At Boing Boing, "Happy Bowiemas! Celebrate by listening to Bowie yucking it up impersonating other singers."
I miss him.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
A Legitimate Contender, Establishment Democrats Afraid Bernie Sanders Could Win
Frankly, I hope he does win.
We'll have a very clear choice in November. And at least with Bernie, the rank-and-file won't be able to claim their party's "not socialist."
At the Associated Press:
We'll have a very clear choice in November. And at least with Bernie, the rank-and-file won't be able to claim their party's "not socialist."
At the Associated Press:
He raised more money than any other Democratic candidate in the last quarter — virtually all of it from small-dollar donors — and he’s considered a legitimate contender to win Iowa and New Hampshire next month. https://t.co/v9zn6oBtlb— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) January 8, 2020
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Increasingly alarmed that Bernie Sanders could become their party’s presidential nominee, establishment-minded Democrats are warning primary voters that the self-described democratic socialist would struggle to defeat President Donald Trump and hurt the party’s chances in premier House, Senate and governors’ races.
The urgent warnings come as Sanders shows new signs of strength on the ground in the first two states on the presidential primary calendar, Iowa and New Hampshire, backed by a dominant fundraising operation. The Vermont senator has largely escaped close scrutiny over the last year as his rivals doubted the quirky 78-year-old’s ability to win the nomination. But less than a month before Iowa’s kickoff caucuses, the doubters are being forced to take Sanders seriously.
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, previously a senior aide to President Barack Obama, warned Democrats that Sanders’ status as a democratic socialist and his unwavering support for “Medicare for All” won’t play well among swing voters in the states that matter most in 2020.
“You need a candidate with a message that can help us win swing voters in battleground states,” Emanuel said in an interview. “The degree of difficulty dramatically increases under a Bernie Sanders candidacy. It just gets a lot harder.”
The increasingly vocal concerns are coming from a number of political veterans tied to the Obama administration and the 2020 field’s moderate wing, including those backing former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet.
In some ways, the criticism is not surprising.
Sanders has spent decades fighting to transform the nation’s political and economic systems, creating a long list of political adversaries along the way. Many people connected to Hillary Clinton, for example, still blame Sanders for not working hard enough to support her after their long and bitter presidential primary feud in 2016. Some Democrats still accuse him of not being enough of a team player.
Sanders’ chief strategist Jeff Weaver dismissed the growing criticism as a reflection of the strength of his candidacy.
He raised more money than any other Democratic candidate in the last quarter — virtually all of it from small-dollar donors — and he’s considered a legitimate contender to win Iowa and New Hampshire next month...
'13 Minutes'
At the People's Cube, lol.
John Krasinski to star in Trump era remake of Benghazi movie “13 Hours”— The People's Cube 🚁🤸 (@ThePeoplesCube) January 1, 2020
It’s called “13 Minutes”. It chronicles the 13 minutes from when the Marines landed at our Baghdad embassy to when the Iranian backed militias ran like cowards.#Benghazi
Disgruntled 93-Year-Old Shoots Apartment Manager in Las Vegas (VIDEO)
Well, I'd like to shoot my apartment manager sometimes too, dang!
At London's Daily Mail, "Astonishing moment a 93-year-old man shoots an apartment complex manager in both legs out of revenge after his Las Vegas home was hit by flooding."
And at ABC 7 Eyewitness News Los Angeles:
At London's Daily Mail, "Astonishing moment a 93-year-old man shoots an apartment complex manager in both legs out of revenge after his Las Vegas home was hit by flooding."
And at ABC 7 Eyewitness News Los Angeles:
CNN Attacks Babylon Bee
This is endlessly tickling.
At Instapundit, "HEH: CNN Attacks Babylon Bee: ‘The Internet Is Only Big Enough For One Fake News Site’."
At Instapundit, "HEH: CNN Attacks Babylon Bee: ‘The Internet Is Only Big Enough For One Fake News Site’."
CNN Attacks Babylon Bee: 'The Internet Is Only Big Enough For One Fake News Site' https://t.co/Mq0IAYhwAf
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 7, 2020
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Leave Your Pronouns!
At the door, that is.
It's Boy George, of Culture Club fame, at Instapundit, "WHEN YOUR GENDER-BLENDING CAMPAIGN HAS LOST BOY GEORGE."
And Twitchy, "Does he really want to hurt SJWs? Boy George wants everyone to ‘leave your pronouns at the door!’"
BONUS: Flashback to 1995, at NYT, "Boy George: Switching Pronouns."
It's Boy George, of Culture Club fame, at Instapundit, "WHEN YOUR GENDER-BLENDING CAMPAIGN HAS LOST BOY GEORGE."
And Twitchy, "Does he really want to hurt SJWs? Boy George wants everyone to ‘leave your pronouns at the door!’"
Leave your pronoun's at the door!
— Boy George (@BoyGeorge) January 6, 2020
BONUS: Flashback to 1995, at NYT, "Boy George: Switching Pronouns."
What Tehran is Likely to Do Next
I think we're at war already.
It's been proxy war for 40 years.
