So JD Vance's angle seems to be, never mind the purple hearts, silver star, triumphant battles on behalf of our interests , the sacrifice and service of a loyal member of our military. The General should get mewling public schoolyard insults for not buying his BS. What does Vance do after R voters in Ohio dismiss him, pretend to have integrity again, like before he grew his MAGA beard.. or..? The idea he thinks he's one of them is one of the more embarrassing displays in modern politics. At least you can picture Nicky Haley laughing in private about her contortions. But JD seems to have convinced himself he's doing the right thing. In private he's probably just bitter it isnt working for him, except maybe with the most low-info rubes in their party who haven't yet learned he's a fraud. But as soon as they mention JD to a group of more than two of them, gets quickly clued in.
The people on the Bulward are not just the ones that paid attention in history class. They are the only ones that did not say, "when are we ever going to use this"?
One, I think you're missing the point intentionally on the matter of testing. Why do critics say tests like the SAT are racist? Because the people who do well on them are not the smartest people, but the people who can afford to do the most prep for it. There is an entire industry of people who get paid to do nothing but prepare you for the SAT. I know, I was one of the kids who had to deal with it. But I did good on the SAT's. But if the test is not judging your smarts, but how much money you have, then it just acts as a way to keep poor people down. It's not weeding out the smart. It's weeding out the poor. Guess who are more likely to be poor in America? People of color! Where racial critiques come in is when they draw lines between this and things like poll testing of reading skills: if you grow up in a poor area with poor schools, you'll likely do poorer on the SATs. That's not an indictment of your smarts. But given conservatives really want to dismantle the public education system and replace it with private schools, so they can drain all the money from it, as they have in much of the South, it becomes a racial issue. In other words, if you oppose affirmative action because you think it's a way for people who don't deserve to get ahead to get ahead, then you should be against things like the SAT, which do the exact same thing for rich people.
As for Ukraine, the problem is twofold. One, that the major military power that handles EU security is not interested in fighting Russia over Ukraine, and two, that this is paired with the EU not being willing to have a standing army all its own to defend European interests, because we the US have enjoyed not having European competition since the end of WW2. It was nice to have them as secondary satellite states to our great power. But now, Europe is threatened and we're not interested.
And the core of all that is Germany, who is so traumatized by the past, and for good reason, that they don't want to remilitarize. In some ways, the US being more aggressive would be good, because once the EU militarizes we can't hold that over them anymore. But it's going to happen. Either that, or the EU will fracture and we'll go back to great power competition between the nations, which would be bad.
Anyone who uses Iglesias as a source is suspect. I have found him to be a shallow thinker who pretends to be profound. Your quote showed him to be his usual clueless self, infact it bordered on being a strawman. There is a reason he can't hold down a gig at a major publication, despite all the opportunities in the world.
"...how many times do we have to be reminded that J.D. Vance is a disgraceful troll and that there is no bottom?"
I'm going to mildly disagree with the absolute accuracy of the last part of that, Charlie. My septic tank has a bottom, though when the lid is unearthed and opened for the periodic cleaning and maintenance required to keep it working properly, it is not visible due to the depth of the J.D. Vance-like matter found there. Once serviced by a competent sewage hauler, the bottom returns to view, though it is impossible to rid the device of absolutely every scrap of waste and foulness.
I think that for a fair part of my lifetime there was more or less an agreed upon bottom as to how low one could go in their criticisms and the speech employed for that purpose. Not everyone agreed exactly where it was, but the general consensus was that it was there, and plumbing beyond its depth resulted in undesirable consequences socially and sometimes professionally.
Well, the tank is obviously past due for some serious maintenance. The build-up of J.D. and his kind makes it seem as if there is now no bottom. Maybe there's not. Maybe the bottom has actually fallen out due to the depth and weight of the rot that's been allowed to accumulate. But if it has, it has only done so because too many of us have shirked our responsibility to help keep it visible. We tolerate this kind of thing on a daily basis from people in the public and private realm with a disinterested shrug of the shoulders, or under the pretext of 1A rights, which Mr. Vance and his ilk certainly have. Or we howl about it on Twitter and such to no avail, allowing the offenders the feeling of ownership over us. But I also enjoy the very same rights, and I intend to make use of them now, and at any opportunity of a personal nature that may present itself in the future. If you want to bleep me out for it Charlie, that's your prerogative, and I will apologize in advance to any one whom I may offend.
