Intelligent, insightful discussion of how American foreign policy is not driven by the President but rather by an entrenched bureaucracy serving the military-industrial complex the author calls calls the "deep state".....hidden below the surface but immensely powerful so it really doesn't matter who's in office - he or she has minimal control over foreign policy......
A longish piece, but really interesting......
(Credit: AP/Reuters/Salon)
There are two ways to consider the White House’s announcement last week that, no, American troops will no longer withdraw from Afghanistan as previously planned. You can look back over President Obama’s record in such matters or you can face forward and think about what this decision means, or implies, or suggests —or maybe all three—about the next president’s conduct of foreign policy.
I do not like what I see in either direction. What anyone who looks carefully and consciously can discern in Obama’s seven years in office are limits. These are imposed in part by inherited circumstances, but let us set these aside for now, appalling as they are. My concern is with the limits imposed by the entrenched power of our permanent government, otherwise known as the “deep state.”
Every time you see Texas in a headline you know the crazy bastards down there have done something stupid again, so this story caught my eye.....Norwegians are using Texas as an adverb....
(Credit: Jiri Flogel, Shutterstock)
This article originally appeared on AlterNet.
Texas is many things to many people—a state the size of a medium-sized country; home to several idiot governors, one who became president, and a current one who thinks it’s a good idea for college students to openly carry firearms. To Donald Trump, Texas is the place where a “big, beautiful wall” should be built. To people in Norway, “texas” with a small “t” is a synonym for crazy, bonkers, out of control and wild. As in,that’s totally texas. Or in Norwegian: det var helt texas
Texas Monthly discovered this hilarious (or humbling, depending on your perspective) piece of slang on a Tumblr page. The magazine accumulated several pieces of evidence that this is really a thing in Norway, and gave these examples:
We are noticing more and more people have gluten issues, so this column was very interesting....
LONDON — I was in Venice a few weeks ago and friends reported seeing a restaurant menu with the following important message emblazoned it: “We do NOT serve gluten-free food.”
It was easy to imagine an exasperated Italian proprietor, driven to frenzy by repeated requests from Americans for gluten-free pasta, finally deciding to cut short such exchanges with this blunt pre-emptive blow.
Rough translation: My way or the highway. If you don’t like my pasta the way la Mamma has always made it, try someplace else.
Gluten is the main protein component of wheat, rye and barley. Wheat was first cultivated about 12,000 years ago and it’s safe to say gluten has never had as hard a time as in recent years. The hunter-gatherer turned cultivator would be appalled at what he has wrought. Free associate from the word “gluten” these days and you’ll probably come up with poison.
This column, by the way, is gluten-free. Please feel at liberty to read on.
I am getting more hopeful about Trevor Noah and the Daily Show, as this five minute segment about Paul Ryan has some edge to it.....some good zingers....
The Daily Show tonight took on the chaos and confusion amongst House Republicans over Paul Ryan‘s potential Speaker bid and found some more demands of his.
After getting in a Back to the Future reference, Trevor Noah mocked how this is apparently the job “no Republican wants,” even Paul Ryan.
They went through his list of conditions and correspondent Jessica Williams uncovered some additional ones.
For one, Ryan wants a protein shake fountain, his face on the cover of Men’s Health, a helicopter to Mexico just in case, etc.
Someone sent this to me as an example of what TV News should be like - it's the CBC News on Justin Trudeau and other stories.....no 7/11 holdups or cops around a body - just real news....
This is a shocking new report from Credit Suisse on how the wealth inequality gap is widening.....
According to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook, the wealthy elite's continuing disdain for the poor, the middle class and people all around the world is disturbing. These wealth gap realities are victimizing the great majority of Americans.
Bernie Sanders showed his outrage about inequality at the Democratic Debate, and more and more Americans are understanding his message. Indignation is likely to grow with new data from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook, which reveals the wealthy elite’s continuing disdain for the poor, for the middle class, and for people all around the world.
Some of the most troubling disparities are hidden in the myriad tables of this remarkably comprehensive publication. The purpose here is to translate the numbers into wealth gap realities that victimize the great majority of Americans. Details can be viewed at You Deserve Facts.
1. At the Bottom: Of the Half-Billion Poorest Adults in the World, One out of Ten is an American
That seems impossible, with so many extremely poor countries, and it requires a second look at the data, and then a third look. But it’s true. In the world’s poorest decile (bottom 10%), one out of ten are Americans, many of whom are burdened with so much debt that any remnant of tangible wealth is negated. Other nations have high debt, most notably in Europe, but without an excessive burden on their poorest citizens.
Incredibly, then, nearly 50 million of America’s 243 million adults are part of the world’s poorest 10%. In contrast, over 110 million American adults are among the world’s richest 10%.
The SNL satire of the Democratic debate was great, with Larry David's impression of Bernie Sanders getting kudos.....but watch this one - a "Debate" between Bernie and Donald.....it's incredibly good, and really funny.....
Watch the first minute - he NAILS Bernie.....six minutes.....
