They killed an Iranian government official, when they are not at war with Iran, in Iraq, a sovereign country, without so much as notifying Iraq they were conducting a military operation even though Iraq is ostensibly an ally. Oh, and they also killed an Iraqi citizen. So! Norms!

The reason people are so much more “up in arms” about what Trump did here than whatever Obama might have done, and that this is absolutely not just an “extension of that or a lateral move,” is that nothing Obama did was an intentional provocation that could lead to a massive regional war. Obama’s actions raise serious…

TV news stopped being trustworthy when it became profitable. It became profitable around 1980 at the same time 24-hour news became a thing. And what else happened in 1980? Reagan was elected. So like most terrible things that exist today, we can blame Reagan for it. 

It’s fair and balanced to let a someone who has been proven wrong by facts breathe the same air as an expert in their field who wields those facts. It wouldn’t be civil to speculate that the know-nothing is a lying liar who lies because we have no way of knowing their intentions.

This is true, however this seems insidiously different this time.

Ironically we've been doing misinformation campaigns since long before the internet. Pamphlet dropping comes to mind, but you could make arguments for the Crusades. Probably much earlier . 

About 20 years ago when the internet really started to take off there was a lot talk about the coming “Information wars”. How in the future conflicts would be won by those with the best information and access to that information.

But, you know, this time we *TOTALLY* targeted the people responsible. This time, we’re 100% sure of it. Like, 90% of the way, at least. Or 75%. Well, 50/50. Fuck. It’s the Middle East. If we blow enough people, statistically, at least ONE of them had to be a terrorist or something. Them browns have it coming for 9/11…

If you were active in the Iraq war cheerleading, you should have been shamed and driven from public life.  Instead you get first dibs on real estate in the opinion section of the paper of record to make the exact same disastrous arguments in the same situation.  Sometimes I wish “cancel culture” was a real thing.

I am now sincerely regretting that I do not have a purple monkey dishwasher to call my own.

I am reminded of Steve Martin’s bit about “talking wrong” to your child from birth. Kid eventually goes to school, raises a hand and asks, “May I mambo dog face to the banana patch?”

Purple monkey dishwasher to you too, Kellyanne! 

We need to talk about how this “steel slat” situation is a giant ass grift.

Kellyanne walks out in the morning and there's not a trace that anyone else was ever there?

mood.

“Don’t call it a wall, call it whatever you want.”

Can we call it “Pointless Waste of Time”?

Trump has been calling it a wall for over three years, so we call it a wall. He said we can call it anything we want. We want to call it a wall.