Hullabaloo

Friday, April 15, 2016

 
A painful week full of Palin

by digby

There's this:

"How dare they?" Palin asked, denouncing "arrogant political operatives who underestimate the wisdom of the people."

If party leaders try to intervene at the July convention, "we will rise up and say our vote does count, our activism does count," she said.

Palin said she is not convinced by pledges from party leaders that the GOP nominee will be chosen from among those running for president.

"There are some snakes in there," she said of party leaders. "I've had to deal with the political machinery my whole career."

Palin said she plans to attend the convention in Cleveland, but she conceded that she may have to "invite myself to the party."

"I can't see any of them inviting me," she said of party leaders. "I think they are afraid of what I would say."

Palin, who has endorsed Trump, said she is confident he will win the GOP nomination, but said she can support Cruz if he emerges as the nominee.

She said she backs Trump because he is "so reasonable and so full of common sense and knows that for America to be great again we have to develop our natural resources" such as oil and natural gas.

While some GOP leaders worry that Trump's disparaging comments about women, minorities and others have him struggling in the polls with key voter blocs, Palin said Trump would be the GOP's strongest nominee. Trump has created the "big tent" that party leaders have long been seeking, she said, citing the billionaire businessman's appeal to independents and "blue dog Democrats" in the South and other rural areas.

Palin said she was not concerned about some of Trump's comments about women, saying she has known him for years "and I know the respect he has for women."

Trump "doesn't have high-paid consultants and pollsters and spinsters trying to spin him into something he's not," she said. "He takes advice from strong, confident women in his life, like his wife and daughter."

While Palin said she could support Cruz, she said it was "unfortunate that he has people around him who are not truthful. I sure want to believe it's the people around him and not Cruz as a person who would flip-flop on so many issues," including trade and immigration.

"He was there at the border incentivizing illegal families coming on over the border with gift baskets of soccer balls and teddy bears and now he says he was never for amnesty. Yes, you were, dude, come on," Palin said.

Inane as always. But this is even better:

Sarah Palin tore into Bill Nye’s scientific qualifications on Thursday, saying he has no authority to say climate-change skeptics are wrong.

Palin, the former governor of Alaska and the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, said the man known for his show "Bill Nye the Science Guy" is using his position of authority to harm children by teaching them that climate change is real and man-made.

“Bill Nye is as much a scientist as I am,” Palin said at a Capitol Hill event held to roll out a film that aims to discredit climate scientists. “He’s a kids’ show actor; he’s not a scientist.
Palin said behind the “alarmism” that the climate is changing is a “predetermined” and political agenda “of those, I think, who are controlling the narrative right now on changes in the weather.”

She repeatedly dismissed climate change as changes in weather and said scientists who believe the consensus that humans are the main cause of global warming are trying to shut down human progress.

Palin encouraged parents to teach their children to doubt climate change and to “ask those questions and not just believe what Bill Nye the Science Guy is trying to tell them.”

Yes, Palin's scientific credentials are unmatched:

After graduating from high school in 1982, Palin enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.Shortly after arriving in Hawaii, Palin transferred to Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu for a semester in the fall of 1982 and then to North Idaho College, a community college in Coeur d'Alene, for the spring and fall semesters of 1983 She enrolled at the University of Idaho in Moscow for an academic year starting in August 1984 and then attended Matanuska-Susitna College in Alaska in the fall of 1985. Palin returned to the University of Idaho in January 1986 and received her bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism in May 1987

Nye taught at Cornel, but whatever. Palin is the expert on this because ... well, she wear geek glasses, I guess?

I'm looking forward to seeing her crash the convention though and make a spectacle of herself. The American people need to see what's become of the person the Republicans nominated to be first in line for the presidency just eight years ago in her full glory.

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digby 4/15/2016 03:30:00 PM

 
How to make a violent person

by digby

Everything about this story is troubling:

It is a video that has been shared to the FOX 5 Atlanta Facebook page several dozen times and has drawn sharp criticism. The video appears to show school officials about to paddle a young Georgia boy. FOX 5 News reached out to the child’s mother as well as school officials and law enforcement on Thursday regarding the incident.

The social media post has been shared across the country this week and posters are buzzing in outrage. In the video, 5-year-old Thomas Perez is wailing, apparently trying to escape his upcoming paddling. FOX 5’s George Franco got in touch with Thomas’ mother who said he was being punished for misbehaving.

He tried to hit another child and they said he, I guess, he missed, but he tried to run around the school lot and they were all trying to stop him, and he spit on somebody,” said Shana Perez.

Thomas’ mother said she consented to the paddling because she felt pressured since she had previously been arrested for truancy after Thomas had missed 18 days. She said he was absent because he was being checked after symptoms which falsely pointed to cancer surfaced. She showed FOX 5 News a school calendar with the missed days, but did not have medical papers.

First, the paddling. Corporal punishment for five year olds (for anyone frankly) bothers me. A lot. I am against physical violence in all cases except self-defense and I don't think that little boy posed any threat to the women who were paddling him. They certainly did not need to use a piece of wood to hit him.

I know it is a contentious subject so I'll just leave it at that.

But what about putting a parent in jail for a kid's truancy? Does that make any sense at all? And then threatening her with more jail if she didn't agree to let her kid be hit?

She said for this offense, the principal gave her two options: Have Thomas suspended or have him paddled. She said she believed she could go back to jail for another day for truancy if Thomas was out of school.

“She [the principal] never said ‘Well, you won't go to jail if he's suspended.’ She said ‘There's nothing else, no other way possible that they could do or could be done for him, but to be paddled,’” said Perez.

The Jasper County School District released a statement: "The Jasper County School District is aware of the video released by Ms. Perez. Unfortunately, the District is barred by State and Federal law from commenting about the specifics of this incident. The District respects every student's right to privacy.

However, we can speak generally about the District's code of conduct which allows corporal punishment as one of the consequences for behavior. That code of conduct is provided to all parents. When corporal punishment is used, it is with parental consent. The District is investigating the incident and looking into its' discipline policies at this time."

Jasper County Sheriff Donnie Pope confirmed Perez had been previously arrested for truancy, but was not under a threat of being rearrested.

“She said she was under the assumption that if she had another unexcused absence she would go back to jail, but she could not corroborate that the school told her that,” said Pope.

Sheriff Pope said Perez, like other parents, are subject to review from a truancy review board which examines the circumstances of the unexcused absences before a person is arrested. Pope said arrest is saved as a last resort.

This country is so arrest happy. Sure, if this woman was being negligent in not getting her kid to school that's a problem. But putting her in jail for it is daft. The kid is five years old. What's he going to miss, SAT prep? We've lost all common sense.

Here's the video:



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digby 4/15/2016 02:00:00 PM

 
And wear a burka too

by digby

John Kasich with more wonderful condescension toward women:

This is the great GOP "moderate."

He is, of course, a genuine anti-feminist zealot. He recently signed one of the most far-reaching bills in the country to destroy Planned Parenthood.

But nothing really matches the lack of regard he has for the lives of women than this celebratory paean to a woman who chose to die rather than have an abortion:

My agnostic friend's daughter was sick. One night, I managed to reach him at a tough time. His daughter was due to hear from her doctor the next day, and the expectation was that they'd be in for some more bad news.

