a plaintive Richard Pryor asked  from   the cover of my 1980ś vinyl  with

RP  tied to the stake. And in  the standard repertoire: prayers for redemption,

piles of kindling ,approaching fire lighters

And  Pryor´s explanation:  true  ,visit at  any court house sentencing day  and , yup,  it´s Justice Just Us. .......................................................................................

Except  on the occasions when the judge reduces the penalty by 75%.

  Then it 's not Just US. Not us at all.

at least five liberal  democratic US presidents. 

Right. FDR.

Good. Keep going.

Obama.

I´ll give you that one.And...?

Could have been LBJ but for Vietnam

Coulda, shoulda, woulda

JFK !

Began with the Bay of Pigs ? First  cut in the maximum incremental income tax rate. Liberal?  

A leader? Certainly. But for liberal causes?

Woodrow Wilson!

With his views of Blacks?

Remember the scene in Carrie where the hand suddenly springs up from her grave, intimating horrors to come?

Well, (allowing for the dismemberment and burial at sea if true) the bony arm of Bin Laden once again grabs a nation by the throat and forces us to look into our (unattractive?) souls.

Noah Smith has a smart and informed bunch of followers and as of now, he has 326 answers to this excellent question:

If there's someone you're rooting to win something , let me know ,I'll predict their failure and that should put them over the finish line.

I have nothing to add to  what you've read in the last 24 hours. Unlike your immediate correspondent N&C emerged from the "longest shut down in history" with a record of saying A on day one and continuing  to say it until day F- for folded- when Donald  did that.. 

Pro tip:  If someone knocks unexpectedly before dawn, just slip out the back, Jack (pace, Paul Simon...)

When you total up the years attached to the indictment pursuant to which Stone was taken in, he may get a chance to explore the tatooing talents of self-taught fellow inmates (to go along with the Nixon tatoo already on his back), it would appear that the dapper dark artist will be strongly motivated to give up his Godfather--or perhaps pull a "Frank Pentangeli" by way of "final exit"

It is certainly elucidative of how low the bar can go, that the argument over whether or not Trump actually subborned the perjury of Michael Cohen before Congress is the field on which this particular battle is being fought.

Might we not, without exposing ourselves to the charge of excessively high expectations, reference the complaisant silence with which the false testimony was  greeted by the person who took an oath to see that the laws of the United States were faithfully executed?

seems to me that they are sorta trying to keep the suddenly hipster Senator on Twitter to themselves:

if ever. And certainly the shut down isn't going to be one of those times.

Before you start to convince me  the Democrats have done the right thing , don't bother. They have.

And it's going to cost them votes. Good guys ,to repeat myself , don't etc.

By next Friday if  the laid off  have  missed another  pay check, and there's no announced  end of it , whatever they think about Trump . they'll  be bitter with Pelosi and  Chuck.

As to Trump ? Later. 

I ran across this article from Nov. New Study Indicates Silicon Valley’s Elite Are Not As Liberal As They Think by @ NYMag.com.

It reminded me of how geek world, since it's development, always seemed to tend to lean libertarian and therefore prone to prefer "third way" political solutions. With the polarization introduced by the Trump and similar populist movements, the lefty Democratic types seem to be getting hopeful that swings are coming over to their side and are thinking "oh boy, the DLC ways of thinking are dead, now we can finally go socialist." Um, but there's this Liberaltarian cohort out there, growing all the time. With lots of money. And a new kinda "don't like big gummint" and bureaucrats attitude. That will be swing supporters and voters if Dem candidates are too left. I've noted a thing watching Twitter over the last few months: even though this type may deplore Trump dolts and rural rubes, they also are very much prone to ridicule earnest lefty types like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Christian right and other socially conservative nutcases sector of the GOP may be dying out, but this group will be growing. And may be sympathetic to a lot ot "Freedom Caucus" type aims. Politicos ignore them at their peril.

Excerpt: