U.S. Senate Results

Republicans will regain the Senate majority. As of Thursday, November they hold 53 seats.

Unless otherwise indicated, the AP has called these races:

Arizona. Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego is projected to have defeated the execrable Kari Lake.

California. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff is projected to win. Schiff will have won both the general election and a special election to fill the seat of former Sen. Dianne Feinstein, deceased, which is currently held by Laphonza Butler, a "placeholder" appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Schiff will be seated immediately.

Connecticut: Democrat Chris Murphy is projected to win re-election.

Delaware: Democrat Lisa Blunt is projected to win.

Florida: Republican Rick Scott is projected to win re-election.

Hawaii. Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono is projected to win re-election.

Indiana: Republican Jim Banks is projected to win.

Maine: Independent Sen. Angus King is projected to win re-election. King caucuses with Democrats.

Maryland. Democrat Angela Alsobrooks is projected to win over former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin (D) is retiring.

Massachusetts: Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is projected to win re-election.

Michigan: Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin is projected to win.

Minnesota. Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar is projected to win re-election.

Mississippi: Republican Roger Wicker is projected to win re-election.

Missouri. Republican Road Runner Sen. Josh Hawley is projected to win re-election.

Montana. Republican Tim Somebody-Shot-Me-Sometime Sheehy is projected to have defeated Sen. Jon Tester.

Nebraska. Republican Sen. Deb Fischer has held off a challenge from an Independent candidate.

Nebraska. Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts is projected to win re-election. This is a special election.

Nevada: Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is (at long last) projected to win re-election.

New Jersey: Democrat Rep. Andy Kim is projected to win the seat previously vacated by Democrat Bob Menendez, who resigned in disgrace after being convicted on federal bribery & corruption charges. Kim will be the first Korean-American to hold a U.S. Senate seat.

New Mexico. Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich is projected to win re-election.

New York. Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is projected to win re-election.

North Dakota. Republican Sen. Kevin Kramer is projected to win re-election.

Ohio. Republican Bernie Moreno is projected to have defeated Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. This is the second pick-up for Republicans Tuesday.

Pennsylvania. Republican Dave McCormick is projected to have defeated incumbent Democrat Bob Casey, although Casey has not conceded.

Rhode Island: Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is projected to win re-election.

Tennessee: Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn is projected to win re-election.

Texas: Republic Sen. Ted Cruz, the most unpopular U.S. senator, is projcted to win re-election.

Utah. Republican Rep. John Curtis is projected to win the seat currently held by Sen. Mitt Romney (R).

Vermont: Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders is projected to win re-election.

Virginia. Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine is projected by NBC News to win re-election.

Washington. Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell is projected to win re-election.

West Virginia: Republican Gov. Jim Justice is projected to win the seat currently held by Independent Joe Manchin, who is retiring.

Wisconsin. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin is projected to win re-election. Hurrah!

Wyoming. Republican Sen. John Barrasso is projected to win re-election.

U.S. House Results

By 1:30 am ET Tuesday, the AP had called 211 seats for Democrats & 219 seats for Republicans. (A majority is 220.)

Gubernatorial Results

Delaware: Democrat Matt Meyer is projected to win.

Indiana: Republican Sen. Mike Braun is projected to win.

Montana. Horrible person Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte is projected to win re-election.

New Hampshire. Republican Kelly Ayotte, a former U.S. Senator is projected to win.

North Carolina. Democrat Josh Stein is projected to win, besting Trump-endorsed radical loon Mark Robinson.

North Dakota. Republican U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong is projected to win.

Utah. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox is projected to win re-election.

Vermont: Republican Phil Scott is projected to win re-election.

Washington: Democrat Bob Ferguson, the Washington State attorney general, is projected to win.

West Virginia: Republican Philip Morrisey is projected to win.

Other Results

Colorado. NBC News projects that the abortions-rights constitutional amendment will pass.

Florida. NBC News projected the abortion-rights state constitutional amendment will fail.

Georgia. Fani Willis is projected to win re-election as Fulton County District Attorney.

Missouri. The New York Times projects that Missouri voters have passed a measure to protect abortion rights.

