Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
MT @AlexPappas: Milton Wolf should begin his election night speech with: "Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler." http://t.co/tkG0Sfp6wc
— Dr. Milton Wolf (@miltonwolfmd) August 6, 2014
Wolf lost to Pat Roberts. And Alex Pappas, still wrong about everything.
Via Upworthy. You should really listen to the whole thing (or at least read the transcript), but here’s a taste, starting just before the four-minute mark:
… Sen. Elizabeth Warren: So that’s my question, again, Mr. Hunt. Are you telling me that all banks today in America, or even a majority, have some data to suggest how many are offering loan modifications for student borrowers that will reduce interest rate or will reduce principal for them. Do you have any data on that?
Richard Hunt: I will tell you, when it comes to refinancing the actual amount of the interest rate, it’s Discover, Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo has been doing this for ten years-
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: I’m sorry, the question was, do you have any data to suggest that the banks are offering the kinds of loan modifications that will help people who are in financial trouble get a chance to get back on their feet? After all, Mr. Hunt, the banks lobby to get nondischargeability in bankruptcy, the question I started with here is what are people supposed to do? What is this family sup- posed to do that now has three children to take care of & $100,000 in nondischargable student loan debt from a child who died?
Richard Hunt: So Senator, thank you. Two things. There is now loan forgiveness for a student who passes away. Many of our banks are now formalizing that into their contract-
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: I’m sorry, you’re telling me that this is now available from all banks, that there is loan forgiveness and this couple can take advantage of this loan forgiveness, since their daughter died? I hadn’t heard this…
Richard Hunt: I’ll let you know, there’s not all banks. There are many more banks that are giving loan forgiveness across the country-
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: What number is many more? More than what? More than zero?
Richard Hunt: Yes, ma’am. There are more than zero. In fact, I know of about four, at least four that are doing it right now…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. Hunt. And when it goes from four to eight, I’m sure you will announce that you’ve seen a 100% increase…
If America, like Terry Pratchett’s Ankh-Morpork, was run by a Patrician, I would absolutely vote Senator Warren Patrician for Life. As it is, I don’t want her to waste precious time addressing the Iowa Family Leadership Summit or fending off David Gregory’s attempts to get her to put on a “war bonnet”.
Why I Want Elisabeth Warren in the Senate for the Next Hundred YearsPost + Comments (52)
Shawn, Christion, and I went to Wheeling to Lowe’s for some paint for the front of the house and a squeegee with a 12′ extension so I can wash all the windows, hit the produce stand, and then went to the fish market (I quit eating beef and pork for the foreseeable future because I don’t want my pancreas getting doused with saturated fats), and when we were done with all the errands the guys wanted to go to a local Mexican grill called Cilantro’s (it’s like a local Chipotle). Went there, and I waited in the car checking email (I had a tuna steak, a little risotto, and a garden salad) and was parked next to the jackass pictured above.
Along with the obligatory NoBama and Does This Ass Make My Truck Look Fat, he also had a sticker on the left side for a local State Delegate, Tim Ferns, so I am sure he is a real winner of a politician.
The best part, though, was that this was a 6.2L V8 Ford Raptor SVT, which gets only 11/16 mpg, which means around here, 10-11 mpg with the hills. But here is the best part. The truck was running the whole time. This teabagging asshole was in drinking a beer and eating dinner while his truck was just sitting there running, wasting gas and polluting the world for, well, shits and giggles.
Even better, leaving your car running while unattended is rather clearly illegal for obvious reason, but this sociopath clearly doesn’t care about anyone else’s health or welfare and most assuredly doesn’t care if some kid hop in the truck and drives it through the storefront. I doubt he even so much as flinches at the misdemeanor and $100 dollar fine. Why would he- he’s probably burning that much money in gas driving to and back from the restaurant and idling it for an hour while he takes his time eating and drinking.
“I got mine, fuck you,” I guess. I seriously hate these people.
If liberals are disorganized, how are they so good at getting false flag operatives into Congress as Republicans? http://t.co/igSrtEFunW
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) August 5, 2014
Via Dave Weigel, who explains:
For the better part of a year, young DREAMer activists (young people brought to the country illegally by their parents) have been ambushing Republican politicians and asking them to explain themselves. Erika Andiola and Cesar Vargas, experienced activists both, confronted Iowa Rep. Steve King while he was touring his district with Sen. Rand Paul. There is, arguably, no member of Congress more bold in his opposition to any kind of legalization than King…
0:56: King stands up, offended that Andiola thinks he insults people. “You’re very good at English,” he says. “You can understand the English language, so don’t play with it.”
1:17: King asks for reassurance that Andiola is not a drug smuggler…
(What, are her calves the size of cantalopes?… )
***********
Apart from deploring the new depths to which GOP standardbearers keep sinking, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Someone other than Edward Snowden has leaked confidential documents to The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald. A new article published on the site today by Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux provides details about the government’s terrorist screening database, which contains info on 680K people, 40% of whom allegedly have no ties to a known terrorist group.
The figures in the new report come from a secret document that provides information current as of August 2013, after Snowden had flown the coop. US officials confirmed to CNN that there’s a second leaker.
I know we’re supposed to express concern about (or vociferously defend) privacy infringement since this is a high-minded blog. But it’s more interesting to speculate about the identity and motivations of the new leaker.
Is it another whey-faced, 20-something college dropout with Ron Paul stickers on his Cube? When will the feds ferret out this latest dudebro hero so we can finally know the truth?
Rick Perlstein, who I think wrote perhaps the best history book I have ever read, Nixonland
Rick Perlstein always hoped his book on the rise of Ronald Reagan would set off serious debate among scholars and historians. Just not this debate.
Mr. Perlstein’s new 856-page book, “The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan,” which comes out Tuesday, is proving to be almost as divisive as Reagan himself. It has drawn both strong reviews from prominent book critics, and sharp criticism from some scholars and commentators who accuse Mr. Perlstein of sloppy scholarship, improper attribution and plagiarism.
The most serious accusations come from a fellow Reagan historian, Craig Shirley, who said that Mr. Perlstein plagiarized several passages from Mr. Shirley’s 2004 book, “Reagan’s Revolution,” and used Mr. Shirley’s research numerous times without proper attribution.
In two letters to Mr. Perlstein’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, Mr. Shirley’s lawyer, Chris Ashby, cited 19 instances of duplicated language and inadequate attribution, and demanded $25 million in damages, a public apology, revised digital editions and the destruction of all physical copies of the book. Mr. Shirley said he has since tallied close to 50 instances where his work was used without credit.
Mr. Perlstein and his publisher said the charges are unfounded and noted that Mr. Perlstein cited Mr. Shirley’s book 125 times on his website, rickperlstein.net, where he posted his endnotes, which include thousands of citations and links to sources.
“The claim of plagiarism doesn’t fly; these are paraphrases,” Mr. Perlstein said in a phone interview. “I’m reverent toward my sources. History is a team sport, and references are how you support your teammates.”
Jonathan Karp, president and publisher of Simon & Schuster, called the plagiarism charges “ludicrous” and said the book was ”a meticulously researched work of scholarship.”
Mr. Perlstein, 44, suggested that the attack on his book is partly motivated by conservatives’ discomfort with his portrayal of Reagan. Mr. Shirley is president and chief executive of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, which represents conservative clients like Citizens United and Ann Coulter.
It’s just shameless smears. Personally, I would have put footnotes in both the book and online, but I haven’t written an 856 paged anything, so if you don’t mind, I’ll suggest that my opinion is worth about as much as it usually is. At any rate, Scott Lemieux edifies us on this ginned-up nontroversy:
Paraphrase with attribution is not plagiarism, and facts cannot be copyrighted. These are not complicated questions.
There are reasonable questions to be asked about the online-only endnotes of The Invisible Bridge, something that I’m guessing is going to be more common. My take is that the online source notes with links are, in themselves, an invaluable resource. Recognizing that resources are scarce, publishing serious works of history is generally a low-margin enterprise at best, etc., I would prefer all things being equal that they be supplements to traditional endnotes rather that replacements. As I’ve been working my way through the book there have been multiple times where I’ve wanted to look up a reference but haven’t been around a laptop. This is a question, however, that has nothing to do with scholarly integrity; online references are still references. And the specific campaign against Perlstein is plainly a political hit job.
Exactamundo. The puke funnel never stops.
Maybe you were lucky enough to forget about Mary J. Blige’s commercial for Burger King’s Crispy Chicken. But now, two years later, Busta Rhymes has done the unthinkable: he’s shilling for Toyota by lending his voice and credibility to a lovely white rapping, Soulja Boy Superman-ing suburban family and their #SwaggerWaggon. The result just hurts our heart:
Maybe we can get the potato salad kickstarter guy to share some of the wealth with Busta because this is just sad.
Team Blackness also discussed independent media spaces, Google Play’s new Bomb Gaza game, and the GOP’s worry about the “War on Whites.”
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Woo Hah! Busta Rhymes Getting That Check…Post + Comments (52)