[Shortly afterwards, I bumped into the daughter], pregnant with another child, the same young woman who had just received that awful diagnosis. She spoke as though I already knew about her condition. She was bubbly and cheerful and positive, saying, "Everybody in my church is praying for me, but what I really want is for them to look at my trial and to find their faith."

Her doctors were not treating her cancer as aggressively as they wanted to because of her concern for her unborn child--an example of her selfless faith. I couldn't believe the strength, and the strength of character, of this young woman, facing a miserable prognosis with her cancer, thinking not of herself but of others. I said, "Jesus would marvel at your faith." She reminded me of Job, actually.

It's obviously perfectly fine for a woman to make this decision for herself. But to treat it as anything but a solemn and terrible choice to have to make, to celebrate it as a beautiful act of martyrdom, is sickening.

This attitude is catching on in anti-choice circles, leading to a new consensus that there should be no exceptions to the ban on abortion even for the life of the mother. After all, they'd be just like Job! Dead.

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digby 4/15/2016 12:30:00 PM

 
Just can't get enough

by digby

... progressives in the Senate. Blue America is trying to change that:

The Grayson for Senate campaign is getting close to having it's 100,000th contributor. The 100,000th contribution will happen in the next few days. And whoever that 100,000th person is, Blue America will be proud to award them a platinum album as rare in the world of Depeche Mode collectibles, as is Alan Grayson’s "policy of truth" within this corrupt Congress.

The 1991 "Violator" album went platinum in Mexico and Warner Bros Music Mexico, the Depeche Mode label there made a dozen hand-crafted awards and one of those gorgeous plaques is the one that is being given away to the 100,000th donor. Grayson's average contribution is $18.12. Some people give $1,000 and some people give $5.00 but whatever you contribute to Grayson on our special Depeche Mode “Violator” page doesn't make it more or less likely that you'll be the "winner" of the plaque. Whether the 100,000th person gives $10 or $2,000, he or she will get the plaque.

Alan Grayson is the one of the most valuable members of Congress, if not the most valuable member. He's accomplished more than any other member from either party and has been a leader on issues from fiscal responsibility and peace to health care and consumer protection. He's an independent-minded, brilliant congressman and is very much needed in the Senate to hold McConnell and Schumer to a higher standard.

Grayson's Republican-turned-New-Dem primary opponent, Patrick Murphy, is the top recipient of Wall Street money among any candidate for the U.S. Senate who isn't an incumbent. Murphy pushes Wall Street's agenda in the House Financial Services Committee and the banksters have rewarded Murphy with $1,054,300 so far, the only none incumbent candidate from either party already over a million dollars. Murphy is Wall Street's #1 priority. Grayson doesn't get bankster money. He's dependent on small dollar contributors like us.

The race for the open Senate seat from Florida is one of the most important of the cycle. And this week, any contribution to Grayson's Senate campaign on the special Blue America "Violator" page means you could be the lucky 100,000th contributor and own the very rare, very collectible Depeche Mode Mexican platinum award-- not to mention help Alan win a seat in the Senate where he'll be working alongside Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley and Sherrod Brown.

Thanks for always doing what you can to make this a better world,


--Howie, for the entire Blue America team

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digby 4/15/2016 11:00:00 AM

 
Trump's "strategy" for getting his way: tantrums


by digby

I wrote about The Donald's petulant pouting for Salon today:

Donald Trump always wins because he knows how to play the game better than anyone else, right? He's so good at the "art of the deal" that he comes out ahead and the other side doesn't even know what hit them. In fact, they are so dazzled by his fabulousness that they just give him whatever he wants and beg for the opportunity to give more. That's just how good he is -- at least to hear him tell it. So why is he whining like child about the system being "rigged" and having tantrums over the unfairness of the system? Shouldn't he be able to simply renegotiate the rules in his favor? Isn't that how the world works?

It is true that the nominating systems of both parties are byzantine and obscure. Our political system in general is convoluted and mystifying. And now Trump's party is making it even worse with vote suppression tactics being enacted all over the country. But who doesn't know this by now? It was only 16 years ago that we had a disputed election and a great national debate about whether we even have a constitutional right to vote --- and the Supreme Court serenely told us that we do not. The party primary system doesn't even fall under any constitutional guidelines. It's considered a private matter decided by private organizations. If you don't like how they do things you can join the party and try to change it or start your own. And good luck with that. It's worked out so well in the past.

None of this is new, however. We have two national parties that operate in 50 states with 50 separate governments all of which handle elections their own way. We have caucuses and primaries and state conventions and delegate selection and it's all nuts.And believe it or not it's actually much more democratic than it used to be. The Democrats, for instance, have proportional voting which is much more fair than the old winner take all system. It draws out the primary for months and makes it a much more arduous campaign, but in the end a lot more Democrats have a say in the outcome than in the past.

The GOP primary process is admittedly much more complicated. But that Donald Trump made it all the way to April of the primary season as front runner for the presidential nomination without being aware of this says everything you need to know about his organizational acumen. It turns out that national politics isn't as simple as a branding deal with Macy's over ties and underwear. It isn't a Manhattan real estate negotiation either. But like so many wealthy men, he assumed that making all that money must make him a genius, so much so that he's capable of running the world by the seat of his pants.

Trump is not a genius. As this piece in the LA Times explains, he's getting outmaneuvered and outclassed by Ted Cruz at every turn:

Trump may have won the vote in Louisiana’s primary, but Cruz came out with an equal number of delegates when the election results got sifted through the state party procedures. Cruz has pulled off similar maneuvers in numerous states. In Colorado, where delegates are picked at congressional district caucuses, Cruz has claimed all the delegates. In Texas, where Trump thought he had picked up 48 of the state’s 155 delegates even though he lost to Cruz in the primary, the Austin American-Statesman reports that all 155 will be Cruz supporters. Yes, 48 of them will be required to vote for Trump for two nominating ballots at the Republican convention in Cleveland this July, but they are free to vote with Cruz on procedural rules and will go to Cruz if a third ballot comes around. Even in states where Trump came in first, including South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Virginia, Cruz has gotten stealth delegates elected who will abandon the New York businessman for the Texas senator as quickly as they can legally do it.

In California, where the primary campaign will reach a grand climax on June 7, Trump now leads in polls, but he has to think about more than simply winning the statewide vote. Delegates are allocated to the winner in each congressional district. That means there are actually 53 distinct elections that will each choose three convention delegates. Winning the votes of the few Republicans in House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s liberal San Francisco district is as valuable as winning the votes of the many conservatives in the San Diego district of U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, the first member of Congress to endorse Trump.

Cruz has been organizing in the state for months. Trump just hired a staff. This doesn't mean Cruz will win, of course. But it does mean that Trump's not quite the dominating alpha wolf he claims to be.

In his second favorite book after the Bible, his own "Art of the Deal" one of Trump's most important pieces of advice is to "know your market." And he is proud that he doesn't hire researchers or market analysts for that purpose. He relies on his instincts. So in running for president he listened to "the shows" and had his minions report on what talk radio was saying, but he didn't bother to hire people who knew how the system worked until this month. He thought he could just hold big rallies and call in to the cable news programs and that would carry him.
But he didn't bother to learn the most important market, which is delegates not rally attendees or TV ratings.