Nebraska. New York Times: "A ballot amendment prohibiting abortion beyond the first three months of pregnancy passed in Nebraska, according to The Associated Press, outpolling a competing measure that would have established a right to abortion until fetal viability."

***********************************************

The Ledes

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

New York Times: Married to each other for 54 years, two Democratic Missouri poll workers died together in an Election-Day flood.

New York Times: “Law enforcement officials have captured a man who was wanted for murder in rural Tennessee, ending a multistate manhunt in a bizarre case involving a suspicious emergency call, a false identity and a fake bear attack. Sheriff Tommy J. Jones II of Monroe County, Tenn., announced on Sunday that Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, had been taken into custody in Columbia, S.C., more than three weeks after police found a dead body near a bridge on the Cherohala Skyway.... Mr. Hamlett faces first-degree murder charges related to the death of Steven Douglas Lloyd, 34, of Knoxville, Tenn.... Mr. Lloyd’s body was discovered by the police as they responded to a 911 call made on Oct. 18. The caller, who had identified himself as Brandon Kristopher Andrade, told the dispatcher that he had been chased off a cliff by a bear, leaving him injured and partially submerged in the water. When the police arrived at the scene, they found a deceased man with the ID of Mr. Andrade. But the injuries on the body, the sheriff’s office said, weren’t consistent with a bear attack or a fall. And neither the deceased man nor the 911 caller, they determined, were Mr. Andrade. It was a case of stolen identity, and Mr. Andrade’s name had been used on multiple occasions in other fraudulent schemes.”

The Wires
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Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

New York Times: “Chris Wallace, a veteran TV anchor who left Fox News for CNN three years ago, announced on Monday that he was leaving his post to venture into the streaming or podcasting worlds.... He said his decision to leave CNN at the end of his three-year contract did not come from discontent. 'I have nothing but positive things to say. CNN was very good to me,' he said.”

New York Times: In a collection of memorabilia filed at New York City's Morgan Library, curator Robinson McClellan discovered the manuscript of a previously unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin. Jeffrey Kallberg, a Chopin scholar at the University of Pennsylvania as well as other experts authenticated the manuscript. Includes video of Lang Lang performing the short waltz. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Times article goes into some of Chopin's life in Paris at the time he wrote the waltz, but it doesn't mention that he helped make ends meet by giving piano lessons. I know this because my great grandmother was one of his students. If her musical talent were anything like mine, those particular lessons would have been painful hours for Chopin.

New York Times: “Improbably, [the political/celebrity magazine] George[, originally a project by John F. Kennedy, Jr.] is back, with the same logo and the same catchy slogan: 'Not just politics as usual.' This time, though, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and passionate Trump fan is its editor in chief.... It is a reanimation story bizarre enough for a zombie movie, made possible by the fact that the original George trademark lapsed, only to be secured by a little-known conservative lawyer named Thomas D. Foster.”

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Monday
May042015

The Commentariat -- May 4, 2015

All internal links removed.

Lousy artwork via New York mag.Paul Krugman: "... much though by no means all of the horror one sees in Baltimore and many other places is really about class, about the devastating effects of extreme and rising inequality." Here I'll pause to mention that my fatuous colleague David Brooks is a liar and/or an ignoramus: "And it's also disheartening to see commentators still purveying another debunked myth, that we've spent vast sums fighting poverty to no avail (because of values, you see.) In reality, federal spending on means-tested programs other than Medicaid has fluctuated between 1 and 2 percent of G.D.P. for decades, going up in recessions and down in recoveries.... The poor don't need lectures on morality, they need more resources -- which we can afford to provide -- and better economic opportunities.... Baltimore, and America, don't have to be as unjust as they are." ...

     ... Why, Jonathan Chait sees a Brooks connection, too! "Tune in next week to see if the world's longest argument nobody will admit is taking place continues."

... David Leonhardt, et al., of the New York Times: "Based on the earnings records of millions of families that moved with children, it finds that poor children who grow up in some cities and towns have sharply better odds of escaping poverty than similar poor children elsewhere. The feelings heard across Baltimore's recent protests -- of being trapped in poverty -- seem to be backed up by the new data [from a large study]. Among the nation's 100 largest counties, the one where children face the worst odds of escaping poverty is the city of Baltimore, the study found. ...

... ** Nicholas Kristof: "Just the annual bonuses for just the sliver of Americans who work just in finance just in New York City dwarfed the combined year-round earnings of all Americans earning the federal minimum wage.... The roots of inequality are complex and, to some extent, reflect global forces, but they also reflect our policy choices.... We as a nation have chosen to prioritize tax shelters over minimum wages, subsidies for private jets over robust services for children to break the cycle of poverty."

Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker: "With the exception of the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., every major riot by the black community of an American city since the Second World War has been ignited by a single issue: police tactics.

"The Milwaukee Experiment." Jeff Toobin writes an excellent piece for the New Yorker on our racist "justice" system & presents evidence that prosecutors, who wield tremendous power, are just as responsible for racially disparate prosecutions as are the police. Also, too, judges & legislators -- including our little friend Scott Walker. Just one more reason Scottie would be a horrible POTUS. But as the reform prosecutor John Chisholm of Milwaukee acknowledges: "poverty, hopelessness, lack of education, drug addiction, and the easy availability of guns" are beyond the control of prosecutors. See Krugman. "Where we're at" can be laid at the feet of knee-jerk "law & order" advocates like Walker.

Alan Blinder, et al., of the New York Times: "In a pair of gestures on Sunday that suggested that [Baltimore] ... was staggering toward normalcy, the National Guard began to pull its troops from Baltimore, and the mayor lifted a curfew that, after several days of relative calm, had come under mounting criticism."

Yastreblyansky whacks both David Brooks & "Monsignor Ross Douthat, Apostolic Nuncio to 42nd Street. Brooks addressing the fattened ex-liberal looking for reasons to hate teachers, Douthat addressing the movement conservative looking for ways to sound less like an illiterate yahoo.... The right's pseudo-intellectual critique of public sector unions is illustrated only by the police (and to a lesser extent the staffs of correctional institutions), because they're the only ones eagerly supported by conservative politicians and placated by terrorized liberal ones afraid of being stigmatized as pro-criminal. Teachers, health inspectors, tax assessors, even firefighters don't get this kind of backing from anybody.... It's the conservatism that makes the police forces abusive, and nothing less." ...

...Boyz Will Be Boyz. Steve M.: "Let's look at a few other institutions where we utterly lack the national will to regulated or deter misconduct. Think of Wall Street.... Look at rape in the military, or among college athletes.... All the institutions I've just named have something in common with the police: They're overwhelmingly male cultures that represent what conservatives consider the best of traditional masculinity. (And you could add that they're cultures believed to be antithetical to liberalism, which makes them even more admirable to conservatives.) We're reluctant to hold the bad actors in these cultures responsible for their crimes because we think they're real men, and only wussy metrosexual liberals are unmoved by their real maleness."

Heather of Crooks & Liars: Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel blames teachers' unions for Baltimore's problems. (Also, thanks, Chuck Todd, for your excellent "both sides equality.") CW: Yeah, teachers, unions. I knew police brutality & raging poverty was their fault.

David Sanger of the New York Times: Michael Morrell, "the former deputy director of the C.I.A., asserts in a forthcoming book that Republicans, in their eagerness to politicize the killing of the American ambassador to Libya, repeatedly distorted the agency's analysis of events. But he also argues that the C.I.A. should get out of the business of providing 'talking points' for administration officials in national security events that quickly become partisan, as happened after the Benghazi attack in 2012.

Joanna Rothkopf of Salon rounds up some of the worst confederate reactions to the attack on the anti-Muslim group meeting in Garland, Texas. See today's News Ledes.

Presidential Race

Adrian Carrasquillo of BuzzFeed: Hillary "Clinton's first 2016 foray into proving her immigration bonafides to activists will begin on Tuesday at a roundtable event at Rancho High School in Las Vegas, [Nevada,] where she is expected to affirm her support for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, say she supports the president's executive actions, and call out the Republican field for their shortcomings on the issue, sources familiar with the event told BuzzFeed News." ...

... Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: Frank "Giustra, 57, a Vancouver, B.C.-based mogul whose eclectic business interests include founding Lionsgate Entertainment and investing in gold mines and an olive oil company, has come to symbolize a relatively new butsubstantial category of Clinton backers: foreign donors who are not legally eligible to contribute to U.S. political candidates but grew close to the Clintons through the charity.... Giustra's donations [to the Clinton Foundation], and others from his friends in the international mining business, are becoming a factor in Hillary Clinton's campaign." ...

... Jaime Fuller of New York: "Bill Clinton, who is currently traveling in Africa, did an interview with NBC News to defend the Clinton Foundation, saying his organization had never done anything 'knowingly inappropriate.' He said Hillary told him, 'No one has ever tried to influence me by helping you.' The former president also defended his hefty speaking fees, saying, 'People like to hear me speak,' and 'I gotta pay our bills.'" CW: Because we buy millions & millions of dollars of pretty things. Okay then. ...

... The interview, with Cynthia McFadden, is here.

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley said Sunday that he will announce his presidential campaign in riot-scarred Baltimore if he moves forward with a White House bid.... The tenure of O'Malley, who served as Baltimore's mayor between 1999 and 2007, has come under intense scrutiny since rioting broke out after the funeral of Freddie Gray...."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Carly Fiorina [will be] announcing her long-shot bid for the Republican nomination Monday morning and former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas set to announce his own on Tuesday. Ben Carson announced his bid on Sunday night." ...

... CW: Well, Carson accidentally announced his candidacy last night. ...

... Robert Samuels of the Washington Post: "For many young African Americans who grew up seeing Carson as the embodiment of black achievement -- a poor inner-city boy who became one of the world's most accomplished neurosurgeons -- his emergence as a conservative hero and unabashed critic of the United States' first black president has been jarring. Carson has been a black icon since 1987, when he became the first person to successfully separate twins conjoined at the backs of their heads. He was a rare and much-desired role model...."

News Ledes

CBS New York: "An NYPD officer died Monday, two days after being shot in the head while sitting in an unmarked squad car in Queens. Officer Brian Moore, 25, was in a medically induced coma after undergoing surgery shortly after the incident in Queens Village.... He was removed from life support at 11:15 a.m. Monday, sources said."

New York Times: "Dave Goldberg, the chief executive of SurveyMonkey and husband of Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, died of head trauma Friday night after he collapsed at the gym at a private resort in Mexico, according to a Mexican government official."

New York Times: "Two gunmen were killed after they opened fire Sunday evening outside an event hosted by an anti-Islam group in Garland, Tex., featuring cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, local officials said. According to the authorities, the two assailants shot a security guard and were, in turn, shot and killed by police officers. Officials did not name the gunmen or assign a motive for the attack. A spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Dallas said the agency was providing investigative and bomb technician assistance to the Garland police." ...

     ... CW: Expect Fox "News" to handle this in their usual professional manner. ...

     ... ABC News: "One of the suspects in the shooting in Garland, Texas, late Sunday has been identified as Elton Simpson, an Arizona man who was previously the subject of a terror investigation, according to a senior FBI official." Simpson's roommate is believed to be the other shooter. Simpson was on the no-fly list.

Reader Comments (16)

My first thought upon reading Krugman's column late last night was, "He's talking to you David." Obviously Marie and others had the same reaction. Here's an amusing take on "the world’s longest argument nobody will admit is taking place...."
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/05/krugman-definitely-not-arguing-with-david-brooks.html
On another matter, few facts have been released concerning the shooting in Garland Texas but one thing made clear is that the attendees were assembled for an exhibit of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. In my view, mocking anyone's God is a vile thing to do. And one of the proponents of this little exercise is indeed the thoroughly vile Pamela Geller. The group pretends it exists to promote free speech, but it would appear to be just another one of those right- wing perversions of the language. A more accurate term for it is hate speech. There is a difference.

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria D.

Still one more reason why people can't rise out of poverty could be attributed to that bargain fashion you just snapped up. John Oliver does a scathing take down on the price of that dress "...something which moralist David Brooks probably can't fathom. There are no longer the jobs that used to exist in communities across the country that give people the opportunity for income and to live better. Manufacturing has died and gone away.

@Victoria: The Annie Lowrey article that Jonathan Chait links to "David Brooks Is Not Buying Your Excuses, Poor People" puts this very well.

