;)
The Commentariat -- April 29, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Richard Wolf in USA Today: The Supreme Court refused Friday to block Texas' photo ID law, the strictest in the nation, from remaining in effect for now, but it left open the possibility of doing so this summer if a lower court challenge remains unresolved. Civil rights groups who say the law discriminates against black and Hispanic voters had argued that it should be blocked because it was struck down by a federal court in 2014 and a three-judge appeals court panel last year. The full appeals court will hear the case next month. -- Akhilleus ...
... The New York Times story, by Adam Liptak, is here. -- CW
Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Mistakes by the crew flying an AC-130 gunship, compounded by equipment and procedural failures, led to the devastating attack on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in northern Afghanistan last year, and 16 American military personnel, including a general officer, have been punished for their roles in the strike, the Defense Department announced on Friday. The punishments for the attack on Oct. 3 in Kunduz, which killed 42 people, will be 'administrative actions' only, and were not more severe because the attack was determined to be unintentional. The punishments include suspension and removal from command as well as letters of reprimand, which can seriously damage a career. But none of the service members being disciplined will face criminal charges." -- CW
*****
Presidential Race
Greg Sargent: "The Clinton and Sanders camps are now signaling how the Democratic primaries might wind down without too much noise, contentiousness, disruption, and anger." -- CW
Paul Krugman on why the Democratic establishment candidate prevailed & the GOP establishment candidates are home playing golf: "Both parties make promises to their bases. But while the Democratic establishment more or less tries to make good on those promises, the Republican establishment has essentially been playing bait-and-switch for decades. And voters finally rebelled against the con." -- CW ...
... Tim Egan: "With Trump, you can be sure of one thing: He will betray those [working class] people. We know this because he already has. Wage stagnation is the most glaring symptom of a declining middle class. Trump's solution? He believes that 'wages are too high.'" -- CW
Michael Finnegan, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "Donald Trump put his roughest edges on display Thursday night in Costa Mesa as he opened his California primary campaign with a raw performance highlighting his hard-line views on illegal immigration and torture while trashing an array of rivals.... More than 8,000 supporters erupted in a thunder of cheers as Trump vowed to make Mexico pay for a wall along its border with the United States to keep such criminals from harming Americans." CW ...
... Ruben Vives, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "Hundreds of demonstrators filled the street outside the Orange County amphitheater where Donald Trump held a rally Thursday night, stomping on cars, hurling rocks at motorists and forcefully declaring their opposition to the Republican presidential candidate." -- CW
Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "In the 24 hours since her profile of Donald Trump's wife, Melania, appeared in GQ magazine [linked here yesterday], the Russian-American journalist [Julia Ioffe] has received a torrent of antisemitic, vitriolic and threatening messages from supporters of ... [Donald Trump]." CW: Ioffe's profile, as far as I could tell, was negative only insofar as she repeated Donald Trump's own misogynistic remarks. Talk about not being able to handle the truth. ...
... Mike Alesia of the Indianapolis Star: "... on the political stump Wednesday night in Indianapolis, Donald Trump proudly noted [an] endorsement from ... [former boxer] Mike Tyson.... It was [in Indianapolis] where [Tyson] was convicted of raping beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington in 1992 -- and subsequently spent three years in prison.... Trump was a supporter of Tyson's after the conviction, saying that 'to a large extent' he was 'railroaded.' Trump had a financial interest in the case because Tyson's fights made money for his hotels. In an NBC News interview from Feb. 21, 1992, obtained by Buzzfeed and posted recently, Trump described the case this way: 'You have a young woman that was in his hotel room late in the evening at her own will. You have a young woman seen dancing for the beauty contest -- dancing with a big smile on her face, looked happy as can be.'" -- CW ...
I think when Donald Trump debates Hillary Clinton she's going to go down like Monica Lewinsky. -- Bob Sutton, chairman of the Broward County, Florida, GOP Executive Committee
... Eugene Scott of CNN: Bobby Knight, ex-Indiana basketball coach who famously threw a chair across the court during a game and was once arrested for assault, loves him some Trump because he "would drop an A-bomb like Truman." -- LT ...
