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

[turcopolier]

longarch
"where do we even begin to lead people back to the Constitution?" Here. BTW You might want to mention to your interlocutors that without the constitution people like me will do with them whatever we please.

[turcopolier]

b

A lot of the people in intelligence work are left of center and ARE outraged by Trump. People come and go in the intelligence business. There are a lot of alumni. This is interesting but I don't think you have made a convincing case for an attempted CIA takeover of the Congress

[turcopolier]

TonyL

Is it an article of faith that the economy is not booming? The numbers all seem to say that you are wrong.

[Eric Newhill]

Jack,
What do you mean? They're all in it because they care about you and the country. Just ask them.

Trump seems to understand that he has a mandate from the people that he must fulfill if he wants to be a great president and being a great president is what his ego desires. He seems to understand that his supporters only back him as long as he is accomplishing what they want.

Too many other elected reps don't get it. They screw around and enrich themselves (Like the Bidens and Clintons) and somehow they and their media pals fool the people into voting for them again and again despite the lack
of meaningful and tangible public achievements. That's not what I'm talking about with "self-interest". I mean knowing that you do what you say you're going to do or you get promptly voted out.

The last thing we need is holly roller on a mission from God to guide the deplorable heathens type virtue crusaders in office.

[Eric Newhill]

EO,
Zelensky did not like her and suggested that she was involved with corrupt people and undermining the President. I don't understand how Trump gets all of the blame for her being relieved of her position.

[Bobo]

Educate you have and Educate you will till your six feet under.

[J]

Colonel, Larry,

Take a look at former DCI Petraeus latest involvement. Makes me wonder if Brennan and crew will be seeking these type passports to avoid prison.

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/money/news/london-ballroom-hosts-showcase-event-for-golden-passports/ar-BBWQzbr?li=BBr5Fap

[turcopolier]

All

I may have spoken too soon about Marie's preferences. There is a photo of her participating in a Gay Pride parade in Kiev in 2018. You can find it on my FB page (Pat Lang)

[Jack]

There were many instances of fraud. Create a turd instrument designed to fail. Misrepresent its characteristics and sell to the public while shorting it yourself. Many violations of securities laws. There were also several cases of market manipulation as well as money laundering. To quote Obama AG Holder: “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult to prosecute them,” Holder said. He said he was “inhibited” by the fact that a criminal charge could have a negative impact on the U.S. and possibly world economy.

If capitalism is so good, why didn’t that apply to all the Wall St “banks”? Why was socialism required to bail them out? Why did we get privatization of speculative profits and socialization of losses? I’m sure many working class Americans would love the same thing - speculate in financial instruments and keep the gains while passing on the losses to the neighbors.

[divadab]

Well he is a socialist, not a private sector guy. If everyone were a capitalist it would be a pretty ruthless world, doncha think?

Yes he made money in real estate - who hasn't? And he wrote a book that garnered him a couple million - good for him , say I. In your mind this is a bad thing?

And if you want to know what he has done for Vermont take a walk around Burlington - it's a walkable, livable city NOT an over-condoed mess like so many cities run of by and for developers.

And if you think Vermont is run by "left wing transplants and their spawn" you obviously have never been there.

Finally, in just about every poll, Sanders beats Trump, which the execrable Hillary Clinton demonstrably did not even before she lost with her incompetent 2016 campaign.

[divadab]

@factotum - everything you say about SSI, Medicare, and medicaid is more true about the military-industrial complex. Talk about a third rail.

The difference is that SSI, Medicare and medicaid actually benefit ALL citizens, unlike the MIC, which benefits a small well-connected oligarchy.

We can see which side you are on.

[divadab]

Well, yes, job preservation and makework are major components of government spending. This is true in all governments. But the corruption of the political side of the US government is systematic and really on a scale that doesn;t exist in other advanced economies. Maybe Brazil or Congo are as corrupt but they just don;t have the same number of dollars to siphon off.

[Jack]

That’s precisely the point. Mobility has declined as concentration has increased. We had great mobility as the share of income and wealth for the bottom 80% kept growing post Depression until the 70s/80s, when it started to reverse. While correlation is not causation, there are two strongly correlated trends. Growth in market concentration and growth in total credit market debt.