On the other hand, it is chilling to see where it has gone and how very young children and others are enslaved under horrible conditions in the production of affordable fashions that are sold everywhere.

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Marie, thank you for your efforts at rounding up so many interesting articles about poverty and inequality. I only hope that the offensive moral arguments of Mr. Brooks will be smacked out of the conversation by the more thoughtful and data-driven ones of Krugman et al.

The Toobin article about John Chisholm and the Milwaukee prosecutor's office was fascinating. It is difficult to get fact-based information about Mr. Chisholm in Wisconsin because of his vilification by the right-wing for daring to investigate the governor and his henchmen, six of whom have been convicted for crimes ranging from campaigning on public time to embezzling funds from a veteran's group. None of which Scott Walker knew about, of course of course--and apparently in Wisconsin we do not hold our officials to the same standards as New Jersey, where Gov Christie is taking heat from the NYT because he is in charge of the indicted guys.

A few more comments on the Toobin article: Mr. Toobin, you mentioned that Chisholm and Walker both attended Marquette University. You omitted the facts that Chisholm graduated and went on to earn a law degree, while Walker dropped out after earning three years' worth of credit in four years. There, fixed that for you. You also could have emphasiezed that Walker was executive of Milwaukee County for eight years and did just about nothing to fix any of the problems mentioned. Also, he not only is a law and order candidate but he is ideologically opposed to pardons and has refused to pardon anyone since becoming governor.

One last comment about Toobin's article: Chisholm comes off as articulate and thoughtful. Sheriff Clarke comes off as an idiot, which he probably is. And Walker isn't quoted. That's because he is completely unable to think in depth about any issues or articulate any vision or even defense of his own ideas other than well-rehearsed talking points. I was keeping track of some of his word-salad responses to questions, but he has pretty much gone deep as far as public unscripted appearances. Here is one brief statement representative of his analytical abilities:

"You look at his (Bush's) past as governor and the stuff he talks about, he often has a whole theme of things he does. And I think it's as simple as that."

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterNadd2

More good ideas from the Right.

Hey, let's hold a contest and offer ten grand for the most insulting depiction of the prophet Mohammed!

The hate filled creator of this ridiculous event, Pamela Geller, claims on one hand that it was her attempt to push back against Muslims who are taking over Texas and the US and crushing freedom of speech and implementing Sharia Law (Muslims in Texas comprise less than one percent (.07) of the population. Islamic flags will be flying over Austin any day now). But on the other, it's nothing more than a humble local art festival with a some harmless cartoons. Who could possibly think anything bad was going on?

Of course that assessment didn't prevent Geller from hiring a boat load of security then demanding more from local officials. The whole even was staged as a provocation. She's been screaming that Muslims who claim to love the US aren't standing with her but, as usual with wingnut haters, her scope does not extend past Islamaphobic websites and screamers. The Daily Beast reports that Alia Salem, head of the Dallas chapter of the Council on Islamic Relations, had, for weeks, been asking Muslims to ignore this idiot and not react to her need for publicity.

No one knows if the gunmen were Muslim or not, but staging an event for the express purpose of pissing off crazies (Muslim or not) can't be the best idea in town.

And this is not to say that NOT pissing off the crazies is knuckling under to them and giving up your free speech. Staging a public event where families and children will be strolling around, even with hordes of security, with the express purpose of hoping for a violent, deadly reaction (which she got), is immoral in the extreme. Putting people's lives in danger to score hate points is beyond unethical. It's evil. But it demonstrates that these people inhabit a far darker, more dangerous zone than most of us would care to think about.

This morning I happened to mention to someone here in my very red state, a very smart, reasonable person, by the way, that this didn't seem to be the brightest idea, suggesting that Christians wouldn't like it very much if some local mullah held a contest for people do draw pictures making fun of Christianity and depicting Jesus as a clown. Her answer was surprising, although it shouldn't have been. She said that no one would care. They would just consider it the work of sad, crazy people.

I truly wish that were the case. And it may for many people, but there is another group, a pretty large one at that, that would be screaming for the nukes.

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: OR, they would see it as part of the ongoing "war on Christians" & use it as an excuse to buy some more guns to defend their liberties against the coming Obama-led apocalypse. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could send out the SBI to do something about the Jesus cartoonists' inhibiting Christians' First Amendment freedom of religion. Because only Republicans "believe in" the Constitooshun.

