Maybe this is what Bannon meant when he advised King Lear Jet to flood the zone with shit.
The cheapest way to dye the shirts brown.
Someone needs to update this classic:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Hubert_Lanzinger_Der_Bannertr%C3%A4ger_(The_Standard_bearer)_Oil_on_plywood_ca_1934-36_Adolf_Hitler_as_knight_Denazified_hole_in_Hitler%27s_face_scrathes_US_Army_Center_of_Military_History_USHMM_No_known_copyright_restrictions_2450324-2396x2.jpg
Caveat: His Orangeness has the stature of neither the Austrian painter nor the Italian he tries to imitate in public. He is just another case of history repeating itself as a farce (or Grand Guignol just with less taste and brains). But cheap imitations can be lethal too.
I still think His Orangeness would be a better (ridiculous) fit for the painting above
Another podcast, unfortunately, with only the youtube computer generated transcript.
https://youtu.be/eOYf0qo9Mco?si=hh5fFoopjfIifald
I like the pair who do this, though it is interesting that they are a lot more negative on the conditions that China is facing then their guest (Michal Meidan, head of China Energy Research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies), is. She doesn't think it as big a speed bump as they do which I agree with, so she is obviously correct.
There's a transcript at the NYT, which is what I used.
I'm always amazed at the people I know who post seven YT vids and two podcasts a day from some left-wing political influencer - many close to the same age as my students. Most of those are haphazardly arranged and not very cohesive, and more noise than signal.
I want information, and I want it to be accessible, not padded out for good engagement numbers and juiced for the outrage algorithm.
At least with a transcript I can skim and find the things that are worthwhile, and then use that to anchor my further reading.
nous, just a quick note in case you didn't know, you can pull a computer generated transcript off of youtube. I've been listening to this sort of stuff while I'm exercising, I certainly understand not wanting to waste time. I'll go back and do that if there is a point I want to double check, copying it and dropping it into bbedit, though the formatting makes it tough sledding to read the whole thing. It's ironic that while at the same time, instagram and tik-tok are trying to give us these concentrated bursts of info, it's simultaneously accompanied by the podcasts that take 15 minutes of content and stretch it to an hour.
I agree with you about Klein, especially about him talking too much. He seems to be angling to be this generation's Broder, whether he realizes it or not.
I had to chase down a transcript because I refuse to give over an hour of time to what is at best 15 minutes of substance.
I like Talarico as a Christian reformer. He's speaking for a lot of the values that used to be present in evangelicalism back before it was radicalized by anti-abortion rhetoric. I also like his ability to use the language of Christianity against the Christian nationalists. And I think he's good at speaking to non-Democrats in a way that makes them feel as if they have been heard and understood, and been treated with compassion.
I'm not sure, however, that his approach to things is going to move the needle on immigration or on social justice for minorities. I think his framing and appeals mostly decenter any conversation about those things in meaningful detail and zoom out until those details become too fuzzy to register as things in the big picture. That's not to say that he doesn't care about or support those issues - I know he does - I'm just not sure that those issues can be addressed with the sort of compromises and conversations that he gives as examples of how to bring political opponents together.
I'll start to pay more attention to Talarico when I start to see him opening up space for AOC to feature in the discussion.
Also, Klein talks too much and he is, for all of his talk about needing open discussion and bringing people together, really quite focused on elevating the aisle-crossers and code-switchers and trying to goad them into saying what is wrong with the disruptive progressives on their own side.
Well, he floated the idea of exchanging Greenland for Puerto Rico, so the Greenlanders could be moved there. If we follow BP, there is a large walrus population in the Caribbean.
(as a reminder: https://www.csmonitor.com/From-the-news-wires/2010/0609/BP-s-gulf-oil-spill-response-plan-lists-the-walrus-as-a-local-species.-Louisiana-Gov.-Bobby-Jindal-is-furious)
Why not let him speak for himself? If by "what happened" CharlesWT meant "Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good in fit of fascist pique", then maybe he was.
Michael Cain: ICE believes they are law enforcement. So far, the courts seem to agree with them. ... I’m slightly amazed that we know who the ICE person behind the mask was.
I say "ICE believes" that they are The Law, but never mind. I'm sincerely curious about the courts. Are there particular cases you're thinking of? (This is not a "cite, please"; I can look things up myself if I have a hint to start with.) It would not surprise me, BTW, if some court somewhere ruled that ICE "agents", do in fact have the authority to write traffic tickets as "LEOs".
...and demand that South American countries also enforce it in their territories and expect them to obey under Maduress.
I've mentioned before that Trump's view of South America is hopelessly Caribbean-centric. Most South American countries' top international trading partner is either already China, or China's share is within reasonable distance of the #1 partner. And it's getting worse: as soon as Chancay opened and knocked 20% off the shipping costs, three different Chinese companies began selling EVs in Peru; Tesla doesn't sell EVs in Peru.
This is typical of Trump's general world view. During his first term, he visited six foreign countries before he set foot in a state west of the Mississippi River (Cedar Rapids, IA). It was more months before he went farther west than Iowa.
I like Talarico. He entered the race before Crockett, so no conspiracy against her by evil white liberals--despite the rumors on Bluesky. I think Talarico's reclaiming of Christianity is hugely beneficial. Also, he is clear spoken and makes the moral issues front and center--the morality of Dem policies and the immorality of so many Texas Republican actions and policies. He isn't defensive. He is attacking and moving the Overton Window.
I like Crockett, too, but I don't think she has the ability to change the terms of the conversation the way Talarico can.
That change in the terms of the convo seems important since it is unlikely that either will win a Senate seat. The goal needs to be to change TX politics over the long term by changing hearts and minds and that means reframing perceptions.
Of course I don't live there, so I won't be voting and likely don't have sufficient local knowledge to support my opinions.
Maybe His Orangeness' whisperers will soon call for a renewal of the Chinese Exclusion Act (and SCOTUS wil overturn its overturning of the same) and demand that South American countries also enforce it in their territories and expect them to obey under Maduress. Since Greenlanders are genetically East-Asian too (essentially Mongols in kayaks), that would also serve as legal basis for their eviction once Greenland has come Heim ins Reich. [/s???]
There’s some speculation there that China is not ready and willing yet to take on the US in South America, and this move by the US has shown the rest of the continent that Xi is mostly talk.
The new deep-water port China funded at Chancay, Peru has entered the conversation. Peru has increased its seafood exports to China via Chancay. Bolivia has signed a deal to increase its lithium production and ship it to China via Chancay. Brazil is making noises about exporting semi-refined rare earth metals to China via Chancay. The truly paranoid are already muttering about China leasing adjacent space for a naval base.
When Donald Trump took office, ICE numbered approximately 10,000. Despite this event’s lackluster attendance, their recruitment push is reportedly going well; the agency reported 12,000 new recruits in 2025, which means the agency has more new recruits than old hands. That’s the kind of growth that changes the culture of an agency.
This reminds me of a maxim about doing large projects: "Three things everyone wants - fast, cheap, and good. But you can really only have any two of them."
The tRump admin has broken this rule and has chosen "fast" twice.
David Brooks is too much of a coward to actually look at the evidence and try to render any judgment. Doing that would destroy his ability to find the right angle to flatten any difference and equivocate.
Meanwhile, since we were discussing who these people in masks are, and what motivates them...
Nine days later, impatience got the best of me. For the first time, I logged into USAJobs and checked my application to see if my drug test had come through. What I actually saw was so implausible, so impossible, that at first I did not understand what I was looking at.
Somehow, despite never submitting any of the paperwork they sent me—not the background check or identification info, not the domestic violence affidavit, none of it—ICE had apparently offered me a job.
According to the application portal, my pre-employment activities remained pending. And yet, it also showed that I had accepted a final job offer and that my onboarding status was “EOD”—Entered On Duty, the start of an enlistment period. I moused over the exclamation mark next to “Onboarding” and a helpful pop-up appeared. “Your EOD has occurred. Welcome to ICE!”
The other gem in this piece:
When Donald Trump took office, ICE numbered approximately 10,000. Despite this event’s lackluster attendance, their recruitment push is reportedly going well; the agency reported 12,000 new recruits in 2025, which means the agency has more new recruits than old hands. That’s the kind of growth that changes the culture of an agency.
I never really understood why the National Review was able to recover from being unapologetically racist
https://theintercept.com/2020/07/05/national-review-william-buckley-racism/
but you can see that deep down, they never really changed.
I am reminded of an acquaintance who was in Chicago in 1968, and his advice for protesters.
If you have to drive to the site, leave your car well away from the action because any moving car is threatening.
Don't carry a sign on a stick, because sticks are threatening.