... Another Great (Semi-) Endorsement for Trump. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "Former Boston Red Sox player Curt Schilling said out of the remaining presidential candidates, he would back front-runner Donald Trump -- under one condition.... 'The caveat to that is, I need him to start acting like a leader.'... Schilling said he wanted to hear less of what Trump will do and more of how he'll accomplish those goals." CW: See also Other News & Views for more on my continuing coverage of the Red Sox star Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley never heard of.
... Gideon Resnick of The Daily Beast: "Rush Limbaugh has a prescription for America's sexual frustration that's better than Viagra: Donald Trump. 'If Trump's the nominee, and if he does unload on Hillary Clinton, as he's promising to do,' said the gasbag radio host, 'let me just tell you something, you do not know how many gazillion Americans are going to be delirious and orgasmic with delight.'" --safari
Peter Beinhart of the Atlantic: "[I]n evaluating Trump's incoherence [in his foreign policy address], it's worth remembering that the more 'serious' Republican foreign policy candidates whom he toppled -- men like Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Lindsey Graham were incoherent too. Trump's just incoherent in a different way." --safari
**Franklin Foer, in Slate, has a long piece on Paul Manafort, Trump's pseudo campaign manager, and his career of making tyrants electable. It's scary. "He has a particular knack for taking autocrats and presenting them as defenders of democracy. If he could convince the respectable world that thugs like Savimbi and Marcos are friends of America, then why not do the same for Trump? One of his friends told me, 'He wanted to do his thing on home turf. He wanted one last shot at the big prize.'" --safari
Colleen Long & Michael Balsamo of the AP: "An envelope containing a suspicious white powdery substance caused a scare when it was opened at a campaign office of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, but it later was deemed to be harmless. The envelope was mailed to Manhattan's Trump Tower, near Central Park, police said. A campaign staffer opened the envelope Thursday night and immediately called police." -- CW
Michael Bender & Mark Niquette of Bloomberg: "The race [in Indiana] is shaping up to be a last stand not just for [Ted] Cruz, but also for the 'stop Trump' movement, an unlikely confederation of activists and party donors. But, from members of the donor class in Indianapolis unwilling to back Cruz to blue-collar voters in Elkhart outraged by the collaboration, the movement is not coalescing, and is even backfiring. 'People who were supporting [John] Kasich have been coming into the office to pick up Trump signs,' said Laura Campbell, Republican chairwoman of Hamilton County...." -- CW
Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: The "alliance" between Ted Cruz & John Kasich has hit a new low. "... taking the stage at a convention hall [in Indiana], Mr. Cruz told voters that Mr. Kasich had no path to victory. 'John Kasich has pulled out,' he said, omitting any further context. 'He's withdrawn from the state of Indiana.'... But as Mr. Cruz spoke, Mr. Kasich's chief strategist, John Weaver, tapped out a semicryptic message on Twitter: 'I can't stand liars'." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
"America First." Donald Trump is set to assure us that once-intended irony will become his foreign policy. Thanks to Patrick:
... Judd Legum of Think Progress: "Where, exactly, Trump would take America's nuclear policy is anyone's guess. But it's one area where Trump's unpredictability is [not] entertaining." -- CW
...the rest of the world is not entertained either: Adrienne Varkiani of Think Progress: The rise of Trump in the presidential race has certainly surprised many in the United States, but it's also come as a shock to much of the rest of the world.... [T]he media in other countries has taken a humorous, and critical, look at his candidacy. -- LT
I thought you were going to ask about basketball rings. -- President Obama, to a student journalist from Indiana (see April 27 Comments for context)
Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "At a town hall Wednesday at Stanford University, [former House Speaker John] Boehner called [Ted] Cruz 'Lucifer in the flesh.'... I've never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life,' he added. Boehner even suggested he would vote for Donald Trump, but not Cruz." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Ted Cruz fired back at former speaker John Boehner on Thursday, accusing him of allowing 'his inner Trump to come out.'... He tethered Boehner to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump over and over again." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Anna North of the New York Times reprises some of the ways politicians have described Ted Cruz. In public. -- CW
Other News & Views
Sarah Wheaton of Politico: "President Barack Obama is opening a new front in the gun control debate, readying a big push for so-called smart gun technology -- an initiative that the gun lobby and law enforcement rank and file is already mobilizing against." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Claire Landsbaum of New York: "The problem with journalism, [President] Obama said [to student reporters], is that it focuses on bad news instead of good. 'It is very hard to get good stories placed,' he said. 'People will assign you stories about what's not working. It's very hard for you to write a story about, "Wow, this thing really works good."'" CW: I thought this was dumb when Nancy Reagan said it, & I think it's dumb when President Obama says it.
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate confirmed President Obama's nominee to be the ambassador to Mexico on Thursday night, breaking a months-long stalemate. Senators confirmed Roberta Jacobson, currently the assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, by a voice vote before leaving town for a week-long recess. The post has been vacant since her predecessor, Anthony Wayne, retired in July." -- CW
Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "The chief executive of Volkswagen said on Thursday that he personally apologized to President Obama this week for cheating on vehicle emissions tests, while making what amounted to a plea for mercy as the German carmaker negotiates penalties with United States officials." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "In an unannounced visit shrouded in secrecy, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. came to Iraq on Thursday for the first time in almost five years, hoping to help a weak prime minister and bolster the military campaign against the Islamic State. The intense security and clandestine nature of the trip reflected the challenges Iraq still faces 13 years after the United States-led invasion. Mr. Biden arrived for the visit, which was under discussion for months, at a moment when the country's political leadership is mired in yet another crisis." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. New York Times Editors: "As its profits show, McDonald's makes a lot of money on fast food." But "workers and citizens [don't get] ... fair share of such profits through decent pay and robust corporate taxes.... Taxpayers continue to pick up the difference between what fast-food workers earn and what they need to survive. An estimated $1.2 billion a year in taxpayer dollars goes toward public aid to help people who work at McDonald's." -- CW ...
... Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post: "Pay disparities between men and women start earlier in their careers than frequently assumed and have significantly widened for young workers in the past year, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. Paychecks for young female college graduates are about 79 percent as large as those of their male peers, the think tank found a serious drop from 84 percent last year." -- CW
The Washington Post has a searchable map by Zip code that compares housing prices in 2004 to today's values. -- CW
John Cox of the Washington Post: "The military has filed new criminal charges against Marine Maj. Mark Thompson, a former U.S. Naval Academy instructor who insisted that he had been unfairly convicted of sexual misconduct with two female midshipmen. After revelations about his case in The Washington Post, the military has now charged Thompson with making a false official statement and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman." -- CW
Amara Grautski of the New York Daily News: "Curt Schilling says he isn't racist -- or homophobic or transphobic -- but he can't say the same of his former coworkers. 'Some of the most racist things I've ever heard have come out of people that are on the air at ESPN,' Schilling said, according to Newsday. 'They're some of the biggest racists in sports commentating.'... The former ace pitcher ... was fired last week for sharing an insensitive Facebook post about transgender people. Schilling, a proud conservative, had been in hot water at ESPN for other social media posts in the past." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Rupert Neate of the Guardian: "Mark Thompson, the chief executive of the New York Times and former director-general of the BBC, is facing a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit alleging that he introduced a culture of 'deplorable discrimination' based on age, race and gender at the newspaper. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two black female employees in their sixties in New York on Thursday, claims that under Thompson's leadership the US paper of record has 'become an environment rife with discrimination'." Thompson has a history of age & gender discrimination at the BBC. -- CW
Matt Ford of the Atlantic: "The U.S. Supreme Court approved a new rule Thursday allowing federal judges to issue warrants that target computers outside their jurisdiction, setting the stage for a major expansion of surveillance and hacking powers by federal law-enforcement agencies...Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat and longtime critic of federal surveillance programs,...criticized the proposed changes as a 'sprawling expansion of government surveillance.' 'These amendments will have significant consequences for Americans' privacy and the scope of the government's powers to conduct remote surveillance and searches of electronic devices." --safari
Beyond the Beltway
Richard Winton, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "Federal agents arrested three people, including the older brother of San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook, on charges of marriage fraud and lying to federal investigators on Thursday morning, authorities said. Syed Raheel Farook, his wife, Tatiana Farook, and her sister Mariya Chernykh are charged in a five-count indictment filed in federal court alleging that Chernykh entered into a fraudulent marriage with Enrique Marquez Jr., who has been accused of providing weapons used in the deadly Dec. 2 attack at the Inland Regional Center." -- CW
