Another Glass Menagerie

1.  I have contemplated Marie Y.  (all day yesterday)  IMO she did very well.  This lady reminds me of women I have known who were basically secular nuns.  Conservative everything; hair do, clothes (tasteful), carefully limited comments, no sniveling , a willingness to smile at them after the Republicans decided that the best thing would be to praise her.  She is a winsome creature of obviously high intellect.  I have looked around the internet and see no one who claims she is gay.  She seems to live alone, alone with her work.  She tried living with her 88 year old mother three years ago but that did not last.  What would the old girl have done with herself in Kiev with her daughter working all the time?   So, the maman went home to the States.  Marie is still employed as a Career Ambassador (a high rank) in the Foreign Service of of the United States  She is currently assigned at Georgetown U.   It is too bad for the Dems that she is ineligible to be president because of her foreign birth.   What is her gripe?  She lost the love of her life, diplomatic work.  A word about the Foreign Service in general might be needed.  To hear these stuck up creatures praised  for their resolute service in "dangerous hardship posts" is funny.  Whatever can be shipped in for their comfort is sent.  Ask Ambassador William Taylor, a once upon a time infantry company commander, or Ambassador Ron Neumann (rifle platoon leader in VN) if he believes the Foreign Service suffers much except from thwarted ambition.

2.  Adam Schiff.  The GOP should work on weaponizing his nasty little personality against the Democrats.  The spectacle on TeeVee yesterday of Schiff repeatedly gavelling  GOP members into silence was most instructive.  He is from Burbank?  Land of Johnny Carson?  How does that happen?  Tell me.

3.  IMO the Dems have an entertaining but ineffective set of candidates for president;  Joe Biden - senile, corrupt and nasty, Bernie - a hypocritical member of the rentier class, a man who reminds me of the early American communists who flocked to the USSR to fight for the revolution (John Reed, etc.), We are all just waiting for Bernie's physical collapse,  Warren, while waiting for Bernie to go, is burdened by her history of obvious falsehoods and a lack of understanding of basic economics.  If she gets the nomination, she will lose because there are just not enough dummies who can't do arithmetic,   Bloomberg - Nah!  Deval Patrick, the man who is an enemy of capitalism and is now employed by a hedge fund?  Nah!  Buttigiege is their best bet.  His gayness, cuteness, smartness, veteranness,  "family" manness, moderateness, all point to He bein' da man.  If he were smart enough to pick the lovely Tulsi for VP, he might well win

4.  Trump.  A NY City junk yard business dog  incapable of real feelings for other people.  He sees them all as tools to advance his agenda, namely himself.  His pretensions to patriotism or nationalism are unconvincing for me.  Policy positions are just public relations for him, but he knows he must perform on these implied promises or fatally lose support.  He said recently that his major failing in his first three years was "personnel."  I would agree with that.  He is really an empty suit.  People do not give their all for empty suits.  Trump can be beaten but not by running dotards, communists or obvious phonies against him  pl

Comments

[Eric Newhill]

Sir,
"Let self interest do the job of virtue" has been a corner stone of the American since day 1. I'll take the man who understands that his personal success depends on delivering on his promises. That's the way it's supposed to work. Therefore, Trump.

All of the rest is hopeless romanticism.

Tulsi is a one trick pony; foreign policy - and it's already boring. What makes anyone think she'd be any more successful with her FP than Trump? Basically, her FP is Trump's. I do not think she can do math or economics any better than Liz Warren. Should she make it onto a ticket, that will become painfully obvious.

You don't like the current economy? You don't like Trump's thwarting of borgist ambitions?

[Jose]

"Bloomberg" Nah!"

Bloomberg's only purpose is use his candidacy to attack Trump.

As a candidate, he is allowed to the exceed the campaign finance laws.

He has to many investments in China and Trump is threat to his terminals..lol

Human rights, concentration camps, and American decline to not matter to him, just profits.

[J]

Colonel,

Whichever bone-head becomes the next POTUS, one thing that is staring us between the cross-hairs -- China.

Henry Kissinger has been watching and is not really happy. He see that if we don't get our sH*t together [my euphemism] with China, we're going to be in deep 김치 kimchi, the entire planet will.

Henry Kissinger warns of ‘catastrophic’ conflicts unless China and US settle their differences

‘It will be worse than the world wars that ruined European civilisation,’ says former secretary of state and adviser to Richard Nixon

One side cannot dominate the other – and they have to get used to that, veteran diplomat says

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3037870/kissinger-warns-us-and-china-their-conflicts-will-be

[divadab]

Colonel: I must object to your characterisation of Bernie Sanders as "Bernie - a hypocritical member of the rentier class". If that were true, how is it that Senator Sanders gets 20-40% of the Republican vote in Vermont? Vermonters have a keen disdain for fakery and they know from experience that Bernie is honest and hard-working. If he were not he would not have been re-elected mayor of Burlington three times, served as VT Representative for 16 years, and since being elected Senator in 2007 been re-elected twice.