Mr. Vance and his ilk are the shit covering the bottom of our political and social discourse. The stuffs always been there, but now there is simply too much of it for the system to function the way that it should. Vance and the others sadly have the right to call themselves Americans simply because they are. Which also gives them the right to behave in the ways that they do. But if J.D. or any of his similarly foul compatriots were standing in front of me now, I would not hesitate to look him in the eye and say You, sir, are a piece of human excrement containing exactly the same amount of moral fiber as any other piece of dung. You are the polar opposite of who and what you criticize. Your size and worth as a person are inversely proportional to your odor. You are a self-serving coward. An American? Yes. Worthy of the blessings that being one confers upon you? No. And by the way...Fuck you.
Maybe if this type of thing happened a little more often in a few more places, the air would begin to clear a bit. Maybe not. Probably not. But the air where I am at the moment seems to have freshened a touch.
Currently talks continue with the Mafia-like Chieftain of Russia. Not a bad thing, but he is using the time to better set his war-machine pieces. Meanwhile, NATO members jaw-jaw-jaw hoping that some essence of diplomacy may work with Putin.
BTW - I am a fan of Winston Churchill's concept that "Jaw-Jaw is better than to War-War," but I fear it is lost on Putin.
[Cue another movie reference]
NATO is not dealing with Don Vito Corleone {who knew how the work the legal system for his own ends}; but instead with the coked-out Tony Montana with an AK-47. {Don Jr.'s favorite movie scene is Tony with a face full of Peruvian Marching Powder.}
NOW, the NATO response should not be stating actions that will be taken if Russia crosses the border causing thousands of Ukrainians starting to be killed. It should be, if Russian troops do not stand down TODAY:
1. Financial markets will be closed on Monday 2-22-22 [a date not to be forgotten] to the Russian government AND to all of its Kleptocrats (including Putin), whose assets will be frozen ( a la Iran)
2. Any loans to the Russian government will be called by financial institutions. (see above)
3. Slow down food supplies into Russia from Europe and elsewhere to foment even worse poverty and depravation in Mother Russia.
4. Meet Russian cyberattacks in Ukraine with similar attacks inside Russia, specifically Moscow and other large metropolises so that Putin has to deal with "issues back home." Such as sending paranoid laced messaging to Russian troops that Putin has been assassinated or has fled to Mar-a-Lago.
Ukrainian people should not die because of the dithering of Chamberlain-like western politicians.
A last media reference to the Russian/Soviet/Russian culture: Al Stewart's "Roads to Moscow"
This haunting song at first offers the listener a story of Western Empire's attacks on Russia over centuries, and their heroic stands, specifically the WW2 Russian, who were allies against Germany. Heroic efforts to fight the Nazis that the listener can cheer.
Then Russian authoritarianism raises its UGLY head (which lives still within Putin) at war's end. A patriotic warrior (among thousands) is accused of being a traitor to Mother Russia only to be shipped off the Siberia.
Paranoia, greed, and an insatiable desire to be feared and loved is no way to run a country. {Are you in agreement, America?]
The song also gives us a renewed understanding of what may be in store for Ukrainians willing to fight for their fragile democracy if the west doesn't wake up and deal with Putin as the punk that he is.
The song also gives us a fragile democracy that will unwind if true-patriotic Americans don't wake up and deal with Trump as the punk that he is.
Remember W looked derp in the eyes of KGB agent Vlad Putin and saw goodness. If he knee-capped Putin, we'd not be dealing with this. Sadly, W was too naive and religious to see Putin for what he was.
Standardized, multiple guess tests are a far worse way to measure actual learning than open-ended, essay tests graded via a rubric by a person, not a machine.
I don't know about whether achievement tests are racist, but I do know from a personal experience that they cannot be the sole measure of achievement. My daughter is intelligent and an excellent thinker and writer did great in school. She always did fairly well but not excellently on achievement tests. My son is not as hard a worker, did average in school, but his very high scores on achievement tests opened many doors and he never really did any heavy lifting. So intelligence and learning success needs to be tailored to the individual regardless of race.
I'm reading Jeremy Peters' book Insurgency, on the descent of the Republican Party into a cynical nightmare starting with Sarah Palin (even though strands of this started earlier), and something from the book about Palin seems to parallel this whole stupidity with Vance. Peters talks about how Palin made inflammatory and false statements about "death panels" in the ACA on social media (yes, this is the same woman who recently tried to sue the NYT for libel). Fact checkers called her out, President Obama called her out, lots of institutions called her out and corrected what was a malicious lie. But this only amounted to elites trying to correct the record, and elites are not to be trusted.
