International

DL Open Thread Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on March 13, 2024 3 Comments

I don’t know why this is surprising anymore, but it seems Robert Hur, the Trump-aligned special counsel who said Joe Biden’s brain was scrambled eggs, stretched the truth out of shape in his official report. Transcripts of the interview showed Biden was lucid, if occasionally confused about timelines. Democrats used Hur’s appearance before a House […]

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DL Open Thread Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on March 12, 2024 9 Comments

The backlash against the police reforms that came after the George Floyd protests has been fierce, led by the police themselves. That’s led to many jurisdictions undoing those reforms in the face of reports of rising crime – which, if you bother to look at the numbers, is the opposite of the truth. Gee, I […]

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Song of the Day 3/10: The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet

Filed in Arts and Entertainment, International by on March 10, 2024 0 Comments

You can discover anything on the internet, just about. That’s why the online world’s inability to discover the name of this song or the musicians who recorded it makes it The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet. This much is known with 99% certainty: The synth-pop tune was recorded in 1984 by a young teen […]

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DL Open Thread Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on February 28, 2024 14 Comments

Rep. James Comer, dumbest man in Kentucky, isn’t going to let a little thing like a lying Russian stooge derail his impeachment of Hunter Biden. No sirree, he’s gonna keep fucking that chicken until its feathers fall off. Some Republicans are on the Russian payroll; others, like Comer, are just following along. Israel and Hamas […]

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DL Open Thread Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on February 27, 2024 10 Comments

The Federal Trade Commission sued to stop the grocery mega-merger between Albertson’s, parent company of Acme, and Kroger’s, on the grounds that it would be bad for workers and consumers. I don’t know when that became the standard, but I hope they keep applying it. Not that it will change the narrative – “Biden old” […]

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DL Open Thread Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2024

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on February 20, 2024 6 Comments

Remember Hunter Seefried, the Laurel man who followed his Confederate battle flag-waving father into the Capitol on Jan. 6? Now into the second year of his prison sentence, he has filed for early release, noting that he chased a capitol cop but committed no violence. The 34-year-old also earned his GED and his forklift operator […]

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DL Open Thread Monday, Feb. 19, 2024

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on February 19, 2024 24 Comments

It’s Presidents Day, so let’s start with the formerly anodyne holiday exercise of Historians Rankiing the Presidents. Let’s see here: Top 5 is Lincoln, FDR, Washington, Teddy, TJeff. Obama No. 7, Biden No. 14, I’m sure Trump is in here somewhere, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling … Here he is, No. 45. Last place. But that’s not […]

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Song of the Day 2/7: Randy Newman, “Putin”

Filed in Arts and Entertainment, International by on February 7, 2024 4 Comments

H/t Paul As expected, Tucker Carlson has interviewed Russian president Vladimir Putin. The Guardian is reporting that the interview will probably air Thursday. Wherever it eventually appears, I think it should be introduced with Randy Newman’s 2017 paean to the narcissistic strongman, which appeared on his last album, “Dark Matter.” Newman said it was more […]

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Song of the Day 2/1: Bruce Hornsby, “Circus on the Moon”

Filed in Arts and Entertainment, International by on February 1, 2024 0 Comments

It doesn’t get a lot of coverage, but there’s an international space race going on. Target: the Moon. The most recent inductee to the League of Lunar Landers, Japan, joined the club in triumphant yet slapstick fashion last month. On the plus side, they managed to plunk their SLIM lander with unprecedented accuracy, just 55 […]

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DL Open Thread Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on January 23, 2024 8 Comments

The surest sign that Trump is off his termite-infested rocker: The months-long effort to portray Biden as senile, when of course it’s Trump whose feeble mind is splintering. Last night Trump gave a highly technical description of Israel’s anti-missile defense system: “And they calmly walk to us, and ding, ding, ding, ding, boom, whoosh, boom. […]

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DL Open Thread Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024

Filed in International, National by on January 17, 2024 9 Comments

What is Israel doing? Is it genocide? Ethnic cleansing? Forced migration? A crime against humanity? Such distinctions don’t matter. Even those who support Israel are in agreement: It’s wrong. But it won’t end until Benjamin Netanyahu is removed from power. The source problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. In Israel, two things are simultaneously true: Very few […]

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DL Open Thread Monday, Jan. 15, 2024

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on January 15, 2024 9 Comments

As the seige of Gaza reached 100 days over the weekend, Netanyahu said, “No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anyone else.” I wish Biden would take that as a challenge, because I know just how he could stop them. Meanwhile, the Houthis in Yemen launched an […]

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DL Open Thread Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on January 13, 2024 3 Comments
DL Open Thread Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024

It appears the Biden administration is hellbent on implementing the Saudi-Israeli agreements forged under the Trump administration through the efforts of one Brett McGurk (yes, I’m well aware that sounds like a name Dr. Seuss made up). McGurk is pushing a plan to reconstruct a post-war Gaza through a joint Saudi-Israeli effort that still wouldn’t […]

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