The latest is the rocket strikes on Iraqi military bases (targeting American personnel).
No casualties yet, but this latest conflagration is really just getting started. Neither side seems to want deescalation, and each side's target domestic audience is highly supportive of the action, and thus there's little political incentive to stand down.
I'll have more, as I always do.
In any case, from Ilan Goldenberg, at Foreign Affairs, "Will Iran’s Response to the Soleimani Strike Lead to War?":
It's been proxy war for 40 years.
The latest is the rocket strikes on Iraqi military bases (targeting American personnel).
No casualties yet, but this latest conflagration is really just getting started. Neither side seems to want deescalation, and each side's target domestic audience is highly supportive of the action, and thus there's little political incentive to stand down.
I'll have more, as I always do.
In any case, from Ilan Goldenberg, at Foreign Affairs, "Will Iran’s Response to the Soleimani Strike Lead to War?":
Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, was one of the most influential and popular figures in the Islamic Republic and a particular nemesis of the United States. He led Iran’s campaign to arm and train Shiite militias in Iraq—militias responsible for the deaths of an estimated 600 American troops from 2003 to 2011— and became the chief purveyor of Iranian political influence in Iraq thereafter, most notably through his efforts to fight the Islamic State (ISIS). He drove Iran’s policies to arm and support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including by deploying an estimated 50,000 Shiite militia fighters to Syria. He was the point man for Iran’s relationship with Hezbollah in Lebanon, helping to supply the group with missiles and rockets to threaten Israel. He drove Iran’s strategy to arm the Houthis in Yemen. For all these reasons and more, Soleimani was a cult hero in Iran and across the region.
In short, the United States has taken a highly escalatory step in assassinating one of the most important and powerful men in the Middle East.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump argues that Soleimani was a terrorist and that assassinating him was a defensive action that stopped an imminent attack. Both of those assertions may or may not be true, but the United States would never have felt compelled to act against the Iranian general if not for the reckless policy the administration has pursued since it came into office. In May 2018, Trump left the Iran nuclear agreement and adopted a “maximum pressure” policy of economic sanctions on Iran. For a year, Iran responded with restraint in an effort to isolate the United States diplomatically and win economic concessions from other parties to the nuclear agreement.
But the restrained approach failed to yield material benefits. By May 2019, Tehran had chosen instead to breach the agreement and escalate tensions across the region. First came Iranian mine attacks against international shipping in May and June. Then Iran shot down a U.S. drone, nearly touching off an open conflict with the United States. In September, Iranian missiles struck the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia—arguably the most important piece of oil infrastructure in the world. Shiite militia groups began launching rockets at U.S. bases in Iraq, ultimately leading to the death of an American contractor last week. Retaliatory U.S. strikes eventually brought us to the Soleimani assassination.
The most important question now is how will Iran respond. The Islamic Republic’s behavior over the past few months and over its long history suggests that it may not rush to retaliate. Rather, it will carefully and patiently choose an approach that it deems effective, and it will likely try to avoid an all-out war with the United States. Nonetheless, the events of the past few days demonstrate that the risk of miscalculation is incredibly high. Soleimani clearly didn’t believe that the United States was going to dramatically escalate or he wouldn’t have left himself so vulnerable, only a stone’s throw away from U.S. military forces in Iraq. For his part, Trump has been adamant about his lack of interest in starting a new war in the Middle East—and yet, here we are at the precipice.
The United States must, at a minimum, expect to find itself in conflict with Shiite militias in Iraq that will target U.S. forces, diplomats, and civilians. Iraq is the theater where the U.S. strike took place and therefore the most rational place for Iran to immediately respond. Moreover, the militia groups have already been escalating their activities over the past six months. They are among Iran’s most responsive proxies and will be highly motivated, given that Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, one of their top commanders, was killed in the strike along with Soleimani.
Whether a U.S. presence in Iraq is still viable remains an open question. The security situation, which has certainly now been complicated, is not the only problem. The assassination was such an extreme violation of Iraqi sovereignty—done unilaterally, without Iraqi government consent—that Iraqi officials will come under tremendous political pressure to eject U.S. forces. Many Iraqis have no love for either the United States or Iran. They just want to have their country back to themselves and fear being put in the middle of a U.S.-Iranian confrontation. The current situation could turn into a worst-case scenario for these citizens.
But a chaotic U.S. withdrawal under fire could also present real dangers. The mission to counter ISIS remains a going concern, and if the United States is forced to leave Iraq, that effort could suffer a serious blow. ISIS retains an underground presence and could take advantage of the chaos of an American withdrawal or a U.S.-Iranian conflict to improve its position in Iraq.
The repercussions of the assassination won’t necessarily be confined to Iraq. Lebanese Hezbollah, which enjoys a close relationship with Iran and is likely to be responsive to Iranian requests, could attack American targets in Lebanon. Even if Iran decides to avoid a major escalation in Lebanon, Hezbollah operatives are distributed throughout the Middle East and could attack the United States elsewhere in the region. Alternatively, Hezbollah may choose to launch missile attacks on Israeli territory, although this response is less likely. Hezbollah wants to avoid an all-out war with Israel that would devastate Lebanon, and the Trump administration has publicly taken credit for killing Soleimani, increasing the likelihood that a retaliatory strike will target the United States directly.