In fact, he's a much bigger loser at this stage than he knows. As Rich Lowry observed in this piece in Politico:

For all of Trump’s complaints, the nomination system was set up to favor the front-runner and get him over the top as soon as possible. It is a symptom of Trump’s weakness that, even as he romped through the first couple of months of the race and accumulated delegates out of proportion to his popular vote (about 45 percent of the delegates on 37 percent of the vote), he still might fall short of 1,237.

This is an extremely important point. The rules were rigged. But they were rigged to favor Donald Trump. For a man who is selling himself as the greatest deal maker the world has ever known, he's having an awfully hard time closing one that was set-up for him to win from the very beginning.So now he's claiming the election is being stolen.

Still, there's plenty of life left in the Donald and he has some cards left to play. It's unseemly that a man in his position would wring his hands about life being unfair, but he's been doing this from the beginning of the campaign. His earliest flap over Megyn Kelly was all about her asking him unfair questions. You may recall that when Chris Cuomo repeated a quote from Rich Lowry calling him a "fabulous whiner" he readily admitted to it:

"I think he's probably right. I am the most fabulous whiner. I do whine because I want to win. And I'm not happy if I'm not winning. And I am a whiner. And I'm a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win. And I'm going to win for the country and I'm going to make our country great again."

There's a word for that. It's called a tantrum. It's something little children do to get their way. And it often works.

Lowry thinks Trump is preparing to be a sore loser and burn what's left of the Republican party in his wake as he flounces off in a huff if he isn't given the nomination. The big question is whether his followers would go with him. I suspect they would. Trump may not have any real analytical or organizational skill but if there's one "market" he understands it's the disaffected faction of white America that feels persecuted and marginalized. His crude, ill-mannered, "politically incorrect" campaign has given their victimization complexes a shot of adrenaline. And you know what happens when that rush wears off. Trump will be able to retreat to his golden palace to lick his wounds. All his followers will have to show for it will be that stupid red hat.


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digby 4/15/2016 09:30:00 AM

 

Derp from above

by Tom Sullivan

As the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill makes its way through the Senate this week, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have been arguing for new rules that would limit cargo pilots' flight time to nine hours between rests. We don't want any accidents.

“Fatigue is a killer,” Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the pilot who executed the 2009 emergency airliner landing in the Hudson River, told a press conference. Then again, if you are a drone pilot in the business of deliberately killing people, working six or seven days a week, twelve hours a day is not a problem.

The drone program remains controversial and has its detractors and defenders. Al Jazeera English this week published the confessions of former Air Force drone technician, Cian Westmoreland. He and three other former operators last year called on the president to stop the program, calling the strategy "self-defeating," one that propagates anti-US hatred. Not to mention his own nightmares:

The nightmares encompassed everything I didn't understand. I had nightmares about bombing villages, about being bombed, about killing children and trying to save them.

I was emotionally detached from loved ones and had a battle with alcoholism.

And that's just one part - there's also an insidious part - the moral injury side of things, where the more you learn, the worse it gets. You're trying to figure out what you did, why you did it and what's going on in that country.

That's what brings you to a real point of hopelessness.

Where this story intersects with the FAA reauthorization is Section 334 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012: PUBLIC UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS. For the uninitiated, that section directs the FAA to make plans for integrating law enforcement and military drones into the national air space. There has been little public discussion about safety and privacy issues. And these drones are not the little quadracopters, mind you, but the big Corellian ships. Not that anybody in Congress is paying attention, unless it's to defense contractors:

General Atomics expects to begin training Predator pilots for its overseas customers at the Grand Sky UAS aviation and business park near Grand Forks, North Dakota, in April.

“One of our tenants—General Atomics—is going to commence flight training they believe in the April timeframe,” said Tom Sowyer president of Grand Sky Development Co. “That means foreign countries—foreign militaries—are going to be sending their pilots to Grand Forks, North Dakota, to learn how to fly Predators.”

No one is suggesting the military drones flying over North Dakota, New York, Nevada, and the border with Mexico will be armed anytime soon, or that the NSA will be hacking their video feeds to spy on unsuspecting Americans. But given Sens. Boxer's and Klobuchar's concerns about long hours for cargo pilots, if realism in training is important one wonders how many hours at a stretch General Atomics' foreign customers will be flying their shiny new Predators over Grand Forks.


Undercover Blue 4/15/2016 06:00:00 AM

Thursday, April 14, 2016

 
Thank you sir may I have another

by digby

Has there ever been a bigger jerk than this?

Palm Beach County, Florida, State Attorney David Aronberg announced Thursday that he wouldn’t prosecute Lewandowski, who was charged with simple battery last month for allegedly forcefully grabbing former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields.

Trump, speaking with reporters during an interview organized by Rockland County Hasidic activists, told Lewandowski to “tell my friends from, in some cases, Israel, how loyal Mr. Trump was to you.”

“More than I could possibly fathom,” Lewandowski replied. “I am so grateful.”

“I’m proud of you, Corey,” Trump said, before turning toward the crowd. “He wasn’t quite as effective for the past couple of months.”

I just don't know what to say.

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digby 4/14/2016 06:30:00 PM

 
Deficit zombies are back in the saddle

by digby

Take a look at this atrocity (and I don't men the zombie in the suit)

Think Progress has the definitive takedown:

This is false. The world’s investors continue to give us their money for historically low prices. The national debt never has to be repaid in the credit card-style manner the cover implies. And trying to do so would be economically disastrous for the entire world’s population, both the tiny fraction who are rich and the many billions who are clawing for a dignified life.

Putting that cover on newsstands in 2016 is the journalism equivalent of Ted Cruz’s campaign dressing up its fundraising emails as formal past-due notices. It’s a simple con: Alarm the eye, shock the brain, and collect a few nickels from the stunned rube who falls for it.

And if you need a re-cap of just how disastrous this obsession with the debt has been in very recent history:

Panic about the size of the national debt has undermined the country throughout the entire Obama presidency. After a cataclysmic financial industry collapse caused by very rich people in very expensive suits, a new round of well-heeled liars conspired to ensure that the nation’s economic recovery would be devastatingly slow and feeble.

In late 2008 and early 2009, it was obvious that the government needed to spend like hell to save the country from an outright depression. Official government forecasts showed a looming economic output loss of more than $2 trillion, and independent analysis suggested the problem was even larger.

But rather than enacting a $2 trillion injection of public stimulus, debt hawks insisted on something much more modest. The White House obliged, proposing less than half of what official forecasts would have required. White House economist Christina Romer fought for a much more ambitious package, lost, and quit the administration a little over a year later.

The debt panickers had won. With that victory under their belt, they got bolder – and Democrats got craven.

CNBC talking head Rick Santelli’s live-tv rant in 2010 that’s often credited with launching the Tea Party? At the surface he railed about specific spending policies and banker-friendly notions of fairness. But like the movement it sparked, it was fundamentally animated by debt panic.

The debt-whiner Gadsden flag crowd delivered the 2010 election wave that gave John Boehner the Speaker’s gavel, ensuring the legislative death of every Obama priority that hadn’t been finished yet. The media’s tendency to chase whatever is shiniest ensured that the Tea Party phenomenon dominated political conversations that spring and summer.

