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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Teve says:

    Amy McGrath

    Verified account

    @AmyMcGrathKY
    3h3 hours ago
    More
    I’m running to replace Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate. Everything that’s wrong with Washington had to start somewhere—it started with him. With your help, we can defeat Mitch and defend democracy. Join us: http://www.AmyMcGrath.com

    2
  2. Daryl and his brother Darryl says:

    Jagger told the audience during The Rolling Stones concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough on Sunday that he hoped everyone had a great Fourth of July — but noted that it’s always a “touchy holiday for us Brits,” Rolling Stone magazine reported. He snidely added to uproarious laughter: “In fact, the president made a very good point in his speech the other night. … He said, ’If only the British had held on to the airports, the whole thing might have gone differently for us.”

    8
  3. @Daryl and his brother Darryl:

    This is why we must always solemnly remember the Seige of LaGuardia and the Battle At Baggage Claim 13.

    10
  4. gVOR08 says:

    The Florida High School principal in the Holocaust kerfuffle got fired. I find it sad. It didn’t really sound like he was a Holocaust denier, just a poor schmuck caught between reality and the beliefs of some of his RWNJ parents. Sort of like the people who plan protection against sea level rise but get in trouble if they say anything about global warming. Or the HS biology teachers who have to dance around evolution. Or the Big Bang.

    4
  5. Teve says:
  6. Teve says:

    People complain about left-wing threats to free speech, but overenthusiastic Oberlin sophomores protesting that ersatz Bahn Mi sammiches are Cultural Appropriation, or obnoxious twitter mobs complaining that the new Ghostbusters doesn’t feature enough trans people in wheelchairs really aren’t high on my list of things to worry about. Right-wing Ag-Gag-type threats to free speech, and shit like this, are much higher on my list:

    This week, a new law went into effect in Mississippi. The state now bans plant-based meat providers from using labels like “veggie burger” or “vegan hot dog” on their products. Such labels are potentially punishable with jail time.

    linky

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  7. Teve says:

    Here in Florida when Rick Scott was governor it was an unspoken firing offense if any state employee–scientist, park ranger, whoever–used the term Global Warming.

    1
  8. Daryl and his brother Darryl says:

    You need to read this story about how Russians created a conspiracy theory that was then picked up and run with by the right-wing echo chamber.
    Essentially…Hannity et all are Russian assets.
    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/seth-rich-conspiracyland_n_5d249169e4b0cfb595fc2b7a

    1
  9. MarkedMan says:

    There seems to be a meme percolating that there is “no evidence” tying Trump to Epstein’s crimes. That is simply not true. It may not be sufficient evidence to get a conviction, but there is evidence out there. The less damning of this evidence sometimes does get mentioned: that Trump claimed a long friendship with Epstein and made a joke about Epstein ‘liking his women young’. That may be weak evidence, but it is still evidence.

    What is that more compelling evidence? Trump was sued by a woman who claimed he and Epstein raped her at Epstein’s house when she was 13. She later dropped the suit, claiming that she had been threatened numerous times and feared for her life. Knowing what we know now about how Michael Cohen threatened and intimidated witnesses on Trump’s behalf, her story of threats has to be taken seriously. Here is what Newsweek said in 2017:

    In 1994, Trump went to a party with Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire who was a notorious registered sex offender, and raped a 13-year-old girl that night in what was a “savage sexual attack,” according to a lawsuit filed in June 2016 by “Jane Doe.” The account was corroborated by a witness in the suit, who claimed to have watched as the child performed various sexual acts on Trump and Epstein even after the two were advised she was a minor.

    “Immediately following this rape Defendant Trump threatened me that, were I ever to reveal any of the details of Defendant Trump’s sexual and physical abuse of me, my family and I would be physically harmed if not killed,” Jane Doe wrote in the lawsuit, filed in New York.

    The lawsuit was dropped in November 2016, just four days before the election, with Jane Doe’s attorneys citing “numerous threats” against her.

    You may not consider this evidence compelling, but it is certainly evidence nonetheless.

    5
  10. Daryl and his brother Darryl says:

    BTW…today the Dennison Administration is in court trying to gut pre-existing conditions protections, Medicare expansion, and the rest of what remains of Obamacare.
    This in spite of saying many words to the contrary.

    5
  11. Teve says:

    Literally every beach in Mississippi is closed due to cyanobacteria thanks in part to huge nitrogen runoff. Cyanobacteria, along with being toxic, give off a lovely scent reminiscent of rotting eggs.

    2
  12. Teve says:

    I just searched Trump’s twitter feed–0 mentions of Epstein.

  13. grumpy realist says:

    Good article from EUreferendum on the regulatory buzzsaw the U.K. is about to walk into. It’s like watching a US airline suddenly decide it’s not going to adhere to FAA regulations and will just carry out airplane inspections “whenever we feel like it”. And then complain because no airport allows them to fly in or out.

  14. Kylopod says:

    @Daryl and his brother Darryl: Trump used to love Mick, but it’s all over now.

  15. wr says:

    @grumpy realist: “It’s like watching a US airline suddenly decide it’s not going to adhere to FAA regulations and will just carry out airplane inspections “whenever we feel like it””

    You mean the way things work today. Oh, no, wait — that’s airplane makers who can just carry out inspections if and whenever they feel like it. Carry on.

  16. MarkedMan says:

    @grumpy realist: On the Medical Regulation side, I think it almost inevitable they will accept the EU CE mark. It is absurd to think multinationals will ever get around to assembling a submission file for a population of 66M whose National Health Service is notorious for fighting tooth and nail for the lowest possible price. First will come the US and the EU, then possibly Japan, Korea, China and Brazil. If Russia ever recovers, they’ll take precedence too. British approval would be a “nice to have” for the second release, and cut for budgetary reasons at least half the time.

    1
  17. Scott F. says:

    @Teve:

    I was hoping McGrath would take on McConnell. Even though she lost narrowly when she ran for Congress, she ran a good campaign and she has a strong resumé. No question that McConnell will be very hard to beat, but McGrath will bring the fight. “It started with him” is a powerful tag line, because it’s true.

    3
  18. grumpy realist says:

    Gay marriage and abortion rights getting extended to Northern Ireland?

    That’ll be a poke in the eye for the DUP. Critters who are insisting that NI has to be considered the same as England–except, of course, when it comes to gay rights and abortions. Bloody serve them right.

  19. Bill says:

    Down here in Palm Beach County Florida High school principal was demoted because he refused to take a stance on the Holocaust

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/spanish-river-william-latson-holocaust.html

    Now United States Senator from Florida is calling for the principal to resign

    https://www.wptv.com/news/region-s-palm-beach-county/boca-raton/sen-rick-scott-calls-for-firing-of-spanish-river-high-school-principal-following-holocaust-comments

    A few things- My wife and went to Auschwitz while visiting Poland in 2000, my half sister Patty (she died in 2014) was Jewish, In addition one of my fiction stories at Amazon has a major subplot involving a South Korean woman converting to Judaism. Her American husband was Jewish. My User page at Wikipedia says I loath people who deny the Holocaust.

    About the principal

    1 I think his stance is dumb however I don’t see the problem with it. He wasn’t denying the Holocaust and I don’t like political correctness all that much.

    2 Rick Scott should keep his mouth shut instead of calling for someone’s firing. When’s Scott going to confess to crimes involving Medicare fraud. He does that, go ahead and call for the principal’s firing. Fair is fair.

    As I said once here before, steal a hundred dollars from a convenience store in Florida, serve 10 years in prison. Steal hundreds of millions of dollars through medicare fraud, get elected first Governor then United States Senator from Florida.

    4
  20. Tyrell says:

    Some good news that you may have missed:
    “Inmates help calm dogs during July 4 fireworks”
    Brevard County (USA Today)
    “Hotel for Dogs”?

    “Mom praises airline passenger for showing care for her autistic son flying solo”
    (Inspiring)

    “Police called in on shoplifter. They end up paying for her food” (NBC News)

    “Community needed new road. Farmer takes action and builds it himself for free” (USA Today)

    “This is incredible! Emiratl woman wakes up after 27 years in coma” (Canoe)

    1
  21. Kylopod says:

    @Bill:

    I think his stance is dumb however I don’t see the problem with it. He wasn’t denying the Holocaust

    No, he wasn’t. What he was doing was describing Holocaust denial as a legitimate point of view, using the fact that there are people who deny it as a justification for not teaching it in school, and refusing to divulge his own position on the reality of the Holocaust: “I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee.”

    I don’t like political correctness all that much

    Well, you’re in good company. Donald Trump hates political correctness too. At least that’s what he said when he was called on his disparaging remarks about women. Ben Carson justified torture on the grounds that we can’t fight a “politically correct war.” But you know what people really complain about political correctness all the time? Holocaust deniers. They refer to the Holocaust as “politically correct history.”

    “I’m not politically correct” is one of the most tiresome and useless phrases in the language. It’s useless because deciding whether something is truly offensive or whether people are being oversensitive is completely in the eye of the beholder, and everyone perceives that their own point of view is justified, and therefore that anyone who takes offense at it is being overly PC. Hey, I think men should have the right to beat their wives with a frying pan. You offended? That’s because you’re too PC.

    If you want to make your argument, make it. Don’t say you hate political correctness–a statement that’s vacuous at best, and in practice a defense of some of the most repugnant, deplorable views.

    A few things- My wife and went to Auschwitz while visiting Poland in 2000, my half sister Patty (she died in 2014) was Jewish, In addition one of my fiction stories at Amazon has a major subplot involving a South Korean woman converting to Judaism. Her American husband was Jewish. My User page at Wikipedia says I loath people who deny the Holocaust.

    I’ve got news for you. People with Jewish family members who visit Auschwitz and write fiction on Jewish matters can be just as short-sighted on this subject as anyone else. Even some Jews can be. As for having a Wikipedia page saying you loathe Holocaust deniers–really? What, you want a medal?

    A word of advice: Stop trying to find superficial ways to bolster your “Jew cred,” as if these things somehow give you the authority to tell us what is or isn’t anti-Semitic.

    7
  22. wr says:

    @Bill: “I think his stance is dumb however I don’t see the problem with it. He wasn’t denying the Holocaust and I don’t like political correctness all that much.”

    The “problem with it” is that he is an educator who is refusing take a stand on whether or not a recent historical incident happened because some right wing nut jobs get their feelings hurt when people say mean things about Nazis. If an educator doesn’t have the backbone to say that the Holocaust happened, why would we trust him to teach our children anything?

    And I love that to you it’s “political correctness” to insist that our schools teach the truth.

    4
  23. Gustopher says:

    @Teve:

    Right-wing Ag-Gag-type threats to free speech, and shit like this, are much higher on my list

    I once mistakenly bought “Just Mayo”, which was not simply mayonnaise made without formaldehyde or whatever horrors are in Hellman’s, but was Just in the “We don’t use animal products” vegan fake mayonnaise, and that big egg in their logo wasn’t a sign of their ingredients, just a shape.

    There is no jail term long enough for those people.

    That said, veggie burgers are clearly not meat, and this law should be overturned.

    “Plant-based Meat” on the other hand…

    1
  24. Teve says:

    bunch of right-wing nut jobs on Twitter are deleting all their old Seth Rich posts, now that it’s come out that Russia invented it and they’re just dumb chumps.

  25. Mister Bluster says:

    Judge rejects Trump administration’s request to swap lawyers in census case

    A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request from the Justice Department to replace some of the lawyers assigned to a lawsuit blocking the government from including a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

    The DOJ previously said that a new team of attorneys would take over the case, but did not specify a reason for the change.

    “The DOJ’s motion to withdraw specific attorneys is ‘patently insufficient,‘” Judge Jesse Furman wrote. “Defendants provide no reason, let alone ‘satisfactory reasons’ for the substitution of counsel.”
    CNBC

  26. Guarneri says:

    How are the malcontents today?

    Remember, the hemlock is over there ———->

  27. Mister Bluster says:

    Here’s some hemlock for the lawyers at the DOJ who obviously
    DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING!

    Rule 1.4 of the Local Rules of the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York governs the withdrawal of counsel. Rule 1.4 provides, in relevant part:

    An attorney who has appeared as attorney of record for a party may be relieved or displaced only by order of the Court and may not withdraw from a case without leave of the Court granted by order. Such an order may be granted only upon a showing by affidavit or otherwise of satisfactory reasons for withdrawal or displacement and the posture of the case, including its position, if any, on the calendar, and whether or not the attorney is asserting a retaining or charging lien.
    source

  28. Gustopher says:

    @Bill:

    Down here in Palm Beach County Florida High school principal was demoted because he refused to take a stance on the Holocaust

    Good.

    If you can’t be bothered to tell Nazis to fvck off, you have no business being in education.

    The Holocaust happened. If you want to argue about the exact numbers, but are still in the millions, sure, whatever. If you want to really make sure the gays and the gypsies are mentioned, absolutely. If you want to debate the causes and the culpability of the average German, there’s an argument to be had.

    But if you claim that it didn’t happen, or you need to weigh the evidence on both sides and still don’t know… get back to your Hindu Swastika that allegedly means “peace” or something, and just fvck off.

    Rick Scott should keep his mouth shut instead of calling for someone’s firing. When’s Scott going to confess to crimes involving Medicare fraud. He does that, go ahead and call for the principal’s firing.

    A disgust for Nazis and their enablers is not just for the morally pure. Remember what Jesus said “judge not, lest he be judged… except for the Nazis, like, fvck them.”

    I am pleased to discover that there is some common ground between Rick Scott and myself, despite him being a reptilian version of Lex Luther.

    1
  29. Gustopher says:

    @gVOR08:

    The Florida High School principal in the Holocaust kerfuffle got fired. I find it sad. It didn’t really sound like he was a Holocaust denier, just a poor schmuck caught between reality and the beliefs of some of his RWNJ parents.

    Some moral positions are easy. If he actually believed that it wasn’t his place to refer to the Holocaust as fact, he’s a moron and a coward.

    He’s either a Nazi, or he has some completely insane principle that no one other than him cares about, and which shouldn’t apply when it comes to Nazis. Nazi or fool.

    And you… well, I’ve read your comments for years, and you don’t seem like a Nazi, and I don’t think that free speech rights for Holocaust deniers is a hill you’re willing to die on, even vicariously through this idiot, so I’m going with momentarily foolish.

    But support for people who refuse to condemn Holocaust deniers gives me a momentary pause. Maybe there’s more to the story that I’m missing, but… eesh.

  30. Kylopod says:

    @Gustopher:

    He’s either a Nazi, or he has some completely insane principle that no one other than him cares about, and which shouldn’t apply when it comes to Nazis. Nazi or fool.

    It’s possible he’s simply ignorant. That’s the most charitable interpretation of his comments I can think of. But if so, it’s an ignorance that is itself disqualifying for an educator.

    Over the years there have been a few weird celebrities who have dipped into the waters of Holocaust denial out of a sense of iconoclastic hyper-skepticism. This has included the late science fiction writer Colin Wilson and Dilbert creator Scott Adams. Wilson was something of a conspiracy nut, and Adams is the sort of person who seems convinced that questioning any sort of conventional wisdom is automatically an unvarnished good (it seems to be his primary motivation for supporting Trump, more than any policy consideration). It’s possible to be deeply misguided on this subject without being an intentional or overt neo-Nazi.

    I don’t think that free speech rights for Holocaust deniers is a hill you’re willing to die on

    I’m fine with free speech rights for Holocaust deniers. I don’t support the “hate speech” laws found in many other countries, where you can actually go to prison for saying the Holocaust didn’t happen. That’s not possible in America, nor should it be. But just because you have the right to deny the Holocaust doesn’t mean you’re free from the consequences of denying it. A right to express your views isn’t the same as a right not to be fired for them.

    2
  31. Kit says:

    @Teve:

    This week, a new law went into effect in Mississippi. The state now bans plant-based meat providers from using labels like “veggie burger” or “vegan hot dog” on their products. Such labels are potentially punishable with jail time.

    Your wording is a bit ambiguous, but I certainly don’t see this as an issue of free speech. Businesses must be held to high standards when it comes to truth in advertising. And in a slightly altered reality, consumers might be misled about veggie burgers. However, in my opinion, that’s not our reality. No, the real story is about regulatory capture.

  32. Kit says:

    @MarkedMan:

    You may not consider this evidence compelling, but it is certainly evidence nonetheless.

    For some strange reason, the word evidence is drifting towards meaning apodictic proof, rather than individual datum in a narrative that must end in a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt. I could hazard various reasons as to why, but I suspect that the real causes run deep. This drives me mad when it comes to denying the climate crisis.

    1
  33. Teve says:

    On Monday Bill Barr said he was recusing himself from the Epstein case. Yesterday he turned around and said he was not recusing himself from the Epstein case. Anybody else think he got a call from a Mr. John Barron aka David Dennison? What’s Mr. Dennison worried about?

    1
  34. Tyrell says:

    @MarkedMan: How many times did Bill Clinton fly on that guy’s private plane?

  35. DrDaveT says:

    @Kit:

    Businesses must be held to high standards when it comes to truth in advertising.

    This, in a nation where it’s easy to buy a substance labeled “fat-free half and half”?

    As you say, it’s about regulatory capture. See also ‘organic’. (My favorite quote there is from my father, who saw a box of “organic sea salt” on a grocery store shelf and said “I’m pretty sure I don’t want to eat any salt that isn’t inorganic…”)

    1
  36. MarkedMan says:

    @Tyrell: OK, I’ll byte. I have no idea how many times Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane other than it was multiple times. But he certainly deserves scrutiny for that. And if it turns out he knew about these child rapes and did nothing I hope he goes down in flames.

    You see Tyrell, I’m not a Republican. I don’t excuse child molesters just because they share my political affiliation.

    4
  37. Teve says:
  38. Kit says: