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

    ALL I KNOW IS WHAT I READ....

    By Richard Day on Tue, 03/15/2016 - 11:13am |

     

    Did you know that one batman equals 6 okkas?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_units_of_measurement


    Has anyone noticed that the MSNBC election theme music
    sounds like the old Monty Python lead-in?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwoRVxmmH0o

     

    jollyroger's picture

    Trump:"I will ruin your 1st amendment lovin' lives.."

    By jollyroger on Mon, 03/14/2016 - 1:47pm |

     

    Because no one arrested for demonstrating against George Wallace ever worked again..

    In a remarkable display ( even for him) of ignorance, Trump proposes that his mere request for the arrest of otherwise peaceful demonstrators will cause local police to violate the prohibition against state action that curtails speech.

    True, once asked to leave, a visitor whose demeanor ( eg,  refusal to sit or remove a shirt with a message etc) gives rise to such a request may risk trespass or disorderly conduct charges by ACTIONS, such as noncompliance with a demand to exit.

    2nd to Last

    By PeraclesPlease on Mon, 03/14/2016 - 10:40am |

    To sum up the contest so far:


    Ties - Iowa (H 0.3%), Nevada (H 5.3%), Mass (H 1.4%), Mich (B 1.5%)
    [note: Hillary won by a sliver 2 caucuses; Bernie won by a sliver 2 primaries]

    Other Caucuses -  Samoa (H 43%), Col (B 19%), Minn (B 23%), Kansas (B 45%), Nebr (B 14%), Marianas (H 20%)  [Pacific caucuses are tiny]

    Other Primaries - NH (B 22%), SC (H 48%), AL (H 58%), Ark (H 37%), Georgia (H 43%), Okla (B 10%), Tenn (H 44%), Tex (H 32%), Vermont (B 73%), Virg (H 29%), Louisiana (H 48%), Miss (H 66%)

    This is the Revolution

    By PeraclesPlease on Sat, 03/12/2016 - 6:52pm |

    Fixing police-on-black abuse while improving on entrenched bias & lack of opportunity 

    Getting corporates to pay their fair share

    Handling ISIS while lowering our Mideast involvement while fending off Russian encroachment

    Migration to renewables while limiting the damage of global warming

    Lowering Africa and India's baby boom, maybe China's with new 2-child policy

    Continued job growth & lower-end wage growth (e.g. minimum wage hike)

    Slight return of manufacturing (micro-mills)

    hollywhitman's picture

    Thoughts on Why Energy Will Be a Huge Part of the 2016 Election

    By hollywhitman on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 3:04pm |

    Politics is no longer a civil discourse about two ways to take positive actions that will benefit our country. One of the areas that is up for debate is energy. Even though the changing climate is one of the most imminent dangers facing our country, it’s hardly gotten any coverage. Compared to the gun control, women’s rights, equality, immigration and health care topics, energy has taken a backseat. While those are important issues, none of them will matter if our world collapses.

    jollyroger's picture

    Why refuse to call out Trump as racist?

    By jollyroger on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 8:58am |

    Surely the low point, at least as measured by plain speaking, of last night's debate was the strange reticence that seized both candidates in re: the manifest racism of Donald Trump.

    Even if one were to give a pass for the enabling reported vis-a-vis his gangster casino customers disgusting behavior, surely the enunciation of two BLANKET policies ( the Muslim ban and the universal deportation) not to mention the rapists and drug smugglers trope which informed the very launch of his campaign ought to qualify him.

    On Things Best Left Unsaid

    By PeraclesPlease on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 3:23am |

    [on the rise of the "Trump Democrat"

    Hillary’s liberal enough for me, was 8 years ago.

    I didn’t think Obama could get done everything they were claiming,

    and mostly he didn’t – 8 years later, the economy’s mostly recovering,

    employment’s up, even manufacturing’s coming back. Too cautious

    and surrendering towards Republicans, but then they control most all the cards too.

     

    Trump vs. Cruz is the epitome of the “big blowhard who knows little except

    Richard Day's picture

    SIEG HEIL

    By Richard Day on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 2:51pm |

     

     

    According to Vanity FaMein Kampf dust jacket.jpegir, Ivan Trump has said that The Donald kept a
    book of Hitler's speeches by his bed.
    ​http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trumps-ex-wife-once-said-he- kept-a-book-of-hitlers-speeches-by-his-bed-2015-8

    Donal's picture

    Sanders Beat Polls, Still Has to Beat Clinton

    By Donal on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 11:08am |

    I usually drop off before 9 PM, but I knew I wasn’t going to fall asleep while Bernie Sanders was nursing a slim lead, so I stayed up until AP called Michigan for Sanders at 11:30 or so. I had TPM’s AP link, FiveThirtyEight’s live feed and LisB’s Facebook thread open.

    During the reporting phase of the Michigan and other primaries, Nate Silver and Harry Enten took a lot of flak in FiveThirtyEight’s comment feed, which ran along the right side of the screen while Silver, Enten, Carl Bialik, Julia Azari, Aaron Bycoffe, Micah Cohen and others posted their thoughts on the left. Once it seemed clear that Sanders was outperforming the polls, Silver admitted:

    jollyroger's picture

    Hillary lies, fails to prosper in Michigan

    By jollyroger on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 1:36am |

    'Honest and trustworthy" continues to be HRC's deficiency.

     

    The Democratic voters of Michigan, perhaps informed by the history that Mona has related in another thread, tore Hillary a new one tonight.

     

    CVille Dem's picture

    What is a "BOT?"

    By CVille Dem on Tue, 03/08/2016 - 1:33pm |

    Having just recently been called a "Hilbot," and feeling insulted by that, I thought I would ask for feedback about what the definition really is.  I was formerly called an "Obama-bot," and didn't like that either.  I associate the name with uninformed and thoughtless loyalty to a particular candidate, along with a rigidity that precludes any objectivity.

    I did try the internet, but bots are just fly larvae, so not helpful.

     

    I now feel that a short-hand definition is simply this:  

    Of Knowing & the Garden of Earthly Delights

    By PeraclesPlease on Tue, 03/08/2016 - 12:30am |

    "Don't sit under the Apple tree...with anyone else but me...."

    The case between DoJ and Apple is one of those defining moments coming ever since Al Gore backed the Clipper Chip for backdoor get devices 20 years ago. While we expected things to get worse under Bush, most of us are gobsmacked to see the continuation of Bush-era security overreach under Obama.

    Sadly this is one area where Bernie could draw Hillary out, drive her to the left without evoking Cuba or other negatives, and would be doing us all a favor. But so far (AFAIK) crickets.

    Donal's picture

    Sanders in Michigan

    By Donal on Mon, 03/07/2016 - 10:53am |

    One summer, I was one of four white college boys working as summer interns for the Corps of Engineers in Maryland. Most of our coworkers were white folk, but one engineer was Asian and one secretary was African-American. We had a very dignified lady for a boss, who treated us well. A lot of good ol’ boys from other departments would wander in with jokes or stories or just to shoot the breeze. We were taken aback when some hound dog joked about making our boss mother of the year if she’d only let him. She was an attractive woman, but they were both married, and not to each other.

    Lost in Translation: virgin sapukko

    By PeraclesPlease on Sun, 03/06/2016 - 1:30pm |

    People have been asking for months what the purpose of superdelegates is. Seems a simple formulation, self-immolation is to be avoided. Watching Trump, Cruz and Rubio play hangman should make it clear enough how to avoid the Last Train to Doomsville. Fortunately the Democrats have so far not been seduced by the sweet temptings of the Virgin Suicides. It's one thing to fight for a cause; it's another to anoint a hopeless delusion. The Republicans have been playing to fantasy for so long, they've forgotten they were playing.

    Protesters Dragged Out of Trump Rally

    By ocean-kat on Sat, 03/05/2016 - 4:55pm |

    Some recent video from a Trump rally.

    Several protesters were dragged out of a Donald Trump rally in New Orleans last night by his security personnel. Rally attendants yelled “all lives matter” and shoved them as they were being forcibly ejected.

    Donal's picture

    Flowers for Trumpmentum

    By Donal on Sat, 03/05/2016 - 3:55pm |

    Once there was a young man from a wealthy family. He studied hard at good schools, and when he was old enough, his father let him drive the company limousine so he could learn how rich people talked. So he learned to be very thoughtless towards other people, and even more obnoxious if they complained. And he learned lots of great words. Later, he wanted to be a real estate mogul like his Dad, and so he wore a suit and a colorful tie, and went to work every day, and made deals with people to build great stuff for very little money, like his Dad.

    David Brooks finally nails it. Congratulations.

