Tuesday
Dec082015
The Commentariat -- December 9, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "The FBI's system for tracking fatal police shootings is a 'travesty' and the agency will replace it by 2017, dramatically expanding the information it gathers on violent police encounters in the United States, a senior FBI official said Tuesday. The new effort will go beyond tracking fatal shootings and, for the first time, track any incident in which an officer causes serious injury or death to civilians, including through the use of stun guns, pepper spray, and even fists and feet."
NEW. Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said Wednesday that the couple who waged a shooting rampage in San Bernardino, Calif., last week had been talking of an attack as far back as two years ago, while they were still dating. 'Our investigation to date shows that they were radicalized before they started courting or dating each other online,' Mr. Comey said, 'and as early as the end of 2013 were talking to each other about jihad and martyrdom before they became engaged and married and were living in the U.S.' The couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, were married in the United States in 2014. Mr. Comey said that the F.B.I. believes they were inspired by foreign extremist groups.... They are not believed to have had any accomplices, although investigators are suspicious about what family members and friends may have known about the couple's plans." ...
... Missy Ryan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal authorities believe the Facebook posting from one of the attackers who killed 14 people here last week was made on behalf of both shooters, according to several senior U.S. law enforcement officials.... The FBI remains keenly interested in a former neighbor who provided the military-grade rifles used by Syed Rizwan Farook ... and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, during the massacre that killed 14 people and injured 21 others." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... James Koren of the Los Angeles Times throws cold water on speculation that the $28,000 deposit in the San Bernardino shooters' bank account came from Daesh. The deposit was a loan through a third-party broker called Prosper: "People familiar with the industry say it's exceedingly unlikely that Prosper or similar platforms, such as Lending Club, could be used in that way." ...
... BUT. Richard Serrano, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: The couple may have used the loan to "acquire last-minute firearms, ammunition and components to build explosives, two federal officials said Tuesday." ...
... AND. Pamela Brown of CNN: "Investigators believe San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook may have been plotting a [2012] attack in California with someone else, two U.S. officials said.... One official said the two decided not to go through with the earlier attack after a round of terror-related arrests in the area. 'They got spooked,' the official said."
Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "As Republicans squabbled over Donald Trump's controversial proposal to bar all Muslims from traveling to the United States, the House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill imposing new restrictions on a visa waiver program that currently permits roughly 20 million people to enter the country each year. The bill, which was approved on a 407 to 19 vote, would increase information sharing between the United States and the 38 countries whose passport holders are allowed to visit the country without getting a visa, while also attempting to weed out travelers who have visited certain countries where they may have been radicalized.... But there are key differences between the House's bill and a measure from Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), which has not yet been scheduled for a vote...."
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post on some 120 Republican House members vote "no" on bills they hope will pass with Democratic votes.
Michael Mann, in a New York Times op-ed, on the attempts by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, to intimidate climate scientists. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
NEW. Wendy Davis (D), in a Politico Magazine opinion piece, apologizes for supporting Texas's open-carry law when she ran for governor in 2014. She urges lawmakers not to make the mistake she did.
German Lopez of Vox: Don't listen to what your uncle told you he read in the Right Wing News about gun/murder statistics. Those are junk studies that don't control for other factors. "'Within the United States, a wide array of empirical evidence indicates that more guns in a community leads to more homicide,' David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, wrote in Private Guns, Public Health."
** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "A closely divided Supreme Court on Tuesday struggled to decide 'what kind of democracy people wanted,' as Justice Stephen G. Breyer put it during an argument over the meaning of the constitutional principle of 'one person one vote.'... Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., ... seemed attracted to counting only voters.... The Constitution requires 'counting the whole number of persons in each state' for apportioning seats in the House of Representatives among the states. Justice Elena Kagan said it struck her as unlikely that a different rule should apply for purposes of drawing state districts." ...
... "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Rick Hasen, in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "... as compelling as [Roberts'] argument may sound in the abstract, it's not practicable. And it seems doubtful these justices would be willing to mandate a standard that would cause so much upheaval, not only in the states, but at the Supreme Court itself, which would see a new flood of cases clarifying the standard." ...
... ** David Gans of the New Republic: "The case was initiated by activists who seek to empower certain voters at the expense of the entire population, which in Texas would tilt power toward more rural and, yes, conservative areas of the state. But the Constitution settles this question, and Evenwel should begin and end with the text and history of the Constitution." ...
