to be catty about your colleagues or the fact-checking at The New York Times. I’m making a broader point, which is that the right-wing media — I’m not saying this about The New York Times — has for years loved to point to the Tenderloin as an example of the failures of progressive policies. The reality is that every city in the United States has at least one neighborhood where, historically, through red-lining or policing or zoning, poverty has been consolidated. If you go to New York City, you can’t pretend that the South Bronx doesn’t exist, that deep east Brooklyn doesn’t exist. Those are parts of New York City, just like the Tenderloin is part of San Francisco.

Chaser:

by Atrios at 10:30

SOTU Review

I didn't have time to watch, so no review from me! I did read the released trasncript. It wasn't exactly directed at "me"! I don't think everything should be, but it is what it is.
by Atrios at 09:00

Morning Thread

Wake in the sound of the rising sun.
by Atrios at 06:00

Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Late Night

Rock on.
by Atrios at 23:00

SOTU II

The SOTU-ing.
by Atrios at 22:00

What Time Is The SOTU On

Have at it.
by Atrios at 21:00

America's Worst Democrats

Josh Gottheimer.
by Atrios at 18:45

Happy Hour Thread

Get jiggy wit it.
by Atrios at 17:00

America's Worst Humans

Greg Abbott.
The investigations by the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services, which have not been previously reported, were launched in response to an order from Mr. Abbott to the agency, the lawsuit says. The order followed a nonbinding opinion by the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, that parents who provide their transgender teenagers with puberty-suppressing drugs or other medically accepted treatments — which doctors describe as gender-affirming care — could be investigated for child abuse.

Among the first to be investigated was an employee of the state protective services agency who has a 16-year-old transgender child. On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and Lambda Legal went to state court in Austin to try to stop the inquiry.

by Atrios at 16:00

Afternoon Thread

I got nothin'.
by Atrios at 15:00

What's It For Then

The push for Maximum Belligerence, as always, obscures what that might realistically achieve and whether or not those likely outcomes are good.
The thing is, as satisfying as it might feel in the moment, “imposing costs” cannot be an end in itself. Sanctions should be a means to achieving a larger end. Maybe the goal is to nudge Putin’s elite coalition — you know, the guys sitting at the other end of the long table — into forcing him out. Maybe it is to delegitimize Putin in the eyes of a country that remembers the pre-Putin 1990s as a time of humiliation.

If the goal is to compel, then the sanctioners need to be explicit about what Russia can do to get the sanctions lifted. I saw nothing in the joint statement that suggested any demands that could cause these sanctions to be lifted. That lack of clarity undermines coercive bargaining, because the targeted actor believes that sanctions will stay in place no matter what they do.

I'm not sure what this is for! (sorry - that tweet was deleted, explanation): I would think (again, I am dumb) a reasonable part of all of this should be, "We want the best for the Russian people, but Putin is bad," and this does not do that!
by Atrios at 13:30

Lunch Thread

Get lunchin'.
by Atrios at 12:30

Warblogging

Breaking my little rule here, but "a very long slow moving convoy" seemed like... not such a good plan to me. And, somewhat related, Boris is more sensible than the most of the amped up weirdos in Parliament and the UK press.
by Atrios at 11:22

Work Ethic

My observation is imperfect and incomplete, but I really do think that even at the deepest moments of the Bush/post-9/11 era, when congressional Democrats were hardly a vocal crusading force, generally, they had a stronger and louder presence than they do now.

I have various theories (things I made up) about why that is, but the propaganda doesn't catapult itself.

Anyway, read this piece in full from Perry Bacon, though I'd wrap it all up with: I'd like the most powerful people in the world to take some fucking responsbility for a change.

by Atrios at 10:30

Off-Ramp

I am dumb and have no idea how to solve this problem, but I do know that Maximum Belligerence pushes to take such things off the table, insisting that anything other than Putin's humiliating death in a bunker is unacceptable.

For now there's a bit more, um, special courage powder floating around Parliament than Congress. Really we're lucky that the Biden team seem to have GOT THIS, most Democrats are behaving (but not all!), and the Republicans are still not completely sure if Putin is good or bad. UK Labour politicians are trying to start WWIII, so it's good they aren't in charge.

Humiliating bunker death might be deserved, but its inevitability does not necessarily provide a particularly helpful incentive structure!

by Atrios at 09:00

Morning

Tuesday Bluesday.
by Atrios at 06:00

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