Home » Open thread 10/2/2024

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Open thread 10/2/2024 — 64 Comments

  1. Is it my imagination? Did I just dream it? I swear that yesterday Iran launched close to 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. Reading the news this morning, I can’t find anything about that on either right or left sites.

    I must have taken a nap after doing yard work and had one of those intense nap dreams. Oh well…..

  2. Did not watch, can’t afford a new TV.
    Reading after action comments, Vance clear winner. Understand the Dem moderators cut his mike, don’t they know their own rules.
    I it very dark a 6 AM. Mid 40’s now at night. Lots of leaves of Autumn falling down.

  3. They did it was like if elmer fudd had fired it at daffy duck (there are some dark comic elements) when theres a air raid siren you dont sit around in open ground

    There was the tragic incident in haifa of course nothing to make light off

    I didnt appreciate sinatras musical talent back in the day he had great versatility as well as his lesser roles like in the detective and frank rome (pi he played set in miami in 68

  4. Should We Go to Mars?

    So, the good news for those who want to extend our species’ reach into space: Mars is the second-best planet in the solar system for humans.

    The bad news: That’s sort of like saying North Korea is the “second-best country on the Korean Peninsula.”

    And the challenges don’t stop once you make it to the red planet. There’s the fact that the soil on Mars is potentially toxic to humans, that we don’t know what the effects of prolonged exposure to reduced Martian gravity would be on astronauts’ bodies, and that NASA worries that the astronauts may just crack under the stress of being isolated with their co-workers for that long.

    That progress will probably be messy and uneven. But that’s how exploration works. Throughout human history, our reach has often exceeded our grasp at first. But that’s no reason to give up. Because the road to discovery often requires lots of setbacks on the way to success.

  5. Yup, the leaves are turning in New England.

    One of Sinatra’s best albums from the 1950s. The featured track, plus “Where Are You?”, “The Night We Called It a Day”, “Maybe You’ll Be There”, “Laura”, “Lonely Town”–even better than “Only the Lonely”.

  6. Although blogs have been somewhat eclipsed by social media in recent years, they are making a comeback in the form of Substacks. Here are a few I like:

    https://jeffreycarter.substack.com/
    Jeff is a former commodities trader who writes about markets, politics, and many other things.

    https://cdrsalamander.substack.com/
    A US naval officer writers about matters maritime and historical.

    https://www.writingruxandrabio.com/
    Rumanian woman working on genomics PhD in England. Some biotech, plus philosophical thoughts about politics and society. Rux has been particularly eloquent about the problems with the whole concept of ‘misinformation’.

    https://intrastellar.substack.com/
    A new substack by frequent and thoughtful X commenter @WindDustStars, which she calls the Night Portal and introduces with “It’s time to leave the cacophony behind”

    The following a free-standing websites rather than substacks:

    https://investor.fm/
    Investment fund manager, born in Russia, writes about investing, art, and music, sometimes political affairs and history.

    https://gcaptain.com/
    Covers the maritime transportation industry.

  7. yes those are some great selections, jeffrey carter, helped me cut through the ridiculous dnc hack narrative, same for salamander and ruxandrubio

  8. Evidently even some liberal sources are saying the Vance won the debate. Who can say how much of a difference it will make? The edifice of lies and false narratives that’s been constructed by the media is enormous. And people tend to believe what they really want to believe, even if they know that there may be reasons to not do so.

    Of course reality can sometimes intrude and shatter delusion. People can’t easily ignore events that they see and experience themselves. It’s hard to ignore prices at the grocery store, house prices, auto prices and the like if you’re middle class. It’s hard to ignore the influx of migrants, the cultural clash, and the rise in violent crime if you live in a community that is experiencing those things. It’s hard to not see the instability in the world at large, the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. And to then not associate these issues with those who have been in power for the last four years, the policies and legislation they’ve put forth, the ideas they’ve championed seems like it might be almost painful.

  9. https://x.com/Israel_katz/status/1841422324890812763

    Today, I have declared UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres persona non grata in Israel and banned him from entering the country.

    Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil.

    This is a Secretary-General who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on October 7, nor has he led any efforts to declare them a terrorist organization.

    A Secretary-General who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran—the mothership of global terror—will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN.

    Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres.

    Good start. Now do Amos Hochstein.

