COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
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ReplyDeleteWell. That didn't look good.
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You have to feel sorry for her and sympathy for the mental and physical stress she must be under. Is it relevant? Yes, it has to be. Still we had George Bush senior and the Japanese barf incident. We shall see.
ReplyDelete.
DeleteHell, I almost barfed in a Japanese sushi bar. I still don't know what it was I was eating. It seemed like a doughy rubber ball.
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If only we had had cell phones back in 41's days.
DeleteI hope someone has handcuffed Trump and has some duct tape on his mouth for the next eight hours.
ReplyDelete:-)
DeleteMake that Forty Eight.
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ReplyDeleteA while back, the GOP was talking about a Plan B in case Trump had to withdraw from the race.
I suspect someone in the DNC is scrambling for a Plan B about now.
Feel the Bern?
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Trump kids to the old man. Stat!
ReplyDeleteBernie Sanders would win.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteMike Morrell was on CNN this morning.
Why has every recent CIA head been such a sleaze ball?
Why has every department head in the Obama administration been tied to incompetance, corruption or some type of scandal, Morrell, Brennan, Koskinen, Clinton, Clapper, you name the department?
Morrell was also pushing what seems to have become the Dem meme over the last couple days, "Hillary said she 'regrets' calling Trump supporters deplorable" which of course she never did.
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Probably a hot flash from her thyroid condition. She walked out of Chelsea's apartment an hour, or so, ago, took a photo with a kid, remarked on the lovely day, said she was fine, and got in the waiting SUV.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteChina Snubs Obama at Airport
Did President Xi Jinping directly order airport personnel and diplomatic functionaries to deny Barack Obama a proper welcome? Who knows? But the message, whether intentional or not, wasn’t very subtle. The authorities expressed no regret, no remorse, and certainly no apology. On the contrary, they scolded the press for even reporting the snub.
No surprise. China’s ostentatious rudeness was perfectly reflective of the world’s general disdain for President Obama. His high-minded lectures about global norms and demands that others live up to their “international obligations” are no longer amusing. They’re irritating. Foreign leaders have reciprocated by taking this administration down a notch knowing they pay no price.
In May 2013, Vladimir Putin reportedly kept the U.S. secretary of state cooling his heels for three hours outside his office before deigning to receive him. Even as Obama was hailing the nuclear deal with Iran as a great breakthrough, the ayatollah vowed “no change” in his policy, which remained diametrically opposed to the “U.S. arrogant system.” The mullahs followed by openly conducting illegal ballistic-missile tests — calculating, correctly, that Obama would do nothing. And when Iran took prisoner ten American sailors in the Persian Gulf, made them kneel, and broadcast the video, what was the U.S. response? Upon their release, John Kerry publicly thanked Iran for its good conduct.
Why should Xi treat Obama with any greater deference? Beijing illegally expands into the South China Sea, meeting only the most perfunctory pushback from the United States. Obama told CNN that he warned Xi to desist or “there will be consequences.” Is there a threat less credible?
There will be consequences. This appears to be the diplomatic phrase of the day. I must have seen it used at least a half dozen times in the last month or so. Other Western countries use the same phrasing. I've seen it used regarding the Israelis' new settlement or Bibi's video accusing the PA of ethnic cleansing. I've seen it used with Russia regarding their threats to the Balkans. I seen it used with the Iranian harassment of US ships. I've seen it used with the Chinese and with the Egyptians. You would think that someone would purchase a thesaurus just so they could change it up a bit.
Obama was kind of stuck in China since it was a G20 event. I guess. But I would make sure we reciprocated the next time one of the Chicom comes to the US.
As for Kerry, after the first 45 minutes of waiting I would have turned around, got on the plane, and headed home. Shit this is routine with Putin. he even kept the Pope cooling his heels.
It's embarrassing.
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ReplyDeleteTom Friedman was on CNN with Fareed Zakaria. What a flaming a-hole.
His solution to solving the terrorist problem was correct in a very general sense. It was that the entire world must recognize terrorism for what it is and reject it (my interpretation of his words) which while true was hardly helpful.
