Late Night Video — The Anniversary of the Aurora Shooting

One year ago on 20 July 2012, 12 people were killed and 70 injured by shooter James Eagan Holmes at the Cinemark Cinema in Aurora, Colorado. The Mayors Against Illegal Guns group put together this ad that's been airing Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C. since Saturday. This is a pretty powerful way to ask why we haven't made background checks more comprehensive. This is approx. 1 minute long.
Carper and Coons Give a Big Thumbs Up to TBTF

Carper and Coons Give a Big Thumbs Up to TBTF

And a big thumbs up to letting banks put the money in deposit accounts in the same kind of risky bets that their investment accounts are in. I can't say that I'm too surprised at this -- banks do own the road here -- but I'm still appalled at this position. It is a position that is ONLY good for banks -- the rest of us with deposit accounts (and who pay taxes) are definitely the losers here. Because the point of a Glass-Steagall 2 is to separate the deposit accounts (the only part of the banking business explicitly guaranteed by the feds), from the investment business (which is not insured). The point of Glass-Steagall 2 is to dismantle one more part of the TBTF scheme -- specifically the part where banks get to privatize their profits and get to socialize their losses. Until taxpayers get a say in the risks (and get a cut of the benefits) of the TBTF business, taxpayers should not backstop what the banks do here.

Monday Open Thread [7.22.13]

You've probably heard that Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight are leaving the NYT and going to ESPN/ABC. This deal will give him a chance to expand his franchise, it seems, but I just care about the political modeling, really. I'll maintain a subscription to the NYT for his work, but won't be getting cable to keep up with it, so do hope that the website is still the centerpiece of his work. TPM quotes Political (of all people) on why Nate left: