Win:
WTF is Zach Galifianakis doing in this van?
by John Cole| 24 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links
by DougJ| 40 Comments
This post is in: Readership Capture
Congrats to ABL on her move to RawStory. You can hit the tip jar for her here. People think her appearance here was all John’s doing but it was really me who first started linking to her because I liked this phrase:
Yesterday on my way back from San Francisco, I stopped to buy a couple magazines for those excruciating 10 minutes during take off and landing when those asshole flight attendants make me turn my iCrap off. What am I supposed to do? Read the SkyMall catalog?
This post is in: Open Threads
All guests go through a rigorous screening process:
Jill has apparently passed the test and been deemed worthy.
by DougJ| 65 Comments
This post is in: We Are All Mayans Now
I’m not reading it, let alone linking but I just saw this on Kaplan.
I mean this as an honest question to all of you who were die-hard Hillary supporters: how do you defend her putting Mark Penn in charge of her campaign? I like Hillary, I would have voted for her in the general, I would have given money to her in the general, I would be supporting her just as strongly as I support Obama if she were president…but WTF?
by DougJ| 81 Comments
This post is in: We Are All Mayans Now
John’s post on how educated conservatives are even crazier than uneducated conservatives really hit the mark for me. In my regular life, I’m able to avoid socializing with other academics for the most part, but on this sabbatical, my after-work life is like an extended episode of the Charlie Rose show. I’ve never listened to so much Vichy liberal bullshit in my life.
Granted, I’m a deeply unserious person who thinks it’s irresponsible not to speculate about the possible effects of guillotining a few hundred members of the permanent government (I honestly believe that it is irresponsible not to consider this, I do), but even so…the ignorance of contemporary politics I see from these people is off the charts. I’ve been asked “what’s Obama hiding, why won’t he release his long-form birth certificate”. I’ve been looked at like I was Che Guevera for saying that the U of Chicago econ department lost credibility after the 2008 crash. I’ve spent half an hour explaining why it’s politically difficult for Obama to propose a new gasoline tax (this was a little different than the others, because in this case the person seemed willing to learn at least).
People are dumb. Really fucking dumb. It doesn’t matter what kind of a degree they have after their name, they’re still idiots, maybe just clever, erudite idiots (maybe). And politics is complicated and non-obvious, at first blush. It’s a lot easier to say “Al Gore is fat” than to consider the evidence on global warming, it’s a lot easier to say “both sides do it” than to put Bush v Gore and the Clinton impeachment in historical context. Everyone is this way, I’m sure, I don’t care if you’re Donald Trump or Irving the tailor. I enjoy firing up the Clash and writing diatribes against our Galtian overlords, and I know that’s not a rational exercise. (But the men at the factory really are old and cunning, all the evidence bears that out.)
I fear more and more that educational credentials (when paraded around in public discourse, not within narrow fields of expertise) and all this talk of “cognitive elite” are just new ways of saying STFU plebe.
Unite and fight, you have nothing to lose but your tote bagsPost + Comments (81)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2012, Republican Venality, Assholes
Quick hit, pending updates from Kay or other posters more knowledgeable about the primary situation, but looks like we’ll be highlighting another GOTV / ActBlue drive:
Scott Walker, the embattled first-term Republican governor of Wisconsin, will face a recall election on June 5, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) ruled Friday. Walker’s Lieutenant Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, will also face a recall.
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The board voted 5-0 in favor of a holding a recall election after finding that the recall ballots for both candidates garnered a sufficient number of valid signatures to proceed.
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More than 900,900 valid signatures were collected in a petition to recall Walker, and more than 800,000 valid signatures were collected in a petition to recall Kleefisch. Only 540,208 signatures were required…
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Democratic primaries will take place on May 8.
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So far, there are four Democrats in the running: Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, who has already secured the endorsements of a number of labor groups, elected officials, and liberal organizations, as well as Secretary of State Doug La Follette, state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who ran an unsuccessful bid against Walker in 2010.
Any Wisconsinites (Badgers?) want to tell us who we should be supporting?
On, Wisconsin: Scott Walker Will Face RecallPost + Comments (22)
by John Cole| 37 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links
This is awesome- the students at Minnesota’s Carleton College decided they would dress up their observatory as…:
R2-D2. Love it.