Things Fall Apart

Time was when we thought it would be enough to keep a list.

Keep track of every policy he enacted, every policy he reversed, and come 12:01 pm January 20, 2021, switch them all back.

We actually thought that. We knew it wouldn’t undo all the damage he’s done, but at least it would help contain it.

It’s not gonna work that way.

We haven’t been keeping such a list, but we’ve been seeing the futility of it. Lives ruined by keeping children in cages. Institutional knowledge decimated by resignations and relocation. Trading patterns undermined by capricious tariffs. Things you can’t reverse by decree. Things you can’t just reset to January 19, 2017.

We are witnessing the catastrophic failure of our government. There’s no going back.

What brought that line of thought to a head this week was the Turkish invasion of Syria, and the betrayal of the Kurds.

The Kurds fought with us in Iraq. They were there for us. Until last Sunday night, when Trump tweeted his permission for the invasion of their homeland, we were there for them.

Not completely there. We’ve been kind of dicks about it. Promises made, not entirely kept. That immigration thing, y’know.

But last Sunday night we completely abandoned them to their fate. Everybody knew what would happen. It’s been playing out all week. Those ISIS fighters everyone said would escape? Yeah, they escaped.

You remember ISIS, right? Formed in 1999, but we didn’t start hearing about them until after the Iraq War, when members of the defeated Republican Guard joined them. You remember the Iraq War? A competent government lied to us and launched that one. A list wouldn’t have helped there, either.

Boy, wasn’t that a mess to clean up!

But this government, this mess, is of a different kind, one that won’t be solved by massive bailouts, and refusal to investigate and prosecute war criminals. This mess is more like climate change, altering how the world actually works, affecting the patterns of relationships. Our betrayal as a nation, the sheer capriciousness of it, means we are not to be trusted. Period. When America comes asking for favors, check your pockets when they leave the room.

It’s not just the Kurds. Europe — another ally — caught wind of the situation early. The joke that Angela Merkel is the leader of the free world has been making the rounds for some time now.

This won’t change come next Inauguration, presuming the Electoral College doesn’t thwart the will of the people yet again. President Warren may assure everyone that everything’s cool again, we lost our heads for awhile but we’ve come to our senses, but everyone will know they could easily be dealing with President Haley after that, and President Camacho four years later. There’s just no telling. You can’t even trust their treaties.

It happens that fast. It unravels that quickly. Thirty-two months in, and the devastation is so complete there’s no recovery in sight.

Oh, and the world keeps melting. That, too.

42 Comments

Gawddammit, now Elijah Cummings has up and died, while Henry Kissinger is calmly filling out an application for a thirty-year mortgage. Only the good die young.

On the Democratic primary front, I’m thinking now my dream team is Warren/Castro, with Kamala Harris as the next Attorney General. We need a prosecutor with some solid brass ovaries to ensure that all of the Tr666p whores go to prison.

Elijah Cummings. Damn.

@¡Andrew!: Warren/Buttigieg? (Still can’t spell his name)

I’m trying to remember why I disliked Nancy Pelosi in 2016. Maybe the ads against her sunk in at some level. Disturbing. Or maybe my dislike was legit, but I can’t remember why.

@JNOV: Bootygig is out for me, since he doesn’t support Medicare for All. Also, he should be running for Congress, which would be a much better fit at this point.

Mick Mulvaney Moron at Large just basically made Schiff’s case by admitting everything Roodi Style.

@ManchuCandidate: It’s so exciting when the nation’s leadershit confesses to felonies on live television, and then rubs our faces in it. Expect Mick to take a slide down the Memory Hole in 5… 4… 3… hey, he can high-five Shep Smith on the way!

@JNOV: It comes from being desperate for change, and Nancy (that’s Ms. Pelosi if you’re nasty) is a vanguard of the status quo. She and her hubs have a net worth of +$50 million, so it’s not like we have anything in common other than residing on the same planet.

It was right after the 2006 Blue Wave when we were giddy with hope that CaliguBush was finally gonna be held accountable for the lies, torture, disastrous wars, and corruption that looks downright quaint compared to today’s open kleptocracy, when she unilaterally declared impeachment off the table, thus furthering the nation-ruining crime spree of America’s despicable, depraved, totally amoral, greedy rulers.

Corruption with impunity is the norm now at the highest levels of government and corporate America in large part because Ms. Pelosi and people of her ilk look the other way due to their shared class status.

I was so disgusted by her abdication of responsibility in 2006 that I ceased to consider myself a Democrat at that point.

