;)
The Commentariat -- January 25, 2016
Sorry for the delay in posting today. Comcast decided I needed a three-month vacation, so it cut off my phone, my teevee & my Internet service. I do need a vacation, but I wasn't planning on taking one. It took three hours to convince Comcast to reinstate by service. So I'm ba-a-a-ck. -- Constant Weader
Caitlin Yilek of the Hill: "Federal government offices in the Washington, D.C. area will be closed Monday due to the winter storm that hit the East Coast over the weekend." ...
... Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "The House will be out of session this week due to 'the severity of the winter storm in the D.C. area,' according to an email sent to lawmakers on Sunday.... The Senate will return for votes at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday." CW: Looks as if Speaker Ryan caught a few minutes of the view from his office's Webcam & decided to take the week off.'
Keith Laing of the Hill: "President Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday morning that his inability to reduce polarization between the political parties in Washington 'gnaws' on him as he settles into his final year in office."
** Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that North Dakota officials cannot enforce a controversial 'fetal heartbeat' law that would have banned abortions as early as six weeks. The justices upheld a lower court's ruling from July 2015, which struck down the measure. North Dakota's sole abortion clinic filed the lawsuit challenging the measure shortly after the law was approved in 2013. North Dakota's law -- one of the strictest in the country -- has been closely watched in the courts as many other GOP-led states look to tighten their abortion standards."
Amy Goodnough, et al., of the New York Times: "... interviews, documents and emails show that as every major decision was made [about Flint, Michigan's contaminated drinking water] over more than a year, officials at all levels of government acted in ways that contributed to the public health emergency and allowed it to persist for months. The government continued on its harmful course even after lead levels were found to be rising, and after pointed, detailed warnings came from a federal water expert, a Virginia Tech researcher and others." ...
... ** Paul Krugman: "... the nightmare in Flint reflects the resurgence in American politics of exactly the same [conservative] attitudes that led to London's Great Stink more than a century and a half ago.... What we see in Flint is an all too typically American situation of (literally) poisonous interaction between ideology and race, in which small-government extremists are empowered by the sense of too many voters that good government is simply a giveaway to Those People.... You can't understand what happened in Flint, and what will happen in many other places if current trends continue, without understanding the ideology that made the disaster possible."
Amanda Marcotte, in Salon, picks up on a theme we discussed here this past weekend: "Republicans like to think of themselves as the party of 'personal responsibility.'... But what's become quite clear in recent months is that, for conservatives, 'personal responsibility' is for other people. Conservatives love shaming genuinely responsible Americans because they occasionally need some help in hard times, but when asked to take responsibility for stuff that is actually their responsibility to take, conservatives will, more often than not, scream bloody murder."
Mark Mazzetti & Map Apuzzo of the New York Times: "... support for the Syrian rebels is only the latest chapter in the decadeslong relationship between the spy services of Saudi Arabia and the United States, an alliance that has endured through the Iran-contra scandal, support for the mujahedeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan and proxy fights in Africa.... The old ties of cheap oil and geopolitics that have long bound the countries together have loosened as America's dependence on foreign oil declines and the Obama administration tiptoes toward a diplomatic rapprochement with Iran.And yet the alliance persists, kept afloat on a sea of Saudi money and a recognition of mutual self-interest.... The long intelligence relationship helps explain why the United States has been reluctant to openly criticize Saudi Arabia for its human rights abuses, its treatment of women and its support for the extreme strain of Islam, Wahhabism, that has inspired many of the very terrorist groups the United States is fighting."
Charles Pierce (Jan. 22) on Debbie Wasserman Schultz & that guy at the National Review who thinks admirers of President Obama are just like Adolf Hitler & Juan Peron fans.