    By Oxy Mora on Fri, 03/04/2016 - 9:07am |

    Brooks column in the NYT today has been a long time coming. In his tortured columns over the past eight years he has confounded, amused, and frustrated me in his attempts to find kernels of truth and conservatism in the deeds of the Republican party. In today's column, he doesn't mince words about the con games the Republican politicians and the "establishment" have perpetrated upon Republican voters and most of the rest of us.

    Donal's picture

    Not One Big Happy Party

    By Donal on Fri, 03/04/2016 - 8:59am |

    Benjamin Studebaker’s Why Bernie vs Hillary Matters More Than People Think has been widely read, and reposted on Huffington Post. If you haven’t seen it yet, read it now.

    I’ve been called a political naif for supporting Sanders, and not wanting to accept Clinton as a consolation candidate. My first primary vote was for Jerry Brown, but I had to accept Jimmy Carter as the nominee. Carter was a very unpopular president, and though he now stands out as a very good and compassionate elder statesman, he was considered to have made a neoliberal bargain in the wake of the 1970’s oil shock, which probably contributed to the stagflation that followed.

    Donal's picture

    Can Sanders Overtake Clinton?

    By Donal on Fri, 03/04/2016 - 8:58am |

    FiveThirtyEight has a little chart on the right of their main page today [Thursday 3/3/2016]. They have established a target number of delegates that they feel each candidate needs by any given date to eventually capture the nomination:

    Candidate – Won/Target – Percentage of Target
    Trump – 338/297 – 114%
    Cruz – 236/384 – 61%
    Rubio – 112/242 – 46%

    Clinton – 609/529 – 115%
    Sanders – 412/492 – 84%

    Of shoes and ships... (packing the court?)

    By PeraclesPlease on Fri, 03/04/2016 - 4:15am |

    Defies belief: 

    Republicans panicked they might elect the crazy Trump, but Obama's supposed to wait for him to replace Scalia on the Court? Go pound sand.

    PS - guess folks already protecting Le Donald from the 1st Amendment. Après moi le delouse.

    Richard Day's picture

    IT WAS 1968

    By Richard Day on Thu, 03/03/2016 - 6:59am |

    It was 1968.

    That summer I was 18 years of age and so very confused.

    I had pustules all over my face, almost no money in my pocket and no idea of what might come to me down the line.

    "Electability" & other Popular Delusions

    By PeraclesPlease on Thu, 03/03/2016 - 3:52am |

    The old saw "statistics lie, and liars statistic..." wait, that's not it, "fool me once....won't get fooled again"...mmm, overused and off kilter..... maybe.... "It's just 3dB error", e.g. off by half - that's it.

    Polls are popular - search hard enough, you're bound to find one that supports your cause. And if not, you can always complain about accuracy, number of people, leading questions and push polls, land lines vs. mobile, etc. But whether pro or con, polls typically sample 1/1000th or less of the final population. I.e. "a spit in the ocean" in modern parlance.

    barefooted's picture

    Family

    By barefooted on Thu, 03/03/2016 - 1:40am |

    Maybe it's just me, but I'm uncomfortable with a candidate who writes off an entire portion of our country. He's fundraising like a monster but couldn't bother to even campaign in the heavily black southern states? That's not just a lack of outreach and respect it's a deliberate snub.

    I've lived in the South all of my life. I'm not black but ... no, there's no but. I'm not black. But trust me - those of us who have lived our lives among and amidst the depth of any southern community know that family lands hard. It fucks you up, it turns the world on a dime and never - EVER - means letting go. Full stop.

    Who is more electable Bernie or Hillary?

    By HSG on Wed, 03/02/2016 - 9:17pm |

    Sanders and Clinton supporters have been arguing for months over which candidate would do better in the general election. This is not an academic question by any means. Given the abhorrent Republican frontrunner and his equally despicable leading challengers, the prevailing sentiment on the left is the Republican must be stopped. If either Bernie or Hillary could be shown to be significantly stronger in November, that candidate would have a strong claim on Democratic primary voters.

    Don't like her don't trust her . . . but

    By HSG on Tue, 03/01/2016 - 9:08pm |

    she just gave her best most progressive speech ever.  She talked about jobs, the middle-class, and working class.  She was adamant that she will hold corporate bad actors accountable.  She called out job off-shorers.  If she wants to go back to the center, it'll be a lot tougher.  Bravo Hillary!

    Pages