Category: Uncategorized

Let’s just say it lived down to my expectations.

According to the NYT,  Robert Mugabe was just awarded a Confucius Peace Prize.  Really.  I’m not making this up.

I don’t think the rest of the world will be impressed.

Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear, most recently during the Israeli election, that negotiations with the Palestinians are a waste of time for the foreseeable future.  He believes, instead, in conflict management.  As this approach has been applied in Gaza, it is commonly referred to as “cutting the grass.”

(As an aside, it was his objective to coerce the US to launch periodic air strikes in Iran–i.e., to “cut the grass”– for him.  Obama refused to be his lawn guy.  No wonder he was so pissed off.)

In the short term, you would have to say that the Israeli government’s tactics (build the wall, change facts on the ground through settlements, and make the minimum diplomatic efforts necessary to satisfy the outside world) have been reasonably successful.  Gaza is a flea bite, and the West Bank has been largely quiet for several years, mostly because the PA has been willing to act as Israel’s policeman in exchange for the illusion of power and a negotiated two-state solution.  No progress has been made on the latter for several years.  The question is, how long can this last?

In the longer term, Israel has three points of vulnerability:

1.  Hezbollah is a far greater military threat than Hamas.  Fortunately for the Israelis, it is primarily engaged in fighting in Syria at the present time.  The Syrian civil war presented an opportunity for Israel to force Hezbollah to fight on two fronts, but the government has chosen not to do that.  At some point, the civil war will end, and the danger will return.
2. The possibility of an incident in the Old City that inflames passions throughout the Islamic world grows by the day.  The PA is apparently using social media to spread rumors about the government’s plans because every other available lever to force the government to the table has failed.  Netanyahu is probably telling the truth when he says that the government has no intention of changing the status quo, but his credibility on the issue is compromised by the views of some of his radical right friends.
3. Israel’s millions of Arab citizens are a huge potential threat if the government insists on marginalizing them.  Unlike the West Bank, that problem cannot be solved with a wall.  In the absence of a negotiated solution, what are the government’s options?  Collective punishment?  Mass expulsions?

The bottom line is that “cutting the grass” isn’t going to work forever.  Calling everyone who disagrees with you a Nazi doesn’t accomplish much, either.

 

When you offend your hosts by suggesting that someone else is guilty of a crime to which they have already admitted, it is time to STFU.

In this instance, discretion was clearly the better part of valor.

Newt Gingrich

Feminine itch

Dennis Hastert

Out to pasture

 

John Boehner

Eric Cantor

K. McCarthy

See you later.

 

Paul Ryan

Next in line?

Pretty soon

He’ll be dyin’.

The ideal thing would be to create a parody of “Volare,” but I can’t write in Italian, so this will have to do:

I was posted in Benghazi

When the uprising went down.

You could see the trouble brewing.

There was anarchy in town.

 

Armed gangs were approaching

The embassy that day.

We tried to call for help, but

All help was far away.

 

They blew up everything they could

And left the place a ruin.

We did our best to stop them, but

It was nothing doing.

 

I’d like to think that all my friends

Didn’t die in vain.

But the squabbling that ensued

Deserves only disdain.

 

Investigate, for all you’re worth

The failures that took place.

But don’t forget our tragedy

Still has a human face.

 

Election time is drawing near.

A reckoning’s at hand.

But please think twice before you draw

New lines in the sand.

Here come old hat head

He come flying his jet plane

He got golden bombast

He one golf course shaman

He got brains just above his knees

Got to be a joker ’cause he’s good on TV

 

He wear no toupee

He got high fence fever

He got Fox News bluster

He shoot Guatemalans

He say “I and I and I and me”

One thing I can tell you is my time isn’t free.

 

Come together, right now, over me.

 

Parody of “Come Together” by Lennon/McCartney

Lines of cold, exhausted people

Trudging down the road.

Their possessions on their backs.

It’s not a heavy load.

 

Braving dogs and border guards.

Smugglers take their fees.

Crowded trains and leaky boats.

Praying to be free.

 

It’s the Crusades in reverse.

As far as I can tell,

If the journey’s bad as this

Then home’s a living hell.

The GOP stalwart named Trey

Just wanted to do things his way.

He told his committee

“Don’t show any pity.”

“We’re going to get Clinton today.”

(This is a crossover Cromwell event–kind of like combining Chicago Fire and Chicago PD).

It is fairly common to view Trump and Sanders as right-wing and left-wing versions of the same phenomenon:  the surging outsider taking on the establishment by speaking without a filter.  I get that, but I think the comparison does a disservice to Sanders, for three reasons:

1. Sanders is truly authentic; Trump isn’t.  The latter has played a character named “Donald Trump” on a reality show for the last several years.  How authentic can he be?
2. Sanders believes what he says; Trump may not.  As I noted in a previous post, there is plenty of reason to believe that Trump’s obnoxious position on immigration is based solely on opportunism.  In a strange way, that actually makes him look better, rather than worse.
3. Sanders is a real politician; Trump is a celebrity playing a politician.  No further elaboration on this point is necessary.

So what happens to the Keystone Pipeline now?

I’ve got those dirty lowdown House Speaker blues.

Election’s coming, and I think we’re gonna lose.

The time is coming when the party’s gotta choose

A decent candidate, or someone like Ted Cruz.

 

I tried to lead, and the party slapped me down.

Now no one’s stepping up to turn the ship around.

It all is making us look like a bunch of clowns.

Can’t say I’m sorry I’ll no longer be around.

 

I’ve got the blues.

The Tea Party blues.

My face is orange

But the rest of me is blue.

I tried my best

Don’t know what else I could do.

It’s time to go back home

And leave it up to you.

Jeb! laid out his Obamacare replacement plan last week.  Rubio’s plan was unveiled a couple of months ago.  The plans have already been reviewed individually in other publications, and there are gaps in the available information about them, so I don’t propose to analyze them in detail, but it is worth looking at the essential similarities and differences, because they tell us something important about the aspirations of the two candidates.

What they have in common:

1. Elimination of the individual and employer mandates.  Translation:  Thank God my sacred right to be uninsured is being returned to me!  I will cherish it as much as my rights to be poor and homeless.
2. Elimination of some aspects of community rating.  Translation:  Health care is a consumer good and an individual responsibility that is little different from any other.   If you’re sick, it’s probably your own fault.  Don’t stick the healthy and wealthy with the bill for your unhealthy behavior.
3. Elimination of Medicaid expansion.  Translation:  No more free stuff for moochers!
4. Elimination of cost control measures.  Translation:  We sure could use some additional campaign contributions from health care providers.

Where they differ:

1.  Jeb!care’s emphasis on federalism.  Translation:  Dumping difficult problems like pre-existing conditions on the states is good politics.  Anyway, I was a governor, so it makes sense to delegate important issues to people like me.
2. Marcocare’s attempt to push people out of employer plans and into individual plans.  Translation:  I’m new, I’m bold, and I want to make the welfare state work in the days of the Uber economy.

Final judgment:  Regardless of the wisdom of Marco’s plan to equalize the tax treatment of employer-based plans and individual policies, it is going to be unpopular, and it is going to hurt him both in the primaries and, if he gets that far, in the general election.

The senator from my home state.

His campaign is looking just great.

The talent is there

But I don’t really care

It’s his policy views that I hate.

 

Mondays will be “Marco Mondays” on this blog until further notice.  I suppose I can change to “Merkel Mondays” if I run out of material, but we’ll see.