April 21, 2015 archive

Apr 21 2015

Cartnoon

Apr 21 2015

Gilmore for President 2016

Jim Gilmore is running for President. Maybe

If you’re thinking of the father in the TV series “The Gilmore Girls,” you’re way off, that was “Richard Gilmore” played so well by the late Edward Herman.

photo 220px-Jim_Gilmore_by_Gage_Skidmore_.jpg
This Gilmore is James Stuart “Jim” Gilmore III, the  governor of Virginia from  January 17, 1998 to January 12, 2002. Gov. Gilmore is a Republican and threw his hat onto the GOP clown car back in 2006 for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination for president. That didn’t work out so well, mostly because of name recognition and funding, so he withdrew his name and shortly after announced he would run for the Senate.

The seat was, and still is held, by Sen. Mark Warner (D), who was up  for re-election and had initially decided not to seek reelection, then changes his mind. Sen. Warner, a right leaning Democrat, roundly defeated Gov. Gilmore by a wide margin. The governor only garnered 34% of the vote and even lost in normally strong Republican districts. But then, it was the presidential election that brought Barack Husein Obama to the White House.  

He sat out the 2012 fray but has decided that he’s the guy with the experience to be the president in 2017.  Thus he has become one of the nineteen Republicans vying to face off with who ever the Democrats nominate (like we all don’t know who that very well maybe).

Welcome to the circus, Jim.

Apr 21 2015

Progressive? Hardly.

How Ron Wyden became the scourge of the left on trade

By Doug Palmer, Politico

4/17/15 7:49 PM EDT

Ron Wyden has long aspired to be a major Senate dealmaker, but one of his biggest breakthroughs to date – negotiating a landmark trade bill – has put him at odds with his Senate leader and Democratic friends, and has earned him scorn from liberals who think he’s sold out.

“Like a vote for the Iraq War or statements of support for the Social Security-cutting Bowles-Simpson plan, a vote for fast track and the TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] will never be forgotten and will haunt members of Congress for years to come,” said Jim Dean, chair of Democracy for America.

…

“Over and over again we’ve been told that trade deals will create jobs and better protect workers and the environment,” Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey said after the deal was announced. “Those promises have never come to fruition. Now some in the Senate are ready to dive into another mistaken trade deal.”

…

The two sides soon hit a snag over Wyden’s idea for a new mechanism to potentially turn off the fast-track procedures at the same time that Democracy for America and Move On, another progressive group, were criticizing Wyden for even talking with Republicans about the bill and threatening to try to defeat him in Oregon’s 2016 Senate Democratic Party primary.

…

But critics remain unsatisfied. They say the final provision for potentially stripping fast track from a trade agreement was too weak to make a significant difference.

Review of Comcast Deal Is Said to Raise Concerns

By EMILY STEEL and BEN PROTESS, The New York Times

APRIL 17, 2015

The staff lawyers at the Justice Department reviewing Comcast’s proposed $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable have raised concerns about the merger and are leaning toward recommending that it be blocked, according to a person with knowledge of the deliberations.

…

If approved, the merger would reshape the country’s television and broadband infrastructure. Other deals hinge on the merger’s approval, including the Charter Communications $10.4 billion bid for Bright House Networks that would ultimately create the nation’s second-largest cable operator.

Media executives and public interest groups have raised concerns that an enlarged Comcast would have too much power over the future of the Internet and television. Among the fears are that Comcast would use its extra heft to force consumers to pay more for declining service and to push around Internet companies and TV networks, stifling innovation and diversity of programming.

“There’s no question is my mind that this deal is anything other than blatantly anticompetitive,” said Michael Copps, a former Democratic member of the F.C.C. and a special adviser to the Common Cause public interest group. “It fails not just the antitrust metrics, but the public interest metrics, too.”

Now, imagine a world in which Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, and Bright House sue in a secret Star Chamber of corporation judges not only for the immediate revenue from the expected (but not proven) boost to their stock prices and are awarded not only that, but any future income they could nebulously claim was an indirect result of this monopolist deal and the U.S. Government would be forced to tax you…

Yes YOU!

to pay them that without actually doing any work at all.

