The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    2018 and repealing Afrocare

    After losing sleep and bouncing off walls for two days I am ready to fight back against Trump---to think about 2018 and beyond. Fighting back means getting the brain to avoid its propensity for "story" and focusing on facts and action plans. Trump can achieve big parts of his non-economy agenda through executive action and getting his nominee(s} confirmed in the Senate. Conservative judges will appease a large part of the religious right but not to suffer reverses in 2018 and beyond he has to deliver both additional red meat to his base plus economic success to everyone else. Obviously he can deliver red meat easily. But if he overdoes, and especially if he doesn't deliver on the economic front, 2018 might not be a cake walk for him and Republicans. 

    jollyroger's picture

    Scarface for C in C.

    As we are now obliged to parse with renewed urgency the ravings generated over 16 months by Queens' favorite son, of early and impactful note is his call for the revenge murder of the children of terrorists.

     

     

     

     

    The 3rd Party Factor


         Difference     Jill + Gary                             Electoral Votes
    PA    68,000      192,000 (+21,000 Other)               20
    MI    12,000       223,000 (+19,000 Other)              16
    FL   120,000      270,000 (+ 25,000 Other)             29
    AZ    85,000         99,000                                        11
     
    GA 231,000     124,000
    NM +65,000      84,000
    NC 178,000     128,000
    NH   +2,500       37,000
    MN  +44,000    150,000
    IA   148,000       68,000  (+ 25,000 Other)

    Hating people sucks

    I don't hate anyone except the  monsters who lynch or torture.I don't hate Trump,  wall street bankers or racists.Of any color .Naturally there  are black racists as well as white ones . (And  of course it's easier to understand why a black would be one. )

    But  even the white racists I know  would dive  into a pond to rescue a drowning black. The same I'm sure is  true of any of the blacks I know. I don't write of  "even the black racists I know" because I don't  personally know any.

    White Lives Matter

    As we were fretting whether 88% vs 92% of blacks would vote, we missed out on the "missing white vote". Ridiculous as Trump asking black voters to vote for him, he asked - directly if not obscenely.

    Sure, we tackled issues that affected white lives, but we didn't directly address "hey you, over there, I'm talking to you".

    We have advocacy for blacks, Hispanics, LGBT, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and so on. But advocacy for white Protestants, or "Evangelicals" always takes on the tone of talking to the Klan, an implicit distaste and condemnation.

    A couple of numbers

     As of 5pm 11/09

    Popular votes

    Trump                  59,588,437

     Hillary                 59,794,373

    Her lead                   205,936

    Still counting  but there aren't enough uncounted votes  for him to catch her

     Electoral College

    Trump             279   (takes 270 to win)

     Hillary            228

    State of Michigan 

    Trump               2,279,210

    Hillary                2,267,373

    His Michigan lead   11,837

    And OBTW

    Jill Stein                  68 686

    Is It All Hillary's Fault?

    Hillary certainly has to bear the responsibility for her loss. But is it true that if only Sanders or Biden or anybody else would have won? In almost every state, whether she won or lost, she out performed the down ballot state races. NH is too close to call but the republican easily picked up the governorship. AZ is still too close to call but McCain beat Kirkpatrick by 12 points. Even in IL where both Hillary and Duckworth won Hillary's margin of victory was larger than Duckworth's. Hillary outperformed Feingold in WI. Hillary out performed Barksdale in GA.

    Wed Morning: The New Nothing

    The lesson of Brexit - the grudge candidate doesn't have to offer anything real, just the role of representing those with an axe to grind - he can represent more than 1 incompatible causes.

    All Hillary's policy papers are useless - the people never cared, they didn't want details, they didn't want to know if it would even work. They wanted to feel someone was listening to them. Hillary halfway got there, but she kept shifting to answers, solutions - they just wanted a slavish advocate. Be clear: everything she did to make things more concrete hurt her. Trump could say anything and everything, in 1 sentence, and it didn't hurt him, while her details just provided more fodder to attack. Okay, even where he was specific they didn't care. You know how Bad Boys are - they can do anything.

