What does the President Know, and When Will Putin Know It?

Just thought I'd check in with the Trump voters out there as the new administration lurches toward the end of its first month.

Still feel good about your choice? Yeah, I suspect you do, for the variety of reasons you pulled the lever for a profoundly unqualified and documentedly crooked candidate in the first place.

Well, at least Congress will keep the best interests of the country at heart. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha.

As always, the pertinent question is: What if it were Democrats pulling one-tenth of this? Lying about Russian contacts? Dealing with an international crisis in the middle of a tastelessly-decorated, and more to the point unsecured, dining room? Addressing conflicts of interest by forthrightly and transparently multiplying them?

But yeah, definitely keep the heat on Hillary. Sue to get those emails, that's where the real threat to the Republic lies. It's all worth it to get your agenda enacted and as long as there's someone lower on the ladder. That's the American Way.

IOKIYAR

I started this earlier in the week and if I kept modifying it as events unfold it would never make it to the half-light of day. So here goes.

It appears that, based on the actions/inactions of Congress and the Republican leadership in general, the following are all OK:

• Interference in a presidential election by a hostile foreign power, in its previous incarnation an existential foe of this country and retaining the means, however mutually self-destructive, of wiping out the United States as we know it
• The evident possession, by the same hostile foreign power, of dirt on (and more likely, of financial advantage over) the Constitutional President
• The consistently pro-same-hostile-foreign-power stance taken by a presidential candidate, now the Constitutional President, increasingly at variance, to put it mildly, with the US intelligence community
• The nomination for Secretary of State of a man awarded a decoration by, yes, the same hostile foreign power
• The appointment as National Security Advisor of a conspiracy theorist who contacted the SHFP (got tired of typing) the same day the outgoing administration imposed sanctions for interfering in the presidential election
• The nomination to other Cabinet posts of men and women clearly unqualified for the position and, in some cases, hostile to the basic mission of the Departments they have been nominated to lead. (I'll spot him Mattis, although in that case they broke a rule regarding public service within a specified retirement period.)
• The apparent inability of the Constitutional President to absorb even the slightest amount of criticism that comes with the job, manifesting itself in tweets threatening martial law and minions spouting "alternative facts" from the White House and TV studios
• The retention by the Constitutional President of business connections with direct implications for foreign policy, not to mention a DC property lease that is in violation of regulations as of 12 PM on January 20

Any one of these would have stopped a Democrat in his or her tracks before the end of the primaries, and rightly so.

This is all OK, it turns out. Perhaps I should take the advice offered to me, to stop whining, to be calm and accept that this too shall pass. Remember, you can get away with all of the above as long as you keep in mind:

It's OK If You're a Republican.

We Have Gone to Eleven

Today is the blog's eleventh birthday. Happy birthday to us!

The last ten days have been pretty wearing and I figured JJV would be first out of the blocks. I will have some more organized thoughts later beyond the general statement that the nomination and election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States of America is a disaster of the greatest magnitude, to his supporters, detractors and bystanders across the whole spectrum of innocence.

In the meantime, John Scalzi writes with greater frequency, volume and especially quality than I could ever hope to muster, so please direct your attention to this, with which I agree. Hell, maybe I'll just replace the blog with a redirect to his site and be done with it. There is a link over there in the blogroll in the meantime.

Change is coming. I've already made one - see if you can spot it - and there will be more to come.

We have work to do.

#NeverTrump 2/15/16* - 9/23/16

Principled conservative Ted Cruz, the shining principled beacon of post-Trump America, has folded like something that folds either extremely badly or extremely well, take your pick. (None of these seemed appropriate.) In a bold yet principled twist, he did so on Friday afternoon, a time traditionally reserved for news releases that the releasers hope don't get noticed. (I will readily admit that Both Sides Definitely Do That, out of principle of course.)

Color me shocked. No, wait, what's that other color - oh yeah, got it: utterly unsurprised. (For a few weeks in the early '70s it was included between Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber in the Crayola 64 boxes.)

This post, I think, has improved somewhat from its first draft, which consisted of the following paragraph:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Anyway, all of this will be forgotten in time for 2020, so Cruz has nothing to lose by betraying, in however principled a manner, his staunchest supporters. Besides, it's not possible for a heel, even a principled one, to do a heel turn.

*Conservative foolishness has many parents but I am dating the rise of #NeverTrump to the publication of National Review's hilarious parody edition.