... Amy Howe of ScotusBlog tries to read the justices on the Arizona redistricting case. ...
... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "The Supreme Court Looks Poised To Blow Up Everything You Think You Know About Redistricting." ...
... Charles Pierce: "... this week could be high noon of John Roberts's Day Of Jubilee." CW: Just for fun, read Pierce's description of the plaintiffs.
... CW: AND this, my knuckleheaded friends, is why you vote for Hillary Clinton whether you like her or not. Donald Trump may curtail Muslim civil rights, but certain members -- perhaps a majority -- of the Supreme Court are inclined to make "nonpersons" of children of all stripes, Latinos, blacks, legal noncitizen residents, disenfranchised felons & every lazy adult who can't drag his sorry ass to the polls. One, two or three more Ninos on the court will obliterate the last shreds of democracy for generations to come. (The upside: if you're a white Christianist voter [and the courts don't rescind your franchise on some other excuse], you will be a wee American prince, a card-carrying member of the Voter Caste.)
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Imports from China by Walmart ... eliminated or displaced over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group that has long targeted Walmart's policies. The jobs, mostly in manufacturing, represent about 13 percent of the 3.2 million jobs displaced over those same years that the study attributes to the United States' goods trade deficit with China. Walmart's Chinese imports amounted to at least $49 billion in 2013, according to the study, which was based on trade and labor data. Over all, the United States' trade deficit with China hit $324 billion that year." ...
... CW: A spokesman for the Walton family said they are personally helping the U.S.-China balance of trade by not buying any of the cheap Chinese crap WalMart sells. "People of the Waltons' means do not shop at WalMart, for Pete's sake," the spokesman added. The Waltons also suggest that, in the spirit of the holiday season, Americans contribute to the WalMart employee food bank, which helps underpaid WalMart employees feed their hungry children. The Waltons invite you to drop donations into the colorful holiday bins they have placed conveniently near the check-out stands at WalMarts & Sam's Clubs. "From your pocket to ours," is a concept pioneered by our beloved dad Sam, the heirs said through their spokesman.
James Risen of the New York Times: "When Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. traveled to Kiev, Ukraine, on Sunday..., one of the issues on his agenda was to encourage a more aggressive fight against Ukraine's rampant corruption and stronger efforts to rein in the power of its oligarchs. But the credibility of the vice president's anticorruption message may have been undermined by the association of his son, Hunter Biden, with one of Ukraine's largest natural gas companies, Burisma Holdings, and with its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, who was Ukraine's ecology minister under former President Viktor F. Yanukovych." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Time chooses Angela Merkel as its Person of the Year.
Presidential Race
"She's Got Some Balls, You Know." Thomas Edsall: "A late November YouGov survey conducted after the attacks in Paris but before San Bernardino found that Hillary Clinton stood apart from Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina as the only candidate a majority of voters believe 'is ready to be Commander in Chief. She is the only one about whom as many people express confidence in her ability to handle an international crisis as say they are uneasy.'"
Juliet Eilperin & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to block all Muslims from entering the United States 'disqualifies him from serving as president.'... The press secretary noted that while several GOP elected officials and presidential hopefuls had not embraced the controversial policy proposal, 'Today the newly-elected speaker of the House said he would vote for Donald Trump for president if he's the party's nominee. They should say right now that they will not support him for president,' Earnest added." ...
... CW: Earnest added that all Republican presidential candidates who stand by Trump also have disqualified themselves. I can't recall any administration ever having made a similar statement. I can't say Earnest's condemnation of Trump is unprecedented (because I don't know), but it might be. ...
... Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Republicans on Capitol Hill strongly denounced a proposal from Donald Trump -- their party's frontrunner in the presidential race -- for a 'total and complete' ban on Muslims entering the United States. But the two leading Congressional Republicans, House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), both stopped short of saying they would reject Trump were he to lead their party's ticket in 2016." ...
... Paul Waldman: "So in other words, he's a bigot and a race-baiter who spits on fundamental American values, but if he gets the nomination ... Go Trump!" ...
... Here's why. Susan Page of USA Today: "... 68% of Trump's supporters say they would vote for ... [him] if he ran as an independent rather than a Republican just 18% say they wouldn't. The rest were undecided." ...
