In the most recent edition of the New York Review of Books Michael Tomasky argues that the media needs to take responsibility for Apprentice's election. It would be great if reporters and journalists, starting with Tomasky, did exactly that. https://www.thedailybeast.com/pragmatic-hillary-tops-thundering-bernie

[T]ax incentives tend to flow overwhelmingly to big, established companies, rather than to the local start-ups that research has shown are a more significant source of job growth. And some who have studied the issue say incentives rarely work: Companies will play cities and states off one another to save money, but ultimately base site-selection decisions mostly on other factors.

Seriously, could she have chosen a worse look for herself or a better way to knee-cap the Democratic Party in the run-up to the mid-terms?

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this story is that David Brock doesn't emerge from it covered with slime.

Our political system's failure to generate any other elected official remotely as good as Bernie Sanders proves we need major reform if not a revolution.

This is probably the correct call on both counts, although the fear from enviros (like me) that raising the cost of solar panels will slow the move away from fossil fuels is very legit. Still the 20% tariff will probably raise total installation costs for consumers by well under 10%. Still too much. The right answer is to impose a 100% tax on fossil fuels and to return the revenues to the American people. Ultimately, this is a win for American workers.

This is an interesting and touching story. It reminds me of a passage in Der Fuehrer in which the great German journalist and Hitler biographer Konrad Heiden describes how a Jewish man helped Herman Goring after he was shot during the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. "Goring was carried into a near-by bank by two young storm troopers. The Jewish owner gave him first aid: this made so deep an impression on the two young National Socialists - brothers - that they soon left the party."

Link fixed.

Many Democrats, including powerbrokers Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Adam Schiff, just handed Donald Trump a big victory and Americans a big loss on warrantless surveillance.

Of course this seems intuitively correct. People inclined to believe stuff like Obama was born in Kenya weren't going to vote for Hillary anyway.

From Kirsten West Savali: "I see her refusing to be a tokenized voice of a “resistance” constricted and diluted for white liberals’ comfort."

Heartbreaking. The NYT is doing important work bringing Myanmar's genocide to light.

I would not be surprised if Bob Mueller concludes that the Trump campaign did not violate the law with regard to its interactions with the Russians. I’m really open to that possibility. Why? Because, as you know, The New York Times, The Washington Post, every media outlet that is worth its salt has reporters digging into this, and they haven’t found anything.

And I think that, had there been something there, they would have found something. And I think Bob Mueller would have found it already and it would have leaked.

"At a time when the American economy is rigged in favor of the rich and giant corporations, the coming federal funding bill is a chance to show that our country still respects hard work. We recognize that we cannot do everything we’d like to do before the end of the year, but there is room in the budget to take real, immediate steps in this direction — by easing household costs for working parents and students, by protecting workers’ pensions and Social Security, and by improving access to health care for veterans and for people who need mental health services."

The elections in Virginia and Alabama have proven that it is possible for Democrats to focus on white and minority voters without alienating either, said Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster based in Alabama. Technology, for one, makes it possible to target specific populations with particular messages through email, text messages and phone calls. The party can also speak to universal issues, he said.

“I would suggest that jobs, health care, education are at the top of the list for any subgroup,” Mr. McCrary said.