Democrats up for re-election that year decided they couldn’t push back against the fundamental economic errors underlying the debt fervor. Instead, they ran away from anything that even smelled like a spending bill.

Almost all of them tried to downplay their votes for the stimulus package, quietly validating the incorrect notion that the bill had been too big. That of course did nothing to stop the hundreds of thousands of attack ads that smeared the Recovery Act as a debt-laden boondoggle.

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February 2009. Republicans channeled a dishonest debt panic to ensure it would be the last ambitious investment in America's economy he got to make.President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February 2009. Republicans channeled a dishonest debt panic to ensure it would be the last ambitious investment in America’s economy he got to make.

Many Democrats even asked President Obama to stay away from their districts – even though the new president’s personal popularity among Democrats likely would have helped many of those defeated House members to keep their seats.

After the 2010 “shellacking,” the White House itself made a similar strategic error by entertaining the debt panic that had empowered the same Republicans who began sabotaging the economic recovery starting at the very outset of Obama’s tenure. Obama appointed a bipartisan commission to gin up ideas for reining in a supposedly-runaway national debt. It didn’t matter that the commission’s most damaging ideas never became law. The signal was clear: No blue states, no red states, just purple states where everyone agrees that The Debt Is A Problem That Must Be Solved.

With Boehner installed as Speaker on the crest of a debt-panic wave, a fiscal game of chicken became almost inevitable. To resolve it, the White House ended up agreeing to the disaster known as sequestration.

The entire point of that exotic policy mechanic was to force hardline Republicans to back off of their budget-cutting obsession. It only sort of worked politically and didn’t really work on a policy level. It did not prevent Boehner from triggering a disastrous government shutdown.

Sequestration cuts hampered all manner of material public services: Job training programs, domestic violence shelters, housing support systems, health services for American Indians, food programs for seniors, and the system that keeps poor people from freezing to death in the winter all felt the squeeze, as did longer-term investments in things like scientific research and pre-school programs.

The debt panic didn’t just install Republican majorities. It caused substantive harm to millions of Americans who already live in precarious economic situations even when government programs are fully funded. It kept unemployment higher for longer than was necessary, prolonging the recession – and arguably causing thousands of premature deaths.

There's a reason the deficit hawks are getting the band back together. It looks as if the Democrats might get a mandate to do things for the American people and we cannot have that. It's vitally necessary to nip that idea in the bud right now.

Just keep in mind that this nonsense is designed for the purpose of keeping all Republicans and as many Democrats as they can muster in line to block any spending a Democratic president might propose. And they are very, very good at it. Don't underestimate their ability to manipulate the media and the public with this nonsense. They've been successfully doing it for decades.

The good news is that if Trump wins he says he'll retire the entire national debt within 8 years. With renegotiated trade deals. Or something. So there's that.

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digby 4/14/2016 05:00:00 PM

 
Long Staten Island psychic has a dream

by digby

















This story about Trump supporters in Staten Island is just great. On some level you just have to smile at this stuff:

“Do you believe in psychics?”

The first question that Linda Vinciguerra asked me when I wandered into Linda Lingerie — her boutique on Staten Island’s New Dorp Avenue, where the people tend to be as straightforward as the names of their small businesses — was an unexpected one.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “Why?”

Vinciguerra’s eyes lit up. She does believe in psychics, she told me — so much so that she regularly invites a woman with clairvoyant powers to set up in her store, where the woman charges $80 an hour for one-on-one readings with local proprietors and customers.

But Vinciguerra was having a crisis of confidence. During a recent session, she explained, she’d received some bad news from the psychic.

“I said, ‘Tell me about Donald Trump. Will he win?’” Vinciguerra recalled in her strong Noo Yawk accent, gesticulating with her hands for emphasis.

The short answer was a distinct “no.” Worse yet, the psychic added, the next president would be Hillary Clinton. However, the silver lining in all this was that a defeated Trump would launch an investigation into voting irregularities, the outcome of which was uncertain.

When she first received this news from the future, Vinciguerra was depressed. The psychic had been right about so much in the past that it was hard for her to continue supporting Trump knowing that he would lose the election.

But with Trump scheduled to appear on Staten Island this Sunday for a local Republican Party brunch and fundraiser, Vinciguerra is hoping she’ll have the chance to sound the alarm directly.

“I want to relay the message to Donald to make sure he has someone who can check to see that the polls aren’t rigged,” she said.

Vinciguerra said that most of the people she knows on Staten Island are avid Trump supporters like her, even if some of them are somewhat concerned that “he’ll start World War III because of his mouth.”

She acknowledges that Trump is a bully but admires that he’s not a coward and believes he’ll help small businesses like Linda Lingerie to prosper.

“I just believe he will turn this country around,” Vinciguerra said. “We are Staten Islanders. We believe in the American dream.”

I'm not making fun. Half the people I know here in LaLa Land swear by psychics. Maybe she did get this from the great beyond. But I'm going to be quite surprised if Trump takes on voting integrity as his mission in life when this is all over.

But you never know. His ego might very well demand this. I don't know if it will work though. Trump's supposed to be the guy who can see through the cheaters and outmaneuver them, right? Like the "cunning Chinese" and the "wily Mexicans." If he couldn't see through Reince Priebus and Ted Cruz well, I'm sorry. It doesn't speak well for his ability to win so much we'll be begging him to stop winning.

Correction: Title said Long Island, should have been Staten Island. I regret the error.
digby 4/14/2016 03:30:00 PM

 

They don't like any of them much (and who can blame them?)

by digby

I find this astonishing:

Among Republicans, 49 percent view Donald Trump favorably; less than half have favorable opinions of Ted Cruz or John Kasich. About a third has unfavorable opinions of Trump and Cruz, while 44 percent don't have an opinion of Kasich.

The reason that's astonishing is that none of them have a majority of Republicans who view them favorably. Has that ever happened before?

Contrast that with the Democrats who are also in the middle of a very spirited contest. (The poll I cited above hasn't released any numbers on the Democratic race so I couldn't compare exactly.  The following comes from a recent Gallup poll)

Seven in 10 Democrats have a positive view of each of their party's two contenders. Clinton has a little more negative baggage, with a 26% unfavorable rating compared with Sanders' 13%. Sanders has a somewhat higher percentage responding "Never heard of/Don't have an opinion." But they are both well-liked.

That number includes Democratic leaners so most of the independents are captured.

Gallup notes:

In March 2012 ... Mitt Romney, had a 67% favorable rating at that point, much higher than either Trump's or Cruz's today. In 2008, in a March Gallup poll, John McCain came in with an 87% favorable rating from Republicans, and Obama had a 79% favorable rating from Democrats. Clinton back then had an 80% favorable rating among Democrats, a little higher than she is getting today -- but not by much. 

Republicans to date are clearly more fractured and certainly less positive about the two leading candidates for their party's nomination than are Democrats. Carried forward, this means that the Republicans could have more of a challenge motivating voters in the fall. Something that could disrupt this pattern would be the entry of a current non-contender (like Paul Ryan) into the race, but this too would likely leave at least some supporters of the current candidates up in arms and upset.

*I did conflate two polls there so the comparison between the GOP and the Dems may not be fully accurate. But in general the point stands. A majority of people who vote for Democrats like both of their candidates and Republicans not so much.

