He’s got a new book, so a conservative Niall Ferguson appeared on TV this morning whitewashing the Trump administration’s competence, or lack thereof, as if the fault lies with more systemic faults, despite the deliberate Trump sabotage of Obama-era pandemic planning. Catastrophes of politics, in pricey Ted-like talks. As if there no...
Optimism
“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.” ~ Aristotle It is a fact that the biggest threat to our species is not climate change, though it will likely end much of what we experience today, but rather our war on bio-diversity. Bio-diversity is under attack from...
Look, I get it—that half the Republican electorate is either unbalanced, selfish or so ill-informed that Trump looked like a reasonable pick; but why do some Democrats insist on sleeping with (sorry Joe) the enemy? Almost immediately this weekend, the winners fell for the media's attempt to sow dissension. Over...
Trump’s hoaxes and fake news have become so normalized as iterated false claims, that we cannot now admit his victory is anything other than horseshoes and hand grenades. He simply won’t have a 2000 election result even if he can’t get a 2004 election result. At present count there will be 10,000 lawyers employed to address...
Here’s the latest news today out of Alaska courtesy of Gravis Marketing polling: x #AKsen:Sullivan (R-inc) 48% (+3)Gross (D) 45%@GravisMarketing, LV, 10/26-28https://t.co/FBwe7lEAWv— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) October 29, 2020 Here are the full results: x Scribd Content Alaska (October 28, 2020) by Doug Kaplan 7% still undecided and only 45% have...
At WaPo, Phillip Bump throws more cold water on our optimism, but we all need to be confronted with the probabilities. Try Bump’s interactive tools to convince yourself of the quantitative realities. There will be Senate-flipping and a Biden landslide, but there still and always remain possible bad news. James Carville...
The GOP keeps trying to rewrite history as a quarter-million deaths lie ahead with a failed policy, as if any death toll could be spun positively. 3 takeaways from the first night of the Republican National Convention 1. A promise of optimism, quickly abandoned The GOP claimed that this convention would be...
Gabe Sherman of Vanity Fair has another article that points out how “cocooned” Trump is from bad news. Sherman focuses on Trump’s inane views of the selection of Kamala Harris for VP by Joe Biden. Digby has already covered the blatant and knuckle dragging sexism of Trump and some of...
Apparently, Donald Trump can’t conceive of a running mate who isn’t the quasi-vertebrate equivalent of premasticated Cream of Wheat. Four years ago, Trump chose Mike Pence, who’s basically invisible when he’s not conspicuously smooching Trump’s ass. And being the sick, sick little man he is, Trump thought Joe Biden was...
just up at the website of The Washington Post, and titled Alexander Vindman: Coming forward ended my career. I still believe doing what’s right matters. Here is how he begins: After 21 years, six months and 10 days of active military service, I am now a civilian. I made the...
This week I attended (remotely) the Rethinking Economics Festival and encountered challenging pluralist discourses like a platform economy (noting that most of such work is populated by women), decolonizing the Eurocentric position in disciplines, or “fully-automated luxury communism”. I thought I’d share some resource items and make a few observations....
The New York Times has a great piece out about how Democrats are eager to not only help Joe Biden take out Trump but also want him to expand the electoral map. The goal is to get to 270 electoral votes and here are the current states Biden’s campaign is...
From Salon: Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican facing a tough re-election battle this fall, revealed in financial disclosure forms that her husband invested in pharmaceutical companies that courts have held legally responsible for contributing to the opioid crisis. Collins' husband, Thomas Daffron, appears to own up to $50,000...
Received this e-mail yesterday from former Presidential candidate, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D. MA), in support of Joe Biden’s presidential candidate: This is a time of tremendous crisis for our nation. Across the country, Americans are flooding the streets protesting the injustice of police brutality and affirming the unshakable...
Received this e-mail today from former President Barack Obama in support of former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign: The crisis we face underscores the necessity for real leadership in the White House. I know from firsthand experience that Joe is up for the job. Joe’s optimism and vision for...