... Dana Milbank: "Trump's chin-out toughness, sweeping right-hand gestures and talk of his 'huge' successes and his 'stupid' opponents all evoke [Benito Mussolini]'s style.... Trump uses many of the fascist's tools: a contempt for facts, spreading a pervasive sense of fear and overwhelming crisis, portraying his backers as victims, assigning blame to foreign or alien actors and suggesting only his powerful personality can transcend the crisis." ...
No Surprise. Brian Beutler: When large swaths of the conservative movement resisted the notion that the GOP needed to widen its appeal to minorities, and could win by appealing to a broader base of whites, it was liberals who warned that these voters would drag the party into a racial abyss. Trump is the fulfillment of that prophecy. Better than any Republican candidate in recent memory, he intuits the mood of the disaffected Republican electorate. Or rather, because he's almost entirely uninterested in straddling party factions, he gives voice to their paranoia and racism without massaging it the way the pretenders to his lead do." ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump on Tuesday defended his call to block all Muslims from entering the United States, casting it as a temporary move in response to Islamic State terrorism, and invoking President Franklin D. Roosevelt's actions toward Japanese, German and Italian aliens during World War II as precedent.... In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation apologizing to and compensating more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent who were incarcerated in internment camps in World War II." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump has widened his lead in New Hampshire.... A CNN/WBUR survey found that 32 percent of likely Republican voters in New Hampshire support Mr. Trump, up from 26 percent in September. In second place was Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, at 14 percent, followed by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey at 9 percent and Jeb Bush at 8 percent. The poll follows a spate of terrorist attacks around the world and the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., that have made national security a central issue in the 2016 race, but it was taken after Mr. Trump's provocative proposal to bar Muslims from entering the United States." ...
... James Downie of the Washington Post: "In President Obama's speech Sunday, he told Americans that 'just as it is the responsibility of Muslims around the world to root out misguided ideas that lead to radicalization, it is the responsibility of all Americans, of every faith, to reject discrimination.' Afterward, on Fox News, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ... [asked] 'Where is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against Muslims?' Senator, allow me to introduce you to Donald Trump. You may recognize him as the man who has been trouncing you in the polls for months.... Trump has -- and there's no other way to put this -- embraced an unconstitutional, fascist-like approach. And there's no question that the Islamic State wants Americans to embrace -- or at least tolerate -- Trump's ideas.... For the national security of the country, [Republicans] must reject supporting him if he is the nominee." ...
... CW: Really, Marco? If you can't find "widespread evidence" of "discrimination against Muslims," he might ask his oppo team to monitor a Trump rally. Or, like, read stuff. ...
... Ah, I see Jonathan Chait is equally dumbfounded by Marco's (feigned?) ignorance: "It is unclear what sort of evidence Rubio would accept. According to FBI statistics, hate crimes against Muslim-Americans, which spiked in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, have settled in at an elevated level five times higher than before 2001. If Rubio considers these dry statistics too abstract, he could look to current Republican poll leader Donald Trump." And he goes on, also citing remarks by Marco's rivals & by Marco hisself. Read the whole post. ...
... MEANWHILE, in Trumpsylvania. Michael Matza of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Philadelphia police, the FBI, and the city's Human Relations Commission launched investigations Monday after a worker at a North Philadelphia mosque found a severed pig's head outside its door. Surveillance video outside the Al Aqsa Islamic Society..., showed a red pickup truck drove past the building twice just before 11 p.m. Sunday.... On its second pass, the video shows, someone extended an arm from the passenger window and tossed something that rolled to a stop near the mosque's front door." CW: A pickup truck, of course. Probably a gun rack behind the seats. And if you home in on the rear bumper, chances are you'll find a Trump for President sticker. Make American Great Again. Thanks to Ophelia M. for the lead.
NEW. Alana Wise & Patricia Zengerle of Reuters: "Senator Ted Cruz ... said on Tuesday that he introduced legislation to give governors the ability to opt out of refugee resettlement programs." ...
... Greg Sargent: "Ted Cruz's clever scheme to reap the benefits of Trump's Islamophobia." CW: Cruz is what Trump would look like if Trump were smarter & more devious.
Leonard Burman, et al., of the Tax Policy Center analyze "Jeb Bush's tax proposal. It would reduce individual and business marginal tax rates, curtail tax expenditures, and convert the corporate income tax into a cash-flow consumption tax. The proposal would cut taxes at all income levels, reducing federal revenues by $6.8 trillion over its first decade before considering macro feedbacks. The plan would improve incentives to work, save, and invest, but unless accompanied by very large spending cuts, it could increase the national debt by as much as 50 percent of GDP by 2036, which would tend to put a drag on the economy. ...
