Thursday Open Thread [7.31.14]
We haven’t had one of these for a while and I apologize for that. This is a travel week for me and today is my only full day in the area this week. So what is going on?
So conservatives who simply cannot live in the Reality Based Community created their own version of Facebook. It is called Reaganbook — the “Facebook for Patriots”. Somehow these conservatives feel that they are being censored and hounded off of Facebook and they need their own social network. (There is nothing more appalling or more hysterical than conservatives who think they are being persecuted.) That site was recently pre-launched and that failed launch was subject to serious take-backs:
This is by no means the first time that conservatives have established private social networks. ReaganBook follows in the footsteps of The Tea Party Community, Social PostUp, and FreedomTorch, among others. If none of these sound familiar, it’s because they’ve all failed to attain tangible resonance outside of the niche communities that populate the sites.
ReaganBook shows no discernable signs of longevity. It’s already been forced to temporarily shut down, after many of its thousand-plus members are trolls calling themselves things like “Albradorft Lincler,” “Al Zheimers,” and “Ben Ghazi.” The site runs tremendously slowly, and its attempts to interact with members through a messaging platform have proven fruitless. There’s hardly any involvement in thought-provoking (and clearly troll-created) pages like “Cut Dicks for Christ,” which simply says: “Calling all cut dicks.”
But while they are whinging about their free speech rights being violated on Facebook (specious), here is the current notice on their site as they try to recover from the intense trolling their launch inspired:
“Thank you to all those who participated in the pre-release of ReaganBook.com,” a message credited to “Management” said on the site late Wednesday afternoon. “Your participation is helping us build a more secure site. Thank you! Please be patient while we make the necessary changes to keep the site free from obscenity, pornography, and those intent on the destruction of life, liberty, and the family. We will be opening the doors again soon with additional protections in place. As Reagan taught us, trust, but verify.” –
Frankly, I wonder how long this lasts until the Reagan family has second thoughts.
I’m just gonna put this one out here:
Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) suggested on Tuesday that the president of the United States was “extremely prejudiced” because he was deporting Mexicans, while allowing child refugees who were fleeing violence in Central America to stay. […]
“I don’t know why this president is so extremely prejudiced against Mexicans. They say, if you’re from Mexico, we’ll turn you right around and send your right back. But if you’re from Central America, ‘No, come on, we’ll send you all over the United States.’”
Right. It might be time to make sure this man’s voters can pass a literacy test before letting them vote again. I know, I know — that’s illegal — but I’m astonished that his constituents are not embarrassed to be represented by this fool.
Then there’s this woman — running for office in Louisiana AND an admirer of the Sarah Palin model who runs from an interview after being asked if the President was born in the United States:
Wasserman noted that he had never “met any candidate quite as frightening or fact-averse” as Whitney. She models herself after Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and enjoys being called “Palin of the South.”
When Wasserman confronted her about the claim that the Earth was getting colder, “she froze and was unable to cite a single scientist, journal or news source to back up her beliefs.”
So, he changed the subject, asking her if President Barack Obama was a natural born U.S. citizen.
“When she replied that it was a matter of some controversy, her two campaign consultants quickly whisked her out of the room, accusing me of conducting a ‘Palin-style interview,’” Wasserman wrote.
So what’s going on where you are?
Tom Wagner finds that the Chip Flowers “bigger-than-Watergate” travel scandal was just a big nothingburger:
The report details similar problems with travel reporting including in the Governor’s office, exposing the governor’s anti-Flowers antics with the News Journal and the legislature as the hypocritical vindictive clown show (to borrow an apt phrase) that it always was.
Of course, with this report Wagner has also thrown a flaming bag of dog poop on the Governor’s porch (and into the Democratic treasurer’s primary) and is likely grinning maniacally right now.
And speaking of the News Journal antics, it is my impression (though I didn’t keep records) that the News Journal’s Day 2 story on Wagner’s report was distinctly less flattering to Flowers tnan their Day 1 story. D’ya think maybe the Governor’s office was working the refs last night?
Make sure you read the real report and don’t just rely on the News Journal summary.
Not quite a nothingburger. It is looking like the Treasury employee that Flowers threw under the bus as the source of the mismanagement in his office was *not* the source of the mismanagement in his office. And Wagner finds that Jenner was not on business while up at Talkeetna as Flowers claimed. I haven’t finished reading the entire report, but the audit looks fairly limited — I’m going to be interested to go back and look at the travel docs that Flowers posted to see if they are really within the prescribed per diem.
Three good things from what I read last night (and not the whole thing):
1. Flowers is still accountable for the mismanagement in his office — the clerk he was blaming wasn’t the problem.
2. The State’s Travel Policy needs a refresh and a major training effort and that should be a good opportunity.
3. (And this is from reading various correspondence this AM) There’s plenty of eye-rolling at this report, meaning that people are taking a look at Brenda Mayrack for some better competence in this office.
Who said it was worse than Watergate? It’s intellectual dishonesty to parody an opponent’s charges. Nobody claimed it was worse than Watergate. It is what it is, which is Chip Flowers spending freely in a public office. It’s as politically tone-deaf a stance as anything I’ve heard in 35 years of covering these clowns.
I think we can all agree that it will be nice to have an auditor who isn’t into playing political games with audits.
The governor is shocked — shocked — to find that politics are going on in this establishment:
I’ll give him this, Markell knows all about political smears.
I-495 southbound lanes to open 5pm today.
If this was about improving travel policies, the report would have been more comprehensive and not just examining select cabinet secretaries/elected officials’ travel. Why just stop at DEDO and DelDOT? Why not look at the AG and Auditor’s office travel? Why not look at state credit card usage in general and how many people *have* lost their privileges?
It’s an open secret in state government that the travel system is confusing and disjointed. OMB does not communicate clearly with agencies when it changes the policies. Wagner’s right on that front. That agency has had a high degree of turnover under Visalli, which has contributed to the problem.
Republican candidate for Attorney General Ted Kittila is doing an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session on reddit tonight. You should go ask him some tough questions: http://www.reddit.com/r/Delaware/comments/2ca55z/i_am_ted_kittila_delaware_native_and_attorney/
Puck. In your first comment you admit that the report was politically motivated. Change your mind?
Of course it is politically motivated. And Markell doesn’t seem to like the taste of his own medicine. I am going to support the Democrat for auditor but still – well played, Tom Wagner.
“Albradorft Lincler”
Huh wha?
http://vimeo.com/102088000