Jack Healy of the New York Times: Colorado is "flirting with a radical transformation: whether to abandon President Obama's health care policy and instead create a new, taxpayer-financed public health system that guarantees coverage for everyone. The estimated $38-billion-a-year proposal, which will go before Colorado voters in November, will test whether people have an appetite for a new system that goes further than the Affordable Care Act. That question is also in play in the Democratic presidential primaries." -- CW
Lisa Leff of the AP: "The chancellor of the University of California's Davis campus was put on paid leave Wednesday amid an uproar over her service on corporate boards and the school's hiring of consultants to improve its image online, following the widely criticized pepper-spraying of protesters by campus police, the university's president announced. UC President Janet Napolitano plans to appoint an independent investigator to examine the "serious and troubling" questions raised by the actions of Chancellor Linda Katehi and to determine if they violated any university policies, Napolitano's office announced in a statement." -- CW
Way Beyond
Andreas Cremer of Reuters: "Germany is set to launch a new incentive scheme worth about 1 billion euros ($1 billion) to get more consumers buying electric cars...[the incentives] are to be shared equally between the government and automakers...Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW." -- unwashed
What a world. Alastair Jamieson of NBC: "Belgium is to issue iodine tablets to its entire population as part of a revised nuclear emergency plan, a measure unveiled just months after it emerged that ISIS-linked bombers spied on a top scientist and hoped to build a 'dirty bomb.'" --safari
News Ledes
** New York: "An ISIS-linked hacking group has posted a hit list that includes the names of thousands of New Yorkers. The list, released by the ISIS-related group Caliphate Cyber United, reportedly includes as many as 3,600 names, some of whom are employees at the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, but many of whom are average residents. Experts speculate that the list is being used as a scare tactic and that there's no immediate threat." -- CW
NBC News: "A man infected with Zika virus in Puerto Rico has died from complications of the infection, health officials said Friday.... It's the first death in the United States from Zika virus." -- CW
Washington Post: "North Korea has sentenced a former Virginia man to 10 years in prison with hard labor for subversion, its official news agency said Friday, in the latest case involving an American being detained by Kim Jong Un's regime." -- CW
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Reader Comments (12)
Bobby Knight, Donald Trump, Randy Newman, here's the lyrical exposition of Trump foreign policy (Political Science):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGO42gvCSPI
Here's an issue to pay attention to: the Dept of Labor is proposing a rule, implementing part of Dodd-Frank, that requires investment advisors/brokers to put the client's interests ahead of their own ("fiduciary responsibility'). The House passed a bill (GOP-Wagner) saying no, the DOL rule is too long and complicated and will cost retirees, and DOL should refrain from implementing the rule until after the SEC promulgates its implementer on the same subject. The SEC is, of course, toothless and unable to create regs protecting retiree-investors.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-roper/wagner-bill-gets-it-backw_b_8215732.html
DOL is doing the right thing, and has standing because the rule applies only to retirement accounts (IRAs, 401k's, etc.) and DOL is trying to protect retirees from predators. GOP says the rule is too long and complicated, overreach, etc.
Here is another issue that should be raised, starkly, in elections up and down the ticket this year. GOP thinks granny's retirement accounts should be subject to market salesmen, who should not be required to put granny's interests first. A no-brainer hot button. Will the Democratic leadership (Debbie Wasserman Schultz et al) push this? Keep in mind that DWS and some other D's continue to defend the payday loan gombeen men.
There can be few issues that better illustrate the GOP's program to assist "them what has" to get the crumbs from "them what has little".
Patrick, Perfect Randy Newman song! Here is the Trevor Noah Show's Trump Rap about how much people love Trump from last night's episode, http://www.cc.com/video-clips/1w6qq8/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-donald-trump-s-presidential-posturing---black-trump-s--they-love-me--rap-video. Trevor's opening segment about Ted Cruz was excellent too http://www.cc.com/video-clips/ubopbv/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-john-boehner-slams-ted-cruz---carly-fiorina-sings-a-terrifying-lullaby
Incompetence, thy name is Republican.
Confederate voters and the various campaign exigencies have weeded out all the awful pretenders and have left the just bad pretenders.
So who do we have left on the bizarro side of the fence looking to be president? Let us see, shall we? We have two people (Drumpf and Liarina) with zero experience. We have one senator with only a couple of years under his belt whose sole accomplishment has been to shut everything down, costing taxpayers over $20 billion and putting 120,000 people out of work (table 4, p. 11). Nice going, Ted.
