14 hours ago, wcw43921 said:

This is an article by Kevin D. Williamson of The Dispatch.   It was behind a paywall so I'm reposting it without permission.  Makes an excellent point, I think.

 

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Is No Neville Chamberlain

 

Irritated by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s tireless dedication to serving Moscow’s interests, Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz offered an amendment to the Ukraine aid bill that would have renamed her office the “Neville Chamberlain Room.” It was an ugly, stupid, juvenile insult. 

 

Say what you will about Marjorie Taylor Greene, she is no Neville Chamberlain.

 

Neville Chamberlain was an honorable and decent man, a patriot and a statesman who led the United Kingdom during the first months of World War II before serving honorably in Winston Churchill’s war cabinet for the few months he had left to live before dying of cancer. He retired, as it were, at the end of September 1940, and he was dead by November 9, having labored through the excruciating pain of intestinal cancer as the Blitz raged overhead. When Churchill, acting on behalf of the king, offered the dying Chamberlain the Order of the Garter, Chamberlain declined. “I prefer to die plain ‘Mr. Chamberlain,’ like my father before me, unadorned by any title,” he said.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is no Neville Chamberlain. 

 

Chamberlain came late to national politics. He was about to turn 50 when he was elected to the House of Commons. (No British prime minister ever has been first elected to Parliament later in life.) He had failed at one business and prospered at another, and much of his political career had been spent in unglamorous municipal government, first as a city councilman and planning commissioner and then as mayor of Birmingham during the austerity of the Great War. He cut spending, reduced the scope of his own office, and cut his own expense account by half as a seemly wartime measure. His performance in office was enough to get him appointed director of national service. In the position, he oversaw Britain’s military conscription while securing an adequate workforce for war-production industries. He disagreed with the prime minister, David Lloyd George, and resigned from the prestigious and influential post. 

 

Marjorie Taylor Greene is no Neville Chamberlain. 

 

After the war, Chamberlain decided to run for the House of Commons and won a seat with a 70 percent majority. He was a legislative workhorse but declined a ministerial appointment under Lloyd George. He worked his way up to the position of chancellor of the exchequer—secretary of the treasury, approximately—and narrowly turned back an electoral challenge from Labour candidate Oswald Mosley, the future leader of British fascism. By the early 1930s, Chamberlain had helped to lead the United Kingdom from a position of debt-ridden near-ruination to a budget surplus. He quipped that the country had turned the last page of Bleak House and opened the first chapter of Great Expectations.

 

Marjorie Taylor Greene is no Neville Chamberlain. 

 

As prime minister, Chamberlain miscalculated in what turned out to be the most consequential decision of his political career. He believed, wrongly, that he could buy off Adolf Hitler and thereby avoid an unprofitable war with a continental tyrant. Avoiding unprofitable wars with continental tyrants has historically been a considerable part of British foreign policy, and it has often been the right policy. It wasn’t the right policy vis-à-vis Nazi Germany. It fell to Chamberlain to admit his error and to announce the declaration of war. He forthrightly addressed his fellow countrymen on the radio:

This country is at war with Germany. You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. … We and France are today, in fulfillment of our obligations, going to the aid of Poland, who is so bravely resisting this wicked and unprovoked attack upon her people. We have a clear conscience. We have done all that any country could do to establish peace. … Now may God bless you all and may He defend the right. For it is evil things that we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution. And against them I am certain that the right will prevail.

Honor even in disappointment. Standing by his pledge to help an occupied people resist a “wicked and unprovoked attack” from a tyrant. Telling the truth about it. 

No, Marjorie Taylor Greene is no Neville Chamberlain. 

What was Winston Churchill’s judgment? He eulogized his former rival in Parliament: 

It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart—the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour.

Neville Chamberlain made the wrong decision at the most important juncture of his public life. But he was an authentic statesman who put service over self, even at the cost of his reputation, personal fortune, and health. For most of the world—and particularly for Americans, who care so little for history—all that remains of Neville Chamberlain is his worst mistake. But he did what he thought was right, received very little thanks for it in the end, and never stopped working for his country until the last few weeks of his life, when he was physically unable to continue. He died, as he wished, plain Mr. Chamberlain.

 

Marjorie Taylor Greene is no Neville Chamberlain. Not on her best day.

 

Not mentioned by the article, starting in 1935 Neville Chamberlain began rearming the UK in preparation for a possible coming war.  Consequently, when England finally did fight that were much better prepared to do so than they were at the beginning of Chamberlain's term as PM.