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digby 4/14/2016 02:00:00 PM

 
They seem nice

by digby

This story by Benjy Sarlin about the Trump followers on reddit is really interesting. It's a perfect place for them to organize and gather and apparently, they have recently become the sites hottest users:

A large faction within Reddit has always had an anti-establishment and libertarian streak, and many users promoted Ron Paul’s candidacy in 2012. For most of the 2016 cycle, though, Bernie Sanders supporters dominated the site like no one in its history. The subreddit r/SandersForPresident has 225,000-plus subscribers and serves as a grassroots organizing hub for the campaign. A few months ago, a simple picture of Sanders walking to work became a viral phenomenon. Could the same site’s users really be that drawn by Trump?

You bet they could. Longtime users said Trump taps into an anti-PC counterculture within Reddit that feasts on spreading offensive material — a campaign to “fat shame” random women sparked a site-wide civil war and made international news — and then reveling in the response. Certain corners of Reddit have long served as an assembly line for posts mocking “SJWs,” slang for “social justice warriors,” whom they view as a humorless cabal of left-wing oppressors. It just took the right users to recognize the crossover appeal with Trump.

In interviews with MSNBC, r/The_Donald’s moderators declined to provide their real names, but credited the subreddit’s rapid growth to CisWhiteMaelstrom, who took the lead promoting it earlier this year after messaging its creators with a master plan. The username is an ironic reference to “Cisgender,” a term popularized by transgender rights activists to describe the majority of people whose gender aligns with their biological sex at birth.
[...]
CisWhiteMaelstrom (let’s call him “Cis”) told MSNBC over the phone that he is a law student in his early 20s looking to go into whichever field will allow him to make the most money. And his carefully plotted approach to building the site, in many ways, mirrors Trump’s approach to building a political following.

Before getting into campaign politics, Cis had already earned some online notoriety for his regular posts on r/TheRedPill, a hub for anti-feminists and pickup artists that’s frequently accused of spreading misogyny. In communing with Reddit’s social outcasts, he said he saw a kindred spirit in Trump, who already had a following among the “alt right,” an online movement often associated with white nationalism that was concentrated in anonymous message-board sites like 4chan.

He did ban open white supremacist activity from the Trump reddit, so that's good. But other than that he's captured the whole gamut of younger male Trump followers, most of whom act like barbarians.

The goal was to foster a community where Trump fans could be themselves in all their glory without apology. In practice, that means a whole lot of hanging out and bashing critics as “cucks,” a slang term that originated among white nationalists who liken establishment conservatives to “cuckolds” that tolerate infidelity from their wives. It’s since spread to the broader network of Trump supporters.

The “anything goes” approach is a major contrast to r/SandersForPresident, where moderators take care to discourage users from drifting into places that reflect poorly on the candidate.

Another important difference from the Sanders subreddit is that Cis said he deliberately avoids turning the subreddit into a hub for volunteers, out of fear that nuts-and-bolts discussions of phone banking would water down its appeal as an Internet funhouse. There is some information for users on how to register to vote in primary contests, but much like Trump’s campaign, the operation was designed to grab people’s attention first and then hope that energy translates to on-the-ground results.

There is some anti-establishment overlap between the two sides, though. Trump supporters have put up a number of popular posts showing solidarity with Sanders voters’ complaints about their primary’s delegate selection process. Many of the highest rated posts on r/The_Donald are generic anti-Hillary Clinton memes, partly because — Cis theorizes — Sanders supporters upvote them along with Trump fans.

Despite the circus atmosphere, r/The_Donald’s moderators stressed that support for Trump was earnest even if the tactics were ironic. Even a cursory look at the subreddit suggests this is true — for every post covered in five layers of Reddit in-jokes, there are plenty more that are simple rah-rah expressions of support.

Clicking through r/The_Donald is like walking into a rowdy clubhouse for (mostly) men who feel under siege from “political correctness.” It’s a place for like-minded bros to enrage the left and then high-five each other when they take the bait — all while knowing their leaders will forcefully remove anyone who interrupts their good time and mock the interlopers on the way out.

In other words: It’s a digital Trump rally.

Lovely fellows. Very inspiring.

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digby 4/14/2016 12:30:00 PM

 
Good news for the Newtown families

by digby

Maybe this will lead to some sanity when it comes to these AR-15 monstrosities which have no purpose but mass injury and killing:

In a major blow to gun companies, a judge in Connecticut on Thursday denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by 10 families affected by the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School against the maker of the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle used in the shooting.

The three gun companies named in the case had argued for the lawsuit to be dismissed under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), or PLCAA for short. It’s a 2005 federal law that provides gun businesses general immunity from civil lawsuits. Connecticut State Judge Barbara Bellis rejected the gun companies’ motion.

The families are suing the maker, distributor and seller of the rifle, which the gunman used to kill 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, in less than five minutes on December 14, 2012. They argue the rifle shouldn’t have been entrusted to the general public because it is a military-style assault weapon that is unsuited for civilian use. They say the gun companies knew—or should have known—about the high risks posed by the weapon, including the ability for a shooter to use it to inflict maximum casualties and serious injury.

“We are thrilled that the gun companies’ motion to dismiss was denied. The families look forward to continuing their fight in court,” Josh Koskoff, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, said in a statement.

The families and attorneys for the three gun companies had met for a crucial hearing on February 22. The defense lawyers had argued to dismiss the lawsuit, saying their clients are shielded by PLCAA, which prevents gun violence victims from taking legal action against firearms distributors whose weapons are used in crimes and fatal shootings.

More at the link.


There's no good reason for people to have these guns either for self-defense or hunting or any reason other than spraying bullets as fast as possible to inflict injuries and death on large numbers of people. Nobody needs to do that. Nobody has a right to do that.

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digby 4/14/2016 11:00:00 AM

 
Ted Cruz the wily dominionist

by digby

I wrote the following for Salon today:

Probably one of the most unlikely scandalettes of the 2016 primary has to be the National Enquirer "expose" of Senator Ted Cruz's alleged serial infidelity. Nobody knows to this day where the story originated although some reporters suggested after it was run that the Rubio campaign had shopped it to them earlier in the campaign. But Donald Trump is known to be quite close to the publisher of the Enquirer (a man aptly named David Pecker) so it's always possible the story was run for his benefit.

But whatever its provenance, the story caused quite a ripple not so much because it's unbelievable that any politician might have a zipper problem (it's almost a requirement for office) but that it was the very pious Cruz being accused. This is the man, after all, whose first victory speech began with "God bless the great state of Iowa, let me first of all say, to God be the glory."

He announced his candidacy at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University where he laid out his vision for the country. And he told a story that he tells on the trail all the time:

When my dad came to America in 1957, he could not have imagined what lay in store for him. Imagine a young married couple, living together in the 1970s, neither one of them has a personal relationship with Jesus. They have a little boy and they are both drinking far too much. They are living a fast life.

When I was three, my father decided to leave my mother and me. We were living in Calgary at the time, he got on a plane and he flew back to Texas, and he decided he didn’t want to be married anymore and he didn’t want to be a father to his 3-year-old son. And yet when he was in Houston, a friend, a colleague from the oil and gas business invited him to a Bible study, invited him to Clay Road (ph) Baptist Church, and there my father gave his life to Jesus Christ.