The very fact that Palin was fact checked by authoritative institutions gave her lies credibility with her minions. And this dynamic has played out repeatedly in the decade and a half since the 2008 election, where politicians on the right can say or do anything without any meaningful consequences, and no accountability from voters in gerrymandered districts. Republican voters are literally dropping dead to give a middle finger to mainstream institutions during a pandemic. Not sure how this gets fixed.
Re: Russia/Ukraine. If NATO membership--or not--is the issue, why would we not fall back on the United Nations, which has condemned offensive war? Well for one thing Russia, the country with its finger on the trigger, has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council--and veto power. There is something wrong with this picture.
We probably all need to stop in silence and remember two wonderful minds. That of PJ O'Rourke and Molly Ivens. Sad losses and they leave an awkward sad silence. Norah Ephron is another.
As to Zelensky and appeasement, I'm under the distinct impression that Ukraine has not met many of the standard evaluations to become a member though. I would certainly admit that Turkey doesn't much qualify at all but it does have a bunch of missile silos.
I just don't think that dismissing a unified Europe on the one hand as appeasers and then wanting immediate inclusion in NATO flow well together. I can certainly understand his desire to not get bashed. My impression is that NATO has not stood as cohesively in over fifty years and That Biden in fact has done as well as he can do without putting troops in Ukraine. The sanctions need to happen.
No arguments about JD Vance either. As AOC might say "Pendejo Basura. "
I don't know whether to be heartened by Republican antics in Wisconsin on the theory that they are seconds away from pulling the trigger of the revolver pressed against their own temple. Or panicked that not enough Wisconsinites recognize insanity when they see it, and these events presage doom for us all.
So JD Vance's angle seems to be, never mind the purple hearts, silver star, triumphant battles on behalf of our interests , the sacrifice and service of a loyal member of our military. The General should get mewling public schoolyard insults for not buying his BS. What does Vance do after R voters in Ohio dismiss him, pretend to have integrity again, like before he grew his MAGA beard.. or..? The idea he thinks he's one of them is one of the more embarrassing displays in modern politics. At least you can picture Nicky Haley laughing in private about her contortions. But JD seems to have convinced himself he's doing the right thing. In private he's probably just bitter it isnt working for him, except maybe with the most low-info rubes in their party who haven't yet learned he's a fraud. But as soon as they mention JD to a group of more than two of them, gets quickly clued in.
This is before the war ever started.
https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Areas_annexed_by_Nazi_Germany
The people on the Bulward are not just the ones that paid attention in history class. They are the only ones that did not say, "when are we ever going to use this"?
Park the NATO troops in Kiev and call it a day. Park them at the border of Ukraine and call it a war.
Wasn't Zelensky just a week ago saying how it was all hype and that the US/EU was overblowing the situation in Ukraine?
Insert: Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House
I guess he got religion....
Couple of things.
One, I think you're missing the point intentionally on the matter of testing. Why do critics say tests like the SAT are racist? Because the people who do well on them are not the smartest people, but the people who can afford to do the most prep for it. There is an entire industry of people who get paid to do nothing but prepare you for the SAT. I know, I was one of the kids who had to deal with it. But I did good on the SAT's. But if the test is not judging your smarts, but how much money you have, then it just acts as a way to keep poor people down. It's not weeding out the smart. It's weeding out the poor. Guess who are more likely to be poor in America? People of color! Where racial critiques come in is when they draw lines between this and things like poll testing of reading skills: if you grow up in a poor area with poor schools, you'll likely do poorer on the SATs. That's not an indictment of your smarts. But given conservatives really want to dismantle the public education system and replace it with private schools, so they can drain all the money from it, as they have in much of the South, it becomes a racial issue. In other words, if you oppose affirmative action because you think it's a way for people who don't deserve to get ahead to get ahead, then you should be against things like the SAT, which do the exact same thing for rich people.
As for Ukraine, the problem is twofold. One, that the major military power that handles EU security is not interested in fighting Russia over Ukraine, and two, that this is paired with the EU not being willing to have a standing army all its own to defend European interests, because we the US have enjoyed not having European competition since the end of WW2. It was nice to have them as secondary satellite states to our great power. But now, Europe is threatened and we're not interested.