Then we have a guy with a record as a virulent opponent of choice for women, a guy who passed laws restricting abortions even in cases where the health of the mother was at risk. Oh, and he also helped The Decider crash the world economy. Even better.
This is the best they have to offer. The very best.
So how are they at taking care of business? Are they reliable? Trustworthy? Competent?
Heh-heh. Okay, not much suspense here, right? But look, here we have Cruz and Kasich creating a partnership in an attempt to keep Trump from the outright nomination. It lasted.....oh....about....3 hours. If that. Two days later they're pointing fingers at one another saying there was never any such plan. Nice, boys.
Cruz's number two, Liarina, fired about 500,000 employees from Hewlett-Packard, drove the company into the ground then softly floated to earth with a gigantic golden parachute after the board kicked her ass out. She ran for the senate and was beaten like a rented mule.
And Trump? First he'll support the nominee. Then he won't. Then he will. He'll stay, but he might have to go. Maybe a new party. Maybe not. But if he goes, he'll be back. Maybe. If people are nice to him. He says he'll support US allies. But he might not. But he'll be a good friend. Unless they piss him off. Reminds me of this guy (the Trump speech starts 1:00 in).
And remember, kids. These are the Very Best from that gigantic field of staggering Confederate ineptitude.
Remember all that talk about the immense pool of talent, that Deep Bench bullshit wingers were talking about a couple of years ago?
I thought they were talking about a deep bench of major leaguers. These jamokes must be sitting on a bench in the instructional leagues. They can't even do the basics. Just imagine Cruz and Kasich trying to turn a double play. They couldn't do it if the runner was in a wheelchair. And Trump? He'd declare that no one told him the rules after he struck out on three straight pitches. He'd call the umpire stupid and ugly and demand they sell him the ballpark. Liarina would demand the game be called because she saw the other team on videotape, cheating. Of course no such tape exists, but hey...
Losers all.
I was wicked impressed with Donaldo's foreign policy chops. Especially the way he pronounced the name of that Africa country, you know, where all those brown and black people live but lay around in hammocks all day, "Tan-ZANY-uh". Then I got to thinking. Is this place anywhere near Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan? I bet they're neighbors. Donaldo would know. He has all the best countries.
Akhilleus,
Yes, the Right has proffered a menagerie of clowns instead of the deep bench they promised (or maybe they meant all along the bench was deep with clowns), so that as the spectacle nears its end they will be left with the last buffoon standing.
Considering the manner in which they have educated their supporters for the last forty years by pandering to the worst impulses of the human heart and eschewing mind entirely, they should not be surprised. They have participated in and helped create a culture in which only the most shallow and mean-spirited can prosper.
It was bound to happen. When you appeal to the worst around and within us and don't have a Reagan happy face or the relative sophistication of a Romney to hide behind, the who you really are becomes evident, and you're left with a Trump a Cruz. There's a lot of nonsense in a national campaign but there's a lot of sunlight, too.
Now the Establishment Right (that is, the monied manipulators who have financed Republican performances through at least eight Presidential election cycles) are exhibiting (or pretending) surprise at the caricatures that have emerged and are uneasily jockeying for position (how close to the Donald dare I get?) or threatening to sit this one out entirely.
As entertainment, the whole thing is a joy to watch. But in Presidential elections we see only the visible part of the Right's machinations. Down ballot the Right is still alive and well. It likes it there in the dark. That's where it prospers, unnoticed, the evil that it perpetrates hidden from sight.
And that's where the money will go this time around. Lots of it.
Where the evil-doers and clowns don't hit the headlines.
https://ourfuture.org/20160429/wheres-the-big-money-danger-now-look-down-ballot?utm_source=progressive_breakfast&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pbreak
Hedrick Smith has it right.
It's been a while since the Smallest Whiner, Li'l Randy, has tried to inflict his warped views on the country but I suppose he's gotten tired of standing in front of his full length mirror trying on various tinfoil hats (I heard he was particularly partial to the red one with the built-in whoopee cushion in the crown that would go "Wouldja-Whoooo" whenever a taller person patted him on the head.).