Presidential Race
Glenn Thrush of Politico interviewed President Obama about the 2016 presidential race: "Obama didn't utter an unkind word about Sanders, who has been respectfully critical of his administration's reluctance to prosecute Wall Street executives and his decision to abandon a single-payer health care system as politically impractical. But he was kinder to Clinton. When I asked Obama whether he thought Sanders needed to expand his horizons, if the Vermont senator was too much a one-issue candidate too narrowly focused on income inequality, the presidente didn't dispute the assertion." The transcript is here; audio below:
... Greg Sargent: "What this really represents, I think, is Obama essentially taking sides in one of the fundamental underlying arguments of the 2016 Democratic primary: the battle between Clinton's and Sanders' theories of change.... Obama is basically trying to pour cold water on the loftiness of Sanders' argument, by nodding to the 'appeal' of promising another transformative moment, while suggesting that Clinton's more constrained view of what can be 'delivered' is more realistic, and that this is actually an attribute that recommends her for the presidency." ...
... CW: The trouble with the theory of competence is that the most competent administrators among a field of candidates seldom are the ones voters choose. Obama is the exception, not the rule -- someone who has Sanders' ability to inspire & Clinton's ability -- with the help of Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid -- to get stuff done. Mario Cuomo famously said, "You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose." But most candidates are better at one than the other. Certainly John Kasich, and even Jeb! (not to mention also-ran Scott Walker, now consigned to skillfully ruining Wisconsin) are better bureaucrats than Donald Trump & Ted Cruz. But check those poll numbers. Bernie Sanders has been in Congress for a quarter of a century. He knows how it works. Will he ram thru universal health care & Wall Street reform in his first 100 days? Nah. ...
... E.J. Dionne: "It's the Obama Paradox. The president has a 91 percent favorable rating among Iowa Democrats (which is why Clinton is hugging him so closely). But many Democrats who admire him still wish he had been more aggressive in sticking it to the GOP. They identify with the Sanders who told me (and anyone else who'd listen) back in 2010: 'While Obama and the Democrats have a large number of achievements, it was not enough. We needed to be bolder.' Most Democrats want to be bolder now." ...
... Steve M.: "... maybe raising unrealistic expectations is just how successful politicians motivate voters nowadays."
CW: If you're feeling upbeat about a Democratic blowout in November, read Alexrod & Blow. They will ruin your day. ...
... Why Trump? David Axelrod, in a New York Times op-ed: "It's far too early to picture the iconic Trump logo affixed to the White House portico. But as the most ardent and conspicuous counterpoint to the man in the White House today, the irrepressible Mr. Trump already has defied all expectations." ...
... Charles Blow: "If [Hillary] Clinton can't find a positive, energetic message to project, and soon, she is going to be swept away by [Bernie] Sanders. Some part of Sanders's proposals and even his vision for this country may indeed be a fairy tale. But in the 2008 race, Bill Clinton criticized Obama and his position on the Iraq war as a 'fairy tale.' Well fairy tales sometimes come true, particularly when Hillary Clinton stumbles." ...
AND now, for a couple of asides:
(1) Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "The dead people of America really don't want Hillary Clinton to be president.... [A] trend of telling the world how to vote after you are dead appears to be fairly recent in provenance, but maybe it's just that the internet allows all of us to pass these things around more easily." Bump cites numerous obituaries that contained advice to voters.
(2) Annie Laurie of Balloon Juice has had enough of the First-in-the-Nation State of New Hampshire: "... it would be a net positive if a Trump win in the NH primary were to destroy the enfeebled 'tradition' where a small non-representative very-white state full of angry old tourist-milkers, Free State glibertarians, and social parasites commuting across the border every workday to use Massachusetts resources while avoiding Massachusetts taxes has entirely too much power to winnow presidential choices for the rest of us."
Boston Globe Editors: "This is Clinton's time, and the Globe enthusiastically endorses her in the Feb. 9 Democratic primary in New Hampshire." ...
... Concord Monitor Editors: "Only one Democratic candidate for president is truly qualified to hold the job: Hillary Clinton."
John Wagner & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "... with an upset over Hillary Clinton in next Monday's Iowa caucuses potentially within his grasp, [Bernie] Sanders has emerged as a more combative -- and in some ways, more conventionally political -- candidate.... He ... is attacking Clinton more directly..., demonstrating that he has both the stomach and the punch for a political brawl.... Over the course of The Post interview, Sanders said Clinton was running a 'desperate' campaign incapable of generating the kind of excitement his has. He raised questions about her motives and character. He said he expects Clinton and her campaign to 'throw the kitchen sink' at him in the coming week in what he described as a craven attempt to avoid an embarrassing loss in Iowa."