And the core of all that is Germany, who is so traumatized by the past, and for good reason, that they don't want to remilitarize. In some ways, the US being more aggressive would be good, because once the EU militarizes we can't hold that over them anymore. But it's going to happen. Either that, or the EU will fracture and we'll go back to great power competition between the nations, which would be bad.
Anyone who uses Iglesias as a source is suspect. I have found him to be a shallow thinker who pretends to be profound. Your quote showed him to be his usual clueless self, infact it bordered on being a strawman. There is a reason he can't hold down a gig at a major publication, despite all the opportunities in the world.
"...how many times do we have to be reminded that J.D. Vance is a disgraceful troll and that there is no bottom?"
I'm going to mildly disagree with the absolute accuracy of the last part of that, Charlie. My septic tank has a bottom, though when the lid is unearthed and opened for the periodic cleaning and maintenance required to keep it working properly, it is not visible due to the depth of the J.D. Vance-like matter found there. Once serviced by a competent sewage hauler, the bottom returns to view, though it is impossible to rid the device of absolutely every scrap of waste and foulness.
I think that for a fair part of my lifetime there was more or less an agreed upon bottom as to how low one could go in their criticisms and the speech employed for that purpose. Not everyone agreed exactly where it was, but the general consensus was that it was there, and plumbing beyond its depth resulted in undesirable consequences socially and sometimes professionally.
Well, the tank is obviously past due for some serious maintenance. The build-up of J.D. and his kind makes it seem as if there is now no bottom. Maybe there's not. Maybe the bottom has actually fallen out due to the depth and weight of the rot that's been allowed to accumulate. But if it has, it has only done so because too many of us have shirked our responsibility to help keep it visible. We tolerate this kind of thing on a daily basis from people in the public and private realm with a disinterested shrug of the shoulders, or under the pretext of 1A rights, which Mr. Vance and his ilk certainly have. Or we howl about it on Twitter and such to no avail, allowing the offenders the feeling of ownership over us. But I also enjoy the very same rights, and I intend to make use of them now, and at any opportunity of a personal nature that may present itself in the future. If you want to bleep me out for it Charlie, that's your prerogative, and I will apologize in advance to any one whom I may offend.
Mr. Vance and his ilk are the shit covering the bottom of our political and social discourse. The stuffs always been there, but now there is simply too much of it for the system to function the way that it should. Vance and the others sadly have the right to call themselves Americans simply because they are. Which also gives them the right to behave in the ways that they do. But if J.D. or any of his similarly foul compatriots were standing in front of me now, I would not hesitate to look him in the eye and say You, sir, are a piece of human excrement containing exactly the same amount of moral fiber as any other piece of dung. You are the polar opposite of who and what you criticize. Your size and worth as a person are inversely proportional to your odor. You are a self-serving coward. An American? Yes. Worthy of the blessings that being one confers upon you? No. And by the way...Fuck you.
Maybe if this type of thing happened a little more often in a few more places, the air would begin to clear a bit. Maybe not. Probably not. But the air where I am at the moment seems to have freshened a touch.
Let's look at how the current Russian-Ukraine stand-off should be handled.
1. Talk about the issue,
2. Set rules that the opponent will not follow,
3. Then kick 'em in the...
...well, you know the rest from the knife fight scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9KBOhPXhds
Currently talks continue with the Mafia-like Chieftain of Russia. Not a bad thing, but he is using the time to better set his war-machine pieces. Meanwhile, NATO members jaw-jaw-jaw hoping that some essence of diplomacy may work with Putin.
BTW - I am a fan of Winston Churchill's concept that "Jaw-Jaw is better than to War-War," but I fear it is lost on Putin.
[Cue another movie reference]
NATO is not dealing with Don Vito Corleone {who knew how the work the legal system for his own ends}; but instead with the coked-out Tony Montana with an AK-47. {Don Jr.'s favorite movie scene is Tony with a face full of Peruvian Marching Powder.}
NOW, the NATO response should not be stating actions that will be taken if Russia crosses the border causing thousands of Ukrainians starting to be killed. It should be, if Russian troops do not stand down TODAY:
1. Financial markets will be closed on Monday 2-22-22 [a date not to be forgotten] to the Russian government AND to all of its Kleptocrats (including Putin), whose assets will be frozen ( a la Iran)
2. Any loans to the Russian government will be called by financial institutions. (see above)
3. Slow down food supplies into Russia from Europe and elsewhere to foment even worse poverty and depravation in Mother Russia.