If people around you start throwing baggies full of sh*t at the law enforcement personnel, leave. Immediately. Because baggies full of sh*t are threatening.
If you're going to stand in front of advancing law enforcement, whether one officer or a line, be prepared to be hit in the head with a solid baton. Being hit in the head with a solid baton can be fatal.
He showed me the scar where the baton split his scalp open.
ICE believes they are law enforcement. So far, the courts seem to agree with them. They don't have batons, they have guns, which are much more dangerous (any fool can point and pull a trigger; batons take at least minimal training). They have less training about crowds than riot police, are milling around, lack explicit shields, so are more dangerous. The biggest difference I see is that the Chicago PD in riot gear were actually anonymous. I'm slightly amazed that we know who the ICE person behind the mask was.
Charles was actually agreeing with you. If these thugs were real law enforcement, they would routinely wear body cams. (Which, be it noted, are also real useful if there's an actual court case to be made in these situations.). The reason they weren't wearing them is that they are nothing like real law enforcement.
That timing of the snatch happening just after meeting with the Chinese has been taken by some as a warning to China, and it is difficult to imagine that the US didn’t know Maduro’s schedule, however, I would have expected Trump to crow about it in some way, so maybe it was dumb luck?
I would expect that, if the timing was dumb luck, Trump would be crowing like it was his brilliant planning. Neither do I think it likely it was a warning -- that would be a level of subtlety the current administration seems incapable of.
I think a more likely possibility is that it was carefully timed out of (absolutely never under any circumstances to be admitted!) fear of the possible Chinese reaction. Trump might (probably did) warn his buddy Putin, so Russians would be moved out of harms' way. But, not having that kind of BFF relationship with Xi, what was left was careful timing.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “An open thread”
Maybe this is what Bannon meant when he advised King Lear Jet to flood the zone with shit.
The cheapest way to dye the shirts brown.
Someone needs to update this classic:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Hubert_Lanzinger_Der_Bannertr%C3%A4ger_(The_Standard_bearer)_Oil_on_plywood_ca_1934-36_Adolf_Hitler_as_knight_Denazified_hole_in_Hitler%27s_face_scrathes_US_Army_Center_of_Military_History_USHMM_No_known_copyright_restrictions_2450324-2396x2.jpg
Caveat: His Orangeness has the stature of neither the Austrian painter nor the Italian he tries to imitate in public. He is just another case of history repeating itself as a farce (or Grand Guignol just with less taste and brains). But cheap imitations can be lethal too.
I still think His Orangeness would be a better (ridiculous) fit for the painting above
On “Talarico”
Or make them into giant house flies! Or cartoon penguins! So fun...
"
We know. You can also have them speaking to each other naked.
"
At least with a transcript I can skim and find the things that are worthwhile, and then use that to anchor my further reading.
I just let Grok serve it up for me. :)
Progressive Christianity vs. Christian Nationalism
On “¿Qué quieres decir cuando dices China, por favor?”
Another podcast, unfortunately, with only the youtube computer generated transcript.
https://youtu.be/eOYf0qo9Mco?si=hh5fFoopjfIifald
I like the pair who do this, though it is interesting that they are a lot more negative on the conditions that China is facing then their guest (Michal Meidan, head of China Energy Research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies), is. She doesn't think it as big a speed bump as they do which I agree with, so she is obviously correct.
On “Talarico”
There's a transcript at the NYT, which is what I used.
I'm always amazed at the people I know who post seven YT vids and two podcasts a day from some left-wing political influencer - many close to the same age as my students. Most of those are haphazardly arranged and not very cohesive, and more noise than signal.
I want information, and I want it to be accessible, not padded out for good engagement numbers and juiced for the outrage algorithm.
At least with a transcript I can skim and find the things that are worthwhile, and then use that to anchor my further reading.
"
nous, just a quick note in case you didn't know, you can pull a computer generated transcript off of youtube. I've been listening to this sort of stuff while I'm exercising, I certainly understand not wanting to waste time. I'll go back and do that if there is a point I want to double check, copying it and dropping it into bbedit, though the formatting makes it tough sledding to read the whole thing. It's ironic that while at the same time, instagram and tik-tok are trying to give us these concentrated bursts of info, it's simultaneously accompanied by the podcasts that take 15 minutes of content and stretch it to an hour.
I agree with you about Klein, especially about him talking too much. He seems to be angling to be this generation's Broder, whether he realizes it or not.