(Credit: YouTube/UCB)
While Larry David’s Bernie Sanders impression on “SNL” was obviously preeeettypretty good, our favorite bit of election season mimicry so far comes out of New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, in the form of a mock debate between veteran UCB comics James Adomian as Sanders and Anthony Atamanuik as Donald Trump.
Adomian is a gifted impressionist — he played George W. Bush on Craig Ferguson’s “Late Late Show” and Comedy Bang Bang and Rick Perry on Funny or Die — and we already knew he could absolutely crush a Sanders impression, but this is definitely his magnum opus. Meanwhile, Atamanuik is brilliant as a spray-tanned, trucker-hat wearing Donald Trump who says graphically inappropriate things about his family members’ private parts.
I am delighted to see the JEB! campaign circling the drain, as I hate the sanctimonious bastard......so it was a pleasure to watch Larry Wilmore take him apart for his idiotic remarks about his brother....four pretty good minutes....
Jeb Bush’s circular thinking on his brother 9/11 is no match for Larry Wilmore. On Monday’s “Nightly Show,” Wilmore mocked Jeb’s stammering awkwardness and confusion in answering CNN host Jake Tapper’s questions on how brother Bush kept us safe on 9/11.
While Tapper was nailing Bush to the wall on his hypocrisy for blaming Hillary Clinton for Benghazi but not his brother for 9/11, the former Florida governor was blinking like crazy and shaking his head like a bobblehead.
“Why are you shaking your head the entire time you answer this question?” Wilmore asked. “It’s almost like your head can’t contain the bullshit your mouth is spewing! … I’m not saying Jeb Bush doesn’t believe what he’s saying, I’m saying his body doesn’t.
A vintage, classic Carl Hiassen on a certified crazy Republican lawmaker's plan to allow open carry in Florida, saying it's "Gods Work"....
An amusing column....
So God is a gunslinger.
That’s the latest Word from Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Fort Walton Beach Republican who’s on a crusade to flood Florida with more firearms.
He’s pushing legislation to allow concealed weapons on state college campuses, and to let permit-holders openly carry their handguns in stores and restaurants. He said these are rights “granted not by government but by God.”
Gaetz’s pronouncement left theologians scratching their heads, because guns aren’t mentioned anywhere in scriptures. Firearms didn’t exist when the Bible was written, and there’s no reference in either testament to “popping a cap in thine heathen ass.”
Anytime a politician starts throwing God’s name around, people get suspicious.
In Gaetz’s case, he’s half of a father-son team that has been pimping tirelessly for the NRA in Tallahassee. His dad, Don, a state senator, also wants more heavy weapons in public places, although he hasn’t gone so far as to credit God with ghostwriting the Second Amendment.
But let’s set aside our well-founded skepticism and consider the remote but intriguing possibility that young Matt isn’t just another programmed hack for the gun lobby. Perhaps he experienced a true religious Visitation.
Maybe one afternoon, while Gaetz was on the shooting range, God appeared personally to him and presented the manuscript of a new, unpublished scripture.
He called it the Book of Glock.
Todays Home Depot joke.....
Charlie was installing a new door and found that one of the hinges
was missing. He asked his wife Mary if she would go to Home
Depot and pick up a hinge.
was missing. He asked his wife Mary if she would go to Home
Depot and pick up a hinge.
Mary agreed to go. While she was waiting for the manager to finish
serving a customer, her eye caught a beautiful bathroom faucet.
When the manager was finished, Mary asked him, "How much is that faucet?
The manager replied, "That's a gold plated faucet, and the price is
$500.00.
serving a customer, her eye caught a beautiful bathroom faucet.
When the manager was finished, Mary asked him, "How much is that faucet?
The manager replied, "That's a gold plated faucet, and the price is
$500.00.
Mary exclaimed, "My goodness, that is an expensive
faucet -- certainly out of my price range.."
faucet -- certainly out of my price range.."
She then proceeded to describe the hinge that Charlie had sent her to buy.
The manager said that he had them in stock and went into the storeroom to
get one.
get one.
From the storeroom the manager yelled: "Ma'am, you wanna screw for the hinge?"
Mary shouted back, "No, but I will for the faucet."
This is why you can't send a woman to Home Depot.
Todays WINDOWS 10 joke
> WINDOWS: Please enter your new password.
>
>
> USER: cabbage
>
>
> WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must be more than 8
> characters.
>
>
> USER: boiled cabbage
>
>
> WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must contain 1
> numerical character.
>
>
> USER: 1 boiled cabbage
>
>
> WINDOWS: Sorry, the password cannot have blank
> spaces.
>
>
> USER: 50damnboiledcabbages
>
>
> WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must contain at least one
> upper case character
>
>
> USER: 50DAMNboiledcabbages
>
>
> WINDOWS: Sorry, the password cannot use more than one
> upper case character consecutively.
>
>
> USER:
> 50damnBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYourAssIfYouDon' tGiveMeAccessNow!
> r
>
> WINDOWS: Sorry, the password cannot contain
> punctuation.
>
>
> USER:
> ReallyPissedOff50DamnBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYourAssIfYouDontG iveMeAccessNow
>
>
> WINDOWS: Sorry, that password is already
> in use
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