Nick Gass of Politico: "'It's time for Ted Cruz to either settle his problem with the FACT that he was born in Canada and was a citizen of Canada, or get out of race,' [Donald] Trump tweeted Monday morning, on the heels of Fox News polls released over the weekend that showed him with double-digit leads over Cruz in both Iowa and New Hampshire." ...
... Maggie Haberman & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "... on Sunday, [Donald Trump] went to church in eastern Iowa, where he studied 'humility,' he later told attendees at a rally.... 'We talked about humility in church today,' Mr. Trump told the crowd. 'I don't know if that was aimed at me, perhaps,' he joked.... Backstage, he told a handful of reporters that he enjoyed the service. 'I have more humility than people think,' he said." ...
... Maggie Haberman: "Donald J. Trump spent the last seven months saying he wanted to win. Now he is really acting like it.... On Friday night, the candidate who almost always flies home in his private Boeing 757 to Trump Tower in New York or to his palatial Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., instead slept in a Holiday Inn Express in Sioux City, Iowa. ('Good mattress,' he said afterward. 'Clean.') And on Sunday, no doubt mindful that Mr. Cruz is counting on conservative Christians to carry him to victory in this state's caucuses, Mr. Trump showed up for church here in eastern Iowa, with photographers trailing, sat quietly through the 60-minute service, left two crisp $50 bills in the collection plate and shook hands all around, before resuming his attack on Mr. Cruz at a news conference and rally nearby." ...
... Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "With a week left until the Iowa caucuses, Trump is seeking to close the deal by portraying himself as a great uniter who can bring Washington together, healing ideological rifts with the sheer force of his personality. It's a branding effort that seems at odds with the often-angry tone of Trump's campaign, whose critics frequently carry signs that read, 'A vote for Trump is a vote for hate.'" ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: "Aside From Threatening to Shoot People and Mocking Minorities, Trump Is Now Acting Like Normal Candidate.... Granted, he has a little ways to go on the normalcy front: At a rally Sunday night, he mocked a protester in a turban for 'wearing a funny hat.' And he also boasted over the weekend that his supporters would stand by him even if he shot someone to death on Fifth Avenue." ...
... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker contrasts the campaign styles & objectives of Donald Trump & Ted Cruz. "I had never previously been to a political event at which people cheered for the murder of women and children." CW: Entertaining, if you like scary movies. ...
... He's a Tenther! Katie Glueck of Politico: "Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is endorsing Ted Cruz in the Republican presidential primary, Perry told Politico in an interview Sunday night. Perry, who also sought the GOP nomination before dropping out in September, said he now sees the race as one that is between Cruz, a fellow Texan, and Donald Trump.... Perry said he found the senator to be a good listener who respects the Tenth Amendment, 'knows what he does not know' and is more conservative than Trump. 'Of those individuals who have a chance to win the Republican primary, at this juncture, from my perspective, Ted Cruz is by far the most consistent conservative in that crowd,' Perry said. 'And that appears to be down to two people.'" ...
... The Empty Cassock. Benjamin Wallace-Wells of the New Yorker: "The Cruz campaign has some of the tone of a social movement, and at times the paraphernalia.... And yet it is a very strange social movement, because it is so narrow: Morning in Washington, with almost no mention of America.... For Cruz, the fight for power in Washington is not only the orienting fight in American life but the only one.... Cruz has the partisan ferocity of the culture warrior -- the purist politics, the overriding will to power -- but he is a warrior without a war."
Nick Gass: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie strongly contested the notion that his state sustained residual flooding damage from the winter storm that slammed the East Coast over the weekend, accusing one reporter of 'making it up.' During an interview with MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' senior Huffington Post politics editor Sam Stein asked the governor about 'critics in your state and elsewhere who do wonder why you're back up in New Hampshire so early.'... 'Oh yeah?' asked a resident of Cape May County, New Jersey, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer's report published Sunday evening. 'Gov. Christie should come down here and get in his fishing waders and live my life.' According to the same report, in which residents, local officials and business owners called the flooding worse than Sandy in 2012, Christie characterized coastal flooding as minor to moderate, and remarked at a Sunday news conference that there was no significant property damage." ...
