Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

The willow is too close to the house.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

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.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

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“It is not a matter of confusion — it is a matter of accuracy,”

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Judge rescues Pennsylvania citizens from Pennsylvania Republicans. Again:

A state judge issued an order Friday that is expected to block enforcement of Pennsylvania’s strict voter-identification law in the Nov. 5 general election. Local poll workers can ask voters to show IDs if they have them and distribute written material about the law, but they may not tell voters at the polls that photo IDs could be required in future elections, Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley said.
“There is no value in inaccurate information, and the court does not deem inaccurate information ‘educational.’ It is not a matter of confusion — it is a matter of accuracy,” McGinley wrote. McGinley’s ruling marked the third consecutive election in which enforcement of the law has been blocked by court order.
After legal jousting that reached the state Supreme Court, a judge blocked enforcement in last year’s presidential election and again in this year’s municipal and judicial primary because of lingering concern that it could disenfranchise voters who lacked a valid photo ID.
The preliminary injunction will remain in effect until McGinley decides the case and rules on a request for a permanent injunction

This is the judge’s order (pdf). If you read it, you’ll detect his frustration with Pennsylvania’s inability to competently administer the voting restrictions Pennsylvania Republicans insisted on.

This is a recurring pattern with conservatives. When Ohio put in new voting restrictions in 2006 Republicans made absolutely no effort to put voters on notice or train poll workers. When I worked the polls at the first election after the restrictions went in I discovered that poll workers had no clue how to interpret the new law. My precinct is majority Republican so our “election judge” (head poll worker) is always a Republican. I made a huge fuss over the fact that poll workers were applying the restrictions differently in each of the three precincts that share my polling location. It wasn’t hard to figure out. The precinct tables are close enough that I could hear poll workers telling voters one thing in Five, a different rule in Six and another rule in Seven. Hell, VOTERS could hear it. They were talking to one another. After about six hours of my calling the Board of Elections and asking them to direct untrained poll workers to follow the actual rule the GOP election judge told me he needed me to pass out “I Voted” stickers at the exit door. Problem solved!

If conservatives are incapable of running elections properly perhaps they should stop changing the rules every time their candidate needs to be dragged over the finish line. They’re obviously not up to the management challenge. Recall that Pennsylvania conservatives would have allowed these changes to go in prior to the 2012 election had a judge not stopped them, and it is now August of 2013 and they STILL haven’t figured out how to properly administer the new voting regime they demanded.

McGinley’s ruling marked the third consecutive election in which enforcement of the law has been blocked by court order.

Three times. This is what happens when one hires people who don’t believe that voting is a right to run elections. They simply don’t give a shit whether people are wrongfully disenfranchised or not. When conservatives argue that voting is JUST LIKE cashing a check or any other commercial transaction, they believe it.

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Rand Paul: Not Aristotle

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There’s something about being a willfully marginal player in the political sphere that induces whininess. Or at least that’s the conclusion I can’t help but come to after reading the libertarian-ish Conor Friedersdorf’s epic lament over the media’s treatment of Rand Paul.

I’m tempted to take it apart, piece-by-piece; but I’m also aware of that whole Nietzsche thing about staring into the abyss. So rather than picking out the many, many places where Friedersdorf makes claims that are either highly questionable or laughably wrong, I’ll try to zoom out and focus on what he seems so incapable or unwilling to address.

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Don’t you know the crime rate’s going up up up up up?

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The homicide rate seems set to dip below what it was in the most recent set of good old days when we didn’t need no welfare state, though it has a ways to go before it will match the previous set of good old days when everybody lived on farms.

least murder ever.png.CROP.rectangle3-large

Kevin Drum brings up his lead n’ homicide rate chart again:

blog_lead_homicide_2013

I don’t know what caused the precipitous drop in murder rates but I’m struck by how unaware the public is of this phenomenon:

Gallup

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And your friends, baby, they treat you like a guest

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Yes, Silicon Valley is more liberal than other nexi of Galtian activity, but I agree with this completely:

These same companies are always looking to cut down their domestic labor costs. Mark Zuckerberg, in particular, is pouring money into a new advocacy group, Fwd.us, with a board consisting of big-name Valley luminaries, to push “comprehensive immigration reform” (read: letting Facebook bring in a cheaper labor force). In a remarkably cynical move, Fwd.us has separate left- and right-leaning subgroups to prod politicians across the political spectrum to sign on to the bill that would pad the company’s bottom line.

Ostensibly, the increase in visas for high-skilled computer workers is a needed response to the critical shortage of such workers here—a notion that has been repeatedly dismissed, including in a recent report from the Obama-aligned Economic Policy Institute, which found that the country is producing 50 percent more IT professionals each year than are being employed in the field. The real appeal of the H1B visas for “guest workers”—who already take between a third and half of all new IT jobs in the States —is that they are usually paid less than their pricy American counterparts, and are less likely to jump ship since they need to remain employed to stay in the country. Facebook’s lobbyists, reports the Washington Post, have pressed lawmakers to remove a requirement from the bill that companies make a “good faith” effort to hire Americans first.

