President Obama is visiting the Everglades today and will call attention to the damage caused by climate change. I hope he sets a record for working the phrase “climate change” into his speech, since our shitty governor allegedly banned it. And if the ambulatory dildo who is our governor bothers to attend the speech, I hope he winces like a salted slug each time the president utters the phrase. Happy Earth Day!
[Photo source: Florida-everglades.com]Archives for April 2015
Late Night Open Thread: Great Strangeness
dang penn and teller look like shit these days pic.twitter.com/4X4AxB8KBS
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) April 22, 2015
Buzzfeed attempts to go even weirder than all those ‘favorite 1980s-tv-characters-choose-your-best-presidential-candidates’ listicles, with “Putin’s Action Hero: How Steven Seagal Became the Kremlin’s Unlikeliest Envoy“:
Vladimir Putin knew his relationship with the United States was nearing breaking point when he met Barack Obama in Lough Erne, a picturesque lakeside golf resort in Northern Ireland, on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in June 2013…
Suddenly, Putin proposed a bold new idea: make Steven Seagal an honorary consul of Russia in California and Arizona, and thus a potential intermediary between the White House and the Kremlin.
Seagal, the martial artist turned washed-up action hero, was just the man to pull U.S.–Russia relations back from the brink, Putin said, according to four current and former U.S. officials. An American patriot through and through, Seagal truly knew Russia too: He was in touch with both his Russian roots — his grandmother was from Vladivostok — and with senior figures in the Russian political and security apparatus. Seagal and Putin had met in Moscow a few months earlier; the two men enjoyed a lunch at Novo-Ogarevo, then visited a martial arts complex. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that the two men were longtime friends. That all made Seagal the ideal poster child for friendship between their nations, Putin told Obama, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about diplomatic matters.
Obama was flabbergasted. “Our reaction was, ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’” a U.S. official who was present at the Lough Erne meeting told BuzzFeed News…
Putin’s unlikely bromance with Seagal speaks to a core tenet of his rule: that political power is star power, and the president is the biggest celebrity of all. Under Putin, politics has become a carefully stage-managed TV show where spectacle takes the place of substance. The defanged parliament is stacked with actors, singers, and athletes. Putin enjoys public adulation more befitting a Hollywood star than a politician. He regularly appears on the cover of celebrity-gossip magazines. His public appearances don’t displace primetime programming: They are primetime programming…
Seagal seems to tick all the right boxes for Putin. Both men were born in 1952 and hold black belts in Japanese martial arts — Putin in judo, Seagal in aikido. They profess their admiration and respect for each other. “I would like to think I know him well, but suffice it to say I know him well enough to say that he is one of the greatest world leaders, if not the greatest world leader, alive today. He cares more about Russia than anybody I know, and he’s not afraid to stand up and do what needs to get done,” Seagal said in a 2013 interview with Russia Today…
Somewhere, Mike Myers just woke up screaming and he has no idea why.
Late Night Open Thread: Great StrangenessPost + Comments (85)
Key Read: “The Day Political Journalism Died And The People Who Killed It”
Since anything I write is liable to be misinterpreted as yet another effort to shove That Woman down unwilling throats, I’ll just leave explanation of the latest “well, there are so many rumors… “ ratfvcking to a trained professional:
There are three ur-texts that must be read if one is to understand the dynamics of ratfking in our modern politics. The first, of course, is All The President’s Men which, thanks to Donald Segretti, introduced us to the term in the first place. The second is The Hunting Of The President by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, which detailed the operation of what James Carville called “the puke funnel,” whereby information dug up, stirred up, or made up by various dingy operatives in Arkansas and elsewhere made it so deeply into the mainstream that, eventually, the halls of Congress were awash in it. And the third is Joshua Green’s lengthy survey of the long career of Karl Rove, who began by fking small-time rats in Alabama and ended up in the West Wing. If there is one consistent theme through all three of these essential studies it is the steady decline of the importance of the middle man to broker deals between the grassroots ratfkers and the elite political press. No longer does your Segretti have to travel the nation, cancelling rallies and writing fake letters. No longer does the elite political press have to launder the information that comes from Larry Nichols or the attorneys representing Gennifer Flowers. It’s easier just to buy it wholesale from the dealer.
Yesterday, several news outlets announced that they had obtained “exclusive rights” to the research compiled by one Peter Schweizer, a veteran Republican operative, for his upcoming hit-job on Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. These outlets included, unsurprisingly, Fox News and Breitbart News. They also included The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Schweizer has a long history of fudge and nonsense in service to the conservative cause. His career is a pure creature of the well-funded ideological terrarium of the modern conservative movement…
Key Read: “The Day Political Journalism Died And The People Who Killed It”Post + Comments (65)
Tech Help
My PC died, so I have a new one. Here is my issue. I had a ton of links in Firefox on my old pc, and I did not sync my browser because shut up, that’s why. I have my old HD’s, and I installed my data drive in the new computer, but the boot drive from my old computer was a 120 gig SSD. I tried to load it using a blacx, but because it was a boot drive, it was unreadable on my pc. However, I tried on my mac laptop, and I can see everything on my ssd, but I can not find the location of the hyperlinks. Would they be hidden?
Since both mac and pc are involved here, hopefully you idiots won’t start another one of those damned flame wars.
And yes, I am aware that the person begging for help because of his own foolishness should not be calling other people idiots.
Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Marketing Power
Son/brother of 2 former presidents & oil millionaires gets to audition for oil billionaires #MakingOfThePresident2016 pic.twitter.com/KguelDnOI4
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) April 21, 2015
Looks like yesterday’s Koch Bros public announcement that Scott Walker was their guy may have been a ploy to get Jeb Bush (well, Jeb’s handlers) to pay attention to their GOP insurgency…
…[A] top Koch aide revealed to POLITICO that Jeb Bush will be given a chance to audition for the brothers’ support, despite initial skepticism about him at the top of the Kochs’ growing political behemoth.
Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz debated at the Koch network’s winter seminar in January, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker made a separate appearance. Those were the candidates who appeared to have a chance at the Koch blessing, and attendees said Rubio seemed to win that round.
But those four — plus Jeb – will be invited to the Kochs’ summer conference, the aide said. Bush is getting a second look because so many Koch supporters think he looks like a winner. Other candidates, perhaps Rick Perry or Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, may also get invitations…
I’m thinking Game of Thrones is popular because its murderous thieving megalomaniacs have the benefit of better writers. And their dragons are more attractive, too.
***********
Apart from acknowledging it’s gonna be a long eighteen months, what’s on the agendda for the evening?
Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Marketing PowerPost + Comments (118)
Why Aren’t There More Black Potrepeneurs?
Yesterday was 420, the unofficial holiday of weed. But while marijuana is slowing becoming legal throughout the country, why aren’t more African Americans getting involved in this growing business? There are lots of reasons, from needing capital to enter the business to the industry still being legally hazy.
“African Americans know that whenever something is in a gray area of the law they will feel more vulnerable, and for good reason since statistically minorities are more likely to be targeted or seen as suspects,” [Ethan] Nadelmann [the director of Drug Policy Alliance] said. “It may be that the general element of racism and racial disproportionality in law enforcement around drugs can make minorities queasy about entering an area which is not fully legal.”
Team Blackness also discussed the news that the cop who shot and killed Rekia Boyd was found innocent of all charges, a California bathroom policing policy that could net people $4,000, and big changes in one Missouri town that has its first black female mayor.
Subscribe on iTunes | Subscribe On Stitcher | Direct Download | RSS
Why Aren’t There More Black Potrepeneurs?Post + Comments (16)
Can the Kochs Deliver the Mail Better than Florida Man?
As I mentioned in comments on a thread yesterday, the Florida mailman who landed a gyrocopter at the US Capitol to draw attention to the corrupting influence of money in politics lives in the same media market I do and had informed a local paper of his plans prior to taking off. His stunt is therefore receiving more attention and in-depth coverage here than elsewhere.
The mailman is disappointed that the national corporate media outlets are focusing almost exclusively on the security vulnerabilities his flight revealed rather than the two-page campaign finance document he prepared for each congresscritter. The local outlets, having access to the mailman and greater interest due to the regional angle, are covering the campaign finance aspect. Not in sufficient depth, but at least they aren’t ignoring it altogether. The mailman won’t let them.
Can the Kochs Deliver the Mail Better than Florida Man?Post + Comments (131)