... From Reuters, via the Washington Post. See the WashPo story, also linked in yesterday's News Ledes. The story includes photos residents took of severe flooding in Atlantic City, Ocean Beach & Wildwood, New Jersey. CW: I guess Christie figures this is some awesome Photoshopping -- New Jerseyites are really good at "making it up," too.
Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey angrily scolded Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on Sunday for his sarcastic remark about the blizzard that crippled much of the Northeast this weekend.... Mr. Rubio, campaigning in New Hampshire on Friday, joked that the storm is 'probably one of the best things to happen to the republic in quite a while' because it temporarily prevented the federal government from issuing new regulations and President Obama from signing executive orders. The remark left Mr. Christie furious on Sunday as he confronted dangerous coastal flooding across his home state of New Jersey. 'That's a difference,' Mr. Christie said on CNN, 'between a United States senator who has never been responsible for anything and a governor who is responsible for everything that goes on in your state.'"
Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "At a time when most Americans support a landmark shift in U.S. policy on Cuba, [Marco] Rubio has positioned himself as that move's biggest foe. He champions a Cold War approach that many think is outdated, even as it runs counter to his image as the youthful leader of a new generation...." Meanwhile, he is enjoying his Senate power to hold hostage President Obama's nominees to Latin American diplomats, including the position of ambassador to Mexico. CW: Let's let Marco be President of the 1960s.
Tone Deaf. Bradford Richardson: "... Jeb Bush on Sunday praised Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) for the way he has handled the fallout from the water contamination crisis in the city of Flint. 'I admire Rick Snyder for stepping up right now. He's going to the challenge, and he's fired people and accepted responsibility to fix this,' Bush ... said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' Bush elaborated that he has been critical of Snyder for his negligence leading up to the crisis, but applauded the governor for the way he has taken responsibility to fix the problem." ...
... Yeah, Right. Timothy Cama of the Hill (January 22): "Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) laid the blame for the Flint drinking water crisis on employees at the state's environmental agency. 'The department people, the heads, were not being given the right information by the quote-unquote experts,' Snyder told host Joe Scarborough [of MSNBC]."
Beyond the Beltway
Aamer Madhani of USA Today: "Mayor Rahm Emanuel has hired one of America's high-profile, big-city law enforcement officers to advise the embattled Chicago Police Department on civil rights issues. Emanuel said Sunday he picked Charles Ramsey, who recently retired as the Philadelphia Police Department commissioner and previously led the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department."
Regina Zilbermints of the (Biloxi) Sun Herald: "Authorities have released the names of all four people involved in a shooting at a Pearl River County[, Mississippi,] gun store that left two dead and two injured." The gun store owner & his son were killed. The parties were arguing over a $25 service fee.
Good Cops. Daniel Politi of Slate: A Gainsville policeman brings some back-up to a street basketball game. Watch the original video, too, of Officer White's response to a noise complaint, which is linked in the post.
Way Beyond
James Rothwell & Josie Ensor of the (U.K.) Telegraph: "The gunmen behind the Paris terror attacks have appeared in a newly released Isil video in which they behead several unidentified hostages. The footage was shot before the attacks took place in November 2015 but was published on Sunday evening. It is unclear when exactly the footage was filmed."
News Lede
New York: "British explorer Henry Worsley died this weekend, during his attempt to become the first person to ever cross Antarctica alone, only 30 miles from the end of his journey. He had already traveled more than 900 miles over 71 days. The 55-year-old died from 'complete organ failure' -- he appeared to have bacterial peritonitis, an infection on his abdomen, and was severely exhausted and dehydrated." Worsley's New York Times obituary is here.
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Reader Comments (21)
I see two possible reactions to President Obama's expressed heartache over his inability to bring all people together to work for the common good.
I could dismiss him as a naive political Chamberlain who thought he could treat with the opposition whom he knew opposed many of the things he stood for but would be ultimately persuadable by reason. After all, who in his or her right mind would want to make worse the country that he or she took an oath to serve? Turns out, there are more than a few, I suspect more than Obama thought.