4. Meet Russian cyberattacks in Ukraine with similar attacks inside Russia, specifically Moscow and other large metropolises so that Putin has to deal with "issues back home." Such as sending paranoid laced messaging to Russian troops that Putin has been assassinated or has fled to Mar-a-Lago.
Ukrainian people should not die because of the dithering of Chamberlain-like western politicians.
A last media reference to the Russian/Soviet/Russian culture: Al Stewart's "Roads to Moscow"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iIG_Zwd4wk
This haunting song at first offers the listener a story of Western Empire's attacks on Russia over centuries, and their heroic stands, specifically the WW2 Russian, who were allies against Germany. Heroic efforts to fight the Nazis that the listener can cheer.
Then Russian authoritarianism raises its UGLY head (which lives still within Putin) at war's end. A patriotic warrior (among thousands) is accused of being a traitor to Mother Russia only to be shipped off the Siberia.
Paranoia, greed, and an insatiable desire to be feared and loved is no way to run a country. {Are you in agreement, America?]
The song also gives us a renewed understanding of what may be in store for Ukrainians willing to fight for their fragile democracy if the west doesn't wake up and deal with Putin as the punk that he is.
The song also gives us a fragile democracy that will unwind if true-patriotic Americans don't wake up and deal with Trump as the punk that he is.
Remember W looked derp in the eyes of KGB agent Vlad Putin and saw goodness. If he knee-capped Putin, we'd not be dealing with this. Sadly, W was too naive and religious to see Putin for what he was.
Standardized, multiple guess tests are a far worse way to measure actual learning than open-ended, essay tests graded via a rubric by a person, not a machine.
I don't know about whether achievement tests are racist, but I do know from a personal experience that they cannot be the sole measure of achievement. My daughter is intelligent and an excellent thinker and writer did great in school. She always did fairly well but not excellently on achievement tests. My son is not as hard a worker, did average in school, but his very high scores on achievement tests opened many doors and he never really did any heavy lifting. So intelligence and learning success needs to be tailored to the individual regardless of race.
Excellent items today.
Great letter by Mark Brady re: Putin.
I'm reading Jeremy Peters' book Insurgency, on the descent of the Republican Party into a cynical nightmare starting with Sarah Palin (even though strands of this started earlier), and something from the book about Palin seems to parallel this whole stupidity with Vance. Peters talks about how Palin made inflammatory and false statements about "death panels" in the ACA on social media (yes, this is the same woman who recently tried to sue the NYT for libel). Fact checkers called her out, President Obama called her out, lots of institutions called her out and corrected what was a malicious lie. But this only amounted to elites trying to correct the record, and elites are not to be trusted.
The very fact that Palin was fact checked by authoritative institutions gave her lies credibility with her minions. And this dynamic has played out repeatedly in the decade and a half since the 2008 election, where politicians on the right can say or do anything without any meaningful consequences, and no accountability from voters in gerrymandered districts. Republican voters are literally dropping dead to give a middle finger to mainstream institutions during a pandemic. Not sure how this gets fixed.
Re: Russia/Ukraine. If NATO membership--or not--is the issue, why would we not fall back on the United Nations, which has condemned offensive war? Well for one thing Russia, the country with its finger on the trigger, has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council--and veto power. There is something wrong with this picture.
We probably all need to stop in silence and remember two wonderful minds. That of PJ O'Rourke and Molly Ivens. Sad losses and they leave an awkward sad silence. Norah Ephron is another.
As to Zelensky and appeasement, I'm under the distinct impression that Ukraine has not met many of the standard evaluations to become a member though. I would certainly admit that Turkey doesn't much qualify at all but it does have a bunch of missile silos.
I just don't think that dismissing a unified Europe on the one hand as appeasers and then wanting immediate inclusion in NATO flow well together. I can certainly understand his desire to not get bashed. My impression is that NATO has not stood as cohesively in over fifty years and That Biden in fact has done as well as he can do without putting troops in Ukraine. The sanctions need to happen.
No arguments about JD Vance either. As AOC might say "Pendejo Basura. "
I don't know whether to be heartened by Republican antics in Wisconsin on the theory that they are seconds away from pulling the trigger of the revolver pressed against their own temple. Or panicked that not enough Wisconsinites recognize insanity when they see it, and these events presage doom for us all.