I evidently over-reacted; the story doesn't exist anymore, really across the spectrum.

It's on Russian propaganda sites in Asia. But I stand by my assertion of equivalence in racial slander, which is exactly the same point that is being made there in the propaganda.

Not always

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/18/huffpost-slammed-for-racy-steve-bannon-headline.html

The writer, Lydia Polgreen, tweeted after it was taken down: "Today’s splash was intended to be a mashup tribute to Yiddish and Beyoncé. Any other interpretation was completely unintended."

Maybe, but on its face it rings in the same chord as the chants "Jew will not replace us." It's so outrageous, tone deaf, and stupid that somebody will probably raise the theory "Bannon false flag."

It doesn't matter what was behind a really stupid message. If Huff Po is not moved to act, this is a problem, because this is a Friday night not like most Friday nights. Because Bannon.

And it is awful. Robert E. Lee was a brutal and sadistic slave-owner. His statues should be pulled down everywhere.

Excellent essay.

Tom Waits?

Very good piece about what "tolerance" is and isn't. Tolerance requires cooperation from all sides to work. If some elements refuse to extend it, it is not the duty of everyone else to tolerate them. You do not have to tolerate intolerance, as some kind of "moral" duty. As he says, "tolerance is not a suicide pact".

He compares tolerance to a peace treaty -- and if only one side honors the terms it won't work.

It's almost as though Bannon was winking at us, and saying, 'you know what I'm doing, right?'. I'm struck that he went out of his way to excoriate the Alt-Right, calling them "losers", "fringe" and "a collection of clowns". Sounds like he's setting up a narrative that he isn't being fired for his associations with the alt-right, rather that he is being fired for opposing China or criticizing other administration officials (I hear John Lovitz in my head, going, "yeah, yeah, that's the ticket..).

So his play was to dive out, leaving Trump holding the 'white supremacist' bag, take a shot at the State Department, and say things that conservative businessmen (i.e., potential future employers) want to hear about supremacists and China, oh, and by the way, put in a good word for Goldman Sachs.

And, by granting the interview to the Prospect, he also leaves open the option to complain that he'd been misquoted, and to complain about the author's ethical 'breach' in publishing an 'off the record' interview, exactly as Scaramucci had done. Neat.

I'm not happy with the new dark color version .- it looks like a plum.

Frank would get even. That's all he does.

South Carolina grows the best tasting peaches! Eat your heart out Georgia.

The Gaffney "Peachoid" is in fact painted a rather bright orange. It's 135 feet tall.

But TS, I was learning about it today because of your post. They repainted it just a couple months ago, and now it looks more like a huge buttocks that either has diaper rash or got it's arse kicked good... a red situation going on there now.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the peach from 2015 to 2017:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m7pisX_DHc

Thanks for the butt peach lesson. Frank Underwood would be so proud. :)

Looks like Bannon's out.

Yep. This should get interesting now. I had heard it was either Bannon or Kelly going. I guessed General Kelly would eventually win and remain standing, but I figured this was at least a month or two away. Dang that was quick.

Kelly probably forced this and Blotus will find a way to explode and make it all worse.

Mitt's got other problems but kudos to him for this.

"I will dispense for now from discussion of the moral character of the president's Charlottesville statements. Whether he intended to or not, what he communicated caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn. His apologists strain to explain that he didn't mean what we heard. But what we heard is now the reality, and unless it is addressed by the president as such, with unprecedented candor and strength, there may commence an unraveling of our national fabric.
The leaders of our branches of military service have spoken immediately and forcefully, repudiating the implications of the president's words. Why? In part because the morale and commitment of our forces--made up and sustained by men and women of all races--could be in the balance. Our allies around the world are stunned and our enemies celebrate; America's ability to help secure a peaceful and prosperous world is diminished. And who would want to come to the aid of a country they perceive as racist if ever the need were to arise, as it did after 9/11?
In homes across the nation, children are asking their parents what this means. Jews, blacks, Hispanics, Muslims are as much a part of America as whites and Protestants. But today they wonder. Where might this lead? To bitterness and tears, or perhaps to anger and violence?
The potential consequences are severe in the extreme. Accordingly, the president must take remedial action in the extreme. He should address the American people, acknowledge that he was wrong, apologize. State forcefully and unequivocally that racists are 100% to blame for the murder and violence in Charlottesville. Testify that there is no conceivable comparison or moral equivalency between the Nazis--who brutally murdered millions of Jews and who hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives to defeat--and the counter-protestors who were outraged to see fools parading the Nazi flag, Nazi armband and Nazi salute. And once and for all, he must definitively repudiate the support of David Duke and his ilk and call for every American to banish racists and haters from any and every association.
This is a defining moment for President Trump. But much more than that, it is a moment that will define America in the hearts of our children. They are watching, our soldiers are watching, the world is watching. Mr. President, act now for the good of the country."

Republican "leaders" are hiding both from their constituents and the media. I'll bet they're meeting/communicating with one-another, however.

Blotus goes to Camp David this weekend. To avoid protestors? Or because serious people are going to have a talk with him?

I don't think he's going to last much longer. Last weekend WAS the tipping point.