And God transformed his heart. And he drove to the airport, he bough a plane ticket, and he flew back to be with my mother and me.

There are people who wonder if faith is real. I can tell you, in my family there’s not a second of doubt, because were it not for the transformative love of Jesus Christ, I would have been saved and I would have been raised by a single mom without my father in the household.

It may seem odd that his "testimony" is his father's story but it makes sense. Cruz himself was a very smart kid who grew up in Texas and went to Princeton and then Harvard Law which doesn't provide quite the same pathos as his daddy's tale of sin and redemption. And his sad is definitely important to his career --- he's a genuine evangelical preacher and wingnut firebrand, well known on the conservative speaking circuit. He brings with him all the authentic street cred his son could possibly need in this crowd.

Cruz's campaign strategy was built on the foundation of support from the ultra-conservative evangelical base of the Republican party; this recent Pew Poll shows that nearly half of his total voters are white observant evangelical Christians, most of whom attend Church at least weekly. By contrast Trump gets a share of evangelicals but more mainline protestants and Catholics who attend church less than once a week.(This article by Jeff Sharlet in the New York Times magazine about Trump and the prosperity gospel types is fascinating. I'm not even sure they're really social conservatives ...)

I wrote about Cruz's original strategy (based upon Carter's peanut brigade) a while back in which he had planned to sweep the southern states and build up a bit lead, just as Hillary Clinton has done on the Democratic side. It didn't work out for him because it turns out that a lot of the southern conservatives he was counting on were mesmerized by a decadent, thrice married, orange New Yorker. Who would have ever guessed? But he has shown tremendous tenacity, hanging on long after all the Big Boys of the Deep Bench fell by the wayside and it's now a two man race to the finish.

The adultery accusations don't seem to have hurt Cruz with his base voters although it's possible we haven't yet seen the effects in more socially conservative states. But Cruz has built up a lot of credibility in that crowd over the years. He's won the straw poll at the Values Voter Summit three years in a row. Two years ago he made a huge splash in anticipation of announcing his run for president by giving a rousing speech in which he declared, “we stand for life. We stand for marriage. We stand for Israel!" which sums up the foundation of the evangelical right's philosophy.

Cruz is an anti-abortion warrior of the most strident kind. He wants to ban abortion with no exception for rape or incest. He unctuously explains it this way:

"When it comes to rape, rape is a horrific crime against the humanity of a person, and needs to be punished and punished severely. But at the same time, as horrible as that crime is, I don't believe it's the child's fault. And we weep at the crime, we want to do everything we can to prevent the crime on the front end, and to punish the criminal, but I don't believe it makes sense to blame the child."

He holds the same view of a 12 year old girl being forced to give birth to her own sister: tough luck.

He has led the charge against Planned Parenthood in the Senate, urging a government shutdown if the president didn't agree to defund it. And he's gone farther than that:

If I'm elected president, let me tell you about my first day in office. The first thing I intend to do is to rescind every illegal and unconstitutional executive action taken by Barack Obama. The next thing I intend to do is instruct the Department of Justice to open an investigation into these videos and to prosecute Planned Parenthood for any criminal violations.

Ted Cruz is a lawyer and ex-attorney general of Texas who has argued cases before the Supreme Court. Unlike Donald Trump when he makes a statement like this, he cannot claim to be ignorant of the fact that the president instructing the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation o anyone would be the very definition of abuse of power and quite likely an impeachable offense.

His dismissive comments on contraception are insulting to every woman:

“Last I checked, we don’t have a rubber shortage in America. Look, when I was in college, we had a machine in the bathroom, you put 50 cents in and voila. So, yes, anyone who wants contraceptives can access them."

He's equally adamant about gay marriage, and insists that he will work to overturn Obergefell just as he will work to overturn Roe vs Wade. He says

“It’s not the law of the land. It’s not the Constitution. It’s not legitimate, and we will stand and fight.”

Again, this is a man who argued cases before the Supreme Court and presumably knows very well that marriage equality is the law of the land.

He has defended a ban on late term abortions and a display of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state Capitol. He argued that the pledge of allegiance should include the words "Under God."  According to this astonishing article by David Corn in Mother Jones, he even defended a state ban on dildos arguing the state had an interest in "discouraging…autonomous sex", comparing masturbation to hiring a prostitute or committing bigamy and declaring that no right exists for people to "stimulate their genitals." (His college roommate tweeted a hilarious reaction to that story yesterday.)

He's all in on the "religious liberty" legal theory as defined by the Manhattan Declaration and enjoys keeping company with some of the most radical dominionists in the nation, including David Barton the junk historian who also runs Cruz's number one Super Pac Keep the Promise. That Super PAC is funded by a couple of Cruz's megabucks donors, Texas energy barons Farris and Dan Wilks, both of whom are ultra conservative Christians. He's even tight with the bigots who spearheaded the recent sweeping anti-LGBT legislation in North Carolina,  congressional candidate and evangelical pastor Mark Harris and the former HGTV twins the Benham brothers, whose show was cancelled over their anti-Gay activities. And then there is his father Rafael Cruz, who is counted among the most militant extremist preachers in the country and who believes his son was sent by God to turn America into a theocracy.

Ted Cruz's confrontational political philosophy is revolutionary. His policy agenda is at the farthest edge of conservative movement thinking, even including gold buggery and the abolition of the IRS and half a dozen other agencies and functions of the federal government. His foreign policy advisers include anti-Muslim cranks like Frank Gaffney.  His ideology is doctrinaire right wing conservative. And he is a fanatical conservative evangelical Christian whose beliefs place him at the fringe of an already non-mainstream worldview.

It's not surprising that people would have a hard time believing that such a man would be a serial adulterer. But when you think about it, he would hardly be the first conservative Christian leader to be undone in such a way. In fact, it's so common you have to wonder if it isn't an occupational hazard. So far, he's weathered the storm. But he is a fully realized right wing radical deeply embedded in the conservative Christian right.  If any of it turns out to be true, Cruz will have a very long way to fall.


digby 4/14/2016 09:30:00 AM

 

Incentives for the perverse

by Tom Sullivan

Not all political deflections are bright and shiny. Hyperventilating over public aid to those at the bottom of the wealth curve is an oldie but goody. Is Wall Street defrauding the planet to the tune of trillions? Well, but LOOK! Over there. A poor person. Eating!

Properly incentivizing the poor is a perennial handwringer for Fox News and other watchdogs of personal morality on the right (who otherwise think the government should mind its own damned business). Nicholas Kristof, however, spares some column inches this morning on the incentives driving our beleaguered corporate persons at the top. He gets downright snarky about it:

A study to be released Thursday says that for each dollar America’s 50 biggest companies paid in federal taxes between 2008 and 2014, they received $27 back in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts.

Goodness! What will that do to their character? Won’t that sap their initiative?