  10. Karmi,

    Anthony Weir’s book, “The Martian” is an excellent, scientific discourse on the challenges of getting to, from and living on Mars. It’s also a ripping yarn! I highly recommend it.

  11. “Les Feuilles Mortes” (“Autumn Leaves”) and “Le Mer” (“Beyond the Sea”) are two great jazz standards adapted from French songs. I’m not fluent, like huxley, but I’ve read Mark Steyn explain the English lyrics to “Autumn Leaves” are close to the original French, but “Beyond the Sea” is a bit different.

    I believe I recall Miles Davis saying “Autumn Leaves” was his favorite or one of his favorite songs. There are myriad great versions, but Karyn Allison’s is probably my favorite vocal version. She slightly flattens some of her notes to give it a tinge of sadness, while still singing clearly.

    I don’t know why, but there are a fair amount of French and Portuguese songs that readily adapt to jazz.

  12. yes I liked the book, some real hard science the kind they don’t have in most science fiction today, his follow up artemis or something wasn’t as good,

  13. Now that fall is getting into gear in most parts of the country, we in central coast California are getting a bit of our warm to hot summer weather. It hit 86 degrees yesterday and should go over 80 today.

    It used to be the case that the foggy and chilly summer weather would extend through July and most of August, but the sunny heat would arrive in late August and extend through most of September. Now, with global warming (/sarc), we go all the way through September before the really warm weather hits. And while it used to routinely get into the mid 90’s, now the mid 80’s is about the top.

  14. “Autumn Leaves” leaves out the word “dead” (mortes) that is so prominent in the French version, making the American version not as forlorn as the French. There may be reasons why French schools teach Jacques Prevert and ours don’t teach Johnny Mercer.

    “La Mer” is more of a poetic meditation. “Beyond the Sea” is a straightforward love song. There’s a spirited exaltation in the tune, but it takes very different objects and directions in the different versions.

    Sinatra’s “My Way” was also originally a French song, “Comme d’habitude.” If you like underplayed and melancholy, serious and a bit drab, the original was better, but Paul Anka caught something stirring in the tune and wrote the lyrics that made an overpowering anthem for Sinatra.

    Americans do a lot to take the sadness out of French songs. A professor pointed that out by comparing the 18th century “Plasir d’amour [Chagrin d’amour]” with the 1950s “My Love Loves Me,” sung to the same tune.

  15. Mike Plaiss: Bloomberg article sans paywall (but videos apparently remain behind):
    Iran Pushed Into Reluctant Response by Sustained Israel Attacks
    Islamic Republic fired 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday night
    Response to Hezbollah leader’s death left many underwhelmed
    Error:

    Could not download required scripts. Please update your browser or turn off ad blocker to continue to watch.

    WATCH: Iran fired about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday and the IDF said many were intercepted. Paul Wallace and Dan Williams report.Source: Bloomberg

    Have a confidential tip for our reporters? Get in Touch
    Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal
    LEARN MORE
    By Sam Dagher and Golnar Motevalli
    October 2, 2024 at 10:13 AM CDT

    Save

    Listen

    3:24

    Iran’s generals and clerics have repeatedly shown a reluctance to go to war in recent months, yet the scale of Israel’s damage to the country’s regional prowess left them with little option but to retaliate.

    The assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week dealt a crushing blow to Iran’s decades-in-the-making network of armed allies, the most powerful of which is the Lebanon-based group. His death in an Israeli airstrike came either side of days of intense bombing, followed by a ground incursion early Monday.

    IRAN-ISRAEL-LEBANON-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT
    Demonstrators carry portraits of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and slain leaders, during a rally in Tehran on Oct. 2.Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
    Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s initial response to Nasrallah’s death was that Hezbollah would lead retaliatory efforts, alongside Lebanon. That left many Shiite Muslims in the Middle East and in Iran frustrated at the lack of action.

    “There was a lot of public opinion and pressure on Iran to do something,” said Foad Izadi, professor of world studies at the University of Tehran.

    Bloomberg Intelligence
    Israel Vows Retaliation, VP Debate

    43:02
    Iran then fired about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday night, an assault similar in nature to the salvo that followed the bombing of its consulate in Damascus in April. That attack was broadly seen as deliberately measured and was thwarted by Israel, the US and other allies. This week’s barrage was also mostly intercepted, though Iran gave less warning and more missiles breached Israeli airspace.

    ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-IRAN-LEBANON-CONFLICT
    A destroyed building following an Iranian missile attack in Hod HaSharon, Israel, on Oct. 2.Photographer: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
    Iran’s restraint followed a lack of significant response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, a killing widely suspected to have been carried out by Israel, though it didn’t claim responsibility. That underscored Tehran’s insistence that it wants to avoid a wider conflict and help secure a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has been raging for almost a year.

    Read More: Death of a Hamas Chief Suggests Failure at Heart of Iran’s Rule

    Yet a truce in the Palestinian territory hasn’t materialized and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instead switched focus to Lebanon, launching a major bombardment of the south of the country last month.

    Ahmed Al-Heela, a Palestinian expert on Iran’s axis of resistance — the name given to its network of allied militia groups — said: “Israel messed with Iran’s national security” when it killed Nasrallah and went after Hezbollah.

    “There is an organic and structural connection between the IRGC and Hezbollah,” he told Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language news channel, referring to Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He added that Netanyahu’s talk of redrawing the map of the Middle East and pushing back Iran’s influence in the Levant spurred the leadership of the Islamic Republic into action.

    Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’
    A network of armed groups working against the US and Israel

    Tuesday night’s strike is unlikely to be enough to restore Khamenei’s reputation. It caused little significant damage and has received a mixed response from the Middle East’s minority Shiite Muslim population that he aspires to lead.

    Ali Mourad, a law professor at the Beirut Arab University and a native of the Shiite-dominated Lebanese south, said celebratory gunfire echoed in Beirut for almost 30 minutes after Iran’s barrage. The actions boosted the morale of Hezbollah’s followers albeit momentarily, he said by phone, with the group still on the back foot.

    “People feel orphaned, Nasrallah was a source of their strength,” Mourad said. “They are blaming Iran and don’t understand its intentions and the battle trajectory.”

    Error:

    Could not download required scripts. Please update your browser or turn off ad blocker to continue to watch.

    WATCH: From the Iron Dome to David’s Sling, Israel has some of the world’s most advanced air defense systems. Alex Morgan explains how they’re being tested by attacks from Iran and its proxies.
    Many took to social media to express despair at what they see as Iran’s toothless response to Israeli aggression, which has left tens of thousands dead in Gaza and, more recently, Lebanon.

    “Enough! Stop lying to us, you are killing us, slaughtering us for what? For Iran,” Moustapha el-Malek, a Shiite Lebanese living in Lebanon said in an impassioned video that was shared on X.

    — With assistance from Gina Turner

  16. Have been watching the political betting and prediction sites this year instead of the polling sites – all the polls showing the “Red Wave” in 2022 was it for me on polls…at least this year.

    Wish my vote was worth more than it is—I’d seriously like to bring down a baby sledge onto the Republican party this year, especially after Trump turned pro-Russia against Ukraine, and after recently discovering how connected-at-the-Hip Trump’s Republican party is to the Project 2025 Mandate and the MOMS Act.

    Found a new Predictions site within the past hour:

    Race to the WH

    Durn, that’s my 3rd link already!?! There is a limit of links here, and my comments end up in some remote bin when I go over ever how many links we are allowed…probably over 3 but I stop at 3 anyway to make sure.

    Oh, back to the new Race to the WH site I have found. Launched in 2020, but claims strong record for 2022.

    Huh, just found another Predictions site – JHK Forecasts, but I can’t link to it now. They show a chart that has how well polling and prediction sites did in the 2022 Senate Forecasts—order of Winners: Race to the WH, Split Ticket, The Economist, JHK Forecasts, FiveThirtyEight, Decision Desk HQ, Cook Political Report, Fox News, Cnalysis, Inside Elections, Sabato’s Chrystal Ball, Election Daily, Political, RealClearPolitics, and RRH Election.

    That Split Ticket did good also, and I will check out some of the others on that list. Not sure if the info is correct since just finding it all, but can’t be any worse that the “Red Wave” that failed.

    Will be voting GOP in Florida’s state and local races, but have already decided to vote against Rick Scott in a close race. He brags about voting against helping Ukraine…would love to see DEM Debbie Mucarsel-Powell win. Not sure where it leaves the Republican’s chances for gaining the Senate if they lose Scott & Cruz…

    House is supposedly the DEMs for sure. My Rep is Kat Cammack, who has a strong lead over Tom Wells so may not vote in that race. Still waiting for Dixie county’s Supervisor of Elections to send out the cheat-sheet.

  17. That Bloomberg headline is consistent with the idiotic formulation of the question in the VP debate last night: Do you support a preemptive strike by Israel against Iran? Nearly 200 ballistic missiles fired into Israel directly from Iran, and the response will be “preemptive’??

    Iran, in this formulation, is basically claiming that Lebanon and Syria are within its control and attacks on Hezbollah, in Lebanon, are attacks on Iran.

  18. Pudding-Brain:

    President Biden said Wednesday that he opposes a possible preemptive Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons program sites as tensions between the countries grow.

    “The answer is no,” the 81-year-old retiring president told reporters under the wing of Air Force One as he departed Washington for a trip to North Carolina to tour Hurricane Helene damage.

    https://nypost.com/2024/10/02/us-news/biden-says-he-opposes-israel-destroying-irans-nuclear-weapons-sites-as-tensions-grow/

    Best to ignore him and do whatever is seen fit? Or kowtow to this imbecile and thus suffer defeat once more?

    Choices, choices. They never stop.

    .

  19. Am hearing Israels response to Iran might be attacking their oil fields.

    Heck, Israel should’ve been hitting Iran’s Oil Rigs for every Hamas, Hezzy, and Houti missile fired at Israel.

    Don’t wipe the oil field out all at once…let Iran basically do it to themselves—like maybe one Oil Rig at a time.

  20. Autumn always hits me hard. I woke up this morning feeling totally trashed. Yet nothing is going on.

    Just that crisp autumn weather and the weakening light.

    All things must pass, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

  21. Karmi loves his Dems (so much for NPA). Trolls ain’t what they used to be – MOMs love Project 2025?

  22. Americans do a lot to take the sadness out of French songs.

    –Abraxas

    English speakers take the sadness out of French words!

    Chagrin (SHAH-grawn) first started in French as grief or sorrow — serious emotional states — and those are still its meanings.

    The English took it up and now chagrin (SHUH-grin) in English conveys the emotional discomfort of regret or embarrassment,

  23. Iran’s missile strike did little damage. The second try and nor much to show for it.

    So, how much did this attack cost Iran.?
    “…….. Iranian ballistic missiles cost around $100,000 each, and its Shahed drones only $20,000-$50,000 each, according to reports by The Guardian. Experts have calculated the cost of the attack for Iran at $100-$200 million — perhaps five to ten times less than what Israel spent to repel it.”

    Hmm, not much to show for a large expenditure. But, of course, Israel is spending a lot to neutralize the missiles. What must Isarel do to discourage further attacks? Take out their nuclear facilities? Their oil shipping facilities? The Mullahs? There are many possibilities.

    Breaming Iran financially seems the best path, but Biden won’t consider that. Decapitate the government and hope for a regime change? The answers aren’t easy. However, we know that Iran mulct be reined in to have any hope of establishing some semblance of stability in the ME. May Israel be strong and able to do what’s needed. It’s the best hope for peace.

  24. J.J.:

    Iran had to Do Something to maintain credibility after sacrificing its Hezbollah, Hamas and Youthi pawns.

    However, I do believe Iran is playing into Israel’s hands.

    Israel will respond and attack Iran’s air defense, as well as other targets. If Iran is foolish enough to counterattack, Israel will take out Iran’s nuclear weapon facilities.

    Israel can’t take the chance Harris will be elected in November. In the meantime Biden/Harris are too preoccupied on account of the election to oppose Israel’s moves beyond vague calls for ceasefire.

  25. Again:
    _________________________________

    When Iran is finally free – and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think – everything will be different,

    –Benjamin Netanyahu, UN Address 09/27/24
    _________________________________

    We are seeing the unfolding of a very well-wrought plan.

  26. much as with the april offensive, the lion’s bark is worse than his bite, the first wave, since then there was the attack on one of the adjacent nuclear nodes at isfahan, if memory serves, then the candygram delivered to haniyeh,
    in tehran, that’s just rude, just deserts, baklava I think, sigh, you don’t learn anything you want all te horrors that john kerry chinese and iranian agent has promised,
    they also want to take your guns away and take your car as well, if you don’t own a car your neighbor does,

  27. because they despise the people kate, as one has seen in not only springfield charleroi, that town in alabama whose name escapes, like their opposite number who see rochdale and rotherdam as one one of those inconvenient eggs,

  28. Frustration and anger are rising among people trying to rescue stranded and injured people in the NC mountains… Why is the federal government not helping?