That my friends is Investor State Dispute Settlement and is the great steaming shit sandwich that Barack Obama and Ron Wyden want you to eat.

Don’t be fooled by social issues like Marriage Equality and Marijuana Legalization.  They are mere bread and circuses.  These people are whores to the bone and would sell their mothers for a nickle.  They are cheaper to buy than Judas.

Happy Fast Track/TPP peons.  Embrace the Suck.

Apr 21 2015

TBC: Morning Musing 4.21.15

Howdy! I have 3 articles for your perusal this morning!

First up, some stark news:

Corporations now spend more lobbying Congress than taxpayers spend funding Congress

Corporations now spend about $2.6 billion a year on reported lobbying expenditures – more than the $2 billion we spend to fund the House ($1.16 billion) and Senate ($820 million).

Jump!

Apr 21 2015

On This Day In History April 21

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here. (Click on image to enlarge.)

April 21 is the 111th day of the year (112th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 254 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1777, British troops under the command of General William Tryon attack the town of Danbury, Connecticut, and begin destroying everything in sight. Facing little, if any, opposition from Patriot forces, the British went on a rampage, setting fire to homes, farmhouse, storehouses and more than 1,500 tents.

The British destruction continued for nearly a week before word of it reached Continental Army leaders, including General Benedict Arnold, who was stationed in nearby New Haven. Along with General David Wooster and General Gold Silliman, Arnold led a contingent of more than 500 American troops in a surprise attack on the British forces as they began withdrawing from Danbury.

Sybil Ludington (April 16, 1761- February 26, 1839), daughter of Col. Henry Ludington, was a heroine of the American Revolutionary War who became famous for her night ride on April 26, 1777 to alert American colonial forces to the approach of enemy troops.

The Ride

Ludington’s ride started at 9:00 P.M. and ended around dawn. She rode 40 miles, more than twice the distance of Paul Revere, into the damp hours of darkness. This is especially remarkable because modern day endurance horse riders using lightweight saddles can barely ride such distances in daylight over well marked courses (see endurance riding). She rode through Carmel on to Mahopac, thence to Kent Cliffs, from there to Farmers Mills and back home. She used a stick to prod her horse and knock on doors. She managed to defend herself against a highwayman with her father’s musket. When, soaked from the rain and exhausted, she returned home, most of the 400 soldiers were ready to march.

The memoir for Colonel Henry Ludington states,

Sybil, who, a few days before, had passed her sixteenth birthday, and bade her to take a horse, ride for the men, and tell them to be at his house by daybreak. One who even now rides from Carmel to Cold Spring will find rugged and dangerous roads, with lonely stretches. Imagination only can picture what it was a century and a quarter ago, on a dark night, with reckless bands of “Cowboys” and “Skinners” abroad in the land. But the child performed her task, clinging to a man’s saddle, and guiding her steed with only a hempen halter, as she rode through the night, bearing the news of the sack of Danbury. There is no extravagance in comparing her ride with that of Paul Revere and its midnight message. Nor was her errand less efficient than his. By daybreak, thanks to her daring, nearly the whole regiment was mustered before her father’s house at Fredericksburgh, and an hour or two later was on the march for vengeance on the raiders.

The men arrived too late to save Danbury, Connecticut. At the start of the Battle of Ridgefield, however, they were able to drive General William Tryon, then governor of the colony of New York, and his men to Long Island Sound.

Apr 21 2015

Ear Bugs (You Know The Words)

Apr 21 2015

The Daily/Nightly Show (Each Other’s Laundry)

Blerd

It stands for Black Nerd.  It’s Larry’s first web exclusive clip.

Tonight’s panel is Mike Yard, Philip Galanes, and Christine Tiegen.  I have no idea what they are going to be talking about.

Continuity

Everyone Loves Awards

I am thinking now about dispensing my own awards- The Hornbecks.

Next week’s guests-

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a Clintonite Neolib who shills feminism through entrepreneurship.  Yup, no matter how poor and destitute you and your family are, you can always grub a few extra scraps by doing the housekeeping or laundry or cooking or dressmaking of your betters.

You know what I hate?  When a particularly obsequious asshole like Eric Greitens gets a 2 part web exclusive extended video that I feel compelled to publish as part of the record.

That and the real news below.