Tuesday Superficiality: More of the Same, from Trump and Myself

The most charitable explanation for the latest verbal extrusion from the legitimately nominated (irrespective of how many Republicans actually voted for him) Republican candidate is that he was joking about Hillary Clinton being thwarted politically by way of getting shot. Tell you what: make that same public "joke" and have that explanation ready for the earpieced suit-and-shades folks who pay you a visit. No, please, you go first this time.

Strictly speaking this should not move the needle on the outrage meter, as it should have fused itself to the right side of the apparatus months ago. But stay tuned for the next round of principled denunciations and combination disavowal/endorsements from the erstwhile Howard Bakers of the GOP, and ask yourself, "So is that what it takes to get disqualified? Everything prior is acceptable discourse and behavior?"

That we have come this far down such a road is a poor reflection on, in ascending order, our level of civic engagement, our national political media, and, at the very pinnacle of this towering edifice of suck, the Republican Party as it is currently constituted.

Tuesday's Deep Thoughts

Last Friday I was in the august company of JJV, CRH and the reader/commenter last seen in my "Show Your Work" post. We had what the Soviets used to describe as a frank exchange of views. ("Their differences resolved, both parties retired to the Lubyanka basement...") Half of us were hoping for a Hillary indictment, while half of us thought the other half was f*cking nuts. (Hmm, maybe that was 100%.) There was the usual speculation about Trump's motives and status. I am sad to report that the beer and service were not up to the conversation's standards of quality.

Fortunately we were able to have a rousing discussion of dreadnoughts, battle cruisers and the post-WWI naval disarmament treaties, so the evening wasn't a total loss.

Trivia time! Where is the only surviving dreadnought battleship moored? (Hint for discussion participants: I was wrong.)

#OkFineTrump

It appears that Indiana Republicans ignored JJV's call to the barricades or the beaches or wherever they were to resist Trump manfully until the, shall we say, last trump. Now we get to watch the ring-kissing and "well he's the nominee so what can ya do", aided and abetted by the horse race-dependent media because after all Both Sides Do It.

As always in such matters it is a useful exercise to replace (R) with (D) and imagine what the Party of Lincoln would say were Trump to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. If that were the case I'd cash in the kids' 529s and invest in clutchable pearls and fainting couches.

I truly believe that in a healthy, functioning civil society, we would not have arrived at this point. However, we must play the hand we are dealt (or, more accurately,  deal to ourselves as a country), and at this point, the most bitter anti-Hillary, pro-GOP partisan (I think I know someone like that) needs to answer this question:

Is Donald Trump fit to be president?

Or, perhaps more specifically, is Donald Trump more fit to be president than Hillary Clinton?

Personally that does not rise to the level of "legitimate question" but YMMV.

No rush on this; you have until early November.

Oh yeah, almost forgot: given what has come to pass, it is incomprehensible to me how Ted Cruz clearly is so truly, deeply, madly loathed, more than enough to deny him the nomination. You have to work very hard to be so very hated.

The Rockets' Red Glare, the Bombs... wait, that was it?!

If you were pressed for time on July 4th but still wanted to take in a fireworks show, San Diego was the place to be. Here it is in all its fifteen seconds of glory, thanks to a technical glitch that set everything off at once:



"God help the men under those [fireworks]."

Captain Avatar to the Bridge, and Bring Your Sunglasses

Bombardier actually submitted this to us before the McQuarrie obituary, but it wasn't as time-sensitive so it got bumped.

Hey kids (and dads)! Now you can build your very own Gauss Rifle at home! They had me at "shatter-prone ceramic magnets."

Now via Balloon Juice comes word that the US Navy has begun testing a combat version.

It's only a matter of time:

When You're Here, You Forget to Post Stuff

Left out of my previous post on our holiday trip was the quintessentially American experience of dining at the Olive Garden on the Saturday we arrived. I am pretty sure that this was Laura's and my second time at the OG, but the first time was so long ago that I don't remember the exact circumstances and Laura is beginning to wonder if there is a second family somewhere.

Before you get all excited about how this is going to be some East Coast elite takedown of a faux Italian joint that we wouldn't normally go near unless we were paid but we're in far suburban Kansas City so what are you going to do, get comfy 'cause HERE WE GO!!!

Just kidding. We had a pleasant meal, the kids' options were good (yeah, I'm looking at you, KC Airport Sports Bar in Terminal A with NO KIDS MEALS) and the wine was delicious, once the server found someone of sufficient age to pour it.* (This guy, on the other hand, questions the hard-sell of wine at an Italian (style) restaurant. Go figure. Although it was kind of odd to be greeted by a server carrying a bottle of wine.)