Marie

May 4, 2015 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Scarcity, science, David Brooks, and the poor.

Counterfeit moralists like David Brooks concern themselves with the moral failings of the poor and suggest that the poor be more like themselves. White, rich, upper class, and, of course, unimpeachably moral (sniff, sniff).

Nearly all of the "solutions" to "handling" poor people coming from the right, restrictions on what kind of food they can buy, limits on ATM withdrawals, draconian punishment for the most minor infractions, all share a single premise: poor people are lazy irresponsible slobs who make stupid decisions that rich people would never make and thus need harsh guidelines to keep them from falling off the back of the right-wing morals train (leave us not concern ourselves that the rest of the train is practically empty, there being few truly moral people in right-wing world, and as with David Brooks, it's all about doing as I say, not as I do).

This weekend, I came across an intriguing article which points towards a different way of considering the problem, one contained in the science of scarcity.

We all have an idea of what this is like. Time is scarce, there's never enough time, and that can make us irritable. But when there's not enough of things like food and money, we become more than simply short tempered. We become less smart. Numerous tests in behavioral economics clearly demonstrate this phenomenon.

Scarcity, argues the author of this completely engaging piece, is what we're dealing with. It's not news that lack of sleep and poor nutrition are bad for health, but lack of employment, money, good food, opportunity, also tend to reduce our ability to make good choices. The switch here, and the basis of this research is "...that [this research] work inverts the long-held thinking that the poor are poor because they make bad decisions...Instead, people make bad decisions because they are poor."

It has little to do with the "personal responsibility" stick the right is forever using to hit poor people over the heads, while decrying their lack of morality and, as Brooks puts it, the bad "quality of their relationships".

As an example, the author points to a problem experienced by certain pilots during WWII in which planes were crashing shortly after takeoff. The initial studies were looking at what was wrong with the pilots. Surely, they must be at fault. The answer was nothing was wrong. At least not with the pilots. The problem had to do with the way cockpit controls in certain planes were aligned. The answer came not by looking at the people, but at the environment they inhabited that encouraged catastrophic decisions to be made easily, almost invisibly.

The science of scarcity also offers a fascinating way of looking at the problem of why people remain locked in poverty and even why many well-intentioned programs often fail.

This will be a tough sell to Confederates like Brooks and Paul Ryan and every single one of the current passengers of the GOP Presidential Clown Car who equate success with morality and morality with success. If you're not rich, you must be immoral, and vice versa.

Read it for yourself. The authors of the research offer some valuable insights into how policy can be slightly adjusted to ensure success for many more people in life.

Whether or not this is an actual goal for Confederate ideology apologists is another.

Hillary, in her kick off video, said that the deck is stacked. And it is. Those with less scarcity have a much easier time of it and make better decisions because of it which leads to a further decrease of scarcity and even better opportunities. And it really doesn't matter whether she believes that or not, it only matters whether she and other Democrats will be willing to try some new ways of unstacking that deck.

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Those who would believe (as I would like to but do not) that it is OUR Constitution know little or no history. In fact, as experience with our brave experiment in constitutional democracy illustrates, the Constitution is a multi-million-fold iteration of MY Constitutions, variously understood. A mostly secular equivalent of The Bible or the Koran, the faithful divine it for meaning, with the SCOTUS its high priests.

Those priests parse and plumb to find what they, as individuals with distinct perspectives, want to find. That the Second Amendment as currently interpreted bears no resemblance to past, saner interpretations is only one case in point. And since we live in a democracy, where everyone has a right to his or her own opinion and in most cases to express it, what we have is a myriad of schismatic constitutions, the legal equivalent of a different church on every corner all of which claim to be the One True Faith.

I am no scholar of Constitutional sociology, so don't know what proportion of previous generations spent so much of their time and energy vociferously announcing their allegiance to their Constitution, but simply raising the question makes me think of the passionate religious movements that accompanied the demise the Catholic Church's hegemony.

I would think that with modern, unfiltered communication as a vehicle, we have far more Constitutional "experts" that at any time in our history, the same history which I'd bet those experts have never consulted.