6 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I think if it comes to a vote, there may be quite a few Republican legislators voting to keep Johnson in his chair. Many in the House are now publicly expressing frustration with the "Twitter faction" of the party. I'm pretty sure that group doesn't have the votes to force him out.

 

OTOH the Democrats are likely still in a position to get the votes to turf Johnson and replace him with Jeffries. There are plusses and minuses to them pulling the trigger, so we'll have to wait and see what they choose.

I apologize it I misunderstand what you are saying, but of course most of the Republicans will vote to keep Johnson.  The vast majority of Republicans voted to keep Kevin McCarthy.  The only reason that McCarthy got ousted was because the Democrats voted as block to remove him and the Twitter faction crossed party lines and joined them.  

Also, rumors notwithstanding, if Johnson gets ousted Jeffries won't become Speaker.  The job will wind up going another Republican, and they will know that if they do bipartisan legislation with the Democrats, they will be repaid by those same Democrats stabbing them in the back when the most extreme members of the own party come after them.

Edit:  I saw footage of Hakeem Jeffries commending Mike Johnson by name, so I don't think Johnson has to worry about being ousted.

17 minutes ago, wcw43921 said:

RIP Trina Robbins

 

Doggone it--that wasn't supposed to happen.

A long life, well lived is something to be celebrated.  We should all lift a glass in toast and hope that we do half so well.

4 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

"The University of Memphis said in a statement that due to free speech, they cannot legally prohibit the event."

 

That's garbage and they know it. The First Amendment applies to government censoring or banning speech. It doesn't require any private organization to provide a platform for speech that it doesn't approve of.

The University of Memphis is public institution, and as such counts as a government entity. 

9 hours ago, tkdguy said:

https://www.meidastouch.com/news/biden-campaign-scorches-media-for-ignoring-trumps-horrifying-behavior

It's very much a damned if you do, damned if you don't thing.  Back in 2016, the media reported every deranged thing that Trump said of did, and it had the effect of sucking all the air out of the room where every other candidate was concerned.  Trump owned every media cycle and it was pretty easy to forget that anyone else was running.

The strategy of ignoring all his craziness has drawbacks, but IMHO it is much than blindly chasing after his every provocation.  Sure, the special counsel was not kind to Biden and right now his campaign would very much like to change the topic, but in a week or two America will have forgotten all about it.   However, Trump can be counted on to keep bringing up the special counsel report and if the media allows him to lead them around like they did in 2016, then the public will keep hearing about and the issue will live on like Hillary's emails.

IOW, the Biden campaign should be careful what they wish for.

6 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

 

This entire election is shaping up to be ugly, in ways that transcend the normal electoral politics. The entire structure of the election is going to be called into question, if Trump doesn't win...he'll assert the whole process was poisoned, if he's not on all the ballots.  And in any state if he's excluded?  Oh man...nightmare.  Alternate selection of electors, election challenges, potentially CONSTANT objection to seating delegates when the time comes to certify the delegates. Absolute chaos.

Yeah, I am hoping that SCOTUS straightens this out soon.

1 hour ago, death tribble said:

Shakira statue unveiled in her home town

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67826941

In the distant future, assuming humanity gets a distant future, archeologists will simply assume that is a sculpture of a goddess. 

21 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

He was active as two people at the same time, carefully never interacting, apparently.  And none of that explains how the super soldier serum didn't keep him unaging, or at least very slow aging.  Or make that movie any better.

There was not anything to explain.  The idea that the super soldier formula slowed aging was never introduced into the MCU.

2 hours ago, wcw43921 said:

The Multilevel Marketer Rallying Women To Put America In Christian "Bondage"

Quote

"I just believe what the Bible says," she added. "We're supposed to go onto the Earth; we're supposed to dominate."

That is absolutely not what the Bible says.  Has she even read the book?

6 hours ago, Old Man said:

I’m having a really hard time thinking of MCU roles that could have fit Keanu. 

I have one that isn't an MCU role but it is MCU adjacent in that it would be with MCU directors the Russo brothers.  Apparently, back in 2019 they acquired the movie rights to Grimjack.  Keanu was pretty much born to play John Gaunt. 

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

Trump's brain is like a glass of carbonated water. Bubbles of gas randomly rise to the surface.

I would have gone with a fart in the bath tub, but a glass of carbonated water works too, I guess.

She has lived a heck of life, long and full, but still it is sad to see her go.  Jimmy might as well follow along after.  I can't imagine that there seems like a lot to stick around for with Rosalyn gone.