However.

Do not try to pass off spaghetti as angel hair. Laura and I agreed that it's a good call given the tendency of angel hair to come out in a single clump, but still.

Do not serve a platter of ziti in a pink tomato/cheese sauce entirely lacking in either a thick layer of bubbly melted cheese on top or the proper crockery in which to serve it and call it "Al Forno." Sticking it in the oven to get it piping hot does not count.

Both of these elicited from us a reaction that viewers of Chopped would recognize: Don't advertise the item as [item name] and then serve something that is not [item name].

For a measured take on Olive Garden's authenticity, read this, then Google "Measured take on Olive Garden's authenticity" 'cause boy howdy is that not it.

*The checkout kid at the Price Chopper also had to run down someone to handle the beer purchase by way of scrutinizing me to see if I looked over 40, otherwise I would get carded. To cut to the chase: dammit.

Democracy in America

It's still relatively early on Election Night but it's pretty clear that the House has gone GOP and that the Senate will feature such luminaries as Rand Paul and Joe Miller, with Sharron Angle thrown in for the Trifecta of Batshit Crazy. The next two years promise little in the way of achievement and much in the way of cynical political theater; those who imagine the sound of articles of impeachment being drafted instead hear the opening of a desk drawer in which said articles have lain since Election Night 2008. With the minor delay of changing the House rules to allow bills and subpoenas composed in red crayon, the next order of business should be a flood of hearings and fishing expeditions which will expose the statistically likely indiscretions as existential threats to the Republic. I am not the first to suggest that the resulting GOP supernova in 2012 will not have been worth it.

The biggest story of this election cycle is also the most clearly false. The so-called Tea Party movement is nothing but the co-opting of selfish scared people by Republican activists and funding. Any other depiction is based on wishful thinking by all parties enabled by the news media, who do have a point: Fat dorks in tricorner hats and Sansabelt knee breeches (white Rockports optional) are a compelling visual.

Thank you, good night, and God bless the United States of America, 'cause man, was that one messy sneeze.

Update 11/3: OK, Angle didn't make it, but substitute Club for Corporations stalwart Pat Toomey in the above.

Frigates vs. Pirates: Different Sea, Same Result

The young US Navy won renown battling pirates in the Mediterranean 200 years ago, and continued that tradition today off Somalia, this time without spotting them a frigate.

My favorite part of the article, quoting British pirate expert "Jolly"* Roger Middleton:

[Pirates] might not always make rational decisions, and they often attack things that are bigger than they should... It's also quite possible that they don't have a full understanding of the targets they are attacking. Perhaps they just see a big ship they think is a worth a lot of money.

Considering the $64 million unit construction cost and the theoretical ransom the capture of such a ship might entail, they weren't entirely incorrect, although they overlooked the part about the guns, highly-trained crews etc.

*You KNOW that's what they call him.

Just Trying to Do My Civic Duty Here

Why does Home Depot, at a location recommended by JJV no less, sell 1" diameter flagpoles and, right next to them and with no alternative, flagpole mounting brackets for 3/4" diameter poles?

I better pass this on to Glenn Beck.

In the meantime, I mounted screw hooks on our side porch to hang the flag vertically, and, as a large majority of Americans do, promptly signalled that our house was in distress by hanging it the wrong way. Fortunately, a visit to this handy site made the helicopters stop circling overhead. The animated demonstration of folding the flag into a triangle will come in handy this evening.

Happy Labor Day, everyone!

America 1, Hope and Change 0

The most reputable name in news reports that Obama's ambitious plans have met with a Grand Slam of reality.

Update: "Dose of reality" replaced with much better text, although if it had been IHOP I could have used "rootin' tootin'".

Happy Birthday America!

Just a quick note to wish the land of my birth a happy 232nd. Gracie and I commemorated the event by visiting, but not anointing, Elbridge Gerry at his final resting place. We also watched the local July 4th parade, featuring participants pelting attendees with more candy than you see at Halloween, not to mention the Marine Band leading it off, and have eaten barbecue goodness. All that despite my hating America!

Please take a moment to think about what an intrepid band of founders accomplished in 1776, in Philapelphia, in July, wearing multiple layers of heavy clothing, in a room without air conditioning. Franklin must have snuck in a troupe of strippers or something to keep everyone in the room.