Rex Tillerson was on my radio just now, which pissed me off because it reminded me that Rex Tillerson exists. Has there ever been a shittier Secretary of State?
Kissinger was evil, but at least he was good at his job.
Comments reminded by or a line from B-Movie:
The director will be Attila the Haig, ...
Running around frantically declaring himself in control and in charge
The ultimate realization of the inmates taking over at the asylum.
To the OP, I posted a longish excerpt from Dred Scott on social media not long ago. Folks who like that sort of thing seemed to like it. Responding more to CJ Taney than to me, a friend quoted Somerset v. Stewart, but really that just supports the proposition that one of the main drivers of the Revolution, among the 0.1% anyway, was the desire to prevent the application of Somerset across the Atlantic. And so, here we are, not people but animals.
it reminded me that Rex Tillerson exists. Has there ever been a shittier Secretary of State?
There is now, isn't there?
Pompeo recently mentioned something about maybe thinking about trying to fill all the empty positions at State, so on that mark he's already ahead of Tillerson.
Tillerson was probably less ideologically unsound than the new guy, but worse at his job.
Buchanan scored the Oregon Territory without going to war with Britain. No way Tillerson could have done that.
How's yet another school shooting for your Friday WTFuckery?
11:
In negotiations with Britain over Oregon, Buchanan at first advised a compromise, but later advocated for annexation of the entire territory. Eventually, Buchanan assented to a division at the 49th parallel.
Can't make up his mind. Sad. 54 40 or fight, yo.
Apparently he had considered serving on the Supreme Court instead of as SecState. Wonder how that would have affected the timing of the Civil War.
So, if I understand things correctly, the promised gutting of food stamps isn't going to happen because of the defection of Republicans who demanded more racism in immigration.
Trump leaned on the Postmaster General to double rates on Amazon.
Anyway, what I think Bezos should do is he should kick Republicans out of Amazon Prime.
As long as we're talking about Friday WTFuckitude: Jordan Peterson. Again.
I wish I had whatever kind of charisma lets him be able to say things as irredeemably stupid as this, yet still be able to make money doing it:
Wherever he goes, he speaks in sermons about the inevitability of who we must be. "You know you can say, 'Well isn't it unfortunate that chaos is represented by the feminine' -- well, it might be unfortunate, but it doesn't matter because that is how it's represented. It's been represented like that forever. And there are reasons for it. You can't change it. It's not possible. This is underneath everything. If you change those basic categories, people wouldn't be human anymore. They'd be something else. They'd be transhuman or something. We wouldn't be able to talk to these new creatures."
We have chaos, but not in a way the future can understand it.
Pompeo is a long time civil servant who apparently demonstrated commitment to the organization at CIA. He may enable Trump, which bad, but OTOH this administration is guaranteed to leave such a mess anyway that simply having a functioning diplomatic service at the end of it will be maybe the best one can hope for from a SecState.
I'm sure Secretary of State Ael will aptly consider the ramifications of his interactions with Chairman Un.
Do we have a royal wedding thread going? That choir's rendition of "Stand By Me" was stunning. I think the bride's mother wore green better than the groom's grandmother did.
That combination of lime-green and violet was just ... weird. I think she must have been trying to upstage the Archbishop of Canterbury's cope.
I'm Catholic, so I can't participate.
Speaking of weird things in gender relations, because girls are more likely to participate in theater in middle school and because girls grow so much sooner, I just watched a play where my son, as the villain, threatened to force the hero's girl to marry him. He did very well overall, but that part of lacking in menace. Even in costume and behind stage lights, he's still obviously a child. She was at least a foot taller and had a much more adult stage presence.
25: they changed it a few years ago. You could even marry a royal and not exclude them from succession. I think Catholics can do all of it now except be the Soverign, for obvious reasons.
Because then the Church of England would be indirectly Catholic?
If you're the head of the church it's frowned on being a member of another church. Unless you're also head of the Catholic Church, I suppose. But being both King of England and Pope would be quite the hat trick.
I heard that the head of the Church of England is a Presbyterian on the weekends.
Trump leaned on the Postmaster General to double rates on Amazon.
You'd think this would prompt some reaction from our plutocrats. I wonder how widely DeLong's prey mantra is believed or understood in that class.
The most ominous story I've heard recently was the skyrocketing rates of FISA court rejections and acceptances post modification.
Frex. (Headline is misleading.)