We know what sectarian schisms have led to. Millions of deaths and nearly as many churches.

And all of the are Right.

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

I did suggest the other day that I might have a go at taking a pointed stick to the latest David Brooks "social psychology" piñata, in which he attempts to kick start his low wattage intellect to engage the problem of What to Do About Those Pesky, Immoral Poors, but others (thanks, Driftglass) have done a bang up job of it which let me off the hook.

Instead, I decided to spend my time commenting, as above, on real world solutions devised by people who are concerned more with serious scholarship than fluffing up their own elephantine egos. It's much more refreshing than spending time slogging through Brooks' Potemkin moralizing and interminable and soporific intellectual wanking.

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Speaking of scarcity, the GOP in Wisconsin is trying to make life's difficulties even more difficult through contorting their bête-noir, the SNAP program:

"The law would restrict access to a whole range of commonplace ingredients. Some of the things that would be harder to buy for poor families who cook include “herbs, spices, or seasonings,” all nuts, red and yellow potatoes, smoothies, spaghetti sauce, “soups, salsas, ketchup,” sauerkraut, pickles, dried beans sold in bulk, and white or albacore tuna. (Cans of “light tuna” are allowed under the rules.)"

No herbs, no spices, no "red" or "yellow" potatoes, no FUCKING spaghetti sauce, no ketchup!!!!! WTF are these people thinking?

I remember my university years very well, when I studied full time while working full time and I definitely remember all the pasta and potatoes I ate because it's cheap enough to fill up the belly even if they're lacking in necessary vitamins and minerals. And trying to take away herbs and spices? Really? I can understand trying to limit "junk food" because it's ultimately for their own good, but legislating away their ability to make their cheap food even taste "tasty", these assholes have no conscience.

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered Commentersafari

Sorry, forgot the link: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/05/01/3653919/wisconsin-food-stamps-shellfish/

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered Commentersafari

Safari,

If you buy into the problems of scarcity and acknowledge its effects, it would seem that Confederates are purposely pursuing a path to not just keep poor people poor, but to punish them for being poor into the bargain.

This isn't just pulling up the ladder after you've escaped, as Paul Ryan is always doing, this is dousing those remaining in the hole with lighter fluid, then tossing down cigarettes and matches and encouraging the poor devils to cultivate a smoking habit.

I can barely put words to how fucking evil this shit is, and makes me wonder where people like this come from.

There's a line in Wordsworth's Prelude that talks about how people are formed.

The mind of man is fashioned and built up
Even as strain of music: I believe
That there are spirits, which, when they would form
A favored being, from his very dawn
Of infancy do open out the clouds
As at the touch of lightning

Wordsworth, in keeping with a largely Romantic bent, was intent on seeing the better angels of our nature, much as Emerson does in his essay The Oversoul. But this question of what is it that makes us who and what we are is an ancient philosophical one, bouncing back and forth between the Platonists and the Empiricists (Locke and Hume, among many others) who believe we are either creatures with a metaphysical origin or are largely built up from a collection of sensations.

Keats, in a letter to his brother and sister, talks about a place where all of this ontological stuff goes on, he calls it the Vale of Soul-Making. For Keats, as with Wordsworth, personality and intelligence are created by the circumstances of our lives, by what hurts us, defines us, remakes us (remember that ol' Johnny Keats wasn't having barrel O monkeys type fun during his short life)--the slings and arrows sorts of stuff--and these experiences are what create our "sense of identity" or soul.

I'd have to say then, based on empirical evidence coming from Right Wing World, that many of these people have no souls. They work mightily to keep from ever having to see or even acknowledge human suffering, unless it's of the fabricated kind (War on Christians!!!!). Of course the other option is that they do have a soul, a black one created of maliciousness, mendacity, hatred, greed, and cynicism.

I'm not sure which is worse, but at all events, these people surely have inflicted enormous damage on the world and are fixing to surpass themselves.

Keats didn't believe in an afterlife, but he might change his mind about wishing there was a hell, had he met any of these monsters.

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I don't know why we're all fretting over this bidnez about inequality and animosity between the have lots and the have nothings cuz it's not going to matter soon anyway.