Lost in the insanity of Mickhead Mulvaney’s felony confessions yesterday was the op-ed in the NYT from Admiral William McRaven, commander in charge of US Special Operations when they hunted down and killed Osama Bin Laden, that declared the US is under attack by Prezirapist Tr666p.

Even after the non-stop crime spree of the last three years, it’s shocking that a decorated US Admiral has acknowledged that the sleazy, illegitimate con artist squatting in the White House is an enemy of the American people.

Details and non-paywall links:

https://www.businessinsider.com/william-mcraven-navy-seal-us-is-under-attack-from-trump-2019-10

/on topic (for once, sorry!)/

I just have to hope that whatever comes after this is gonna be better, you know? That enough honest, decent people are engaged and activated and dedicated to ensuring that this is the last disastrous leadership we’ll have for our lifetimes. I mean, it’s not like the half century has been just peachy, more like a downward spiral, so it’s only up from here, right?

Hard to believe it’ll be the end of this decade in just a few months; whatta way to go.

It is gonna change though, one way or another due to demographics alone. That we’re finally seeing the crumbling of the countless charlatans, frauds, abusers, and apex predators this nation has endured at the top of our society. This is gonna be a very different country ten years from now.

@¡Andrew!:
I agree, but more subdued as it is more the end of the beginning than the beginning of the end because those fuckers won’t go quietly into the night.

@¡Andrew!: Of course it’ll be better, in that it ain’t getting worse. But lordy is there a lotta shit to clean up.

@ManchuCandidate: I hear that Canuckistan is having its own political fun, but that’s mainly via offhand tweets from Jeet Heer.

Like this today, referencing a Maclean’s column from 2017: “Very prescient piece on Canadian politics. The center is breaking up here, as in so many other places.”

@nojo:
Macleans is all about political hot takes. They danced on the corpse of the Liberal party in 2012. I try to avoid reading their opinions pages like I would the NYT.

As for the center, not shocked. But it’s a race between PM Blackface (Sigh) of the center left Libs vs the aw shucks wannabe Austerity Harper (right wing) is going to be close. The NDP (left) has been an after thought.

The Cons were throwing major shitfits about process when the NDP (the left) said they would consider a coalition gubbiment (with the center left Libs).

Me? I already voted. Reason is I’m transitioning to working afternoons from night shift this week and I’ve got a doc appointment in the late morning so voting is rather difficult.

@ManchuCandidate: On CBC yesterday (I can’t recall if it was Andrew Coyne or Chantal Hébert) said that both the Liberals and Conservatives lost the election, as we’re seeing with the late surges for the NDP and the Bloc. Looks like Canuckistan is headed for a minority government either way, so plan for another election in a year or so.

JTru’s decisions to approve two oil pipelines and a LNG plant are just inexplicable. None of the people that support the fossil fuels industries were going to vote Liberal anyway, and it drove environmental voters straight into the welcoming arms of the NDP and the Greens.

Why not invest those billions in green job retraining programs rather than repeatedly punching his own dick?

That and the blackface scandal sank his credibility with the voters the Libs truly need to hang on. File this all under “When Smart People Do Incredibly Stupid Things.”

@¡Andrew!:
I get why he did (jobs), but I still didn’t like it and agree with your assessment.

It could have been worse…. whew.

Minority Liberal (lieberal) gubbiment with NDP backing? Over Howdy Don’tdoody (Trumper) Shear.

Added bonus, the Canadian MSM can suck it. They did their best to elect the Tory motherfucker and it didn’t mean shit.

@ManchuCandidate: Sunny Dihlon on Twitter: “welp, we know he’s got experience performing as a minority”

@ManchuCandidate: THANK THE FSM!!! It’s an early Xmas miracle.

And best of all, we can return to totally ignoring undecided morons in Winnipeg and Regina. Praise be!

@¡Andrew!:
Our version of the Cletus safari.

It was but predicted based on where the votes were. The funny part is that if the Tories were all about proportional representation (they fought it tooth and nail) they would have won a lot more seats in Ontario.

@ManchuCandidate: The biggest surprise to me was that the NDP fizzled, while the Bloc surged. Have the Québécois decided that they’re The Real Victims? Whatever. (rolls eyes)

If a Liberal/NDP coalition is gonna last more than a hawt five minutes, here’s hoping that Jagmeet Singh can tame JTru’s worst impulses, especially wrt appeasing multinational defense and energy companies.