However, his wording was like fingernails across a blackboard. He indicated 'it will take a village' and 'if the village doesn't reject terrorism we will not solve the problem but if the village rejects terrorism we will solve the problem.' I felt like putting my foot through the television screen.
Yet, this guy has grown rich putting out books stating the same simplistic bullshit.
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OBAMA/BUSH - LAWLESS PRESIDENTS
ReplyDeleteThe Founding Fathers thought keeping a standing army was a danger to democracy. The great wars of the twentieth century appear to have imbued the United States with a permanent standing army, and this institution has been reinforced by the September 11 attacks.
Or rather it has been reinforced by how Washington elites have decided to respond to those attacks. They have responded with lawlessness. If only we had treated al-Qaeda as the criminals they are instead of creating a ‘war on terror’ then we would have relied more on courts and due process and less on force majeure.
Perhaps the US military itself is not a danger to democracy, but that it is there, well-trained and well-equipped, creates a constant temptation for presidents to use it. And war presidents are imperial presidents, as we have seen with both Bush and Obama.
The pretext of national security born of wars has been fatal to our basic liberties.
Both Bush and Obama sought to have their intelligence agencies carry out massive domestic surveillance and both have killed and buried the Fourth Amendment.
Alongside the standing army, however, is the post-9/11 legislation, the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, bestowed on the president by Congress, which is still in force even though Usama Bin Laden is dead and his organization is a shadow of its former self.
Here is what the AUMF says:
Delete“SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.
(a) In General.–That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.
As Mary Louise Kelley pointed out at NPR, the White House is using the AUMF to justify continued intervention in Libya against Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) there.
Since many of today’s ISIL fighters were born after 9/11, it is frankly ridiculous to derive Obama’s ability to make war on them from this vague text.
Like a standing army, a standing AUMF is a danger to democracy.
Obama’s wars in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, etc., would not have been so easily pursued if he had had to go back to Congress in each case to get a specific authorization.
The way in which the National Security Agency used the Iraq War as a pretext for increasing its surveillance of ordinary Americans should be a cautionary tale. Likewise, Obama’s use of the fascist 1919 Espionage Act against whistleblowers would not have been so easy had we been at peace.
It is time to end the AUMF and reduce the presidency back to being a republican institution. Likewise other agencies of the executive need to be constrained by the constitution again, a task only Congress and the courts can undertake.
Making sure the Constitution and our rights are strong is the best way of honoring the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
http://www.juancole.com/2016/09/years-recover-republic.html
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DeleteDitto, Juan.
You can't blame it all on the presidents though. Oh, for sure, you definitely can blame them for the incompetence with which they have pursued US foreign policy on their respective watches. But nature and politics abhor a vacuum. The Congress gladly gave up the prerogatives granted them under the Constitution in order to pursue a low-risk agenda where all they have to do is bitch and complain and are not really responsible for anything. The presidents merely stepped into the vacuum and expanded their powers accordingly just as any other politico would do, especially when they are narcissistic pricks like we are talking about.
The American people are also to blame. They were perfectly willing to accept any encroachment to their rights the government dreamed up under the false allusion that by doing so their government would as promised protect them. What bullshit. What pansies.
All domestic terror attacks should be handled as police matters not military ones. The site of watching a major American city actually shut down completely, with the residents cowering in their houses, as the military in tanks patrolled the streets searching for two dicks who made up bombs in their garage was unnerving.
Don't even start me on the money we have wasted on the WOT and the productive things that money could have been used for, or that it has turned the US which was previously considered the world's only hyper-power into a paper-tiger and laughingstock, or the individual rights we have been deprived of or rather given away.
Pretty pathetic really.
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Honesty, go back eight years, did you believe you would be reading this?:
ReplyDeleteObama’s wars in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, etc., would not have been so easily pursued if he had had to go back to Congress in each case to get a specific authorization.
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DeleteOf course not. It's unlikely any Congress would give him the authorization. They are too risk averse these days. So much easier to just sit back and bitch.
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What's an averse?
Delete.
DeleteLook it up, trish.