On “An open thread”
More news about the sort of people that ICE is happy to have working for it:
https://www.texasobserver.org/ice-prosecutor-racist-account-back-at-immigration-court/
Maybe this is what Bannon meant when he advised King Lear Jet to flood the zone with shit.
On “Talarico”
I had to chase down a transcript because I refuse to give over an hour of time to what is at best 15 minutes of substance.
I like Talarico as a Christian reformer. He's speaking for a lot of the values that used to be present in evangelicalism back before it was radicalized by anti-abortion rhetoric. I also like his ability to use the language of Christianity against the Christian nationalists. And I think he's good at speaking to non-Democrats in a way that makes them feel as if they have been heard and understood, and been treated with compassion.
I'm not sure, however, that his approach to things is going to move the needle on immigration or on social justice for minorities. I think his framing and appeals mostly decenter any conversation about those things in meaningful detail and zoom out until those details become too fuzzy to register as things in the big picture. That's not to say that he doesn't care about or support those issues - I know he does - I'm just not sure that those issues can be addressed with the sort of compromises and conversations that he gives as examples of how to bring political opponents together.
I'll start to pay more attention to Talarico when I start to see him opening up space for AOC to feature in the discussion.
Also, Klein talks too much and he is, for all of his talk about needing open discussion and bringing people together, really quite focused on elevating the aisle-crossers and code-switchers and trying to goad them into saying what is wrong with the disruptive progressives on their own side.
On “An open thread”
I like "public safety" much better than "law enforcement." Instead of "LEO," you'd have "PSO," but that looks too much like "POS."
On “¿Qué quieres decir cuando dices China, por favor?”
Well, he floated the idea of exchanging Greenland for Puerto Rico, so the Greenlanders could be moved there. If we follow BP, there is a large walrus population in the Caribbean.
(as a reminder: https://www.csmonitor.com/From-the-news-wires/2010/0609/BP-s-gulf-oil-spill-response-plan-lists-the-walrus-as-a-local-species.-Louisiana-Gov.-Bobby-Jindal-is-furious)
On “An open thread”
wj: Charles was actually agreeing with you.
Why not let him speak for himself? If by "what happened" CharlesWT meant "Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good in fit of fascist pique", then maybe he was.
Michael Cain: ICE believes they are law enforcement. So far, the courts seem to agree with them. ... I’m slightly amazed that we know who the ICE person behind the mask was.
I say "ICE believes" that they are The Law, but never mind. I'm sincerely curious about the courts. Are there particular cases you're thinking of? (This is not a "cite, please"; I can look things up myself if I have a hint to start with.) It would not surprise me, BTW, if some court somewhere ruled that ICE "agents", do in fact have the authority to write traffic tickets as "LEOs".
As for the outing of Jonathan Ross, it was Kristi Noem that did it. He may be grateful for that, BTW.
On a general note, "LEO" always sounds to my ear like "WMD" -- a conflation of disparate things for propaganda purposes.
--TP
On “¿Qué quieres decir cuando dices China, por favor?”
Greenlanders are genetically East-Asian too (essentially Mongols in kayaks)
Well, if you want to get technical about it, all Native Americans (First Nations) are genetically East Asians, too.
Hmmm, wonder where they'll decide to put the reservations this time. (Well, except for those like Miller, who will go for a "final solution")
"
...and demand that South American countries also enforce it in their territories and expect them to obey under Maduress.
I've mentioned before that Trump's view of South America is hopelessly Caribbean-centric. Most South American countries' top international trading partner is either already China, or China's share is within reasonable distance of the #1 partner. And it's getting worse: as soon as Chancay opened and knocked 20% off the shipping costs, three different Chinese companies began selling EVs in Peru; Tesla doesn't sell EVs in Peru.
This is typical of Trump's general world view. During his first term, he visited six foreign countries before he set foot in a state west of the Mississippi River (Cedar Rapids, IA). It was more months before he went farther west than Iowa.
On “Talarico”
I like Talarico. He entered the race before Crockett, so no conspiracy against her by evil white liberals--despite the rumors on Bluesky. I think Talarico's reclaiming of Christianity is hugely beneficial. Also, he is clear spoken and makes the moral issues front and center--the morality of Dem policies and the immorality of so many Texas Republican actions and policies. He isn't defensive. He is attacking and moving the Overton Window.
I like Crockett, too, but I don't think she has the ability to change the terms of the conversation the way Talarico can.