    Election Day (Night) Thoughts

    My kid convinced me to hit a café at 3 or 4 am to watch whatever results roll in. Will be a brutal day tomorrow, but a memorable experience, so....

    16 years ago I had a 2-day trip to a conference, and spent all evening in the hotel calling home, fretting over the results that kept changing... and then for the next 2 weeks... and then it was over. #NeverAgain

    Saw a Bill Kristol piece talking about his pride in #NeverTrump. As the voting statistics roll in with Republican and Democratic votes close to even, I still wonder how much #NeverTrump is baked into the GOP side. I'd doubt there are that many people going to vote for Trump just cause they hate Hillary - stay home, Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, McMullin....

    Natasha Gural's picture

    How a Feisty Woman Fends Off Smears and Dirty Tricks: Channeling Geraldine Ferraro for Hillary Clinton

    I remember watching and reading campaign and election coverage in 1984, and believing that Geraldine Anne Ferraro would become the first female vice president of the United States. Growing up in liberal Western Massachusetts, I had no reason to doubt it would happen. If not with Walter Mondale’s campaign, then in another four years we’d have a woman VEEP. Over the years, I grew increasingly confused by how our country seemed to tread backwards, as if Ferraro’s rise to prominence was just some blip in the system. As a 13-year-old in 1984, I never imagined that I’d have to wait until I had a child of my own to see a woman president.

    “The polls indicated that I was feisty, that I was tough, that I had a sense of humor, but they weren't quite sure if they liked me and they didn't know whether or not that I was sensitive,” Ferraro said after the defeat.

    I guess today’s feisty woman is nasty.

    Richard Day's picture

    THE ERECTION OF HILLARY: LIVE!

    Live Election blogging with the one and only Dick Day...

    Joan of arc miniature graded.jpg

     

    It Takes a Village (to elect a pres)

    Short post, but I'm amazed by the ground game, the well- cultivated coalitions with the black community (yes, they're voting), the new Hispanic powerhouse, females everywhere, and a lot of old familiar faces.

    The 650K emails Huma's computer never had

    A minor point compared to tomorrow's importance, but before losing sight of it.

    Remember during the interval between Comey's Oct 28 Huma email announcement and Sunday's

    "clarification " there were estimates floating around that the FBI would have to search hundreds of thousands of emails.

    Oh?

    I blogged here last week that the number had to be under 30,000. We haven't yet been  given the true number . Which is OK . Least said on the topic the better.Tonight. But Comey must release it sometime.

    jollyroger's picture

    Soi Disant Genius won't be President-world markets rocket up

     

    Can there be anymore delicious finale to Deadbeat Donald's ill-advised adventure into politics than the resounding repudiation publicly being even now delivered by the world's captains of finance assembled/

     

    That, more or less, is what is underway as the "Trump relief rally" is on it's second day snapping a whip-wave around the world.

     

    It began in Asia at 8 pm EST, probably as the punditry pondered and pronounced re: "Comey stands down".  

     

    barefooted's picture

    An Open Door

    Hi there, come on in.

    It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?  Yeah, I know!  Kick your shoes off if you want to and grab a seat somewhere … what?  Oh, sure, I’ll take that.  Looks like there’s an open spot on the sofa, or just grab a place on the floor.  The infamous ugly blue chair is open but, as always, you might end up with a happy dog on your lap.  Too funny!  Of course I remember that!

    Richard Day's picture

    PERSON OF INTEREST

     

    The Mask (film) poster.jpg

    I have been streaming Person of Interest on Netflix lately because I have no life and it keeps me from falling into total despair as I view the election proceedings dissolve into chaos.


    PERSON OF INTEREST

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series)

    Junkie Times - RNC not responsible for Trump?

    Okay, as a sign of a true Political Junkie looking for that last minute relief, a sense that no more shakeups are going to drop, or if they do, in the right direction (Hillary says "stop clicking on 538" - easier said than done).