Have you visited Burlington? It's a fine small city with a waterfront that is accessible to all and not clogged up with condo developments thanks to Bernie. Ask any Vermonter why they vote for Bernie and they answer "Because he works for us". He's certainly not in it for the money like the utterly corrupt Democrat party establishment, who cheated him out of the 2016 nomination. IMHO he's the only declared Dem nominee who can beat Trump - he's the real deal. But you can count on the scum in the Dem apparatus and the scum in the lugenpresse to do all they can to make sure that doesn't happen and Trump will get a second term.

Yes he is very weak on foreign policy - consider his religion. But it is long overdue for someone, anyone in the federal apparatus to actually work for citizens instead of fellating wealthy donors so they can have their privileged positions bought for them.

[rjj]

@ PL: He sees them all as tools to advance his agenda, namely himself. His pretensions to patriotism or nationalism are unconvincing for me.

The other people's motives problem is distinguishing knowledge from attribution, so usually belongs in the headspace "God Wot" file. His survival instincts may be more important than his personal sentiments. What people do and/or don't do is the test. When personally conflicted I discovered that it is easier to do right out of vanity. Virtue tends to go all flabby, starts weazeling and putting out rationalizations.

[turcopolier]

All

I will vote for Trump, but I am not blind to his faults. I am asked if I have no party loyalties. I do not. I am also asked how senile I are. Maybe. Judge for yourself. I continue hosting SST because I am what I always was; an original intent textual constitutionalist A lot of you are laughable in your pretensions to intellect, but I continue to try to educate. Some of you write draft comments that are simply trolling of various kinds. It would be fine with me if readership went to zero tomorrow. I would not mind at all.

[Factotum]

Burbank = Hollywood = California brain-dead, anti-Trump and virtue-signaling Democrats.

[Factotum]

Key to Trump - pay more attention to what he does; not what or how he says it.

[Jus'Thinkin]

How about a Bernie - Tulsi ticket? She is young and would be there should Bernie shuffle off this mortal coil.

One thing not many folks comment on is Bernie's base which will get out and pound the pavement for him if nominated. He has a lot of very loyal supporters. His ability to get his people on the street talking to neighbors could prove decisive, particularly if the economy takes a dive.

[Factotum]

Missing ingredient- how internally stable is China - 1.3 billion people from stone age to modern era with a relatively very brief recent political history is a tough crowd to manage at home.

Their recent burst of infrastructure modernization is already starting to crumble. All "revolutions" seem to corrupt themselves after three generations as family loyalties take priority over a solid constitutional framework.

China did raise an entire generation of spoiled brats with their one child policies. That is the wild card in their future, just like the generations of fetal alcohol-syndrome babies weakened the USSR.

[turcopolier]

Justhinkin' What kind of odds could you give me on Bernie flying away soon?

[turcopolier]

Factotum

That is why I will vote for him.

[Factotum]

Very nervous we choose a President on symbolic grounds and overlook the need to be a large business operations manager. Which is why the deep state was able to move into the Executive Branch power vacuum.

Please someone with a lick of big business operations at a CEO level - even small town mayor Pete has more business sense than the rest of the clown pack.

Bloomberg is obviously up there in business skills, but so is Trump. Trump's biggest weakness is that his business experience was with a small, closely held family corporation - he could hire, fire, and operate at will and whim and be accountable only to family shareholders.

Personally prefer former governors, but look at the early rejection when some pretty valid ones showed up in the Democrat pack and disappeared almost overnight.
Reagan was a good President - former governor. Cliton (with personal flaws) was a good President - former governor.

There are political skills that can only come from practie; not just posing. Hence the debris and lethal power vacuums left behind the Obama administration.

[Factotum]

Will key Sanders cabinet officer Sandy Cortez allow Bernie to select someone who will outshine her?

[English Outsider]

That's the first time I've seen "winsome" used with an edge.

I watched her for some time and didn't know what on earth to make of her.  She looked to be a most convincing and dignified victim but it was difficult to work out quite what she'd been a victim of.  

I think our closest equivalent over here would be Lady Ashton, who headed up the pre-coup European negotiations with the Ukraine.  It was Lady Ashton who gave the most famous diplomatic response in modern history, when she was told that the snipers might be provocateurs.  "Gosh."

