The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Orion's picture

    What Would An Authoritarian United States Actually Look Like?

    The possibility of a Donald Trump presidency, as disturbing and disorienting as that is, is seeming more and more like a real possibility every day. Trump is blatantly advocating for an authoritarian regime and voters seem to be responding positively in kind.

    The Polls. Again. Sigh.

    Scanning RealClearPolitics, they've got the latest poll up from PPIC, showing Hillary up by only 2%, an improvement from 2 1/2 months ago when she led by 7%. Except nobody thought he was within 7% back in March, except for the most fiercely devoted. PPIC chose 552 likely voters - 2/3 to 1/3 of the typical poll.

    You've Got Mail (Bomb)

    We've found out all sorts of important info from Hillary mails, such as some staffer misspelled Rafik "Rasik" and that Hillary was going to meet Kissinger for a dinner, the one that spawned all the renewed war criminal-association frenzy. And a hodgepodge about Libya and her various meetings & assessments. Sadly, we still don't have  Colin Powell's emails for comparison, to see how much he knowingly lied and bamboozled in his UN speech nor other hunt-for-yellowcake type deceptive events.

    Bernie Steers Progressives into Mideastern Sands

    NYT:

    A bitter divide over the Middle East could threaten Democratic Party unity as representatives of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont vowed to upend what they see as the party’s lopsided support of Israel.

    The Five Stages of Bernie Grief

    1) Denial - there's no way this can be happening. Bernie really won New York if you don't count Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx and Long Island.  Just look at the returns from Jamestown and Elmira.

    2) Anger - it's all Debbie Wasserman Schultz's fault.

    3) Bargaining - if we just win the District of Columbia on June 14, the super delegates will abandon Hillary en masse.

    4) Depression - man this sucks let's move to Canada.

    Femen: Optics & Ill Losin'

    For women, perceptions are truths. Forget first impressions - women are impressing all the time. It's not what actually exists - it's what appears to be true, even for a fleeting moment. And it's holistic - any piece in disarray destroys the totality. It's not "you look good, but..." It's "did you see that ..." That's why women use mirrors. One slip-up and it's game over.

    Richard Day's picture

    THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

    Daddy is JUST SLEEPIN
    AND MAMA AINT AROUND....
    (Chubby Checker)

     


    The Democrats are sleepin and
    Mama aint around!
    How does one attack a psycho?

    Whine vs Dine: Global Poverty

    I grew up in the shadow of the Peace Corps ethic, the rather noble and idealistic idea that we could help the rest of the world by running around and sharing our knowledge. My parents were less starstruck - they regularly remarked how much more good Albert Schweitzer might have done if he'd stayed home and made lots of money to send there instead. Well, we now know many of our "experts" were naïve kids less skilled than their hosts, and the horror stories of how money in the 3rd world can just disappear like water into sand.

    stillidealistic's picture

    Scary Stuff

    I have for some months now been afraid there is something fundamentally scary going on in our country.

    As both Trump and Sanders have gained popularity, it occurred to me that they are two sides of the same coin, each in their own way appealing to people who have lost faith in our government, and are willing to follow a "leader" who not only acknowledges that anger, but feeds it. Even more concerning to me is that neither of these leaders have a workable solution to the problem, and their followers don't seem to care.

    From an article in the Guardian:

    What happens in Las Vegas

    get's discussed .And discussed. And disc.......

     According to  a political reporter/guest  today on  NYC's Brian Lehrer show, Senator Sanders emailed his supporters before the Las Vegas  count requesting them to behave respectfully.

    According to another reporter- from  Jezebel a sensible sounding Sanders supporter- she was able to  chat with   3 Sanders supporters who'd phoned some of the  threatening remarks to the Nevada Democratic party election chairwoman. 

    Ms. Jezebel 

    1. they sounded like legitimate Bernie supporters

    Rift between Environmentalists and Unions Highlights Clinton's Weaknesses

    Unions representing construction and manufacturing workers may not line up behind Hillary Clinton and down ballot Democrats in the general election.  Clinton's opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline and an announced partnership between three unions representing government employees and environmentalist Tom Steyer have incensed some labor leaders and their rank and file.  White-collar unions and the green billionaire have created the "For Our Future" super Pac in hopes of raising $50 million to help defeat Trump and Republican candidates in November.

    Math is Tuff

    So if superdelegates shouldn't count, there are 4051 pledged delegates.

    1/2 plus 1 = 2026 to win.

    Hillary has roughly 1717 after last night - a few more to be awarded

    She needs 309 for pledged victory.

    There are 781 pledged delegates left.

    With 40% of the remainder, she wins.

    With 51% of California and New Jersey, she wins even with delegates elsewhere.

    If she gets 45% of all others (81), she only needs 38% of CA & NJ to win (228)

    HIllary won Kentucky,Bernie, Oregon

    That's all. Just think those results should appear here.

    Bernie's Wall Street problem (and ours)

    Seven years ago, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department bailed out the largest financial institutions in this country because they were considered too big to fail...If any were to fail again, taxpayers could be on the hook for another bailout, perhaps a larger one this time.

