your Inshallah open thread

by liberal japonicus I guess the big news is from the Michiganders and Abdul El-Sayed. I like Jamelle Bouie’s encapsulation of this, which is Vote Blue No Matter Who. If anyone has a more granular view of the race, please drop it in the thread and feel free to write about anything else.

As American as the 4th of July

by liberal japonicus

An openish thread that starts off with me observing that the Japanese national broadcaster NHK played Civil War on July 4th. If you are unaware of the movie, the trailer is below the fold. I’m sure it was just a coincidence. Observations of all flavors welcome!

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What’s wrong with liberalism?

by liberal japonicus I’d start off by noting that depending on the way you read the title, you can fit any perspective. The jumping off point for this is Ezra Klein’s podcast with Helena Rosenblatt, the author of The Lost History of Liberalism. (transcript here)The book is quite interesting and is a general audience book … Read more

Wait, this isn’t from the Onion?!?

by liberal japonicus From https://abcnews.com/Politics/trumps-image-limited-edition-passports-americas-250th/story?id=132471621 The State Department is releasing a limited-edition U.S. passport to mark America’s 250th anniversary and the document will feature President Donald Trump’s image and signature on the inside cover, a White House official and a source familiar with the move confirmed.  The inner page will feature Trump’s portrait over a … Read more

Clusterfucks r us

by liberal japonicus Some may say it is a false flag, but given that they couldn’t organize a piss up in a brewery, I have my doubts. However, from here: Quite simply, a man who wanted to kill people—many people, maybe me, maybe my colleagues—had checked into the Washington Hilton, just like I had. He … Read more

What exactly did William Wallace say?

by liberal japonicus Was watching and episode of The Rest of Politics which had historian Dominic Sandbrook sitting in for Florence of Belgravia, (i.e. Rory Stewart) across from Alastair Campbell. Novakant has expressed his disgust with Campbell, though I’m not as far along, but this episode had me wondering wtf they were on. Sandbrook is … Read more

Iran and the US

by liberal japonicus I know that I’ve expressed my frustration with Ezra Klein, but this interview is really worth a listen. I’ve cued it up at the point that I think is really worth attending to, discussing how Iran approached the US post 9-11 and how it was rebuffed, but I recommend the whole thing … Read more