A very safe pair of hands, is what would be said of both and almost certainly often is.  

I did know what to make of the histrionics just before the recess.  They looked false.  That man wasn't really crying. And Chairman Schiff looked as scary as usual.  If I could open my eyes that wide I'd make a fortune in horror movies.  Which I suppose is more or less what he does.

[turcopolier]

Eric Newhill

To repeat myself (sign of dementia) I will vote for Trump in spite of his total absence of manners and culture because the economy is booming and I am richer every day.

[turcopolier]

English Outsider

Marie IMO was always the second best looking girl in the class but maybe teacher's pet, and has never had anyone take anything away from her before. "Gosh." She doesn't look like someone you could safely make a pass at unless you had an awful lot of rank.

[Jack]

Sir

To get it out of the way, I don’t vote the duopoly for President. I always vote against the incumbent for every other position. I’m in the minority in my views. I believe the symbiotic relationship between Big Business and Big Government is detrimental to our constitutional republic and we can see the consequences over the last several decades.

Elections in contemporary America it seems is all about voting for the lesser evil. Very few, IMO, vote their conscience.

Having said that I agree with your characterization of the various candidates. I believe that Trump also has no follow through and he’s also a bit of a coward. While I agree with his foreign policy instincts in ending American interventionism overseas, he’s not really delivered in the area where he has full authority. Take the Syrian withdrawal order as an example. Where’s the follow through? US forces are still deeply entrenched there. Now to “protect” the Syrian oil fields.

I say he’s a bit of a coward in light of the fact that he’s continually passed the buck on declassification of Spygate and has allowed the usurpation of powers by the intelligence and law enforcement apparatus to be shielded from the American people. The argument that he was concerned that he would be charged with obstruction is hollow. That’s exactly what the Democrats are gonna do as Nancy seems committed and has the votes to impeach on a purely party line vote.

The Democrats too don’t have the candidates who IMO are going to address the systemic issues that created the zeitgeist that Trump was able to exploit in 2016. The two party system of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum has passed its sell date. So what we have are the same stale items on the shelf but the majority of the electorate are consumed by partisan warfare on the side of either Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum. Sad!

[turcopolier]

factotum

Government is NOT like business! Its balance sheet has only one side, the expenses side. Trump can't seem to get that through his head.

[b]

"- 1.3 billion people from stone age to modern era with a relatively very brief recent political history is a tough crowd to manage at home. "

You obviously know nothing about Chinese history and culture which was WAY more developed than any European ones before its was smashed by British imperialism which, for a short period of time, had the better weapons.

[turcopolier]

divadab

Vermonters have always been an ornery lot. As an example the state never had any sexual censorship laws with regard to movies. All the surrounding states had them. IMO the Ben and Jerry's horde of refugees from New York City brought their leftist ideas with them and they make a difference in such a small state. He and his wife own several residential properties that they rent out. They are not of the "rentier" class? What kind of socialist revisionists are they to do that?

[b]

"Buttigiege is their best bet. His gayness, cuteness, smartness, veteranness, "family" manness, moderateness, all point to He bein' da man."

The guy smells strongly of being CIA man under cover of being a McKinsey consultant. What was his real job in Afghanistan and elsewhere?

[turcopolier]

b

Now you have lost it. CIA does not run candidates in US elections They don't need to. They will always get their money from Congress no matter what they do. CIA runs candidates in German elections. Abu Dajjaj (Butagiege)had a nothing job in a big tent at the headquarters air base where he was assigned because the Navy accepted his request to be so assigned. He was a direct commission reserve officer. As a politician he knew it would be an important credential. A desk job, a big nothing.

[Jack]

“I am what I always was; an original intent textual constitutionalist...”

Sir

That’s what every American ought to be, IMO. The problem however is not just the intent and principles of the founding of our republic but also the character of the people. That IMO has changed profoundly. You have noted “honor” in my years reading your writing. Where’s honor in our contemporary leadership? It seems that most are focused on personal gain and celebrity over any responsibility to the country and the vast majority of its citizens. This is not just restricted to government but also big business and even many charities.

[ted richard]

i largely agree with you about trump and for the same reasons.

imo trump is a symptom of a system which so mercilesly gives any potential presidential candidate a rough prostate exam few truly worthy men and women are willing to submit themselves and their families to such petty cruelties.

we get what we deserve because we allow from citizen passivity such a selection process to continue.

regarding adam schiff, i love and raise jack russells as hobby and have for decades. adam reminds me of that pup one often gets in a new litter that is never able to fully compete with his brothers and sisters on any level.

all grown up now with a bit of power in his hand we all get to witness how he handles those childhood memories.