    Kate:

    I wonder too.

    NC is a battleground state this year. I’ll bet those stranded aren’t as likely to vote Democrat, but still…

  29. The topic of French songs transported to America reminds me of a song from my elementary school days. The Browns: Three Bells. This song was originally an Edith Piaf song. Edith Piaf – Les Trois Cloches. When a family friend died some years back at age 95, cogent until her last week, I was reminded of the cycle of life depicted in this song.

    A friend who was a Sephardic Jew from Morocco- she married a US serviceman stationed in Morocco- died this year. I played this Edith Piaf song at her funeral dinner. Edith Piaf – Non, je ne regrette rien. That song was Marcelle: full steam ahead, no regrets. Coincidentally, Marcelle’s maiden name was Bitton, and there is a French singer named Bitton who has made an “album” of Edith Piaf covers.

    Edith Piaf- words cannot describe.

    Huxley, I have finished using translation services to render Kéthévane Davrichewy’s L’autre Joseph into The Other Joseph. (According to family lore, her great-grandfather was the half-brother of Joseph Stalin. It sounds plausible. Some pictures lend support.)

  30. Five days! It took them five days to send troops from Fort Liberty to help! People died waiting for help!

    My pastor is organizing a trip up there personally, in a truck filled with relief supplies. I don’t even know if the major relief organizations are helping yet, the destruction is so massive. I suppose they are; I just don’t know enough details to feel comfortable about it.

  31. Cornflour commented in the debate thread about the Biden administration using FEMA funds to pay for illegals expenses in their apparently “all-expenses paid tour of America” to the tune of hundreds of million dollars a year.

    We truly are becoming a borderless society.

    FEMA Money Is for Disaster-Stricken Americans, Not Those Here Illegally
    https://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/commentary/fema-money-disaster-stricken-americans-not-those-here-illegally

  32. The French naturally translate some English songs into French. Of course, matching meaning, rhyme and rhythm across languages is impossible without making compromises.

    My favorite French singer, Françoise Hardy, was a writer as well, and when she took American songs into her repertoire she often changed the meaning of the song drastically. Example:

    –Patsy Cline, “When I Get Through With You” (1962)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTztSmWNC3A

    Cline is dealing with her boyfriend’s roving eye settling on a rival named Sue. Her response is to love her boyfriend up so hard he can’t remember Sue’s name.

    –Françoise Hardy, “Quel mal y a-t-il à ça? — What’s wrong with that?”(1964)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsSJdv2zd28

    In Hardy’s song her boyfriend has decided to go out without her … to be with unspecified companions.

    Hardy responds with fierce independence. So I will go out with my friends! What’s wrong with that?

    Sure, I’ll cheer Hardy on. Though I’m not sure if she’s not also looking for some action on the side. (Her songs often play on this innocent/not so innocent ambiguity.)

  33. Mentioned the other day that I had read Israel was going to want Hezbollah out of the area north of the Litani River this time, i.e., they want Hezbollah north of the next river.

    Awali River: Iran Update, October 2, 2024

    The IDF Arabic-language spokesperson called on civilians to evacuate immediately from 24 towns in southern Lebanon. The spokesperson asked residents to travel north of Awali River, which is 30 miles north of Litani River. The spokesperson separately asked residents to avoid traveling by vehicle from north of Litani River to anywhere south of it.

    Mapping Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon – has a nice map showing the Awali River, difficult terrain in the south, and current clashes. (NOTE: NYT paywall that I passed with the Epic browser…)

    Make Hezbollah cross two rivers in the future, if they are still around…

  34. Kate,

    My guess is there are a lot of people like your pastor but we’re not hearing much of it due to the difficulty of getting news from the area. It’s just a guess on my part, but we saw this with 9/11, the Joplin tornado even Katrina. As much of a cluster that the local government response was, individual people were flowing in from all over. I remember after 9/11 the news was encouraging people not to come because the volunteers were overwhelming the area and impacting efforts.

  35. huxley, the translation went slowly as the software version I used would translate only 1,500 characters at a time. I got an idea of how the book goes from the copy/paste of translation, and am now slowly reading it.

    Given the lack of diaries etc., her work is definitely one of imagination. Not a biography, but an imagined one.

    Yes, the Tres Cloches lyrics are more involved than the Three Bells lyrics. Because the lyrics are in English, Three Bells affects me emotionally more than Tres Cloches.

  36. My brother at one time had job with a rep in Olympia. One of the eye openers for him and the rep he worked for was the @#$&& dems refusing safety improvements on SR-2 because “those people always vote against taxes so f*** them.”

  37. Gringo:

    AI software is great at translation but usually has copyright limitations for the amount of text it will translate at a time.

    There is something to be said for the simplicity of “The Three Bells” vs “Les trois cloches.”

  38. @ Matthew M > “Read this to fully appreciate the song”

    Thanks for linking Mark Steyn’s post. That man knows literally everything about the history and musical structure of every song in the Great American Songbag (as he calls it).

    I heartily recommend his book for reading off-line, and the whole of his on-line oeuvre. (The French is in honour of the song’s lineage.)

    The post is adapted from Mark’s book A Song For The Season.
    https://www.steynstore.com/product57.html

  39. Kate (and AesopFan from the western North Carolina thread): it appears that Gov. Cooper is a big part of the problem:

    https://instapundit.com/675902/

    Reportedly, porn-site-frequenting Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is stepping in to get things moving.

    All this could be the usual finger-pointing and glory-hogging. But the moral of the story may be that sometimes it’s the sinners–the cads, if you will–who come through.

  40. @ Hubert – it’s a well-known religious phenomenon that the most blatant sinners, when converted, are often the most effective saints (Saul/Paul comes to mind as the archetype, but there are many others in Christian history, the majority having no public fame.)

    I was ruminating along those lines this morning, although about politics rather than religion (state rather than church?), considering how “the internet is forever” and there are people who save decades-old videotapes just in case they can use them against somebody someday; how pundits willfully misinterpret anodyne phrases (“binders of women”), and bring up high-school peccadillos as evidence of deep moral turpitude; the list goes on — and noted that, based on a thoroughly un-matched but not too small sample, there seem to me to be a lot more Republicans in politics who have turned their lives around morally and/or ideologically than there are Democrats. (Although I much appreciate the latter!)

    And that doesn’t even count the alleged indiscretions that turn out to be deliberate falsehoods. (If the standard of proof is “anonymous sources in the NYT,” I consider that a prima facie indication of fiction.)

    But, going with the “sad but true” sample, this is my view: unless said youthful or even adult indiscretions involve irredeemable vice (child abuse, murder, and major white-collar crimes), if the person in question appears to have genuinely changed for the better, I will file the information for reference and look at “What are they doing today?” for whether or not to support them.
    I put Trump, and now Robinson (on probation pending further information), in that corner.

    If the bad behavior and damaging policy choices appear to be unrefuted and ongoing, then the misdeeds file remains “active” and the person stays on my do-not-support list.
    That includes a frighteningly large number of prominent Democrats, along with an uncomfortably large smattering of Republicans, mostly in Congress and the Administrative Empire (it got past the size of a “state” long ago), but clearly including some Governors and other State officials.

    Armchair punditry is worth what you paid for it, of course.

  41. Allegedly

    What is goody two shoes cooper doing after mark appalachian sanford im not impressed same for josh steins former boss john edwards

  42. AesopFan: another example was John Profumo in the UK. Got caught up in the call girl scandal, resigned from government, spent the rest of his life working for a charity in East London. Knighted in 1975.

    What Robinson made me think of was the TV series “Deadwood” and the unlikely alliance between whoremaster and unrepentant murderer Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) and boy-scout sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant). It’s arguably Swearengen who saves the town. And his lecture to the demoralized newspaper editor is a classic:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF8aIa3QOkU

    I basically agree with your position on public figures but am more forgiving of–or simply less concerned about–sexual misbehavior than some of the commenters here as long as it involves consenting adults. A (mostly) clean private life is no guarantee of good stewardship–or even good character. Exhibit A: Obama, a nasty piece of work who seems to have been a pretty good husband and father, rumors of life on the down low notwithstanding.

    Armchair punditry: hardly. Good to see you posting again, but I do hope you follow through on your post-mission resolution to take some time away from the screen.

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