Anyway, he must have been digging out his old dog-eared Ayn Rand books, the ones he sleeps with under his pillow hoping the old fraud's "philosophy" (such as it is) will seep into his li'l brain while he sleeps and dreams of a day when he can tell black people to get the hell out of his eye-poking shop, because freedom.
The Little One's new Big Idea?
No more antitrust laws. Because Ayn Rand. Oh yeah, and freedom too. So here's what Bad Toupée (or some hack working for him) has to say on his tweety-tweet page:
"What Rand Paul wants to do is simply to legalize voluntary economic arrangements between individuals..." Oh...you mean like between a hooker and her clients? Or an addict and a drug dealer?
Well, a teabagging wingnut who models himself an "economist", writing in blog on The Hill explains that Paul simply wants to "legalize cooperation". I didn't know cooperation was illegal, but what do I know? But the kind of "cooperation" that this 'bagger and Li'l Randy are talking about sounds very much like collusion.
Basically, businesses know best and should be able to whatever they want and the government shouldn't be able to do fuck all about it. And where did he get this idea? Why, from CATO (née The Charles Koch Foundation), that winger haven for other tinfoil hat "libertarians" looking for ways to screw the American taxpayers in favor of big business. The Kochs and Ayn Rand. Just the people you want when you're talking about ways to keep corporations honest. This is like getting information about pet care from a vivisectionist.
See what we missed by having this gnawing little rodent eliminated from the Give the White House Back to Wingers competition? I'm still liking the red one, Randy.
Ken,
Right you are about Republican down ballot schemes. The Confederates near the top of the pyramid have as much power as they do because wingnuts now run so many states. Gerrymandering starts at that level, controlled by apparatchiks embedded like ticks into the system. Confederate governors, state senators and reps and even town councils all contribute to the power grab. Add election rigging and voter suppression, and it almost doesn't matter who wins the White House (except for the Supremes--but if they lose in November, does anyone really believe, if the Senate remains in the hands of traitors, that Scalia's seat will be filled? McConnell will sniff that it will be up to the voters. In 2020.).
Thanks for the Hedrick Smith link. I am a longtime admirer of his work, beginning with my reading of his revealing and enormously useful "Power Game" back in the late 80's. He's an astute observer of the inside baseball of political finagling and he knows what it was like before the Koch bought 'baggers stormed the citadel, so he has access to that precious and, these days, little seen quality, perspective.
You mean Ted Cruz is not Lucifer incarnate?
Lucien Greaves, of The Satanic Temple, apparently the US's largest satanic sect, thinks not. And his reason is pretty simple. According to Mr. Greaves, Christians are always blaming everything bad on Satan rather than ever taking responsibility for their own iniquities.
"When anything goes wrong according to their Christian faith, [Christians] put it on the side of Satan. It’s a nice way of not taking any ownership of the odious, deplorable activities of people on their side of the culture wars... they can maintain that they are the ultimate arbiters of moral correctness..."
Yeah...they do tend to do that, don't they?
The argument continues that Christians, by referring to someone like Cruz, whose actions some find deplorable, absolve themselves of any responsibility for wrongdoing. And let's face it. Have you ever heard Christianist douchebag George W. Bush ever apologize for the manifold evils he has unleashed into the world?
"Christians can’t just push Cruz off on Satanists" Greaves continues, "We don’t fucking want him."
Hey, I have something in common! With a satanist, no less.
The Washington Post searchable map by Zip code is most interesting.
I'm wishing I had Katie McClendon's e-mail address (widow of
Aubrey McClendon, alleged oil & gas lease bid rigger, wine
aficionado, 100,000 bottle collection, former ceo of Chesapeake
Energy, died the day after being charged). Anyway, she's selling
their "cottage" here in Zip 49453. About 10 years ago they paid
a little less than 25 million (it has acreage on Lake Michigan)
and according to the Washington Post, 13% more is what it should
be worth now. She's asking 40 million. Isn't that like 160% increase?
So I'm hoping one of the Reality Chexers will grab this up and
donate the acreage to our city park system. With a tax write off
you could probably have a "cottage" just feet from Lake Michigan
for very little money.
Akhilleus, I'm with you on Liarina. Still, I think she's potentially accountable for "only" 30,000 layoffs at HP.
Monkius,
30,000, 500,000; it's all the same to Confederates. Bread line for you, Gulfstream for them.