Yesterday, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warned in a Washington Post interview that we need to prepare for a second coronavirus wave this winter: CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating. This was out of...
If electoral victory is a mouse to be caught, the color of the cat deployed doesn’t really matter. Matthew 21:12 He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. Screw inevitability and electability, aphorisms and purity still rule the day in what is now a lively but...
The largest city in Australia, Sydney, is set to run out of water by 2022 warned a CNN affiliate which was confirmed by the Water Minister of New South Wales (NSW), Melinda Pavey. It is only Spring in NSW and already the region suffers from a crippling, according to CNN,...
Remember about a month and a half ago when Donald Trump claimed China had called his top negotiators and a trade deal was on its way? I remember thinking you’d have to have less than 2 pints of creamy brain pâté inside your cranium to actually wager your money based...
How did this wee-brained little man ever graduate from high school, much less Wharton? Betraying his profound ignorance of how the global economy works, Trump tweeted this bland bit of folderol today: x The United States is now, by far, the Biggest, Strongest and Most Powerful Economy in the World,...
Barring the early period of “too cheap to meter” optimism, nuclear power has consistently been more popular on K-Street than Wall Street. Curiously among political topics, nuclear power has its staunch ideologues on both the left and the right. Yet the place where it lacks support is perhaps where it needs...
Donald Trump, write this 100 times on your left moob: China does not pay our tariffs. China does not pay our tariffs. China does not pay our tariffs. x ….of additional goods sent to us by China remain untaxed, but will be shortly, at a rate of 25%. The Tariffs...
It's hard to believe a lifelong conman could get conned this easily. Then again, if there is anything truly special about Donald J. Trump it’s his unique pastiche of insensate evil and abject stupidity. Trump’s advisers are freaking out — once again — over his foreign policy naiveté. This time it...
Many, many years ago, all the way back on November 10th, 2016 ore so, Mitch McConnell was one chipper turtle, he was living high on the hog. That’s because the hog had just gotten elected President, but hadn’t actually taken the oath of office yet, so he wasn’t actively screwing...
If you take a few blocks away from a Jenga tower it might stay up for a while, but if you keep pulling pieces away, it’s going to fall eventually. (Aren’t you glad I went with the Jenga thing instead of the Donald Trump strip poker analogy I was workshopping? My...
There was a time not that long ago when “liberal” was widely considered a dirty word. Liberals themselves often avoided the term, and thus “progressive” was born. But people aren’t so shy these days about self-identifying as liberals, as you can see from this chart: x 35% of Americans identify...
I am not sure how I missed this bit of information — local and state media suck in KY, but it was reported that Kentucky has FEWER jobs in the coal industry after Trump won the White House. Two years since Donald Trump carried every Kentucky coal county by whopping margins...
George W. Bush gave a touching eulogy for his father today, and in its own way it was truly wonderful. His affection for his dad seemed genuine, and who wouldn’t want their son to send them off with such a muscular, yet tender, tribute? But one line in particular stuck out...
Q: How many licks does it take to get to the middle of a Tootsie-Pop? No, not that question, I was just jerkin’ your chain. But there is a very serious question in politics, one that has been brewing, in fact becoming more prevalent as time has gone on. And that question is, “How do...
What? Am I worried? Nope, not at all. Actually, I’m fucking terrified. I can sum up my paranoia in three simple words. lifelong Cubs fan. November 2016 will never be number one for me, September 1969 scarred me for life, znd taught me that optimism is a pipe dream. But since I’m...
Gwinnett County is a majority minority district… (The ethnic composition of the population of Gwinnett County, GA is composed of 345,977 White residents (38.1%), 240,970 Black residents (26.6%), 189,050 Hispanic residents (20.8%), 103,900 Asian residents (11.5%), and 20,447 Two+ residents (2.25%). -Data USA) …in the northeast environs of the Atlanta metro area where it...
Saturday, I donated a couple hours of my time to Organizing for America, Pres. Obama’s grassroots volunteer movement for his re-election. I’ve been to several of these meetings, where I take photos and blog, at the request of OFA leaders. Identified immediately for skills I can donate, the organization is...