Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

The willow is too close to the house.

The revolution will be supervised.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

You are here: Home / 2016 / Archives for March 2016

Archives for March 2016

Open Thread: Counting Down (Way, Way Down)

by | 144 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

***************
One of the only two “functional” political parties we Americans permit ourselves…

Anything else going on, this evening?

Open Thread: Counting Down (Way, Way Down)Post + Comments (144)

Bracing for Impact (Open Thread)

by | 117 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

imageVia Politico (I know, I know), Team Lil’ Marco is busily lowering Super Tuesday expectations:

“It was a presentation that defied reality,” said one Rubio backer. “They said their convention strategy was not contingent on winning any states… Even if you go to the [second ballot] why would anyone say Marco Rubio is the guy to give it to?”

Why indeed, anonymous backer?

The article doesn’t say whether or not Rubio plans to give another second- or third-place victory speech. (I suspect not.) I hope Trump waxes the little shit in Florida too.

Open thread!

Bracing for Impact (Open Thread)Post + Comments (117)

Dreams and schemes and circus crowds

by | 186 Comments

This post is in: , ,

I believe that establishment media is opposing Trump (and fluffing Rubio) because a Trump nomination will make it harder for them to just say both sides do it about everything. They couldn’t give less of a fuck about racism or trade wars or mass deportations, but they do care about their own jobs, and if you’ve been repeating both sides do it for 30 years, it’s hard to know what you’ll do when one nominee is as overtly clownish as Trump. I don’t think they can get away with saying “sure Trump talks about killing and suing journalists, but someone on Daily Kos said Bob Woodward was senile, so both sides do it”.

What will they do? I know Peak Wingnut was a lie but….

Update. I think this is the answer:

Dreams and schemes and circus crowdsPost + Comments (186)

That Ain’t Right

by | 83 Comments

This post is in: ,

Chris Rock - Head of State
Chris Rock – Head of State

Why can’t we just vote like normal people?

It was recommended I read up on the rules before going to caucus tonight. So I did:

Caucuses are fundamentally neighborhood meetings. You gather at the location designated for your precinct with other Democrats, vote for your preferred candidate and elect delegates to your county Convention and Assembly.

First, you show up at your caucus site and sign in at your precinct. At 7:00 the fun begins.

At the caucuses, those in attendance indicate their support for candidates competing for their party’s nomination by raising hands, or by splitting into groups supporting each candidate.

Okay, sure, FUN. Send the introvert to a neighborhood meeting where she has to declare herself in front of people, then face their scorn as she walks her dog every day by them because she didn’t choose their candidate. It gets better:

 The results of the caucus voting, however, do not directly determine which candidate will win the support of the County’s voters. The caucuses are just first step in the process. Each caucus meeting selects delegates to send to the county assembly (for state and local races) and the county convention (for Presidential races).

So let me summarize. I have to leave my home, go to a public place, spend three plus hours socializing and then declare myself publicly for one candidate or another. And it doesn’t even really COUNT? Seriously? How is this suppose to encourage voter turnout?

Sigh. If you’ve participated in a caucus, I’d love to hear about it. Because right now…I’m thinking snuggling down with the pets and watching a movie sounds like a much more relaxing way to spend an evening after a hard day.

God bless America. And no place else… (Brian Lewis, Rep)*

*Updated to clarify that’s a quote from the film.

That Ain’t RightPost + Comments (83)

Drink In Those Negatives

by | 228 Comments

This post is in: 

CNN did a nationwide poll and Trump has 60% unfavorables.  Also, everyone loves Bernie:

cnn

Sanders beats Trump by 12 points, Cruz by 17 points, and Rubio by 8.  Clinton beats Trump by 8, and loses to Rubio by 3 and Cruz by 1.

If it’s true that Sanders scores so well in this poll because nobody has really gone negative on him, isn’t that also true for Trump?  Rubio just started calling him out for having a small penis a few days ago, and Sanders and Clinton have made a few remarks, but he hasn’t endured anything like the treatment that Clinton has been getting for most of her political career.  I can’t see that 60 going anywhere but up.

If Bloomberg becomes the Third Man, he hurts Clinton more than he hurts Trump, according to this poll.  That’s because the anyone-but-Trump Republicans will pull for Clinton if they must, but someone else if they can.

Drink In Those NegativesPost + Comments (228)

Data hunt bleg

by | 13 Comments

This post is in: 

This is a research information bleg.

Martin Gaynor linked to a very interesting study from 1998.

 

It was an examination of Medicare data and how prices varied or not varied between ownership structures.

For a set of Medicare medical shock events, there was no statistically significant difference on costs for patients for six months at either private, for profit hospitals and non-profit hospitals.

This was very interesting to me as I have the same thoughts on insurance company ownership and surplus distribution structures.

My biggest problem with using this study to confirm my priors is that the data is old and the US hospital landscape has changed dramatically.

Does anyone know if there are similar types of studies with much more recent data?

Data hunt blegPost + Comments (13)

Soooper Tuesday Morning Open Thread

by | 210 Comments

This post is in: , ,

texas babes super tuesday danziger

(Jeff Danziger’s website)

Per the NYTimes, “Donald Trump Finds Ally in Delegate Selection System, Much to G.O.P.’s Chagrin”:

… Hoping to avoid a repeat of the messy fight for the Republican nomination in 2012, the party drew up a calendar and delegate-selection rules intended to allow a front-runner to wrap things up quickly.

Now, with Republicans voting in 11 states on Tuesday, the worst fears of the party’s establishment are coming true: Donald J. Trump could all but seal his path to the nomination in a case of unintended consequences for the party leadership, which vehemently opposes him.

“Trump has significant advantages, and that’s the way the system is designed,” said Joshua T. Putnam, a political science lecturer at the University of Georgia with an expertise in delegate selection. “It’s right in line with what the folks designing these rules wanted. It’s just not the candidate they preferred.”

As the calendar flips, March brings a whirlwind of states voting on the same days and in quick succession. By the middle of the month, 58 percent of the total delegates will have been awarded, and Mr. Trump could be unstoppable in getting the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination.

With the exception of Texas, the home state of Senator Ted Cruz, recent polls show Mr. Trump leading in the so-called Super Tuesday states that vote this week, including Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts and Virginia. Though Texas has the most delegates of states voting on Tuesday, 155, they all award delegates proportionally, so that Mr. Cruz will most likely have to share the haul…

Meanwhile, on our “mostly harmless sane” side of the aisle, the people at the top have stayed about as civil as politics ever gets. Despite a fake NYTimes article “widely circulated on social media”, that includes my own senior senator, as reported in Politico:

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are battling it out in Massachusetts ahead of the March 1 primary here — and the state’s most important endorsement, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, is still sitting on the sidelines of the debate, watching and waiting for her moment of maximum leverage.

Even as Clinton turns Massachusetts — a predominantly white, progressive New England state that should be tailor-made for Sanders — into a battleground Super Tuesday state, the campaign has been quietly respectful of Warren’s desire to remain neutral.

In part, that’s because the progressive standard-bearer — and the only member of the state’s congressional delegation who has not endorsed Clinton — is expected to play the role of peacemaker in the Democratic Party at some point in the months leading up to the convention, sources familiar with Warren’s thinking said.

If Clinton wins enough delegates by the end of March to become the presumptive Democratic nominee, Warren is expected to negotiate hard before giving her support to Clinton. In doing so, she could play a critical role helping to bring young, enthusiastic Sanders supporters into her fold…

***********
Apart for stocking up on popcorn, and Pepto-Bismol, for this evening’s results-watching, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Soooper Tuesday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (210)