    Does last minute news really change voter choices? Not really, but something blockbuster could, while turnout trends are much more important. Even early voting isn't as critical as who shows up on Tuesday, but with up to 40 million votes early this year, its significance is ever greater.

    Obama should remove Comey

     from supervising  the Huma  email investigation.Tomorrow.

    He should tell Joe Biden tonight that he'll be officially given responsibility at 8 am tomorrow and

     should direct his staff to use tonight to  recruit the assistance he needs .

    And at 8 15 he should be sitting in Comey's chair.

    Comey should be ordered to support Biden .Which he will probably do.

    If not he should be temporarily barred from returning to the FBI and Obama should  draft an announcement

    to that effect.

    The FBI Book-of-the Month Club

    NYT: Right-Wing Book Was A Source For FBI Inquiry Into Clinton Foundation from TPM. A preliminary FBI inquiry into the Clinton Foundation initiated this summer was based in part on Peter Schweizer’s book “Clinton Cash,” the New York Times reported Tuesday. Peter Schweizer is a right wing political muckraker whose other books include Architects of Ruin. which blames The Poors for the 2008 world wide economic collapse, because liberals forced Wall Street to rake in billions in bonuses by making liar loans to people who couldn't afford it, and Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy, self explanatory on its right wing ideology.

    As I was saying comey will know before Nov 8

    I'm taking a victory lap and ignoring all the other  incorrect forecasts I made.

    fl

     

    Tell me where I'm wrong.

    Huma  could not have sent more than 24,000 emails to Hillary . Let's say

    Col A           Col B

    1200 days X 20/day =s  24,000

        or more likely either Col A or B or both is too high and the total will be no more than 12,000

    jollyroger's picture

    Trump: "My lie insults your intelligence? A feature, not a bug"

     

    Ever since Deadbeat Donald advanced his demonstrably bullshit evasions around his  "Megan was on the rag" tweet I have puzzled over how to understand his followers willingness eagerness to believe palpable, flaming, lies.

     

    In a recent instance where a Trump follower emulates the maestro, purporting to ask us to believe that "Jew-Ess-A "chanted with vigorous hostility at a Trump rally press pen was NOT meant in any way to refer to Jewish people.  You really must read the article to fully appreciate his chutzpah.

     

    Campaign Thoughts (pt 3)

    How short is the typical American's memory? Which details affect it more - a debate, a Saturday Night Live spoof, a policy speech, a partisan attack, a new round of scandal...? And which affect voting?

    Trade in Places: Nissan v Tesla

    Aside from politicized malfeasance, the last few days have also seen 2 contrasts in trade and business.

    Elon Musk announced his intent to vote on merging his Tesla car company with SolarCity new energy, once again mesmerizing us with his audacity in rolling out new concepts and prototypes - Hyperloop, Gigafactory, and of course SpaceX. But it's not all hoops and mirrors - Tesla turned its first profit this quarter, despite all the risks. Amazon in comparison has taken years to turn eyeballs/user base into a profit, despite pioneering cloud computing and other distribution breakthroughs.

    New Damaging Revelations in Clinton email probe

    I have to come clean before Comey sends a letter to congress about my computer and I get caught up in a national scandal. Hundreds of emails from Hillary and her campaign surrogates have been discovered in my in box. It could be they contain classified information. In all fairness to Hillary there is some possibility that the emails are duplicates of fundraising emails sent to millions of supporters on the campaign's email list.

    Bill Clinton is not Bill Cosby nor Donald Trump

    CNN's front column this morning jumps into the Comey/FBI fray by saying Hillary brought this one upon herself - if she'd just used proper State Department servers, none of this witchhunt would have ever happened. As Bill Cosby used to say, "Riiiggghtttt". Even now, the Bill & Hillary "Body Bags" count has been extended to 4 more lame ties to "suspicious" deaths of somehow DNC-related people - pimped on by Wikileaks, of course.

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