Jonathan Tepper’s well researched book shows in much detail industry after industry how we’ve seen incredible concentration in market power over the past 30 years. Take agriculture for example and look at the shrinkage in the number of companies in the market for seeds, fertilizer, other inputs and also the shrinkage in the number of companies in the processing end. Take that across every major industry group from media to hospital systems, you will see rising market power concentration. Competition is the heart of a market based system when that shrinks into cartels & monopoly then you get oligarchy and the growing symbiotic relationship between big business and big government with concentration of both market and political power. Its not that we don’t already have the laws to prevent such concentration. Robinson-Patman and other laws were enacted precisely to have competitive markets. So was the creation of the FTC. But with the revolving door we have the fox in charge of the hen house and that is one parable of our times.

[akaPatience]

Here is a video title on Real Clear Politics with the truly ironic quote:

Yovanovitch Opening Statement: I Was Victim Of "A Campaign Of Disinformation" Using "Unofficial Back Channels"

Well gosh, to me that sounds just like what's happening to Trump. Plus, his friends, family and associates are constantly vilified, some even nearly bankrupted and imprisoned for stupid process crimes.

I always disliked Donald Trump. His pugnacity still bothers me at times but as The Resistance persists, so does my sympathy and appreciation grow for him and his pugnacity. Yes, believe it or not some people sympathize with what the POTUS has had to endure. As for Marie, I'm sorry but she can cry me a river.

[jonst]

I apologize to the Committee up front for not having time to read all the comments in this thread,so what i am about to write might have been covered above. I was particular struck by one common theme, or perceived theme, anyway, by me, in all three Foreign service witnesses' testimony. To wit, the juxtaposition of their professed intimate knowledge of almost all things Ukrainian, v. their, collective, acute, lack of knowledge about the players and alleged actions of possible Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election. The lawyer in me says I would like to create a PPT highlighting the areas of testimony where they could NOT answer questions relating to the Ukraine. I think you would see a pattern. Namely, a lack of interest in certain subjects. It struck me as an odd blind spot.

[Eric Newhill]

ISL,
As far as I can see, based on her official page, Tulsi just supports the same Medicare for All that the other math and economics challenged lefties do. So not sure what you're talking about.

As I keep saying she has Trump's FP and Bernie's domestic platform. That's all there is to her as a politician.

She is alluring - seductive actually - as a woman, though.

[srw]

Fred
Can you prove that Harvard hired her because of her minor native American ancestry?

[Factotum]

Ah yes, "low income people" can barely make ends meet. Recent story about a university student complaining his monthly EBT card was running out after only a few weeks of buying $5 meal replacement drinks at Trader Joe's. Less money for tattoos and cell phone plans - that is a real bummer too. But nothing like demanding to live in a high cost coastal California area and then complaining the rents are "unaffordable".

Current taxpayer supported social safety net provides approximately $45,000 worth of goods and services for "low income people". I recommend they also stay away from nearby Indian casinos so they hold on to more of their own discretionary cash. We provide free community college in this state to "low income people" with the sole purpose to upgrade their own support skills.

"Low income people" barely making ends meet does not automatically generate sympathy in today's handout world. Careful budgeting and resourceful discipline garner respect- unsupported and continuing demands for even more "free stuff", are falling on deaf ears.

[Ishmael Zechariah]

Colonel,
I can guess. Met many. Tough guys all. Here is a good link. Best one is the last but one.
http://willieandjoe.tripod.com/remf.htm
Ishmael Zechariah

[Fred]

srw,

Sure, the non fake news Boston Globe reported she claimed that heritage three years after getting hired. Certainly no benefits to her or Harvard for a minority employee. So there, gotcha, it was after she was hired. Perhaps the records are actually public, rather than just news reporter verified.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2018/09/01/did-claiming-native-american-heritage-actually-help-elizabeth-warren-get-ahead-but-complicated/wUZZcrKKEOUv5Spnb7IO0K/story.html

[Fred]

BP,

How's employment doing? Immigration still keeping wages low?

[Fred]

Factotum,

The establishment Republicans defeated by Trump were essentially dem-light. "They couldn't even conserve the girls bathroom" as one wag put it. Just lable them racist or antisemitic and they would melt faster than a snowball on a Florida beach. That's a tactic the left has used for decades now. It's not working with Trump.

[Factotum]

She has some bad habits, for a secular nun.

[Factotum]

M-I-C is primarily a wealth transfer system that benefits the Democrat defense industry unions.

Spending money on a strong military presence benefits us all. I'll pay to be the "world's policeman" as well, since I can't think of anyone else who could do the job for us.

Data to support the return value of our current US health care system, for dollars spent, is missing. Hence i do support we start data-mining US health care records, in order to determine best practices and continue to seek evidence-based medical practices.

That should help you see what side I am on too.

[Factotum]

Who forces anyone to buy anything in a free market? Caveat emptor.