As Marie mentions above the Obama-led apocalypse is coming and it's coming sooner than we all think. Before January 2017 as a matter of fact. How do I know? I read it on the Intertoobz so it must be true.

You see, there's this guy named Alexander Cain who figgered it all out. He's an educated guy with advanced degrees in theology, history and stuff. Besides, he's also a professor at some well-known universities. Where? In Arkansas, where the hell else?

How did he figger it out? He spent the last 16 years, or 17 (he can't seem to remember how many), studying the Holly [sic] Book, parsing the words of the great prophets and their prophecizing to determine when and how the world as we know it is going to end.

What's going to happen? Well, Obama is actually the King of the South and Putin is the King of the North. They're going to get into a major pissing contest before Obama leaves office as President of 'Merica. Obama's going to piss on Putin until Putin gets pissed off to the point that he gets really, really mad.

What's Putin going to do? He's going to launch a secret missile up into the air that's aimed and armed to explode 20 miles above the US. It's going to set off an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that's going to fry anything electrical or electronic. Poof goes the power grid. Cars quit running so no more transportation. No power for anything - no TV, no Internet, no iPods, no iPads, no cell phones, no microwave ovens, no ATMS, nothing. People will revolt en masse. The cities are going to burn. Men, women and children will all starve.

What to do to protect yourself against the inevitable? Well, naturally, you plan ahead. How? Duh, you just have to buy his ebook (reduced from $97 down to only a once-in-a-lifetime low price of $27, today only.) What do you learn? How to prepare you and your loved ones, using simple common products that you have to buy before it hits, in order to live in a world without electricity. After all, he's studied numerous cultures around the world that are able to do it today, so you can learn how to do it too.

In-fucking-credible.

I just hope his book includes all the requisite pictures, diagrams, check lists, techniques, and other pertinent things to know and learn.

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterUnwashed

under "Heather of Crooks & Liars: Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel blames teachers' unions for Baltimore's problems. ..."
in the comments section is a beautiful pic of the Golden Turd Award .
Great visual comment re Kimberly Strassel.
Note - Its way down in the comments.
mae finch

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered Commentermae finch

So we've got a list of all the things that are wrong with Baltimore, things that caused the Freddie Gray "pain in the ass". Let's see what they are, shall we?

1. Black people who don't know their place.

2. Unions.

3. Marilyn Mosby (and her husband)

4. Unions.

5. Black people.

6. Immorality, per David Brooks and every Fox host.

7. Bad Relationships, mostly just David Brooks.

8. Rioters are all looters and criminals, per Fox.

9. Black people. Natch.

10. ISIS is recruiting black people, who already constitute problems 1, 5, 9, 18 and 19.

11. Freddie Gray. Asshole started the whole thing. Jerk bag.

12. Kevin Moore, the traitor who videoed Baltimore cops beating on Freddie Gray who said that "They had him folded up like he was a crab or a piece of origami. He was all bent up," He was arrested for daring to shoot police abuse because FREEDOM. And because you just don't do that to cops.

13. President Obama. Because natch.

14. Breakdown of family structure and fatherly involvement, per US senator whose son has been arrested numerous times for public displays of drunk driving and idiocy because his father is roaming the country talking shit.

15. Family values, per right-wing radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh who is a drug addict and has been divorced multiple times.

16. Teachers.

17. Teacher unions.

18. Teachers again. Because many of them are black, and you know how that is. Most of them didn't deserve the job in the first place. Moochers.

19. Black people who don't do what po-lice tell them to do.

20. Any Baltimore or Maryland official who isn't white and who isn't on board with beating on black citizens on a regular basis.


The single problem with Baltimore you will never hear from right-wing media sources?

Police brutality. Unchecked violence from Baltimore police, who don't live in Baltimore, against Baltimore non-white residents. Baltimore police who aren't even disciplined after payouts of tens of millions of dollars in cases of abuse of citizens.

Why?

Right Wing World would never allow it. That's why.

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Here's a pretty interesting take on Fiorina's history at HP (and women's CEO tenures in general.)

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/05/04/3654326/carly-fiorina-glass-cliff/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tptop3

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterHaley Simon

Akhilleus: Freeedom has 3 eee's

May 4, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria
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