... Jeb!'s Extremely Extremist Tax Plan. Dylan Matthews of Vox: "The analysis also shows how much more extreme Republican tax policy has gotten since Bush's brother was president. The sticker price of George W. Bush's 2001 tax cuts was $1.35 trillion.... The cuts were rightly considered one of the most dramatic reductions in federal taxes in modern American history. But their $1.7 trillion total estimated cost at passage (they ended up costing less after the recession led incomes to plummet) is only one-fourth the size of what Jeb is proposing. Jeb is trying to position himself as a responsible, establishment Republican.... That he thinks he can do that while proposing four times more in tax cuts than his brother passed is extraordinary, to say the least." ...
... Being Jeb! Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Being Jeb Bush these days means coping with a series of petty humiliations. At a weekend conference in Miami, fundraisers questioned the direction of the campaign and worried it's too late for a rebound. During a foreign policy speech in Washington, people slipped out of the room to go see rival Chris Christie instead. The jebbush.com domain was redirected to Donald Trump's website because the Bush campaign failed to lock it down. And on the campaign trail, the press corps following the former Florida governor is dwindling and focused mostly on his terrible polling numbers, now mired in the low single digits."
McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: Cranky old Ron Paul is jealous of his boy Li'l Randy & doesn't like the kid.
Beyond the Beltway
Reuters: "A 22-year-old man [Matthew Riggins] suspected of burglarizing homes in Florida was killed and partially eaten by an 11ft (3.4-meter) alligator after he waded into a lake, apparently to avoid detection by law enforcement officers pursuing him, police said on Tuesday." CW: Riggins should have read Elmore Leonard's Maximum Bob, which is set nearby. Better to be in the pokey than to become an alligator snack like Bob's dog Pokey. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
... CW: Thanks to Akhilleus for linking the video above. The negative comments unsuspecting people recorded here are fairly measured. I would love to see someone in the U.S. try this out. I don't think we'd hear so many mild responses.
News Ledes
Guardian: "A 23-year-old man from Strasbourg, eastern France, has been identified as the third attacker involved in the terrorist assault at the Bataclan music hall in Paris, police sources have said. Foued Mohamed Aggad went to Syria with his brother and a group of friends at the end of 2013, according to a source close to the investigation. Most of the others were arrested in spring last year after returning to France but Aggad stayed on in Syria, the source said."
New York Times: "Douglas Tompkins, a noted conservationist and the founder of the clothing brands North Face and Esprit, died on Tuesday after a kayaking accident on General Carrera Lake in the Patagonia region of southern Chile. He was 72."
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I think the FBI should investigate Adolf to see if he is being paid by ISIS. He is certainly supporting their effects to recruit terrorists.
Words Have Consequences . . .
The severed head of a pig was thrown from a moving vehicle onto a Philadelphia Mosque. Surveillance Video captured this "Drive-By".
As in other cultures, the eating or handling of pork - even having contact with the living animal - is forbidden in Islam.
There are numerous sites that have reported the heinous act, which additionally provide photos of this creature's disembodied - and deformed - head. Personally, I felt the narrative's imagery was sufficient.
Words, Ye Grand Ole Party, Have Consequences!
A 1939 remark by Roosevelt’s secretary of the interior, Harold Ickes, from his diary, that what happened in Germany and Italy—seizure of power by demagogues manipulating the fear of Reds—ought to serve as warning that in America, too, “some man on horseback may arise to `protect’ us against the fancied danger.”
And from yesterday: Akhilleus' remarks about Occam's razor put me in mind of Chris Hitchens who had his own razor:
"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."
And I was thinking about how societies seem to need a victim/victims––a sacrificial offering that will placate their gods or purge society of its demons. The scapegoat is THE OTHER––seen as a threat and must be destroyed or in today's case, not let into this country along with "careful watch on your neighborhood Muslims"––keep a giblet eye out before they take you out. Once upon a time virgins were slaughtered every year and offered up to the Corn King so that crops would be plentiful. Unfortunately hungry Kings and despotic wannabees are still with us–-wiping their mouths after devouring every morsel. Yum!
And the word "Fascist" is now front and center. Will that give our man on horseback's followers the willies or will they succumb to his will? Will you, Punks?