The study in question comes from Oxfam. The group finds:

• From 2008 – 2014 the 50 largest US companies collectively received $27 in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts for every $1 they paid in federal taxes.
• From 2008 – 2014 these 50 companies spent approximately$2.6 billion on lobbying while receiving nearly $11.2 trillion in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts.
• Even as these 50 companies earned nearly $4 trillion in profits globally from 2008 – 2014, they used offshore tax havens to lower their effective global tax rate to just 26.5%, well below the statutory rate of 35% and even below average levels paid in other developed countries. Only 5 of 50 companies paid the full 35% corporate tax rate.
• These companies relied on an opaque and secretive network of more than 1600 disclosed subsidiaries in tax havens to stash about $1.4 trillion offshore. In addition to the 1600 known subsidiaries, the companies may have failed to disclose thousands of additional subsidiaries to the Securities and Exchange Commission because of weak reporting requirements.
• Their lobbying appears to have offered an incredible return on investment. For every $1 spent on lobbying, these 50 companies collectively received $130 in tax breaks and more than $4,000 in federal loans, loan guarantees and bailouts.

Such behavior deprives countries of needed funds for everything from education to infrastructure, and feeds the rampant economic inequality that has become palpable. But what's worse, of course, is what these perverse incentives must be doing to corporate persons' souls. Kristof continues:

The Panama Papers should be a wake-up call, shining a light on dysfunctional tax codes around the world — but much of the problem has been staring us in the face. Among the 500 corporations in the S.&P.; 500-stock index, 27 were both profitable in 2015 and paid no net income tax globally, according to an analysis by USA Today.

Those poor companies! Think how the character of those C.E.O.s must be corroding! And imagine the plunging morale as board members realize that they are “takers” not “makers.”

But that's the thing about economic inequality. It also means different rules for those on top and those at the bottom. Sharper sticks must be brought to bear to ensure the "takers" are kept off the public dole. To save their souls, of course. Those at the top get sweeter carrots. Much, much sweeter.

Kristof tips his hat to the Obama administration for cracking down on offshore tax havens. But even more, members of Congress should get take a break from call time long enough to pass the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, and it should "stop slashing the I.R.S. budget (by 17 percent in real terms over the last six years)."

Snap poll: What sort of incentive do you think Congress responds more to in an election year, carrots or sharp sticks?


Undercover Blue 4/14/2016 06:00:00 AM

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

 
What a nice young man

by digby

His mother must be so proud:

Hey, you can buy your own bumper sticker:

That's actually pretty polite compared to some:

This was Roger Stone's pathetic effort:

Yeah, it's only the beginning.

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digby 4/13/2016 06:00:00 PM

 
Torturous diplomacy

by digby

From the sound of it, the administration is getting an earful from foreign leaders about GOP crazy talk:

"I want to remove even a scintilla of doubt or confusion that has been caused by statements that others have made in recent weeks and months," Kerry told reporters. "The United States is opposed to the use of torture in any form, at any time, by any government or non-state actor."

Kerry's comments echo those of CIA Director John Brennan who told NBC News in a recent interview that his agency will not participate in "enhanced interrogation" practices, such as waterboarding— even if a future president gave the order to do so.

"This is a standard that we insist others meet and therefore we must meet this standard ourselves," he said. "I know personally that the fierce anger that arises in war when fellow countrymen are attacked whether they are soldiers or civilians can sometimes prompt fury, rage, revenge, but there is a sharp dividing line between societies that abandon all standards when times are tough and those that due their absolute best to maintain those standards because ultimately upholding core values is what makes a nation strong."

Yeah well, I'm going to guess there won't be as much opposition to torture as he claims if the country is attacked again. And there's this guy out there getting votes from millions of Americans:




Go to 2:55. Listen closely and you'll hear the Republican front-runner for he presidency say this:

Stephanopoulos: Do we win by being more like them?

Trump: Yes, I'm sorry you have to do it that way. I'm not sure everyone agrees with me I guess a lot of people don't. We are living in a time that's as evil as any time that there has ever been.

You know, when I was a young man I studied medieval times.That's what they did. They chopped off heads.

Stephanopoulos: So we're going to chop off heads?


Trump: We're going to do things beyond waterboarding. Perhaps. If that happens to come.

Maybe that's all bluster. But that two minutes of hate is one of the most chilling exchanges I've ever heard coming from anyone, much less a leading American presidential contender.

He is the candidate of American psychopaths. And apparently we have millions of them.

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digby 4/13/2016 04:30:00 PM

 
The schlong remains the same

by digby

538 is featuring a fun conversation among its writers about how "masculinity" is playing into this election. There's discussion about both the GOP and the Dems and how the first woman potential nominee might play into it. Obviously Trump's literal evocation of his manly member in a presidential debate brought the whole thing into stark relief.

But I found this quite astonishing:

Harry Enten: I think it has more to do with society overall. A ridiculously high 68 percent of Trump supporters say society is becoming too soft and feminine. Cruz and Kasich supporters come in with 57 percent and 52 percent, respectively. Now compare those numbers with the Democratic side, where Sanders supporters were slightly less likely than Clinton supporters to say that (28 percent vs. 31 percent).

A whole lot of the differences between the two parties can probably be attributed to that one perception.

This quote from the Trump voter who shoved a protester in the face this week in New York makes it very clear:

“Hey, I’ll snatch anybody up if they yell in my face over anything. I have my personal rights and my personal space. They’re gonna start yelling about some bullshit, I’ll snatch ya ass up. That’s all.”

Mike added that he is “hell yeah” supporting Trump for president because he is “no bullshit. All balls. Fuck you all balls. That’s what I’m about.

Trump's response when the protester who was assaulted was being led out:

“That guy walking out with his arms held high like he’s a big shot. Only because 10 years ago he couldn’t have gotten away with that stuff, believe me. Believe me.”

I think perhaps these macho Republicans are making this whole thing waaaay too complicated. They should just have all the candidates drop their drawers and display the goods. Why should they have to take Trump at his word? Let's see what they've got --- and what they're hiding.


Update: Oh dear. I somehow came upon this piece from 2003 today:

POLITICALLY, the United States is split down the middle these days. The dead-heat presidential election of 2000 followed congressional elections in 1996 and 1998 which were also, in effect, drawn by the two main parties. The Republicans and the Democrats are now preparing for next year's elections in the belief that the outcomes could be just as close.

What does this deep, central division mean? Are the voters split between yin and yang? Masculine, feminine? Mars, Venus? The Economist thought an answer might be found by looking at a leading member of each party and, perhaps more revealingly, at the districts that send them to the House of Representatives in Washington, the chamber the Founding Fathers designed to be closest to popular opinion.

In the House, Dennis Hastert is the Republican speaker, Nancy Pelosi the leader of the Democratic minority. Mr Hastert, a hulking former wrestling coach, is a fairly straightforward conservative: he is against abortion, gay marriage, the Kyoto protocol; for the invasion of Iraq, the death penalty. Ms Pelosi, a tiny bird-like woman, is an unabashed, card-carrying liberal.

Yes, Denny Hastert was certainly an avatar of America's manly virtues.


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digby 4/13/2016 03:00:00 PM

 
More Trumpian degradation

by digby

Let me say upfront that I think these people have a perfect right to say what they want. Political speech is the most protected speech and they were just repeating a slogan of the front runner for the Republican Party, which they are entitled to do. The University agreed and didn't even release the names of those who did it. (They decided instead to curtail some activities but I honestly don't even understand doing that. Their memo calling for tolerance and decency seem like the proper approach.)