While I support immigration reform, and am sympathetic to the idea that it should be sensitive to the needs of employers, there’s a fine line between “guest worker” and “indentured servant”. And, yes, bringing in workers in any industry will depress wages for those already here working in that industry.

Tech tycoons can find a way to shit on IT workers the same way last century’s Galtians shat on miners and steel workers.

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Tell me what I see when I look in your eyes

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The trouble with Paul Krugman is that he’s too brilliant. So says this wise Galtian:

The thing about 1% like me there’s a limit. What’s the limit 100% of my income. Unless you say now he’s got no income let’s go after his assets. We may get there … The money either comes from taxes or other activities… or a willing and compliant Fed saying how many bars you got? $1 billion? Turn the presses on! This is simple stuff! My problem with the Krugmans of the world is that they’re brilliant … they just may be too brilliant … Losing weight is not a very scientific endeavor you consume less calories than you burn you lose weight … so let’s stop all this crap with all of these high fallutin’ thoughts and ideas. You know what happens to people their eyes glaze over, I don’t know what the hell he’s saying.

Also too: I get a little bit of a “Well, I don’t really think that the end can be assessed as of itself as being the end” vibe from this rant.

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Maybe we could take up a collection to send one of these folks to The New York Times Global Forum

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I think they could impart invaluable insights into strategies for success in today’s new world order and answer the question: “What World Are You Living In?”

Standing with other protesters on Chicago’s storied State Street, Charde Nabors, 21, said she’s fighting for better pay and more opportunities for workers like her.
Nabors said she earns $9 an hour at Sears and would like to work full time, rather than her current 20 hours a week. She relies on food stamps to help feed her two children, ages 2 and 5 months.
“Food stamps help but they don’t pay the rent,” Nabors said, acknowledging the difficulty of searching for work and taking public assistance. She and other fast-food and retail workers flocked to downtown Chicago on Wednesday to make a public pitch for higher wages. Their “Fight for $15 campaign” seeks $15 an hour for employees. It is supported by a coalition of local community, labor and faith-based organizations — including the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, a group of downtown fast-food and retail workers that launched in November.
The group has been working with others to stage protests and push for a boost in Illinois’ minimum wage, which has remained at $8.25 since 2009.
Wednesday’s action came just weeks after hundreds of fast-food workers walked off their jobs in New York City, also in a push for higher wages. Late last year, Wal-Mart workers in select cities staged protests, seeking higher wages and benefits as well as pushing back against the retailer’s decision to open on Thanksgiving.
The protests have been gaining steam in the fast-food and retail sectors — which have generated the most jobs since the recession, labor experts said, but are among the lowest paid.
The rolling protests began at 5:30 a.m. as workers walked off the job at some McDonald’s restaurants and Dunkin’ Donuts, organizers said. The protesters, who were scattered around several Loop locations, continued the day with a rally at St. James Cathedral.
“I’m fighting for 15,” Robert Wilson Jr., 25, who makes $8.60 an hour at McDonald’s at Navy Pier, told the crowd. “I don’t see the point of people having full-time jobs that don’t pay enough to cover their basic needs.”
Katelyn Johnson, executive director of Action Now, one of the rally’s organizers, said the idea for the event was borne out of protests last year over CTA fare hikes. Johnson said conversations with protesters there revealed the bigger priority of low wages.

Conversations with protestors revealed the bigger priority.

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Some Real Princes

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The latest noble wankers suffering under the yoke of Obamacare are the management of Regal Theaters, who have just announced that they’ll cut the number of full-time employees to avoid paying for their healthcare under the ACA. I feel bad for their employees, but judging from the theaters they run, I’m not surprised that the sniveling titty babies running that business are using Obamacare as an excuse for their inability to turn a profit.

Regal blew into town about a decade ago and built a number of multiplexes in the suburbs here. These things are gigantic: the one nearest me is called the “Stadium” and has 18 theaters. I probably attend more movies than the average American, but I studiously avoid Regal Theaters. They are uniformly dirty, the tickets cost $10 while other theaters charge $8, the concessions are overpriced (expected) but the popcorn is shitty (expected, sadly, but still maddening), and since their conversion to digital they run 20 minutes of commercials before the goddam movie. Though I admittedly don’t set foot in a Regal theater often, if I do, I can plan on waiting in a long line for a ticket, since they are understaffed at the ticket counter. If I make the stupid choice of buying something to eat, I’ll be waiting in a long line for my stale, cold popcorn and bucket of soda at the understaffed concessions counter. And if, Bieber forbid, something goes wrong with the projection equipment, entire species will become extinct in the time it takes for the ill-trained projectionist to fix whatever went wrong.

In short, Regal is the model that all other bad movie experiences valiantly try, but generally fail, to emulate. If you want to know why everyone waits for cable or Netflix, Regal and other multiplexes like them are the answer. If you fetishize the sensation of spending hard-earned money for no good reason, find the nearest Regal and plop down the price of a ticket, and you will be gratified. But if you want to watch a well-projected movie in a clean theater eating good popcorn, run the other way: though the Regal management is apparently awesome at ginning up bullshit excuses, they sure as hell can’t run a movie theater.

Some Real PrincesPost + Comments (82)