One of Those Days

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Nothing is grabbing at me and yelling at me to write about it. We seem to be on a rerun loop. Today’s big items:

The Administration wants to put together an anti-ISIS coalition.

Paul Krugman complains that hardly anyone who influences economic policy is being influenced by competent economists.

Thomas Franks and some other leftie commenters appear to be having a pissing contest.

The crew that Breitbart left in charge of his empire when he died has a collective IQ in the negative numbers. Oh, and they’re being audited by the IRS

Schizophrenia is a genetic disorder. Eight different genetic disorders, actually.  Right now I think I may have about five of them. Just kidding.

Lindsey Graham must be the most terrified man in America.

Here’s the cheerful news: While Nate Silver still shows the Republicans are likely to take the Senate, the odds have changed. Today he’s saying the GOP has a 54.7 percent chance of taking the Senate; on September 9 the GOP had a 63.8 percent chance of taking the Senate, according to Nate. Sam Wang puts the Dems at 80 percent.

 

 

13 thoughts on “One of Those Days”

  3. Yeah, I hope Wang is right.

    As for Graham, the piss your pants in fear act is really embarrassing. I want to believe he’s (over)playing it for effect, e.g. scare the bejezzus out of the rubes so they can get their war on, yet again. They know the world won’t stand for another Colin Powell lie fest, so Graham is going to piss his pants in public every chance he gets.

  4. I try to focus on issues rather than personalities. (I don’t always succeed.) Lindsey Graham is one wacked-out personality that derails my (attempted) objectivity. His whole schtick is offensive to me, probably because he makes no pretense of objectivity.

    Here’s the obvious deal. If the fanatics behind the beheadings had the capability to strike at the US, I think it’s likely they would. They haven’t succeeded on any significant scale since Sept. 11 2001. The only way the zealots can kill thousands of Americans is if we deliver thousands of Americans in desert camouflage uniforms for them to strike at.

    A very expensive war with US soldiers in the conflict is what they want. They cant get at us here, so they need us to come over there. Asymetric warfare works both ways. If we dive into spending billions on a war half way around the world with GI blood being spilled daily, we are stuck in the conflict they want because it bleeds us economically. Afghan insurgents believe they toppled the USSR and maybe they did. They want the US in an ‘Afghanistan’ conflict – expensive and bloody and impossible to quit. I am not sure if I agree with Obama in how he’s going to prosecute a conflict in a very limited way. But at least hypothetically, if we can use technology to ONLY hit military targets and especially take out leadership, we can hurt, but not defeat, the fanatics without spilling GI blood, at a cost we can absorb. Hypothetically. (If the US takes out another wedding with a drone strike, all bets are off.)

    The murders of journalists and aid workers can’t be ignored. Civilians in the region should not be punished, but military targets should be pounded in ways they can’t respond to. Inflict punishment with no casualties until they release all hostages or execute all hostages. But don’t ignore them – don’t reward them and for Allah’s sake – NO civilian casualties.

  5. Senator Lindsey Graham (Hysterical Ninny – SC-loset) is running for reelection, and is just appealing to his bases hate, fear, and bigotry.
    Look, no one wants to have their head lopped-off, but even if IS could send all 30,000 fighters over here in one day, it’s beyond very doubtful that they could lop the heads off of all the South Carolinians, let alone all 300+ million of the rest of us.
    “Man up!”, Senator.

    • Righties really are like little children who think everything in the world is about them. ISIS is attempting to establish itself as a ruling power in the Middle East. Even assuming they had the capability, exactly how does invading the United States accomplish that?

      This is not to say there is no reason to be concerned about ISIS at all. Anything that further destabilizes that region is a concern. And it’s always possible that at some point in the future ISIS could morph into a terrorist organization with a more global reach. But it seems nobody with actual knowledge of the situation is concerned that ISIS is a direct threat to the U.S.

  6. Lindsey (oh my stars) Graham is a performance artist, he is not a statesman and should be taken seriously. He is a war-pimp being paid to drum up support for endless war. As far as I’m concerned any TeeVee show that provides the war-pimp a platform is itself a war-pimp. It is revealing that as Mr. Graham tries to project a macho tough guy image he comes off as a scared little boy (they are going to kill us all). Just be yourself Lindsey it’s OK you were born that way!

  8. Why is Graham so eager to validate ISIS? Doesn’t he realize that ISIS is intentionally beheading American and British citizens in order to provoke a response that gives them more power than they otherwise could achieve on their own. Why elevate them with a Henny Penny response?

    If Obama was smart he’d introduce a resolution at the United Nations to make ISIS a sovereign nation that include all the territory they now hold. It might seem like a lame idea, but I suspect it would get some of the surrounding states to take more of an active role in eliminating ISIS.
    To my mind ISIS poses a bigger threat to Islam and the Middle East region than it does to the United States.

  9. ”

    Why is Graham so eager to validate ISIS? Doesn’t he realize that ISIS is intentionally beheading American and British citizens in order to provoke a response that gives them more power than they otherwise could achieve on their own. Why elevate them with a Henny Penny response?”

    Based on what, exactly? ISIS has claimed the beheadings were to get the U.S. to *stop* airstrikes against them, and I see no reason why they’d want to encourage the sort of massive direct action that could quite likely decimate the organization entirely.

  11. Based on what, exactly?

    Based on the idea that their claims to stop the bombings are just a ruse to further draw the US into the conflict. Nothing serves a jihadi recruiting drive more than a good enemy like the great Satan.

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