April 13, 2015

The freak out of some Democrats over

some comments about Our Next President™'s logo is interesting.

April 13, 2015

Run Like Hell

Roger Waters - Run Like Hell (The Wall Live in Berlin) 1990:

April 11, 2015

Do you like America 2015? Then you'll *love* Hillary 2016.

However you feel about Hillary Clinton, perhaps only a handful of people have been as responsible for America's trajectory over the past 20+ years.

Want more of the same? That's what she's selling, no matter the messaging around it.

April 11, 2015

|PRDP post| Clinton's "theme" - what's your guess?

If Hillary's crazy enough to run for the Presidency (given that her favorability ratings are already heading down significantly, after actual exposure to the public and the total-non-scandal-whose-subject-shall-not-be-mentioned)... What do you think the overarching theme of her campaign will be?

I supect something like Reagan's "morning in America", which would be ironic on multiple levels, but given her track record (love of Wall Street and millitary action) she needs to divert attention to the future (e.g., "a new day with security for the 99%... our children will be able to afford college... &quot

Which would be funny, given her passions. We could have Larry Summers as our Captain Kangaroo.

But, as it's said, nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American People.

Your thoughts?

(Note that this is a PRDP group post. Unlike, say, GD, behaving like an adult is mandatory.)

April 10, 2015

Is Hillary Clinton fading in 2016? Sort of.

Washington Post: Is Hillary Clinton fading in 2016? Sort of.

"We have, at long last, reached the point in the 2016 cycle (what year is it, again?) in which we can start comparing apple-to-apples. Which is to say: We're starting to get good polls from reputable pollsters that allow us to track patterns over time.

Quinnipiac University put out a new poll Thursday that tracks Hillary Clinton's performance against the panoply of possible Republican challengers in three states: Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia. The nice thing is that they polled in the same states two months ago, so we can see what's changed.

In short: Clinton's lead against any or all of the tested Republicans has dropped in Colorado and Iowa and increased in Virginia.

...

That's made more evident when we look at favorability ratings for Clinton in the two polls. In Colorado and Iowa, her unfavorables spiked -- meaning that people were increasingly likely to view her unfavorably and decreasingly likely to view her favorably. In Virginia, they were relatively flat."

April 9, 2015

Hearing the details on the Iran agreement tonight... makes me ANGRY

I've been in bed half-dead with some GI-tract plague for the best part of four days, am catching up with the world. Listening to a podcast on the Iran nuclear agreement, I suddenly got mad. Real mad.

I'm mad because there are people who don't want a treaty, who'd prefer to get other people's kids killed instead of making a pretty-reasonable deal. It is a sick thing from calloused souls.

War is Hell.

War is a thing waged only as a very last resort. It is never waged for anything less by people with healthy minds. Not "to show we really mean it" nor to "teach 'em a lesson" nor "to triangulate against the Republicans".

Perhaps it's time to bring back the die-ins to show Republicans and Third-Way swine that Americans don't want no war, no more. Something needs to be done.

April 7, 2015

How should prison work?

I'm flat on my back in day three of Adventures with Stomach Bugs, so I've got nothing better to do than think deep thoughts. Or, better yet, post polls and have others do the thinking for me.

My general feeling is that our current jails and prisons are an abomination. We inflict awful suffering on people, oftentimes flat-out torture, often because they did something stemming from mental illness, bad fortune, or a moment of stupidity. Prisons should be decent places, perhaps similar to college dorms (but with adequate security, of course).

I have no idea on sentencing length, parole, reintroduction to regular society, and prison records (that deny job opportunities).

Cogent thoughts appreciated.

April 6, 2015

4 reasons I'm thankful for Ed Snowden

Time flies. Almost two years since Snowden's revelations. We're reading about Snowden again today, thanks to John Oliver's recent piece.

I believe that the American People owe Mr. Snowden a debt of gratitude:

1. He exposed Operation Spy On Everyone™ (or Operation The Government's Storing Your Dick Pics per Oliver's piece). Exposing the Crypto-Government was important, and I'm not sure there was a better way to do it.

2. This exposure also showed that this guy:



and his crew, can lie to Congress with impunity. When Gen. Clapper (under Bush) said the Iraqis had WMD, was he simply staggeringly wrong? Or purposely lying us into a ruinous war?

3. We learned that lying to Congress is fine with this guy:



judging by what he did when the lying was exposed. (The Transparency President.)

4. And finally, it showed the staggering incompetence of our "security" apparatus. Allowing a low-level employee (or any employee!) to make off with so many documents because he was the local Microsoft Sharepoint administrator? Holy @#$&. This is what we get for our billions and billions of dollars?

Thank you, Mr. Snowden. You showed us important truths. Now it's up to us to act on them.

April 4, 2015

Yo! Republicans and wannabes! For you:

While y'all deserve a good mooning every day of the year, the gesture is made even more appropriate by the political framework the White House has worked out with Iran.

Lord knows I'm not the biggest fan of either Obama or Kerry, but they seem to have done the right thing here; it's great to see them developing an aversion to getting other people's family members killed.

As to Republicans, Warrior Democrats, Netanyahu, and the rest who scream "murder!" Over this framework: just STFU. You are all stupid, crazy, or both. You've been utterly wrong about everything for decades, and so many are dead and grievously wounded thanks to the insanity you wear so proudly. You lunatics shouldn't be allowed to run Scout troops, let alone huge countries with ferocious arsenals.

April 2, 2015

It's bad enough that the TPP is about robbing the poor to pay the rich...

But that our partners in the thing flog and kill fellow humans because of the way they were born... I'm close to the breaking point. I feel very, very sad tonight.

It's been decades since I didn't vote for the Democrat in a general election. But I'm not sure if I can pull a lever for anyone complicit in this filth.

Enough.