Or I could admire him (as I do) as an intelligent, vastly decent human being who deeply believes the human race can be moved to improve the way its members treat one another.
That he did not make as much progress as he would like is surely disappointing, but progressives throughout history have been repeatedly disappointed and like the student of history that he is--unlike Republicans who don't like history any more than they like science or anything else fact-based--Obama knows that.
He also knows the hope that progressives share, firmly borne out in the course history has taken in the last two centuries, gives them inspiration to recover from disappointment and try, try again.
I fully expect Obama will carry his dreams for social uplift--take that, cynics of the world!-- well beyond the years of his Presidency.
I'm worried, kids.
I didn't have to read the Blow and Axelrod pieces to be concerned. I've been uneasy for some time. Hillary took the lead in '08 then got her ass kicked because of misjudgements and internal campaign blunders. She underestimated Obama and overestimated her own strength and personal mojo. Badly in both cases. And she lost.
It looks like history could be repeating itself, with one big difference. As much as I admire Sanders' willingness to take on Wall Street and call a spade a spade (Erasmus' usage, not Confederates') when it comes to income inequality, I don't believe he can be elected. Too much would have to happen in a short time. And don't forget, we've seen this scenario before.
The first year I had a chance to vote, 1972, being a beneficiary of the 18x72 movement to reduce the voting age down from 21, I voted for George McGovern. He seemed exactly what we needed to erase Nixon's five o'clock shadow from the national scene. The Democrats' establishment choice, Ed Muskie, seemed a nice enough fellow but was hard pressed to excite his own family members about his candidacy. Then came the crying thing, and well, McGovern it was. Then the smear campaign started. Virulent winger and lifelong scumbag Robert Novak began by spreading rumors about McGovern, which were then spread by other news outlets as gospel truth, from which he never recovered and Nixon was handed a landslide of epic proportions. Polls taken a year before the election showed Muskie handily beating the Tricky One.
But Clinton is not Muskie, is she? Muskie didn't have nearly the baggage and bad blood and he wasn't a dirty player as Clinton can be. People didn't hate him like they do her.
But Sanders is very much like McGovern. He seems an entirely decent chap and not the kind that can easily weather the sort of pile driving attacks the right will use against anyone attempting to defeat their agents of victimhood and hatred.
I dunno kids, I really am worried. Clinton needs to stand for something other than same old, same old, salted with "practicality and incrementalism" as Blow suggests. The First Woman thing will only get her so far. Already the vast right-conspiracy cast of characters are stockpiling money and lies. Hollywood (isn't Hollywood supposed to support only 'merica hating liberals?) is helping by piling on with a macho, take no prisoners, good guys with guns thingy about Benghazi, Benghazi, BENGHAZI ("13 Hours" by Michael Bay, a hack if there ever was one; a director who made the attack on Pearl Harbor a combination of the Trojan War--all 20 years in as many hours, the Battle of Thermopylae, Boys Own Adventure Tales, treacly soap opera, and an adolescent boy's paean to shit blowing up--it looked like the Japanese were dropping nuclear bombs on Hawaii).
And this is just the beginning.
A lot of young voters will be--are--energized by Sanders as we were by McGovern back in '72, another decent chap who wanted to pull us out of Vietnam and right the ship that had been foundering for some years. The right, the media, and the military-industrial complex had other ideas. Don't think they're any less powerful today.
I do think Clinton can beat the Orange-headed Clown and the equally insufferable Texas God Boy, but she has to be strong in the primaries and win without resorting to further low blows against Sanders and get people excited.
Can she do it?
Fuck if I know. So yeah, I'm worried.
Birther Time: A writer of a letter to the editor in the NJ Star Ledger makes an interesting evaluation of the Cruz story. He points out that natural born citizen "in British common law in the 18thC - it referred to someone born in England or its associated colonies/possessions."
That would indicate that the Founders would not consider Cruz a candidate for POTUS.
Of course if it goes to the Supreme Court, the decision will have nothing to do with history and everything to do with politics.
Marvin,
"Of course if it goes to the Supreme Court, the decision will have nothing to do with history and everything to do with politics."
Quite.