    -- Bernie Sanders

    Reminds one of what Mary McCarthy said about Lillian Hellman: "Every word she writes is a lie, including if, but and 'the'."

    Prince v. Supreme Court

    Prince died recently, apparently in a lot of pain due to decades of hard dance moves on-stage that left his joints in shambles (but still in better shape than mine could ever dream of).

    Prince's demise came not from the joints, but from painkillers. But ironically for the fervently anti-drugs star is that his Jehovah's Witness religion prevented him from choosing the more common surgeries that would have likely lessened his pain. Why? The church's objection to "blood transfusions."

    Should Jehovah's Witnesses object to their health plans paying for their employees' blood transfusions, it's hard to see this being more objectionable than not paying for contraception - it's a core tenet of their religious belief, and with 1.2 million "publishers" and 2.5 memorial attendees in the US, roughly half the US Jewish population, they're large enough to be taken seriously.

    Richard Day's picture

    I FEEL SORRY FOR THE ONION

     

     

    .

    There are many ways to handle this problem.

    How the hell can The Onion handle reality that is spliced with satire? Reality that is nothing but a joke?

    I shall choose one or two of T-Rump's silliness.
    So let us begin with T-Rump.
    Like David or Solomon or a hundred Pharaohs (I always like to add that Pharaoh means the house of the king, but who gives a damn?) , the king had many wives and many concubines.

    Never Quite Good Enough

    In 2008, Hillary Clinton was the first serous female candidate and the first to ever win a presidential primary, eventually racking up 23 of them and arguably winning the popular vote, losing to the rising star of the party by only 97 pledged delegates, while only falling behind in superdelegates a month from the finish.

    Throughout the primary campaign, Clinton was labeled as "inevitable", in lieu of her husband's presidency and her party connections, often as a pejorative accusing her of feeling entitled. Missing from this simplified equation was that many Democratic leaders had condemned her husband's actions, that he'd been impeached, that the 2000 election was largely about "Clinton fatigue" with many "liberal" media figures regularly slamming both Clintons' actions and reputation, and he didn't even have the coattails to pull his VP over the line.

    Making the right moves - Clinton takes steps to the White House

    Hillary Clinton is the odds-on favorite to succeed Barack Obama as President. Despite historically high unfavorable ratings and being the ultimate insider in the year of the outsider, the prize remains hers for the taking. The electorate dislikes Donald Trump even more and the vagaries of the electoral college in recent years bespeak a pro-Democratic bias.

    But the road to the White House will not be smooth for Clinton. Trump the Insult Reality Show Politician ran roughshod over the Republican field and is now training all his fire on "Crooked Hillary." Meanwhile, she has yet to dispatch the still-dangerous, albeit mortally wounded, Bernie Sanders.

    CVille Dem's picture

    Posting a candidate's taxes matters

    There are currently three contenders for the Office of President of the United States.  Only one has posted her taxes (for the preceding 10 years).  Donald first said he would; then said (today) that it is none of George Stephanopolis' business (and by implication, US voters as well).  Bernie posted an abridged 2014 return, and stated that he would only release others if Hillary would publish the texts of her speeches to Wall Street groups.  Bernie"s speeches in Nicaragua and Cuba have not been released, nor Donald's speeches, which very likely would surprise his base.

    Ryan will pimp for Trump

     

    I've been laboring under the misconception that the rise of Donald Trump says something new about our Presidential election process and the Republican party itself. But in retrospect, the fact that Trump ran hard right in the primaries and will try to move to the center in the general election does not seem to be a structural change in the Republican party or the behavior of its registered voters. True, Trump is extreme, but the fact that he is more intense does not negate the fact that he extended trend lines well established by his forebears.

    Nebraska votes (again)

    As if to point out the bizarreness of caucuses, Nebraska offers both a primary and a caucus too.

    Bernie won the caucus 2 months ago by a fairly large margin, though with superdelegates Hillary came out only 2 behind, with 2 more left to be selected.

                                                             Hillary        (delegates)        Bernie       (delegates)

    Richard Day's picture

    AND ME, I'M AL FRANKEN

     

    I'm Al FrankenAl Franken Official Senate Portrait.jpg
    We have nuts in this part of the good ole US of A. hahahah
    We had a guy who told us all about Atlantis in the 19th century. 

    Sadiq Khan, Muslim Mayor of London

    Sadiq Khan, winning Labor Party candidate for Mayor of London, and Parliament member.

    In the Parliamentary (no Presidential vote) system, in his run for the office of mayor, he received the most votes (1.3 million) of any candidate in history in the UK.

    Richard Day's picture

    OBAMA GIVES A SPEECH AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY

     

     

    This guy knows how to talk.

    I am blogging too much lately. 

    Must be a feeling of self importance? ha

    But this speech.

    What was it? Forty five minutes in length or more?

    You gotta hear this.

    I LOVE THIS GUY!

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