That change in the terms of the convo seems important since it is unlikely that either will win a Senate seat. The goal needs to be to change TX politics over the long term by changing hearts and minds and that means reframing perceptions.
Of course I don't live there, so I won't be voting and likely don't have sufficient local knowledge to support my opinions.
On “¿Qué quieres decir cuando dices China, por favor?”
Maybe His Orangeness' whisperers will soon call for a renewal of the Chinese Exclusion Act (and SCOTUS wil overturn its overturning of the same) and demand that South American countries also enforce it in their territories and expect them to obey under Maduress. Since Greenlanders are genetically East-Asian too (essentially Mongols in kayaks), that would also serve as legal basis for their eviction once Greenland has come Heim ins Reich. [/s???]
"
There’s some speculation there that China is not ready and willing yet to take on the US in South America, and this move by the US has shown the rest of the continent that Xi is mostly talk.
The new deep-water port China funded at Chancay, Peru has entered the conversation. Peru has increased its seafood exports to China via Chancay. Bolivia has signed a deal to increase its lithium production and ship it to China via Chancay. Brazil is making noises about exporting semi-refined rare earth metals to China via Chancay. The truly paranoid are already muttering about China leasing adjacent space for a naval base.
On “An open thread”
Itshould be noted that two is only the maximum. This administration demonstrates that you might get only one. Or, more often with them, none.
"
This reminds me of a maxim about doing large projects: "Three things everyone wants - fast, cheap, and good. But you can really only have any two of them."
The tRump admin has broken this rule and has chosen "fast" twice.
"
David Brooks is too much of a coward to actually look at the evidence and try to render any judgment. Doing that would destroy his ability to find the right angle to flatten any difference and equivocate.
Meanwhile, since we were discussing who these people in masks are, and what motivates them...
https://web.archive.org/web/20260113135117/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/01/ice-recruitment-minneapolis-shooting.html
The other gem in this piece:
When Donald Trump took office, ICE numbered approximately 10,000. Despite this event’s lackluster attendance, their recruitment push is reportedly going well; the agency reported 12,000 new recruits in 2025, which means the agency has more new recruits than old hands. That’s the kind of growth that changes the culture of an agency.
Enjoy!*
*If you are a masochist.
"
Disgusting as that NRO pos is, David Brooks got their first, flying his flag
https://youtu.be/QQiiNa-X_eU?si=GmdEkMAJZmN1qGad&t=141
I never really understood why the National Review was able to recover from being unapologetically racist
https://theintercept.com/2020/07/05/national-review-william-buckley-racism/
but you can see that deep down, they never really changed.
"
I am reminded of an acquaintance who was in Chicago in 1968, and his advice for protesters.
He showed me the scar where the baton split his scalp open.
ICE believes they are law enforcement. So far, the courts seem to agree with them. They don't have batons, they have guns, which are much more dangerous (any fool can point and pull a trigger; batons take at least minimal training). They have less training about crowds than riot police, are milling around, lack explicit shields, so are more dangerous. The biggest difference I see is that the Chicago PD in riot gear were actually anonymous. I'm slightly amazed that we know who the ICE person behind the mask was.
"
Fuck that guy and his glib dismissiveness. Fuck his lack of empathy for anyone outside of his own in-group. I wish him a heavy lesson in karma.
Seconded
"
Take a deep breath, Tiny. A slow deep breath.
Charles was actually agreeing with you. If these thugs were real law enforcement, they would routinely wear body cams. (Which, be it noted, are also real useful if there's an actual court case to be made in these situations.). The reason they weren't wearing them is that they are nothing like real law enforcement.
On “¿Qué quieres decir cuando dices China, por favor?”
That timing of the snatch happening just after meeting with the Chinese has been taken by some as a warning to China, and it is difficult to imagine that the US didn’t know Maduro’s schedule, however, I would have expected Trump to crow about it in some way, so maybe it was dumb luck?
I would expect that, if the timing was dumb luck, Trump would be crowing like it was his brilliant planning. Neither do I think it likely it was a warning -- that would be a level of subtlety the current administration seems incapable of.
I think a more likely possibility is that it was carefully timed out of (absolutely never under any circumstances to be admitted!) fear of the possible Chinese reaction. Trump might (probably did) warn his buddy Putin, so Russians would be moved out of harms' way. But, not having that kind of BFF relationship with Xi, what was left was careful timing.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.