The Gaffney "Peachoid" is in fact painted a rather bright orange. It's 135 feet tall.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Peachoid-gaffney.png

I may be wrong, but I recall it being very nearly pink in the late '80s when I first saw it, the switch to orange may have been intended to de-emphasize human connotations.

As a Trump Monument I would add curtain wall "Nazi Pants" to the lower half and some fiberglass shoes. The overall color scheme would be Aryan White, except for a red hat garnish. It's an abstract concept that works from a distance. The golf flag would have to be about 200' tall.

I'd like to see it sighted at the East Potamac Golf Course and Driving Range in Southwest Washington D.C. Good sight lines from I 395 and the 14th Street bridge.

When does Trump resign in deep disgrace?
Mid 2018
Where does he seek asylum?
Prison... unless he is pardoned by a namby-pamby successor afraid of the good fellas and/or the oligarchs... a.k.a. the mob.
What would a Trump Monument look like?
Exactly like the statue of Hitler in Germany: Nonexistent.

Anybody seen the Gaffney Peach? As you drive by it resembles a huge buttocks bending over. Good starting point. Just add a golf flag and a hand reaching into the cup.

A very tiny hand. :)

Whatever the monument would be, it would need to be bright orange.

Oooo, a teaser trailer! (cue announcer:) In a world..

Extra cinema butter on my popcorn, please - to hell with cholesterol!

But the country is trippin' on Trump right now, so we'll have to get back to that when we've sobered up, and had about a million cups of coffee.

So word on the street is:
* The Washington Post is holding a story they've been asked not to run because it involves a national security issue... still in a holding pattern on that one.
* In a couple weeks, people that Donald Trump doesn't want talking will be talking.

Popcorn ready... two weeks. :)

So, seriously, here's the thing about the monuments: Trump doesn't give two sheets about the darned monuments; he's simply using the "our heritage/history" talk in order to turn the conversation from a discussion about the KKK and Nazis (which he'll lose) into a discussion about statues. Don't let him turn the conversation... don't take the bait... FOCUS.

I don't think it too soon for another contest. When does Trump resign in deep disgrace? Where does he seek asylum? Part two isn't entirely gratuitous snark on my part....I don't think he can handle being a National Bad Joke. Trump has never been wrong in his 71 yrs....he's not about to start now.

What would a Trump Monument look like? I remember a cartoon Nixon Monument from the '70s. It was a hole in the ground the size and shape of an inverted Washington Monument.

Anybody seen the Gaffney Peach? As you drive by it resembles a huge buttocks bending over. Good starting point. Just add a golf flag and a hand reaching tnto the cup.

If course, it's because we're addicted to oil. If we could get it through the thick heads of the Right that the best part of 'clean energy' is that its 'our energy', and that natural gas is our methadone - just a step toward kicking that fossil fuel habit forever, which would make the country stronger, and more independent. They should think of the term 'clean energy' as a synonym for 'not kissing Saudi ass'.

But the country is trippin' on Trump right now, so we'll have to get back to that when we've sobered up, and had about a million cups of coffee.

The same thing that primarily set us apart then: respect for human rights, and the right of all people to political self-determination through a representative government.

China continues to mete harsh sentences to political dissidents; Putin simply has them thrown off buildings, or dosed with poison (depending on how subtle he's feeling that day, I suppose). Neither country has a free press. Both exhibit the trappings of capitalism, consumerism, and conspicuous consumption, but both are essentially Command Economies, subject to political dictates from top to bottom.

Reagan would say that America is set apart by its credo that the people are the masters of the government, not the other way around.

There have been changes in both China and Russia, to be sure. Russia is no longer communist hell, it's now rather Kleptocratic Plutocratic Autocratic hell. The chinese have allowed some of their citizens to become rich, but still mouth the words of Mao, and deny that the Tieneman Square massacre ever happened.

Above all, Reagan was a pragmatist. He'd counsel, 'be wary' when dealing with nuclear armed superpowers, at the very least.

“To me, it’s just like going to New York City right now and taking down the monument of those who perished in 9/11."

That would be true if the 9/11 Memorial consisted of statues honoring the hi-jackers.

Wise advice and timely quotes.

However, those agreeing with the second part of Reagan's speech at this time (when the evil empire of communism is gone) would put them in the same camp as the neoliberals and neocons who espouse spending trillions on military interventions and spending another trillion dollars on new nuclear weapons that can never be used in support of an empire with over a thousand military bases around the world and "aggressive impulses"...
... essentially becoming what we were fighting against.

Perhaps what Lee said should be considered as a guide for our current foreign policy?

We beat the "evil empire".
Instead of allowing that massive military might built to defeat evil to shift to new, different enemies or rekindling old ones (now operating under the same ideology as Wall Street) using tenuous justifications, and continuing endless war...

...obliterating the effects of war, some healing of dissensions, some promotion of harmony, and restoring the blessings of peace would seem to be in order... as Lee suggested.

Why would Reagan be astonished?
Putin is a capitalist.
Are you claiming Reagan was lying and was motivated by something other than the evil ideology of communism?
Would he consider Russian or Chinese capitalists just as dangerous?
If so, what is it that sets us apart now?

A

JL