And if it comes down to giving Cruz a green light or the heave-ho, we all know how Johnny and the Dwarfs would vote.
We also know that, had Obama been born, like Cruz, outside the US, and had his case been brought to the Dwarfs for consideration of Constitutional muster, their opinion would most likely have gone the other way.
Funny how those things work, in'it?
Akhilleus - It's only January. Not to worry about HRC yet. When the FBI reports on her "classified" e-mails, that event could be dispositive, either way.
And, re Cruz' natural-ness ... all we have to do is annex Canada to fix that, n'est ce pas?
Still snowed in on our block, no plows yet (1:00 pm 1/25)
Interesting coincidence. I also spent a portion of today (much less than three hours) dealing with Verizon. My business phone and internet bill crept up to $150/month over time. Earlier this month I called and said I wanted to pay less. The sales person at the time tried to up-sell me to faster internet which, after an intro period, would have been even more expensive.
I left that conversation with the impression my bills would be a bit lower. The new bill arrived, and it was $250! I called today and was told there were some one-time charges that shouldn't be there, and my future bills would be . . . $142. Exasperated but calm, I asked if there was any way to get the bill lower. She said she could give me a $20/month Customer Loyalty Bonus.
Modern business, where loyal customers have to ask, and then beg, to get a reasonable deal. [Spitting out foul taste in my mouth.]
C'mon, really?
Does it ever occur to Confederate candidates that voters can read?
So yesterday, Chris Christie, man of the people, Mr. Responsible, rips Marco Rubio a new one for making light of the blizzard, comparing himself, the Guy in Charge, responsible for fixing post-storm problems like coastal flooding, to Senator Do Nothing who has no such responsibilities and can make jokes at the expense of poor NJ residents. The very next day, he's ripping a reporter for asking him about that very same problem, claiming that reports of coastal flooding are "made up" and didn't amount to much and those poor NJ residents must be exaggerating (read: lying).
So which is it?
Does he care?
Isn't it funny the way Republicans are constantly on about how responsible they are until it's time for them to be responsible. Then it's someone else's fault and another agency's responsibility (lookin' at you Rick Snyder) to fix things.
Nisky Guy.
One of the great differences between Then and Now is that while "customer loyalty" is still occasionally rewarded, tho' it often takes the odious form of an outright bribe for staying with a company or service--when an increasingly rare alternative to a monopoly actually exists--is that today few in business actually know their customers.
The businesses are very big and we're very small, mere numbers, as individuals hardly noticeable. Bar and account codes. Period.
Good luck.
But... But... Everything's Better in America. Isn't it?
"A Center for Public Integrity analysis of Internet prices in five U.S. cities and five comparable French cities found that prices in the U.S. were as much as 3 1/2 times higher than those in France for similar service."
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/03/27/16998/what-separates-us-and-european-internet-less-competition-more-costs
Rick Snyder can "fix" things alright. He ran on a platform of
"shared sacrifice"; sounds like that logo was written by the Koch
Brothers. Turns out that the sacrifice was shared by retirees (me)
and union workers and the working poor.
First on the agenda was eliminating income tax exemptions on
pensions and other little tweeks guaranteeing that those who can
least afford it are sacrificing.
Next was abolishing business taxes for his corporate buddies and
putting in its place a flat tax as requested.
Snuck through a right to work law while no one was watching,
which actually means right to work for lower wages. We all know
those union workers and teachers, etc. are vastly over compensated.
And if you think Flint's water problem is bad, in my opinion it's
just the tip of the iceberg. Our former R governor, John Engler
was persuaded by Nestle Corp (worlds largest food and beverage
industry) to license them ($100.00 per year) to extract water from
Michigan's aquifer, two plants located in central Michigan, at a
rate of 550 gallons per minute. that's 792,000 gallons per day,
or almost 29,000,000 gallons per year. This water is bottled and
labeled "Ice Mountain Spring Water. We don't have us no
mountains and the water comes from wells pumping out of our
aquifer. There will come a time when people who depend on
private wells in Michigan will have a problem. Could be even
small cities like the one I live in will have to switch to pumping
out of Lake Michigan or Lake Huron which the larger cities are
now doing.