Give us this day our daily lies...Why Ted Cruz will never be president
So this morning Ted (The Lying Liar) Cruz did an interview on NPR. The topic was science denial, especially concerning climate change. It was a masterpiece of hackery, ducking direct questions like a 12 year old in a dodge ball contest.
I think it must be awfully tiring to lie so much and so often, but that's just me. It doesn't seem to bother Cruz. He still takes it for granted that saying "No it isn't" is an acceptable rebuttal to actual facts, about climate change or anything else.
When the interviewer, Steve Inskeep, brought up the NASA data on global warming, Cruz simply brushed it aside and declared that NASA was all wrong and they don't know what they're talking about but HE, Cruz, was right. Then he trotted out the infamous "Global Warming Hiatus" so beloved of science haters (funny how they love scientific "evidence" only if it supports their position).
By the way, one of the premiere Confederate hack sites, The Daily Cholera, trumpeted their dismissal of a NOAA study debunking the global warming hiatus theory by pitting eminent climatologists against wingnut crazy person "Lord Christopher Monckton, the third viscount Monckton of Brenchley" whom they refer to as a "climate expert". Monckton, of course is nothing of the kind. He's a far right barf bag who runs around calling himself a member of the House of Lords, but not actually a voting member. According to Wikipedia, "The House of Lords authorities have said Monckton is not and never has been a member and that there is no such thing as a non-voting or honorary member of the House." I suppose wingnuts have to establish their bona fides as bald-faced liars before being credited as "experts". It's sad that the Daily Cholera doesn't see how funny this is. It's like calling on Professor Irwin Corey to rebut Newton's Laws of Motion.
Anyway, Cruz pointed out that according to his facts, there's been no global warming for 18 years, a claim that has been roundly debunked, but, as one site warns, don't expect climate change deniers to accept newer and better studies which show that there was never a stoppage in global warming. But Cruz isn't talking to an audience that appreciates facts, he's talking to 'baggers and haters and fundies. They never read scientific studies so he can get away with saying NASA is full of shit, something they already believe anyway.
Also, simply saying that, out of hundreds of years of a warming trend, one can pick a small sampling of years and declare the rest of the evidence invalid is simply not, well, scientific. Cruz goes on to point out that he is no science hater because his mother and father were mathematicians. He called them scientists, but whatever. But this is no argument at all. This is a classic Argument from Authority. "My mom and dad were scientists so no one can question my authority when I say something about science."
Cruz, ever the ideologue, made every attempt to tie the global warming "hoax" to liberal scientists and politicians who want secretly to control everyone's lives and take money and power from real 'mericans. He must have used the word "liberal" 15 times in a three minute interview. The guy is a Hacko Supremo. But he never forgets who his real audience is.
He's not going to convince anyone with a working brain, so he just forgets about everyone but his core supporters who already hate liberals, hate science, hate facts that don't square with their view of the world, and hate pesky interviewers who ask stupid questions. Inskeep gave Cruz a little jab, after realizing that he was never going to get Cruz to admit that his fabricated facts were wrong and actual scientists were correct, by asking Cruz what he thought of other aspects of science such as evolution. Cruz, ever the master hack, completely avoided the question by trying to treat Inskeep like a child who doesn't understand that he, Cruz, is just a lot smarter. Inskeep asked him again, twice, direct questions about whether he believed in evolution. Cruz simply refused to answer, going back to castigating liberal scientists and politicians who are power hungry and aching for more government money.
Inskeep then asked Cruz if he believed that all those other countries, all those thousands of scientists around the world were in on this conspiracy. Cruz, said, in his best smarmy, smart-ass voice, that there was nooooo conspiracy, Steve, how stupid. But there are liberal politicians and scientists who are power hungry and aching for more government money. (That crackling sound is the record skipping, "liberal, liberal, liberal, liberal...")
But embedded in this interview is the reason Cruz will never win a national election. He has seen what happens to Confederate pols who forget, for a second, that wingnut ideology and 'bagger concerns must never be overridden. Not for facts, not the betterment of the country, not for love nor money. He talks directly to his fundamentalist, guv'mint hating, fact hating, science hating, reactionary Confederate audience and bypasses everyone else. He simply cannot ever be caught indulging in critical thinking or consideration of facts that don't support the Confederacy.
