Obama Admin Official: What If Bergdahl's Fellow Soldiers Were Psychopaths? UPDATE: Apologizes

WAPO: Attention, politicians: We see you deleting those Bergdahl tweets.

RUSSELL BERMAN: The New American Isolationism. I’m opposed to isolationism in general, but with Obama so clearly inept, a do-nothing strategy may be the most prudent thing for the next couple of years.

Related: Walter Russell Mead: Obama’s Failing Foreign Policy, Groping For A Reset. “You don’t demonstrate your mastery of world events by making smart speeches about how intelligent your foreign policy is; you demonstrate your mastery of world events by having things go your way.” Well, that goes beyond the core competency. Plus, from the comments: “Some of us saw this coming a mile away. But we’re racists and bitter clingers.”

 Is this their new part slogan?  Harry Reid on White House Bergdahl Call: 'What Difference Does It Make?'

Serious if true: THE BERGDAHL DEBACLE JUST GETS WORSE: EXCLUSIVE: Bergdahl declared jihad in captivity, secret documents show.

CHARLES LANE: Fascinating how Obama recasts Bergdahl as a “child.” Uses word four times to describe him.

OBAMA IN 2008: It’s offensive that John McCain is saying I’ll negotiate with Hamas.

Obama in 2014: Negotiating with Hamas.

I covered much of it in my classes.  If my CC students could see why these statutes sucked, why couldn't the Donks in Congress?

[Todd Zywicki] The consequences of the Durbin Amendment for American consumers.  Costing me over $130 per year.

In case you are new to this stuff and don’t like all that book-learnin’, some intro thoughts.

In their conversation regarding income inequality, investing, Austrian economics, and other sundry topics, former business partners Nassim Taleb and Mark Spitznagel had this good exchange:

Nassim Taleb: Mark, your book [The Dao of Capital--RPM] is the only place that understands crashes as natural equalizers. In the context of today’s raging debates on inequality, do you believe that the natural mechanism of bringing equality — or, at the least, the weakening of the privileged — is via crashes?

Mark Spitznagel: …[O]ne can absolutely say logically and empirically that asset-market crashes diminish inequality. They are a natural mechanism for this, and a cathartic response to central banks’ manipulation of interest rates and resulting asset-market inflation, as well as other government bailouts, that so amplify inequality in the first place. So crashes are capitalism’s homeostatic mechanism at work to right a distorted system. We are in this ridiculous situation where utopian government policies meant to lessen inequality are a reaction to the consequences of other government policies — a round trip of market distortion. After we’ve been run over by a car, the assumed best treatment is to back the car over us again.

 

Four road trips the last two weeks put me in a hole.  Here's another round of odds and ends to aid in the catching up.

MORE MCCARTHYISM, THIS TIME IN DETROIT: Public letter to Emma Howland-Bolton, teacher at Detroit public schools, regarding threats of violence and death by protesters under her organization.

As Richard Fernandez has said: “It is impossible to understand the politics of the Left without grasping that it is all about deniable intimidation.”

'What Would You Do?' Reveals Disappointing Reality: South Isn't As Backwards As ABC Had Hoped

ED MORRISSEY: Relentless Incompetence: Americans Are Giving Up on Obama. It’s a pity more folks didn’t pay attention earlier.

Related: Adriana Cohen: Democrats Beginning To Get The Problem. “It isn’t entirely clear if the Democrats now distancing themselves from President Obama fully get why trading terrorists for a suspected deserter and the ongoing implosion of Obamacare are problems. But it is increasingly evident, given the growing blowback from the American people, that they understand that they are problems.”

I SO wanted this articel to be abot something different: SCIENCE: Look Out! Threats From Left Are More Menacing.

Y'know how M. Thatcher was fond of pointig out that the problem with Socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people's money?  This woman finally gets it:

 Woman who voted for every Austin, TX tax increase discovers that now she can’t afford to live there. “I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.”

now Mad.  At least there are SOME media outlets doing their jobs.

but whadaya expect from MSNBC:

MSNBC Graphic Flubs ID of 'Brady Bunch' Star Ann B. Davis

The Nuclear Option: If Only Obama Could Be President

also:

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS ON BERGDAHL: They Don’t Care About the Law, Get Over It. “The law is a suggestion to this crowd, and usually a nuisance. Law is something to be twisted and reinterpreted. When it stands in the way of progressive policies, it is something to be ignored. The singular theme of the Obama age is lawlessness.”

Related: “We have determined never to air the facts of this case.”

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: Obama: “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”

Chinese General Says U.S. Foreign Policy Has ‘Erectile Dysfunction’ Problems.

TWEET OF THE DAY part the first: Obama’s legacy may be that he rescued George W. Bush’s legacy.

TWEET OF THE DAY part the second: “Let me be clear. I will never negotiate with terrorists. Technically, I’m rolling over.”

The Nuclear Option: If Only Obama Could Be President

also:

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS ON BERGDAHL: They Don’t Care About the Law, Get Over It. “The law is a suggestion to this crowd, and usually a nuisance. Law is something to be twisted and reinterpreted. When it stands in the way of progressive policies, it is something to be ignored. The singular theme of the Obama age is lawlessness.”

Related: “We have determined never to air the facts of this case.”

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: Obama: “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”

Chinese General Says U.S. Foreign Policy Has ‘Erectile Dysfunction’ Problems.

TWEET OF THE DAY part the first: Obama’s legacy may be that he rescued George W. Bush’s legacy.

TWEET OF THE DAY part the second: “Let me be clear. I will never negotiate with terrorists. Technically, I’m rolling over.”

I don't think it means what you think it means.

GOOGLE, DIVERSITY-TALK, and how the Asians became White.

and, of course, hate from the left:

Spiked by Big Media: Democrat Opponent Says GOP Gov. Susana Martinez Should Be Sent Back to 'Wherever She Really Came From'

Unhinged Ed Schultz Questions Ted Cruz's Patriotism on Prisoner Swap: 'Nothing American'

#WARONWOMEN: Male Democratic Senate candidate uses a ‘chick’ in ad against female opponent.

NOEMIE EMERY: How’s That Whole Technocracy Thing Workin’ Out For Ya?

They had a dream. For almost a hundred years now, the famed academic-artistic-and-punditry industrial complex has dreamed of a government run by their kind of people (i.e., nature’s noblemen), whose intelligence, wit, and refined sensibilities would bring us a heaven on earth. Their keen intellects would cut through the clutter as mere mortals’ couldn’t. They would lift up the wretched, oppressed by cruel forces. Above all, they would counter the greed of the merchants, the limited views of the business community, and the ignorance of the conformist and dim middle class. . . .

As Edsall asked, “Is the federal government capable of managing the provision of a fundamental service through an extraordinarily complex system?” The answer is probably no, and even if it is yes, it’s abundantly clear that the uber-class of super-professionals aren’t the people to do it. Their faith in academics and experts had failed this new class of liberals, as would soon become obvious. Their related belief that the opinion of the less-elite classes should not be important would soon fail them, too.

Even though the media class pretty much bought into the whole idea of rule by people like them.