@¡Andrew!:
A friend of mine is an NDP supporter, but he votes Liberal because strategic voting.

Also racism had a lot to do with Jagmeet’s unpopularity. He took a lot of racist shit from everyone.

@ManchuCandidate: You’re right on the money there. I’ve long suspected that Bill 21 was just the same ol’ bullshit racism dressed up as something palatable for white suburban voters.

Election fallout continues… Westerners (sore losers) shrieking about losing election. Making noises about separating.

Justin making noises about appeasement but no one is taking that seriously as many Westerners would rather vote for Kang or Kodos before voting Liberal.

Me? I am personally sick of Western alienation pity party bullshit. Quit bitching that Toronto stopped your victory. Fact is Doug Ford is fucking Toronto. Toronto fucked you guys back.

Besides unlike the rubes in the sticks we are all familiar with the lack of effectiveness of the Cons austerity and propaganda programs.

@ManchuCandidate: But Vancouver was such a nice place when I visited… uh… 45 years ago?

@ManchuCandidate: Does the Canuckistani media *ever* interview anyone other than outraged old white people? I’m not sure if they’re trying to appease their owners or their viewers.

“And now for a hot take on Ontario’s education woes due to Doug Ford’s school budget cuts, here are Earl and Eunice in Reststop, Saskatchewan on how Trudeau Liberals have destroyed Canada.”

@nojo: BC isn’t the problem; they’re far more leftest than the rest of the country. And they’re one of the top places in the world to live (due to all the soshalisms???).

Nope, it’s Alberta and Saskatchewan that’re the turds in the punch bowl. They’re just so fucking angry about the global oil price crash that they’re ah-gonna stick it to those coastal e-leets no matter how many billions the government fecklessly pisses away on oil pipelines and fossil fuel welfare. As if the rest of us haven’t had to adapt after our lives were turned upside down after the Financial Crisis.

When your entire provincial economy is dependent upon the resource extraction of one exceptionally volatile commodity, you’re gonna ride that market rollercoaster all the way up then plummet all the way down, rinse and repeat. It would be comical if it weren’t so brazenly stupid.

@¡Andrew!:
Yup. They think that the Tar Sands will run forever even though it is polluting everywhere.

At least I didn’t get an angry text from my sole remaining con friend. He tried that shit the last time and I unloaded on him. Deep in the austerity Harper era the Harper fucks cut my EI (unemployment benefits) by 12 weeks for no reason and I nearly went bankrupt as I lived off my line of credit and RRSPs (Canada City 401k) for 3 months. Meanwhile they spent billions on worthless job program ads to bribe the MSM. I told him there is no way I would ever vote Tory. He didn’t talk to me for a while.

So… Derp Furrier Trump went to a stadium expecting love for “killing” the ISIS leader and it was full of red hats (wrong red hats), but got his ass booed and heard the chants of “Lock Him UP!”

The look on his face at the realization reminded me a bit of Nicolai Ceucescu’s when he expected love from his minions during another pompous boring speech and got revolution instead.

@ManchuCandidate: They weren’t screaming “Boo-urns…”

Naturally, known Florida Man Matt Gaetz has to stick his fat, Bro-Magnon face in every photo. “Ah’m gettin’ booed too, boss! Me, me, me!!!”

Nancy cuts a bunch of crybabies.

Impreachment Vote

John Yoo? John! Yoo‽

Boalt must be so proud.

@JNOV: I’ve never been able to fathom why the Berkeley activists haven’t made his life a living hell. Must be all that civility towards torturers and war criminals that they’re famous for.

@¡Andrew!: Dude. I was across the bay when he was hired. People who went to Cal as undergrads said that the law school was more conservative. You say?! I was also told by someone at Boalt that people liked his classes. So, yeah. Torture 101. Good times.

I’m waiting to see how the students react to him calling Lt. Col. Vindmin a spy. Cal might not be able to fire him, but Vindmin sure as shit can sue him into the ground if Vindmin can show damages.

Thanksgiving’s right around the corner, and we’re already so fucking sick of Turkey.

Idiots morons who bought the remains of the Gawker empire have killed
Splinter the Gawker wannabe because it was too political
Deadspin because it wouldn’t stick to sports.

The new media bros are fucked.

@ManchuCandidate: Ironically, Gawker Media was a bona fide Internet success story, rising and thriving without venture capital, building its own ad network, and avoiding the traps (like the fraudulent “pivot to video”) that flimsier operations fell prey to.

Oh, but they pissed off a billionaire. You don’t do that in America.

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