But that doesn't mean Trump's campaign to deport millions of people and his rhetoric calling undocumented immigrants rapists and criminals is not gross and disgusting. This episode illustrates yet again just how Trump and the others are bringing this racist poison to the surface of our culture. Maybe it's a good thing in the long run and it will allow the infection to drain. But it might just spread too.

Several events for Ohio University’s Greek Week, an annual, weeklong event focused on philanthropy, have been canceled after some Sorority and Fraternity Life members painted “Build the Wall” on an area typically designated for graffiti last week.

The Greek Week events, set to take place between April 11 and 18, were amended after unnamed members of Sorority and Fraternity Life painted the graffiti wall by Bentley Hall, including the phrase “Build the Wall,” according to a letter sent Sunday to sororities and fraternities.

The phrase has been a part of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign to construct a wall between the United States and Mexico to discourage immigration from South and Central American countries.

The letter was addressed to the “OU Sorority and Fraternity Life community and supporters,” and was signed by the Interfraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council and the Women’s Panhellenic Association.

“This phrase is offensive and hurtful to many individuals as it is directly tied to the Hispanic/Latino/a community, makes them feel marginalized, and the message was interpreted that they do not belong at Ohio University,” the letter stated.

The affiliation and names of the Greek members involved are not stated in the letter, as it “is not at the center of this controversy.” Those individuals will not face sanctions, and, according to the letter, were within their rights to free speech.

The Post obtained a copy of the week’s highlighted events prior to the changes announced Sunday. Airbands, an annual event in which groups perform skits and dances, a dodgeball tournament and a 90s Field Day were listed on the original schedule but are not listed on the letter.

The governing councils also made the decision to not approve or support any official or unofficial social activities involving alcohol during Greek Week, the letter stated.


The graffiti wall by Bentley Hall was painted over with the words "Build The Wall!!" and "Trump 2016" on Thursday.

In wake of the pro-Trump graffiti, the Hispanic and Latino Student Union at OU held an emergency meeting Thursday in the Multicultural Center, where top university officials such as President Roderick McDavis were in attendance, according to a previous Post report.

The Post could not confirm if the graffiti the letter referenced was the same that prompted the meeting Thursday.

McDavis sent an email to students Friday urging them to learn about other cultures and to be understanding.

"Indeed, this wall is a place of free speech and expression; however, the words painted were troubling because they had a very different meaning to some than they may have to others viewing the message or even to those who painted the message," McDavis said in the email.

The letter stated that the week’s events are meant to promote the ideals of leadership, service, philanthropy and other values.

I've never understood the allure of the fraternity thing but then I'm not much of a joiner.  But I know many people really love it and get a lot out of it so my opinion isn't relevant.  But there's no doubt that "build the wall" is one of the most provocative and xenophobic of all of the Trump's slogans.  If they'd written "Make America Great Again" or even copped the Nixonian "The Silent Majority" it wouldn't have been as pointed and frankly, racist. Why would fraternities pick that slogan if they weren't making a racist point?

Anyway, I still defend their right to say it.  It's a political campaign and this is an actual policy being proposed by a leading candidate for president. You can't suppress it.  But people certainly have a right to meet it with more speech.  I hope those students who are against Trump and his policies will be equally engaged in the process.

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digby 4/13/2016 01:30:00 PM

 
A wise piece of advice

by digby

Not from me, a study about how to issue an effective apology:

There are six components to an apology – and the more of them you include when you say you’re sorry, the more effective your apology will be, according to new research.

But if you’re pressed for time or space, there are two elements that are the most critical to having your apology accepted.

“Apologies really do work, but you should make sure you hit as many of the six key components as possible,” said Roy Lewicki, lead author of the study and professor emeritus of management and human resources at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.

In two separate experiments, Lewicki and his co-authors tested how 755 people reacted to apologies containing anywhere from one to all six of these elements:

1. Expression of regret

2. Explanation of what went wrong

3. Acknowledgment of responsibility

4. Declaration of repentance

5. Offer of repair

6. Request for forgiveness

The research is published in the May 2016 issue of the journal Negotiation and Conflict Management Research. Lewicki’s co-authors were Robert Lount, associate professor of management and human resources at Ohio State, and Beth Polin of Eastern Kentucky University.

While the best apologies contained all six elements, not all of these components are equal, the study found.

“Our findings showed that the most important component is an acknowledgement of responsibility. Say it is your fault, that you made a mistake,” Lewicki said.

The second most important element was an offer of repair.

“One concern about apologies is that talk is cheap. But by saying, ‘I’ll fix what is wrong,’ you’re committing to take action to undo the damage,” he said.

The next three elements were essentially tied for third in effectiveness: expression of regret, explanation of what went wrong and declaration of repentance.

The least effective element of an apology is a request for forgiveness. “That’s the one you can leave out if you have to,” Lewicki said.

I think we could all use a primer on how to effectively apologize. I know I sometimes forget how to do it right and I've been apologizing for decades ...


Update: While googling something else I came upon this piece about effective parenting in which a woman says she doesn't make her child say she's sorry for being mean to one of her peers anymore because it's insincere:

I’d rather she apologize when she understands, and genuinely feels like it is important to reach out and mend the fences. Now, that does not mean I ignore her offending behavior and let it lie, it just means that I don’t make her say it until she means it.

By making her say words to someone, that she does not yet comprehend, or even mean in her heart, I am teaching her that it is more important to care what others think, than to speak her truth.

Blecccch. If you want to know what the hell is wrong with our culture, this sort of tripe is a good example. No wonder everyone acts like animals.

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digby 4/13/2016 12:00:00 PM

 
Lasting damage to the next generation

by digby

This is awful:

Something ugly is happening inside America's classrooms.

Headscarf-wearing Muslim girls are being called terrorists. Latinos are warned of deportation and teased about wall-building along the US-Mexico border. The N-word is making a comeback, and children younger than ever before are using it.

Although name-calling has always been a feature of playground life, teachers across the US say it has grown nastier since Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's rhetoric during the election campaign.

"I think there's a real danger of harm taking place in all American schoolchildren," Maureen Costello, an education expert at the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), a civil rights group, told Al Jazeera.

"We've seen 10 or more years of anti-bullying work get rolled back by a hostile atmosphere in many schools. Teachers describe disillusionment, depression and discouragement among kids who feel like they now know what people have thought about them all along," Castello said.

An SPLC survey of some 2,000 US schools found that two-thirds of teachers described their vulnerable students - including blacks, Muslims, Latinos and other minorities - as affected by rhetoric in the 2016 White House race.

It shows a spike in racist bullying. For Muslims - or even some non-Muslim brown-skinned children - the acronym "ISIS" has become a stock taunt, referencing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, which is also known as ISIS).

The bullying causes more than just upset. Some Mexican pupils now fear that Trump's promise to deport an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants will come to pass and that they, and their loved ones, will get kicked out of the US, Costello said.

While Trump's focus on African Americans has been limited to ejecting civil rights protesters from campaign rallies, some black youths expressed "irrational" fears that segregation or slavery will make a comeback, researchers found.

It took a very long time to wring these racist epithets out of our public culture enough that kids didn't commonly use them.  Now it's growing again and it's because our leaders are stoking anger, fear and racism for political gain. I wonder how hard it's going to be to put that genie back in the bottle.

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digby 4/13/2016 10:30:00 AM