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Showing posts with the label politics 2016

I Thought Trump Was Scary

...Until I looked at these videos of hate spewing crowds from his rallies. A couple of choice epithets: "fuck that nigger!" (about the President) and "kill her!" (about Clinton). If this isn't fascism, I don't know what is. I never thought it would thrive in the USA, but it seems to be doing pretty well.

Penetrating Academe

It took them a while, but the organized American plutocratic Right eventually realized that the Left's big advantage was control of prestigious American universities - Harvard, Princeton, Yale and a few others. It also realized that a frontal assault would not work. Perhaps mostly importantly, they chose their targets carefully. It's pretty obvious that much of the faculty at those schools are far to the left of the American public. Most of those faculty members are in departments with essentially zero influence on public affairs - humanities, liberal arts, ethnic and similar studies, much of social science and others. Scientists tend to be liberal rather than left, and engineers and doctors tend to be moderately right, so together they don't much affect the balance. Economics, law, government and history are exceptions, especially the first two. Dangled financial carrots persuaded top law schools that they needed Economics of Law faculty, and strategic funding pushe...

Retirement Age

The Constitution specifies minimum ages for persons to be elected to the House, Senate, and Presidency. It's a well documented fact that the human mind and body decay with age, so doesn't it make even more sense to specify maximum ages for the most critical national occupations? How about a mandatory retirement age of 72 for judges, and a maximum age at inauguration of 65 for Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates? Yes, I realize that that would disallow Clinton, Sanders, and Trump. And no, I don't want Cruz or Kasich either.

Repub Debate

I don't know about the rest of you, but I know I slept better having been assured that DT's dick was longer than his fingers.

Bargain Days

Daily Beast Headline: Trump’s Latest Acquisition: Christie’s Soul Hope he didn't overpay.

Premature Pivot?

Trump made a few "pivoting toward the center" moves in his victory speech last night. Is it too soon? Probably not, but if his fans get disillusioned it could all tumble down in Florida and the Midwest.

Supa Tu

The wins for Cruz and Rubio aren't bad news for Trump, since each now has a rationale for remaining in the race for a while, thus dividing the anti-Trump vote. They will probably both stick around for at least the next two weeks.

Victory!

I watched parts of three victory speeches tonight: Clinton, Rubio, and Trump. Rubio's was definitely the best. I guess he must have won big.

Behind Every Great Fortune

...is a great crime*. Fred Koch, according to Jane Mayer's Dark Money , made his big bucks building refineries for Stalin and Hitler. Koch, a founding member of the John Birch Society, came to regret his association with Stalin, but he liked Nazi Germany enough to hire a Hitler loving German nanny for his children. He also showed a fondness for pre-WWII Italy and Japan. The refinery he built for Hitler was the prime source for the high octane aviation gas used by the Luftwaffe, and the destruction of the refinery cost the lives of hundreds of allied airmen and tens of thousands of Germans on the ground. Gramps Trump made his fortune another old fashioned way. According to Wikipedia : Trump made his first fortune operating boom-town hotels, restaurants and brothels[1] in the northwestern United States and western Canada.[2] The apple doesn't fall ... *Balzac via The Godfather.

Trump Triumph

Trump crushed his rivals in Nevada, getting more votes than Rubio and Cruz combined. It's very hard to believe that he can now be stopped, but next Tuesday will almost certainly tell the tale. Unless one or both of them can break through with at least a couple of actual wins on Super Tuesday, it's over. Welcome to stupid world. Hillary had better get ready, though Bernie might be better placed to take on Trump.

Portents of the Apocalypse

Krugman: Well, in my pre-Iowa notes I called the Republican primary right: I know what will happen on the Republican side: someone horrifying will come in first, and someone horrifying will come in second. Let me add that someone horrifying also came in third. Marco Rubio may seem less radical than Cruz or Trump, but his substantive policy positions are for incredibly hawkish foreign policy, wildly regressive tax policy, kicking tens of millions of people off health insurance, and destroying the environment. Other than that, he’s a moderate. I would add that the Democratic first and second placers are on the verge of doddering into senility.

Debate

A few questions and remarks re the Republican clown show. What happened to Maria B's face and hair? Only the WSJ guy asked any real questions. The others were pure softball pitches. Didn't matter since hardly anybody bothered to answer the question asked. Trump and Carson got the kid glove treatment. Bush still looked like the mail boy who accidentally walked into the board meeting. Questions by Bartiromo were as deranged as her hair. Nearly all had transparently false premises. Cruz and Rubio looked marginally less clueless than the rest. Can we deport them back to Mexico, now? Magical thinking was prominent in the tax plans of all the candidates. The operating principle: give more money to rich people and enormous growth will rain down from the heavens. This principle, though quite dear to the rich, has zero historic or economic support. Carly Fiorina is a pretty skilled liar. I still think Carson must have removed half of his own brain. Kasich is really annoy...

Uh Oh

Some of the same people who confidently counted Netanyahu out are predicting that the Ted Cruz Presidential campaign is DOA .