Quote: But Trump insisted he and his lawyers have found some disturbing holes in the amendment, which unequivocally states that anyone born in the United States is in fact an American citizen. The Fourteenth Amendment is a few paragraphs long, but I’ll just cut and paste Section One, the relevant section for this discussion. Actually, only the first sentence is … Read More
About Men’s Rights Advocates
I think men have certain limited issues that need to be addressed in the political arena (paternity leave, paternity rights with respect to child custody, for example), but to suggest that men are getting the short end of the stick in society is just plain silly, and tone deaf to real problems. When I hear about “men’s rights” advocacy groups, … Read More
RIP Julian Bond
Yet another person that #blacklivesmatter could learn from (but won’t). This man was a legend. He moved from militancy to a moire pragmatic (but equally passionate) means of reform. He died at the age of 75 this weekend. Here is the NY Times obit, and here is President Obama’s statement: Statement by the President on the Passing of Julian Bond … Read More
Quote Of The Day: Blind To Self Edition
From Florida, relating to efforts to ban The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime from a high school curriculum: But Sue Gee, one of the parents who complained about the book, feels that Curious Case is an affront to her faith and that its casual use of swear words would be harmful to students. “I am not interested in having … Read More
Latest Fox Poll Must Be Giving The GOP Establishment Headaches
Stat geek Nate Silver had an excellent piece the other day explaining why the polls today are to be taken with a grain of salt. In a nutshell, he writes, they are not good predictors of who the nominee will actually be, for many reasons: They contemplate a vote today, but we’re currently 174 days from the Iowa caucuses. They … Read More
Whatever Happened To Jim Bakker?
Jim Bakker was a smarmy, sex-scandal embroiled, 1980s TV evangelist fraudster and ex-con who fleeced his followers for decades with his then-wife Tammy Faye Bakker. He was one of the many TV evangelist fraudsters in the 1980s. It was the cool thing in the 1980s — shoulder pads and being a TV evangelist fraudster. One day, the feds caught up with … Read More
Straight Outta Beating Up Women
I’m looking forward to seeing the N.W.A. bio-pic “Straight Outta Compton”, but I’m not surprised that the former N.W.A. members deal with the misogyny issue by, well, not acknowledging it. Ice Cube recently was asked about it and he said that he doesn’t understand why “upstanding ladies” would come to the defense of the “bitches” and “hos” referred to in … Read More
Even The Gun Nuts Don’t Want A Piece Of This
A few days ago, I mentioned the presence of armed white people — the Oath Keepers — present on the streets of Ferguson during the racial tensions. They were there, they said, the protect a reporter from the ultra-right wing website, InfoWars. Except now we learn that Infowars denies knowing these guys or what they’re doing. Maybe that’s true, maybe … Read More
Pissing On Your Best Friend
Earlier this week, I got in — not one but two — debates with good progressive friends about the wisdom of the BLM movement shutting down Bernie Sanders speaking at a Social Security and Medicaid event last Saturday in Seattle. It’s a lot of ground to cover, but I read something by Hamilton Nolan (whoever he is) at Gawker that … Read More
The Drone Footage Of That Explosion In Tianjin China Is Amazing (航拍天津爆炸后现场 浓烟冲天烟尘笼罩)
Huge cargo containers and boxcars moved around like cardboard boxes
GOP 2016 Race Shorts
(1) IRAQ WITHDRAWAL Let’s get one thing clear, because I don’t think this is the first time it is going to come up. Regardless of whether you think it was good or bad, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq was Bush’s idea, not Obama’s. I say this because Jeb was on the campaign trail yesterday spewing nonsense: The former Florida governor … Read More
QOTD – Trump Edition
“I do whine because I want to win, and I’m not happy about not winning, and I am a whiner, and I keep whining and whining until I win” – Trump on CNN this morning. Number of points he gets for owning up to this: Zero. Can you imagine what would happen to our political system if the most persistent … Read More
State Of The GOP Race
The debate didn’t hurt Trump like may Republicans thought it might. By luck or design, Trump has figured out that the way to appeal to the GOP base is to be an asshole. Seriously. That demographic likes people who “speak their own mind” (the polite way to put it) regardless of the fact that he doesn’t have any concrete policies, … Read More
Has Ferguson Gotten Better?
One year after the arrest and killing of Michael Brown, a young unarmed black man, Ferguson seems to be in deeper trouble than ever. Several investigations, including one by the DOJ, found that the police officer did not act improperly in the shooting of Michael Brown. BUT the DOJ found that the police department was ethically un-diverse (compared to the … Read More
Megyn Kelly – Donald Trump Dust
I really dislike Megyn Kelly. I think her politics are terrible, and she doesn’t carry even the semblance of being “fair and balanced”. But she was an excellent moderator and while I don’t think that questions about “elect-ability” are the best questions for a presidential debate, she treated everyone equally. And even for a conservative, she’s better and smarter than the … Read More