Yeah, it’s Ross Douthat, actin’ all craven on our asses once more, “explaining”, and explaining away, the Jan. 6 riot as, perhaps, not really that big a deal after all, so why don’t those big-mouth Democrats stop talking about it 24/7 and, in particular, stop, you know, denouncing people just for defending it, because “However…
Author: Alan Vanneman
George Packer, Packin’ the Con in “Neocon”!
I’ve never actually met George Packer, but I have read him, in the current issue of the Atlantic, so I’ll go out on a limb and say I can probably throw him farther than I can trust him. Yes, I am hip to old Georgie’s jive, right from the get-go—right from his “head”, as a…
The Peter Bernstein Quartet: “Monk’s Dream”
Posted by Litchfield Performing Arts. For more on Pete, go here.
Misinformation at the Washington Post, Jonathan Capehart edition
Misinformation courtesy of the Washington Post? It does happen! Just last year I fact checked Fact Checker Glenn Kessler for his mis/disinformation regarding the godawful Donald Trump/Paul Ryan/Mitch McConnell tax bill rammed through Congress back in 2017, and now I’m on the trail of WashPost columnist Jonathan Capehart for his seriously uncritical take on Al…
Joe Biden’s foreign policy: regressin’ to meaninglessness and following the path of greatest stupidity
Gee whiz but I wish I wasn’t so prescient. A whole six months ago I wrote a post Joe Biden likes being a Cold War President, moaning a bit theatrically about Uncle Joe’s “senile swagger.” Well, it seems like Joe was just getting warmed up. United States Enters a New Era of Direct Confrontation With…
Yo, Adam Smith! That whole “invisible hand” thing is looking kinda shaky these days!
Oh, yeah, a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on, and what’s shakin’ from the tree looks pretty goddamn gamy these days, starting with Elon Musk, who’s been giving an excellent impression of the world’s richest 13-year-old for some time now, but recently upped the ante by about a 1000 percent, half destroying the company he just…
Robert Menendez surprises me. And so does Thomas Friedman!
Democratic senator Robert Menendez has made but fleeting appearances in this blog, for no more purpose than to be jeered at by me as “the senator from AIPAC”, thanks in particular to his unrelenting and despicable opposition to the Obama administration’s nuclear weapons deal with Iran, overturned by the Trump administration and now very unlikely…
Shorter Ross Douthat: Donald Trump is my daddy!
Yes, ole Ross is in love, with you know who! When all seemed lost, gushes our boy a leader emerged who persuaded the G.O.P. to abandon its fixation on deficits and just run the economy hot, who endorsed universal health insurance and pledged to protect entitlements, and who acknowledged that the Iraq war had been…
Biden administration to Ukraine: Hey! Did you guys see that letter people were talking about a couple of weeks ago?
You know the one. It said stuff like “The alternative to diplomacy is protracted war, with both its attendant certainties and catastrophic and unknowable risks”, and, well, a lot of stuff like that, about why calling for “total victory” over a country four times your size, armed with nuclear weapons, might not be the perfect…
Alan Vanneman totally lied! Falls Church bike shelter totally rocks!
Yes, I did get carried away in last year’s tasteless, sneering post regarding the $2 million bike shed at the East Falls Church Metro station. Now, I still maintain that $2 mil for a bike shed is too much, but as for the sneer that the shed was practically empty—well, again, that was true then,…