This obdurate stance, his clear contempt for anyone who disagrees with him, and his inability to ever consider another side will doom him in a general election. He's too much of a fundamentalist hack and liar.
And he proves it every time he opens his mouth.
Okay kids, this is great!
A couple of guys take horrible passages from the Koran and read them to people on the street asking them what they think. The reactions are predictable. Until the guys reveal that the verses are actually taken from the Bible.
This thing was posted five days ago and already has over 5 million views. Must be some kind of conspiracy! Fucking liberals, liberals, liberals, liberals...
The comments are full of invective and hate from the usual Confederate trolls. Sucks to be them.
Well, well. Isn't this special.
Couple of days ago the Times presented a front page editorial about the gun epidemic. To show the Times' editors how wrong they are about right-wingers supporting and fomenting gun violence, big thinker and winger philosopher, Erick Erickson shot holes in the paper declaring "This is what I think of the New York Times!!" Take that, liberal Times assholes!
Hey, at least it was a well reasoned and mature rebuttal. And nice message to all the other gun nuts out there, too. Someone says something you don't like? Get the guns, bro.
Oh, and if you think this is juvenile, check out Erickson's response to a commenter who criticized his scattered placement of shots saying that maybe he needs a little more practice. Erickson responds, in the best tradition of snippy six year olds, "I meant it to be like that!!"
Wow. And this guy is one of the leading lights in the Confederacy.
Holy shit.
@Akhilleus: A few Times reporters thanked Erickson for buying the paper.
Marie
Oh, P.S. I told you Ted was just a smarter, slimier Donald Trump. The fake statistics Trump has to look up, Ted can rattle off with a straight face. Also, Ted knows longer words. And remember, Ted actually got elected to a big job from a big state, even tho he started out as a very long shot. Ted's got talent.
Looks like Rubio (or his handlers) have some talent too. Of course, it's no stretch for him; he's playing to his Koch-Confederates strengths, wrecking the country, the holy task for which he and the other K-Cs were bred and born.
www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/us/politics/marco-rubio-obamacare-affordable -care-act.html
Just one more reason for the President to veto a budget deal that still looks like it will be packed with poison pills.
Too bad we don't get to see the budget talks between Lyin' Ryan and Nancy Pelosi on C-SPAN. Now, that would promise to be good TV!
And speaking of TV, can anyone make sense out of today's NYTimes piece on "South Park?" Never watching it may have handicapped me.
Ken,
You definitely need to have watched a few South Park episodes to get what it's about. I haven't watched much in some years but I'm guessing it still takes the same approach, which is pretty much to offend everyone while making some points (some great, some less so) about issues of the moment.
In the past, they have had Jesus show up to box Satan. The people of South Park think Satan will kick his ass and they all bet on him. Only one person bets on Jesus: Satan, who throws the match so he can win his bet. Silly but pretty funny too. In another episode, Jesus writes a letter to god asking him to do something cool to impress people. God says no.
I remember they did a series of great episodes about child abuse and rape by priests. One of the characters, a kid, asks an adult (the Cook, played by Isaac Hayes) why someone would want to put something up his butt. The Cook wants no part of that discussion and departs quickly. Pretty edgy stuff for a cartoon. They skewer everyone which ends up being, in my opinion, a kind of both-sides approach. I'm not suggesting that certain points of view or certain public figures should be above the South Park treatment, but at some point, it seems like they (or they used to, I haven't seen it in a while) try hard to make sure all sides are whacked equally. Yes, it may be funny to pillory political correctness, but despite the potential that PC has for stifling debate, I don't think it merits the same concern as, say, gun violence which is condoned and supported by an entire political party.
Just my opinion. It's been a pretty funny show for the most part. We can always use some well directed satire even if it does get a bit anarchic at times.
Angela Merkel, Person of the Year
It's story time again. A few years ago, I was dining in a Berlin Restaurant when Angela walked in. She was seated at a corner table with a small group. Some time later, Angela walked past our table and entered the Damen's. As she exited to rejoin her group we exchanged smiles and nods. I suggested to my companion that she should go in herself while the seat was still warm -- and could then tell people that she and Angela were 'Butt Buddies'. She laughed, but demurred. Some people have no sense of the moment.
D.C.,
What, no shoulder rub?
Akhilleus,
I deemed it inadvisable, as I had also noticed a number of very fit looking young men in suits, with wires coming from their ears, seated nearby.