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NOTE: Is it acceptable to use “?” and “:” as i did in the previous comment?
ReplyDelete.
DeleteThat's a tough one. I'm pretty sure it's not right (if for no other reason than it doesn't seem to flow properly) but I don't know what the the answer is.
I usually fake it with something like...
Honesty, go back eight years, did you believe you would be reading this...
Obama’s wars in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, etc., would not have been so easily pursued if he had had to go back to Congress in each case to get a specific authorization.
Then, I hope that no one notices there should have been a '?' in there some place.
:o)
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Did you ever notice that life is like a roll of toilet paper?
DeleteThe closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.
Honestly, would you have believed eight years ago that you would be reading this?
DeleteOr this:
DeleteDell Fires 3000 US Employees, Requests 5000 Visas For Foreign Workers
The ink was barely dry on Dell’s acquisition of EMC, the largest technology deal ever, valued at $67 billion and already the layoff rumors are oozing from the woodwork.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-09/dell-fires-3000-us-employees-requests-5000-visas-foreign-workers
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DeleteHonestly, would you have believed eight years ago that you would be reading this?
This coming from the guy who posts Paul Krugman articles here in their entirety.
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:-)
DeleteYes on Deuce's question because I have done it too.
DeleteTherefore it is acceptable.
If she's clinically dead, will Obama Justice and the FBI find a way to make her corpse legal, 'cause it's still warm and beating?
ReplyDelete...and of course, she did not INTEND to become the First Dead Female President.
DeleteWRT the toilet paper roll conundrum, maybe if we elect her we'll be in Schadenfreude Heaven with constant Alternative News Updates about HOW her roll is increasingly outstripping ours.
ReplyDelete...and laughing at Juan Cole and the rest of the MSM explaining the virtues of an empty cardboard tube.
DeleteOK, I watched it: Totally Overblown.
ReplyDeleteAs Rufus will attest, that curb was way over Spec, and those wimpy agents were too weak to hold up her petite frame.
Wailuku, Maui has some gigantic curbs on steeply inclined roads.
ReplyDeleteI took my first old folks fall getting out of the kid's giant truck when I stepped onto the street far below instead of the curb onto which I was planing on landing.
I hereby authorize Hillary's campaign, the DOJ, and the FBI to use any of my attestations in the furtherance of their righteous cause.
ReplyDeleteWhere's the video of her hobbling out to the curb?
ReplyDeleteClinton was looked at for the cough, on Friday, and diagnosed with pneumonia. She was prescribed antibiotics, and told to take it easy a couple of days.
ReplyDeleteAt this morning's event, she became overheated, and dehydrated. She has re-hydrated, and is recovering nicely.
Dr. Lisa R. Bardack, M.D.
road tested • 19 minutes ago
DeleteHer campaign has now released the news that she has pneumonia, so sure, she was "feeling great." Caught in another lie.
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People and animals always feel just great when they have pneumonia.
We had a cat who was obviously dying, gave him antibiotics, and he perked right up.
A few days later, he died, as the antibiotic was given too late to overcome the mass of infection in his lungs, even though it worked in his bloodstream. (Resulting in him feeling better. For a while.)
Heh
Delete:):):):):)
Yup, every time a person topples over from walking pneumonia they feel great....
Aspiration Pneumonia, no doubt.
ReplyDeleteHer brain condition, or Parkinsons, interferes with proper swallowing, resulting in stuff going down the wrong tube, often leading to pneumonia.
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"Aspiration pneumonia is a lung infection that develops after you aspirate (inhale) food, liquid, or vomit into your lungs. You can also aspirate food or liquid from your stomach that backs up into your esophagus."
Pneumonia in the elderly often leads to death.
(Esp. if repeated, as in her REPEATED Coughing Spells.)
Correction:
Delete(Esp. if repeated, as in her REPEATED CHOKING Spells.)
Our first Desiccated, Re-hydrated, Regurgitated Female President in waiting.
ReplyDeletewatched again
ReplyDeleteJEEZUS!
If not for that post backing her up, she woulda gone down backwards on her head.