Iran could conduct missile strikes against U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates or against oil facilities in the Gulf. The accuracy of Iran’s missile strikes on the Abqaiq oil facility in September took the United States and the rest of the world by surprise, although Iran did purposefully attempt to keep the attack limited and symbolic. In the current climate, Iran could choose to become much more aggressive, calculating that in the arena of missile strikes it has been highly successful in landing blows while avoiding retaliation over the past six months.
We should also expect Iran to significantly accelerate its nuclear program. Since the Trump administration left the Iran nuclear agreement in May 2018, Iran has been quite restrained in its nuclear response. After a year of staying in the deal, in May 2019, Iran began to incrementally violate the agreement by taking small steps every 60 days. The next 60-day window ends next week, and it is hard to imagine restraint in the wake of Soleimani’s death. At a minimum, Iran will restart enriching uranium to 19.75 percent, a significant step toward weapons-grade uranium. It has recently threatened to go even further by walking away from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or kicking out inspectors. These would be profoundly dangerous moves, and until this week most analysts believed Tehran was unlikely to actually make them. Now they may well be on the table.
Perhaps the most provocative thing Iran could do is carry out a terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland or attempt to kill a senior U.S. official of Soleimani’s stature...
TikTok Hype House in Los Angeles
I can't even.
You have kids, and some very young adults, who are the world's leading influencers on TikTok, which I'm still figuring out. I had to ask my oldest son what's so great about it.
In any case, this piece is fascinating, and mind-boggling.
At NYT:
You have kids, and some very young adults, who are the world's leading influencers on TikTok, which I'm still figuring out. I had to ask my oldest son what's so great about it.
In any case, this piece is fascinating, and mind-boggling.
At NYT:
And please read my story on the TikTok mansion/collab house gold rush happening in LA! https://t.co/btfWpsZkdi
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) January 6, 2020
Playmate Iryna in Bikini and Wet T-Shirt (I Think)
This woman's unreal.
Always wet 😅 TEXT ME HERE https://t.co/M03maYOVmJ pic.twitter.com/dHuBeu0BQy— playmateiryna (@IrynaIvanova) January 5, 2020
Salma Hayek Slays the Golden Globes (PHOTOS)
Wow.
Just wow.
Also, at the N.Y. Post, "Cleavage-happy stars let it all hang out at the 2020 Golden Globes."
BONUS: Madeline Osburn, at the Federalist, "Thanks to the Golden Globes, Boobs are Officially Back."
Just wow.
Here we go! #GoldenGlobes ✨ Aquí vamos pic.twitter.com/sjn79quAVQ— Salma Hayek (@salmahayek) January 6, 2020
I’m so proud of my friend Patricia Arquette, who gave two of the best performances on TV this season.— Salma Hayek (@salmahayek) January 6, 2020
Estoy muy orgullosa de mi amiga Patricia Arquette, que dio 2 de las mejores actuaciones este año en TV. #GoldenGlobes2020 @PattyArquette pic.twitter.com/wCiPyY7asC
Also, at the N.Y. Post, "Cleavage-happy stars let it all hang out at the 2020 Golden Globes."
BONUS: Madeline Osburn, at the Federalist, "Thanks to the Golden Globes, Boobs are Officially Back."
Monday, December 30, 2019
Armed Congregants Kill Gunman at Texas Church (VIDEO)
At the Other McCain, "UPDATE: Texas Church Shooter Identified as Homeless Criminal Keith Kinnunen."
ABC's report, with video, is here.
ABC's report, with video, is here.
Solution to mass shootings- Good guys with gunshttps://t.co/TqoeYcPsED— GrrrGraphics Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) December 29, 2019
Playmate Iryna Loves the Ocean
And she's completely nude here.
How much do u love the view of the...ocean? 😘 LINK IN BIO for best view https://t.co/3newd5j9qj pic.twitter.com/WiILlFy6Qg— playmateiryna (@IrynaIvanova) December 28, 2019
'Black Jews'
Seen on Twitter.
This person deleted her account.
This person deleted her account.
Let’s go over everything that’s wrong with progressive thinking among minority groups....A hateful black man stabs Jews, & there is an immediate focus on black Jews & white supremacy. White supremacists & black Jews were not involved here... #Monsey pic.twitter.com/99O8JAPa1c— Rocky KAG 🌐 (@IWiIlkaga) December 29, 2019
Bose QuietComfort Wireless Bluetooth Headphones
Noise-cancelling.
At Amazon, Bose QuietComfort 35 II Wireless Bluetooth Headphones, Noise-Cancelling, with Alexa voice control, enabled with Bose AR – Black.
BONUS: Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble: A Novel.
At Amazon, Bose QuietComfort 35 II Wireless Bluetooth Headphones, Noise-Cancelling, with Alexa voice control, enabled with Bose AR – Black.
BONUS: Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble: A Novel.
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