First Looks category archive

Via BoingBoing.

What the heck!?

I have donate button over there, on the sidebar. You can be the first to click on it!

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Confucius:

The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance.

Off to drink liberally.

Via Job’s Anger.

When fellowship is needed, join us . . . .

When: Thursday, April 13, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

More here.

Montesquieu:

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.

(This is one of the problem posts mentioned in the “Sticky.” I’m experimenting. Later: It’s working now. I created a new post with same content. I’ll be damned if I know why it didn’t post on schedule, as I can see no difference between this one and the original–it was visible in preview mode but would not appear on the front page. *&%&^% computers.)

To official America, some lives are more important than others. Nick McDonnell does the math for those so-called “surgical strikes.”

“According to senior defense officials,” the AP story ran, “military leaders planning operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria may authorize strikes where up to 10 civilians may be killed, if it is deemed necessary in order to get a critical military target.”

That number yields some grim math. Last year, the coalition acknowledged 4,589 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. If the NCV was 10 throughout, then U.S. policy in 2016 was to tolerate the incidental killing of a maximum of 45,890 innocent Iraqis and Syrians in order to destroy ISIS.

More math at the link.

Josh Marshall thinks the current kerfuffle about the filibuster is much ado about not much of anything, although he thinks Democrats’ forcing Republicans to take a position is likely worthwhile. He suggests the, as far as court nominations are concerned, the Republican Party effectively eliminated the filibuster years ago.

As Rep. Adam Schiff put it yesterday on Twitter, Mitch McConnell’s historically unprecedented and constitutionally illegitimate decision to block President Obama from nominating anyone a year before he left office was the real nuclear option. The rest is simply fallout. Senate Republicans had the power to do this. But that doesn’t make it legitimate. The seat was stolen. Therefore Gorsuch’s nomination is itself illegitimate since it is the fruit of the poisoned tree.

Democrats likely have no power to finally prevent this corrupt transaction. It is nonetheless important that they not partake in the corruption.

Republicans are violating the public trust. As Atrios pointed out a couple of days ago, Republicans seem to believe that the rules are for them and for no one else.

Ed at Gin and Tacos considers the proliferation of presidential progeny in the process. A snippet (emphasis added):

Trashing the media and using the state as though its purpose is his personal enrichment is old hat. Any half-assed elected leader can try that. Where Trump truly excels is the consolidation of power into an inner circle consisting almost exclusively of family members. This is like, Tinpot Dictator 101. Family members are the only people you can trust not to murder you in your sleep, stage a coup while you’re traveling, or (more relevant to the American setting) turn prosecution witness and start testifying against you. Everything about Eric screams “prison snitch,” though. I wouldn’t be surprised if he started singing anyway.

In related news, Brian Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, muses on the responsibility of the press in during the Great Trumpling.

What joy, to be greet by the dreaded “Error Creating a Database Connection” error message before my first cup of coffee.

A quick visit to phpMyAdmin fixed it.

Groucho Marx:

In America you can go on the air and kid the politicians, and the politicians can go on the air and kid the people.

Walt Taylor does good work.

Things to do.

Thom talks with David Frum about Donald Trump. Excerpt:

Authoritarianism goes where the people are, and where is the traffic? It’s on line. If the public realm is the town square, you try to take over the town square. If the public realm is Twitter and Facebook, you try to take over Twitter and Facebook.

(snip)

The benefit of controlling a modern bureaucratic state is not the ability to persecute the innoncent; it is the ability to protect the guilty.

Via Job’s Anger.

Republicans seem to believe that all conceptions are immaculate.

. . . .we learned that wonky, Republican genius, Paul Ryan doesn’t understand how insurance works. Now the GOP trots out an oldie but a goodie: “Why should men pay for prenatal coverage?”

“What mandate in the Obamacare bill does he take issue with?” Doyle asked Shimkus, using the formal parlance of congressional committees.

“What about men having to purchase prenatal care?” Shimkus said.

At that point, one could hear the room start to stir.

“I’m just . . . is that not correct?” Shimkus said. “And should they?”

Follow the link for much, much more.

Off to drink liberally.