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14 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

One story noted that Jeffries made the point this has nothing to do with the Democrats, this is purely an internal Republican matter.  And we go back to the point...if Dems vote for someone, how long would it be before large swathes of Republicans reject him/her?  IMO, he's protecting his caucus.  If the enemy wants to fight among themselves...LET THEM.  

 

Not a single Democrats needed to vote for McCarthy.  All that needed to happen is for a dozen Democrats to say that that the Republicans needed to sort out their own messes and refrain from voting.

The decisions to go all in for getting rid of McCarthy may bite them and the rest of us in the butt in 43 days, when the continuing resolution expires, and there is no one in the speaker's chair to negotiate with and the extreme right wing feels more empowered than ever.

1 hour ago, Starlord said:

Tired of dealing with DC comics management?  Just do this:

 

https://www.superherohype.com/comics/547431-fables-the-wolf-among-us-rights-released-to-public-domain-by-creator

Wow!  That is big.  Now anyone who wants to use Bill Willingham specific versions of the Fable characters or any new characters that he created for the series in there own projects can do so.  If you want to make a Fables-based movie, TV show, RPG or play then go ahead and do it!

1 hour ago, wcw43921 said:

I hope this isn't the start of a trend.  I rather like self-serve fountains.

I don't think that it will be.  McDonalds has very cheap prices on its fountain drinks.  Other fast food restaurants charge over twice as much.  So, other fast food restaurants can use there extra profit margin on people who don't get a refill or get only one, to cover the expense of people who go back for 4 or 5 refills.  Mickey Dees not so much.  

5 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

RIP: Sinead O'Connor

When I heard about this on the radio, I found myself saying the f-word over and over again.  I wasn't saying it anger, but with more as "how can this be?".  She was still so young, and she had so much life and so much charm.  It just doesn't quite compute for me.

Congratulations on your new job.

5 hours ago, Cygnia said:

RNC trashed for stacking the deck against any candidate not named Donald Trump

I don't agree with Ms. Hoover.  The standards to get up on the debate stage may be high, but Trump isn't the only one that can meet them.  Ultimately, the more candidates that are on the stage, the more it favors Donald Trump.  Trump has his voters locked in, and it works to his advantage to have a whole bunch of candidates fighting for the rest of the voters.  That leads to a bunch of candidates with really low poll numbers for Trump to tower over.  Ideally, it would be best from the standpoint of defeating Trump, if in the primaries he was running against a single, conservative, charismatic candidate who is not a Trump clone.  Failing that it would be best for only a small group of rival candidates to share the stage, so as to make it relatively easy for one to break free from the pack and establish themselves as the Trump alternative.

2 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I did not like them using Barry as the fresh neophyte idiot character of the group, but it was a choice between him and Cyborg as to who would learn to use their powers and be all naive.  Obviously Cyborg should not have had all his powers at perfect command instantly and be completely world weary and capable, but that's not how they wanted to go with the character so we got doofus Flash.

The Flash's powers lend themselves much better to comedy than Cyborg's.  Also, the whole quadruple amputee thing is a bit of a downer.

3 hours ago, Simon said:

Could be a bit of both, though I've cut _way_ back from pandemic drinking (lost about 25 pounds in the process). Main bit now is slowly reducing the collection over time -- The Wife and I are planning to do the expat thing within 8-10 years, and it would be needlessly expensive to ship all of that overseas.

Glad to hear about the cutting back and the weight loss thing.  I think that I speak for everyone here in saying that we want you around for a good long time.

If you don't mind me asking, which country were you thinking of moving to?

4 minutes ago, Simon said:

Rookies

Hmmm, I'm not sure if that is brag or a cry for help. 

6 hours ago, wcw43921 said:

Roy Thomas On The Stan Lee Documentary

 

I have yet to see it myself, and I'm sure most here are aware of it and the surrounding controversy, but I figure if there's an impartial voice to be heard on the subject, it would be Rascally Roy's.

Not so much.  Roy Thomas was basically Stan's right hand man for years, and many of the people who held grudges against Stan didn't like Roy either.

41 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

Also can't be considered a win for Putin.  If nothing else, he lost a LOT of face.

 

I wouldn't be remotely surprised if there's a vial of polonium with Prigozhin's name on it already.

Yeah, I was thinking that about Prigozhin.  To paraphrase Emerson, if you are going to shoot the king don't miss.  Well, having seconds thoughts after if you pull your gun probably isn't too good for your health either.

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