What's with all these R governors? Guess money talks and my
wallet has been silenced with state taxes and fees. Geeeeeeze!
In my opinion, Clinton has been running her campaign pretty well so far. Bill has always been baggage, nothing new there. She is an obvious contrast with the crazy town buffoons on the right. The right wing noise has been dominant in the early goings and the response has been commensurate in volume and coverage. Clinton has rightly been measured in her actions to stay out of the cage fighting. Keep Bill in the South where he can still be used like catnip and ensure some votes.
However, satisfying a Sanders presidency sounds and likewise, however unsatisfying another Clinton presidency seems, I'm afraid Sanders could accomplish very few, if any, progressive goals. In addition, he wouldn't get elected. We should have learned from Obama, who is very gifted, just how difficult forward movement has become. The priority must be electing a democrat or the country is lost via the Supreme Court.
I know the golden rule about leaving families out of the mix, but wait until we get some face time with Melanie Trump. I'm curious to see how many of these hateful, anti-immigrant Trumpites will embrace the Slovenian (even though she's a naturalized US citizen) ex-model as a potential 1st lady.
First, let me say as a first time poster that I have been following Marie and Kate since becoming familiar with their comments in the NYT a long time ago. To all the regulars, thank you for keeping me sane. Reading realitychex is always a highlight of my day.
Akhilleus, I too cast my first vote in 72 as a barely 18 year old. Moreover, I spent the better part of six months actively working for the McGovern campaign. Long before the election we knew the outcome. It did not diminish the pain though when election eve ended very early. I have not actively worked in a national campaign since! Not since that long ago time have I felt so much hope. I have the Bern! I dutifully voted for Clinton and Obama twice although I found them far to moderate on economic issues. In frustration I registered as a socialist five years ago. I suppose I am deluding myself by thinking that this election is so anti Washington that perhaps Bernie can win. But I can not give up hope. At least not yet.
You are right. Hillary has to inspire me if she wants my support. She needs to seem inspired herself first.
Super good news!!!!http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/us/2-abortion-foes-behind-planned-parenthood-videos-are-indicted.html?
Diane: The Slovenian could be toast by the time Trump moves
into the White Trump Tower House. I hear he's spent time in
Eastern Europe watching the birth of his 7th wife.
"... cross Antarctica alone" ... What could possibly go wrong? Good grief.
It is supreme irony and beyond satisfying the grand jury refused to indict Planned Parenthood but indicted the scumbag David Daleiden instead!
Drew,
Nice to hear from another 18x72er. It was a wild time, was it not? But no more savagely wild than the current cycle.
I do agree with you that Clinton has to incite passion. It could be that she might create wonderfully sanguine peaks of aspiration, as in a bowl of whipped cream, and the MSM would...yawn. But I do believe she is a warrior. She's got resolute chops and she has some serious campaign cojones (much more so than any of the Confederates who seek to deep-six her), but she needs to convince us that she is just as crazy about kicking Confederate ass and detonating wingnut fantasies as we need her to be.
It's good to feel the Bern, but it's better to, as Kate (bless her) reminds us, remember the Supremes.
Gene Hackman, in Francis Coppola's masterpiece of corporate surveillance, "The Conversation" stumbles upon the outcome awaiting us if we do not:
"[They'd] kill us if they got the chance."
Diane,
By the time Fox and the Right-Wing echo chamber is through with her, Melanie Trump will be giddily acknowledged as a combination of Martha Washington, Betsy Ross, Phylis Schlafly, Ann Coulter, and Margaret Thatcher. She might as well have grown up in Mesa, Arizona cleaning guns and stepping on brown people.
Welcome, Drew
18 x 68, I held my nose and voted for a Humphrey badly stained by the Vietnam position his Veephood forced him to take. Looking back on that choice, any Clinton, not to mention the alternatives rising to the top on the Repugnant side, looks pretty good.
Boo hoo hoo. Scott Walker is so far in debt from his failed presidential campaign that he has to sell his home. Empty-nester my ass.
At least it's his personal home and not the one provided by those nasty taxpayers.
Maybe it's time he goes out to find a "real" job.
Akhilleus
Favorite movie...fabulous line.
And so perfect for what we are facing.