...except in RufusWorld tm.
There is another video:
Deletehttps://www.facebook.com/TheMinutemanMilitia/videos/895599160545351/
She looks in bad shape
Events, and Rufus have led me to a recognition of an evident truth:
ReplyDeleteShe isn't "coughing" she's CHOKING.
...so Ms. Lisa is LYING about that, also.
DeleteDavid •
ReplyDeleteThe country hijacked?
7 years after the worst terrorist attack in history perpetrated by radical Muslims that were part of Al Qaeda, the United States of America elected Barack Hussein Obama, a man raised in Muslim Indonesia.
A man who was an avowed member of the New Party (socialist) in Chicago. A man who was married in Rev. Wright's church in Chicago (G*d D**n America!).
Hijacked? Really?
And now it is Sept. 11, 2016.
15 years out, and the rest of our lives to go.
I'm with the gods.
ReplyDeleteI can't work up one once of sympathy for The Hag.
The gods are slowly taking her down.
It's payback time.
I had been hoping something like this would happen during the first debate.
Who knows now, we may not have a first debate, or any debates at all.
Do you hear the laughter coming from the OUREA, from the protogenoi of the mountains ?
Hardy de har har har.....hear it ?
Bwabwabwabwaharharharhahahahaha....
Hear it ?
I do.
It even echoes......
Sparagmos.....let the gods rend her apart piece by piece, tear her, rip her, as she has done to so many others....let us all be spectators at this Dionysian rite.....
DeleteHillary's Big Black Van looks like a Hearse to me.
DeleteThe Donald should say nothing other than to wish her well. The issue has a life of its own now.
In the elderly, pneumonia can lead to diminished brain function, due to lose of oxygen supply to the brain.....I've seen it happen in my extended family twice....
The Donald should wish her well, and release his entire medical records too, then keep his mouth shut.
The gods, the agents of a perfect divine justice in all things, in this life or some other, are laughing not out of malice, but out of a kind of sad but humorous recognition of the total foolishness of so many human beings....
DeleteCinderella also lost her slipper, but the ever vigilant agents picked it up and brought it to Chelsea's Castle.
DeleteEither Dr. Lisa is one incompetent Doctor, or just a another of Hillary's cadre of LIARS.
ReplyDeleteIn this report
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/11/hillary-clinton-has-medical-episode-at-911-ceremony-source-says.html
Dr. Lisa says Hillary had "coughing related to allergies" and she took antihistamines.
BULLSHIT. (You don't have "allergies" Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.)
The antihistamines are probably making her choking and wobbling worse if she's really taking them.
Dr. Lisa is a quack, and used to work for Quirk's Quality Qwik Cure, 'an internet clinic', out of Detroit, Michigan.
DeleteQuirk thinks they should have called the Police.
DeleteHe does ?
DeleteWhy ?
They should have called Quirk's Quality Qwik Cure (1 800 QQQ Cure) and choppered in a handful of Quirk's Quality Qwikludes.....'your cure is a swallow away'.....
(if you are unable to swallow use Quirk's Qwik Badge Man Injector)
DeleteIt was a play on his contention that Islamic Terror in America is a police matter.
Delete(search for "police" above)
DeleteI'm betting Hillary begs off that first debate.
ReplyDeleteWay too risky.....
An hour and a half under those bright lights ?
DeleteWay, way too risky....
Then the third.
DeleteWallace gives her hot flashes.
In this video, she's hired a 5 year old as a prop:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/11/secret-service-appears-to-have-broken-protocol-with-clintons-early-departure-from-sunday-911-event/
Look at the SS Agents haircut at 53 seconds in this video!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000004640056/overheated-clinton-exits-911-memorial.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
In the two videos I've seen, in particular Doug Saxum's Facebook link, I'm struck by how the people around her are reacting. You have the secret service guys scanning the surround but the people in direct contact with HRC seem to be simply propping her up and trying to hussle her into the vehicle. They don't seem surprised or concerned about her health...
ReplyDelete...some of the images remind me of those blown away rock stars of the days of yore.
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ReplyDelete